Stringbags Cover

CEO Notes

May 2020
As we navigate the sea of coronavirus impacts, we send our best wishes for your health and well-being. This is an important time to have a strong Naval Institute.
Aviation ordnancemen on the USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) inspect Mk 62 Quickstrike mines. On the right, a Quickstrike–ER (extended range) mine deploys its wings as it drops from an Air Force B-52H bomber.

Damn! Torpedoes!

By Scott Truver, Brian O’Rourke, and Commander Brooke Millard, USCG
May 2020
The Navy is starting to pay attention to offensive mine warfare again.
Captain Wayne Hughes, U.S. Navy (Retired)

A Guide to Reading Fleet Tactics

By Captain Thomas R. Beall, U.S. Navy (Retired)
May 2020
With renewed emphasis in the Navy on tactics development and practice, widespread reading of Fleet Tactics has never been more necessary.
A multinational fisheries patrol in the South China Sea would be beneficial.

FONOPs: Not The Only Option

By Major Pablo Valerín, U.S. Army, Major Natalie Chounet, U.S. Air Force, Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Smith, U.S. Navy, and Major Kostyantyn Kotov, U.S. Army
May 2020
To break Southeast Asia out of the cycle of confrontation, ASEAN should form a multinational fisheries patrol, with U.S. help.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group transits in formation while deployed in the Indo-Pacific region in January 2020. By late March, the carrier would be in Guam battling an outbreak of the COVID-19 illness among the crew.

U.S. Navy in Review

By Robert D. Holzer and Scott C. Truver
May 2020
In a year of much disruption, a new Navy leadership team is attempting to implement far-reaching force structure changes in the spirit of naval integration while facing flat budgets.
MARINES IN SWEDEN DURING BALTOPS 19.

U.S. Marine Corps in Review

By Lieutenant Colonel James W. Hammond III U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)
May 2020
A new Commandant begins taking the Marine Corps out of the desert and toward greater naval integration—the most profound attempt at change in a generation.
In 2019, the Coast Guard met a number of challenges and continued to respond where and when needed. As Commandant Admiral Karl Schultz noted, “We’re a modestly funded organization, and we do good things with those dollars.”

U.S. Coast Guard in Review

By Joe DiRenzo and David Boyd
May 2020
The Coast Guard faced a number of significant events in 2019—from a 35-day government shutdown to interdicting semisubmersibles to Hurricane Dorian.
U.S. Navy (Alex Grammar)

Naval Aviation and Weapons in Review

By Captain Thomas “Jethro” Bodine, U.S. Navy, and Commander Guy “Bus” Snodgrass, U.S. Navy (Retired)
May 2020
In a world awash in change, naval aviation is taking bold steps to ensure the past two years of readiness and lethality gains are preserved in 2020 and beyond.
Special Burnett

The Newest Gallant Ship

By Captain Douglas R. Burnett, U.S. Navy (Retired)
May 2020
On 1 November 2019, the M/V Green Lake became the 42nd ship to earn the highest award the United States can bestow on a merchant ship and its crew.
Stock view of the Yellow Pages

Information Sources

May 2020
Sources of information for U.S. Navy, Military, and Maritime Agencies, Associations, Conferences and Exhibitions, the Naval Institute Foundation, and the U.S. Naval Institute.
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Book Reviews

May 2020
Experts review Erik Larson's The Splendid and the Vile, Captain Marquet's Leadership is Language, and other new and noteworthy books.
Combat Fleets

Russia’s Capable New SSGN

By Eric Wertheim
May 2020
The Severodvinsk is a fourth-generation submarine designed to carry out a variety of undersea operations, including antisubmarine, antiship, and land-attack missions.
Coast Guard Academy cadets conduct their first day of the Coastal Sail Training Program on board a 44-foot sloop on the Thames River. Sail training has always been an essential part of the Academy’s training.

Training Under Sail in the 21st Century

By Captain Lawson W. Brigham, U.S. Coast Guard (Retired)
May 2020
Training under sail for future officers, whether on board a sailing dinghy, small keelboat, or square-rigged sailing vessel, has never been more important.
Carl von Clausewitz

Virtual Clausewitz

By Second Lieutenant Matthew Suarez, U.S. Marine Corps
May 2020
Virtual reality can help busy leaders learn war in a way Clausewitz could not have imagined.
The USCGC Bertholf (WMSL-750) basks in a sunset glow in the Yellow Sea while deployed to the 7th Fleet area of responsibility in 2019.

Growing Missions, Shrinking Fleet

By Rear Admiral Terry McKnight, U.S. Navy (Retired)
May 2020
The Coast Guard national security cutter program is critical to U.S. security and the defense industrial base. The nation must find a way to fund the 12th cutter.
Acquisition Reform

Streamline Defense Acquisitions

By Ben Noble
May 2020
The procedures for low-dollar contracts allow for an expedited acquisition process, but there are more steps that can be taken to make them better serve the American warfighter and taxpayer.

The U.S. Naval Institute is a private, self-supporting, not-for-profit professional society that publishes Proceedings as part of the open forum it maintains for the Sea Services. The Naval Institute is not an agency of the U.S. government; the opinions expressed in these pages are the personal views of the authors.