Ukraine crisis: Putin shows who is boss in Crimea Wednesday August 19th, 2015 at 2:18 PM
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It was a typical display by Russia's action-man President, Vladimir Putin, clambering into a mini submarine and plunging to the depths of the Black Sea.
The waves first washed over his glass bubble, then swallowed it, with underwater cameras capturing the slow slide down.
Officially, the dive was designed to view an ancient shipwreck on the seabed.
But it was also about demonstrating who is boss here now. Vladimir Putin is spending three days in Crimea with a whole delegation of senior Russian politicians and business figures in tow.
Kiev has condemned the visit as an attempt to whip up tensions, and underlined that Crimea's only possible future was back with Ukraine.
So when Vladimir Putin docked for a moment in Sevastopol, I put that point to him.
"The future of Crimea was determined by the people who live on this land," the president replied on the quayside, stony-faced and unequivocal.
"They voted to be united with Russia. That's it. Full stop."
The results of a hastily-called vote on joining Russia did show overwhelming support in Crimea for annexation.
But the March 2014 referendum that Moscow hailed as the people's choice, was held with armed men on the streets and in clear violation of Ukraine's constitution.
As a result, the US and Europe imposed economic sanctions on Russia, and Crimea's annexation is formally recognised by next to no-one.
Still, there is no doubt that the majority here are strongly sympathetic to Moscow. And, for Russians, "returning" the region from Ukraine, after its "loss" in Soviet times, was a very popular cause.
So Moscow has begun pouring in funds to back up its political claim on the peninsula, and to show it cares.
The children splashing in the sea and doing press-up contests at the Artek children's camp are already benefiting from that.
The sprawling complex cut into the hills was the biggest and most prestigious pioneer camp in Soviet times: a dream destination for the young. Many Russian ex-Artekovites welcomed its "homecoming" with nostalgia.
The main canteen, sports halls and swimming pool have already been renovated and millions more roubles have been allocated. But Russia is confident its money will not be lost.
"For those who invest here, [Crimea's status] has been decided," says director Alexei Kasprzhak.
As the linchpin of the local economy, the tourist sector is also due a cash injection.
'Patriotic choice'
Crimea's grey pebble beaches have always attracted Ukrainians, primarily.
Now they have largely stopped travelling here, Russia has been busy promoting the peninsula as the "patriotic choice" for a holiday.
"We decided to come as soon as Crimea was ours again," Olga explains, adding that she and her son usually holiday in Bulgaria.
"But we wanted to be among the first here," she says, though like many she has been shocked by the high prices and admits they are unlikely to come back.
"We can't afford Soviet resorts anymore!" Olga laughs.
For locals too, the price hike under Russian rule has taken some adjustment, although salaries have also grown.
But they say many of the other practical problems of living under sanctions are being addressed now.
"People had to make the transition, and it was total chaos," hostel owner Natalia Kyrychenko recalls, describing the difficulties of life in a territory that most of the world does not recognise.
"Gradually, normal service is being resumed."
Most of her savings have finally been returned from a former Ukrainian bank; she has a new, Russian phone number and - with MasterCard working here once again - she can get back to online shopping.
"I am sure Crimea will be recognised and this situation won't go on for long," Natalia says, hopefully.
But other businesses have been hit much harder by the new reality.
Dmitry Semyonov used to sell wooden souvenir flasks and honey pots, mainly to buyers in the EU.
With that key market off-limits, production in his former tractor-repair shop has all but stopped. He calls the annexation a "catastrophe".
"We were pulled out of Ukraine, but we didn't really join Russia," Dmitry says.
"We've just been left dangling. When it happened, they said don't worry, the Russian market will open for you. But just sticking on a 'made in Crimea' label gives you no preferences."
So Dmitry and his wife have made the hardest choice of their life, to leave. An ethnic Russian, he plans to move his business to Ukraine, but that is not the only thing he is worried about.
"I don't even want to imagine how things will end here. But I don't want to be part of it. The fuse has been lit. We just don't know how long it will be before the situation explodes," the businessman warns.
For all Vladimir Putin's efforts to draw a line under the Crimea question then, it remains far from resolved. His actions here have stirred up a storm that is not abating.
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August 19, 2015, 4:12 PM (IDT)
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Secret Reports on Nazi Germany by fredslibrary
Title: Secret Reports on Nazi Germany
Author: Franz Neumann
Neumann, Franz (2013), Herbert Marcuse, and Otto Kirchheimer; Raffaele Laudani., ed. Secret Reports on Nazi Germany: The Frankfurt School Contribution to the War Effort. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
LCCN: 2013003225
DD253 .N425 2013
Contents
- The analysis of the enemy — Anti-semitism: spearhead of universal terror / Franz Neumann — Possible political changes in Nazi Germany in the near future / Herbert Marcuse — Changes in the Reich government / Herbert Marcuse — Speer’s appointment as dictator of the German economy / Franz Neumann and Paul Sweezy — The significance of Prussian militarism for Nazi imperialism: Potential tensions in United Nations psychological warfare / Herbert Marcuse and Felix Gilbert — German social stratification / Herbert Marcuse — Patterns of collapse — German morale after Tunisia / Franz Neumann — Morale in Germany / Herbert Marcuse (assisted by Franz Neumann and Hans Meyerhoff) — Possible patterns of German collapse / Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse and Felix Gilbert — The social and political effects of air raids on the German people: A preliminary survey / Franz Neumann — The attempt on Hitler’s life and its consequences / Franz Neumann — Political opposition — The Free Germany manifesto and the German people / Franz Neumann — The German Communist Party / Herbert Marcuse — The Social Democratic Party of Germany / Herbert Marcuse — Denazification and military government — The abrogation of Nazi laws in the early period of MG / Otto Kirchheimer — Dissolution of the Nazi Party and its affiliated organizations / Herbert Marcuse — German cartels and cartel-like organizations / Franz Neumann — Policy toward revival of old parties and establishment of new parties in Germany / Herbert Marcuse — General principles of administration and civil service in Germany / Otto Kirchheimer — Administration of German criminal justice under military government / Otto Kirchheimer — The problem of inflation in Germany / Franz Neumann — A new Germany in a new Europe — The adaptation of centralized European controls of raw materials, industry, and transport / Franz Neumann and Paul Sweezy — The revival of political and constitutional life in Germany / Franz Neumann — The treatment of Germany / Franz Neumann — Toward Nuremberg / Franz Neumann — The “statement on atrocities” of the Moscow tripartite conference / Otto Kirchheimer and John Herz — Problems concerning the treatment of war criminals / Franz Neumann — Leadership principle and criminal responsibility / Otto Kirchheimer and John Herz — Nazi plans for dominating Germany and Europe: the Nazi master plan / Herbert Marcuse — Nazi plans for dominating Germany and Europe: Domestic crimes / Otto Kirchheimer — A new enemy — Status and prospects of German trade-unions and works councils / Herbert Marcuse — The potentials of world communism / Herbert Marcuse.
Subjects
- Frankfurt school of sociology–Influence.
- Reconstruction (1939-1951)–Germany.
- World War, 1939-1945–Economic aspects–Germany.
- World War, 1939-1945–Economic aspects–Germany.
- World War, 1939-1945–Germany.
- Germany–Politics and government–1933-1945.
- Germany–Politics and government–1945-1990.
- Germany–Social conditions–1933-1945.
Date Posted: August 19, 2015
The Research and Analysis Branch (R&A) was the first element formed by William Donovan when he became the President Roosevelt’s Coordinator of Information in 1942. His staffing policy was to recruit first-class minds “without any special concern for particular political commitments,” (p. ix) expert in subjects that would be needed to inform the president during the upcoming war. By 1943, R&A had grown to some “1,200 employees.” (p. 2) Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, and Otto Kirchheimer were leading members of the Central European Section (CES). They were also Marxists—or communists, as some would later have it—and advocates of the Frankfurt School of thought formulated during their prewar association with the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany. Each had written widely on the evils of Nazi Germany, and in the OSS they applied their knowledge to explaining that political movement and later to discussing social alternatives in the postwar era. Secret Reports On Nazi Germany contains 31 of the studies they produced during and after the war.
When written, the studies were unsigned and circulated for comment within R&A before publication. The volume’s editor, history professor Raffaele Laudani of the University of Bologna, has determined the principal author of each study based on content and other records. In his informative introduction, Laudani provides biographical entries on the three authors, with summaries of their principal writings. He also notes the prejudice they encountered within OSS due to their German accents. Neumann was the most senior and well known. He had been vetted by the FBI and had served elsewhere in the US government before joining R&A as deputy chief of CES. He was also the only one later identified in VENONA decrypts—cryptonym RUFF—to have simultaneously served Soviet intelligence.[1]
The topics covered in this volume range from anti-Semitism, changes in the Nazi government, psychological warfare, Nazi morale and the possibility of collapse, the effects of Allied air raids, the German Communist Party, the economic situation, the Nazi Master Plan, and the postwar treatment of Germany and its leaders. Laudani makes a point of emphasizing the OSS policy of “scientific objectivity” and the avoidance of “personal opinions” in the analysts’ work. He concludes the policy was rigorously followed. (p. 7) He also discusses the degree of acceptance of the work, especially its contribution to the Nuremburg trials, which proved controversial. Nevertheless, it is not possible even today to assess its impact completely.
For those wondering what R&A did during the war and after it was assigned to the State Department,Secret Reports On Nazi Germany provides the basis for a firsthand assessment.
[1] For details on the materials Neumann passed, see Haynes, John Earl (2009), Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev. Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, pp. 317-20.
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Spy and Counterspy by fredslibrary
Title: Spy and Counterspy
Author: Ian Dear
Dear, Ian (2013). Spy and Counterspy: A History of Secret Agents and Double Agents From the Second World War to the Cold War. Stroud, Gloustershire: History Press
OCLC: 835970960
Date Posted: August 19, 2015
In the mid-1990s, historian Ian Dear began a trilogy on clandestine warfare. Spy and Counterspy is the final volume.[1] While it is not a comprehensive treatment of wartime espionage, the seven cases the book summarizes illustrate the full range of problems the Allies encountered. And although the cases have been the subject of other writings, Dear has added additional material to each from Western and Russian sources. Where cases began before or continued after the war, they are included.
Five of the seven studies will be familiar to those who follow espionage history. In the first group, he includes the Sorge case, the Cicero story, the Cambridge Five, the Double Cross program, and VENONA. The first of the lesser known cases is Operation SALAM, mounted by the Abwehr to place agents in Cairo for Rommel. The movie The English Patient was based in part on one the SALAM agents, Laszlo Almasy. Once the agents were in place, their reporting on the British military was codenamed CONDOR. The final and least known of the case summaries concerns Major Mieczyslaw Slowikowski’s, Agency Africa, a Polish spy ring cooperating with the French resistance. Slowikowski passed data on the Germans to the OSS for use in planning Operation TORCH, the Allied landings in Africa in 1942.
Spy and Counterspy is well documented and will serve as a good starting point for those interested in WWII espionage.
[1] Dear, Ian (1996). Sabotage and Subversion: Stories From The Files of The SOE and OSS. London: Arms and Armour; and Dear, Ian (1997, 2000). Escape and Evasion: POW Breakouts in World War Two. London: Cassell
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The frontrunner to become the next leader of Britain’s Labour Party, one of the two major political forces in the country and the party once led by Tony Blair, has expressed a desire for close relations with Islamic terrorist groups and is the preferred candidate of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Jeremy Corbyn, a socialist member of Parliament, is currently leading three other candidates in polls to become Labour’s next leader. The results of the intraparty election will be announced on Sept. 12.
Corbyn’s ascendance has raised eyebrows among observers of British politics. The leftist politician is known for sympathizing with anti-Semitic groups and for referring to representatives of Hamas and Hezbollah—terrorist groups based in Gaza and Lebanon, respectively—as “our friends” when he welcomed them to Parliament.
He is also a longtime TV commentator for RT, the state-funded Russian propaganda network that has lauded him in its coverage of the Labour election.
Tom Rogan, a National Review columnist and close follower of British politics, said in an interview that Corbyn looks set to win the Labour contest next month. He called Corbyn’s rise “an indictment of the intellectual side of the British left” and said it reflects the “chaos” of Labour after a demoralizing defeat in May’s parliamentary election to David Cameron and the Conservative Party.
“They were so shocked by that outcome that they baldly resorted to saying, ‘we weren’t leftwing enough; we didn’t inspire enough people,’” he said.
While Corbyn has enjoyed a groundswell in populist support among Labour voters, his statements have angered Jewish members of his party. Ivan Lewis, a Jewish cabinet minister in the Labour opposition, recently said that Corbyn’s views are a “cause for serious concern.”
“At the very least he has shown very poor judgment in expressing support for and failing to speak out against people who have engaged not in legitimate criticism of Israeli governments but in anti-Semitic rhetoric,” Lewis said.
Corbyn previously defended a priest who was temporarily banned from using social media by his superiors in the Church of England this year for promoting anti-Semitic attacks. The religious clergyman, Stephen Sizer, suggested on social media that wealthy Jews were responsible for the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He also attended an Iranian-sponsored conference last year that featured Holocaust deniers and conspiracy theorists.
In a letter to church authorities, Corbyn said that Sizer was targeted because he “dared to speak out against Zionism.”
Rogan said Corbyn’s support for closer relations with adversaries of the United States and Israel is typical of the British far left, which has “always been profoundly anti-American.”
“He believes this stuff,” Rogan said. “It’s pretty staggering. [Labour] will probably do even worse in the next election.”
Still, observers say that Corbyn’s popularity is indicative of some disturbing trends in European politics.
Russia has been accused of funding and offering rhetorical and media support to a number of far-left and far-right European parties and groups in the last few months. These groups includeenvironmental organizations opposed to fracking, a natural gas extraction technique that could undermine Russia’s energy dominance in Europe.
Analysts say that by backing extremist parties that are critical of the European Union (EU), Putin can stymie a united opposition to his aggressive foreign policy, including his destabilization of Ukraine.
A frequent guest on the Russian propaganda outlet RT, Corbyn called for the elimination of Britain’s Trident nuclear system in 2010 and said that NATO was “out of date and out of time” in an appearance the following year. Last year, Corbyn disagreed with the EU’s decision to extend sanctions against Russia and told RT that, “we don’t want a ramping up of the economic pressure.”
Corbyn’s positions—scrapping Britain’s nukes, dissolving NATO, and removing EU sanctions against Russia—would all be a boon to the Kremlin, Rogan said.
“There’s no question that Corbyn is their guy,” he said.
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2 Women Set to Graduate From Ranger School Are Experienced Officers by By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr
The first two female soldiers who will graduate from the program have already served in jobs that have been part of the de facto integration of women into front-line combat in the last decade.Libya Asks Arab League Countries to Help Battle Islamic Stateby By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
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The body of Khalid al-Asaad, the city’s retired director of antiquities, was hung from a Roman column, the state news media and an activist group said.
Detonations at two churches this month, and an unexploded device at a third, caused no injuries. As for motives and suspects, the hunt continues.
Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news.
IRAQ and SYRIA
A suicide attack targeted the offices of a Kurdish security agency in the northeast of Syria today, killing at least 10 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. [Reuters]
ISIS has beheaded one of Syria’s leading antiquities scholars in the ancient town of Palmyra, according to Syrian state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Islamic State took control of Palmyra in May, sparking concerns that the militants would destroy its 2,000 year old Roman-era city. [AP;BBC]
“Stalled” diplomacy on the Syrian conflict has taken on a new sense of “urgency” amid concerns over the collapse of the Assad regime and the impact of the conclusion of the Iran nuclear accord; Michael Pizzi explores recent developments at Al Jazeera America.
The handling of the case of Umm Sayyaf is “highly unusual” and raises questions about the treatment of future ISIS militants detained overseas by US authorities; US forces handed the ISIS member, captured in a May raid, over to Iraq’s Kurdish regional government in Erbil. [The Daily Beast’s Shane Harris and Nancy A. Youssef]
AFGHANISTAN
Former warlord and Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostrum is causing concern by mobilizing a force of private militias along with some Afghan security forces in the fight against the Taliban in the north of the country. [New York Times’ Mujib Mashal] The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, an ISIS affiliated group, has emerged as a strong force on the battlefield in northern Afghanistan. [Wall Street Journal’s Margherita Stancati and Nathan Hodge]
The findings of an investigation into the 2012 incident during which Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales killed 16 Afghan civilians has been released. The report found, amongst other things, that the post where Bales served was suffering from “low standards of personal conduct and discipline.” [Reuters’ David Alexander]
“Cultural training and deep, nuanced understanding of Afghan politics and history were in short supply in the Army.” Vanessa M. Gezari discusses the US Army social-science program called the Human Terrain System, the array of problems it faced, and its “quiet demise,” at the New York Times.
IRAN
Sen Robert Menendez will oppose the Iran nuclear deal, citing concerns that the agreement fails to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons state “at a time of its choosing.” [Politico’s Burgess Everett] Pro-Iran deal group, CREDO Action, accused Menendez of being a “warmonger” following the New Jersey Democrat’s announcement of his opposition yesterday. [The Hill’s Kristina Wong]
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is holding out on announcing whether or not he supports the nuclear accord, angering liberal groups. Eighteen Senate Democrats remain undecided. [Politico’s Alexander Bolton]
President Obama has a “great likelihood of success” getting the deal through Congress, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, conceding the limited options available to him in order to shut the agreement down. [AP]
“[T]he math remains firmly on Obama’s side.” Burgess Everett suggests that the opposition of Chuck Schumer and Robert Menendez is unlikely to have much of an impact on the GOP’s plan to derail the agreement. [Politico]
UKRAINE and RUSSIA
Russian President Vladimir Putin “take[s] delight” in referring to the country’s nuclear capabilities, changing decades of diplomatic practice where states with nuclear capacity only hint at their abilities, writes Elisabeth Braw. [Politico]
Russian military deaths during “peacetime” are considered an official state secret; Anna Nemtsova explains how while Ukrainian people are informed of the deaths on their side, Russians are “kept in the dark” about military casualties. [The Daily Beast]
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
The Arab League has agreed to a call from Libya’s internationally recognized government urging fellow Arab states to provide military support to assist in the fight against the Islamic State there. Libya’s foreign minister Mohamed el-Dayri said that Libyans could not supress the militant group’s grip on the city of Surt at a meeting of Arab diplomats in Cairo on Tuesday. [Al Arabiya; New York Times’ David D. Kirkpatrick]
A suspected Boko Haram attack in northeastern Nigeria killed as many as 60 people last Thursday, however details are only just emerging. Nigerian security forces have since pushed Boko Haram out of the attacked village in Yobe state. [BBC; Wall Street Journal’s Gbenga Akingbule]
There “is no reason” that women should be barred from Navy SEAL teams if they measure up, chief of naval operations, Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, said in an interview with Defense News, adding that “we’re on track.” [Navy Times’ David Larter and Meghann Myers]
Nearly 400 children have been killed during fighting in Yemen, and a similar number of minors have been recruited into armed groups, UNICEF said in a report which warns that the conflict shows “no sign of resolution.” [AP’s Cara Anna]
The US has threatened sanctions against “those who undermine the peace process” in South Sudan, following President Salva Kiir’s refusal to sign a peace agreement halting the civil war yesterday. [New York Times’ Michael D. Shear]
The UN Security Council welcomed Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s commitment to enforcing a “zero tolerance” policy against sexual abuse by UN personnel, stressing the importance of a prompt investigation into recent allegations of misconduct by peacekeepers, in a press statement.
A Palestinian hunger-striker is “flummoxing Israel’s legal, medical, political and security systems,”report Jodi Rudoren and Diaa Hadid; Mohammad Allan has not eaten since June 16, refusing to do so until he is released. [New York Times]
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by Austin Bay
August 18, 2015
Russian dictator and shameless propagandist Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of escalating warfare in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region. "I hope there won't be full-scale direct clashes," Putin said while visiting the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula.
Putin delivered his accusation in what I call his "Vlad, Ace of Spies and KGB Colonel" mode. This patterned shtick is Cold War tough guy by design, theatrical photo-op Viagra for aging Communists. Along with his accusation, Reuters published a photo of Putin riding in a bathyscaphe (deep-sea ocean research submersible). As the bathyscaphe's bubble capsule submerges, Vlad (wearing a relaxed open-collar shirt, circa James Bond in Jamaica) gives the Black Sea depths an iron-man stare.
Putin's accusation repeats another pattern. Based on past events, accusing Ukraine of escalation is propaganda cover, a cynical signal that his soldiers and proxy forces have begun new offensive operations. Putin has escalated, with calculation, and shattered the Minsk agreement ceasefire of February 2015. A wily propagandist, Putin always works a thread of truth into his lies. Full-scale direct clashes can be avoided -- if Ukrainian defenders surrender or retreat.
Violating agreements is yet another pattern: By invading and annexing Crimea, Putin shredded the 1994 Budapest accord. That deal traded Ukraine's nukes for Russia's guarantee that it would not violate Ukraine's territory. The Clinton administration supported the accord.
Despite the Minsk agreement, fighting in eastern Ukraine has never stopped, nor has Putin's propaganda war. It's another pattern: Since spring 2014, combat in Ukraine has spiked and then lapsed. It takes time, but solid evidence collects that Russian soldiers or proxies have spiked the combat. This repeats a historical pattern: the creeping war of aggression. This is not a new form of warfare. In 1991, Serb dictator Slobodan Milosevic ran one in Croatia and Bosnia.
Many observers expected a late-summer offensive, likely a drive on the Ukrainian Sea of Azov port of Mariupol. This fits a grand pattern. In Europe, August is a good month for vacations and war. The days are long and dry. An attacker can seize territory through late September, and then General Winter will help slow counterattacks.
This week, a U.S. State Department spokesman accused Russia and its proxy separatists of launching new attacks "just as they escalated the conflict last August."
Mariupol lies between Russian-occupied areas and the Crimean peninsula. Seizing it is a logical operation, militarily and politically. Militarily, taking Mariupol robs Ukraine of a seaport and is a big step toward securing a land route to Crimea. A land corridor permits rapid tank and mobile infantry movement to and from Crimea.
It would be a major escalation, but Russian forces in Crimea could support the Mariupol attack by launching sorties north and east to pin Ukrainian units. With Russia and Crimea connected, Russian forces are poised for more grandiose ventures, such as isolating eastern Ukraine or attacking toward Kiev.
The grandiose options, however, incur grave risks. NATO soldiers have begun training Ukrainian soldiers. Putin's best bet is to continue to creep. But creeping wars take time. The oil price decline has damaged Russia's economy. A dollar bought 30 rubles in 2013; it now buys 65. Muscovite whisperers call Ukraine a quagmire.
Seizing Mariupol would give Putin a much-needed short-term domestic political boost. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Observation Mission reported it has evidence that Russian forces have used Grad rocket barrages in recent fighting. Though fighting began to intensify during the first week of August, a Radio Free Europe report suggests the Russian offensive began on August 13, when Ukrainian forces noted "the heaviest exchanges of tank and rocket fire" since the February ceasefire.
Now heavy fighting has erupted around "a strategic highway linking ... Mariupol with Donetsk."
Putin's Guns of August are blazing.
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Page 13
The U.S. Navy wants to upgrade its ability to detect Russian submarines in response to assertive naval moves by President Vladimir Putin.
The Navy is seeking to deploy a sophisticated surveillance device made by Lockheed Martin Corp. in the Atlantic Ocean. The device, towed by a ship, already is in use in the Pacific. As soon as mid-2016, the service also wants to send to the Atlantic a prototype networked “undersea sensor system” that “addresses emergent real-world threats,” according to a Defense Department budget document.
Both systems are intended to meet “an urgent requirement” sought by U.S. combatant commanders responsible for Europe and homeland defense, the Navy said in a June budget document requesting a shift of $56.5 million to start the projects.
The Navy’s requests were submitted to Congress three months after Russia’s top admiral boasted of increased submarine patrols and a month before Russia unveiled a new, more expansive maritime strategy.
The unclassified requests, still pending before Congress, provide a glimpse into mostly classified programs. They are the Navy’s equivalent of the Army’s well-publicized increase of troop rotations, exercises and equipment repositioning in the Baltics and other locations to reassure European allies. That move was initiated last year after Russia invaded and annexed Crimea and increased military support of Ukrainian separatists.
Lieutenant Rob Myers, a Navy spokesman, said in a telephone interview that “long-term intelligence data and time-critical contact reports” of submarines “are vital for maintaining a clear operational picture.” He declined to comment on whether Russia is the target for increased Atlantic surveillance.
Choke Point
The prototype sensor network will be best used “in a choke point like Gibraltar” or a stretch of the North Atlantic from Greenland and Iceland to the U.K. where Soviet submarines transited during the Cold War, Bryan Clark, a naval analyst for the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said in an e-mail. Clark is a retired Navy commander who served on nuclear submarines and as a strategy adviser to the chief of naval operations.
The Navy proposals are evidence that “the U.S. military views Russian submarine activity in the Atlantic as both an immediate risk and an emerging long-term threat,” said Tom Spahn, a Navy reservist who writes on undersea warfare issues.
Aging Sensors
The projects may be part of a strategy “to replace or upgrade our aging” undersea sensor system of hydrophones -- underwater microphones -- “made famous during the Cold War, which again points to Russia as the target,” Spahn said.
Data on Russian submarines probably would be distributed to Navy vessels such as the new Littoral Combat Ship equipped with an antisubmarine warfare module, as well as frigates and surveillance aircraft, including the P-3 Orion and P-8 Poseidon.
The TL-29 towed array “could be outfitted to ships quickly as a stopgap until the second project’s prototype undersea sensor system is ready to deploy” for “a more permanent counter to Russia’s imminent ‘Atlantic pivot,’” Spahn said. It “will provide an immediate boost to the Navy’s undersea surveillance capabilities.”
The USNS Impeccable, which was confronted by Chinese government ships in 2009, is an ocean surveillance ship that uses the TL-29, he said.
The TL-29 and the new underwater network “use different techniques to acoustically detect submarines,” Clark said.
Russia’s Strategy
Russia unveiled a new maritime strategy last month that places greater emphasis on Atlantic operations. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization “has been developing actively of late and coming closer to our borders, and Russia is of course responding to these developments,” Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said at the unveiling.
Army General Charles Jacoby, who was commander of the U.S. Northern Command at the time, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March 2014 that Russia is “capable of introducing cruise missiles into a theater from submarines.”
“They’ve just begun production of a new class of quiet nuclear submarines specifically designed to deliver cruise missiles,” Jacoby said.
Russia is building three new classes of submarines, including the Borey nuclear ballistic missile model, three of which are operational, according to a Navy analyst who asked not to be identified to discuss operational developments.
The first in a planned Yassen class of general-purpose nuclear submarines, as well as the first of a new Kilo-class diesel-electric boat also have been fielded, the analyst said.
From Russia With Sub
Russian Navy chief Admiral Viktor Chirkov said in March that “the intensity of” its submarine patrols “has risen by almost 50 percent” from January 2014 to March 2015, compared with all of 2013.
The Navy analyst said Chirkov’s assertion was credible even though there’s no indication over the last six months that Russia has stepped up submarine patrols in the Atlantic, Baltic Sea or Mediterranean.
That, however, doesn’t rule out increased Russian submarine patrols in the Barents and Norwegian seas, the western Pacific and Sea of Okhotsk, the analyst said.
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