Midrats

In mid-July, a rather normal letter from the White House delivered at an awkward time about the authorization to activate 3,000 reservists to support operations in Europe enabling aid to Ukraine got everyone's attention. The reaction has a lot of reservists from all services and National Guardsmen cracking a little smile because even with the wars of most of this century are past, here has been no rest for reservists and the "Total Force."To discuss what the US military's reservists have been doing in Ukraine for almost a decade and how they are being used now in Europe and elsewhere will be returning guest to Midrats for the full hour is,\ Chris Rawley, Captain, USNR (Ret.).Chris recently retired from a 30-year Naval Reserve career as a Surface Warfare Officer where he deployed to the Persian Gulf, Western Pacific, Iraq, Afghanistan, and across Africa. Chris is the founder and CEO of Harvest Returns, a platform for bringing farmers and ranchers together with investors.

This week we were reminded, again, that the world relies on the free flow of goods at market prices across its oceans to maintain a reasonable standard of living.Most of the world consumes more food and fuel than it can produce locally. Most of the world's people live from paycheck to paycheck, and entire societies' stability rely on the grain and oil that economically can only be moved internationally at sea.In a story as old has time, there are power who are using that need as leverage by threatening - or proposing to threaten - access to the seas they have access to.In this case it is the Russians threatening grain shipments through the Black Sea, and the Iranians the shipments of oil and gas.Joining us for the full hour to discuss this threat and how to address it will be returning guest Captain John Konrad.John is the founder and CEO of gCaptain and author of the book Fire On The Horizon. He is licensed to captain the world's largest commercial ships and has sailed from ports around the world. John has b

EagleOne and Sal pick up last weeks conversation to catch up on the conversation of the latest national security and maritime topics at hand.As always on the melee format, join us live with the open chatroom and studio line if you have some issues you'd like to discuss. We're taking requests!Links to items discussed:Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, SeaLight.Mackenzie Eaglen’s, Buying Power Is the Invisible Shortfall of the 2024 Defense Budget Request. Also here.Japan-India BILAT naval exercises.UN ship arrives in Yemen to prevent catastrophic oil spill from decaying tanker.Luconia Shoals.CSIS Island Tracker.AUKUS submarine officer training.

It's too darn hot to do anything outside, so stay inside and put your mind to work!EagleOne and Sal start the show with the discussion of books they plan to use to help overcome the mid-summer heat and then cover some of the latest and greatest on the national security front, at least as we define it!Books Discussed: EagleOne’s List:Developing the Naval Mind, B J Armstrong.Looking for a Ship, John McPhee,Jade Rooster: An Asiatic Fleet Thriller, R.L. CrosslandRaven One, Kevin Miller (Chinese Account of the Opium War, (annotated with study guide), E.H. ParkerThe Commodore, P. T. Deutermann,Flight of the Intruder, Stepheen Coonts,Winds of War, War and Remembrance, Herman Wouk,The Caine Mutiny, WoukThe Connor Stark Novels, Claude BerubeThe Abandoned Ocean, Andrew Gibson & Arthur Donovan \Bridges at Toko-Ri, James MichenerFreedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II, Arthur HermanSal’s List:The Castaway's War: One Man's Battle against Imperial Japan by Stephen HardingThe Political Us

For generations, a great comparative advantage the United States has enjoyed at sea is the superiority of its submarine force.It has become simply an assumption in our war planning to the point it is treated as almost a natural part of the environment.Of course, nothing stands still in war. Time and technology usually finds a way to blunt any advantage, leverage any vulnerability.As the challenge at sea grows, what can the US do to maintain the comparative advantage under the sea?Returning to Midrats this Sunday is Bryan Clark, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute.The starting point for our conversation will be the recent report he co-authored with Timothy Walton this month at Hudson’s Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, Fighting into the Bastions: Getting Noisier to Sustain the US Undersea Advantage.

By 2030, the People's Republic of China is expected to have a navy of 425 warships, up significantly from their 360 today - already larger than the United States Navy.In spite of her struggles ashore, demographic collapse, and structural deficiencies, the Russian Navy still maintains a significant submarine force.While the world's strategic situation has changed dramatically, it isn't something not seen.For fits and starts for over a decade, the US has tried to address the change in a cohesive manner, but in 2023, everyone is still looking for the right response. This Sunday for the full hour our guest will be, Brent Sadler, Captain, USN (Ret.), senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, to discuss the issues he raises in his recent book, U.S. Naval Power in the 21st Century: A New Strategy for Facing the Chinese and Russian Threat.Brent served twenty-six-year in the Navy with numerous operational tours on nuclear powered submarines and has been a member of personal staffs of senior defense departmen

From the abstract of the article in the Naval War College Review Winter 2023 Edition, Strategy, Uncertainty, and the China Challenge; "Despite China’s increasing aggressiveness, its intentions are indeterminate, even aligning with U.S. interests in some arenas. Furthermore, China simply may fail in achieving even its foremost national and foreign-policy goals. Given this uncertainty, the United States should not base its policy and strategy on any specific prediction about Chinese intentions or abilities."Our guest for the full hour will be Jeffrey W. Meiser from the University of Portland (Oregon). We'll dive in to the issues raised in the article and discuss related topics as they come in to the conversation.

You're in for a treat this Midrats with a regular since 2010 returning to the podcast, Claude Berube.Claude will be with us the full hour to discuss his third novel in the Connor Stark series, The Philippine Pact, bringing back most of your favorite characters from the first two books in the series, The Aden Effect and Syren's Song.As with all of Claude's novels, his characters always seem to find themselves in the location you find breaking in to the news in the real world.Don't miss it!Claude is the author of four non-fiction books, three novels and more than eighty articles. His latest, The Philippine Pact, continues the adventures of a private naval company countering China's small wars around the world.He earned his doctorate from the University of Leeds. He retired from the Navy Reserve as a Commander, serving out of the country in Europe, in the Persian Gulf, and as the Deputy J2 at JTF-GTMO. He has worked as a navy contractor for Naval Sea Systems Command and the Office of Naval Research, as a civil s

For generations, the US military’s senior leadership in the field had no reason to worry about being on the receiving end of enemy fires at their command posts. Even at the company level but especially at higher echelons, we expected that we would be safe and secure in our command posts. Command posts were where one watched, planned, and executed operations – not become player in one.One of the defining characteristics early in the Russo-Ukrainian War was the high loss rate of Russian General Officers from enemy action. Part of this was due to the top-down traditions in the Russian Army that required direct, forward, and in person direction and guidance – but a significant part of that was the Ukrainian military’s reaching out to eliminate senior leadership where they led the fight - their command posts.As precision long range conventional fires and the ISR that supports them become more common on even the most primitive battlefield, is it time for the USA and her allies to reconsider their own reliance on la

It's a maritime and natsec free for all on Midrats!No fixed topic, open chat room and open studio line for those who are joining us live.From some rather strange comments in congressional briefing rooms to recruiting woes at home, to some rather interesting riverine amphibious operations in the Dnipro River in Ukraine, what it takes to fire a Russian Navy fleet commander, and whatever other topics come across the transom - a full hour of maritime excellence!

History, heritage, ethos, and institutional culture are more than just books, lectures, static displays, songs, stories and rituals - they are part of a tapestry that define the characteristics of an organization and a people.In a cold, neutral review of individual parts, it can be a challenge to see why they are important, what they really signify ... why we keep, remember, and practice them.On occasion, events suddenly reveal how that tapestry creates a culture and the amazing things that culture can accomplish. Those events become in themselves a story and reinforce and expand the tapestry.One such event took place 35 years ago this April, the mine strike of the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) on 14 APR 1988.Returning to Midrats to discuss the events of that day and the very real legacy we see today from the ship and her crew will be Bradley Peniston, deputy editor of Defense One and author of the reference book on the mine strike; No Higher Honor: Saving the USS Samuel B. Roberts in the Persian Gulf (Naval

Two of the above-the-fold topics in the last year in the national security arena both in involve one of the most technologically advance, complicated, and essential parts of modern warfare; ground based anti-air.For over a year we have watched and evolving ongoing real world laboratory in the Russo-Ukrainian War. On the other side of Asia, when not looking in the sky for big balloons, America and her allies are sobering up to the very significant threat of the People’s Republic of China conventional ballistic missile putting almost all of our forward bases “under the gun.”From small, slow, lawnmower sounding combat drones, to hypersonic missiles - how to you see them and kill them before they reach their targets?For the full hour this Sunday we will address these and related challenges with our guest Tom Karako, senior fellow with the International Security Program and the director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The last 13-months has seen a scenario few in NATO’s uniformed or civilian leadership either predicted, or for that matter, though was possible.How has the alliance reacted, grown, succeeded, or shown cracks under the pressure of the growing war in Ukraine as it moves it to its second year?Returning to Midrats for the full hour will be Jorge Benitez, Associate Professor of International Relations at the Marine Command and Staff College in Quantico, Virginia.He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. He specializes in NATO and transatlantic relations, European politics, and US national security. He previously served as assistant for Alliance issues to the Director of NATO Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.He has also served as a specialist in international security for the Department of State and the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis. Dr. Benitez received his BA from the University of Florida, his MPP from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and his

Except for those over a 85, no one alive has ever existed at a time when the US Navy was not the premier naval power - and no one alive at all has known a world where the US Navy was not the premier naval power in the Pacific.Though on paper it could be challenged in the first third of the 20th Century by the Royal Navy, and was challenged in a very real way by the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific in the early mid-century, after the 1930s no industrial power could hope to compete with the United States in production and warships ready to fight at sea in a major conflict.During the Cold War, there were a couple of decades where the Soviet Union could put a fleet to sea to give the US Navy regional concern, but never really on an ocean wide scale.As we approach the end of the first quarter of the 21st Century, a rising power is presenting a challenge in the Pacific the US Navy, and its political leaders, seem to have trouble accepting.The People's Republic of China is clear that it wants the global power t

As we ended last week's show with a whole list of topics we wanted to discuss, this Sunday we're going to pick up right where we left off with a Midrats Maritime Melee!From submarines to Australia to the opening of mud season in Ukraine, we'll cover the latest - or at least the more interesting - topics in the national security arena.

The news does not stop on the national security front, and as we approach the end of 1QCY23, a couple of weeks without a Midrats can only add to everyone's confusion.For the full hour we're going to cover the waterfront from the Sea of Azov to the parking lots of San Diego's waterfront.As with all our free-for-all formats, we have open topic and the switchboard phone line is open. If you have a topic you would like to discussed or want to call in with a question for the hosts ... join us live from 5-6pm Eastern.

What path best enhances American security and prosperity, along with her allies, when it comes to the Russo-Ukrainian War?Are American's interests best promoted by more support of Ukraine's ongoing fight for her independence, or by backing away to let things take their natural course?Isolationists, realists, and idealists are all trying to make their case as to where to go next as the war moves in to its second year.What are their arguments, and for those who say they promote a "Realist" policy - how do they define Realism?Our guest for the full hour to discuss this and related issues she raised in her latest article in National Review, "Who are the Real 'Realists' on Ukraine?" will be Rebeccah Heinrichs, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

From a navy of peasants to professionals on par with any Western navy; from coastal patrol to global reach, the slow and steady growth of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) crept up on some policy makers in the last decade, but as the PLAN eclipses the United States Navy in numbers and is accelerating their industrial capacity and capabilities, the decades of the American uncontested dominance at sea is no longer granted.Returning to Midrats to discuss this and the larger trends he raises in his new book, Mao's Army Goes to Sea: The Island Campaigns and the Founding of China's Navy, will be Dr. Toshi Yoshihara.Toshi Yoshihara is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA). He was previously the inaugural John A. van Beuren Chair of Asia-Pacific Studies and a Professor of Strategy at the U.S. Naval War College.In addition to his latest book is Mao’s Army Goes to Sea: The Island Campaigns and the Founding of China’s Navy, he co-authored, with James R. Holmes, the second ed

Officially the Navy may have a “new mission” but it is just putting in to law what has been in existence since the first Stone Age man outfitted his fishing canoe as a war canoe.In a modern society, words mean things and even what is self-evident must on occasion be put in writing.What is “Title 10?” That is what tells our Navy what it’s mission is.We now have newTitle 10 language, in Section 8062(a):“The Navy, within the Department of the Navy, includes, in general, naval combat and service forces and such aviation as may be organic therein. The Navy shall be organized, trained, and equipped for the peacetime promotion of the national security interests and prosperity of the United States and prompt and sustained combat incident to operations at sea. It is responsible for the preparation of naval forces necessary for the duties described in the preceding sentence except as otherwise assigned and, in accordance with integrated joint mobilization plans, for the expansion of the peacetime components of the Navy

When we started Midrats, President Obama hadn't even been President for a year, I only left active duty 4-months ago, Russia was mostly forgotten about except for Secretary of State Clinton famous "Reset/Overload," anyone worried about China was considered an alarmist, and no one really knew what a "podcast" was except for a very small group of to-online weirdos.One day our friend Claude Berube convinced the two of us and the late Raymond Pritchett that people might be interested in hearing us chat about those things that we find interesting.That was 13-years ago - and Midrats is still going strong.Come join us for the full hour as we take a quick review of the status on the conversation in the national security arena, the big lessons of 2022, and what we plan on keeping an eye on in 2023.