A declaration of the University of the Intuitively Obvious. Spicy times ahead. My Substack   Email me at cgpodcast@pm.me

This is part of the "prompt strike" initiative trying to increase the speed of delivery of munitions operationally. It took two years of delays to have a first test launch in December 2024 (maybe, Pentagon is shady on launch date actual); The missile at the core of Dark Eagle, also known as the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), is the same one the Navy plans to arm its Zumwalt class stealth destroyers and future Block V Virginia class submarines with. Here's rudimentary graphic illustrating the parabolic differences between launch modes. Why the Pentagon publishes milestones on these blue...

You had one job. Well, two. You can't launch and receive aircraft reliably. Nor apparently can you detect and deploy sensor capabilities to aim the aircraft that occasionally leave the very expensive deck. The radar has actually degraded over time. The dual-band radar (DBR) aboard the Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), the ship’s primary sensor system, struggled to perform during a pre-deployment exercise and suffered failures as it grappled with the constant need for radar coverage. It remains unclear whether DBR’s issues impacted Ford’s operations during its first full...

President Trump, SECDEF, Mr. Musk and DOGE, I am the host of Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast and WarNotes: A Conflict Podcast. You are about to embark on a dark journey to discover the existential mismanagement and beggared martial imagination of the military mandarins at the Pentagon. You have to prepare to do savage bureaucratic combat with the most financially well-endowed military machine in the history of mankind whose penchant for defeat and stalemate has an unblemished record since 1945. Bureaucratic knife-fighting and Machiavellian combat is the only martial skill they...

USNS Cody USNS Cody (T-EPF-14), Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport, was christened on 25 February 2023 by ship's sponsor Averil D. Spencer, launched at Austal USA in Mobile, Alabama on 20 March 2023, and its delivery was accepted by the U.S. Navy on 11 January 2024. These are a fine balance of weight (hence the aluminum construction) and speed capability. It’s a transport, not an amphibious assault ship. It is being mothballed. My friend PTS weighted in: "There are multiple problems with the EPF and they were over hyped and vastly underdelivered. As mentioned, they are fragile with...

The DDG(X) program will be over-budget, very late and a shadow of its naval architectural ambition. Of course. The US Navy has seemingly abandoned naval gunnery at the 5" level and above and the latest navy build program for a new destroyer is removing the capability. While missiles are certainly the predominant means to project power from naval ships, there is certainly a call for naval gunnery in certain operational tasks. The increasing density and threat capabilities of drones is making gunnery important also at levels below that caliber to bring back the anti-aircraft utility of...