Free Republic

I'm pleased to inform you that Consumer Reports has rated AT&T as the worst of all major cell phone carriers.  I can assure you that they deserve the honor, at least with regard to their customer service telephone line. A few months ago, I had some trouble with my broadband connection.  I was told to call the AT&T customer service number for technical support.  Half an hour later, I wearily hung up the phone after having endured something like this: (1) Welcome to the American Thinker! Si Usted lee sola en español, por favor vaya al (14).  If this...

Military Superiority: By the end of the year, China could deploy an anti-ship missile capable of hitting U.S. aircraft carriers at long range. The naval dominance that American foreign policy depended on may be at an end. When the naval planners of Imperial Japan were laying out the attack on Pearl Harbor, the major question on their mind was — where are the American carriers? In the end, their failure to find them doomed Imperial Japan to defeat. Since World War II, every president alerted to a crisis has asked the same question — where are the carriers? These floating...

Strategy: As the U.S. retreats from the world stage, the nation's top military officer is warning us about China's military buildup and intentions. Already, China is telling us to keep off the grass. Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen, visiting U.S. troops at Camp Red Cloud in South Korea on Wednesday, talked about his growing concerns about China. "I've moved from being curious about what they're doing to being concerned about what they're doing," the admiral said. "I see a fairly significant investment in high-end equipment — satellites, ships ... anti-ship missiles, obviously high-end aircraft and all those kinds of things....

must come from the sea,” said the chief of naval operations, Adm. Gary Roughead, recently about any new U.S. Navy procurement, leaving open to interpretation the programs and projects that will be included in coming budgets. The Navy is “reimagining naval power,” he said. “With cyber-power and unmanned systems we must ask ourselves fundamental questions.” If new capabilities proposed for procurement do not “come from the sea,” Roughead is not interested. The Navy no longer has the luxury of being interested in every new program or platform. The defense budget is getting slimmer. And pressure is coming from above to...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, announced in Ramallah on Tuesday that 50 Russian troop carriers would soon be delivered to the PA. Lavrov told reporters that Moscow provided the carriers a few years ago, "but Israel refused to hand them over." Now, he said, "we have already sent the carriers. The vehicles arrived in Jordan and we hope they will arrive in the next few days." It was not clear if he expected Israel to block them again or allow them through.

The shocking video of Israeli commandos boarding a Turkish vessel, being attacked with knives and iron rods, then shooting back and killing nine, prompts one big question: Where was our Sixth Fleet? Since the end of World War II, America's Sixth Fleet has been the sheriff of the Mediterranean, a shield for our allies and a bulwark against enemies large (like the Soviet Union during the Cold War) and small. As recently as 2003, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, it consisted of 175 aircraft and 40 ships. Today, it consists of exactly one: a command and intelligence ship, half of whose...

The Navy faces an operational “tipping point” where the demand for overseas presence will far exceed the number of ships, according to the influential Center for Naval Analyses. CNA’s new report, “The Navy at a Tipping Point: Maritime Dominance at Stake?”, which was provided to DOD Buzz, is being used by the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations to evaluate future force plans. It says that despite a 20 percent decrease in the size of the total battle fleet over the past 10 years, the number of ships deployed, around 100 at any given time, has remained constant. The...

Steel-cutting on a section of the hull of the first of the Royal Navy's two new aircraft carriers began at Portsmouth Thursday 25 February 2010. Portsmouth, which will be the future home of both Queen Elizabeth Class carriers, became the fifth UK shipyard to be involved in construction on the programme. Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth pushed the button to start the laser cutter. He said: "Here in Portsmouth work is just beginning but across the country in Devon, Newcastle, Glasgow and Rosyth work is already under way. "In all, six shipyards across the UK will be involved in the manufacture...

A letter from the Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, Quentin Davies, has appeared in The Guardian newspaper in response to an article which appeared in the paper entitled 'Stealth fighter jets to be slashed'. The Minister's letter said: Dear Sir, Your correspondent's article in Wednesday's Guardian on defence procurement, 'Stealth fighter jets to be slashed', is nonsense personified. Our new carriers are not 'under real threat'. There will not 'certainly be a big reduction in Joint Strike Fighter numbers'. The article goes on to state 'among other options being considered are: downsizing the second carrier … building both carriers...

While Russian admirals have been talking about building six aircraft carriers in the next decade, the president of Russia has recently ordered them to concentrate on smaller ships for the Black and Baltic Seas. The Black Sea fleet has been continually declining since the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. That decline is the result of new countries (like Ukraine and Georgia) inheriting old Soviet ships and bases. That was the dissolution deal. Whatever Soviet weapons or bases were normally were, belonged to one of the 14 new nations. Most of Russia’s high seas ships were based in northern Russia (the...

For the first time in a decade, Beijing on Thursday will showcase its latest armored vehicles, ballistic missiles and fighter jets in a demonstration of military ambition meant to befit the nation's economic rise. The display of hardware -- part of the nation's 60th anniversary celebrations -- will no doubt stoke national pride. But it's also a chance for China to show an international audience that the world's third-largest economy is investing heavily in defense technology, a strategic sector that Beijing believes will strengthen its regional security and global influence. Expected to be on display is a new generation of...

If the rumors are true, PetroChina, a Chinese “Government Controlled Entity” (pdf), is on the verge of buying McDermott International, a company that, as I understand things, is the U.S. Navy’s sole provider of nuclear fuel and nuclear fuel assemblies. McDermott, a Panama “based” corporate tax-avoider, also manages the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. (along with a lot of other critical national defense infrastructure. Take a look.)

The celebrated openness of the Internet -- network providers are not supposed to give preferential treatment to any traffic -- is quietly losing powerful defenders. Google Inc. has approached major cable and phone companies that carry Internet traffic with a proposal to create a fast lane for its own content, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Google has traditionally been one of the loudest advocates of equal network access for all content providers. At risk is a principle known as network neutrality: Cable and phone companies that operate the data pipelines are supposed to treat all traffic...

The general also confirmed that a decision to build new aircraft carriers for the Russian Navy had been adopted. Russia's Navy commander, Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky, said in July that the Navy command had decided to form in the future 5-6 aircraft carrier task forces to be deployed with the Northern and Pacific fleets.

The USS Kitty Hawk will have to remain in the Pacific longer than initially planned after its replacement, the USS George Washington, was damaged by a recent fire, a Navy official said. The two carriers were to meet in Pearl Harbor next week for a "hull swap," with the newer George Washington taking over for the 47-year-old Kitty Hawk, the oldest active-duty warship in the fleet. About 900 Kitty Hawk sailors and the carrier’s air wing were expected to transfer to the George Washington. But a fire broke out on the George Washington on May 22, while the carrier was...

Two hundred years after the battle of Trafalgar, the navy could end up sharing the pride of its fleet with the French. Driven by spiralling budgets, the two navies began talks last week aimed at sharing their aircraft carriers. The government is expected to give the go-ahead for the Royal Navy’s two new aircraft carriers this week, part of a joint Anglo-French project to build a total of three. The French, who currently have only one carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, are questioning whether they can afford a replacement and are keen to explore closer co-operation with Britain instead. “We...

MEXICO CITY, April 30, 2008 – The movement of a second aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf this week doesn’t signal an escalation of the U.S. naval presence -- but could serve as a “reminder” of it to countries in the region, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here last night. Gates did not specifically name Iran when responding to a reporter’s question about the arrival this week of USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf. “The size of our naval presence in the Gulf rises and falls constantly,” he said. “This deployment has been planned for a long time. I...

Carrier USS Kennedy decommissioned By RON WORD, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER,The Seattle Intelligencer, Friday, March 23, 2007. Sailors reach for a pallet of surplus equipment being unloaded from the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy, Tuesday, March 20, 2007, at Naval Station Mayport, Fla. The Kennedy is being decommissioned March 23. (AP Photo/Oscar Sosa) MAYPORT, Fla. -- Sailors in blue lined the deck of the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy on Friday as guns boomed to commemorate the decommissioning of "Big John" after nearly 40 years of service. Officers gathered in front of a screen displaying a large American flag,...

The transcript of Part 2 of my eight part interview with Thomas P.M. Barnett, author of The Pentagon's New Map, is now posted, as is the audio. The transcript of Part 1 is here and the audio here, and the transcript of our short introductory interview is here, and the audio here. One teaser from yesterday's exchange: HH: Dr. Barnett, when we went to break, we were talking about China and the American Navy. We have these 10 Nimitz-class carriers out there, which are really our force projection power. If China develops the ability to attack from land via cruise...

Re-Broadcast Times for "Dogfights" episode of "Death of The Japanese Navy" are EASTERN time: Tuesday January 16 11:00 PM Wednesday January 17 03:00 AM (from a "Dogfights" webpage) In one of the most amazing yet lopsided naval battles in history, a mighty Japanese fleet led by the Yamato, the biggest battleship in the world, versus Taffy 3, a small U.S. task unit of tin can destroyers and baby flat-tops. The U.S. fleet is made up of ships too weak to fight and too slow to run. David battles Goliath in a fight for survival, with the lives of thousands of...