Category: Asia

Personal: Honest update on the Philippines and Indonesia

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

I’ve been trying to work on my RAND and SeaLight document, but I can’t seem to get into it. I’m still not feeling well, either. For some reason, I can’t format my document on my iPhone the way that I would like, and I still can’t use my iPad for it. This morning, my iPad fell out of its mount and landed on my face. No worries, my ego was hurt more than my nose. To be honest, I’ve about lost all interest in it. If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? I feel like that tree. The tree makes a sound, but no one is around to hear it fall. Who has time to worry about details, anyway? I barely do anymore, and I’m unemployed. I’m going to stop now before I have to get the violin out.

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India is losing Bangladesh to China and Pakistan, and it could get worse

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

India is losing Bangladesh to China and Pakistan, and it could get worse

Source: St. Martin’s Island: A new flashpoint in the Bay of Bengal? – Observer Research Foundation

by Derek J Grossman, RAND

Beijing has further sought to develop numerous Bangladeshi ports, including Chittagong, Mongla, and Sonadia ports, to achieve a maritime presence in the Bay of Bengal. Enhanced access to any or all of these ports could substantially add to Beijing’s “string of pearls” strategy to hem in India in the Indian Ocean.

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Transforming naval combat: Boeing’s Orca XLUUV in unmanned operations

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Transforming naval combat: Boeing’s Orca XLUUV in unmanned operations

Report to Congress on Navy Large Unmanned Surface and Undersea Vehicles

The Navy wants to use XLUUVs to, among other things, covertly deploy the Hammerhead mine, a planned mine that would be tethered to the seabed and armed with an antisubmarine torpedo, broadly similar to the Navy’s Cold War-era CAPTOR (encapsulated torpedo) mine.

Hammerhead, Orca, SSGN

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