Center for International Maritime Security

SWO Specialization Series

Featured Image: PACIFIC OCEAN (Nov. 12, 2017) The guided-missile destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90), right, leads USS Stethem (DDG 63), the guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton (CG 59) and USS Sampson (DDG ...
Center for International Maritime Security

Call for Articles: Should the U.S. Surface Warfare Community Specialize?

The U.S. Surface Warfare Officer community has operated on a generalist career path since 1899. SWOs are responsible for matters of both operational and material readiness, while the surface fleets of ...
Center for International Maritime SecurityOpinion

Building Tactical Excellence: How SWCTC Supports LT Breen’s Call for Higher SWO Proficiency

By LCDR Jeffrey Bolstad (ASW/SUW WTI) and LT Matthew Bain (ASW/SUW WTI) ...
Center for International Maritime Security

Design, Decide, Forget: Why the Navy Needs a Lessons-Learned Center for Shipbuilding

In March 2025 testimony before the House Armed Services Committee’s Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, Ronald O’Rourke, naval analyst for the Congressional Research Service since 1984, ...
Center for International Maritime Security

Small Craft, Big Impact: Ukraine’s Naval War and the Rise of New-Tech Warships

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 shocked the international order. What surprised the world even more was Ukraine’s ability to resist. While many in the West believed Ukraine would only ...
Center for International Maritime Security

War Without Surprises: Education for Command in the PLA Navy

This republication is adapted from “War without Surprises—Education for Command in the People’s Liberation Army Navy,” published by the Naval War College Review of the U.S. Naval War College. It is ...
Center for International Maritime Security

Strengthening Unity of Effort in the Atlantic: Lessons from Wargaming

Based on our experience designing and analyzing recent Naval War College wargames in the Euro-Atlantic theater, U.S. and NATO maritime forces face several challenges in maintaining readiness, ...
Center for International Maritime Security

On Wider Seas: Italian Naval Deployments and Maritime Outreach to the Indo-Pacific

Italian maritime doctrine is increasingly looking beyond its traditional focus on the Mediterranean. Admiral Giorgi’s signaled this shift in 2017 with the “Mediterraneo allargato,” echoed by Talbot ...
Center for International Maritime Security

Neither Fish nor Fowl: China’s Development of a Nuclear Battery AIP Submarine

On September 27, 2024, news broke that a previously unreported new type of Chinese nuclear-powered submarine, dubbed the “Type 041,” had suffered a major mishap at its fitting out pier at the Wuchang ...
Center for International Maritime Security

To Prepare for Pacific War by 2027, the United States Must Harden its Southern Flank

The United States’ foundations as a global great power rest in no small part on its status as a regional hegemon. No single country in the Western Hemisphere can make a serious bid to balance ...
Center for International Maritime Security

Weaponized Containers: A Warship-in-a-Box for Warfighting Advantage

Naval vessels of all types have grown over the past 50 years. Even relatively low-end warship classes, such as the littoral combat ship, possessed significant system complexity. The tilt towards ...
Center for International Maritime Security

The Queen Sacrifice: Use the Carrier for Naval Deception

A large Japanese force emerged from the San Bernadino Strait, comprised of battleships and heavy cruisers, including the flagship Yamato. All that stood between them and the vulnerable U.S. landings ...