There is no better way to stay out of the summer heat than to take an hour to join us for a Midrats Podcast melee! Summary In this episode of Midrats, hosts discuss a range of topics related to maritime and national security, including the importance of civil discourse in political discussions, Australia's acquisition of Japanese frigates, cybersecurity threats, and the geopolitical tensions in the Arctic and Antarctic. They emphasize the need for strong diplomatic efforts and the role of NATO i...
Aug 11, 2025•1 hr 6 min
Show Links Navy’s Plan for Unmanned Systems Department of Crazy Ideas: How about a cheap inshore fleet ? Mark Tempest, 2009. Buy Fords, Not Ferraris, Jerry Hendrix , 2008 Droning on About Drones , CDR Salamander, 2013 Building the Navy’s Hybrid Fleet , Lieutenant Commander Jack Rowley, Proceedings, July 2025. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress , Robert A. Heinlein The Mote in God’s Eye , Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle Benjamin Kohlmann, Nominated for Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower and R...
Aug 04, 2025•1 hr 3 min
On today’s Midrats, we have returning guest Craig Whiteside and his co-author Ian C. Rice joining us to discuss one of the nightmares we all have in the new book coming out this month. He co-authored it with Ian Rice, Non-state Special Operations: Capabilities and Effects . From the abstract: Building on previous research on Islamic State special operations, the book develops a theoretical framework surrounding a typology of VNSA (militants, proxies, criminal/cults, and mercenaries) to explore v...
Jul 21, 2025•1 hr 5 min
Take a break from the heat today to discuss some of the hidden history, and importance, of the Presidential retreat at Camp David with the author of the book, Presidential Seclusion: The Power of Camp David , Charles Ferguson. After graduating from Georgia Tech and earning his commission, Charles Ferguson served for 11 years in the Submarine force onboard the USS Louisville and as Weapons Officer onboard USS Buffalo with a shore duty at Nuclear Power School in between. He switched to the IRR as ...
Jul 13, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Show Link InfantryDort’s comment mentioned at start of the show Summary The conversation explores the themes of cultural assimilation, national identity, freedom of speech, and the challenges of civil discourse in contemporary society. The hosts discuss the implications of cultural integration on national security and the importance of leadership in fostering a healthy societal environment. They reflect on the historical context of civil rights movements and the need for a national conversation ...
Jun 29, 2025•1 hr 6 min
What can the world’s most capable maritime and aerospace power do? The world was reminded this weekend.There is no other place this week’s Midrats could start but the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Summary The conversation delves into the recent Operation Midnight Hammer, discussing its implications for U.S.-Iran relations, the threat of Iranian retaliation, and the strategic military operations involved. The hosts analyze the historical context of U.S.-Iran tensions, the effectiveness of...
Jun 23, 2025•1 hr 8 min
Today we’re going to take a friend’s Substack post and turn it into one of the best podcast hours you’ll have this summer…and maybe give you some ideas about books you need to take with you for the July 4th weekend. From Claude’s May 23rd Substack : From the gun decks of HMS Indefatigable to the command chair of a futuristic starship, the portrayal of naval officers in fiction has evolved alongside society's changing views of leadership, warfare, and heroism. The archetype of the naval officer h...
Jun 09, 2025•54 min
Mark and I are back from most of May taking care of business!Time for a MIDRATS! Show Links Pentagon chief tells Asian allies: Raise defence spending to 5% of GDP like Europe Tom Shugart post on PRC ship in Norfolk, from APR 2024 1980s Strategic Homeporting Initiative Claude Berube on OSS developing deep strike drone boats against Japanese bridges and tunnels in WW2 Operation Pigeon Bat bombs The Atlantic on Who Killed America’s Shipbuilding Industry? Korean Shipyard Modernization Navy Secretary...
Jun 02, 2025•1 hr
The People’s Republic of China continues to expand its already well-established contestation of ownership, access, and control of ports throughout the world. They have done this in parallel with building the world’s largest navy and a diverse set of military capabilities clearly designed with one purpose—defeating the U.S. military in the Indo-Pacific. Returning to Midrats to discuss this and related topics is be T. X. Hammes. T.X. is a distinguished research fellow at the Center for Strategic R...
May 05, 2025•58 min
With each new administration, there is opportunity for change and reform. In the new Trump Administration, reform isn’t seen as a secondary effect of a leadership change but as a requirement.What reform options should the new Pentagon leadership explore under the Trump Administration? Joining us to discuss this and related topics is Gary Anderson, Colonel, USMC (Ret.). A starting point for our conversation will be his recent article in The American Spectator, Real Military Reform Begins: Will Pe...
Apr 28, 2025•51 min
Many frustrated by the perceived lack of understanding of our nation’s maritime heritage requirements want new leaders with fresh ideas, unburdened by legacy entanglements. It is hoped that a younger cohort with military experience, preferably naval, in the House of Representatives and the Senate who bring to the job an additional background in business and industry will emerge to promote constructive change. Today’s guest fits the bill perfectly: the new Senator from Montana, Senator Tim Sheehy...
Apr 22, 2025•29 min
Returning for the full hour will be Dr. Sebastian Bruns. Sebastian is a seapower expert and maritime strategist. His current project as Senior Researcher at the Institute for Security Policy Kiel University (ISPK) is “NATO Maritime Strategies and Naval Operations since 1985”, a multi-year effort to explore the Alliance’s maritime and naval roles between the late Cold War and today. Sebastian is the founder of the Kiel International Seapower Symposium (KISS), the Baltic Sea Strategy Forum (BSSF),...
Apr 14, 2025•1 hr
Summary Sal and Mark delve into the current state of the U.S. Navy, discussing the size and capabilities of the fleet, the challenges of operating as a two-ocean Navy, and the potential for utilizing alternative naval assets such as offshore supply vessels. They explore the ongoing debate between manned and unmanned aircraft. Discussed some of the lessons on how to turn around a military quickly using the transition from the 1970s malaise, to the Reagan Era victory in the Cold War. The discussio...
Mar 24, 2025•57 min
The origin story of the United States of America begins, in no small part, with maritime trade issues. Most of the declared and many of the undeclared, wars our nation has fought can be traced to the safety of our maritime commerce and unfettered access to the open seas. Look at any map, and you’ll see we have oceans to the east and west of us, between our nation and its markets, allies, and competitors on the world stage.Today we’re going to cast a wide net on that world view with returning gue...
Mar 16, 2025•53 min
Having trouble keeping up with all the developments in the national security realm over the last two months? Well, let not your heart be troubled, Sal & Mark are here for you this week with the ever-popular Midrats Melee format! No guest this week for the podcast, just your two humble hosts, solving the world’s problems in 60-minutes. Show Links Rear Admiral William Daly , USN OPNAV N96 at Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium : quotes can be found at link 1 and link 2 . TRANSCOM’s pur...
Mar 10, 2025•57 min
A firm and lasting peace treaty, a ceasefire, in or out of NATO, in or out of the EU, European or international peacekeeping forces, an unending slog, or Russian tanks in downtown Kyiv? What are the realistic…and unrealistic…options for Ukraine as they enter the 4th year of the Russo-Ukrainian War of 2022?Is the best path for Ukrainian security instead a new security architecture based on Ukrainian power itself? How do you create a framework that could produce a realistic peace, while giving Ukr...
Mar 03, 2025•58 min
In the first month of the new Trump Administration, much of the attention outside our borders has focused on Europe and the Middle East—the two regions that always seem to divert our focus from America’s greatest competitor, the People’s Republic of China (PRC). We often think of the challenge in terms of the most obvious arena—the Pacific—but it extends from the Arctic to Africa and, increasingly, to space. Returning to Midrats this Sunday to discuss the PRC’s challenge for the new administrati...
Feb 24, 2025•55 min
Returning to Midrats this week to discuss his latest non-fiction novel is Seth W.B. Folsom, Colonel, USMC (Ret.). From the Amazon page: Nothing Here Worth Dying For tells the story of his command of Task Force Lion—a “purpose-built” combat advisor team—and his frenetic 2017 deployment to Iraq’s Al Anbar Province. Charged with the daunting task of advising, assisting, and enabling the Iraqi Security Forces in their fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Folsom and his team of Marines ...
Feb 03, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Does the US Navy have the right number and mix of amphibious ships, and are those ships being properly maintained? The Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) recent report to Congress explored this topic in depth, and today’s Midrats Podcast will delve into it further. From the summary of the report : Amphibious warfare ships are critical for Marine Corps missions, but the Navy has struggled to ensure they are available for operations and training. In some cases, ships in the amphibious fleet ...
Jan 27, 2025•59 min
When a report has an opening like this, you know you have to find a way to get the author on Midrats. As a nation, we are in an undeclared state of emergency.…This is a hot Cold War II. The West has empirically lost deterrence. We must respond to this emergency to regain it. We have a peer adversary: China. “Near-Peer” is a shibboleth, a euphemism to avoid the embarrassment of acknowledging we have peers when we were once peerless. That quote is from The Defense Reformation , written last Octobe...
Jan 19, 2025•1 hr 3 min
There is almost a cottage industry in appreciating the decades-long shortfall in America’s maritime industrial base for shipbuilding and repair.After more than a decade of self-delusion in labeling the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as merely a ‘ Pacing Challenge ’, people are increasingly waking up to the fact that the PRC has overtaken the USA in the maritime arena—a domain in which we were globally unchallenged since the end of WWII. When considering both its vast commercial capacity and it...
Jan 13, 2025•58 min
Happy New Year to everyone…and Midrats is back with you. Join us today for a broad-ranging discussion for our 15th Anniversary Show with a regular guest since the start, Claude Berube. The conversation will go who knows where, but we will begin by reflecting on how the defense media and information environment has evolved since 2010—not just from the perspective of the information consumer, but also in terms of where decision-makers turn for opinions and ideas. We’ll include some inside baseball...
Jan 06, 2025•1 hr
With one of the most militarily and energy strategic states in our union, Alaska, being in the Arctic, and the extensive interests we have on the other side of the planet in Antarctica, do you wonder why our nation’s icebreaking “fleet”—being what it is—amounts to an antique road show? Are you curious how our plan to replace them is making the LCS program look like a successful and well-run program? Can a nation of 335 million souls learn something from a nation of 5.5 million? Today’s Midrats i...
Dec 15, 2024•56 min
Trying to get your mind around who the actors are in Syria as this 'frozen conflict' from the last decade begins to thaw?If you are concerned about international jihadist organizations, the security of Israel, instability caused by mass migration, rights of religious minorities in the Middle East, or human suffering, the cascading events in Syria should be in your scan. Well, this Midrats is just for you. Returning to Midrats for the full hour to give an overview of the different players in the ...
Dec 08, 2024•57 min
Before everyone dives into a week of family and fasting, time to catch up with Sal and Mark on Midrats.From the retention crisis to some stark comments from senior leaders about the Western Pacific, we’ll cover the waterfront and more. Showlinks Fighter pilot burnout Admiral Paparo at Brookings Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam Summary In this episode, Sal and Mark discuss the complexities of national defense, focusing on the impo...
Nov 25, 2024•1 hr 1 min
With 63 days until President Trump’s second inauguration and a new national security team lining up, what are the expected opportunities they will be looking to make an impact quickly? What should people be looking at? Where is the fruit ripe for the picking? For the full hour we have returning guest, Jerry Dunleavy IV, author of Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End , Former investigative journalist for the Washington Examiner, & former se...
Nov 18, 2024•59 min
Summary The conversation delves into various themes surrounding innovation, customization, and future planning. It highlights the importance of bespoke solutions in development and addresses the challenges faced in implementing these ideas. The speakers reflect on their insights and look forward to new developments in the field.Show Links Trump Declares No Mercy on Cartels Chris Cappy from Task & Purpose on the Cartel Wars Red Hill Fuel Storage Report Who Put Quartermaster Bloomfield in Char...
Nov 11, 2024•59 min
Showlinks Joint Sword 2024 off Taiwan . TAFFY-3 off Samar . USAF NGAD Pause . Narrow Seas, Small Navies, and Fat Merchantmen: Naval Strategies for the 1990s . USS Carney’s 1 year anniversary . Debt service now greater than spending on defense . Summary In this episode of Midrats, Sal and Mark discuss the evolving geopolitical landscape, focusing on China's strategic maneuvers around Taiwan and the implications for US military preparedness. They explore the potential for conflict, the challenges ...
Oct 21, 2024•1 hr 1 min
It’s mid-October, and time for another no-hold-barred Maritime Melee from Midrats!You can listen at this link, or via the Spotify widget below. Show Links Happy 249th Birthday Navy! Kaman K-MAX helicopters Starlink Lifestraw Iodine tablets CNOC bag Katadyn filters Ukraine’s Baba Yaga drones Navy relearns how to reload at sea Heavy lift ships Net Assessment Podcast: What is the US Military Doing in Europe Tom Shugart’s report on 24 PRC patrol craft under construction Summary In this conversation,...
Oct 14, 2024•1 hr
What can be done to reform The Pentagon? Returning to Midrats to discuss the challenge of real reform to our military bureaucratic establishment will be Steve Deal. Steve Deal, Captain, U.S. Navy (Ret.) served as Deputy Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the Navy and Deputy Chief Learning Officer for the Department of the Navy. During his twenty-seven years on active duty, he commanded Patrol Squadron Forty-Seven, in Ali Air Base, Iraq; Joint Provincial Reconstruction Team Khost, Afghanistan; an...
Sep 30, 2024•1 hr 8 min
