Anyone even remotely around the Navy or the national defense area in DC and the Pacific knows this two words, “Fat Leonard” and the unprecedented impact it has had on the navy as an institution and its very highest uniformed leadership for well over a decade. Visiting the topic on Midrats for the full hour will be Craig Whitlock, investigative reporter for The Washington Post. #1 NYT Bestselling author of "Fat Leonard: How One Man Bribed, Bilked, and Seduced the U.S. Navy" (2024) and "The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War" (2021).

Hope you enjoy the new audio quality for this month's melee!We kick things off with an overview of the Gaza Pier debacle, the Eisenhower deployment extension, the Constellation Class frigate purgatory, the potential fun with the #AsianNATO, and finish things up with a former VCNO who is not in a happy place.Showlinks:Better Tabletop Exercises for Wartime Acquisition By Ron WeinbergerArmy JLOTS v. Navy ELCASYou Go to War with the Industrial Base You Have, by Mackenzie Eaglen"Just as PLA is clearly communicating its threats to the world, it's also communicating its insecurities." - Zach OtaAdmiral Paparo shows the correct attitude at the Shangri-La Dialogue.Former VCNO not having a good week

Midrats returns for a broad-reaching discussion on maritime and national security issues from the Gaza Beaches to the South China Sea!My audio was a bit poppy early in the show, but it gets better.Mentioned links:PRC is playing games with undersea cablesCONGRESSIONAL GUIDANCE FOR A NATIONAL MARITIME STRATEGY Reversing the Decline of America’s Maritime PowerWhen US Army tried to deactivate the unit that built the Gaza pierSECNAV has a testy time on The HillAzeri percentage of Iranian populationCFR report on the challenge of the PRC invading TaiwanPRC's Drone Carrier

Just as they share a common tradition going back to before the American Revolution, the United State's Navy and Britain's Royal Navy, today both nations' navies share a similar challenge of prioritizing and finding the navy - and the industrial base to support it - that both nations need in order to secure their nation's from global threats and challengers.We'll cover both nations' military industrial base, the latest lrelated essons from the Red Sea, AUKUS, and even a funny little moment in the series, "3 Body Problem."Coming back to Midrats for a long ranging discussion will be Dr. Emma Salisbury, Phd.Emma recently completed her PhD at Birkbeck College, University of London, with research focusing on the history of the U.S. military-industrial complex. She is an associate fellow at the Council on Geostrategy, an associate fellow at the UK Ministry of Defence's Development, Concepts, and Doctrine Centre, and an assistant editor at War on the Rocks.

For the first two decades of this century, as the West and her friends were distracted by small wars in Central Asia and the Middle East, the People's Republic of China slowly, deliberately, and steadily grew her economic, diplomatic, and economic power.As we are in the last year closing out the first quarter of the 21st Century, the West distracted by an ongoing major conventional war in its third year in Europe, and still cannot extract itself from the Middle Eastern tar-pit. Haw is the PRC doing? Keeping on, moving on...and it's time for an update on their progress.Returning to Midrats for the full hour will be Dean Cheng, Senior Fellow, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies; Senior Adviser, United States Institute of Peace; and Non-resident Fellow, George Washington University Space Policy Institute.Dean was recently appointed a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, a Senior Adviser with the US Institute of Peace, and a non-resident fellow with the George Washington University Space Policy Institute.He retired as the Senior Research Fellow for Chinese Political and Military Affairs at the Heritage Foundation after 13 years. He is fluent in Chinese, and uses Chinese language materials regularly in his work.Prior to joining the Heritage Foundation, he worked at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), a Federally Funded Research and Development Center, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), and as an analyst with the US Congress’ Office of Technology Assessment.He is the author of the volume Cyber Dragon: Inside China’s Information Warfare and Cyber Operations (Praeger Publishing, 2016), and has written extensively on Chinese views of deterrence, Chinese views of space power, and Chinese mobilization, and contributed to a number of volumes on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

For navalists from Souda Bay to San Diego, April has started not with a whimper, not a grin - but with a scream.For the full hour, we'll start in Baltimore, review the latest revelations about shipbuilding, and some enlightening developments on our allies from Australia to NATO…and end things up after a little spot of tech bother, with a discussion on how to tell our Navy story right - and why it matters.Links:The shipbuilding grid.CANX ship brief.AUKUS and Japan.US, Japan, Australia, & The Philippines go to sea.

For our last podcast of March, come join us for and open-ended free-for-all format to look at the national security environment as we head in to April.From the water cannons off the Philippines to the folly of keeping your naval bases in range of your enemies missiles ... and perhaps a dive in to the long winter for navalists that 2024 is lining up to be ... we'll cover it!Links mentioned in the show:Amphib USS Boxer Sidelined by "General Complacency" and BreakdownsThe Lost Opportunity: The Failure of the National Commission on the Future of the NavySal Mercogliano's What's Going on With ShippingWhy Houthi Attacks in the Red Sea Are Likely to Persist: They're PopularClaude Berube books

If people are policy and policy shapes decisions, then that is the start in understanding why a nation like the USA wound up neglecting what should be a core sector of not just its economy, but its strategic advantage - its civilian maritime industry.Using his recent article, The Urgent Need for U.S. Maritime Reform as a starting point, our guest for the full hour is William Cahill.Will is president of Applied Maritime Sciences, a maritime technology and strategy consultancy. He served as Director for Strategic Planning on the National Security Council and Maritime Advisor on the Council of Economic Advisers where he helped develop and lead Interagency efforts to enhance American maritime competitiveness. During his 20 years as a Coast Guard officer, Will completed numerous operational tours both at sea as a Cutterman and at air stations as a Coast Guard aviator. Will holds degrees in Naval Architecture and Marine engineering from the USCGA and a Master of Public Policy from Princeton University. 

Especially for the Royal Navy, it was assumed the military leaders, politicians, and the general population understood that they were island nations and that their security and prosperity depended on a strong navy and civilian maritime commerce. Even the greatest naval power of the last century, the United States of America seems to be unable to have people understand why it needs a strong navy. What happened?Focused primarily on the core of the issue with the Royal Navy, our guest for the full hour to discuss the scourge of seablindness will be Dr James WE Smith, the Laughton-Corbett Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London.He completed his PhD in ‘War and Strategic Studies’ that focused on studying the organization of defense and defense unification in the UK and US and how that impacts strategy and strategic thought. This has complemented a broader research effort which has taken nearly fifteen years about the devaluation of sea, navies and maritime strategy in nations and strategic thought from seabed to space.Links:'Seablindness' and the Royal Navy TodayThe US Navy versus Seablindness: par for the course for America?You can follow James on X, or his substack.

Feel like the chaos from the Black Sea, Red Sea, South China Sea and various places ashore seems just too much to keep track of?Well, if you need an hour to catch up and ponder as Sal & Eagle One will take you from the Houthi's sinking their first ship, Darwinism at war, to the US Navy heading in to Haiphong witih guns blazing ... for peace.