U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 26 July - 23 August 2023

Interesting starter, calling out China (which deserves it, by the way):

A. (U) U.S. Maritime Advisory 2023-009-Woldwide-Foreign Adversarial Technological, Physical, and Cyber Influence Issued on 23 August 2023. This advisory seeks to alert maritime stakeholders of potential vulnerabilities to maritime port equipment, networks, operating systems, software, and infrastructure. Foreign companies manufacture, install, and maintain port equipment that poses vulnerabilities to global maritime infrastructure information technology and operational technology systems. This advisory references U.S. Government documents published over the past few years, illuminating the risks associated with integrating and utilizing the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) state-supported National Public Information Platform for Transportation and Logistics (LOGINK), Nuctech scanners, and automated port cranes worldwide.

U.S. Navy Office of Naval I... by lawofsea

Saturday Is Old Radio Day (on Sunday): Abbot and Costello "Football Game" (1940)

Friday Film: "Epidemic's Children"

U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 19 July - 16 August 2023

U.S. Navy Office of Naval I... by lawofsea

Saturday Is Old Radio Day: "The Bullet" CBS Mystery Theater (1974)

Friday Film: U.S. NAVY MK-84 SONOBUOY SIGNAL UNDERWATER SOUND (SUS)

U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 12 July - 9 August 2023

U.S. Navy Office of Naval I... by lawofsea

Bombarding the Kerch Bridge - It's all about logistics . . . Russian Logistics

Russia asserts the smoke is part of their defense of the Kerch Bridge. That it needs defending points to Ukrainian successes

Ukraine keeps pounding on the Kerch Bridge as asserted Bridge Attack: Chilling Moment Ukraine Launches Missile Attack On Crimea Bridge In Front Of Stunned Holidaymakers :

The Kerch Bridge stretches for 12 miles across the Kerch Strait. It is considered an important route for Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

The Crimean Transport Ministry reported to The Wall Street Journal that the bridge currently is open to cars, but not heavy trucks. A rail section of the bridge remains open.

Stunned? Really? The bridge is a key logistics link to Russian forces in the field and a symbol of Russian power.

As this war has worn on, the Russian logistics effort has been targeted repeatedly. Troops in the field need ammunition, food, and other supplies. Hindering their logistics effort is key to grinding the Russian forces down.

Very good commentary piece from Bradley Martin of Rand's National Security Supply Chain Institute from February 2023 Will Logistics Be Russia's Undoing in Ukraine?:

Russia's experience in Ukraine one year in is an example of what happens when a nation tries to fight a war without fully considering the logistics and sustainment that go alongside such a fight. The war in Ukraine has shown that familiar concepts of economic mobilization, as well as the thorough alignment of operations with the necessary resources, continue to be central to not simply planning but sustaining a war. The consequences for failing to fully consider these concepts drove Russia into a prolonged conflict, one for which it was already ill-prepared a year ago, and one with increasingly dire consequences for its future.

Ukraine, by attacking the Russian logistics system, seems to be patiently squeezing the Russian field forces.

Expect them to keep hammering that system while holding the lines they have.

Saturday Is Old Radio Day: "The Sea Phantom" -Dark Fantasy (1942)

Friday Film: "Oceanographer in the Polar Regions" US Navy (1969)

U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 5 July - 2 August 2023

U.S. Navy Office of Naval I... by lawofsea

Saturday Is Old Radio Day - Family Theater "The Colonel's Daughter" (1957)

Friday Film: "Freighter at Sea" (1948)

U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 28 June-26 July 2023

U.S. Navy Office of Naval I... by lawofsea

Saturday Is Old Radio Day: The Green Hornet "Citizen Insurance Racket" (1938)

Friday Films: "Submarine Salvage"

Saturday IS Old Radio Day- Rogues Gallery "Blood on the Sand" (1945)

Friday Film (on Saturday) - Seabees in Normandy" (1944)

Remember When We Were Protected from Oil Price Increases Because We Were Basically Petroleum Energy Independent?

Reuters headline Saudi Arabia, Russia deepen oil cuts, sending prices higher

Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world's biggest oil exporters, deepened oil cuts on Monday, sending prices higher despite concerns over a global economic slowdown and possible further interest rate increases from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Oh. gosh, was it only a few years ago that the US was mostly petroleum independent? Well, Reuters has an article that declares that the US was not really energy independent, because, well, it depends on how you define "independence"

-

For Andrew Campbell, Executive Director of the Energy Institute at Berkeley Haas ( here ) “energy independence” is a “political slogan, not an economic or technical concept with a clear definition” often used by politicians to “imply that a country is insulated from global energy markets”.

“This is rarely the case,” he said.

“If a country produces all of the energy that it consumes, does not participate in international trade in energy, does not import energy-intensive products and does not send energy-related pollution to its neighbors or the atmosphere, then I would consider it energy independent. I don’t think any country meets that definition.”

Harrison Fell, a Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA ( here ) said “energy independence is a tricky concept” and said it was often quantified by comparing energy production to energy consumption, but cautioned that the implications of this may be misunderstood.

So, we pass laws making it virtually impossible to build new refineries, which means we ship crude offshore to be refined, and that means we can't ever be energy independent?

Reuters also reports the EPA is screwing around small refiners by denying exemptions from a ridiculous law, which means lower output of gasoline and other products - which will raise the price of gasoline to consumers U.S. EPA denies nearly all biofuel blending exemption petitions

President Joe Biden's administration on Friday denied almost all outstanding petitions from oil refiners asking to be exempted from mandates that require them to mix biofuels into their fuel.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has the authority to issue the exemptions, denied 26 petitions from 15 small refineries who applied for waivers for the 2016-2018 and 2021-2023 compliance years, the agency said on Friday. There are still two pending petitions.

The agency also disclosed which oil refiners submitted petitions in July 2022 or later, as well as which oil refiners are participating in an alternative compliance schedule that allows them flexibility in complying with biofuel blending laws.

Under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), oil refiners must blend billions of gallons of biofuels into the nation's fuel mix, or buy tradable credits from those that do. The EPA can, however, award exemptions to some small refiners if they prove that the obligations cause them undue harm.

I keep being reminded of the old Walt Kelly comic in which Pogo announces who is responsible for problems, which when it appeared in 1971, was directed at the problem of pollution. Now we find the "cure"- when carried too far - is no piece of cake either. Moderation in all things.

Saturday IS Old Radio Day- "The Pirate of Orleans" from Vicks Matinee Theater (1945)