Episode 319: Best of STRAT

Looking for a "Best of" this Valentine's Day, I realized there is a guest we need to bring back on for an update. With Russia being Russia, you have to think Big Things that make Big Booms.

From a bit more than three years ago,

They're back; ICBM, IRBM, SRBM. Strategic forces. Long range strike and long range counter-air.

Some real old ones are coming back in to the lexicon: ABM.

Some new ones have joined the party as well - ASBM and super sonic ASCM.

Of course, they never really left us.

After the post-Soviet softness of the 1990s and the decade plus of COIN and small wars - the big toys are coming back. Old and new.

From Russia, China, Iran, & India - technology is reaching back out and spreading out.

Where does that leave the US military in 2012 (NB: original air date of this show)? Few leaders under the age of 45 even remember operating in the Cold War disciplines that peer technology required; range, EMCON, defense in depth.

Global reach will require more and better AAW, deep strike, I&W - it will also require a renewed understanding that for a Fleet at sea - the enemy gets a vote, and a shot.

Our guest for the full hour to discuss in detail will be Will Dossel, CAPT USN (Ret), a former E-2C NFO with over 3500 hours and 525 traps in the E-2C and other TACAIR. Retiring after 26 years, he held a number of Navy and Joint operational and staff positions afloat and ashore including VAW squadron command, CVN navigator, Deputy Director for Strategy and Policy, Navy Planner, and Reconnaissance Systems Officer. Currently employed as a senior analyst with a top 5 defense firm, he has been heavily involved in the policy and operational side of ballistic and cruise missile defense the past seven years.