Journal articles on the topic 'Construction navale militaire'

Due to the modernization of warships, it was necessary to carry out strength calculations for the newly assembled devices, for which there were no detailed technical requirements. The authors try to present and harmonize the requirements for naval military structures. The lack of experimental verification of newly built systems was indicated. Therefore the finite element method was used to determine the durability of the critical design elements. There is no explicit reference load in the literature, so the authors present a general solution to one of the worst cases. The work presents the cannon structure elements exposed to damage during the underwater explosion load, using the proposed methodology. The proposed method is sufficient to calculate individual ship cases. However, in the case of hull strength analysis, more complex algorithms should be used.

AbstractThis article provides a detailed update on the progress of the United States military commissions under the regime established by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 for the trial of detainees captured during the War on Terror for so-called war crimes. In particular, the author examines the plea and sentencing of Australian detainee David Hicks, the pre-trial developments in the case of Canadian detainee Omar Khadr, and the early litigation involving the detainees who have been dubbed the ‘September 11 co-conspirators’. The author also touches on the Supreme Court decision inHamdanv.Rumsfeld, some of the significant features of the Military Commission Act, the recent federal court litigation in the case ofBoumedienev.Bush, and the construction of the new military commission building at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

It is the key point which establishes a new rescue system for guarantee Chinese naval submarine operational capability. As new rescue vessel and various rescue equipment put into use in succession, and company with the military academies training reform, the author puts forward the construction of the new submarine rescue command simulation training information system based on the HLA(High Level Architecture) in this paper. It introduces the system construction situation, including system functions, constitutes and working principle, and analyses the key technology point. It is also given a virtual scene of submarine rescue command operation based on data driven.

Helicopter decks are common throughout the commercial and military shipping industries and also the offshore industry. Construction in steel and aluminum is common. Helicopter decks on high-speed craft are not common. The first known helicopter deck installed on a high-speed craft was on an Incat wave-piercing catamaran, HSV X1, Joint Venture, which saw service during the recent Gulf war and is currently still in service with the US Army. Following successful construction and NAVAIR certification of Joint Venture, a more advanced aluminum deck, certified also by NAVAIR and Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), has been fitted to HSV 2 Swift, which is the latest Incat 98 meter "SeaFrame" HSC. HSV 2 Swift is in service with the US Navy. This paper will focus on the design challenge that came about on HSV 2 Swift in the design of the deck to land and park skid type helicopters as opposed to a helicopter with pneumatic tires. High-speed craft are by their nature innovative, and new solutions to old problems are constantly being experimented with to ensure that the tenets of high speed and high efficiency are optimized. Weight minimization is the most critical performance aspect of a high-speed craft, and conservative or simplified analysis is not practical or economic. A high-speed craft relies on accelerating through hump or critical speed to obtain the high operating speeds of around 40 knots and greater. The ability to operate above hump speed is absolutely reliant on the weight of the vessel. Unnecessary weight on the vessel that does not have absolute mission or operation justification adversely affects the ability to operate above hump speed. Aluminum creates additional and very different challenges compared to a design in traditional steel. Alternative details and construction techniques are required for successful design in aluminum in terms of fatigue and ultimate strength. One innovation common in high-speed craft is aluminum extrusion of a top hat form. The top hat offers big savings in terms of ultimate strength and reduction in mass while keeping weight to a minimum. To aid in verifying the design of the Helo deck extrusion on HSV 2 Swift (Incat Yard 061) for the AH-1 and UH-1 helicopters (H-1 series skid type helicopters), analysis and physical testing were carried out. There had been some doubt that conventional hand calculations were suitable for a top hat style extrusion. The analysis and testing proved that extruded aluminum sections of top hat design are suitable for the H-1 series helicopter skid loading and that permanent deformation was negligible at the design load and even at significantly above the design load. The physical test is also further evidence to support the use of welded 6000 series extrusion in high-speed military vessels. Original design of the deck extrusion revolved around class rules, linear static finite element analysis (FEA), and military codes. Later analysis involved nonlinear FEA, further military code calculations, first principles hand calculations based on available text, and physical testing.

In the three decades prior to World War I, Britain's paradox was whether to cooperate with or punish an emerging Germany, Japan, France, Russia, and the United States. Based on the need for economy, successive Chancellors of the Exchequer pressed for cooperating with the contenders. Members of the services and Conservatives pushed to punish these contenders, countering that Britain could afford the rising naval expenditure needed to implement such a programme. The existing literature emphasizes the role of geopolitics, domestic constraints, and individual idiosyncrasies to explain Britain's foreign policy adjustment. I argue that the nature of the foreign commercial policy of the contenders guided Britain's response. Due to the special affinity among commercially liberal states, Britain cooperated with America and Japan, ceding regional governance to both aspiring regional hegemons. Britain did, however, punish non-liberal France, Germany, and Russia by implementing new naval construction programmes and concentrating freed-up military resources until these countries capitulated in their naval challenge.

The article is devoted to the search for conceptual approaches to solving the problem of constructing a new model of training officer personnel for the fleet, adapted to the standards and principles of NATO. This article, based on the consideration of the training models of the naval specialist, where the external factor is the educational environment, which forms the request for content, quality and methodology of military education, determines the main factors that are the basis of a perspective model of training a military seaman. Using the method of comparing the study of the educational environment of the existing and prospective model of training a naval specialist testifies that consideration of this process is necessary from the standpoint of the system approach, considering that the future officer will have to act in the conditions of wars (military conflicts) of the fourth generation where the line between the troops and people erases intentionally, namely: the environment changes itself under the influence of social, political, cultural and historical factors. The main directions of modernization of educational environment are: generalization, systematization and comprehension of the experience of formation and development of the system of military education of the former member states of the Organization of Warsaw Pact; the study of the process of the transformation of theoretical and methodological approaches to create a modern system of military education, based on the best world and domestic educational traditions; the change of the mentality of all the subjects of the educational activity, rethinking ...

The object of this research is the Russian navy during the ruling time of Peter the Great and Anna of Russia under the circumstances of escalation of foreign policy situation in Azov and Black Sea regions. The subject of this research is the history of restoration and development of naval shipbuilding on the Don River during the 1721-1735. Based on the published and archival materials, the author examines the process of formation of Don Flotilla comprised of nine large and six small prams, fifteen gallivants, and thirty small vessels. Methodological framework consists of the problematic-chronological, comparative-historical and structural-functional methods. Special role belongs to the method of historical reconstruction that allowed reproducing the stages of shipbuilding works on the Don River during the 1721-1735. The article demonstrates the details of the process of construction works during the 1721-1724, their demothballing in 1733, and further construction of the ships of Don Flotilla prior to Russo-Turkish War of 1735-1739. The author also analyzes the shipbuilding process itself, which main conclusions consist in the statement that the flotilla was not ready to the beginning of large-scale military operations against the Ottoman Empire.

The utilization of computer simulation in the shipbuilding industry is not a new concept and many shipyards in the U.S. and around the world are using simulation tools in a wide variety of ways and with various levels of success. In many industries, computer simulation of production processes has proven itself as a powerful tool for reducing nonvalue added activities and promises to become much more prominent in its use as a resource management tool. Its use in the manufacturing of Outfitting components in U.S. shipyards has had limited success due mainly to the inherent nature of ship construction, especially those yards primarily engaged in military ship construction. The focus of this paper is directed towards the implementation aspects of a computer simulation tool for the manufacture of Outfitting components in a naval shipbuilding context.

AbstractMeanwhile, energy security is threatened in new domains – maritime and cyber. In the maritime domain, military operations target construction works of the new objects as well as operating interconnectors, cables, LNG terminals, and other strategic assets. Regular situational awareness in the Baltic Sea region is lacking, as is sufficient naval and civilian maritime cooperation. In the cyber realm attacks become more frequent and more complex, critical infrastructure being the main target. As cyber security expertise and exercise are lacking and integration into European natural gas and electricity systems is not completed, blackout scenario in the Baltic States remains possible.

This article offers a new historiographical overview of the military history of Spain in the early modern period, covering recent works published by English-speaking scholars as well as the latest studies by Spanish and Italian historians. Differences tend to focus on whether the rival paradigms of ‘decline’ or ‘resilience’ offer the better insights into the period after the end of Spanish military supremacy (c. 1648). A survey of recent work on this topic leads us to some very significant observations about factors underpinning power, such as a common or shared culture and identity, as well as the more obvious and traditional components of military and naval power. The nature of royal power and monarchy are analysed, as are the structure of the army and the construction of the state in Spain. The relationship between the state and civil society, and the debate about the militarization of Iberian society and the study of cultural and religious values, are also examined. On balance, recent literature leads us to a more positive assessment of the resilience of Spanish military power in the second half of the 17th century.

The ability of predicting material failure is essential for adequate structural dimensioning in every mechanical design. For ships, and particularly for military vessels, the challenge of optimizing the toughness-to-weight ratio at the highest possible value is essential to provide agile structures that can safely withstand external forces. Exploring the case of underwater explosions, the present paper summarizes some of the fundamental mathematical relations for foreseeing the behavior of naval panels to such solicitation. A broad state-of-the-art survey links the mechanical stress-strain response of materials and the influence of local reinforcements in flexural and lateral-torsional buckling to the hydrodynamic relations that govern the propagation of pressure waves prevenient from blasts. Numerical simulation approaches used in computational modeling of underwater explosions are reviewed, focusing on Eulerian and Lagrangian fluid descriptions, Johnson-Cook and Gurson constitutive materials for naval panels, and the solving methods FEM (Finite Element Method), FVM (Finite Volume Method), BEM (Boundary Element Method), and SPH (Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics). The confrontation of experimental tests for evaluating different hull materials and constructions with formulae and virtual reproduction practices allow a wide perception of the subject from different yet interrelated points of view.

Prior to 1926, the American Table of Distances did not adequately take into consideration the potential for munition storage facilities to exceed capacities. This study aims to provide an overview of the construction and use of munition storage facilities and examine how the American Table of Distances would dramatically change due to the 1926 explosion at the Lake Denmark Naval Ammunitions Depot. The historical literature examining the correlation between the American Table of Distances and storage capacities is limited, and independent inquiries by the United States Government and first-person accounts of the explosion exist. However, these sources had not been collectively assembled into a study to provide historical context. From this research, it can be determined that it was only a matter of “when” would a disaster strike, as storage facilities up and down the eastern seaboard were experiencing exceeded capacities. This disaster, while unnecessary, provided an opportunity for the Army to respond, make changes, and ultimately allow the government to update outdated safety standards. Additionally, this study serves the dual purpose of highlighting the newly established Navy Hill Historic District associated with the unfortunate disaster and its important legacy.

This paper provides an introduction to shipboard signage design, construction, and installation. It is intended to assist the naval architect and marine engineer in the design of signs for shipboard use, help the shipyard in its initial procurement and installation of shipboard signage, help the ship's crew determine what additional signs are needed during the life cycle of the vessel, and aid in the sign replacement process. There are a number of standards and specifications, both commercial and military, that deal with signage but few are in complete agreement. Research into these standards has resulted in the development of a user-friendly shipboard signage guide, applicable to both military and commercial vessels, which is paraphrased in this paper. Guidance is provided for the most commonly used shipboard signage applications and includes the use of new materials which are less expensive, lighter weight, and more visible even in low or no light conditions. By using this guide, effective signs which offer reduced cost (material and installation) and weight, with improved readability, clarity, and meaning will result. Specific areas addressed include signage types, layout, wording, symbology, physical properties, installation, and cost.

This article aims to highlight security dynamics of the US–China competition in the Indo-Pacific associated with the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea through the prism of Balance of Threat Theory. It is argued that the control over strategic lines of communication is a significant factor in the process of constructing threat perception of East and Southeast Asian states as they remain heavily reliant on maritime transportation of commodities and energy resources. The US navy is the major security provider in the maritime domain which makes China vulnerable to a potential naval blockade. China faces a double dilemma as the status quo is interpreted as potentially detrimental to its interests, but any attempts to undermine it are likely to prompt Asian states to join US balancing efforts. China’s geographical proximity, its rising military power and revisionist tendencies make the US the more desirable security partner to the region.

The need to protect citizens and investments abroad is placing tremendous pressure on China’s traditional foreign policy strategy and noninterference principle. Instability in most of BRI countries form new security conditions, pushing China to be more flexible in engaging in missions it had previously opposed, including political engagement in intrastate conflicts in the developing world. Following the formula “politics is a big economy”, China starts rethinking its security interests. As a result, China has smoothly adopted the transition strategy from non-intervention into internal affairs to a more proactive non-indifference approach, that Chinese academics are describing as “creative” or “constructive” engagement. Many new elements contribute to this new constructive engagement - conceptual narrative, political support, geopolitical competition, growing capacities and new security conditions. The key point of the article is to analyze China’s strategy in defending national interests overseas, including the rescue and peacekeeping operations, mediation, political envoys, etc. The special focus is done on proactive peacekeeping policy of China and its new role in the security environment. Obviously, in future China will follow implementing the overseas missions, including humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, evacuation operations, defense of sea lanes, stabilization operations, peacekeeping and counterterrorism missions. After launching in 2017 its first overseas military base in Djibouti, there is little evidence to predict that in the near future China intends to construct more bases. But nevertheless the geopolitical rivalry with the United States might push China to convert three deep-water ports - Gwadar (Pakistan), Salalah (Oman), and Seychelles ports into naval bases. The degree of the China’s involvement in global security landscape will depend on the level of its responsibility, since Beijing is undergoing through a higher degree of international pressure in order to take more obligations. Responding to overseas security crises through military actions would be mostly shaped by events (case-by-case approach), inspired by political motivations and organized as small-scale and low-intensity missions.

The article relates to the geopolitical rivalry in the Arctic unwound in the recent years between the United States and Russia. Both countries claim leading positions here considering the Arctic as a region where the commercial production of hydrocarbon resources is eventually possible. Climate change breaks new ground for the shipping development in the Arctic. It stands to reason that Russia and the United States have redoubled their attention to the Arctic merchant shipping development and are enhancing naval vessels commissioning. Russia and the United States have made significant progress in this regard. However, changes in world politics, growth of contradictions in the world economy have led to stepping up policy of Russia and the United States in the Arctic. To defend their interests, Russia and the United States adopted a series of documents indicating the Arctic policy avenues. The article examines both Russia and the United States approaches to the policy implementation in the Arctic, as well as the future challenges facing the countries. The author finds that the geopolitical rivalry between the leading Arctic states for the Arctic will continue. Being unable to establish commercial production in the Arctic, Russia and the United States will implement the increased focus on the military sphere. The creation of the necessary military infrastructure, the construction of new vessels will become a key objective for both states. In addition, Russia and the United States will expand support for Arctic shipbuilding, which is seen as the main instrument for promoting their economic interests.

The United States government allowed Native Americans to abandon their reservations in the 1950s and 1960s. The historical, social, and cultural backgrounds shaped the forms and themes of works by American Indian writers who urged people to refuse their culture's sense of shame. Moreover, their behavior corresponded with the restoration of individuals to their rituals after disappointment, loss of sense of life, and mental illness performed from the influence of mainstream American society. Among these writers, N. Scott Momaday and Leslie Marmon Silko participate in similar interest in portraying characters caught between indigenous beliefs and white mainstream standards. The construction of national identity in the first modernist Native American Novel, House Made of Dawn (1968) by N. Scott Momaday is tackled in this research. This novel illustrates the healing tale of a young Native American man who, after his return from military service in World War II, suffers from spiritual and psychological illness. The protagonist is isolated from his parents due to his traumatic experience of a foreign war and his problematic genealogy that stems from the orphanage. He is isolated from the land that offers his identity and his culture. In order to gain a consistent sense of identity with the aid of oral traditions and ancient ceremonials of Navajo and pueblo cultures, he begins a ritualistic journey that ultimately leads him to reintegrate with his people and culture. This research illustrates how the construction of national identity is a critical theme for American Indians and contemporary Native American authors.

Shock and vibration are a source of failures in harsh environments such as military, naval and aerospace applications; thus, the use of vibration isolators is extended. Cable isolators are known for their high-energy storage and dissipation properties making them suitable for shock isolation and low frequency vibration. Such isolators present nonlinear stiffness in different directions such as compression, roll and shear, as well as dry friction damping. Although their use is extended, the knowledge regarding their dynamic response under shock loading is very limited. This work presents an overview of the vibration and shock isolation performance of several cable isolators under axial loading. The main contribution of the paper is to investigate and discuss the shock response of the isolators when subjected to pulses of different durations, finding improved isolation performance when compared to an equivalent linear system. Furthermore, a mathematical model based on a Duffing oscillator is proposed as a first approximation, in order to reflect the nonlinear stiffness and predict the shock response, thus facilitating further design and selection of improved shock isolation systems.

Nowadays, thin-walled structures and different materials destined to absorb kinetic energy initiated a great interest among the researchers from the auto, naval, military industries even from the protection equipment production industry. The main role of these structures is to absorb and dissipate the kinetic energy so the maximum level of deceleration to be limited. Thus, the structures collapse through progressive buckling. The aim is to control this progressive buckling as efficient as possible through the collapse mode or the construction technique. This collapsing mode is well described and characterised by the international literature [.The plastic strain history of the components constituting the thin-walled structure is very important because each bending, stretching process or tensioning brings with it self-a series of transformations which compete to influence the dynamic response of this kind of structures [2].In this study, all the above presented aspects were taken into consideration in the analysis of the impact and energy absorption behaviour regarding thin-walled structures by using explicit nonlinear finite element code LS_Dyna V971. The thin-walled structures involved in this research are made from tailor welded blanks (TWB) and were subject of axial impact crashing tests. There were used three types of cross-section shapes: rectangular, pentagonal and hexagonal. In order to have a fare comparison study, all the studied structures had a 250mm cross-section perimeter and a height of 250mm, also. Each structure is constituted from four, five or six sheet metal parts bonded together.

The article provides a Russian translation of the book IX of «Shincho̅-ko̅ ki». This part of the chronicle narrates the renewal of the war between Nobunaga and Honganji Temple. The followers of the True School of Pure Land besieged in Ozaka managed to inflict painful counterattacks against the forces of the “unifier of Japan”. Nobunaga detachments, trying to capture the Kizu fortress on the outskirts of Ozaka were surrounded and defeated. Ban Naomasa, one of his prominent military leaders, was killed, the army from Ozaka attacked the Tenno̅ji fortress, and only the help immediately rendered by Nobunaga saved the garrison from death. After that, Nobunaga blocked Ozakа on land and at sea. However, the fleet of the Mo̅ri house, which joined the ranks of Nobunaga opponents, and the allies of Mo̅ri were able to defeat the naval forces of Nobunaga and deliver provisions to Ozaka, which allowed Honganji to continue the struggle. Book IX also contains a description of the construction of Azuti Castle and its main tower (tenshu), Nobunaga’s residence. The unique information of the chronicle formed the basis for the further reconstruction of the tenshu’s appearance. The castle became the personification of the wealth and omnipotence of Nobunaga, a reflection of his claims to the role of supreme ruler of Japan. The wall paintings of the main tower halls manifest the influence of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. The key symbols of the images are taken from Chinese political ideology.

Purpose – A combination of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Borda’s Method as a suggestion for collective decision-making. By harmonizing the cardinal scale, resulting from the AHP, with the Borda’s Method, it is expected that the evaluations of the alternatives for new helicopters maximize the individual opinions in the construction of a collective decision. Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative and quantitative. The agents involved in the project of acquisition of helicopters for General Usage and Small Capacity for the Brazilian Navy were interviewed, ten pilots and six military engineers from Aeronautics Board of the Brazilian Navy in Rio de Janeiro. The data were treated by combining the cardinal scale resulting from the AHP with the method proposed by Borda. Findings – Analyzing the MGP’s obtained by AHP, it was possible to ascertain that judgment inconsistencies did not affect the result. It is considered that both methods are capable to promote a helpful decision aid inside the BN in the decision upon the purchase of an aircraft to substitute and enhance their naval aviation fleet. It is also considered that both methods can be applied in similar situation of decisions between mutually exclusive alternatives. Originality/value – The usage of hybrid decision aids (created by the combination of methods) in a multicriteria analysis helps organizations make the best use of available resources, especially in complex decision scenarios. This study helps decision-makers to reflect about the process’ tolerance limits. Keywords - Collective decisions; Multicriteria; Borda's Method; Analytic Hierarchy Process.

The present paper addresses Aeschylus, and the way he wanted to be remembered by his fellow Athenians and the other Greeks. Having lived from 525/524 until 456/455 BCE, Aeschylus experienced the quick transition of his polis from a small city-state to a leading political and military force to be reckoned with throughout the Greek world. The inscription on his gravestone at Gela, Italy, commemorates his military achievements against the Persians, but makes no mention on his enormous theatrical renown. His plays were so respected by the Athenians that after his death, his were the only tragedies allowed to be restaged in subsequent competitions. And yet Aeschylus, when time came to describe himself and the work of his lifetime, mentioned exclusively his contribution in the fight against the Persian Empire as an Athenian. Triggered by the poet’s narrative on his most memorable moment of his life, the present paper seeks to shed some light on the Athenian political identity, emerged during and soon after the Persian Wars, which not only derived from the newly-established democratic constitution of the late sixth century, but also supported it. Aeschylus’ epigram as well as some particular plays of his (the Persians, the Eumenides, and the Suppliants), narrates the confidence, the solidarity and the feeling of equality the Athenian citizens shared in regards to the defence of freedom of their polis as well as of all Greece, which came above anything else in their life, meaning above noble lineage and wealth. The gravestone of the poet stresses, in other words, how it felt like for an Athenian to live during the emergence of the very first Democracy that progressively supported the claim of Athens to become a ruler in the Aegean, by constructing its naval "Empire", ideologically upon the commemoration of the victory of the Athenian Democracy against the tyranny of Persia at Marathon and Salamis.

Between the classic and the avant‑garde. The Maritime Hospital in Oksywie designed by Marian Lalewicz The aim of the article is to present the architectural legacy of the Maritime Hospital in Gdynia, a military investment from the early 1930s, which was created in the office of a significant and renowned architect, Marian Lalewicz. A distinguished designer, representative of academic classicism, he had in his portfolio, among others, several buildings in Gdynia so crucial for the Polish Navy. In 1930 he accepted an extraordinary challenge which was to build a military hospital of a wide spectrum of operations. It was to be the answer to the demands of the growing personnel and their families while at the same time constituting a form of medical security for the naval port. The project, realised as the first modern hospital building in the developing port city, was modernistic and exceptionally functional. It was presented at an opinion‑forming national exhibition and in professional magazines, as it complimented the most important proposals in terms of construction and inventory of hospitals, taking into consideration the influence of nature on treatment and comfort quality improvement of patients. Generally, the hospital comprised two wards: surgical and internal diseases, with additional infectious diseases subdivision. Also, a dental clinic operated there, perhaps also a venereal clinic, an operating theatre, an X‑ray facility, physiotherapy surgery, a laboratory, a pharmacy, a dissection room and a mortuary. From the ground floor of the building there was an easy access to a terrace as well as to verandas, which were duplicated on the first floor. The loggias on two of the storeys were also exceptional. A good location of the hospital on a hillside, strong insolation and the fresh sea air were all elements of the processes of treatment and convalescence. The facility was manned with mixed personnel, both civilian and military. The text broadly describes the architectural values of the structure, spatial arrangement and facade composition adjoining the function it served and juxtaposed with similar European realisations. Also, the architectural detail is brought to attention, both in the layer of the facade as in the interior of the building, which have been destroyed in the last few years due to renovations. Opened in the spring of 1932, the building served its function until the outbreak of World War II and has remained a medical facility until today – currently it serves as a medical clinic. In itself, it is the proof of the timelessness of the project and its functional arrangement, after nearly 90 years of its completion.

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> In 1853, the United States sent Commodore Perry with 4 warships to Japan, and urged opening the country to the world. Since then, Japan had entered into treaties of commerce with Western nations, and opened the ports for these nations. However, Japan was in military disadvantage with other nations having charting knowledge of Japan and it surroundings. As a result, a decision was made to establish chart production capabilities in Japan in the view of the national security. Soon after, the Japanese chief military commander opened two naval officer training facilities in Nagasaki (1855) and Tsukiji (1857). Surveying was also one of the subjects of taught at these training organizations.</p><p>Japan Hydrographic Department (JHD, currently Japan Hydrographic &amp; Oceanographic Department) was established as the organization for chart production under the navy in 1871, and graduates of the above naval officer training facilities led the activities of JHD in its early stage. The first Chief Hydrographer YANAGI Narayoshi was one of them. JHD published its first navigational chart “KAMAISHI BAY of RIKUCHU” in 1872, the next year of its establishment, and expanded its chart series after that.</p><p>As Japan experienced several wars and expanded its national jurisdiction by 1945, JHD expanded its chart series. Most of these charts were open to the merchant ships, but some of them were not open to public as military secrets at that time. Furthermore, JHD, as one of the organizations under the navy, made aeronautical charts for naval airplanes. These charts have been stored in archives, but some were lost in fires. Not all of charts ever published by JHD exist now. The existing charts published by 1945 are kept in the Hydrographic &amp; Oceanographic Museum.</p><p>After World War II, JHD was restructured as one of the organizations of Japan Coast Guard under the Ministry of Transport (currently the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport). The chart production of Japan in post war days has received big influences by the economic situation of Japan and the world, frameworks of international societies and developments of the technologies.</p><p>In the viewpoint of the economic situation, the number of chart publication increased due to the large number of the constructions of domestic harbours in the periods of the post war reconstruction and the following high economic growth of Japan, but it has decreased little by little since 1970’s by the influences of such as depressions of domestic economy, and decrease of ships registered in Japan and Japanese mariners. On the other hand, JHOD has published navigational charts written only in English in recent years for foreign mariners which number increases like supplementing a decrease of Japanese mariners. Moreover, JHOD has published basic maps of the sea as basic material of use, development, environmental preservation and the natural disaster prevention etc. of the ocean.</p><p>In the viewpoint of the frameworks of the international societies, JHOD has published fishery charts which show the fishery areas on the agreements between neighbouring countries, and also writes the straight baselines and limits of the territorial sea on the navigational charts according to United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.</p><p>In the viewpoint of the developments of the technologies, innovations of positioning technology and improvement of the computer ability influenced largely in chart production. JHOD used to publish Decca charts and Loran charts in the age of radio navigation. Because satellite navigation became common in recent years, the difference between WGS84 and Tokyo-datum (nearly 500&amp;thinsp;m) was put in questions. Corresponding to it, JHOD temporarily published some Tokyo-datum charts on which latitude and longitude lines based on WGS84 in green were added, and since 2000, JHOD has published navigational charts based on WGS84 and no more on Tokyo-datum. Furthermore, with the growth of computer ability, JHOD has shifted its chart compilation from full manually to by using computer assisted partly, and in 1996, JHOD established chart compilation process under fully computer assisted. In addition, JHOD published the first electronic navigational chart (ENC) in the world in 1995.</p><p>JHOD as the responsible organization of Japan for chart production will continue to produce charts in the future adjusting to the environment that surrounds charts and navigations.</p></p>

The policy and implementation of geostrategy of the Russian Federation in relation to the countries of the Latin-Caribbean region are considered. Russia is increasingly trying to demonstrate the status of a strategic partner with respect to Latin American Caribbean countries through the conclusion of various partnership agreements. On this basis, since the 2000s, the Russian Federation has sought to regain its influence in those Latin American countries that were the traditional sphere of presence of the USSR during the Cold War. It has been established that Russia is trying to gain favour among Latin American countries by establishing economic relations, mainly of a commercial nature. The Russian Federation has significant contracts for the supply of weapons to Latin American countries and is involved in the implementation of a number of energy projects, including the construction of nuclear power plants. Russia is also trying to demonstrate its presence in the region through the manoeuvres of its long-range strategic aviation and naval forces. At the same time, Russia is resorting to the support of bankrupt Latin American regimes such as the government of N. Maduro in Venezuela. All this has only exacerbated the crisis in Venezuela and its autocratic rule and led to a double rule in the country. However, Russia risks being pushed out of the region by China and the United States, which consider Latin America as a proving ground for a strategy of geo-economic “conquest”. The key countries for implementing the strategy of restoring Russia’s presence in the region are: Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and partly Brazil. The Russian Federation views these countries as strategic partners and a foothold for the further expansion of geopolitical and geo-economic influence in Latin America, as well as restrictions in the region of US influence. Against the backdrop of isolated manoeuvres by the Russian Air Force and the Navy, Moscow makes periodic statements about the rebuilding of former Soviet military bases in Latin American countries. However, such rhetoric of the Russian Federation can be regarded more as geopolitical PR in order to represent the virtual grandeur of Russia.

Constant demand for new naval and commercial vessels has created special conditions for the Government-owned Soviet shipbuilding industry, which practically has not been affected by the world shipbuilding crisis. On the other hand, such chronic diseases of the centralized economy as lack of incentive, material shortage and poor workmanship cause specific problems for ship construction. Being technically and financially unable to rapidly improve the overall technology level and performance of the entire industry, the Soviets concentrate their efforts on certain important areas and have achieved significant results, especially in welding and cutting titanium and aluminum alloys, modular production methods, standardization, etc. All productivity improvement efforts are supported by an army of highly educated engineers and scientists at shipyards, in multiple scientific, research and design institutions. Discussion Edwin J. Petersen, Todd Pacific Shipyards Three years ago I addressed the Ship Production Symposium as chairman of the Ship Production Committee and outlined some major factors which had contributed to the U.S. shipbuilding industry's remarkable achievements in building and maintaining the world's largest naval and merchant fleets during the five-year period starting just before World War II. The factors were as follows:There was a national commitment to get the job done. The shipbuilding industry was recognized as a needed national resource. There was a dependable workload. Standardization was extensively and effectively utilized. Shipbuilding work was effectively organized. Although these lessons appear to have been lost by our Government since World War II, the paper indicates that the Soviet Union has picked up these principles and has applied them very well to its current shipbuilding program. The paper also gives testimony to the observation that the Soviet Government recognizes the strategic and economic importance of a strong merchant fleet as well as a powerful naval fleet. In reviewing the paper, I found great similarity between the Soviet shipbuilding productivity improvement efforts and our own efforts or goals under the National Shipbuilding Research Program in the following areas:welding technology, flexible automation (robotics), application of group technology, standardization, facilities development, and education and training. In some areas, the Soviet Union appears to be well ahead of the United States in improving the shipbuilding process. Most noteworthy among these is the stable long-and medium-range planning that is possible by virtue of the use and adherence to the "Table of Vessel Classes." It will be obvious to most who hear and read these comments what a vast and significant improvement in shipbuilding costs and schedules could be achieved with a relatively dependable 15year master ship procurement plan for the U.S. naval and merchant fleets. Another area where the Soviet Union appears to lead the United States is in the integration of ship component suppliers into the shipbuilding process. This has been recognized as a vital step by the National Shipbuilding Research Program, but so far we have not made significant progress. A necessary prerequisite for this "supplier integration" is extensive standardization of ship components, yet another area in which the Soviets have achieved significantly greater progress than we have. Additional areas of Soviet advantage are the presence of a multilevel research and development infrastructure well supported by highly educated scientists, engineering and technical personnel; and better integration of formally educated engineering and technical personnel into the ship production process. In his conclusion, the author lists a number of problems facing the Soviet economy that adversely affect shipbuilding productivity. Perhaps behind this listing we can delve out some potential U.S. shipbuilding advantages. First, production systems in U.S. shipyards (with the possible exception of naval shipyards) are probably more flexible and adjustable to meet new circumstances as a consequence of not being constrained by a burdensome centralized bureaucracy, as is the case with Soviet shipyards. Next, such initiatives as the Ship Production Committee's "Human Resources Innovation" projects stand a better chance of achieving product-oriented "production team" relationship among labor, management, and technical personnel than the more rigid Soviet system, especially in view of the ability of U.S. shipyard management to offer meaningful financial incentives without the kind of bureaucratic constraints imposed in the Soviet system. Finally, the current U.S. Navy/shipbuilding industry cooperative effort to develop a common engineering database should lead to a highly integrated and disciplined ship design, construction, operation, and maintenance system for naval ships (and subsequently for commercial ships) that will ultimately restore the U.S. shipbuilding process to a leadership position in the world marketplace (additional references [16] and [17]).On that tentatively positive note, it seems fitting to close this discussion with a question: Is the author aware of any similar Soviet effort to develop an integrated computer-aided design, production and logistics support system? The author is to be congratulated on an excellent, comprehensive insight into the Soviet shipbuilding process and productivity improvement efforts that should give us all adequate cause not to be complacent in our own efforts. Peter M. Palermo, Naval Sea Systems Command The author presents an interesting paper that unfortunately leaves this reader with a number of unanswered questions. The paper is a paradox. It depicts a system consisting of a highly educated work force, advanced fabrication processes including the use of standardized hull modules, sophisticated materials and welding processes, and yet in the author's words they suffer from "low productivity, poor product quality, . . . and the rigid production systems which resists the introduction of new ideas." Is it possible that incentive, motivation, and morale play an equally significant role in achieving quality and producibility advances? Can the author discuss underlying reasons for quality problems in particular—or can we assume that the learning curves of Figs. 5 and Fig. 6 are representative of quality improvement curves? It has been my general impression that quality will improve with application of high-tech fabrication procedures, enclosed fabrication ways, availability of highly educated welding engineers on the building ways, and that productivity would improve with the implementation of modular or zone outfitting techniques coupled with the quality improvements. Can the author give his impressions of the impact of these innovations in the U.S. shipbuilding industry vis-a-vis the Soviet industry? Many of the welding processes cited in the paper are also familiar to the free world, with certain notable exceptions concerning application in Navy shipbuilding. For example, (1) electroslag welding is generally confined to single-pass welding of heavy plates; application to thinner plates—l1/4 in. and less when certified—would permit its use in more applications than heretofore. (2) Electron beam welding is generally restricted to high-technology machinery parts; vacuum chamber size restricts its use for larger components (thus it must be assumed that the Soviets have solved the vacuum chamber problem or have much larger chambers). (3) Likewise, laser welding has had limited use in U.S. shipbuilding. An interesting theme that runs throughout the paper, but is not explicitly addressed, is the quality of Soviet ship fitting. The use of high-tech welding processes and the mention of "remote controlled tooling for welding and X-ray testing the butt, and for following painting" imply significant ship fitting capabilities for fitting and positioning. This is particularly true if modules are built in one facility, outfitted and assembled elsewhere depending on the type of ship required. Any comments concerning Soviet ship fitting capabilities would be appreciated. The discussion on modular construction seems to indicate that the Soviets have a "standard hull module" that is used for different types of vessels, and if the use of these hull modules permit increasing hull length without changes to the fore and aft ends, it can be assumed that they are based on a standard structural design. That being the case, the midship structure will be overdesigned for many applications and optimally designed for very few. Recognizing that the initial additional cost for such a piece of hull structure is relatively minimal, it cannot be forgotten that the lifecycle costs for transporting unnecessary hull weight around can have significant fuel cost impacts. If I perceived the modular construction approach correctly, then I am truly intrigued concerning the methods for handling the distributive systems. In particular, during conversion when the ship is lengthened, how are the electrical, fluid, communications, and other distributive systems broken down, reassembled and tested? "Quick connect couplings" for these type systems at the module breaks is one particular area where economies can be achieved when zone construction methods become the order of the day in U.S. Navy ships. The author's comments in this regard would be most welcome. The design process as presented is somewhat different than U.S. Navy practice. In U.S. practice, Preliminary and Contract design are developed by the Navy. Detail design, the development of the working drawings, is conducted by the lead shipbuilder. While the detail design drawings can be used by follow shipbuilders, flexibility is permitted to facilitate unique shipbuilding or outfitting procedures. Even the contract drawings supplied by the Navy can be modified— upon Navy approval—to permit application of unique shipbuilder capabilities. The large number of college-trained personnel entering the Soviet shipbuilding and allied fields annually is mind-boggling. According to the author's estimation, a minimum of about 6500 college graduates—5000 of which have M.S. degrees—enter these fields each year. It would be most interesting to see a breakdown of these figures—in particular, how many naval architects and welding engineers are included in these figures? These are disciplines with relatively few personnel entering the Navy design and shipbuilding field today. For example, in 1985 in all U.S. colleges and universities, there were only 928 graduates (B.S., M.S. and Ph.D.) in marine, naval architecture and ocean engineering and only 1872 graduates in materials and metallurgy. The number of these graduates that entered the U.S. shipbuilding field is unknown. Again, the author is to be congratulated for providing a very thought-provoking paper. Frank J. Long, Win/Win Strategies This paper serves not only as a chronicle of some of the productivity improvement efforts in Soviet shipbuilding but also as an important reminder of the fruits of those efforts. While most Americans have an appreciation of the strengths of the Russian Navy, this paper serves to bring into clearer focus the Russians' entire maritime might in its naval, commercial, and fishing fleets. Indeed, no other nation on earth has a greater maritime capability. It is generally acknowledged that the Soviet Navy is the largest in the world. When considering the fact that the commercial and fishing fleets are, in many military respects, arms of the naval fleet, we can more fully appreciate how awesome Soviet maritime power truly is. The expansion of its maritime capabilities is simply another but highly significant aspect of Soviet worldwide ambitions. The development and updating of "Setka Typov Su dov" (Table of Vessel Classes), which the author describes is a classic example of the Soviet planning process. As the author states, "A mighty fishing and commercial fleet was built in accordance with a 'Setka' which was originally developed in the 1960's. And an even more impressive example is the rapid expansion of the Soviet Navy." In my opinion it is not mere coincidence that the Russians embarked on this course in the 1960's. That was the beginning of the coldest of cold war periods—Francis Gary Power's U-2 plane was downed by the Russians on May 1, 1960; the mid-May 1960 Four Power Geneva Summit was a bust; the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 and, in 1962, we had the Cuban Missile Crisis. The United States maritime embargo capability in that crisis undoubtedly influenced the Soviet's planning process. It is a natural and normal function of a state-controlled economy with its state-controlled industries to act to bring about the controlled productivity improvement developments in exactly the key areas discussed in the author's paper. As the author states, "All innovations at Soviet shipyards have originated at two main sources:domestic development andadaptation of new ideas introduced by leading foreign yards, or most likely a combination of both. Soviet shipbuilders are very fast learners; moreover, their own experience is quite substantial." The Ship Production Committee of SNAME has organized its panels to conduct research in many of these same areas for productivity improvement purposes. For example, addressing the areas of technology and equipment are Panels SP-1 and 3, Shipbuilding Facilities and Environmental Effects, and Panel SP-7, Shipbuilding Welding. Shipbuilding methods are the province of SP-2; outfitting and production aids and engineering and scientific support are the province of SP-4, Design Production Integration. As I read through the descriptions of the processes that led to the productivity improvements, I was hoping to learn more about the organizational structure of Soviet shipyards, the managerial hierarchy and how work is organized by function or by craft in the shipyard. (I would assume that for all intents and purposes, all Russian yards are organized in the same way.) American shipyard management is wedded to the notion that American shipbuilding suffers immeasurably from a productivity standpoint because of limitations on management's ability to assign workers across craft lines. It is unlikely that this limitation exists in Soviet shipyards. If it does not, how is the unfettered right of assignment optimized? What are the tangible, measurable results? I believe it would have been helpful, also, for the author to have dedicated some of the paper to one of the most important factors in improvement in the labor-intensive shipbuilding industry—the shipyard worker. There are several references to worker problems—absenteeism, labor shortage, poor workmanship, and labor discipline. The reader is left with the impression that the Russians believe that either those are unsolvable problems or have a priority ranking significantly inferior to the organizational, technical, and design efforts discussed. As a case in point, the author devotes a complete section to engineering education and professional training but makes no mention of education or training programs for blue-collar workers. It would seem that a paper on productivity improvement efforts in Soviet shipbuilding would address this most important element. My guess is that the Russians have considerable such efforts underway and it would be beneficial for us to learn of them.

ABSTRACTThe combat fields of modern wars, including the struggle against global terrorism, are localized in diverse, harsh regions: tropical, desert, artic, marine, with varied weather conditions, which adversely affect the corrosion performance of the equipment and facilities involved.For the sake of brevity, three groups of military mobile and fixed equipment and structures are dealt with: armored ground wheeled vehicles; naval aluminum vessels, and buildings and facilities for providing dwellings, weapons storage and services to the armed forces. They are usually made from carbon steel, aluminum alloys and reinforced concrete, because of their useful properties: high strength, easy availability and low cost. However, due to their limited corrosion resistance they should be protected by coatings (including military coatings), but primarily paint; cathodic protection and corrosion inhibitors.All these systems suffer from several types of localized corrosion and degradation: galvanic, pitting, intergranular, dealloying, cavitation, erosion, stress cracking, UV effects in plastics and organic coatings. The military assets require the implementation of corrosion control methods and techniques through all their stages: design, construction, installation and operation. Typical cases of corrosion will be presented based on the authors experience and knowledge.

The port city Liepaja had gained recognition in Europe and the world by World War I. On the coast of the Baltic Sea a resort developed, to which around 1880 a wide promenade – Kurhaus Avenue provided a functional link between the finance and trade centre in Old Liepaja. On November 8, 1890 the building conditions for Liepaja, developed according to the sample of Riga building regulations, were partly confirmed: the construction territory was divided into districts of wooden and stone buildings. In 1888 after the reconstruction of the trade canal Liepaja became the third most significant port in the Russian Empire. The railway (engineer Gavriil Semikolenov; 1879) and metal bridges (engineers Huten and Ruktesel; 1881) across the trade canal provided the link between Old Liepaja and the industrial territory in New Liepaja, where industrial companies and building of houses developed in the neighbourhood of the railway hub, but in spring 1899 the construction of a ten-kilometre long street electric railway line and power station was commenced. Since September 25 the tram movement provided a regular traffic between Naval Port (Latvian: Karosta), the residential and industrial districts in New Liepaja and the city centre in Old Liepaja. In 1907 the construction of the ambitious “Emperor Alexander’s III Military Port” and maritime fortress was completed, but already in the following year the fortress was closed. In the new military port there were based not only the navy squadrons of the Baltic Sea, but also the Pacific Ocean before sending them off in the war against Japan. The development of Liepaja continued: promenades, surrounded by Dutch linden trees, joined squares and parks in one united plantation system. On September 20, 1910 Liepaja City Council made a decision to close the New Market and start modernization of the city centre. In 1911 Liepaja obtained its symbol – the Rose Square. In the independent Republic of Latvia the implementation of the agrarian reform was started and the task to provide inhabitants with flats was set. Around 1927 in the Technical Department of Liepaja City the development of the master-plan was started: the territory of the city was divided into the industrial, commercial, residential and resort zone, which was greened. It was planned to lengthen Lord’s (Latvian: Kungu) Street with a dam, partly filling up Lake Liepaja in order to build the water-main and provide traffic with the eastern bank. The passed “Law of City Lands” and “Regulations for City Construction and Development of Construction Plans and Development Procedure” in Latvia Republic in 1928 promoted a gradual development of cities. In 1932 Liepaja received the radio transmitter. On the northern outskirts a sugar factory was built (architect Kārlis Bikše; 1933). The construction of the city centre was supplemented with the Latvian Society House (architect Kārlis Blauss and Valdis Zebauers; 1934-1935) and Army Economical Shop (architect Aleksandrs Racenis), as well as the building of a pawnshop and saving bank (architect Valdis Zebauers; 1936-1937). The hotel “Pēterpils”, which became the property of the municipality in 1936, was renamed as the “City Hotel” and it was rebuilt in 1938. In New Liepaja the Friendly Appeal Elementary school was built (architect Karlis Bikše), but in the Naval Officers Meeting House was restored and it was adapted for the needs of the Red Cross Bone Tuberculosis Sanatorium (architect Aleksandrs Klinklāvs; 1930-1939). The Soviet military power was restored in Latvia and it was included in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. During the World War II buildings in the city centre around the Rose Square and Great (Latvian: Lielā) Street were razed. When the war finished, the “Building Complex Scheme for 1946-1950” was developed for Liepaja. In August 1950 the city was announced as closed: the trade port was adapted to military needs. Neglecting the historical planning of the city, in 1952 the restoration of the city centre building was started, applying standard projects. The restoration of Liepaja City centre building carried out during the post-war period has not been studied. Research goal: analyse restoration proposals for Liepaja City centre building, destroyed during World War II, and the conception appropriate to the socialism ideology and further development of construction.

The history of the Galatea dates back to the 19th century when in 1896 she was launched and Christianised as Glenlee at Glasgow. She sailed as a merchant ship in the United Kingdom and Italy during the first period of her operational life, and was later adapted with mechanical propulsion. After several circumnavigations, in 1922 she was renamed Galatea to serve in the Spanish Navy, where she remained in service for 60 years. Since 1993 she has been resting in her hometown in Scotland as a museum ship. As a tribute to the extensive and remarkable history of this ship, and in order to recover and preserve the naval tradition in Spain, it has been proposed to design a ship with the same morphology as the Glenlee to stoke the spirit of the Galatea and inspire the construction of new sailing ships. She will be adapted as a military training ship of the Spanish Navy. Therefore, studies in stability, propulsion, general arrangement and structural calculations will be necessary to validate the transformation of the Glenlee into a new Galatea II complying with mandatory regulations and technological advances that will encourage its operation to the future naval officers of the Spanish Navy.

Abstract China’s growing influence in the Indian Ocean cannot be gainsaid as the East Asian economic powerhouse engages in a series of activities to secure maritime routes for energy supplies; to guarantee its trade routes; and to exercise increased maritime influence on the sea lines of communication (SLOCs). Since the beginning of the 21st century, Beijing has enhanced its presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) through construction of ports, increased Chinese naval presence, participation in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, construction of a military base in Djibouti, One belt One road initiative and 21st century Maritime Silk Road. While China reassures of its peaceful development, critics contend that Beijing’s military-strategic intentions are aimed at dominance in the Indian Ocean. Countries of the IOR are a home to 2.5 billion people. About 80 percent of the world’s maritime oil trade flows through three chokepoints in the Indian Ocean. Moreover, Indian Ocean is emerging as a pivotal zone due to fast growing economies in the region. Due to its geostrategic significance, the Indian Ocean is expected to play a considerable role in the development of East African littoral states including Kenya. This paper analyzes the growing presence of China in IOR and how Nairobi’s engagement with Beijing could enable Kenya to realize its geostrategic interests in the Indian Ocean. The paper recommends that Kenya needs to have effective strategies to maximize the potential from its exclusive economic zone and secure its national interests as a littoral state.

The operation and maintenance of sports venues is the basis of ensuring the orderly organization of various events in large-scale comprehensive sports games. Due to the lack of evaluation methods and an index system, it was difficult to predict the input of operating and managing sports venues in large-scale comprehensive sports games. Excessive manpower is often put to guarantee the smooth operation work, causing the problem of waste on all resources. Based on the practice of the operational work for specified sports fields during the 7th World Army Games, this paper establishes a staffing allocation model for the maintenance and operation of sports venues. On the premise of building up a clear maintenance scope, a clarified organization structure and working procedure, the maintenance index of 15 specified venues is evaluated with analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and a set of allocation criteria of the operation team is put forward. The maintenance coefficients of studied venues range from 0.08 to 0.91, and the venues with highest coefficients are the main stadium, the naval pentathlon venues and the soccer field, etc.

In the mass media, the primacy of ever more intimate perspectives on violent confrontation, which has long been a staple of journalistic profit and practice, has undergone a crucial transformation over the last century. From an overt eagerness to take an active role in the experience of war to a coy, self-promoting emphasis on the risks of the trade, the representation of violent subjects has consistently been filtered through reportorial, yet tremendous change has befallen the role of professional interlocutors in the serving up the experience of war and violent conflict for domestic consumption. The triumph of a technologised perspective has eclipsed journalistic agency, collapsing the distinction between the pen and the sword in a way that reporters, for all their efforts to command the prestige of each, could never achieve. The focus on the fight, narrowed to the point of impact, strips away orienting discourses to produce a dehumanised perspective that is, if no more or less violent in its own right, unquestioning in its pursuit of the vivid sensation violence provides. In this essay, I hope to illuminate some of the relationships between pen and sword that have evolved from the time of my own historical period of specialisation, the Cuban-Spanish-American and Philippine-American wars, to the unfortunate juncture at which we find ourselves a century later. I will begin, however, in the middle, for it is in my own experience of looking for a fight, finding and reporting on it, and then, later, as a historian, reflecting upon the phenomenon in historical comparison with previous correspondents, that I arrived at the conclusions presented here. My work as a “front-line” correspondent took place in environments largely lacking front lines or sophisticated machinery. From skulking about in back alleys to avoid Duvalier’s secret police in Haiti, I had graduated to the “low intensity conflict” of the Philippines. Sporadic and isolated though such violence might be, it was nonetheless my mission to seek it out and capitalise upon it. I felt long past appreciating the news value of being in the line of fire, however, I was soon speeding madly from the scene of my first at-risk gunplay, on February 7, 1986, the day of the Marcos-Aquino election, prelude to the People Power revolution later that month. That violence begets violence, incidental and otherwise, was being made all too clear: as I listened to the thumps representing the likely ends of roadside dogs and cats unfortunate enough to be in the way of the speeding getaway car driven by my Filipino oppositionist hosts, I noted that my ostensibly peaceful guides were vigorously contemplating an armed response. There was news value in the scene, but I was sickened by their rapid descent into revenge mode. My disappointment was not entirely based on aversion to the addictive and infectious power of violence, however: in showing that they, too, were capable of bloodshed, my once-sympathetic guides were spoiling a clean story line. In the moment, knowing my market, I was, it must be admitted, every bit as inclined to value a sharp image over a nuanced portrait as the narrowly focused machine I at other times decry. My article presented the story in diverse detail, but the market logic of its genesis had directed it toward the singular, violent departure point on which I did, indeed, focus when, asked that morning where I wanted to go, I had responded, “Wherever there’s going to be fighting.” In addition to market considerations holding violence as the highest news value, though, my approach had roots in the aspiring war correspondent’s classic infatuation with getting a piece of the action. Just as soldiers need a war to amass the medals and experience necessary for rapid advancement, journalists can extract from exposure to the most arresting stories professional opportunity and, often, the thrill of a lifetime. The cultural capital offered by a role in a good fight is a currency subjected to official devaluation over the years, but in the marketplace of personal identity, war stories retain worth. My students appear to like hearing them; I must admit that I can revel in telling one. Like an accounting of scars and scares past, it celebrates triumph over threats large and small. Even a well-established reputation is no bar to glory-seeking on the basis of proximity to the fight. Top New York Times reporter R.W. Apple’s tale of a bullet passing through the loose folds of his trousers was undermined by the absence of evidence (other reporters could not believe he would throw out so treasured a souvenir), but it only serves to emphasise all the more the delicious appeal to reporters of a physical link to the fighting. Such anecdotes, and the ascendant prestige accorded photojournalists, who must place themselves closer to the action than those who only have to write about it, serve to emphasise the emergence of an informal pecking order based on proximity to peril. This emphasis on risk, with its evocation of potential sacrifice, represents a historical change. Where today facing danger is a featured facet of journalistic practice, a century ago the emphasis was on dishing it out. For example, I found in the Manuscript Division of the U.S. Library of Congress a letter from John Barrett, the first journalist to suggest military action in the Philippines to a national American audience, in which he wrote to his mother of having derived “great pleasure in firing five or six shots at the enemy.” Despite his former rank as consul to Siam and the position of power and distinction he enjoyed as correspondent for both the prestigious North American Review and the widely-read network of newspapers headed by William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal, Barrett sought parity with simple soldiers whose institutional base more readily connoted glory. "[I] may not be an enlisted soldier but in my way as a correspondent of the greatest daily newspapers of the world—i.e., the most extensively read—bear a responsibility quite equal to a lesser officer unto those who are on the rank.” he wrote to his mother on June 26, 1898, adding, “I would not send any 'fake' account of the battle even if ordered to do so by the editor himself and if I do not send a 'fake' story I must be at the front where I can see what is actually done." Barrett’s location of the “actual” war at the front lines, where hot lead and blood were imagined to flow freely, adhered to a prevailing press perspective valorizing immersion in the fight. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, widespread acceptance was accorded to the notion of the superiority of “hard-won” knowledge, gained through exposure to combat (or perhaps, as in the case of a rival interlocutor of Philippine affairs, Dean Worcester, to alternative threats such head-hunters). In part a reflection of the rough-edged Social Darwinism holding up such survivors as the “fittest” and in part a simple testament to the universal power of warrior myths, battle-certified claims to a higher degree of both patriotism and veracity were an effective rhetorical trump card against the reasoned, impassioned pleas for caution and humanity emerging from the mostly older men of letters leading the anti-imperialist movement. Other reporters of the age also won fame for their activist roles. One of Hearst’s other minions, Karl Decker, engineered an 1897 jailbreak in Cuba that brought to a nationwide audience New York Journal’s tale of the “Cuban girl martyr,” Evangelina Cosio y Cisneros. Other reporters fought alongside the Cuban rebels, sweetening the romantic notion of siding with the underdog—which contributed mightily to the popularity of the “yellow” press’ sensational accounts of war. While the insertion of such blatant reportorial machismo into war reporting has diminished with time and the supposed rise of objectivity as a guiding standard, the interest of media audiences in intimate details of the experience of war has not diminished, and the technologies available to answer such demands have proliferated. From the “living room war” so roundly decried by those who mistakenly saw the seeds of defeat in enhanced public access to the details of war in Vietnam, we have “advanced” to a perspective on warfare that is funneled through the dispassionate gaze of the weapons themselves. The video game metaphor for war, popularised during and since the first Persian Gulf War, gave rise to a missile’s-eye-view that rendered apparently superfluous the role of the reporter. Government restrictions on press access to war zones, instituted in Grenada in 1983 and carried to new lengths in Iraq in 1991, further contributed to the marginalisation of the reportorial agency. It did not help that reporters did so poor and tardy a job of exposing as false the notions of technological infallibility promoted by officialdom. Their failure to question the Big Lie of reported Patriot missile accuracy in striking down Iraqi Scuds only served to support the notion that machines were more reliable than men. Meanwhile, the celebrity of “Scud Stud” Arthur Kent was largely based on his positioning before a pyrotechnic backdrop of flares, tracers, and the occasional missile, which helped keep alive the impression that a reporter’s importance is contingent upon close physical connection with the scene of the fight. Today, we see the new face of war through the lens of the Predator, an unmanned drone that can both gather and disseminate information and issue a deadly strike. The bomber-camera combo dissolves the dated dichotomy constructed as pen vs. sword. All too frequently a false construction in the first place, the “which is mightier?” question nonetheless offered value in its oppositional frame. Even if reporters understood the supremacy of arms, and tied their own identities to their use in diverse and sometimes contradictory fashion, their ability to wield words had a self-interested way of conveying the hazards of war, and thus at least some of its potential human consequences. Akin to the dashboard-cam that has pervaded consciousness in the age of “Cops” and other all-car-chase-all-the-time forms of television, the machine vision that orders and produces audience perceptions of distant fighting has sidelined the reportorial perspective, putting the viewer in the imaginary cockpit. Has the stripping away of reportorial mediation produced any more or less humane or accurate an impression? Despite the often pugnacious and self-glorifying approach of reporters seeking to validate their vitality and influence, the removal of journalistic agency has left the field open for manipulation by the controllers of the bomber-camera combo, and thus has impoverished public understanding of the deadly spiral violence inspires. There is historical precedent, or at least parallel, for this, and it is not encouraging. Public enthusiasm for taking the Philippines was stirred in 1898 by the ease with which the technologically superior new American gunboats destroyed the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay. Newspapers filled page after page with illustrations and descriptions of naval ordnance, inspiring a fusion of technophilia and war fever that helped prepare the way for the United States’ rapid conversion from an anti-imperialist polity into an expanding power with global ambitions and concomitant responsibilities and exposures. What began as an ostensibly diversionary military manoeuver designed to keep Spanish ships from playing a highly unlikely role in reinforcing the defense of Cuba—a preemptive strike, to use a currently popular term—grew, through an initial affinity for the new fighting machines, into an engagement that ended up portending a transoceanic American empire and altered national destinies to go with it. Not long after, bogged down in a grisly and unexpectedly lengthy land war against Filipino independence-seekers, Americans had reason to rethink their assumptions about the ease with which wars could be prosecuted. The Philippine-American war has been largely erased from American history, along with the accounts of the war correspondents who covered it. But the legacy of globalised imperial violence it initiated lives on, with the next installment coming soon. Check your local listings. Citation reference for this article Substitute your date of access for Dn Month Year etc... MLA Style Vaughan, Christopher. "If It Bleeds, It Leads" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 6.1 (2003). Dn Month Year < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0302/04-ifitbleeds.php>. APA Style Vaughan, C., (2003, Feb 26). If It Bleeds, It Leads. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 6,(1). Retrieved Month Dn, Year, from http://www.media-culture.org.au/0302/04-ifitbleeds.html