The U.S. Navy’s philosophy of distributive lethality – arming more ships with more powerful missiles – will likely have more of an impact on naval strategy than operational concepts, according to Bryan Clark, military and naval analyst for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has developed a 130-foot boat that can prowl the seas unmanned. Military officials think it can be effective in detecting submarines. For an assessment of whether this is where we’re headed, Pentagon Solutions turned to Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. 

Beijing may be using the shoal as a bargaining chip, rather than actively seeking to establish another military outpost there, some analysts said. “They imply that they may want Scarborough Shoal, then they will back off and show that they are a good international player,” said Bryan Clark, a former senior adviser to the chief of naval operations who is now an adviser at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a think tank in Washington.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA ) has developed a 130-foot boat that can prowl the seas unmanned. Military officials think it can be effective in detecting submarines. Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, gives Federal Drive with Tom Temin an assessment of whether this is where we're headed.

Bryan Clark, a retired submarine officer and analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments who has followed PACOM's strategy, said he thinks Harris is lobbying for more assertive freedom of navigation patrols that include military operations such as helicopter flights and signals intelligence within 12 miles of Chinese-claimed features. 

Some friction between the military commander in theater and civilian policymakers in DC is to be expected, said a former aide to the Chief of Naval Operations. “The back and forth, the friction if you will, is normal,” said Bryan Clark, now with the Center for Strategic & Budgetary Assessments. “But what’s been different [is] the lengths that they’ve gone to keep things calm on the military or security side.”