CSBA in the News

Looking at the Baltic itself, Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment and an American submarine veteran, said its shallow waters “are acoustically very different” than others, presenting a different set of problems to be addressed. 

Mark Gunzinger, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic & Budgetary Assessments, discusses the outcome of recent wargames – conducted in partnership with Polish National Centre for Strategic Studies – that tested Poland’s military capabilities in a notional conflict with Russia.

Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and a retired Navy submarine officer, said the U.S. Navy has revitalized its ASW training and is working on new technologies to improve its ability to find and track Russian subs. He suggested other NATO members could take similar actions, including using manned and unmanned sensors to monitor the Baltic Sea and access points.

Inside Turkey, an anti-American backlash has already started, including statements from Turkish officials blaming the US and questioning Kerry’s initial statement about about the coup attempt, which could be read as ambiguous, said Eric Edelman, former US ambassador to Turkey and former undersecretary of defense for policy. He described Kerry and the Obama administration as “badly stung by the level of anti-american rhetoric.”

The service officials detailed a possible “OA-X” for solely permissive environments, according to Mark Gunzinger, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. OA-X would be a low-end, low-cost, non-developmental aircraft meant to augment the Air Force’s existing light attack capabilities, he said… 

However, former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Eric Edelman, who has also served in other senior positions in the State and Defense departments, said in a telephone interview that U.S.- Turkish relations may be in for “a bumpy ride.” Edelman is especially concerned about anti-American rhetoric in Turkey alleging that the U.S. had a role in the coup. U.S. Ambassador John Bass on July 18 responded to those allegations. “Some news reports — and, unfortunately, some public figures — have speculated that the United States in some way supported the coup attempt,” he said. “This is categorically untrue, and such speculation is harmful to the decades-long friendship between two great nations.”