Hunter Stires
@HunterStires
History, Strategy, Seapower, Statecraft. Proud to have served as the Maritime Strategist to the 78th Secretary of the Navy. Be curious; when you can, be kind.
It is an honor to share the launch of the @NavalInstitute #MaritimeCOIN Project. This effort assembles the world’s leading maritime strategists to examine ways to regain the initiative in the South China Sea. More articles will follow in the months ahead. usni.org/MaritimeCOIN
Big shipbuilding news… Hanwha Shipping orders LNG carrier from Hanwha Philly Shipyard, marking the first LNG carrier ordered in the U.S. in 50 years
1/🚨DARK VESSEL ALERT: 🇨🇳#China's research ship Xiang Yang Hong 01 went "dark" on its AIS safety broadcast just 90 nautical miles off the #Philippines' east coast at 10:46 yesterday morning. [🧵1/3]
👁️#PRC SURVEY VESSEL WATCH: After completing deep-sea surveys in the central Pacific basin, 🇨🇳#China's First Institute of Oceanography research ship Xiang Yang Hong 01 is headed home by a southerly route & has entered the 🇵🇭#Philippines' exclusive economic zone from the east.
The U.S. shipbuilding industry is seeking support, and South Korea's Hanwha is stepping in. nbcnews.com/business/busin…
The USS Curtis Wilbur joined the Philippine Navy’s newest warship and two Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessels in another bilateral maritime exercise in the West Philippine Sea on Wednesday. philstar.com/headlines/2025…
The images presented in the recently conducted 8th Maritime Cooperative Activity give insight to how far the Philippine Navy has reached relating to its modernization efforts.
Conventional wisdom: US shipbuilding can't be competitive because of steel prices and high wages. Reality: Wages are similar in the US and South Korea, but South Korean yards are 4-5x more productive. The solution: Scale & specialization. We need to build a lot more ships.
Crew of Oiler USNS Arctic Praised for Difficult Red Sea Deployment news.usni.org/2025/07/21/cre… via @withemes “They go unnoticed. They don’t have home ports. They come and go, sort of a commercial model, but it really makes a difference when you see what they do alongside our…
A Daily about women being purged from senior military leadership, and a remembrance of my mom (A3C, USAF) on her birthday. theatlantic.com/newsletters/ar…
3/Intrusive surveying: China's oceanographic survey activities routinely conflate legitimate scientific research with assertion of excessive maritime claims and collection of military intelligence--a classic gray zone tactic. [🧵3/3] sealight.live/posts/gray-zon…
2/"Going dark" refers to the gray zone tactic of strategically turning off a vessel's Automatic Information System (AIS) transponder to avoid detection. [🧵2/3] sealight.live/posts/gray-zon…
Lithuanian ForMin: “If I had a nickel for every time a Chinese ship was dragging its anchor on the bottom of the Baltic Sea in the vicinity of important cables, I would have two nickels, which isn’t much, but it’s weird that it happened twice.” carnegieendowment.org/emissary/2024/…
"Hanwha is not merely entering the U.S. market, it is embedding itself within it. This multi-domain approach may set the precedent for future non-Western defense firms seeking to compete on America’s home turf"
Hanwha Looks To Boost Philly Shipyard’s Annual Output To Six-Plus Ships, Add Navy Vessels - Defense Daily defensedaily.com/hanwha-looks-t…
Hanwha Philly Shipyard aims to deliver Navy auxiliary vessels within a decade ow.ly/k5rt106getA
It was my honor to give the keynote address at a dinner last week for the amazing @HudsonInstitute Political Studies Program. I warned the students that AI was first going to destroy them, and then America. AI and education seem topical this weekend, so I thought I'd just post my…
pro tip: you can basically read >100 books per day by asking chatgpt to summarize them for you.
Why has this D.C. summer felt like living in a sauna—with storms almost daily? 🌡️⛈️ Blame a heat dome parked over the steamy Atlantic, sending tropical air our way nonstop. We break down the relentless pattern: 🔗washingtonpost.com/weather/2025/0…
Today at a hearing with @TransportGOP, @SecDuffy told Congress that the Jones Act is "critical" to President Trump's maritime dominance agenda. Thank you, Secretary Duffy, for continuing to stand with the men and women of American Maritime. 🇺🇸⚓️
The Estonian logic -- that every Russian tank destroyed with a Javelin in Ukraine is a Russian tank that cannot invade Estonia -- should be universal throughout the EU/NATO zone now. Give all your best kit to Ukraine now, get newer kit from the U.S. later.