Shadowing Practice: How Iran exposed the limits of the US navy | DW News - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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How is the US, with the strongest navy in the world,
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How is the US, with the strongest navy in the world,
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struggling against a much smaller adversary?
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The contest of who controls the Strait of Hormuz is exposing the vulnerabilities of shipping lanes and also big navies.
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You don't need a navy to do naval warfare anymore.
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Modern warfare has already changed.
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For decades, bigger always seem to be better.
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But is size the only thing that matters when dealing with modern threats?
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Why can't the US just dominate the seas?
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That's true, the United States does still have the strongest navy in the world,
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based on how much destruction its ships can deliver,
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even though it has fewer ships than China.
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This is Brian Clark, an expert on the US Navy at the conservative Hudson Institute and former Pentagon advisor.
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A lot of its ships are smaller ships that are designed for what they would call near-seas defense.
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It's all about the type of ships the country has.
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Aircraft carriers are considered the most powerful warships on the seas.
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The US has 11, more than any other navy in the world,
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and each one costs billions.
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Like the USS Gerald R.
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Ford, the biggest ship the country has ever put to sea.
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The Pentagon describes the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier as the most capable,
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adaptable and lethal combat platform in the world.
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And no country has a global military presence like the US.
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Around 750 military bases in 80 countries.
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Built over decades with US partners and allies.
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Washington doesn't disclose the location of all of them.
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These are the naval bases we know of.
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Military bases are the backbone of any overseas operation.
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Ships, jets and troops all need somewhere to refuel and rearm.
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Commercial ports can serve that role too,
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if host nations allow military vessels to dock.
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In theory, this global network of bases should equate to US dominance at sea.
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That used to be true.
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But the contest over the Strait of Hormuz shows it doesn't take a big navy to disrupt global trade routes
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that most of us had taken for granted.
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We sort of accepted the fact that all these choke points were pretty much accessible,
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really never got closed, and short of a natural disaster or a shipping accident,
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you could always transit around the world and ship things around the world.
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And so we built a whole supply chain architecture around the world that assumed that.
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More than 80% of world trade moves overseas.
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At least 25% of that is oil and gas.
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So just having a lot of bases isn't enough to control the seas anymore.
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What matters just as much is who controls the shipping lanes and above all the choke points.
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For Major Power they all have aircraft carriers
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but aircraft carriers normally are just for force projection far away from your own coast.
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That's retired senior Colonel Zhou Bo from the the Chinese military.
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Now a senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy at the Tsinghua University.
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We will hear more from him later.
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Any choke point can suddenly be controlled by a power
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or an entity that doesn't even have a navy
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and creates challenges for navies that they can't solve with their traditional blue water aircraft carriers and submarines and destroyers.
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Which brings us back to the Strait of Hormuz.
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Following U.S and Israeli attacks on Iran,
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the Iranian regime moved to close the strait,
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unleashing a global energy crisis.
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With the world's most powerful navy at its disposal,
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shouldn't the US be able to reopen it quickly?
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Iran is able to control that shorepoint without really any navy whatsoever.
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Most of Iran's main navy has already been destroyed by the US and Israeli attacks.
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But the IRGC has used small boats,
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missiles shot from land and sea drones to attack ships trying to pass through.
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Plus, Iran likely has sea mines that could be somewhere in the strait.
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And even though Iran doesn't have a really substantial anti-ship threat,
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it still has anti-ship ballistic missiles,
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and it could attack carriers out hundreds of miles away from the coast.
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So you've seen the U.S carriers operate pretty far away from Iran,
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and only the destroyers maybe go closer because they have air defense systems.
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But even they don't get that close to the Iranian and coast because they anticipate they would face the Shahed threat,
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the anti-ship maritime drone threat.
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Geography matters here.
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The US's large Blue Water Navy is ill-suited to this kind of confined asymmetric fight.
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By the way, Blue Water Navy describes a navy that can deploy ships across the open ocean.
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And that's exactly what the US is still doing.
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A country that does have a traditional navy can operate in the open ocean and control that choke point from the sea.
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And that's what the U.S.
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Navy is doing.
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So while moves from the shore, the Navy, U.S.
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Navy can also use that same choke point as a place that they can create a blockade.
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So you've now seen the U.S be able to blockade most of Iran's exports and imports,
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at least at scale, using blue water forces that are operating in the Arabian Sea.
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For commercial vessels, even the threat of an attack is often enough to deter them from the route.
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That's also for insurance reasons.
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That means that to block the choke point,
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Iran doesn't need to attack every ship going through to hold shipping.
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And this isn't the only choke point blocked in recent years.
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Remember the Bab al-Mandeb Strait that was virtually closed because of attacks by the Yemeni Houthis?
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A non-state actor with limited resources managed to rock the global economy.
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Many commercial ships still avoid that route through the Red Sea today.
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So what changed?
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How did actors with no navy suddenly get so much influence over waterways?
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What is changing the game?
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asymmetric naval warfare has never been so accessible.
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The big change has been the advent of these one-way attack drones.
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With the advent of drones and the advent of in multiple domains,
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so not just the airborne drones but also maritime drones,
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we saw a shift to where these non-state actors
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and even smaller states that were proximate to a choke point could take advantage of
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that fact and now cut off access to a vital choke point without a navy,
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without a formal even government in the case of the Houthis.
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So it was really that shift driven by technology that created the potential for these shipping lanes to be cut off.
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Drones, sea, air and underwater,
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low-cost missiles and sea mines have all seen major advancement in recent years.
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And they cost a fraction of a multi-billion dollar aircraft carrier.
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But major navies are adapting to the new threat.
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So if you're a country that depends on freedom of navigation and access to the open ocean,
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then you have to have a way to defeat these threats.
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And that creates a need for basically the counter drone type of capabilities.
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I mean, you're seeing some real innovation there in terms of laser weapons
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and gun based systems and even drones that shoot down other drones.
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So a lot of innovation is happening there.
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As naval warfare is changing,
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raw size seems to matter less.
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But one country has been expanding its navy at full speed.
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What lessons is the country with the world's biggest navy drawing?
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Well, size certainly matters, but it's not the only decisive element.
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China's navy already outnumbers the US fleet in total ships.
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And Colonel Zhou says it's also closing the quality gap.
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China's strong shipbuilding capabilities is much bigger than that of the United States.
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A big focus of China's bet, technology.
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I think Chinese military would be among the best developed military in terms of application of AI robots,
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drones in the future.
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Because if you talk about drones,
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for example, China and the United States are just dominating, right?
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So what does China actually want with this expanding technology forward navy?
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One of the country's priorities,
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protecting the shipping route that China's export-driven economy depends on.
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The tone, deliberately, sounds nothing like Washington's.
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The world, countries and countries are in the same way.
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The world is in the same way.
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The world is in the same way.
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The world is in the same way.
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The world is in the same way.
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The world is a matter of global responsibility.
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Carnageo frames it as a matter of global responsibility.
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Because to protect our own ships,
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this is your national interest.
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But to protect the ships of other countries,
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this is China's international responsibilities.
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Critics, however, point to China's increasingly expansionist behaviour in the South China Sea as evidence of a more aggressive agenda.
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But China's overseas naval footprint doesn't come close to the US navies.
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In terms of PRA Navy,
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we do have a problem of not having a lot of military bases.
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Officially, it has only one overseas naval base on the Horn of Africa in Djibouti,
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though there are credible reports of an expanding Chinese military presence in Cambodia
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and across the South China Sea at the facilities China has built there.
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It's worth noting that China has bought,
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invested in, and built a lot of civilian ports around the globe,
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some of which could be used for military purposes in the future, according to experts.
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China is pursuing a different model from the US,
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but as its global interests grow,
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it too is counting on size and speed.
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There is still a long way to go to catch up with the US military or the US Navy.
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Chinese military aims to become a world-class military by 2049.
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So where is naval warfare headed?
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Asymmetric threats are growing, technology is advancing faster than doctrine,
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and the world's major navies are racing to keep up.
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So the modern warfare has already changed.
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We have yet to see a real combat at sea,
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making use of drones.
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But given the fact that China and the United States are two leaders in AI,
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and AI will definitely be used militarily.
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And what's in store for the US Navy?
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We are seeing this shift in Navy force design away from kind of a carrier-based
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or even destroyer-based fleet of crewed surface combatants and ships and submarines to
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a mix of uncrewed vessel and crewed vessels where the uncrewed vessels are a growing percentage of the fleet.
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You still need humans in the loop or commanders in the loop to make decisions and be accountable for those decisions.
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But a lot of the fighting might end up being done by unmanned systems." The US is adapting,
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investing in counter-drone systems, autonomous vessels,
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and new tactics, and hoping to overhaul its ability to build new ships ships.
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China has been doing the same,
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arguably faster, and is continuing to add more ships to its navy.
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The war in Iran has exposed some of the vulnerabilities and is an ongoing test of how ready any navy can be.
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Control of the world's choke points has never been more consequential or more unpredictable.
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Why Practice Speaking with This Video?
Using the video titled "How Iran Exposed the Limits of the US Navy" as a speaking practice resource can significantly enhance your English proficiency. This video dives deep into the intricacies of modern naval strategy, international relations, and geopolitical dynamics. By engaging with the content, you not only learn about current events but also develop your speaking skills through the shadowing technique. Shadowing involves listening to a speaker and simultaneously repeating their words, which can improve your fluency, pronunciation, and comprehension.
The speaking context provided by this video is rich and varied, making it an excellent choice for practicing English in a real-world context. You can learn specific vocabulary related to military and trade while also gaining insights into strategic discussions, which is beneficial for conversation in academic, professional, or casual settings. Utilizing a shadow speech method while analyzing this video can markedly enhance your articulation and confidence when discussing complex topics in English.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
In the transcript, several grammar structures and expressions are prominent, which are useful to dissect:
- Comparative Forms: The phrase “strongest navy” emphasizes the comparative structure, offering a basis for discussing capabilities effectively.
- Passive Voice: Sentences like “...are designed for what they would call...” highlight the passive voice, which is vital in formal communication to focus on actions rather than actors.
- Conditional Statements: The use of conditionals, such as “if host nations allow military vessels to dock,” can aid learners in understanding hypothetical scenarios, enriching their speaking repertoire.
- Present Perfect Tense: The expression “has exposed” is an example of the present perfect tense, indicating relevance to the present, crucial for discussing ongoing impacts of historical events.
Engaging with these structures through a shadowing app can support your grammar mastery in a contextualized manner.
Common Pronunciation Traps
As you practice with this video, be mindful of certain pronunciation challenges that can arise:
- Vocabulary Specific to Military Context: Words like “navy,” “carrier,” and “choke points” may contain sounds that could be tricky, particularly for non-native speakers. Pay attention to the clarity of consonant sounds.
- Compound Words: The term “aircraft carrier” can be challenging if pronounced too quickly; ensure you articulate each part distinctly.
- Emphasis on Key Terms: The phrase “global military presence” involves multiple syllables and requires careful attention to intonation. Mastering the emphasis can help convey your message more effectively.
To tackle these pronunciation obstacles, consider using the shadowspeak method—listening closely and repeating immediately can assist in refining your pronunciation accuracy.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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