By Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News Chief Pentagon Correspondent

The U.S. and Russian navies joined forces today in the Gulf of Aden in an extraordinary and spontaneous display of counter-piracy cooperation and high-seas diplomacy. The U.S.-guided missile cruiser Vella Gulf and the Russian destroyer Admiral Vinogradov launched a coordinated military response to a distress call from a Panamanian cargo ship, which reported it was about to be attacked by pirates.

The U.S.-guided missile cruiser Vella Gulf, flagship for the Navy’s counter-piracy task force 151, was on pirate patrol in the northern gulf when it first encountered the Russian destroyer,
Admiral Vinogradov, which was providing armed escort for four civilian cargo ships through the notorious “Pirate Alley.” As the commander of the American task force, Rear Admiral Terry McKnight engaged in a “bridge-to-bridge” radio exchange of information and courtesies with the captain of the Russian warship, the crew on the Vella Gulf suddenly launched into action when the Panamanian ship called for help. Within minutes, the Captain of the Vella Gulf Mark Mark Genung called back to the Russians and asked for helicopter support to counter what sounded like a pirate attack.

By Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News Chief Pentagon Correspondent, and Courtney Kube, NBC News Producer

The Pentagon is prepared to announce the deployment of 17,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan as early as this week even as President Barack Obama is searching for his own strategy for the war. According to military officials during last week's meeting with Defense Secretary Gates and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon's "tank," the president specifically asked, "What is the end game?" in the U.S. military's strategy for Afghanistan. When asked what the answer was, one military official told NBC News, "Frankly, we don't have one." But they're working on it.

Senior military officials confirm to NBC News that a secret report from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to President Obama recommends a shift in the military mission in Afghanistan to concentrate solely on combatting the Taliban and al-Qaida and leave the "hearts and minds" aspect of the war to other U.S. agencies and NATO.

The officials stress this strategy would NOT abandon the so-called "soft-side" of the war, to establish good governance, law enforcement, economics, education, etc., but instead hand those responsbilitities over to the State Justice, Agriculture departments and others. "This is a classic counnterinsurgency strategy, but the military can not do it alone."