USNI News – Taiwan’s executive branch pitched a $6.6 billion budget last week for the procurement of more than 200,000 domestically-made unmanned systems designed to defend the island’s shores.
Germany is cancelling the F126 frigate project and procuring eight MEKO frigates
Naval News – The German Ministry of Defense has decided to discontinue the construction of six F126-class frigates, as the ministry announced in a recent statement. The cancellation is attributed to significant project delays and the foreseeable cost increases and risks associated with changing the general contractor.
North Korea Commissions First-in-class Destroyer Choe Hyon
USNI News – North Korea commissioned its largest warship to date, the 5,000-ton destroyer Choe Hyon (51), in a ceremony Tuesday in the port city Nampho.
China Maritime Report #55: Loading the Well Deck: The PLA Navy’s Maturing Role in Projecting Joint Ground Forces
China Maritime Studies Institute – Since 2023, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has established an annualized rhythm of loading PLA Army (PLAA) combat, engineering, and support units onto PLA Navy (PLAN) amphibious ships for international exercises. This integration signals a maturation in Chinese expeditionary logistics, providing Beijing with the proven framework to project sustained, multi-domain combat mass well beyond its regional periphery.
The U.S. Navy’s Subsea Rare Earth Vulnerability
War on the Rocks – The Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine is the next generation of American nuclear deterrence. Twelve of these boats will replace the aging Ohio-class fleet, entering service over the 2030s and 2040s, each carrying 16 Trident IIs and driven by a ghost-quiet electric motor that renders them acoustically invisible to any adversary. What makes all of that possible — the propulsion, the stealth, the strike precision — depends almost entirely on rare earths refined in China. This is perhaps the Navy’s most consequential and least discussed vulnerability.
Royal Navy ready for Middle East mine clearance mission
Navy Lookout – A multinational mine countermeasures force led by the Royal Navy has reached the Middle East. RFA Lyme Bay and German warships, escorted by HMS Dragon, have passed safely through the Red Sea, though any clearance operation remains tied to political conditions.
Plan To Evacuate Hundreds Of Ships Still Stranded From Strait Of Hormuz Closure Is Coalescing
The War Zone – The Strait of Hormuz remains an extremely tense waterway and traffic will not be flowing normally through it for some time to come.
U.S. Asymmetric Aid Program Transfers Unmanned Vessels to the Philippines, Plans Attack Drone Transfer by 2027
USNI News – The latest tranche of American-made and funded drones were formally received by Philippine forces this week ahead of Washington’s larger plans to equip the Southeast Asian ally with asymmetric capabilities that could prove crucial in monitoring and deterring Beijing in the South China Sea.
Poland buys V-Bat UAVs from Shield AI for naval forces
Breaking Defense – Poland inked a deal with Shield AI today to purchase the MQ-35 V-Bat unmanned aerial system in a $16 million (USD) deal that will deliver “several” platforms to the Polish Navy by the end of the year
(Thanks to Alain)
The U.S. Navy’s Big 3-D Printing Bet
USNI News – The service has pumped billions into additive manufacturing and new job training programs to make up for steep declines in the submarine industrial base.
Russia lays keel of ninth Yasen-M nuclear attack submarine
Defence Blog – Russia laid the keel of nuclear submarine Murmansk, the ninth Project 885M Yasen-M boat, at Severodvinsk on June 17, 2026, the first in six years.
(Thanks to Alain)
China Now Leads World Submarine Construction
Naval News – More countries are building and operating submarines today than at any point in modern history. Yet amid this global expansion, China has emerged as the dominant force, launching twice as many submarines as any other nation and introducing more new classes.
Britain seeks missile launchers for its crewless warship fleet
Defence Blog – The UK Ministry of Defence published an RFI on May 27, 2026, seeking missile silo concepts capable of 30-day autonomous readiness aboard crewed and unmanned naval vessels.
(Thanks to Alain)
Russian drone kills an Egyptian cook on a civilian cargo ship in the Black Sea
Euromaiden Press – The Turkish-owned bulk carrier Victress, bound for a Ukrainian port, caught fire after the overnight strike on 22 June. Another commercial ship sustained minor damage.
U.S. Navy Sets Sights on 10 Commercial Tankers To Rapidly Expand Logistics Fleet
Naval News – Commercial orders for the Military Sealift Command (MSC), the backbone of global U.S. Navy operations, can rapidly close the U.S. Navy’s logistics shortage concerns in the Pacific.
U.S. expands operations at Portugal’s Lajes Air Base
Portugal Resident – The United States is investing in new infrastructure at Portugal’s Azores military air base, Lajes, on Terceira Island, just as the Pentagon has announced it is reducing the U.S. military footprint elsewhere in Europe.
Should the Royal Navy reconsider the Littoral Strike Ship concept?
Navy Lookout – In 2019, the MoD set aside £35 million to develop a Littoral Strike Ship (LSS), a deliberately low-cost vessel built around commando raiding operations but the idea faded as amphibious thinking consolidated into a single large programme – the Multi-Role Strike Ship. With the Royal Navy now both RN financially constrained and more doctrinally inclined to consider smaller, more dispersed platforms, the LSS could be one solution to partially recover amphibious capability.
The Fall of Fortress Singapore: Three Lessons from the Collapse of Britain’s Great Asian Bastion
War on the Rocks – What might be the most relevant lessons of the fall of Singapore for contemporary U.S. strategists and policymakers as they monitor the growth in might and assertiveness of a new — and arguably even more formidable — revisionist Asian power? Following a brief overview of the Malayan campaign, three critical dimensions of this melancholy chapter will emerge as the most immediately resonant to 21st-century defense planners.
Keel laid for Murmansk, the tenth Yasen-class multipurpose submarine
Barents Observer – Russia’s war economy is under increasing strain, but construction of the Navy’s advanced nuclear-powered submarines continues unabated.
Royal Navy officers warn NATO navies are struggling to absorb Ukraine’s maritime lessons
Navy Lookout – The war at sea in the Black Sea has entered a new and more dangerous phase, even as Western navies are still debating what the previous phase means for them. Speaking at CNE in May 2026, Cdre Steve Bamfield RN and Cdre Thomas Hanssen of the Norwegian Navy, co-leaders of the Maritime Capability Coalition (MCC) for Ukraine, gave a frank assessment of where the conflict stands and why its hardest lessons have proved resistant to translation into NATO doctrine and procurement.
ScanFish trials aboard RFA Proteus mark a step forward for Royal Navy seabed warfare capability
Navy Lookout – RN hydrographic specialists have completed a second series of at-sea trials of their new towed underwater survey system, this time aboard the Multi-Role Ocean Surveillance ship, RFA Proteus, off Portland and in Lyme Bay. The exercises mark a significant step towards integrating the ScanFish containerised Remotely Operated Towed Vehicle (ROTV) into frontline SBW operations.
Germany moves two ships to Djibouti, eyeing multinational Hormuz mission this summer
Defense News – The German Navy is moving two ships to the Red Sea in preparation for a possible mine-clearing mission in the Strait of Hormuz, the country’s defense minister confirmed on Thursday.
U.S. Ends Naval Blockade of Iran
USNI News – The United States has lifted the naval blockade against Iranian ports and coastlines.
Australia Makes Seabed Warfare a Top Defence Priority
Naval News – Australia’s latest National Defence Strategy (NDS) has underlined the country’s need to secure critical undersea infrastructure (CUI). To meet this seabed warfare mission quickly, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is looking to the commercial underwater industry to provide the required capability.
China is testing underwater drones the size of submarines, 148 feet long with an estimated range of 10,000 miles, the largest ever built, and U.S. analysts say they could one day reach the West Coast
autoNotion – For as long as anyone has war-gamed a fight with China, the Pacific Ocean has been America’s best defense. It is more than 5,000 nautical miles of open water, and the working assumption has always been that Chinese warships and submarines simply could not cross it in any numbers, which kept the West Coast a long way from any shooting. China is now building underwater drones the size of submarines, and crossing that ocean is more or less the entire point of them.
(Thanks to Alain)
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