– USNI News – The Navy is rethinking how it will employ its emerging MQ-8C Fire Scout rotary-wing unmanned vehicles to help Littoral Combat Ships take on tougher targets in a new age of great power competition.
Iran Launches Modern Home-Made Submarine
– Fars News – Iran on Sunday launched its latest state-of-the-art submarine named Fateh in the Southern waters of the country.
Marines Want to Field a Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile ‘As Fast As Possible’
– USNI News – The Marine Corps wants to select and field a long-range anti-ship missile “as fast as possible” to support the Navy in a fight for sea control.
Frontline Tech: How Will Littoral Strike Ships Transform The Navy?
– Forces Network – Littoral strike ships are able to command an assault force, rather than simply transporting it.
Singapore navy launches first of its four new submarines
– Straits Times – Singapore’s acquisition of new submarines which offer more firepower and combat options is a timely move as maritime security challenges evolve and countries beef up their submarine fleets.
Russia’s latest ‘wonder weapon’ is more propaganda than power
– The Hill – The Russian Navy reportedly has installed non-lethal weaponry aboard the frigates Admiral Gorshkov and Admiral Kasatonov. According to official news agency RIA Novosti, the device, dubbed “Filin,” radiates a beam similar to a strobe light during nighttime operations. It is designed to disrupt eyesight among hostile ship crews, impairing their battle effectiveness to Russian advantage.
China’s Far Seas Naval Operations, From the Year of the Snake to the Year of the Pig
– CIMSEC – Every year, about this time, the leaders of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) send their regards to Chinese sailors deployed overseas during the Lunar New Year. This annual ritual tells the story of China’s emergence as a global naval power.
Navy’s First Stealthy Zumwalt Class Destroyer Photographed With 30mm Guns Fitted
– War Zone – The 30mm Bushmasters don’t come without controversy. The ship was originally slated to get much more capable 57mm guns housed in stealthy enclosures.
People Create High Velocity Outcomes
– USNI Naval History – The ballistic-missile development programs of the 1950s proved that processes are only as good as the people who manage them.
Boeing Is Building Big Orca Drone Subs For The Navy To Hunt And Lay Mines And More
– War Zone – The new drone submarines will help lay the groundwork for the service’s ambitious future unmanned undersea vehicle plans.
No More ‘Playing Defense’ For US Navy; Offensive Weapons Are The Play
– Breaking Defense – “We’ve spent a lot of time over the past years playing defense,” Rear Adm. Ronald Boxall, director of surface warfare, said at the West 2019 conference here. “The best defense is a good offense, and the idea that we will go after the threat — at range — is something that we have to be able to do.”
Navy Awards Boeing $43 Million to Build Four Orca XLUUVs
– USNI News – The Navy awarded Boeing a $43-million contract to build four Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (XLUUVs) that will become multi-mission for the service.
Pakistan wraps up multinational naval drill as its approach to maritime security shifts
– Defense News – Pakistan on Tuesday wrapped up its sixth AMAN biennial multinational naval exercise, aiming to promote cooperation among regional and extra-regional navies to ensure security in the Indian Ocean.
Regaining the High Ground at Sea: Transforming the US Navy’s Carrier Air Wing
– CIMSEC – Aircraft carriers have been the centerpiece of the U.S. Navy since they came to prominence during the Second World War. Their mobility and firepower were essential to winning the Pacific Campaign during that conflict, and carriers’ adaptability enabled them to remain the fleet’s primary means of power projection through the Cold War and in multiple smaller conflicts thereafter. Unless the Navy dramatically transforms its carrier air wings (CVW), however, the carrier’s preeminence will soon come to an end.
U.S. Bolstering Pacific Military Forces to Counter ‘Massive’ Beijing Buildup
– Washington Free Beacon – Pacific commander calls China ‘greatest long-term threat’
Handling the San Antonio–Class LPD
– USNI Proceedings – The LPD-17 design requires unique shiphandling considerations.
Regaining the High Ground at Sea: Transforming the U.S. Navy’s Carrier Air Wing for Great Power Competition
– Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments – This report examines trends in U.S. strategy, capabilities, and threats between now and 2040 to describe the operational concepts the carrier aircraft will likely need to use in the future, and the implications for how carrier air wings should evolve during the next 20 years.
The Deep Ocean: Seabed Warfare and the Defense of Undersea Infrastructure, Part 2
– CIMSEC – From 1998 to 2016, the CNO Strategic Studies Group (SSG) consistently recognized and accounted for the challenge of cross-domain maritime warfare, including the deep ocean. The Group generated several operational concepts that would give the Navy significant capabilities for the deep ocean part of the maritime battle.
‘Fight To Get To The Fight:’ Marine Amphibs Under The Gun
– Breaking Defense – Threatened by hundreds of precision-guided munitions now in the hands of Russia and China, the Navy and Marine Corps continue to search for technologies and tactics that will allow them to operate close to the coastline without unsustainable losses.
Royal Navy Wants Amphibious Ships That Looks Just Like Secretive U.S. Spec Ops Mothership
– War Zone – The United Kingdom says new forward-deployed task forces will use to ships to ‘make Global Britain a reality.’
Redesign the Fleet
– USNI Proceedings – The America-class amphibious assault ships possess big decks, making them also suitable as conventionally powered light aircraft carriers (CVLs)—a potentially dramatic design shift over more expensive, ever-larger nuclear-powered ones. Forthcoming ships in the class, including the future Bougainville (LHA-8), incorporate a small well deck, giving them flexibility to employ a variety of unmanned aerial, surface, and undersea vehicles—but at significant cost to the baseline aviation-centric design.
China’s Aging Population Is a Major Threat to Its Future
– Time – Amateurs talk tactics, generals talk logistics – is China’s looming demographic crisis a reason why it is not a long term threat to the U.S.?
We need to talk about the Fitzgerald: The Drift Vol XVII
– Defense News – David Larter’s insights into the USS Fitzgerald incident, from his experiences as a former Navy surface watch supervisor.
Years of Warnings, Then Death and Disaster
– Pro Publica – How the Navy failed its sailors – another insightful investigative report on the USS Fitzgerald incident.
US shift on South China Sea ‘grey zone’ aggression signals stronger response ahead
– South China Morning Post – The United States is expected to take more planned and pre-emptive measures in response to China’s “grey zone tactics” in the Asia-Pacific region, according to analysts from the US and Australia.
