USNI News – The Pentagon doubled down on its plans to establish a forward-deployed area denial, anti-access network along the First Island Chain to deter China in the 2026 National Defense Security update.
Mounting concern in Australia over UK ability to deliver SSN-AUKUS
Navy Lookout – In this guest article, Rear Admiral Peter Briggs, RAN (Rtd), articulates the worries held by some amongst the defence establishment in Australia about the promises the UK has made on submarine delivery. Some consider statements emanating from the UK Defence Nuclear Enterprise to be public relations rhetoric that do not reflect the true state of the enterprise.
All The Weapons A Single Navy Fighter Squadron Launched During Operation Epic Fury
The War Zone – Strike Fighter Squadron 41’s F/A-18Fs let loose hundreds of air-to-surface and air-to-air weapons during the war with Iran.
Germany Is Finally Giving Its F125 Frigates Some More Teeth With IRIS-T SLM Surface-To-Air Missiles
The War Zone – The 7,200-ton F125 frigates were built with notoriously light armament, which is now being partly addressed.
What America Must Change to Make Korean Shipbuilding Matter
CIMSEC – If Korean involvement leaves American yards more productive, the supplier base deeper, workload more predictable, and the Navy more capable of converting requirements into ships, the Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Partnership Initiative will have mattered. If not, it will have become another sophisticated policy framework that correctly diagnosed the crisis while leaving the institutional pathologies that created it largely untouched.
F/A-XX: why the US is putting all its fighter eggs in the Boeing basket
The Strategist – Bill Sweetman asks why would the Defense Department do this?
Inside Ukraine’s First Combat Deployment Of Robotic Amphibious Vehicles
The War Zone – The commander of a Ukrainian uncrewed ground vehicle unit gives us exclusive insights into how vehicles were designed or modified for amphibious combat operations.
UK plans 50% increase in military sealift capacity as ageing ships near replacement
Navy Lookout – The Point-class ro-ro MV Eddystone has completed an eight-week refit in Denmark, the first of four planned for the ships that carry the UK’s heavy military equipment worldwide. The work is intended to keep the class running to 2031 while the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) lays the ground for a larger successor fleet.
Why Modern Navies Still Need a Mine Countermeasures Force in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
CIMSEC – Throughout naval history, few weapons have demonstrated the strategic endurance of the naval mine. Despite successive advances in military technology, it remains a highly effective instrument of sea denial, enabling even conventionally inferior actors to constrain the freedom of maneuver of technologically superior fleets and disrupt critical maritime lines of communication.
Destruction on a budget
The Strategist – Bill Sweetman writes “But if we can cut guided-weapon cost by an order of magnitude, using machinery that can be accelerated into three-shift production overnight, the line of missile cost gets much flatter. Which changes everything.”
Claims Swirl Around U.S. Marines Injured Aboard Mystery Vessel Attacked In The Strait Of Hormuz
The War Zone – At the center of suspicions is a former Royal Mail ship with its own fascinating backstory, but what it was doing at the time is unclear.
Heavily Damaged Submarine USS Connecticut Now Won’t Return To Service Until 2027
The War Zone – The Navy hoped Connecticut would be back by 2025, then this year, and it is now planning for its final retirement with repairs still underway.
EU Needs More Ships for Red Sea; European Navies Adjust Hormuz Deployments
USNI News – The European Union is asking its members to increase the number of ships deployed with European Naval Force Aspides, which is tasked with accompanying merchant ships in the Red Sea to protect them from Houthi attacks.
China Maritime Report #58: Tightening the Institutional Cage: The PLA Navy’s Discipline Inspection Commission
China Maritime Studies Institute – The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) operates a pervasive system of discipline inspection commissions (DICs) spanning the Party and military hierarchy to enforce political discipline and loyalty…The activities of the PLAN DIC and its subordinate DICs may have resulted in a higher degree of professionalism among PLAN personnel, although the magnitude of the change is not clear based on publicly available information. For the PLAN, as well as the rest of the PLA, political loyalty in contemporary China means personal control by and loyalty to Xi Jinping himself.
3 Louisiana Shipyards to Build 30 Drone Ships in $1.2B Navy MUSV Deal
USNI News – Three Louisiana-based shipyards will build unmanned surface vessels for the U.S. Navy following recent at-sea testing. The three companies – Saronic, HII and Galliano Marine Service – will each build 10 medium unmanned surface vessels, or MUSVs, at about $40 million per hull.
Boeing Picked to Build Navy’s F/A-XX Carrier Fighter in Estimated $20B Deal
USNI News – Boeing will build the Navy’s next-generation fighter after decades of indecision on the future of the carrier air wing.
Pakistan’s Hangor submarine successfully fires anti-ship cruise missile in Arabian Sea weapon test
Arab News – Pakistan Navy’s newly inducted submarine, Hangor, has successfully fired an anti-ship cruise missile during its maiden live weapon test in the northern Arabian Sea, the Pakistani military said on Sunday, describing the exercise as a demonstration of the vessel’s combat readiness and operational capability.
(Thanks to Alain)
Three new floating submarine docks for the Royal Navy to be built in Britain
Navy Lookout – The Chancellor will announce today that, subject to a commercial competition, the floating dry docks required for RN nuclear submarine maintenance at Faslane will be built in the UK. The decision backs domestic industry, although British yards have not built a floating dock in 60 years.
China Claims Expanded Zone Around Scarborough Shoal, Deploys New Drone
USNI News – Chinese forces rehearsed enforcing Beijing’s claim to Scarborough Shoal with drones and boarding drills on Sunday amid state media claims that China has extended its control of several contested maritime features beyond 24 nautical miles.
Hymm to Hai Kun: The Gap Between Ceremony and Capability
CIMSEC – Every year the Hai Kun remains undelivered widens the gap between the optimism of the launch and the submarine still sitting in dry dock at Kaohsiung. Eventually, reality catches up. The Hai Kun enters service, joins the fleet, and validates the ceremony in retrospect. Or the follow-on submarines never materialize, leaving the ceremony remembered more clearly than the capability it promised.
Royal Saudi Navy Prepares to Deploy AKINCI UCAV Following Crew Graduation
Naval News – On September 25, 2026, Turkish drone manufacturer Baykar announced that 15 pilots and 15 technicians from the Royal Saudi Naval Forces had graduated from Bayraktar AKINCI training in Türkiye. The graduation of Saudi naval personnel marks a step toward the deployment of Türkiye’s combat UAV in a naval warfare role.
HII FF(X) Patrol Frigate Program Progressing as Navy Considers Foreign Options
USNI News – Both U.S. and foreign designs for the next small-surface combatant are under consideration after the cancellation of the Constellation-class guided-missile frigate, the new head of the Navy’s shipbuilding enterprise said this week.
Navy’s shipyard revamp could cost more than $200 billion: GAO
Breaking Defense – The Navy’s initiative to revamp its four public shipyards could come with a price tag nearly ten times higher than initially estimated and take decades longer to complete, according to a new government watchdog report.
Guarding the Approaches: Can The Royal Canadian Navy Use Autonomy to Defend Canadian Waters?
ReadyAyeReady – Canada’s coastline is the longest on Earth. Its maritime approaches stretch from ice-choked Arctic channels to busy Atlantic and Pacific littorals, and the Navy cannot put a crewed ship on every square kilometre of that water. That simple geography is now driving one of the most consequential shifts in Royal Canadian Navy planning: the move from occasional presence toward persistent awareness, using uncrewed and increasingly autonomous systems above, on, and below the surface.
China Appears To Be Building A Mothership For Large Uncrewed Submarines
The War Zone – Recent satellite imagery shows a host of highly specialized features on the ship that’s under construction, as well as a large cradle sitting beside it.
You must be logged in to post a comment.