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.
Chinese Cutters, Warships Block Philippine Resupply Mission to Second Thomas Shoal
USNI News – Chinese warships and cutters blocked a Philippine resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal on Thursday in the most significant development at the disputed South China Sea feature.
RFA Fort Victoria begins refit to rebuild Royal Navy replenishment skills
Navy Lookout – The Royal Navy has confirmed that RFA Fort Victoria will have a refit at Birkenhead that is intended to return the veteran support ship to service next year. After almost five years without conducting a replenishment at sea, the ship will be used to rebuild solid stores handling and RAS skills ahead of the arrival of the new Fleet Solid Support ships.
What Naval Power Cannot Buy
CIMSEC – Ships can deter a competitor, compel a rival, and escort a convoy. What they cannot do is build the institutions, relationships, information systems, and rules that keep maritime order running when the guns are silent. China has worked this out. Washington and most of its partners treat governance as an appendage to naval strategy, rather than a domain of competition in its own right.
Royal Navy’s newest attack submarine HMS Agamemnon leaves shipyard after 13 years under construction
Navy Lookout – The RN’s latest SSN, HMS Agamemnon, has sailed from BAE Systems’ Barrow-in-Furness shipyard for the first time and is heading for her new home at HM Naval Base Clyde. The departure marks the first in a series of sea trials and training evolutions before she can join the operational fleet.
3 Years of Middle East Combat Altering How Navy Supplies, Maintains Fleet, Leaders Say
USNI News – The ongoing U.S. conflict with Iran is morphing how the Navy fixes and supplies ships operating thousands of miles from logistics hubs as extended time at sea and the prospect of an extended naval commitment in the Middle East are creating a maintenance wave back home, service officials said this week.
2027 Will Test New Zealand’s Defence at the Speed of Relevance
RUSI – New Zealand’s 2025 Defence Capability Plan is a promise, not a result. A Defence Capacity Statement could keep national-security risk, readiness and delivery connected.
Britain’s missile export success: the rise of the CAMM air defence family
Navy Lookout – Common Anti-Air Modular Missile (CAMM) has become one of Britain’s most successful modern missile exports, growing from a weapon first introduced into Royal Navy service as Sea Ceptor into an increasingly important international air defence family. Now adopted by several European and overseas navies, the system is also at the centre of a major industrial partnership with Poland, where production is being established on a scale that could eventually rival the UK operation.
The Robot Ships of Route 90
USNI News – Three Louisiana shipyards are vying for a stake in the navy’s autonomous future
Do We Have Enough Dry Docks?- Part 2
Center for Maritime Security – The answer to the question posed in the title of this essay is, ultimately, a conditional yes followed by an urgent no.
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