– Virginian Pilot – Stepping up attacks far from the front-line fighting, a Norfolk-based U.S. Navy ship fired 22 Tomahawk cruise missiles at weapon storage sites around Tripoli on Tuesday.

– Virginian Pilot – In a sign of U.S. confidence that the weeklong assault on Libya has tamed Moammar Gadhafi’s air defenses, the Pentagon has reduced the amount of naval firepower arrayed against him.

– Associated Press – When U.S. Navy helicopters returned from a humanitarian mission on the first weekend following Japan’s earthquake and tsunami, Lt. j.g. James Powell felt a slight unease.

– Virginian Pilot – Congress’ inability to approve a 2011 budget is causing significant problems for the Navy, officials say, by delaying ship repairs; reducing aircraft flight hours and ship steaming hours; postponing construction projects; and disrupting the orderly moves of sailors and their families.

– Washington Post – When some Chinese naval officers crossed the Pacific to visit the Naval War College here on an Atlantic-lapped island, they gazed reverently at a desk used by Capt. Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914). This compliment to America’s preeminent naval strategist has scholars here wondering whether Mahan’s Chinese readers are taking from him lessons similar to those Theodore Roosevelt derived.

– Washington Post – Scholars at the Naval War College here probably nodded in vigorous agreement with a recent lecture delivered at another military institution 130 miles away. Speaking at West Point to leaders of tomorrow’s Army, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that “any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put it.” This underscored Gates’s point that “the most plausible, high-end scenarios for the U.S. military are primarily naval and air engagements – whether in Asia, the Persian Gulf or elsewhere.”

– BBC – Nice summary of the military assets currently operating against Libya.

– Air & Space – The new, supersonic face of e-warfare.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – In the 1916 Battle of Jutland, two Royal Navy battlecruisers exploded because their armor had been sacrificed for speed, famously prompting Admiral David Beatty to remark, “There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.” In our day, as littoral combat ship (LCS) construction continues, many mutter similar complaints. The trimaran hull of the Independence class causes some of the dismay, but even more so for naval planners is the sacrifice of armor and armament for high speed.