Irish Naval Service Plans €300 Million Support Ship Buy

Naval News – According to a Prior Information Notice issued by the Irish Department of Defence on January 23rd, the new vessel will provide the Irish Naval Service with a flexible platform, able to perform a variety of missions. In a first for the Naval Service, which has seldom deployed vessels overseas, the new MRV will be designed from the outset to support operations both at home and overseas. 

Supplier bottlenecks threaten US Navy effort to grow arms stockpiles

Defense News – Indeed, the service has dramatically increased its weapons spending in the last two years. After slowly ticking up from $3 billion to $4 billion over seven years, Navy weapons spending jumped more than 70% from fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2024, when the service requested $6.9 billion. But output on production lines remains hampered by supply chain challenges, leaving the Navy with too few of the longest-range and most lethal weapons it would want in a fight.

A Sino-Russian Arctic alliance?

Barents Observer – After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent halt in cooperation with the other Arctic states, Russia has turned east and south for new partners. At the same time, Russia is messaging actively that the Arctic Council without Russia is illegitimate. What is Russia’s posture in Arctic affairs in the new era of growing instability and geopolitical tensions? And how does China – Russia’s primary choice among potential new partners – react to Russia’s invitations?

CMV-22B Osprey “Not Operationally Suitable” According To Test Report

The War Zone – Even before the entire fleet of V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft was grounded following a fatal crash of an Air Force Osprey off the coast of Japan in November, the Navy’s version was experiencing serious issues that limited its ability to fully perform its assigned missions. Those findings by the Pentagon’s top testing office come even though the Navy’s former air boss called the CMV-22B a “game changer” after its first operational deployment in 2022. The Osprey grounding has also forced the Navy to resort to using its dwindling fleet of C-2A Greyhounds to perform essential Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD) duties.

Europe’s Marines in the Future European Littoral Operating Environment

War on the Rocks – A viable concept of littoral maneuver can help reduce the possibility of a growing spatial gap between fleets operating at reach with strategic capabilities such as cruise missiles and other elements of the joint force and ensure that both marines and maritime forces more broadly can contribute to a multidomain deep battle.