USNI News – It’s no secret that the Navy’s four public shipyards have prioritized attack submarines last, instead of focusing the yards’ limited resources on aircraft carrier maintenance and ballistic missile submarine refuelings. But even though the SSBN refuelings are drawing to an end, which should free up resources for SSN maintenance, a Government Accountability Office report released today states the time SSNs will sit idle waiting for maintenance work to begin will actually continue to increase for the next two years.

USNI News – After nearly a decade of fits and starts, the Navy has quietly initiated work to develop its first new carrier-based fighter in almost 20 years, standing up a new program office and holding early discussions with industry.

– Defense News – As the U.S. Navy pushes forward with developing its large unmanned surface vessel, envisioned as a kind of external missile magazine that will tag along with larger manned surface combatants, a growing consensus is forming that the service needs to get its requirements and systems right before making a big investment.

– Naval News – NAVSEA answers some internet myths, rumors, and questions on the three high-tech stealthy guided missile destroyers: USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000), USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001) and the future USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002).

– War Zone – There’s a lot more involved with punching a torpedo out of a submarine than stuffing it in a tube and opening the hatch.

– National Interest – James Holmes writes that President Donald Trump gave a radio interview last Tuesday during which he declared he would call on an unlikely source for military advice: New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick. Trump told host Hugh Hewitt, “You know, if I ever had a military battle, I’d call up Belichick and say what do you think? What do you think? Give me a couple of ideas.” Does Coach Belichick have what it takes?

– USNI Blog – The Navy has issued its requirements for the T-45 replacement and, not surprising to anyone who has followed naval aviation for the past 20 years, the request for information published by the Navy indicates that the trainer does not have to land or launch from the carrier. It merely has to do landing practices ashore and touch-and-go landings at sea.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy is on the brink of what could be a major shift in how it operates, but first the service’s top officer wants a plan to both field technologies that have been lagging for years and develop a path forward to add new unmanned tech to the mainstream fleet.

– War on the Rocks – How does America best prevent its own naval decline? This is a good question. The problem is that it is a question asked decades too late. The Navy is in decline right now. So is the United States in terms of relative international power. The proper question for today is, “How does the United States decline gracefully?” Taking a look in the mirror, the U.S. Navy should find marked similarities to the late Victorian-era Royal Navy. Since the United Kingdom managed the declining supremacy of its naval power relatively well during this period, it would behoove Uncle Sam to borrow a lesson or two from Her Majesty.

– US Naval War College Review – American Cold War planning experienced important failures in strategic intelligence and in the way planners used that intelligence. These shortcomings were overcome through massive material investment, technological advantage, and good fortune, but in the twenty-first-century era of great-power competition the Navy cannot count on these advantages. More-careful and better-integrated intelligence-planning processes would improve our chances of success greatly.

– War Zone – The unit is intended to provide Navy submariners and anti-submarine forces with an opponent that fights just like a wide range of potential foes.

– Heritage Foundation – As the United States returns to great-power competition, it will rely more heavily on its Navy to defend the nation’s interests and meet its responsibilities around the world. And the Navy needs an effective repair base to keep its ships operational. This repair base may evolve—and Navy leaders should think strategically about its evolution—but for now it requires modernizing and reconfiguring the four existing public shipyards to meet the nuclear fleet’s requirements. Leaders’ choices to prioritize Navy shipyard modernization will have an outsized impact on Navy readiness and on national security as a whole.