– Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments – Within the next year, the Navy must take advantage of an uncommon opportunity to set the course for the future surface fleet or fall further behind competitors who will increasingly be able to deny U.S. forces access to their region. In this study, CSBA Senior Fellow Bryan Clark articulates the operational concept of “offensive sea control” as the new central idea to guide evolution of the U.S. surface force. This idea would refocus large and small surface combatant configuration, payloads and employment on sustaining the surface force’s ability to take and hold areas of ocean by destroying threats to access such as aircraft, ships and submarines rather than simply defending against their missiles and torpedoes.

– Breaking Defense – Someone shoots a cruise missile at you. How far away would you like to stop it: over 200 miles out or less than 35? If you answered “over 200,” congratulations, you’re thinking like the US Navy, which has spent billions of dollars over decades to develop ever more sophisticated anti-missile defenses. According to Bryan Clark, until 12 months ago a top advisor to the nation’s top admiral, you and the Navy are wrong.

– Information Dissemination – 5 part series by Jon Solomon on the future of the large deck carrier.

– Aviation Week – As the U.S. Navy’s vaunted Aegis combat system continues to shine during missile tests – especially for ballistic missile defense (BMD) – the system itself has become a target. For some, the best way to earn sea credit these days is to tarnish the gold-plated standard of shipboard electronic defense. The latest contender is the Russian company Kret, which says its gear made it possible for an aircraft to foil an Aegis-equipped destroyer during an at-sea confrontation a few months ago.

– US Navy – Navy Starts Design Work On Next Generation Amphibious Warship – Early design work on the Navy’s next generation amphibious warship — based on the San Antonio-class (LPD-17) hull — has begun ahead of a planned 2020 procurement.

– Breaking Defense – A look at the potential impact of fifth generation aircraft – stealthy, advanced radar and avionics – on the carrier strike group’s effectiveness.

– Defense News – When the US nuclear submarine Jefferson City left its homeport of San Diego April 9, its 150-man crew expected to spend six months cruising the Western Pacific and beyond. Instead, the sub has languished since mid-June in Guam, sidelined by a tiny leak that proved difficult to find and harder to repair.

– USNI News – Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) has revised its plan to use the hull form of the San Antonio-class amphibious warship (LPD-17) as a candidate for the Navy’s next generation amphibious warship— LX(R)

– The Diplomat – To be effective, Zumwalt destroyers require command of the sea, which the US can no longer take for granted.

– Aviation Week – As U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Richard Simcock acknowledges, when anyone mentions the number-one-country of concern in the Asia Pacific, everyone knows which one it is. But, China syndrome aside, there’s a much greater and immediate worry in the region. “The number-one threat in the Pacific is Mother Nature,” Simcock says.