USNI News – Due to Navy design decisions, the service’s next-generation guided-missile frigate might not have the weight margin for required modernization to meet its expected service life, according to a government watchdog report released Wednesday.

BBC – A temporary pier built by the US military to deliver aid to Gaza has been damaged by heavy seas and will take at least a week to be repaired, according to US officials.

Defense News – The U.S. Navy’s message to industry is coming through: the service is committed to buying and operating small unmanned systems on and under the water. What’s less clear is how the Navy will procure them and with what funding — but one company says it’s moving ahead in developing disruptive systems now and will figure out the business model later.

National Interest – Admiral Lisa Franchetti, America’s chief of naval operations or top uniformed naval officer, recently released her first Navy Professional Reading List. The list is solid on the whole. There are, however, many books one could look at. Here are a few ideas. 

American Affairs Journal – The priority of American national security policymakers today must be the revitalization of the nation’s defense industrial base. We have let it atrophy for far too long. But even within that priority, special emphasis must be placed upon the submarine industrial base, both new con­struc­tion and repair capacity. Because of the severity of the Chinese threat to American national interests in the Pacific, and the specific role of sub­marines in both deterring that threat and responding if deterrence breaks down, addressing shortfalls in submarine production and repair must be at the head of the line. Or our navy faces being sunk at the pier.