– Aviation Week – Warship design in much of the world may be entering a new era, with requirements driven less by peer-on-peer sea battles and more by lessons of the past decade, combined with economic constraints.

– Defense Technology International – HMS Illustrious, known in the Royal Navy as Lusty, will be returning to sea on June 3 after 16 months of a €45 million modernization of her electronics, data processing systems and living quarters at the Scottish shipyard Babcock.

– BBC – Britain and France are sending attack helicopters to Libya. Britain is sending AH-64 Apaches that will operate off of HMS Ocean; France is sending Tigres and Gazelles to operate off of Tonnerre.

– BBC – The UK’s military operation in Iraq is to end within hours when the Royal Navy stops training Iraqi sailors.

– Defense Technology International – The U.K. has for the first time fired a Hellfire from a ship-based WAH-64 Apache attack helicopter as it revives the concept of operating the system from ships after several years during which the mission lay dormant as the helicopters were heavily tasked performing land-based operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

– BBC – In a shipyard in Scotland the future of the Royal Navy is slowly taking shape. But the construction of the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth is a mammoth task.

– Guardian – HMS Vengeance had temporary ‘defect in propulsion’, a mechanical failure possibly due to ingesting sea debris.

– Daily Telegraph – The Royal Navy could run out of Tomahawk missiles after a fifth of the Navy stockpile has been used against Libya.

– Associated Press – The frigate HMS Cumberland is being deployed off the Libyan coast in the event that it could be needed for a sea-borne evacuation of British citizens living there

– Defense Technology International – With HMS Ark Royal being put out to pasture, the U.K. names the HMS Albion its new flagship.

– Guardian – The Foreign Office stands accused of misleading the public over the plight of thousands of islanders who were expelled from their Indian Ocean homeland to make way for a large US military base.

– The Guardian – Royal Navy flagship back in Portsmouth for decommissioning after defence spending review.

– Defense Technology International – The Harrier GR.9s will depart a British aircraft carrier for the last time on Wednesday.

– Royal Navy – British warship sails into Havana Bay on official visit – The first British warship to visit Cuba since before the 1959 revolution sailed into Havana Bay on Monday, where it was greeted by a Cuban Navy band playing “God Save the Queen.”

– Daily Telegraph – Scrapping Britain’s flagship aircraft carrier made no financial sense and leaves the Falkland Islands vulnerable to a new attack, former senior Navy commanders have claimed.

– BBC – The Royal Navy’s newest and largest attack submarine HMS Astute has run aground off Skye, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed.

– Daily Telegraph – The Royal Navy is set to lose its ability to fly combat jets off aircraft carriers for the next 26 years under the defence cuts to be announced today.

– Daily Telegraph – One of the Navy’s new £3 billion aircraft carriers will never carry aircraft and will sail for only three years before being mothballed and possibly sold, ministers will announce on Tuesday.

– Daily Telegraph – French and American fighter jets will use British Navy aircraft carriers as budget cutbacks trim the Armed Forces, the Defence Secretary Liam Fox has suggested.

– BBC – A gang of drug smugglers with cocaine worth £16.8m have been caught by a Royal Navy warship in the Caribbean.

– Daily Telegraph – The president of Argentina has described the Royal Navy as pirates and accused the British government of behaving like an imperial power with regard to the Falkland Islands.

– Daily Telegraph – The Royal Navy is set to be reduced to the smallest size in its history after admirals yesterday offered drastic reductions in the fleet in order to save two new aircraft carriers from defence cuts.

– Defense Technology International – One of the big issues the U.K. government appears to be wrestling with in its Strategic Defense and Security Review is whether to cut the planned buy of two aircraft carriers and, if it does so, whether to retain one or none.

– Daily Telegraph – At the heart of rows over the defence review is the cost of equipment – but a balanced Navy, led by new aircraft carriers, could help preserve Britain’s standing in the world

– BBC – The BBC has been given exclusive access on board the Royal Navy’s newest and largest attack submarine at the Royal Navy base on the Clyde in western Scotland.