– War Zone – The ability to fight and win in the high-stakes game of undersea warfare is all about the art of listening. Here’s how it’s done.

– Naval News – The United States Special Forces Command’s (USSOCOM) miniature wet and dry submersibles are progressing as planned despite some program delays related to the Coronavirus pandemic.

– CIMSEC – Do the regular functions of the sea services figure in U.S. national strategy, and if not, what must they do to adapt to competition? In so answering that question, we can gain a deeper insight into what it means to compete more fundamentally in the modern era.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy Saturday commissioned its latest littoral combat ship amid a top-level push to fix the ship’s nagging reliability issues and forge a path to make the small surface combatants useful in the years ahead.

– USNI Proceedings – A major test of U.S. power is coming, and the nation’s military must prepare.

– National Interest – James Holmes asks what should naval architects incorporate into a design to guarantee its longevity amid change? Versatility should be their watchword. It’s possible to experiment with versatile hulls—subtracting, adding, or recombining sensors, weapons, and embarked aircraft to keep the ship combat-relevant in a variety of circumstances.

– Heritage Foundation – A strong Navy has been a bedrock of U.S. national security, as well as an assurance of American prosperity through secure trade. To ensure that this remains the case, the nation urgently needs to build, train, and sustain a Navy that can effectively compete in peacetime and win in war. Several years of scandals and dwindling preparedness have reduced the Navy’s effectiveness. The challenges confronting the nation from China and Russia are intensifying. If the Navy is left unreformed, these are challenges that the Navy will struggle to meet.

– War on the Rocks – As the U.S. Navy waits for the smoke to clear onboard USS Bonhomme Richard, naval experts and sailors around the world ask the same thing: “Again?”

– The Hill – James Holmes writes that…turnabout is fair play in diplomacy and warfare. PLA commanders can try to deny the U.S. armed forces access to Western Pacific seas, skies and shores all they like. But American commanders can reciprocate if they apply intellect and material resources to this strategic problem, and do so with imagination and verve.

– CIMSEC – In April of this year, the U.S. Navy, U.S Marine Corps, and U.S. Coast Guard (collectively, the U.S. Naval Service) jointly published the latest version of Naval Doctrine Publication 1: Naval Warfare, superseding the previous version released in 2010. The difference between the two documents is stark, and indicates a change over the last ten years in the way the United States views naval warfare – simultaneously reaching back to its historical roots, while also looking over the horizon to future conflicts.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy’s path to 355 ships was unrealistic, prompting the Pentagon to delay the release of the Navy’s annual 30-year shipbuilding plan, the presumptive incoming head of the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s in-house think tank told Senate lawmakers Tuesday.

– National Interest – In a sense the U.S. military could take advantage of role reversal in the Arctic, making the theater a laboratory for anti-access American style. Hostile forces may operate off U.S. seacoasts and will need managing if so. Fielding armaments able to reach out from land in concert with seagoing forces, and devising and practicing the necessary joint tactics, could let U.S. commanders glimpse the methods deployed by red teams around the world. And getting in the red team’s mind is a crucial step toward defeating it.

– Washington Post – David Ignatius opines on the current state of the US Navy.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy is taking major steps in an attempt to shake off years of false starts and setbacks with the Littoral Combat Ship program, an effort Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday said he’d oversee on his watch.

– The Diplomat – The new ocean surveillance ships are expected to begin entering the fleet in 2025.

– War Zone – We go in-depth with the Navy’s Super Hornet program manager on the new sensor’s capabilities, genesis, and how it ended up mounted on a fuel tank.

– USNI News – Expeditionary Sea Base USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB-4) kicked off its first deployment today, leaving Virginia for an extended deployment primarily to U.S. Africa Command.

– War Zone – The dazzler helps defend submarines when they are at their most vulnerable when traversing tight waterways while surfaced.

– Defense News – U.S. Navy brass is telling sailors and contractors to put fire safety at the center of their work in the shipyards and on the waterfront in the wake of a catastrophic fire aboard the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard.

– USNI Proceedings – The Navy should follow the example of Admiral Joseph Reeves’ development of carrier aviation to rapidly innovate and deploy unmanned systems for future wars.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy is over the halfway mark in certifying the new aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford’s 11 advanced weapons elevators, which have been at the center of an ongoing controversy over delays in getting the Navy’s most expensive-ever warship ready for its first deployment.

– Defense News – A series of explosions and a 1,200-degree inferno damaged 11 of the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard’s 14 decks, according to a summary of the damage by the U.S. Navy’s top officer.

– USNI News – The head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command told reporters today he wants the Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense system to bolster the defense of Guam from Chinese missiles.

– USNI News – The Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group is now operating alongside Australian and Japanese forces in the Philippine Sea in a large trilateral exercise involving nine ships, a carrier air wing and other aircraft.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy’s top officer has ordered his staff to develop a comprehensive strategy to field unmanned systems in the air, on the water and under the sea over the coming years.