– US Naval Institute Proceedings – The Red Team speaks…

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Victory in World War II was achieved because of that generation’s ability to radically alter its pre-war concept of operations, training, and personnel when faced with wartime realities that the U.S. Navy had not anticipated prior to December 1941. Submarine sailors and officers overcame the fact that the Navy leadership wasted the 1930s focused on the wrong missions and combat environment. Despite the timeless lesson of preparing in peace for future wartime operations, today’s submarine force is committing a similar error, albeit for different reasons. The current demand for peacetime submarine intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) operations is degrading wartime preparedness for a near-peer naval competitor such as China.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Thinking outside the paradigms of hull shapes and numbers of ships can lead to some interesting concepts for fleet design. First and foremost, modern naval warfare is all about missiles.

– CIMSEC – An interview with Captain John Watkins, the first commanding officer of the Naval Information Warfighting Development Center (NIWDC).

– Breaking Defense – The Navy needs more new strike fighters to cope with falling readiness rates. Will they be Super Hornets, F-35s or Block III Super Hornets? What mix does the US Navy need as it grapples with boosting the size of the fleet to 355 ships? And what about the MQ-25 Stingray? Should it be a tanker or a bomber or change over time?

– BBC – A US Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet has shot down a Syrian military plane in Raqqa province.

– USNI News – Studies are underway to “take a hard look” at putting eight mothballed Oliver Hazard Perry frigates back into service as well as extending the life of existing Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyers to help the Navy reach its goal of a 355-ship fleet

– BBC – Seven US Navy crew members are missing after their ship collided with a merchant vessel off the coast of Japan.

– USNI News – USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) and USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) will be the first two carriers to field the Navy’s MQ-25A Stingray unmanned aerial refueling tanker.

– Virginian Pilot – The newest and costliest U.S. aircraft carrier, praised by President Donald Trump and delivered to the Navy on May 31 with fanfare, has been dogged by trouble with fundamentals: launching jets from its deck and catching them when they land.

– Virginian Pilot – The systems used to generate oxygen aboard the Navy’s fighter jets need to be redesigned because they aren’t consistently providing pilots with high-quality breathing air, which can lead to an oxygen-deprivation condition known as hypoxia, according to a report released Thursday.

– War Zone – The Zumwalt’s interior spaces are remarkably uncluttered and spacious for a Navy surface combatant.

– Defense News – U.S. Marines based out of Norway, another Marine expeditionary unit operating from Sicily. U.S. submarines forward-deployed to Scotland, littoral combat ships in the Mediterranean. Supply ships, fleet oilers and amphibious ships armed with cruise missiles. A third aviation-centered assault ship. More networked connectivity. Those are just some of the changes and enhancements proposed by the new iNavy concept – i for Improved Navy — a set of force enhancements that, according to its proponents, can be implemented over the next five years to make the existing fleet more lethal and effective.

– CIMSEC – A conversation with Ray Mabus, former Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV), to talk about his experience leading the Navy.

– The War Zone – Bringing back its last operational conventionally powered supercarrier would help the Navy make its 12 carrier fleet goal a reality.

– USNI News – Fifty ships set sail in the Baltic Sea this week for the annual NATO exercise Baltic Operations (BALTOPS), with this year’s event including a larger aviation component and a larger adversary “red force” in the hopes of creating a realistic scenario for high-end warfare in Europe.

– AP – Around 4,000 U.S. and European troops from 14 nations took part in the annual Baltic Operations navy exercise that opened Thursday in Poland’s Baltic Sea port of Szczecin. The 45th edition of the so-called BALTOPS exercise involves maritime, air and ground forces with about 50 ships and submarines and over 50 aircraft, and will run through June 16.

– War Zone – The U.S. Navy is leading developing a new 155mm artillery round capable of destroying moving targets on land or at sea that could end up in use across three services, including the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. More importantly, the precision munitions will not use GPS, making them useful even in GPS denied environments.

– National Interest – The P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol plane may not be as sexy as an F-35 stealth fighter, but in some ways it is far closer to the forefront of international flashpoints in the Pacific Ocean. Maritime patrol planes are essential for tracking the movement of ships and especially submarines across vast oceanic waters—and potentially sinking them in the event of hostilities.

– Defense News – Lockheed Martin, frustrated by changing requirements the company feels are skewed to a particular competitor, is dropping out of the U.S. Navy’s over-the-horizon missile program intended to give a lethal capability to littoral combat ships and frigates.

– US Naval Institute Blog – As the environment in the Arctic changes, the Navy plans to take deliberate action to increase its operations in the region.

– Breaking Defense – Despite his campaign pledge of a 350-ship fleet, President Trump’s first budget cuts Navy shipbuilding and aircraft procurement below what was enacted in 2017, documents released today reveal. Despite Trump’s criticism of President Obama’s defense plans, this budget sticks with Obama’s shipbuilding plan for 2018: eight ships.

– USNI News – Since the last Pentagon budget request 15 months ago there’s been a presidential election, a seven-month continuing resolution, a supplemental spending bill, promises from the new administration for a military spending spree, vows from inside the Pentagon to rebuild readiness and multiple studies looking at what a future naval fleet should look like.

In the churn leading up to this week’s release of the Fiscal Year 2018 budget request to Congress, questions still remain on the Navy’s acquisition and readiness plans. The following is a list of important policy and acquisition issues that Navy officials have declined to comment on but have assured USNI News and the public that answers would be found in the budget request.

– National Interest – With current technology, even a 355-ship United States Navy will not be sufficient to meet the threats of tomorrow. Indeed, the conclusion of a new Navy white paper authored by the chief of naval operations is that not only will tomorrow’s fleet have to be larger, it will have to become far more capable far more quickly than any of the recent fleet design studies have indicated.

– Breaking Defense – All hands, brace for disappointment. The president’s promised naval buildup won’t begin in the 2018 budget out next week — or maybe ever.