– USNI Proceedings – The first installment of Professor James Holmes’ new regular column “Strategy Matters”.

– USNI News – In the high latitudes, where presence increasingly equals power, the U.S. Coast Guard shoulders much of today’s mission load. But experts think the Arleigh Burke destroyers of the future could share the operational burden.

– Defense News – The command in charge of U.S. military logistics worldwide on Tuesday triggered one the largest surges of its aging sealift ships in decades, a critical test of the country’s ability to move heavy equipment overseas in the event of a major conflict.

– USNI News – General Dynamics Electric Boat broke ground on a Columbia-class submarine assembly facility at its Groton yard on Friday, kicking off one of the final facilities improvement projects the company needs ahead of a massive increase in submarine construction work in the coming decades.

– National Interest – They’re cheap, defensible, and punch above their weight in the right setting—what’s not to love?

– National Interest – Over at The Drive, the redoubtable Tyler Rogoway relates the feel-good story of the summer, an instant classic: the defense firm BAE Systems says it has developed an “adaptable deck launcher” (ADL) that can be bolted onto any ship of war with deck space to spare. Weaponeers can load up the four-cell launcher with the same missile canisters used in the Mk 41 vertical launch system (VLS), the standard launcher installed aboard U.S. Navy cruisers and destroyers and ships from a handful of allied navies. BAE’s add-on deck launcher is a mundane piece of kit with strategic promise.

– USNI News – The Royal Navy’s metamorphosis from a provider of lone warships to the world’s maritime hotspots into a service deploying carrier strike and amphibious task groups will be accompanied by an equally transformation in command and control (C2).

– USNI News – The U.S. Marine Corps has been refining a pair of related concepts, Expeditionary Advance Base Operations (EABO) and the overarching Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment, for the past couple years.

– War Zone – The unit will now begin training aircrews to make use of the plane’s new capabilities ahead of plans to begin converting operational units next year.

– USNI News – Surface escorts from the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group left their homeports today to kick off an overseas deployment…Aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) did not.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy will try to prevent Skynet — the fictional intelligence computer network that attempts to destroy humanity in the “Terminator” series — from becoming a reality as it continues efforts to field evermore capable robots.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy has achieved a major milestone in its efforts to autonomously combat one of the most persistent threats it faces.

– USNI News – The Navy has a more straightforward path to developing and fielding unmanned surface vessels than many critics realize, according to the admiral in charge of building them.

– CIMSEC – The following is adapted from remarks delivered at the annual CIMSEC Forum for Authors and Readers, covering the “How the Fleet Forgot to Fight” article series.

– National Interest – Those pesky carrier-killer missiles, new detection methods that can ‘unsteatlh submarines’ and other threats loom large. Is the age of warships, submarines and aircraft carriers over?

– USNI News – With both variants of the Littoral Combat Ship in serial production at two yards and those ships now kicking off an enduring multi-ship overseas presence, the Navy is turning its focus to increasing the lethality and survivability of the hulls.

– USNI News – Five years from now, there may be as many Littoral Combat Ships deployed as there are destroyers.

– Defense News – It can travel more than 100 nautical miles, passively detect an enemy through imaging stored in its computer brain, and can kill a target so precisely that an operator can tell it to aim for a specific point on the ship – the engine room or the bridge, for example. And it’s heading to China’s stomping grounds.

– USNI News – As the Navy continues to inject more live, virtual and constructive events to prepare ships’ crews to defeat potential threats, surface warfare training officials are looking to add more realistic adversaries and tougher scenarios via virtual training.

– USNI News – After less than two years forward-deployed, big deck amphib USS Wasp (LHD-1) has left Japan.

– USNI News – The head of the Navy’s surface force is pushing the fleet to be more ready for high-end combat, both in the skills of the crew and the material condition of the ships.

– USNI News – Aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) is experiencing a malfunction of the ship’s electrical distribution system ahead of an expected deployment this fall.

– War Zone – The mysterious modular system with a peculiar past is designated AN/SLQ-59 and has been quietly deployed on Asia-based U.S. surface combatants.

– National Interest – Over the years it’s become commonplace for writers to sex up their descriptions of guided-missile destroyer (DDG) Zumwalt, the U.S. Navy’s newest surface combatant. Commentators of such leanings depict the ultra-high-tech DDG-1000 as a battleship. Better yet, it’s a “stealth battleship”—a fit subject for sci-fi! Not so.

– National Interest – How can the U.S. Navy prolong the relevance of its big-deck aircraft carriers amid increasingly menacing surroundings?