– Defense News – The U.S. Navy is convinced that the next generation of ships will need to integrate lasers, electromagnetic rail guns and other power-hungry weapons and sensors to take on peer competitors in the coming decades. However, integrating futuristic technologies onto existing platforms, even on some of the newer ships with plenty of excess power capacity, will still be an incredibly difficult engineering challenge, experts say.

– Defense News – Twelve years since the 2006 crisis on the Korean peninsula, the BMD threat has multiplied just as the Pentagon predicted it would but other threats have also cropped up. The threat from a resurgent Russia and rising China – which is cranking out ships like it’s preparing for war – have put enormous pressure on the now-aging fleet and standing requirements for BMD patrols have put increasing strain on its surface ships.

– National Interest – Rebranding the Pacific Command represents an effort to recast how military folk assigned to the command regard their theater and how to manage it.

– Defense News – The Navy’s front-line combatants ― cruisers and destroyers ― are incredibly expensive to upgrade, in part because one must cut open the ship and remove fixtures that were intended to be permanent when they were installed.

– Popular Mechanics – The submarine, never built, would have been smaller than other subs and a mothership to drones.

– Breaking Defense – Instead of growing from 284 ships now to 355 in 2052-2055, the timeframe officials cited in the past, the Navy could reach its goal in 2032-2035, said Vice Adm. Thomas Moore, chief of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA).

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy’s top officer wants to end standing ballistic missile defense patrols and transfer the mission to shore-based assets.

– CIMSEC – Great power competition has clearly returned. But nontraditional issues have retained their relevance, with great powers using them as strategic facilitators in their quest to gain marginal advantages. In this international environment, the sea has retained its unbroken importance. The overwhelming majority of humankind’s physical trade is still transported on maritime highways, while the geography of contemporary global flashpoints, and the ambitions of great powers and nonstate actors, makes the sea central to international competition.

– War on the Rocks – The U.S. Navy is investing real money to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into the force, requesting $62.5 million in the FY19 Defense Department budget for AI and rapid prototyping.

– USNI News – Amphibious warship USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) crossed into the Persian Gulf this week, returning a U.S. Navy capital ship to the region for the first time since late March.

– CIMSEC – The challenge facing the United States is building a 21st century navy, operating in 19th century-styled great power competition, and upholding a 20th century world order while urrently led by an administration which seems to challenge the foundation of that very order.

– CIMSEC – The recently released U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) and National Defense Strategy (NDS) have major implications for maritime security.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy, aiming to make its attack submarines even more stealthy and lethal at extended ranges, took a big step forward with a contract announcement Tuesday.

– Defense News – Courtesy of BAE Systems, some Virginia-class submarines will be able to pack a bigger punch. The U.S. Navy has granted a contract to British company to produce payload tubes for two of the service’s Block V Virginia-class subs. Each will be extended in length with an additional mid-body section to create additional room for payloads and, in turn, for greater firepower.

– National Interest – Arrhythmic operating patterns will help the sea services wrest the initiative from prospective foes, knocking them off-balance to American advantage.

– War Zone – Details surrounding the Navy’s Sea Dragon program remain scarce, but there are some distinct possibilities.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy is considering extending the service life of all its ships by at least seven years, and could stretch the life of some ships by 13 years.

– Defense News – A three-month internal review conducted by senior U.S. surface fleet leaders found that nearly 85 percent of its junior officers had either some or significant concerns in ship handling and that many struggled to react decisively to extricate their ship from danger when there was an immediate risk of collision, according to an internal message obtained by Defense News.

– USNI News – The annual Baltic Operations exercise is underway for the 46th time, continuing last year’s priorities of increasing the integration of aircraft and ships and boosting the difficulty of the free-play phase that concludes the exercise.

– Reuters – The United States is considering sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait, U.S. officials say, in a move that could provoke a sharp reaction from Beijing at a time when Sino-U.S. ties are under pressure from trade disputes and the North Korean nuclear crisis.

– War Zone – We finally have high-quality images of the entire ship in its completed state.

– USNI News – The Norwegian-designed Naval Strike Missile has been officially selected to serve as the Littoral Combat Ship’s over-the-horizon anti-ship weapon.

– Breaking Defense – The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) John Richardson made a major organizational announcement with major strategic implications when he announced the Navy would re-establish the Second Fleet, which covers the Atlantic. But that would, so far, only mean adding 250 people to the command. Without making larger strategic changes, that is not enough.

– Defense News – The Tomahawk cruise missile is one of the most effective and highly utilized weapons in the U.S. arsenal – and we have decided to stop producing them.

– USNI Proceedings – A fleet is the Navy’s essential fighting element, our central contribution to the joint fight and to the nation’s defense.