– Defense News – Bright yellow underwater drones were a visible highlight on the exhibition floor here at the Sea-Air-Space Exposition. Among the autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) featured: a new high-speed, micro-sized vehicle by Hydroid and a subsea drone refueling station by Teledyne Energy.

– Defense News – Seven months have passed since 10 of McCain’s sailors were killed in a preventable collision, a loss made all the more shocking by the fact that it came just a few weeks after a collision between the destroyer Fitzgerald and a container ship claimed seven lives. While much work and many months lie ahead before McCain will go back in the water and on patrol in the Pacific, the wound in her port side is being healed. Seventh Fleet is healing as well.

– CIMSEC – Now is the time for every agency, department, and service in the executive branch to ask itself hard questions and consider decisive change.

– USNI News – After years of requirements churn and program uncertainty, the signal to companies vying to build the Navy’s first operational unmanned carrier aircraft is crystal clear: the Navy wants the MQ-25A Stingray as soon as possible.

– Defense News – It could be several years before the Navy can deploy persistent, around-the-clock surveillance using its new high-flying surveillance drone.

– Defense News – The long awaited upgrade of Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter with weapons remains effectively on hold as the Navy determines what munitions the littoral combat ship will carry in its armory going forward.

– USNI News – nvestigations into a recent string of fatal aviation mishaps across the joint force are ongoing, but Navy and Marine Corps leaders said the spate of events clearly points to an overworked force.

– War Zone – Boeing’s MQ-25 has a classically problematic but low-observable flush-mounted intake, yet there are no low-observable requirements for the program.

– Defense News – The vice chief of naval operations had to see the issues for himself…What the sailors here told Adm. Bill Moran during a February visit would sound familiar to those who have followed the issue: long waits for spare parts, contracting delays, and the increasingly complex problems associated with maintaining aircraft that have well exceeded their planned flying hours.

– Defense News – The Block III Super Hornet is getting a marginal increase in stealth capability, but if you’re expecting the invisible aircraft of President Donald Trump’s dreams, think again.

– Defense News – The U.S. surface fleet is setting its sights on restoring readiness, an effort led by a new boss who is laser-focused on a force that was twice battered in 2017 by deadly collisions in the Pacific.

– War Zone – There’s plenty of paid for S-3s that can be converted to do the job and a dedicated Viking tanker variant has already been engineered and flown.

– War on the Rocks – The Trump administration has offered a strong vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific, but without a bold set of policy and budget initiatives to make it real, it risks becoming yet another empty concept.

– Army Times – Boeing is expecting an important delivery this week: the arrival of the first Super Hornet slated to undergo a service life extension at the company’s production line in St. Louis, Missouri. The work will kick off a decade long “service life modification” effort that will increase the lifespan of the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18E/F aircraft from 6,000 to 9,000 flight hours, but also transform them into the newest Block III configuration.

– USNI News – U.S. 5th Fleet is experimenting with one of the Navy’s newest warships with a mission to support amphibious, special forces and mine countermeasures operations at sea. USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB-3) is the Navy’s first purpose-built expeditionary sea base in decades, and sailors and Marines are hard at work learning how to innovate with a wide cross-section of U.S. and international military partners.

– War Zone – The famed drone manufacturer has come out with an impressive, no-nonsense flying gas truck. But will the lack of a prototype hurt its chances?

– War Zone – The aptly named ATARI system could help out during emergencies and other contingencies and might be important for future carrier drone operations.

– National Interest – Why did it take a series of shipboard disasters to jolt the U.S. Navy into reforming the training regimen?

– War Zone – It’s unlikely that the service won’t push ahead with the upgrades, but the weapons still reflect the watering down of the ships’ capabilities.

– War Zone – Since February 2018, the essentially unmarked surveillance aircraft has been flying orbits over the East China Sea between North Korea and China.

– War Zone – Lockheed’s flying-wing ‘Stingray’ drone is said to be largely a clean sheet design, and that could help or hurt its chances of winning.

– USNI News – After years of discussing and wargaming how the Navy would handle a fight against a peer or near-peer competitor, the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group had a unique opportunity to practice a high-end fight at the start of its deployment.

– War on the Rocks – What happens when the U.S. Navy’s force structure planning is built on strategic assumptions that are superseded by a change in the Oval Office? In the case of the U.S. Navy, the right answer is to conduct a new force structure assessment, and the Trump administration’s recent release of overarching strategic guidance created a question as to whether the Navy would do so. Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfare Systems Vice Adm. William Merz answered that question recently while testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, revealing that the Navy would perform an updated force structure assessment in response to the new National Defense Strategy.

– CIMSEC – The American maritime shipping industry is one of the most vulnerable critical infrastructures (CI) to ransomware and other forms of cybercrime.

– USNI News – The rollback of ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria and changes in how Iran operates in the Persian Gulf are prompting the U.S. Navy to evolve how it operates its carrier strike groups in the Middle East. In the Gulf, the ships and aircraft that operate close to USS Theodore Roosevelt have seen harassment from Iranian fast attack craft cease but the threat from Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles grow to a daily concern.