– CIMSEC – Part Two focuses on problems that arise once submariners find time to train, both in their homeports and while deployed. Those problems include limited trainer (simulator) availability and extensive administrative burdens placed on deployed submarines.

– USNI Proceedings – The Zumwalt class represents many breakthroughs for the Navy, most conspicuously for hull and deckhouse design, but also for sensors, weapons, and computing infrastructure. On the systems side, the most decisive step forward is the introduction of an integrated electric drive (IED) power and propulsion architecture for a class of surface combatants.

– Defense News – When the destroyer Jack Lucas joins the U.S. Navy’s fleet in 2024, it will look similar to the 73 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers that preceded it. But it’s going to be a very different, more capable killer than its predecessors.

– War on the Rocks – To better aid its allies and partners, Washington should consider expanding its catalogue of peacetime maritime operations. Passive presence has proved inadequate. In some cases, American policymakers may need to place U.S. forces on the front lines, where they can play a more direct role helping other states counter China’s seaward expansion.

– War Zone – The service is looking for a system that launches interceptors at incoming missiles and could end up on more than half a dozen types of aircraft.

– Defense News – With a new National Defense Strategy from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that deemphasizes the war on terrorism and places emphasis on competition with China and Russia, the U.S. is rethinking how it uses its most recognizable and fearsome force-projection instrument: the aircraft carrier.

– BBC – The US Navy has said it will re-establish its Second Fleet, as Russia becomes more assertive, to oversee forces on the US East Coast and North Atlantic.

– USNI Blog – Containment succeeded in the Cold War. There is no reason a 21st-century version will not work just as well.

– Army Times – The Navy’s air boss announced that “Class C” ground mishaps in naval aviation have doubled in the past decade, and he’s made eliminating the mistakes his current No. 2 priority — behind the continued efforts to eliminate cockpit physiological episodes.

– Defense News – Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has made clear as the military’s top civilian that he has a very different vision for how the military will be used in the future. And recent comments have hinted at big changes on the horizon for the Navy and how it deploys.

– Defense News – Last year was a difficult one for Navy forces forward deployed to Japan.

– Defense News – A competition for a new over-the-horizon missile destined to give the Navy’s littoral combat ship some teeth is being looked at for the FFG(X) program.

– CIMSEC – The submarine force is highly capable but not near its full warfighting potential. Several factors limit submariners’ ability to prepare for safe deployments during peace and combat-effective operations during war.

– USNI Proceedings – Forward-deployed Navy submarines, ships, and aircraft can bring military force to bear on any potential enemy within a day’s time. But power projection alone is insufficient to prevent conflict.

– USNI Proceedings – The Navy must move toward a real ‘Single Naval Battle’ concept

– War Zone – The House Armed Service Committee wants the Navy to figure out a way to make sure there are 12 supercarriers in the fleet going into the mid 2020s.

– Asia Times – The man nominated to run the US Pacific Command spells out his plans to contain Beijing on a number of fronts, from the oceans to space.

– USNI News – The U.S. Navy’s Logistics Group Western Pacific/Task Force 73 is looking at new ways of using the Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF) ships for operations in the Indo-Pacific.

– Defense News – The nominee to be the next chief of the U.S. forces in the Pacific has called for an increase in U.S. forces from all three services stationed in the vital region, adding that China is now effectively able to control the South China Sea and challenge the U.S. presence in the region.

– USNI Proceedings – Looking for a way to raise the training bar and allow commanders to develop their warfighting creativity, Pacific Fleet has revived the interwar Fleet Problems.

– Defense News – In a break with recent history, the U.S. military is weighing whether to withhold the Truman Carrier Strike Group from deploying to the Middle East, opting instead to keep the carrier in the Mediterranean and the European theater…the move would be a response to Russian activities in the region and aligns with the new National Defense Strategy that calls on the military to be less operationally predictable.

– Defense News – Development issues with the Navy’s Advanced Gun System, destined to be one of the main armaments of DDG-1000, prompted the Navy to change Zumwalt into a ship killer, the Navy’s top requirements officers said Tuesday.

– War Zone – USS Bougainville (LHA-8) will be built with a well-deck unlike her two sister ships, but that’s just one of its unique features.

– USNI News – The Navy will execute a $21-billion, 20-year public shipyard optimization plan as a series of small projects that can be done even as maintenance work on submarines and aircraft carriers continues at the yards.

– War Zone – The service says a mix of less capable ships that are cheaper to operate might be better for future, distributed operations.