– USNI News – Houthi forces have captured a U.S. Navy research unmanned underwater vehicle off the coast of Yemen.

– Defense News – Chris Cavas opines that the U.S. Navy begins the new year in crisis. By its own admission many of its ships and aircraft are in poor condition. Training is not where it should be, its ships can’t maneuver properly around other ships, and Navy leaders for years have complained the service is overstretched, constantly struggling to meet requirements and falling short in any number of areas. It is by no means clear that new ideas and concepts are being implemented to counter ever-growing military rivals.

– National Interest – Want an intellectually inert U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard? Fine: stifle the free interplay of ideas and views on campus, and within the sea.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – When is the United States going to do the killing necessary to beat its terrorist enemies or eliminate them entirely?

– Breaking Defense – the pros and cons of the Navy’s Strategic Readiness Review.

– CIMSEC – A conversation with Bill Harlow, a former intelligence community spokesman, about his work in strategic communications in the armed forces. He talks about the public affairs career track in the military, his experience at all levels of government, and how that experience informs the civilian work he does today.

– ABC – Retired Cmdr. David Fravor spent 18 years as a Navy pilot, but nothing prepared him for what he witnessed during a routine training mission on Nov. 14, 2004. “I can tell you, I think it was not from this world,” Fravor told ABC News. “I’m not crazy, haven’t been drinking. It was — after 18 years of flying, I’ve seen pretty much about everything that I can see in that realm, and this was nothing close.”

– Breaking Defense – Navy Secretary Richard Spencer wants to change the law that’s governed the armed forces since 1986, the Goldwater-Nichols Act, to restore more autonomy to the services.

– Defense News – Achieving a 355-ship Navy is now national policy, but the goal is still a long way off.

– USNI News – The Navy won’t reactivate any Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates in support of operations in U.S. Southern Command, according to an internal service memo obtained by USNI News. Instead, the service will support SOUTHCOM’s anti-trafficking missions with Littoral Combat Ships and Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transports (T-EPF) through a commitment to support the Joint Interagency Task Force South by next year

– San Diego Union Tribune – When the littoral combat ship Coronado sailed into San Diego last week after its maiden deployment to the Far East, controversy followed in its wake.

– War Zone – The disposable unmanned aircraft could then covertly launch electronic electronic attacks, spy on the enemy, and more.

– Breaking Defense – The US surface fleet may not be adequately trained for high-intensity combat, four experienced former skippers and the former deputy secretary of defense warned a US Naval Institute conference here on Monday.

– CIMSEC – The littoral combat ship USS Coronado, upon recent completion of its 14-month Indo-Asia-Pacific stint, marks the conclusion of the U.S. Navy’s third LCS rotational deployment to the region.

– USNI News – The Navy is revamping the Zumwalt-class destroyer’s requirements and will morph it into a focused surface strike platform.

– Defense News – Despite the performance of the venerable ALQ-99 — the legacy standoff jamming pod mounted to the Navy’s EA-18G Growler aerial electronic attack platform — the nature of the threats today are such that the pod needed a substantial upgrade. The upgrade is so significant, the Navy is awarding the contract in three “bands” that will lead to multiple pods under the “Next-Gen Jammer” (NGJ) development program.

– War Zone – A C-2 pilot describes how the workhorse Greyhound we know today was a very finicky and neglected aircraft years ago.

– Breaking Defense – Even as the Navy solicits designs for its future frigate, it is ardently defending its current Littoral Combat Ship.

– National Interest – What madman would propose adding diesel submarines to the U.S. Navy’s all-nuclear silent service? There are a few…

– USNI News – The U.S. Navy is planning to enhance naval engagement with nations across South and Southeast Asia next year.

– USNI News – The Navy’s Undersea Rescue Command received the call and for the first time in a dozen years members were quickly loading equipment onto planes readying for a real-life rescue mission in Argentina.

– War Zone – Amid recent concurrency blunders, the service will purchase just four of the unmanned aircraft up front.

– Naval History – To maximize the growth of strategic thought in the present-day Navy, the service should turn to practices that proved successful between the two world wars.

– Breaking Defense – Sure, American industry can build the 355-ship fleet both Trump and the admirals want, three former Navy Secretaries said today.

– War on the Rocks – How should the U.S. military respond to China’s A2/AD capabilities? A new strategy proposes the United States would abandon efforts to command maritime East Asia outright and, instead, focus on helping the countries around the East and South China Seas deny China sea and air control in the region.