The War Zone – slender, partially covered naval ship that recently emerged in Washington state is the Defiant, a new medium-sized uncrewed surface vessel (USV) designed from the keel up to operate without any humans ever onboard. Developed under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) program, Defiant could be an important stepping stone for the U.S. Navy’s ambitions to add larger and more capable USVs to its fleets.

USNI News – The Black Sea has become the Navy’s laboratory for rehearsing and operationalizing the best ways to tie unmanned, robotic systems’ effects with the crewed fleet’s combat power and electronic warfare capabilities, the U.S.’s senior officer supporting Ukraine’s maritime operations said.

BBC – Even after years of rapid advances in Chinese military capabilities, the United States is still unrivalled in its capacity to project force anywhere around the world with its fleet of 11 super-carriers. But does a $13bn (£10bn) aircraft carrier which the latest Chinese missiles could sink in a matter of minutes make sense anymore – particularly in the age of Donald Trump?

Breaking Defense – Off the back of a $600 million Series C funding round, Saronic, the Texas-based defense startup company, announced today it plans to build a “next-generation shipyard” focused on producing unmanned and autonomous vessels, dubbed “Port Alpha.”

CIMSEC – Last summer, the academy hosted its second Naval Academy Warfighter-Centered Design (WCD) Challenge in partnership with the Naval Research and Development Establishment (NR&DE), and Naval Warfare Studies Institute (NWSI) at Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) to capture the talent and creativity of its graduates. Envisioned by Rear Admiral Lorin Selby, the WCD initiative seeks to “train people to think differently and challenge the current system.”¹ This year’s workshop included eleven USN Ensigns and two USMC Second Lieutenants with a broad range of academic majors including Electrical Computer Engineering, Weapons Robotics and Control, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, and Naval Architecture. Collectively, these students combined their academic experience to meet this year’s challenge, to develop low-cost solutions for offensive and defensive unmanned surface capabilities.

The War Zone – Here is what the squadron commander and program manager said about the EA-18G’s new AN/ALQ-249 jamming pods, which were thrust into combat last year.

War on the Rocks – It’s time warships move into the software-centric reality of the 21st century. Should their designs continue to center on humans and hardware, they will not evolve fast enough and – as a result — will become steel tombs.

National Interest – James Holmes says that the White House should appoint some senior overseer, probably housed within the National Security Council, with the authority to manage all U.S. government endeavors relating to maritime strategy.

CIMSEC – Educational wargaming is not merely an exercise in concept development in the upper reaches of command. It is a crucible for forging the decision-making skills, adaptability, and intellectual overmatch required for contemporary naval challenges in the earliest stages of a young officer’s development. Wargaming, particularly at the pre-commissioning level, transforms the learning experience by engaging participants in narrative-rich, synthetic environments that mimic the pressures of real-world decision-making. Drawing on historical precedents and recent innovations, we see a central role of wargaming in cultivating the next generation of naval leaders at the U.S. Naval Academy. 

The War Zone – The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) has helped develop an autonomous underwater float that can monitor and transmit oceanographic and underwater acoustic data near-indefinitely, and in near real-time. Known as the Persistent Smart Acoustic Profiler (PSAP) Voyager, it is powered by temperature differences in the ocean, providing enough energy to run its instrumentation for far longer than other non-wired undersea eavesdropping hydrophones currently in operation. Such an innovation could have big implications for undersea sensing and detection.

War on the Rocks – Decades of global policing and crisis response have taken a toll on the U.S. Navy. If the United States wishes to deter China, Beijing must believe Washington can fight a sustained, brutal war, one in which the U.S. Navy can take major losses and still fight on. Today, that is not the case, and the concept of “naval forward presence” bears much of the blame.

CIMSEC – An excellent series of short notes on what the new U.S. administration can consider to strengthen American naval power, reinforce alliances, and compete effectively against great powers. Authors examined a multitude of issues and offered recommendations for reform. From shipbuilding shortfalls to competing with China, to reinforcing alliances and strengthening logistics, the new administration faces many challenges and opportunities in the maritime domain. 

Naval News – Naval News catches up with Ledios Gibbs and Cox on their efforts to enhance logistics in the Indo-Pacific and speed up VLS reloading through the Mobile Depot Platform concept.

Breaking Defense – The three-month grounding of the Pentagon’s V-22 Osprey fleets last year had “considerable” impact on the Navy’s aviators and crews at a time when the service is transitioning to the Osprey as its primary aircraft for ferrying personnel and cargo.

The War Zone – The Ford is the only ship to have the full Dual Band Radar suite installed, and the Navy plans to replace it in the future.

Naval War College Review – A potential conflict in the western Pacific would entail the most challenging logistics and resupply task the U.S. Navy has faced in decades, possibly ever. Three possible approaches, making innovative use of new data and artificial intelligence tools, can guide investments and doctrine to prepare the joint force for that potential fight.

Center for Maritime Security – There is a time to pose questions, and there is a time to propose answers. Today requires that we do both in order that America’s non-military maritime industries flourish, for there can be no doubt that American shipbuilding has declined catastrophically since the end of the Korean War. Total output for this period, in terms of tonnage per year, has dropped by more than 85 percent. The reduction in American shipyards capable of building large vessels matches this decay. Without an adequate shipyard base and the maintenance of the myriad of correlated domestic industries, American naval supremacy is certain to be challenged.    

The War Zone – Arleigh Burke class Flight IIA destroyers were the air defense commanders for two carrier strike groups last year and plans are now underway to expand the practice.

The War Zone – The Navy wants ships to be able to launch decoys that are capable of luring away missiles for tens of minutes to help defend against incoming barrages.

The War Zone – Houthi attacks in the Red Sea prompted the Navy to rush the counter-drone Hellfire capability to the Freedom class LCS.

The War Zone – After spending years charting a way forward to a family of unmanned surface vessels in a specific array of sizes and configurations, the Navy is eyeing a major course alteration that would see it pursuing a simpler and more interchangeable design. According to Rear Adm. William Daly, head of the Navy’s surface warfare division (N96), the wish list is now simple: he wants to amass a large number of these unmanned boats quickly and equip them with payloads that fit in common containers and are designed to confuse the enemy.

The War Zone – Such a reality, and its implications for a war with China, are driving the development of the Transferrable Reload At-sea Method used to reload missiles underway.

Breaking Defense – A senior Navy officer overseeing the service’s investments into unmanned surface vehicles says he’s “skeptical” of fielding the Large Unmanned Surface Vessel.

The War Zone – The Navy’s head of surface warfare says DDG(X) is a “clean-sheet imperative” that will prioritize electricity production, endurance and advanced weapons.

Breaking Defense – A top Navy fleet commander says the service should be “embarrassed” by the fact it hasn’t managed yet to scale directed energy weapons onboard its ships despite having experimented with the technology since the Reagan administration.