CIMSEC – Admiral Caudle’s first message to the fleet outlined three priorities: the Foundry; the Fleet and the way we Fight. These priorities cannot be realized without acknowledging the simple fact that the next war at sea will be decided first in space. Ships and Sailors operating inside lethal weapons engagement zones (WEZs) cannot survive against China’s massed, over-the-horizon precision fires unless the Navy treats space operations and Counter-C5ISRT (C-C5ISRT) as foundational, not auxiliary, to naval warfare.

USNI News – USS Stockdale (DDG-106) is now operating in the Caribbean alongside seven U.S. Navy surface warships as part of the Trump Administration’s homeland security effort.

War on the Rocks – The South China Sea is one of the most contested maritime areas in the world. Smaller countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia face increasing pressure from an assertive and militarily powerful People’s Republic of China due to overlapping sovereignty claims and critical trade routes. Beijing’s maritime power projection threatens regional sovereignty and economic rights under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea through its militarization of artificial islands, aggressive maritime activities, and widespread illegal fishing. To address this imbalance, claimant states should adopt asymmetric strategies that improve maritime domain awareness, defend exclusive economic zones, and impose costs on unlawful actions. One such approach is the development of maritime outposts, inspired by the Philippines’ Fort Drum in Manila Bay.

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CIMSEC – Navy thinkers have already laid the intellectual groundwork for aggressive change. Senior leaders now need to follow through with equally radical actions.

Center for Maritime Strategy – Safety of navigation is not the priority. It’s the minimum. The surface warfare community’s narrow approach to navigation and seamanship training rewards risk-avoidance instead of risk-mitigation and prevents naval officers from mastering the skills needed for their primary duty—waging war at sea.

National Interest – James Holmes writes that all in all, the expansion of USV use is a promising experiment that could ameliorate the US Navy’s force-structure woes—while amplifying US fleets’ combat power in a hurry. 

The War Zone – In 2004, the Navy disposed of the former Naval Station Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico, but current events have seen it awaken once again.

CIMSEC – Naval mines need a new kind of delivery platform, specifically by either rocket or missile. Mine missiles will be used here to describe this delivery method and differentiate it from rocket-propelled naval mines activated after deployment, like the Chinese EM-52/T-1.

CIMSEC – In March 2025 testimony before the House Armed Services Committee’s Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, Ronald O’Rourke, naval analyst for the Congressional Research Service since 1984, sharpened an excellent recommendation he has raised over more than a decade: the U.S. Navy should establish a dedicated institutional mechanism for systematically capturing, analyzing, and transmitting lessons learned from its shipbuilding programs.

The War Zone – The Navy just issued a flurry of drone contracts even though it has said it would take a ‘wait and see’ approach on Collaborative Combat Aircraft.

CIMSEC – A fundamental problem facing the US military is that the services have fielded capable, long-range missile systems, but only possesses limited deep-reach Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting (ISRT) capabilities, limiting the effective employment of long-range missile systems. The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and Air Force/Space Force are developing satellite ISRT constellations to address the problem, but the services need to use a ‘Maritime Strike System of Systems’ approach to address the true functionality of US maritime strike capability.

CIMSEC – As the U.S. Navy pivots toward preparing for high-end maritime conflict, the SWO community must ask itself a difficult question – Are we allocating our limited time to develop the warfighters we need, or are we clinging to legacy requirements that no longer align with the modern threat environment?

National Interest – James Holmes writes that rather than trying to emulate China’s hostile and aggressive communications strategy during disputes in the Indo-Pacific, US Navy leaders should poke fun at it.

CIMSEC – A protracted war between the United States and China would demand immense quantities of munitions and would require the industrial base to grow to meet these demands. This is industrial mobilization, a topic the nation has not seriously considered since the end of the Cold War. Given this lapse in focus, it is only natural to look to the nation’s last major mobilization for great power war, World War II, as a model for the future.

The War Zone – The White House calls Venezuelan ruler Maduro a “narco-terrorist” and is deploying ships, planes and Marines in a major show of force.

USNI News – A fire that burned for 12 hours aboard the amphibious warship USS New Orleans (LPD-18) off Okinawa, Japan, was declared extinguished early Thursday morning local time, U.S. 7th Fleet announced.

Navy Lookout – The US Navy’s Zumwalt-class destroyer programme appeared at one stage to be a technical over-reach leading to an expensive dead end. Instead, they are now being repurposed to carry the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) hypersonic missile system. Here, we examine the progress, challenges, and strategic implications of equipping these futuristic warships with hypersonic strike capabilities.

Naval News – The US Navy has revealed the latest steps in its effort to fast-track the build of a new fleet of Medium Landing Ships (LSM) vessels based on off-the-shelf blueprints.

USNI News – The Navy is placing less weight on optionally manned surface vehicles as it refines requirements for a new type of vessel that will support the surface fleet.

The War Zone – The USX-1 Defiant is getting closer to embarking on a key long-endurance cruise that could have important ramifications for the U.S. Navy.

The War Zone – The Navy says it’s rushing to install Coyote and Roadrunner-M interceptors on some Arleigh Burke destroyers amid the growing drone threat.

Navy Lookout – On 28th July, the US Navy issued an urgent requirement to industry for a new class of modular, medium to large-sized Uncrewed Surface Vessels. This is not another experimental project but a funded, credible and determined drive to add mass and lethality to an over-stretched fleet.

The War Zone – The Navy’s plans for a family of MASC drone vessels are centered on containerized missile launchers and sensor packages.

Center for Maritime Strategy – The emergence of peer competition and the increase of adversarial capability has driven the U.S. Navy to adopt the concept of Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO) as a guiding framework for how it will fight the next high-end war at sea. DMO presents a compelling vision for building a combat-credible force capable of maintaining maritime dominance in a contested environment. However, to properly implement this concept, a more clearly defined and rigorous approach is essential. As the Navy works to modernize and operationalize DMO, it must address two critical sustainment challenges: (1) logistics and (2) munition stockpiles.

USNI News – The Navy is putting out a call for a new type of unmanned surface vessel capable of carrying large payloads — including missiles — thousands of miles in support of manned warships, according to a solicitation issued Monday.