– Navy Times – The Navy ignored years of alarming reports – and two pilots paid the price.

– War is Boring – U.S. Navy mulls putting aviation logistics ships to work.

– Jane’s – The Joint Program Office (JPO) for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) has taken the unusual step of publicly defending the aircraft’s air-to-air capabilities following a damning media report that called into question its ability to ‘dogfight’ with even today’s generation of jets.

– National Interest – New technology might just dampen the awesome capabilities of one of America’s most lethal weapons. What can the Navy do about it?

– Politico – The Joint Chiefs keep ordering up ambitious new war plans. But their biggest battle might be with each other.

– Aviation Week – After more than three decades Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden finally has what he’s always wanted – a Top Gun school for surface warfare officers.

– USNI News – The US Navy has accepted the second Virginia-class (SSN-774) Block III nuclear attack submarine from Huntington Ingalls Newport News Shipbuilding.

– Real Clear Defense – How do you adapt to changing times and circumstances, particularly when your home institution is big, and bureaucratic, and has compiled a long record of success that seems to vindicate its approach for all time? An institution like, say, the U.S. submarine force, or the U.S. Navy as a whole?

– USNI News – The Navy’s reduced combat system modernization schedule for its legacy Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyers (DDG-51) puts the surface fleets ability to tackle ballistic missile defense (BMD) tasks — as well as protect high value ships like aircraft carriers — at risk.

– New York Times Magazine – The unit best known for killing Osama bin Laden has been converted into a global manhunting machine with limited outside oversight.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Reviving the forgotten ‘arsenal ship’ concept could give the Navy the edge in destroying an enemy’s communication and weapon systems.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – On the surface, hiring contractors would seem a wise choice. But the Navy does so at grave risk to its budget and culture of self-sufficiency.

– US Naval War College Review – Naval warfare in the littorals has much in common with war conducted on the open ocean. However, there are also some significant differences, due to the extremely complex, dynamic, and challenging physical environment of the former. The peculiarities of the physical environment in the littorals offer many challenges — but also opportunities — in the employment of naval forces and aircraft. Distinctions between characteristics of war on the open ocean and in the littorals must be thoroughly understood; otherwise, commanders and their staffs simply cannot plan or employ

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – A view from the 6th Fleet, where the ‘operationalizing’ of the new maritime strategy is well under way.

– US Naval War College Review – There is no single champion for mine warfare. This lack of support presents challenges for the U.S. Navy and the nation, as the service struggles to articulate, and to muster the necessary backing for, mine warfare (MIW) strategies, programs, capabilities, and capacities.

– Aviation Week – The American people could not ask for a better U.S. host during these most contentious of times in the Asia-Pacific. US Navy Admiral Harry Harris, the new head of Pacific Command, does indeed know the mood of the region. Its nature is his second nature. When he talks about the region, it is as if he is reading his own heart. He is the right officer – the right person – for the role and the times. He leaves little doubt what needs to be done.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Here’s what leaders and planners should do in an atmosphere of high demand and lower numbers of ships.

– Air Force – The USAF is developing the tactics and technology needed for operations against targets in the vast Pacific.

– Air and Space – Navy carriers are only now breaking away from using 19th century tech to put jets in the air.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – As has been the case for decades, the strategic spotlight shines once again on the U.S. Navy’s subsurface force.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Is the new maritime strategy really ‘new,’ or merely a repackaging of increasingly threadbare ideas?

– USNI News – The Carl Vinson Strike Group will return to the San Diego area today and tomorrow after a nearly 10-month deployment to U.S. 5th Fleet and 7th Fleet that included six months of strikes against the Islamic State.

– USNI News – The guided missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG- 71) departed the Black Sea on Wednesday after an 11-day cruise of the region.

– USNI News – The Pentagon is pushing back against anonymously sourced reports in state controlled Russian media that guided missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG-71) was chased from Russian controlled waters in the Black Sea by Russian fighters over the weekend.

– USNI News – The Navy’s EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare jet flew its last active duty flight on Wednesday and officially decommissioned at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.