– USNI News – The U.S. has moved two amphibious warships close to Yemen as a precaution against an ongoing militia uprising in the region. Amphibious warships USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) and USS Fort McHenry (LSD-43) with embarked elements of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (24 MEU) are on station in the southern part of the Red Sea near the tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

– USNI News – The Navy has released the outline for its plan to have enlisted women serve onboard submarines starting in 2016.

– Foxtrot Alpha – In what is a highly controversial move, the US Navy has announced that it will procure tilt-rotor V-22 Ospreys to replace its venerable C-2A Greyhound Carrier On-board Delivery (COD) aircraft. Here’s why it’s such a terribly bad idea.

– USNI News – The leaders of the U.S. Navy’s surface force are pitching a new philosophy to squeeze the offensive power out of its existing surface ships in a tactical shift that calls for using small surface action groups and increasing the number of anti-ship weapons on more platforms in a plan branded, “distributed lethality.”

– BBC – How is progress measured on board the US aircraft carrier which is playing a key role in the fight against Islamic State?

– USNI News – The director of the Navy’s Surface Warfare Division said the Navy is making choices in three areas in planning: How to “hit the bad guys first,” how to “keep from getting hit,” and how to “make sure you can back-fit” as new technologies emerge or existing ones are modified to meet new threats.

– USNI News – The Navy will almost certainly select the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor to replace the Northrop Grumman C-2A Greyhound as its next carrier onboard delivery (COD) aircraft, according to a Jan. 5 memo signed by Department of the Navy leadership.

– USNI News – The modified Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) class will be designated as frigates.

– USNI News – Fighting ballistic missiles, stealthy targets, swarmed surface and supersonic threats are high on the Pentagon’s wish list for its future electromagnetic rail gun.

– Defense News – host of new technologies and systems will begin to enter service when the new aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) is delivered in the first half of 2016, and for over a decade it’s been a good question whether all the new whiz-bang technology will be ready in time.

– USNI News – The Navy’s forward deployed Littoral Combat Ship USS Fort Worth (LCS-3) has joined in the search for the missing Air Asia Flight QZ8501.

– Breaking Defense – Smooth sailing is not in the Navy’s forecast for the next year.The service faces big decisions on major programs, and we can expect clashes between Navy plans, congressional politics and budgetary realities on three of the biggest: the upgunned Littoral Combat Ship, the UCLASS armed drone, and the jewel in the Navy’s crown, the nuclear aircraft carrier.

– USNI News – The forward deployed U.S. destroyer that was buzzed by Russian fighters in April has returned to the Black Sea, according to photographs of the ship crossing through the Bosphorus.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – The U.S. Navy has an order for a small surface combatant to fill, and it should look to the Danish navy for inspiration.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – The Navy must replenish its inventory with smaller and more numerous combatants—such as a frigate helicopter dock.

– National Interest – Air-Sea Battle is described as a limited objective concept by the Department of Defense. Some critics have argued that Air-Sea Battle must be more than a limited objective concept, possibly a war plan or a strategy. Others have argued that it is less than a concept and is just a meaningless set of buzzwords. From a military planner’s perspective, Air-Sea Battle is a piece of art – operational art that describes the “broad actions the force must take to achieve the desired military end state.”

– National Interest – What would a U.S. Navy dream surface combatant look like?

– Defense One – In the decade ahead, unmanned underwater vehicles, or UUVs, may have the same sort of disruptive effects on militaries as their flying counterparts. More than 12 countries are at work on undersea robots, which some militaries, including the United States, use to check for mines, map the sea floor and collect weather data. There’s no reason they couldn’t be used to defend battleships from small boats or even carry out attacks on enemy divers. But what will they look like?

– Defense One – The Navy is beginning to increase the tempo of its drumbeat calling for additional shipbuilding money to pay for the long planned replacement for the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine. The ship is not unexpected, which is why the plea for more money is surprising– or at least it should be. How has the sea service arrived at this strategic juncture without enough money already inside of its budget to pay for one of its most critical assets?

– Foxtrot Alpha – The Littoral Combat Ship saga has been just another reminder of the Pentagon’s chaotic and illogical procurement strategy. Now, after studying alternatives to the over-sized jet boat after deciding that it was a indeed a flawed concept, the DoD has come up with the laughable decision to build a more complicated and expensive but still highly vulnerable version of the troubled ship.

– USNI News – Navy operators said the service’s next small surface combatant (SSC) top priorities should be fighting other surface ships at longer ranges and hunting and killing submarines — not fighting fighters, striking land targets at long range or conducting ballistic missile defense (BMD), service leaders outlined last week when they briefed the follow-on to the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) to reporters.

– The Diplomat – Lasers won’t solve all the problems facing naval weaponeers, but they’ll help address quite a few of them.

– National Interest – America’s Navy faces a daunting future environment. Focusing on sea control might be the best way to evolve.

– USNI News – The U.S. Navy is has declared an experimental laser weapon on its Afloat Forward Staging Base (AFSB) in the Persian Gulf an operational asset and U.S. Central Command has given permission for the commander of the ship to defend itself with the weapon.

– Virginian Pilot – Project Silent Nemo is under way this week at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, where a team of civilian engineers and military officers are testing the capabilities of a 5-foot, 100-pound experimental robot that’s designed to look and swim like a bluefin tuna.