– USNI News – The U.S. command ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20) has left the Black Sea after several port calls with allies in the region.

– Breaking Defense – The Navy is crafting a battle plan to retake control of the electromagnetic spectrum, which the Pentagon’s chief of research says we’ve lost.

– Navy Times – It’s been nearly 40 years since the Navy started its relationship with the Harpoon missile, but now the service seems to have eyes for another surface-to-surface anti-ship missile: A younger, more agile Norwegian.

– Defense News – Bigger often means better, especially when the discussion is about one gun versus another. But a decision to replace a secondary weapon on the US Navy’s new Zumwalt-class destroyer with a smaller gun caliber is raising some eyebrows within the surface warfare community.

– Defense One – Much of the discussion and fear of armed unmanned vehicles ignores a central fact. Aerial drones like the Predator or Reaper are operated by two-man human teams, a pilot to steer the drone and a sensor operator to control the various mechanical eyes and ears. The boats that participated in the event on the James River were able to sense one another as well as other vessels, and execute complicated “swarm” maneuvers, with a bare minimum of guidance. These boats are not your average drones.

– Foxtrot Alpha – As part of San Francisco’s Fleet Week festivities, the US Navy had a high-profile commissioning ceremony for the USS America LHA-6, the fourth US Navy ship to bear the name and the first in a new class of amphibious assault ships that are really more like aircraft carriers, yet somehow, compromised as both.

– Breaking Defense – The Navy’s research arm is justifiably proud of its recent experiment with “swarming” drone boats, whose results (with video) were officially released today. But the very thing that’s most impressive about the swarmboats — their ability to act autonomously with minimal human guidance — raises crucial questions about when we can trust a robot to pull the trigger in combat.

– USNI News – The U.S Navy has declared initial operational capability (IOC) with the Northrop Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeye.

– War is Boring – The U.S. Navy has sent its most advanced battle command ship the USS Mount Whitney into the Black Sea to reassure allies rattled by an aggressive Russia. And while she’s there, the ship also has a chance to snoop on Moscow’s military moves.

– USNI News – The five ships of the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group (CSG) have entered the U.S. Navy’s Middle East area of operations — U.S. 5th Fleet.

– Weekly Standard – The misbegotten plan to shrink the U.S. submarine fleet.

– War is Boring – The Navy has long wanted to get into the robot game. The admirals are envious of the Air Force’s hundreds of flying drones, and the sailing branch is working on a carrier-launched drone of its own. But now the Navy is creating swarms of robotic gunboats and testing them on the James River in Virginia.

– USNI News – The U.S. command ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20) entered the Black Sea on Saturday — a day after guided missile destroyer USS Cole (DDG-67) — bringing the total of American naval ships in the region to two, according on a release from U.S. 6th Fleet. The French signals intelligence ship — Dupuy de Lôme (A759) — is also due in the Black Sea by Friday.

– Defense News – The US Navy’s stealth destroyer will go to sea next spring.

– Defense News – Congress again is hung up on a budget, but lawmakers have left town to fight the midterm elections, leaving the Pentagon to wait and see what happens in one budget year before it can nail down the next. Meanwhile, there’s work to do, and the US Navy has several major decision points coming up — questions that need to be decided regardless what Congress ultimately comes up with.

– USNI News – The U.S. is sending the guided missile destroyer USS Cole into the Black Sea on Friday as part of an ongoing presence mission in the region since Russia seized the Crimea region of Ukraine in March.

– Stars and Stripes – The Makin Island amphibious ready group with more than 4,000 Marines and sailors has arrived in the Middle East.

– USNI News – The three ship Bataan Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) has left U.S. Central Command and transited into the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations ahead of an expected October return to Naval Station Norfolk, Va.

– National Interest – Now may be the time to break up the nuclear monopoly. To wit, imagine permanently forward-deploying a squadron of diesel attack boats, or SSKs, to likely hotspots. Such a force would expand America’s silent service, reversing the ongoing slide in numbers of hulls. It would do so at reasonable cost in this age of budgetary stress. A standing East Asia squadron would be close to the action. Likely based in Japan and Guam, it would amplify the U.S.-Japanese fleet’s prowess vis-á-vis China’s navy and merchant marine. It would empower Washington and Tokyo to deny China access to offshore waters without committing the whole fleet of U.S. nuclear-powered boats to the endeavor. And in the process it would open up new vistas for building and reinforcing alliances.

– CNN – The United States and several Arab nations rained bombs on ISIS targets in Syria on Tuesday — the first U.S. military offensive in the war-torn country and a forceful message to the militant group that the U.S. would not stand by idly while it carried out its rampage of terror. The operation began with a flurry of Tomahawk missiles launched from the sea, followed by attacks from bomber and fighter aircraft

– Marine Corps Times – About 1,500 Marines and sailors have been busily testing the capabilities of the USS America, the Navy’s newest amphibious assault ship during a two-month transit in a region that rarely sees a warship of this size.

– US Navy – The Navy’s Cutest Planes Are Flying Research Missions – S-3 Vikings used to operate from carriers—now they’re working for science – and in the future they could return to the carrier-onboard-delivery role.

– Jane’s – The US Navy (USN) expects to deploy Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) to the Asia-Pacific region by the end of 2014. There will be two significant differences from the deployment carried out in 2013 by USS Freedom . The first would be drills to test Fort Worth ‘s mine countermeasures (MCM) capability in South Korean waters while the second would be to focus on using the LCS to provide “non-traditional maritime lift” for the US Marine Corps.

– USNI News – Austal USA has delivered the latest Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV) to U.S. Military Sealift Command (MSC).