– Air and Space – Life aboard the USS George W. Bush.

– CNN – The U.S. Navy rescued 282 people from six small vessels in the Mediterranean Sea after one of the boats began to sink.

– Defense News – The task force working to come up with ideas for the US Navy’s small surface combatant (SSC) got a major data download Thursday, as industry submitted their proposals for modified or entirely new designs.

– DOD Buzz – The Navy is in the early phases of considering new sensors, aircraft and weapons it could add to its beyond-the-horizon strike and cruise missile intercept system.

– Navy Times – The East Coast’s busiest ship is also its best.

– USNI News – The Navy has quietly reduced the scope of upgrades to its guided missile destroyers in a move that could make up to a quarter of the fleet a target of early decommissioning due to obsolescence. Out of 28 early Arleigh Burke-class DDGs (Flight I/II), 21 will not receive a full upgrade to their Aegis combat systems and instead have a midlife upgrade that will focus on the mechanical health of the ship and some will have upgrades to the ships’ anti-submarine warfare systems as part of a cost saving strategy.

– AP – The US Navy warship USS Bataan has moved into the Mediterranean Sea and could be used, if needed, for any possible evacuation of American personnel from Libya.

– Navy Times – It’s small, fast, heavily armed, networked and one of a kind. But the new coastal command boat just starting to operate in this region is giving sailors in the Persian Gulf a taste of the swift and bad-ass boats coming to the brown-water Navy.

– USNI News – A Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser will enter the Black Sea on Friday “to promote peace and stability in the region,” the Navy announced on Thursday.

– USNI News – Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s recent direction to the Navy to develop proposals for a “capable and lethal small surface combatant, generally consistent with the capabilities of a frigate” could have a major affect on several Navy programs.

– BBC – The US Navy is to provide custom e-readers, dubbed the Navy eReader Device (NeRD), to some of its sailors.

– USNI News – The frigate assigned to operations in the Black Sea as part of a U.S. show of support to allies in the region has left, leaving no U.S. surface ships in the region

– USNI News – Thirty years after its first deployment, the basic components of the Aegis system on cruisers and destroyers have remained largely the same — the SPY-1 radar and the contents of vertical launch systems — but the threats have gotten faster and deadlier.

– Defense News – It’s the biggest naval exercise in the world, and it happens only every other year. Nearly every kind of US warship will take part. But notably absent — again — will be the newest type of US warship, the littoral combat ship.

– Navy Times – Many ships are sailing on cruises far beyond the once-standard six or seven months, and Navy leaders are eager to make these long and often unpredictable deployments the exception. They’ve developed a plan to lock in eight-month deployments, but a mounting body of testimony from Navy officials suggests that the plan may soon be another victim of budget battles — and sailors will end up paying the price. At the center of the dilemma is the aircraft carrier George Washington, which will be retired early unless lawmakers lift heavy sequestration spending cuts set to take effect in 2016. With no sign they will and uncertainties about when the first of the new supercarrier class will be ready to deploy, experts say nine-to-10-month deployments could be common for fleet sailors.

– DefenseTech – The Pentagon wants to set up a network of seafloor-bedded “nodes” that would include anything from supplies to weaponry to be called to the surface for military action when needed.

– USNI News – The U.S. Navy will need to use a combination of stealth and electronic warfare capabilities to defeat advanced anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) threats in the future, chief of naval operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert said on April 16 at the U.S. Naval Institute annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – The Navy must maintain the current surface force while it procures the future one.

– USNI News – U.S. Navy frigate USS Taylor (FFG-50) has returned to the Black Sea for the second time in as many months.

– Aviation Week – This month has been a U.S. Navy futurist’s dream. The Navy not only detailed major milestones for its electromagnetic railgun and the Laser Weapon System (LaWS), but christened its most technologically advanced – as well as controversial – destroyer in the fleet: the DDG-1000 Zumwalt.

– Virginian Pilot – The aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower was finally in sight. The pilot of the F/A-18 Super Hornet hurriedly flipped switches and pushed levers. The aviator in the backseat leaned forward, straining to see the flight deck floating in the distance. The jet’s right engine had locked up, its landing gear had jammed, and the main fuel tank was almost empty. At nearly 350 mph, the Super Hornet hurtled over the warm waters of the North Arabian Sea last April. The pilot had made some tough decisions that day; several hadn’t gone his way. Now he was out of options. He had one chance to land. A look at an F/A-18 Super Hornet crash investigation.

– War is Boring – After 70 years of experimentation, U.S. Navy wants more ships as floating outposts.

– US Naval War College Review – On the advantages of small surface combatants…

– USNI News – A pair of Navy MH-60 Seahawk helicopters have been assigned to aid in rescue effort following the Wednesday sinking of a South Korean ferry. The Seahawks will operate from big deck amphibious warship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6)

– Aviation Week – Huntington-Ingalls’ concept for a BMD supership deserves attention, even if there’s no money for it