– War is Boring – Three-inch robot could spot targets for cruise missiles.

– USNI News – A nice roadmap of the next steps that must be taken in implementing the Air Sea Battle concept.

– Virginian Pilot – Sailors at sea will soon be required to wear flame-resistant coveralls, relegating their blue camouflage working uniforms to events on land, the Navy announced Thursday.

– War is Boring – Admiral reveals five possible future sub designs.

– USNI News – The American aircraft carrier that has been on standby in case of a flare up in Syria has left the Red Sea for a brief stint in the Mediterranean Sea.

– UPI – The U.S. deployment of 200 Marines to a naval base in Sicily for possible operations in Libya, a short hop across the Mediterranean, underlines how the Americans have been building a network of bases in Italy as launch pads for military interventions in Africa and the Mideast.

– War on the Rocks – What lessons from World War II in the Pacific could be used in a future war in the Pacific?

– War on the Rocks – How Chinese maritime traffic could be blockaded by US forces.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – The current budget squeeze has revived the debate about whether to reduce the number of the Navy’s aircraft carriers, but the prospective addition of unmanned aerial vehicles to the flattop’s arsenal will make the ships even more valuable in coming years.

– AP – The man U.S. Navy SEALs tried to take down in Somalia over the weekend was a Kenyan who had plotted to attack his country’s parliament building and the United Nations headquarters in Nairobi, according to a Kenyan government intelligence report.

– USNI News – Pentagon officials confirmed Friday’s raid on a Somalia compound alleged to shelter members of Al Shabab to capture an enigmatic leader known as Ikrimah. The Friday raid by — according to several press reports — Navy SEALs was aborted after the Americans were unable to seize Ikrimah following a firefight with al Shabab loyalists near the port of Baraawe.

– Breaking Defense – The Navy’s aircraft carrier programs are once again at the vortex of intense scrutiny and debate, fueled by strategic ambiguity, questions about spending billions of dollars for a single ship during a period of painfully tight budgets, and uncertainty whether advanced technologies and systems will deliver the “goods.” As well, carrier critics point to supposed warfighting vulnerabilities to potential adversaries’ anti-access/area-denial strategies, tactics and weapons as reasons to change the Navy’s course. The critics are short-sighted. Indeed, as long we need to protect vital U.S. interests, citizens and friends in critical world regions from the sea, the nation’s naval forces will project national power in support of national strategy and policy. Because of this, regional commanders continue to ask the question every admiral loves to quote: “where are the carriers?” Certainly, no ship is invulnerable, but the modern carrier is “least vulnerable among equals” and much less at risk than bases ashore. And, while the Navy’s next-generation carriers are pushing technological envelopes and experiencing what some have called “birthing pains,” the service and its industry partners are committed to resolving all issues and getting on with it.

– AP – A federal appeals court on Tuesday cleared the way for the Navy to build a $100 million undersea training range off Georgia and Florida.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – An oncoming wave of multi-mission platforms means greater interoperability—and a necessary sea-change in traditional modes of thinking.

– Defense News – When a generator problem caused a power loss onboard the littoral combat ship Freedom in July, sailors scrambled to get their ship running again. Engines were restarted within a few minutes, but the crew needed to quickly analyze the situation and make a decision — to continue with the underway exercises or return to port where shore-based maintenance teams could fix the problem.

– Flight International – Concerns are being raised within industry about the new direction mandated by the Pentagon for the US Navy’s unmanned carrier-launched surveillance and strike (UCLASS) aircraft programme.

– USNI News – Norman Friedman weighs in on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

– USNI News – The Department of Defense will leave four destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean and the Nimitz carrier strike group (CSG) in the Red Sea while the U.S. continues negotiations over Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.

– Aviation Week – As the Bell/Boeing team that produced the MV-22 eyes its next possible U.S. sale to the Navy for a C-2 replacement, the industry team is hoping to drive home the idea that the tiltrotor is multifunctional. The team is confident the tiltrotor can safely refuel F/A-18s midair after conducting the first proximity test between the two last week.

– War is Boring – The U.S. Navy had a vision. A robotic vision, in which swarms of super-smart, far-flying drone warplanes ranged across the vast Pacific Ocean from steel aircraft-carrier decks, extending the reach of American military might against the growing arsenal of an increasingly belligerent China…

– Defense News – Concerns and criticisms about the past, present and future of the US Navy’s new Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers permeate a report released Sept. 5 from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress.

– War is Boring – Vital carrier cargo plane stands in way of Marines’ controversial tiltrotor.

– USNI News – The beating heart of both variants of the littoral combat ship (LCS) is the series of three mission packages the Navy is developing to handle some of the service’s most dire needs in the littorals.

– USNI News – The guided missile destroyer USS Mahan (DDG-72) has left the Eastern Mediterranean en route to its homeport at Naval Station Norfolk, Va. Mahan’s departure leaves four destroyers left to undertake an anticipated limited strike on Syria.

– USNI News – Boeing is touting an upgraded version of its Super Hornet fighters to extend the relevance of the airframe into 2030.