– Time – Winslow Wheeler on the future of the US Navy – Part 2.

– Time – Winslow Wheeler looks at the future of the US Navy – Part 1.

– Virginian Pilot – The mammoth ship that projected American power during the tensest moment of the Cold War, and decades later launched some of the first air attacks in the war on terror, no longer is in service. But its remarkable legacy – and its iconic name – will live on.

– Aviation Week – In the same week, Northrop Grumman’s X-47B combat aircraft system demonstrator has arrived on the aircraft carrier deck — by crane — and made its first catapult launch — on land

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – The new Gerald R. Ford -class aircraft carriers may have a hefty pricetag, but many believe the cost is worth it and that the ships will prove to be even more iconic than their predecessors.

– Air Force – Electronic attack, the Air Force’s orphan mission, is regaining prominence.

– Daily Telegraph – When the aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis returns to the placid blue waters of the Gulf with her strike force of 70 jets in the next few days, she will be ready for action off the coast of Iran.

– Armed Forces Journal – The goal of Air Sea Battle is to ensure all forces can get to the fight.

– San Diego Union Tribune – The USS Curts’ final deployment is turning out to be an historic one for the San Diego-based frigate, with its crew having made about $25 million in drug busts during operations in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

– Aviation Week – Gulf of Mexico residents see all types of ships and barges go by Mississippi’s Little Biloxi River Bridge. The region, after all, is a womb for warships and a transit artery for maritime goods of all types. But recently one barge slipped past the bridge crowned by a cargo never witnessed in these parts, or any other in the world: a specially constructed composites deckhouse that made the vessel look more like a massive prop for the next “Star Trek” movie than anything on the seas. Weighing 900 tons and measuring longer than 50 yd., the deckhouse is the top half of the U.S. Navy’s newest and most modern warship, the DDG-1000 Zumwalt destroyer.

– Flight International – The second day of our Boeing media trip to the Pacific Northwest found our motley band of defense reporters at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, near Oak Harbor, Washington.

– AOL Defense – “Every two weeks, we get another Growler,” Cmdr. Christopher Middleton said at the Navy’s electronic warfare hub here. The Navy target is to buy 114 EA-18G Growler aircraft. And it’s those Growler aircraft that will be the cutting edge of future Naval strikes against future “anti-access area denial” defenses like those being built by China.

– AOL Defense – It’s not a Nobel Prize, but the Packard Award matters in the big-dollar world of defense procurement. Last week, utterly overshadowed by elections, the Department of Defense awarded the Packard to the Navy’s DDG-51 destroyer, the sleek grey mainstay of the fleet.

– Defense News – Preparations are continuing to base four U.S. Navy destroyers in Rota, Spain, beginning in fiscal 2014 — a move that will allow the ships to provide a near-continuous ballistic-missile defense (BMD) shield for Europe. And while the U.S. remains the only nation so far able to field a sea-based BMD system, the nation’s top naval officer sees roles other navies can play to support the mission.

– BBC – After more than 50 years of loyal service, the US Navy tells BBC Future it is ready to replace its pods of highly trained sea mammals with cheaper robots.

– The Independent – While the US Air Force’s drones have been firing all sorts of air-to-surface missiles and bombs for roughly a decade now, the Navy took a big step toward getting in on the action last week when it launched six Israeli-made Spike missiles from an unmanned 36-foot motorboat.

– AOL Defense – This Saturday the Navy will christen its newest nuclear-powered submarine, the $2.6 billion USS Minnesota at the Newport News shipyard in Virginia. Countless movies have cemented the popular image of subs as stealthy underwater killers, stalking hapless surface vessels with periscope and torpedo. But today’s Navy is experimenting with launching robotic mini-subs and even unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Virginia-class attack subs like the Minnesota.

– Aviation Week – The U.S. Navy would like to develop an underwater system similar to the Aegis shield that protects its surface ships with a bubble of situational awareness, says Navy Oceanographer Rear Adm. Jonathan White, director of oceanography, space and maritime domain awareness.

– AOL Defense – A christening of a ship of the line is rare. When it happens, thoughts of how that ship might be used, where it might operate and how it might make new naval history are part of the excitement.

– Wired – She’s 844 feet long, 106 feet wide and displaces 45,000 tons of water. The future USS America, christened in Mississippi on Saturday, is technically an amphibious assault ship, a type of vessel optimized for carrying Marines into battle. But subtle changes under America‘s steel skin mean she can double as a small aircraft carrier, capable of sustaining a short air war all on her own.

– San Diego Union Tribune – Hey, sailor, what’s your job on the ship? If the vessel is the Fort Worth, the U.S. Navy’s third and newest littoral combat ship, the answer may be: Which job?

– San Diego Union Tribune – Third in littoral combat line represents lessons learned from 2 prototypes.

– Wired – The precision killing of the three pirates by six members of SEAL Team Six, the same unit that would later kill Osama bin Laden in his Pakistan hideout, has rarely been described in detail. Retired Rear Adm. Terry McKnight, who commanded U.S. naval forces off Somalia during the Maersk Alabama standoff, devotes 45 pages of his new book Pirate Alley to the people, methods, equipment and even politics behind Phillips’ daring rescue.

– The Diplomat – A return to a familiar port of call serves as another reminder of the United States continued “rebalance” towards Asia.

– AOL Defense – Right now, the Navy is designing the ballistic missile submarine that will provide 70 percent of the nation’s nuclear deterrent until 2080. Yet even as the service prepares to award research and development contracts this December, the submarine community is deeply worried that the rest of the military is neglecting the program — which has already had to make some painful trade-offs on schedule, numbers, and capability. And the service has not even started work on whatever nuclear missile the new sub will end up carrying for the latter half of its life.