– Air Force – The US military is refocusing its attention on the threats and opportunities in Southeast Asia, a region often overlooked in the last decade.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – The divisions between men and machines are crumbling, leading to an autonomous mechanized force.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – The Chief of Naval Operations says we need to move from ‘luxury-car’ platforms-with their built-in capabilities-toward dependable ‘trucks’ that can handle a changing payload selection. Is this the beginning of the end of the F-35 in the US Navy?

– The Economist – An American admiral calls for new military thinking and questions stealth technology.

– San Diego Union Tribune – The point of the Rim of the Pacific exercises every two years: to practice major naval maneuvers. As the Pentagon shifts its focus to the Pacific after 11 years of desert warfare, the number of nations attracted to these month-long international maritime war games has exploded. Twenty-two countries – notably Russia for the first time – paid their own way to Hawaii, even a 21-man contingent of Marines from tiny Tonga and a platoon of Malaysian army rangers. Two years ago the list was 14 nations long, and in 2008 there were 10.

– Defense News – The original idea for the littoral combat ship (LCS) envisioned modular mission packages that could be rapidly swapped, so one ship could change missions easily from mine warfare, for example, to anti-submarine warfare over the course of a single deployment. But instead of taking just days to make the switch, it’s now apparent it could take weeks. An LCS assigned to a particular operation will likely operate in a single “come-as-you-are” configuration, requiring additional ships equipped with other mission modules to provide the flexibility the concept once promised.

– New York Times – One of the Navy’s oldest transport ships, now converted into one of its newest platforms for warfare, arrived in waters off Bahrain late last week, a major addition to the enlarged presence of American forces in the Persian Gulf designed as a counter to Iran.

– Daily Telegraph – The United States is to intensify its military build up in the Persian Gulf by deploying miniature underwater drones to hunt for Iranian mines.

– New York Times – CJ Chiver’s chronicles the evolution of close air support and the crucial role it plays in today’s wars.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – There’s no time like the present to start looking into the proverbial crystal ball and thinking about a maritime strategy ‘refresh.’

– US Naval War College Review – Today’s American navy writes prolifically about maritime strategies but has not devoted equal attention to campaign plans or analysis that tests the strategies’ viability. We illustrate herein how the operational-or campaign-level links policy and strategy to the tactical and technological elements of war at sea. First, we relate how the U.S. Navy reluctantly came to accept the existence of an operational level of warfare but having done so will find it useful. Second, we describe important properties of naval operations in terms of constants, trends, and variables in warfare at and from the sea. Third, we demonstrate how operational- level planning would help if the Navy and the nation were to adopt six clearly stated, twenty-first-century strategies that would serve present and future national policies better than do current strategy documents.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Norman Friedman looks at what’s new and what’s not in ‘Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense?’

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – The Navy has to work out its strategy-tactics confusion; until then, it will continue to put the budgetary cart before the strategic horse.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Professional military education is just as critical in a time of peace as it is in time of war—perhaps more so.

– Naval History – In its first half century, a once little-known Navy unit has evolved into what is arguably the world’s most celebrated force of combat arms.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – The world may seem to be growing smaller, but its seas are growing bigger—particularly in the great North, where a widening water-highway beckons both with resources and challenges.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – In the 1980s, the Tomahawk cruise missile expanded the surface Navy’s role; in the 2000s, new technologies continue to enhance surface warfare’s strategic significance.

– Aviation Week – While the U.S. Navy touted the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom’s completion of special trials in May as a solid success, service officials still found issues on the ship that need to be addressed.

– San Diego Union Tribune – The commander of U.S. Navy submarine forces said the integration of women into the formerly all-male undersea world is “very successful” and signaled that he is getting close to a recommendation on whether all submarines will be opened to women, including the small, tight-quarters attack subs in San Diego.

– The Economist – Fleets of robot submarines will change oceanography (and warfare).

– The Economist – AirSea Battle is now the Pentagon’s priority, but it has its critics

– BBC – The US has been, is, and will continue to be a Pacific power. That was the fundamental message the US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta brought to this year’s Asian security summit in Singapore.

– Information Dissemination – Excellent article by Owen Cote on the future of undersea warfare.

– Associated Press – A super-stealthy warship that could underpin the U.S. Navy’s China strategy will be able to sneak up on coastlines virtually undetected and pound targets with electromagnetic “railguns” right out of a sci-fi movie.

– Virginian Pilot – The Navy is evaluating whether it’s worth spending millions of dollars to repair the Miami, the nuclear-powered submarine damaged in a fire in a Maine shipyard.