– Virginian Pilot – Three Navy amphibious ships that left Norfolk ahead of schedule in March are set to stay at sea into February, which would make their cruise the longest ship deployment in decades.

– Virginian Pilot – It may seem like a trivial inconvenience in the scheme of things, but it’s become routine enough that some sailors aboard the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush say it’s affecting their morale, their health and their job performance: Since the ship left for its maiden combat deployment in May, its toilet system has suffered outages so frequently that crew members sometimes can’t find a single working commode.

– Air Force – The anti-access, area-denial threat, vast distances in the western Pacific, and unrelenting budget pressures have forced the largest push for USAF and naval integration since the end of the Cold War.

– San Diego Union Tribune – The award is part of a long term effort to create a ship-borne gun that uses electricity instead of chemicals to fire high impact projectiles. The railgun being developed through the Office of Naval Research was designed to fire projectiles up to 200 miles. The projectiles would travel up to 5,600 mph, allowing for rapid attack against targets on land and at sea. The “super gun” also could reduce the need to store expensive and dangerous explosives aboard ships.

– Daily Telegraph – Details of the US Navy SEAL team who killed Osama bin Laden have been disclosed in the first account of the raid said to have been based on interviews with them.

– BBC – The Thai authorities have asked US military helicopters from the destroyer USS Mustin to survey flooding, which has hit the north and is now threatening the capital Bangkok.

– Defense Technology International – The U.S. Navy is following the Marine Corps and Army in getting interested in unmanned cargo aircraft.

– Virginian Pilot – The crew of the Wasp hasn’t gone far since leaving Norfolk in early October. The amphibious assault ship has spent weeks steaming through a small, pie-shaped wedge of water off Virginia’s eastern shore. It doesn’t stray more than 12 miles from land. Despite its geographic confinement, the Wasp is making history. Test pilots have been flying two test versions of the next generation Marine fighter jet – the F-35B – onto and off of the ship’s flight deck for weeks, the first time the models have operated at sea.

– RIA Novosti – A U.S. Aegis missile cruiser arrived on Monday in Georgia to take part in joint naval drills with the Georgian navy

– Defense Technology International – A year ago, the F-35B was in the doghouse owing to lackluster performance in testing. Now, however, that has changed. The jets are up, operating and ticking off test points. And the timing for the turnaround is potentially fortuitous for the project as only miles inland in Washington, officials overseeing the F-35 development program are trying to defend it from bean counters on the prowl for savings in the defense budget.

– Aviation Week – U.S. budget woes have claimed another victim — the required integration of the U.S. Navy’s proposed Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) with its next planned Aegis combat system upgrade.

– AP – The Navy is considering lengthening the standard deployment of attack submarines beyond six months as it faces rising demands with a fleet that has been shrinking since the end of the Cold War.

– San Diego Union Tribune – The 1991 Tailhook aviation convention, where naval aviators fresh from Operation Desert Storm grabbed women’s private parts during a drunken late-night “gauntlet” game, forced a sea change in flyboy circles.

– Stars and Stripes – The Navy has completed its latest assessment of the Arctic region, where melting ice is raising strategic questions as well as commercial opportunities.

– Virginian Pilot – Navy ships began heading to sea or moving to piers with better weather protection Thursday. The vessels that embarked won’t have trouble outrunning the hurricane.

– Defense Technology International – A company claims to have developed “the first supercavitating ship”.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Do our foreign-policy interests compromise our readiness against asymmetric threats?

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – As the U.S. Navy’s submarine force faces tighter budgets, it could learn a thing or two from solutions that surfaced from an informal Submarine Officers Conference in the 1920s.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – A former submarine procurement guru details what was behind the Virginia–class program, one of the most talked-about cost-saving acquisitions in Department of Defense history.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – In a world where defense budgets are shrinking but the U.S. submarine force remains vital to security, viability tomorrow requires stringent planning today.

– Wired– Back in 2009, the Navy and the Air Force secretly shook hands on a new way to work together to fight future wars against major powers. It’s called AirSea Battle, and not much about it has been made public. But the Air Force’s second in command publicly fretted on Wednesday that some of its core components might not be affordable.

– Virginian Pilot – The $2 billion warship experienced problems with all four of its engines – forcing one to be shut down – on a recent training mission. The Navy still expects to begin a 20-week, pre-deployment training on schedule in August.

– Defense Technology International – What’s been reported elsewhere is that investigators have focused on pilot hypoxia (lack of oxygen) as the primary cause for the November 16 crash of an F-22 operating from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, and in particular on the functioning of the onboard oxygen generating system (Obogs). What hasn’t been reported is that there is a history of Obogs-related hypoxia issues in the world’s biggest fleet of Obogs-equipped fighters, the bulk of the US Navy Hornet and Super Hornets.

– CNN – Three U.S. Navy ships arrived Friday – as welcome guests – at the Vietnamese port of Da Nang.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – The Navy’s new doctrine should include several related operational concepts for planning and executing future conflicts.