– BBC – The US is planning to move the majority of its warships to the Asia-Pacific region by 2020, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has revealed.

– BBC – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has emphasised the importance of a strong US naval presence in Asia, on the eve of a trip to the region.

– Wired – No one really understands the Navy and the Air Force’s new blueprint for dominating Earth’s seas and skies. But what’s increasingly clear, even to the heads of both the Navy and the Air Force, is that there’s a big challenge ahead for it, one that doesn’t have anything to do with an adversary like China: getting U.S. ships, subs, planes and drones to actually talk to one another.

– Reuters – U.S. forces said they had destroyed a target in the first successful test of the Navy’s newest anti-missile interceptor, designed to protect allies from attacks by countries like North Korea and Iran.

– Associated Press – The U.S. Navy may hurt more dolphins and whales by using sonar and explosives in Hawaii and California under a more thorough analysis that reflects new research and covers naval activities in a wider area than previous studies.

– Associated Press – Top defense leaders argued Wednesday for the U.S. to ratify a long-debated treaty governing ocean rights in order to bolster the nation’s national security interests in the Asia-Pacific region and other key global waters.

– Reuters – The first of a new class of U.S. coastal warships will be sent to Singapore next spring for a roughly 10-month deployment, spotlighting a move that may stir China’s fears of U.S. involvement in South China Sea disputes.

– Aviation Week – The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom is plagued by extensive corrosion and manufacturing issues more recent and serious than anything the Pentagon or prime contractor Lockheed Martin has publicly acknowledged thus far. This is based on a guided tour of the ship in dry dock, as well as sources intimately familiar with Freedom’s design, repairs and operations, U.S. Navy documents and defense analysts.

– Foreign Policy – Does the U.S. military have the resources for an Asian century?

– Defense Technology International – Most aircraft slated to go onto aircraft carries have to go through an electronic magnetic interference test that bathes the design in about 200 volts per meter. But the test platform for the Navy’s unmanned carrier-launched airborne surveillance and strike (Uclass) aircraft program, will have to endure 10 times the electronic stress. Undoubtedly that means the Navy wants a design for its unmanned carrier-launched airborne surveillance and strike (UCLASS) aircraft program that would be able to fire a permanently installed, rechargeable, anti-electronics weapon.

– Defense Technology International – The U.S. Navy’s F/A-XX strike fighter, the EA-18G Growler, an unmanned combat aircraft (currently exemplified by two X-47B test platforms) and a nascent arsenal of specialized air-launched standoff weapons are all part of a new emphasis on exploiting the electro-magnetic spectrum.

– Aviation Week and Space Technology – As promised, the U.S. Navy is focusing on taking greater care of its surface fleet, with the release this month of a new manual that details how the service will better maintain most of those ships.

– AP – An enormous, expensive and technology-laden warship that some Navy leaders once tried to kill because of its cost is now viewed as an important part of the Obama administration’s Asia-Pacific strategy, with advanced capabilities that the Navy’s top officer says represent the Navy’s future.

– Aviation Week – The U.S. Navy’s expanding mission in Asia and the Pacific Ocean is a striking example of early planning turned on its head by changing threats. That upset is now being righted by innovations on the fly.

– Associated Press – The deployment of the nuclear-powered USS Enterprise along the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group marks only the fourth time in the past decade that the Navy has had two aircraft carriers operating at the same time in the region.

– New York Times – The Navy’s newest ship is designed to battle Iranian attack boats, clear mines from the Strait of Hormuz, chase down Somali pirates and keep watch on China’s warships. The ones built here even look menacing, like Darth Vader on the sea.

(Thanks to Eric for the link!)

– The Age – United States military aircraft, including drones undertaking surveillance operations over the South China Sea, could be based on Australia’s Cocos and Keeling Islands in the Indian Ocean.

– Virginian Pilot – Driven by pressures to cut spending in its 2013 budget, the Navy wants to take two extra years to build the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy, which is to be constructed at Newport News Shipbuilding.

– Los Angeles Times – The U.S. Navy is upgrading its defensive and offensive capabilities in the Persian Gulf to counter threats from Iran to seize the Strait of Hormuz and block the flow of oil, the chief of naval operations said Friday.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Combining Aegis with the new Joint Strike Fighter will enhance coverage and lead to a global honeycomb of defensive capabilities.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – An August article in Proceedings laid out “Ten Realities for the New CNO.” Here, the new CNO offers his vision of the Navy 15 years hence, which touches on several of those same issues.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Sometimes a heavyweight has to shake up his punch-repertoire—the U.S. military should heed that lesson.

– Virginian Pilot – 3,000 sailors will lose their jobs in the coming months as part of an unprecedented and drastic effort to thin the Navy’s ranks in overcrowded job fields. It marks the first time the service will lay off thousands of sailors who are in the middle of enlistment contracts. In the months since the move was announced, it has become widely unpopular and controversial.

– Defense Technology International – The U.S. Navy has begun firing the first of two prototype electromagnetic railgun launchers as it moves a step closer to deploying the long-range, high-speed weapon on its warships.

– Wall Street Journal – The Pentagon is beefing up U.S. sea- and land-based defenses in the Persian Gulf to counter any attempt by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz.