– Virginian Pilot – The Navy moved a step closer to unmanned carrier-based aerial combat last weekend when a modified F/A-18D Hornet made its first carrier touchdown without a pilot’s guiding hands.

– Aviation Week and Space Technology – Even on an island of unique buildings anchoring the premiere U.S. Navy maritime testing grounds for the service’s most sophisticated air and ballistic missile defense radar systems, the building that those here call the “Taj Mahal” stands apart, gleaming eggshell white near the ocean’s edge.

– Washington Post – The Navy has fired a dozen commanding officers this year, a near-record rate, with the bulk getting the ax for offenses related to sex, alcohol or other forms of personal misconduct.

– Wired – The Navy’s newest warship is slowly disappearing, one molecule at a time.

– Associated Press – Russia is voicing concern about a U.S. warship now just off its shores in the Black Sea. The guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey, which is taking part in annual joint military exercises conducted by NATO and Ukraine, is an integral part of U.S. plans to create a missile shield in Europe, which Russia opposes.

– BBC – A US warship intercepted and halted a North Korean vessel that was bound for Burma and was suspected of carrying missile technology.

– Aviation Week – The sign outside the Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) Composites Facility in Gulfport, Miss., states the company’s optimism about the potential for advanced materials in U.S. Navy shipbuilding: “Composites, the Wave of the Future.”

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – With smaller and lighter unmanned aircraft coming into the mix, the United States can also deploy smaller and lighter—and less expensive—ships to carry them.

– Associated Press – The U.S. is developing aircraft carrier-based drones that could provide a crucial edge as it tries to counter China’s military rise.

– San Diego Union Tribune – Cmdr. Shanti Sethi is the first Indian American woman to command a U.S. Navy warship. So when Sethi’s ship, the destroyer Decatur, docked in India this spring, it was a singular moment in history.

– Aviation Week – The Navy signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Army on May 2 transferring all five of the Army’s Joint High Speed Vessels (JHSV) to the Navy.

– Virginian Pilot – In a string of firsts associated with Wednesday’s deployment, Rear Adm. Nora Tyson, shown, will be a part of history as the first female commander of a carrier strike group. The deployment also coincides with the 100th anniversary of naval aviation.

– Defense Technology International – While pirate attacks have increased, we’ve also seen an increased willingness on the part of U.S., French, Russian and South Korean special forces to get kinetic, boarding and forcibly retaking some of these pirated ships–a risky proposition given that they’re facing an armed and unpredictable enemy–which makes attempts at gaining situational awarness a critical part of the operation. In order to do that, some think it’s time to call in the robots.

– New York Times – There were 79 people on the assault team that killed Osama bin Laden, but in the end, the success of the mission turned on some two dozen men who landed inside the Qaeda leader’s compound, made their way to his bedroom and shot him at close range – all while knowing that the president of the United States was keeping watch from Washington.

– Washington Post – More details emerge on the SEAL Team 6 mission to capture / kill Bin Laden.

– CNN – US Navy SEALs have killed Osama Bin Laden.

– Aviation Week – Shipbuilders that want to obtain or retain U.S. Navy work should look to the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program for inspiration, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus says.

– Defense Technology International – Bill Sweetman analyses the prospects for further orders of Boeing’s F-18E/F’s from countries around the world.

– Time – How defense cuts will affect the US Navy.

– Defense Technology International – In numbers terms, the F-35B STOVL variant of the Joint Strike Fighter has made rapid flight-test progress since the beginning of the year, racking up 61 vertical landings compared with just 10 in 2010. Improving mechanical reliability and adding aircraft to STOVL-mode flight testing appears to be paying off.

– Virginian Pilot – During the three weeks that the Norfolk-based destroyer Stout spent off the coast of Libya, its crew didn’t get to talk or email much with friends and family back home. For one thing, commanders ordered tighter restrictions on communication. For another, the sailors were too busy.

– Aviation Week and Space Technology – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says it has the “potential to do for America’s military deterrent power . . . what AirLand Battle did” in the 20th century. The chief of naval operations sees it as paradigm-shifting. “I don’t want to be over the top,” Navy Adm. Gary Roughhead said at an Aviation Week conference in February, “but it’s pretty ground-breaking.” What has these men seemingly so excited? The answer: The nascent AirSea Battle concept now being hammered out by Air Force, Navy and other defense officials inside the Pentagon and elsewhere.

Defense Technology International – As the U.S. Navy begins to design the SSBN(X) — the next class of ballistic-missile submarines — the service needs to define requirements with a keen eye toward life-cycle costs and tube-launching options, according to former Navy officers.

– Virginian Pilot – Stepping up attacks far from the front-line fighting, a Norfolk-based U.S. Navy ship fired 22 Tomahawk cruise missiles at weapon storage sites around Tripoli on Tuesday.

– Virginian Pilot – In a sign of U.S. confidence that the weeklong assault on Libya has tamed Moammar Gadhafi’s air defenses, the Pentagon has reduced the amount of naval firepower arrayed against him.