– American Interest – A more detailed look at how Air Sea battle is supposed to work in practice.

– Washington Post – As the Obama administration reorients its military strategy toward Asia and the vital maritime trade routes in the Pacific, the bulk of the responsibility will fall on the Navy, which was largely sidelined during the land wars of the last decade.

– Aviation Week – The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, long touted as the follow-on to the EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft, is no longer heir-apparent as the king of nonkinetic warfare. The often-delayed Lockheed Martin JSF program is being more narrowly focused on its conventional attack role. Jamming is no longer a priority for the stealthy fighter. The airframes expected to carry the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) are conventional-signature unmanned aerial systems and will be followed by stealthy unmanned designs.

– US Navy – USS Abraham Lincoln in Strait of Hormuz voyage – The US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln has sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, close to the coast of Iran, for the second time in recent weeks.

– Associated Press – The top U.S. Navy official in the Gulf said Sunday he takes Iran’s military capabilities seriously but insists his forces are prepared to confront any Iranian aggression in the region.

– Military Times – Four Navy frigates and a patrol squadron operating in the 4th Fleet area of responsibility have joined a new multi-national effort to combat illicit trafficking routes in Central America.

– Popular Mechanics – America’s aircraft carriers face fresh threats. But will the new breed of warplanes that meet those threats be flown by top Navy pilots, or will they be incredibly advanced autonomous UAVs? The dogfight for the future of navy flying is on.

– New York Times – C.J. Chivers looks at the survival training naval aviators must undergo regularly.

– Virginian Pilot – The crew of this warship has glimpsed American land for the first time in nearly 11 months, marking the last leg in what’s become the longest U.S. Navy ship deployment in nearly 40 years.

– San Diego Union Tribune – For at least the fourth time in its young history, the San Diego-based littoral combat ship Freedom has developed a serious mechanical or structural problem, the latest which caused the vessel to experience minor flooding while it was operating off Southern California.

– New York Times – CJ Chivers visits the Red Shirts aboard the USS John C. Stennis.

– Washington Post – Two decades after evicting U.S. forces from their biggest base in the Pacific, the Philippines is in talks with the Obama administration about expanding the American military presence in the island nation, the latest in a series of strategic moves aimed at China.

– DefenseIQ – Liquid Robotics Inc. is a Sunnyvale, California-based company that has developed the Wave Glider, a self-propelled and continuous Unmanned Maritime Vehicle (UMV). The company’s Wave Glider uses wave and solar energy to power itself for long periods of time, with some deployments having lasted years at a time.

(Thanks to Worda for the link!)

– Washington Post – The Pentagon is rushing to send a large floating base for commando teams to the Middle East as tensions rise with Iran, al-Qaeda in Yemen and Somali pirates, among other threats. In response to requests from U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, the Navy is converting the USS Ponce, an aging warship it had planned to decommission into a makeshift staging base for the commandos. Unofficially dubbed a “mothership,” the floating base could accommodate smaller high-speed boats and helicopters commonly used by Navy SEALs, procurement documents show.

– AP – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told sailors aboard the country’s oldest aircraft carrier that the U.S. is committed to maintaining a fleet of 11 of the formidable warships despite budget pressures, in part to project sea power against Iran.

– Los Angeles Times – The rescue of a U.S. aid worker and a Danish colleague held hostage since October was carried out by Navy SEALs from the unit that killed Osama bin Laden.

– AP – It’s getting a bit more crowded under the sea in Asia, where Andrew Peterson commands one of the world’s mightiest weapons: a $2 billion nuclear submarine with unrivaled stealth and missiles that can devastate targets hundreds of miles (kilometers) away.

– Jane’s – A senior official at the US Department of the Navy has painted an optimistic picture of the service’s 2022 force posture that will be focused on strategic choke points, humanitarian disaster response and the highest levels of maritime domain awareness.

– New York Times – C.J. Chivers on the air war in Afghanistan.

– Associated Press – The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group has entered the Arabian Sea and another is on its way, a Pentagon official said in a news briefing Wednesday — a shuffling of the U.S. fleet amid rising tensions with Iran.

– New York Times – If Iran’s warning on Tuesday to this American aircraft carrier was intended to disrupt the ship’s routine or provoke a high-seas reaction, nothing of the sort was evident on Wednesday.

– New York Times – A report from the indomitable CJ Chivers, who is with the USS John Stennis task force that rescued the Iranians from the Somali pirates. He reports from aboard their fishing dhow…

– Washington Post – In a stroke of good timing, Americans seize pirates days after Iran told U.S. to stay out.

– Wall Street Journal – The USS Gerald R. Ford was supposed to help secure another half century of American naval supremacy. The hulking aircraft carrier taking shape in a dry dock in Newport News, Va., is designed to carry a crew of 4,660 and a formidable arsenal of aircraft and weapons. But an unforeseen problem cropped up between blueprint and expected delivery in 2015: China is building a new class of ballistic missiles designed to arc through the stratosphere and explode onto the deck of a U.S. carrier, killing sailors and crippling its flight deck.

– Associated Press – The Pentagon says U.S. warships will continue to sail in the Gulf despite a warning by Iran’s army chief on Tuesday to stay away. The warning is Tehran’s latest tough rhetoric over the strategic waterway, part of a feud with the United States over new sanctions that has sparked a jump in oil prices.