– US Naval Institute Proceedings – It’s 50 candles for the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the first nuclear warship to engage in combat.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – In the face of a Western Pacific underwater-fleet buildup, the United States must exploit emerging technologies and strengthen its regional partnerships to sustain dominance ‘on a budget.’

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – U.S. leaders should not be reducing military power at all, much less comparing navies by weights and numbers.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – What will naval aviation be 50 years hence? Still crucial, yet technologically far superior—as long as the public remains aware and supportive.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Calls for the big-deck carrier’s phase-out are wrongheaded—both fiscally and strategically.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – The swaggering-flyer mystique forged over the past century has been stymied in recent years by political correctness.

– US Naval War College Review – In an attempt to improve the quality of the coming debates, this article will examine the prospects for future utility of the aircraft carrier, including that of the embarked air wing, from a different angle. Instead of making a holistic judgment on the future utility of aircraft carriers, it will focus on the ways they have been, are, or could be used. Within the bounds of security classification, it will also attempt to sort out the risk factors that attend their use. Others may then proceed to decide whether a continued investment in them is justified.

– Aviation Week and Space Technology – An exclusive Aviation Week Intelligence Network investigation into the U.S. Navy destroyer fleet and its accompanying combat systems strongly suggests the service will have to upend some $121.8 billion worth of plans for their development, effectively solidifying the grip of incumbent contractors on the work at the very time Navy brass say they’re trying to break such monopolies.

– Defense Technology International – The US Navy plans to launch AeroVironment’s Switchblade small, expendable unmanned aircraft from a submerged submarine during the RIMPAC 2012 naval exercise in the Pacific.

– Reuters – The US Navy will station several new littoral combat ships in Singapore and perhaps in the Philippines in coming years, moves likely to fuel China’s fears of being encircled and pressured in the South China Sea row.

– Brookings Institution – P.W. Singer says the future of naval aviation is unmanned.

– Aviation Week and Space Technology – With defense spending getting so tight, submarine programs in the U.S. and other countries are likely to come under greater scrutiny, the Rand Corp. warns in a recent report that provides some recommendations on how to buy and build the vessels.

– 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.