– 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.

– Associated Press – When U.S. Navy helicopters returned from a humanitarian mission on the first weekend following Japan’s earthquake and tsunami, Lt. j.g. James Powell felt a slight unease.

– Virginian Pilot – Congress’ inability to approve a 2011 budget is causing significant problems for the Navy, officials say, by delaying ship repairs; reducing aircraft flight hours and ship steaming hours; postponing construction projects; and disrupting the orderly moves of sailors and their families.

– Washington Post – When some Chinese naval officers crossed the Pacific to visit the Naval War College here on an Atlantic-lapped island, they gazed reverently at a desk used by Capt. Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914). This compliment to America’s preeminent naval strategist has scholars here wondering whether Mahan’s Chinese readers are taking from him lessons similar to those Theodore Roosevelt derived.

– Washington Post – Scholars at the Naval War College here probably nodded in vigorous agreement with a recent lecture delivered at another military institution 130 miles away. Speaking at West Point to leaders of tomorrow’s Army, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that “any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put it.” This underscored Gates’s point that “the most plausible, high-end scenarios for the U.S. military are primarily naval and air engagements – whether in Asia, the Persian Gulf or elsewhere.”

– BBC – Nice summary of the military assets currently operating against Libya.

– Air & Space – The new, supersonic face of e-warfare.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – In the 1916 Battle of Jutland, two Royal Navy battlecruisers exploded because their armor had been sacrificed for speed, famously prompting Admiral David Beatty to remark, “There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.” In our day, as littoral combat ship (LCS) construction continues, many mutter similar complaints. The trimaran hull of the Independence class causes some of the dismay, but even more so for naval planners is the sacrifice of armor and armament for high speed.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – In light of global economic and strategic realities, here’s how the Navy of the future might look.

– Virginian Pilot – Crew members of the Bulkeley came to the aid of a Japanese vessel on Saturday and arrested the four Somalis suspected of trying to hijack it. The Bulkeley was one of four U.S. Navy ships that tried last month to free four Americans off East Africa who were later shot and killed.

– Wall Street Journal – Sixty ships were commonly underway in America’s seaward approaches in 1998, but today there are only 20. We are abdicating our role on the oceans.

– Virginian Pilot – After two years, multiple breakdowns and more than $40 million in fixes, the amphibious transport dock is nearly ready for sea tests. The ship’s troubles, estimated in the thousands, included major engine problems.

– Washington Post – The deaths of a US couple, at the hands of pirates who had ostensibly entered into negotiations with commanders aboard the nearby USS Sterett, reflected the increasingly violent ways of Somali pirates who have been pushing further out to sea in search of victims.

– Aviation Week and Space Technology – The U.S. Navy is building on the successful first flight of the stealthy, tailless Northrop Grumman X-47B demonstrator as a pivotal step toward the long-held goal of marrying persistent, autonomous unmanned intelligence and strike aircraft with the reach of its fleet of aircraft carriers.