Washington Post – The White House yesterday sought to overrule a federal court’s decision limiting the Navy’s use of sonar in training exercises, exempting the service from complying with two major environmental laws.
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Miami Herald – The Navy is considering restoring the Fourth Fleet in the Atlantic Ocean, a bureaucratic change that would raise the prominence of Pentagon maritime activities in Latin America and Caribbean.
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Washington Post – A federal judge yesterday severely limited the Navy’s ability to use mid-frequency sonar on a training range off the Southern California coast, ruling that the loud sounds would harm whales and other marine mammals if not tightly controlled.
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Air Force – The island is the pivot of a sweeping realignment of US forces in the Pacific.

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Washington Post – A federal judge in California is scheduled to release a decision this week that will outline what the Navy must do to protect whales and other marine mammals from the loud blasts of its sonar equipment.

U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper’s ruling in the closely watched case, expected by week’s end, will not only affect Navy training exercises scheduled for the waters off Southern California over the next year but could also clarify how closely the military must follow environmental laws.
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Virginian Pilot – The San Antonio broke the mold for amphibious ships but came with plenty broken, too. About $840 million over budget and plagued by design and construction flaws, it finally has been cleared for deployment.
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Florida Times-Union – One quarter of the Navy’s P-3C Orions are grounded after it was determined that these particular aircraft are likely to develop cracks in the trailing edge of the wing between the engines.
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Defense Technology International – Bill Sweetman notes that the roll-out of the first Lockheed Martin F-35B is a milestone in the development of a runway-free supersonic fighter. But it does raise a huge question: what is it for?
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Defense Technology International – The U.S. Navy has given its final approval for Lockheed Martin to proceed with the integration and shipboard installation of the world’s first, fully-open architecture Aegis weapon system for a major surface warship.
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Washington Post – The Army likes to brag that it’s got a significant navy of its own — even if there isn’t a destroyer or aircraft carrier in it.
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New York Times – China blocked the visit of a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group and other American warships to Hong Kong last week in retaliation for the Bush administration’s proposed upgrading of Taiwan’s Patriot antimissile batteries, the state media reported Thursday.
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BBC – The US has formally protested to China over its refusal to allow a number of US ships to dock in Hong Kong.
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The Atlantic – Robert Kaplan on the new U.S. collaborative plan for policing the seas
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Associated Press – The top U.S. military commander in the Pacific said he’s “perplexed and concerned” by China’s last-minute decision to deny a U.S. aircraft carrier entry to Hong Kong for a previously scheduled port visit.
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Defense Technology International – Its origins date back to the 1970s. Yet the U.S. Navy’s Lockheed Martin-built Aegis weapon system will have to soldier on well into the 2030s. The arrival of the Aegis-equipped Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52) at BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair, Calif., will herald a major renovation for this most widely-used naval combat system in service today.
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Daily Telegraph – The US-led coalition is building a permanent security base on Iraq’s oil pumping platforms in the Gulf to act as the “nerve centre” of efforts to protect the country’s most vital strategic asset.
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Armed Forces Journal – The new U.S. maritime strategy to be unveiled this fall is expected to fill the lack of a clear and well-articulated vision of the role of U.S. maritime forces in defense and protection of the national interests at sea and of those of its allies and other friendly nations. However, the lack of sound theory and doctrine for the employment of maritime forces at the operational level of war might pose some serious limitations and ultimately doom the execution of the new U.S. maritime strategy.
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Associated Press – The U.S. Navy said it had begun a series of exercises in the Gulf and wider Gulf waters on Friday involving a U.S aircraft carrier and two expeditionary assault ships.
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Defense and the National Interest – William Lind asks what is the role of the navy in Fourth Generation Warfare.
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Associated Press – The U.S. Navy on Friday kept its eye on a Japanese tanker taken over by pirates off Somalia’s coast.
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CNN – The crew members of a North Korean freighter regained control of their ship from pirates who hijacked the vessel off Somalia, but not without a deadly fight.

BBC – Pirates ‘overpowered’ off Somalia.

Virginian Pilot – Norfolk-based ships respond to pirate attacks on vessels.
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CNN – A U.S. destroyer has entered Somali territorial waters in pursuit of a Japanese-owned ship loaded with benzene that was hijacked by pirates over the weekend, military officials said Monday.
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Air Force – The Navy plans to build many more flattops, and they wonít be “Gary Hart carriers.”
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Associated Press – Cmdr. Michael B. Portland of the submarine USS Hampton was relieved of duty after a U.S. Navy investigation found the ship failed to do daily safety checks on its nuclear reactor for a month and falsified records to cover up the omission.
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Associated Press – The Navyís mainstay Arleigh Burke destroyers are subject to structural damage under higher-than-anticipated loads in rough seas, necessitating nearly $60 million in upgrades for the entire class of ships.
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