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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Washington Post – The U.S. military unveiled a new maritime strategy today — its first created jointly by the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard — shifting from a narrow focus on sea combat toward one that also emphasizes the use of “soft power” to counter terrorism and deliver humanitarian assistance.
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Aviation Week – The U.S. Navy is looking at an upgrade program for its eight Cyclone-class 350-ton coastal patrol craft, focusing on command & control as well as habitability issues.
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Washington Post – In response to angry protests, as well as some pressure from Congress and the marine mammal scientific community, the Navy has now funded an ambitious, $6 million project to learn more about beaked whales and their response to sonar and other loud ocean noises.
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Virginian Pilot – America’s high-tech, smart-bombing Navy could be seeing its future in a pair of hulking former oil tankers and their patchwork crews of civilian and military mariners and medical specialists.

Adm. Gary Roughead, the Navy’s chief of naval operations, on Friday told the crew of the hospital ship Comfort that its four-month cruise points the way toward other medical missions aimed at adding combat prevention to the Navy’s warfare portfolio.
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Esquire – Thomas P.M. Barnett asks if we know that maritime traffic is vulnerable to terrorism, wouldn’t we want to do something about it?
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Virginian Pilot – After two years, three trips around the globe and more than 100,000 miles at sea, the Swift returned Friday to Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base.
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AFP – The US Navy has all but ended its presence at a nuclear submarine base in Sardinia with the departure of support vessel USS Emory Land.
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Wired – The US Navy identifies an ‘Alien Life Force,’ and it is you???
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Armed Forces Journal – The Littoral Combat Ship serves too many masters with too many roles
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BBC – The US navy has won the latest round in a court battle over whether it can use sonar equipment which environmentalists say can kill whales and other mammals.
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Aviation Week – The Office of Naval Research has been funding designs for a Heavy Air Lift Seabasing Ship (HALSS) – a monster high-speed trimaran with hangars on its Nimitz-sized deck for six C-130J transports.
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Aviation Week – Northrop Grumman is starting to reveal details of its X-47B unmanned combat aircraft demonstrator. Despite protestations by company officials that they only wanted to talk about the $635.8 million, 6-year project to demonstrate launches and recoveries at sea, they soon turned to the operational potential of its X-47B unmanned combat aircraft design.
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BBC – The US Navy has been ordered not to use mid-frequency sonar equipment during training exercises off the coast of California until the end of 2009.
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Armed Forces Journal – America’s maritime strategy amounts to neglect.
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Aviation Week – Is electromagnetic armor being installed on US aircraft carriers?
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Aviation Week – The Navy has chosen Northrop Grumman for the Unmanned Combat Air System CV Demonstration (UCAS-D) contract, beating Boeing. It’s no small effort, valued at $636 million between now and September 2013, and it is an important win for Northrop Grumman and an important loss for Boeing.
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