Navy Times – Senior enlisted leaders among the littoral combat ship Manchester’s gold crew installed and secretly used their very own Wi-Fi network during a deployment.

As the ship prepared for a West Pacific deployment in April 2023, the enlisted leader onboard conspired with the ship’s chiefs to install the secret, unauthorized network aboard the ship, for use exclusively by them.

So while rank-and-file sailors lived without the level of internet connectivity they enjoyed ashore, the chiefs installed a Starlink satellite internet dish on the top of the ship and used a Wi-Fi network they dubbed “STINKY” to check sports scores, text home and stream movies.

Defense News – The Army is reviewing the $230 million pier operation and what it learned from the experience. One of the takeaways, according to a senior Army official, is that the unit needs to train under more challenging conditions to be better prepared for bad weather and other security issues it faced.

Naval News – The deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln from 7th Fleet to 5th Fleet has left the United States with no deployed carriers in the Pacific Ocean, at a time when they are needed most.

Breaking Defense – “People can go do far less difficult things for just about the same money from an entry wage standpoint,” Ingalls’ Shipbuilding President Kari Wilkinson told Breaking Defense. “I will say though that within a year-and-a-half to two years, you can double your salary as a shipbuilder.”

The War Zone – Starlink is part of the Navy’s ambitious SEA2 program that aims to provide high-bandwidth resilient global connectivity for U.S. warships that will have major operational and morale benefits.

War on the Rocks – Since 1979, it has been the policy of the United States, as codified in the Taiwan Relations Act, to maintain the capacity to resist the use of force or other forms of coercion by China against Taiwan. Until recently it could be taken for granted that the United States was able to directly thwart a Chinese attack on Taiwan. But dramatic increases in China’s military capability over recent decades have called that into question, particularly with the military balance trending ever further in China’s direction for at least the near future.

USNI News – Aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) arrived in the Middle East Wednesday, according to U.S. Central Command.

National Interest – James Holmes writes that the USS Constellation (FFG-62) frigate program is doing little to refurbish the U.S. Navy’s reputation for competence. Intended to deliver a flotilla of at least twenty small, hard-hitting surface combatants in reasonably short order at manageable cost, the program is 36 months—and counting—behind schedule.

USNI News – During his warship’s recent deployment to the Middle East, a guided-missile destroyer commander fired off some five terabytes of data about his crew’s operations in the Red Sea. On the receiving end was the Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center in California, which collected from USS Mason (DDG-87) a treasure trove of information and combat systems data in an amount akin to 1 million cellphone photographs or 2 million books.

National Interest – Imperial Japanese prime minister Hideki Tōjō credited U.S. Navy underway replenishment as a central cause of American victory in World War II. He was right. Let us resolve never again to slight the importance of ferrying beans, bullets, and black oil to the fighting forces. The principle of continuity demands it.

USNI News – The Navy is preparing to award an estimated $11.5 billion multi-ship deal to build four amphibious warships. According to the Aug. 14 notification, the Department of the Navy will purchase three San Antonio class Flight II amphibious warships and a Flight I America-class big deck amphibious warship starting in Fiscal Year 2025 to 2027 as part of a “multi-ship procurement,” authorized as part of the FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.

Breaking Defense – The US Navy this week announced it has finished the first installation of a new control room on its aircraft carriers designed for the crew to operate and monitor the service’s next-generation unmanned tanker MQ-25A Stingray.

Center for Maritime Strategy – Despite the concern about retiring the venerable C-2 Greyhound fleet, the Navy has presciently fielded a more capable, flexible, and adaptable replacement in the CMV-22B Osprey. Like the C-2, the CMV-22 can deliver 6000 pounds of internal cargo at distances ranging to 1150 nautical miles and cruising speeds of 250 knots. 

Naval News – Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron (HM) 15 Detachment IIA (DET IIA), based in Bahrain, embarked on the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) on August 2nd. At least two MH-53Es of HM-15 stopped in the United Arab Emirates before moving on to the Roosevelt‘s position in the Gulf of Oman, roughly 70 kilometers east of the UAE. One of many moves made by the U.S. Navy as the United States prepares for the possibility of an attack on U.S. and allied forces in the region.

Behind the Front – The U.S. Navy’s new frigate is now years behind schedule – and it’s unclear when any of them will enter service. The Navy was meant to have learned the lessons of previous failures but has somehow made a hash of this program too.

Defense News – The Navy’s ability to build lower-cost warships that can shoot down Houthi rebel missiles in the Red Sea depends in part on a 25-year-old laborer who previously made parts for garbage trucks.

BBC – The US has sent a guided missile submarine to the Middle East, as tensions grow in the region. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin also said an aircraft carrier which was already heading to the area would sail there more quickly.

The War Zone – U.S. Navy F/A-18E Super Hornets from the supercarrier USS Theodore Roosevelt are now operating from a major U.S. air operations hub in Jordan.

USNI News – When sailors assigned to USS Mason (DDG-87) were in workups last year, many expected a standard Mediterranean Sea deployment…But after Hamas launched attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 and the Yemen-based Houthis started attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea in response to Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the Gaza strip, the destroyer quickly became one of several U.S. warships to engage in sustained naval combat for the first time since World War II. 

The War Zone – This appears to be the first cruise for the AN/ALQ-249 Next Generation Jammer, the most advanced publicly known tactical electronic warfare capability.

War on the Rocks – We are not yet at a paradigm-shifting moment in the role of autonomous or robotic systems at sea. Nor are we likely to reach a revolutionary precipice within the period in which the U.S. Navy must begin making the transition to a truly hybrid fleet — that is, the integration of autonomous platforms designed to operate as part of an ocean-going battle force. This means the Navy’s approach to acquiring and fielding unmanned systems for deployment at sea should ultimately reinforce and support the maritime domain’s still-dominant weapons system: long-range anti-ship missiles.

CIMSEC – Treating unmanned vessels as warships requires examining whether they meet the definition of a warship under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The legal status of naval vessels under UNCLOS varies widely depending on whether a navy operates its ships as warships, non-commercial government vessels, or accessories to conventional warships.        

This paper discusses whether unmanned systems can be considered warships under UNCLOS, especially with today’s voracious appetite for developing the technology; however, the legal status of unmanned vessels as warships remains uncertain. International agreements on the legal status of unmanned vessels would help establish the legitimacy of naval operations employing them.

Naval News – Making its Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) debut, the USS Carl Vinson’s CVW-2 Advanced Air Wing is bringing unmatched capabilities to the front lines of U.S. Naval Aviation in a way not seen since the Cold War.

BBC – The United States will deploy additional warships and fighter jets to the Middle East to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies, the Pentagon said.

The War Zone – The Navy recently experimented with hundreds of electronic warfare technologies mounted on aerial drones and swarms of uncrewed boats.