Virginian Pilot – Sailors comment on the pros and cons of the Sea Swap program.
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Associated Press – The USS Kearsarge Expeditionary Strike group is about to deploy with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit onboard.
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Sea Power – As the Navy builds up its SEAL force dramatically, the integration of special operations and conventional forces is still a work in progress, drawing heavily from experience in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

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Associated Press – The Navy plans to send the retired carrier USS America to the bottom of the Atlantic in explosive tests this spring, an end that is difficult to swallow for some who served on board.
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Virginian Pilot – The aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy has only ‘marginal capability’ and will soak up about $300 million a year the Navy should invest in new and better ships, Navy Secretary Gordon R. England said Wednesday.
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Associated Press – The U.S. military ended its tsunami relief in Aceh province on Wednesday when the medical ship USNS Mercy steamed out of the Indonesian region most devastated by the Dec. 26 disaster. The ship took away the last of the U.S. servicemen and women helping tsunami survivors in the province. The ship planned to stop in eastern Indonesia, at the other end of the countryís vast archipelago, to treat patients there on its way home.
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New York Times – U.S. Navy investigators have found that the officers on a nuclear submarine failed to take into account a variety of danger signs before the vessel smashed into an undersea mountain in January.
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Naval War College Review – Since 11 September 2001, the U.S. defense budget has risen by about 25 percent, after factoring out inflation. The reasons for such an increase are numerous: simultaneously fighting wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, increases in military pay and benefits, and more money for some major weapons programs. In this same time period, money devoted to building the Navyís ships has only bounced around. In fiscal year 2001, the Navy spent $12 billion on ships. The Presidentís request for ships in 2005 is $11 billion. Why might this be the case?

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Virginian Pilot – If the USS John F. Kennedy were mothballed, what are the chances it would ever be brought back into service?
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Jakarta Post – The U.S. Navy hospital ship has been specially deployed in Aceh for the past three weeks to help treat tsunami victims.
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Sea Power – A look at the Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS), a mini-submarine being developed by Northrop Grumman to covertly transport special operations forces from a submerged submarine to a shoreline or harbor and back.

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Associated Press – The USS Jimmy Carter, set to join the nation’s submarine fleet Saturday, will have some special capabilities, intelligence experts say: It will be able to tap undersea cables and eavesdrop on the communications passing through them.
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Virginian Pilot – The Navy expects to mothball the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy after retiring it later this year, preserving vital systems so that the ship could return to the fleet if needed.
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Sea Power – The Navy and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) plan to pour $97 million during the next four years into a new joint project known as Tango Bravo, intended to lead to the design of a new attack submarine that would have all the capabilities of the current Virginia-class boats, but would be half the size and built at half the cost.

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Sea Power – While the public spotlight in Washington, D.C., is focused on defense numbers, as usual, relatively scant attention is being given to a nascent personnel management strategy that foretells of fundamental change to the Navy and its people, possibly to include several revolutionary shifts in the serviceís recruitment and staffing practices.

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Sea Power – A roundtable discussion on the future of the US shipbuilding industry.
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Virginian Pilot – The Bush administration could compromise the integrity of its military base closure process if it pursues a Navy plan to explore transferring a Norfolk-based aircraft carrier to Florida.
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Virginian Pilot – President Bush’s 2006 defense budget proposal is the worst in memory for shipbuilders, with low production rates and an apparent lack of planning that endangers shipyards and their suppliers, the industry’s top lobbyist said Tuesday.
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Wired – New strategies for mapping the ocean floor.
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San Diego Union Tribune – A look at the Sea Fighter, a 262-foot-long catamaran designed to operate in shallow coastal waters. This prototype tranformational warship was developed for the Navy’s Office of Naval Research.
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Virginian Pilot – Admiral Vern Clark, the Navy’s top officer, said today he will retire this summer after five years as chief of naval operations – the second-longest tenure in the history of the Navy.

More from Reuters – US Navy facing budget, leadership challenges.

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Virginian Pilot – The Navy wants to retire the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy this year, months earlier than had been expected, and is seriously contemplating the transfer of another flattop from Norfolk to the Kennedy’s home in Mayport, Florida.
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Sea Power – A look at what the upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review holds for the Navy.

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Defense and the National Interest – William Lind on whether America’s military effort in Iraq and Afghanistan is coming unglued.
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San Diego Union Tribune – The Navy hospital ship Mercy arrived off the coast of northern Sumatra yesterday evening with its San Diego crew eager to help island people ravaged by the tsunami.
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