CIMSEC – In an era marked by the complexities of global politics and evolving information landscapes, the role of military public affairs becomes increasingly significant in shaping and safeguarding a nation’s strategic interests. The United States, with its longstanding commitment to naval supremacy, recognizes the importance of effectively controlling the narrative surrounding its military actions. The concept of military public affairs, particularly in the context of U.S. naval supremacy, is the public facing image that controls the warfighter narrative, that holds both allies and adversaries accountable where the lines between truth and misinformation become blurred or even completely eroded. The ability to hold both adversaries and allies accountable is a crucial factor in maintaining U.S. naval dominance. The symbiotic relationship between military public affairs and naval power projection is imperative to generate a narrative control that can serve as a strategic tool for U.S. national security interests.

Center for Maritime Strategy – People question the carrier in terms of cost, but no fleet can operate without the air superiority that carrier aviation provides. The problem of the last 35 years is not that the carrier is obsolete, it is that the United States has not maintained enough carriers to conduct the kind of persistent global operations that have been the norm over those decades. Trying to cheat the carrier math has resulted in a run-down carrier force with new challenges appearing on a regular basis as the result of overworking a force that is too small. The only carrier “conundrum” is that the U.S. Navy is an 11-carrier navy in a 15-carrier world. Naval aviation is as good as its leaders say, but they also need to make a stronger case for more carriers. 

The War Zone – The EA-18G Growler from VAQ-130 “Zappers” executed the air-to-air engagement as part of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower’s combat deployment off Yemen.

Breaking Defense – Experts tell Breaking Defense, the secretary’s praise obscures a more nuanced reality about the differences between how the US Navy’s staple shipbuilders stack up against the biggest names in Asia. Chiefly, they say, the strict requirements instituted by the Navy combined with the instability of annual congressional budgeting makes a one-to-one comparison apples and oranges.

The War Zone – We have a tally of how many Standard Missiles, Tomahawks, and air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons Ike’s strike group launched at Houthi targets.

The War Zone – The air-launched SM-6 will disrupt China’s carrier-killing kill chain and pierce open its anti-access bubble.

National Interest – The U.S. Navy has announced a major advancement with the successful integration of the SM-6 missile onto carrier-based F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, designated as AIM-174B.

The War Zone – Congress wants the Navy to look at turning large uncrewed vessels into crewed missile ships, arming cargo ships, or buying something new.

BBC – The US says the floating pier designed to increase the amount of aid getting into the Gaza Strip will “soon cease operations”, less than two months after it was installed.

Naval News – The US Navy has announced that it is set to deploy a torpedo-tube launch-and-recovery uncrewed underwater vehicle capability onboard an operational submarine for the first time, with the operational deployment set to commence by the end of 2024. The deployment will take place in the European theatre of operations.

CIMSEC – When policymakers, military leaders, and analysts compare the qualities of various navies, they typically think in terms of numbers of ships, submarines, aircraft, and other conventional assets. However, considering the growing threat of sea mines worldwide, the capability to employ and defeat mines forms another core consideration in gauging the balance of naval advantage. Navies must consider how to field affordable and risk-worthy unmanned systems at scale to meet the mine threat.

Naval News – The SM-6 Air Launched Configuration (ALC), known by its official designation as the AIM-174, is the longest range air-to-air missile ever fielded by the U.S. Navy.

Defense News – The pier built by the U.S. military to bring aid to Gaza has been removed due to weather to protect it, and the U.S. is considering not reinstalling it unless the aid begins flowing out into the population again

Defense News -The USS Eisenhower’s latest extended cruise and its replacement once again raises questions about the finite carrier fleet’s ability to respond to a seemingly relentless series of global events that require the uniquely American naval presence of a flattop.

CIMSEC – The intent of DMO should not be to render the CSG irrelevant, but rather to ensure that the CSG is not relied upon as the sole vanguard of sea control in the initial stages of a high-end conflict against a peer competitor. DMO must delay and degrade the decision-making of adversaries while denying them the opportunity to engage first. It is about establishing and maintaining temporary sea control for operational needs and sea denial all other times. The transition away from using the air wing to prosecute sea control means fully embracing the true manifestation of DMO – lethal, distributed surface ships that can combine long-range fires across broad geographic spaces.

CIMSEC – The main mover and doer in the U.S. Navy is the numbered fleet, and the time is now to better enable these fleets for successful maritime combat in the near future.

Naval News – Amid growing concerns of missile inventory size and VLS cell count, the U.S. Navy is set to test a new surface-launched missile interceptor designed to maximize capacity in their Mark 41 VLS cells.

CIMSEC – A fleet’s homeport performs vital functions that sustain naval power, including ship repair, resupply, maintenance, and training. The criticality of homeport infrastructure to naval power makes bases an attractive target. Neutralization of a homeport not only stands to neutralize the warships located at the homeport, but can significantly damage the operational longevity of fleets operating at sea.

The Guardian – A floating pier built by the US military for seaborne humanitarian deliveries to Gaza has proved itself to be fragile in the face of rougher seas than expected, and the future of the whole $230m project is now in question.

USNI News – Aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) is set to depart the Red Sea while a carrier currently on station in the Pacific is planned to head to the Middle East to continue a U.S. presence mission in the region.

USNI News – An American shipyard that builds domestic cargo vessels and training ships for U.S. maritime colleges has agreed to a deal, in which it would be bought by a major South Korean shipbuilder. Pending regulatory approvals, Philly Shipyard is set to be acquired by Hanwha Systems and Hanwha Ocean for $100 million from its Norwegian parent Anker ASA, according to a statement from the Philadelphia yard on Thursday.

AP – The combat markings emblazoned on the F/A-18 fighter jet tell the story: 15 missiles and six drones, painted in black just below the cockpit windshield. As the jet sits on the deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, its markings illuminate the enemy targets that it’s destroyed in recent months and underscore the intensity of the fight to protect commercial shipping from persistent missile and drone attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. But they also hint at the fatigue setting in, as the carrier, its strike group and about 7,000 sailors close in on their ninth month waging the most intense running sea battle since World War II. That raises difficult questions about what comes next as U.S. military and defense leaders wrangle over how they will replicate the carrier’s combat power if the ship returns home to Norfolk, Virginia.

Breaking Defense – Directly citing the ongoing engagements between the US Navy and Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, the Defense Innovation Unit is seeking industry’s help for a “kinetic defeat solution” for medium-sized unmanned aerial vehicles, according to a new solicitation.

Defense News – Defense tech company Anduril Industries said it will build a new production facility in Rhode Island capable of churning out as many as 200 of its Dive-LD autonomous underwater vehicles annually.

National Interest – Maritime statecraft is a process of wielding levers of state in a concerted way to fulfill national purposes relating to the sea. It’s an approach to doing things. This process spans vastly more than building and deploying a navy, or a corps of marines, or a coast guard. If we do it right, maritime statecraft will bring together not just the naval services but fellow services that operate from land. In this age of joint sea power the U.S. Army and Air Force are sea services as surely as the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard are.