USNI News – The Navy currently has 22,000 gaps in at-sea billets for ranks E1-E4, an issue compounded by the Navy’s failure to meet its 2023 recruiting goals, the sea service’s chief personnel officer said Wednesday.

USNI News – Fleet Forces Command is working on a new plan to take a peacetime naval force and develop a construct for a U.S. Navy at war.

Defense News – The U.S. Navy’s surface fleet, still short of its readiness goal of 75 combat-credible surface ships at any given time, is pursuing new ways to boost its readiness.

Defense News – The chief of naval operations said Tuesday the service must “get more players on the field” as international crises demand more of the naval force, in her first major address since taking the helm of the Navy two months ago.

Breaking Defense – Alabama-based shipbuilder Austal USA says its new expeditionary medical ship will provide the US Navy with a “highly capable ambulance to shuttle casualties” from the battlefield in ways the service’s storied hospital ships were not designed.

Breaking Defense – The conflict in Gaza has drawn the US Navy’s surface forces into an extended missile and drone defense mission to support the Israeli Defense Forces.

Defense News – The U.S. Navy’s recent force structure study puts even greater importance on small combatants, the director of surface warfare said, a shift in priorities that could require the surface navy to rebalance its ongoing modernization plans.

USNI News – A U.S. guided-missile destroyer and fighters from aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) interdicted a dozen suicide drones and anti-ship missiles on Tuesday.

CNN – The US Air Force plans to bring the Pacific island airfield that launched the atomic bombings of Japan back into commission as it tries to broaden its basing options in the event of any hostilities with China.

Naval News – Austal USA received an $867.6 million undefinitized contract award for final design and construction of three Expeditionary Medical Ships from the U.S. Navy today.

War Zone – Orca, which Is set to perform a variety of missions for the Navy including mine laying, has suffered significant delays prior to delivery.

Jerusalem Post – The US Navy announced that they successfully launched and recovered an unmanned underwater vehicle for the second time ever in an early December test. 

(Thanks to Alain)

Defense News – Several nations have announced their contributions to Operation Prosperity Guardian, a new multinational security initiative in the Middle East to help protect merchant ships in the Red Sea area from drones and missiles.

War Zone – Arming America’s fleet of fighting ships is an extremely expensive endeavor.

USNI News – The Pentagon, on Monday, announced an initiative to protect commercial traffic in the region after almost two months of attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea by forces in Yemen.

War Zone – MH-60 Seahawk helicopters are set to use new AN/ALQ-248 electronic warfare pods to cooperatively defend ships against incoming missiles.

Center for Maritime Strategy – The 1980s-era video game Missile Command may offer the Navy a solution in terms of how to improve the size of crewed warship missile magazines without modifying existing ships or building more conventional combatants.

USNI News – A civilian-led convoy canceled its plans to deliver donated supplies and Christmas gifts to Philippine outposts across the South China Sea after China harassed Philippine vessels near Second Thomas and Scarborough Shoals over the weekend.

The Messenger – James Holmes writes that the Department of the Navy’s inaugural Cyber Strategy starts off with a startling claim, namely that “the next fight against our major adversary will be like no other in prior conflicts.” Why? The strategy’s framers go on to prophesy that “the use of non-kinetic effects and defense against those effects prior to and during kinetic exchanges will likely be the deciding factor in who prevails.” In other words, brute force might not make the difference.

Bloomberg – The US Navy plans to begin arming submarines next year with ship-targeting versions of the widely used Tomahawk missile, part of Washington’s push to ramp up military capabilities to challenge Chinese maritime forces, particularly around Taiwan. 

Defense News – A U.S. senator is developing legislation meant to revitalize the U.S. commercial maritime industry, which he called an economic and national security imperative.

Defense News – Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro is raising the alarm on the US ship building industry, warning that the service won’t be able to fulfill its mission without a strong commercial counterpart.

War on the Rocks – While critics have rightly focused on the program costs and timing of delivery, potential operational challenges for the Navy, and redundancy, proponents have countered that the new cruise missile will enhance deterrence and reassure allies facing adversaries with stocks of tactical nuclear weapons. This is an important claim and ultimately central to whether the program is worthy of funding. However, the deterrence and reassurance benefits of a sea-launched nuclear cruise missile are vastly overstated and may actually undermine the ability of the United States to deter adversaries by diverting scarce resources away from investments in more useful conventional platforms and munitions.  

USNI News – The U.S. is talking with other partner countries to possibly set up a maritime task force to protect ships in the Red Sea.

Defense News – Recent Vertical Launching System, or VLS, rearming experiments — including one aboard the DDG I commanded — demonstrate its promise. Additional doctrinal advances and equipment investments could help realize at-sea rearming’s operational potential even sooner.