National Interest – James Holmes says it’s all “warfighting,” all the time, for the next four years while Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the newly installed chief of naval operations (CNO) or top-ranked U.S. naval officer, presides over the U.S. Navy. It seems Admiral Franchetti is a one-note instrument. Combat readiness is the note—and it’s the right note. 

Defense News –

The head of U.S. Naval Surface Forces and other brass have praised the work of Navy destroyers operating in the Red Sea, where they have since October shot down scores of attack drones and missiles fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. But applause from Vice Adm. Brendan McLane and other leaders has been paired with frustrations that warships like the Carney, Gravely, Mason, Laboon and Thomas Hudner are fighting without a potential key asset: the long-planned and ever-elusive laser.

Defense News – While it remains to be seen whether last week’s U.S.-led bombing of Houthi sites in Yemen will cause the rebels to meaningfully relent, current Navy leaders and analysts agree: The volume of intercepts in the Red Sea is without modern precedent for the Navy, and the surface fleet is quickly learning from the encounters.

Center for Maritime Strategy – Twenty months. The upper limit of time remaining for the U.S. military to make good on Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks’s commitment to field “attritable autonomous systems at scale of multiple thousands, in multiple domains” to check the PRC. Formally unveiled last August, the Replicator initiative was further defined by Hicks in September and its potential permutations within DoD have been the subject of much thoughtful commentary since (see the Brookings Institution’s assessment of what Replicator means for Army modernization). But looking ahead, the most urgent – and consequential – expression of the initiative lies with the naval service.

War Zone – An unprecedented amount of real-world data has come out of the shoot-downs around the Red Sea, but adversaries are also watching.

Defense News – Revitalizing in-theater expeditionary ship repair capabilities can harness the agility, mobility and scalability that are hallmark advantages of naval power so that if called upon, our ships can sail to the battle line — and stay there.

USNI News – U.S. forces destroyed four Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles the ground in Tuesday morning.

Defense News –  The U.S. Navy completed its first deployment of four unmanned ships, which spent five months in the Pacific testing concepts for how to integrate their capabilities into crewed fleet operations.

Breaking Defense – US Central Command today revealed that for the first time since Yemen-based Houthi began attacks on ships in the Red Sea in November, US forces seized “lethal, Iranian-supplied” arms heading to the militant group, including missile components. Two Navy SEALs, however, remain missing after the Jan. 11 operation.

War on the Rocks – The United States appears unwilling to embrace a collective approach to naval shipbuilding and sustainment with its allies and partners to compete with China. Decades-old protectionist legislation, “buy American” quotas, and technology transfer restrictions continue to limit meaningful industrial cooperation with allies. Whether and how the United States resolves this dilemma will determine the outcome of U.S.-Chinese naval competition, and with it the future of the United States in the Indo-Pacific.

Naval News – Austal USA, for the first time, showcased a T-AGOS 25 class undersea surveillance ship scale model.

Naval News – With over a third of the fleet projected to be unmanned by 2050, the Navy continues to develop and experiment with unmanned surface vessels.

Naval News – The US Navy is preparing for at-sea trials in 2024 of a capability to enable missiles to be re-loaded onboard surface ships deployed at sea. This capability will change the game in surface warfare operations, and would provide capability with relevance for current operations including those being conducted by USN destroyers in the Red Sea, according to the Secretary of the Navy.

Breaking Defense – There’s no lack of excitement in the Navy about the idea of an operational laser on a ship underway, but the service must be more “intellectually honest” about what’s possible, Rear Adm. Fred Pyle said at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium.

War Zone – Mod 2.0 Arleigh Burke destroyers will get new radar, electronic warfare, and other capabilities as part of larger modernization push.

Defense News – The U.S. Navy’s first Constellation-class guided-missile frigate will arrive late amid workforce shortages, a program official said Thursday.

USNI News – The U.S. and the United Kingdom conducted a series of strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen Thursday in retaliation for nearly three months of attacks on commercial shipping in the Middle East.

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.