1945 – The United States has neither a genuinely maritime strategy, nor an executor beneath the presidency with the power to put such a scheme into effect.

Aviation Geek – Iconic Catalina amphibious flying boat to be resurrected as new production transport category turboprop.

Nikkei Asia – The U.S. military will be granted access to six sites in Papua New Guinea, including a naval base, for 15 years under a defense agreement reached between the two countries.

War Zone – For decades the Navy has been trying to realize a small submarine to transport SEALs inside a pressurized cabin, and now it is operational.

1945 – James Holmes writes that SSK acquisitions would promise not just capable and affordable platforms but a diplomatic boon. Indivisible alliances stand the best chance of weathering peacetime strategic competition as well as hot war.

Defense News – Admiral Franchetti is now President Joe Biden’s nominee for chief of naval operations.

Defense News – The U.S. Navy leveraged air and surface drones throughout its two-week UNITAS 2023 naval exercise near Latin America, the first major event since service leadership announced the region would host the sea service’s second unmanned operations hub.

War Zone – Built by Boeing, the 85-foot unmanned submarine was accompanied by a pod of dolphins as it conducted underwater testing.

CNAS – In this report, the author asserts that despite the critical role of logistics in military operations, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has systemically underinvested in logistics in terms of money, mental energy, physical assets, and personnel. To overcome these challenges, the author argues that the DoD must start developing an adaptive concept for joint logistics—one in which methods of support shift in response to threats, operational demands, and the availability of information.

USNI News – The Navy is now more than 80 ships short of the latest estimate of what the sea service thinks it needs to fulfill the Biden administration’s national security strategy.

USNI News – Ohio-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine USS Kentucky (SSBN-737) arrived in Busan, South Korea, the first visit by a U.S. SSBN in four decades

1945 – James Holmes writes: I think a zombie has been slain. Zombie in this context meaning an idea that’s hard to kill. You shoot it down coming from one commentator or institution and ten or a hundred others repeat it anyway. It shambles on despite the headshot. This particular ghoul is the fallacy that a navy’s combined tonnage—the amount of water its hulls displace—is somehow the decisive factor in naval warfare. The number of ships in the inventory somehow doesn’t matter much. 

USNI News – The U.S. is sending a mix of Air Force fighters and a guided-missile destroyer to escort ships in and out of the Persian Gulf.

BBC – Now, 30 years after the movie The Hunt for Red October, Darpa is working on a marine propulsion system similar to the “caterpillar drive” described in the movie.

War Zone – The Navy has posted new pictures of its Seawolf class nuclear fast attack submarine USS Connecticut (SSN-22), which was badly damaged when it struck a seamount while on patrol in the South China Sea on October 2nd, 2021. The Connecticut is currently in Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, undergoing a long series of repairs that will last until 2026, at the soonest.

CIMSEC – Dale Rielage recently spoke with CIMSEC about the role of Navy staffs in command and modern naval warfare. 

Defense News – The nomination of U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Samuel Paparo to be the 33rd chief of naval operations could herald a renaissance in the CNO’s staff office not seen since the 1980s in terms of strategic and operational focus for the fleet.

Defense News – With the aircraft carrier George Washington back at sea — albeit two years behind schedule — the U.S. Navy is combing through lessons learned from the delay in order to apply them to two other ships.

CIMSEC – For generations, the primarily defensive roles of the surface fleet and the lack of long-range anti-ship weapons have sapped the offensive spirit of the Surface Warfare Officer community. As ships begin to utilize the SM-6 in anti-surface mode, an offensive spirit is beginning to build. The surface warfare enterprise needs to continue to invest in longer-range weapons to put the enemy on the defensive and to put our own ships on offense.

Breaking Defense – It’s 10,000 kilometers from L.A. to Taipei. How will supplies cross that vast distance in event of war with China? Two RAND experts argue only Congress can force the services to work together.

BBC – The US Navy detected sounds “consistent with an implosion” shortly after OceanGate’s Titan submersible lost contact, a navy official has said.

USNI News – As maiden deployments go, the one USS Charleston (LCS-18) just wrapped is one for the record books. The Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship returned to its San Diego, Calif., homeport last week, closing out a 26-month rotational deployment overseas. During that time, the ship operated across the U.S. 7th Fleet and 3rd Fleet regions with five rotations of its two crews, with the gold crew completing three rotations and the alternative with the blue crew, which did two.

War Zone – The Navy has other deep-sea rescue, and search and salvage capabilities, but the depths around the Titanic exceed some of their abilities.

USNI News – Over the last year, the Navy surveyed 2,500 officers on the highs and lows of a surface warfare career. The results surprised no one.

AP –  A $600 million-plus expansion will make Nome, population 3,500, the nation’s first deep-water Arctic port. The expansion, expected to be operational by the end of the decade, will accommodate not just larger cruise ships of up to 4,000 passengers, but cargo ships to deliver additional goods for the 60 Alaska Native villages in the region, and military vessels to counter the presence of Russian and Chinese ships in the Arctic.