Breaking Defense – Earlier this year, a group of experts from RAND and the Special Competitive Studies Project launched a new wargame effort around China’s invasion of Taiwan — but unlike most DC-based wargames, this effort heavily involved members of the commercial technology sector, in order to understand what near-term capabilities might be brought to bear on a Taiwan scenario. In the exclusive analysis below, Jim Mitre of RAND and Ylber Bajraktari of SCSP lay out their key findings.

War on the Rocks – Frustrated by reports of the U.S. Navy’s underperformance in cyber operations, Congress has made an unusual request. The Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act instructs the secretary of defense to report to Congress by 2024 on whether the Navy should continue contributing forces to U.S. Cyber Command. This request raises the unprecedented possibility that an armed service would not contribute forces to a joint combatant command. 

Defense News – As she assumes the mantle of acting chief of naval operations, Adm. Lisa Franchettifaces a growing stack of challenges in her inbox, from readiness and recruiting to force structure and innovation. Fortunately, she is uniquely positioned to pursue solutions.

1945 – As so often, Admiral Jim Stavridis called it right. Of this week’s decommissioning of USS Sioux City, a Freedom-class littoral combat ship (LCS), after less than five years’ service, the retired NATO supreme allied commander and Fletcher School dean declared: “Hard to figure this one out . . . . Hate to see anything decommissioned when we are so far behind China in overall ship count.” 

Defense News – Can the U.S. Navy’s fleet fight two conflicts at once, while managing distributed forces with limited resources?

USNI News – Two years after the initial Large Scale Exercise 2021, the Navy and Marines are again testing their new theories of war at sea with a blend of real-live and virtual training designed to push the commands of three four-star fleet admirals to their limits.

Breaking Defense – The Army’s new Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) is closing in on the initial fielding of two new missile systems while preparing to pass the development and sustainment baton to the Program Executive Office (PEO) for Missiles and Space

Breaking Defense – The proliferation of 3D printers, combined with loosened rules on using them, could change the way the Navy fixes its ships at sea.

Defense News – The Navy plans to extend the service life of four guided-missile destroyers that were slated to be retired in the coming years, adding four or five years to each of the warships’ standard 35 years of service.

The Guardian – The US dispatched four navy warships as well as a reconnaissance airplane after multiple Chinese and Russian military vessels carried out a joint naval patrol near Alaska last week.

Defense News – The U.S. Navy believes a pair of contracts it awarded this week for Arleigh Burke-class destroyers — covering as few as nine and as many as 15 ships over the next five years — is the best way to help two shipyards recover from challenges and increase their output.

War Zone – Members of Congress are trying to block the Navy from putting just under half of its fleet of Spearhead class expeditionary fast transports into a state of reduced readiness with only skeleton crews assigned to them. Some of the vessels in question are very young, with one having first entered service just three years ago. This comes as the U.S. military is coming to terms with massive logistical hurdles if it were to go to war in the Pacific, which these fast, low-draft, multi-purpose vessels seem to be ideally suited for.

War on the Rocks – Of the 19 U.S. ships sunk or severely damaged since 1945, 15 were victims of mines, and yet mine warfare is carelessly neglected while U.S. allies, partners, and adversaries continue to expand their programs’ capability and capacity.

USNI News – Two sailors stationed in California have been arrested over national security concerns, Department of Justice officials.

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