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

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.