The Hill – James Holmes writes that it feels like May 1940 again — and that’s a good thing in one sense.

Defense News – The U.S. Navy sees the 2020s as presenting the “peak risk” for China making a move against Taiwan, driving the service’s effort to prioritize readiness over fleet size, the vice chief of naval operations told lawmakers Thursday.

Defense News – The U.S. Navy didn’t sit tight when it reached a Pentagon goal to make 80% of its F/A-18E-F Super Hornets mission-capable. It raised the bar.

Breaking Defense – The Forge, a Navy software factory, has lofty goals and bureaucracy to beat, but plans to bring its work to an operational destroyer this year. 

BBC – The US Navy has said it has retrieved a stealth fighter jet from the depths of the South China Sea where it sank after a “mishap” in January.

Naval Today – The US Navy decommissioned Cyclone-class coastal patrol ship USS Firebolt (PC 10) at a ceremony held at Naval Support Activity Bahrain on 23 February.

(Thanks to Alain)

Defense News – The U.S. Navy has a carefully balanced plan to dig out of a fighter shortfall and stave off another in the 2030s — but several pieces must come together exactly as planned.

National Interest – James Holmes says the force that gets in its reps in peacetime primes itself for success.

USNI News – Three Russian guided-missile cruisers have been arrayed across the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to counter three NATO carrier strike groups, causing concern in the Pentagon.

USNI Proceedings – The Navy must offer the pay, training, and advancement opportunities necessary to retain its operators.

USNI News – The U.S. Navy needs a fleet of more than 500 ships to meet its commitments to the soon-to-be released National Defense Strategy, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said on Friday. 

Breaking Defense – The Navy’s Unmanned Task Force has been pursuing seven classified “spirals” aimed at taking specific technologies from industry vendors and putting them through a series of problem sets to determine their value to the future fleet, according to the chief of naval operations.

War Zone – Snakehead can be launched from a nuclear submarine and will accommodate many future tasks including intel collection.

War Zone – After steadily reducing planned F-35C squadron sizes the Navy wants to go the opposite direction now that the type’s first operational cruise is over.

Defense News – The U.S. Navy attack submarine force inventory is at a low, and maintenance backlogs are making it harder to conduct important development work, the commander of the submarine force in U.S. Pacific Fleet said this week.

Defense News – Aircraft carrier Carl Vinson returned home Feb. 14 after a six-and-a-half-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific, in the U.S. Navy’s first deployment of the “air wing of the future.”

USNI Proceedings – A strategy that takes advantage of the maritime geography surrounding China and uses a combination of inside and outside forces could deter or defeat Chinese aggression.

USNI News – The Navy and Marine Corps are finalizing a list of requirements for the Light Amphibious Warship that Marine leadership argues is key to how the service will fight its future island-hopping campaigns.

USNI News – The Navy sortied four East Coast guided-missile destroyers as the U.S. and NATO have massed naval forces in the region.

Defense News – As the U.S. Navy works through the detail design of its Constellation-class frigate and the concept design of its DDG(X) destroyer, the service wants to add all the latest offensive and defensive systems. But at least as important, leaders say, is leaving room for new systems down the road.

USNI Proceedings – The service must think about what it will take to fight and win in a future great power war.

USNI Proceedings – A navy’s strength lies not only in the number of hulls it possesses, but also in its ability to return damaged ships to combat as soon as possible.

Defense News – The U.S. Navy has promised a first deployment for its new aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford by this fall — but that deployment won’t be a typical one. Ford won’t fall under the operational command of a regional combatant commander. Rather, it will conduct a “service-retained early employment” period where the Navy keeps full control over the ship’s activities and schedule.

Modern War Institute – Today, as the US military shifts priorities from counterterrorism to strategic competition, SOF have begun to rebalance to focus on both countering violent extremist organizations and competing with peer and near-peer actors. In light of SOF’s history with sabotage and recent renewed interest in the subject (strategic sabotage was listed as a priority research topic for the Joint Special Operations University in 2020, for example), the time is ripe for an analytical examination of the subject. Maritime sabotage operations in particular deserve further study given the growing importance of maritime regions from the Indo-Pacific to the Black Sea.

USNI News – The French Navy’s Charles de Gaulle Carrier Strike Group left today for its Clemenceau 22 deployment, which will last until April and take the CSG to the Mediterranean.