CIMSEC – To thwart a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, the US must slow walk their request chit.

War on the Rocks – The Littoral Combat Ship program has one saving grace — it offers some important lessons about the American defense industrial base.

BBC – A metallurgist in the US state of Washington has pleaded guilty to fraud after she spent decades faking the results of strength tests on steel that was being used to make Navy submarines.

(Thanks to Alain)

USNI News – A second suspected missile target in the shape of a U.S. aircraft carrier has been spotted in a rural Chinese desert.

Naval News – For purely hypothetical and speculative analysis discussion purposes, Naval News will explore the possibility of other armed and functional roles for the Large Unmanned Surface Vessel (LUSV) according to the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps current and future desires, challenges, and to counter peer nations’ threats. 

Breaking Defense – The US Navy answers questions about its roadmap for employing electric and battery power for lasers, radars, and propulsion over the next two decades.

War on the Rocks – The Hollywood blockbuster “Top Gun” starring Tom Cruise was a potent recruiting advertisement for aviators. One of its most memorable scenes was of a chorus of pilots at the bar of an Officer’s Club singing “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling” to a bemused Kelly McGillis…It is time to extend that “loving feeling” to submarine warfare — including, and perhaps especially, to the submarine forces of U.S. allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region. 

USNI News – The Navy is taking its sole ship assigned to U.S. Africa Command to places the service hasn’t been in almost a decade – including a key chokepoint that’s become a major opioid drug trafficking route.

War Zone – A veteran submarine hunter explains how the proliferation of ever more capable diesel-electric submarines is a major problem for the U.S. Navy.

War on the Rocks – The final assessment of the USS Bonhomme Richard fire reveals that the U.S. Navy is hobbled by questionable training, a shortage of personnel, and a general unpreparedness to fight and prevail in a war. If they are to play a meaningful role in a cross-strait conflict, U.S. ships must be able to fight in range of Chinese missiles. The Bonhomme Richard disaster, a fire in the port of San Diego, might not seem relevant here, but it is: It demonstrates the Navy’s egregious damage-control inadequacies. If these are left unaddressed, the Navy will face a serious erosion of its combat power after only a handful of Chinese missile barrages.

USNI News – Investigators have determined USS Connecticut (SSN-22) hit an uncharted seamount that grounded the nuclear attack submarine on the underwater feature in the South China Sea Navy

US Navy – The following is the Navy Aviation Vision 2030-2035 released this week by the Navy.

USNI Proceedings – A periscope can be a fine stand-in for a sextant.

The Hill – James Holmes says the US Navy must fix its problems — and burnish its good name for seamanship and tactical acumen.

Naval News – Aircraft carriers are at the vanguard of China’s incredible naval expansion A new, larger super-carrier is being built near Shanghai. Analysis of radar satellite imagery shows that it is as large as China’s new bases allow.

Nikkei Asia – White House and admirals can’t agree on how to deter China.

CIMSEC – In parts one and two of this series of articles I discussed the factors that would influence the content of a new maritime strategy. In this article I will discuss the process of strategy, focused on the Navy’s case.

Defense News – When the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard caught fire last summer while undergoing maintenance and then burned for nearly a week, those inside and outside the fleet wondered how such a peacetime loss of a warship could ever happen. But according to a Big Navy review of ship fires released last week, the threat of such a catastrophe has smoldered inside the sea service’s public and private shipyards for years.

CIMSEC – America should reconceive how it leverages and secures its territorial waters, trade routes, and the high seas. The history of America’s tangled maritime bureaucracy offers insight to how it can answer China’s challenge.

War Zone – The ability to fight and win in the high-stakes game of undersea warfare is all about the art of listening. Here’s how it’s done.

Naval News – The United States Navy’s future build of the Large Unmanned Surface Vessel (LUSV) opens up new possibilities for add-on modular armament options and specialized roles that no other U.S. Navy warship can perform. Granted, the LUSV is not a truly designed combat warship in the strategic and tactical sense, but through the Author’s speculative concept imagination and innovation, the LUSV’s long open cargo deck can provide the U.S. Navy with LUSV role possibilities unseen of, unheard of, and unfit for any other U.S. naval warship, manned or unmanned. Naval News will explore in four parts possible future roles and armament options for: Part 1: LUSV as a Deep Strike Platform.

War Zone – The chosen trainer would be expected to offer fighter-like qualities and take the strain off the frontline combat fleet.

USNI News – The Navy’s ability to defend the nation’s vital security interests is “marginal,” – with the caveat that its score is trending to “weak” in capability and readiness – while the Marine Corps’ ability is graded as “strong,” according to a think tank’s latest survey of United States military power.

USNI News – Three Littoral Combat Ships deployed in the Indo-Pacific – USS Jackson (LCS-6), USS Tulsa (LCS-16) and USS Charleston (LCS-18) – have been operating on a high tempo across the region.

CIMSEC – A new strategy must first deal with how to defeat a Chinese attack in the short term and then how to deal with a protracted war in the long term, all the while maintaining and exercising global command of the sea.