Defense News – The U.S. Navy wants to buy a next-generation large surface combatant by the end of the 2030s, but its not being built for a new kind of sensor or weapon system. The newly dubbed DDG(X) is being built for power.

Navy Times – Chronic manning shortfalls aboard U.S. Navy warships were found to have contributed to the fatal 2017 collisions of the Fitzgerald and John S. McCain, disasters that killed 17 sailors and scarred many more of their shipmates for life.While the surface fleet has made improvements in manning its ships in recent years, more remains to be done, the head of Naval Surface Forces said Tuesday.

Defense News – The U.S. Navy’s next-generation frigate, the Constellation class, is a do-or-die effort for the service and a critical test of its return to building ships around existing technologies rather than designing them around technologies in development.

CIMSEC – The Navy has not had a formal strategy process, most capstone documents being the products of an ad hoc effort, so it is never a routine occurrence when one is issued. Thus it is a worthwhile exercise to try and read between the lines of a new document. Hopefully this exercise will be of use to readers.

USNI News – The chief of naval operation’s new call to focus on sea control and power projection could lead the service to shed other non-core missions the Navy conducts today, such as manning Aegis Ashore missile defense sites. The biggest problem is, no one else has agreed to take over that mission yet.

CIMSEC – Coming on the heels of the new tri-service maritime strategy (“Advantage at Sea”), the Department of the Navy has now released an updated framework for the Arctic region— “A Blue Arctic: A Strategic Blueprint for the Arctic.” The document is a marked improvement on the brisk 2019 Navy version. It is particularly innovative (as strategies go) in including the Marine Corps in a “Blue/Green” approach to the region and in its navigation of cooperative themes in a moment dominated by great power competition. Yet it also has room for growth, in particular on how to connect loftier concepts with operational realities.

U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff – This. Is. Extraordinary.

USNI News – The head of the Navy warned the surface force there is little time to waste in designing and fielding key technologies it will need for a lethal and distributed future fleet.

Defense News – This is the final installment of a three-part series on the Navy’s struggles to develop unmanned ships and systems.

Task and Purpose – What good is an aircraft carrier that can’t reliably launch and land aircraft?

USNI News – The Navy in the next few weeks will release a further refinement of how to operate and maintain the Littoral Combat Ships that today make up the small surface combatant fleet. In parallel, though, the service is working hard to take lessons learned from years of struggles with the LCS and ensure the upcoming frigate program can hit the ground running.

Defense News – The Navy wants a suite of unmanned systems to reduce the cost of owning and operating its fleet, while boosting the missile capacity and sensor distribution of its manned ships. But this idea for less expensive sea power depends on the Navy’s record for rapidly maturing technologies. Congress is skeptical of that history and intentionally tried to slow the Navy down. Now, lawmakers have made evident a new plan for development. Instead of rushing out half-baked systems, they want the Navy to go fast by getting the program right the first time.

Defense News – After a bruising, year-long fight with Congress, part of the Navy’s plan to field unmanned ships appears to be on life support, making 2021 a crucial year for plotting a path forward.

USNI Proceedings – A new series of articles in Proceedings encourages vigorous debate on the future of the US Navy.

1945 – James Holmes says you can get it by buying preowned freighters for low, low prices.

Forbes – The U.S. Navy took a step towards a new style of warfare this week with a request for proposals for its new Hammerhead Program. The Navy is looking for contractors to supply a mine that can be placed covertly on the sea bed by a robot submarine; when Hammerhead’s sensors spot a target, it fires an encapsulated homing torpedo.

Breaking Defense – The Navy will start regularly sailing near Russian land claims in the increasingly ice-free Arctic, challenging Moscow’s push in the High North, Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite said today.

USNI News – The Navy and Marine Corps released a new Arctic strategy today, calling to extend their new focus on day-to-day competition with Russia and China into the Arctic as it becomes more navigable and therefore more congested in the coming decades.

The report can be found here: A Blue Arctic

Breaking Defense – The Trump administration waited four years to come up with a plan to increase the size of the fleet, dumping it on the Pentagon’s doorstep even as the moving vans were getting ready to pull up to the White House.

USNI News – Aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) and its strike group will remain in the Middle East in the wake of threats from officials in the Iranian government on the one-year anniversary of the U.S. killing of Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani, the Pentagon announced late Sunday.

USNI News – The surface navy continues to expand and evolve its use of virtual trainers, as it looks to train and certify individual sailors and watch teams ashore so they can make best use of their time at sea.

War on the Rocks – Unfortunately, the U.S. Navy appears to have forgotten the importance of its WWII Atlantic campaign. Since 1945, the Navy has prioritized offensive maritime missions — power projection and destruction of enemy fleets — over more essential defensive maritime missions, namely convoy defense. This is a flawed strategy resulting in three deleterious effects.

USNI Proceedings – When considering commerce interdiction as a strategy of war, Corbett’s simplicity may be attractive, but Mahan’s understanding of the globalized economy is what will win.

War Zone – The U.S. Navy is moving ahead with plans to expand its unmanned undersea vehicle capabilities with the acquisition of a new large-displacement design as part of its Snakehead program. The service wants these drones, which its nuclear-powered submarines will be able to launch and recover underwater, to initially be able to scout ahead or monitor certain areas, as well as perform other intelligence-gathering missions. It has plans to use them in other roles, including as electronic warfare platforms, in the future, as well.

Navy News – An UNCLASSIFIED November 23, 2020 public domain photo showing the United States Special Forces Command Combat Craft Assault next to the USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB-4) has revealed some interesting features…