USNI Blog – Naval warfare is changing. A host of new weaponry, technologies, and sensor systems are fundamentally altering the projection of naval power. The new weapons—hypersonic missiles, directed-energy weapons, and precision-guided munitions, among others—present new threats to the U.S. Navy. Similarly, artificial intelligence and improved sensor networks make it easier for competitors to find, fix, and finish Navy units. The proliferation of modern technologies—such as precision-guided munitions and unmanned systems—to non-peer competitors further multiplies the threat. Consequently, the United States faces a dangerous strategic and operational environment amid a constrained budget environment.

War on the Rocks – The 2018 National Defense Strategy, directs conventional U.S. military and special operations forces to organize and prepare to counter near-peer competitors. While the threat is global, strategists recognize that the maritime environment, including global littorals, the “island chains” of the Pacific and Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, the Black Sea, the North Sea, and the Baltic coasts are all areas of expected conflict. Winning in these coastal areas and island chains will require a variety of tactics, methodologies, and specialized equipment. A modern Shetland Bus program would not address every contingency, but it would represent a Swiss Army knife-like tool that may provide flexibility and address several key needs.

CDR Salamander – Bryan McGrath offers one of the better situation reports of where our Navy finds itself in the first year of what will be an incredibly challenging decade. 

Defense News – The logistical challenges that would be faced in a conflict with China are daunting.

1945 – James Holmes writes that the closer the United States and its allies come to fielding a cohesive democratic armada, the better their chances of deterring aggressors and shoring up the rules-based international order at sea. 

Defense News – The U.S. Navy’s new shipbuilding plan shows that over the next five years it plans to decommission 11 cruisers with more than 1,340 vertical launch tubes, but Congress doesn’t think the Navy has a serious plan to replace them with a new generation of large surface combatants, according to the text of a recent funding bill.

1945 – We recently spoke with Dr. Andrew Erickson, a professor of strategy in the U.S. Naval War College (NWC)’s China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI), to get his take on the newly released U.S. maritime strategy, Advantage at Sea.

War Zone – The U.S. Navy is looking at ways that a new jet trainer aircraft could help the service to completely overhaul the way it trains its aviators. The planned successor to the current Boeing T-45 Goshawk could be employed across a number of roles in naval aviation — not just training brand new pilots. But above all else, top Navy officers are looking at how the aircraft could facilitate a totally new approach to the way it trains tactical jet pilots. 

War Zone – The U.S. Navy says it has determined that a modified C-130J-30 Hercules turboprop airlifter is the best available platform to provide airborne command and control support for America’s nuclear deterrent forces, including relaying orders to carry out a nuclear strike or even remotely initiating the launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles from their silos.

USNI News – The U.S. has moved an aircraft carrier and an Amphibious Ready Group embarked with Marines off the coast of Somalia as U.S. Africa Command has begun repositioning troops from Somalia.

National Interest – James Holmes writes that on Thursday the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard—which have taken to calling themselves the Naval Service, singular—released a “Triservice Maritime Strategy” entitled Advantage at Sea. Let’s look at some noteworthy facets of the strategy, the third in a series reaching back to 2007, when the George W. Bush administration was nearing its end.

Navy Times – A new tri-service maritime strategy for the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard released Thursday is the latest Pentagon product to sound the alarm over the increasing military might of a resurgent Russia and an ascendant China…But while the document lays out these challenges in at-times grim terms, leaders of the three services put forth for a call with reporters Thursday struggled to explain what several points mean for rank-and-file personnel and material ship readiness.

Naval News – In the ever-changing dynamic arena of Littoral and naval warfare, rapid precision firepower could decide which ships survive and which ships don’t. Lockheed Martin’s Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) Quad Launcher (JQL) adds guided short-range missile firepower that many small boats and fast attack craft lack.

USNI News – The U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard say they need to begin acting more assertively to push back against gray-zone operations China is already conducting today. That means having more forward forces to deter, to document malign behaviors and to support partners as they protect their territory, according to service leaders.

USNI News – The Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard released their clearest argument yet for what they need to do to be prepared to take on China – not in a hypothetical future scenario, but in the day-to-day competition happening now on the seas.

The document can be found here.

USNI News – The United States “needs resilient people and resilient equipment” to meet mounting security and economic challenges posed by Russia and China, according to a panel of Arctic security experts.

The Hill – James Holmes writes that war never changes. War changes all the time — sometimes in revolutionary ways. These sentences do not contradict each other. 

Defense News – Repeated failures in the propulsion train on the Freedom-class littoral combat ships Little Rock and Detroit have raised the specter of a class-wide design flaw that could trigger an expensive reworking of a crucial component on 17 of the Navy’s small surface combatants.

USNI News – Operating in the Eastern Pacific with a Coast Guard law enforcement detachment (LEDET) aboard, the USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10) interdicted a so-called narco submarine on Dec. 5.

Defense News – The U.S. Navy test-fired its new Block V Tomahawk from the destroyer Chafee in December, introducing the newest generation of the venerable Tomahawk cruise missile to its arsenal.

Defense News – Experts and analysts who reviewed the plan for Defense News were skeptical of the mechanisms that the White House Office of Management and Budget used to pay for the increases, including assuming a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, back office savings and cutting legacy equipment.

War Zone – The U.S. Navy has announced that its Boeing MQ-25 Stingray unmanned aerial vehicles, which will provide aerial refueling from its aircraft carriers, will be operated by warrant officer with a new specialty designation — the Aerial Vehicle Operator.

Forbes – The U.S. Navy has deployed new drones launched from submarines to spy out targets and enable torpedo attacks on ships sailing far beyond the horizon. By acting as the sub’s eyes and ears, the drone can greatly increase its strike range – and keep the submarine well away from any defensive weapons or sensors.

USNI News – The administration today released a long-range Navy shipbuilding plan that is likely to set up a fight for resources between the Navy and its sister services and between the Pentagon and Congress over how quickly to pursue these changes.

War Zone – The U.S. Navy recently announced that it was interested in acquiring unmanned aircraft that its submarines could launch from the three-inch launchers they all have for deploying signal flares and marine markers. At the same time, earlier this year, an Israeli firm unveiled a line of encapsulated drones that can be deployed from 40mm infantry grenade launchers, 66mm grenade launchers on vehicles, as well as underwater launch systems.