– Breaking Defense – A new class of unmanned ships proposed by the Navy as a bulwark against growing Chinese and Russian naval might is running into deep skepticism on Capitol Hill, reflecting larger and broad frustration in Congress over the Navy’s stalled modernization push.

– Defense News – Data is arguably the most important strategic asset to emerge in the 21st century. Access to data and the ability to protect its integrity are vital to American security and prosperity. As 5G and artificial intelligence transform our societies into highly integrated networks, protecting data will become even more crucial.

– USNI News – USS Montgomery (LCS-8) recently wrapped up its maiden deployment – and the ship class’s first since a restructure of the Littoral Combat Ship program – and the head of LCS operations said the ship leveraged lessons learned from earlier deployments to avoid readiness problems and make the most of its operational capabilities.

– Defense News – The Navy’s first four littoral combat ships will be headed into mothballs next March, according to a June 20 message from the chief of naval operations.

– War Zone – A veteran submariner explains how the experience of serving aboard a U.S. Navy submarine varies greatly based on the sub’s mission set.

– War on the Rocks – As the National Defense Strategy demands, the Marine Corps is currently demonstrating, and the new Air Force chief of staff has discussed, the challenges posed by an increasingly capable Chinese military demand innovation and disruptive thinking in the Pentagon. Innovation requires strategists to consider all options on the table. Moreover, it requires all options to be placed on the table in the first place. One option noticeably absent from most debates on future operations in the Pacific Ocean is the seaplane.

– USNI News – An advanced U.S. attack submarine and guided-missile destroyer are among the forces participating in the NATO anti-submarine warfare exercise Dynamic Mongoose 2020, which kicked off this week off Iceland.

– War Zone – The craft could be part of one of a number of programs aimed at providing persistent maritime surveillance coverage for the U.S. Navy.

– USNI Proceedings – The LCCs cost too much to maintain and will be 70 years old at the end of their planned lives

– USNI Proceedings – For many senior Navy leaders, the crush of their daily routines leaves them struggling to find time for deliberate thought and strategic decision-making. This was not always the case.

– USNI News – The head of U.S. naval forces in Europe would like to see more coordination and more dialogue in the Arctic, where military and commercial traffic are increasing, and so is the risk of miscalculations.

– War on the Rocks – Naval officers pray at the altar of “more ships.” We demand more of them, fantasize about new ways to use them, and assume that the fleet will only grow. In the navalist faith, the post-Cold War period — which saw the fleet fall to an all-time low of 279 ships in 2007 — was an aberration, but happily the “return to great-power rivalry” has obliterated such shortsightedness.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy’s interminable quest to design and field a next-generation large surface combatant is going back to the drawing board once again, a victim of the Pentagon’s disorganization around this year’s long-range shipbuilding plan, according to documents and a source familiar with the situation.

– USNI News – The Navy has lost much of its power on deciding what its future fleet will look like, with a Pentagon-led effort set to produce secretary of defense directives to the service by the end of the summer on what the fleet’s future plans should include.

– CIMSEC – Captain Wayne Hughes, USN, who would have turned 90-years-old this spring, left us a huge legacy on which to build and from which to learn regarding the intellectual content of naval research, our approaches to instruction, and how we organize our naval PME institutions.

– National Interest – The United States has been continuing Chinese sub-hunting patrols with its Poseidon P-8 surveillance plane in the South China Sea area.

– USNI News – The first of a new generation of aircraft that will ferry supplies and personnel on and off aircraft carriers arrived at the first operational squadron in California on Monday.

– National Review – Jerry Hendrix writes that a strategic design update is due for US aircraft carriers.

– Naval News – In total, nine Type 056 corvettes have joined the People Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) since the beginning of 2020. The “Jingdezhen” (617) was admitted to active service in the PLAN East Sea Fleet and assigned to the 16th fleet based in Xiamen.

– USNI News – Capt. Brett Crozier, who commanded USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) until April, will not be reinstated to lead the ship, will not be eligible for future command and faces additional administrative punishment that will be overseen by U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. John Aquilino.

– Defense News – In the latest sign of Congressional ambivalence on unmanned surface warships, the House Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee called for restricting funding for procurement of any large unmanned surface vessels – LUSVs – until he Navy can certify it has worked out an appropriate hull, mechanical and electrical system and that it can operate autonomously for 30 days consecutively.

– USNI News – Frustrations are mounting in Congress over the limited insight lawmakers and the public have into the Navy’s future fleet, and the service now faces fiscal consequences in upcoming defense bills.

– CIMSEC – We have assembled a short reading list focused along the theme of naval integration…

– Breaking Defense – “Replacing ships lost in combat will be problematic,” Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger writes in a forthcoming paper. “Our industrial base has shrunk while peer adversaries have expanded their shipbuilding capacity. In an extended conflict, the United States will be on the losing end of a production race.”

– War Zone – Getting assigned to your first sub doesn’t make you a submariner and once you become one you’ll find yourself in a social structure unlike any other.