– War on the Rocks – As the U.S. Navy waits for the smoke to clear onboard USS Bonhomme Richard, naval experts and sailors around the world ask the same thing: “Again?”

– The Hill – James Holmes writes that…turnabout is fair play in diplomacy and warfare. PLA commanders can try to deny the U.S. armed forces access to Western Pacific seas, skies and shores all they like. But American commanders can reciprocate if they apply intellect and material resources to this strategic problem, and do so with imagination and verve.

– CIMSEC – In April of this year, the U.S. Navy, U.S Marine Corps, and U.S. Coast Guard (collectively, the U.S. Naval Service) jointly published the latest version of Naval Doctrine Publication 1: Naval Warfare, superseding the previous version released in 2010. The difference between the two documents is stark, and indicates a change over the last ten years in the way the United States views naval warfare – simultaneously reaching back to its historical roots, while also looking over the horizon to future conflicts.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy’s path to 355 ships was unrealistic, prompting the Pentagon to delay the release of the Navy’s annual 30-year shipbuilding plan, the presumptive incoming head of the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s in-house think tank told Senate lawmakers Tuesday.

– National Interest – In a sense the U.S. military could take advantage of role reversal in the Arctic, making the theater a laboratory for anti-access American style. Hostile forces may operate off U.S. seacoasts and will need managing if so. Fielding armaments able to reach out from land in concert with seagoing forces, and devising and practicing the necessary joint tactics, could let U.S. commanders glimpse the methods deployed by red teams around the world. And getting in the red team’s mind is a crucial step toward defeating it.

– Washington Post – David Ignatius opines on the current state of the US Navy.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy is taking major steps in an attempt to shake off years of false starts and setbacks with the Littoral Combat Ship program, an effort Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday said he’d oversee on his watch.

– The Diplomat – The new ocean surveillance ships are expected to begin entering the fleet in 2025.

– War Zone – We go in-depth with the Navy’s Super Hornet program manager on the new sensor’s capabilities, genesis, and how it ended up mounted on a fuel tank.

– USNI News – Expeditionary Sea Base USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB-4) kicked off its first deployment today, leaving Virginia for an extended deployment primarily to U.S. Africa Command.

– War Zone – The dazzler helps defend submarines when they are at their most vulnerable when traversing tight waterways while surfaced.

– Defense News – U.S. Navy brass is telling sailors and contractors to put fire safety at the center of their work in the shipyards and on the waterfront in the wake of a catastrophic fire aboard the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard.

– USNI Proceedings – The Navy should follow the example of Admiral Joseph Reeves’ development of carrier aviation to rapidly innovate and deploy unmanned systems for future wars.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy is over the halfway mark in certifying the new aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford’s 11 advanced weapons elevators, which have been at the center of an ongoing controversy over delays in getting the Navy’s most expensive-ever warship ready for its first deployment.

– Defense News – A series of explosions and a 1,200-degree inferno damaged 11 of the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard’s 14 decks, according to a summary of the damage by the U.S. Navy’s top officer.

– USNI News – The head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command told reporters today he wants the Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense system to bolster the defense of Guam from Chinese missiles.

– USNI News – The Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group is now operating alongside Australian and Japanese forces in the Philippine Sea in a large trilateral exercise involving nine ships, a carrier air wing and other aircraft.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy’s top officer has ordered his staff to develop a comprehensive strategy to field unmanned systems in the air, on the water and under the sea over the coming years.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy has taken delivery of the first AN/SPY-6 radar array for the Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Jack Lucas, which was designed and built specifically to accommodate the upgraded air and missile defense radar.

– USNI News – Naval drills led by the U.S. and Ukraine kicked off today in the Black Sea, while Russia called for a series of nearby snap naval drills.

– USNI News – Admiral James Kirk is in the Indian Ocean…

– War on the Rocks – There has never been a better moment for a fundamental reassessment of the country’s naval posture. In the words of one analyst, “If the fleet were designed today, with the technologies now available and the threats now emerging, it likely would look very different from the way it actually looks now.”

– USNI News – The Navy’s top officer met with firefighters Friday morning and inspected the damaged decks and spaces inside USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6), six days after a devastating fire spread through the warship.

– USNI News – Days after the State Department publicly rejected China’s claims to much of the South China Sea, two carrier strike groups resumed operating in tandem in the region.

– Defense News – The uniformed head of the U.S. Navy is preparing to depart Washington and visit the stricken amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard, after crews took more than four days to extinguish a major conflagration that has gutted the ship.