– 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.

– USNI News – On midday Thursday, Navy officials declared all known fires aboard USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) had been extinguished after more than four days of battling the blaze that was sparked on Sunday.

– CIMSEC – As the U.S. Navy moves into the unmanned age and implements Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO), there is a need for small, lightly manned warships to streamline that transition and fill roles which require a human crew. Congress has expressed concerns about unmanned vessels on a number of fronts and highlighted the need for a class of ships to bridge the gap. The Naval Postgraduate School’s Lightly Manned Autonomous Combat Capability program (LMACC) has designed a warship to meet this need.

– War Zone – As the fire aboard the ship approaches the four-day mark, its stability has shifted, prompting an evacuation of the vessel and its pier.

– War on the Rocks – One thing is clear: The ship will likely be, at best, out of action for years or, at worst, stricken from Navy rolls. In either case, there will be considerable impact to ongoing naval operations, force development efforts, and naval integration initiatives. While navalists tend to judge navies by the number of ships that comprise them, the plain truth is that not all ships are created equal. The loss of some ships is much worse than others. That is what Americans are watching happen before their eyes. Confidence in the Navy is shaken.

– CIMSEC – CIMSEC had the opportunity to discuss commanding the USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) stealth destroyer with commanding officer Captain Andrew Carlson.

– USNI News – The more than 4,000 sailors and Marines of the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group and the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit wrapped up a seven-month deployment to Europe and the Middle East.