– Defense News – Engineers and pilots continue to struggle with operating the F-35 jet in low-light conditions, with a new issue emerging that obstructs the horizon line for pilots when flying at night with below-average levels of starlight.

– USNI Blog – If the U.S. Navy wants the flat tops to survive in the metaphorical and literal senses, the CVW must be reinvented, diversified, and specialized.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy wants more from the F-35 jet’s radar, which in sea-search mode is limited to what is directly in front of the aircraft.

– Defense News – At extremely high altitudes, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps’ versions of the F-35 jet can only fly at supersonic speeds for short bursts of time before there is a risk of structural damage and loss of stealth capability, a problem that may make it impossible for the Navy’s F-35C to conduct supersonic intercepts.

– USNI News – The Nimitz-class and Ford-class aircraft carriers, by design, can operate with F-35Cs, however, there are modifications to both carrier classes that are required in order to fully employ the capabilities of the F-35s and enable them to be more effective on a full-length deployment.

– US Naval War College Review – As of January 2019, the U.S. Navy does not possess a coherent, public, strategic vision.

– National Interest – “Enough” explains a top naval historian.

– US Naval War College Review – In the most likely scenario, a high-intensity conflict between the United States and China would be confined to conventional weapons, owing to Beijing’s desire to avoid nuclear escalation. To protect the global security order and the tenuous balance of power on the world stage, the United States and its allies must craft a strategy to deny China this conventional first-strike option.

– USNI News – The Navy will field versions of both its highest-power laser weapon and its low-end non-lethal laser dazzler later this year, gaining operational experience with directed energy weapons that will continue to focus engineers’ efforts building out the Navy Laser Family of Systems (NLFoS).

– War Zone – As the U.S. Navy gets closer to issuing the final request for proposals for its future frigate competition, or FFG(X), one particularly notable design, BAE System’s Type 26, has largely been absent from the discussion. It seems particularly curious given that the British-designed ship is well on its way to becoming one of the most popular warships in its class among some of America’s closest allies, with 32 examples in various configurations on order for the U.K. Royal Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, and the Royal Canadian Navy.

– Breaking Defense – Just days after Trump again ripped the program, the Navy says the over-budget, and overdue, carrier remains beset with problems.

– Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments – In this report, the authors propose a strategy of maritime pressure to erode the Chinese leadership’s confidence in its ability to present the United States and its allies with a fait accompli. The strategy, implemented in a new operational concept dubbed “Inside-Out,” entails fielding precision-strike networks – particularly land-based anti-ship and anti-air capabilities – along the First Island Chain inside China’s anti-access/area denial network, supported by air and naval forces outside it.

– War Zone – A major upgrade in fighter jet radar tech seems to have been key in detecting and tracking bizarre objects flying in military training airspace.

– USNI News – Lockheed Martin won’t submit a bid to compete in the design of the Navy’s next-generation guided-missile (FFG(X)) frigate competition.

– USNI Blog – The Black Sea is a challenging operational environment for the U.S. military because of its confining geographical features, Russia’s established military dominance in the region, and the restrictions placed on the U.S. Navy as a non-Black Sea nation by the Montreux Convention of 1936. Overcoming these challenges and developing a strategy to deter and, if required, defeat, Russia in this region requires a new approach to U.S. thinking about naval strategy.

– Defense News – The U.S. Navy’s Director of Surface Warfare is ready to bet the farm on using lasers to shoot down missiles.

– USNI News – The Navy won’t pursue the development of a lethal carrier-based unmanned aircraft before it fields its unmanned MQ-25A Stingray tanker sometime in the 2020s.

– USNI Proceedings – In preparation for future war, the Navy must wean itself from the constant flow of data and trust subordinates to lead in battle.

– USNI News – The Navy is struggling to find support to buy new logistics ships, even as a new study finds the Navy’s current plans to recapitalize that logistics fleet are insufficient to support distributed operations in a high-end fight against China or Russia.

– USNI News – The Navy has tightly coupled early prototyping efforts and future acquisition efforts for medium and large unmanned surface vehicles, to speed up the time it will take to experiment with the vessels and get them fielded to fleet commanders.

– Breaking Defense – The Navy is adding more ships as quickly as possible, even as it grapples with how it’s going to pay the costs to keep them afloat once it gets them.

– CIMSEC – This article is not intended to support or speak out against the U.S. military’s efforts to prepare for a war against China and it is not to discuss the wisdom of my nation’s military decisions. It is only written with one purpose. That purpose is to acknowledge two absolute facts today: that the U.S. Military is preparing for war and I, an American merchant ship captain, am not ready.

– USNI News – The Pentagon is sending amphibious warship USS Arlington (LPD-24) and elements of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit to join the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group as a hedge against Iran.

– CIMSEC – While it is encouraging to see Navy plans to move quickly to bring initial Medium and Large USVs into the fleet, other unmanned platforms are equally ready for such an approach. Innovation is the key to shaping tomorrow’s Navy, and getting USVs of all shapes and sizes to the fleet for Sailors to try out is the best approach to achieving it.

– USNI News – The Lincoln Carrier Strike Group left the Mediterranean and transited the Suez Canal, officially entering U.S. 5th Fleet and U.S. Central Command.