USNI News – The last Avenger-class mine countermeasure ship left naval service in the Middle East this week.

USNI News – Which part of a spear makes it lethal? The shaft. Without its alignment of all vectors behind the tip, a spear is no more deadly than a stone. Likewise, unless the Foundry and Fleet behave like a shaft, focusing all their energy toward delivering ordnance on target, the warfighting leg of the triad is compromised. Fleet readiness consists of the manning, training, maintenance, and security programs that underpin it. But not only do these programs often fail to support one another, they are usually in direct competition for limited resources. Achieving effective balance and coordination will require an inexorable focus on warfighting that only the CNO can provide.

CIMSEC – For the U.S. Navy, the past 30 years of post-Cold War experience featured a major institutional reorientation toward the low-end spectrum of operations in a highly permissive threat environment. This facilitated widespread dysfunction across critical warfighting development functions that are crucial for preparing the Navy for war. The result has been one of the most pivotal eras of decay and atrophy of high-end warfighting skill in the modern history of the U.S. Navy.

CIMSEC – In support of developing a new Navy Deterrence Concept, the U.S. Navy needs to develop and train to new tactics and techniques in how to operate just below the threshold of armed conflict. The PRC and PLAN are very comfortable in this realm under the doctrine of their “Three Warfares” and have only grown bolder in their day-to-day operations in the Pacific. The recent collision between PLAN and CCG vessels provided the world a reminder of how dynamic and volatile the situation has become, but it will not dissuade the PLAN from further attempts to exert sea control and sea denial through non-lethal means.

Naval News – The US Navy’s newest carrier strike group (CSG) has conducted operations in the High North alongside NATO allies, in a deployment underlining the deterrent impact CSG presence can bring in the region. The CSG also integrated into NATO operational command structures.

CIMSEC – A common saying in safety organizations is to consider the “half-life of scared” as a measure of the decay of institutional urgency after an accident. In 2017 the U.S. Navy lost 17 sailors in two tragic collisions that prompted an assessment of how the Navy looked at fatigue, human-centered system design, and an overzealous “can-do” attitude. The United States Fleet Forces Comprehensive Review (CR) recommended 112 corrective actions. In the ensuing two to three years, the Navy checked off all those actions as complete and built a system to ensure that the changes were enduring – as recommended by the report. Recent events, however, specifically a series of Class “A” mishaps in the past year, call into question the effectiveness of those changes across the Navy enterprise.

CIMSEC – With Admiral Caudle assuming the post of Chief of Naval Operations, the Navy has a timely opportunity to realign its strategic narrative with its emerging operational reality, especially in the Indo-Pacific. After years of experimentation with distributed maritime operations, integration of unmanned systems, and renewed industrial partnerships, the Navy must overcome headlines about past scandals and failures to restore the faith of the President, the Department of Defense, Congress, and the American people. The task before the new CNO is to seize this moment and make clear how the Navy will prevail in the next maritime era.

CIMSEC – To maintain maritime superiority in this era of trans-regional, multi-domain warfare, the Navy must accelerate human-machine teaming within Maritime Operations Centers (MOCs). Our adversaries, including our pacing challenge, China, invest heavily in adopting AI technology, a consequential technology for command and control. MOCs serve as the decision hubs of numbered fleets, responsible for executing campaigns at sea and managing maritime task forces. As our Navy fights from the seabed to space and through the electromagnetic spectrum, the volume of data demands our watchstanders employ data-enhancing tools that augment, not replace, human judgment.

CIMSEC – Admiral Caudle’s first message to the fleet outlined three priorities: the Foundry; the Fleet and the way we Fight. These priorities cannot be realized without acknowledging the simple fact that the next war at sea will be decided first in space. Ships and Sailors operating inside lethal weapons engagement zones (WEZs) cannot survive against China’s massed, over-the-horizon precision fires unless the Navy treats space operations and Counter-C5ISRT (C-C5ISRT) as foundational, not auxiliary, to naval warfare.

USNI News – USS Stockdale (DDG-106) is now operating in the Caribbean alongside seven U.S. Navy surface warships as part of the Trump Administration’s homeland security effort.

War on the Rocks – The South China Sea is one of the most contested maritime areas in the world. Smaller countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia face increasing pressure from an assertive and militarily powerful People’s Republic of China due to overlapping sovereignty claims and critical trade routes. Beijing’s maritime power projection threatens regional sovereignty and economic rights under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea through its militarization of artificial islands, aggressive maritime activities, and widespread illegal fishing. To address this imbalance, claimant states should adopt asymmetric strategies that improve maritime domain awareness, defend exclusive economic zones, and impose costs on unlawful actions. One such approach is the development of maritime outposts, inspired by the Philippines’ Fort Drum in Manila Bay.

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CIMSEC – Navy thinkers have already laid the intellectual groundwork for aggressive change. Senior leaders now need to follow through with equally radical actions.