– War Zone – Boeing has released a video of the rollout of the first of two Block III F/A-18F Super Hornet test jets for the U.S. Navy. The service plans to use these aircraft, which do not feature the full set of upgrades, for various flight tests and to explore new concepts of operation ahead of the delivery of jets with the complete Block III package, which is set to begin later this year.

– Breaking Defense – A mix of US ships have probed waters illegally claimed by China in the South China Sea in recent weeks, as the PLA Navy continues to harass civilian ships of neighboring countries.

– Barents Observer – The US and UK naval group leaves the Barents Sea Friday evening after five days in waters where Russia’s Northern Fleet normally exercises. The voyage marks a new age with U.S. Navy surface warships sailing in the north.

– National Review – Jerry Hendrix writes that the U.S. Navy’s decision last week on a new frigate design for domestic production undercuts the argument that the United States is withdrawing from the world.

– Breaking Defense – The Navy just isn’t equipped to deploy or sustain a new fleet of unmanned vessels yet.

– C4ISRNet – A project inside the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has the potential to pull the Navy’s unmanned surface vessel aspirations forward a decade.

– Defense News – The Navy selected Fincantieri’s FREMM design for its next generation frigate, but as with most new platforms it will be a long time before the first ship hits the fleet.

– National Interest – Will U.S. Navy submarines be armed with laser weapons? That’s the implication of a new Navy research project.

(Thanks to Alain)

– War Zone – The Advanced Airborne Sensor is a powerful and shadowy intelligence gathering and targeting tool carried by a small number of P-8As.

– US Naval War College Review – Wayne Hughes writes that the predictive power of experts, operations analysis, and the value of information are interwoven subjects that are hard to winnow down to an essence. Prediction is a big subject, so I have limited this article to what I know best: the operational and tactical domains of conventional warfare.

– USNI Proceedings – The SEAL professional ethos serves as a reminder for Naval Special Warfare—and any who aspire to high standards—that excellence must be earned every day, on and off duty.

– Barents Observer – U.S. wants a more visible military footprint in the Arctic. The anti-submarine exercise off the coast of northern Norway on Friday comes amid increased Russian submarine sailings into the North Atlantic.

– CIMSEC – By taking a few notes from the narcos, the United States Navy can develop a class of hard-to-detect semisubmersible Medium Unmanned Surface Vessels that will be combat-effective in the high-end fight against China.