– 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.