– Defense News – A project birthed in the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office is getting some serious buy-in from the U.S. Navy, and could yield the world’s first large-scale armed unmanned warship.
Japan inks deal with Kongsberg for F-35 standoff missile
– Defense News – Norwegian company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace has entered into a contract with Japan to supply the initial deliveries of anti-ship Joint Strike Missiles for the country’s fleet of F-35 Lightning II fighter jets.
Large Surface Combatant Program Delayed Amid Pivot Towards Unmanned, Other Emerging Tech
– USNI News – The Navy’s new focus on distributed maritime operations and the incorporation of high-end weapons is prompting a re-look at the future Large Surface Combatant program and an apparent delay in the planned start of the new ship class.
Breaking the Mold: How to Build a 355-Ship Navy Today Part 2
– CIMSEC – This has been an attempt to capture some of the interesting thoughts, from two separate working groups, on how the U.S. Navy could achieve a 355 battle force ship Navy sooner than current plans predict.
FY 2020 Budget: Navy Cuts Ship, Aircraft Procurement; Vows High-End Weapons Procurement
– USNI News – The Pentagon requested a Fiscal Year 2020 budget that advocates changes in the way the Navy does business – pushing for lethal but “attritable” unmanned systems, artificial intelligence and hypersonics to give the Navy and Marine Corps an edge against high-end adversaries.
Why DoD Cut A Carrier in 2020 Budget: Survivable Robots & Missiles Vs. China
– Breaking Defense – An inside source explains the logic behind the 2020 budget’s most controversial call.
Marines Lay Out Plans For Their Own MQ-9 Reaper Drone Force In New Budget Request
– War Zone – This would give the service its first long-endurance drones and help pave the way for future unmanned aircraft capabilities.
US Navy Destroyers And Royal Navy Ships Use These Big Blow-Up Anti-Ship Missile Decoys
– War Zone – They are a low-cost addition to ships’ layered defenses used to counter anti-ship missiles and the Royal Navy want to invest in improved models.
Navy’s Budget Requests Two Huge Missile-Laden Drone Ships That Displace 2,000 Tons
– War Zone – The service wants to get the first two unmanned ships quickly to help refine its requirements and craft plans for employing them in actual combat.
Marines’ Anti-Drone Defense System Moving Towards Testing, Fielding Decision by End of Year
– USNI News – The Marine Corps’ counter-drone defense system is transitioning from an urgent operational need (UON) to a formal program of record, but the program is trying to retain its speed and agility as it moves into testing and fielding.
Andrew S. Erickson and Ryan Martinson Discuss China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations
– CIMSEC – On March 15th, the Naval Institute Press will publish China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations, a volume edited by professors Andrew S. Erickson and Ryan D. Martinson from the Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute. CIMSEC recently reached out to Erickson and Martinson about their latest work.
The U.S. Marine Corps Wants Anti-Ship Weapons for “Island-Warfare.” Here’s Why That’s A Big Deal
– National Interest – HIMARS, then, may look like a humble truck. In reality, it is far more: a tactical implement commanding significant strategic import. As the Marine Corps girds to fight in the air, on land, and sea, it ought to procure anti-ship weapons in bulk—and in haste.
Niall Ferguson: This is what happens if China wins the new cold war
– Financial Review – The winter of a new cold war is coming between the US and China, renowned Hoover Institution and Harvard historian Niall Ferguson warned this week. Winning it might decide the 2020 US election. Losing it might be the end of a US dollar-dominated global financial system, if not worse.
Army’s long-awaited Iraq war study finds Iran was the only winner in a conflict that holds many lessons for future wars
– Army Times – A two-volume Army study of the Iraq war is a deep examination of the mistakes and success of the war effort that also takes aim at critics who would slough off the conflict as they shift to near-peer threats.
The U.S. Army in the Iraq War – Volume 1: Invasion – Insurgency – Civil War, 2003-2006
The U.S. Army in the Iraq War — Volume 2: Surge and Withdrawal, 2007-2011
Is the United States about to lose control of its secretive Diego Garcia military base?
– CNN – The secretive Diego Garcia military base may be 1,000 miles from the nearest continent, but it has all the trappings of a modern American town…
India signs $3 billion contract with Russia for lease of a nuclear submarine
– Defense News – India on Thursday signed a $3 billion contract for the lease of an Akula-1 class nuclear-powered attack submarine from Russia for a period of 10 years.
US ‘Gets Its Ass Handed To It’ In Wargames: Here’s A $24 Billion Fix
– Breaking Defense – The US keeps losing, hard, in simulated wars with Russia and China. Bases burn. Warships sink. But we could fix the problem for about $24 billion a year, one well-connected expert said, less than four percent of the Pentagon budget.
Australian Navy gets more out of the Seahawk helicopter than originally planned
– Defense News – The Royal Australian Navy has managed to integrate the Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk naval helicopter with a range of vessels that were not included in the original plans when Australia decided to acquire the type.
Navy to Contract New Class of Unmanned Surface Vehicle by Year’s End
– USNI News – The Navy is moving fast to acquire a new class of unmanned surface vehicles and hopes to award a contract for USV designs by the end of the year.
Samson the Carrier and Goliath the Amphib: Twin Giants of a Compromised Fleet Architecture
– War on the Rocks – The aircraft carrier fleet and the amphibious fleet are typically viewed as polar opposites: the fast nuclear carrier projecting strike aircraft from the deep blue on one side, and the plodding but versatile amphibious ship projecting Marine infantry in the littoral on the other. Despite obvious dissimilarities in speed, payload, and function, they both share a critically important place in the overall fleet architecture — they are both unaffordable anachronisms of a bygone era.
EUCOM Wants More Destroyers, Expanded Aircraft Carrier Presence to Deter Russia
– USNI News – The top American officer in Europe wants two more destroyers stationed in his area of responsibility and a “better pace” of carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups moving through the region.
Operationalizing Distributed Maritime Operations
– CIMSEC – While the concept of Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO) may represent the major, new thrust in the Navy’s warfighting thought, it does not arrive out of a vacuum. In order to fully understand both the concept and implications of DMO, it is essential to first understand the seminal documents and thoughts out of which it grew.
Look Beyond the Fleet: Finding the Capability for Distributed Maritime Operations
– CIMSEC – The Navy needs to look beyond the fleet for ways to increase combat power…At a minimum that mix must include Marine and Army surface fires, fast attack craft, Air Force anti-surface warfare, and whatever else is needed to distribute firepower and sustain command of the seas.
Expeditionary Minehunting Units Growing in Size, Capabilities
– USNI News – The Navy is investing in its explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) force, doubling the number of unmanned systems platoons in the community in the next couple years and improving the technology on their unmanned underwater vehicles.
Pacific Partnership 2019 Puts Expeditionary Fast Transports in the Role of Command Ships
– USNI News – A pair of expeditionary fast transport ships (EPFs) are playing a key role in this year’s multi-national Pacific Partnership 2019 exercise focused on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in the region.
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