– Defense News – The Houthi boat that attacked and hit a Saudi frigate Jan. 30 in the Red Sea, reported earlier as a suicide boat, was instead carried out by an unmanned, remote-controlled craft filled with explosives.
Japan to speed up frigate build to reinforce East China Sea
– Reuters – Japan plans to accelerate a warship building program to make two frigates a year to patrol the fringes of the East China Sea, where it disputes island ownership with China.
South China Sea: US carrier group begins ‘routine’ patrols
– BBC – US aircraft carrier the USS Carl Vinson has started what it calls “routine operations” in the South China Sea, with a fleet of supporting warships.
Icebreaker Polar Sea Now a ‘Parts Donor;’ Refurbishment Deemed Too Expensive
– USNI News – The Coast Guard has determined it would be too costly to refurbish the heavy icebreaker USCGC Polar Sea (WAGB-11) and has designated the ship a “parts donor” to sister ship USCGC Polar Star (WAGB-10).
Pivot, Part II
– Air Force – The US is pressing ahead with plans to improve airpower capabilities in the critical Pacific region.
Russian spy ship lurks off Connecticut coast
– CNN – The Russian spy ship Leonov sits 30 miles off the coast of Connecticut. This is the farthest north the Russian spy vessel has ever ventured.
Crash Dive: America’s Pending Submarine Crisis
– CIMSEC – The future of naval warfare is increasingly shifting to undersea competition, in both manned and unmanned systems. American seapower has excelled in this domain and holds a competitive edge today beneath the waves. But the U.S. Navy, by a combination of compressed funding and potentially crippling procurement cost increases, may not be well positioned to sustain its mastery of undersea warfare.
Trio of Studies Predict the U.S. Navy Fleet of 2030
– USNI News – Three congressionally mandated studies outline what the Navy of 2030 could look like and present three very different takes on how the service could tackle its roles and responsibilities in the future.
Alternative Navy Study Bets Big On Robot PT Boats & LCS
– Breaking Defense – Light carriers. Robot PT boats. Unmanned subs. A congressionally chartered study, the Alternative Future Fleet Platform Architecture Study, “does not represent any official Navy position,” but offers a surprisingly bold vision for the future of the US Navy.
More than half of Royal Navy’s attack submarines docked after crack found in reactor
– Daily Express – A cracked nuclear reactor has led to more than half of the Royal Navy’s frontline attack submarines being taken out of service.
USS George H.W. Bush Launches Anti-ISIS Strikes from Mediterranean
– USNI News – After a two-month gap, the U.S. Navy is again launching carrier-based strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria from the Mediterranean. Strike fighters from USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) launched Monday against targets in Syria as part of the ongoing Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR).
The Navy is planning fresh challenges to China’s claims in the South China Sea
Navy Times – U.S. Navy and Pacific Command leaders want to ratchet up potentially provocative operations in the South China Sea by sailing more warships near the increasingly militarized man-made islands that China claims as sovereign territory.
US beefing up Red Sea presence
– Defense News – Responding to a growing number of dangerous incidents in waters around Yemen, the US Navy is expanding its presence in the Red Sea, especially around the Bab el Mandeb strait at the southern entrance to the waterway.
Ilyushin Unveils Il-38 ASW Upgrade for Russian Navy
– AIN – The Ilyushin design bureau and the Russian navy have revealed details of a mission systems upgrade and airframe refurbishment of the Il-38 antisubmarine warfare (ASW) aircraft. At a ceremony on January 31 at Ramenskoye airbase south of Moscow, Russian naval aviation commander Gen. Igor Kozhin said that “about 30” of the 54 Il-38s in the inventory will be modernized, in a program that will continue until 2025.
414 Ships, No LCS: MITRE’s Alternative Navy
– Breaking Defense – The Navy needs a vastly larger fleet — 414 warships — to win a great-power war, well above today’s 274 ships or even the Navy’s unfunded plan for 355, the think-tank MITRE calculates in a congressionally-chartered study.
Big Wars, Small Ships: CSBA’s Alternative Navy Praised By Sen. McCain
– Breaking Defense – he Navy needs a bigger fleet of smaller ships than envisioned in its official Force Structure Assessment, says a congressionally-chartered study from the Center for Strategic & Budgetary Assessments.
China’s 500-Ship Navy Suddenly Appears on the Horizon
– RUSI – The People’s Liberation Army’s Navy is growing fast; expect it to grow even faster.
India’s Submarine Arm – Returning to Even-Trim
– CIMSEC – The Indian Navy’s Submarine Arm will celebrate its Golden Jubilee Year in 2017. The imminent commissioning of the Kalvari — in her new avatar as India’s first Scorpène Class submarine — is, therefore, an especially timely portent of happier times for the underwater sentinels of our freedom. For some time now, much media-time has been devoted to lamenting the several perceived inadequacies in the country’s submarine prowess, especially after the tragedy that struck INS Sindhurakshak in Mumbai on 14 August 2013, resulting in the loss of 18 precious lives and the loss of an invaluable combat platform…
China’s Naval Shipbuilding Sets Sail
– National Interest – China has parlayed the world’s second-largest economy and second-largest defense budget into the world’s largest ongoing comprehensive naval buildup, which has already yielded the world’s second-largest navy. All that is only part of an extraordinary maritime transformation—modern history’s sole example of a land power becoming a hybrid land-sea power on a sustained basis. Underwriting this transition are a vast network of ports, shipping lines and financial systems, and increasingly advanced ships. It also raises the rare prospect of a top-tier non-Western sea power in peacetime, one of the few instances to occur since the Ming Dynasty developed cutting-edge nautical technologies and briefly projected unrivaled power across the Indian Ocean six centuries ago. These factors raise a critical question for our age: Where is China headed at sea, and to what end?
Unmanned warfare office eliminated in US Navy shuffle
– Defense News – A U.S. Navy office set up less than two years ago to oversee the warfare development of unmanned systems has been eliminated.
Russia’s Evolving Arctic Capabilities
– CIMSEC – Far from the battlegrounds of East Ukraine and Syria another confrontation with Russia is brewing. As the Arctic ice retreats countries with claims in the Arctic are more willing to extract the resources found in this inhospitable location. The U.S. estimates the Arctic seabed is home to about 15 percent of the world’s remaining oil, up to 30 percent of its natural gas deposits, and about 20 percent of its liquefied natural gas. Like the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Norway, Russia has its own claim on a section of the Arctic which it is now looking to defend and expand. Today we are witnessing a resurgent Russia in the Arctic, deploying more troops and equipment to the Arctic in support of its claims.
Sun, Sand, and Sentinels
– The Economist – As geopolitical tensions grow in East Asia, so does the discomfort of the Ryukyu Islands.
Grounded: Nearly two-thirds of US Navy’s strike fighters can’t fly
– Defense News – The US Navy’s F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet strike fighters are the tip of the spear, embodying most of the fierce striking power of the aircraft carrier strike group. But nearly two-thirds of the fleet’s strike fighters can’t fly – grounded because they’re either undergoing maintenance or simply waiting for parts or their turn the aviation depot backlog. Overall, more than half the Navy’s aircraft are grounded, most because there isn’t enough money to fix them.
Islands on the frontline of a new global flashpoint: China v Japan
– The Guardian – Ishigaki Island does not look like a frontline. Japan’s own tropical idyll, it is a sleepy place of pineapple fields and mango orchards, where thousands of tourists potter along white sand beaches and scuba dive in crystal clear seas. Yet this tiny dot on the edge of the Pacific is the closest Japanese town to the uninhabited but fiercely disputed Senkaku Islands, once inhospitable home to a tuna processing factory, now abandoned but key to lucrative fishing grounds, oil and gas fields and a strategic shipping route.
China Gains on the U.S. in the Artificial Intelligence Arms Race
– New York Times – The United States no longer has a strategic monopoly on artificial intelligence technology, which is widely seen as the key factor in the next generation of warfare. The Pentagon’s plan to bring A.I. to the military is taking shape as Chinese researchers assert themselves in the nascent technology field.
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