– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Here are steps the U.S. Navy must take to realize the vision of autonomous systems.
US Navy – Pentagon Works To Expand Aegis BMD’s Reach
– DefenseTech – The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency and the U.S. Navy are developing next-generation Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) hardware and software along with a longer-range interceptor missile engineered to massively increase the protective envelope against intermediate and long-range ballistic missile threats, service officials said.
Russian Navy – Russia to send nuclear submarines to southern seas
– Reuters – Russia plans to resume nuclear submarine patrols in the southern seas after a hiatus of more than 20 years following the break-up of the Soviet Union, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Saturday, in another example of efforts to revive Moscow’s military.
US Navy – Navy ships form first line of missile defense
– Virginian Pilot – The USS Stethem is one of two warships in the western Pacific that are responsible for detecting, tracking and, if necessary, shooting down a ballistic missile launched by Pyongyang. And they represent the first line of defense for U.S. allies and territories in a region that has become increasingly nervous as North Korea has ratcheted up its rhetoric and threats in recent months.
US Navy – Pacific Prologue
– Aviation Week – It’s often said that the past is prologue and U.S Navy Secretary Ray Mabus recently highlighted that sentiment when he visited Singapore to help trumpet the arrival there of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom and the importance of the U.S. Pacific pivot.
Fourth Generation Warfare – 4GW is Alive and Well
– Slightly East of New – Bill Lind argues Fourth Generation Warfare is alive and well…
US Navy – Command And Control
– Aviation Week – The Freedom never had to endure a hurricane on the way to Singapore, but the ship certainly has gone through a tempestuous set of trials and tribulations. During transit, the ship suffered a series of power outages, and once in Singapore the Freedom was sidelined by a coolant leak that also apparently cut short the ship’s initial extended underway.
US Coast Guard – Coast Guard To Navy: Arctic’s Covered; White House OKs Arctic Icebreaker
– Breaking Defense – While the Navy pivots to the Pacific, the Coast Guard has got their northern flank: the once icebound but now rapidly opening waters of the Arctic Ocean, with its new opportunities for oil, gas, and trade through the fabled Northwest Passage. For the chronically underfunded and “oversubscribed” service, however, the challenge is rebuilding Arctic skills and capabilities that have atrophied for decades – including construction of a new heavy-duty icebreaker that might cost up to a $1 billion, said Coast Guard Commandant, Adm. Robert Papp.
Spanish Navy – Spain just spent $680 million on a submarine that can’t swim
– Quartz – One of Spain’s largest defense splurges may also be one of its most embarrassing. After spending nearly one-third of a $3 billion budget to build four of the world’s most advanced submarines, the project’s engineers have run into a problem: the submarines are so heavy that they would sink to the bottom of the ocean.
Royal Navy – Who, what, why: How do you scrap an aircraft carrier?
– BBC – The Royal Navy’s former flagship, HMS Ark Royal, is to be towed to a breakers’ yard in Turkey. But how exactly do you scrap an aircraft carrier?
US Navy – Breaking the Kill Chain
– Foreign Policy – How to keep America in the game when our enemies are trying to shut us out.
US Navy – The Ford-Class Carrier, The F-35C and ‘Spider Web’ War At Sea
– Breaking Defense – An aircraft carrier is nothing without aircraft, and a Navy aircraft is worth little without a carrier. It’s ships and planes in synergy that revolutionized war at sea in the 1930s and with new systems now entering service – the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter and the Ford-class carrier – they can do it again. On April 30, we sat down with Rear Admiral Bill Moran, the Director of Air Warfare on the Navy staff (OPNAV N98) and co-author of a recent article on future carriers, to discuss the transition to the Ford and JSF. While the new carrier can still perform its traditional role as the centerpiece of a mobile island of concentrated naval force, Moran said, the Ford class, the evolving air wing, and an array of other new capabilities will allow the carrier to play a much more flexible and distributed role.
US Navy – SEALs to Undergo 'Evolution in Reverse' as They Return to Maritime Operations
– National Defense – As the U.S. military turns its attention to the Pacific, Navy Sea-Air-Land (SEAL) teams are already undergoing a transition back to their maritime roots, said Rear Adm. Sean Pybus, commander of Navy Special Warfare.
Miscellaneous – Asia's Naval Procurement Sees Major Growth
– Defense News – Asia-Pacific nations are modernizing their surface and underwater naval capabilities by buying stealthy warships, attack submarines, patrol vessels, sensors, radars, missiles and unmanned systems.
US Navy – The case for sea-based drones
– Reuters – If it works, the X-47B and follow-on drones, which are devised to be armed with bombs and missiles, could nearly quadruple the striking range of the United States’ 10 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers – reversing a recent decline in the giant ships’ ability to do battle against a determined, high-tech foe…Namely, China.
US Navy – Near Iran, U.S. Hosts Huge Persian Gulf Wargame; 35 Ships, 41 Countries
– Breaking Defense – Just nine months after hosting the biggest multinational mine-warfare exercises “ever” to be held in and around the Persian Gulf, the Navy’s 5th Fleet and its foreign partners outdid themselves with a second, even larger wargame. More than 20 nations participated in September’s International Mine Counter-Measures Exercise 2012, collaborating against fictional ecoterrorists whose capabilities were suspiciously similar to the real-world arsenal of Iran. This month, 41 nations and some private-sector companies participated in IMCMEX 2013, which despite the name expanded beyond minesweeping to practice protecting civilian oil tankers, oil rigs, ports, and even desalinization plants as well.
US Navy – Will the Navy’s New Killer Drones Hunt Terrorists or Fight China?
– Wired – America’s ship-launched X-47B killer drone prototype took off for the first time from the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush sailing near the Maryland coast on Tuesday morning — the first step in proving that a high-performance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle is compatible with the Navy’s fleet of 10 gigantic nuclear-powered flattops. But that doesn’t mean the sailing branch will definitely be purchasing similar jet-powered drones for frontline use. According to Bob Work, until recently the Navy undersecretary and a big supporter of armed UAVs, the sea service must choose between X-47B-style ‘bots and a simpler, propeller-driven drone similar to the Air Force’s Predator.
US Navy – Navy Drone’s Next Test: X-47B Will Land, Sort Of; China Unveils Similar Drone
– Breaking Defense – Unmanned aircraft are relatively easy to fly. Landing one without crashing is hard. Getting one to take off from the narrow, pitching deck of an aircraft carrier is harder still. Landing on a carrier? That’s hard enough to give human pilots nervous breakdowns. Soon, it will be the final test of the Navy’s prototype carrier-based drone, the X-47B.
US Navy – Navy’s Historic Drone Launch From an Aircraft Carrier Has an Asterisk
– Wired – At 11:19 a.m. today, for the first time in history, a plane without a pilot in it executed one of the most complex missions in aviation: launching off an aircraft carrier at sea. Only the Navy can’t yet land that drone aboard the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush, an even harder but necessary maneuver if large drones are really going to operate off carriers.
Iranian Navy – Iran dispatches warship to shadow Gulf exercises
– Daily Telegraph – Iran has dispatched one of its newest warships to shadow the world’s biggest mine-hunting exercise that has been taking place over the last few days in the Gulf.
Chinese Navy – Xi's War Drums
– Foreign Policy – Every morning at 6 a.m., more than two dozen of the world’s leading submarine watchers, aviation experts, government specialists, imagery analysts, cryptanalysts, and linguists gather at the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Hawaii. Their job is to probe the overnight intelligence reports to guide the activities and strategies of the five aircraft carrier groups, 180 ships, and nearly 2,000 aircraft that constantly patrol the Pacific and Indian oceans. The morning meetings are convened by the fleet’s top intelligence officer, Capt. James Fanell, and cover activities emanating anywhere “from Hollywood to Bollywood,” as the head of U.S. Pacific Command, Adm. Samuel Locklear, likes to put it. But the group never takes long before zeroing in on the country driving the United States’ military and diplomatic “pivot” to Asia. “Every day it’s about China; it’s about a China who’s at the center of virtually every activity and dispute in the maritime domain in the East Asian region,” said Fanell, reading from prepared remarks at a U.S. Naval Institute conference in San Diego on Jan. 31. Fanell, in comments that went largely unnoticed outside the small circle of China military specialists, spelled out in rare detail the reasons the United States is shifting 60 percent of its naval assets — including its most advanced capabilities — to the Pacific. He was blunt: The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy is focused on war, and it is expanding into the “blue waters” explicitly to counter the U.S. Pacific Fleet. “I can tell you, as the fleet intelligence officer, the PLA Navy is going to sea to learn how to do naval warfare,” he said. “My assessment is the PLA Navy has become a very capable fighting force.”
US Navy – Singapore Fling
– Aviation Week – The U.S. Navy gets set this month to essentially – if unofficially – christen its “Pacific pivot” with a coming-out party of sorts for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom at the Imdex Maritime Defense Show in Singapore.
Royal Navy – Navy carrier jets 'can't land in hot weather'
– The Guardian – The hi-tech jets that will be flown from the Royal Navy’s two new aircraft carriers cannot land on the ships in “hot, humid and low pressure weather conditions”, a report warns today.
US Navy – The Navy’s Hull Game
– Time – The U.S. Navy routinely says it needs more ships. One way it makes that need more dire is by retiring existing vessels well before their planned lifespan is over. Think of it as fleethanasia.
US Navy – US Navy unveils unmanned drone squadron 'the magicians'
– BBC – The US Navy has launched a squadron combining unmanned drones as well as manned aircraft, amid a national debate over the role of drones in warfare.
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