– US Naval Institute Proceedings – The new Gerald R. Ford -class aircraft carriers may have a hefty pricetag, but many believe the cost is worth it and that the ships will prove to be even more iconic than their predecessors.

– Air Force – Electronic attack, the Air Force’s orphan mission, is regaining prominence.

– Daily Telegraph – When the aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis returns to the placid blue waters of the Gulf with her strike force of 70 jets in the next few days, she will be ready for action off the coast of Iran.

– Armed Forces Journal – The goal of Air Sea Battle is to ensure all forces can get to the fight.

– San Diego Union Tribune – The USS Curts’ final deployment is turning out to be an historic one for the San Diego-based frigate, with its crew having made about $25 million in drug busts during operations in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

– Aviation Week – Gulf of Mexico residents see all types of ships and barges go by Mississippi’s Little Biloxi River Bridge. The region, after all, is a womb for warships and a transit artery for maritime goods of all types. But recently one barge slipped past the bridge crowned by a cargo never witnessed in these parts, or any other in the world: a specially constructed composites deckhouse that made the vessel look more like a massive prop for the next “Star Trek” movie than anything on the seas. Weighing 900 tons and measuring longer than 50 yd., the deckhouse is the top half of the U.S. Navy’s newest and most modern warship, the DDG-1000 Zumwalt destroyer.

– Flight International – The second day of our Boeing media trip to the Pacific Northwest found our motley band of defense reporters at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, near Oak Harbor, Washington.

– AOL Defense – “Every two weeks, we get another Growler,” Cmdr. Christopher Middleton said at the Navy’s electronic warfare hub here. The Navy target is to buy 114 EA-18G Growler aircraft. And it’s those Growler aircraft that will be the cutting edge of future Naval strikes against future “anti-access area denial” defenses like those being built by China.

– AOL Defense – It’s not a Nobel Prize, but the Packard Award matters in the big-dollar world of defense procurement. Last week, utterly overshadowed by elections, the Department of Defense awarded the Packard to the Navy’s DDG-51 destroyer, the sleek grey mainstay of the fleet.

– Defense News – Preparations are continuing to base four U.S. Navy destroyers in Rota, Spain, beginning in fiscal 2014 — a move that will allow the ships to provide a near-continuous ballistic-missile defense (BMD) shield for Europe. And while the U.S. remains the only nation so far able to field a sea-based BMD system, the nation’s top naval officer sees roles other navies can play to support the mission.

– BBC – After more than 50 years of loyal service, the US Navy tells BBC Future it is ready to replace its pods of highly trained sea mammals with cheaper robots.

– The Independent – While the US Air Force’s drones have been firing all sorts of air-to-surface missiles and bombs for roughly a decade now, the Navy took a big step toward getting in on the action last week when it launched six Israeli-made Spike missiles from an unmanned 36-foot motorboat.