Breaking Defense – While the carrier strike group will remain the backbone of naval power projection, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle says its time to look for alternative options, especially unmanned systems, for more specialized regional scenarios — part of a Tuesday preview of what he called his forthcoming “hedge strategy” for the Navy.

Naval News – General Dynamics NASSCO is looking to U.S. Navy for interest in new VLS reloading destroyer tenders, known as AD(X), as part of a combined buy of common hulls with the future AS(X) submarine tender.

The War Zone – Boeing expects to close out production of new Super Hornets in 2027 and has already stopped building EA-18G Growlers.

The War Zone – Amid the ongoing military buildup, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that no one knows who would lead Iran next should the Khamenei regime fall.

SeaPower – Rather than continuing to field a shrinking force of exquisite ships and aircraft, the Navy should field a larger force of crewed and uncrewed platforms that gain an edge over opponents through their payloads and ability to combine in a diverse array of changing effects chains across domains. By shifting complexity from inside individual ships and aircraft to the kill chains between them, this fleet could gain decision-making advantages over adversaries and generate capacity or capability when and where it is needed.

USNI News – The surface force will net a total of seven Littoral Combat Ships after the Navy shelved plans to decommission the hulls ahead of their expected service lives, USNI News has learned.

Navy Lookout – The announcement of the Defiant-class battleship signals a sharp reorientation of US naval force structure, moving away from distributed lethality towards massed, concentrated firepower to address the widening magazine gap with China. However, the revival of such leviathans sits uneasily with a fragile US industrial base that has struggled to deliver even basic escorts, raising doubts over the programme’s deliverability.

The War Zone – The last four Avengers in Bahrain were carried off on a heavy lift vessel at a time of crisis, where mining the Persian Gulf could come into play.

The War Zone – Assets continue to pour into the Middle East, including high-end air defenses, but there still hasn’t been a large migration of airpower.

RUSI – If the US no longer abides by rules, how does it expect revisionist states to do so?

Australian Strategic Policy Institute – Bill Sweetman’s view on the future of the US defense industry.

War on the Rocks – Beijing would be most afraid of losing the advantage it has today from its anti-ship missiles. Blunting that advantage with unmanned systems will require maximizing the benefits they can offer against anti-ship missiles while minimizing the drawbacks. Unmanned surface vessels that resemble munitions rather than ships would be the more effective tool to counter this threat.

The first step to unlocking their potential asymmetric advantage is to make the distinction between the two types of systems. A more precise taxonomy could clarify the functions that each type of unmanned surface vessel is meant to perform and help identify the roles that each should play in the sea denial mission.

The War Zone – While today’s surface Navy puts major emphasis on carrier strike group and expeditionary strike group deployments, driven by the resource realities and the global threat environment, the current Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) wants to take a far more flexible and tailored approach to sending his vessels on cruise.

FRPI – Plans have now been unveiled for the USS Defiant, the lead ship of the so-called Trump class of guided-missile battleships. According to the concept materials released so far, this vessel would combine a sprawling arsenal of vertical launch cells, hypersonic missiles, and lasers with a forward-mounted 32-megajoule railgun. In other words, at a moment when American shipyards are struggling to produce sufficient numbers of current surface combatants, the proposed solution is to task them with building 35,000-ton “super combatants” packed with immature or outright nonexistent technologies.

Could such a ship actually work? What risks does it introduce, technologically and industrially? And perhaps most importantly, what would a return to battleships mean for American fleet structure and an already overstretched US shipbuilding sector?

Naval News – Statements by U.S. Navy Rear Admiral (RADM) Derek Trinque, the Director of Surface Warfare (N96) at the 2026 Surface Navy Symposium reveal the U.S. Navy’s intentions to spread the hypersonic Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) missiles throughout the surface fleet.

Breaking Defense – After rounds of prototyping, the Navy is ready to deploy two of its medium-sized drone boats this year and even integrate one with a carrier strike group, according to a service official.

Defense News – U.S. President Donald Trump calls the vessel a new class of “battleship” graced by his own name, but China just calls the U.S. Navy’s latest concept a larger and “easier target” for its growing array of anti-ship drones and missiles.

Naval News – During the Future Fleet Panel at SNA 2026, Chris Miller, the Executive Director at Naval Sea Systems Command, and Rear Admiral Derek Trinque, the U.S Navy Director of Surface Warfare (N96), Rear Admiral Brian Metcalf, and Rear Admiral Peter Small went in depth regarding the newly unveiled BBG(X) Trump-Class Battleships.

The War Zone – The Navy is pushing back on concerns about the built-in capabilities of FF(X) frigates, including the lack of a vertical launch system array.

The War Zone – As the U.S. is reportedly moving at least one and perhaps more aircraft carrier strike groups to the Middle East ahead of a potential future attack on Iran, open-source tracking is beginning to show some U.S. Air Force assets may be heading that way as well.

Defense News – U.S. Navy leaders speaking at a military conference this week outlined what they described as the strategic opportunities of the recently announced Trump-class battleships and why the service is embracing the development.

Naval News – General Atomics is holding discussions with the U.S. government regarding the role of railguns on the Trump-class guided-missile battleships. 

Naval News – During Surface Navy 2026’s Future Fleet Panel hosted by Mr. Chris Miller, Executive Director at NAVSEA, and featuring Rear Admiral (RADM) Derek Trinque, the U.S Navy’s Surface Warfare Director (N96), new details surrounding the U.S Navy’s FF(X) program were unveiled.

The War Zone – The USS Gerald R. Ford has been on cruise since June and the Navy’s top officer does not want to send it to the Middle East on extended deployment.

The War Zone – The U.S. Navy’s top officer wants directed energy weapons to become the go-to choice for the crews of American warships when faced with close-in threats. He also said that more powerful megawatt-class lasers should not be seen as “beyond” the capabilities that could be found on the future Trump class warships.