The War Zone – HELIOS is the only laser able to down drones installed on an active Navy warship, and putting it in a container would open up new deployment possibilities.

CSIS – The 39-day bombing and air defense campaign against Iran depleted inventories of key U.S. munitions stockpiles, as a previous CSIS analysis detailed. The United States has enough munitions for any plausible scenario in the Iran war, but the depleted inventories have created a window of vulnerability for a potential Western Pacific conflict. The time needed to rebuild those inventories has thus become a major concern.

Naval News – L3Harris is pushing forward with production of its Iver4 900 autonomous undersea vehicle (AUV) under a previously unknown Defense Innovation Unit effort that is looking to deliver a torpedo tube launch and recovery (TTL&R) autonomous drone to the U.S. Navy’s attack submarine fleet.

USNI News – Spreading the construction of the Trump-class battleship across several different manufacturing locations is key to the Navy’s current plan to build the almost three-football-field-long warship, a service official said this week.

Defense News – Operation Epic Fury may have strengthened the case for directed energy weapons, but the U.S. Navy’s dream of putting “a laser on every ship” may take significantly longer than expected to realize.

Breaking Defense – The Navy doesn’t have the bandwidth to escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Navy’s top officer.

The War Zone – The U.S. Navy has placed directed energy systems on nine surface combatants and is looking to expand testing and deployment of similar systems across the fleet.

USNI News – Balikatan 2026 was a rehearsal for the defense of the Philippines amid a “dangerous security environment,” U.S. Indo-Pacific Command chief Adm. Samuel Paparo said at the conclusion of the largest iteration of the drills held to date.

Naval News – The Pentagon’s order of over 10,000 Low-Cost Containerized Missiles (LCCM) has the potential to expand Washington’s arsenal of anti-ship munitions, with designs from the five awarded defense contractors capable of accommodating or planned to incorporate dedicated maritime-launch and strike variants. 

War on the Rocks – Investing in medium autonomous warships, lower-cost long-range munitions, and surface drones is not about affordably generating the volume and diversity of effects necessary to survive and fight in a contested environment. The Navy should treat these capabilities not as adjuncts to the existing fleet but as central components of future maritime power.

The Barents Observer – Newly developed high-speed autonomous surface vessels have been seen operating in the fjord outside Ramsund Naval Base during an exercise that runs until 24 May.

CIMSEC – The U.S. Navy remains intent on using its high-end platforms for sea denial. To its credit, it is developing the kinds of unmanned systems that are ideally suited for this mission, but only at too slow a pace. To optimize its force structure and accelerate the development of technology, the U.S. Navy should instead commit to a strategy of customized, low-end sea denial coupled with high-end global maritime punishment, and then tailor its doctrine, tactics, and weapons systems to each mission.

Naval News – Under the U.S. Navy’s released shipbuilding plan as apart of the Future Year Defense Program (FYDP), the U.S. Navy’s surface force will receive a major reshuffle in it’s structure, targeted towards fielding continually advanced surface ship based capabilities and increasing industrial output.

The War Zone – The Chief of Naval Operations says giving up on nuclear-powered surface combatants was one of the worst decisions his service has ever made.

CIMSEC – The real challenge remains the development of the next-generation surface combatant—a ship with the size, power, and growth margin to accommodate future weapons and sensors. That search has eluded the Navy for decades. The Future Frigate is not that answer. Achieving it will require a clean-sheet design, sustained discipline, and a willingness to align ambition with technical reality. Until then, the frigate program represents not a destination, but a holding action.

USNI News – The new Trump-class battleship will be powered by a nuclear reactor and is not a successor to the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, the Navy revealed Monday in its annual 30-year shipbuilding blueprint.

Defense News – With the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford en route home from what has become the longest U.S. Navy float since Vietnam, the service is reconsidering how to sustain a wartime fighting force.

Defense News – India is pressing ahead with a $9 billion infrastructure project to bolster its military footprint on the Great Nicobar Island which sits far from the Indian mainland near one of the world’s most critical shipping arteries.

Defense News – American forces fired on and disabled two Iranian-flagged unladen oil tankers on Friday after the ships attempted to cross a U.S. Navy blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

USNI News – It is sometimes difficult to tell where the U.S. and Iran are in their “tit-for-tat” actions in the strait, Chris Newton, a senior analyst with International Crisis Group, told USNI News.

The War Zone – The Super Hornet strafing the ship is the latest instance where the Navy used direct fire to disable Iranian ships trying to run the blockade.

The War Zone – At-sea reloading demonstrated by USNS Montford Point could be key in a future fight in the Pacific and give these ships a new lease on life.

CIMSEC – Professor Reveron has identified a genuine strategic problem and proposed a historically grounded solution. His geographic differentiation is the correct starting point for the analysis the nation needs. The problem is that he skips that analysis and proceeds directly to organizational and industrial solutions — giving us the Four-Ocean Navy Act before the strategy that would justify it.

USNI News – Aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is now operating in the Mediterranean after leaving the Red Sea last week.