CIMSEC – The Navy is taking steps toward a technical revolution in advanced 3D modeling for vessel design and construction and in logistics software integration enabling smarter maintenance planning. But the revolution is missing a critical objective: improve the day-to-day lives of the sailors maintaining these vessels by tackling what takes up too much of their time and incurs them too much unmitigated risk. This can be done by leveraging existing CAD models, user-interfaces, and AI/ML algorithms, to digitize the existing labor intensive and risk-fraught paper tagout process. Tackling the tagout process with smart software can lead to further time saving and risk reducing advancements in maintenance planning in port and better repair triage at sea.
HMS Dragon returns home after controversial 7-month deployment to the Middle East
Navy Lookout – Dragon’s ship’s company responded to an emergency at a week’s notice, spent seven months operating close to an active war zone and brought the ship home after doing everything asked of them. The deployment was a success for the people involved, but it also demonstrated that the RN is really now too small to be able to exert sustained strategic effect or contribute significantly to allied operations, especially beyond Europe.
October Sees Near Daily Strikes on Ships in Hormuz
USNI News – A ship has been struck in the Strait of Hormuz nearly every day this month, according to the International Maritime Organization.
USS Abraham Lincoln Comes Home With Its Island Superstructure Covered In Kill Marks
The War Zone – The drone and ship kill marks visualize the role the Lincoln Carrier Strike Group played in the fight with Iran.
Japan Launches Seventh Taigei-Class Submarine as Nuclear Propulsion Debate Grows
Naval News – On October 8, Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) launched the seventh Taigei-class diesel-electric attack submarine, “Shogei” (しょうげい), for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), as Japan considers nuclear propulsion as a possible option for its future submarines.
Navy Doubles Down On X-BAT VTOL ‘Fighter’ Drone Development
The War Zone – X-BAT flight testing is getting closer on the horizon, and an extremely ambitious timeline to reach an operational capability has been revealed.
Arming Taiwan: America First in Action
CIMSEC – Taiwan’s ability to independently support itself is integral to its survival but also clearly aligns with America’s national interests. Arming Taiwan is an America First policy; the reinvigoration of American global power is enhanced by enabling Taiwan to defend itself.
MoD increasingly vague on when Royal Navy will get Type 31 frigates
Navy Lookout – The Ministry of Defence is now refusing of offer any in-service date for the RN’s Type 31 frigates. In its latest statement on the programme is says that costs are rising and makes a further retreat from the firm dates that once defined the project.
The Navy’s Missing Welders Are Stocking Shelves
War on the Rocks – The yards are still 174,000 workers short. Recent wage increases only reached people already in shipyard jobs, not the larger pool who never applied and cannot afford unpaid months of training. What nobody has tried yet is recruiting a cashier at a mall forty miles away with the same money. Reaching that cashier or other would-be shipyard workers will require an intermediary that pays them during the intermediate training period between jobs, and no such broker yet exists. The Navy can close this gap by measuring programs on whether they reach new entrants, redirecting advertising money to pay trainees while they learn, and letting each shipbuilding region name one accountable intermediary to broker that training.
U.S., Japanese Forces to Rehearse Defense of Japan’s Southwest Islands
USNI News – U.S. and Japanese forces will amass in Japan’s southwest region to rehearse island defense as part of the annual Keen Sword exercise later this month.
U.S. Navy orders $123M more Lionfish underwater drones
Defence Blog – The U.S. Navy has ordered another $123.4 million worth of Lionfish small underwater drones.
Lionfish is the U.S. Navy’s name for HII’s REMUS 300, a torpedo-shaped autonomous vehicle that two people can carry and launch. HII says the design can dive to 305 meters (1,000 feet) and run missions of up to 30 hours, and that it supports mine countermeasures, intelligence and surveillance, anti-submarine warfare and electronic warfare. Its modular body is built to take different sensor payloads, and it replaces the Mk 18 Mod 1 Swordfish, an older vehicle based on HII’s smaller REMUS 100.
(Thanks to Alain)
Exercise Strike Warrior 2026 puts NATO firepower behind UK Commandos
Navy Lookout – More than 2,000 personnel are taking part in UK-led NATO Exercise Strike Warrior 2026. Although Royal Navy warship participation has been minimal, the exercise has seen significant Royal Marine activity, including commandos deploying from a German submarine, directing naval gunfire and conducting amphibious, reconnaissance and strike missions.
U.S. Navy and U.S. Army order more Phalanx guns
Defence Blog – Raytheon has won a $247.1 million contract to build, upgrade and overhaul Phalanx close-in weapon systems for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army, covering the shipboard gun, its land-based counterpart and the missile-armed SeaRAM.
(Thanks to Alain)
Anduril to Build New Submarine Component Facility
USNI News – Defense technology company Anduril will build a new facility in Maryland focused on submarine component construction for the U.S. Navy’s attack boats.
U.S. Navy buys more 30mm guns to shoot down drones
Defence Blog – The U.S. Navy has awarded British-owned MSI Defence Systems a $197 million contract for 30mm deck gun mounts and the electro-optical sights that aim them, the weapons the service is fitting to its warships to shoot down small drones and fast attack boats.
(Thanks to Alain)
Philippines: The Coastal Defense Regiment 2026 BrahMos Update
Naval News – The Philippine Marine Corps is working to fully operationalize its BrahMos supersonic anti-ship missiles amid tensions with China in the South China Sea.
The New Federation of American Shipyards
USNI News – Pressure to deliver ships faster pushes U.S. naval yards toward distributed shipbuilding.
Towards a JEF naval ecosystem: A blueprint for British leadership in the High North
Council on Geostrategy – The Joint Expeditionary Force provides the UK with essential tactical mass and geographical access to the Wider North, although its members remain reliant upon high-end British sovereign capabilities. By transforming the grouping into a fully fledged regional vanguard for defence, Britain can ensure that adversaries are deterred and allies are reassured as the Wider North becomes ever more significant in an era of growing geopolitical competition.
Pentagon Doubles Down on Pacific Area Denial, Need for High-end Munitions
USNI News – The Pentagon doubled down on its plans to establish a forward-deployed area denial, anti-access network along the First Island Chain to deter China in the 2026 National Defense Security update.
Mounting concern in Australia over UK ability to deliver SSN-AUKUS
Navy Lookout – In this guest article, Rear Admiral Peter Briggs, RAN (Rtd), articulates the worries held by some amongst the defence establishment in Australia about the promises the UK has made on submarine delivery. Some consider statements emanating from the UK Defence Nuclear Enterprise to be public relations rhetoric that do not reflect the true state of the enterprise.
All The Weapons A Single Navy Fighter Squadron Launched During Operation Epic Fury
The War Zone – Strike Fighter Squadron 41’s F/A-18Fs let loose hundreds of air-to-surface and air-to-air weapons during the war with Iran.
Germany Is Finally Giving Its F125 Frigates Some More Teeth With IRIS-T SLM Surface-To-Air Missiles
The War Zone – The 7,200-ton F125 frigates were built with notoriously light armament, which is now being partly addressed.
What America Must Change to Make Korean Shipbuilding Matter
CIMSEC – If Korean involvement leaves American yards more productive, the supplier base deeper, workload more predictable, and the Navy more capable of converting requirements into ships, the Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Partnership Initiative will have mattered. If not, it will have become another sophisticated policy framework that correctly diagnosed the crisis while leaving the institutional pathologies that created it largely untouched.
F/A-XX: why the US is putting all its fighter eggs in the Boeing basket
The Strategist – Bill Sweetman asks why would the Defense Department do this?
Inside Ukraine’s First Combat Deployment Of Robotic Amphibious Vehicles
The War Zone – The commander of a Ukrainian uncrewed ground vehicle unit gives us exclusive insights into how vehicles were designed or modified for amphibious combat operations.
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