The Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier, USS Ronald Reagan, transits the South China Sea with the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Halsey and the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Shiloh, June 18, 2021. U.S. Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Rawad Madanat
The Naval Brief: DepSecDef visits shipyard; Afghanistan ending; F-35C milestone; and more...
Welcome to The Naval Brief, a weekly look at the news and ideas shaping the sea services’ future.
DepSecDef Hicks tours New England shipyard. Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks visited Bath Iron Works in Maine Wednesday where they build destroyers and met with sailors from the future USS Daniel Inouye. On Thursday, she is scheduled to visit MIT, Harvard, and other locations to discuss technology that can counter China. Defense One’s Marcus Weisgerber is the only reporter traveling with her, so follow for those details and more to come.
Afghanistan War nears its end. The American withdrawal from Afghanistan is now 90 percent complete, U.S. Central Command announced Tuesday. President Joe Biden will be discussing the drawdown effort later Thursday.
Squadron reaches operational milestone. The Marine Corps’ Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 314 will be the first to deploy on an aircraft carrier with their F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters after reaching full operational capability, USNI News reports. The squadron will deploy next year as part of a carrier strike group.
Sign up to get The Naval Brief every Thursday from Caitlin M. Kenney, Defense One’s military services reporter. On this day in 1778, France’s first fleet to aid the American Revolution arrived.
From Defense One
Pentagon Cancels JEDI Cloud Contract // Mila Jasper and Frank Konkel: The Defense Department will opt for a new multibillion-dollar, multi-vendor contract.
DoD Makes Recommendations to Close ‘Troubling Gap’ in Sexual Assault Response // Jacqueline Feldscher: Improving victim care, focusing on prevention and removing prosecution from the chain of command are some top priorities of the 300-page report.
Fighter Jets Leave Afghanistan as US Departs Bagram // Tara Copp and Jacqueline Feldscher: Withdrawal from the mammoth base comes as officials continue to seek access elsewhere in the region.
It's Too Easy to Troll Like a Russian // Ivana Stradner and Pulkit Agrawal: We're scholars, but amateurs, and we found it alarming how quickly we imagined a personalized misinformation campaign with actual publicly available data.