Jeff Martin

In coordinated air and naval strikes, American, British and French forces have struck three chemical weapons sites in Syria. (Jeff Martin/Staff)

On this edition of Defense News Weekly, we’re on location at the Navy League’s 2018 Sea-Air-Space exposition in National Harbor, Maryland. We’ll get an update on ships currently building, see the future of naval aircraft, and go face to face with a robot battle squirrel.

Aquabotix unveiled its SwarmDiver, a micro unmanned surface vehicle (USV) and unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) at Sea-Air-Space at National Harbor, MD, Monday. (Daniel Woolfolk/Staff)

L3 OceanServer unveiled a new advanced autonomous undersea vehicle (AUV) at Sea-Air-Space at National Harbor, Md., Monday.(Dustin Q. Diaz/Staff)

The ‘combat house cat crossed with a Roomba’ is a tool in development by the Naval Research Laboratory to one day serve as a forward scout in rooms and small spaces. (Ben Murray/Staff)

Naval warfare reporter Dave Larter hosts a discussion about the integration of the Navy’s distributed lethality strategy across the fleet. (Staff)

Lucas Hicks from Newport News Shipbuilding, provides an update on construction of the USS John. F Kennedy (CVN-79), and the economics of possibly buying the USS Enterprise (CVN-80) and the unnamed CVN-81 together. (Staff)

Two of the Navy’s most important aircraft, the F/A-18 Super Hornet and the P-8 Poseidon are made by Boeing, and at Sea Air Space 2018, the company provided an update on what’s next for the aircraft. (Staff)

Dr. Jerry Hendrix of the Center for a New American Security, lays out his response to what he sees as the Navy walking back a plan for 355 ships. (Staff)

Fincantieri Marine Group’s CEO explains to Defense News why the company is entering a modified version of the European FREMM frigate in the Navy’s FFG (X) competition. (Staff)