From James Kirkup, the Telegraph:  Defence sources have revealed that the Americans only relented and allowed a Royal Navy frigate to join the mission following an intervention from Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president.

From AFP:  Russia plans to deploy Iskander missiles on the European Union's border later this year, a source in its western Baltic Fleet told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday.

J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, was interviewed by Jeffrey Brown on PBS’s NewsHour program about the rescue by US Navy SEALs of an American aid worker and her Danish colleague who had been held hostage since October in north central Somalia.

From Dave Majumdar, DefenseNews:  Lockheed Martin has traced the U.S. Navy F-35C Joint Strike Fighter’s troubles with catching a carrier’s arresting gear wires to the tailhook design.

From RIA Novosti:  Investigators in the northern Russian port of Arkhangelsk have charged in absentia Estonia's former spy chief, Eerik-Niiles Kross, with organizing the hijacking of the cargo ship Arctic Sea in 2009, a spokesman for the regional Investigative Committee, Yury Shperling said on Friday.

From Andrew Hough and Thomas Harding, the Telegraph:  The Royal Navy's multi-billion pound fighter plane programme is under threat amid claims that its new all-purpose jets cannot land on aircraft carriers, it has emerged.

From Jim Miklaszewski and staff, MSNBC:  Casting aside current tensions between the U.S. and Iran, the U.S. Navy on Friday rescued 13 Iranian seamen who were being held captive by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Oman.

From James Holmes, the Diplomat:  If the United States can no longer afford two navies, it may have to resurrect an older tradition for managing commitments, assets, and risk. Naval historian Alfred Thayer Mahan was a founding father of this tradition.