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Much of the attention on PRC’s aircraft carrier programme has been previously focused on the ex-Soviet Navy Admiral Kuznetsov class carrier Varyag, which was 70% competed when its construction stopped in 1992 and later bought by a Chinese company based in Macau for commercial purpose. The 67,500t vessel has been docked at the Dalian Shipyard in northern China since 2002, reportedly to be commissioned by the PLA Navy as a training carrier after its refurbishment finished. However, despite the completion of the hull restoration and removal of the scaffolding on the ship bridge in late 2006, the installation of weapons,...

080722-N-7571S-001 ATLANTIC OCEAN (July 22, 2008) A French F-2 Rafale launches from the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) during the first integrated U.S. and French carrier qualifications aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier. The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group is participating in Joint Task Force Exercise "Operation Brimstone" off the Atlantic coast. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jonathan Snyder/Released) 080721-N-7241L-009 ATLANTIC OCEAN (July 21, 2008) A French Rafale M prepares to land aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) during combined French and American carrier qualifications. This event marks the first...

Why Russia lacks aircraft carriers 17:05 | 16/ 07/ 2008 MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Kislyakov) - Soviet military policies never called for building full-fledged aircraft carriers operating multi-role warplanes. Nor did Russia draft any clear carrier construction program at the turn of the century. On July 4, Admiral Viktor Kravchenko, former chief of the Russian Navy's Main Headquarters, said the country had to build a carrier fleet in the near future. This call is a reaction to reports of two aircraft carriers being built for the British Royal Navy. As before, Russia is reacting slowly to Western naval...

FARNBOROUGH 2008: Indian carrierborne MiG handover inches closer Anatoly Belov, designer general of the Russian MiG Aircraft Corporation, says the first MiG-29K and MiG-29KUB aircraft will soon be delivered to the Indian Navy, more than 12 months later than the original scheduled handover. In January 2004, MiG won a contract to supply twelve single-seat MiG-29K aircraft and four MiG-29KUB trainers, as well as simulators and spare parts. Two of the aircraft were originally due to be delivered to the Indian Navy in June 2007 and six more in November 2007, with deliveries to be completed by 2009. But the MiG-29KUB...

>font size=4>Military Superiority: China has embarked on an ambitious anti-ship missile program designed to sink American carriers. Unfortunately, due to underspending on defense, we have an anti-ship program all our own.China is developing at least three different anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM) designed to take out American carriers coming to Taiwan's defense and may be willing to shop them around to rogue states such as Venezuela and Iran, according to Richard Fisher, a specialist on the Chinese military. Fisher, vice president of the International Assessment and Strategy Center, says two of the missiles are based on the CSS-5, also known as...

USS Abraham Lincoln in Arabian Sea to support Afghan operations By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes Mideast edition, Wednesday, July 9, 2008 ARLINGTON, Va. — The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has moved from the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea to support operations in Afghanistan. NBC News first reported Monday night that the carrier has been moved because of the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, where a suicide bomber killed more than 40 people Monday outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul. A spokesman for 5th Fleet confirmed the move Tuesday. "Conditions are worsening on the ground in Afghanistan and commanders...

Navy Names New Amphibious Assault Ship Story Number: NNS080630-13 Release Date: 6/30/2008 4:12:00 PM From the Secretary of the Navy Public Affairs JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (NNS) -- The Navy's newest class of large-deck amphibious assault ship, LHA 6, will bear the name USS America, Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter announced June 27, while speaking at the USS America Carrier Veterans Association reunion in Jacksonville, Fla. This ship will inherit a proud tradition, explained Winter. From the American Revolution through the first Gulf War, three warships have sailed with the name America. "To serve in a ship named after our...

Department of Veterans Affairs Prepares to Strip John McCain of Vietnam Veteran Title News Release Date: 26 June, 2008 From: website, www.BlueWaterNavy.org  Note: This article refers to proposed changes to the rules defining 'Service in Vietnam' set forth by the Department of Veterans Affairs in response to the 'Haas vs. Peake' decision in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. By the implementation of changes as set forth in the Federal Register, April 16, 2008, regarding "Definition of Service in the Republic of Vietnam," for the purpose of clarifying eligibility for presumption of exposure to herbicides status, the DVA very clearly...

Lost At Sea: The Vietnam “Blue Water Navy” Vets Case By Mark Weitz For ten years, between 1965 and 1975, three million young Americans, many of them still boys, answered their country’s call and served as soldiers, sailors, airman, and marines in Vietnam. Some were drafted, but many volunteered, and at the time the cause seemed clear: stop the spread of communism. By the late 1960’s the goal became obscure. The war fell out of favor as Americans began to question our involvement in a conflict that drained both human and financial resources and seemed to bring few tangible results....

Look out for the next smear from the radical left, that McCain started the USS Forrestal fire. McCain plane was hit by an accidentally fired rocket, for Pete's sake how to you even work up a lie that he's somehow responsible.

A deal to build Britain's biggest ever aircraft carriers is expected to be sealed today. The Ministry of Defence is poised to sign contracts worth around £3 billion for two 65,000-ton ships. The Queen Elizabeth and the Prince of Wales will be built at Govan in Glasgow and Rosyth in Fife, as well as Portsmouth and Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria. Measuring more than 300 yards in length, the ships will have a flight deck the size of three football pitches and space for 40 aeroplanes. They will be similar in size to the QE2 and are more than three times the...

As The Nav Log noted back in 2004, the EB-52 “Megafortress” airplane from Dale Brown’s techno-thrillers was moving closer to becoming a reality. In July of that year, the USAF began talking about introducing a stand-off jammer (SOJ) electronic warfare version of the B-52 bomber, to enter service as soon as possible. The plan called for development and fielding of a long-range radar-jamming/radar spoofing under-wing electronics pod. An initial purchase of 12 pods, to be carried by 16 B-52Hs, was being worked into the 2005 budget. $21.6M of the FY 2005 Air Force budget had been allocated to the Airborne...

Fire damage aboard the USS George Washington will delay the swap out with USS Kitty Hawk and may push back the carrier’s arrival to Japan, the Navy announced. The Kitty Hawk, which left Yokosuka last month for eventual decommissioning in Bremerton, Wash., was to turn over duties to the George Washington this month at Pearl Harbor. The aircraft carrier transfer will now happen in San Diego in August, according to a Navy release. The George Washington is already in San Diego undergoing repairs. A May 22 fire aboard the George Washington damaged electrical cabling and components in about 80 of...

FALLON, Nev. (AP) -- Two fighter jets from the U.S. Navy's elite training school collided Friday over northern Nevada's high desert, killing one pilot and injuring two others who parachuted to safety. The pilot who died was based at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Va., said Jeffery Wells, a spokesman at Fallon Naval Air Station. He was at the controls of an F/A-18C Hornet at the time of the crash.

FALLON, Nev. — A pilot was missing after two U.S. Navy jets flying a routine training mission collided Friday over northern Nevada's high desert about 50 miles east of the Fallon Naval Air Station. Two pilots safely ejected from an F-5 Tiger and were rescued, but the pilot of an F/A-18C Hornet was missing, said Zip Upham, public affairs officer for the base. The two aircraft collided about noon Friday near the town of Middlegate, some 110 miles east of Reno, Upham said. The cause of the crash was under investigation, he said. The pilots in the two-seater F-5 Tiger...

At the link is a translated copy of the comic book the US Navy is using to sell the Japanese on stationing the nuclear powered USS Washington in Japan. It is a Pdf document for those that do not like those.

Asia's navies Into the wide blue yonder Jun 5th 2008 | SINGAPORE From The Economist print edition Asia's main powers are building up their navies. Is this the start of an arms race? IN THE 15th century China possessed a mighty navy of “treasure fleets”. They sailed as far as Africa and the Persian Gulf, spreading China's economic and political influence across several continents. Had this naval expansion continued, some scholars say, China could have dominated the world. But successive emperors turned the nation inwards on itself, seafaring was banned and the country's great shipyards were closed. In Asia as...

On this date back in 1942, one of the most decisive engagements in the history of naval warfare took place. The outnumbered and outgunned US Pacific Fleet took on the mighty Imperial Japanese Navy and came away with--as author Walter Lord would describe--an incredible victory. Although the US was outnumbered, they had the advantage of reading the Japanese code traffic and knew that Midway was the target. On the morning of June 4, Japanese aircraft inflicted great damage on the island but luckily no American aircraft were caught on the ground. Many American fighters (Wildcats and Buffaloes) defending the island...

U.S. Navy ships positioned off the coast of Myanmar will soon leave the area after the country's junta refused to give them permission to deliver aid to cyclone victims, a top U.S. commander said Wednesday. Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, said the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Essex and other ships will resume their previous operations Thursday.

1st week in May 2008, Western Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Guam, USA -- Two USN F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets intercept the low flying USAF B-52 Stratofortress heavy bomber as it performs a rigging maneuver to identify the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68).Large, medium, and the above smaller photo via http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20050822.htm (photo 5). The Story Navy, Air Force train together to showcase capabilities By Staff Sgt. Stephen Teel, 36th Wing Public Affairs, Andersen AFB, Guam, USA http://www.GuamPDN.com/guampublishing/pacificedge/data/EkEkEFulppeoOcKtLi.htm

Navy sees future with drones for spying but not fighting Associated Press Newswires 06/02/2008 Author: Sebastian Abbot ABOARD THE USS HARRY S TRUMAN (AP) - The Navy lags well behind the Air Force in the development of armed drones -- the unmanned aircraft now used increasingly in Iraq and Afghanistan -- insisting that its "Top Gun" fighter pilots are still smarter, better and more flexible in combat. But the contrasting visions for the next generation of America's air arsenal point to wider debates within the military about the pace of incorporating remote-control technology into future battle strategies. It also touches...

Background — CH-124 Sea King Life Extension and Carson Blades This page is background for discussions of further Sea King upgrades, the Maritime Helicopter Project and possible Afghan deployment. . . . . . . . . . . Further delays with the delivery of Sikorsky’s CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopter have DND pondering about life extensions for the CF Sea King fleet beyond their planned 2012 retire- ment date. This has fueled much speculation over potential Sea King upgrades. In reality, there is not much scope for further improvements – the CH-124 fleet have already been fitted with new gearboxes...

Today is Memorial Day, May 30, 2008 and this video in my heart of hearts had to be “REDONE”, to express the moment of that day and the memory of sacrifices made aboard the Naval carrier USS Farrestal - CVA-59 on July 29, 1967 in North Vietnam – Gulf of Tonkin, South China Sea, at or about 10:50 AM. The results of the disaster were, fatalities 134 and as many as 70 or more men wounded. The song in this video is sung by the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, “I’m on the Battle Field’ and color pictures are contributed...

The oldest active ship in the U.S. Navy, the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier, made its final departure from Japan on Wednesday to be decommissioned after nearly half a century of service. ***** The Kitty Hawk, the last conventionally powered aircraft carrier in the Navy, is to be replaced later this summer by the USS George Washington, a nuclear-powered carrier. The decommissioning date for the ship is set for Jan. 31.

Nobody likes moving day — the packing, the lifting and, at day’s end, the echoing of an empty home. Now, imagine emptying out an 80,000-ton ship with 2,550 compartments. It makes for an awful lot of refrigerators to unplug. The crew aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk already is preparing for such a historic move, one that will end the ship’s 47-year career in the U.S. Navy. As the carrier sails for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, sailors will begin going through 19-point checklists to make sure the proper items get unplugged, collected and stored before the ship drops anchor...

Manipal, India — Thanks largely to India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who shared with his leftwing British friends a dislike of the Yanks, the geopolitically senseless alienation between the United States and India continued for five decades after India's independence in 1947. What seems finally to have convinced the British to leave India was the seepage of loyalty from the Indian component of the armed forces. More than 2 million Indians saw action on the Allied side during World War II. Yet during the war, their loyalty to the Crown was tested by the discriminatory treatment meted out to...

The Navy’s new EA-18G Growler arrives at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island on June 3. A large ceremony is planned.U.S. Navy photo South Whidbey Record Navy’s new Growler is almost homeBy Spencer Webster | May 24, 2008 OAK HARBOR — The Navy’s latest jet, the EA-18G Growler, will arrive in skies over Whidbey Island in little more than a week.But the new aircraft is more than just a piece of $60 million flying hardware that can hit a top speed of near Mach 1.6.Many say the Growler not only represents the future of the Navy, but the future of...

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — The yen-only DyDo vending machines disappeared from the ship this week. Petty Officer 3rd Class David Santiago is filling up on sushi. Chief Petty Officer Elison Talabong is looking for someone to buy his car. Such are the many preparations under way for the final farewell of the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier, which leaves Japan for good this week. After a decade in Yokosuka, the 47-year-old aircraft carrier will pull out amid parting festivities and farewells from U.S. and Japanese dignitaries Wednesday morning. The crew of the Kitty Hawk’s Japanese sister ship, the JS...

Once it was Japanese torpedoes and kamikaze suicide planes. Then, the threat of the wrecking ball. Now, it's money -- or the lack of it -- that could imperil the future of the USS Intrepid. Nineteen months after tugboats pried it from the mud at its Hudson River pier and towed it away for a much-needed renovation, the legendary World War II aircraft carrier needs a sizable infusion of cash to resume its postwar career as a floating military museum. If all goes according to plan, the ship will be brought back in early October and formally reopened to the...

This video is in memory of sacrifices made aboard the Naval carrier USS Farrestal, CVA-59 on July 29, 1967 in North Vietnam – Gulf of Tonkin, South China Sea, at or about 10:50 AM. The results of the disaster were, fatalities 134 and as many as 70 or more men wounded. The song in this video is sung by the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, “Down by the Riverside’ and color pictures are contributed by Bill Mason, PH2-US Navy. In the video is the actual voice of Captain John Beling, recorded during the beginning of the fires and disaster.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One sailor was treated for first-degree burns and 23 others for heat stress after a fire on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier burned for hours, the Navy said Friday. The U.S. Navy described a fire as "serious" aboard the USS George Washington. There were no fatalities on the ship.

Getting stuck in the mud on its first attempt to leave Manhattan was not the last or the least of the troubles that the aircraft carrier Intrepid has encountered in the past 18 months. The military museum the ship houses was at risk of going out of business last year, as the costs of overhauling the carrier and rebuilding its home pier spiraled past $100 million, almost double the original estimate, said Bill White, president of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. To keep the work going and to stay on schedule to reopen this fall, the museum’s directors...

For all the time I was flying fighters I knew two things for certain - 1) everyone gets slow in a dogfight, and 2) no jet could last against a Hornet in a slow speed fight. Even an average jock could make it sing. But speaking as a Hornet devotee? Looking over my shoulder in a brawl and seeing a jet that could do the things this airplane can do would make my heart die inside me.

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela wants the U.S. ambassador to explain a violation of its airspace by a U.S. Navy plane, the country's foreign minister said Monday. The U.S. Navy plane was detected in Venezuelan airspace Saturday night near the Caribbean island of La Orchila, and questioned by the Caracas airport control tower, Defense Minister Gen. Gustavo Rangel Briceno said. The Navy S-3 Viking, used for counter-narcotics missions, may have accidentally crossed into Venezuela's airspace while experiencing "intermittent navigational problems" on a training mission in international airspace, a U.S. defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the issue's...

Two hundred years after the battle of Trafalgar, the navy could end up sharing the pride of its fleet with the French. Driven by spiralling budgets, the two navies began talks last week aimed at sharing their aircraft carriers. The government is expected to give the go-ahead for the Royal Navy’s two new aircraft carriers this week, part of a joint Anglo-French project to build a total of three. The French, who currently have only one carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, are questioning whether they can afford a replacement and are keen to explore closer co-operation with Britain instead. “We...

Al ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq ---- Capt. Zachary Webb says he has no qualms about the Marine Corps' newest aircraft, the tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey that takes off and lands like a helicopter and flies like an airplane. "This aircraft is a Corvette," the 29-year-old native of Orange said Thursday during an interview on this sprawling air base centrally located in Iraq's Anbar province. "It can go from zero to 220 knots from takeoff until 9,000 feet." Webb is part of the first generation of Marine Corps pilots to fly the controversial aircraft after it went into service in the fall....

ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY MAJOR GENERAL MICHAEL JEFFERY AC CVO MC GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA ON THE OCCASION OF SERVICE OF COMMEMORATION OF THE BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA AUSTRALIAN-AMERICAN MEMORIAL, FIELD MARSHAL SIR THOMAS BLAMEY SQUARE, CANBERRA The recent discovery of HMAS SYDNEY after more than 66 years - with so many lives lost, so many grieving families - has been a poignant reminder, if one were needed, of the significance of Australian and United States naval operations in the Second World War. You will recall that in 1941, Australian divisions, fighter squadrons and naval units were...

The commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific has called on China to give up any plans to develop what he calls "high-end military options," and says the United States has no intention of abandoning its position as the leading military power in Asia.Admiral Keating says Chinese leaders should not expect to be able to become Asia's dominant military power."It is absolutely essential for us to continue efforts to engage our Chinese colleagues in dialogue, to exchange personnel, to share tactics, techniques and procedures primarily to ensure they understand our preeminent role as the dominating military in the Pacific, our...

Renton (Washington State),May 15 Indian Navy will soon have an edge in the Indian Ocean once it inks $2.2 billion deal for eight maritime patrol planes from Boeing.The agreement is expected to be signed soon. The Boeing P-8i Poseidons long-range maritime reconnaissance (LRMR)patrol aircraft will enable the Indian Navy to operate a platform almost simultaneously with the USNavy. Richard Buck,Boeing's international programme manager for P8,said that India would be able to leverage on the substantial investment made in the P8 by the US Navy. A lot of issues relating to the P-8i for the Indian Navy are still in the...

Great pics of the 'Angels. Graphic heavy...

Not many men in the military are eager to join a brand-new unit, where they don't know people, don't know what they'll be doing and don't have a proud unit lineage. But the Navy assured the men it would be good for their careers. So some men volunteered and a lot more were drafted to join Observation Squadron 67, so named because that was the year it was born. After a while the men took to calling themselves "the Ghost Squadron" because they felt forgotten, participants in a secret war that neither the U.S. nor the North Vietnamese wanted to...

United States Navy Pilot Lieutenant Commander David Burnham and Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) Lieutenant Commander Bruce Defibaugh attached to Fighter Squadron Two (VF-2), bring their [transonic] F-14D "Super Tomcat" through the sound barrier during an air-power demonstration with USS Constellation (CV 64) battlegroup on 10 July 1999. Large or medium photo via http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20040818.htm (photo 10). Image ID: 990710-N-6483G-001 PhotographerEnsign John Gay, United States Navy

Now Navy wants Super Hornets too It Is now sufficiently clear that the Indian Navy wants to be able to use the air force’s assets of war. In a revelation so far kept under wraps, the Navy has asked Boeing a contender for India’s $10-billion tender for 126 air force fighters if the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet can operate off the INS Vikramaditya, the rechristened Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov currently being refurbished in Russia for the Indian Navy. None of the fighters in the IAF’s existing fleet have the capability to operate from the deck of an aircraft carrier. Boeing’s...

A Reason to Always Do Your FOD Check From the US Navy aboard the USS Harry S Truman: When the words foreign object debris (FOD) come to mind the last thing someone thinks about is an owl. On the morning of March 17 on board USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), an owl is exactly what was found. What might have been a mishap, ended on a happier note thanks to a few Sailors' attention to detail. "I was the safety behind the 300 jet. That's why I probably ended up there first," said Aviation Structural Mechanic (Equipment) 3rd class...

A House subcommittee on Wednesday endorsed continued production of Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor but dealt a blow to another North Texas defense project by recommending a $166 million cut in Bell Helicopter's armed reconnaissance helicopter program.The subcommittee seemingly gave a boost to Air Force leaders in their efforts to continue the F-22, which is scheduled to go out of production in 2011. The Pentagon leadership wants to cap the F-22 fleet at 183 fighters, but the Air Force is pushing for at least 381 F-22s, saying it needs at least that many to maintain U.S. air superiority. Subcommittee members approved...

LEMOORE NAVAL AIR STATION (CALIFORNIA): The race for a $10 billion Indian order for 126 fighters just got hotter with the US Navy enthusiastically batting for the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, saying it was best suited for an Indian Air Force (IAF) requirement for a multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA). Such was the spirit with which UN Navy pilots put the jet through its paces at this sprawling air base in central California that it left no doubt it was making a strong pitch for the fighter that it assisted Boeing in developing. "The F/A-18 has delivered on all that it...

WASHINGTON (AP) - John McCain's Navy record boils down to a series of unadorned paragraphs that bestow upon him some of the nation's top military honors. The Navy recently released McCain's military record - most of it citations for medals during his Navy career - after a Freedom of Information Act request by The Associated Press. McCain was awarded a Silver Star Medal for resisting "extreme mental and physical cruelties" inflicted upon him by his captors from late October to early December 1967, the early months of his captivity, according to the citation. The North Vietnamese, according to the Navy,...

It was particularly memorable, Craig Williams said, the night he almost died.Williams, 44, is a Concord resident, and, among many other accomplishments, is a former federal prosecutor and the endorsed Republican candidate for the 7th Congressional seat, U.S. Congress, House of Representatives. The year of his near death was 1991, it was the dead of winter and he was flying across the icy North Atlantic with his squadron, the VMFA(AW)-121 Green Knights. He was a first lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, flying as a Weapons and Sensor Officer in the back seat of a two-seater F/A-18D Hornet, on...

ABOARD THE USS HARRY S. TRUMAN - U.S. pilots flying missions over Iraq come to the region expecting a host of challenges, including swirling sandstorms and urban battlefields filled with a mix of enemies and civilians. But Naval aviators flying off the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman said one of the newest difficulties has been the least expected: navigating increasingly crowded airspace in a region that has experienced the world's fastest airline growth in recent years. The mix of U.S. combat aircraft and civilian planes from booming Gulf airlines illustrates the growing divide in the Middle East between countries...

RAF pilot crash-landed £69million fighter jet after 'forgetting to put the wheels down' Last updated at 09:55am on 1st May 2008 Comments (26) An RAF pilot crash-landed a £69million fighter jet at 130mph after apparently forgetting to put the wheels down. The state-of-the-art Eurofighter Typhoon careered down a runway without its landing gear down and experts are now investigating how the accident could have happened. The pilot and the co-pilot, from 17 Squadron, were on a training exercised in California and miraculously walked away from the high-speed crash unhurt. The plane, which has a top speed of 1,500mph, was flying...