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The Maryland couple accused of trying to sell secrets about US nuclear submarines — using a peanut butter sandwich to hide an SD memory card — were worried about their finances and were furious when Donald Trump was elected, friends and co-workers said. Navy nuclear engineer Jonathan Toebbe, 42, and his teacher wife, Diana, 45, were indicted in West Virginia on Tuesday on espionage charges. The couple is due back in federal court Wednesday for a detention hearing.

Social media presence littered with anti-Trump posts, support for BLM. The husband and wife team facing espionage charges after they allegedly tried to sell stolen nuclear secrets to a foreign power have been revealed to be anti-Trump leftists. Imagine my shock. Diana Toebbe and Jonathan Toebbe were charged with violations of the Atomic Energy Act by federal prosecutors after they tried to sell nuclear-powered submarine secrets to someone who they thought was a representative of the unnamed foreign country. In fact, the couple had been talking to an undercover FBI agent all along. “The complaint charges a plot to transmit...

The United States would achieve three objectives by purchasing a number of Shortfin Barracuda submarines from France and then giving them to Vietnam. First, the Biden administration would repair relations with America's oldest ally. Second, it would supply a rising security partner with newly potent means of challenging China's imperialism. Third, it would test President Emmanuel Macron's commitment to international security in the South China Sea. This option bears note as France rages over Australia's cancellation of a submarine contract worth tens of billions of dollars. France is mixing justifiable anger (it has lost a lucrative contract worth thousands of...

France on Saturday accused Australia and the United States of lying over a ruptured Australian contract to buy French submarines, warning a grave crisis was underway between the allies... ...Speaking to France 2 television, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian gave no indication Paris was prepared to let the crisis die down, using distinctly undiplomatic language towards Australia, the United States and Britain,...

The US Navy's new $166billion fleet of Virginia-class submarines is being hampered by infrastructure issues and defective parts that are breaking down decades earlier than expected. The Navy is facing 'significant delays' in submarine maintenance that will stunt its ability to keep up with its workload for the next 25 years, according to a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO report found that the Navy faces a drastic shortage of parts and has too often relied on a solution called 'cannibalization.' In other words, when a submarine is missing a part, the Navy typically swaps it with...

Iranian politician Alireza Zakani, head of the Majles Research Center said in the wake of the April 11 blast in the Natanz nuclear facility that Iran must increase uranium enrichment to more than 60%. He made these remarks in an interview that aired on Ofogh TV (Iran) on April 12, 2021. Zakani said that Iran needs uranium enriched to 56% in order to fuel the propellants in submarines and for “other purposes.” He also said that uranium enrichment to more than 60% is what increases Iran’s bargaining ability and it is also what Iran needs. Zakani said that the 20%...

A Japanese submarine crashed into a Chinese tanker while it was surfacing after the crew failed to spot the giant ship through their periscope, officials have said. The crew of the Japanese navy's 275-foot vessel then had to report the incident by mobile phone because the submarine's radio was destroyed in the crash. Three of the crew members of the 'Soryu' suffered minor injuries, while the submarine suffered damage to its mast, Japanese defence officials said on Monday.

In December, Saab announced that it delivered the second Gotland-class submarine to the Swedish Defense Material Administration (FMV) after a mid-life upgrade. Along with the lead boat of the class, the Swedish Navy operates three of the diesel-electric submarines, which were designed and built by Kockums shipyard. Designed as a multirole submarine, the Gotland-class could be used in anti-surface warfare (ASuW), anti-submarine warfare (ASW), collection of intelligence including communications intelligence (COMINT) and electronic signals intelligence (ELINT), as well as forward surveillance, special operations and mine laying – the submarines have proven to be well-suited to each. Why So Special? The...

Last month the head of the U.S. Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs, Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe said that the U.S. Navy is on track to field a hypersonic missile on its submarine fleet by 2025. The weapons, which will be used as a conventional prompt strike (CPS) alternative to long-range nuclear weapons has been called a high priority for the Navy. Wolfe who spoke at the Naval Submarine League annual symposium last month, as reported by USNI News, said that challenges remain. To meet the goal, the U.S. military along with government agencies and private industry, must “take all the successes...

LOS ANGELES – The FBI knew about Chi Mak's retirement plans, what his dining room looked like and what he allegedly took home from work. The 66-year-old engineer for a Southern California defense contractor and his 57-year-old brother, Tai Mak, were under surveillance for months. Agents tapped the Maks' phones, planted listening devices in their cars, sifted through their trash and installed a closed-circuit camera above Chi Mak's dining-room table. Investigators suspected Chi Mak was taking restricted documents about naval technology from his job at Anaheim-based defense contractor Power Paragon and passing them to his brother, who was going to...

A federal judge denied a motion Monday for a new trial in the case of a Chinese-born engineer convicted of conspiring to export U.S. defense technology to China. U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney rejected Chi Mak's motion after a hearing that included testimony from several defense witnesses. Carney set Mak's sentencing for March 24. Mak could face up to 45 years in prison. Mak, 67, was convicted last May of conspiring to export U.S. defense technology to China, including data on an electronic propulsion system that prosecutors said could make submarines virtually undetectable. A jury also found him guilty of...

It was a great day for the Russian Navy. On the 20th July, three shipyards laid down the keel of six new vessels. Among them were the “Voronezh” and the “Vladivostok”, two Yasen-M class submariners. The subs are the 8th and 9th vessels of the Yasen class. Like their sister ships, the “Voronezh” and the “Vladivostok” are built at the Sevmash yard in Severodvinsk, northern Russia. “The Navy has always staunchly protected the borders of Russia [and] in our days it plays an exclusively important role in providing Russian security, it is a firm guardian of national interests, helps support...

Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, November 1, 2019 U.S. Navy Officer, His Wife, and Two Chinese Nationals Charged with Conspiring to Smuggle Military Style Inflatable Boats and Evinrude Military Outboard Motors to China Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers and U.S. Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez for the Middle District of Florida announces the return of an indictment today of four individuals, including two Chinese nationals, an active-duty United States Navy officer, and his wife, on charges relating to a conspiracy to unlawfully smuggle military-style inflatable boats, with Evinrude MFE military outboard motors, to the...

Of a world in coronavirus turmoil, they may know little or nothing. Submariners stealthily cruising the ocean deeps, purposefully shielded from worldly worries to encourage undivided focus on their top-secret missions of nuclear deterrence, may be among the last pockets of people anywhere who are still blissfully unaware of how the pandemic is turning life upside down. Mariners aboard ballistic submarines are habitually spared bad news while underwater to avoid undermining their morale, say current and former officers who served aboard France’s nuclear-armed subs. So any crews that left port before the virus spread around the globe are likely being...

LE PECQ, France - Of a world in coronavirus turmoil, they may know little or nothing. Submariners stealthily cruising the ocean deeps, purposefully shielded from worldly worries to encourage undivided focus on their top-secret missions of nuclear deterrence, may be among the last pockets of people anywhere who are still blissfully unaware of how the pandemic is turning life upside down. Mariners aboard ballistic submarines are habitually spared bad news while underwater to avoid undermining their morale, say current and former officers who served aboard France’s nuclear-armed subs. So any crews that left port before the virus spread around the...

The submarine mysteriously went down in 1963, killing everyone on board. Thanks to a lawsuit, we're about to learn why. A retired U.S. Navy submarine commander sued the Navy to release an official report on the sinking of the USS Thresher—and won. Thresher sank in April 1963, lost with all hands, but there has never been an official explanation as to why. The loss of Thresher lead to an improved culture of safety in the Navy, and since 1968, the service hasn’t lost a single submarine. ================================================================== A retired U.S. Navy submarine commander has won a lawsuit forcing the Navy...

He received an Oscar nomination for his work in the acclaimed 1998 film Saving Private Ryan. Tom Hanks now returns to the war drama genre playing a naval commander Capt. Ernest Krause in Greyhound, a World War II drama from filmmaker Aaron Schneider starring the two-time Academy Award winner, 63. Hanks wrote the screenplay based on the 1955 book The Good Shepherd from author C.M. Forester.

The U.S. Navy has spent weeks trawling the North Atlantic in the hunt for a deadly Russian submarine that was known to have deployed into the waters off the East Coast of the United States. The Project 885 Yasen class guided missile submarine Severodvinsk is built from the very latest in Russian technology and was thought to be just a few hundred miles away from the North American coastline in the fall of 2019. Such was the worry of the U.S. military, the search involved a large number of Navy submarines, ships, and maritime patrol aircraft, all of which proved...

The 270,000 square foot installation was built in the mid-1980s for Vickers Shipbuilding. Shortly after opening in 1986, it garnered the nickname "Maggie's Farm" as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was a staunch supporter of making the upgrade from the Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) system to the Trident SLBM system and building the submarines that were required to accommodate it. 10 weeks of patrol the 100 strong crew of an Astute-class submarine eats 18,000 sausages and 4,200 Weetabix.

oday, the U.S. Navy's quartet of converted Ohio class nuclear-powered guided-missile submarines, or SSGNs, are among America's most powerful, in-demand, and flexible weapons. These giant and secretive submarines are known for their ability to carry up to 154 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles and dozens of special operations frogmen into contested territory to ply their quiet trade, but really, they are much, much more than that. Topics: The Genesis of the Ohio SSGN; A rich history of special mission submarines; A new kind of submarine mothership; Silent Hammer; An intelligence nerve center; Data fusion pioneers; Secretive payloads; The Flexible Payload Module;...