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Just recently, Raytheon announced that it had finished the work necessary to integrate its AGM-154 Joint Stand-Off Weapon glide bomb, or JSOW, into the internal weapons bays on the U.S. Navy’s F-35C Joint Strike Fighter. It’s an important development, especially given that the service is also developing a powered version with quadruple the range, but half the cost of other available air-launched cruise missiles. Earlier in April 2018, the Massachusetts-headquartered defense contractor declared that the F-35C was fully capable of carrying the AGM-154 internally and that the pairing would now move on to operational testing. The goal is for the...

When President Donald Trump threatened to send missiles at Syria — despite Russia's promises to counter-attack— all eyes turned towards the US Navy's sole destroyer in the region. But that may have been a trick. Pundits openly scoffed at Trump's announcement of the strike days in advance, especially considering his criticism of Barack Obama for similar talk, but the actual strike appeared to go down well. In April 2017, two US Navy destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean steamed into the region, let off 59 cruise missiles in response to suspected gas attacks by the Syrian government, and left unpunished and...

USS Preble (DDG-88), USS Halsey (DDG-97) and USS Sampson (DDG-102) were underway behind the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) in March. US Navy Photo This post has been updated to include additional information from the hearing. CAPITOL HILL – The Navy will keep every one of its Arleigh Burke-class destroyers in service for 45 years, extending the life of the entire class. The move allows the Navy to reach a 355-ship fleet by 2036 or 2037, the deputy chief of naval operations for warfare systems said on Thursday. The Navy currently has DDGs in multiple configurations – Flight I,...

One of the U.S. Navy’s newest littoral combat ship is finally underway to her homeport in Mayport, Florida after spending the winter stuck in ice in Montreal.

On June 13, 1898, the cruiser USS Vesuvius crept within one-mile of the Cuban coastline and began launching explosives from her monstrous compressed-air cannons — quietly, as far as the Spanish soldiers ashore in their fort knew until the shells landed. The nighttime shore bombardment targeting Santiago was Vesuvius’ first combat mission. She still remains one of the strangest warships of the modern era. A custom-built “dynamite gun cruiser,” Vesuvius had a unique arrangement of three 15-inch pneumatic cannons capable of launching 550 or 200-pound shells with a jolt of compressed air. Fascinating from an engineering perspective, Vesuvius’ cannons penetrated...

The wreck of a US aircraft carrier that was sunk during World War Two has been found off the coast of Australia. The USS Lexington was found 3km (2 miles) underwater in the Coral Sea, about 800km off Australia's east coast. The ship was lost in the Battle of the Coral Sea, fought with Japan from 4-8 May 1942. More than 200 crew members died in the fighting. The US Navy confirmed the ship had been discovered by a search team led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

The U.S. Navy's newest vessel was christened at Austal's state-of-the-art shipbuilding facility in Mobile on Saturday morning. The future USNS Burlington is the 10th of the 12 Expeditionary Fast Transport vessels that Austal has under contract with the Navy. They have a combined value of more than $1.9 billion. "Austal is excited to get Burlington one step closer to joining the fleet" said Austal USA President Craig Perciavalle. "The efficiency at which this complex ship has come together is truly remarkable and a testament to the incredible talent of our shipbuilding professionals here at Austal USA."Nine Spearhead-class EPFs have been...

The Navy has moved forward with funding five potential designs that could fulfill its future guided missile frigate FFG(X) requirement. At least 20 of these vessels will be built, and as we have discussed in detail before, the project is among the Navy's most important initiatives. Fielding a highly capable surface combatant that can pick up many missions currently being conducted by over-tasked and far more expensive destroyers will be essential to providing a more flexible and sustainable fleet in the decades to come. The $15M contracts were awarded to General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, Fincantieri Marine, Huntington Ingalls, Austal...

THE US Navy will mount a laser weapon onto a top-class warship, defence officials confirmed. Top Navy officials said the device is slated to be installed on the USS Portland by this autumn. Crucially, the prototype will not be used in combat, but may pave the way for high-tech lasers that will be used during warfare. Captain Brian Metcalfe said: “They’ve got what I call ‘power modules’ that control the laser that will just fit in those open and reserve weight spaces and then the laser itself gets bolted onto the deck. “It’s not going to be integrated into the...

Lockheed Martin model of their proposed frigate design, based on the Littoral Combat Ship, on display at the 2018 Surface Navy Association conference. Note VLS hatches on foredeck, behind turret and flanked by OTH launchers. UPDATED with CNO comment on importance of program CRYSTAL CITY: By the end of March, the Navy will award four to six contracts for “conceptual” designs of a future frigate. That ship that must cost under $950 million, have “Grade A shock hardening” on key systems to survive blasts, and carry at least 16 Vertical Launch System cells to defend itself and nearby vessels, program...

The future USS Michael Monsoor, set to become the U.S. Navy’s second stealthy Zumwalt-class destroyer, is underway for the first time for sea trials. The milestone comes as the service continues to reformulate the role of the ships, now saying they will be focused on attacking surface targets at sea, as well as on land, while the vessels' future seems as uncertain as ever in the face of continuing budget shortfalls and personnel problems. The second Zumwalt-class ship, also known as DDG-1001, sailed down the Kennebec River in Maine, on its way to the Altantic Ocean from Bath Iron Works...

TOKYO (AP) — An aircraft carrying 11 crew and passengers crashed into the Pacific Ocean Wednesday while on the way to the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, the Navy said. The Japan-based 7th Fleet said in a statement that the search and rescue operation was launched from the carrier. “Personnel recovery is underway and their condition will be evaluated by USS Ronald Reagan medical staff,” the statement said. It said the ship was operating in the Philippine Sea, which is east of the Philippines, when the crash occurred at 2:45 p.m. Japan time. The names of the crew and passengers...

Poor decisions and lax standards made by the crews of the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain contributed to the deadly collisions last summer that killed 17 sailors, according to a new Navy investigation. "The collisions were avoidable," said Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, in the executive summary to the report. "Both of these accidents were preventable and the respective investigations found multiple failures by watchstanders that contributed to the incidents," he added in a statement accompanying the report's release. "We must do better." On June 17, the guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald collided with a...

After being adrift and off course for months in the Pacific Ocean, two women and their two dogs were rescued Wednesday by Sasebo-based amphibious dock landing ship USS Ashland (LSD-48). The women and dogs survived their months at sea thanks to having water purifiers onboard and having brought a year’s worth of food.

NORFOLK Congress told the Navy to develop concepts for less expensive aircraft carriers than those being built at Newport News Shipbuilding after the USS Gerald R. Ford, which was commissioned in July as the first of a new class of warships, suffered repeated cost overruns and delays. The federally funded Rand Corp. came up with four alternatives , released this week in an unclassified report. Two designs call for nuclear-powered carriers, while two call for much smaller, conventionally powered ships that could only launch aircraft capable of taking off and landing vertically. The Navy sent copies of Rand’s report to...

The Krasnodar, a Russian attack submarine, left the coast of Libya in late May, headed east across the Mediterranean, then slipped undersea, quiet as a mouse. Then, it fired a volley of cruise missiles into Syria. In the days that followed, the diesel-electric sub was pursued by the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, its five accompanying warships, MH-60R Seahawk helicopters and P-8 Poseidon anti-sub jets flying out of Italy. The U.S. and its allies had set out to track the Krasnodar as it moved to its new home in the Black Sea. The missile attack upended what had been...

A full half of the U.S. Navy's largest surface warships are set to retire in three years, with nothing available to take their place. Eleven Ticonderoga-class cruisers, each with more than a hundred vertical missile silos, are scheduled to retire starting in 2020. The retirement of these ships will leave a bog hole in the Navy arsenal. The U.S. Navy's Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruisers were introduced in the 1980s. Weighing nearly 10,000 tons and measuring 567 feet long, the ships were designed primarily for the air defense roles. Equipped with the Aegis Combat System, the Ticonderogas were designed to protect...

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reopened the competition to select a fighter to replace the CF-18, two questions were raised from that decision, one with long-term implications, and one with immediate consequences. The first: when will the modernization of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) fighter force be complete? The second: what will the RCAF do to mitigate the so-called capability gap (Canada’s current fleet is more than 30 years old, and down from 138 to 77 aircraft) to have a certain number of the most capable fighter jets mission-ready at all times and to ensure the capacity to address...

Air Force KC-135 tankers lined up on the runway in Kadena, Japan. AFA: The Air Force needs more tankers and transports because a sophisticated enemy like Russia or China can shoot them down, the chief of Air Mobility Command said here. The current fleet size is based on war plans that only considered how much fuel, supplies, equipment, and troops the air fleet needed to move from A to B, Gen. Carlton Everhart told reporters. The assumption was that no enemy could challenge our control of the skies, which made sense against the Taliban or the Islamic State. But now,...

The Sierras can deliver combat power, just as did multimission World War II patrol torpedo boats. They have no idea what we actually do,” Lieutenant Drew Kollmann lamented while walking out of a typical meeting. “We’re basically a flying PT boat.” This is a perfect analogy—the MH-60S is a modern incarnation of the famed patrol torpedo (PT) boat, and the Navy will be better for using it as such. Like PT crews, those in Navy helicopters can perform the basic functions of maritime logistics, but it is the combat power that sets them apart. Surface warfare, personnel recovery, and support...