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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...

In the 18th century, Jeremy Bentham, an English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer, introduced the idea of the Panopticon, a disciplinary concept brought to life in the form of a central observation tower placed within a circle of prison cells. Each cell is flooded with light, which creates an environment in which prisoners are under constant watch. Even if no guard is on duty, a prisoner will always feel as if they are being watched. Bentham described it as “[a] new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind.” The Panopticon is the optimal prison; it enables an unprecedented...

Aegis Living is an assisted living facility. These whistle blowers talk about the things they've seen and done to falsify records.

ESPS Mendez Nunez (F-104) in Norfolk. USNI photo. ABOARD SPANISH ARMADA FRIGATE ESPS MENDEZ NUNEZ, IN NORFOLK, Va. – Spanish shipbuilding firm Navantia is showcasing the utility of its F-100 frigate design to the U.S. Navy ahead of the Spanish Armada deploying one with the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group this spring. ESPS Mendez Nunez (F-104) will be an integrated part of the CSG as it steams during the spring and summer, on a course expected to pass through the Middle East and eventually on to San Diego, Calif., the new homeport for USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72). Mendez Nunez will...

Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has commissioned its first Hobart-class air warfare destroyer (AWD), HMAS Hobart (DDG 39) at a ceremony in Sydney on Saturday. The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Fleet Commander Rear Admiral Stuart Mayer, Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Tim Barrett, Defence Minister Marise Payne and the Governor of New South Wales (NSW) David Hurley. The ship is the third in the Navy to bear the Hobart name. The first was commissioned in 1938 and served in World War II. Hobart II was commissioned in 1965 and served in the Vietnam War. It was decommissioned...

It's all smiles on deck aboard the Australian Navy's newest ship, the Hobart, and there's none bigger than that on Captain John Stavridis. "I pinch myself everyday that I'm actually in command of a guided missile destroyer," he told AAP on Thursday. But the veteran sailor, with 29 years service, says it's not just him. All 186 crew members feel "very fortunate and very blessed" to be serving on the first of Australia's three new Hobart Class destroyers. "It's a very excited crew," he said. Australia's most sophisticated warship comes into service as regional tensions reach boiling point following North...

Delays with new air warfare destroyers, the navy's most complex and expensive warships, mean they will go to sea inferior to comparable US vessels. A new study by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute says that's because US warships are being equipped with the latest version of the Aegis combat system, which features greatly enhanced capabilities including ballistic missile defence. ASPI analyst James Mugg said defence was aware of this shortcoming and had scheduled an upgrade for the three vessels between 2017 and 2028, at an an eye watering estimated price of $4-5 billion. That's around half the cost of building...

SEOUL--South Korea disclosed plans to purchase three Aegis destroyers with Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) interceptor missile capability to counter aggressive moves by rival North Korea. The costly outlay would bring South Korea closer to effectively sharing a missile defense system that is used by Japan and the United States. Its Navy already possesses three Aegis destroyers and three more have been ordered, but none is equipped with SM-3 missiles. The new plan would involve acquiring three other Aegis destroyers with SM-3 capability in the mid-2020s. The government will decide later whether to install SM-3 interceptor missiles on the new Aegis...

There have long been reports that the ongoing delays with the commissioning of the Admiral Gorshkov frigate have to do with defects in its air defense systems. These were thought to be primarily related to problems with integration of the Poliment Redut air defense missile system. The Poliment system was designed to be Russia’s answer to AEGIS, with four phased array antennas that are able to track 16 targets at the same time. The Redut system consists of four or eight vertical launch systems that launch three types of missiles. The 9M100 is the short-range missile, with a range of...

The US has activated a land-based missile defence station in Romania, which will form part of a larger and controversial European shield. Senior US and Nato officials attended the ceremony in Deveselu, southern Romania. The US says the Aegis system is a shield to protect Nato countries from short and medium-range missiles, particularly from the Middle East. But Russia sees it as a security threat - a claim denied by Nato. * * * Russia says installing such shields in countries on its doorstep is a threat to its security. "Who will this system be against?" President Vladimir Putin's spokesman,...

As Lockheed Martin Corp. continues to outfit U.S. Navy cruisers and destroyers with its newest combat system suite, the company sees an opportunity to expand to other ships. In particular, the company would like to put its signature Aegis Combat System on the next San Antonio-class landing platform/dock, the LPD-28, currently under contract to be built by Newport News-based Huntington Ingalls Industries. “From where I sit, it just makes a lot of sense,” Jim Sheridan, Lockheed’s director of Aegis U.S. Navy programs, told me. The Aegis Combat System is the collection of radars, sonars, launch systems, and weapon control systems...

According to the Japanese Ministry of Defense (MoD) request for proposal (RfP) to bidding contractors, the 27DD destroyers will incorporate a number of design changes compared to the first batch of Atago class guided missile destroyers. 27DD AEGIS Guided Missile Destroyer technical specifications and layout First, the hull of 27DD has been enlarged to an empty displacement of 8,200 tons compared to the original Atago's 7,700 tons. It is believed in the Japanese defense community that the enlargement of the hull was conceived in order to provide a necessary growth space for advanced naval weapon systems that are currently under...

The Benghazi affair is beginning to shape up as a bi-partisan scandal — making Trey Gowdy’s life doubly difficult, of course. But the former prosecutor has been doing a bang-up job with his select committee, demolishing the mantra that there is “nothing new” to be learned about Benghazi and building a sober, far-reaching inquiry. Without Gowdy, recall, there would be no Clinton secret server, no Sidney Blumenthal trail, no new emails, and no upcoming testimony from Mrs. Clinton and her inner circle . On the latter, Gowdy is holding firm, saying he will not schedule testimony until all relevant emails...

The Navy needs new servers for its upgraded Aegis Combat System after the current IBM line was sold to Chinese computer maker Lenovo. The $2.1 billion sale closed in October and made Lenovo the number three server maker in the world. IBM shedding its server business creates a security concern for the U.S. Navy, which included the company’s x86 BladeCenter HT server in its Aegis Technical Insertion (TI) 12. The TI-12 hardware upgrades, along with Advanced Capability Build (ACB) 12 software upgrades, compose the Aegis Baseline 9 combat system upgrade that combines a ballistic missile defense capability with anti-air warfare...

Defense Threat: China conducts its third test in a year of a hypersonic glide vehicle designed to evade our missile and other defense systems, including the Aegis defense system guarding our carrier battle groups. As we downsize our military, scale back weapons procurement and development, China proceeds at top speed towards weapons designed to counter our once-huge technical advantage and qualitative superiority. Case in point is the third flight test of a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), dubbed the WU-14 by the Pentagon, following earlier tests on Jan. 9 and Aug. 7 of this year. The U.S. Navy is particularly concerned,...

“Stand by, Admiral Gorshkov, Aegis is at Sea!” The U.S. Navy’s first Aegis-equipped surface warship, the USS Ticonderoga (CG-47), joined the Fleet in January 1983, and all-but dared the Soviet Navy to take its best anti-ship cruise-missile shot. The Navy’s newest Aegis guided-missile destroyer in the fall 2014, the USS Michael Murphy (DDG-112), was commissioned in December 2012. Murphy is the Navy’s 102nd Aegis warship. Another 10 Aegis DDGs are under construction, under contract or planned––a remarkable achievement! Aegis surface warships were conceived during the height of the Cold War to defend U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups from massed Soviet...

National Security: Beijing is moving fast on a maneuverable, hypersonic glide vehicle designed to evade America's defenses, including the Aegis ballistic missile system guarding our carrier battle groups. On Aug. 7, China conducted a second test of its hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), known as the WU-14, yet another example of its relentless pursuit of high-tech weaponry as the United States abandons what the administration dismisses as Cold War weaponry. The first test, conducted in January, saw China's HGV reach speeds in the vicinity of Mach 10, about 10 times the speed of sound. In the latest test, according to Internet...

ARLINGTON: In the race to replace the Navy’s controversial Littoral Combat Ship, the leading contender seems to be…. a better Littoral Combat Ship. That’s the clear implication of what we’ve been hearing from Navy leadership, and it’s clear from press briefings today that LCS contractor Lockheed Martin feels pretty confident it can do the job. (Lockheed builds the Freedom-class LCS; the Independence variant is by Austal and General Dynamics). The incumbent’s advantage here is time. Lockheed VP Joe North told reporters at the companys pre-Farnborough Air Show briefing that he expects “every shipyard across Europe” to take a shot. But...

Indian warship building is coming of age and the Indo-Pacific region knows it. Last week, when an Indian Navy frigate, INS Shivalik, visited China’s Qingdao naval base, China’s navy chief, Admiral Wu Shengli, asked the captain for a tour of the Combat Information Centre, the operation heart of the warship. The Shivalik’s young skipper, Captain Puruvir Das, turned down Wu’s request. The Chinese admiral would be even more interested in touring INS Kolkata, 7,200 tonnes of bristling steel, which could join the navy as early as next month as the most powerful and high-tech warship in its 140-vessel fleet. Tonne...

National Security: While the administration guts the U.S. military, Pentagon experts warn that as soon as five years from now our missile defenses might pose little problem for China's new hypersonic strike vehicle. Behaving as the world power they are becoming, the Chinese are building state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles that Pentagon officials warn could overpower U.S. defenses in five years. As we recently mentioned, China's defense ministry has confirmed the Jan. 9 test of a hypersonic glide vehicle, known as the WU-14. It was designed to evade our missile and other defense systems, such as the Aegis sea-based missile defense guarding...