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The aircraft carriers being built for the Royal Navy will be less useful, take longer to finish, and likely cost more than claimed, a parliamentary watchdog warns. The first, HMS Queen Elizabeth, will be mothballed immediately it is launched in 2016, according to the existing plan. However, the second, HMS Prince of Wales, is not now expected to be fully operational until 2031. Moreover, it will only be able to stay at sea for up to 200 days a year, significantly fewer than envisaged, says the Commons public accounts committee. The MPs' report, out on Tuesday, makes clear the quick...

A serving Chinese military general is citing India’s capabilities in his efforts to edge the government to have more than one aircraft carrier. General Luo Yuan, a senior researcher with the Academy of Military Sciences, said China needs at least three aircraft carriers to defend its interests in the face of neighbors developing their capabilities. “If we consider our neighbors, India will have three aircraft carriers by 2014 and Japan will have three carriers by 2014,” General Luo was quoted as saying by Beijing News. “So I think the number (for China) should not be less than three so we...

The Navy made history Saturday when it launched the first aircraft from the Naval Air Systems Command, Lakehurst, N.J., test site using the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, or EMALS, technology. The Navy has been using steam for more than 50 years to launch aircraft from carriers. Saturday, the Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment (ALRE) program launched an F/A-18E Super Hornet using the EMALS technology that will replace steam catapults on future aircraft carriers. “This is a tremendous achievement not just for the ALRE team, but for the entire Navy,” said Capt. James Donnelly, ALRE program manager. “Saturday’s EMALS launch demonstrates...

China has officially admitted for the first time that it has embarked on an aircraft carrier building program, part of a grand strategy to "build itself up as a maritime power." A report published by the State Oceanic Administration says the country's leaders decided last year to back plans to build China's first aircraft carrier. The Chinese government and military had kept the program under wraps until now. The annual national ocean development report says that asserting China's power at sea is "indispensible to accomplishing the great resurgence of the Chinese people." Chinese military sources said initial plans had called...

USS Nimitz to be stationed in Everett Aircraft carrier will replace USS Abraham Lincoln at naval station EVERETT — This time next year, people in Everett can expect a send-off for the USS Abraham Lincoln and a welcome party for the USS Nimitz. The Nimitz will replace the Lincoln as the aircraft carrier based at Naval Station Everett, the Navy announced Thursday. For years, rumors have been swirling about the departure of the Lincoln from Everett. City leaders worried about a major hit to the regional economy and what, if anything, would replace the Lincoln. Now they know. “I am...

Britain's aircraft carriers will be left without planes for a period because of cuts to the military budget in next week's spending review, Defence Secretary Liam Fox has confirmed. Two former heads of the Royal Navy have warned that a decision to withdraw Harrier jets before the arrival of new Joint Strike Fighter F35s in 2018 would leave Britain unable to fight another Falklands War. Dr Fox confirmed that there will be a "gap" between the phasing out of the Harriers and the US-built F35s coming into service, but insisted that this will not put the Falklands at risk. Britain...

bureaucratic dogfight between supporters of different combat jets as the UK draws up defence cuts could lead to changes in the way aircraft carriers are designed and how British forces operate, defence sources said. Options being studied by military planners include delaying the deployment of new carriers to convert them to use conventional traps and catapults instead of the unmechanised decks envisaged for Lockheed Martin F-35 jets to be ordered by Britain. The move, which sources briefed on the matter said is one of several options as the UK prepares defence cutbacks, would involve other changes to Britain's role in...

Lockheed Martin received a $13 million contract to incorporate a shipborne rolling vertical landing (SRVL) capability with the short take-off and vertical landing F-35B, with the work to be performed on behalf of the UK. The US Navy announced details of the Joint Strike Fighter award on 6 October, just two weeks before the UK's coalition government will disclose the details of its Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) process. This has assessed the nation's long-term military requirements, including major equipment acquisitions such as the F-35 and two future aircraft carriers.

Military Superiority: By the end of the year, China could deploy an anti-ship missile capable of hitting U.S. aircraft carriers at long range. The naval dominance that American foreign policy depended on may be at an end. When the naval planners of Imperial Japan were laying out the attack on Pearl Harbor, the major question on their mind was — where are the American carriers? In the end, their failure to find them doomed Imperial Japan to defeat. Since World War II, every president alerted to a crisis has asked the same question — where are the carriers? These floating...

Strategy: As the U.S. retreats from the world stage, the nation's top military officer is warning us about China's military buildup and intentions. Already, China is telling us to keep off the grass. Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen, visiting U.S. troops at Camp Red Cloud in South Korea on Wednesday, talked about his growing concerns about China. "I've moved from being curious about what they're doing to being concerned about what they're doing," the admiral said. "I see a fairly significant investment in high-end equipment — satellites, ships ... anti-ship missiles, obviously high-end aircraft and all those kinds of things....

Changes are being made to the integrated power package (IPP) on the Marine’s F-35 that should limit heat damage to carrier decks and other surfaces, Lt. Gen. George Trautman, deputy commandant for aviation, told DoD Buzz in an exclusive interview one day before the start of the Farnborough Air Show. In addition, the heat buildup from the STOVL drive shaft will be addressed in LRIP 4, although negotiations on that are still underway so costs for that are not set yet. “We have made the decision to adjust the IPP,” he said Sunday, reshaping the nozzle so that the enormous...

Radical plans by the US Navy to equip its next aircraft carrier with electromagnetic mass-drivers for launching aircraft instead of the traditional steam catapults have hit technical snags. The so-called Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, or EMALS, is now under development in a shore-based test facility at Lakehurst naval air station in New Jersey. However, according to reports, the test mass-driver installation suffered serious damage earlier this year in a mishap blamed on a "software malfunction". Apparently the "shuttle" - which moves along the catapult track to accelerate a plane to flying speed - went the wrong way in a test...

Russian Ka-52 Alligator helicopters may be the best choice to arm Mistral helicopter carriers, which Russia plans to purchase from France, the chief of Russian helicopter holding said on Wednesday. Russia negotiates the purchase of at least one Mistral-class amphibious assault ship, worth 400-500 million euros (around $530-$660 million) and plans to build three more vessels of the same class in partnership with a French naval shipbuilder. The director of the Federal Service of Military-Technical Cooperation in April told RIA Novosti the political decision on the Mistral's purchase had already been taken. "The French have said the Ka-52 could be...

Their $33 million helicopters are new. There’s an aircraft-carrier briefing room with their name on the door now. And they get extra parking spaces on the multimillion-dollar real estate of the carrier flight deck. All the attention feels a little odd, Navy helicopter pilots say. “We’re not used to being the story,” said Cmdr. Ken Strong, executive officer of HSM-77, a San Diego-based squadron of MH-60R Seahawks. It’s a good time to be flying helicopters for the Navy. Long in the shadow of the jet jockeys — no one has ever made a movie about the rotor-blade community with Tom...

Military Advantage: Our defense secretary proposes doing what no other foreign adversary has done: sink the U.S. Navy. We don't need those billion-dollar destroyers, he says. Meanwhile, the Chinese navy rushes to fill the vacuum. Once Britannia ruled the waves, later to be replaced by America and its Navy. From the Battle of Midway to President Reagan's 600-ship fleet that helped win the Cold War, naval supremacy has been critical to the protection and survival of our nation. Which is why we find the recent remarks of Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the Navy League at the Sea-Air-Space expo so...

The U.S. Navy told Congress it wants to keep 11 aircraft carriers through 2045, just days after Defense Secretary Robert Gates called into question the need for that many."The Navy remains firmly committed to maintaining a force of 11 carriers for the next three decades," Sean Stackley, the service's warship buyer, told the Senate Armed Services Seapower subcommittee on Thursday. The 11-carrier force structure is based on "world-wide presence requirements, surge availability, training and exercise, and maintenance" needs, he said in an opening statement. Gates stirred the waters on Monday with a speech in which he asked whether the United...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday said new weapons threatened US dominance of the high seas and questioned the US Navy's reliance on costly aircraft carriers and submarines. ADVERTISEMENT Anti-ship missiles and stealthy submarines could undermine the US military's global reach, putting carriers and American subs at risk, Gates said in a speech to retired members of the US Navy. "We know other nations are working on asymmetric ways to thwart the reach and striking power of the US battle fleet," Gates said. He cited the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, which had used anti-ship missiles against Israel in 2006, and...

The Navy faces an operational “tipping point” where the demand for overseas presence will far exceed the number of ships, according to the influential Center for Naval Analyses. CNA’s new report, “The Navy at a Tipping Point: Maritime Dominance at Stake?”, which was provided to DOD Buzz, is being used by the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations to evaluate future force plans. It says that despite a 20 percent decrease in the size of the total battle fleet over the past 10 years, the number of ships deployed, around 100 at any given time, has remained constant. The...

Industry players have until early May to respond to a U.S. Navy request for information (RFI) for a carrier-based, stealthy, unmanned, strike and surveillance system capable of integrating with manned aircraft as part of a carrier air wing by 2018. The unmanned carrier-launched airborne surveillance and strike (Uclass) RFI calls for a notional system made up of 4-6 autonomously launched and recoverable vehicles to operate in “irregular and hybrid warfare scenarios.” The system must be able to operate from CVN-68 and -78-class carriers, and be capable of being directed from both carrier- and shore-based mission control stations. The stealthy UAV...

The STOVL version of the Joint Strike Fighter is not too hot and is not too loud, Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway told DoD Buzz during an editorial board session. The most troubling operational challenge that appeared to face the F-35B, next to weight, was reports that it would not be suitable for a carrier or other ship because its exhaust would melt the flight deck. Not so, Conway told reporters from Military​.com. The plane, at 1,500 degrees, is just 18 degrees hotter than a Harrier, he said Thursday. He also debunked persistent reports that the JSF will blow the...