Megan Eckstein

About Megan Eckstein

Megan Eckstein is the former deputy editor for USNI News.

Recent Posts By the Author


NAVSEA: Navy Could Accelerate Some Public, Private Shipyard Upgrades If Money Were Available

NAVSEA: Navy Could Accelerate Some Public, Private Shipyard Upgrades If Money Were Available

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Terrance Wells, from San Diego, ties straps for a containment project on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) on Oct. 26, 2020. US Navy Photo

Support is growing within the House Armed Services Committee to accelerate Navy efforts to improve ship repair capacity at both private and public shipyards, and for funding that either through ongoing talks about a massive federal infrastructure bill or other means, lawmakers made clear during a Thursday afternoon hearing. Read More →

Interview: Elaine Luria Says Navy Needs to Build 'Battle Force 2025' Instead of Divesting to Prepare for a 2045 Fight

Interview: Elaine Luria Says Navy Needs to Build ‘Battle Force 2025’ Instead of Divesting to Prepare for a 2045 Fight

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Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG-61) transits the Mediterranean Sea on March 24, 2021. US Navy Photo

The vice-chair of the House Armed Services Committee does not support the Navy’s “divest to invest” strategy of ridding the fleet of aging and expensive-to-maintain ships and systems to free up money for the development of unmanned platforms and other new technology, saying the sea service needs to focus on getting ready for a near-term battle instead of looking too far out into the future. Read More →

Marines Seeking Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle Prototypes After Unsuccessful Attempts to Replace LAV

Marines Seeking Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle Prototypes After Unsuccessful Attempts to Replace LAV

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Textron’s Cottonmouth vehicle is the company’s pitch for the Marine Corps’ Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle program to replace the aging Light Armored Vehicle for recon Marines. Textron photo.

The Marine Corps has collected proposals to design and build a prototype Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle, meant to far surpass the capabilities of the legacy Light Armored Vehicle and help reconnaissance Marines observe their surroundings, find targets and even take out threats on their own. Read More →

Surface Navy to Kick Off Program to Track, Assess Sailors Combat Skills

Surface Navy to Kick Off Program to Track, Assess Sailors Combat Skills

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Fire Controlman (Aegis) Chief Petty Officer Michael Schwemmer (front) and Lt. Nick Marmureanu, an Integrated Air and Missile Defense Warfare Tactics Instructor and the Fire Control Officer assigned to USS Stockdale (DDG 106), conduct Combat Information Center training on April 3, 2021. US Navy Photo

The surface navy community is rolling out a new way to track and assess sailors’ experience and proficiency in combat skills – with the promise that commanders could tailor future training and build better watch bills – through a new Surface Warfare Combat Training Continuum (SWCTC) effort that is wrapping up a pilot program and will hit the fleet this summer. Read More →

First F-35C Air Wing Ready to Bring 5th-Gen Fighters to Carrier Strike Group

First F-35C Air Wing Ready to Bring 5th-Gen Fighters to Carrier Strike Group

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PACIFIC OCEAN (Jan. 30, 2021) An F-35C Lighting II from the “Argonauts” Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 147 sits on the flight deck on Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70). Carl Vinson is currently underway conducting routine maritime operations. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communications Specialist 3rd Class Erin. C. Zorich)

As the Navy approaches the first-ever deployment of its advanced carrier air wing – with the fifth-generation F-35C Joint Strike Fighter paired with the CMV-22B Osprey to serve as the carrier onboard delivery plane – leadership from USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) and Carrier Air Wing 2 say they’ve ironed out many integration issues between the ship and the two new aircraft types and are ready for a final exercise this summer to prove they can deploy. Read More →

MQ-8B Fire Scout Crashes Into Littoral Combat Ship USS Charleston On Deployment

MQ-8B Fire Scout Crashes Into Littoral Combat Ship USS Charleston On Deployment

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PACIFIC OCEAN (March 27, 2021) Sailors charge the battery of an MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle aboard Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Charleston (LCS 18), March 27. Charleston is currently operating in U.S. Third Fleet. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Adam Butler)

An MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle crashed into the side of Littoral Combat Ship USS Charleston (LCS-18) after taking off from the ship today, the Navy announced. Read More →

Ford Carrier Strike Group Maximizes New CVN's Gear, Design In Final Test Event Before Shock Trials

Ford Carrier Strike Group Maximizes New CVN’s Gear, Design In Final Test Event Before Shock Trials

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Seaman Saruis Webb, from Chicago, assigned to USS Gerald R. Ford’s (CVN-78) weapons department, stands an armed watch with an H-2B .50 caliber machine gun during sea and anchor on April 14, 2021. US Navy Photo

USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) and its air wing and strike group had a chance to fully show off their combat capabilities, using a recent at-sea testing period to demonstrate not only that Ford can keep up with its Nimitz-class counterparts but can use its new gear to perform better and faster, leaders in the strike group told USNI News today. Read More →

Marines Update Force Design 2030 After a Year of Experimentation in the Field

Marines Update Force Design 2030 After a Year of Experimentation in the Field

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A U.S. Marine with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 3d Marines, crawls onto the beach during reconnaissance scout swimmer training part of Exercise Bougainville I at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, Hawaii, Feb. 8, 2021.US Marine Corps Photo

The Marine Corps is a year into reshaping its force to become optimized for modern operations – in combat and in everyday competition – by 2030, and the service has already taken some major steps such as getting rid of all its tanks and refining its vision for how to buy the next reconnaissance vehicle Read More →

HASC: Congress Let DoD Buy Too Many F-35 Fighters But Not Enough F-35 Spares, Sustainment

HASC: Congress Let DoD Buy Too Many F-35 Fighters But Not Enough F-35 Spares, Sustainment

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Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Handling) 2nd Class Cosme Zamora, from Compton, Calif., assigned to the forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA-6), signals an F-35B Lightning II fighter aircraft assigned to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) on the ship’s flight deck on Jan. 21, 2021. US Navy Photo

The House Armed Services Committee has little appetite for buying any F-35 Joint Strike Fighter planes beyond the official Biden administration request – in contrast to the past seven years, when Congress has added a whopping 97 planes beyond the president’s budget request – as a result of low readiness rates and ongoing maintenance and supply challenges. Read More →