EA-18G Growler from Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 129 during night flight operations aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70). US Navy Photo
The Navy is eyeing expanding its fleet of electronic attack aircraft to better fit into the service’s next generation plan for fighting a high end air war. Read More
Vice Adm. Michael Rogers, commander of U.S. Navy’s Cyber Command and nominee for head of the National Security Agency.
The Navy officer tapped to be the next director of the National Security Agency said at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday that the United States is “not [prepared] to the extent we need to be” to deter future cyber attacks. Read More
USNS Comfort (T-AH-20), one of the Navy’s two hospital ships that will be counted in the service’s ‘battle force’ as part of a new plan that reclassifies existing ships by assets in high demand by combatant commanders. US Navy Photo
The Navy is changing the way it counts its ships that will increase the hulls it has on the books by almost ten by including small patrol craft and hospital ships as part of its “battle force,” according to a March 7 congressional notification obtained by USNI News. Read More
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, left, speaks with Spanish Chief of Naval Staff Adm. Jaime MuÒoz-Delgado y Diaz del Rio following the arrival of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) at Naval Station Rota, Spain on Feb. 11, 2014. US Navy Photo
The following is a March 7, 2014 notification to Congress from Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus on the Navy’s new methodology for counting the number of ships in its battle force inventory. Read More
The first of class littoral combat ships USS Freedom (LCS 1), rear, and USS Independence (LCS 2) maneuver together during an exercise off the coast of Southern California on May, 2 2012.
US Navy Photo.
The Navy has issued $1.38 billion in contract modifications for four Littoral Combat Ships split between shipbuilders Lockheed Martin and Austal USA, according to a Monday Pentagon contract announcement. Read More
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Department of Defense Comptroller Robert Hale testify before the House Armed Service Committee on March 6, 2014. Department of Defense Photo.
Defending the decision to cap the littoral combat ship (LCS) buy at 32, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday “it was a big, big question whether we want a sixth of our Navy” in those vessels. Read More
USS Philippine Sea (CG 58), left, and the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) transit the Strait of Gibraltar. US Navy Photo
In a protracted discussion about how many aircraft carriers the United States needs, the top commander in the Pacific said the Navy already can’t meet the demands that Central and Pacific Commands are putting upon it with the 11 carriers now in the fleet. Read More
An MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle takes off from Naval Base Ventura County at Point Mugu on Oct. 31, 2013. US Navy Photo
The Navy has abandoned its plans to buy 17 additional Northrop Grumman Fire Scout rotary wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the next five years as part of its Fiscal Year 2015 budget submission. Read More
People’s Liberation Army Navy carrier Liaoning.
The following is a from Feb. 28, 2014 report from the Congressional Research Service, China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities.
China is building a modern and regionally powerful Navy with a modest but growing capability for conducting operations beyond China’s near-seas region. The question of how the United States should respond to China’s military modernization effort, including its naval modernization effort, has emerged as a key issue in U.S. defense planning. The question is of particular importance to the U.S. Navy, because many U.S. military programs for countering improved Chinese military forces would fall within the Navy’s budget. Read More
USS Roosevelt (DDG-80) left,the guided missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) and the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG-58) on Feb. 19, 2014. US Navy Photo
The Navy preserved development of future combat power over the next five years in its Fiscal Year 2015 $148 billion budget submission to Congress released in briefing at the Pentagon on Tuesday.
The procurement documents — released on Tuesday — emphasize weapon systems over the Future Years Defense Plan (FYDP) that will fit into future Navy constructs, like the Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air—or NIFC-CA (pronounced: nif-kah) designed to prosecute high-end air wars in the 2020s as well as next generation surface ship weapons. Read More
