Category Archives: Surface Forces

Sequestration Sidelines Six Surface Ships

Sequestration Sidelines Six Surface Ships

Arleigh-burke class guided missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDg 93) is docked at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in May. The ship's deployment is delayed due to budget cuts. US Navy Photo

Arleigh-burke class guided missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDg 93) is docked at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in May. The ship’s deployment is delayed due to budget cuts. US Navy Photo

The U.S. Navy has identified six deferred ship deployments due to budget cuts due to sequestration and the ongoing Fiscal Year 2013 Continuing Resolution, Navy officials told USNI News on Thursday. Read More

Adm. Bill Gortney's Budget Cut Message to Fleet

Adm. Bill Gortney’s Budget Cut Message to Fleet

Adm. Bill Gortney, commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, addresses the crew aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) on Feb. 21. US Navy Photo

Adm. Bill Gortney, commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, addresses the crew aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) on Feb. 21. US Navy Photo

The following is a March, 6 message from Adm. Bill Gortney, commander U.S. Fleet Forces, to the Fleet on implementation of sequestration and Continuing Resolution budget cuts that expects to trim almost $9 billion from Navy coffers this fiscal year.

SUBJ: CONTINUING RESOLUTION SEQUESTRATION FLEET IMPLEMENTATION// Read More

House Passes Pentagon Spending Bill

House Passes Pentagon Spending Bill

Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Jonathan Greenert testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies about the devastating affects of the continuing resolution and sequestration on military readiness. US Navy Photo

Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Jonathan Greenert testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies about the devastating affects of the continuing resolution and sequestration on military readiness. US Navy Photo

The House passed a full Fiscal Year 2013 spending bill allowing the military more flexibility in programming sequestration cuts on Wednesday, according to several press reports. Read More

Navy Defends Monday's LCS Contract Award

Navy Defends Monday’s LCS Contract Award

Sean Stackley at a June 15, 2012 ceremony at the Pentagon. U.S. Navy Photo

Sean Stackley at a June 15, 2012 ceremony at the Pentagon. U.S. Navy Photo

The U.S. Navy’s chief shipbuilder is defending Monday’s $1.4 billion awards for the next four Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) in the midst of the current congressional battle over military funding, the service told USNI News on Monday. Read More

Budget Cuts Could Pull Navy Out of The War on Drugs

Budget Cuts Could Pull Navy Out of The War on Drugs

U.S. Coast Guardsmen unload 3,500 pounds of cocaine in Miami March 16, 2012. The crew seized the cocaine from a 35-foot vessel in the Caribbean Sea as part of Operation Martillo. US Coast Guard Photo

U.S. Coast Guardsmen unload 3,500 pounds of cocaine in Miami March 16, 2012. The crew seized the cocaine from a 35-foot vessel in the Caribbean Sea as part of Operation Martillo. US Coast Guard Photo

U.S. Navy frigates will stop patrolling for drug runners by April because of forced sequestration budget cuts, a Navy spokesman told USNI News on Monday.

On Saturday, U.S. 4th Fleet was informed by Navy leadership it would suspend deployments of two ships—part of the Joint Interagency Task Force South’s Operation Martillo—by April because of the 1 March sequestration cuts, said the 4th Fleet’s Lt. Cmdr. Corey Barker. Read More

China's New Frigate by the Numbers

China’s New Frigate by the Numbers

By:
Type 056 Jiangdao class frigate under construction. Xinhua News Agency.

Type 056 Jiangdao class frigate under construction. Xinhua News Agency.

The first 056 class No. 582 was officially handed over to PLAN on Feb. 25 as Wu Shengli, Commander of People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) personally came to inspect the ship. While it is referred to as light frigate by Chinese news, the ship should be classified as a corvette or offshore patrol vessel (OPV) based on its size and displacements. This class is expected to be the next mass produced PLAN shipping class. Read More

Secretary Ray Mabus' Sequestration Message

Secretary Ray Mabus’ Sequestration Message

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus at Naval Air Facility Misawa, Japan on February, 21 2013. US Navy Photo

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus at Naval Air Facility Misawa, Japan on February, 21 2013. US Navy Photo

DTG 022300Z Mar 13

FM SECNAV WASHINGTON DC
TO ALNAV
INFO SECNAV WASHINGTON DC
CMC WASHINGTON DC
CNO WASHINGTON DC
BT
UNCLAS
ALNAV 014/13

MSGID/GENADMIN/SECNAV WASHINGTON DC/-/MAR//

SUBJ/DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY RESPONSE TO SEQUESTRATION// Read More

Bizarre Borneo Standoff Ends in Bloodshed

Bizarre Borneo Standoff Ends in Bloodshed

A Malaysian sailor stands guard on the beach near Lahad Datu. Reuters Photo

A Malaysian sailor stands guard on the beach near Lahad Datu on Feb .19 . Reuters Photo

A dramatic three-week standoff on the island of Borneo claimed its first lives Friday, as Malaysian security forces exchanged gunfire—possibly using mortars—with the so-called Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu.Early reports indicate that 10 to 12 sultanate forces, two Malaysian police commandos, and the owner of a house taken by the sultan’s followers were killed in the battle, with further injuries on both sides. Read More

Camouflaged Ships: An Illustrated History

Camouflaged Ships: An Illustrated History

Friday’s deployment of USS Freedom (LCS 1) will revive a tradition of camouflaging warships. Outside of smaller patrol boats, the U.S. largely abandoned elaborate color schemes and stuck with haze gray. 

USS Freedom in its new paint scheme on Feb. 22. US Navy Photo

USS Freedom in its new paint scheme on Feb. 22. US Navy Photo

But with the advent of the Littoral Combat Ship, a combatant designed to operate close to shore, the concept has returned. To put Freedom’s new look in context, the following are some examples of patterns from the past.

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