Category Archives: Surface Forces

Navy to Deploy Anti-UAV, Small Boat Laser Next Year to Gulf

Navy to Deploy Anti-UAV, Small Boat Laser Next Year to Gulf

Laser Weapon System (LaWS) aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG-105) in San Diego, Calif. in 2012. US Navy Photo

Laser Weapon System (LaWS) aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG-105) in San Diego, Calif. in 2012. US Navy Photo

The Navy will deploy a laser weapon designed to counter small boats and unmanned aerial vehicles to the Middle East in 2014, chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder and Naval Sea Systems Command chief engineer Rear Adm. Tom Eccles said in a joint Monday briefing at the Navy League Sea Air Space Exposition 2013 at National Harbor, Md. Read More

Greenert: Forward Deployed Ships, F-35s USN's Future

Greenert: Forward Deployed Ships, F-35s USN’s Future

Adm. Jonathan Greenert addressing a crowd in March. US Navy Photo

Adm. Jonathan Greenert addressing a crowd in March. US Navy Photo

In a time of fiscal “reduced visibility” the Navy’s strategy remains “to be where it matters,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert said on Monday in a speech to the Navy League Sea Air Space Exposition 2013 at National Harbor, Md. Read More

New LCS Sonar and Missile to be Competed Next Year

New LCS Sonar and Missile to be Competed Next Year

The littoral combat ship USS Freedom (LCS 1) arrives at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam for a scheduled port visit. US Navy Photo

The littoral combat ship USS Freedom (LCS 1) arrives at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam for a scheduled port visit. US Navy Photo

In the next year the Navy will begin competition for the follow on sonar and surface-to-surface missile system for the Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) and Surface Warfare (SuW) mission packages of the Littoral Combat Ship, Capt. John Ailes, head of the LCS mission module program for Naval Sea Systems Command said at a briefing at the Navy League Sea Air Space Exposition 2013 at National Harbor, Md. Read More

Jolly Roger Super Hornet Down in Arabian Sea

Jolly Roger Super Hornet Down in Arabian Sea

An F/A-18F Super Hornet from the Jolly Rogers of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 103 launches from the flight deck of aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69). U.S. Navy Photo.

An F/A-18F Super Hornet from the Jolly Rogers of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 103 launches from the flight deck of aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69). U.S. Navy Photo.

The Navy is reporting a F/A-18-F Super Hornet attached to the USS Dwight Eisenhower (CVN-69) carrier strike group went down at 12:20pm local time in the North Arabian Sea on Monday. Read More

Report: Changes in the Arctic

Report: Changes in the Arctic

From the March 28, 2013 Congressional Research Service report: The diminishment of Arctic sea ice has led to increased human activities in the Arctic, and has heightened interest in, and concerns about, the region’s future. The United States, by virtue of Alaska, is an Arctic country and has substantial interests in the region. On January 12, 2009, the George W. Bush Administration released a presidential directive, called National Security Presidential Directive 66/Homeland Security Presidential Directive 25 (NSPD 66/HSPD 25), establishing a new U.S. policy for the Arctic region. Read More

NATO’s Maritime Strategy and the Libya Crisis as Seen from the Sea

NATO’s Maritime Strategy and the Libya Crisis as Seen from the Sea

The following is a paper from the NATO Defense College Rome, published in March, 2013.
From the report:

In case you did not know, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has an Alliance Maritime Strategy (AMS). The document, approved on 05 January 2011, was the first of its kind in over a quarter of a century. In spite of this post-Cold War milestone, however, the strategy was endor- sed by the member states with little fanfare. Since its declassification in March of the same year, it has been quietly buried in the NATO official website, largely out of sight from the popular media and (by extension) from the European and North American populace whose security and prosperity it is ostensibly designed to safeguard.2 The average person on the street (or, perhaps more aptly expressed in this context, on the sea- front) should therefore be forgiven if he or she has never heard of, let alone read, a dedicated maritime strategy for the Atlantic Alliance in the 21st century. But exist it does. Read More