USNI News Graphic
These are the approximate positions of the U.S. Navy’s deployed carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups throughout the world as of Nov. 9, 2020, based on Navy and public data. In cases where a CSG or ARG is conducting disaggregated operations, the chart reflects the location of the capital ship. This post has been updated. Read More
USS Detroit (LCS-7) transits the Caribbean Sea. Detroit is deployed to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility to support Joint Interagency Task Force South’s mission. Sept. 12, 2020. US Navy Photo
Littoral Combat Ship USS Detroit (LCS-7) was towed into a Florida port after losing power on its way to port for repairs, after suffering a previous engineering casualty that took it out of an international exercise, Navy officials confirmed to USNI News on Friday. Read More
Virginia-class submarine Delaware (SSN-791) was moved out of a construction facility into a floating dry dock using a transfer car system in 2018. HII Photo
Huntington Ingalls Industries is confident its businesses are well-positioned for whatever the future of the Navy is – whether it’s the implementation of the Pentagon’s Battle Force 2045 plan or something else implemented by new leadership, according to the chief executive. Read More
The following is the Nov. 5, 2020 Congressional Research Service In Focus report, Defense Primer: Geography, Strategy, and U.S. Force Design. Read More
Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, North Korea on July 25, 2019. KCNA Photo
If former Vice President Joe Biden wins the presidential election, settling the long-running U.S.-South Korea burden-sharing talks would send a message to North Korea and China that the two nations are in alignment on major issues concerning the peninsula, regional security experts said Thursday. Read More
Artist’s rendering of the Columbia-class SSBN submarine. US Navy Image
This post has been updated to include additional comments on the contract award.
The Navy today awarded a $9.47 billion contract modification to General Dynamics Electric Boat to officially start construction on the first ballistic-missile submarine in the Columbia class of SSBNs. Read More
Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, conducted the final flight on the F/A-18 A/B/C/D ‘Legacy’ Hornets marking the official transition of the Blue Angels to the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets on Nov. 4, 2020. US Navy Photo
The Navy’s Blue Angels on Wednesday performed the squadron’s last flight with the F/A-18 legacy Hornets. Read More
The following is the Nov. 4, 2019, Congressional Research Service report, Changes in the Arctic: Background and Issues for Congress. Read More
Artist’s concept of an MQ-9B-SeaGuardian. General Atomics Image
The State Department has given approval to a new arms sale package to Taiwan that includes four unmanned maritime patrol aircraft based on the MQ-9 Reaper platform, according to a Tuesday announcement from Defense Security Cooperation Agency. Read More
Defense Secretary Mark Esper tours the avenger class minesweeper USS Devastator, docked at Naval Support Activity Bahrain on Oct. 28, 2020. DoD Photo
At the beginning of the year, the Navy and Marine Corps sent a new fleet plan to Pentagon leaders that called for relying on smaller ships and unmanned vessels to meet future missions and defeat future adversaries. The Pentagon rejected the plan.
Nine-months later, Pentagon leaders reached the same conclusion: the Navy needed to be more distributed and weighted towards small combatants and unmanned craft.
What did that additional effort really get the sea services? Not much, according to some officials involved in both processes.
