SAN DIEGO — Saddled with budget cuts and prospects of a smaller force, the military services must find ways to build a specialized cyber force equipped to juggle rising threats from attacks on defense networks, several senior U.S. officers told a defense conference Wednesday. Read More
Pfc. Christina Fuentes Montenegro prepares to hike to her platoon’s defensive position during patrol week of Infantry Training Battalion near Camp Geiger, N.C. on Oct. 31, 2013. US Marine Corps Photo
SAN DIEGO — When asked for his thoughts about the pending integration of women into the military’s male-only special operations forces, retired Adm. James G. Stavridis thought back a generation. Read More
The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 54), right, steams alongside USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) in November 2015. US Navy photo.
SAN DIEGO — When the Navy once again asked Congress to approve a years-long phased modernization plan for its unmodernized cruisers – a request that has been denied for several years now – service leaders included two provisions to allay lawmakers’ ongoing fears: More than half a billion dollars to fund cruiser operations and modernization and legislation that would force the Navy to return the cruisers to the fleet. Read More
USS Philippine Sea (CG-58) launches a Tomahawk cruise missile as seen from the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) on Sept. 23, 2014. US Navy Photo
SAN DIEGO – Any U.S. Navy ship or submarine capable of firing a Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) could be armed with an 1000-nautical mile anti-ship cruise missile in less than a decade, service officials told USNI News on Wednesday during the West 2016 conference. Read More
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter destroyer JS Hyuga (DDH-181) leads a formation of US Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships in 2009. US Navy Photo
Leaders in Tokyo are now asking themselves more often what the United States would do if faced with simultaneous crises in the Middle East and the South China Sea, or on the Korean Peninsula, to keep the oil flowing to its industries, a leading Japanese foreign policy expert told a Brookings Institution forum Wednesday. Read More
Former NATO commander James Stavridis. VOA Photo
SAN DIEGO — Fifteen years after the terrorist bombing of the USS Cole (DDG-67) that killed 17 sailors, Navy ships and other deployed U.S. forces face real threat of attack by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL), the former NATO supreme allied commander warned a defense conference in San Diego. Read More
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
China’s foreign minster Wang Yi defended the People’s Liberation Army deployment of 32 anti-air missiles to a disputed South China Sea Island saying Beijing was well within its rights to send out the batteries. Read More
USS Milwaukee (LCS-5) during high-speed runs during sea trials. Lockheed Martin Photo
The Navy’s newest Littoral Combat Ship is set to leave a Virginia naval base this week following a December engine casualty that left the ship sidelined for two months. Read More
Estonian troops conduct a march past during the Opening Ceremony for Ex STEADFAST JAZZ on the Drawsko Pomorskie Training Area, Poland, on Nov. 3, 2013. NATO Photo
A leading analyst on NATO policy called for the alliance to place a permanent military presence in Baltic member states as a hedge against a more active Russian military. Read More
The following is a Feb. 13, 2016 U.S. Navy video of Portland (LPD-27) launching at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss. Read More
