A crane moves the lower stern into place on the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) at Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va. The second Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier is now 50 percent structurally complete. US Navy Photo
CAPITOL HILL – Next month’s Pentagon budget request to Congress will include a 30-year shipbuilding plan, Navy leadership said today. Read More
The Nimitz-class aircraft carriers USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), left, and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) conduct dual aircraft carrier strike group operations in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific. US Navy photo.
CAPITOL HILL – The Navy and lawmakers are considering how to clarify the chain of command for forward-deployed surface forces to ensure future readiness and accountability while service leadership insists it has done a sufficient job holding accountable those who contributed to last year’s fatal destroyer collisions. Read More
Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) is pictured while chairing the seapower and projection forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee. DoD Photo
House Armed Services Committee members will have a chance on Thursday to ask Navy leadership how it will take action in the aftermath of two recent surface readiness reviews and to follow up on this week’s announcement of criminal and administrative actions taken against Navy officers involved in last summer’s two fatal surface ship collisions. Read More
Chinese People Liberation Army cyber troops. PLA Photo
Believing that information dominance is key to global power, China has poured billions into developing artificial intelligence and quantum computing and exploiting the results to its advantage, three experts told a House Armed Services Committee Tuesday. Read More
The following is the Jan. 4, 2018 Congressional Research Service report, Acquisition Reform in the FY2016-FY2018 National Defense Authorization Acts. Read More
Launching of Virginia-class submarine Indiana. HII Photo
A top House Armed Services Committee member said the Navy needed a more aggressive attack submarine procurement plan to get the service to its 66-boat requirement on a shorter timeline. Read More
Architect of the Capitol photo.
Today the Senate and House Armed Services Committees announced the details of their compromise Fiscal Year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. This conference report, which merges the bills each committee passed earlier this year to create policy and spending authorization for this current fiscal year, allows $626 billion in base budget spending and $66 billion more for the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund. Read More
Launch of guided-missle destroyer Delbert Black (DDG-119). HII Photo
Chances are the Navy’s leaders of a proposed 355-ship fleet have not even finished high school yet, according to Pentagon estimates. Read More
House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) traveled to Europe in mid-April with several members of Congress to visit troops stationed overseas and to meet with our allies in the region. Among other stops, he met with Maj. Gen. Niel Nelson, commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa, right. Photo courtesy Thornberry’s official Facebook page.
ARLINGTON, Va. — Expect Congress to consider reversing the nearly five-year policy of limiting Department of Defense spending, and either amend or repeal the 2011 Budget Control Act soon, the chair of the House Armed Services Committee said on Wednesday. Read More
The Virginia-class attack submarine Pre-commissioning unit John Warner (SSN 785) is moved to Newport News Shipbuilding’s floating dry dock on Sept. 1, 2014. Huntington Ingalls Industries photo.
The Navy has confirmed that its submarine industrial base can continue building two Virginia-class attack submarines a year even while adding the Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine to its workload, giving a key congressman confidence in the House’s plan to boost submarine procurement in the coming years. Read More
