Guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG 64), returns to Naval Station Mayport after a nine-month deployment to the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet on April 18, 2014. US Navy Photo
While the Navy’s long range cruiser program is still in flux, the modernization effort for the Navy’s Ticonderoga-class (CG-47) guided missile cruisers has begun with USS Cowpens (CG-63) and USS Gettysburg (CG-64), the service told USNI News this week. Read More
An E-2D Hawkeye assigned to the Tiger Tails of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 125 launches off the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71). US Navy Photo
NAVAL STATION NORFOLK — The U.S Navy has declared initial operational capability (IOC) with the Northrop Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeye. The first operational squadron to fly the new airborne early warning aircraft is Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron VAW-125 based at Naval Station Norfolk, Va. Read More
An F-35B Lightning II aircraft takes off from the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD-1) in 2013. A former senior Navy official told USNI News its stealth protection could be pierced by new Chinese and Russian radars. US Navy Photo
A growing trend in Russian and Chinese radar could make U.S. stealth fighters easier to see and — more importantly — easier to target for potential adversaries, a former senior U.S. Navy official told USNI News. Read More
E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft conduct a test flight in 2009. The Navy included one more E-2D in its unfunded priorities list submitted to Congress this week. US Navy Photo
The U.S. Navy has awarded Northrop Grumman a $3.64 billion contract to build 25 E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft. The five-year contract, which was awarded on Monday, will save the U.S. government about $369 million, according to the Navy. Read More
An E-2D lands on the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69). US Navy Photo
The Northrop Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeye maybe the U.S. Navy’s secret weapon against the emerging threat of enemy fifth-generation stealth fighters and cruise missiles. Read More
USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53) launches a Standard Missile (SM) 2 during a live-fire test of the ship’s Aegis weapons system on Feb. 8, 2014. US Navy Photo
The U.S. Navy’s Aegis program was born as the solution to a physics problem: Given that hostile variable-geometry wing Soviet Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire bombers travel at speeds approaching Mach 2, what would a ship-based radar and missile system need to do to hurl an object into the air to intercept an object flying at almost twice the speed of sound?
An F-35C Lightning II aircraft on Aug. 14, 2013 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. US Navy Photo
The U.S. Navy will need to use a combination of stealth and electronic warfare capabilities to defeat advanced anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) threats in the future, chief of naval operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert said on April 16 at the U.S. Naval Institute annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Read More
Conceptual loadouts for EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft. Boeing Image
The U.S. Navy is shifting its airborne electronic attack (AEA) focus from disrupting the enemy’s targeting and tracking of allied aircraft to actively helping friendly forces find and eliminate enemy air defenses, service officials said at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition 2014 at National Harbor, Md. on Monday. Read More
EA-18G Growler assigned to the Zappers of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 130 lands on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) on Aug. 15, 2013. US Navy Photo
The Navy has already made some powerful assumptions about its next fight in the air.
It’ll be away from home. It will be against a sophisticated and well-armed enemy. It’ll depend as much on information technology as it will on bombs or missiles. And it’s a fight for which the service isn’t ready. Read More
A F-35C on June 27, 2012. US Navy Photo
The Lockheed Martin F-35C Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will be the eyes and ears of the fleet inside highly contested airspace when it enters the U.S. Navy’s arsenal in large numbers in the 2030s. Read More
