Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton. US Navy Photo
Unmanned systems continue to deliver new and enhanced battlefield capabilities to the warfighter. While the demand for unmanned systems continues unabated today, a number of factors will influence unmanned program development in the future. Read More
Sailors aboard Japanese destroyer JS KONGO (DDG-173) watch pierside line handlers as the ship moors pierside Naval Station Pearl Harbor on Oct. 15, 2007. US Navy Photo
Kilo class submarine Yunes
Vietnam has taken delivery of the first of a planned six Project-636 Kilo-class submarines from Russia, according to several local press reports. Read More
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung inspected Kilo 636 submarine named Hanoi of Vietnam Navy during a visit to Russia in May 2013. Vietnam News Agency Photo
Russia will deliver the first of six improved Project-636 Kilo-class submarines to the Vietnamese Navy in November, according to a press release issued by the shipbuilder.
“We are expecting the signing of the acceptance act and the sub’s sailing to Vietnam in November,” according to a Monday release from Admiralteiskie Verfi shipyard in St. Petersburg. Read More
HMCS Windsor transits from the U.K. to her home port in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2001. Canadian Navy Photo
Canada’s Victoria-class submarine fleet has been controversial since its inception. Most recently, a report by Michael Byers and Stewart Webb argues that the time has come to either phase out the program or commit to a robust discussion of how to replace the fleet. Critics cite a disappointing history of expensive repairs, time lost, and a catastrophic fire. Supporters insist that the boats provide important capabilities. And navy planners have sought to get the ball rolling on acquiring new subs sometime after 2020. Debate over the current fleet and its potential replacement should include all of those elements, but focus on how they align with one another, on whether submarines provide the right capabilities at the right price to serve Canada’s national interests. Read More
Kilo class submarine Yunes
Vietnam will takes possession of two Kilo-class diesel attack submarines (SSKs) by the end of the year, according to several press reports. Read More
House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces issued their mark on the Pentagon’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget request, “which designates essential funding and sets priorities for the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force,” read a statement from subcommittee chair Rep. Randy Forbes (R- Va.) and ranking member Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.) on Tuesday.
“Having recently received a 30 Year Shipbuilding Plan from the Navy with no basis in reality, our mark requires a detailed roadmap for how the service will reach its shipbuilding goals under likely budget scenarios,” Chairman Forbes said. “We have laid the groundwork to ask difficult questions of the Navy about the cost overruns on the Ford-class aircraft carrier, while also ensuring the Navy has an additional Virginia-class attack submarine each year. And we have made investments in technologies like the UCLASS carrier-launched unmanned vehicle, which will ensure the viability of the Carrier Air Wing for decades to come,” Forbes said in the statement. Read More
A crayon drawing by Bruce Harvey following the loss of the USS Thresher in 1963. Navy History and Heritage Command Photo
A child’s drawing of a lost submarine rests behind Plexiglas in a back corner of the National Museum of the Navy in Washington, D.C., seemingly out of place amid massive ship models and aircraft dangling from the ceiling.
“USS Thresher/ Bruce Harvey/ crayon,” reads its art-museum-style description. “The young son of Commander John Harvey, skipper of Thresher, drew the boat on the ocean floor after hearing of its loss. Bruce’s father and 128 other men died when the submarine sank off the New England coast.” Read More
USS San Francisco (SSN 711) in dry dock to assess damage sustained after running aground approximately 350 miles south of Guam Jan. 8, 2005. U.S. Navy Photo
Eight years ago, USS San Francisco (SSN-711) ran full speed into a mountain more than 500 feet below the ocean’s surface.
One sailor died.
Fifty years earlier, the crew might not have been as lucky, said Rear Adm. David Duryea, Naval Sea Systems Command’s deputy commander for undersea warfare told USNI News in an interview. Read More
Photos of USS Thresher. Read More
