Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125) launching at Ingalls Shipbuilding on June 5, 2021. HII Photo
The House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee’s mark of the annual defense policy bill authorizes a second destroyer in the Navy’s shipbuilding budget and paves the way for the service to retire several aging guided-missile cruisers. Read More
USS Daniel Inouye (DDG-118) at Bath Iron Works
THE PENTAGON – The Senate Armed Services Committee Fiscal Year 2022 authorization bill adds an additional destroyer, a Spearhead-class Expeditionary Fast Transport and five more F-35C Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters for the Navy, according to a summary of the markup issued on Thursday by the SASC. Read More
Three littoral combat ships in various stages of construction at Marinette, Wisconsin during July 2015. The Navy is seeking to decommission USS Detroit (LCS-7), at right, and USS Little Rock (LCS-9), in the background. The ships were commissioned only in 2016 and 2017, respectively. USS Milwaukee (LCS-5), commissioned in 2015, is to remain in service. Christopher P. Cavas Photo used with permission
House appropriators are cutting development money for the Navy’s ship-launched nuclear cruise missile, preventing the service from decommissioning three Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships and adding funds for a second destroyer, according to the House Appropriations Committee defense subcommittee’s draft of the Fiscal Year 2022 defense spending bill issued today. Read More
An M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launches a Precision Strike Missile on Dec. 10, 2019, at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. US Army Photo
The Army “didn’t sneak out in the dead of night” to establish its own long-range fires regime to stay relevant in the Indo-Pacific, a missile defense analyst said on Wednesday. Read More
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testify to the Senate Appropriations Committee regarding the fiscal year 2022 budget for the Defense Department, June 17, 2021. DoD Photo
China wants the ability to invade and hold Taiwan within the next six years but might not intend to do so in the near term, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told Congress today. Read More
USS Wayne E Meyer (DDG 108) departs Apra Harbor, Naval Base Guam after a planned port visit in 2018
. US Navy Photo
The U.S. will likely need to deploy a hybrid system to defend Guam due to its difficult terrain and the variety of missile threats it faces, the head of the Missile Defense Agency said this week. Read More
Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sterett (DDG-104) transits alongside the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) on Jan. 19, 2021. US Navy Photo
The Navy’s modest shipbuilding request as part of the Fiscal Year 2022 budget shows the Pentagon has “walked away from the 500-ship Navy,” a senior defense analyst said Tuesday. Read More
Submarine construction continues apace in the latest US Navy budget request, which asks for two more Virginia-class submarines and another installment for the missile sub Columbia. Here, the Virginia-class attack submarine USS Montana (SSN-794) is seen just after launch in March 2021 at Huntington Ingalls Newport News Shipbuilding. HII Photo
This post has been updated with additional details from the Department of the Navy’s FY 2022 budget presentation.
The long-delayed Navy fiscal 2022 budget request submitted to Congress May 28 reflects modest increases in several areas but overall shows no significant changes over the previous year, either in weapons procurement or readiness accounts. Read More
Surviellance ship Kareliya (SSV-535)
A Russian Navy surveillance ship has spent the last several days lingering off the coast of the western coast of Hawaii, USNI News has learned. Read More
U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Tyrell Lewis, a student in the Detachment Hawaii Enhanced Squad Leader Course, aims a dummy rocket launcher at the rocket station, one of twelve stations in the initial performance assessment portion of the course, Marine Corps Base Hawaii, April 8, 2021. The course is an experimental proof of concept, with the intent of modernizing training and providing squad leaders with new capabilities. US Marine Corps photo.
The chief of naval operations and commandant of the Marine Corps say they are increasingly clear on how they’d want to fight a peer adversary, what attributes would make their forces successful and what platforms they need to equip that force. Now, they just need help from Congress turning that into a budget everyone can agree upon, they say. Read More
