Dr. N. Benjamin Barnea is sworn in to the U.S. Navy Reserve Medical Corps by Lt. Sheree Williams in 2010. US Navy Photo
The chief of the Navy Reserve told a key Senate subcommittee that she is “only able to accept 25 percent of applications from separating [active] sailors” because of high retention rates in her command, but also that the reserve has had some trouble filling reserve billets for unrestricted line officers and medical professionals. Read More
The Australian Defence Force aims to field the APKWS rocket on its Airbus Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter. Artist rendering provided by BAE Systems.
BAE Systems successfully demonstrated its Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) from an Airbus Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter for the first time in testing with the Australian army, going 10 for 10 in live-fire flight tests, a company official told USNI News. Read More
F/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to the Tomcatters of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 31, launches from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) on July 31, 2014. US Navy Photo
The House Armed Services tactical air and land subcommittee supports filling the Navy’s and Marine Corps’ unfunded requirements for additional Boeing F-18E/F Super Hornets and Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters (JSF), committee aids told reporters on Wednesday. Read More
Chinese media document the arrival of Vice Adm. Robert Thomas, commander of U.S. 7th Fleet, during a welcome ceremony in Zhanjiang following the arrival of the U.S. 7th Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19) on April 20, 2015. US Navy photo.
The U.S. 7th Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) pulled into Zhanjiang in Southern China this morning for a relationship-building port visit, the Navy announced. Read More
Features on an historic photo of USS Independence CVL 22 are captured in a three-dimensional (3D) low-resolution sonar image of the shipwreck in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The Coda Octopus Echoscope 3D sonar, integrated on the Boeing Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Echo Ranger, imaged the shipwreck during the first maritime archaeological survey. NOAA image.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration (NOAA), the Navy and Boeing together found and surveyed the sunken USS Independence (CVL-22), a light aircraft carrier the Navy sunk in 1951 after subjecting the ship to an atomic bomb blast. Read More
The Navy attempts to right USS Oklahoma on March 19, 1943. National Archives photo.
The Pentagon will renew its efforts to identify previously unknown service members buried at military cemeteries, starting with sailors and Marines who died aboard USS Oklahoma (BB-37) in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Read More
The first of class littoral combat ships USS Freedom (LCS 1), rear, and USS Independence (LCS 2) maneuver together during an exercise off the coast of Southern California on May, 2 2012.
US Navy Photo.
This post has been updated to include additional information from Lockheed Martin regarding the impact of the contracting decision to its production line.
The Navy on Tuesday awarded Austal USA $691 million for two Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) and Lockheed Martin $441 million for one LCS and advance procurement funding for a second ship next year. Each company’s contract modification also included an option for another ship in Fiscal Year 2016 which would be the 11th for each builder under a block buy. Read More
An E/A-18G Growler from the Shadowhawks of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 141 prepares to make an arrested landing on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) on Nov. 3, 2014. US Navy photo.
The Pentagon’s new Electronic Warfare (EW) Executive Committee was created this week to refocus the services on matters of EW strategy and operational capability, according to the memo signed Tuesday establishing the committee. Read More
Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG-56), front, the Republic of Korea Navy Aegis-class destroyer ROKS Seoae-Yu-Seong-Ryong (DDG-993), middle, and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell (DDG-85). US Navy Photo
The sea services cannot buy their way to successfully implementing the Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower, the service chiefs said on Friday. Instead, they will have to pay close attention to how they man, organize and partner with other militaries to ensure they achieve all the capabilities required by the strategy. Read More
USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) leads ships from Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 12 during a maneuvering exercise on Sept. 23, 2014. US Navy Photo
Lawmakers and Navy leadership spent the past year going back and forth over how to count the number of ships in the Battle Force fleet. The Navy made some changes last spring that immediately increased the size of the fleet and complicated the ship-counting effort: certain ships would count only if they were forward deployed but not if they returned home to the United States. Congress pushed back, passing into law what was essentially a compromise counting rule – and the third methodology to be used in a one-year span.
As a result of the back-and-forth, the Navy’s most recent ship-count projection it submitted to Congress contains two sets of figures: one with the Navy’s preferred method, and one following Congress’s rule.
The dueling methods have led to confusing charts and tables earlier this year, but the conflict over how to count Navy ships is not new – the Carter and Reagan administrations both created their own sets of rules for counting ships. Read More
