The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) leads a formation of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 5 ships as U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress aircraft and U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets pass overhead for a photo exercise during Valiant Shield 2018 on Sept. 17. US Navy photo
Joint forces are assembling around Guam and the Mariana Islands Range Complex for high-end Pacific exercise Valiant Shield 2020, which kicks off today. Read More
USS Essex (LHD-2) arrives at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii for RIMPAC 2020 on Aug. 10, 2020. US Navy Photo
A scaled-down Rim of the Pacific Exercise began today off Hawaii with a third of the expected countries and a fifth of the expected personnel participating due to COVID-19-related restrictions. Read More
Capt. John Markowicz, assistant chief of staff for ship maintenance and material readiness, Commander, Naval Air Forces, observes the Distance Communications Maintenance System (DCoMS) ship-to-shore test between the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), while the aircraft carrier was underway in the Indo-Pacific region. DCoMS allows shore-based technical experts to remotely walk shipboard technicians through a higher level of maintenance or troubleshooting than the technician would normally have the capability to perform. US Navy photo.
If the COVID-19 pandemic has forced people to get comfortable with the idea of teleworking and telehealth doctor visits, it may have also pushed the Navy to embrace the concept of telemaintenance for ships at sea. Read More
The Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Montgomery (LCS 8) returns to homeport at Naval Base San Diego following the successful completion of a 12-month rotational deployment. Montgomery operated in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations to enhance interoperability with partners and serve as a ready-response force. US Navy photo.
USS Montgomery (LCS-8) recently wrapped up its maiden deployment – and the ship class’s first since a restructure of the Littoral Combat Ship program – and the head of LCS operations said the ship leveraged lessons learned from earlier deployments to avoid readiness problems and make the most of its operational capabilities. Read More
Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown responds to a question, May 7, 2020 on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to consider his nomination to be the next Air Force chief of staff. US Air Force Photo
KUALA LUMPUR — The U.S. Air Force is expanding their maritime capabilities in the Western Pacific and mulling creating its own operating concept similar to the U.S. Marine Corps Force Design 2030, the Air Force’s next top commander told reporters on Wednesday. Read More
(Right) Australian Army officer Captain Christopher Moroney, from the 2nd Battalion (Amphibious), Royal Australian Regiment, works with Indonesian Joint Terminal Attack Controllers to call in artillery fire at Pohakuloa Training Area during Exercise Rim of the Pacific 18. Australian Defence Force photo.
U.S. Pacific Fleet will host its major biennial Rim of the Pacific exercise this year amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, opting to limit the exercise to just two weeks of at-sea-only events rather than cancel the event altogether, the command announced tonight. Read More
Adm. John C. Aquilino pays respect during the 78th Anniversary Pearl Harbor Remembrance Commemoration in 2019. US Navy Photo
Before COVD-19 restrictions gripped the U.S., the U.S. Pacific Fleet was already starting to become wary of the threat. Spread from India to California, Pacific Fleet is the largest Navy operating area containing more than half of the service’s warships at any given moment. Read More
A P-8A Poseidon assigned to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 20 flies over USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) as the ship travels to its new home port of San Diego, Calif., in October 2016. US Navy photo.
A Chinese destroyer lased a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft that was operating over international waters about 380 miles west of Guam, the U.S. Pacific Fleet said in a statement. Read More
Two aviators assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5 look out onto the Hong Kong skyline as the aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN-73) in 2013. US Navy Photo
This post was updated with additional information about USS McCampbell (DDG-85), which in August was denied permission to visit the Chinese port of Qingdao.
Shortly after protests began rocking Hong Kong over a controversial extradition bill, the Chinese government quietly started denying U.S. Navy ships permission to visit the port city. Read More
USS George Washington (CVN-73) leaving dry dock on Sept. 27, 2019. HII Photo
ARLINGTON, Va. – The Navy’s current carrier strike group readiness generation model may no longer work in today’s era of great power competition and struggling ship maintenance yards, the vice chief of naval operations said. Read More
