Free Republic

The Navy is looking to copy Air Force and Army policy by making it much more difficult to discharge transgendered sailors. As soon as a service member is discovered to be transgendered, all it takes is the authority of a commanding officer to recommend discharge, but an anonymous Navy official stated that the authority will soon rest with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Manpower and Reserve Affairs, the Washington Examiner reports. While it’s still the case that sailors diagnosed with gender dysphoria are recommended for discharge, the idea is to make the procedure much more difficult, which is likely...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany has a budget of around 4 billion euros (2.9 billion pounds) to buy four new multi-role combat ships and plans to issue a tender open to European firms, Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday. The new MKS 180 warships are expected to be delivered from 2023. They are intended to be capable of attacking targets on land and underwater, and providing aerial protection to other vessels in a range of 20 km (12 miles). A ministry source said German firms, notably Luerssen, would be well placed to compete for the contract. The defence...

The Defense Department announced in April that the remains of up to nearly 400 unaccounted for service members tied to the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor will be exhumed. That process began on Monday. “This was the first set of remains from the USS Oklahoma to be disinterred,” said Jim Horton, the director of the Punchbowl cemetery. Disinterment ceremonies were held when the bones of Korean War veterans were exhumed for identification. Now, hundreds who served on USS Oklahoma during World War II may also be identified. The attacked happened at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. But many bodies...

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (June 5, 2015) U.S. Navy Sailors, civilian employees and contractors observed a "dead-load" test of the new electromagnetic aircraft launching system (EMALS) aboard Pre-Commissioning Unit Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78). The weighted sled was launched into the James River where it was recovered for additional test launches. (U.S. Navy video/Released)

We are reliably assured by progressives in the modern era that spending, deficits and the national debt are no big deal and are generally just distractions and dog whistles tossed out by conservatives. After all, you can always just print more money or go out to the White House rose garden and pick more off the money tree or something, right? That’s why my LADAR (Leftist Radar) is always set off when I hear one of their spokesmodels suddenly becoming concerned over the budget. The most recent example of this comes from Steve Lopez at the LA Times, who takes...

In a time of defense spending cutbacks and an ongoing weak U.S. economy A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) raises concerns over long-term risks to U.S. Navy ships assigned to overseas homeports. The study found that “casualty reports—incidents of degraded or out-of-service equipment—have doubled over the past 5 years and that the material condition of overseas-homeported ships has decreased slightly faster than that of U.S.-homeported ships.” According to the GAO, the Navy has failed to identify or mitigate the risks associated with an increasing reliance on homeporting overseas. Some vessels engaged in overseas homeporting have undergone repeated...

All of a sudden, aircraft carriers are back in fashion. Over in Russia, they're drawing up plans to build the world's biggest aircraft carrier, a 100,000-ton beast that can carry 100 combat aircraft. China's building one, two, or maybe even four aircraft carriers. And here in the United States, we're busy building our second ­Ford-class supercarrier. Around the world and across the seas, aircraft carriers are popping up in the unlikeliest of places -- in Korea, in Thailand, in India, Japan, and maybe soon in Singapore, as well. But you'll never guess the latest country to announce plans to acquire...

<p>"History," it has been written, "does not repeat itself, but it rhymes." Today it's rhyming with Gen. Billy Mitchell. In the 1920s, Mitchell challenged conventional thinking by advocating air power at sea in the face of a naval establishment dominated by battleship proponents.</p>

Three sailors are scheduled for court-martial in Florida this week on charges related to making and sharing videos of female officers and midshipmen showering aboard the ballistic missile submarine USS Wyoming. ~snip~ The episode has been an embarrassment for the Navy as it integrates women into its submarine branch, one of the last communities in the service still largely restricted to men. The Wyoming, based at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Ga., was one of the first ballistic submarines integrated with female officers when the process began in 2011.

“History,” it has been written, “does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.” Today it’s rhyming with Gen. Billy Mitchell. In the 1920s, Mitchell challenged conventional thinking by advocating air power at sea in the face of a naval establishment dominated by battleship proponents. The hubris of the “battleship Navy” was such that just nine days before Pearl Harbor, the official program for the 1941 Army-Navy game displayed a full page photograph of the battleship USS Arizona with language virtually extolling its invincibility. Of course, the reason that no one had yet sunk a battleship from the air — in combat — was that no...

A second submariner pleaded guilty Wednesday to sharing videos of female officers undressing for a shower, continuing a case that a prosecutor calls a "black eye" for the Navy's integration of women into the nation's sub fleet. Electronics technician Joseph Bradley entered his guilty pleas in a court-martial and was sentenced to 30 days' confinement and a reduction in rank. Bradley received the videos after they were secretly recorded by another sailor aboard the USS Wyoming nuclear submarine based at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia, prosecutors say. Bradley admitted in a plea agreement to sharing the images with...

“History,” it has been written, “does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.” Today it’s rhyming with Gen. Billy Mitchell. In the 1920s, Mitchell challenged conventional thinking by advocating air power at sea in the face of a naval establishment dominated by battleship proponents. The hubris of the “battleship Navy” was such that just nine days before Pearl Harbor, the official program for the 1941 Army-Navy game displayed a full page photograph of the battleship USS Arizona with language virtually extolling its invincibility. Of course, the reason that no one had yet sunk a battleship from the air — in combat — was that no...

A second submariner pleaded guilty Wednesday to sharing videos of female officers undressing for a shower, continuing a case that a prosecutor calls a "black eye" for the Navy's integration of women into the nation's sub fleet. Electronics technician Joseph Bradley entered his guilty pleas in a court-martial trial and was sentenced to 30 days' confinement and a reduction in rank. Bradley received the videos after they were secretly recorded by another sailor aboard the USS Wyoming nuclear submarine based at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia, prosecutors say. Bradley admitted in a plea agreement to sharing the images...

Exclusive — Walker: We’d Be Sending in Navy to Stop Illegals if They Were Swarming Our Sea Ports Like They Do Southern Border [SNIP] ".........Since former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush—one of amnesty’s biggest proponents—has now backed off his previous support for citizenship for illegal aliens (he wants to give them amnesty via legal status), that means Rubio is the only candidate who still stands with the AFL-CIO and their brothers in the Chamber of Commerce wanting to give illegal aliens full blown American citizenship. That means Walker, the anti-special interest union battler, has an even better opportunity to fight Rubio—who’s...

Rick Perry’s June event in Addison, Texas, where he is expected to announce his candidacy for president, will feature a number of retired and current Navy SEALs, according to a invite to the event. Retired Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, whose autobiography inspired the 2014 film Lone Survivor, will attend with his wife. The widow of retired Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, whose autobiography inspired the oscar-nominated American Sniper, will also be there. The event will also feature retired U.S. Navy SEAL JJ Jones, retired U.S. Navy SEAL and Medal of Honor Recipient Mike Thornton, retired U.S. Navy SEAL Pete Scobell, and...

Speaking at a Commencement Ceremony for the Naval Academy today, Vice President Joe Biden warned graduates that they would have to be prepared for the devastating effects of climate change. “We’ll rely on you, the United States Navy, to lead in solving these emerging problems,” he said,.......

The Navy conducted the first-ever, shipboard, full-speed catapult shots using the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) aboard the aircraft carrier Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), Naval Sea Systems Command announced May 15. The aircraft carrier Pre-Commissioning Unit Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) transits the James River during the ship's launch and transit to Newport News Shipyard pier three for the final stages of construction and testing. Ford was christened Nov. 9, 2013, and is under construction at Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipyard. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Second Class Aidan P. Campbell/Released)The aircraft carrier...

The Navy is proceeding with its plan to increase the number of women in the service to 25 percent with a similar goal of attaining that ratio in each ship and squadron, the vice chief of naval operations said Thursday. Women currently make up about 17 percent of the Navy, said Adm. Michelle Howard, who made a stop in Honolulu on her way to the International Maritime Defense Exhibition in Singapore, where she will meet with her counterparts from other nations in the region.

Upcoming Air Show

<p>May 8 marked the end of World War II in Europe 70 years ago — a horrific conflict that is still fought over by historians.</p> <p>More than 60 million people perished — some 50 million of them in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and China.</p>