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In an article written for the Washington-based military website, War on the Rock, Robert Haddick, an American military analyst said that the People's Liberation Army Navy's YJ-12 anti-ship cruise missile is the most dangerous threat to the US Navy in the Western Pacific. On page 40 of the Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2014 published by the Pentagon for congress indicated, this cruise missile provides an increased threat to naval assets, due to its long range and supersonic speeds. In addition, the YJ-12 is capable of being launched from PLA Navy Air Force's H-6 strategic...

During the underway period, John Paul Jones also conducted its first ballistic missile tracking exercise while simultaneously tracking two supersonic and two subsonic missile targets. This event fully demonstrated the capabilities of Aegis Baseline 9C and of John Paul Jones as the first Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) destroyer Over the course of three days June 18-20, the crew of Guided-missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53) successfully engaged six targets off the coast of Southern California, firing a total of five missiles that included four Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) missiles and one Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) missile. One of...

PH1 (AW/NAC) Michael Moriatis/Wikimedia Commons The U.S. military is relying on sub-hunting tech that’s decades old. Meanwhile, the targets they’re trying to find are getting quieter and more invisible by the day. Submarines are getting quieter, stealthier, and better armed. And that could mean major trouble for the U.S. Navy and its aging fleet of sub-hunters. The tactical balance between the surface warship and the submarine has strategic impact. The submarine is not made for a show of force. Its principal weapon is designed not to damage a ship, but to sink it—rapidly and probably with much loss of life....

A major engine upgrade for the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fleet is being seriously considered by the US Navy for a programme launch in Fiscal Year 2016. GE Aviation and the navy jointly funded a one-year study – which kicked off last October – to examine the details of implementing a nearly 15-year-old proposal to upgrade the F414-GE-400 with the “enhanced durability engine” (EDE) kit. Following a decade of component and rig testing and several false starts on the export market, the study may be GE Aviation’s best hope of salvaging a programme that could improve the thrust of the...

Ever since 1986′s Top Gun, music and the carefully-choreographed mayhem that happens on a carrier’s flight deck have gone together like peanut butter and chocolate. But if you thought such confections are limited to the U.S. Navy, you’d be wrong. Not only does China have a new carrier, with another on the way, it now has a video showing off some of what its existing flattop, the Liaoning, and its J-15 fighters can do. The video celebrates the 65th anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army Navy. It was produced by AVIC—the Aviation Industry Corporation of China—a state-owned aerospace and defense...

Finmeccanica is proposing that the OTO Melara 76mm gun be configured onto the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship as part of an effort to improve the lethality and survivability of the shallow-water , multi-mission vessel. The naval artillery piece would replace the existing 57mm weapon now on board the LCS, per the existing proposal, said Eric Lindenbaum, vice president of Navy and Maritime programs for DRS Technologies. OTO Melara and DRS Technologies are both subsidiaries for the Italian defense company, Finmeccanica SpA. Amidst an ongoing effort to develop alternative proposals for a new small surface combatant, Navy officials are busy exploring...

At the Sea-Air-Space 2014 Exposition, Huntington Ingalls Industries has on display its Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) concept ship. Based on the "Flight II" variant of the San Antonio LPD class, the BMD ship is Ingalls Industries vision of a surface platform dedicated to BMD missions. A single BMD ship could replace and accomplish ballistic missile defense missions of several Burke class destroyers allowing them to conduct their "traditional" missions. HII's BMD ship at Sea-Air-Space 2014 Speaking to Navy Recognition during Sea-Air-Space 2014, Mike Duthu (Director of LPD Program at Ingals Shipbuilding) explained the growth potential for a BMD configured LPD...

The Talk Shows March 30th, 2014 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Angus King, I-Maine; John Barrasso, R-Wyo.; Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; Michael Leiter, former White House adviser on counterterrorism.FACE THE NATION (CBS): NCAA President Mark Emmert; Michael Hayden, former head of the CIA and the National Security Agency; Michael Morrell, former deputy CIA director and member of NSA Surveillance Review Group; Cmdr. William J. Marks, U.S. Navy 7th Fleet, which is involved in the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines jet.THIS WEEK...

NORFOLK, VA. – A base spokeswoman says two people were killed in a shooting at Naval Station Norfolk. Terri Davis says the shooting happened around 11:20 p.m. Monday at Pier 1 on the base...

Unconfirmed news reports claim the Russian Navy is deploying land-based ‘Bastion’ anti-ship missile systems as a response to the recent U.S. move entering two naval vessels to the Black Sea. The two American Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Truxtun (DDG-103) crossed the Bosphorus Strait Friday, headed into the Black Sea, as tensions simmer over Ukraine’s Crimea region. The Russians also moved two naval combatants from the Mediterranean Task Force back to the Black Sea Fleet. Tension is mounting in the Crimea Peninsula with the preparations for a referendum on independence from Ukraine later this week. As of today, the Truxtun...

One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction. It’s time to tell a chunk of that story, complete with the relevant documents. Over the last several weeks, I worked with NBC News to publish a series of articles about “dirty trick” tactics used by GCHQ’s previously secret unit, JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group). These were based on four classified GCHQ documents presented to the NSA and the other three partners in...

Rejections by India and more recently Brazil – combined with the looming end to a multi-year procurement deal for the US Navy – mean that the pressure is mounting on Boeing to secure extra orders for its versatile Super Hornet. As things stand, the last F/A-18E/F or EA-18G Growler will roll off the line in St Louis, Missouri before the end of 2016, with the USN and Royal Australian Air Force the buyers so far. As you can read in my colleague Jon Hemmerdinger’s report on the situation, that’s not a major problem for the manufacturer for now, but Washington...

NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — The Navy’s Infrared Search and Track (IRST), a passive, long-range sensor that searches for and detects heat sources, successfully completed its first flight aboard an F/A-18 Super Hornet on Feb. 11, from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The system can simultaneously track multiple targets and provide a highly effective air-to-air targeting capability, even when encountering advanced threats equipped with radar-jamming technology. Because IRST is passive, unlike radar systems, it does not give off radiation and is harder to detect. “Adding an advanced infrared sensor to the Super Hornet broadens the Navy’s warfighting...

The Navy is working to make the Tomahawk missile a better bunker buster and allow it to distinguish targets on the move better. U.S. Central Command recently sponsored development and testing of a new, more penetrating Tomahawk warhead called the Joint Multiple Effects Warhead System, or JMEWS, according to Capt. Joe Mauser, Tomahawk program manager. Testing analyzed the ability of the programmable warhead to integrate onto the most advanced Block IV Tomahawk missile, a weapon which can loiter over targets, send back single frame images and change course in flight via a GPS guidance system. The JMEWS would give the...

The U.S. Navy is looking into developing a submarine-launched hypersonic missile as part of its conventional prompt global strike (CPGS) program. According to an Inside Defense article, the Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs office is soliciting proposals for “two-year industry trade studies to flesh out technology options and architecture for an intermediate-range conventional prompt global strike weapon.” The report said that the competition was part of the Defense Department’s “fiscal year 2014 plan to investigate a launcher, missile and glide body for a weapon with potential game-changing capabilities.” Top among these CPGS capabilities is to develop precision-guided ballistic missiles that can...

Groton, Conn. – While floating partially submerged in icy waters along a dock at a General Dynamics’ Electric Boat facility here, the Navy’s first Block III Virginia-Class attack submarine is being readied for sea-trials, certifications and delivery. As a key step prior to formally handing the boat over to the Navy to begin service, Electric Boat engineers and Navy professionals are testing the electronics, wiring, missile tubes and propulsion system on-board the submarine, among other things, said Kurt Hesch, vice president of Virginia-Class submarines, Electric Boat. The USS North Dakota, the first Block III Virginia-Class submarine slated for delivery, is...

Do you remember the image of the French Rafale combat planes aboard USS Truman in the Arabian Sea? Well, the Americans returned the visit with an F/A-18E Super Hornet landing on the French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle proving an interesting (and maybe useful?) interoperability between allied navies. Actually, the image above, released by the U.S. DoD does not show the VFA-37 Hornet landing on the French carrier, since no hook can be seen; the photo was probably shot as the aircraft performed a touch and go on the flattop before attempting an actual arrested landing.

The Office of the Secretary of Defense has instructed the Navy to reduce its planned buy of the new Littoral Combat Ship from 52 to 32 ships, substantially limiting the size and scope of the emerging multi-mission, shallow-water ship program, according to reports. Defense News cites a Jan. 6 memo from Acting Deputy Defense Secretary Christine Fox account announcing the decision pointing to budget guidance from the White House on some large acquisition decisions. Pentagon and Navy officials would not comment on the memo or the acquisition decision regarding LCS fleet size, citing budget deliberations as pre-decisional. “We continue to...

Review raises doubts about launch capacity, other vital systems in new vessel WASHINGTON — The US Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, a multibillion-dollar behemoth that is the first in a next generation of carriers, is beset with a number of performance problems, even failing tests of its ability to launch and recover combat jets, according to an internal assessment by the Pentagon. The early tests are raising worries that the USS Gerald R. Ford, christened in honor of the 38th president in November, may not meet the Navy’s goal of significantly increasing the number of warplanes it can quickly launch —...

What are we to make of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)? Over the past several months, several pieces of good news about the program have emerged. The Royal Netherlands Air Force [3] just became the second partner organization to operate the F-35. While new reports note a deal is not finalized, a South Korean purchase of the plane [4] looks likely and with Japan [5] [6]already committed the plane looks set to soar in Asian skies. Indeed, while several partners have reduced their commitment over the last year, none have backed out fully. The F-35 Lightning II...