Free Republic

The destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile has been completed, Barack Obama has said. The US President welcomed the development, but said Washington would seek to ensure Damascus fulfils all its commitments. "Today we mark an important achievement in our ongoing effort to counter the spread of weapons of mass destruction by eliminating Syria's declared chemical weapons stockpile," he said. He added that the destruction, carried out aboard a US Navy ship on the Mediterranean Sea, sent "a clear message that the use of these abhorrent weapons has consequences and will not be tolerated by the international community".

The last decade has seen some pretty awesome looking warships hit waters around the globe. On the "blue water" side of things the Star Wars looking Zumwalt Class and the minimalist art-like Lafayette Class were clearly designed with stealth in mind. Yet the "brown water" is where the most exotic vessels roam, and this is precisely where the X3K was born to fight. An Indonesian Combat Trimaran Designed In Sweden The X3K was built by Indonesian-based Swedish boat builder North Sea Boats, and designed in part by renowned exotic boat builder LOMOcean Design LTD. The goal was to build a...

Some folks question why the U.S. Navy would need such exotic weapons as the Phalanx and SeaRAM systems, or even electromagnetic rail guns. These Russian-made, radar-guided anti-ship missiles are two such reasons. The P-270 Moskit and P-800 Oniks have caused so much consternation that the Navy has begun developing a helicopter-based electronic warfare system—the Advanced Offboard Electronic Warfare (AOEW)—to defend against the threat. Both are ramjet-propelled cruise missiles, both carry 550 to 710 pounds of high explosive in their warheads, and neither is one you want to see streaking towards your ship.

Arab and other allied countries have carried out only around 10 per cent of the nearly 2,000 air raids against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria since early August, US defence officials said on Monday. US warplanes have conducted 1,768 air strikes since August 8, while other coalition aircraft have carried about 195 air raids against the IS jihadists, defence officials said, citing a tally through to Sunday. The numbers, which for the first time shed light on the participation of Arab coalition partners, reflect the dominant role of the US military in the air campaign. But Pentagon...

The US Navy announced it plans to acquire a Gulfstream G550 modified to carry the conformal airborne early warning system (CAEW), to be used as ‘range support aircraft’, replacing P-3 and C-130 based radar carrying aircraft. The Navy will take delivery no later than the end of fiscal 2017. The US Navy will become the system’s fourth customer, following orders from the Israeli Air Force, Republic of Singapore Air Force and the Italian Air Force. The aircraft is designed to host as multiple telemetry links supporting L, S and C bands supporting different telemetry test equipment and command destruct and...

The U.S. Coast Guard has confirmed Huntington Ingalls will not be building its new fleet of Offshore Patrol Cutters -- and great is the lamentation in Newport News, Va. Huntington Ingalls won't get to build a new Offshore Patrol Cutter for the Coast Guard. But its National Security Cutter just might fit Navy needs for a new Small Surface Combatant. Photo: Huntington Ingalls . For years, Huntington Ingalls has been the Coast Guard's go-to builder for building its multiple coastal and deepwater patrol vessels . News that Huntington didn't even make the short list in February, however -- and that...

The new ship appears to be different from any other PLA replenishment ship. Photos: cjdby.net The Chinese military may be building a new type of resupply ship, according newly surfaced photos, as the countryÂ’s navy seeks to shore up its ocean-going capabilities. The half-finished PeopleÂ’s Liberation Army (PLA) ship was photographed anchored at a harbour, identified as the Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI), in about two dozen pictures published at the weekend on cjdby.net, an influential military forum in China. The website is known as an unofficial outlet of rare images of some of the PLAÂ’s latest weapons and caters to...

"Now may be the time to break up the nuclear monopoly." "Underway on nuclear power", radioed the skipper of USS Nautilus in 1955, after taking history's first nuclear-powered attack submarine to sea for the first time. Nautilus's maiden cruise left an indelible imprint on the navy. Her success, cheered on by the likes of Admiral Hyman Rickover, the godfather of naval nuclear propulsion, helped encode the supremacy of atomic power in the submarine force's cultural DNA. Things were never the same after that. America built its last diesel-electric sub, once the state of the art, not long after Nautilus took...

WASHINGTON — The Navy is scheduled to conduct a live-fire demonstration of a Kongsberg-built Naval Strike Missile (NSM) aboard the littoral combat ship USS Coronado (LCS 4) while underway in the Pacific Ocean Sept. 24, a Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman announced in a Sept. 18 release. The Kongsberg NSM is a long-range precision-strike missile designed to be launched from a variety of ships against a variety of targets. This demonstration is intended to test the capabilities of the Norwegian-made missile from a sea-based platform against a Mobile Ship Target (MST) and provide insights into the weapon’s stated capabilities of...

Modifying the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter is part of what the U.S. Navy wants to discuss with contractors in a series of “technical interchange meetings” before it develops an analysis of alternatives (AoA) for a future carrier-based strike fighter. In a September 9 solicitation, the Naval Air Systems Command (Navair) invited companies to participate in the meetings “for the purposes of trade space refinement” before it begins the AoA process next year. Navair said the solicitation is an addendum to the request for information (RFI) it issued in April 2012 for the FA-XX requirement to replace the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet...

Okay. I'm not sure how I missed the updates/reports other than the fact that they appear not to have been posted here at FR. Principal source link is the PDF report to Congress in regards to a prior post here:("Final Report to the Congressional Defense Committees in Response to the Joint Explanatory Statement Accompanying the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2014, page 90, “Radiation Exposure” "). (link will open/download the PDF) An update on the USS Ronald Reagan crew lawsuit re their mysterious illnesses in the wake of Operation Tomodachi is here: ("USS Reagan Sailors’ Lawsuit Found ‘Lacking’ Nuclear Expert...

MOBILE, Alabama -- It's judgment day for the littoral combat ship. The July 31 deadline has passed for a task force of U.S. Navy officials to collect information for a new or improved small surface combatant. In a released statement the Navy said it will begin reviewing the preliminary findings that will decide the future of the littoral combat ship, or whether to replace it. "Because the task force alternatives will be considered as part of (the fiscal year 2016 budget) deliberations, the Navy will not comment publicly on the report's findings until budget decisions within the defense department are...

U.S. naval ship vendors could learn a thing or two from the French, as they’ve thus far fought off extensive American efforts to intrude on France’s niche market in small surface combatants. It’s almost embarrassing. Despite American efforts to sell the Littoral Combat Ship, the French Gowind-Class corvette “family of ships” has quietly taken big bites out of the LCS’s international market. With the Gowind ships, France has simply out-hustled the LCS program, picking up two big orders from Malaysia and Egypt–and DCNS is actively looking to seize other key markets. The United States should take a good long look...

ARLINGTON, Va. — A small company is offering to the Navy a small, high-speed craft that it says can take on some of the missions of the littoral combat ship (LCS) in regional operations. The Ghost, a small waterplane-area twin-hull (SWATH) craft designed by Juliet Marine Systems Inc. of Portsmouth, N.H., has been tested in prototype form at sea and has been demonstrated to potential customers, including the U.S. Navy, said Greg Sancoff, chief executive officer of Juliet Marine. The Ghost is designed to perform anti-surface (ASUW) and antisubmarine warfare (ASW) and mine countermeasures (MCM), the three intended roles of...

The US Navy's second Independence-class littoral combat ship (LCS) Coronado (LCS 4) is set to test launch Kongsberg's naval strike missile (NSM) off Point Mugu, Southern California, US, in September. Marking the first firing of a surface-to-surface missile from an LCS, the upcoming trial follows the successful launch of the NSM from the Norwegian frigate Fridtjof Nansen during RIMPAC exercises. NAVSEA spokesperson lieutenant Kurt Larson was quoted by the NavyTimes as saying: "The planned September live-firing demonstration aboard USS Coronado (LCS 4) of the naval strike missile under the foreign comparative testing programme will test the ship's feasibility to execute...

We sat at the end of the runway, our F-14's GE-110 motors humming, awaiting our clearance to begin what would be the last F-14 Demonstration ever. The Air Boss's voice crackled over the radio: "Tomcat Demo, you're cleared to five miles and 15k feet. The air show box is yours" At that very moment, I distinctly remember what my Commanding Officer told us before the show: "Fellas, make it a memorable one… just not too memorable!" LCDR Joe "Smokin" Ruzicka was the Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) to fly the last F-14 Demonstration before the Tomcat's final demise in 2006. Commander...

Five months after the first pictures surfaced in February 2014, the Type 055 cruiser testing rig at Wuhan has taken significant steps towards completion. The advantages of a land based test rig allow Chinese naval engineers to make cheaper adjustments and modifications to the electronics, compared to rebuilding an expensive cruiser on sea trials. Once launched, the Type 055 cruiser will be among the world's most powerful surface combatant warships, giving the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) a multipurpose warship useful for both blue water expeditionary warfare and anti-access/area denial missions. While much scaffolding remains, the photos show recent additions...

Navy Recognition has learned that the U.S. Navy is beginning environmental and integration analysis of the UK’s combat proven Dual Mode Brimstone missile for F/A-18 Super Hornets. This activity is funded and being managed by the US Navy. Additionally, two recent positive reports from committees of the U.S Congress have expanded the funding in Fiscal Year 2015 by $10M for Dual Mode Brimstone on F/A-18s and asked for the Secretary of Defense’s views on dual mode missile technology. This news is matched by the UK MOD funding BAE Systems 5M British Pounds to begin an integration analysis of Dual Mode...

Missile Has a Range Exceeding 150 Nautical Miles, and is Designed to be Difficult to Spot by Radar FARNBOROUGH, England— Raytheon Co. RTN +0.64% is teaming up with Norways's Kongsberg Gruppen AS KOG.OS -0.73% A to build a new anti-ship weapon as it deepens its battle with Lockheed Martin Corp. LMT +0.50% in the market to sell high-end missiles to the Pentagon. Kongsberg is developing the Joint Strike Missile for use with Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to attack ships and land targets from great distance. Under the deal being announced today at the Farnborough air show, Raytheon will...

Undermanned and overworked crews can’t keep Littoral Combat Ships running Did you ever work a job that required two people, but your stingy employer insisted that one was enough? Then you understand the problem with the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship. One of the LCS’s supposed advantages is its much smaller crew compared to other vessels. Where a Navy frigate might have 200 sailors, the frigate-size LCS has just 40—although, to be fair, two different 40-person crews take turns running the ship. LCS is a jack-of-all-trades warship that can carry different modules for various missions—anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare or mine-hunting. The...