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Original title:Marines May Deploy on Foreign Ships, Because U.S.Navy Doesn’t Have Enough The initiative is a stopgap way to deploy Marines aboard ships overseas until more American vessels are available, said Brig. Gen. Norman Cooling, deputy commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa. The Marines will be able to respond quickly to evacuate embassies or protect U.S. property and citizens, a need highlighted by the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador. “There’s no substitute for U.S. amphibious” vessels, Cooling said. “We’re looking at other options” in the meantime, he added. The Marines...

CORRECTION: This post has been updated to include a new statement from Naval Sea Systems Command that changes one previously given to USNI News revising the planned speed of hyper velocity projectile fired from a Mk 45 naval gun from Mach 5 to Mach 3. The U.S. Navy’s deck guns could take on new relevance if ongoing tests to fire a guided round at three times the speed of sound from their muzzles are successful, USNI News has learned. Using rounds initially designed for the service’s emerging electromagnetic railgun, Naval Sea Systems Command are now in early testing phases of...

During the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis (1995–96), United States naval dominance was demonstrated through the deployment of two carrier battle groups as a show of force within 100 miles of the Chinese mainland. Then-Secretary of Defense William Perry could state that while the Chinese “are a great military power, the premier—the strongest—military power in the Western Pacific is the United States.” Since then, there has been a steady encroachment on the U.S. Navy’s maritime dominance through the development of technologically advanced and increasingly effective anti- ship cruise missiles (ASCM). While American forces have been focused on irregular warfare operations over...

It's Memorial Day, and the forecast is for renewed mocking and derision regarding man-made climate change from the know-nothing, science-averse wing of the Republican Party. President Barack Obama's warning—issued during his commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduation ceremonies Wednesday—that climate change represents a national security threat seems certain to provoke that kind of stormy reaction.[SNIP]Among the Republicans running for president, climate change denial is the current mode of thinking for most....it's hard to see anyone in the crowd calling for military preparedness. Mostly, the candidates appear interested in sidestepping the topic (albeit in a disapproving manner)..The result...

February 22, 2008 Son of Star Wars takes out toxic satellite in $30m space hit Michael Evans, Defence Editor and Jane Macartney in Beijing Video need to know: expert opinion on the satellite operation The United States provided dramatic proof of its capability to destroy an object in space when a US navy missile scored a direct hit on an American satellite falling out of control. Missile experts said that the Standard SM-3 weapon, fired from the USS Lake Erie, a Ticonderoga-class cruiser, took about three minutes to reach the satellite 150 miles (240km) up in the sky, flew above...

The Navy needs new servers for its upgraded Aegis Combat System after the current IBM line was sold to Chinese computer maker Lenovo. The $2.1 billion sale closed in October and made Lenovo the number three server maker in the world. IBM shedding its server business creates a security concern for the U.S. Navy, which included the company’s x86 BladeCenter HT server in its Aegis Technical Insertion (TI) 12. The TI-12 hardware upgrades, along with Advanced Capability Build (ACB) 12 software upgrades, compose the Aegis Baseline 9 combat system upgrade that combines a ballistic missile defense capability with anti-air warfare...

Submarines are a lot like Batman, they are covered in rubber and are great fighters, but they are gadget toting stealth detectives at their core. Of the Navy’s sub force, there is no boat more capable at sleuthing under the high seas than the heavily modified Seawolf Class submarine, the USS Jimmy Carter SSN-23. The 12,150 ton displacement USS Jimmy Carter, whose namesake qualified in Submarines during his pre-Presidential naval career, is one of only three Seawolf Class submarines ever built. The Seawolfs are relics of the final stages of the Cold War and are the most lethal fast attack...

Iranian Warships Arrive Near Yemen Comes just days after U.S. announced it would send its own warships A fleet of Iranian warships arrived near the southern coast of Yemen on Wednesday in a move likely to add greater tension in a developing U.S.-Iranian standoff in the region, according Iranian military leaders. Just days after the United States announced it would send its own warships to Yemen in order to prevent Iran from smuggling weapons to terror forces fighting there, a flotilla of Iranian destroyers docked in the same area. Iran’s military moves are likely to increase tensions between the two...

A new paper by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace argues that India and the United States should collaborate on building New Delhi’s next Vikrant-class aircraft carrier, the 65,000 tons nuclear-powered INS Vishal, expected to enter service in the 2020s. “Working in concert to develop this vessel would not only substantially bolster India’s naval combat capabilities but would also cement the evolving strategic bond between the United States and India in a truly spectacular fashion for many decades to come,” Ashley J. Tellis, the author of the Carnegie study, underlines. In January 2015, both countries announced a joint working group...

The re-start of the DDG51 Arleigh Burke destroyer production line is moving forward with the launch of the first new Flight IIA vessel – John Finn (DDG 113) in March after a five-year gap. Speaking at Sea-Air-Space 2015, Cdr Seth Miller, the production manager of the DDG51 programme said that the launch took place at Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) shipyard on 28 March with the next ship, Ralph Johnson (DDG 114) due to be launched on 6 November. The keels of two more ships will also be laid down this year. Paul Ignatius (DDG 117) will be laid on 10...

To keep track of increasingly stealthy Russian, Chinese, and Iranian submarines, the U.S. is building a robotic ghost ship - an unmanned, autonomous patrol ship - to follow them around the high seas.

Two Saudi pilots ejected over the Red Sea on Friday after their fighter plane suffered a technical problem and were rescued with US assistance, state media said. "A plane of the F-15S type was stricken by a technical fault yesterday evening over the Red Sea and the two pilots were forced to use their rescue seats," state news agency SPA quoted a defense ministry official saying.

In 2013, the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet hinted at a mysterious and “newly discovered threat” to American warships. Whatever it was, it was serious — and had America’s admirals spooked. We knew the threat was probably a missile, because the Navy’s only mention of it was inside a contracting request for a new electronics countermeasures system designed for surface ships. The Navy awarded a $65-million contract to the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory to develop the system within a “critically short” time frame. Military & Aerospace Electronics, which first noticed the request, suggested that the threat was a radar-guided anti-ship missile from a...

X-47B UCAS Stealth and F/A-18 Super Hornet "Operations" "USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71)" HD

Unexpected victor ... The 30-year-old French nucler powered attack submarine Saphir. Source: Wikipedia Source: Supplied WITH a good submarine, a navy can do amazing things. Ask the French. They’ve just managed to “sink” a nuclear-powered US super carrier — and half its battle group. The French Ministry of Defence has revealed one of its attack submarines pulled of an astounding upset during recent war-games in the North Atlantic. The Aviationist blog spotted an article on the French defence force’s website — quickly withdrawn — which told how one of their submarines, the “Saphir” tackled the might of the United States’...

The US Air Force confirmed that the 20-year-old Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 13 (DMSP-F13) suffered a "catastrophic event". It shattered into 43 pieces following a sudden temperature spike which triggered the loss of its altitude control. The event happened on 3 February but the incident has only just came to light following questions from website Space News.

Raytheon's 155mm M982 Excalibur extended-range guided artillery shell is being shrunk down to fit into the Mark 45 five inch deck guns that are deployed aboard the Navy's Cruisers and Destroyers. This miniaturized sea-going Excalibur, known as the N5, could triple the range of current five inch shells and offer pinpoint 'danger close' fire support like never before.

Many critics have assailed the Littoral Combatant Ship (LCS) program for its high cost in comparison with foreign, supposedly better armed and equipped equivalents. The Danish Iver Huitfeldt and Absalon class frigates are often cited as examples of cheaper, more capable small combatants in comparison with LCS. These claims are not well researched and are based on isolated points of data rather than any systemic analysis. Other nations may be able to build relatively cheap warships, but hidden factors not discussed by critics, rather than U.S. shipbuilding and general acquisition deficiencies make this possible. The Danish Navy, in conjunction with...

Navy photographer Ignacio Perez likes to shoot landscapes but never dreamed he'd shoot an amazing one on the deck of an aircraft carrier. But on Tuesday around 10:30 a.m., as the USS John C. Stennis cruised in the Pacific Ocean, he got the shot of a lifetime: the 115,000-ton, 1,100-foot-long warship steaming through a rainbow. "As a photographer I am used to documenting operational events like aircraft launches and recoveries," Perez, a 21-year-old mass communications specialist third class, said in an email. "But when I saw the rainbow I was excited because it was different. I knew the odds of...

First, they tried an F-104. “Not enough wing or thrust,” recalls Jack Petry, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel. When NASA engineers were launching rockets at Florida’s Cape Canaveral in the 1960s, they needed pilots to fly close enough to film the missiles as they accelerated through Mach 1 at 35,000 feet. Petry was one of the chosen. And the preferred chase airplane was the McDonnell F-4 Phantom. “Those two J79 engines made all the difference,” says Petry. After a Mach 1.2 dive synched to the launch countdown, he “walked the [rocket’s] contrail” up to the intercept, tweaking closing speed...