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While military aircraft boneyards are nothing new, the YouTube display of the hulks of some ex-Navy fighters in an undeveloped area of Temple, Texas, may be causing some concerns at the Pentagon. A video has emerged of the scattered remains of two F-14 Tomcats and an F-4 Phantom. The aircraft have been stripped of just about everything that can be carried away but exactly how they ended up on private property is the subject of much online speculation. According to a Google Earth image, there is a scrap metal dealer nearby but the aircraft parts are not in their yard....

Austal USA frigate design. Austal USA image THE PENTAGON – The Navy is considering increasing its future frigate’s anti-air firepower and may open up the frigate design competition to hulls beyond the current two small surface combatant , the service told USNI News on Wednesday. An ongoing study will balance the original frigate requirements – to up-gun the existing Littoral Combat Ship designs with additional anti-surface and anti-submarine capabilities – with the desire for anti-air firepower equivalent to a guided-missile frigate. The study, set to be completed this spring, will also evaluate other design beyond the Lockheed Martin Freedom-variant (LCS-1)...

Leave it to MSNBC anchor and serial liar Brian Williams to step in it on night of breaking news. On Thursday night after the U.S. military fired over 50 missiles at a Syrian military base, Williams whined about the cost of the missiles and complained that it endangered Americans. Williams was speaking to NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel when he suggested they “look at it in brass tax terms” because “we just spent $30 million tonight.” Additionally, he complained that the operation “endangered in launching these things, as you know, every time one of these clears the tube...

At the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space 2017 exposition currently held near Washington D.C., Austal USA rolled out an updated LCS Frigate design called the "Austal Frigate". The main modifications consist in a slightly shortened flight deck in order to fit anti-ship missile launchers and a variable depth sonar in order to add capabilities to the ship's aft. The new Austal Frigate features a redesigned stern to add capabilities to the ship's aft. According to Austal USA, the Austal Frigate possesses increased lethality and high-speed shallow draft multi-mission combatant capabilities on a seaframe nearly identical to the Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship. This...

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD — Boeing is working to help the Navy resolve the strike fighter shortfall through three programs for its F/A-18 Super Hornets and is offering a substantial increase in the fighter’s capability with a Block III upgrade, a company official said April 4. In a significant shift in tone, the officials who briefed reporters at the Navy League’s 2017 Sea-Air-Space Exposition talked about the Super Hornet providing “complementary capabilities” to the Lockheed Martin F-35s. Recently, Boeing officials have been describing the Super Hornets as a cheaper alternative to the fifth-generation Lightning II. The initial effort to close the...

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has raised a few eyebrows with some of the names he has picked for naval ships. Why, critics questioned, would he name a ship in honor of the late gay rights leader Harvey Milk or after former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords when there are plenty of military heroes to choose from?

"President Donald Trump's nominee for Navy secretary, Philip Bilden, has withdrawn his name from consideration. Bilden said in a statement he informed Defense Secretary James Mattis of his decision."...

Congressional panel directs Navy to rescind policy barring 'sectarian' prayers A Navy chaplain court-martialed for wearing his uniform during a public event in which he prayed in Jesus' name is declaring victory after a congressional conference committee agreed on a compromise rescinding a Navy policy that barred "sectarian" prayers. "This is a tremendous victory for religious liberty," said Lt. Gordon James Klingenschmitt in an interview with WND. "Chaplains are free again to pray in Jesus name." The conferees, working out differences between House and Senate versions of the Defense Appropriation Act, are directing the secretary of the Navy to rescind...

Chief Special Warfare Operator William “Ryan” Owens, 36, of Peoria, Ill., died after he was wounded during a nighttime raid on an al-Qaeda-held village in southwestern Yemen on Saturday.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The extended-range (ER) Block II+ version of Boeing’s AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship cruise missile will be fired in test shots this year, a Boeing official said. The Block II+ER features an upgraded fuel system and a better warhead that enable it to achieve twice the range — at least 130 nautical miles — of a Block 1C version, the missile currently in the operational inventory. The upgrades fit inside the existing missile airframe, allowing the Navy to avoid the cost of more separation testing. The existing Block 1C missiles can be upgraded to the Block II+ER configuration. Troy...

When last we heard from the USS Zumwalt, the Navy had admitted that the brand-new stealth destroyer couldn't fire because its custom ammo was too expensive. Now, the service may have settled on a replacement to get the vessel and its brethren back in business. The U.S. Navy says its Zumwalt-class destroyers, state-of-the-art ships designed to bombard targets on land, could be equipped with the Excalibur precision-guided artillery round originally developed for land forces. The three Zumwalt-class land attack destroyers were designed around the Advanced Gun System (AGS). The 155-millimeter AGS gun, paired with the brand-new Long Range Land Attack...

The ‘Independence’-class Littoral Combat Ship USS ‘Coronado’ in October 2016. U.S. Navy photo The Navy’s $29 billion Littoral Combat Ship program provides a step-by-step case study in acquisition failures and the costs and risks of unacceptable levels of concurrency. Its design requirements were poorly conceived, the manpower planning was wildly unrealistic, Navy leadership and program managers repeatedly circumvented acquisition rules — increasing concurrency and cost risk — and production was approved despite poor and rushed analysis. Production milestones were approved despite glaring program failures. Moreover, the program is an example of how unwilling Congress is to step in and hold defense acquisition programs accountable....

ABOARD THE CHARLES DE GAULLE — U.S. Navy Lt. Osbaldo walked through the catapult spaces beneath the flight deck, shaking hands with every present member of his French crew, a morning routine he’s grown accustomed to since attaching to the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. Today, he’s ensuring his catapult and arresting gear systems are in perfect operational condition for the launch and landing of aircraft supporting the U.S-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. Elsewhere on the ship, four other Americans are also adapting to the customs and courtesies of serving on a French...

The goal of the job title review Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus initiated back in January is to make women feel more included now that they have access to all combat roles, but the reason midshipman will remain in its current state is because the name is a rank stipulated by the law, Capital Gazette reports. . . . In late September, the Navy announced that it was ditching historic job titles and revamping the entire system, in effect removing an element that made the Navy unique from other services in the military. . . . Sailors have reacted...

It was an emotional homecoming for dozens of Pearl Harbor survivors and WWII veterans at Honolulu International Airport Saturday afternoon. Live bands, hula dancers and other military servicemen and women gathered around Gate 18 to help welcome our nation's bravest. "I just want thank them for their time and what they've done to sacrifice for this nation," said Joshua Carmack, USN Chief Petty Officer. Each hero was escorted from the plane down an isle of hugs, handshakes and aloha. American Airlines sponsored the round-trip 75th Pearl Harbor Commemoration Flight, from Los Angeles to Honolulu, which hosted approximately 120 Pearl Harbor...

It’s been rough sailing for the U.S. Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship. The speedy, warship has come under fire for being lightly-armed, weakly-built, undermanned, and prone to rusting—and yet, at the same time, way too expensive. And in recent months, four of the 400-foot-long warships—half of the Littoral Combat Ships currently in commission—have suffered serious engine breakdowns, possible signs of systemic problems with the ship’s design and operating procedures. As if that weren’t enough for the beleaguered vessel, David Giles, a prominent ship-designer, is accusing the Navy of stealing his concepts for a high-speed cargo ship and illegally applying them...

DENVER -- Thousands saw a plane circling the Denver metro area late Wednesday morning, questioning where it may have come from and what it may be doing. Officials at a host of federal organizations had few answers. Denver7 began tracking a flight named IRON99 as it traversed from California over the pacific. It traveled over the Rocky Mountains and eventually over the Denver metro area. Its arrival over the Denver metro is what prompted questions from a host of locals who saw it circling, questioning what it might have been doing. Visually, the plane circled in a racetrack-style oval shape...

A routine training flight by the U.S. Navy’s E-6B Mercury “doomsday plane” captured the attention of sky-watchers this week in Colorado. The four-engine command-and-control plane based on Boeing Co.’s 707 airliner on Wednesday took off from Travis Air Force Base in California and circled over Denver before continuing on to Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. It was apparently the hour-long racetrack holding pattern that turned the heads. “Did you see this today?” a newscaster at the KMGH, the local ABC affiliate, asked during a broadcast. “There was this plane just circling the metro, circling and circling, and many of...

The Zumwalt class stealth destroyer has become a floating example of just how miserably bastardized major defense acquisition programs can get. Now that the news has broke that the ship’s twin Advanced Gun Systems (AGS) won’t even have any ammunition to fire, because each shell costs nearly a million dollars, the Navy should quickly take another, highly proven route to replace the AGS mission set, and even expand it in the process. One of the shining technological stars of recent military operations abroad is the Army’s and the Marine’s High Mobility Mobile Rocket Artillery System, better known as HiMARS. The...

Roy D. Mercer prank phone call to a Navy Recruiter. Roy D. Mercer is a fictional character created by disc jockeys Brent Douglas and Phil Stone on radio station KMOD-FM in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Brent Douglas, who performs Mercer's voice, uses the character as a vehicle for comedy sketches in which he performs prank calls. (Video)