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From its inception, the Littoral Combat Ship, or LCS, has been one of the Navy’s most controversial procurement programs. Questions have been continuously raised about its costs, survivability, lethality, and range limitations.

Accountability matters, especially in the military — and the US Navy just delivered some internal accountability for the capture of sailors by Iran. NBC, ABC, and other news agencies report that the Navy has “fired” Commander Eric Rasch, the executive officer of the sailors in the embarrassing January incident. This reverses the promotion Rasch got while the investigation took place, and will end any hopes he has for promotion: The Navy has fired the commander of the 10 American sailors who entered Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf and were captured and held by Iran for about 15 hours.In...

The US Navy will wrap up developmental free flight testing of the datalink-equipped Boeing Harpoon Block II+ sea-skimming, anti-ship missile next week, ahead of fielding on the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet sometime between June and August of 2017. The latest variant of the 45-year-old Harpoon weapon type expands on the satellite-aided navigation system introduced in Block II by adding a datalink radio ported across from the C-1 variant of Raytheon's AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) for in-flight retargeting against enemy surface vessels in cluttered coastal regions. The Harpoon missile successfully struck its first ship target during a test in December 1971,...

Things aren’t going too well with our new BFF (best friend forever) on the Persian block, Iran. What a surprise. You mean, signing a nuclear deal that gives one of the craziest regimes in world history a green light to manufacture nuclear weapons, while also providing 150 billion in funds for the madmen of Teheran to purchase armaments isn’t going according to plan. Shocking, absolutely shocking… Things aren’t going well because the Iranians are more than aware that the President of the United States is a gutless twerp and his chief international diplomat, Secretary of State, John Kerry is a...

This is one of the best pictures of the new USS Zumwalt destroyer yet. width=1000> There she is on her second (very successful) US Navy acceptance trials and will soon be turnd over to the US Navy soon. They will put her through her paces for the next 18 or more months before commissioning in late 2017 or so. Beautiful and very powerful, modern vessel. The second will launch soon. See my Flickr Album on this Ship for much more information

Sunday, May 08, 2016 The Betrayal of the USS Cole Posted by Daniel Greenfield On Thursday morning, sailors on board the USS Cole were lining up for an early lunch. Seventeen of them died as an Al Qaeda bomb on board a fishing boat tore through the hull outside the galley. The dead included 15 men and 2 women, one of whom had a young child. For three weeks the crew of the USS Cole struggled to keep their ship from sinking while working waist deep in water with bucket brigades, sleeping on the deck and living surrounded by the...

The valorous dead of the USS Cole have been betrayed too many times to count by each administration On Thursday morning, sailors on board the USS Cole were lining up for an early lunch. Seventeen of them died as an Al Qaeda bomb on board a fishing boat tore through the hull outside the galley. The dead included 15 men and 2 women, one of whom had a young child. For three weeks the crew of the USS Cole struggled to keep their ship from sinking while working waist deep in water with bucket brigades, sleeping on the deck and...

Iran’s leaders voiced outrage this week — and even threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz — following a Republican congressman’s proposed legislation seeking a stronger response to Tehran’s recent provocative actions against the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf, including the capture of ten Navy sailors in January. A senior Revolutionary Guard commander threatened to shut down the entrance to the Persian Gulf, where one-third of the world’s oil exports passes each day, after learning about Virginia Rep. Randy Forbes’ bill. The bill, coming in response to an incident earlier this year in which the Iranian National Guard...

From the article: Keating “was struck by direct fire, and although he was medevaced within the all-important golden hour, his wound was not survivable,” Warren said. “No other coalition or American forces were injured, though both medevac helicopters were damaged by small arms fire.”

A U.S. Navy SEAL killed in combat in Iraq was based in Coronado, California, NBC 7 San Diego has confirmed. "It is a combat death," Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters in Germany Tuesday. Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said the SEAL was killed near Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city that has been in the hands of ISIS militants since 2014, according to The Associated Press.

Obama Frees USS Cole Bombing Terrorist American lives don’t matter. May 2, 2016 Daniel Greenfield    Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. On Thursday morning, sailors on board the USS Cole were lining up for an early lunch. Seventeen of them died as an Al Qaeda bomb on board a fishing boat tore through the hull outside the galley. The dead included 15 men and 2 women, one of whom had a young child. For three weeks the crew of the USS Cole struggled to keep...

< An U.S. Navy picture shows what appears to be a Russian Sukhoi SU-24 attack aircraft flying over the USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea. The repeated flights by the Sukhoi SU-24 warplanes, which also flew near the ship a day earlier, were so close they created wake in the water, with 11 passes, the official said. REUTERS/US Navy

An arm of the House Armed Service Committee wants Reagan-era spending for the Navy, even as the service seeks to shed ships and aircraft amid potential defense budget cuts down the road. The Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee wants to hike shipbuilding to $20.6 billion — $2.3 billion more than the Obama administration’s budget request, according to a subcommittee markup of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act released Tuesday in Washington. The markup calls for more of everything — from ships to missiles — and faster production of carriers and submarines. The subcommittee’s recommendations remain far from enactment. The full...

The US Navy has taken three torpedoes to its bow and is going down. These are trying times for the US Navy. It seems that every two weeks or so there is some crisis engulfing the once proud, competent and steadfast organization that used to be a bedrock of the nation’s defense. The performance and conduct of the US Navy lately has seemed like something emanating from a Third World, Banana Republic coastal defense force; heavy on medals and light on brains, skills and tenacious fighting spirit. Two days ago the USS Donald Cook was taunted and embarrassed by Russian...

In the Navy, you can sail the seven seas The future USS Portland is already in the water, but it has yet to be commissioned. The ceremony to do so was scheduled to be held in Pascagoula, Mississippi at the end of May, but then the state decided to put its hatred, its bigotry, and its antiquated notions about the 1st Amendment on display. Since we’re a hyper-sensitive society that subsists on faux-outrage, we can’t tolerate any of that “religious freedom” nonsense. Super-important dignitaries refused to attend, so the Navy has determined that the christening simply had to be moved.

Thumbing their noses If you’ve been watching the news over the course of the last 24-48 hours, you’ve no doubt seen the reports about Russian SU-24 attack planes buzzing the USS Donald Cook (DDG-75). This happened first on Monday, then again on Tuesday. At least one of the so-called “simulated attacks” saw the Russian fighters fly just 30 feet above the ship. If you haven’t seen the footage, here you go: The question is: Why would Putin do this? The answer is: “Because he can.”

The Navy will become the first branch of the military to require big vendors to report their greenhouse gas emissions and to outline what they are doing to lower them in response to global warming. "We've got skin in this game," Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told a technology conference on government and climate change on Tuesday, noting that the Navy's fleet is the military's largest user of fossil fuels. The Navy will not immediately begin implementing the requirements, which could cut off vendors from receiving contracts unless they comply.

As the Obama administration this week named another warship after a politician, a new report is circulating in Congress that shows that nearly 200 Navy and Marine Corps Medal of Honor recipients have never been awarded such an honor, contrary to naval guidelines and tradition. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who has named several ships after Democrats and liberal activists not connected to the military, was in Detroit on Monday to announce that an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer will be named the USS Carl M. Levin. The Michigan Democrat served 31 years in the Senate and chaired the Senate Armed Services...

A Navy officer assigned to a maritime reconnaissance unit has been charged with espionage and attempted espionage, according to charging documents. The officer was arrested approximately eight months ago, but the details of his case were first made public Friday at a preliminary court hearing that will determine whether the case will proceed to a court martial. The unidentified officer is currently assigned to Commander Patrol and Reconnaissance Group, a maritime patrol and reconnaissance unit in Norfolk that provides airborne anti-submarine warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance using P-8A Poseidon aircraft, P-3 Orion aircraft and MQ-4 unmanned aircraft. A U.S....

First Female Recruits Issued 'Dixie Cup' Covers at RTC