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U.S. Navy sailors in Japan can say goodbye to their sake. Following an alleged drunk driving incident by a 21-year-old Petty Officer 2nd Class Aimee Mejia, the Navy announced Monday that drinking alcohol would be banned for all 19,000 personnel in Japan. Imbibing will be banned both on and off base, and sailors will no longer be able to freely leave their bases. Leaving base grounds will be allowed only for running necessary errands, or commuting from an off-base home. "These measures are not taken lightly," said Rear Adm. Matthew Carter. "For decades, we have enjoyed a strong relationship with...

The US Navy has started to receive its first power pulse modules, in container form, to power its experimental particle railgun, the Raytheon Company said in a press release on Monday. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Raytheon's pulse power container design was developed for a $10 million contract with Naval Sea Systems Command to develop a pulsed power system, which will enable land or sea-based projectiles to reach great distances without the use of an explosive charge or rocket motor, the release added. US missile defense © Flickr/ U.S. Missile Defense Agency Reliance on Kinetic Missile Defense Systems Puts US at Disadvantage...

<p>As China continues to posture in the South China Sea, tensions rise between China, Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and other regional powers such as Japan and India.</p> <p>At the defense blog War is Boring, US Naval War College Professor James Holmes discusses recent developments in the South China Sea and the risk of regional conflict.</p>

Long forgotten, private color film of the actual attack on Pearl Harbor

Two F/A-18 fighters crashed Thursday off the coast of North Carolina, defense officials told Fox News. The Coast Guard said four people were recovered and have been rushed to a hospital,...

Documents show that slain Navy Seal and “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle misrepresented the number of medals he received. Navy documents obtained by an online magazine through an open records request show that Kyle earned one Silver Star and three Bronze Stars with valor. In his best-selling book, Kyle wrote that he had received two Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars. A Navy spokeswoman confirmed the validity of the documents and says the armed services branch is investigating the discrepancy. The Intercept first reported the discrepancy and posted the documents. Kyle’s widow, Taya Kyle, didn’t immediately return a phone call...

SHIMA, Japan (AP) - President Barack Obama said Wednesday he plans to use his historic visit to Hiroshima with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to reflect on the suffering of war and the need to take steps to prevent it. Abe said he had no plans to reciprocate Obama's gesture by paying his own visit to Pearl Harbor. Obama's opened his trip to Japan with much intrigue about his upcoming stop in the city where the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb. But that first-ever visit by a sitting American president was caught up in the controversy in Japan over...

Capt. James Kirk just got the keys to the baddest ship in the fleet -- U.S. Navy's fleet, not Starfleet. The ship is the future USS Zumwalt, the first of the Navy's newest class of destroyers, and contractor General Dynamics turned it over to the Navy on Friday at Bath Iron Works in Maine. The ship will be commissioned -- and officially become the USS Zumwalt -- on October 15 in Baltimore. Until then, Capt. Kirk (U.S. Navy, not United Federation of Planets) and his crew will test the ship's array of futuristic systems.

General Dynamics Bath Iron Works delivered the first Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyer to the Navy on Friday, Naval Sea Systems Command announced. The delivery of the 16,000-ton Zumwalt (DDG-1000) optimized for stealth and operations close to shore follows last month’s successful acceptance trials of the ship overseen by the service’s Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV), Navy officials told USNI News. INSURV evaluated the ship’s hull, mechanical and engineering (HM&E) systems during the underway testing period last month. “Zumwalt’s crew has diligently trained for months in preparation of this day and they are ready and excited to take charge of...

<p>Navy Secretary Ray Mabus says in a letter that he has the power to name warships as he chooses, in response to a former Marine and congressman who charges he has politicized the process.</p> <p>Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican and House Armed Services Committee member, wrote Mr. Mabus to question the naming of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer after former Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.</p>

In January, two US Navy high speed Riverine boats were apparently underway from Bahrain to Kuwait when they strayed into Iranian waters, while attempting to contact a vessel to refuel. The Pentagon first said that they had engine trouble. Yet, if that was the case, why didn’t the other boat tow the boat with mechanical problems to international waters and safety? Then, the Pentagon said that they had navigational issues. How is this possible in 2016, with each boat having an array of GPS and radar equipment? Even if one boat’s systems completely shut down, couldn’t they rely on the...

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.”