Free Republic

The military has canceled the deposition of an alleged terrorist mastermind who claimed that he was assaulted by the military following his capture last year. The law firm Puckett and Faraj, representing Navy SEAL Matthew McCabe, made the announcement on Sunday. Major General Charles Cleveland, the convening authority for the upcoming special courts-martial for three of the Navy SEALs involved in the operation, has decided to cancel the trip to Iraq to depose Ahmed Hashim Abed. Since the SEALs have a Constitutional right to confront their accuser in court, the alleged terrorist's statements won't be used as evidence for the...

The U.S. Navy has sped up its efforts to ready its X-47B UCAS (Unmanned Combat Aerial System), for carrier operations. This includes an additional $2 billion for development, in an attempt to have the X-47B demonstrating the ability to regularly operate from a carrier, and perform combat (including reconnaissance and surveillance) operations, within five years. Senior admirals see this as a way to solve several problems. One is the dominance of the U.S. Air Force in UAV operations (with their fleet of Predator, Reaper and Global Hawk UAVs). Then there is the growing cost of the new F-35, that is...

USS Freedom (LCS 1), the Navy's first littoral combat ship, is underway off the coast of Florida for final training and certification prior to its maiden deployment to the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) region. Counter-illicit trafficking (CIT), damage control, and systems training began soon after Freedom's arrival at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., on Jan. 25. "This training is extremely important for Freedom and will help us prepare for the CIT mission we expect to perform while in the 4th Fleet area of operations," said Lt. Cmdr. Mark West of Imperial Beach, Calif., operations officer for the Gold Crew, one of...

The Navy is willing to make trade-offs to pay for its strategic decision to move a nuclear aircraft carrier to Florida, according Rear Adm. Bill Burke, who ran the Navy’s portion of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). Burke told reporters this week that the QDR, a sweeping review of military strategy and capability, reached the same decision the Navy reached a year ago, because it makes “good sense.” It also made “good sense” at the highest levels of the Pentagon, Burke added. To pay for the move, the Navy could have to make some tough financial decisions down the line....

In a time of shrinking budgets, the U.S. Navy is making a big investment in intelligence. While plans to buy over a hundred P-8A maritime reconnaissance aircraft, and nearly as many EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft are obvious intel efforts, less obvious are the big buys of LCS (Littoral Combat Ship) class vessels and Virginia class attack subs (SSNs). These ships and subs are expected to do a lot of intel work. The LCS, mainly because it is optimized for coastal work, and quick changes in its mission equipment. Since the end of the Cold War, it's become more widely known...

The U.S. Navy and Air Force are beginning to work out the details of a joint battle concept given high priority in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). “We felt the two services ought to get together and pool our capabilities against anti-access threats across a range of operations,” Rear Adm. William Burke, director of the Naval Integration Group for the QDR, told reporters Feb. 4 at the Pentagon. “We want to see if we can do things better, more efficiently and effectively.” Burke noted the two services have a range of complementary capabilities worth expanding. Synergy is “probably the...

Navy "Corpse-men" everywhere ask: Where's the Mainstream Media? Remember the 1992 Presidential campaign, when then-Vice President Dan Quayle was visiting a Trenton elementary school and was holding spelling flash cards as children were spelling the words on a blackboard in front of him? During this exercise, a 12-year old student wrote his given word, "potato" on the blackboard. As the Vice President checked the flash card containing the word, he informed the student that "he was close, but left a little something off; the "e" on the end." The student, who knew that he had, in fact, spelled the word...

A wing kit that adds satellite guidance to torpedoes dropped from aircraft is among the latest technologies that Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems is marketing to international customers. Raytheon's Fish Hawk wing kit - which the company is showing off this week at the Singapore Airshow - is designed to fit on Raytheon's MK-54 lightweight torpedo, which is dropped from anti-submarine warfare aircraft. The kit guides the torpedo to a target area with a GPS satellite and inertial navigation system and targeting information from an aircraft controller. Once the system descends to a specific location at lower altitude and speed, the...

Obama Mispronounces Navy ‘Corpsman’ – Twice

Didn't President Obama also praise our "Fallen Heroes" back during a speech on Memorial Day in 2008? It's starting to sound a bit like that movie about a child who was seeing dead people. And to this day, I cannot figure out how Obama counted 57 States. And to think they treated Bush as if he was on the cover of MADD magazine.

The much-debated carrier fighter gap stretches about 100 planes wide in 2018. That is what Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the House Armed Services Committee today. That is less than half of the Navy’s estimate, given to Congress last year. The Navy has pretty much stuck with a figure of 243 aircraft or, as some lawmakers have it, 48 planes a year. OSD’s old PAE shop performed an analysis last year that concluded there was in fact no fighter gap, if you took into account capabilities beyond those planes based only on US carriers, but that study was never publicly...

This year’s report reflects the naval capabilities projected to meet the challenges the nation faces over the next three decades of the 21st century. The structure requirements articulated in this report are based upon the 313-ship force originally set forth in the FY 2005 Naval Force Structure Assessment that was reported to Congress and referred to by the Chief of Naval Operations in his FY 2009 budget testimony, as amended by decisions made by the Secretary of Defense in the FY 2010 President’s Budget as well as decisions made during the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). As such, the battle...

Wyle air crew personnel have become the first aviators to aerially refuel the F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variant (STOVL) of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) using a probe-and-drogue refueling system during a recent mission at Lockheed Martin's Ft. Worth, Tex. manufacturing facility. These first aerial refueling missions were performed by Wyle aircrew flying a Navy KC-130 tanker aircraft assigned to the U.S. Navy's Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Twenty (VX-20) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. The refueled aircraft, designated the F-35BF-2, represents one of three variants of this fifth generation strike fighter, developed for the U.S. military and...

The Pentagon says it plans to buy 10 Joint High Speed Vessels that may have marines and special-operations SEALS going to combat onboard aluminum, twin-hulled catamaran offshoots of successful civilian ferries. The Pentagon says the plan includes use of the JHSV by the Navy and Army in a wider variety of military missions being considered. Austal, the program's prime contractor, began work on the first high-speed vessel last month, and, was recently awarded a $204.2 million contract toward construction of two more. In all, the project's construction of 10 JHSVs is estimated at $1.6 billion, Pentagon officials said. The 338-foot-long...

Those splendid brainboxes at DARPA - the Pentagon's in-house bazaar of the bizarre - have outdone themselves this time. They now plan an entirely uncrewed, automated ghost frigate able to cruise the oceans of the world for months or years on end without human input. The new project is called Anti-submarine warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV), and is intended to produce "an X-ship founded on the assumption that no person steps aboard at any point in its operating cycle". The uncrewed frigate would have enough range and endurance for "global, months long deployments with no underway human maintenance", being...

The big question for the Navy in advance of the QDR and the 2011 budget release was would DOD reconcile the growing gap between the Navy’s shipbuilding and funding plans? The answer is no. They didn’t even try. The QDR pretty much defers on the subject of tying future shipbuilding to strategy. There is some vague talk in the document about the need for the Navy and the Air Force to jointly develop an air-​​sea battle concept to ensure power projection, but it provides no further details. As for the Navy budget, the 2011 request increases funding for new ship...

WASHINGTON (CN) - Six retired Navy officers sued the Secretary of Defense for the right to carry concealed guns. The former members of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) demand that the Department of Defense certify that their NCIS-issued retirement photo IDs qualify as appropriate identification to carry concealed firearms. Since 2004, federal law authorizes "qualified retired law enforcement officers from the Federal Government to carry concealed firearms within or without any state," according to the complaint. The NCIS retirees say that the Pentagon's failure to certify their IDs exposes them to potential criminal charges of possessing firearms without a...

The U.S. Navy has retired the USS Los Angeles (SSN 688). This was the lead ship of the Los Angeles class nuclear attack submarine (SSN). The Los Angeles entered service in 1976. It is one of three classes of SSNs in American service, and was the backbone of the American SSN force during the last years of the Cold War. The mainstay of the American submarine force is still the Los Angeles class. Sixty-two of these submarines were built, 44 of which remain in front-line service, making it probably the largest class of nuclear submarines that will ever be built....

Most Americans have heard of the naval base at Pearl Harbor. Some are also aware of the air base next door called Hickam, where Japanese planes destroyed U.S. bombers during the 1941 aerial attack. On Sunday, the two historic sites will cease to be separate bases, merging into Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. They will be among 26 installations across the country that are combining to form 12 joint bases as the military strives to become more efficient. Commanders are bringing together two very distinct military service cultures — while making sure one doesn't dominate or overwhelm the other. The large...

USS Freedom (LCS 1), the Navy's first littoral combat ship (LCS), arrived at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., Jan. 26 to begin final preparations for her maiden deployment. While in Mayport, Freedom will undergo final counterillicit trafficking and airborne use of force training and certification in preparation for expected missions in the U.S. Southern Command/Commander, U.S. 4th Fleet Area of Responsibility. Readying for this deployment was a unique process for Freedom's Sailors. Starting in November 2009, Freedom engaged in independent training and certification exercises off the Virginia and Florida coasts, including maritime security surge training for both the Blue and Gold...

The U.S. Department of Defense has ordered two more Joint High Speed Vessels (JHSV) transports. Two years, the Department of Defense set up a deal where a fleet of new JHSVs would be built, for use by all the services (mainly the army and navy.) At the time, one JHSV was ordered. These 103 meter (320 feet) long, $160 million ships are refined versions of the earlier HSV 2 ship. The army already has leased two of these HSV 2s, and the navy another. The manufacturing of the JHSVs is being done by an Australian firm, in the U.S. All...

The U.S. Navy today announced that it has released a senior Al Quaida terrorist after questioning him extensively for 27 days while he was held prisoner aboard a US aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. In a humanitarian gesture, the terrorist was given $50 US and a white Ford Fairlane automobile upon being released from custody. The attached photo shows the terrorist on his way home just after being released by the Navy.

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Doctors on the U.S. Navy's hospital ship Comfort are fighting gangrenous infections in broken limbs as they try to save the lives, if not the arms and legs, of Haiti's earthquake victims. "Originally we were seeing primarily a lot of orthopedic injuries now we're starting to see those injuries and wounds are infected," Commander Mark Marino, head of nursing on the USNS Comfort, said on a tour of the ship as it was anchored off the coast of Port-au-Prince. Asked how many of the 500 people treated so far on the ship have needed amputations, Marino replied...

USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) departed Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va., for sea trials Jan. 27 after a seven-month maintenance period. During Sea Trials, the ship's electronics, communication, navigation and other combat systems that were built or modified in the shipyard will be tested. In addition, an inspection of the ship's catapults and jet blast deflectors will be conducted, as well as inspections of the ship's berthing spaces, demonstrations of search and rescue equipment firefighting capabilities, and an evaluation of food service facilities to determine the ship's overall mission readiness. Bush's sea trials comes after...

Reasons: 1) Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory. 2) Puerto Rico has a U.S. federal court system as well as their Puerto Rico Supreme Court system (lower court). 3) Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens (and have been since 1917). A large percentage are fluent in English, and thus they would be able to serve as jurors. 4) Puerto Rico has ample hotel and motel accommodations for lawyers, media, gawkers, and the like. 5) Puerto Rico has a few U.S. military installations that could be used as venue or housing during the trial. The mere fact that this is an island...

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Environmental groups are suing the Navy to halt plans for an offshore training range off the Georgia and Florida coasts, saying the military failed to properly assess the threat to endangered right whales. The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Savannah.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has disclosed plans for a deep ocean sensor network that could provide a long-range anti-submarine surveillance capability sufficient to protect 'blue water' Carrier Strike Group operations. This new initiative, which envisions a distributed system of sensors and sources on or near the ocean floor, harks back to the SOSUS (Sound Surveillance System) deep-water long-range detection capability deployed by the US Navy during the Cold War. It also signals a revival in interest in blue-water anti-submarine warfare (ASW), an area that has largely taken a back seat in the two decades since the...

The Navy's future success depends on acquiring flexible and affordable weapons systems that can quickly switch missions depending on the threat, said Admiral Gary Roughead, the Navy's chief officer. Affordability and flexibility are critical given that the demand for the Navy's services has increased at a time when it also must cut costs, he said. This means controlling the urge to add new "bells or whistles" to existing programs, increasing the efficiency of maintaining ships and keeping the new F-35 fighter jet program on schedule, according to a Reuters article. "The stuff that we buy is going to be around...

Intelsat General Corp. of Bethesda, Md., was awarded a contract worth as much as $542.7 million over five years to provide global end-to-end satellite communications services for the U.S. Navy, according to a Jan. 26 Defense Department press release. Intelsat General, a subsidiary of satellite operator Intelsat of Washington and Bermuda, will provide C-, Ku- and X-band satellite capacity, ground terminals and terrestrial backhaul and network management services as the prime contractor for the Navy’s Commercial Broadband Satellite Program (CBSP). The program will replace the Navy’s current L-band mobile satellite services provided by Inmarsat of London. While Intelsat does not...

A Navy pilot whose training airplane crashed Saturday in Lake Pontchartrain is presumed dead, and the search has shifted from a rescue to a recovery mission, a Navy spokesman said Monday. As of Monday afternoon, the Coast Guard was still searching for the pilot, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Jaclyn Young in New Orleans. Navy Lt. Clinton Wermers, 33, a native of Mitchell, S.D., was an instructor pilot aboard a T-34C Turbomentor airplane that also carried a Navy student aviator who survived the crash, Navy spokesman Jay Cope said Monday. The aviators were assigned to Training Squadron Six, based at...

The nuclear-powered attack submarine Los Angeles had been in the fleet for a dozen years, mostly patrolling the Pacific to keep a close watch on Russian subs, when Caleb Schrum was born. On Saturday, Schrum, now 21 and a Navy petty officer second class, gently lowered the American flag on the aft of the Los Angeles at the conclusion of a tradition-rich ceremony in San Pedro in which the submarine was decommissioned from the active fleet. The vessel that entered service in 1976 as the Navy's most innovative underwater warship is headed for retirement as its oldest submarine. Soon the...

Attack, not defense, will reshape electronic warfare. A magazine filled with electron pulses, information scrambling data streams and invasive algorithms may arm the Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ). By 2018, variants of the U.S. Navy’s NGJ likely will be carried by a half-dozen manned and unmanned aircraft—perhaps more. The service’s EP-X signals and communications intelligence aircraft—still without a final design or completed requirements—will be replacing the long-serving EP-3E. “EP-X is going to be the eyes and ears that find the signals” that NGJ will jam and manipulate, says Christopher Carlson, director of U.S. business development for ITT’s integrated EW systems. “Precisely identifying...

I'm sure you have heard of the United States Navy's proud and elite submarine service, comprising high-tech nuclear subs such as the LA, Seawolf and Virginia class SSNs, Ohio class boomers and SSGNs, and historically, Sturgeon class SSNs and George Washington class boomers. But they have one thing in common: They are single-hulled subs. Subs with only one hull. In stark contrast, the Russian Navy has fielded to this day, double-hulled submarines, such as the Akula class SSN and Typhoon class SSBN, the largest in the world, along with the latest Borei class SSBN and soon-to-be-completed Graney class SSN....

You could say that the three biggest challenges facing the U.S. Navy's shipbuilding program are money, money, and money. The service has a clear vision of how to construct a networked, flexible fleet suitable for use across the spectrum of conflict. But it only gets $13-14 billion per year to build the warships that will populate that fleet. That isn't much for a country that relies on its Navy every day to sustain nuclear deterrence, assure free transit of sea lanes, and carry the global war on terror to the enemy. However, with the government borrowing $4 billion per day...

When a small team of Navy SEALs set out to capture one of Iraq's most-wanted terrorists in September, they never dreamed it would go so smoothly. After all, Ahmed Hashim Abed, the suspected mastermind of a 2004 atrocity against U.S. contractors in Fallujah, was holed up in a safe house in Anbar province. Intelligence reports, which identified his location, said he kept a revolver under his pillow.

The U.S. Navy accidentally posted their classified estimate on the size and composition of the Chinese Navy. This data was quickly taken down, but not before it was copied and posted worldwide. The strength of the Chinese fleet was listed as; Submarines- 62 (53 diesel Attack Submarines, six nuclear Attack Submarines, three nuclear Ballistic Missile Submarines). The U.S. has 72 submarines, all nuclear (53 attack and 18 ballistic missile.) Destroyers-26. The U.S. has 52. Frigates-48. The U.S. has 32, including two of the new LCS vessels. Amphibious Ships 58. The U.S. has 30, all much larger and equipped with flight...

PACIFIC MISSILE RANGE BARKING SANDS, Hawaii | On January 19, the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii began construction of an Advanced Radar Detection Laboratory (ARDEL) facility. The ARDEL project will test and evaluate a new radar system planned for the next generation of surface combatant vessels strengthening the U.S. Navy's ability to detect, track, and provide information required to engage ballistic missiles at greater distances than current systems in use as well as more elusive long-range air threats. The advanced technologies of the new radar incorporate various aspects of ballistic missile defense (BMD), air defense (AD),...

Storms and turbulence continue to buffet Lockheed Martin’s F-35 joint strike fighter program, as observers in the military, political and investment arenas keep a close watch for progress — or the lack of it. Close on the heels of reports that the Pentagon plans to cut F-35 orders over the next several years, an internal Navy study leaked last week drove a new wave of speculation in the defense and aerospace industries. The study, by the Navy’s aviation arm, says the cost to buy and operate that service’s version of the F-35 will be dramatically higher than predicted — 40...

Could the Navy power Port-au-Prince from a nuclear submarine

Iran has warned that it will strike Western warships stationed in the Gulf if it is attacked over its nuclear program. The country's defense minister, Ahmad Vahidi said that the 90 warships stationed in the Persian Gulf -- a waterway crucial for world oil supplies -- would become targets if Iran was attacked. Vahidid said that the vessels included submarines, aircraft carriers and destroyers, according to comments published by the semi-official Fars news agency.

"TEHRAN, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Iran's defence minister warned on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic could strike back at Western warships in the Gulf if it were attacked, the semi-official Fars news agency reported..." http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE60I0ZI.htm

The U.S. Navy has been nervously watching as the costs of the new F-35C and F-35B carrier aircraft increase. It comes down to this. Currently, it costs the navy, on average, $19,000 an hour to operate its AV-8 vertical takeoff and F-18C fighter aircraft. It costs 63 percent more to operate the F-35C (which will replace the F-18C) and the F-35B (which will replace the AV-8). These costs include buying the aircraft, training and maintaining the pilots, the aircraft and purchasing expendable items (fuel, spare parts, munitions.) Like the F-22, which recently had production capped at less than 200 aircraft,...

On Saturday, the US Navy commissioned its second Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) in Alabama. After accepting Lockheed Martin’s LCS design in November 2008, the US Navy now welcomed the second warship of this future class of vessels. This time it was the 379-feet (115.5 metre) aluminium, three-hulled ‘Independence’ (LCS-2), designed and built by Lockheed’s competitors, General Dynamics Corporation and Austal, in the race for the multi-billion dollar follow-up orders. Following the successful completion of builder's trials on 21 October 2009 and acceptance trials on 19 November 2009, the Independence now joins the service to evaluate which of the two designs...

There is something seriously wrong with the execution of this nation'scode of military justice - it is being used against the very people it is meant to protect. Case in point: the imprisonment of an heroic Army officer for killing a murderous Iraqi insurgent who had killed two of his men in a cowardly attack that wounded 2 others. This case is reminiscent of the disgraceful prosecution of officers and enlisted United States Marines for having killed 24 Iraqis, among them armed terrorists, in a confrontation in Haditha which resulted in all charges being dropped in eight of the cases....

ABOARD THE USS CARL VINSON — Helicopters sit ready to go from this US aircraft carrier off Haiti, but there's a problem: after a day of frantic aid runs there is simply nothing left to deliver. Aboard the warship some 3,500 US military personnel have been coordinating the flights of 19 US helicopters carrying aid since early morning. SNIP In less than 12 hours, helicopters from the USS Carl Vinson made some 20 trips to scout the ravaged landscape and deliver items that were originally intended for the ship's crew. Among the supplies dropped off were thousands of bottles of...

Last year, after nearly a decade of development effort, the U.S. Navy put its high-speed anti-ship missile simulator into service. This was the GQM-163A Coyote SSST (Supersonic Sea-Skimming Target), which is a 31 foot long, 800 kg (1700 pound) missile with a combination solid fuel rocket and ramjet propulsion. It has a range of 110 kilometers and, because of the ramjet, a top speed of over 2,600 kilometers an hour. The Coyote is meant to give U.S. warships a realistic simulation of an attack by similar Russian cruise missiles (like the Klub.) At least 39 GQM-163As are to be built,...

The U.S. Navy has been nervously watching as the costs of the new F-35C and F-35B carrier aircraft increase. It comes down to this. Currently, it costs the navy, on average, $19,000 an hour to operate its AV-8 vertical takeoff and F-18C fighter aircraft. It costs 63 percent more to operate the F-35C (which will replace the F-18C) and the F-35B (which will replace the AV-8). These costs include buying the aircraft, training and maintaining the pilots, the aircraft and purchasing expendable items (fuel, spare parts, munitions.) Like the F-22, which recently had production capped at less than 200 aircraft,...

ARLINGTON, Va. — Top defense officials have ruled out airdropping food, water and medical supplies over Haiti, fearing that chaos would be the unintended result. “It seems to me that without having any structure on the ground, in terms of distribution, that an airdrop is simply going to lead to riots as people try and go after that stuff,” said Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday. On Thursday, an Air Force official said that a lack of fuel and equipment was slowing air operations at the Port-au-Prince airport. The first of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson’s 19 helicopters have...

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) arrived off the coast of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti Jan. 15 to commence humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations. Carl Vinson received orders from U.S. Southern Command to deliver assistance to the Caribbean nation following a 7.3 magnitude earthquake which caused catastrophic damage within the capital city Jan. 12. The aircraft carrier's speed, flexibility and sustainability make it an ideal platform to carry out relief operations. "Our initial focus is to concentrate on saving lives while providing first responder support to the people of Haiti. Our assistance here reflects our nation's compassion and...

Washington (CNN) -- The retired general who took charge of relief efforts in New Orleans, Louisiana, after Hurricane Katrina said Thursday that the U.S. military should have arrived in earthquake-devastated Haiti 24 hours earlier. "The good Samaritans who moved early on the first day are to be applauded. They made a difference," said Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, a CNN contributor. "What we've got to do now is get the heavy equipment in. I thought the U.S. military could have been there a day earlier. They're on the ground now, and they have a brigade en route, and that's going to...