Free Republic

The aircraft carrier Yorktown is one of four museum vessels berthed at Patriots Point. The struggling attraction might have to reduce the number of exhibits it has to maintain. Its development authority is seeking a long-term plan to carry it into the future. "We have ships 25 years old and no structure in our funding to maintain them," Hagerty said. "That leads to some very difficult choices." Over the past several months, the attraction's dire situation became increasingly clear: All four ships need repairs, and the Patriots Point Development Authority does not have the necessary money or any plan for...

Canadian warship thwarts pirates again For the second time in a week, a Canadian warship has helped fend off a potential attack from pirates off the coast of Somalia. The HMCS Winnipeg — which is taking part in the NATO-led counter-piracy mission known as Operation Allied Protector — and a Spanish ship responded Friday night after a civilian vessel sent out a distress call following an apparent pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden.

North Korea threatened today to "launch a thunderbolt of fire" if the "slightest effort" is made by the US to intercept a long-range rocket it plans to launch this weekend, according to a report. President Obama, who is attending the G-20 summit in London, warned the rocket launch would be a "provocative act" that would generate a UN Security Council response. But North Korea's military shrugged at Obama's words and threatened those who opposed the launch with a "thunderbolt of fire," according to a report by the Korean Central News Agency. In a reference to US warships that have set...

SEOUL, South Korea – Japanese, South Korean and U.S. missile-destroying ships set sail to monitor North Korea's imminent rocket launch, as Pyongyang stoked tensions Monday by detaining a South Korean worker for allegedly denouncing the North's political system. North Korea says it will send a communications satellite into orbit between April 4 and 8. The U.S., South Korea and Japan suspect the regime is using the launch to test long-range missile technology, and warn it would face U.N. sanctions under a Security Council resolution banning the country from any ballistic activity. North Korea has threatened to quit international talks on...

Chinese Navy officers reacted with annoyance today when it emerged that the United States had sent a destroyer to back up a surveillance vessel in the South China Sea after it was harassed by People's Liberation Army (PLA) sailors. The decision by President Obama to send an armed escort for US surveillance ships in the area follows the aggresive and coordinated manoeuvres of five Chinese boats on Sunday. The vessels harassed and nearly collided with the unarmed USNS Impeccable. One unidentified officer quoted in the China Daily newspaper said that the decision was disproportionate. While China's Foreign Ministry has so...

Endure the ad.. Warms the heart. A ship made from the ruins of the World Trade Center......

<p>I thought I would once again share with the FR community some really great PICS of the US Navy, this time for 2008.</p> <p>The site uses thumbnails to link to medium-res pictures suitable for desktop background pics.</p> <p>Just click on one of the thumbnails below to take you to the site.</p>

The US Navy is sending three warships to the eastern Mediterranean Sea in a show of strength during a period of tensions with Syria and political uncertainty in Lebanon...... Another military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because full details about the ship movements are not yet public, said the USS Cole is headed for patrol in the eastern Mediterranean and that the USS Nassau, an amphibious warship, would be joining it shortly. The officer said a third ship would go later, but he did not identify it by name.

I thought I would share with the FR community some really great PICS of the US Navy from 2006 and 2007. The site uses thumbnails to link to medium-res pictures suitable for desktop background pics. Just click on one of the thumbnails below to take you to the site. MY FAVORITE TWENTY US NAVY PICS OF 2007 I'll post new pics each year. My way of honoring and giving tribute to the greatest Naval force in history and the men and women who make and keep it that way.

SAN DIEGO - The USS Nimitz and several other American warships left San Diego today for the Persian Gulf to join another locally based aircraft carrier strike group already in the region. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will join the San Diego-based John C. Stennis Strike Group and relieve the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, according to Naval Air Forces Public Affairs. Military officials said in a statement that the two-carrier presence in the Persian Gulf area is intended to demonstrate U.S. "resolve to build regional security and bring long-term stability to the region...

EXCLUSIVE Don't Dare mess with us Awesome ... Sun man on supershipPictures: PAUL EDWARDS       By TOM NEWTON DUNN Defence Editor THIS is the deadliest ship ever built — the Navy’s awesome new Type 45 destroyer. HMS Daring boasts an extraordinary array of firepower. And The Sun was given an exclusive tour of the state-of-the art warship. Daring is the first of a batch of eight Type 45 destroyers — built at a total cost of £6BILLION. Weighing in at 8,000 tonnes, the 14-deck monster is almost twice the size of the current Type 42s. She is armed...

The deckhouse of an experimental naval destroyer, the DD(X), pictured here at China Lake, California in an undated photo. The Pentagon has opted to move ahead with the new multibillion-dollar destroyer being co-developed by Northrop Grumman Corp. and General Dynamics, Navy officials said on Wednesday. (Handout/Reuters) The Pentagon will order an initial eight highly-automated DD(X) destroyers being developed by Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE:NOC - news) and General Dynamics (NYSE:GD - news) as the centerpiece of the U.S. Navy's 21st century fleet, a defense official said on Wednesday. Ending speculation the ship might be killed, the Defense Department cleared a...

  Do We Finally Get To Kill Somebody?November 10, 2005 With real threats to our national security in full bloom, and traitors in need of immediate lethal injection, why is the Beltway obsessed with much ado about a paper-pushing blond and her self-admitted psychedelic husband?  Maybe the rest of liberal America, along with Joe Wilson, have had “too many wives and taken too many drugs”. Or, in Bill Bennett’s words is it just a case of Overt Inconsistency?  As Bennett rhetorically notes about the liberals, and the MSM Fifth Column, their “support for the CIA, and...for secrecy in war and intelligence, lasted...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - An engineer and Chinese television director are among four people indicted on charges of stealing secret documents on Navy warships and trying to smuggle them to China, prosecutors said Friday. Chi Mak, a naturalized U.S. citizen from China who lives in Los Angeles County, was arrested Oct. 28. He allegedly took computer disks from Anaheim defense contractor Power Paragon, where he was lead engineer on a research project involving warship propulsion systems, according to an FBI affidavit. He also allegedly e-mailed photos and reports about the project to his home computer. Authorities say Chi Mak and...

SHANGHAI, China - China's navy has commissioned the first in a new class of domestically designed and built warships, official media reported Tuesday. The missile frigate Wenzhou, named after a port city in eastern China, entered service Monday at a ceremony attended by East China Fleet commander Zhao Guojun, according to a brief report on the official Wenzhou Newsnet. The report gave no other details about the ship, but Western military experts have described it as the first in the 054 Ma'anshan class, representing China's most advanced missile frigates. Along with superior electronics, anti-submarine capabilities and air defenses, the ships...

09/23/2005 China Preparing For War And Few Notice by By Chuck Baldwin Constitution Party 2004 Vice-Presidential Candidate Ever since President Richard Nixon entered into détente with the communist regime in China, America has doggedly assisted in the commercial and military buildup of the Marxist nation. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have mollycoddled the Red Chinese to the point that now they have grown big enough to cause serious concern. Both Bill Clinton and G.W. Bush have facilitated the transfers of billions of dollars of commercial assistance to Red China, not to mention vast amounts of technology which China has used...

What message do we send, when we are fired upon and instead of fighting back, we weigh anchor and run? I have complete faith in our armed services, men and women, but is politics hamstringing our ability to defend ourselves?

China Military build-up includes missiles, jets, warships WASHINGTON: China not only is massing forces facing Taiwan, but developing new long-range missiles and acquiring an arsenal of sophisticated jets and warships in an ambitious arms build-up, the United States said on Tuesday. Over the "next several years", Beijing will deploy a DF-31 road-mobile, solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile and a JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missile, the Pentagon said in an annual report to Congress on Chinese military power. The current military focus by the People's Liberation Army stresses protecting Chinese borders and waters and intimidating Taiwan, according to the 44-page report, which lists...

Pakistan to buy four warships from China Monday, 04 April , 2005, 18:35 Islamabad: Pakistan is to buy four frigates for its navy from long-time ally China, the defence ministry said on Monday, ahead of a visit by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. "Pakistan and China have signed four contracts for the construction of four F-22P frigate ships for Pakistan Navy," a Pakistani defence ministry statement said. The frigates will be equipped with anti-submarine helicopters, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles and other defence systems, the statement added. "These ships, after construction, will be inducted into Pakistan Navy which would not only enhance...

BAE takes Sultan to court over £600m order for warships By Sylvia Pfeifer (Filed: 03/04/2005) BAE Systems, Britain's largest defence contractor, is taking the Sultan of Brunei, one of the world's richest men, to court over a $1bn dispute involving an order for three naval ships. The dispute centres on a lucrative export order, estimated to be worth over £600m ($1.13bn), to build three offshore patrol vessels for the Royal Brunei armed forces. The contract was agreed several years ago and BAE, headed by Mike Turner, the chief executive, launched the first ship to much fanfare in January 2001. The...