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Ukraine said Tuesday it had sunk a Russian patrol ship off the coast of occupied Crimea, claiming another victory over the Kremlin's forces in the hotly contested waters of the Black Sea. Moscow did not confirm the claim, which would represent the latest blow to its naval power as Kyiv strikes targets deep behind the war's front lines, even as its army suffers setbacks on the battlefield. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said that it had used high-tech sea drones in an overnight attack on the large patrol ship Sergey Kotov near the Kerch Strait, which separates the annexed peninsula’s eastern...

Ukraine's attacks on annexed Crimea are chasing President Vladimir Putin's Black Sea Fleet away from the peninsula, and Kyiv's efforts in the region have been the most successful aspect of its counteroffensive, according to a former commander of U.S. Army Europe. Retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges spoke with Newsweek after Ukraine's airforce struck the eastern Crimean port of Feodosia on Tuesday with cruise missiles, damaging Russia's Novocherkassk landing ship and leaving large numbers of sailors unaccounted for. It marked the latest strike by Ukraine on Crimea, the peninsula which Putin annexed in 2014 and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pledged...

The Russian Black Sea Fleet has scattered to escape repeated Ukrainian strikes and consequently is now too far away from the war to be able to engage in it, a functional defeat, the British Armed Forces Minister said on Tuesday. While Ukraine had considerable successes in the land war in 2022 these were not forthcoming in 2023, but that doesn’t mean they are without progress in pushing Russia back, the British Armed Forces Minister told a conference. James Heappey pointed to Ukraine’s strikes against the Russian navy as a clear measure of their progress at the Warsaw Security Forum on...

Following successful Ukrainian attacks on a large landing ship and a submarine in occupied Sevastopol, the Russians have moved three large landing ships from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. Dmytro Pletenchuk, spokesman for the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on the national 24/7 newscast, said that "These processes concerning the liberation of our territory will continue in the future. By the way, it is telling that today the Russian invaders have for some reason moved three large landing ships from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov." Pletenchuk noted that the large landing...

Claims of new successful drone attacks on Russian warships of the Black Sea Fleet remain unconfirmed as of Saturday, though two ships in question were seen under tow in Sevastopol. Observers quickly noticed the appearance of Russian Project 1239 Bora-class missile corvette Samum under tow in Sevastopol after a Ukrainian “Sea Baby” uncrewed surface vessel attack Thursday outside Sevastopol. A picture appears to show the hovercraft's stern sitting low in the water with tow boats connected to bow and stern lines, though obvious evidence of damage remains unseen. Satellite imagery also captured the Black Sea Fleet flagship Admiral Makarov, a...

A Ukrainian attack set the home of Russia's Black Sea Fleet ablaze on Wednesday, damaging two warships and injuring dozens of people, Russian authorities said. The incident appeared to be the latest in a growing wave of strikes against the Kremlin's navy, but also came as Moscow hit a key Ukrainian port city in the Odesa region with a drone attack. Sevastopol is the largest city on the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula and the port serves as the main base of the Russian fleet, which has been used to launch attacks deep into Ukraine. The Russian defense ministry said Ukraine had...

The commander of Russia's Pacific Fleet has resigned, Russian President Vladimir Putin's representative in the country's Far East announced on Thursday. Putin's envoy, Yury Trutnev, said that Admiral Sergei Avakyants, 65, has been appointed the head of a group that is in charge of military sports training and patriotic education, Russia news outlet Kommersant reported. Avakyants had held the position as commander of the Pacific Fleet since 2012. News of his resignation comes a week after Russia decided to conduct missile launches and torpedo tests as part of a "surprise inspection" of its Pacific Fleet. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu...

In June of 1934, a United States Naval Review brought over 100 ships and more than 40,000 sailors to New York Harbor. Movietone News covered the event extensively. (original film footage much w/sound appx 18 mins)

You expect senior Obama administration defense appointees to be budget hatchetmen—that just comes with the territory—but Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus’s new remarks to Politico on the size of the Navy achieve impressive levels of partisan hackwork coming from a Pentagon official. The issue is the ongoing debate over whether it is fair for Republicans to complain, as Mitt Romney famously did while debating the president in 2012, that the Navy’s surface fleet is about as small as it’s been since the First World War. Despite Obama’s snarky response at the time (“Governor, we also have fewer horses and...

The Russian military on Monday launched sweeping military manoeuvres in the Arctic and other areas, a show of force ordered by President Vladimir Putin amid spiraling tensions with the West over Ukraine. The five-day Arctic drills involving 38,000 servicemen, more than 50 surface ships and submarines and 110 aircraft are intended to check the readiness of Russia’s Northern Fleet and the military’s ability to deploy additional forces from central Russia. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said “the new challenges and military threats require further increase of the armed forces’ capabilities.” As part of the exercise the military will check its ability...

Earlier in March, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus revised how to count the size of the U.S.’s battle force inventory. The battle force inventory is important because it measures the size of the U.S. combat fleet. The new definition will make the U.S. combat fleet look larger than it really is. This provides a political shield against legitimate concerns that the Navy is shrinking. Ships included in the battle force inventory had been “warships capable of contributing to combat operations” or ships that contribute “directly to Navy warfighting or support missions.” Aircraft carriers, destroyers, amphibious ships, and submarines are...

A key fleet of U.S. reconnaissance planes used to detect enemy aircraft in hostile settings will to be cut by 25 percent under President Obama’s fiscal year 2015 budget, according to multiple sources familiar with the budget proposal. A fleet of 31 AWACs, or Airborne Warning and Control System planes, will be reduced to 24 by 2015 under Obama’s budget proposal. The situation has prompted concern in defense circles and elsewhere, where sources have pointed out that AWACS are currently deployed in Poland and Romania in order to help monitor the standoff in Ukraine. AWACS are a highly advanced type...

The U.S. military had a multitude of forces in the region surrounding Libya when terrorists attacked the Special Mission in Benghazi and murdered four Americans, according to an unclassified Navy map obtained by Judicial Watch this week. The map features the Navy fleet positions in the North Africa Area of Responsibility (AOR) on September 11, 2012, the day Islamic jihadists raided the U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, the first diplomat to be killed overseas in decades, and three other Americans were murdered in the violent ambush. Dozens of vessels were stationed in the region on that day,...

MSNBC host Ed Schultz, who has repeatedly criticized opponents for owning private jets, owns multiple private jets and conceals his flight data from the public. Schultz owns Ed Schultz Broadcasting, LLC and has owned at least three Cessnas and one Piper. Schultz has owned two Cessna 560s, which typically sell for more than $5 million per plane. (He sold one plane—tail number N421LT — to Lakin Tire West Incorporated in 2011). Schultz also owns one Cessna 208B which is worth over $1.5 million. He also owns a Piper Cheyenne turboprop, estimated at more than $2 million.

Enforcement of San Francisco’s 2010 law to reduce city government vehicles was supposed to begin two years ago. Now that it has finally started, the requirement is being put to the test. Nine city department heads have submitted waivers to protect hundreds of trucks, sedans and other vehicles from elimination. --SNIP-- The fleet has long faced criticism for abuse and waste, a fact seen as a blemish on San Francisco’s environmentally conscious image. In recent years, city leaders have launched efforts to reduce vehicle dependency, such as by partnering with car-share programs. In 2010, San Francisco adopted the landmark Healthy...

Unreal… Team Obama Leaves Americans Stranded in Libya; Military STILL on Standby Posted by Jim Hoft on Thursday, February 24, 2011, 5:07 PM The Obama Administration won’t send the military to rescue US citizens in Libya. They don’t want to look like war-mongers. Stranded: An estimated 600 U.S. citizens are stuck on board the Maria Dolores (pictured) in Tripoli, and won’t leave until at least Friday (Daily Mail)The Obama Administration is STILL grappling with whether or not to send the military into Libya to rescue US citizens.CNN reported, via HotAir: The senior U.S. official also said the “prudent planning” for...

Brit Phil Warren took 63 years to build this incredible fleet of 432 ships in exacting 1:300 scale- and check this out: every last one of them is built entirely from matchsticks and matchboxes. The amazing collection includes nearly 370 American and  60 British RN ships. Mr Warren started the first one in post-war 1948 when just a lad of 17, and the only tools utilized in their impeccable construction are razor blade, tweezers and sandpaper. Balsa wood glue keeps it all together.. and that's it.  More than 650,000 used matchsticks and boxes were used to create the fleet (must know every...

Obama administration officials are riding in style. A new report from a watchdog group shows that the number of limousines owned by the federal government rose by 73 percent during the first two years of President Obama's administration. The State Department was the recipient of most the new luxury vehicles. The "Limousine Liberals?" report from iWatch News, part of the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity, showed that government data pegged the number of limos in the federal fleet at 412 in fiscal 2010, up from 238 in fiscal 2008. Some of the details are a bit hazy. Most of the...

President Barack Obama's administration has bought almost a fourth of the Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. hybrid vehicles sold since he took office, accelerating federal purchases as consumer demand wanes. The U.S. General Services Administration, which runs the government fleet, bought at least 14,584 hybrid vehicles in the past two fiscal years, or about 10 percent of 145,473 vehicles the agency purchased in that period, according to sales data obtained by Bloomberg under a Freedom of Information Act request. In fiscal 2008, hybrids accounted for less than 1 percent of government purchases, the data showed.

What is billed as the biggest Fleet Week in San Francisco in 20 years gets started with a roar this afternoon when the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels precision flying team begins the first of four days of ear-shattering flights over San Francisco Bay. The Angels will be making survey flights over San Francisco and the bay starting at 1 p.m. in preparation for a dress rehearsal Friday afternoon and air shows Saturday and Sunday. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/07/BAQ91FONKC.DTL#ixzz11kR9PoZR