Free Republic

The US Navy surface fleet continues to shrink. And every surface hull commissioned after the Arleigh Burke class in 1991 has been a failure. The Chinese Navy exceeds the US Navy in total warships deployed. What makes this even more astonishing is that the Chinese maintain a regional naval power with optional blue water projection capabilities (mind you, untested) while the US maintains the fiction of a global capability. The current U.S. fleet is smaller, with more than 280 vessels. The Secretary of the Navy expects that strength to reach 300 in the early 2030s which is a pipe dream...

Extensive delays to the mid-life refueling and complex overhauls of two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers were due to damage to the steam turbines that power the ship, USNI News has learned. According to Naval Sea Systems Command, “significant damage” to the generators aboard both USS George Washington (CVN-73) and USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) added unplanned work that was discovered after both carriers arrived at HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding for maintenance. Every mid-life refueling and overhaul, “work package has planned inspections and routine refurbishment of the eight [turbine generators]; however, inspections for both George Washington and John C. Stennis revealed one...

The Chinese grab dredge that desecrated the wrecks of two famous WWII warships off Malaysia has run into trouble with the law once more. The notorious Chuan Hong 68 has been detained by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) again, this time over paperwork violations. Last year, Malaysian authorities detained Chuan Hong 68 off Johor for allegedly crushing and removing the wreckage of the Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse, which were sunk by Japanese forces during the invasion of the Malay .Peninsula in December 1941. Both are protected war graves. In May 2023, local...

The head of the Yemeni Ansarallah terrorist organization, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, boasted in a national address on Thursday that his jihadists had turned American aircraft carriers into “obsolete weapons.” Houthi’s group, which controls the Yemeni capital of Sana’a and received significant backing from state sponsor of terror Iran, declared war on Israel in October in support of fellow jihadist terrorists Hamas. The Houthis’, as they are commonly known, main contribution to terrorism in the Middle East has been a campaign against commercial shipping in the Red Sea in which they use drones, missiles, and other often rudimentary weapons to attack random...

Listen -- 1:55 Petty Officer 2nd Class Courtney Strahan / DVIDS [Caption] Vice Adm. John Wade, Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet and Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024 Combined Task Force (CTF) Commander, center, and task force leadership take questions during the opening press conference for RIMPAC 2024 held at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on June 27, 2024. Twenty-nine countries and over 25,000 military personnel are coming together for the world’s largest maritime military exercise. The Rim of the Pacific exercise, better known as RIMPAC, happens every two years in Hawaiʻi. This year, it will involve 40 ships, three submarines...

If the Houthis make good on their threats, it would be an escalation of their attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. To date, they claim attacks have been limited to ships going to Israel or those with connections to Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom. The Pentagon disputes that claim and has said that the Houthis have targeted multinational ships. In at least one instance, the Houthis have targeted at least one Chinese ship, according to USNI News’ timeline of activity in the Red Sea. It is possible that the Houthis were...

The Pacific appears increasingly nearer to war as Chinese vessels encircled and boarded military resupply boats belonging to a key American ally. Tensions erupted as the Chinese Coast Guard seized ships of a Philippine Navy resupply mission that was underway near the Second Thomas Shoal. The Armed Forces of the Philippines revealed pictures of the Monday confrontation in a social media post, calling the attack “coercive, aggressive, and barbaric.”(Snip) Videos show the resupply mission turning to blows as China became involved. In one clip, Chinese sailors could be seen waving and swinging axes, machetes and other melee weapons as the...

The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower — which had been leading the response against Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden — is returning home. U.S. Central Command announced that the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt will head to the Middle East to maintain a presence in the region. The Eisenhower was deployed to the region more than seven months ago — just a few weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel.

Russian anti-submarine ship Admiral Levchenko is burning in the Barents Sea after an engine malfunctioned and caught fire, Dmytro Pletenchuk, press chief for the Southern Defense Forces of Ukraine's Armed Forces, said on June 10.

Navy Capt. Michel Brandt has been relieved of command of the USS Somerset, an amphibious transport dock ship, the service announced Friday. Brandt was fired “due to a lack of confidence in her ability to lead the crew” by Rear Adm. Christopher Stone, commander of the Expeditionary Strike Group 7, according to the Navy statement. She was relieved Thursday. A “lack of confidence” is often cited by the military when removing a commander. Brandt has commanded the ship since July 2023, according to the Navy. Capt. Tate Robinson was assigned to temporarily replace Brandt as commanding officer of the Somerset...

The decommissioning schedule for the U.S. Navy’s remaining 13 Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruisers has been set. Next to leave service will be the Vicksburg (CG 69) in June 2024, followed by the Cowpens (CG 63) in August, Antietam (CG 54) and Leyte Gulf (CG 55) in September. Overall, the last two cruisers will likely be Chosin (CG 65) and Cape St. George (CG 71), both to be decommissioned in fiscal 2027. The close of their careers will bring an end to the service life of the class, the world’s first to be equipped with the Aegis combat system.

Lunden Roberts, the mother of Hunter Biden’s daughter, Navy, claimed Friday her phones “crashed” and “just about everything” with Hunter Biden on the device was “gone” after she discovered she was pregnant. Roberts claimed to Sirius XM’s Megyn Kelly that both of her cellphone screens “crashed” at the same time in front of both she and her friends the night she learned she was pregnant with Navy. Yes. It looks like a total meltdown,” Kelly said. Roberts said “a lot of stuff” involving Hunter Biden was missing from her iCloud when she got a new phone the next day. “Just...

‘None of the ships carry nuclear weapons, so their stopover in our country does not represent a threat to the region,’ the communist regime said.Russian warships will be deployed to the Caribbean Sea next week, the Cuban foreign ministry confirmed on Thursday.The four Russian navy ships do not carry any nuclear weapons and will not present a threat to the region, Cuba’s foreign ministry said in a statement, confirming reports that cited unnamed U.S. officials.“This visit corresponds to the historical friendly relations between Cuba and the Russian Federation and strictly adheres to the international regulations,” the communist country’s statement added,...

The official Facebook page for the U.S. Navy SEALs and Naval Special Warfare Command was mocked this weekend for marking the start of "pride month." Backlash to the post surged when it was highlighted on the popular "Libs of TikTok" page on X, formerly known as Twitter. The post had no caption and included a photo with rainbow designs that read, "NSW. Dignity. Service. Respect. Equality. Pride." Libs of TikTok shared the post to X on Saturday, writing, "The Navy SEALs have gone woke. Our elite special forces. This is terrifying." The special warfare account took steps to limit the...

A now-retired top U.S. admiral was arrested Friday on federal bribery charges for allegedly steering contracts to a company in exchange for future employment while he was the commander of Navy forces in Europe, according to the Justice Department. Robert Burke allegedly directed the lucrative Navy contracts to the company in 2021 while serving as a four-star admiral, and it later hired him in 2022 for a starting salary of $500,000 per year. Two New York executives with the company were also arrested Friday for alleged roles in the bribery scheme.

Where our Sailors Rest. “If you ever want to sleep with a blonde again, you had better shoot down these bastards as soon as they come up” – a destroyer captain motivates his exhausted crew shortly before a kamikaze attack. The sea-battle toll for Okinawa that ended on June 21st 1945 was 36 U.S. warships sunk and 368 damaged. Almost 5,000 sailors were killed in action and another 5,000 wounded. War naturally conjures images of courageous infantrymen. Gettysburg, Flanders Fields and not the Coral Sea or Leyte Gulf. Too often forgotten are the heroic Navy, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine...

A New York Navyman and an NYU student were happy to oblige The Post’s request to recreate the famed 1945 V-J Day photo from Times Square, during a Fleet Week bash. Brandon O’Connell, a sailor stationed at Chambers Street, showed up ready to mingle at the Fleet Week Open Bar Singles Party Friday night to meet “somebody that would like to have fun.” Early on in the evening, the Rochester native was hitting it off with Evangeline Lim, a master’s student at NYU, who told The Post he was “nice and cute.”

The Department of Defense has awarded Fincantieri Marinette Marine a contract to build two U.S. Navy frigates, according to the daily Pentagon contract announcements.The contract, valued at more than $1 billion, is for two Constellation-class Frigates, FFG 66 and FFG 67. The Navy selected the company to build the Constellation-class frigate in 2020.“The team at Fincantieri Marine Group is committed to support the U.S. Navy, and the Constellation program will be the centerpiece of our portfolio for decades,” said Marco Galbiati, CEO of Ficantieri Marinette Marine, in a news release.The company received the contract for the lead ship of the...

The final resting place of an iconic U.S. Navy submarine that was sunk 80 years ago during World War II was located 3,000 feet below the ocean's surface, the Naval History and Heritage Command said Thursday. The USS Harder – which earned the nickname "Hit 'em HARDER" – was found off the Philippine island of Luzon, sitting upright and "relatively intact" except for damage behind its conning tower from a Japanese depth charge, the command said. The sub was discovered using data collected by Tim Taylor, CEO of the Lost 52 Project, which works to locate the 52 submarines sunk...

A Navy supply ship was run aground by a junior officer off the coast of Bahrain shortly after the ship's master -- or captain -- left the bridge to eat dinner, an investigation revealed. The USNS Alan Shepard had finished up a maintenance period on July 15 and was on the way to a port in Bahrain when she was directed to an area just off shore to wait on a pilot. The master took the ship there and then went to eat dinner, leaving the ship in the hands of a much more junior third officer. Less than 30...