Two LPD Amphibious Ships Cut From 2020 Budget Plan

Two LPD Amphibious Ships Cut From 2020 Budget Plan
Two LPD Amphibious Ships Cut From 2020 Budget Plan

Are big, expensive vessels like amphibious ships and carriers too vulnerable in a long-range missile war with Russia or China?

Pentagon To Retire USS Truman Early, Shrinking Carrier Fleet To 10

Pentagon To Retire USS Truman Early, Shrinking Carrier Fleet To 10
Pentagon To Retire USS Truman Early, Shrinking Carrier Fleet To 10

The move could save more than $30 billion over 25 years to invest in high-tech weapons — but Congress is sure to explode in outrage.

Navy’s New Nuke Sub On Track; Early Problems Fixed

Navy’s New Nuke Sub On Track; Early Problems Fixed
Navy’s New Nuke Sub On Track; Early Problems Fixed

CAPITOL HILL The head of the Navy’s Columbia-class nuclear submarine program says that the program, despite earlier concerns over cost, schedule, and industrial base issues, is set to meet its goal of a first deployment in 2031, putting the service’s most expensive and consequential program on track. The boats will come just in time to…

Navy Wants Faster Ship Repairs; 70% Of Destroyer Fleet Late

Navy Wants Faster Ship Repairs; 70% Of Destroyer Fleet Late
Navy Wants Faster Ship Repairs; 70% Of Destroyer Fleet Late

SAN DIEGO: If the Navy ever hopes to reach its goal of a 355-ship fleet, it won’t be by simply building new hulls and launching them. Instead, the admirals have long recognized they’ll have to extend the lives of dozens of ships already long in the tooth — and do so at a time when…

Bigger Debt Means Smaller Budgets (But We Need More Shipyards): DoD Officials

Bigger Debt Means Smaller Budgets (But We Need More Shipyards): DoD Officials
Bigger Debt Means Smaller Budgets (But We Need More Shipyards): DoD Officials

Even as one official warned that budget pressures would squeeze the budget, another said the nation must expand the defense industrial base to build a 355-ship Navy.

No More ‘Playing Defense’ For US Navy; Offensive Weapons Are The Play

No More ‘Playing Defense’ For US Navy; Offensive Weapons Are The Play
No More ‘Playing Defense’ For US Navy; Offensive Weapons Are The Play

“We’ve spent a lot of time over the past years playing defense,” Rear Adm. Ronald Boxall, director of surface warfare, said at the West 2019 conference here. “The best defense is a good offense, and the idea that we will go after the threat — at range — is something that we have to be able to do.”

India Is Going Big on New Fighters; Lockheed, Boeing Pledge Indian Plants

India Is Going Big on New Fighters; Lockheed, Boeing Pledge Indian Plants
India Is Going Big on New Fighters; Lockheed, Boeing Pledge Indian Plants

Boeing, Lockheed, Dassault Aviation of France, the European Eurofighter consortium, Sweden’s Saab, and United Aircraft Corporation of Russia are all jockeying for position for an Indian fighter contract worth $15 billion for 110 planes, and an $8 billion navy program of around 60 aircraft.

‘Fight To Get To The Fight:’ Marine Amphibs Under The Gun

‘Fight To Get To The Fight:’ Marine Amphibs Under The Gun
‘Fight To Get To The Fight:’ Marine Amphibs Under The Gun

CAPITOL HILL: Threatened by hundreds of precision-guided munitions now in the hands of Russia and China, the Navy and Marine Corps continue to search for technologies and tactics that will allow them to operate close to the coastline without unsustainable losses. “We’re going to need long-range fires that can operate from a ship or from…

All Services Sign On To Data Sharing – But Not To Multi-Domain

All Services Sign On To Data Sharing – But Not To Multi-Domain
All Services Sign On To Data Sharing – But Not To Multi-Domain

“We need to have any sensor connect to any shooter at very rapid machine-to-machine speed,” Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said, “if we’re going to multi-domain operations.” But aye, there’s the rub: Are we?

CNO Wants More Cyber, IW in Navy’s Wargames

CNO Wants More Cyber, IW in Navy’s Wargames
CNO Wants More Cyber, IW in Navy’s Wargames

WASHINGTON: The Navy needs to increase both the number and complexity of its wargames, the service’s top admiral said Wednesday, citing rapid advances being made by competitors in cyber and information warfare tactics that will muddy and confuse future battlefields. While Adm. John Richardson didn’t provide any details to flesh out his thinking during an…

Army Helicopters Underfunded (Even Worse Than Everything Else): CSIS

Army Helicopters Underfunded (Even Worse Than Everything Else): CSIS
Army Helicopters Underfunded (Even Worse Than Everything Else): CSIS

Every Breaking Defense reader has a good idea how huge the US military’s modernization backlog is. But it sometimes takes a deep dive to show how big the problem is. In a new study by the Center for Strategic & International Studies — embedded below — scholars Gabriel Coll, Andrew Hunter, and Robert Karlen look…

Navy Rethinks 355-Ship Fleet: CNO Richardson

Navy Rethinks 355-Ship Fleet: CNO Richardson
Navy Rethinks 355-Ship Fleet: CNO Richardson

The Navy may back off its much-publicized call for a 355-ship fleet and look at new options like unmanned vessels, the Chief of Naval Operations said.

Navy Inks Huge Ford Carrier Deal; Pentagon Flags Problems

Navy Inks Huge Ford Carrier Deal; Pentagon Flags Problems
Navy Inks Huge Ford Carrier Deal; Pentagon Flags Problems

WASHINGTON: The Navy signed a massive, $15.2 billion contract with Huntington Ingalls Industries-Newport News Shipbuilding this evening for two more Ford-class aircraft carriers, hours after a Pentagon report listed a litany of problems with the ambitious program. The contract pays for completion of in 2028 of the USS Enterprise, which began in 2017. It also…

More Missile Defense Ships, New Ground Deployments

More Missile Defense Ships, New Ground Deployments
More Missile Defense Ships, New Ground Deployments

Despite the Navy’s misgivings over having dozens of its ships sailing in boxes hunting for missiles, plans remain in place for more Aegis-capable hulls, as well as new radars, and mobile missile defense batteries.