SSN(X) Will Be ‘Ultimate Apex Predator’

SSN(X) Will Be ‘Ultimate Apex Predator’
SSN(X) Will Be ‘Ultimate Apex Predator’

Rear Adm. Bill Houston described a submarine that boasts the payload and speed of the Seawolf-class submarines, the acoustics and senors of Virginia-class and the operational availability and service life of the Columbia-class submarines.

Navy Backing Off 355 Ships, But Closer on Refueling Drone

Navy Backing Off 355 Ships, But Closer on Refueling Drone
Navy Backing Off 355 Ships, But Closer on Refueling Drone

There was some good news, and some bad news, for the Navy on Monday.

Navy League Denounces Trump’s Coast Guard Cuts

Navy League Denounces Trump’s Coast Guard Cuts
Navy League Denounces Trump’s Coast Guard Cuts

WASHINGTON: The Navy League of the United States just issued a withering denunciation of President Trump‘s proposed $1.3 billion cut to the Coast Guard. Trump’s 2018 budget plan has already come under fire from both sides. Democrats reject it for cutting domestic spending too much. Pro-military Republicans reject it for raising defense too little. The Republican…

Tiltrotor Touters Hope First Sea Lord Is Easy Prey

Tiltrotor Touters Hope First Sea Lord Is Easy Prey
Tiltrotor Touters Hope First Sea Lord Is Easy Prey

The decline in V-22 Osprey orders from the U.S. military in coming years means the tiltrotor transport’s manufacturers are likely to spend a lot of time wooing foreign military officers at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition May 16-18 at National Harbor, Md. – especially Britain’s new First Sea Lord, Adm. Sir Philip Jones. Representatives from Bell Helicopter…

More Ships Can’t Save Overworked Navy; Basing Ships Abroad Can: CSBA

More Ships Can’t Save Overworked Navy; Basing Ships Abroad Can: CSBA
More Ships Can’t Save Overworked Navy; Basing Ships Abroad Can: CSBA

CAPITOL HILL: The Navy and Marines are deploying at a pace they can’t sustain, says a report released today.And no feasible defense budget can build a big enough force to solve the problem, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments says. Even the Navy’s famously optimistic 30-year shipbuilding plan — denounced by House seapower chairman Randy…

Navy Likely To Fill “Carrier Gap;” Readiness Will Suffer

Navy Likely To Fill “Carrier Gap;” Readiness Will Suffer
Navy Likely To Fill “Carrier Gap;” Readiness Will Suffer

WASHINGTON: The Navy says it won’t have an aircraft carrier in the Middle East for a couple of months this fall. That news has caused a lot of anxiety — but we may be worried about the wrong thing. The real problem may not be the gap itself but the price the Navy pays to close…

19% Of Marine Aircraft Down For Repairs; Paying For Mistakes Of 1970s

19% Of Marine Aircraft Down For Repairs; Paying For Mistakes Of 1970s
19% Of Marine Aircraft Down For Repairs; Paying For Mistakes Of 1970s

CAPITOL HILL: Marines pride themselves on being ready for anything. But as of today, 19 percent of their air fleet is out of action “long-term” awaiting repairs and spares, the deputy commandant for aviation said today. “It’s 158 — actually, today, 159 aircraft — that the taxpayer paid $8.4 billion dollars for,” said Lt. Gen.…

Post Election: Kendall Glum On Chances To Scrap Sequestration

Post Election: Kendall Glum On Chances To Scrap Sequestration
Post Election: Kendall Glum On Chances To Scrap Sequestration

UPDATED: AEI’s Eaglen Argues Mini Budget Deal Likely DSAN DIEGO: The day after an election should be about hope. It should be — except maybe for the losers — a time to celebrate possibilities. Well, so much for the couple of hours of slumbering hope we all had after going to bed late last night. Frank…

Navy’s Magnetic Super Gun To Make Mach 7 Shots At Sea In 2016: Adm. Greenert

Navy’s Magnetic Super Gun To Make Mach 7 Shots At Sea In 2016: Adm. Greenert
Navy’s Magnetic Super Gun To Make Mach 7 Shots At Sea In 2016: Adm. Greenert

[UPDATED April 8 with more rail gun & laser detail from Rear Adm. Klunder] NATIONAL HARBOUR: 23 pounds ain’t heavy. But it sure hurts when it hits you going at seven times the speed of sound. That’s what a prototype Navy weapon called a “rail gun” can do, and it does it without a single…

Navy Lags, Coast Guard Leads, In Building Ties With China

NATIONAL HARBOR: China bullies its neighbors, hacks computers around the world, and tests a missile designed to sink American aircraft carriers. The US Navy reallocates its newest and most combat-capable warships to the Pacific. The retired Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the sinophilic Gen. James “Hoss” Cartwright, says the Air Force and Navy’s…

Navy Will Send Prototype Laser Weapon To Persian Gulf: Adm. Greenert

NATIONAL HARBOR: The Navy will send a prototype laser weapon to the troubled Persian Gulf for a roughly year-long test deployment starting “less than a year from now,” the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, announced today at the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space conference. The bad news is this isn’t some superweapon out of…

Gen. Amos, Adm. Greenert: F-35 Essential But Procurement ‘Constipated’

NATIONAL HARBOR: The top officers in the Navy and Marine Corps defended their most expensive program, Lockheed Martin‘s troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, while acknowledging the way the Pentagon buys such weapons is not merely broken but “constipated.” “There’s no alternative for the United States Marine Corps to the F-35B,” Commandant Gen. James Amos said…

Sequester, CR: Navy’s Top Spokesman Says There’s ‘Still Hope’

WASHINGTON: “We still even today hold out hope that there will be a solution, that Congress can solve this.” That’s the word, as startling as it is, from the Navy’s senior spokesman, Rear Adm. John Kirby, on the day before the automatic cuts called sequestration are scheduled to kick in. But as Kirby, the Chief…

Marines: Sequester, CR Would Ground F-18s, Slash Pilot Training; ‘Very Real Risk Of Killing Pilots’

WASHINGTON: As the government hurtles towards the latest fiscal cliff, March 1st, the Marine Corps‘ deputy commandant for resources outlined a host of painful potential consequences, from reduced rifle training to cancelled deployments to grounded fighter squadrons. Lt. Gen. John Wissler appealed to Congress for so-called reprogramming authority that would at least let the Marines…