Tag: US Navy

Navy Orders ‘Deep Dive’ into Readiness After Massive Ship Deployment Delay

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Navy Amphibious Assault Vessel

The Navy’s top officer ordered a “deep dive” investigation into readiness and maintenance issues after one amphibious assault vessel, the USS Boxer, deployed after months of delay, according to Military.com.

The Boxer carries fighter aircraft and Marines and serves as the flagship of its designated combat unit known as an Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), supporting the U.S. military’s ability to rapidly deploy forces across the globe. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti said she directed senior officers in February to do an initial investigation into the delays that could provide lessons for the rest of the amphibious fleet, Military.com reported.

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Commentary: The Immediacy of the PRC Threat Requires Shift from a Focus on Land Power to Maritime Power

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One of the biggest news stories coming out of Asia for the New Year was the alleged purge of senior People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officers, most notably the former PRC Minister of Defense Li Shangfu who went missing in late August 2023 and was formally removed from his position in October. This so-called purge, which also included three senior defense industry officials, was in fact the result of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) annual announcement of the new slate of delegates for the upcoming Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an advisory body of the PRC’s annual National People’s Congress (NPC), that is held each year, usually in early March.

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Report: China Is Closing the Submarine Gap with the U.S.

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USS Nevada, Ohio-class submarine

China is rapidly closing the gap in critical submarine capabilities that challenge decades of unmitigated U.S. dominance in the deep sea and could have critical implications in a Taiwan scenario, The Wall Street Journal reported.

In 2023, China put to sea a nuclear-powered attack submarine equipped for the first time with a noise-reducing pump-jet propulsion system, marking a major advance in submarine technology to match the way the U.S. equips its own submarines. The quieting systems will allow them to evade detection by American submarines and patrol aircraft, while construction on an “underwater great wall” of complex sensors will allow China to identify incoming enemy assets, Chinese military and academic texts say.

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Crisis of Confidence in U.S. Marine Corps as Biden Nominates New Commandant

Just the News

President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Marine Corps is raising concern among war hawks and others about whether his appointment will continue what they see as an ongoing effort to strip the military branch of its internal and external might and prowess.

Gen. Eric Smith, now the assistant commandant for the Marines, was nominated last week by the White House to be the next Marine Corps commandant.

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Virginia Congressional Delegation Asks Navy to Keep Ships Homeported in Hampton Roads

Eric Burk

Virginia’s congressional delegation, led by Congressman Rob Wittman (R-Virginia-01), is warning the Navy not to forget the East Coast and Norfolk Naval Shipyard as international military and commercial dynamics draw attention to China and Russia.

“As we pivot towards the Indo-Pacific in our global force posture, it comes as no surprise that we’ve bolstered our presence on our Western Seaboard through increases in homeported ships. This increased presence is of such magnitude that San Diego has eclipsed Norfolk in the sheer number of homeported ships,” the delegation wrote in a letter to Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday.

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Wittman, Kaine Introduce SHIPYARD Act to Fund Navy Infrastructure, Including Norfolk Naval Shipyard

Eric Burk

Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) and Representative Rob Wittman (R-Virginia-01) announced the SHIPYARD Act to provide $21 billion to invest in the Navy’s four public shipyards, including Norfolk Naval Shipyard. The plan, announced Wednesday, would also provide $2 billion for new construction of private shipyards, and $2 billion to repair the Navy’s existing private shipyards.

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US Blames Iran for Attacks on Two Tankers in Gulf of Oman

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  The U.S. Navy has released video it says shows an Iranian patrol boat removing an unexploded limpet mine from the hull of one of two tankers carrying petroleum products that were attacked in the Gulf of Oman Thursday. One of the tankers is Norwegian-owned and the other is owned by Japanese Kokuka Sangyo shipping company. Photographs also released by the U.S. military show the removed mine had been attached to the Japanese tanker, slightly forward of a mine that had already exploded. Bellingcat's @Timmi_Allen made the following video that enhances the original video, and makes it somewhat easier to see what is going on. It does look like an object is removed. But we still have to confirm this is the Kokuka Courageous. https://t.co/TIJvfegVWl pic.twitter.com/DpdPS927kg — Bellingcat (@bellingcat) June 14, 2019 The Norwegian tanker was set on fire and sent up smoke thick and black enough to be seen by satellites in space. The head of the Kokuka Sangyo shipping company which operates the tanker Kokuka Courageous said their ship had been attacked twice, with one explosion near the engine room and another on the right-hand side, near the back. Speaking to reporters Friday, Yutaka Katada, said the crew…

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Trump Says He Had No Knowledge of ‘Well-Meaning’ Attempts to Cover USS McCain

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by Shelby Talcott   President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday morning that he had no knowledge of a “well-meaning” request to keep the USS John McCain out of view during his recent trip to Japan. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that a White House official asked the U.S. Navy to move the USS McCain “out of sight” before Trump’s visit to Japan. A May 15 email from a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command official to U.S. Navy and Air Force officials outlined plans for Trump’s Japan visit, including a request saying that the “USS John McCain needs to be out of sight,” WSJ reported. “I don’t know what happened,” Trump said in a reply to reporters Thursday morning. “I wasn’t involved, I would not have done that.” “Now, somebody did it because they thought I didn’t like him [late Arizona Sen. John McCain],” Trump added. “Okay, and they were well-meaning, I will say. I didn’t know anything about it. I would never have done that.” Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan denied knowing anything about the reported request while talking to reporters Thursday en route to Indonesia. He said that he will investigate the reports. “What I read this morning was the first…

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Top US Navy Admiral in the Middle East Found Dead in ‘Apparent Suicide’

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by Evie Fordham   A replacement has been named for Vice Adm. Scott Stearney, the top Navy admiral in the Middle East, after he was found dead in his residence in Bahrain Saturday. Vice Adm. Jim Malloy, the deputy chief of naval operations for operations, plans and strategy, will take Stearney’s place commanding U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the 5th Fleet, Stars and Stripes reported Monday. Defense officials called Stearney’s death an “apparent suicide,” CBS News reported. Navy officials declined to comment on those reports, according to Stars and Stripes. “Scott Stearney was a decorated naval warrior. He was a devoted husband and father, and he was a good friend to all of us,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said in a statement Saturday. “The Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Bahraini Ministry of Interior are cooperating on the investigation, but at this time no foul play is suspected.” There will be a private memorial for Stearney on the Navy’s Bahrain base, officials told Stars and Stripes Monday. The 5th Fleet that Stearney commanded is based in Bahrain. It functions in the Arabian Gulf, Red Sea, Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean as well as strategically important…

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US Navy’s Top Admiral Cites Increased Threat in Ocean Nearest Washington

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American Navy

by Carla Babb   Chinese military vessels are now operating in the Northern Atlantic, and Russian submarines are prowling those same waters at a pace not seen since the end of the Cold War, the Navy’s top admiral told VOA in an exclusive interview. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said China’s military movements from the North Atlantic into the Mediterranean Sea is a “new dynamic.” “Even five years ago, we wouldn’t have seen anything like this,” Richardson said. According to Richardson, the Chinese navy is a global one that is both “ready and capable” of operating wherever Beijing wants. “They’re certainly a pacing competition for us in terms of the naval threat,” he told VOA. However, Chinese operations near the United States’ eastern shore are not as threatening as Russian vessels lurking below the ocean’s surface. NATO allies from North America to Europe are increasingly concerned about the uptick of Russian submarine activity in the North Atlantic. “We’re talking about more (activity) than we’ve seen in 25 years,” Richardson said. U.S. officials worry that Moscow may try to use its submarines to cut or tap into undersea cables that connect the two continents. 2nd Fleet Due to these…

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US Navy Shoots Down Another Ballistic Target in ‘Complex Missile Defense Flight Test’

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  The United States Navy announced Wednesday that sailors aboard the USS John Paul Jones successfully conducted what they called a ‘complex missile defense flight test.’ “We are working closely with the fleet to develop this important new capability, and this was a key milestone in giving our Aegis BMD ships an enhanced capability to defeat ballistic missiles in their terminal phase,” said Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves. The John Paul Jones detected and tracked a target missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii, with its onboard AN/SPY-1 radar and onboard SM-6 missiles executed the intercept. This test, designated Flight Test Standard Missile (FTM) 27 Event 2, marks the second time that an SM-6 missile has successfully intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile target. Tuesday, North Korea once again violated several agreements by firing a ballistic missile over our ally, Japan. President Trump responded immediately, reminding the starving hermit kingdom that, with regards to eliminating the threat of a first strike, ‘all options are on the table.’ Lt. Gen. Concluded, “We will continue developing ballistic missile defense technologies to stay ahead of the threat as it evolves.”

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