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From DefenseNews [excerpt]

From Aviation Week Dogfight Over F-22 Reveals DOD Schisms Nov 18, 2008 By David A. Fulghum The battle over how many F-22 Raptors the U.S. Air Force requires is revealing some nasty infighting as the White House administration change nears. The Defense Secretary staff has told Air Force planners not to talk to congressional staffers and to work only through the offices of Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England and acquisition chief John Young. Insiders on Capitol Hill contend that the Defense Department has been and is continuing to withhold F-22 funds — in defiance of the law and the intent of Congress — in an attempt to punish the Air Force. England…

3 Programs, 3 Sets of Risks By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS Defense News Each of the U.S. Navy’s new ship designs brings its own set of potential problems: å The Carrier: The CVN 78 Gerald R. Ford design features a number of new elements over the previous Nimitz-class carriers, including a new hull, new reactor plant and redesigned flight deck. A new dual-band radar is being developed — the size of which is key to a much smaller island that enables new flight deck operation patterns — and the EMALS magnetic launch system represents a radical improvement. The Navy first planned to put off installation of the new launch system until later ships in the class, but it decided …

From Navy Times January 11, 2007 Boone lost rudder at sea By William H. McMichael The rudder fell off a Mayport, Fla.-based frigate while it was on deployment in the western Mediterranean Sea in late November, the Atlantic Fleet Naval Surface Force confirmed Thursday. The Nov. 30 mishap forced the ship to send out a call for help, said Paul Taylor, a SurfLant spokesman. The Canadian destroyer HMCS Iroquois responded, providing divers who inspected the ship’s underside. Within 24 hours, the Boone was being towed to Rota, Spain, for repairs by a German replenishment oiler, FGS Spessart, Taylor said. The ship was not adrift or totally dead in the water beca…

From Air Force Times Nighthawk takes final bow at Dubai By Wendell Minnick - Staff writer Posted : Thursday Nov 15, 2007 7:31:11 EST The Air Force’s F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter made its last air show appearance in Dubai this week. Two Nighthawks were on static display and one took part in the daily flight demonstrations. Pilots and maintenance crews made themselves available to answer questions. “After 25 years in operation, it is the last air show appearance in the world,” said one maintenance crewman. The F-117, which completed combat missions over Iraq, Kosovo and Panama, is now facing the end of its mission life after 26 years of operation. The …

From Air Force Times NORAD not moving — for now By Erik Holmes - Staff writer Posted : Wednesday Dec 12, 2007 12:41:59 EST Congress has put the brakes on a plan to relocate North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command from the secretive Cheyenne Mountain Air Station, Colo., to Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. The 2008 defense authorization bill approved Dec. 6 by the House and Senate armed services committees orders that the move not go ahead until the Office of the Secretary of Defense submits to Congress a cost-benefit analysis and final plans for the relocation. OSD must also include in its report a security and vulnerability asses…

Seawolf arrives at new base in Bremerton The Associated Press. Posted : Monday Jul 23, 2007 21:42:21 EDT BREMERTON, Wash. — Serenaded by a five-piece Navy band and greeted by balloon-toting children, the fast attack submarine Seawolf arrived at its new base Sunday. Seawolf was nudged into the pier by tugboats, the first of two fast attack subs to arrive at Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton from Groton, Conn. With a crew of 140, the 353-foot sub is the first to be based in Bremerton, although many others have visited the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for maintenance, overhauls and repairs. Chief Petty Officer Arnulfo Salinas, winner of the traditional first kis…

An alternative for Canada ... from CASR [excerpt]

Comments on future carrier operations with drone tankers: https://www.themaven.net/warriormaven/sea/navy-to-pick-first-ever-carrier-launched-drone-later-this-year-v3X6RkePYkuPMMd6lUvKOg

Unless you've been living under a rock, the never ending saga of fanbois versus hater continues in the world of JSF. Here, Aviation Week's Bill Sweetman takes a crack at tearing (yet) another new one in JSF. A Tale of Two Tales

More scenario fodder for the new battlesets! Get cracking! From Ares Iranian Shock Troops in Venezuela? Posted by John M. Doyle at 7/29/2010 12:27 PM CDT It was a little surprising near the end of the (July 27) Senate confirmation hearing for Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis to be the new head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) when Sen. George LeMieux (R-Fla.) brought up Venezuela. LeMieux said he was very concerned about the connection between Iran and Venezuela including secret flights between the two countries and the presence of “Iranian shock troops in Venezuela.” LeMieux, who was appointed last year to serve out the remaining term of Mel Martine…

From Navy Times National security cutter fires up engines By Patricia Kime - Staff writer Posted : Friday Aug 10, 2007 5:31:15 EDT The Coast Guard fired up the engines of the national security cutter Bertholf for the first time Wednesday. Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer 3 Walt Probst pressed the switch to start the ship’s gas turbine engines, the power source for high speed operations. The ship is under construction at Northrop Grumman Ship System’s Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. The engine light-off marks another step in the vessel’s march toward sea trials, expected this fall. A Coast Guard spokesman said Wednesday the ship’s diesel engine…

From Air Force Times Last F-16A retires from service Staff report Posted : Wednesday Jun 20, 2007 16:02:25 EDT The last operational U.S. F-16A Fighting Falcon completed its final mission June 15 when it flew from Tucson Air National Guard Base, Ariz., and touched down at the so-called bone yard — the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. The plane belonged to the 162nd Fighter Wing at Tucson, which has converted to the C and D models. “We constantly transition to newer, more advanced aircraft because that’s what pilots will fly when they graduate from our program,” said wing commander Brig. Gen. Rick Moisio. …

A United State Navy Captain and former Astronaut - How PATHETIC. Please delete if you feel it has no place here at HG. Former astronaut aims for insanity defense By Travis Reed - The Associated Press Posted : Tuesday Aug 28, 2007 16:06:14 EDT ORLANDO, Fla. — Former astronaut Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak is pursuing a temporary insanity defense on charges that she assaulted and tried to kidnap a romantic rival, according to a court document released Tuesday. Nowak suffered from major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, insomnia and “brief psychotic disorder with marked stressors,” defense attorney Donald Lykkebak wrote. He said the already-petite woman…

Ships flagged for lack thereof Navy custom not observed by some By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer Posted : Sunday Jul 8, 2007 10:23:48 EDT NORFOLK, Va. — Eight ships of the 2nd Fleet caused a few internal fireworks July 4. A message from 2nd Fleet command to units of 2nd Fleet reminded all that “on President’s Day and on Independence Day every ship of the Navy in commission, not underway, shall full-dress ship.” It then tersely noted that the cruisers Cape St. George and Vella Gulf, destroyers Arleigh Burke, The Sullivans, Porter, James E. Williams, Forrest Sherman, and the dock landing ship Shreveport — all of which were in port for the holiday — were not…

RADM Horton Relieved Other punishments (Both links Information Dissemination).

USS Gary Returns From Final Deployment; Also Last for SH-60B Seahawks (USNI News)

Ouchie! From Defense Aerospace Program Official Offers Cash Rebate on JSF (Source: defense-aerospace.com; published March 24, 2009) By Giovanni de Briganti PARIS --- Pricing of the Joint Strike Fighter has always seemed to be firmly rooted in fantasy, and the outgoing head of the JSF Program Office has again demonstrated just how divorced this program is from reality. The “official” unit price quoted by Lockheed Martin for the JSF remains pegged at about $65 million, although even Lockheed recently admitted that it won’t know the exact price until 2012. JSF Program Office (JPO) director Major General Charles Davis now tells Jane’s Defence Review t…

Subs: Cold War tool or future need? By Shir Haberman shaberman@seacoastonline.com PORTSMOUTH - One of the primary justifications for placing Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on the base closure list this year is the reduction in the number of submarines the Navy expects to use in the future. "In the past, we had 100 attack submarines. Now, it’s in the 50s, and in the future there will be 41," Adm. Vern Clark, chief of Naval operations, told the Base Realignment and Closure Commission earlier this month as one of the reasons for recommending the closure of the local shipyard. "In order to have a Navy of the future, we need to redirect our resources in order to ru…

Find NavyTime article here. No more enemy combatants, no more combat operations, what next...back to a kinder and gentler term forward deployed forces. It's ok though, we were in MEU's and on ARG's and were no less dangerous. Amphibs, warships split up by new plan By Philip Ewing - Staff writer Posted : Monday Apr 20, 2009 10:49:18 EDT The Navy is breaking up the deployments of amphibious ships and surface combatants formerly known as expeditionary strike groups, part of a top-down review that could have far-reaching consequences for how sailors and Marines spend time at sea. For the past six years, ESGs paired a big-deck amphib and two small-d…