Current Events in the Americas

Just like the Air Force, the Army and the CIA, the Navy soon could be deploying its own armed drones. To that end, the Navy will request funds in fiscal year 2010 to begin outfitting its new surveillance drone with kinetic weapons. The drone, which is scheduled to enter service next year, is the vertical-takeoff and landing tactical unmanned air vehicle, or VTUAV, which is also known as Fire Scout. The aircraft is a modified Schweizer 333 helicopter that the Navy wants to fly off the decks of its littoral combat ships. During the next several months, the Naval Air Systems Command will be examining various weapons that are considered viable candidates for t…

Navy asserts LCS set for summer delivery By Christopher P. Cavas - Staff writer Posted : Thursday Apr 17, 2008 9:01:01 EDT The Navy’s first Littoral Combat Ship remains on track for delivery this summer, service and shipbuilder officials said, belying a blogger’s claim that the ship will be a year late. “We’re on track for trials beginning in May. We’re on track for a summer 2008 delivery,” said Diana Massing, a spokeswoman for Lockheed Martin. “LCS 1 starts builder’s trials next month and is scheduled to deliver in August 2008,” declared Lt. Cmdr. John Schofield, a Navy spokesman. The statements contradict a claim by Internet blogger Tim Colton that …

From Navy Times Navy awards Northrop $2.4B contract for LHA 6s The Associated Press Posted : Saturday Jun 2, 2007 16:07:28 EDT PASCAGOULA, Miss. — The U.S. Navy has awarded a $2.4 billion contract to Northrop Grumman Ship Systems to design and build the first replacement amphibious assault ship. The work will be done at Northrop’s shipyards in Pascagoula and New Orleans. The contract, announced Friday, will fund construction of the first, next-generation “bid-deck” amphibious ship, dubbed LHA 6. The Navy said Northrop is expected to deliver the ship by 2012. The ship will have such enhanced capabilities as an enlarged hangar deck, expanded mainte…

Navy can use sonar despite environmental fight By Paul Elias - The Associated Press Posted : Friday Aug 31, 2007 18:04:17 EDT SAN FRANCISCO — The Navy can use high-power sonar during exercises off the Southern California coast, despite the technology’s threat to whales and other marine mammals, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. National security interests outweigh the possible harm to marine life, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined in overturning a judge’s order banning the practice. “The public does indeed have a very considerable interest in preserving our natural environment and especially relatively scarce whal…

From Defense Aerospace Op-Ed: Crusading Navy Secretary Cancels 300-Ship Fleet (Source: The Lexington Institute; issued Nov. 6, 2007) By Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D. With all the breaking news last week -- martial law in Pakistan, Hillary besieged by pygmies -- you may have missed the big announcement coming out of the U.S. Navy. Hard-charging Navy Secretary Donald Winter has brought his crusade for fundamental reform in the shipbuilding industry to its first major milestone, effectively canceling plans for a 300-ship fleet. That's the likely long-term consequence of his decision to terminate a contract with General Dynamics for a new warship called the Litto…

From Navy Times Navy celebrates 1,000th Trident sub patrol The Associated Press Posted : Thursday Feb 19, 2009 7:55:47 EST KINGS BAY NAVAL SUBMARINE BASE, Ga. — A coastal Georgia military base is celebrating a milestone for the Navy’s fleet of nuclear-armed submarines — the 1,000th patrol since the first Trident missile sub launched in 1981. Navy Secretary Donald Winter is scheduled to mark the occasion Thursday with other dignitaries at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base near St. Marys. Kings Bay is the East Coast port for the Navy’s Trident submarines. The fleet of 14 Ohio-class submarines was launched during the Cold War as a deterrent to nuclear war. The…

Navy christens newest attack sub By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer Posted : Monday Apr 23, 2007 15:24:07 EDT The fourth Virginia-class submarine, the $2.3 billion North Carolina, was christened Saturday in Newport News, Va., in front of a crowd of thousands. Vice Adm. Jay Donnelly, commander of the submarine force, told the pre-commissioning crew, “Never fear, your turn to deploy will come soon enough,” according to a Navy announcement. The North Carolina joins the Virginia, Texas and Hawaii as the first ships of the post-Cold War submarine class. The North Carolina is scheduled to be commissioned in 2008. The Navy expects to buy 30 Virginia-class subs. …

From Navy Times Navy official confident about LCS By Christopher P. Cavas - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday May 8, 2007 20:53:03 EDT The Navy’s top acquisition official was upbeat and positive May 7 about the troubled Littoral Combat Ship program, telling a Washington audience, “We’re back on track.” Earlier this year, severe cost overruns and manufacturer problems led the service to cancel plans to buy two more LCS ships in 2007 to pay for cost growth on the first ships. The construction contract for one of two LCSs being built by Lockheed Martin was cancelled, and in a touch of ignominy, a fire damaged the first ship late last month while it was under constr…

Navy Decides to Buy V-22 Ospreys for Carrier Delivery (Breaking Defense)

Navy decommissions last coastal minehunters By Zachary M. Peterson - Staff writer Posted : Sunday Dec 16, 2007 9:00:05 EST The Navy bid adieu to its last four Osprey-class coastal minehunter ships Dec. 1, leaving the service to rely on 14 Avenger-class minehunters and the nascent Littoral Combat Ship program to fill the niche mission of surveying shallow coastal waters for mines. The decommissioning ceremony was held at Naval Station Ingleside, Texas. The ships — Black Hawk, Cormorant, Kingfisher and Shrike — were capable of clearing harbors and other coastal waters of various types of underwater mines. The ships were commissioned between 1996 and 1999. T…

Navy Deploys a Frigate for the Last Time (DOD Buzz)

From AviationWeek Navy Details New Super Hornet Capabilities By David A. Fulghum With Douglas Barrie in London. The U.S. Navy's "Advanced Super Hornet" will tie together an electronic attack system with a powerful new radar that would allow the aircraft to find, deceive and, perhaps, disable sophisticated, radar-guided air-to-air, surface-to-air and cruise missiles. Moreover, it could do so at ranges greater than that of new U.S. air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons. Silence about these key features of the Super Hornet's advanced radar and integrated sensor package is being broken by U.S. Navy and aerospace industry officials just as the President's budget f…

Navy Emphasizes Anti-Submarine Training By AUDREY McAVOY , 01.26.2006, 02:52 PM Associated Press Forbes Two Navy destroyers and a cruiser dangle sonar devices into the ocean to listen for enemy submarines lurking 50 miles from Honolulu. Naval aviators in P-3 surveillance planes and helicopters drop sonar buoys into the sea to give the sailors more ears below the surface. The submarines are not really enemy vessels at all, but U.S. subs participating in anti-submarine warfare training. The exercises, held Jan. 9-12, are something Navy sailors will be doing more of in coming years. The Pacific Fleet has made training to track and destroy submarines its to…

Navy Has Finalized Specifications for New Ohio-Replacement Boomer (USNI News)

Navy furious over LPD 17 By Christopher P. Cavas - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Jul 10, 2007 11:15:46 EDT Northrop Grumman has received a scathing rebuke from the secretary of the Navy for its performance on the LPD 17 amphibious ship program. The company was criticized for poor construction standards and an inability to meet cost and schedule targets — factors that are causing the Navy concerns about future ship construction at Northrop’s shipyards along the Gulf of Mexico. “I am deeply concerned about Northrop Grumman Ship Systems’ (NGSS) ability to recover in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, particularly in regard to construction of LPD 17 Class vessel…

Newsday.com Navy gets first "Growler" with Northrop Grumman radar jammer BY JAMES BERNSTEIN james.bernstein@newsday.com 3:09 PM EDT, June 2, 2008 The Growlers are coming. The EA-18G Growler, that is. The EA-18G is a new electronic attack airplane, and the first of them is to be delivered to the Navy Tuesday at the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington state. Northrop Grumman's facility in Bethpage is a major contributor to the Growler, whose airframe is made by Boeing Co. Northrop Grumman engineers and technicians in Bethpage designed an advanced system -- called ICAP III, for improved capability -- that will aid the EA-18G in jammi…

Navy Lacks Plan to Defend Against `Carrier-Destroying' Missile YahooNews Tony Capaccio Fri Mar 23, 12:18 AM ET March 23 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Navy, after nearly six years of warnings from Pentagon testers, still lacks a plan for defending aircraft carriers against a supersonic Russian-built missile, according to current and former officials and Defense Department documents. The missile, known in the West as the ``Sizzler,'' has been deployed by China and may be purchased by Iran. Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England has given the Navy until April 29 to explain how it will counter the missile, according to a Pentagon budget document. The Defense …

US Navy may add conformal fuel tanks to F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fleet (Flight Global)

Apparantly the Port Royal is stuck on a reef. Story here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,489590,00.html

Navy Ohio Replacement Sub Class to Be Named for D.C. (USNI News) The Columbia class.