Current Events in the Americas

Report: Navy can’t afford proposed fleet By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer Posted : Sunday Apr 22, 2007 12:46:10 EDT An April 10 research report to Congress on assembling the modern fleet says the Navy’s latest shipbuilding plan cannot achieve its intent of a 313-ship future fleet, up from today’s 275-ship force. “The Navy’s 30-year shipbuilding plan does not include enough ships to fully support all the elements of the 313-ship fleet consistently over the long run,” according to the report entitled “Navy Force Structure and Shipbuilding Plans: Background and Issues for Congress,” produced by the Congressional Research Service. The Navy has estimated that i…

Report: Sailors killed while tethered to sub Rough seas also threatened to sink ship By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Apr 10, 2007 10:56:16 EDT Two sailors from the attack submarine Minneapolis-St. Paul were killed Dec. 29 off Plymouth, England, after being washed overboard in rough seas that soon threatened to sink the ship, according an investigative report released Monday under a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Navy Times. Senior Chief Electronics Technician (SS) Thomas K. Higgins, 45, chief of the boat, died in the accident, along with Sonar Technician 2nd Class (SS) Michael J. Holtz. A third sailor, Sonar Technician 1st C…

Reports: Brazil Picks Sweden's Gripen Fighter Jet (DefenseNews)

Research begins on new anti-ship missile By Philip Ewing - Staff writer Posted : Monday Jul 13, 2009 6:34:55 EDT Find NavyTimes article here. Even as some Navy commanders quietly worry about the potential threat from foreign anti-ship missiles, fewer American warships have gone to sea in the past decade with anti-ship weapons of their own. But that might change. Surface ships could get a powerful weapon to use against surface targets as part of an experimental program announced in late June — the first new U.S. anti-ship missile in a quarter-century. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research issued a $10 million co…

From DefenseNews Posted 05/07/07 12:36 U.S. House Panel Pushes Nuclear Surface Ships By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS The prospect of the U.S. Navy once again using nuclear energy to propel its larger surface warships edged a bit closer to reality May 3 with a push from a powerful congressional subcommittee. “We are requiring that new classes of major surface combatants are designed and constructed with integrated nuclear power systems,” Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., chairman of the House Armed Services seapower subcommittee, said during the panel’s markup of the 2008 defense authorization bill. Taylor’s predecessor as chairman, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., echoed the cal…

From Air Force Magazine Daily Report [excerpt]

How I suspected and reflected in these two historical scenarios, the US destroyers were operating for years alone and vulnerable, as confirmed in this USNI new report, but the procedure will be changed, and in near term we should count with three destroyers surface action groups: http://news.usni.org/2016/01/13/a-year-into-distributed-lethality-navy-nears-fielding-improved-weapons-deploying-surface-action-group http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2016-01/we-are-headed-right-direction Historical scenario featuring USS Ross (DDG 71) operating alone: http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/files/file/904-new-battle-of-sinop-23-december-2015-alternate-history-s…

Subsonic, employed to extend range of one or two guided bomb and ASM/ARM/AAM in each, or simply as extended aircraft pylon if not launched, and to be produced some 500 each month from 2018 (My estimates: speed=516 knots, range=172 nm): http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/news/a28100/darpa-factory-in-a-can-drones/ http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/14161/darpas-flying-missile-rail-seems-to-be-more-about-manufacturing-than-combat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IuQDqM2M_k&feature=plcp

Rising costs sock shipbuilding, as local yard fears layoffs By Steve Liewer UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER SignOnSanDiego.com February 1, 2007 Bedeviled with cost overruns, the Navy's shipbuilding program is in danger of sinking under its own weight. Navy leaders have struggled to upgrade an aging fleet of warships with next-generation aircraft carriers, destroyers, amphibious assault ships and submarines that cost billions more than the vessels they replace. San Diego's General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard may have to lay off workers if the Navy's pace of new projects doesn't quicken. This week, a crane at the shipyard positioned the bow on the supply ship Ric…

Robots Clear Waterways of Deadly Mines Associated Press | July 27, 2007 PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. - As it slowly moves in the shallow water along a beach, the robot splashes its fins like a small child playing in the surf. But the prototype device has a serious mission: destroying mines that could kill Marines and Navy SEALs as they come on shore. Such technology is considered the future of underwater bomb detection. "It's a kamikaze vehicle, a suicidal robot," said Mathieu Kemp, a scientist with Durham, N.C.-based Nekton Research, LCC, which created the Transphibian. The 3-foot-long device, which will some day carry 14 pounds of plastic explosives and at…

Roughead Outlines Future For Pacific By William Cole, Advertiser Military Writer PEARL HARBOR — The new submarine USS Hawaii will be commissioned Saturday on the East Coast, and "the bias will continue to be toward the Pacific and Pearl Harbor" as decisions are made on where to base other subs, the outgoing commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet said. Adm. Gary Roughead said as the new Virginia-class attack submarines continue to come on line, "you are going to see the numbers in substantial amounts out here in Pearl Harbor." The USS Hawaii, the first of those, will arrive in 2009. After nearly two years in the same bunker office that was once occupied by Adm. Ch…

Royal Navy's Flagship HMS Ocean Could Be Sold to Brazil (Defense Aerospace)

From Jane's Briefing: Russia deepens relationship with Brazil By Guy Anderson 17 May 2010 Russia and Brazil are reported to be discussing the sale of an unspecified number of air defence systems to the Latin American state: a deal that says much about Moscow's current strategy in international defence markets and the potential for Western firms to find themselves competing head to head with Russia to a greater degree than in previous years. Russian state information service RIA Novosti reported on 14 May that the sale of systems – potentially Tor platforms although this has yet to be agreed – was under discussion, together with a series of other accords rela…

From DefenseNews Posted 12/01/06 10:39 Russia Delivers First Sukhoi Fighters to Venezuela By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, MOSCOW The first two Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets destined for Venezuela under a deal slammed by Washington have been dispatched from Russia, officials said Nov. 30. “Two Su-30MK2 have been sent on board an An-124 transport plane to the Venezuelan Air Force” from Komsomolsk-on-Amur, a city in far eastern Russia where the planes are made, said an official from Russia’s arms export agency. Two other fighter jets destined for Venezuela according to a deal that has riled the United States will be delivered by the end of the year, the official told RIA-No…

From Flight Global's DEW Line blog [excerpt]

Hope that someone gets some photos of those Tu-22s. I can never get enough of those beautiful planes.

From DefenseNews Russian Ships Arrive in Venezuela for Exercises By BEATRIZ LECUMBERRI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Published: 25 Nov 12:49 EST (17:49 GMT) LA GUAIRA, Venezuela - Venezuela welcomed Russian warships Nov. 25 at a northern port near Caracas for a week of joint maneuvers with its navy, an activity not seen in the region since the Cold War. The ships, including the nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great and destroyer Admiral Chabankenko, arrived at La Guaira to coincide with a two-day visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Venezuela, the strongest U.S. critic in the region. The exercises, dubbed VenRus 2008, would take first take place in do…

What Russia's Stealth Fighter Developments Mean for America

From Navy Times San Antonio shipping out After delays and nearly $1 billion in cost overruns, amphib’s maiden voyage nears By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer Posted : Monday Aug 25, 2008 11:22:04 EDT NORFOLK, Va. — The banner on the brow of the amphibious transport dock San Antonio reads, “Never Retreat. Never Surrender.” And for a while there, it also looked as if the ship would never deploy. But after years of design problems and delays, the San Antonio finally is ready to head overseas. The ship, the first of the LPD 17 class, is scheduled to depart Norfolk this week as part of the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group, Navy officials say. “She is ready f…