Clemens

I understand that is how news spreads but absolutely no other organization has been able to confirm this and the pentagon denied it. Some things just don't add up here. Too may details are missing for it to make sense. If it was undetected, how did they know it was there? The russians certainly don't want that known. Did they get a sniff at it as it was entering the gulf? As it was leaving? There were some specific details included like the fact that is was an Akula, so how did they know this and yet they didn't know it was there for a month? http://news.usni.org/news-analysis/news/pe...led-gulf-mexico I'm pretty skeptical here without anyone else being able to confirm it. Leaks seldom stop at one destination.

Did this really happen? Every news report on this subject references the original news story rather than their own sources and now I've seen a report that the pentagon is denying that it happened. This just seems suspicious to me. It wasn't detected by the US but unnamed US sources are saying it happened?

Does Russia even have a drydock that size? If they were smart, they would work out a deal with the Brits to buy the QE design plans. Related to this, IAC-1 is now pushed back to 2017. The original gear boxes are delayed, rumor has it they tried to scale up a gear box from the P17 class to fit.

These new leaders in the Middle East and North Africa are going to get some rude awakenings. Erdogan in Turkey is a prime example, He is finding out the hard way that it is easier to be in the opposition than it is to rule. One of Erdogan's primary foreign policy statements/goals was "Zero Problems with Turkey's neighbors". Now Turkey is not that far from a shooting war with two of it's neighbors (Syria and Iran) and Turkey frequently launches attacks into Kurdish Iraq. Throw in the problems Turkey has been having with Israel and the long term animosity with Greece and Armenia and you are left with Georgia being the only neighbor they aren't bickering with. These guys are a bit naive when it comes to foreign relations and actually governing.

Iranian Nuclear Facility Under Cyberattack, Computers Playing AC/DC’s Thunderstruck at Night Yesterday, the security research group F-Secure received a puzzling email claiming to be from a nuclear scientist with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI). In it, the author claimed that the country’s nuclear facilities were once again under attack. Only this time, the hackers brought Angus Young along for the ride. F-Secure’s Mikko Hypponen said that a strange new chapter in the ongoing strife over Iran’s nuclear activities may be unfolding. He posted the following email which, although he cannot confirm the veracity of the claims, he does say came from within the AEOI. It reads: I am writing you to inform you that our nuclear program has once again been compromised and attacked by a new worm with exploits which have shut down our automation network at Natanz and another facility Fordo near Qom. According to the email our cyber experts sent to our teams, they believe a hacker tool Metasploit was used. The hackers had access to our VPN. The automation network and Siemens hardware were attacked and shut down. I only know very little about these cyber issues as I am scientist not a computer expert. There was also some music playing randomly on several of the workstations during the middle of the night with the volume maxed out. I believe it was playing ‘Thunderstruck’ by AC/DC. http://www.geekosystem.com/iran-nuclear-fa...-thunderstruck/ Probably not true but funny nonetheless. Personally, I think they should have been rickrolled http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickrolling

What kind of ASW suite were they considering?

What is HII estimating for the cost of a patrol frigate? I would guess a base package of ESSM, sea ram, harpoon, and a sonar suite (towed array and variable depth dipping). That would give the navy a ship capable of self defence against air threats, ASUW and ASW. Give it the same guns as a cyclone class plus the 57MM on the NSC or a 76MM otobreda and you are covered against swarming small craft too. Like you say that would give the navy a ship with teeth and it could get in close and slug it out with smaller craft. Manpower requirements would be higher but I don't believe the LCS crew will stay at 60 men and it is a ship that can fight. JMO but I think they should cap LCS construction at about 10 units, outfit them all for MCM, then build patrol frigates for ASW and escort duties. I just don't see how the navy can say they don't need a ship for escort duties, it is so cost ineffective if they have to assign DDG's for this purpose.

Seems like many of the reasons for building the LCS are no longer applicable to me. The LCS was supposed to be flexible because of the modules, now the modules can't be swapped out in less than weeks The LCS was supposed to be cheap, They now cost about $480 million before any modules are added The were supposed to be reduced manpower ships, now the crew size has been increased by 50%, so far They were supposed to be able to operate as a group without a lot of support but now we need motherships to support them Their unreplenished endurance was supposed to be 21 days but the OPNAV report has reduced that to 14 days and the report was written before the crew size was increased. Now the Motherships will have to replenish the LCS at least every 9 days and the mothership will require an escort, what ship is best suited for a light escort duty like this? A frigate, which the navy says they don't need. The navy has yet to produce a single working module even though we have orders in place for, or taken delivery of 22 ships So now we have a ship that is going to cost 5-600 million each, then add in a mothership for every (call it) 8 LCS'. Call the mothership cost $75 million per LCS What we now have is a single mission ship that costs almost $700 million each that needs unrep every 9-10 days. A ship that currently only has extremely short ranged weapons. For a few hundred million more they could have a true multi-role FFL with endurance. JMO but the guys in pascagoula have the right idea. Patrol Frigate Really, what advantages does the LCS still have over a more traditional frigate? Speed is all that comes to mind, as long as they don't use that speed too often or the unrep requirements probably fall to even less than every 9 days.

Maybe it's just me but this seems more than a little self serving coming from Maersk. They would much rather be able to do away with MLL because it would be easier and cheaper for them, but that wouldn't necessarily be in the best interests of the country. Shipping lines don't want to pay US taxes and costs associated with a US flag but when the feces hit the rotary impeller they are more than happy to reflag their ships to a US flag. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Earnest_Will Or at least tag along with US flagged ships for protection http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298...pg=2528,3236347 Seems to me like what they are asking for are all the benefits of a US flag with none of the costs associated with that. JMO but this whole mess needs to be cleaned up. You can have a ship built in country A, flying a flag from country B, owned by a company in country C, under contract to a company in country D, Operated by a company in country E, with a crew from country F, and that assumes there aren't any subcontracts in place or shell companies involved. One small thing we could do is to put tax advantages in place so that imports have a strong incentive to be on an FOB basis and exports CIF.

I'm not sure that story has it correct... http://navylive.dodlive.mil/2012/05/17/sai...ear-recognized/ 2011 sailors of the year two men and two women.

In a complex situation like this with so many variables, STOBAR vs CATOBAR, 1 or 2 carriers in servicem F35B VS F35b I greatly prefer a more complex decision making process.. The added benefit is that it makes about as much sense as their current process and is actually more predictable

In related news British gov't orders extra 1 pound coins to aid in decision making process

Haha, right you are. Looks like I added it back in November. Okay, I will look at the Project 17A again. Feel free to post any info/links you think would be helpful. http://trishul-trident.blogspot.com/2011/1...s-modified.html I'm still looking for something that shows how many of both the barak 8 and barak 1 since it appears that both the 15A's and 17A's will use both

Holding off on Barak 8 until details firm up. I'm a bit confused then, it's already being used on the 15A Kolkata class in the DB?