Behind the Navy’s Stealth Destroyer Shuffle | Danger Room from Wired.com
Meanwhile, the company that makes the DDG-1000’s radar says that the Navy is wrong. The new destroyer can use air-defense missiles after a few, relatively cheap modifications, Raytheon claims. The company is lobbying hard to keep the ship class alive. Despite this, the DDG-1000 program is unlikely to extend beyond the three vessels. That third ship was the Navy’s consolation prize to Congress and the defense industry.

Follow?

the remaining $7B into developing long-range variants of the X-47 UCASB.

Information Dissemination
Given Huntington’s advice, the Navy’s existing plan, the operational considerations, the Maritime Strategy, and $35 billion over 5 years… what would be your shipbuilding plan, and why? The FY09-1FY13 plan the Navy released in this budget year can be found here for comparison. Remember, we are talking about 5 years from FY10 - FY14 here, but it should be part of a larger strategy.

No–in Sea Breeze 98, we had

“Over 30 ships and vessels ,one submarine, 10-12 planes, and 10-12 helicopters. ”

operating in the northern portion of the Black Sea.

No wonder this irritates the Russians. It’s like having a Russian fleet operate in the Great Lakes after Canada lets them down the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Information Dissemination: Breaking: Moskva Scrambles Back to Sea
There are no details regarding which four Turkish warships are there, but the other ships would be the SPS Juan de Borbon (F102), the Polish frigate ORP General K. Pulaski (272), the German frigate FGS Lubeck (F214), the US Navy destroyer USS McFaul (DDG 74), and the USCGC Dallas (WHBC 716).

Will be interesting to see if this is just Russian crap media reporting, of which I have read a lot this month, or confirmed by other western media reporting.

Repairs complete, the GW heads to Japan | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com
The carrier George Washington [CVN-73] left San Diego on Thursday, bound once again for Japan after undergoing several months of repairs caused by a shipboard fire.

CVN-73 GEORGE WASHINGTON, U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier
Price: USD 15.62

17 used & new available from USD 15.62

‘Unacceptable’ errors led to deaths in fire aboard sub on Arctic patrol | UK news | The Guardian
…. At the time of the accident HMS Tireless had been taking part in an Anglo-American operation beneath the Arctic ice. After the fire the submarine was forced to surface through an area of thin ice. The injured sailor was airlifted by the Alaska National Guard to an airforce base in Anchorage.

When the submarine returned to its home port of Devonport in Plymouth, Cmdr Iain Breckenridge praised his crews and singled out the injured man.

“If it had not been for [his] outstanding efforts … the consequences of this incident may have been much worse,” the report said. “The small fires caused by the explosion could easily have taken hold and a major conflagration ensued, with very serious consequences, if [name withheld] had not had the stamina and presence of mind to use all available means to extinguish them.”

Navy: No Need to Add DDG 1000s After All - Defense News
Top Navy acquisition officials dramatically reversed course during a congressional hearing July 31, saying the service needed to purchase more Arleigh Burke-class DDG 51 destroyers, and no longer needs the next-generation destroyer it has been pushing for over the past 13 years.

This, after years of vigorously claiming the service needed to move beyond the 1980s technology in the Burkes and leap ahead with the new ship, the DDG 1000 Zumwalt class. Now, they’re saying the Zumwalts just won’t cut it, citing the planned ship’s inability to fire advanced versions of the Standard Missile, contradicting previous industry claims.

They also said there was a new “classified threat” for which the Burkes are better suited but would not go into specifics.

Somewhat beside the point, though, because, given the current composition of the Supreme Court, the ultimate outcome of this controversy is going to be a federal appeals or supreme court decision that says in no uncertain terms that the federal government’s interest in national security trumps the whales’ rights.

Researchers tag whales, track ships in sonar study | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com
Debate has long raged over how the military’s use of sonar to detect enemy submarines affects dolphins and whales, which use sound to navigate, communicate and locate food.

Now, researchers are moving closer to getting some solid answers.

In a scientific first, experts tagged dozens of whales with sensors to track their movement and behavior while Navy ships operated nearby.

War Is Boring
She’s 41,000 tons of fun. 844 feet long and 106 feet wide, USS Kearsarge, the third Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, joined the fleet in 1993.

God, fires aboard ship are terrifying.

Two top Navy officers fired over $70 million carrier blaze | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com

…the Navy said it concluded that the fire likely was caused by “unauthorized smoking that ignited flammable liquids and other combustible material improperly stored in an adjacent space.”

The fire and its intensity “were the result of a series of human acts that could have been prevented,” the Navy summary added. It cited “the storage of 90 gallons of refrigerant compressor oil in an unauthorized space” as a factor in the fire’s severity.

The summary said the fire began in a boiler exhaust and supply area and spread quickly because of a “chimney effect” in nearby spaces and duct work. The 12-hour battle to extinguish the fire injured 37 sailors, one of whom received first- and second-degree burns.

CVN-73 GEORGE WASHINGTON, U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier
Price: USD 15.62

17 used & new available from USD 15.62

Ares Homepage

Collins and Senate colleagues had added $2.6 billion to the 2008 defense bill for the third DDG-1000, which was to have been built by her constituents at Bath Iron Works. She is now advocating for the construction of nine more DDG-51s at BIW, in order to maintain the shipyard’s employment level and turnover. This is apparently more important than any military need for the DDG-51s, which is not discussed in Collins’ release.

It is now time to revisit future Navy fleet requirements: here’s a link to some recommended reading from Bob Work at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, who has suggested ways of defining a new surface combatant