The Navy’s jet-powered P-8 Poseidon patrol plane boasts plenty of advances over the P-3 Orion turboprops it will replace, but for the sensor operators the favorite feature will be very basic: They won’t throw up as much. The P-3’s notoriously rough ride at low altitudes and the gunpowder-like stench from the launch tube shooting sonar… Keep reading →

Navy launches 2nd Joint High-Speed Vessel: http://1.usa.gov/VoHmPS. Why JHSV matters: http://aol.it/QjaUMO SydneyFreedberg

Blimp news: Logos has $111.8 million contract with Navy’s NAVAIR for 22 Kestrel surveillance systems for Afghanistan – http://bit.ly/PRzPpN SydneyFreedberg

WASHINGTON: The Navy is “on a roll” when it comes to shipbuilding, but the existing fleet remains under stress, the Chief of Naval Operations said today. “We are on a roll on shipbuilding, [with] ships delivered on or ahead of schedule, on or below budget,” Adm. Jonathan Greenert said at a luncheon hosted by the… Keep reading →

PANAMA CITY, FLORIDA: Minesweeping and “fast” are two words you’d normally be nervous about hearing in the same sentence. But as the Navy looks to new technologies to remedy its decades-long neglect of mine warfare — a favorite weapon of both Iran and China — it sees real potential to speed up a painfully slow… Keep reading →

CORRECTED: Fixes Number of Minesweepers in US Ports 9:35 am 10/1/2012 Officially, despite rising tensions with Tehran, the enemy in in the international naval wargames that kicked off in the Gulf this week is not, repeat not, Iran: It’s radical environmentalists. Very, very well-armed environmentalists. Against this fictional Greenpeace gone rogue are set the ships,… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: It has now been over a year since the Air Force and Navy signed a memorandum of understanding for implementing the AirSea Battle (ASB) limited operational concept. Six months ago I wrote that this effort – one that I strongly support – will be critical to maintaining our security commitments in the Asia-Pacific… Keep reading →

PANAMA CITY, FLORIDA: Navy undersecretary Robert Work fired a salvo in the budget wars Wednesday, taking swipes at the Army while extolling the Navy-Marine Corps team as ideally suited for the post-Afghanistan, Pacific-focused strategy. “The United States Army is only going to have three combat brigades based overseas,” Work said in his red-meat speech to… Keep reading →

PANAMA CITY, FLORIDA: As budgets tighten, the Navy and Marine Corps are looking at a host of ways to save, from installing LED lights on ships to slowing vehicle purchases to centralizing power on the Chief of Naval Operations’ staff. “We are entering a fiscal Valley Forge, a time of austerity,” said Ariane Whittemore, the… Keep reading →

America counts heavily on a cordon of allies stretching from Japan to the north down to Thailand, and across to India, in the highly unlikely event of war with China. But these same allies could draw the U.S. into strictly local disputes in which America does not always have a clear security interest and which… Keep reading →