The first Service Life Modification (SLM) F/A-18E/F Super Hornet rolled off the production line in St. Louis, marking a major milestone for the U.S. Navy. After undergoing Department of Defense operational readiness review inspections, the jet was released to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 106 on Jan. 21, fully mission capable, and successfully completed a functional […]

Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and Fincantieri Marinette Marine delivered the future USS St. Louis, Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) 19, to the U.S. Navy. The future USS St. Louis completed Acceptance Trials in Lake Michigan in December. “With LCS 19’s delivery, the U.S. Navy has 10 Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ships in the fleet. LCS 7 recently […]

Cannon-launched projectile can now engage moving targets Raytheon Company’s (NYSE: RTN) new Excalibur® S precision-guided munition scored direct hits on moving targets in a U.S. Navy test. Testing validated the projectile’s ability to survive the shock and stress of a howitzer firing, then transition from GPS to laser guidance and hit a moving target. Excalibur […]

The US Defense Department announced Tuesday that it has deployed a submarine carrying a new long-range missile with a relatively small nuclear warhead, saying it is in response to Russian tests of similar weapons. The deployment of the W76-2 low-yield warhead is “to address the conclusion that potential adversaries, like Russia, believe that employment of […]

Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas B. Modly issues his weekly Vector message to the Department of the Navy workforce on Fridays. This is his latest message: Just over 62 years ago, out of the darkness of the Cold War, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first satellite into space. The resulting “Sputnik Moment” alerted […]

Northrop Grumman Corporation’s MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft system deployed for the first time Jan. 26, to provide military commanders in the Pacific greater maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data to inform critical decision-making in one of the most strategically important regions in the world. “This is a significant milestone in the MQ-4C Triton program,” […]

In an international security environment of renewed great power competition, China’s military modernization effort, including its naval modernization effort, has become the top focus of U.S. defense planning and budgeting. China’s navy, which China has been steadily modernizing for roughly 25 years, since the early to mid-1990s, has become a formidable military force within China’s […]

Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas B. Modly named a future aircraft carrier USS Doris Miller (CVN 81) during a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day ceremony honoring African Americans of the Greatest Generation in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Jan. 20. The backdrop for the day’s ceremony paid homage to the beginning and ending of America’s role […]

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) departed its homeport of Norfolk, Jan. 16 to begin Aircraft Compatibility Testing (ACT) off the East Coast as the first aircraft, an E-2D landed, on board. ACT continues the at-sea testing of Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) – two Aircraft Launch […]

A US warship has sailed through the Taiwan Strait, mainland and Taipei officials said Friday, the first such passage since the island resoundingly re-elected its independence-leaning president. The warship was on a “routine mission” on Thursday, Taiwan’s defence ministry said, as it traversed the stretch of water that divides the self-ruling island from the authoritarian […]