– FoxtrotAlpha – Foreign Object Debris (or FOD) is a huge problem on aircraft carriers. A metallic button from a shirt or a single nut could destroy a million dollar engine and endanger the lives of an aircrew. America’s solution? FOD walks and sweeper carts. Russia’s solution? Taking an old MiG-15’s jet engine, slapping on a planar diffuser, and strapping it to a tractor.
Author Archives: Naval Open Source Intelligence (NOSI)
The US Navy Doesn’t Need an Expensive Aircraft Carrier Drone
– Defense One – UCLASS advocates say the plane has to be both survivable and armed to the teeth, but the Navy could use a simpler model.
Navy Further Extending Life of Already-Extended LCACs Until Replacement Delivers in 2017
– USNI News – The Navy is further extending the life of Landing Craft Air Cushions (LCACs) that have already gone through their Service Life Extension Programs (SLEPs), with the oldest craft set for retirement this year and the replacement not ready for its first delivery until 2017.
New US Navy Fleet Goal: 308 Ships
– Defense News – The US Navy is now building towards a fleet goal of 308 ships, according to the latest 30-year shipbuilding plan — a small evolution from the previously-cited 306-ship target. The two ships added to the fleet total are a 12th LPD 17-class amphibious transport dock and a third Afloat Forward Staging Base (AFSB).
USS Fort Worth Successfully Tested Overseas Maintenance Outside of Singapore Hub
– USNI News – The second Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) has proven so much more reliable than the first that the Navy has been able to experiment with a new expeditionary maintenance model to extend the reach of the ship.
Navy Frigate Requirements Will Be Finalized Soon, Will Inform Decision on Hull Downselect
– USNI News – The Program Executive Office for Littoral Combat Ships (PEO LCS) is working with both its shipbuilders to determine how to bring the current LCS designs into a more lethal and survivable frigate design, while it works with other Navy offices to finalize the frigate requirements.
PEO LCS Looking at 2016 Deployment of Anti-Sub Package Ahead of Reaching IOC
– USNI News – The Program Executive Officer for Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) hopes to send a version of the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) mission package out to sea before officially reaching initial operational capability, as earlier testing showed “phenomenal” capability compared to current systems.
Office of Naval Intelligence Completes Posting of Reference Guides (Ships-Aircraft/Leadership/Equipment) Accompanying PLA Navy Report
– Office of Naval Intelligence – Now added to ONI’s report on “The PLA Navy: New Capabilities and Missions for the 21st Century” are posters detailing Chinese ships and aircraft, equipment, and leadership structure.
From Sailors To Robots: A Revolution In Clearing Mines
– Breaking Defense – Clearing sea mines is so murderously hard that the best defense is to sink the ships or shoot down the planes carrying them before they can be put in the water. But politics, surprise, or fear of escalation might keep the US military from stopping the minelayers “left of splash.” That means somebody had better be ready to go after the deadly explosives in their natural habitat. The great leap forward today is that “somebody” is increasingly likely to be a robot.
The Rapid Expansion of China’s Navy in Five Charts
– Wall Street Journal – With tensions mounting over China’s island-building in the South China Sea, the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence has published its first report on the Chinese navy since 2009. Here are five graphics that illustrate some its key findings.
Chinese Fireworks
– Aviation Week – As the U.S. takes sharper aim at the Asia-Pacific, China has American military vulnerabilities more squarely in its sights, according to regional geopolitical and military experts.
Spying on the U.S. Submarine That Spies For the NSA and CIA
– Phase Zero – Everyone saw the USS Annapolis come home last year. It returned, poignantly, on Sept. 11, and there was a seriousness amid the usual dockside fanfare—sailors meeting newborn children for the first time, a school band playing “Anchors Aweigh.” But there was no mention of the boat’s secret missions.
When Eagle Meets Dragon: Managing Risk in Maritime East Asia
– Real Clear Defense – On 19 August 2014 a U.S. Navy (USN) P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft was flying in international airspace above the Chinese exclusive economic zone (EEZ) ~135 miles east of Hainan Island in the South China Sea when a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) armed J-11 fighter intercepted it. In a series of maneuvers that came within 30 feet of the P-8, the J-11 exposed its weapons load out and conducted a barrel roll over the U.S. aircraft, passing within 45 feet of the U.S. aircraft. While the incident ended without a collision or harm to the aircrew, it invoked memories of another that did not end as well—the April 2001 collision between a USN EP-3 and a PLAN J-8 in which the Chinese pilot perished.
Dozens of warships join British war games off Scotland
– Daily Telegraph – Fourteen countries begin exercises off Scotland designed to reassure Putin’s Nato neighbours, as Nordic countries announce new defence alliance against Russia
Confirmed: China Deploys New ‘Carrier Killer’ Missile
– The Diplomat – The most striking revelation of the 2015 ONI report is that the PLAN has apparently already equipped a class of guided missile destroyers with China’s most advanced supersonic anti-ship missile. “[T]he newest class, the LUYANG III destroyer is fitted with the new vertically-launched YJ-18 ASCM,” the report says.
The US Navy’s Aircraft-Carrier Nightmare
– Real Clear Defense – Fisticuffs broke out in the Naval War College’s legendary Mahan Reading Room last Wednesday. The cause: an argument over whether history shows that aircraft carriers are survivable in combat. Base police responded. The combatants were taken to Newport Hospital for treatment of wounds and kept overnight for observation.
The PLA Navy: New Capabilities and Missions for the 21st Century
– Office of Naval Intelligence – The ONI’s review of the state of the Chinese Navy.
Obama Can’t Skimp on Tomahawks
– Politico – While the old adage, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” is aptly applied to many of life’s problems, when it comes to modern weapons systems, sometimes it just doesn’t adequately capture the context of what is needed to safeguard our national security. A case in point today is the funding level for the Tomahawk weapons system
‘Iraq Is Finished’
– The Atlantic – Emma Skye chronicles tribal leaders reflecting on the enemy destroying their country from within.
Iran Dispatches Naval Flotilla to Gulf of Aden
– Wall Street Journal – Iran dispatched a naval flotilla to the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday, a move that could raise tensions between the Islamic Republic and a Saudi-led coalition conducting a military campaign in Yemen, which borders the waterway.
Is America’s Blue-Water Navy Doomed?
– National Interest – With the proliferation of A2/AD capabilities, a forward presence is becoming a liability.
America’s rustbucket Reserve Navy: The haunting ‘ghost’ merchant ships sent to the scrapheap
– Daily Mail – These rusting ‘ghost’ ships are the last remnants of what was once the United States’ National Defense Reserve Fleet, set to protect and serve in the hour of need. The NDRF was set up in the wake of the Second World War, and at its peak in the 1950s, the fleet consisted of nearly 2,280 ships moored across the United States. But as the need for the fleet has diminished, so has the number of vessels, and today, just over 120 ships remain, posing a risk to the environment in the bays where they are moored.
China Unveils Three New Nuclear-Powered Attack Submarines
– DefenseTech – The Chinese Navy is preparing to commission three new, nuclear-powered attack submarines with a vertical launching system able to fire supersonic anti-ship missiles.
Joint exercises put U.S. Navy at Russia’s doorstep
– Navy Times – The Pacific may be a priority, but the Navy is waving a pretty big flag at Russia’s front door.
The New Naval Strategy: A Mixed Bag
– Weekly Standard – In the middle of March, the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard published a revised version of their 2007 paper, A Cooperative Strategy for the 21st Century. The 2007 edition reflected the strong influence of 9/11, U.S. operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the global campaign against Islamist jihadis. It suggested broadening the reach of U.S. seapower by cooperating with other navies; helping littoral states that might fail by providing them with military training; and bolstering such traditional naval missions as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
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