BBC – US navy halts aid vessel over flu

The US navy is postponing an aid mission to the South Pacific after a sailor on the vessel scheduled to take the trip developed swine flu.

Virginian Pilot – Lawmakers seek openness after Navy closes reports

Amid reports that Navy inspectors found six ships unfit for their missions last year, some members of Congress are pressing the service to reconsider a decision to shroud its most detailed inspection reports.

Defense Tech – Navy Surface Force in Big Trouble

Normal Polmar writes that the Obama administration, looking for potential budget cuts, may take aim at the trouble-plagued Navy surface ship programs.

Patrol craft’s sailors can do it all – and they must

Life aboard the patrol craft USS Delta…

Virginian Pilot – Commander shares his pride in Bainbridge’s rescue effort

An interview with the commanding officer of the USS Bainbridge.

Virginian Pilot – War demands put crimp in Navy’s air, sea time

The recent surge in global demand for all things Navy has caused the service to burn through its funding more quickly than planned. As a result, the service is tightening its belt for the rest of the fiscal year, which translates into fewer hours in the air and fewer days at sea.

Armed Forces Journal – A balancing act

The shortfall of nuclear-powered attack submarines in the US Navy can be mitigated with conventional subs.

Virginian Pilot – Destroyers’ role in focus as world monitors N. Korea

Just 18 Navy ships have the ability to destroy a ballistic missile hurtling through the air at thousands of miles per hour…

Christian Science Monitor – Smarten up naval sonar to save the whales

Jean-Michel Cousteau says the Bush administration may be gone, but whales and other marine life along our coasts will be hearing from it for years to come – literally.

Virginian Pilot – Ship prepares to take help, smiles to several nations

The hospital ship Comfort left Wednesday on the Navy’s latest humanitarian mission to Central America and the Caribbean. Over the next four months, the vessel will visit Antigua, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Panama. The rotating 850-member crew of doctors, nurses, medical technicians and others plan to spend two weeks in each country, performing operations and providing medical and dental care both on board and on shore. The cruise is part of a Navy mission called Continuing Promise, which is designed to partner with host countries on medical and engineering projects and build goodwill. The mission is the fourth such cruise to the region, following Comfort’s 2007 trip and those of the amphibious assault ships Boxer and Kearsarge in 2008.

Defense Technology International – More Than One Ford In Trouble?

Are there problems with the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), which is supposed to replace steam catapults aboard the Navy’s next carrier, Gerald R. Ford.?

Virginian Pilot – Dynamic new ramp gives military cargo vessel a lift

The Cape Rise left its home at the mouth of Scotts Creek on Monday, on the way to pick up Marine cargo for the war in Afghanistan. The ship, a roll-on/roll-off cargo vessel, was already a useful machine, but now it has a new feature to make loading all that cargo easier: a massive stern ramp that can be lowered by a single person, thanks to computer-controlled hydraulics.

Virginian Pilot – After shaky start, ship gets its sea legs

The maiden voyage of the San Antonio could be summed up in a few words: Deployment. Breakdown. Repair. Loss. Pirates. And the crew, steaming home to Norfolk on Friday from a seven-month deployment to the Middle East, would add another: vindication.

Washington Post – Destroyer to Protect Ship Near China

The U.S. Navy has dispatched the guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon to the South China Sea after Chinese ships allegedly harassed an American ship operating there last weekend.

San Diego Union Tribune – Goodbye to Mystic minisub, hello to Falcon

About 350 crew members and friends of the naval minisub Mystic will gather today to retire a ship whose services, thankfully, were never needed during a career that stretched nearly 40 years.

Washington Times – Navy explores use of robot boats

Pentagon planners are taking a long look at the role unmanned robot boats, or “bot boats,” might play in preventing piracy and thwarting terrorists who approach their targets from waterways.

C4ISR Journal – Revealing radar

A U.S. Navy radar developed in secrecy for tracking targets at sea has been playing an important role on land because of its ability to track objects smaller than trucks or cars. One knowledgeable official says the radar is one of the “groundbreaking” insurgent-hunting technologies referred to, though not by name, in Bob Woodward’s latest book, “The War Within.”
The Littoral Surveillance Radar System, or LSRS, was “born black” and developed as a “deeply, deeply classified system,” according to a knowledgeable official who was not authorized to speak for the program. LSRS operates from P-3C Orions and can be used to track targets on land or sea, and to provide images of those targets to intelligence analysts and commanders.

Armed Forces Journal – Boomers reborn

Conversion of SSBNs to SSGNs ushers in new submarine strategy.

Armed Forces Journal – Good business is good policy

Foreign military sales add to the bottom line and reinforce strategic goals.

DefenseTech – More BMD Capabilities

Norman Polmar writes that the U.S. Navy’s Ballistic MissileDefense (BMD) force — based on Aegis-equipped missile cruisers and destroyers — is being increased.

Wall Street Journal – The Navy Has a Top-Secret Vessel It Wants to Put on Display

Anybody want some top-secret seagoing vessels? The Navy has a pair it doesn’t need anymore. It has been trying to give them away since 2006, and they’re headed for the scrap yard if somebody doesn’t speak up soon.

Virginian Pilot – Eisenhower deploys with a new directive: counter-piracy

When last it was out to sea, the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower steamed into the waters off the Middle East, launching warplanes over Iraq and Afghanistan. On Saturday, more than two years after its last deployment, the carrier departed for a familiar destination, but the mission has an added wrinkle: counter-piracy efforts.

Virginian Pilot – Precision, support are key for pilots aboard the Roosevelt

For pilots aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, the heightening conflict in Afghanistan has meant a busy, intense deployment since the ship left Norfolk in September for the Arabian Sea.

Los Angeles Times – Navy’s plan to deploy dolphins roils waters

The Navy wants to use dolphins and sea lions to protect a Puget Sound submarine fleet, as the mammals do in Georgia. But opponents say the waters off Washington state are too cold for the animals.

Associated Press – Nuclear warships in Japan continue to touch a sensitive nerve

As Masahiko Goto sees it, the USS George Washington is not a ship. It’s a floating nuclear disaster waiting to happen near one of the world’s biggest cities. The recent deployment of the huge aircraft carrier to a port just south of Tokyo has been welcomed by brass bands, an open-house crowd of 30,000 and promises of greater security for Japan and northeast Asia. But to determined opponents like Goto, it all boils down to two nuclear reactors and one big question. Are they safe?