Need More Naval Missiles? Stick the Launchers in Shipping Containers
The U.S. Navy is unmatched, but not invulnerable. The fleet has been shrinking, stressing the force as sparkling new Chinese warships sail from the shipyards at a brisk pace. A more worrying problem is that American warships are outranged—often by large margins—by anti-ship missiles, such as those also in... Read more
How Not to Build an Aircraft Carrier
Pres. Donald Trump used the Navy’s next-generation aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford, as a backdrop to unveil his vision for the next defense budget in March 2017. The moment was meant to symbolize his commitment to rebuilding the military, but it also positioned the president in front of... Read more
Senators Are Forcing the U.S. Navy to Buy Crappy Ships It Doesn’t Want
This year’s Pentagon budget originally included a small victory for taxpayers—it reduced its request for the troubled Littoral Combat Ship to only one ship for $1.2 billion. “The Navy doesn’t want them,” Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told Hugh Hewitt earlier this month. Yet, while sailors... Read more
One of the U.S. Navy’s Most Important Planes Is Based on the 737
There is a decent chance you have already flown on one of the U.S. Navy’s key new aircraft—or rather, the 737 airliner it is based on. The P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol plane may not be as sexy as an F-35 stealth fighter, but in some ways it is far... Read more
Trump’s Bigger Fleet Is Dead in the Water
U.S. president Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to expand the U.S. Navy to 350 front-line warships — a major boost over today’s 275-strong combat fleet. But the Trump administration’s first Navy budget proposal, for the 2018 fiscal year that begins in late 2017, adds no ships to the... Read more
Trump Said All Future U.S. Navy Carriers Will Use ‘Goddamned Steam’ Catapults
Pres. Donald Trump has weighed in on the future configuration of the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carrier fleet. Trump is insisting that the service return to installing steam catapults in place of the state-of-the-art Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, or EMALS, that was developed for the Gerald R. Ford–class super carriers.... Read more
U.S. Marines Want to Pack 20 Stealth Fighters on One Assault Ship
The U.S. Marine Corps plans to load up its nine big-deck amphibious assault ships with new F-35B Lightning II stealth fighters, swapping helicopters for jets and transforming the assault ships into light aircraft carriers. The plan, which the Corps laid out in the 2017 edition of its annual aviation... Read more
The U.S. Navy Is Waging War on the Gulf of Alaska
This essay is a joint TomDispatch/Truthout report. It’s war in the Gulf and the U.S. Navy is on hand to protect us. No, not that Gulf! I’m talking about the Gulf of Alaska and it’s actually mock war — if, that is, you don’t happen to be a fin whale... Read more
U.S. Navy Officers Allegedly Traded Favors for an Orgy in Douglas MacArthur’s Relic Room
For years, Malaysian playboy and defense contractor Leonard Glenn Francis — often called Fat Leonard by his buds — effectively controlled the U.S. Navy’s Pacific fleet. Fat Leonard spent millions of dollars bribing officers of the Seventh Fleet and in exchange those officers made sure the U.S. Navy’s most powerful ships sailed into... Read more
This American Warship Shot Down MiGs and Pranked the Soviets
During the Cold War, many lesser-known confrontations occurred at sea away from the headlines and major crises. This was certainly true for the crew of the U.S. Navy’s Belknap-class guided-missile cruiser USS Biddle. The warship sailed into the thick of the Vietnam War and came face-to-face with the Soviet Navy.... Read more