Trump's Navy

[AdamG]

Beijing insists it has no hostile intent, but its sabre-rattling in the busy South China Sea, and around Taiwan, has touched a nerve in the region and in Washington.

In a “freedom of navigation” operation on Friday, a US Navy destroyer came within 12 nautical miles of an artificial island China has built in the South China Sea, provoking condemnation from Beijing, which claims most of the strategic waterway.

Zeng said it was not possible to single out any one trigger for the air force drills, saying there could be a number of political or diplomatic motivations behind such an unusually large mission.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplo...er-south-china

[AdamG]

As images of sick or dying children flooded global media all week, the U.S. guided-missile destroyer USS Winston Churchill churned toward the Mediterranean to join a flotilla of allied warships, including another U.S. destroyer, the USS Donald Cook.

It was a ruse.

While both vessels carry as many as 90 Tomahawk missiles -- the main weapon used in the Friday evening strike on Syria -- neither ship in the end fired a shot. Instead, according to a person familiar with White House war planning, they were part of a plan to distract Russia and its Syrian ally from an assault Assad’s government could do little to defend itself against.

As the president addressed the nation at 9 p.m. Washington time, on Friday, a barrage of 105 U.S., U.K. and French missiles converged on Syria. They came from the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf and the Mediterranean, homing in from three directions to overwhelm whatever missile defenses Assad’s regime might deploy. Russia’s more advanced air defense system didn’t engage the allied weapons.

According to the Pentagon, the allied weaponry included 19 new “Extended-Range” stealthy Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Attack Munitions launched by two B-1B bombers based out of Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, and six Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from the Virginia-class USS John Warner submarine. The bomber-launched missiles, built by Lockheed Martin Corp., had never been used in combat.

The cruiser USS Monterey fired 30 Tomahawks and the destroyer USS Laboon fired seven Tomahawks from the Red Sea. The destroyer USS Higgins fired 23 Tomahawks from the North Arabian Gulf, according to McKenzie.

The weapons also included French SCALP-EG cruise missiles and British Storm Shadow standoff missiles launched by Tornado and Typhoon jets. Nine SCALP missiles were fired at what the Pentagon said was a chemical weapons storage complex at Hims-Shinshar, along with two SCALPS, nine Tomahawks and eight Storm Shadows.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...attacked-syria

[omarali50]

can anyone explain why so many missiles struck just 3 targets? and why the reported damage is relatively low? were a number shot down enroute (as the Russians are claiming)? All in all, it looks like a very expensive way to send a signal, no?

[AdamG]

Take due note, peanut gallery - this is the sort of cards we have had in our deck.

The hero commercial pilot who safely landed a Boeing 737 full of passengers after shrapnel from an engine explosion breached the cabin was an ace Navy pilot and one of the first women to take the yoke of an F/A-18 fighter jet, according to reports.

Southwest Airlines pilot Tammie Jo Shults, 56, kept cool Tuesday as she brought Flight 1380 down for an emergency landing in Philadelphia when an engine exploded mid-air, according to passengers’ social media.

https://nypost.com/2018/04/17/hero-p...y-jet-fighter/

[AdamG]

can anyone explain why so many missiles struck just 3 targets? and why the reported damage is relatively low? were a number shot down enroute (as the Russians are claiming)? All in all, it looks like a very expensive way to send a signal, no?

Don't believe everything you read.

[AdamG]

First look: Super smart LRASM missiles that can obliterate enemies

Stronger, faster and technologically smarter, here's a look at Long range anti surface missiles. These "super" missiles can be fired from the air or sea and is poised to deliver far more damage.


http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/04/...emy-ships.html

[AdamG]

Writing in the Naval Institute’s “Proceedings” magazine this month, Aucoin takes issue with how Navy leadership characterized the shortcomings in a comprehensive review and strategic readiness review done in the wake of the disasters. “The Comprehensive Review (CR), Strategic Review (SR), and some media reporting could lead one to the impression my staff and I were oblivious to or unconcerned about the manning, training, and maintenance deficiencies affecting my ships and their ability to carry out their assigned missions,” Aucoin writes. “That was not the case.”

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-...ain-collisions

[AdamG]

Washington (CNN) Amid heightened tensions with Russia, the US Navy announced Friday the re-establishment of the US Second Fleet which will be responsible for Naval forces along the East Coast and in the northern Atlantic Ocean. The areas are seen as critical to counter the rising threat of Russia and the new US defense strategy that focuses more on great power rivalry, according to multiple US defense officials.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/04/polit...ons/index.html