Trump's Navy

[AdamG]

Fourteen sailors from the nuclear reactor department of the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan face disciplinary action in connection to LSD abuse, Navy officials confirmed this week. Two sailors are already heading to court-martial for using, possessing and distributing the hallucinogenic drug, while three are waiting to see whether they will be charged as well, according to 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. Joe Keiley.

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-...ilors-snagged/

[AdamG]

A problem with Columbia-class submarine missile tube welds is more serious than initially thought, causing the contractor responsible to set aside $27 million to cover repair work that is expected to take nearly a year.

https://news.usni.org/2018/11/07/col...caKwHEC8uP-j3E

[AdamG]

Scary fiction thread
http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...439#post212439

[AdamG]

Vice Adm. Scott A. Stearney, commander of U.S. 5th Fleet, was found dead his quarters in Bahrain on Saturday, according to a statement from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson. “The Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Bahraini Ministry of Interior are cooperating on the investigation, but at this time no foul play is suspected,” read a statement from Richardson

https://news.usni.org/2018/12/01/bre...WWzaL1I_BQqYw4

[AdamG]

USN can't go some places with USCG icebreakers, so...

The Homeland Security funding bill that includes the $5 billion requested by President Trump for his proposed border wall would scrap a program to expand the U.S. icebreaker presence in the Arctic. The Senate version of the funding bill and an earlier version passed by the House Appropriations Committee both include $750 million for the program, but the current House version of the funding bill does not include money for the icebreaker program. Some lawmakers have blasted the funding being stripped out of the House bill, which includes the full amount requested by Trump for his border wall. The $750 million would restart the construction program and get the first new icebreaker in the Arctic operational.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4...reaker-program

[AdamG]

In November, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence announced at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation event in Papua New Guinea (PNG) that the United States would partner with the Oceania state and Australia to develop a joint naval base on PNG’s Manus Island. His remarks came amid talk of China extending its Belt and Road Initiative into the southern Pacific, including investing in and developing ports in PNG. Pence’s announcement sparked much activity among the geopolitical commentariat, who watch closely every move by Beijing in what many consider “debt-trap diplomacy.”

What has not been reported or written on as much, however, is the strategic military dimension of the Manus deal that could expand the island’s Lombrum Naval Base currently used by the PNG Defence Force.

https://www.usni.org/magazines/proce...s9VlcrkNx5CjuU

[AdamG]

The U.S. Navy’s current fleet design does not match today’s conditions, much less those expected over the next 20 years. Today’s fleet—a mix of ship types that are simply evolutionary improvements and larger versions of designs from two or more decades ago—is too small, and the ships on average are too large. It is time for the Navy to make broad, significant changes in the fleet’s design.

The rapid rise of global connectedness—and the technological progress and proliferation that it has sparked—raises new challenges for designing a fleet with the capabilities required to execute its missions across the globe. The ability to detect warships at long ranges or even globally is no longer a U.S. monopoly. Commercial space sensors are burgeoning, and their data is available in the marketplace. Many nations have sophisticated military space programs, distributed networked sensor fields, and long-range unmanned aerial vehicles that can search far from shore. Sensor capability is advancing faster than the ability to elude detection. Long-range precision-guided weapons are proliferating and can be brought to bear in numbers against what these sensor systems detect. Weapon speed is increasing while weapon signature is decreasing.

The current fleet was not designed with this threat environment, where losses likely will be significant, in mind. The fleet concentrates too much capability in too few manned hulls that are too large. Not enough are forward deployed to provide sufficient firepower to achieve warfighting success. And the fleet is too expensive per unit to be able to afford enough capacity to meet global requirements and wartime resiliency.

https://www.usni.org/magazines/proce...qDAgYmzonMQnn0