The deaths of 17 sailors in the separate collisions with merchant ships of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers USS Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain has raised fundamental questions about the seamanship of US naval officers on the two ships, … Continue reading
Tag Archives: US Navy
The Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) are not the only small new Navy ships with serious operating deficiencies. Recently, the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General released a report on the shortcomings of a new class of fast, shallow draft, transport ship, … Continue reading
On Tuesday, the 149 passengers on Southwest Airline’s Flight 1380 were shocked when about 20 minutes after takeoff from New York, the plane’s left engine exploded, blowing a hole in the fuselage. The rapid depressurization sucked one woman passenger partially out of … Continue reading
One hundred and twenty years ago today, on February 15, 1898, a mysterious explosion ripped through the hull of the American battleship USS Maine, at anchor in Havana harbor in Cuba. The ship sank killing 266 of the 350 men aboard. The loss … Continue reading
I sometimes wonder if the world is going a bit mad. Take, for example, the case of icebreakers with cruise missiles and destroyers with guns but no ammunition. Despite the increased strategic importance of Arctic, the US has only one … Continue reading
The Navy has announced that five officers involved in two deadly ship collisions are facing a variety of criminal charges including negligent homicide. The officers facing charges include Cmdr. Bryce Benson, former captain of the USS Fitzgerald, and Cmdr. Alfredo J. Sanchez, former captain … Continue reading
The US Navy has rightfully been undertaking a considerable review and revaluation of the problems that led to the recent ship collisions between the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John S. McCain with commercial vessels, resulting in the deaths of 17 sailors. … Continue reading
This may be the most bizarre Navy training film yet. The film dates from 1967 and purports to answer the question of “how to succeed with brunettes (or blondes.)” It is directed exclusively at male naval officers. How many female … Continue reading
Following the recent collisions between US Navy destroyers and merchant ships, various internet sites posted the AIS tracks of the collisions. Well, they posted half the AIS tracks anyway. The merchant ships used AIS while the Navy did not. While … Continue reading
The fallout continues from the recent collisions with merchant ships in the Pacific involving the destroyers USS Fitgerald and the USS John McCain. The collisions resulted in the deaths of 17 US sailors. Earlier in the year, two guided missile … Continue reading
Two high tech guided missile destroyers charged with protecting the fleet from incoming missiles somehow failed to avoid collision with two slow-speed commercial vessels. Tragically, seventeen sailors died in the collisions. Some immediately blamed cyber-hacking, although a Navy investigation has turned … Continue reading
In 1867, Royal Navy Captain, and later Admiral, Philip Colomb, worked out a system to send signals by a code of dots and dashed using signal lamps. Since then, navies around the world have used only slightly improved versions of signal lamps … Continue reading
Yale University has announced that it is renaming Calhoun College the Grace Hopper College in honor of Grace Murray Hopper. The University decided to change the name of the residential college which had been named after John C. Calhoun, who attended Yale in 1804 … Continue reading
In 2012, we posted about how U.S Navy low frequency sonar training and testing could kill or deafen thousands of whales and dolphins. Environmental groups, led by the Natural Resources Defense Council, filed a lawsuit in San Francisco arguing that actions violated … Continue reading
The Russians do not appear to like the US Navy operating ships in the Baltic Sea. On Aprill 11, two unarmed Russian SU24 fighter jets made low attitude passes at the US Navy destroyer USS Donald Cook. Then, on April 12, two Russian … Continue reading