9 March 2021 Canada is a medium-sized country – not in geographic size but in size of its economy and population – with a medium-sized navy. As such, the RCN has always worked with other navies, and favoured participating in multilateral operations. This is partly from necessity and partly from […]
USN
David Dunlop, 13 January 2021. The USN will deploy its first High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) integrated on an operational Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer (DDG) (possibly USS Preble (DDG-88)) this year (2021) for shipboard testing integrated in the Aegis Weapons system. This is a […]
Dan Middlemiss, 10 January 2021 The US Congressional Research Service has released an update on the USN’s plans to accelerate the procurement of Large Unmanned Surface and Undersea Vehicles [1]. According to the Report: “The Navy in FY2021 and beyond wants to develop and procure three types of large unmanned […]
Ex-Sailor, 21 November 2020. In late 2018 United States (U.S.) Government Accountability Office (GAO) produced an interesting report on cybersecurity in U.S. DOD Weapon Systems. It's relevant to the future Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC), as the CSC Project is entering Definition phase, moving on from Requirements to actual Systems Design […]
After the publication of the Comprehensive Review of Recent Surface Force Incidents, the US Navy is beginning to implement changes. The report noted that USN sailors were deficient in the fundamentals – rules of the road, COLREGS and “planning, preparing, and executing in the heat of the moment.” Surface Warfare […]
As we all know, several USN ships were involved in collisions in recent months. The collision of USS Fitzgerald with MV ACX Crystal, and USS John S. McCain with MV Alnic resulted in the loss of 17 USN lives. The USN has fired officers from both these ships and from […]
In an interesting – and undoubtedly controversial – article entitled “The ‘Navy Way’ is the Wrong Course,” Captain Paul E. Lobo, a retired Lt-Commander in the US Naval Reserve and San Francisco bar pilot, talks about the recent collisions of the USN in Asia and how the USN needs to […]
The Canadian navy has been asked to do more with less at least since the 1990s – and probably since the beginning. Tasks get added while ships get retired – although this may change when the new ships join the fleet in a few years. The navy is known for […]
As a candidate and as President, Donald Trump promised to build a 350-ship US Navy from the current 275-ship navy. Was that ever a realistic goal? Naval leaders called for a steady build to just over 300 ships in the next 20 years. But political declarations and naval aspirations eventually […]
22 March 2017. President Donald Trump has stated that he wants to increase the size of the US military and has called for a major increase of the US Navy. This would be a long-term, billion-dollar program to build ships. Sounds like a larger version of the National Shipbuilding Strategy […]