Can the Biden administration break the cycle of marathon naval deployments to the Mideast? February 15 A sailor directs an F/A-18E Super Hornet on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Nimitz during flight operations on Jan. 17, 2021, in the Arabian Sea. (MC3Charles DeParlier/U.S. Navy) WASHINGTON By the time the crews of the aircraft carrier Nimitz and its escort ships step on the pier in Bremerton, Washington, they will have been away from home for almost a year, most of which will have been spent floating around in the Middle East. Until the last decade, the U.S. Navy tried to limit deployments to six months to give crew members ample time for training and maintenance. But as the fleet contracted and demands remained steady or occasionally grew the length of Navy deployments exploded to as many as 10 months or more, forcing the fleet to fall back on extreme measures such as sending carriers out twice in the same 36-month deployment cycle, colloquially known as a
Unclear on unmanned, Part 2: On Capitol Hill, the US Navy has a credibility problem David Larter
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The littoral combat ship Independence deploys the now-canceled remote multimission vehicle off the Southern California coast in 2013. (Courtesy of Austal USA via U.S. Navy)
This is the second of a three-part series on the Navy’s struggles to develop unmanned ships and systems. WASHINGTON The attack from the late Sen. John McCain was predictable but that did little to lessen the pain. From the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman’s seat in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in December 2016, McCain unleashed a polemic against what he saw as 12 years of programmatic futility displayed in the U.S. Navy’s efforts to field the littoral combat ship. From the witness stand, the Navy’s then-top acquisitions official Sean Stackley and top surface warfare officer Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden took the brunt of incoming fire.
Unclear on unmanned, Part 2: On Capitol Hill, the US Navy has a credibility problem David Larter
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The littoral combat ship Independence deploys the now-canceled remote multimission vehicle off the Southern California coast in 2013. (Courtesy of Austal USA via U.S. Navy)
This is the second of a three-part series on the Navy’s struggles to develop unmanned ships and systems. WASHINGTON The attack from the late Sen. John McCain was predictable but that did little to lessen the pain. From the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman’s seat in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in December 2016, McCain unleashed a polemic against what he saw as 12 years of programmatic futility displayed in the U.S. Navy’s efforts to field the littoral combat ship. From the witness stand, the Navy’s then-top acquisitions official Sean Stackley and top surface warfare officer Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden took the brunt of incoming fire.
Unclear on unmanned: The US Navy’s plans for robot ships are on the rocks David Larter
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One of the two prototypes purchased by the Office of the Secretary of Defense s Strategic Capabilities Office for its Ghost Fleet Overlord program, aimed at fielding an autonomous surface ship capable of launching missiles. (U.S. Defense Department)
This is the first of a three-part series on the Navy’s struggles to develop unmanned ships and systems. WASHINGTON – After a bruising, year-long fight with Congress, part of the Navy’s plan to field unmanned ships appears to be on life support, making 2021 a crucial year for plotting a path forward.
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