The Navy—solid state lasers (SSLs), the electromagnetic railgun (EMRG), and the gun-launched guided projectile (GLGP) [aka hypervelocity projectile (HVP)] for about a decade. The US Navy’s proposed FY2022 budget requests research and development funding for continued work on lasers but wants to suspend further work on the EMRG and GLGP programs and requests no research …
U.S. 5th Fleet’s Task Force 59 will stand up on Thursday and be the second testing outfit for the Navy’s unmanned ships following Surface Development Squadron One (SURFDEVRON) establishment in 2019. They will expand the operational use of unmanned platforms in the region and experiment with their concept of operations. This will not just be …
The US Navy has still not fixed major problems with the USS Ford aircraft carrier. In 2019, four of the eleven weapons elevators were broken. There were supposed to be eleven weapons elevators. In May, 2021, the US Navy confirmed four lower-stage advanced weapons elevators will not be certified until later in 2021. This will …
The US Navy will place its first at-sea hypersonic missiles aboard one of the service’s three Zumwalt-class destroyers in four years (by 2025). These will likely be hypersonic warheads on regular vertically launched missiles. Hypersonic warheads can go faster and can move around more than regular warheads. Hypersonic weapons go at 5 times the speed …
The 2020 US Department of Defense reports that China’s Navy has more vessels than the US Navy. The PRC has the largest navy in the world, with an overall battle force of approximately 350 ships and submarines including over 130 major surface combatants. In comparison, the U.S. Navy’s battle force is approximately 293 ships as …
In July, 2020, ThorCon and Indonesia’s Defense Ministry signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to study developing a 50 MW thorium molten salt reactor (TMSR) for either power generation or marine vehicle propulsion. Indonesia could justify additional costs for a modular molten salt nuclear reactor to get a nuclear navy. Nuclear reactors for a nuclear …
An Office of the Secretary of Defense review of the US Navy calls for reducing aircraft carriers by 20% to support a 20% increase in smaller ships. This would cut carriers from 11 to nine to add 65 frigates and unmanned ships. The addition of ships would be mainly (about 50) frigates. This would help …
The U.S. Navy plans to put hypersonic missiles on Virginia Attack Submarines, Zumwalt Destroyers and all Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. The Conventional Prompt Strike program will provide hypersonic missile capability for faster missiles with longer ranges according to National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien. The Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) program was given $278 million in fY2019 …
In 2022, the US Army will field test two high-energy lasers. A 50-kilowatt weapon to destroy enemy drones and incoming artillery rockets and a 300-kW weapon that could potentially shoot down cruise missiles. The US Navy has installed and tested 150 kilowatt lasers and will be testing 300-kilowatt lasers. US Army’s Six Modernization Priorities 1. …
The US army is planning to test-fire a cannon in 2023 with a range of 1000 miles. Current US artillery has 15-45 mile ranges. The benefit of having 1000 mile ranges is that the combat radius of fighter planes is about 700-800 miles unless there is midair refueling. US Aircraft carriers have a strike range …
The USA Navy has joined the Navies of Russia, China, Venezuela and Iran who have had major navy ships destroyed by fire or other causes. The US appears to have lost a Wasp class assault ship to a construction fire. The US has nine other similar ships and 11 larger aircraft carriers. In Dec, 2019, …
