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, …
The US Navy needs to deliver robotic combat ships with conservative technologies that will work but DARPA programs can try to use risky technology. DARPA wants to integrate risky technology projects to accelerate the US Navy’s capabilities. Maintaining separate lines of effort is important because DARPA has the freedom to fail whereas failure in an …
Russia’s only aircraft carrier has a fire that has covered over 600 square meters (6000 square feet) of the carrier. Even if the fire is put out, Nextbigfuture predicts that the carrier will not be worth salvaging. Currently, the ship is being flooded with water and chemicals to douse electrical wiring and diesel fuel fires. …
The USA and Russia started an informal competition for the most incompetent aircraft carrier. The USA entered its first next-generation Gerald Ford carrier and Russia went with its only aircraft carrier (Admiral Kuznetsov). The Gerald Ford carrier was “delivered” in 2017 but it is not in good shape. The deployment date is now 2024 which …
ThreeSix to ten people were injured in a fire that broke out onboard Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov at a dock in Murmansk, northwest Russia. 120 square meters (1200 square feet)600 square meters (6000 square feet) of the carrier were on fire. In 2018, the same carrier had a 210 square foot hole after a …
The main justification for the Gerald Ford Super aircraft carriers was to increase the sortie rate 25% over the Nimitz class and a 25% reduction in manpower required to operate. The Ford carriers are costing over $13 billion each and have numerous problems with landing and launching aircraft, elevators and radar. The Nimitz Class has …
US Secretary Richard V. Spencer blames new multi-year delays for the next-generation Gerald Ford carrier on the budget cap limiting the spending to just over $13 billion. This is $2.5 billion over the original $10.5 billion budget. On 10 September 2008, the U.S. Navy signed a $5.1 billion contract with Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding in Newport …
