By Matthew Stibbe, Contributor
My friend Carl used to fly the S-3 Viking for the US Navy. He filmed these approaches and just put together a video showing night and day carrier landings side by side. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
By The Huffington Post News Editors
The US Navy said it is preparing to roll out a sea-based laser weapon capable of disabling small enemy vessels and shooting down surveillance drones.
The laser system will be deployed in 2014, two years ahead of schedule, aboard the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport ship retrofitted as a waterborne staging base, the Navy said Monday.
Chief of Naval Research Admiral Matthew Klunder said the cost of one blast of “directed energy” could be less than $1.
“Compare that to the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs to fire a missile, and you can begin to see the merits of this capability,” he said in a US Navy statement.
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Naval Sea Systems Command successfully tested high-energy lasers against a moving target ship and a remotely piloted drone.
“The future is here,” ONR official Peter Morrision said.
“The solid-state laser is a big step forward to revolutionizing modern warfare with directed energy, just as gunpowder did in the era of knives and swords.”
The laser runs on electricity, so the weapon “can be fired as long as there is power,” and is a lot safer than carrying explosives aboard ships.
The Navy released a video of a laser test and posted it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmoldX1wKYQ&feature=youtu.be .
The New York Times, which said the USS Ponce would deploy to the Gulf, noted the Pentagon had a “long history of grossly inflating” claims for experimental weapons.
Navy officials had acknowledged that the prototype laser was not yet strong enough to bring down a jet fighter or a missile, although those remained the long-term targets, The Times reported.
A March 14 report from the non-partisan Congressional Research Center said the new weapon was a potential game-changer in naval warfare.
“Compared to existing ship self-defense systems, such as missiles and guns, lasers could provide Navy surface ships with a more cost effective means of countering certain surface, air, and ballistic missile targets,” the report read.
Equipping Navy ships with lasers “could lead to changes in naval tactics, ship design and procurement plans for ship-based weapons, bringing about a technological shift for the Navy – a ‘game changer’ – comparable to the advent of shipboard missiles in the 1950s,” it added.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post
The US Navy said it is preparing to roll out a sea-based laser weapon capable of disabling small enemy vessels and shooting down surveillance drones. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Four officers of a U.S. Navy minesweeper that ran aground on coral reef in the Philippines are being relieved of their duties.
The U.S. Pacific Fleet said in a statement Wednesday that initial findings indicate all four sailors failed to adhere to standard navigation procedures at the time of the Jan. 17 grounding of the Guardian.
The sailors are the commanding officer, the executive officer and navigator, the assistant navigator and the officer of the deck. They’ve been reassigned.
Workers recently finished dismantling and removing the minesweeper from Tubbataha National Marine Park.
The park’s superintendent has said the grounding damaged about 4,000 square meters, or nearly 5,000 square yards, of reef. The U.S. could face a fine of more than $2 million for the damage.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
AP
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at AOL
By Rob Quinn 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Workers in the southwestern Philippines have removed the last major part of a U.S. Navy minesweeper from a protected coral reef where it ran aground in January, and the damage will be assessed to determine the fine Washington will pay, officials said Sunday.
A crane lifted the 250-ton stern of the dismantled USS Guardian on Saturday from the reef, where it accidentally got stuck Jan. 17, officials said. The reef, designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO, the United Nations‘ cultural arm, is located in the Tubbataha National Marine Park in the Sulu Sea, about 400 miles southwest of Manila.
The doomed ship’s parts will be transported to a Navy facility in Sasebo, Japan, to determine which ones can be reused and which will be junked, Philippine coast guard Commodore Enrico Efren Evangelista said.
Workers were cleaning debris at the site, where American and Filipino experts this week will begin a final assessment of the reef damage, to be paid for by Washington. An initial estimate showed about 4,000 square meters (4,780 square yards) of coral reef was damaged by the ship grounding, according to Tubbataha park superintendent Angelique Songco. She said it was unlikely the estimate would change significantly.
Songco said the fine would be about 24,000 pesos ($600) per square meter, so the U.S. could be facing a bill of more than $2 million.
The fine will go to a fund for the upkeep of the reef, Songco said, adding that Filipino and U.S. scientists will inspect the reef this week to determine the best way to “rehabilitate” the damaged parts. One option is to let the reef heal by itself, which would take a long time but be less complicated. Another option is to carry out some “repairs” to the reef, which would be more costly and complicated, she said.
Songco said her agency did not have plans to pursue charges against U.S. authorities over the incident.
Asked if the Philippine government would press charges against U.S. Navy officials, Philippine Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., a spokesman for President Benigno Aquino III, did not reply directly, but said, “There must be accountability and we will enforce our existing laws.”
The warship’s removal closes an embarrassing episode as Washington reasserts its presence in Asia amid China‘s rise. The Navy and the U.S. ambassador to Manila, Harry K. Thomas, have both apologized for the grounding and promised to cooperate with America’s longtime Asian ally.
“As we have stated in the past, we regret this incident and the United States is prepared to pay compensation for the damage to the reef,” the U.S. Embassy said in a statement, adding that it was cooperating with a Philippine government investigation of the incident.
A separate U.S. government investigation on the cause of the grounding has not yet been completed, the embassy said.
Aquino has said that the U.S. Navy must explain how the ship got off course, and that the Navy will face fines for damaging the environment.
The Guardian was en route to Indonesia after making a rest and refueling stop in Subic Bay, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
1808 – French created Kingdom of Westphalia orders Jews to adopt family names
1903 – Richard Pearse flies monoplane several hundred yards (NZ)
1909 – Gustav Mahler conducts NY Philharmonic for his 1st time
1954 – US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs Colo, established
1958 – US Navy forms atomic sub division
1996 – 25th Nabisco Dinah Shore Golf Championship won by Patty Sheehan
1651 – Karl II, Elector Palatine (d. 1685)
1915 – Jack Perry, businessman
1946 – Gabe Kaplan, Bkln NY, comedian/actor (Welcome Back Kotter)
1970 – Oleg Romanov, NHL defenseman (Belarus, Olympics-98)
1974 – Jason Odom, tackle (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
1982 – Jessica Joseph, Royal Oak Mich, dance skater (and Butler-1997 Natl)
1389 – Everhard Tserclaes, sheriff of Brussels, murdered
1723 – Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, British-born American statesman (b. 1661)
1881 – Gaetano Gaspari, composer, dies at 73
1945 – Maurice Rose, 1st US general in Nazi Germany, killed in action at 45
1991 – John Carter, US jazz clarinetist (Roots and folklore), dies
1997 – Laxmishankar Pathak, food retailer, dies at 62
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at HistoryOrb.Com – This Day in History
Salvage teams on Saturday removed the last piece of a US Navy ship that was stuck on a UNESCO World Heritage-listed coral reef in the Philippines for more than 10 weeks, the coast guard said. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
By Tim Worstall, Contributor There’s a great piece of US Navy research described here. Given that drones are becoming ever more capable and also ever cheaper, someone, somewhere, has to start thinking about effective counter measures to them. For yes, for the moment, the US military has a huge lead over everyone else in the design, manufacture and deployment of drones. But that’s not going to stop other people designing, manufacturing and deploying them over time. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
The final sections of a US Navy ship that has been stuck on a UN World Heritage-listed coral reef in the Philippines for more than 10 weeks are set to be removed within days, an official said Thursday. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
KPRC
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at AOL
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USS Monitor Interment – Arlington National Cemetery
The Navy announced Feb. 21, 2013 that the March 8, 2013 graveside interment ceremony of the remains of two unknown Sailors recovered from the USS Monitor shipwreck will be open to the public.
The unknown Sailors were lost along with 14 of their shipmates when Monitor sank off Cape Hatteras, N.C. on Dec. 31, 1862.
All 16 Sailors will be memorialized on a group marker in section 46 of the cemetery, which is between the amphitheater and the USS Maine Mast memorial.
The specific date of the interment was chosen to recognize the Monitor’s role in the Battle of Hampton Roads 151 years ago. It is Navy custom and tradition to honor the service member’s final resting place by conducting an official burial ceremony.
Statistics: Posted by Gary Triplett — Sun Mar 10, 2013 4:45 pm
