US Navy

At a particularly inopportune time for legacy media and CNN, the news outlet is on trial in Florida this week, accused of defaming a Navy veteran involved in rescuing endangered Afghans from that country when the US ended its involvement there in 2021. The veteran, Zachary Young, blames CNN for destroying his business when it displayed his face onscreen during a story that discussed a black market in smuggling out Afghans for high fees at the time of the Taliban takeover. In a broader sense, the case puts the news media on the stand in journalism critic Donald Trump's home state weeks before he's due to begin his second term as president, and on the same day Facebook's parent introduced a Trump-friendly policy of backing off fact checks. Young's attorney, Kyle Roche, leaned into the press' unpopularity in his opening arguments on Tuesday. You're going to have an opportunity to do something significant in this trial, Roche told jurors in Florida's 14th Judicial Circuit Courts in Pan

Two US Navy pilots were shot down Sunday over the Red Sea in an apparent friendly fire incident, the US military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of America targeting Yemen's Houthi rebels. Both pilots were recovered alive after ejecting from their stricken aircraft, with one suffering minor injuries. But the shootdown underlines just how dangerous the Red Sea corridor has become, with ongoing attacks on shipping by the Iranian-backed Houthis despite US and European military coalitions patrolling the area. The US military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen's Houthi rebels at the time of the friendly fire incident, though the US military's Central Command did not elaborate on what the pilots' mission was and did not respond to questions from The Associated Press. The F/A-18 shot down had just flown off the deck of the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, Central Command said. On December 15, Central Command acknowledged the Truman had .

The US Navy is transforming a costly flub into a potent weapon with the first shipborne hypersonic weapon, which is being retrofitted aboard the first of its three stealthy destroyers. The USS Zumwalt is at a Mississippi shipyard where workers have installed missile tubes that replace twin turrets from a gun system that was never activated because it was too expensive. Once the system is complete, the Zumwalt will provide a platform for conducting fast, precision strikes from greater distances, adding to the usefulness of the warship. It was a costly blunder but the Navy could take victory from the jaws of defeat here, and get some utility out of them by making them into a hypersonic platform, said Bryan Clark, a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute. The US has had several types of hypersonic weapons in development for the past two decades, but recent tests by both Russia and China have added pressure to the US military to hasten their production. Hypersonic weapons travel beyon

Yemen's Houthi rebels targeted two US Navy warships with multiple drones and missiles as they were travelling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, but the attacks were not successful, the Defense Department said Tuesday. Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said the Iranian-backed Houthis launched at least eight drones, five anti-ship ballistic missiles and three anti-ship cruise missiles at the USS Stockdale and the USS Spruance, both Navy destroyers, on Monday. He said there was no damage and no one was injured. The strait is a narrow waterway between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, which typically sees USD 1 trillion in goods pass through it a year. The rebels have been targeting shipping through the strait for months over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Israel's ground offensive in Lebanon. The Houthis have insisted that the attacks will continue as long as the wars go on, and the assaults already have halved shipping through the region. Meanwhile, a UN panel of expert

The US Navy searched Wednesday through mountainous terrain for two crew members who were aboard a fighter jet that crashed in Washington state during a routine training flight. The EA-18G Growler jet from the Electronic Attack Squadron crashed east of Mount Rainier at about 3:23 pm Tuesday, according to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. Search teams, including a US Navy MH-60S helicopter, launched from NAS Whidbey Island to try to find the crew and examine the crash site. Navy searchers were joined by Yakima County tribal and local authorities as they pored over an area about 30 miles (48 km) west of Yakima in cloudy weather with low visibility, the Navy said. As of late Wednesday morning, they hadn't found the wreckage or crew, officials said in a news release. Navy officials said they didn't know if the two crew members managed to eject before the crash, which remains under investigation. The EA-18G Growler is similar to the F/A-18F Super Hornet and includes sophisticated electro

The US Navy was searching Wednesday for two aviators who went missing after their plane crashed during a routine training flight, according to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. The EA-18G Growler jet from the Electronic Attack Squadron crashed east of Mount Rainier at about 3:23 pm Tuesday. Search teams, including a US Navy MH-60S helicopter, launched from NAS Whidbey Island to locate the crew and examine the crash site. The two crew members remained missing Wednesday morning. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Austal USA, an Alabama-based shipbuilder that makes vessels for the US Navy, has admitted wrongdoing and agreed to pay a USD 24 million fine to settle an accounting fraud investigation, the US Department of Justice announced Tuesday. From 2013 through July 2016, Austal USA conspired to mislead shareholders and investors about the company's financial condition, the department said. The company pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud and one count of obstruction of a federal audit. Austal USA engaged in a years-long scheme to illegally inflate its profits on ships the company was building for the US Navy, reporting false financial results to investors, lenders, and its auditors, Nicole M. Argentieri, principal deputy assistant attorney general and head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, said in a statement. Austal USA LLC is a subsidiary of Australia-based Austal Limited and builds littoral combat ships for the Navy that are designed to operate in shallow coastal .

About a dozen F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier have flown to a military base in the Middle East, as part of the Pentagon's effort to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies and to safeguard U.S. troops, according to a U.S. official. The F/A-18s and a E-2D Hawkeye surveillance aircraft took off from the carrier in the Gulf of Oman and arrived at the undisclosed base on Monday, said the official. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the increased military presence in the region as officials worry about escalating violence in the Middle East in the wake of the killings last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas' top political leader in Iran, in suspected Israeli strikes. Both groups are backed by Iran. The Navy jets' land-based deployment is expected to be temporary, because a squadron of Air Force F-22 fighter jets is enroute to the same base from their home station in Alaska. The roughly dozen F-2

Indian Navy's frontline warships carried out a mega military exercise with the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group of the US in the Indian Ocean, demonstrating the growing strategic congruence between the two sides in the key maritime domain. The USS Theodore Roosevelt is a Nimitz-class, nuclear-powered, aircraft carrier of the US Navy. A carrier battle group or carrier strike group is a mega naval fleet comprising an aircraft carrier, accompanied by a large number of destroyers, frigates and other ships. The Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group operated alongside forces from the Indian Navy in the Indian Ocean on July 12, the US embassy said in a readout. The wargame came amid increasing concerns among democratic countries over China's increasing military muscle-flexing in the larger Indo-Pacific region. The Indian Navy's deployment included guided missile destroyer INS Visakhapatnam and replenishment ship INS Aditya. "This joint maritime activity advanced interoperabilit

Two Lockheed Martin subsidiaries have agreed to pay the federal government $70 million for overcharging the Navy for aircraft parts, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday. The federal agency says Sikorsky Support Services, based in Stratford, Connecticut, and Derco Aerospace, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, knowingly entered into an improper subcontract for spare parts and materials for aircrafts used to train Navy pilots. Under the contract, Sikorsky purchased the parts from Derco at the cost Derco paid other suppliers, plus a 32% markup. Sikorsky then billed the Navy for the price it paid Derco, in violation of federal regulations barring such arrangements, which prosecutors said drive up government costs. Today's settlement demonstrates that the Justice Department will ensure that government contractors do not skirt the law and engage in self-dealing that may artificially inflate their charges at the expense of the American taxpayers," Brian Boynton, head of the

The missiles have the ability to destroy the US Navy's Ticonderoga-class cruisers, according to a computer simulation conducted by the Chinese People's Liberation Army

The United States renewed a warning Tuesday that it's obligated to defend its close treaty ally a day after Filipino navy personnel were injured and their supply boats damaged in one of the most serious confrontations between the Philippines and China in a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, officials said. China and the Philippines blamed each other for instigating Monday's hostilities in the Second Thomas Shoal, which has been occupied by a small Filipino navy contingent aboard a grounded warship that's been closely watched by Chinese coast guard, navy and suspected militia ships in a yearslong territorial standoff. There is fear the disputes, long regarded as an Asian flashpoint, could escalate and pit the United States and China in a larger conflict. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell discussed China's actions with Philippine counterpart, Maria Theresa Lazaro, in a telephone call. Both agreed that China's dangerous actions threatened regional peace and stability, State

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower may be one of the oldest aircraft carriers in the US Navy, but it's still fighting despite repeated false claims by Yemen's Houthi rebels. The Houthis and online accounts supporting them repeatedly have alleged they hit or even sank the carrier in the Red Sea as it leads the US response to the rebels' ongoing attacks targeting both commercial vessels and warships in the crucial waterway. That's put its leader, Capt. Christopher Chowdah Hill, and his social media profile directly in what has become an increasingly bizarre internet front line as the campaign goes on. And while he shrugs off his posts, they represent the new level of information warfare the Navy is having to fight as it faces its most intense combat since World War II and tries to keep the morale of the nearly 5,000 personnel aboard the Eisenhower high and munitions ready as their deployment stretches on. I think it's been about two or three times in the past six months we've allegedly bee

The United States military unleashed a wave of attacks targeting radar sites operated by Yemen's Houthi rebels over their assaults on shipping in the crucial Red Sea corridor, authorities said Saturday, after one merchant sailor went missing following an earlier Houthi strike on a ship. The attacks come as the US Navy faces the most intense combat its seen since World War II in trying to counter the Houthi campaign attacks the rebels say are meant to halt the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. However, the Iranian-backed rebel assaults often see the Houthis target ships and sailors who have nothing to do with the war while traffic remains halved through a corridor vital for cargo and energy shipments between Asia, Europe and the Mideast. US strikes destroyed seven radars within Houthi-controlled territory, the military's Central Command said. It did not elaborate on how the sites were destroyed and did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press. These radars ..

The claimed attack by the Houthis comes after the group said that US and British strikes in Yemen's Hodeidah province had killed 16

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have sought to manage tensions, and in November the two leaders agreed to resume direct military talks

Chinese Navy is in the beginning stages of operating a 'multi-carrier force', warns the Pentagon's 2023 annual report on China's military power

US-Taiwan military engagement, including visits and training, are kept low-key and are often not officially confirmed because of China's objection to military contacts between Washington and Taipei

China's military criticized a U.S. destroyer's passage through the Taiwan Strait, which occurred less than two weeks before the island's new president takes office and while Washington and Beijing are making uneven efforts to restore regular military exchanges. Navy Senior Capt. Li Xi, spokesman for the Eastern Theater Command, accused the U.S. of having publicly hyped the passage of the USS Halsey on Wednesday. In a statement, Li said the command, which oversees operations around the strait, organized naval and air forces to monitor" the ship's transit and handle matters in accordance with laws and regulations. The Navy's 7th Fleet said the Halsey conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit on May 8 through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law." The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state, the fleet's statement ...

The US 7th Fleet said a Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, a day after US and Chinese defence chiefs held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconaissance plane transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace, the 7th Fleet said in a news release. By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations, the release said. Although the critical 160 kilometre-wide strait that divides China from the self-governing island democracy is international waters, China considers the passage of foreign military aircraft and ships through it a challenge to its sovereignty. China claims the island of Taiwan, threatening to defend by force if necessary despite US military support for the island. China had no immediate response to the report, but has in past issued stern protests and activated defences in ...