Date: May 13, 2010 Location: Heritage Foundation, Washington D.C. Subj: CNO comments In a speech and response to questions offered at the Heritage Foundation Thursday, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead urged fiscal responsibility yet downplayed talk of further cuts to Navy ships and programs. He agreed with Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ call for greater scrutiny in procurement, and said he is a “proponent” for considering revisions to decades-old laws governing personnel issues. (You can read more about that in Monday’s edition of Navy Times). Other highlights:
Author Lance Bacon
Lance Bacon
A Navy brat who spent eight years in the Marines (two years aboard the carrier Independence). Worked in journalism in Eastern North Carolina through the latter part of the 90s, then became editor of Air Force Times in 2000. Stayed there five years, then took a break to finish some school. Now back in the game with Navy Times.
The carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower maintained its five-star status in April, with more than 500 combat sorties and 4,147 flight hours in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The crew marked 92 days on station in the Persian Gulf with a visit to Dubai at month’s end. Then on May 1, Capt. Samuel “Pappy” Paparo, deputy commander of Carrier Air Wing 7, became the 100,000th safe trap on the #3 arresting gear engine. The Dwight D. Eisenhower group, having deployed for five months in 2009, deployed again to the Middle East in January.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates dropped the bomb of the week. In his first invitation to the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space symposium, Gates suggested a need for cutting carriers, sinking SSBN(X) and eliminating Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles. You can read Gates’ speech here, and find out how this affects you in Monday’s edition of Navy Times. Speaking of amphibious operations, the personnel bubbas in Millington are starting to dry out. Two days of rain dumped more than 14 inches in the area. A levee couldn’t hold the water back and the base was flooded. This delayed one promotion board and threw many administrative matters into…
The Navy nabbed a lot of headlines again this week. Leading the way is news that subs are now officially open to women. In other career news, the active duty master chiefs list was released. The Coast Guard is holding its ground in the oil spill – and against critics. and the Army cancelled the Non-Line of Sight Launch System, which will likely have significant ramifications for the Littoral Combat Ship. Here’s seven stories in seven minutes from the past seven days that you may not have seen, but are worthy of notice:
The Aircraft Carrier Industrial Base Coalition brought more than 130 members from its 400 constituent companies to Capitol Hill Thursday to urge continued support for the aircraft carrier program. The sixth annual breakfast, held at the Rayburn Building, was attended by Reps. Glenn Nye, D-Va., and Rob Wittman, R-Va. Both serve on the House Armed Services Committee and both are very vocal on keeping a minimum of 11 carriers in the fleet through 2039. As one might expect, the construction and capabilities of the forthcoming carrier Gerald R. Ford was the top topic. Scoop Deck had a good talk with…
Ukrainian opposition and pro-presidential lawmakers fight against each other during ratification of the Black Sea Fleet deal with Russia, in parliament in Kiev, Ukraine, on Tuesday. Ukraine’s parliament has voted to extend Russia’s lease of a Crimean naval port for the Black Sea Fleet in a chaotic session during which eggs and smoke bombs were thrown. The countries’ presidents agreed last week to extend the Russian navy’s use of the Sevastopol port for another 25 years after the old lease expires in 2017. // Efrem Lukatsky / The Associated Press
In January, former North Korean four-star Kim Myong Guk was seen wearing only three stars on his collar. Most analysts believed he had been held accountable for North Korea’s loss to South Korea in a naval skirmish off the west coast in November. But North Korean television footage and photographs released over the weekend find the 70-year-old fielding that fourth star once more. The JoongAng Daily, a daily paper printed in Seoul, reported Monday that the demotion-to-promotion turnaround was related to the March 26 sinking of a South Korean naval ship near the western sea border with the North. “It…
Earlier this month, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead visited the naval forces of India to strengthen the maritime partnership. Now, the SEALs are getting in on that action. The Indian newspaper The Telegraph reported today that the cruiser Shiloh, destroyers Chaffee and Lassen, frigate Curts, attack submarine Annapolis, two P3C Orions and a 28-member special forces team haved teamed with the Indian Navy to practice anti-submarine warfare and special operations in the 14th Malabar exercise. The United States is the only country with which India conducts large-scale naval exercises, and this is the first time we’ve sent SEALs…
In the April 26 edition of Time Magazine, ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer answers 10 questions from readers regarding her decades as a journalist. Rome Ibera, of Dumont, N.J., asked “What has been your most difficult interview so far?” Sawyer answered: Admiral Hyman Rickover. He was in his 80s at the time. He’s the father of the nuclear Navy, and he famously tried to destabilize you when you were in his presence. I introduced [the segment] by saying how brilliant he was, and he said, ‘It’s not that I’m so smart. It’s that you’re so dumb.’ And that’s how…
It’s no secret that many in the South Korean military and government have cast a suspicious, if not accusatory eye at their neighbor to the north regarding last month’s sinking of a corvette that left 46 dead. Moments ago, the South Korean newspaper Choson Ilbo reported that some military officials are now focusing their attention on “human torpedoes.’ These aren’t your typical suicide bombers. They trace their origins to the “kaiten” (lit. “the Heaven Shaker”), Japanese underwater suicide bombers put into action at the end of World War II. North Korea’s human torpedo units belong to the 17th Sniper Corps and…
