More US Navy aircraft carriers are underway right now than at any point in quite some years - 8 of 11. Four are deployed: GERALD R FORD CVN78 in the Mediterranean Sea; DWIGHT D EISENHOWER CVN69 in the Red Sea; RONALD REAGAN CVN76 and CARL VINSON CVN70 in the western Pacific...





...GEORGE WASHINGTON CVN73 is working up off the US East Coast before heading next year to Japan; on the West Coast NIMITZ CVN68, THEODORE ROOSEVELT CVN71 and ABRAHAM LINCOLN CVN72 all are in various stages of training. The remaining 3 are in overhaul:

Construction of the first Multimission Surface Combatant for Saudi Arabia is proceeding at @FincantieriUS in Marinette WI as seen in these 17 Oct CavasShips photos. A much-modified version of Lockheed Martin's Freedom-class littoral combat ship, the 4 Saudi MMSCs are externally..





...similar but have many internal changes and will be more heavily armed. The Saudi ships wil be painted overall unlike US Navy Freedom-class which have painted hulls and nautral aluminum supertructures. LM is prime for this program lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products…

Important note about US aircraft carrier movements: so far the vast majority of what is being seen is normal, scheduled and not a direct response to current events. The GERALD R FORD CVN78 strike group has been operating for months in the Mediterranean Sea and is approaching..

..the scheduled conclusion of its cruise, to be relieved by the DWIGHT D EISENHOWER CVN69 group, who left the US East Coast 13/14 Oct. The RONALD REAGAN CVN76 is on a normal western Pacific deployment, scheduled to be relieved by the CARL VINSON CVN70, who left San Diego 12 Oct..

1/5 #Cruisers last week at Norfolk (all but the last on 12 Aug). Getting Set To Go: PHILIPPINE SEA CG58 having wrapped up pre-deployment exercises with the DWIGHT EISENHOWER CVN69 Strike Group, will deploy in a few weeks to European Command as the carrier's air defense escort.

2/5 Recouperating and Refitting: LEYTE GULF CG55, returned in April from a Mediterranean Sea deployment with the GEORGE H W BUSH CVN77 Strike Group, seen undergoing a pierside availability

From the just-concluded US Coast Guard briefing on missing submersible TITAN diving on TITANIC with 5 people aboard, conducted by RADM John Mauger of the 1st CG District in Boston: dive believed to have begun Sunday 18 June; last comms from craft were about 1 hour & 40 mins... ...into the dive. Understand craft has a 96-hour endurance. USCG was notified Sunday the craft was missing. Two USCG C-130s, a Canadian Coast Guard CC-130 and Canadian Navy CP-140 Aurora are also searching. Sonobuoys have been dropped from the aircraft and the expedition ship...

#FY24Budget Navy briefing slides 1) Overall Department of the Navy funding; shipbuilding; Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Plan (SIOP) and industrial base 2) Aircraft procurement; Weapons procurement; R&D Research and Development; Ship maintenance and ship operations

#AUKUS details confirmed by White House: 3-phase program. 1st - training to begin with Australians and US/UK subs (ASHEVILLE SSN758 already at Perth); Aussies are embedding in subs, nuke power schools, shipyards. Submarine Rotational Forces West will begin as early as 2027 with.. ..US/UK subs operating fm Australia. 2nd: Early 2030s: 3 Virginia-class subs with option for 2 more will be sold to Australia ahead of RAN's Collins-class retirements. Late 2030s: "SSN AUKUS" to be built & deployed by both Australia & UK based on Britain's next-generation SSN...

The long-sought #shipwreck of the heroic WW2 #destroyer USS #JOHNSTON DD557 has been found and conclusively ID'd, @CaladanOceanic announced 1 April. The forward 2/3 of the ship is at a depth of 21,180 feet/6,4456m, the world's deepest known wreck caladanoceanic.com/media/newsroom/ Ship was sunk in battle with vastly superior Japanese #warships during the Battle off Samar on 25 Oct 1944. Photos show the bow with hull number; fwd two 5-inch guns; bridge; 20mm guns amidships and a quintuple 21"torpedo tube mount. The privately-funded dive effort was led by..

The magnificent John #Burlage has passed at age 80. After a 25-year career he retired from the US #Navy in 1984 as a Master Chief Journalist and joined @NavyTimes where he was the peerless reporter covering Navy personnel issues for 18 years. He retired in 2002 and moved ... ...to Beeville TX where he passed away on 23 July three days short of his 81st birthday, with Jan, his wife of 62 years, by his side. He was exceptionally well known throughout the Navy and in every story he ALWAYS put Sailors first. Upon retiring in 2002 he was awarded the ...

#CNO Gilday held a brief 15-minute press conference in San Diego Friday afternoon after visiting the severely-damaged USS #BONHOMME RICHARD LHD6. Excerpts from his remarks: "I went four decks below the flight deck, I took a look at the superstructure. I was able to get a ... "good sense of the extent of the damage. And the damage is extensive. There is obviously electrical damage, structural damage, mechanical damage that we need to assess in much more detail before we make a final determination of next steps.
I am 100 percent confident that our...

#NAVY BRIEFS MEDIA ON USS #BONHOMME RICHARD #FIRE
“The flames are out but the heat is still there,” Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck told reporters Thursday afternoon in San Diego. “We’re going space by space into every compartment checking for hotspots.”
That’s where the situation ... stands after a fire that ravaged USS Bonhomme Richard for four days and into a fifth was finally declared out midday on 16 July. Tugs and helicopters that dumped water on the ship have been withdrawn and the smoke has stopped emanating from the ship berthed at the 32nd Street...

The US #Navy has declared the #fires ravaging USS #BONHOMME RICHARD LHD6 are out. RADM #Sobeck just issued a written statement. "After 4 days of firefighting all known fires have been extinguished aboard USS Bonhomme Richard LHD6. Our fire teams are investigating every space... "to verify the absence of fire. Until every space is checked and there are no active fires we will not be able to commence any official investigations.
We did not know the origin of the fire. We do not know the extent of the damage. It is too early to make any predictions...

Latest US #Navy press conference on the #BONHOMME RICHARD LHD6 #fire at Naval Base San Diego from RADM Philip Sobeck ended about 1120 PDT: "We still have an active fire which we are combatting both from within and externally from multiple access points... "Right now we’re combatting two fires in different parts of the ship, one forward and one aft. The one aft we’re still investigating [to see if] it’s an actual fire or is it residual and still sort of smoking. The one forward is the one we’ve been watching and watering from...

Key points from the 1830 PDT press conference by RADM Philip Sobeck, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3
-No further casualties beyond the 17 sailors & 4 firefighters already reported. All suffering from minor injuries or smoke inhalation -Fires continue – “There is actual [firefighting] agent on the fire and firefighting efforts are at hand.” Temperature gauges and monitors are in place around the ship
-Fire appears to have started in a large “Deep V” cargo hold and spread to spaces above.

WW2 #Liberty ship #JEREMIAH O'BRIEN reportedly is safe after the major early-morning warehouse #fire at San Francisco's #Pier45. Waiting for word on WW2 #submarine #PAMPANITO SS383 newsweek.com/fire-breaks-ou… KPIX image from about 0930 Saturday morning seems to show PAMPANITO well clear of the fire. J O'BRIEN's berth is toward the outer end of the pier, obscured by smoke. Can't tell from this if she's there or not.