Long Form Archives - Maritime Shipping News

Gulf Coast Shipyards Growing Capacity While Navy Shipbuilding Plans Remain Unsettled

18 August 2022

Amphibious warship Richard M. McCool, Jr., (LPD-29) on Aug. 4, 2022. USNI News Photo

PASCAGOULA, Miss. — From the fantail of the 24,000-ton Richard M. McCool, Jr., (LPD-28), one can see the world’s most complex warships coming together, with shipbuilders welding, painting and running cables in the Mississippi sun.

Two Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers – Leah H. Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG-123) and the first Flight III Burke Jack Lucas (DDG-125) – are under construction and moored nearby....

https://news.usni.org/2022/08/17/gulf-coast-shipyards-growing-capacity-while-navy-shipbuilding-plans-remain-unsettled

A Generational Change in Naval Aviation Has Begun Amidst Tight Budgets, Fighter Gaps

24 March 2022

Two F-35C Lightning II fighter jets, attached to the “Argonauts” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 147, fly in formation for a photo exercise in Lemoore, Calif., Nov. 16, 2018. VFA-147 is the first U.S. Navy Operational F-35C squadron based out of Naval Air Station (NAS) Lemoore. US Navy photo.

The Navy’s future carrier air wing will include a mix of both fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft, with the F-35C and the Super Hornets making up the strike fighter fleet. The recent F-35C deployment...

https://news.usni.org/2022/03/24/a-generational-change-in-naval-aviation-has-begun-amidst-tight-budgets-fighter-gaps

Nimitz and Ford Carriers Need Upgrades to Deploy With F-35Cs

6 June 2019

An F-35C Lightning II assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 101 is positioned on the bow catapults of the Nimitz-Class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) March 17, 2018, in the Atlantic Ocean. US Navy photo

Currently, the Navy does not have an aircraft carrier — either Ford-class or Nimitz-class — that can support the service’s most advanced fighters for a full deployment, service officials told USNI News on Thursday.

Earlier this week, lawmakers expressed their frustration with...

https://news.usni.org/2019/06/06/nimitz-and-ford-carriers-need-upgrades-to-deploy-with-f-35cs