SAS 2021 Archives - Maritime Shipping News

Sail-powered Drone Pitched as High-endurance Submarine Hunter

6 August 2021

Saildrone Photo

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Navy could use one of the world’s oldest technologies to defeat one of the newest by launching autonomous sailing drones to find and track enemy submarines.

Saildrone is marketing its unmanned — the company calls its vessels “uncrewed” — surface vessels, outfitted with a composite rigid wing sail, as a persistent reconnaissance platform capable of carrying sophisticated sonar equipment. The drones, which power their keel-mounted payloads with solar...

https://news.usni.org/2021/08/06/sail-powered-drone-pitched-as-high-endurance-submarine-hunter

Harker: Navy, Marine Corps Must Fix More Business Practices to Improve Readiness

5 August 2021

Fleet Readiness Center Southwest. US Navy Photo

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – While the Navy and Marine Corps have fixed problems they’ve identified in their business practices, the service’s top official said it still needs to correct some weaknesses to improve readiness.

Speaking at the Navy League’s 2021 Sea Air Space conference, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Harker said the top-to-bottom audit of the Pentagon and military departments “highlighted ways in which we can operate more efficiently and...

https://news.usni.org/2021/08/04/harker-navy-marine-corps-must-fix-more-business-practices-to-improve-readiness

Milley: China Challenge Placing Pressure on International Behavior

3 August 2021

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark A. Milley testifies before the House Appropriations Committee-Defense on the Fiscal 2022 Department of Defense Budget in the Pentagon Press Briefing Room, Washington, D.C., May 27, 2021. Defense Department Photo

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said “China is coming at us rapidly” – economically, diplomatically and militarily, and that challenge is putting existing international behavior “under tremendous...

https://news.usni.org/2021/08/02/milley-china-challenge-placing-pressure-on-international-behavior

CNO Gilday Wants Industry to Focus on Shipbuilding, Readiness Not Lobbying for Aircraft ‘We Don’t Need’

2 August 2021

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday speaks at the Sea Air Space 2021 symposium on Aug. 2, 2021. US Navy Photo

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The head of the Navy said defense contractors directly lobbying Congress to buy certain defense systems is taking attention away from the service’s spending priorities.

“It’s not the 90s anymore,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said today at the Navy League’s 2021 Sea-Air-Space conference. What is needed is a sense of urgency when it comes to...

https://news.usni.org/2021/08/02/cno-gilday-wants-industry-to-focus-on-shipbuilding-readiness-not-lobbying-for-aircraft-we-dont-need