The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) leads a formation of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 5 ships as U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress aircraft and U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets pass overhead for a photo exercise during Valiant Shield 2018 on Sept. 17. US Navy photo
Joint forces are assembling around Guam and the Mariana Islands Range Complex for high-end Pacific exercise Valiant Shield 2020, which kicks off today.
The exercise, which takes place every other year following the Rim of the...
USS Essex (LHD-2) arrives at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii for RIMPAC 2020 on Aug. 10, 2020. US Navy Photo
A scaled-down Rim of the Pacific Exercise began today off Hawaii with a third of the expected countries and a fifth of the expected personnel participating due to COVID-19-related restrictions.
But the exercise commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Scott Conn, said in a pre-recorded RIMPAC 2020 kickoff message the exercise would still meet its goal of building interoperability and trust among...
https://news.usni.org/2020/08/17/scaled-back-at-sea-rimpac-2020-exercise-kicks-off-near-hawaii
Capt. John Markowicz, assistant chief of staff for ship maintenance and material readiness, Commander, Naval Air Forces, observes the Distance Communications Maintenance System (DCoMS) ship-to-shore test between the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), while the aircraft carrier was underway in the Indo-Pacific region. DCoMS allows shore-based technical experts to remotely walk shipboard technicians through a higher level of maintenance or troubleshooting...
https://news.usni.org/2020/08/10/covid-accelerates-navy-test-of-telemaintenance-on-carriers
The Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Montgomery (LCS 8) returns to homeport at Naval Base San Diego following the successful completion of a 12-month rotational deployment. Montgomery operated in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations to enhance interoperability with partners and serve as a ready-response force. US Navy photo.
USS Montgomery (LCS-8) recently wrapped up its maiden deployment – and the ship class’s first since a restructure of the Littoral Combat Ship program – and the...
Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown responds to a question, May 7, 2020 on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to consider his nomination to be the next Air Force chief of staff. US Air Force Photo
KUALA LUMPUR — The U.S. Air Force is expanding their maritime capabilities in the Western Pacific and mulling creating its own operating concept similar to the U.S. Marine Corps Force Design 2030, the Air Force’s next top commander told reporters on Wednesday.
When...
Drones present an increasing threat to naval operations. Last July we reported on the incident in the Strait of Hormuz in which the USS Boxer downed an Iranian drone. Subsequent reports revealed that the Boxer downed the drone using electronic jamming. The Navy may soon have another alternative to electronics or conventional gunfire with which to deal with unwanted aerial intruders — and armed small boats.
U.S. Pacific Fleet has released video of a May 16 test in which the amphibious transport...
https://www.marinelog.com/news/video-navy-zaps-drone-with-laser-weapon/
(Right) Australian Army officer Captain Christopher Moroney, from the 2nd Battalion (Amphibious), Royal Australian Regiment, works with Indonesian Joint Terminal Attack Controllers to call in artillery fire at Pohakuloa Training Area during Exercise Rim of the Pacific 18. Australian Defence Force photo.
U.S. Pacific Fleet will host its major biennial Rim of the Pacific exercise this year amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, opting to limit the exercise to just two weeks of at-sea-only events...
Adm. John C. Aquilino pays respect during the 78th Anniversary Pearl Harbor Remembrance Commemoration in 2019. US Navy Photo
Before COVD-19 restrictions gripped the U.S., the U.S. Pacific Fleet was already starting to become wary of the threat. Spread from India to California, Pacific Fleet is the largest Navy operating area containing more than half of the service’s warships at any given moment.
As the disease spread in Asia, ships in the area began butting against the edges of the spreading...
A P-8A Poseidon assigned to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 20 flies over USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) as the ship travels to its new home port of San Diego, Calif., in October 2016. US Navy photo.
A Chinese destroyer lased a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft that was operating over international waters about 380 miles west of Guam, the U.S. Pacific Fleet said in a statement.
The laser could not be seen by a human eye but was captured by sensors on the airplane, which is a variant...
https://news.usni.org/2020/02/27/chinese-destroyer-lases-u-s-navy-p-8a-plane-operating-near-guam
Two aviators assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5 look out onto the Hong Kong skyline as the aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN-73) in 2013. US Navy Photo
Shortly after protests began rocking Hong Kong over a controversial extradition bill, the Chinese government quietly started denying U.S. Navy ships permission to visit the port city.
On Monday, the Chinese government formalized what had been in practice since at least July, suspending until further notice the review of U.S. military...
https://news.usni.org/2019/12/03/u-s-navy-has-been-shut-out-of-hong-kong-since-july