The Naval Strike Missile is one tool that the Navy and Marines are looking to rely on in crafting a response to a new era of long-range threats.

The Navy may back off its much-publicized call for a 355-ship fleet and look at new options like unmanned vessels, the Chief of Naval Operations said.

Smaller unmanned vessels will act as expendable scouts and decoys, larger ones — over 50 meters — will carry masses of missiles, while manned ships will carry both the largest systems and the human beings essential for rapid adaptation in combat.

WASHINGTON: Four years after Lockheed Martin inked a $11.2 billion deal to sell Saudi Arabia an upgunned variant of its Littoral Combat Ship, the company is starting work on the first vessel later this year, a company official confirmed Wednesday. The work on four Multi-Mission Surface Combatants will take place at Fincantieri-owned Marinette Marine in… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: After years of delays, budget fights, and searing debates over the role that the ship will play, three Littoral Combat Ships will head out on their first deployments this year. “We’re deploying LCS this year. It’s happening. Two ships are going on the West Coast, one ship is going on the East Coast,” said… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: President Trump has just issued orders to cut the defense budget, and hasn’t tweeted for a while about his campaign pledge to build a bigger Navy, but the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee wants to get a 355-ship fleet back on the agenda. Jim Inhofe — who’s likely to retain the SASC chairmanship… Keep reading →

ANNAPOLIS, Md.  The massive hurricane that slammed into Florida’s Gulf Coast killing at at least 27 has also taken a chunk out of the Air Force and Navy’s most advanced weapons. The Air Force is still evaluating about 17 F-22s left behind at Tyndall Air Base, but the nearby Naval Surface Warfare Center at Panama… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Even as Congress inches toward cutting off arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Riyadh’s grinding war in Yemen, the United States is preparing to ship $14.5 billion worth of arms to the increasingly embattled kingdom. Those weapons include “helicopters, tanks, ships, weapons, and training,” a… Keep reading →

The big news about the $674.4 billion defense appropriation that conferees agreed to yesterday is that, for the first time in nine years, it’s on time. But in a budget this big, even the “small” items are billions of dollars, and there are plenty of devils in them thar details.

Thursday’s overwhelming Senate vote to pass the bill clears a major hurdle in getting the budget passed on time. But Not only do the House and Senate have little time to knock out final appropriations language and vote on it, but President Trump has signaled he wouldn’t be opposed to a government shutdown this fall, which would bring everything to a grinding halt.