San Francisco’s Fleet Week: Operationalizing a celebration

October 11, 2010

Well, before one of the more successful Fleet Weeks in recent history winds down, here’s a little summary of what we set out to do, presented by Google Earth…The video is a little rocky, so if you can, run the Google Earth Tour (just make sure your volume for the embedded Google Earth video player […]

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FLEET WEEK: The UH-1Y Venom and AH-1Z Viper Greet San Francisco

October 7, 2010

Fleet Week returns to San Francisco–bringing the Navy’s newest helos, their newest (and greenest) big-deck amphib, and, well, somewhere in the range of 3500 sailors and Marines. It’s gonna be a great week…And to start it off, I was lucky enough to spend the day aboard the centerpiece of the show, the USS Makin Island […]

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In Press: Promoting the T-AO(X) program in USNI Proceedings

October 4, 2010

Just a quick shill alert! My oiler article, “Running on empty” which has been floating around various viagra sales places in DC since February–has finally been published in the U.S. Naval Institute. Here’s the intro: Pressed by a brutal operations tempo, evolving strategic challenges, and a shifting Fleet structure, the Navy’s aging oilers can no […]

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More coverage on the Virginia-class Hull Treatment:

October 4, 2010

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Hewlett-Packard (HP) gets billions from Navy but gives nothing back:

September 30, 2010

San Francisco Fleet Week is a community effort. Fleet Week organizers (myself included) worked hard to raise the $1.2 million dollars we needed to throw an appropriately-sized gala for the Navy and Marine Corps. Many local companies dug deep. Some gave until it hurt. Everybody from Google Earth to Solazyme to Bank of America to […]

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In Press: The Daily Press and Mother Jones talk sub skin failures

September 28, 2010

The indefatigable Peter Frost from the Newport News Daily Press sunk his teeth into the Virginia Class sub-skin failures (which we have been covering here, here and here), leading to a nice article that, earlier this week, bounced the ball down-field a good bit. Sharing a story with the grand-old-man of naval observation, Norman Polmar, […]

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Hey, is the IDF integrating the submarine fleet?

September 28, 2010

The IDF is facing a manning problem. According to Ha’aretz, the Israeli Defense Forces’ sub fleet is working to expand the submariner pipeline, growing from three sub teams to a total of ten. Are women going to be a part of this new cadre? Look, finding enough guys capable of completing the grueling training cycle […]

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Virginia Class: Announcing the USS Hawaii MIP SHT failure watch

September 25, 2010

UPDATE: Interested news media can contact Craig Hooper at craig.hooper@nextnavy.com. Earlier this week, the Virginia Class Program Office indulged in some nimble footwork to minimize the scope of their emergent hull treatment debonding problem. First, they told observers that only three of the first four Virginia-class subs suffered the most serious hull treatment failures–the USS […]

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Austal leadership upheaval: Reading the tea leaves

September 24, 2010

So Austal CEO, Bob Browning, is leaving Austal. As of November 15. What does it mean? As somebody who has written about Bob Browning before–here and here–I can’t resist the opportunity to speculate as to what Bob is up to. In press, the only real hint comes from al.com, that says: Browning, who lives in […]

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LCS-1 turbine breaks…are turbine removal rails AWOL?

September 23, 2010

Sooo…who remembers, waaay back in February 2009, when a desperate NAVSEA was looking to get 3-5 tons off the LCS-1? Remember what they wanted to take out? I do. From Janes: Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) told Jane’s that officials are considering taking out components “that have become unused on the finished ship”. The proposed […]

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