by Craig Hooper on December 14, 2022
Over in Forbes, I’ve put up a few Coast Guard pieces–a summary of the USCG funding proposal in the NDAA, and a suggestion that the USCG toss the troubled C-27J MPA for a mix of C-130s and the V-280 Valor, the Army’s choice for a replacement of the epic Black Hawk helo. The first, looking […]
by Craig Hooper on September 13, 2021
If you want to know about defense journalism and the state of the Coast Guard in relation to the rest of the Uniformed Services, just look at the latest HASC markup. Defense media got the topline messages–that the HASC had grown Biden’s defense budget by $25 billion, and that the Navy got several ships. They […]
by Craig Hooper on September 8, 2021
Well, we’ve come a long way from where we started four months ago–back when I pointed out that the Coast Guard Yard was left entirely out of the Shipyard Act, a massive, $25 billion dollar effort to fund all the emergent needs at the Navy’s four public shipyards. Now, it looks like my pestering may […]
by Craig Hooper on May 27, 2021
Here’s the link. Yesterday, Roger Wicker introduced a big Coast Guard funding bill. That’s great news, but the legislation itself is largely a bundle of other much-needed Coast Guard funding proposals that, after getting introduced years ago, never saw the light of day. It’ll join a raft of other USCG funding proposals that are working […]
by admin on December 11, 2014
For a last-second, end-of-year compromise, the “Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015” does a surprisingly good job of preserving America’s naval industrial base. To me, it’s less about buying ships and more about buying…time. The Act offers the Nation a measure of flexibility–if it advances intact, the 11-Carrier fleet is (relatively) secure for […]
by admin on March 21, 2014
In a paroxysm of hand-wringing and rending of garments, the U.S. Navy changed the way it counts the battle fleet, growing the active fleet a bit, to 290. Most observers were outraged, sensing the Navy was using an accounting gimmick to grow the fleet. But…I wasn’t too upset. Like most of my readers, I am […]
by admin on October 21, 2013
America lost a legend last week. Congressman Bill Young, a towering personality trapped in an increasingly frail body, has died. He was a living legacy, the longest-serving Republican in Congress, and one of the few remaining links to the go-go days of the Reagan era build-up–and one of the last of the “old school” pols […]
by Craig Hooper on February 12, 2011
Over the next year, the Navy is gonna learn that a depression makes a bad time to party. Today, as the U.S. Navy prepares to kick-off the ceremony-laden, flyby bedecked Centennial of Naval Aviation with a massive flyby in San Diego, the nation’s “Austerity-First” budget-trimmers are sharpening their pencils, ready pillory the Navy for each […]
by Craig Hooper on December 4, 2010
Yesterday I got to chat with the Mobile Press-Register’s indefatigable reporter Dan Murtaugh about Congressman Gene Taylor’s (D-MS) change of heart about the LCS program. Frankly, I am delighted–Congressman Taylor, as an outgoing Congressman and confirmed LCS foe, had no real reason to promote the program. If he had done nothing, and allowed the Navy […]
by Craig Hooper on December 1, 2010
Today, this blogger–along with the Navy–won a big victory. For me, it’s a vindication of sorts: On November 14, 2007, I was the first to publicly call out the American Shipbuilding Association and it’s lobbyist-in-chief, Cindy Brown (that’s her on the right). I hammered the ASA’s record: If you’ve spent the last 20 years lobbying […]