by Craig Hooper on November 9, 2010
After calling for the recapitalization of our aging MSC oiler fleet, it is great to see the T-AO(X) program move ahead. I do like what I see, but….the pre-solicitation notice is missing a few things–and that means the Navy is missing an opportunity to get good ideas from industry for free. Here’s what I see: […]
by Craig Hooper on 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 […]
by Craig Hooper on 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 […]
by Craig Hooper on July 14, 2010
Last week I had a great chat with Des Moines Register columnist Marc Hansen about the ex-USS Iowa (BB-61). In the resulting July 10 article in the Des Moines Register, I was somewhat blunt about the poor performance of the nonprofit Historic Ships Memorial at Pacific Square, the organization currently designated as the future recipient […]
by Craig Hooper on June 22, 2010
I spent much of yesterday aboard Russia’s “Carrier Killer”, the Pacific Fleet’s Flagship RFS Varyag (011). The Varyag’s captain, Captain Eduard V. Moskalenko, was kind enough to give a few of us a personal tour of the vessel. It was great. We’ll talk more about this unprecedented Port Call later (the first Russian warship to […]
by Craig Hooper on May 18, 2010
Retired Marine Corps General J. Michael Myatt is organizing San Francisco’s 2010 Fleet Week, and he’s going to follow my April 2009 suggestion of making the celebration an operational event. Here’s what the General sees coming for the 2010 Fleet Week: “We also want to take advantage of the military capabilities for disaster relief for […]
by Craig Hooper on March 16, 2010
In Asia, America has gotta move away from a long-standing habit of engaging in simple, bilateral force measurements. Asia is a multi-polar place, and America’s penchant for strategic over-simplification is going to land the U.S. into serious trouble. Put bluntly, U.S. Navy-folk need to remember there are a few other countries over on the other […]
by Craig Hooper on March 10, 2010
The USS Bataan (LHD-5) was one of the first ships directed towards Haiti after the massive January 12 earthquake, but, once the ship arrived to serve in Operation Unified Response, the Bataan ran into a hail of criticism over it’s slow start in accepting and treating wounded Haitians. One of my USNI pals was particularly […]
by Craig Hooper on January 13, 2010
Five years ago, in days after the Indian Ocean Tsunami, I wrote an op-ed for the Boston Globe–a piece that, with the Haiti disaster, remains a relevant cautionary tale today: The tsunami response, being hailed as one of the biggest U.S. military disaster relief missions in history, has been less effective than portrayed. When a deployment of just 40 […]