I’m clearing the backlog from the last week and a half, so this will be a long one….

Navy SEAL’s family to get Medal of Honor

The first Medal of Honor awarded for combat in Afghanistan will be presented Monday to the family of a Navy SEAL from Long Island, N.Y, who gave his life to make a radio call for help for his team.

President Bush is to present the nation’s highest military honor for valor to the family of Lt. Michael Murphy of Patchogue, N.Y.

“There’s a lot of awards in the military, but when you see a Medal of Honor, you know whatever they went through is pretty horrible. You don’t congratulate anyone when you see it,” said Marcus Luttrell, the lone member of Murphy’s team to survive the firefight with the Taliban.

Murphy, Luttrell and two other SEALs were searching for a terrorist in the Afghan mountains on June 28, 2005, when their mission was compromised after they were spotted by locals, who presumably alerted the Taliban to their presence.

Preventing war leads new naval strategy

In the first major revision of U.S. naval strategy in two decades, maritime officials said Wednesday they plan to focus more on humanitarian missions and improving international cooperation as a way to prevent conflicts.

“We believe that preventing wars is as important as winning wars,” said the new strategy announced by the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.

The strategy reflects a broader Defense Department effort to use aid, training and other cooperative efforts to encourage stability in fledgling democracies and create relationships around the globe that can be leveraged if a crisis does break out in a region.

“Although our forces can surge when necessary to respond to crises, trust and cooperation cannot be surged,” says the 16-page document entitled “A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower.”

Putin boast of ‘grandiose’ military plans no cause for alarm: Gates

President Vladimir Putin’s boast of “grandiose” Russian military plans, including a new nuclear weapon, were “an assertion that Russia is back” but not a cause for alarm, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.

Russia has used oil revenues to steadily increase the pace of its military modernization over the past couple of years, said Gates, who visited Moscow last week.

“But I would point out that we’re coming from a very low base,” he told reporters. “In the 1990s, the Russian military was almost inert. And they’re spending, perhaps, 10 percent of what we spend, if that, on defense.”

“So I think what you see is that these kinds of things that he’s talking about are basically an assertion that Russia is back and intends to play a major role on the world stage and intends to be taken seriously,” he said.

Asked whether Putin’s comments alarmed him, Gates said, “No, it doesn’t alarm me.”

Navy: 6 punished for skipped checks

Sailors on the submarine USS Hampton failed to do daily safety checks on the ship’s nuclear reactor for a month and falsified records to cover up the omission, a Navy investigation shows.

The revelation is sure to raise new questions about the military’s handling of the nation’s nuclear assets following an Air Force incident in which a B-52 bomber was accidentally loaded with nuclear-tipped missiles and flown across the country without any one realizing it for more than a day.

In the case of the Hampton, it appears from a preliminary investigation that sailors in Submarine Squadron 11 had skipped the required analysis of the chemical and radiological properties of the submarine’s reactor for more than a month, even though a daily check is required.

US Navy: 2 sailors fatally shot

Two U.S. Navy sailors were killed and a third was critically wounded early Monday in a shooting incident on a U.S. military base in Bahrain, the U.S. Navy said.

The incident was not terror related and was under investigation, a Navy official said on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to discuss the case with the media.

“Initial reports indicate the incident involved U.S. military personnel only,” according to the statement.

No other details were immediately available.

The shootings took place in the barracks on the U.S. Naval Support Activity Bahrain base around 5 a.m. local time, the Navy said in a statement. It wasn’t immediately clear what triggered the shootings.

The two sailors were pronounced dead at the scene, and the third was taken to a local hospital in critical condition, the statement said.

Japan to probe fuel supply to US ship

Japan’s government pledged an investigation on Monday into allegations that defence officials knowingly under reported the amount of fuel Japan’s navy supplied to a US-led coalition ship in the Indian Ocean.

The allegations, which concern the refuelling of a single warship in February 2003, were trumpeted by the opposition.

They could further complicate the government’s efforts to win parliamentary passage of an extension of the refueling mission.

Japan’s navy has been providing fuel for warships supporting US-led forces in Afghanistan since 2001.

The mission expires on November 1, and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has strongly pushed for an extension.

The government acknowledged earlier this month that it had mistakenly reported providing 7,50,000 litres of fuel to a US warship when it had provided 3 million litres.

NKorea warns South over naval movements

Pyongyang Sunday accused South Korea of “provocation”, claiming its neighbour’s navy had intentionally strayed into the North’s waters and warning against it happening again. 

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said South Korea sent 50 navy ships and boats deep into disputed Northern waters last week, with as many as 30 coming in on Thursday alone.

“The (North Korean) Navy will never remain an onlooker to the South Korean naval warships’ reckless military provocations as intruding into the inviolable territorial waters of the North side,” KCNA said.

Ship’s Mission to Boost U.S.-Africa Maritime Security Partnership

USS Fort McHenry is slated to leave Little Creek, Va., tomorrow for a seven-month deployment to the Gulf of Guinea that the chief of U.S. Africa Command said will exemplify how his new command will operate.

The amphibious dock landing ship will serve as a platform for the Africa Partnership Station Initiative, which aims to work cooperatively with U.S. and international partners in promoting maritime security in Western Africa, Army Gen. William E. “Kip” Ward told Pentagon reporters.

USS Fort McHenry will sail to Spain to take on passengers from several European partners — Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal and Germany, among them — before heading to the Gulf of Guinea, explained Navy Adm. Henry G. “Harry” Ulrich III, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe.

Its full complement will include representatives of U.S. and partner nations’ government agencies and non-governmental organizations, all working together to help African nations increase their ability to provide maritime security.

Two Chinese naval vessels return home from four-nation European tour

Two Chinese naval vessels were anchored in a military port here Thursday morning after an 86-day tour that has taken them to Russia, Britain, Spain and France.

The two ships — guided missile destroyer Guangzhou and the supply ship Weishanhu — traveled 22,968 nautical miles, crossing the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the north Atlantic.

They visited Portsmouth in Britain, Saint Petersburg in Russia, Cadiz in Spain, and Toulon in France.

Former joint chiefs chairman Crowe dies at 82

Adm. William Crowe, former chairman of the U.S. Joints Chiefs of Staff, died on Thursday at Bethesda Naval Hospital at 82, the U.S. Navy said.

Crowe served as the top U.S. military officer from 1985 to 1989 under former presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

And he served as U.S. ambassador to Britain during the Clinton administration.

As chairman of the joint chiefs, Crowe developed a relationship with the chief of the Soviet General Staff credited with lessening the likelihood of a Cold War confrontation between the United States and the former Soviet Union.

Canadian Navy examines using geriatric U.S. missiles for target practice

The Canadian, Dutch and Australian navies are looking for something to shoot at – preferably something fast.

Canada’s Defence Department has issued a sole-source contract to a Medicine Hat, Alta., company to study the risks associated with using obsolete U.S. missiles for target practice by warships.

The $1.05 million contract, which was fast-tracked in the name of national security, aims to see whether Canadian frigates and destroyers can safely use old U.S. Terrier surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles for training. 

This entry was posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2007 and is filed under Africa, Canada, China, Japan, Maritime Strategy News, Navy, Russia, South Korea. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.