Navy en-us Mon, 14 Jul 2014 06:19:55 -0400 Mon, 14 Jul 2014 06:19:55 -0400 The latest news on Navy from Business Insider Business Insider This Chart Explains Why The US Military Is Such A Dominant Global Force Fri, 11 Jul 2014 14:31:00 -0400 Brian Jones <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="1. United States" width="480" /></p><p>The single most important contributor to the&nbsp;<a href="">U.S.'s military dominance</a> is the country's powerful navy, which gives America the ability to project hard power just about anywhere in the world.</p> <p>And this ability owes a lot to the Navy's unparalleled fleet of aircraft carriers.</p> <p>The U.S. has 19 carriers. The rest of the world has only 12 aircraft carriers combined. The<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;U.S. carriers are also larger and more technically advanced than any other country's.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">China's sole carrier, for instance, is a retrofitted Soviet-era Ukrainian carrier that </span><a href="">was originally supposed to be an off-shore casino</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">.&nbsp;</span></p> <p>Our friends at <a href=""></a> created a chart that captures not just the scope, but the size of the U.S. aircraft carriers in comparison to the rest of the world. It's pretty stark, and gives an idea of just how much of a gap in conventional military power there is between the U.S. and everyone else.</p> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="carriers 2013" width="800" /></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >This chart compares the world's 35 most powerful militaries</a></strong></p> <p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> The Navy Has Its Own 3D Printer Deployed Aboard An Amphibious Assault Ship Tue, 08 Jul 2014 17:52:00 -0400 Kris Osborn <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="Navy 3d Printer" /></p><p>Norfolk, VA &mdash; The&nbsp;<a href=",14700,NAVY,00.html">Navy</a>&nbsp;has taken 3-D printing to sea aboard an&nbsp;<a href="">amphibious assault ship</a>, the USS Essex, to help sailors learn how to print needed spare parts and acclimate the fleet to the breakthrough technology, service officials said.</p> <p>"The Navy put a printer aboard the USS Essex to test if they could print parts and train the sailors how to use the machine. Sailors picked up on it pretty quickly," said Jim Lambeth, 3-D printing lead at the Navy's Combat Direction Systems Activity, Dam Neck, Va.</p> <p>The Navy conducted sea-trials off the coast of San Diego with the&nbsp;<a href="">3-D printer</a>&nbsp;aboard the ship, testing how the equipment could function with the ship's motion and examining how it could quickly generate needed parts for the ship.</p> <p>The printed materials first exist as a computer simulation or drawing before providing the basis for the 3-D print.</p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Navy leaders are excited about the possibility of&nbsp;</span><a href="">3-D printers</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;being able to generate interim parts or tools until permanent replacements are available. Soldiers in Afghanistan have already taken advantage of 3-D printers building equipment in the field such as bomb sensors.</span></p> <p>Officials said 3-D printers could work from scans of body parts in order to produce more ergonomic equipment. The printers could also leverage an existing computer model of a needed part and quickly manufacture permanent parts, Lambeth explained.</p> <p>"We are in the beginning stages of having this be operational," he said.</p> <p>Although high-tech 3-D printing machines have been around for years, recent developments have made the technology much more effective and less expensive &mdash; such as the advent of more detailed software and a wider range of materials, Lambeth explained.</p> <p>"A lot of times there is a part on a ship that breaks. It may take several months to order the new part, so instead we can print a temporary part for them till the final part becomes available. Because we can produce unique shapes that aren't normally possible through traditional manufacturing &mdash; we can now produce final parts in those unique shapes that may be more capable than the part that was manufactured using traditional production," he said.</p> <p>Thus far, 3-D printing has been able to efficiently manufacture wrenches, gaskets, electric boxes, medical instruments, model airplanes and other specialized tools, Lambeth explained.&nbsp;</p> <p>The Navy's Combat Direction Systems Activity near Norfolk, Va., has been printing prototype parts with 3-D printers to further advance the technology for the service.</p> <p>"We call it additive manufacturing. Instead of traditional manufacturing or subtractive manufacturing, you are adding material to the part. You can get complicated shapes and you can produce parts without a lot of machinery. One printer can produce a part in whatever shape you want versus having different types of machines to cut different angles and get different pieces," he added.</p> <p>There are various 3-D printing technologies which use a growing number of materials from thermoplastics to ceramic and other metals. One technique uses a spool or wire fed into nozzle that melts plastic materials to just above the melting point, it then deposits it onto a platform, he explained.</p> <p>"It cools and it cures and you have a 3-D print part," Lambeth said.</p> <p>3-D printing can bring substantial cost advantages as well, meaning it could lead to the rapid replacement of key parts without requiring the time and expense of getting parts manufactured and shipped from different vendors, he added. &nbsp;</p> <p>Vice Adm. Phil Cullom, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Fleet Readiness and Logistics, recently said the Navy plans to build upon progress with 3-D printing/</p> <p>"3-D printing will take time to evolve but it is clearly a 'quantum leap' technology... it is simple, cheap and more convenient to use than other manufacturing methods. Today, we can print prosthetics, tools and basic parts. Tomorrow, we'll be able to print entire aircraft wing, entire jet engines and skin tissue," he explained.</p> <p>Further down the road, 3-D printing will be able to make entire&nbsp;<a href="">aircraft</a>, robots,&nbsp;<a href="">UAVs</a>&nbsp;and ammunition, Cullom added.</p> <p>"The logistics of the future will be more about delivering the right digital design file to the right printer, in the right location, to produce the right part, tool or system at the right time. This can increase the speed of execution, improve readiness, decrease costs, and avoid shipping parts around the world. Eventually we'll be able to embed sensors, electronics, communication capabilities, and microprocessors in unmanned aerial vehicles printed from 3-D printers," he said.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >The Navy's futuristic new weapon, explained in 5 GIFs</a></strong></p> <p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> This Underwater Drone Is The Future Of Navy Surveillance Thu, 03 Jul 2014 13:42:00 -0400 KRIS OSBORN <p><img class="center" src="" border="0" alt="robo tuna navy " /></p><p>The Navy is testing a stealthy, 4 foot-long fish-shaped autonomous underwater vehicle designed to blend in with undersea life and perform combat sensor functions, service officials explained.</p> <p>The so-called &ldquo;bio-memetic&rdquo; undersea vehicle is currently being developed as part of the Chief of Naval Operations Rapid Innovation Cell,&nbsp; or CRIC &ndash; a special unit set up by CNO Adm. Jonathan Greenert in 2012 to explore the feasibility of rapidly turning around commercially available technologies for Naval military use.</p> <p>&ldquo;It mimics a fish. It looks like a fish. We call it robo-tuna, affectionately, but it is a UUV (unmanned undersea vehicle).&nbsp; It does not have a propeller or a jet. It actually swims by flipping its tail around,&rdquo; said Capt. Jim Loper, concepts and innovation department head, Navy Warfare Development Command, Norfolk.<span id="more-23166"></span></p> <p>The robot-fish is highly maneuverable and can accelerate quickly, reaching speeds up to 40 knots, Loper said. Being propelled by its tail instead of a shaft or propeller helps it remain stealthy and energy efficient. The shark-like sensor is engineered to carry a range of payloads from acoustic sensors to underwater cameras, he explained.</p> <p>Built in Massachusetts by a firm called Boston Engineering, the robot fish could be used for a range of missions including undersea mine detection or prolonged surveillance of ships, ports and submarines.</p> <p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re imaging this can loiter for days, possibly weeks on a battery that allows it to maintain its position. This is a sensor we can put out there that matches in with the local life so to speak,&rdquo; Loper added.</p> <p>The UUV is currently configured with a lithium ion battery and is engineered so that its front end remains stationary in order to maximize sensor performance.</p> <p>&ldquo;The fact that the front portion of the animal is mainly stationary when swimming is important because when you carrying sensors, you don&rsquo;t want everything moving all over the place and messing up what you are carrying on board,&rdquo; Mark Smithers, vice president and chief technology officer at Boston Engineering, said in a written statement.</p> <p>Another test of the robot-fish is slated for this coming December, said John Hottendorf, CRIC program manager.</p> <p>&ldquo;This is an empty truck. You can put whatever kind of sensor you want on it,&rdquo; Hottendorf said.</p> <p>Should development continue as expected, the robot-fish could wind up being ready for deployment and operational use within the next several years, Hottendorf explained.</p> <p>The robot-fish UUV could, at least in theory, work well with another project currently being developed by the CRIC called Suspended Undersea Raw Fiber, or SURF.</p> <p>SURF involves the use of underwater fiber optic cable used to create secure, seamless point-to-point communications possibilities for surface and undersea entities such as ships, submarines and underwater vehicles.</p> <p>Navy developers with CRIC have been working closely with laboratory scientists at Penn State who have developed a special kind of buoyant fiber-optic cable.</p> <p>&ldquo;They have developed a way to make the fiber cable neutrally buoyant or at least able to suspend itself in the water column. The idea is to take this cable with a high data rate up to 10-gigabytes and be able to connect point to point with zero detectability.&nbsp; The idea is to facilitate low observable communications so you can have high speed communications without worrying about a radio transmission being detected,&rdquo; Loper said.</p> <p>Some initial tests of SURF attached to a buoy off of Virginia beach have assessed the ability of the cable to withstand the wind and waves and suspend in the water column above the bottom of the ocean while not floating to the top, Loper explained.</p> <p>In theory, miles of spooled out underwater fiber-optic cable could connect ships to submarines in real time, allowing them to seamlessly pass combat-relevant sensor data, he added.</p> <p>&ldquo;In the future when we get this thing going, you could attach a ship and a submarine. The submarine can go several miles out of the way and do what it needs to do with a cable connecting it. All of the surface and air radar from a ship can be going back to a sub. Meanwhile, a sub can be passing all of its acoustic contacts back to the ship,&rdquo; he said.</p> <p>The CRIC is working with prototypes of SURF at the moment while exploring ways to further ruggedized the cable for maritime use.</p> <p>&ldquo;The ocean environment has turned out to be a little more hostile than the original designers imagined. We want to send out 40, 50 or 60 miles of cable,&rdquo; Loper said.</p> <p>In addition, the SURF cable could wind up being attached to something like the robot-fish UUV, a scenario which would allow the underwater sensor to send images and data back to a submarine or ship in real time.</p> <p>&ldquo;You could have a sub with a fish-like UUV tethered onto a cable, giving real time feedback as opposed to current ones that come back for a download. This would be a mechanism for having real-time contact with your UUVs,&rdquo; Loper explained.</p> <p>Overall, the robot-fish and SURF are examples of the kind of work explored by Greenert&rsquo;s CRIC, an entity designed to turn promising technologies around within a year or two for about $1 million to $2 million. The CRIC is configured solely to harvest technological innovation and is not tailored to meet a specific operational threat.</p> <p>&ldquo;With the CRIC, we don&rsquo;t necessarily answer to current fleet needs. The CRIC as an organization is looking for opportunities. We are looking for the thing that is out there now that we don&rsquo;t know we need yet. What we&rsquo;re trying to do is repurpose technologies that are out in the commercial world,&rdquo; Loper said.</p><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> US Navy Promotes First Woman To Rank Of Four-Star Admiral Wed, 02 Jul 2014 07:00:56 -0400 <p><img src="" border="0" alt="admiral ray mabus" /></p><p>The US Navy has promoted a woman to the rank of a four-star admiral for the first time in its 238-year history, a milestone for females in the American military.</p> <p>In a ceremony on Tuesday, Michelle Howard was promoted to vice chief of naval operations, the number two job in the service, after having already shattered barriers in previous posts in the navy.</p> <p>Howard, 54, is known for commanding a counter-piracy task force in the Gulf of Aden that oversaw the 2009 rescue of a commercial cargo ship skipper, Captain Richard Phillips, who was abducted by Somali pirates.</p> <p>The rescue involving Navy SEALs was later depicted in a film starring Tom Hanks.</p> <p>"If you don&rsquo;t believe today was a first, when I called to order four-star shoulder boards for women, they didn't exist," Howard said during her promotion ceremony.</p> <p>Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said Howard had earned her promotion through "a brilliant naval career" and hailed it as "an historic first."</p> <p>"She will bear the burden of a role model and she is ready to bear that very well," said Navy chief Admiral Jonathan Greenert.</p> <p>Howard has blazed a trail since graduating from the Naval Academy in 1982.</p> <p>She was the first African-American woman to command an American naval ship in 1999, taking the helm of the USS Rushmore, a dock landing vessel that transports amphibious vehicles.</p> <p>Although she is the first female four-star admiral in the navy, the US Army and Air Force already have had women serve as four-star officers.</p> <p>The promotion follows a recent decision by commanders to open up submarines to female officers and allow women to perform some combat jobs that were previously closed to female ground troops.</p> <p>Since 1993, women have been allowed to serve on warships and fly fighter jets.</p> <p>Howard was one of a small number of women who attended the US Naval Academy in the early 1980s. But women made up 25 percent of this year's graduating class at the academy, an all-time high.</p> <p>The promotion ceremony was held at Arlington National Cemetery's Women in Military Service for America memorial.</p> <div class="nc_footer"> <p>Copyright (2014) AFP. All rights reserved.</p> </div> <p><img class="nc_pixel" src="" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></p><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> Russia Sent A Mysterious Warship To The Baltic Sea Tue, 24 Jun 2014 18:15:48 -0400 Ben Farmer <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="RTR3QPYL" width="530" height="360" /></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A British frigate on exercise in the Baltic Sea was dispatched to investigate an unknown Russian warship last week, the Ministry of Defense said.</span></p> <div class="secondPar"> <p>HMS Montrose was sent to investigate the Russian vessel in international waters off the Danish coast &ldquo;after picking up the radar signature of an unidentified surface ship&rdquo;.</p> </div> <div class="thirdPar"> <p>The Royal Navy type 23 frigate identified the mystery ship as the 340ft-long Steregushchiy-class corvette RFS Soobrazitelny.</p> </div> <div class="fourthPar"> <p>As HMS Montrose tracked the Russian warship, she was circled by an Ilyushin IL-20 &ldquo;Coot&rdquo; maritime patrol aircraft.</p> </div> <div class="fifthPar"> <p>Naval sources described the June 19 incident as routine, but it came as relations between Nato and Moscow are at their worst since the end of the Cold War and the encounter is believed to be linked to the heightened tensions.</p> </div> <div class="body"> <p>Nato has reinforced exercises in Eastern Europe since the Ukraine crisis flared, and Russia annexed Crimea. HMS Montrose is part of a fleet of vessels from 12 countries taking part in the multinational BALTOPS exercise</p> <p>&ldquo;Both the Russian vessel and aircraft appeared to be carrying out their normal business,&rdquo; the MoD said.</p> <p>British fighter jets patrolling NATO airspace over the Baltic have also been scrambled to intercept Russian aircraft in recent weeks.</p> </div><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >India is co-developing a next-generation fighter plane alongside Russia</a></strong></p> <p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> Judge Gives Deployed Sailor Ultimatum: Appear In Court Or Lose Your Daughter Sat, 21 Jun 2014 22:36:00 -0400 David M Brooks <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="submil" /></p><p>A Michigan judge has issued an impossible order to a deployed sailor: Appear <a href="">in court Monday or face</a> arrest and the possibility of losing custody of his 6-year-old daughter, ABC News reports.</p> <p>Matthew Hindes is currently serving on the USS Michigan under the Pacific Ocean, so there is no way he can appear in court.&nbsp;</p> <p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s protecting the rights of others, but who is protecting his rights?&rdquo; Hindes' wife Benita-Lynn <a href="">told</a> CBS Local.</p> <p>Hindes was awarded custody in 2010, after his daughter Kaylee was removed from the home of his ex-wife, Angela, by child protective services. While the sailor is deployed, Kaylee has been under the care of the daughter's step-mother Benita-Lynn, <a href="">according</a> to CBS.</p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Because Hindes left his daughter in the care of his wife instead of leaving her with the mother, the judge has refused to issue a stay under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which allows&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">courts to&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&ldquo;grant a stay of proceedings for a minimum period of 90 days to defendants serving their country.&rdquo;</span></p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Circuit Court Judge Margaret Noe disagreed with Hindes' lawyers request for relief, <a href="">saying</a>,&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"If the child is not in the care and custody of the father, the child should be in the care and custody of the mother.&rdquo;</span></p> <p>Hindes is not even allowed to attend by Skype or phone, only in person.</p> <p>&ldquo;At this point, I don&rsquo;t think I have any alternative but to enter a bench warrant for his arrest,&rdquo; <a href="">Noe said, according to the Daily Telegram.</a></p> <p><iframe width="640" height="390" frameborder="0" src="//"></iframe></p> <h3><a href="">Read the full story here &gt;&nbsp;</a></h3><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> 3 Surprising Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Navy Captain Thu, 19 Jun 2014 12:14:00 -0400 Eric Sagong <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="navy captain" width="480" /></p><p>I made the decision to join the military because of an idealized notion of what life in the military would be like.</p> <p>Before I shipped off to Navy Officer Candidate&rsquo;s School, I&rsquo;d thought a career as a Naval Officer would be like something from "Crimson Tide" or "Top Gun."</p> <p>The reality of life on a ship and at sea turned out to be far more pedestrian.</p> <p>One bright spot was what I learned from my Captain by observing how he dealt with his crew and, more specifically, how he dealt with me.</p> <p>Looking back at my previous life before I&rsquo;d joined the service, I realize I would have been a much more effective leader if I&rsquo;d learned these lessons of exercising empathy and care then.</p> <p>Among the many lessons he taught me, here are three:</p> <h3>1. &ldquo;Touch Every Plate to Keep It Spinning&rdquo;</h3> <p>My job is similar to that of a plate spinner. My goal is to touch every plate to keep it spinning.</p> <p>Soon after I moved onboard the ship, I found that I&rsquo;d been placed squarely behind the eight ball. I was having a difficult time at the outset &mdash; I had lost the senior enlisted person in one of my two divisions and less than a week later, her replacement was transferred off the ship as a result of personnel issues. I was a junior officer with no previous experience at the job that I had been assigned. Furthermore, I was on a newly built ship, which meant that the division would need to be established from scratch.</p> <p>Occasionally, my Captain would stop by my office to ask how things were going, and I could tell he was genuinely concerned about both my welfare and the state of the operation I had been put in charge of. When I had to see him on official business, he always made a point of asking how I was doing and managing despite the personnel shortfall. He told me that he understood I was in a difficult situation and that he appreciated my efforts to succeed despite the challenges I was facing.</p> <p>Your reports may face difficult situations &mdash; and sometimes there&rsquo;s precious little you can do to help them. Often in these situations, the people in charge remain silent, not because they don&rsquo;t care but because they feel like they can&rsquo;t contribute directly to helping solve the problem. Maybe it&rsquo;s a grueling work schedule spurred by a hot deadline, dealing with a difficult client, or trying to complete a project understaffed and underfunded.</p> <p>You might not always be able to alleviate the pain of those under you but you should always try to let them know you care. At times, those brief interactions with my Captain were the only things that kept my plate spinning.</p> <h3>2. &ldquo;Where&rsquo;d you get the bottled water?&rdquo;</h3> <p>It was hot. We were transitioning through the Panama Canal. I had been on the bridge since 2:30 AM, it was now roughly noon, and I knew that my day was still far from over. One of my collateral duties on the ship was to serve as &ldquo;Pilot Escort&rdquo; meaning that it was my job to meet the harbor pilots at the side-port door, walk them up to the bridge (where the Captain/Officer of the Deck drives the ship), and see to it that they had whatever they needed.</p> <p>The harbor pilot, who helps guide the ship through sometimes unfamiliar territory, is a pretty powerful person. In the Panama Canal, he can determine whether or not a vessel is fit to transit the channel, so when this particular pilot turned to me and said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like a bottled water,&rdquo; I dutifully (and wearily) trudged back down 8 or so ladder wells (think flights of stairs), put a dollar in the vending machine, and plodded back up the same eight decks to give it to him.</p> <p>About a half hour later, my Captain came up to me and asked, &ldquo;Where&rsquo;d you get the bottled water?&rdquo;</p> <p>&ldquo;From the vending machine,&rdquo; I responded. He then offered reimbursement but I declined. It was only a dollar, I figured. Besides, the fact that the Captain who had so many things to worry about on the bridge while the ship was making its way to the other side of the canal even noticed what I&rsquo;d done was really all the repayment I needed.</p> <p>It might be the guy from IT that comes into the conference room to set things up 30 minutes before a key presentation, an office assistant to brings in a birthday card for everyone to sign, or maybe an employee who doesn&rsquo;t have an expense account but still takes a client out to lunch on her own dime. Every organization has people who, in seemingly insignificant ways, do things to make your business succeed. Sometimes, a little bit of recognition can go a very long way.</p> <h3>3. &ldquo;In some ways, you and I are similar.&rdquo;</h3> <p>I was in the hot seat. I let stress get to me and I yelled at a subordinate in a profanity-laden tirade. I wasn&rsquo;t a happy camper and I made sure to let him know it. It was a very unprofessional way for an officer to deal with a junior Sailor. When word of my actions made their way to my Captain, I expected, at the very least, a stern lecture. Instead, what I got was more of a conversation.</p> <p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m disappointed that this happened, and I think you are too,&rdquo; he said to me.</p> <p>He went on to explain that he himself had a temper that he had learned to control. The message I got was that I, too, could become a better person and a better leader by being mindful of how I treated others and by nipping my rage in the bud before it got out of hand. If he could do it and be the type of leader that I respected &mdash; maybe so could I.</p> <p>Far too often people in charge feel as though they have to project an image of infallibility, that they have to be a shining example of perfection. As my Captain demonstrated to me, sometimes revealing your weaknesses can be a way of motivating those under you to overcome theirs.</p> <p>The way my Captain treated his crew of about 400 people spoke volumes about how much he genuinely cared about the Sailors in his charge. While I&rsquo;m happy to have moved on in my career, I will always be grateful for the opportunity I was given to serve under a Captain I consider to be a good man and a great leader who taught me that there&rsquo;s more to leadership than command-and-control.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >6 Things Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Marathon Runners</a></strong></p> <p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> Kim Jong-Un Mans A Soviet Submarine That's Been Obsolete Since 1961 [PHOTOS] Tue, 17 Jun 2014 15:21:54 -0400 Davod Blair <p><img src="" border="0" alt="kim jong un submarine " style="line-height: 1.5em;" /></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The admirals of the Soviet Union declared North Korea&rsquo;s prize submarine to be obsolete back in 1961, and Western experts stubbornly point out its inability to sink enemy vessels.</span></p> <p>But Kim Jong-un, the &ldquo;Supreme Leader&rdquo; of North Korea, offered navigation tips and issued stern battle orders during a proud tour of a Romeo class submarine of the People&rsquo;s Navy.</p> <p>Designed in the 1950s, the vessel was in production for the Soviet Union for only 48 months until being succeeded by nuclear-powered submarines 53 years ago.</p> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="kim jong un submarine" /></p> <p>Every other navy in the world then gave up on the Romeo, with its noisy and easily detectable diesel engine &ndash; apart, that is, from North Korea&rsquo;s.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Today, the country has 20 Romeo class boats, comprising almost a third of its submarine fleet.</span></p> <p>During his visit, pictures of which were released on Monday, Mr Kim mounted the vessel&rsquo;s conning tower and went on a short voyage, during which the official news agency reported that the multi-talented leader &ldquo;taught&rdquo; the submarine&rsquo;s captain a &ldquo;good method of navigation&rdquo;.</p> <p><img class="center" src="" border="0" alt="kim jong Un submarine" /></p> <p>Mr Kim also urged his commanders to think &ldquo;only&rdquo; of &ldquo;battles&rdquo; and &ldquo;spur combat preparations&rdquo;.</p> <p>Any captain of a Romeo class submarine might, however, view hostilities with trepidation.</p> <p>The boats carry Yu-4 torpedoes, a Chinese-made weapon dating from the 1960s with a range of four miles.</p> <p>The Los Angeles Class nuclear-powered attack submarines of the US Navy, meanwhile, carry Harpoon missiles that can sink a ship 150 miles away.</p> <p><img class="center" src="" border="0" alt="kim jong un submarine" /></p> <p>The North Korean vessel is a &ldquo;basic&rdquo; model with &ldquo;virtually no anti-submarine performance&rdquo;, says IHS Jane&rsquo;s Fighting Ships.</p> <p>This means the Romeo might try damaging a ship &ndash; provided it happens to be less than four miles away &ndash; but it would be helpless against an enemy submarine trying to send it to the bottom.</p> <p>At least one North Korean submarine has gone to the bottom without any help from the country&rsquo;s enemies.</p> <p>A Romeo class boat sank in an apparent accident in 1985.</p> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="north korea submarine" /></p> <p>Of North Korea&rsquo;s 20 submarines in this category, seven were supplied by China between 1973 and 1975 and the rest built in the country&rsquo;s own shipyards between 1976 and 1995.</p> <p>More than three decades after the Soviet Union had stopped making the vessel &ndash; and after it had been phased out by the navies of Syria, Algeria and China &ndash; North Korea was still producing its own version of the Romeo.</p> <p>Mr Kim&rsquo;s decision to pay a high profile visit seems at odds with the official doctrine of the so-called People&rsquo;s Navy, which stresses the importance of camouflage and concealment.</p> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="kim jong un submarine north korea" /></p> <p>So seriously were these tasks taken that 2004 was officially declared the &ldquo;Year of Camouflage&rdquo;.</p> <p>On the 10th anniversary of that occasion, however, Mr Kim allowed photographs of the unlikely pride of his fleet to be released to the world.</p> <p>Cdre Stephen Saunders, the editor of IHS Jane&rsquo;s Fighting Ships, summed up: &ldquo;The fact that the Dear Successor is spending time on what, in any other navy, would be an obsolete submarine tells its own story.&rdquo;</p> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="north korea kim jong un navy" /></p><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> Russia Just Christened A Top-Secret Nuclear Submarine Tue, 17 Jun 2014 09:44:00 -0400 Alexander Korolkov <p><span><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="russian soldiers" />On June 17, the new Project-885 Yasen-class multi-purpose nuclear submarine joined the ranks of the Russian Navy&rsquo;s fleet. </span></p> <p><span>The creation of this nuclear submarine should have become a revolution for the Soviet submarine fleet.</span></p> <p><span>The key feature of the Yasen-class submarine, which still remains one of the Russian defense industry&rsquo;s most closely guarded projects, is its universality, previously unachievable either by its Russian predecessors or their foreign equivalents. </span></p> <h2>Focus On Universality&nbsp;<span><img src="" border="0" alt="submarine" /></span></h2> <p><span>The Severodvinsk, the lead Yasen-class submarine, was launched on June 17. By the time design work on it was finished in 1991, the submarine marked a new era in Russian submarine construction. </span></p> <p><span>Unlike in the U.S., where from the moment its nuclear submarine fleet came into being there was a drive towards uniformity, in the USSR there were many submarines created under different projects, which were difficult to unify and whose functions often overlapped.</span></p> <p><span><span>That practice had to be abandoned when a fourth-generation submarine began to be developed in 1977. A decision was taken to give up narrow combat specialization, which meant that the new nuclear submarine had to be equally good at hitting underwater and surface targets as well as launching cruise missiles against ground targets; in other words it had to be able to address practically any tasks facing the submarine fleet. </span></span></p> <p><span><span>To achieve that goal, Russian submarine designers made use of original engineering solutions. It was decided that Yasen-class submarines would not make use of the double-hull structure that all Soviet submarines had at the time. However, neither did it become a single-hull submarine, like its U.S. equivalents.</span><br /></span></p> <p><span><span><span>Two hulls ensure a submarine's reliability and buoyancy, while a single hull means noiselessness and invisibility. Yasen became something in between, having the so-called "one and a half hull" architecture, with a light hull covering only part of the submarine's pressure hull. </span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span>Another traditional feature of Soviet submarine design that was not implemented in the Yasen-class submarine was the location of its torpedo tubes in the bow. That was where the submarine's powerful sonar system Irtysh was based, so there was simply no space left for torpedoes. Consequently, the torpedo tubes were placed in the middle section of the submarine at an angle to the centreline, borrowing a construction solution widely used in the U.S. </span></span></span></p> <h2>Granat Vs. Tomahawk</h2> <p><span><span><span>The submarine's main weapon is the 3M55 Oniks (Yakhont) supersonic anti-ship missile, with a range of up to 350 km. A multiple launch of 24 of these missiles could present a serious problem even for a U.S. carrier force with a powerful air defense system. </span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span>Yasen-class submarines are equipped with the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Tomahawk missile, the Granat, which has a firing range of up to 3,000 km and, just as its U.S. counterpart, can carry a nuclear warhead. In addition, the new submarine has 3M14 Kalibr missiles, with a firing range of over 500 km, enabling Project-885 submarines to carry out massive high-precision strikes against ground targets.</span><span><br /></span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span><span>Through its torpedo tubes, the submarine is able to launch 3M54 Biryuza anti-ship missiles and 91R anti-submarine missiles, as well as having the capacity to drop mines. As part of its self-defense capability, the Severodvinsk has special devices for shooting down various decoys and, possibly, a system of active anti-torpedo defense, capable of destroying enemy torpedoes with special small-size anti-torpedoes.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span><span> In his book Cold War Submarines, American naval analyst Norman Polmar ended the chapter on the latest U.S. and Soviet nuclear submarine projects by concluding that there was a lot of evidence to support the view that Soviet fourth-generation submarines had reached a level in many aspects equal to or surpassing that of their American rivals. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span><span>The U.S. equivalents of the Yasen-class submarines are multi-purpose Seawolf-class and Virginia-class submarines, although Yasen is intended for a broader range of tasks. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span><span>Here is how Russian military expert Igor Korotchenko lists the tasks facing the new submarine: "First, to follow the U.S. Ohio-class strategic missile submarines. Also, possibly, to carry out combat patrols in regions where the Russian Navy wants to prevent the presence of foreign submarines. At the same time, Yasen-class submarines can launch cruise missiles against ground targets, including in the course of local conflicts in those regions where deploying a permanent Russian Ground Troops force is unfeasible."</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span><br /><span><img src="" border="0" alt="submarine russia" /></span></span></span></span></p><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> More Than 50 US Attack Jets Stand Ready To Strike Iraq Fri, 13 Jun 2014 20:20:21 -0400 Richard Sisk <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="Eisenhower Carrier Aircraft" /></p><p>The U.S.&nbsp;<a href="">aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush</a>&nbsp;and her more than 50 attack aircraft were available to conduct airstrikes against Islamic militants in Iraq if President Obama gives the order, Pentagon officials said Friday.</p> <p>The Bush and her accompanying battle group of&nbsp;<a href="">ships</a>&nbsp;"were in the region and ready for any tasking," said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary. Kirby would not confirm several reports that the Bush had already moved into the Persian Gulf.</p> <p>The 1092-foot, nuclear-powered carrier, named for former President George H.W. Bush, deployed from her homeport in Norfolk, Va., in February on a regular rotation to the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf region.</p> <p>The Bush would be among several military options that were being drawn up by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and his planning staff for President Obama's consideration to stop the swift advance of fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq who have taken over major cities west and north of Baghdad.</p> <p>"It's our job to provide the Commander-In-Chief with options. We're doing that," Kirby said. In addition, the U.S. has also stepped up intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) operations with&nbsp;<a href="">drones</a>&nbsp;over Iraq at the request of the embattled government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.</p> <p>Kirby said the military options being prepared for Obama were "designed to break the momentum of ISIS forces" which reportedly have come within 50 miles of Baghdad against little resistance from the U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces.</p> <p>Earlier, President Obama said military action of some type by the U.S. was likely in the coming days but he ruled out boots on the ground.</p> <p>Following morning meetings at the White House with Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Obama said U.S. action was necessary to stop the ISIS that "could pose a threat eventually to American interests as well."</p> <p>"We will not be sending U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq, but I have asked my national security team to prepare a range of other options that could help support Iraqi security forces, and I'll be reviewing those options in the days ahead," Obama said before leaving for a visit to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Nation in North Dakota.</p> <p>Obama used the term "ISIL," or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, to refer to the ISIS jihadists who have been vastly outnumbered by the Iraqi army and yet have taken over Mosul, a town of two million, by attacking in pickup trucks with small arms.</p> <p>"Look, the United States has poured a lot of money into these Iraqi security forces, and we devoted a lot of training to Iraqi security forces," Obama said. "The fact that they are not willing to stand and fight, and defend their posts against admittedly hardened terrorists, but not terrorists who are overwhelming in numbers, indicates that there's a problem with morale," Obama said.</p> <p>Obama repeated his charged that the Shia-dominated Iraqi government has failed to heal rifts with the Sunni communities in western Iraq who have given support to ISIS.</p> <p>"Unfortunately, Iraq's leaders have been unable to overcome too often the mistrust and sectarian differences that have long been simmering there, and that's created vulnerabilities within the Iraqi government as well as their security forces," Obama said.</p> <p>At the Pentagon, Kirby said there were no immediate plans to withdraw the approximately 9,000 U.S. defense and civilian personnel in Iraq beyond several hundred contractors who were working on a project in Balad north of Baghdad. Kirby said the employer of the contractors was making arrangements for them to leave the country.</p> <p>Kirby and other officials said they could not confirm ISIS claims on Twitter that as many as 1,700 captured Shia Iraqi soldiers have been executed. However, Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed "extreme alarm" at the claim and said he had seen verified reports of "summary executions and extra-judicial killings."</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >Here's Why Boots On The Ground Might Actually Be Obama's Best Option In Iraq</a></strong></p> <p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> US Navy Says Ex-Blue Angels Commander Allowed Porn In Jets, Obscene Images Seen On Google Maps Tue, 03 Jun 2014 21:52:00 -0400 Julie Watson <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="Blue Angels" /></p><p>SAN DIEGO (AP) &mdash; A former Blue Angels commander tolerated inappropriate sexual comments and pornographic images in the workplace &mdash; including photos of naked women in the cockpits of the precision flying team's planes, the Navy said Tuesday.</p> <p>Capt. Gregory McWherter was found guilty of violating two articles under the military's code of justice during nonjudicial proceedings convened Monday in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The articles were failure to obey an order or regulation and conduct unbecoming of an officer by fostering a hostile command climate and failing to stop "obvious and repeated instances of sexual harassment, condoning widespread lewd practices within the squadron and engaging in inappropriate and unprofessional discussions with his junior officers," the Navy said in a statement.</p> <p>He will be given a letter of reprimand that will go in McWherter's permanent file and is widely seen as a career-ender in the service. McWherter told Navy officials he did not wish to speak to the media, said Cmdr. Kevin Stephens, a spokesman at Naval Air Forces.</p> <p>Under McWherter's command, pilots had explicit pornography, including photos of naked women, in aircraft cockpits, according to the investigation.</p> <p>There was also a rooftop painting of male genitalia in blue and gold at the team's winter training facilities in El Centro that could be seen by Google Maps, the Navy report stated. The painting existed through the end of the 2012 airshow season.</p> <p>The Navy probe also found "sexually charged, raunchy, and homophobic humor" on maps and itineraries.</p> <p>McWherter was relieved in April from his duty as executive officer of Naval Base Coronado in California amid the allegations during his second stint as the Blue Angels' leader from May 2011 to November 2012. The Navy said it did not find problems during his first stint as the flying team's commanding officer from 2008 to 2010.</p> <p>"The investigation concluded that McWherter witnessed, condoned, and encouraged behavior that, while juvenile and sophomoric in the beginning, ultimately and in the aggregate, became destructive, toxic and hostile," the Navy said in a statement.</p> <p>The Navy said investigators found no evidence the behavior led to sexual assault.</p> <p>Harry Harris Jr., commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, ordered the investigation after a service member filed an official complaint with the Navy on March 24.</p> <p>The Blue Angels' mission is to publicly represent the best of Naval Aviation, and Harris said "the actions of Capt. McWherter jeopardized that mission."</p> <p>"Commanding officers have an enduring obligation to maintain a proper work environment at all times and in all places and spaces, and they will be held accountable as appropriate when they fail," Harris said.</p> <p>Several junior personnel who served under McWherter received formal written counseling for their behavior, but McWherter was held accountable for the actions of those in his command, the Navy said.</p> <p>The Blue Angels are reviewing procedures, said Vice Adm. David Buss, commander, Naval Air Force Pacific, and its new commanding officer, Thomas Frosch, started implementing measures to clean up the workplace.</p> <p>McWherter also was president of the Tailhook Association for about eight months before he resigned amid the probe.</p> <p>The San Diego-based nonprofit aviator fraternity said it knew nothing of the allegations against McWherter. The group dealt with its own scandal in 1991 when Navy pilots at its Las Vegas convention were accused of sexually abusing female officers.</p> <div class="nc_footer"> <p>Copyright (2014) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.</p> </div> <p><img class="nc_pixel" src="" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></p><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> Here's What It's Like To Be A Sailor In NYC During Fleet Week Mon, 26 May 2014 18:50:15 -0400 Amanda Macias and Corey Adwar <p><img src="" border="0" alt="navy sailors fleet week" /></p><p>This Memorial Day Weekend, sailors in dress whites, Marines, and members of the Coast Guard roamed New York City to take in the sights and activities of New York's&nbsp;<a href="">Fleet Week</a>.</p> <p>We set out to meet sailors to see what they actually do during Fleet Week, a tradition in which recently deployed military ships dock in major U.S. cities like New York for one week. After walking around the city for a while, we spotted<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Petty Officer Second Class Spencer Roby talking to a local across the street from a Navy Band concert in Herald Square.</span></p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&ldquo;My experience has been great. Everybody has been super social and welcoming,&rdquo; he told Business Insider.</span></p> <p>Roby arrived aboard the USS McFaul destroyer from his home port in <span>Norfolk,&nbsp;</span><span>Virginia. It's been easy for him to roam the city from Staten Island, where his ship is docked.</span></p> <p><span>"Transportation has been nearly free, taxis not so much, but buses, trains, ferries, mostly everything has been free for us to get around," Roby said.</span></p> <p>This year's Fleet Week, which spans from&nbsp;May 21-27, was&nbsp;noticeably smaller in force than previous years, with the exception of last year when it <a href="">was canceled completely because of federal budget cuts</a>.</p> <p>Approximately&nbsp;1,500 service members docked off the West Side of Manhattan and Staten Island in three&nbsp;naval ships and two Coast Guard cutters.&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">During Fleet Week service members host parades and give demonstrations, as well as tours of the ships. Sailors also make appearances at sporting events and television shows and interact with civilians.&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">A Connecticut native, Roby has never visited New York City before and was glad to do so in conjunction with his first-ever Fleet Week. Roby said he has plenty of time to sightsee while carrying out his Navy duties.</span></p> <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="sailors" width="480" />"We have duty every three days and on our off-duty days we have to help sponsor an event," Roby said. "Our event last night was to attend the <a href="">Late Night With Seth Meyers</a>&nbsp;and represent the Navy in the audience."</p> <p>On their off days sailors have to wear their dress whites and in doing so, they still represent the Navy when they're out in public.</p> <p>Sailors are also required to partner with a fellow sailor from their ships wherever they go.</p> <p>Roby and his buddy had<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;just returned from visiting the newly opened National September 11 Memorial and Museum, the Empire State Building, and a couple bars.</span></p> <p>"People are so quick to help us out because we've never been here before and we get so turned around," Roby laughed.</p> <p>Many people have posted their photos with sailors on Twitter under the hashtag <a href="">#SelfieWithASailor</a>. We took our #SelfieWithASailor too.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"> <p><a href="">@CoreyAdwar</a> and I spoke to a few sailors about their <a href=";src=hash">#FleetWeekNYC</a> experience and took a <a href=";src=hash">#SelfieWithASailor</a> <a href=""></a></p> &mdash; Amanda Macias (@amanda_m_macias) <a href="">May 26, 2014</a></blockquote> <p><span>&ldquo;So many people have come up to us asking for pictures or just thanking us. A lot of people thanking,&rdquo; Roby said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a really great experience.&rdquo;</span></p> <p><span>Although it was Roby&rsquo;s first time in New York City, the Navy has given him the opportunity to travel abroad to countries like Scotland and Norway. </span></p> <p><span>Roby spent his Fleet Week nights aboard his ship, and afterward he&rsquo;ll return to his base in Virginia.</span></p><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> USS OAK HILL: See Why This Ship Could Kick Ass In An Amphibious Assault Mon, 26 May 2014 10:04:00 -0400 Harrison Jacobs <p class="p1"><img class="float_right" src=" (36 of 37).jpg" border="0" alt="Fleet (36 of 37)" /></p><p>After taking a year off due to an ongoing Congressional budget fight, <a href="">Fleet Week is back in New York</a>, with the USS Oak Hill leading the way.&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">The Oak Hill is a Harper's Ferry-class vessel, a type of amphibious warfare-focused ship that would be near the frontlines of any sea-based invasion. While the ship is equipped with a variety of missiles, guns, and other counter-measures, the real power is what the ship houses on the inside. The Oak Hill has a well-dock, where it can load and unload boats, amphibious vehicles, troops, and landing craft.</p> <p class="p1">If a D-Day-type landing happened in this day and age, the Oak Hill would be one of the ships launching troop transports and vehicles onto the beachhead.&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Business Insider recently got a tour of the ship, while it's in dock at midtown Manhattan&rsquo;s Pier 92, to see what makes the ship battle-ready for an amphibious invasion.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >Only a Marine could have made this incredible documentary</a></strong></p> <h3>The USS Oak Hill is a dock-landing ship that modified to transport Marines, their vehicles, and their equipment. At 609-feet long and 16,400 tons, this ship is big.</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <br/><br/><h3>The Oak Hill is loaded with defensive weapons. The ship is outfitted with two MK-38 machine guns for hitting high speed targets, two Phalanx CIWS "Gatling guns," six .50 cal machine guns, and two surface-to-air RAM missile mounts. </h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <br/><br/><h3>Boarding the ship isn't too intimidating. There's a team of sailors to guide us along. The Oak Hill is manned by 22 officers and 340 total sailors.</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <br/><br/><a href="">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> USS OAK HILL: See Why This Ship Could Kick Ass In An Amphibious Assault Fri, 23 May 2014 13:38:00 -0400 Harrison Jacobs <p class="p1"><img class="float_right" src=" (36 of 37).jpg" border="0" alt="Fleet (36 of 37)" /></p><p>After taking a year off due to an ongoing Congressional budget fight, <a href="">Fleet Week is back in New York</a>, with the USS Oak Hill leading the way.&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">The Oak Hill is a Harper's Ferry-class vessel, a type of amphibious warfare-focused ship that would be near the frontlines of any sea-based invasion. While the ship is equipped with a variety of missiles, guns, and other counter-measures, the real power is what the ship houses on the inside. The Oak Hill has a well-dock, where it can load and unload boats, amphibious vehicles, troops, and landing craft.</p> <p class="p1">If a D-Day-type landing happened in this day and age, the Oak Hill would be one of the ships launching troop transports and vehicles onto the beachhead.&nbsp;</p> <p class="p1">Business Insider recently got a tour of the ship, while it's in dock at midtown Manhattan&rsquo;s Pier 92, to see what makes the ship battle-ready for an amphibious invasion.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >Only a Marine could have made this incredible documentary</a></strong></p> <h3>The USS Oak Hill is a dock-landing ship that modified to transport Marines, their vehicles, and their equipment. At 609-feet long and 16,400 tons, this ship is big.</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <br/><br/><h3>The Oak Hill is loaded with defensive weapons. The ship is outfitted with two MK-38 machine guns for hitting high speed targets, two Phalanx CIWS "Gatling guns," six .50 cal machine guns, and two surface-to-air RAM missile mounts. </h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <br/><br/><h3>Boarding the ship isn't too intimidating. There's a team of sailors to guide us along. The Oak Hill is manned by 22 officers and 340 total sailors.</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <br/><br/><a href="">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> 29 Awesome Pictures Of The US Navy Through History Fri, 23 May 2014 10:08:00 -0400 Amanda Macias and Gus Lubin <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="navy day 1945" width="480" /></p><p>The 26th New York Fleet Week is underway over Memorial Day weekend. Close to 1,500 sailors, Marines, and coast guardsmen are expected to participate in this week-long celebration of the sea services.&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The Navy is expected to play an increasing role in coming decades, given the U.S.' Pacific pivot and emerging reluctance to deploy ground troops. The Navy gives the U.S.&nbsp;the ability to project power around the globe even without frequent ground deployments, and is already an indispensable aspect of American policy and national security.&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="p1">"You're going to see a much greater emphasis on using sea-based forces to produce an effect," <a href="">Admiral Gary Roughead told Reuters</a>.&nbsp;"You're seeing it in the Mediterranean, with Syria, and you're seeing it in the Pacific and the Middle East."</p> <p class="p1">To celebrate America's Navy, we've pulled out some of the coolest photos from the archives.</p><h3>In the decades after the Civil War, America began a new era of foreign intervention, with the Navy leading the way. This 1899 photo shows sailors eating on the USS Olympia, which was the U.S.' flagship during the Spanish-American War of the previous year.</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <br/><br/><h3>The USS Holland, seen in this photo from 1900, was the Navy's first commissioned submarine.</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <br/><br/><h3>President Theodore Roosevelt ordered a fleet of U.S. ships to circumnavigate the globe from 1907-1909.</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <br/><br/><a href="">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> Here's Everything That's Needed To Run The Navy's Failed 'Ship Of The Future' Thu, 22 May 2014 16:09:00 -0400 Armin Rosen <p><img src="" border="0" alt="RTXD0WF" width="800" /></p><p></p> <p>The Littoral Combat System was one of the Navy's most significant modernization efforts. The LCS was a push to replace dozens of vessels with <a href="">next-generation ships</a> capable of fighting off submarines, mines, or swarm attacks from asymmetrical enemies in coastal waters &mdash; while also possibly operating against conventional enemy battleships or aerial targets.</p> <p>The Defense Department eventually cut their order of littoral vessels in half, and some believe the entire LCS program to be a <a href="">bit of an expensive failure</a>. The LCS was effectively canceled earlier this year when the Pentagon reduced its order from over 50 down to 32 vessels &nbsp;&mdash; it turns out the craft was "<a href="">not expected to be survivable in high-intensity combat</a>" and wasn't as versatile in facing multiple threats as had initially been hoped.</p> <p>But the LCS was once at the cutting edge of military technology, and it's only fitting that it had an infographic to match. This image is from a <a href="">presentation</a> that Captain Jeff Riedel, the LCS program manager, gave at the Navy League's 2011 Air Sea Space Exposition. In those heady times, it seemed like the LCS was as simple as "mission module + crew &amp; aircraft support = mission package." In reality, it would only be a couple years before technological shortcomings and budgetary disputes to all but gutted the program.</p> <p><img src=" shot 2014-05-22 at 2.27.53 pm.png" border="0" alt="Screen Shot 2014 05 22 at 2.27.53 PM" /></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >The Navy has a high-tech hovercraft, and it is spectacular</a></strong></p> <p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> The Navy Has A High-Tech Hovercraft, And It Is Spectacular [PHOTOS] Thu, 22 May 2014 14:23:00 -0400 Robert Johnson <p>When the U.S. Navy wants to haul a few hundred tons of troops, material, or gear from ship to shore, sailors can use the Landing Craft Air Cushioned (LCAC) vehicle, an astonishing high-tech hovercraft.</p> <p>The LCAC is an update to the Landing Craft Utility (LCU), an earlier amphibious transport system. The two systems are vastly different &mdash; but they're both capable of serving as the backbone for missions ranging from humanitarian relief to a full-blown beach invasion.</p> <p>Business Insider got up close and personal with both crafts and the units that operate them.</p> <h2>The <a href="">LCAC Hovercraft</a></h2> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="LCAC Assault Craft Unit Four Above And Beyond Little Creek Norfolk 30" width="800" />The LCAC is a 90-foot hovercraft. It's not easy to drive. The operator has to yoke all four limbs into place while concentrating on two separate foot-operated rudders. The LCAF Craftsman has the same challenge as a helicopter pilot &mdash; the vessel effectively operates in six dimensions, careening across water and land like a giant air-hockey puck.</p> <h2>The <a href="">LCU Landing Craft</a></h2> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="lcu2" width="800" /></p> <p>The LCU is old school in every sense, but its navigation and electronics gear are constantly upgraded. These were the boats dropping off American soldiers on the shores on the Han River in Vietnam in the early 1970s.</p> <p>LCUs can discharge 125 tons of cargo and hit the beach at about 14 miles per hour. The LCAC slides in at more than 46 miles per hour, and can carry up to 75 tons.</p> <p>It's no wonder the two units, which are right next door to each other at the Joint Expeditionary Base in Little Creek-Fort Story in Norfolk, Virginia, have a bit of a heated rivalry. One LCU Craftsman likened it to Aesop's fable about the tortoise and the hare.</p> <p>Chief Petty Officer Bright of LCU Unit 2 told Business Insider, "It may take us a bit longer to get there compared to the LCACs, but you know what happened to the Hare. Slow and easy is best."</p> <p>Business Insider visited both units in early July 2013, and went out on the water with an LCAC team over Norfolk Bay. Here's what the day was like and how the U.S. military delivers its troops and goods onto shores around the world.</p><h3>Pulling up to the Navy's East Coast Hovercraft Unit in Little Creek, Virgina leaves quite an impression.</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <br/><br/><h3>The hovercraft bursts in, carrying 60 tons of material or troops at speeds in excess of 40 miles per hour, straight from the water and onto the beach.</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <br/><br/><h3>Assault Craft Unit Four calls itself the East Coast Hoppers.</h3> <img src="" alt="" /> <br/><br/><a href="">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> Fleet Week Is Back In New York, And The Ships Look Awesome [PHOTOS] Wed, 21 May 2014 16:20:00 -0400 Armin Rosen <p><img src="" border="0" alt="RTR3Q87N" width="800" /></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Last year, an ongoing Congressional budget fight&nbsp;</span><a href="">wiped out</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;one of the military's premier outreach events: New York's Fleet Week, which didn't involve a single vessel in 2013. But the ships are back this year, and three Navy and two Coast Guard vessels paraded through New York Harbor this morning to kick off the Memorial Day week festivities.</span></p> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="RTR3Q7Q9" width="800" /><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The USS Cole led the way. Al Qaeda terrorists </span><a href="">blew up the Navy destroyer's hull</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;while it was refueling in the Yemeni port of Aden on October 12, 2000, killing 17 American sailors. The ship was </span><a href="">rehabilitated</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;and returned to service in 2003. Today, it led a column of three Navy ships entering New York Harbor from the Atlantic. It then overtook the Campbell, a Coast Guard cutter, near the Verizano Narrows Bridge to lead rest of the Fleet Week vessels.</span></p> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="IMG_4958.JPG" /></p> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="IMG_4999.JPG" /><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">As </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Naval Lieutenant Commander&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Ron Carpinella told Business Insider during an embark aboard the Campbell today, Fleet Week is a chance to educate the American public about their military. "It exposes Americans to their armed forces and helps them understand what all of these men and women do," he said.</span></p> <p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><img src="" border="0" alt="AP105098287194" width="800" /><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">For recent </span><a href="">Medal of Honor recipient</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and Army sergeant Kyle White, who was </span><a href="">also on the Campbell this morning</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, being at Fleet Week is partly a show of appreciation for the Navy, Marine and Coast Guard personnel he worked alongside. &nbsp;"I'm out here showing support for all of the branches of the military," he told Business Insider, adding that "it's been overwhelming and humbling at the same time," to receive the military's highest honor.</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="IMG_4918.JPG" /><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The Campbell is a 270-foot vessel used for fisheries enforcement and anti-narcotics efforts. It has pursuit capabilities and a 62-caliber gun that's occasionally used to shoot out the engines of faster ships, like drug-running boats. The Campbell was inaugurated in 1988 and is the successor vessel to an earlier, identically-named Coast Guard ship noted in naval circles for </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><a href="">ramming a German submarine</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> during World War II.</span></p> <p>The Campbell also has its own mascot: a dog named <a href="">Sinbad</a>&nbsp;that sailors from the ship's predecessor adopted in 1938. Sinbad lives on through this shrine in the cutter's mess hall &mdash; people even leave it dog treats.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="IMG_4905.JPG" /><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">During its trip to Pier 92 in midtown Manhattan, the Campbell paused briefly to pay tribute to victims of the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. Below, the ship's sailors stand at attention prior to the beginning of a moment of silence.</span></p> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="IMG_5000.JPG" /></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="" >The Coast Guard Uses Game Theory To Protect New York</a></strong></p> <p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> The Surprising Naval Origins Of Eleven Common Phrases Wed, 21 May 2014 14:55:00 -0400 Amanda Macias and Jeremy Bender <p><img class="float_right" src="" border="0" alt="sailors american navy" /></p><p>Naval slang has left a deep mark on the English language, although many are unaware that a number of widely-used words, expressions, and phrases ultimately originated with sailors.&nbsp;</p> <p>Terms ranging from "bamboozle" to "mind your Ps and Qs" have their roots in nautical terms and situations.</p> <p>Helpfully, the U.S. Navy has <a href="">compiled</a> multiple <a href="">glossaries</a> of naval slang that has worked its way into common English.</p> <p>In honor of Fleet Week we picked some unexpected examples of naval terminology that is now used in everyday life.</p> <h2>1. Mind Your Ps And Qs</h2> <p>If you were ever told to&nbsp;<span>"mind your Ps and Qs" you knew to behave your best. </span></p> <p>In times when many sailors were illiterate, barkeepers would maintain&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">a running chalkboard tally of the pints and quarts of ale that each sailor consumed. A "P" for pint or "Q" for quart was added next to each person's name whenever a seaman ordered another draught.&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span>On payday, a seaman had to pay up for each mark next to his name, so he was forced to "mind his Ps and Qs" or get into financial trouble.&nbsp;</span></p> <h2>2. Took The Wind Out Of His Sails</h2> <p>"Taking the wind out of someone's sails" means beating them in an argument, or making them feel less confident in their actions.</p> <p>Originally, the term referred to a naval maneuver. One ship would pass close to its opponent and block its access to the wind. In an age of wind-powered ships, this would cause the enemy to lose maneuverability and make the opposing vessel more susceptible to attack.&nbsp;</p> <h2>3. Devil To Pay</h2> <p><span><span><span>This expression denoted the task of caulking the longest seam on a wooden ship, called the "devil." The caulking was referred to as "pay," so this unpleasant duty was called "paying the devil" and was&nbsp;</span><span>despised by every seaman. The phrase came to denote any unpleasant job.</span></span></span></p> <h2>4. Carry On</h2> <p><span><span><span><span>Sailors were given a "carry on" order whenever a strong breeze came along. This order required sailors on deck to&nbsp;</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">hoist every bit of canvas they could &mdash; a grueling and back-breaking task. Today, this phrase is used as a request to simply resume work.</span></p> <h2>5. Wallop</h2> <p><span><span><span><span><span>To wallop is to strike a major blow against an enemy or to hit incredibly hard. The term comes from the last name of English Admiral Sir John Wallop, who King Henry VIII sent to devastate the coast of France in the 1500s in retaliation for the French burning down the British city of Brighton in 1513. </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span><span><span>Wallop's complete destruction of the French coast made him name immortal.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></span></p> <h2>6. Three Sheets To The Wind</h2> <p>The term "three sheets to the wind" is generally used to describe someone who has had too much to drink. It comes from a term that originally described a ship in a complete state of disarray, with its sails flapping in the breeze. &nbsp;</p> <h2>7. Yankee</h2> <p>The word Yankee is believed to originate with Dutch merchants. Dutchmen would refer to American sea captains as "yankers," which translates as "wranglers." This was apparently due to the Americans' ability to drive a hard bargain.&nbsp;</p> <h2>8. Knowing The Ropes</h2> <p>The phrase "knowing the ropes," indicating that someone is competent at what they do, has its roots in old nautical talk.</p> <p>The statement, printed on a seaman's discharge, indicated that he knew the main uses of the ropes on a ship. Yet rather than indicating that the sailor was a master, the phrase meant that he was a novice who only knew the basics of sailing.&nbsp;</p> <h2>9. Crow's Nest</h2> <p>Crows played an essential part in early sailing. Due to their tendency to fly towards the closest landmass, sailors would release a crow during poor visibility and plot a course based on the bird's flight. The crows were often kept where the look-out held watch, leading to the area being named the "crow's nest."&nbsp;</p> <h2>10. Bamboozle</h2> <p>In the maneuver known as a bamboozle, a word first used in the early 1700s, pirates would fly the flag of a friendly nation in order to deceive passing ships into letting their guard down. The enemy ship would then attack, thereby "bamboozling" its stunned opponent.&nbsp;</p> <h2>11. Navy Blue&nbsp;</h2> <p>The color "navy blue" was officially recognized in 1745 when King Geroge of England was unable to decide on a color for the fleet's new uniforms. The king finally chose a blue and white uniform because it was the favorite color combination of the Duchess of Bedford.</p><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> This Is Crimea's Secret Soviet Submarine Base [PHOTOS] Wed, 21 May 2014 05:20:00 -0400 Darmon Richter <p align="justify"><img class="center" src="" border="0" alt="crimea submarine base" /></p><p>I've been putting it off for a while now, but it's time to talk about the Crimea, more specifically, about the vast aquatic facility built there by the USSR, and designed to house a fleet of nuclear-ready, Soviet submarines.</p> <p align="justify">Now memorialized, this Cold War relic enjoyed a brief stint as a public museum; and I was fortunate enough to pay it a visit as such, just months before the latest Crimean crisis.</p> <p align="justify">The Crimean Peninsula has known many masters: from the ancient Greeks who once colonized this land, through to the conquering Roman, Byzantine, and later, Ottoman empires. In the last hundred years alone it has been held by the Russian Tsars, the Tatars, the Nazis, the Soviets, the Ukrainian Republic and the Russian Federation.</p> <p align="justify">This apparent popularity is in no small part due to the region&rsquo;s unique position; it commands the waters of the Black Sea, and from there, by way of the Bosphorus Strait, provides naval access into the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas.</p> <p align="justify"><span>I</span>n 1783, Catherine the Great of Russia pushed down through Ukraine, building imperial ports and shipyards that could send fleets against the sprawling Ottoman Empire to the south.</p> <p align="justify">Now, in its most recent transition, Crimea has once again been claimed by Mother Russia; and given the conflict and confusion which has surrounded the region&rsquo;s latest annexation, I&rsquo;m very glad that I toured the region when I did &ndash; in September 2013.</p> <p align="justify">The town of Balaklava lies on the southern edge of Crimea, not far from the larger port city of Sevastopol. The name rose to notoriety in the West with the 1854 Battle of Balaclava, one of the most heated bouts of the Crimean War; it was here on October 25th, that the British Empire&rsquo;s &lsquo;Light Brigade&rsquo; made their famously doomed charge against the Russian Forces in a last-ditch effort to take the port at Sevastopol.</p> <p align="justify">Although Balaklava itself has functioned as an active military port for centuries, the submarine base was not constructed until 1957. It was during the Cold War, amidst escalating sabre-rattling between the US and USSR, that Stalin issued the directive to establish a fleet of nuclear submarines in the Black Sea.</p> <p align="justify">The Soviet officer chosen to lead the project was the head of the USSR&rsquo;s nuclear project, Lavrentiy Beria. Beria spent years researching locations, before eventually deciding upon the quiet, Crimean town of Balaklava.</p> <p align="justify"><img class="float_right" src=" 6.jpg" border="0" alt="crimea 6" />Here the sea enters the land by way of a narrow strait, while the twists and contours of the coastline served to render the submarine base invisible from prying eyes.</p> <p align="justify">Immediately the town was secured, classified, and construction began on &lsquo;Objekt 825.&rsquo; It was a project that would take four years to complete, as more than 120 tons of rock were cut and painstakingly removed to form vast, subterranean chambers open to the water.</p> <p align="justify">It was claimed that the submarine base in Balaklava was virtually indestructible &ndash; its secret docks and corridors protected by a shell of concrete and steel, capable of surviving a direct nuclear strike of up to 100 kilotons.</p> <p align="justify">Meanwhile, the town of Balaklava itself, which in time came to be occupied almost entirely by workers from the base, would become one of the most secretive locations in the whole USSR.</p> <p align="justify">Entry to Balaklava was so restricted, in fact, that even family of the workers were unable to visit the town without showing extensive documentation proving their justification for entry.</p> <p align="justify">The Balaklava submarine base saw heavy use throughout the Cold War period &ndash; working in close association with the Soviet Black Sea Fleet stationed at Sevastopol &ndash; and not least at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis; the positioning of US Hercules missiles in Turkey provoked the Soviets to respond with nuclear armament in allied Cuba, as well as scrambling their nuclear submarines from Balaklava in anticipation of a counterstrike against Turkey itself.</p> <p align="&ldquo;justify&quot;">Right up until the fall of the Soviet Union, in fact, the facility at Balaklava remained one of the USSR&rsquo;s strongest deterrents to play against its enemies in Europe.</p> <p align="&ldquo;justify&quot;"><span>Unlike many such facilities, the secret nuclear submarine base at Balaklava Bay survived beyond the fall of the USSR. It remained in use until 1993, when the decommissioning process eventually began with the removal of vessels, their torpedoes and nuclear warheads. The last Russian submarine sailed out of Balaklava Bay in 1996.</span></p> <p align="justify">For a long time the complex lay abandoned; much of it was unguarded, and it was largely forgotten by the population who gradually began to drift back into an unrestricted Balaklava. Later, in 2000, the Russian Federation gifted the abandoned base to the Ukrainian Navy.</p> <p align="justify">The museum, officially denoted the &lsquo;Balaklava Naval Museum Complex&rsquo;, was founded by Ukraine&rsquo;s Ministry of Defence on 30th December 2002. Opened to the public on 1st June the following year, the museum plan included portions of the 600-metre central tunnel as well as a weapons plant, an (empty) nuclear storage arsenal and a number of residential quarters and offices.</p> <h2>An Expedition To Crimea</h2> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="13359406354_1bdf1cf76c_b" /></p> <p align="justify"><span>I didn&rsquo;t have any intention of going to Balaklava; at least, not yet. After exploring the</span><a href="" target="_blank">Odessa Catacombs</a><span>, I&rsquo;d been left with just three spare days before my impending tour of Chernobyl, and the famous&nbsp;</span><em>ghost city</em><span>&nbsp;of Pripyat. </span></p> <p align="justify"><span>My time in Ukraine was running out, and from all I had heard about the beauty and history of the Crimean region I had already decided that it would be better saved for another &ndash; longer &ndash; trip.</span></p> <p align="justify"><span><span>My plans have a habit of changing drastically and at the last minute however, and this particular change of course came while I was drinking beers with a Finnish explorer I&rsquo;d met at my hostel in Odessa. We&rsquo;d been discussing Balaklava, as well as the abandoned military facility located beneath a mountain further inland; a vast subterranean installation known as&nbsp;</span><em>Objekt 221</em><span>.</span></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: left;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p align="justify">&ldquo;Why not do both?&rdquo; he suggested to me. &ldquo;Call this a research trip, then stay for longer next time.&rdquo;</p> <p align="justify">It was no small detour &ndash; instead of my nine-hour train from Odessa straight to Kiev (the meeting point for my Chernobyl tour), I&rsquo;d be looking at a 12-hour journey from Odessa to Simferopol, main transport hub for the Crimea, and then another two hours to Balaklava itself. We&rsquo;d then have just 36 hours to locate the aforementioned sites before I would need to get back to Simferopol, in time for my grueling 14-hour train ride north to Kiev.</p> <p align="justify">While the excessive journey times were far from appealing, there was certainly something to be said for the company: my new friend was an experienced traveler and an experienced trespasser; a Cold War aficionado with a respectable grasp of basic Russian.</p> <p align="justify">&ldquo;Alright,&rdquo; I agreed, &ldquo;let&rsquo;s do it then.&rdquo;</p> <p align="justify">The train ride from Odessa to Simferopol was just a slow and laborious as we&rsquo;d imagined, but we passed the journey with more beer and good conversation to arrive in the Crimea early the next day.</p> <p align="justify"><span>Simferopol, as it turned out, was chaos &ndash; passengers spill out from the train station in droves, to fill the adjacent coach depot with a sea of churning bodies. Buses reverse blind through the crowds, accompanied by sirens, horns and thick, dark smoke. </span></p> <p align="justify"><span>To get a ticket to anywhere, you&rsquo;ll need to queue in line for as long as an hour; all the while, taxi drivers, ticket touts and beggars serve you with unending hassle from all sides.</span></p> <p align="justify">As the Crimea is linked to Ukraine only by a narrow land route, this city at the centre of the peninsula has grown to become a key transport hub connecting all local road and rail routes.</p> <p align="justify">Russian is the language of choice, with virtually zero English spoken by the various ticket vendors and travel agents scattered about the plaza.</p> <p align="justify">A Ukrainian friend back in Odessa had warned me to be careful here: not just of the usual pickpockets and scam artists, but of full, physical assault. He told me to watch my back, for thieves who&rsquo;d gladly crack a brick over my head to rob me, and leave me unconscious in an alleyway.</p> <p align="justify">I suspect he was being overcautious, but there in Simferopol bus station I was painfully aware of the many eyes watching me.</p> <p align="justify">For the record, I&rsquo;ve only ever experienced kindness and generosity from Ukrainians, who, in my opinion, are more or less a pretty wonderful bunch of human beings&hellip; but at the same time, desperation can drive people to uncharacteristic extremes; and between my laptop and camera gear, I knew that the contents of my bag would have made for a healthy retirement package by local standards.</p> <p align="justify">In time we managed to buy tickets; we boarded a rickety old coach and burst out of the smoke and the noise of Simferopol, to find ourselves cruising between rolling, grassy plains and a sky of perfect blue.</p> <p align="justify">We reached Sevastopol, dropped our bags at a hostel and then headed out to find a bus to Balaklava. After the chaos of Simferopol, Sevastopol was a breath of fresh air &ndash; both figuratively and in the most literal of senses. The ornate domes of orthodox churches crept along cobbled streets toward the seafront, and everything about the place had a sense of calm and serenity. I got the impression that nothing here happened with much haste; a theory that was soon proven true, as we flagged down a<em>marshrutka</em>&nbsp;taxi-bus and rolled our way slowly and painstakingly into the east.</p> <p align="justify">We made the last leg of our journey by taxi.</p> <p align="justify">&ldquo;Podvodnaya lodka,&rdquo; I said to the driver, appropriating the best Russian accent I could manage. &ldquo;Militsiya muzey.&rdquo;</p> <p align="justify">We had driven around Balaklava for a little while before I realized my mistake &ndash; I&rsquo;d asked for&nbsp;<em>submarines</em>&nbsp;sure enough, but rather than a&nbsp;<em>military museum</em>, I was asking the driver for a&nbsp;<em>police museum</em>. A small error, perhaps, but it was enough to double our taxi fare as the driver feigned ignorance and drove around the town in circles.</p> <p align="justify"><span>Soon enough however, we came back around a corner of the bay and down a slip road beside the water, where rusted signposts guided us to the once-classified installation up ahead.</span></p> <h2>Beneath Mount Tavros</h2> <p><img src="" border="0" alt="13359413994_e1023f58e0_b" /></p> <p align="justify">The Balaklava Naval Museum Complex lies on the west side of the river that flows through the town, a series of deep caverns that stretch for a length of over 600 metres before emerging from a second opening on the far side of Mount Tavros.</p> <p align="justify">We paid our fare &ndash; the equivalent of a few dollars &ndash; at the unassuming entrance desk, before passing through a turn-style and into the mountain itself.</p> <p align="justify">Inside, we found a naval base in perfect repair, its long, curving tunnels cut smooth through the stone and maintained at a constant temperature of 15 degrees Celsius. There were a few other groups of visitors on this day, all Russian-speakers, but we soon lost sight of them inside the sprawling network of passages that branched like veins beneath the rock.</p> <p align="justify">I say&nbsp;<em>network</em>, but perhaps that gives an inaccurate impression of the linear route offered to museum visitors. Our path followed long, curving tunnels, through bulkheads and between bars; but the proliferation of sealed doors, the blocked entrances around us, gave me the growing sense that we were seeing only a fraction of the whole facility.</p> <p align="justify">According to the literature, this base had not just housed submarines; there had been wet and dry docks here, repair shops, torpedo warehouses and, of course, the highly secure areas that had once housed an arsenal of nuclear warheads.</p> <p align="justify">On top of that though, the Balaklava submarine base was designed to accommodate and protect all site personnel in the event of nuclear fallout.</p> <p align="justify">Given that most of the residents of Balaklava were once associated with the base, I wondered exactly what the capacity of this installation might be; how much more of it there was, hidden behind closed doors.</p> <p align="justify">We followed the route past a scattering of museum exhibits, framed schematics and deactivated torpedo shells, before the tunnel opened &ndash; quite without warning &ndash; into a vast, subterranean space.</p> <p align="justify">Where the passage before had been clean, close and whitewashed, lit by fluorescent strip lighting, this next chamber was formed from high, vaulted concrete arches, spotlights flickering across the rippling water to throw a shifting pattern of shapes across the walls.</p> <p align="justify">This was the central tunnel: a deep, underground canal that cut a straight line through the mountain.</p> <p align="justify">Reaching a total length of 602 metres, this space was designed to accommodate no less than seven nuclear-ready subs; that number rose to 14, however, when including the various additional galleries which had never been opened to the public.</p> <p align="justify">One solitary guard stood watch over a central observation deck, and he watched me intently &ndash; though not unkindly &ndash; as I set up a tripod and camera above the rippling water.</p> <p align="justify">From this central space the path led us back towards the mouth of the tunnel, a walkway that jutted out above the water on the far side of the chamber. Natural light spilled in from the mouth &ndash; a blinding, white semicircle &ndash; to be met by muted greens and purples from the atmospheric spot lighting inside.</p> <p align="justify">Across the water from us here, at the end of a small jetty, rose two ghoulish figures; mannequins draped in cloaks and gas masks, grim effigies raised for no apparent reason; and which, inevitably, added perfectly to the almost Gothic quality of this semi-submerged cathedral to war.</p> <p align="justify">I wondered if they served as&nbsp;<em>memento mori</em>, ghost-like figures that lamented the blind and brutal cruelty of nuclear warfare&hellip; or then again, maybe I was over thinking a simple display of the protective clothing worn by site engineers.</p> <p align="justify">Beside the mouth of the cavern, the now-familiar system of guide ropes, locked doors and painted arrows herded us on through a series of heavy steel bulkheads.</p> <p align="justify">Somewhere a klaxon sounded, just as we reached a long, corrugated passage lit by a chain of rust-red lights. At moments like this I could have believed the base was fully functional, that nuclear subs were being prepped, orders barked over a loudspeaker in Russian demanding an immediate strike against Allied Forces in the Black Sea.</p> <p align="justify">We were reaching the end of the exhibition now, where a final few chambers held more traditional, museum-style displays of weapons and ammo. There were mortars, torpedoes, rifles and grenades, projectiles hung from the ceiling on thin wires to give the illusion of missiles in flight. On a wall by the exit, a painted slogan read:</p> <p align="justify">&ldquo;не все говори что знаешь, но всегда знай, что говоришь!&rdquo;</p> <p align="justify">Its meaning:</p> <p align="justify">&ldquo;Don't always say what you know, but always know what you're saying!&rdquo;</p> <p align="justify"><img src="" border="0" alt="13359012715_fa616d79d9_b" /></p> <p align="justify">A few more industrial chambers, passages of corrugated metal daubed in black-and-yellow hazard paint, and then suddenly we were outside.</p> <p align="justify">After the dark and sombre tunnels, the contrast was staggering; to step back into the sleepy town of Balaklava, perched in a deep crevice between grass and stone, gazing placidly out across the waters of the Black Sea.</p> <h2 align="justify">The Fate Of OBJEKT 825</h2> <p align="justify">In connecting with the past, I have always preferred truth to illusion; ruins over replicas, interaction over narrative. Museums sometimes bore me, if only for the terminal stagnation that so often comes as a result of the memorialisation process. To memorialize is to embalm; to deny even the potential for future life.</p> <p align="justify">When I first heard about a secret Soviet sub base in the Crimea, I had the idea that it was abandoned. I now find myself wondering what it would have been like, for those locals who visited the facility between the years 1996 and 2000 when the base really was left abandoned &ndash; and with minimal security.</p> <p align="justify">The segments that we saw were impressive, but they hinted at a much larger, subterranean complex.</p> <p align="justify">The residential areas, the weapons plants, the nuclear storage facilities and repair shops which we didn&rsquo;t see: somewhere beneath Mount Tavros was a whole city, and we&rsquo;d toured just a few select boulevards.</p> <p align="justify"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: left;">For all that though, I admired the authenticity of the museum experience. </span></p> <p align="justify"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: left;">What text there was had been in Russian, while it appeared that every effort had been made to preserve the integrity, the atmosphere of a fully-operational nuclear submarine base.</span></p> <p align="justify">And now?</p> <p align="justify">On 17th March 2014 the Crimean Parliament declared its independence from Ukraine, leading to the formal annexation of the peninsula to Russia.</p> <p align="justify">The Ukrainian military forces stationed in Crimea were ordered to surrender, their bases and facilities switching to the ownership of the Russian Federation.</p> <p align="justify"><span>It&rsquo;s perfectly feasible &ndash; perhaps even probable &ndash; that the Balaklava Naval Museum Complex will remain just that: a well-tended memorial to a militaristic age now&nbsp;</span><em>mostly</em><span>&nbsp;forgotten. </span></p> <p align="justify"><span>If, however, the hidden bulk of the installation has been maintained to the same standard as those areas opened to the public, then it&rsquo;s difficult not to speculate whether Russia &ndash; a country that once fought with such determination for the privilege of a Black Sea port &ndash; might not be tempted to put these cavernous facilities back to use some day.</span><img src="" border="0" alt="13359417944_1677188775_b" /></p><p><a href="">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>