Absurd. Like seriously. Look at this fleet of Blue Angels fighter jet planes fly in a perfect pattern in a practice session. The flight pattern they were practicing, I’m assuming here, is called "Let’s get these flying metal beasts as close as possible so that one inch of a mistake will kill us all". I mean the wing of one plane is right on top of a the cockpit of the other. Nuts, these guys.
While the world is tied up in the mystery of what happened to Malaysian Air Flight 370, testers at Edwards AFB in south central California and at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland are hard at work developing the ultimate tool for solving such a mystery, the Northrop Grumman built MQ-4C Triton.
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The mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 off the coast of Vietnam has prompted a massive multinational maritime search for hints of the plane’s fate. Among the growing armada of surface and aerial search vessels is the US Navy’s venerable P-3C Orion, a long-range surveillance platform still just as effective today as it was in the early Cold War.
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From the US Navy: "Marines assigned to 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit enter the well deck of the forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard." That looks like an amazingly fun ride to me.
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Oh baby. The US Navy is saying a prototype of the solid state Laser Weapons System (LaWS) is ready for deployment. This summer in the Persian Sea, the USS Ponce will be outfitted with lasers that can shoot down aerial drones, speedboats and swarm boats that are miles away. It’s going to be Star Wars in the open sea.
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Launched 60 years ago today, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine. Its atomic fuel source gave for the U.S Navy a dramatic increase in both range and operational flexibility. A few years later, the USS Nautilus achieved another historical first: she was the first vessel to complete a submerged transit to the North Pole, on 3 August 1958.
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The USNS Fall River, the fourth vessel in the US Navy’s new Spearhead-class of high-speed, shallow-draft transport catamarans launched for the first time over the weekend. This multi-function catamaran will transport cargo and up to a battalion of troops between ports.
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Predator drones are very, very good at what they do, but $8 million will only get you about half of one. Doesn’t matter which half, that guy ain’t gonna to fly. Instead, the US Navy is investing in a smaller, lighter, more versatile recon drone.
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The answer to designing ships that are both fast and stable has traditionally been to make the vessels as narrow as possible (to reduce drag) and sit them lower in the water (to reduce the buffeting effects of plowing through waves). But US Navy’s M80 Stiletto is not your typical ship.
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The first time you see an American nuclear super-carrier in person, you can’t believe the size. It’s simply astonishing.
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
