Welcome to MSW’s Scuttlebutt! Here’s the news for the day.



Feature - M/S Holiday
Join MSW for a photo feature of the Carnival Cruise Lines ship M/S Holiday.
Feature.


News - Italeri Models 1/35 PT Boat Crew
Kitmaker Newsdesk Managing Editor Jim Rae fires off a NEWS story with images of this awaited release!
News




Life Magazine – 1940’s Hawaii Photos

Today’s website is Life Magazine’s 1940’s Hawaii Photos. These were posted by Life Magazine on Google.com. Enjoy.
Website




This Day in U.S. Naval History

1813- Capt. David Porter claims Marquesas Islands for the United States.
1943 - Carrier force attacks bases on Tarawa and Makin begun.
1943 - USS Nautilus (SS 168) enters Tarawa lagoon in first submarine photograph reconnaissance mission.
1961 - At the request of the president of the Dominican Republic, U.S. Naval Task Force sails to Dominican Republic to bolster the country's government and to prevent a coup.
1969 - Navy astronauts Cmdr. Charles Conrad Jr. and Cmdr. Alan L. Bean are third and fourth men to walk on the moon. They were part of Apollo 12 mission. Cdmr. Richard F. Gordon Jr., the command module pilot, remained in lunar orbit. During the mission lasting 19 days, four hours and 36 minutes, the astronauts recovered 243 lbs. of lunar material. Recovery was by HS-4 helicopters from USS Hornet (CVS 12).


Indian navy sinks suspected pirate 'mother ship'
Source: AP Wire

An Indian naval vessel sank a suspected pirate "mother ship" in the Gulf of Aden and chased two attack boats into the night, officials said Wednesday, as separate bands of brigands seized Thai and Iranian ships in the lawless seas.
A multinational naval force has increased patrols in the waters between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, where pirates have grown bolder and more violent. The force scored a rare success Tuesday when the Indian warship, operating off the coast of Oman, stopped a ship similar to a pirate vessel described in numerous bulletins. The Indian navy said the pirates fired on the INS Tabar after the officers asked to search it.
"Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck of this vessel with guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers," said a statement from the Indian navy. Indian forces fired back, sparking fires and a series of onboard blasts — possibly due to exploding ammunition — and destroying the ship. They chased one of two speedboats shadowing the larger ship. One was later found abandoned. The other escaped, according to the statement.

Larger "mother ships" are often used to take gangs of pirates and smaller attack boats into deep water, and can be used as mobile bases to attack merchant vessels. Last week, Indian navy commandos operating from a warship foiled a pirate attempt to hijack a ship in the Gulf of Aden. The navy said an armed helicopter with marine commandos prevented the pirates from boarding and hijacking the Indian merchant vessel.

Separate bands of pirates also seized a Thai ship with 16 crew members and an Iranian cargo vessel with a crew of 25 in the Gulf of Aden, where Somalia-based pirates appear to be attacking ships at will, said Noel Choong of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Malaysia. "It's getting out of control," Choong said. Tuesday's hijackings raised to eight the number of ships hijacked this week alone, he said. Since the beginning of the year, 39 ships have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, out of 95 attacked.

"The criminal activities are flourishing because the risks are low and the rewards are extremely high," Choong said.
Once, the pirates mainly roamed the waters off the Somali coast, but now they have spread in every direction and are targeting ships further at sea, according to Choong. He said 17 vessels remain in the hands of pirates along with more than 300 crew members, including a Ukrainian ship loaded with weapons and a Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying $100 million in crude.

Despite the stepped-up patrols, the attacks have continued unabated off Somalia, which is caught up in an Islamic insurgency and has had no functioning government since 1991. Pirates have generally released ships they have seized after ransoms are paid. NATO has three warships in the Gulf of Aden and the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet also has ships in the region.

But U.S. Navy Commander Jane Campbell of the 5th Fleet said naval patrols simply cannot prevent attacks given the vastness of the sea and the 21,000 vessels passing through the Gulf of Aden every year.
"Given the size of the area and given the fact that we do not have naval assets — either ships or airplanes — to be everywhere with every single ship" it would be virtually impossible to prevent every attack, she said.
The Gulf of Aden connects to the Red Sea, which in turn is linked to the Mediterranean by the Suez Canal. The route is thousands of miles and many days shorter than going around the Cape of Good Hope off the southern tip of Africa.
The Thai boat, which was flying a flag from the tiny Pacific nation of Kiribati but operated out of Thailand, made a distress call as it was being chased by pirates in two speedboats, but the phone connection was cut off midway.
Wicharn Sirichaiekawat, manager of Sirichai Fisheries Co., Ltd. told The Associated Press that the ship, the "Ekawat Nava 5," was headed from Oman to Yemen to deliver fishing equipment.

"We have not heard from them since so we don't know what the demands are," Wicharn said. "We have informed the families of the crew but right now, we don't have much more information to give them either."
Of the 16 crew members, Wicharn said 15 are Thai and one is Cambodian. The Iranian carrier was flying a Hong Kong flag but operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.

On Tuesday, a major Norwegian shipping group, Odfjell SE, ordered its more than 90 tankers to sail around Africa rather than use the Suez Canal after the seizure of the Saudi tanker Saturday. "We will no longer expose our crew to the risk of being hijacked and held for ransom by pirates in the Gulf of Aden," said Terje Storeng, Odfjell's president and chief executive. Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil producer, has condemned the hijacking and said it will join the international fight against piracy. Despite the fact that its government barely works, Somali officials vowed to try to rescue the ship by force if necessary.

The supertanker, the MV Sirius Star, was anchored Tuesday close to Harardhere, the main pirates' den on the Somali coast, with a full load of 2 million barrels of oil and 25 crew members.


Successful First Submarine Launch of M51
Source: Astrium

Astrium and the French defence procurement agency (DGA) have successfully performed the third experimental launch of the M51 ballistic missile from the Ballistic Launching Base (BLB) in Biscarosse. The flight met all expectations.

This test, which was performed from the BLB’s submerged launch platform, enabled DGA and Astrium personnel to validate the M51’s entire underwater phase: shooting the missile from a launch tube on a device-launching nuclear submarine (SNLE), M51 ignition and surfacing from the water.

This success confirms that the missile is ready to be loaded on and launched from the SSBN, and paves the way for further test launches from the submarine “Le Terrible” before the M51 enters operational service in 2010.

François Auque, Chairman and CEO of Astrium, commented: “This success is a landmark that consolidates the progress of the M51 programme. It also confirms the competence of the Astrium teams and their ability to master highly complex technologies.”

Astrium is prime contractor for the development, production, and maintenance in operational condition of the M51 missile. G2P, Thales and Sagem are the main subcontractors in this programme, which occupies over a thousand engineers and technicians at Astrium.

Astrium, a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, is dedicated to providing civil and defence space systems and services. In 2007, Astrium had a turnover of EUR 3.5 billion and 12,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands. Its three main areas of activity are Astrium Space Transportation for launchers and orbital infrastructure, Astrium Satellites for spacecraft and ground segment and its wholly owned subsidiary Astrium Services for the development and delivery of satellite services. EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2007, EADS generated revenues of EUR 39.1 billion and employed a workforce of more than 116, 000.




Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Flies Supersonic
Source: Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter flew supersonic for the first time yesterday, achieving another milestone. The aircraft accelerated to Mach 1.05, or about 680 miles per hour.

The test validated the F-35 Lightning II's capability to operate beyond the speed of sound and was accomplished with a full internal load of inert or "dummy" weapons on the one-hour flight.

"The F-35 transitioned from subsonic to supersonic just as our engineers and our computer modeling had predicted," said Jon Beesley, Lockheed Martin's chief F-35 test pilot. "I continue to be impressed with the aircraft's power and strong acceleration, and I'm pleased that its precise handling qualities are retained in supersonic flight, even with a payload of 5,400 pounds (2,450 kilograms) in the weapons bays."

Beesley said it was also a significant achievement for a test aircraft to fly supersonic for the first time with the weight of a full internal load of weapons. The milestone was achieved on the 69th flight of F-35 aircraft AA-1. Beesley climbed to 30,000 feet (9,144 meters) and accelerated to Mach 1.05, or about 680 miles per hour, over a rural area in north Texas.

The F-35 accomplished four transitions through the sound barrier, spending a total of eight minutes in supersonic flight. The flight was preceded by a high-subsonic mission earlier in the day. Future testing will gradually expand the flight envelope out to the aircraft's top speed of Mach 1.6, which the F-35 is designed to achieve with a full internal load of weapons.

F-35 AA-1, a conventional takeoff and landing variant (CTOL), and F-35 BF-1, a short takeoff/vertical landing variant (STOVL), together have combined for 83 test flights.

The F-35 is a supersonic, multi-role, 5th generation stealth fighter. Three F-35 variants derived from a common design, developed together and using the same sustainment infrastructure worldwide will replace at least 13 types of aircraft for 11 nations initially, making the Lightning II the most cost-effective fighter program in history.

Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 with its principal industrial partners, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems. Two separate, interchangeable F-35 engines are under development: the Pratt & Whitney F135 and the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team F136.

Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2007 sales of $41.9 billion.


Photo of the Day



An MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to the "Blackjacks" of Helicopter Combat Support Squadron (HSC) 21 flies next to the fast combat support ship USNS Bridge (T-AOE 10) during an ammunition offload.

Gator