Welcome to MSW’s Scuttlebutt! Here’s the news for the day.
Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum
Today’s website is the Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum. Dedicated to collecting and preserving the history of the United States Life-Saving Service on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, the Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum also houses the unique and colorful history and heritage of Ocean City, Maryland. Enjoy.
Website
This Day in U.S. Naval History
1778 - Capt. John Paul Jones of Ranger leads a landing party raid on Whitehaven, England.
1898 - U.S. warships begin a blockade of Cuba.
1987 - The U.S. Navy is ordered to provide assistance to neutral vessels under Iranian attack outside the exclusion zone and that requested help.
Clinton Announces US Anti-Piracy Measures
Source: Voice of America news
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced on Wednesday a multi-pronged U.S. effort to curb Somali-based maritime piracy. Among other things, the United States will move to track and freeze assets of pirate gangs, and press Somali authorities to shut down pirate land bases.
Clinton says she hopes the surge of piracy in recent days, including attacks on two U.S.-flagged vessels, will be a catalyst for concerted action against pirates and bring an end to the acceptance of ransom-paying as a cost of doing business for shippers off the African east coast.
At the State Department, Clinton said the Obama administration intends to work diplomatically to tackle the piracy problem and to deal with the underlying instability in Somalia that gives rise to it.
She said she is sending an envoy to a conference on Somali peacekeeping and development that opens on April 23 in Brussels, and calling a meeting of the more than 30-nation international contact group on Somali piracy to coordinate an expanded international presence in the region to combat the threat.
Clinton said top U.S. priorities include securing the release of ships and crews currently held by Somali pirates, and eliminating the financial payoff of piracy by tracking and freezing the assets of pirate gangs.
"We track and freeze, and try to disrupt the assets of many stateless groups - drug traffickers and terrorists - just to name two. We have noticed that the pirates are buying more sophisticated equipment, they're buying faster and more capable vessels. They are clearly using their ransom money for their benefit both personally and on behalf of their piracy. And we think we can begin to try to track and prevent that from happening," she said.
The secretary said the poverty and instability in Somalia that underlie the piracy problem are not being forgotten. But depicting the surge of maritime hijackings as a raging fire, she said you "have to try to put out the fire before rebuilding the house."
Clinton said she has directed U.S. diplomats to engage officials of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and regional leaders of the autonomous Puntland region, where many pirates are based, to press them to take action against what she termed "armed gangs on the seas".
She said the transitional administration's new president, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, in particular, should be taken up on his expressed determination to curb lawlessness in his troubled country.
"We want to listen to them. The indications are that Sheikh Ahmed, the president of the Transitional Federal Government, understands that these pirates are a threat to the stability and order within Somalia that he is attempting to reassert. We want to hear from him and from other partners in the region what would be useful to help them," she said.
Clinton said the key to the problem is closing pirate land bases and said the United States "has a pretty good idea" where they are located.
She said she assumes that Somali tribal leaders would not like to have the international community "bearing down on them" and that they may be willing to cooperate in ridding their territory of the bases.
Clinton said the Obama administration will convene a high-level U.S. government interagency meeting on piracy this Friday.
USS Hartford Commanding Officer Relieved
Source: US Navy
MANAMA, Bahrain --- The commanding officer of USS Hartford (SSN 768) was relieved of command April 14 due to loss of confidence.
Rear Adm. Michael J. Connor, commander, Task Force 54 (CTF 54) and commander, Submarine Group 7, relieved the commanding officer of USS Hartford (SSN 768), Cmdr. Ryan Brookhart.
Connor expressed his loss of confidence in Brookhart's ability to command. Brookhart was in command of Hartford when the submarine collided with USS New Orleans (LPD 18) March 20, in the Strait of Hormuz. Although the investigations into the accident are not complete, Connor determined that there was enough information to make the leadership change.
Cmdr. Chris Harkins, deputy commander of Submarine Squadron 8, assumed command of Hartford April 14. Harkins previously commanded USS Montpelier (SSN 765).
Brookhart has been temporarily assigned to the CTF 54 staff in Bahrain.
Navair and Industry Team build Three F-5F Franken-Tigers
Source: US Naval Air Systems Command
NAVAIR, Patuxent River, Md. --- A NAVAIR and Northrop Grumman team designed and built three F-5F Franken-Tiger Adversary aircraft to meet an urgent Fleet requirement.
The F-5F Franken-Tiger was built using parts from a Navy two-seat F-5F Tiger II aircraft and from single-seat, former Swiss Air Force, F-5E aircraft.
“A Fleet requirement came into our office in late September 2005 asking for more F-5 Adversary pilots to staff a new squadron being established at Naval Air Station Key West, Florida.” said Jay Bolles, Adversary Aircraft program manager (PMA-207). “We needed a new two-seat trainer in order to meet this requirement.”
The four remaining Navy F-5F Tiger II’s were too costly to maintain, had very little service life left and needed to be retired, added Bolles. One of the Navy F-5Fs was lost in a mid-air collision on June 13, 2008 so there were only three left to convert.
“Our program office was already working with our industry partner to convert 41 newer, former Swiss Air Force F-5E aircraft and older Navy F-5E Adversary aircraft into new F-5Ns,” said Bolles. “So building the Franken-Tigers was a natural extension.”
This is how the Franken-Tigers were created, he said. “Very simply, we took the two-seat cockpit section and the tail section of the old Navy F-5Fs and bolted these on to the newer center section of the former Swiss F-5Es,” said Bolles. “The conversion work took approximately two years to complete and was a model of cooperation between NAVAIR and our industry partner, Northrop Grumman.
The Block I Avionics upgrade, the LN-260 Inertial Navigation Unit and the cockpit display unit was also included in the baseline configuration, vastly improving navigation and pilot situational awareness. We will deliver 41 F-5Ns and three F-5F Franken-Tigers on time and on budget.”
The first Franken-Tiger made its maiden flight on November 25, 2008 and was delivered to Marine Fighter Squadron, Training 401 (VMFT-401) at Marine Corps Air Station, Yuma, Ariz., on December 9, 2008.
The second Franken-Tiger was delivered to Fighter Composite Squadron 111 (VFC-111) at NAS Key West, Fla., in December 19, 2008 and the third is scheduled to be delivered to VFC-13 at NAS Fallon, Nev., in January 2010.
Photo of the Day
HMS Ocean transits the Suez Canal
Gator
