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



N.Korea Ready with Torpedo Sample Over Sunken Ship
Source: Radio Netherlands

North Korea said Tuesday it was ready to provide torpedo samples to back up its denial of responsibility for the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship.

It said aluminium alloy fragments salvaged by South Korea from the site of the sinking in March "prove themselves that the torpedo was not from the north".

North Korean torpedoes are "made of steel alloy material", not aluminum alloy made in other countries, the country's powerful National Defence Commission said.

North Korea said it was still willing to hand a steel alloy sample from its torpedoes to the United States and South Korea, in an official statement carried by the state Korean Central News Agency said.

The commission rejected as the "most hideous conspiratorial farce in history" the findings of a Seoul-led multinational probe which blamed a North Korean torpedo for the sinking near the disputed border in the Yellow Sea.

In September, South Korea concluded in a final report that a torpedo attack by a North Korean submarine sank the corvette and killed 46 sailors.

As material evidence, the South presented aluminium fragments allegedly from a North Korean torpedo.


U.S. Navy Seeks to Buy Warships from Both Bidders
Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON --- The U.S. Navy said it is in talks with lawmakers and industry about buying 10 new warships from each Lockheed Martin Corp. and Australia's Austal instead of buying just 10 ships from one company, a move that would expand the U.S. naval fleet faster.

Navy spokesman Commander Danny Hernandez, confirming reports by sources familiar with the plan, said the new approach would help stabilize the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program and the shipbuilding industrial base, while also expanding prospects for sales to foreign countries.

He said the Navy would proceed with its current plan to buy a single design of the new ships if Congress or industry were unwilling to support the new approach, adding: "Either approach will ensure the Navy procures affordably priced ships."

Sources familiar with the matter said the Navy decided to change course given lower-than-expected pricing in the competing bids for the new warships. They said the new approach would give the Navy more bang for its buck and help avert any time-consuming contract protests by the losing bidder.

The Navy ultimately plans to buy 55 of the new modular warships that will operate close to shore, a key part of its drive to expand the naval fleet to at least 313 ships.

The current plan to buy 10 ships from one bidder, plus computer systems forfive more to be built by a second shipyard, had been valued at well over $5 billion. The sources said the Navy now believed it could buy 20 ships for the price it had expected to pay for those 15 ships.




World War II U.S. Navy Armed Guard

Today’s website is World War II U.S. Navy Armed Guard. Enjoy.


This Day in U.S. Naval History

1917 - USS Fanning (DD 37) and USS Nicholson (DD-52) sink first enemy submarine, U-58, off Milford Haven, Wales.
1924 - USS Langley (CV 1), first aircraft carrier, reports for duty.
1941 - Congress amends Neutrality Act to allow U.S. merchant ships to be armed. Navy's Bureau of Navigation directs Navy personnel with Armed Guard training to be assigned for further training before going to Armed Guard Centers for assignment to merchant ships.
1955 - Navy sets up Special Projects Office under Rear Adm. William Raborn, USN, to develop a solid propellant ballistic missile for use in submarines.


Photo of the Day



An SM-3 (Block 1A) missile is launched from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer JS Kirishima (DD 174), successfully intercepting a ballistic missile target.

Gator