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    Turkey Gets It, Acquires F-35s. Obama Administration Doesn’t.

    The Turkish government understands what the Obama Administration does not: Acquiring the American-made F-35 fighter jet is the most effective way to claim supremacy of the skies. Yesterday, Turkey’s Defense Industry Implementation Committee announced the purchase of two Lockheed Martin F-35s. Turkey had put its F-35 order on hold in … More

    Navy Buys Biofuels for $15 Per Gallon From Stimulus-Linked Firm

    A California company has been hired to provide 450,000 gallons of advanced biofuels to the U.S. Navy – the “single largest purchase of biofuel in government history,” according to the Navy – at $15 per gallon, or about four times the market price of conventional jet fuel. The Institute for … More

    The Return of the Zumwalt Guided-Missile Destroyers

    The U.S. Navy has approved contracts to finish building the hulls of the second and third ships of the Zumwalt class of guided-missile destroyers being constructed at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Maine. The $1.8 billion contract will also fund systems integration of the DDG-1001 Michael Monsoor and DDG-1002. … More

    U.S. Ship for Philippines a Good Start, But Much More to Be Done

    Today, upon inspecting the Philippine navy’s newest flagship, the 115-meter Gregario del Pilar, Philippine President Benigno Aquino declared that the ship “symbolises our newly acquired ability to guard, protect, and if necessary, fight for the interests of our country.” Vice Admiral Alexander Pama of the Philippine navy went further in … More

    Amphibious Forces Needed Around the Globe

    Forget “One if by land; two if by sea.” An Amphibious Ready Group can come at America’s enemies by land or sea—and in numbers much greater than ones and twos. These Navy–Marine task forces are deployed around the world to do everything from humanitarian assistance and refugee evacuation to combat … More

    The Founders on a Standing Navy: American Military Action Abroad (1783-1860)

    In 1794, President George Washington requested and Congress authorized the building of six frigates, a type of warship widely used at the time. The presence of a standing U.S. Navy was deemed necessary in order to defend American citizens and commerce from European wars and the Barbary Coast pirates. By … More

    Protecting Marriage and the Rule of Law

    The decision by the U.S. Navy to rescind new guidelines that would have permitted same-sex marriages to be performed in navy chapels in certain states is a simple recognition of the law of the land. The fact that the rescission came only after pressure from Members of Congress who wrote … More

    Happy 235th Birthday, U.S. Navy

    Today, the 235th birthday of the U.S. Navy, Heritage thanks all of America’s sailors and their families, retirees, and veterans. On October 13, 1775, Congress enacted legislation providing for the outfitting of America’s first two warships. While Navy missions have evolved significantly from searching for munitions ships supplying the British, … More

    Rethinking the Defense Budget…Yet Again

    Washington’s latest over-used phrase—“rethinking the defense budget”—has, for many policymakers, come to mean “what can we cut next?” On Tuesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs convened to identify solutions to tame the growing defense budget. The thinly veiled premise behind the hearing … More

    Another U.S. Shipyard to Close?

    Can it get any worse for the workers of Louisiana? In just a few short years, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the region; BP’s oil spill wrecked havoc with the fishing and tourism industry; and the government’s drilling moratorium is about to impact a significant segment of the Louisiana … More