A Fence for HMCS Carleton?

The Ottawa Citizen has an article about the controversy about putting a fence up around HMCS Carleton, Ottawa's Naval Reserve unit.

"If we fenced all around it would really take away from the façade," said Cooper. "We don't want people to bike by and think it's a POW compound." But, he said, in this era of heightened security, the ultimate decision will be made by the military police.

Navy considers swapping crews in Arctic

The Free Press has an article that says the Canadian Navy is considering swapping out crews mid-mission for ships on arctic patrols. The Canadian Coast Guard already does this.

Windsor Naval Reserve Division thinking of moving

The Windsor Star reports that HMCS Hunter, the local Naval Reserve Division, is considering moving house.

The Department of National Defence is negotiating with the Windsor Port Authority to lease the former Mill Cove Marina lands at the foot of Mill Street to build a new headquarters for the local naval reserve division.

Special Ops Submarines launch robots

Danger Room has an article about the various robots - flying, floating and diving- that are launched by US Navy special operations submarines.

Cdn Navy bans beards at sea

The Canadian Navy is banning beards at sea. Sailors will still be able to wear them on shore assignments.

“I know this decision may be difficult to accept, but it was not made lightly,” says Command Chief Petty Officer Robert Cleroux. “It was absolutely necessary for operational reasons. Facial hair, beards in particular, prevent a proper face-to-face-piece seal when wearing respiratory protection systems. When the argument boils down to safety versus tradition, the safety of our sailors must remain paramount in all of our decisions.”

CF Doctor / Diver retires after 40 years

The Ottawa Citizen has an article about Commander David Carpenter who is retiring from the Canadian Navy after 40 years service.

He wears the badge of a navy diver. The navy doesn't hand them out to people who learn from books. He was 34 when he decided to add hyperbaric medicine to his list of specialties. He went to diving school in Esquimalt, B.C. The waters of the North Pacific are bitterly cold and every day at diving school started with a swim of about a kilometre. They wore wetsuits and if any man failed to finish the course in 20 minutes, everybody had to work in the cold water without gloves for the rest of the day.

Dr. Carpenter decided he would never be the reason for his much younger classmates losing their gloves, and he kept that promise to himself.

CF diver passes course at 52

The Lookout reports that 52-year-old naval reservist OS Robert MacDonald has become the oldest person to pass the Ships Divers Course.

US Navy Patrol Boats

The Hampton Roads Pilot has an article about the US Navy's mid sized patrol craft which are used to patrol the Persian Gulf.

Pierside, the 170-foot patrol crafts cut a sleek and imposing profile, with several gun mounts and twin .50-caliber guns on either side. The ships were originally designed to carry Navy SEALs into coastal water and rivers, but the special warfare community replaced them about 10 years ago.

On the verge of Navy extinction, they found new life after 9/11. Since early in the Iraq war, the squadron has been part of a task force guarding Iraq's two major offshore oil platforms, which provide roughly 90 percent of the country's income.

Sailing on HMCS Fredericton

Te Daily Gleaner has a story written by one of their reporters who went on a trip on HMCS Fredericton. The article gives an idea of what it's like to live on a Canadian warship.

How hard was the shot?

Slate has an article about the difficult of the sniper shots made by US Navy SEALS when they shot 3 pirates holding a merchant ship captain in a lifeboat.

The short answer is: not very hard if you are a SEAL.

Followup: The Hampton-Roads Pilot has a related article about SEAL sniper training. It points out that today's SEALs are very experienced.

Special Ops Boats

Popular Mechanics has an article about the Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen, or SWCCs and their boats. There are some pictures as well as diagrams of the heavily armed river craft.

Unmanned patrol boats

The Washington Times has an article about the US Navy and its interest in unmanned patrol boats.

General Dynamics already has delivered two 11-meter drones for the Littoral Combat Ship.

The craft, which resemble bulked-up bass boats, "operate and support sensor systems, including [various] sonars," said company spokesman Karl Oskoian. He said they have "360-degree situational awareness," can handle 5,000-pound payloads and can operate for 24 hours straight.

Pirate Photos

The Big Picture has a page of photos of pirates operating off the coast of Somalia.

US shipping pirates to Kenya

The Hampton Roads Pilot has an article about US Navy anti-piracy operations off Somalia. the interesting thing is this paragraph:

Under a new agreement with the U.S. military, the suspects will be turned over to the Ken­yan government for prosecution, Murdoch said.

New US Navy Uniforms

The Hampton-Roads Pilot has an interactive feature on the new US Navy uniforms. The new working uniforms are a sort of blue camouflage which seems a bit strange on a ship but they explain that the camouflage pattern is to hide stains and dirt on the uniform rather than the wearer.

SEAL extraction video

This Youtube video shows some US Navy SEALS being extracted by helicopter. The amazing thing is that the helicopter basically lands in the water and the SEALS drive their small boat right up into the back.

US Small Boat Sailors

The Virginian Pilot has an article about the US Navy's Special Warfare Combatant Craft units, or SWCCs. These are the small boat sailors who deliver SEALS to their targets.

The article has an interesting picture of a small craft being hooked to the underneath of a helicopter.

USS Freedom

Danger Room has some articles (links below) about the new American littoral combat ship USS Freedom.

One, which has a picture of some of the workstations on the bridge, talks about how empty the ship seems. Another talks about the "hybrid sailors" that make of the crew - each is trained in multiple trades.

The Hampton Roads Pilot also has an article about the ship (with a small slide show of pictures). The article discusses the ships capabilities:

Combined with a semi-planed monohull and a mere 14-foot draft, which drops to 8 feet at higher speeds, the ship can practically fly across the water, as it did Monday on its way south. A black burp of diesel fumes wafted overhead, the Bay churning gray and white behind it. Top speed for the day: 47.2 knots.

Mentions the empty space:

On board, roughly 40 percent of the 379-foot ship is empty space, designed to accommodate myriad "modules" in a plug-and-play system. These modules vary by mission - for enemies on the surface, in the air or under water - and can live on the ship's flight deck or water-line deck.

And discusses the crew responsibilities:

With such a small crew, everyone has multiple jobs.

Lt. Rob Briggs, for example, is the ship's main propulsion assistant. He's also trained as a navigator and helps drive the ship. And he helps clean it and he does his own dishes after he eats, just like everyone from the commanding officer on down.

Chinese Hospital Ship

Danger Room reports that the Chinese Navy have commissioned a hospital ship and then wonders what it is really for.

Australian Navy gets 62 day Christmas break

The Guardian reports that the Royal Australian Navy (except for deployed units) will get two months off for Christmas.

Commanders have ordered all ships not on overseas operations to return to port over the holiday, while docked vessels would have only a skeleton crew to maintain on-board security.