Come On, Texas: The USS Texas (BB-35) Graphic Novel (and chance to help LSOZI)

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The good folks at Mozuma are behind a 130-page hardcover graphic novel that will serve as a tribute to a vessel that is true to our hearts, the world’s last surviving dreadnought, our beloved USS Texas (Battleship No. 35).

Set to fund on November 25th, backers through this link https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mozuma/come-on-texas?ref=warshipwednesday will also benefit us here at LSOZI, allowing us to help keep making you great Warship Wednesday content.

We are a small team (one old man, writing into the night for you guys and posterity), and hosting is expensive.

So go get yourself a great novel (Christmas is coming up, guys; you can always gift the book forward) about a great ship whose story needs to be carried on to new generations. In doing so, we get a small slice to help with hosting.

Also, I’ll be working with Mozuma on a limited-edition Warship Wednesday coin as well, so be on the lookout for that.

Thanks!

‘AVTN-68’ Completes First Cat and Trap Evolution

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Since switching homeports in an epic way from Bremerton to Norfolk this summer, with elements of CVW-17 aboard just in case she was needed off Cuba or Venezuela, the 51-year-old USS Nimitz has shifted gears to training, a sort of unofficial re-rate to AVTN-68, leaving her old Carrier Strike Group 11 behind on the West Coast.

Last month, her sister, USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), left Norfolk for Newport News Shipbuilding to begin her multi-year Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH) midlife maintenance and modernization phase, which is expected to run until November 2031-ish.

That left HST’s regular air group, the historic Carrier Air Wing 1, without a deck to call home and Carrier Strike Group 8 without its namesake carrier.

Enter Nimitz, who, along with the “Gladiators” of Fleet Replenishment Squadron VFA-106, hosted CVW-1 squadrons and the budding aviators of Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA) Air Wings 1 and 2 for a week of underway carrier evolutions with CSG-8.

A T-45C Goshawk, attached to Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA) Training Air Wing 2, approaches the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) for landing during student naval aviator carrier qualifications in the Atlantic Ocean, Nov. 4, 2026. Nimitz is underway in the U.S. 2nd Fleet area of operations in support of Commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic training and readiness. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Alyssa J. Boling)

Aircraft conduct flight ops onboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) while underway in the Atlantic Ocean, October 28, 2026. Nimitz is currently underway in the Atlantic as a part of Carrier Strike Group 8. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Recruit Adam Sytkowski.)

During the overall underway, Nimitz supported 103 sorties, 442 arrested landings, and 152 touch-and-goes, ranging from assorted Rhinos and Hawkeyes to T-45Cs, a platform that is sadly on its way out.

Slated to remain in service until at least March, when the “99 percent complete” JFK comes online, the Queen of the Fleet will likely have a few more training flights in the next four months.

A close thing indeed

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Folks often forget just how close Rommel and the gang came to knocking the British out of North Africa in late 1941.

The haunting image below is from 85 years ago this month.

A Panzerkampfwagen III (Pz.Kpfw. III) of the 15. Panzer-Division moves forward in North Africa just east of besieged Tobruk as a British truck burns, November 1941.

One of just two Panzer divisions in North Africa at the time (along with the 21st), the unit’s 8th Panzer Regiment had upwards of 105 Panzer IIIs in November, the division’s most common tank, balanced with a smattering of Panzer IIs and IVs.

Afrika Korps PzKpfw IV Ausf. D Pz. Rgt. 8, 15th Panzer Division, Tobruk, 1941

Sent to Libya in April 1941 to join the Deutsches Afrikakorps (DAK), the brand-new 15. PzDiv was formed up in Tripoli and moved to the front lines by June, under the soon-to-perish Generalmajor Walter Neumann-Silkow, who wore two Iron Crosses earned in the trenches of the Great War.

When the British Eighth Army under Lt. Gen. Alan Gordon Cunningham (who picked up a DSO and MC himself during the Great War) kicked off Operation Crusader on 18 November to lift the siege of Tobruk, it had 770 tanks, including many new Crusader Cruisers and American M3 Stuarts. By comparison, Rommel had fewer than 500 tanks, with over half being poorly armed Italian models.

The 15. PzDiv took a great mauling over the next six weeks, losing at least 435 killed, 1,361 wounded, and 1,820 missing out of its 5,300~ men, with Neumann-Silkow picking up a posthumous upgrade to lieutenant general.

By Christmas, the division, which started Crusader with 146 operational panzers, had only 31 Panzer IIIs and IVs remaining, plus an additional 12 light Panzer IIs, on its order of battle.

While rebuilt under Rommel, the 15. PzDiv ceased to exist after surrendering in Tunisia in May 1943.

Armistice Day in the Bay, 1936 edition

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In honor of Veterans Day, which was Armistice Day from 1918 to 1954, here’s a short Warship Wednesday.

Remember, today isn’t about saving 20 percent on select bedding or a free buffet at the local hog trough.

Below we see, some 90 years ago today, on 11 November 1936, a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier and four battleships at anchor beside San Francisco’s Bay Bridge.

Official caption: “Navy’s Men ‘O War in Shadow of Bay Bridge. Infrared films penetrated a deep haze to catch this picture of five of Uncle Sam’s fighting ships at anchor in the shadow of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge, recently opened to traffic. The picture was taken on the San Francisco side of the great bridge.”

Acme News picture via the San Francisco Public Library, local identifier AAD-2295.

Pictured are the Lexington-class flattop USS Saratoga (CV-3), recognizable by the vertical stripe she carried on her huge 16-funneled stack between Fleet Problem IX in early 1929 and March 1941, when she picked up the first of three camo schemes she would carry during WWII, a simple Measure 1 Dark Gray (5-D) on vertical surfaces, with Light Gray (5-L).

In the foreground is a New York-class battleship, either NY herself or USS Texas, recognized by the distinctive tripodal mainmast, single funnel, and five twin 14-inch main gun turrets. As NY was off the East Coast at the time, this must be Texas.

The middle and background battlewagons are Colorado– (USS Colorado, Maryland, and West Virginia) or visually similar Tennessee– (Tennessee and California) class, as distinguished by their tripod or lattice cage masts and twin funnels.

A postcard of the above, from a slightly different vantage point, was published shortly after, with Sara and three BBs.

Stanley A. Piltz postcard of Saratoga and the newly opened San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, November 1936

Passing through the Bay that week, under the incomplete Golden Gate Bridge, included USS Arizona (BB-39), followed by USS Nevada (BB-36), Maryland (BB-46), and Texas (BB-35) at a minimum. They also had Sara, her sister Lexington, and the newly completed Ranger (CV-4).

Talk about a proper fleet!

Battleships of the U.S. Fleet entering San Francisco Bay, 10 November 1936. Note the unfinished Golden Gate Bridge. NH 63348

A total of 12 battleships were assigned to the Pacific Battle Force at this time, divided across four battleship divisions (BATDIVs):

Battleships Assigned to the Pacific (November 1936)

Division Battleships Main Battery
Battleship Division 1

USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

 

USS Arizona (BB-39)

 

USS Nevada (BB-36)

 14-inch guns
Battleship Division 2

USS Tennessee (BB-43)

 

USS California (BB-44)

 

USS Oklahoma (BB-37)

 14-inch guns
Battleship Division 3

USS Idaho (BB-42)

 

USS Mississippi (BB-41)

 

USS New Mexico (BB-40)

 14-inch guns
Battleship Division 4

USS Colorado (BB-45)

 

USS Maryland (BB-46)

 

USS West Virginia (BB-48)

 16-inch guns

The First Indonesian Aircraft Carrier is Not Just a Trojan Flattop

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The Italian Harrier carrier ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi (C 551) was built by Fincantieri in Monfalcone in the early 1980s and commissioned in September 1985.

At 14,150 tons and 591 feet overall, she could carry as many as 18 aircraft, a mix of Harriers and helos.

Italian Navy ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi (C-551) with nine AV-8B Harrier IIs and one Sea King on the flight deck carrier

During her 39-year-and-1-day career with the Italian fleet, she saw active combat with her AV-8B IIs thrice: Kosovo (1999, 30 sorties including warshot Mk 82 GBU-16 bombs and AGM-65 Maverick missiles), OEF Afghanistan (December 2001 to March 2002, 288 sorties) and Libya (2011, dropped 160 Mk82s across 1,221 flight hours).

Garibaldi was the Amphibious Task Force Commander Landing Force in Norway in 2024

Augmented in 2008 by the STOVL F-35B-capable ITS Cavour (CVH 550) and replaced by the 33,000-ton ITS Trieste (L 9890), she was decommissioned on 1 October 2024.

Given to Indonesia as a grant after two years in ordinary service, Garibaldi departed Taranto for Indonesia on the evening of 24 August 2026 under the Italian flag and arrived in Indonesia on 20 September, swapping flags four days later when she became KRI Sriwijaya (100), commissioned by TNI Commander General Agus Subiyanto in Tanjung Priok. Her voyage included 100 selected Indonesian Navy personnel and a training team of Italian specialists from DRASS, led by retired ADM Liborio Palmombella.

Sriwijaya’s escorts will be four Balaputradewa-class frigates, a licensed British Arrowhead Type 31 variant currently under construction by PT PAL, equipped with 64 VLS cells loaded with a mix of Turkish HISAR MR and SIPER LRs.

Operational

With a reduced 400-man crew (the Italians ran 550 plus embarked air group), she has been conducting rotor operations underway in the past couple of weeks with, first, AS565 MBe Panther ASW aircraft of Skadron Udara 100, then Bell 412EP medivac aircraft of Skadron Udara 400, and four big AS332 Super Pumas and H225Ms of Skadron Udara 8.

The exercise also covered several advanced flight techniques, including high-altitude reconnaissance (High Recce) and low-altitude reconnaissance (Low Recce), simulated approaches without touching the ship’s deck (Dummy Approach), brief landings followed by immediate takeoffs (Touch and Go), and full-stop landings (Full Stop).

Drone carrier use?

The Navy also plans to carry Turkish Bayraktar TB3 combat UAVs in the future (60 are on order), which are also planned for Turkey’s local flat-top, the LHD Anadolu. 

Speaking of Turkish drone tech, a Bayraktar TB2 last week did a proof-of-concept evolution carrying 16 Skydagger FPV one-way kamikaze drones underwing, and loosed two on a profile that led to successful attacks.

A Bayraktar TB2 medium-altitude long-endurance tactical UCAV configured as an airborne mothership carrying 16 Skydagger FPV kamikaze drones (eight under each wing) during a test in Keşan, Edirne, Türkiye.

Should we mention that the RN recently tested its first offensive drones from HMS Queen Elizabeth? 

Could Indonesia be the last Harrier operator?

The country’s CNO, Admiral TNI Muhammad Ali, also said there could be plans to add Harriers back to the carrier. Keep in mind that the Italians and Spaniards still operate the last pool and plan to retire them in just a few years.

“Yes, the hope is like that. If the Navy wants it to be like that. But it depends on the budget conditions and others,” Ali said when asked by reporters about the plan to target Harrier fighter aircraft for aircraft carriers at Tanjung Priok Port, North Jakarta, in September.

85 Years Ago: SAS Cleared Hot

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Below, signed 10 November 1941, is the Eight Army order for Operation Squatter, the first SAS mission, which was to be executed on the 16th-18th November, with men drawn from “L” Section, 1 S.A.S. Bde.

Conceived by Lt. David Stirling, the 57-man raid began with a clandestine parachute drop via five twin-engined Bristol Bombay transports behind Axis lines to destroy German and Italian aircraft on the ground at forward airfields (Gazala and Timimi), in support of the planned British Operation Crusader offensive.

SAS volunteers jumping from steel gantries while undergoing parachute training at Kabrit, Egypt. 7 November 1941. Smith, Albert Norman Mitchell and Clements, Harold John K.P., No. 1 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit. IWM (E 6390)

SAS volunteers emplane into an RAF Bristol Bombay transport aircraft prior to a practice jump while undergoing parachute training at Kabrit, Egypt. 7 November 1941. Smith, Albert Norman Mitchell and Clements, Harold John K.P. No. 1 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit. IWM (E 6404)

While it sounds classic North Africa SAS, Squatter was an absolute failure, with one Bombay lost, killing 15 operators right off the bat, and the rest of the force scattered across intractable desert during a freak desert gale and rainstorm, their surviving explosives soaked and useless. Just 22 survivors managed to ex-fil on foot in some 36 hours to a rendezvous point with the LRDG, while everyone else was killed or captured.

Post-Squatter, the SAS took a cue from the LRDG and switched from paradrops to trucks and jeeps, which proved key later, such as in Paddy Mayne’s wildly successful Tamet Airfield Raid the next month and the 18-jeep Sidi Haneish Airfield Raid the following July, by which time the force had grown to some 400 men.

Colonel David Stirling, founder of the Special Air Service, with an SAS jeep patrol in North Africa, 18 January 1943. Keating, Geoffrey John, No. 1 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit. IWM (E 21338)

The SAS was disbanded at the end of the war, but reformed as a Territorial unit in 1947—21st Battalion, Special Air Service Regiment (Artists Rifles)—and was formally added to the Army list as the 22nd SAS in 1952.

Based at Hereford since 1960, the Regiment’s boathouse color has gone on to live its own life.

Happy 251st, USMC

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Washington, D.C. Six Marines with rifles and fixed bayonets at the Navy Yard. LC-DIG-cwpb-04148

For 251 years, Marines have stood ready to fight and win our Nation’s battles.

From the early days of the American Revolution to today’s engagements, the Marine Corps has served as a decisive naval and amphibious force, projecting power, defending our interests, and helping turn the tide in conflicts around the world. Across every clime and place, Marines remain ready to be the first to fight whenever and wherever our Nation needs them.

As America’s 9-1-1 force, the Marine Corps continues to set the standard for readiness, resolve, and warfighting excellence.

Semper Fidelis & Happy Birthday, Marines!

PD has Historic Great War Machine Gun Frozen in Limbo

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A small town police department in Ohio has had a rare machine gun in its collection for years and wants to pass it on to a museum but can’t.

Sheffield Lake, Ohio (pop. 8,950) is about 35 miles west of Cleveland on the shores of Lake Erie. The town’s 12-officer police department has kept an old belt-fed machine gun in its basement since 1989.

Found during a welfare check, the circa 1918 Colt Vickers WWI aircraft machine gun was impounded because it was not legally registered with the ATF, and the agency has had it ever since.

The Colt Vickers in question. (Photo: Sheffield Lake PD)

And, while the department would be okay passing it on to a museum intact, that isn’t a thing right now.

Around 2022, SLPD contacted the ATF, which advised that it would have to be destroyed or demilitarized by cutting it, even if it were donated to a museum.

“Given its historical significance, that was not an option we were willing to pursue,” the SLPD noted.

Next they tried the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton.

“Because it is a federal institution, we were hopeful there might be a lawful avenue to preserve and transfer the firearm intact. Unfortunately, those discussions ultimately did not result in a transfer,” said the department.

They are currently trying to find a home for it with the Smithsonian and hope it works out.

“We don’t want to destroy it or cut it apart. This firearm has survived intact since approximately 1918. Everything still appears to function, and the components appear to be original,” said the department. “And since the Sheffield Lake Police Department has no plans for an armed aircraft anytime soon, our goal isn’t to use it. Our goal is to preserve it.”

What is the Colt Vickers?

Developed by Hiram Maxim about 1904, the 33-pound Vickers gun (not counting the weight of the tripod and ammo) was put into production at Kent, England, that year and, by 1915, was in low-rate licensed production at Colt in the U.S. With a relatively slow (450-550 rpm) rate of fire, the water-cooled gun was steady and reliable, especially in sustained fire, and is still encountered in Third World service.

Vickers ground machine guns seen at Camp Hancock, Augusta, Georgia, with officers of the 28th U.S. Infantry Division in January 1918. With water and tripod, the Vickers tipped the scales at over 90 pounds. (Photo: U.S. Army 111-SC-002670 via National Archives.)

Some 12,125 Colt Vickers Model of 1915 ground machine guns were produced, chambered in .30-06 Springfield, with 2,888 later converted into 28-pound forward-firing aircraft machine guns.

The conversion modified the water-filled cooling jacket with air-cooling slots and synchronized it to fire through the propeller without hitting it. One such Colt Vickers is seen here at the Fort Rucker Army Aviation Museum. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Two such guns were mounted under a hump on the forward fuselage of the Snoopy-famous Sopwith Camel, one of the era’s best fighter aircraft, seen here at the Fort Rucker Army Aviation Museum. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Used extensively by British and allied forces in the Great War, the Vickers was one of several aerial guns in service with American forces by 1918, but was all but extinct by WWII.

A close-up view of several types of machine guns used in the Great War by the US Army: an air-cut Vickers, an aviation Marlin-Rockwell M1895-18, and a Browning LMG. U.S. Army Ordnance Department photo, circa 1918, via the National Archives.

Still, it is nice to see that one of these historic guns, trapped in limbo, is at least treading water and is, for now, safe from the torch. Perhaps a future federal machine gun amnesty or further NFA reform could allow it to find a forever home, intact.

A whiff of gunpowder in the Poconos

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While passing through the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania recently on an industry trip, I recalled a fierce battle fought some 110 years ago.

During the late summer of 1916, the “blue” gentlemen volunteers of the Yale Battery, after spending weeks learning their trade while school was out, drilling by day and attending military science classes until 9:30 p.m. each night, put their 3-inch guns to work, defending their ground around the Tobyhanna Artillery Range (now Army Depot) against a “red” foe.

As noted by the NYT

An invading force, which was making a drive through the Pocono Mountains to capture the military stores on the Government reservation at Tobyhanna, was scattered this morning by the artillery fire of Battery B, one of the crack batteries of Yale men who have been taught in six weeks of seventeen-hour days to handle three-inch guns, find ranges and fire accurately on targets hidden from the gunners.

First stood up in 1915 as Europe burned at war, the all-volunteer Yale Battery robbed the school’s football and baseball teams of some of its best prospects, whose free time was spent thinking about battle. Eventually, some 500 undergrads donned uniforms and studied field artillery.

Among their military science professors were U.S. Army regulars, Captains Robert Melville Danford (USMA 1904) and Sherman Miles (USMA ’05), the latter the son of Gen. Nelson A. Miles of Plains Wars fame and grandson of William Tecumseh Sherman. Importantly, Miles served from 1912 to 1914 as a military attaché in the Balkans, observing the combat there against the Ottomans; then, during the Great War served as a military observer in Russia until 1916.

By early 1916, the Yale men formed four batteries, A, B, C, and D, in the Connecticut National Guard’s 10th Field Artillery Regiment, with Danford as a NG Colonel and Miles as a NG Lt. Colonel. They had a set of M1895 Mountain guns for campus drill hall use back at New Haven and 3-inch M1902 field pieces (later donated French 75s) while away at camp.

165-WW-124F-037

Yale Battery at Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania. 1917. The 10th Regiment, F.A., Connecticut, N.G., had four batteries made up of Yale men—A, B, C, and D. They were in camp from July to September 1917. 165-WW-124F-021

Yale University. Battery of American Mountain guns on the firing platform of Artillery Hall, manned by a group of Yale R.O.T.C. members. New Haven, Connecticut. 1917. 165-WW-124F-032

By late 1917, the French ambassador presented them with four actual battle-used French 75s, and the school augmented them with four fake “quaker” guns and caissons for drill purposes. By that time, the school was one of the first ROTC units in the country, with Danford in command.

165-WW-124F-001

By the fall of 1917, only one Letterman remained on campus, the sporting interest almost exclusively being on the Batteries.

Approximately 9,500 to 10,000 Yale students, faculty, and alumni served in the Great War, with 227 students dying in the conflict.

NARA’s catalog includes a tremendous number of images of the Yale Battery.

Today, Yale has separate Army, Navy (Bulldog Battalion), and Air Force (Detachment 009) ROTC programs, but fewer than 100 students are enrolled across all three combined. For what it is worth, the campus only rejoined ROTC in 2012, after disbanding its units in 1972 during the protests over the Vietnam War.

As for the Battery’s instructors, after the Great War, Danford continued to serve in high-profile assignments, including Commandant of Cadets at West Point, and was Chief of Field Artillery as a major general during World War II. He passed in 1974, aged 95. Miles served in France during the Meuse–Argonne Offensive, spent much of the interwar years as an attaché and (controversially) in MID, then served in WWII as a major general over the First Service Command in Boston. He died in 1966 at age 83.

Burke Repair! Get Your (Overseas) Burke Repair!

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NORFOLK, Va. (May 16, 2026) – Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mahan (DDG 72) returns to Naval Station Norfolk, May 16, 2026, following a historic 11-month deployment to U.S. 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Fleets as part of the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group. During their historic deployment across four fleets, the crew of Mahan conducted 19 replenishments-at-sea and executed 25 sea and anchor details. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist David Smalls, III)

The U.S. Navy has 75 active Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, 10 under construction, and 13 more on order, for a planned total of 99. Without a doubt, they are the backbone of the Fleet, which only has about 115 active surface combatants of all types (DDG, LCS, CG).

However, on the current 36-month OFRP block, each of these active ships needs to undergo a 6-8 month Selected Restricted Availability (SRA/DSRA), including a dry-docking every five years or so, and shorter 2-4 weeks-long Continuous Maintenance Availabilities (CMAV).

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 36-Month OFRP Cycle Rotation │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
│
├── 1. Maintenance Phase (Approx. 6–7 Months)
│ • Selected Restricted Availability (SRA)
│ • Drydocking Selected Restricted Availability (DSRA)
│
├── 2. Basic Training Phase (Approx. 4–5 Months)
│ • Systems integration, unit-level certifications
│
├── 3. Integrated Phase (Approx. 2–3 Months)
│ • Strike Group integration exercises (COMPTUEX)
│
├── 4. Deployment Phase (7–8 Months standard)
│ • Overseas combatant command deployment
│
└── 5. Sustainment Phase (Remaining months)
• High-readiness surge state; routine pierside repairs (CMAVs)

Then, with old ships at mid-life, an 18-24 month DDG MOD 2.0 Modernization is on the table, followed by at least a final SLEP at the 30-year mark. Keep in mind that Burke herself is 35 years old and still going strong. 

It looks something like this when you put it together:

Timeline / Ship Age Maintenance Milestone Primary Focus & Scope
Years 5–10 First Major DSRA Structural hull inspection, tank preservation, shaft pulling, sonar dome maintenance, and Baseline Aegis software/hardware upgrades.
Years 15–20 Mid-Life Mid-Period Availability (MPA) Major machinery overhaul, generator refurbishments, habitability upgrades, and combat system patch updates.
Years 20–25 DDG MOD 2.0 / Modernization Overhaul Comprehensive mid-life modernization lasting 18 to 24 months. Includes structural retrofits, installing modern combat systems (e.g., Aegis Baseline 9/10), SEWIP Block III electronic warfare suites, upgraded SPY radar arrays, and major hull/mechanical refreshes.
Years 30–35+ Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) Deep structural hull/piping repairs, main reduction gear re-alignments, and system overhauls to extend operational readiness beyond the original 35-year design life out to 40+ years.

Now multiply that by 75 hulls (soon to be 99), and you get the idea of why the Navy has maintenance backlogs.

While only two shipyards make Burkes (Ingalls at Pascagoula and Bath in Maine), just three East Coast yards (BAE Systems Norfolk, General Dynamics NNS, and BAE Systems Jacksonville), and four West Coast yards (General Dynamics NASSCO, BAE Systems San Diego, Continental Maritime of San Diego, and Vigor in Seattle) do almost all the maintenance work.

The Navy’s four public yards prioritize nuclear ships (CVNs, SSBNs, SSGNs, and SSNs) and have no bandwidth for DDGs.

Forward-deployed tin cans get a shorter refresh at Navantia (five Rota-based FDNF Europe destroyers in 6th Fleet) and via SRF-JRMC (10 7th Fleet DDGs of DESRON 15 at Japanese yards such as Sumitomo and Mitsubishi). Don’t be surprised to see 7th Fleet tin cans in South Korean yards at some point in the near future as well.

With that being said, there are changes afoot to help alleviate the maintenance burden on CONUS yards.

Navantia recently started including drydocking in its maintenance schedule, the first since the 2014 arrival of FDNF-E destroyers.

Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) sits in dry dock at Navantia Shipyard in Cadiz Oct. 8, 2026. The evolution marks the first dry docking of a U.S. Navy warship in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations since the arrival of Forward Deployed Naval Forces-Europe destroyers and expands forward-deployed maintenance capability and readiness generation. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jett Morgan)

Likewise, the Forward Deployed Regional Maintenance Center (FDRMC) recently completed a week-long pier-side voyage repair period in Mombasa, Kenya, aboard the destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71), marking the first U.S. Navy ship maintenance availability in Mombasa in recent years. Ross is part of the George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group and had been deployed for six months when it swung by Mombasa.

A rough Ross arriving in Mombasa, 5 September 2026. 260905-N-NO901-1002

A more trim Ross leaving Mombasa, 10 September 2026. 260910-O-N0901-1001

With 350 military and civilian personnel based out of Naples, FDRMC is a globe-trotting group able to roam around 5th and 6th Fleet areas and use friendly ports for short repairs. Such groups will be invaluable in any Pacific war (or continued Middle East war with Bahrain vorboten), and more should be stood up. Pronto.

Speaking of which, Austal USA launched AFDM 15 this summer, the U.S. Navy’s first Auxiliary Floating Dry Dock Medium built in more than 40 years. The dock can service DDGs, CGs, LCSs, & LSDs, etc.

The Navy had 14 such AFDMs during the Cold War, but now AFDM-15 is the only one, with no more on order.

As Salamander says, that is a crime, and at least four should be bought, as a minimum.

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