Category Archives: US Navy

The DOD’s 1981 Handgun Holdings

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According to the House Subcommittee on Investigations at the time, in July 1981, there were 412,339 .45 caliber pistols and 127,745 .38 caliber revolvers in the inventories of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps.

The last procurement of the .45 caliber pistol occurred in 1945. Since that time, the existing inventory has been maintained by rebuilding and reconditioning the worn weapons. Department of Defense witnesses testified that $1.5 million is currently budgeted for the procurement of replacement components for those handguns. They also testified that “field reports indicate that it is reaching the end of its maintainable life.”

The NYT, the previous month, gave the figure as a slightly different 418,000 .45s and 136,000 .38s, which may include guns in USCG inventory not otherwise captured by Navy figures.

As you can see in the article, even then, the Army speculated on selling the surplus guns to the public via the CMP (at the time run by the Army directly under DCM).

Of course, it would take four years before Beretta 92F became the M9 and 37 years before CMP sold the first batch of surplus 1911s to the public in 2018, but I digress.

Texas closer to coming home; Pelican Island in trouble?

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The Battleship Texas Foundation announced this week that it has finalized an agreement with the Galveston Wharves Board securing Pier 15 as the two-world-wars champ’s future new home.

They still have lots of steps to accomplish in the next several months to move the ship from the yard and make her ready to open to the public in 2026:

  • Final engineering of the mooring system
  • Permitting by the US Army Corps of Engineers and other regulatory bodies
  • Dredging the Pier 15 berth
  • Finalize plans for shoreside facilities
  • Construction of the moorings and other infrastructure

Even then, the (re)birth of the new Texas naval museum site may be the death of another.

The battlewagon’s old home, in the mud pond of the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site, was a good 45 minutes away from Galveston– an hour in Houston traffic.

The new site will be just 7 short miles from Pelican Island, the home since 1971 of the Galveston Naval Museum, a small and unsung facility that hosts one of the last remaining Edsall class destroyer escorts, USS Stewart (DE-238), and the “Lucky Lady,” USS Cavalla (SS-244)— the Gato class fleet boat best known for sinking the Japanese aircraft carrier Shokaku, one of the last Pearl Harbor attackers run to ground. She carries a streamlined SSK conversion superstructure from her Cold War service.

They also have the sail of the Sturgeon-class hunter-killer USS Tautog (SSN-639) and the still very WWII-esque Fleet Snorkel-converted conning tower of the Balao-class fleet boat USS Carp (SS-338), making the museum one of the few places where one can see the difference between three different submarine classes spanning from 1941 to 2005.

The move of Texas to Galveston could be a boon to the smaller ASW-focused museum nearly next door, with visitors coming specifically to see the battleship, then hitting the destroyer-sub museum as a side quest. I wish this to be the case.

However, I can vouch for the rapid decline in interest by a family accompanying dad to see old warships in humid southern seaports, and the side quest may end up being a quest too far. Warship museum burnout can be a thing.

That just leaves Stewart and Cavalla to possibly see their would-be visitors cannibalized by the much more impressive (and better located) Texas. Could you have taken the USS Drum seven miles from the USS Alabama and run it as a viable separate museum? I doubt it. Plus, as both of the Pelican Island vessels have been ashore for years, moving them closer to Texas to combine the museums is also likely a logistical no-go.

Again, I hope the latter is not the case.

Visit them while you can, please!

Shandong hits 10,000

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Chinese state media has been puffing out the fact that the PLAN’s new flattop, Shandong (17), has achieved a significant milestone, hitting “nearly 10,000 sorties” since her commissioning in December 2019, just over five and a half years ago.

Shandong also recently called at Hong Kong, along with the destroyer Zhanjiang and frigate Yuncheng, to celebrate the anniversary of the handover from British control.

With part of her airwing on deck, the PLAN opened the ship to thousands of carefully screened local visitors, giving a good view of this rare carrier, the pride of the ChiCom fleet. Of note, the last American flattop to be allowed to call at Hong Kong, one of the best libo ports in the world, was USS Ronald Reagan in 2018.

That “nearly 10,000 sorties” claim on Shandong is pretty significant. A figure of about five sorties per day, every day, since joining the fleet.

The 70,000-ton Type 002 STOBAR carrier uses Shenyang J-15 STOVL jets, which take off via a ski jump and are recovered, like her Changhe Z-18 and Harbin Z-9 helicopters, vertically. As she only has a 30-aircraft wing, less than half the amount of aircraft found in a full-strength U.S. Navy CVW, that is a bit over 300 sorties per airframe in 68 months. Of course, we don’t know if the “10,000” figure is both a launch and a recovery or is either a launch or a recovery on its own, but you get the idea.

To compare how many sorties that is, USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63) hit her 10,000th arrested landing (trap) on 7 January 1963, which was just 618 days after her commissioning on 29 April 1961. This doesn’t cover cats and launches.

The 11,000-ton Independence-class light carrier USS San Jacinto (CVL-30) flew 11,120 combat sorties (on 309 offensive missions) in 471 days of combat during WWII– with a 30-aircraft airwing!

USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) celebrated her 60,000th arrested landing on 28 April 1966, just shy of her 5th commissioning anniversary. She saw her 10,000th strike mission flown over Vietnam the next day. During 1995, with a smaller airwing than in 1966 and at a time of (relative post-Cold War) peace, Enterprise recorded 6,879 fixed wing aircraft traps, (5,250 day and 1,629 night), together with 760 helo landings, (599 day and 161 night), facilitating over 600 pilot qualifications– and that doesn’t cover the cats and launches.

The 60,000-ton USS Coral Sea (CV-43) saw over 16,000 cats and 10,800 strikes just during her epic 331-day 1965 Vietnam deployment alone.

Even with all of the publicly acknowledged problems with the new EMALS and AAG systems on the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), she marked her 10,000th cat and trap on 25 June 2022, just shy of her fifth birthday, with the vessel in limited post-delivery tests and trials during much of that time.

The Navy has publicly posted that the Nimitz-class has a daily sortie rate of 120 aircraft (240 under 24-hour surge), while the Ford-class has a daily sortie rate of 160 aircraft (270 under 24-hour surge). Meanwhile, the Royal Navy’s smaller STOVL Queen Elizabeth-class carriers are reported to be able to run 72 (surge 115) per day when carrying a full wing of F-35s.

And the beat goes on.

Royal Blue

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It happened 50 years ago today.

A great original Kodachrome with an air-to-air right side view of a “hump-backed” A-4F Skyhawk (BuNo 154975) of the “Royal Blues” of Attack Squadron (VA) 127, on 21 July 1975. Hot rods, they carried J52-P-408 engines with 11,200 lbf of thrust on an aircraft with an empty weight of 10,450 pounds.

Scene Camera Operator: PH3 Stoner. DN-SC-88-06702, National Archives Identifier 6430109

Established 15 June 1962 at NAS Lemoore with a complement of F-9F/TF-9J Cougar, VA-127 soon switched to Skyhawks. At the time of the above image, the Royal Blues were the only A-4 Replacement Air Wing squadron in the Navy, a role that switched to a primary mission of adversary training by November 1975. Switching to T-38B/F-5Es in 1987, just after they became the “Cylons” in an ode to Battlestar Galactica, they briefly flew F-18s as the “Desert Bogeys” out of NAS Fallon until they were disestablished in 1996.

As for BuNo 154975, she arrived in the fleet in 1967, then flew with VA-113, VA-192, and VA-212, seeing time on Yankee Station from USS Hancock (CV-19), before serving almost a decade with VA-127 starting in 1973, and was loaned to the Blues for a period.

It was in Blue No. 5 Livery that she and her pilot, LCDR Stuart R Powrie (USNA ’70), 34, was killed when the airframe crashed in the Imperial Valley desert near the Salton Sea following the completion of a maneuver called “the clean loop-dirty loop” while flying from NAS El Centro, on 22 February 1982.

Walke, Found

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USS Walke (DD-416) photographed soon after completion, circa 1940—official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Catalog #: NH 97912

The EV Nautilus has dived on the wreck of the second USS Walke (DD-416).

A Sims-class destroyer, DD-416, was laid down on 31 May 1938 at the Boston Navy Yard; launched on 20 October 1939; sponsored by Mrs. Clarence Dillon, grand-niece of the late RADM Henry A. Walke of Civil War fame; and was commissioned on 27 April 1940.

After tense service on the Caribbean Patrol keeping an eye on the Germans and Vichy French, followed by service in Icelandic waters in 1941, she was transferred to the Pacific post-Pearl Harbor. She was a plane guard and escort for USS Yorktown for several months before being detached with a damaged reduction gear that sent her home for repair.

USS Walke (DD-416) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 24 August 1942. Note her camouflage. NH 97911

Patched up, she was off Guadalcanal during its worst early phases and was lost in the great sea clash in those waters on 14/15 November 1942. She went down with at least 82 men, including her skipper, CDR Thomas E. Fraser (USNA ’24), whose family was presented a posthumous Navy Cross. A Smith-class destroyer minelayer was later sponsored by his widow.

So long, Dex!

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The 5th Fleet has kept four 224-foot Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships forward deployed on the line in Manama, Bahrain, since the late 1990s. Now, their 25+ year watch is ending.

USS Dextrous (MCM-13), which has been in the Persian Gulf since August 1997, has just received word that she will decommission on 3 September, wrapping up her career just four months past her 31st birthday, which is relatively old for any warship, especially one of fiberglass/wood composite construction.

“Dex” recently sailed in formation with the other three Bahrain-based Avengers– USS Sentry (MCM-3), Devastator (MCM-6), and Gladiator (MCM-11), and they look great.

The motto of the Dextrous is ” No One Goes Before Us.”

Once the last of the Avengers leaves the fleet in 2027– just two short years from now– the Navy will not have a single dedicated minesweeper for the first time since USS Lapwing (AM-1) was commissioned in 1918.

Probably a mistake.

Likewise, the fleet’s final dedicated HM (Helicopter Mine Countermeasures) Squadron, the “Blackhawks” of HM-15, will say goodbye to their beloved MH-53E Sea Dragons in 2027, and the final “Dragon Drivers” were minted last November.

The service’s 20~ operational MH-53E Sea Dragons, four of which are forward deployed to Bahrain, will leave the fleet in FY27.

The service’s counter-mine solution moving forward will be surface and subsurface drones operating from a few rotating LCS hulls and some Archerfish-equipped MH-60Ss.

At least there goes the theory.

The Navy earlier this year said it has four Mine Countermeasures (MCM) Mission Package (MP) sets “supporting LCS deployments in the 5th Fleet Area of Responsibility (AOR) and follow-on MCM MPs will support 7th Fleet operations by the end of FY 2027.”

USCG Updates: Moves in Pacific as Large Cutter Programs Struggle

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There has been a lot of quiet yet noteworthy news concerning the Coast Guard in the past couple of weeks.

Blue Water ops abound

First, it should be noted that things are definitely in motion in the Pacific.

The 49-year-old 210-foot USCGC Resolute (WMEC-620) just arrived back in CONUS yesterday, following a 59-day patrol in the Eastern Pacific under JIATF-South, and offloaded over six tons of coke, showing she is still capable of interdiction duty in blue water.

The crew of USCGC Resolute (WMEC 620) poses for a group photo during a drug offload at Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg, July 17, 2025. Resolute deployed in support of Joint Interagency Task Force-South (JIATF-South), an interagency and international task force that conducts counter-illicit trafficking and security cooperation operations in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Riley Perkofski)

The aging 270-foot Bear-class USCGC Harriet Lane (WMEC 903), the only member of her class stationed on that side of the globe, just wrapped a 73-day 15,000 nm patrol of Oceania around the Hawaiian Islands, French Polynesia, Cook Islands, and American Samoa.

U.S. Coast Guardsmen assigned to medium endurance cutter USCGC Harriet Lane (WMEC 903) prepare to moor the cutter on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii, July 9, 2025. The crew returned from a 73-day patrol during which they exercised partnerships with the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, and New Zealand through bilateral maritime law enforcement agreements. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jennifer Nilson)

They did a lot of “hearts and minds” outreach stuff with allied militaries as well as “interagency and Pacific Island partners to reinforce the rules-based international maritime order in the region.”

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Harriet Lane (WMEC 903) approaches the island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands during a passenger transfer and ship resupply on June 13, 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Austin Wiley)

Next, the frigate-sized USCGC Stratton (WMSL 752) has been busy on a Westpac cruise under the control of 7th Fleet’s DESRON 15. With an embarked ScanEagle UAV detachment and Navy/Marine ship riders, she has been conducting in-port and at-sea engagements with Japan Coast Guard (JCG), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), and other “racing stripe” forces in the region.

The Legend-class U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) steams alongside the Japan Coast Guard Patrol Vessel Asanagi (PLH-43) and the Philippine Coast Guard vessel BRP Teresa Magbanua (MRRV-9701) during a trilateral search and rescue exercise in Kagoshima, Japan, June 20, 2025. Stratton is deployed and assigned to Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Navy’s largest DESRON and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force. Stratton is deployed to the Indo-Pacific to advance relationships with ally and partner nations to build a more secure and prosperous region with unrestricted, lawful access to the maritime commons. (Japan Coast Guard courtesy photo)

Philippine and Japan Coast Guard members observe a ScanEagle long-endurance unmanned aerial system aboard the Legend-class U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) during a trilateral search and rescue exercise in Kagoshima, Japan, June 20, 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Kate Kilroy)

She just arrived in Guam with ship riders of the maritime forces from Australia, India, and Japan aboard, and you can spot a few USN Bluejackets among the crew.

Quad partners from the U.S. Coast Guard, Japan Coast Guard, Australian Border Force, Indian Coast Guard, and the command and crew of the Legend-class U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) take a photo on the flight deck during the first Quad at-sea mission while Stratton patrols the Pacific Ocean, July 1, 2025. Stratton is deployed and assigned to Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Navy’s largest DESRON and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force. Stratton is deployed to the Indo-Pacific to advance relationships with ally and partner nations to build a more secure and prosperous region with unrestricted, lawful access to the maritime commons. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Kate Kilroy)

Meanwhile, in Alaska, where the USCG counts more than 2,500 active duty, reserve, civilian, and auxiliary personnel, a new (to them) face on the beat has arrived.

The 87-foot USCGC Blacktip (WPB 87326) just reported for duty in her new homeport of Valdez, replacing the recently retired 110-foot Island-class WPB, USCGC Liberty. A key takeaway on that is that she self-deployed there after transiting approximately 2,800 miles.

On an 87-foot boat.

You learn to sail in the Coast Guard, dammit.

Blacktip in Valdez, her new home. A big change from Oxnard. 250708-G-GM914-0001

Speaking of Liberty, the 39-year-old cutter and her two sisters, ex-Mustang (WPB-1310), and Naushon (WPB-1311), completed their final sail, arriving in San Diego from Alaska under USCG crews to be handed over to the Colombian Navy. Other members of the 49-member class have been transferred to Costa Rica, Georgia, Greece, Pakistan, Tunisia, and Ukraine. Only 14 have been scrapped. Not a bad run considering the last unit was delivered from Bollinger in 1992, and they had a 15-year planned lifespan.

A Ukrainian Island-class patrol boat in dazzle camouflage. 2024, with a bit of up-arming from when she was in USCG service. Photo credits: Ukrainian Navy

Also headed to Alaska, eventually, is the recently commissioned “icebreaker” USCGC Storis (WAGB 21), which arrived last week at her temporary homeport in Seattle alongside the service’s other ice crunchers. The service says that “The arrival of Storis marks a milestone in the Coast Guard’s Force Design 2028 initiative and broader Arctic strategy.” She is slated to move to Juneau once a facility is constructed there to berth her.

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Storis (WAGB 21) transits through Puget Sound en route to Coast Guard Base Seattle, July 11, 2025. The newly acquired polar icebreaker will conduct missions in the Arctic and aims to strengthen the U.S. presence in the region. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Annika Hirschler)

Large Cutter Program Blues

And in “whomp-whomp” news to cheer you on down, the Coast Guard recently did what it probably should have done two years ago and canceled the planned Heritage-class offshore patrol cutters (OPCs) number three and four from Panama City’s Eastern Shipbuilding Group.

Still not here: the Heritage-class Offshore Patrol Cutter/Maritime Security Cutter.

The Florida shipyard won a contract for what should have been the first eight of 25 OPCs in 2016, and, almost a decade later, just two are nearing completion. ESG’s delivery of the first OPC, the future USCGC Argus (WMSM-915), was initially due in June 2023 but will now be completed by the end of 2026 (!) at the earliest. The second OPC, the future USCGC Chase (WMSM-916), was supposed to be delivered in April 2024, and no one really knows when that will actually happen.

Odds are that the future USCGC Ingham (WMSM-917) and Rush (WMSM-918) will likely be re-awarded to Austal in Mobile, which is already working on a second flight of eight OPCs itself. The service needs a second yard on board for these.

I would say that nearby Ingalls had the bandwidth to crank out some of these white hulls, but the USCG last month terminated their contract for the 11th and final National Security Cutter last month, clawing back $260 million in long-lead funds already awarded for that long-overdue vessel. The service will use the parts and materials to keep its 10 other Ingalls-built NSCs running.

It’s a shame as the NSCs are the most functional cutters ever to sail under Coast Guard tasking, and, like Stratton above, are a favorite in the Westpac to fill frigate missions that the Navy has few other assets to accomplish.

Meanwhile, the nearly year-old Icebreaker Collaboration Effort (ICE) Pact between the USCG, Finland, and Canada has produced little in the way of concrete results, although Trump said in a news conference recently that the country may buy as many as 15 icebreakers from Finland (hold your breath).

The first modules for the planned U.S. Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter (PSC) were only cleared in April, and that program was awarded in 2019.

Semper paratus, indeed.

Kamaishi Wake Up Call

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It happened some 80 years ago this week

“Battleship X,” the class leader USS South Dakota (BB-57) fires her forward 16-inch guns of Turrets I and II at the Kamaishi Steel Works on Honshu, Japan, 14 July 1945.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-490175

A young ship turned old pro that saw her first action off Guadalcanal in October 1942, SoDak by this stage of the war was earning her 13th battle star and was an expert at using her radar to target centrally controlled 16-inch guns.

In bombarding the Kamaishi plant, she plastered it with 231 16-inch shells (that’s 219 tons of ordnance!) in 42 salvos between 1211 and 1415, a span of just over two hours. Adding the ship’s on-board Kingfisher spotter planes to the mix to correct shot fall made it cake.

From her report.

Crane Shines on Black Hills

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South Dakota-based Black Hills just picked up a $42 million, five-year contract (below) from Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane for 5.56mm Long Range, Special Ball, MK 262 MOD 1 Ammunition, with the first bite being for the USCG, likely for its MSSF or HITRON guys. This tracks as Black Hills last year got a $30 million contract for 9mm barrier blind cartridges from NSWC Corona.

Introduced in 1999, Black Hills guarantees its 77-grain MK 262 MOD 1, which has a velo of 2750 fps, with sub 2″ groups (.64 MOA maximum/10-shot groups). Commercially packed BH MK 262 rounds “good price” at about $1.42 a round, translating the Crane award to being worth at least 30 million rounds, hopefully more.

The award:

Black Hills Ammunition Inc.,* Rapid City, South Dakota, is awarded a $42,480,300 firm-fixed price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for 5.56mm Long Range, Special Ball, MK 262 MOD 1 Ammunition. This contract does not include options. Work will be performed in Rapid City, South Dakota, and is expected to be completed by July 2030. Fiscal 2025 Ammo Procurement (Coast Guard) funding in the amount of $292,644 will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured on the basis of 100% Small Business Set-Aside and two offers were received via the Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment Solicitation Module. Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, Crane, Indiana, is the contract activity (N0016425DJN13).

Iron Bottom Sound, Redux

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The Corps of Exploration aboard the E/V Nautilus has been continuing Bob Ballard’s work by revisiting Guadalcanal, where Ballard and company discovered numerous wrecks from the 1942-43 naval clashes there—this time with much better cameras and gear than in 1992.

Nautilus has been using the USV DriX, a 25-foot vessel carrying an EM712 multibeam sonar to map the seafloor,

While the dives have been conducted by the ROV Hercules, which features a new model Kraft Predator manipulator with seven-function control, over 79 inches of reach, and a lift capacity of 500 pounds. They usually have smaller “buddy” ROVs too, Argus and Atalanta.

In recent days, they have posted amazing videos of the bow that was shot off the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans (CA-32), the wreck of the USS Northampton (CA-26) which was lost in November 1942 during the Battle of Tassafaronga off Savo Island, the shattered hull of the USS Vincennes (CA-44) and USS Astoria (CA-34) lost at Savo island in August 1942, and one of the “long lancers” themselves, the Japanese Akizuki class destroyer Teruzuki (“Shining Moon”), sent to the bottom on 12 December 1942 in a clash with PT boats.

USS New Orleans (CA 32) comes into the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, for a new bow after battling with Japanese warships in the Southwest Pacific. In this view, she is almost ready for joining to join a new bow. The photograph was released on 11 January 1944. 80-G-44448

Vincennes

Vincennes

Astoria

Astoria

Turrets no. 1 and 2 of IJN Teruzuki

They will continue their Maritime Archaeology of Guadalcanal (NA173) expedition through July 23, so stay tuned for more discoveries.

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