Welcome to the CavasShips Podcast with Christopher P. Cavas and Chris Servello…a weekly podcast looking at naval and maritime events and issues of the day – in the US, across the seas and around the world. This week…It’s no secret the US Navy is seeking ways to find better ways to build ships – but what are some of these efforts producing? And where is the accountability for billions of dollars going to – a non-profit organization? We’ll talk about some of the elements with Sam LaGrone of USNI News, who will also review his recent trip with Chris Cavas to visit shipbuilders along the US Gulf coast.
Please send us feedback by DM’ing @CavasShips or @CSSProvision or you can email chriscavas@gmail.com or cservello@defaeroreport.com.
This Week’s Naval News:
The USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT Carrier Strike Group has been detached from US Central Command, the Pentagon announced September 12th, and is expected to return to its US homeports. The carrier, with Carrier Air Wing 11 aboard, deployed from San Diego in mid-January and was extended at least twice to defend US and partner nation interests in the Western Pacific and in the MidEast. The USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN Carrier Strike Group, with Carrier Air Wing 9, remains on station in the Central Command operating area.
The German Navy’s frigate BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG with the support ship FRANKFURT-AM-MAIN passed southbound through the Taiwan Strait September 13, the first time in 22 years a German naval ship has made the transit between mainland China and Taiwan. The two German ships are on a round-the-world deployment.
The US, Italian and Australian forces carried out a multilateral exercise in the South China Sea from September 8 through the 11th. The US destroyer RUSSELL, and Australian P-8A aircraft joined with the Italian Navy’s aircraft carrier CAVOUR and frigates ALPINO and RAIMONDO MONTECUCCOLI. The three-ship Italian Carrier Strike Group has been carrying out a series of multinational exercises during its deployment to the Western Pacific.
The Japanese defense ministry announced September 10th that its aircraft carrier KAGA will be operating from California for six weeks beginning in early October to qualify F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters to operate from the newly-modified ship. Both the small carriers KAGA and her sistership IZUMO are being converted from helicopter-only ships to be able to operate the supersonic F-35B, also flown by the US Marine Corps and several foreign navies. The modifications to the Japanese ships are not yet complete, although they’re expected to be fully operational with the F-35B by 2027. Japan plans to buy a total of 42 F-35Bs along with 105 F-35A air force variants that operate only from land bases.
In the Black Sea, Ukraine reported that on September 12 a Russian Tu-22M Backfire bomber attacked the Turkish-operated cargo ship AYA in the Romanian Exclusive Economic Zone, hitting and damaging the vessel with Kh-22 cruise missiles – if true this could be the first operational use of the Kh-22, a large, long-range anti-ship cruise missile in use since the Cold War. The AYA earlier left a port near Odessa, Ukraine carrying more than 26,000 tons of grain headed for Egypt. Although damaged, the AYA has not sunk and there are no reported injuries among the ship’s 23 crewmembers.
The Russian Navy on September 11 began a major, week-long, large-scale naval exercise called Okean 2024, the Russian Ministry of Defense said, providing some rather astounding numbers. According to the Russian MoD, more than 400 ships, 120 aircraft and more than 90,000 military personnel are taking part in the exercises, which range from the Pacific and Arctic oceans to the Baltic, Mediterranean and Caspian Sea. Several critics have suggested the numbers of ships and aircraft put out by the Russians are fictitious. The exercise’s name harkens back to the largest naval exercises mounted by the Soviet Navy in the 1970s and 1980s at the height of the Cold War. China reported that four of its ships are taking part – two destroyers, a frigate and a support ship.
And four Russian naval vessels operated in the English Channel into the North Sea the week of September 10, the British Ministry of Defense reported, along with two Russian Bear-F aircraft. All were shadowed by Royal Navy warships and Royal Air Force aircraft.
