SS Jeremiah O’Brien is a class EC2-SCI ship that was completed in just 56 days by the New England Shipbuilding Corporation in South Portland, Maine and was launched on 19 June 1943. At the end of the war and with such a vast fleet of Liberty and Vict

Everything in the United States is done on a grander, bigger and more spectacular scale than anywhere else in the world and it is true of their naval museums too. America is the world’s premier naval superpower and has held the title since the end of

USS Olympia is perhaps the most evocative American naval memorial as she retains most of her late 19th century features and fittings and is the oldest steel US warship afloat. Built at Union Iron Works in San Francisco she commissioned in February 18

Construction of USS Texas was authorised on 24 June 1910 with the work being awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding. The first steel plates were laid down on the slipway on 17 April 1911 and she was launched on 18 May 1912. She was commissioned into th

One of the finest destroyer designs produced was the famed Fletcher-class of which USS Cassin Young is one of just four that survive today. Built by Bethlehem Shipbuilding at San Pedro in California she commissioned into service on the last day of 19

She was once one of the US Navy’s most powerful warships, but today USS Midway is one of California’s most popular tourist attractions. Her 47 years of active service saw the aircraft carrier participate in virtually every post war campaign including

At 40ft long this small and physically unimposing vessel is perhaps one of the most significant in the history of America’s Silent Service. H.L Hunley, often referred to as just Hunley, CSS H. L. Hunley or as CSS Hunley, played a small part in the Am

The F-35B has the flexibility to deploy from carriers and on amphibious assault ships. Each of the three variants is specific to its domain in the air, land or maritime environment. The Pentagon’s plan directed the purchase of 1,763 of the Air Force

CARRIERS provide military forces with the ability to project combat power from floating airfields across the worlds’ ocean. With their embarked force of fighter aircraft, they can demonstrate political intent, support humanitarian operations and if n

Everything in the United States is done on a grander, bigger and more spectacular scale than anywhere else in the world and it is true of their naval museums too. America is the world’s premier naval superpower and has held the title since the end of

The aircraft was promoted overseas but by 1983, India was the only operator other than Britain. Both Argentina and Australia declined to invest in the aircraft. The decision by the Buenos Aires government was significant as UK pilots may have faced a

Different methods of take-off from and landing on the deck have developed over the years with the US Navy and the French fleet adopting the Catapult-Assisted Take-Off, But Arrested Recovery, known as CATOBAR. Under this system, the aircraft is launch

While planners see the main force of fighter aircraft being manned, there is growing evidence of a requirement for an unmanned fighter capability with critics saying, it will be to the Navy’s detriment if the future generation fighter program deliver

Close behind the Super Hornet is the Dassault Rafale, a French twinengine aircraft with a delta wing and multirole capability – designed by Dassault Aviation. The Rafale is intended to deliver air supremacy, in the area of interdiction, aerial reconn

Today, in the 21st Century, naval warfare is multidimensional. The days of sea fighting being restricted to open battles between warships on the high seas are gone. The fleets of today fight on the sea, in the air above, and in the waters below. But

CARRIERS provide military forces with the ability to project combat aircraft. These floating airfields can operate anywhere in the world to demonstrate political intent, support humanitarian operations and if needed launch a kinetic attack on an adve

This component is just one of thousands of similar pieces of construction that has in the months and years that followed, been forged into larger and larger blocks that will all come together within the shipyard’s massive construction dry dock where

Nuclear propulsion offered many advantages over oil propulsion. Harnessing the power could mean virtually limitless endurance for ships so fitted and deployments could be tailored around the limits of the crew only. There would be no need for constan

The first six USS Enterprise’s, were small schooners plus a 1919 motor patrol boat, but it was the seventh ship of the name that was destined to become a legend. In the mid-1930s the US Navy placed orders for the construction of three Yorktown-class

Of all the names of American warships, one has truly become a legend. USS Enterprise. Two of the nine ships named Enterprise have been aircraft carriers and each served with distinction. The first of these aircraft carriers – CV6 – became the most de

Meanwhile, as President Bush announced the end of war in Kuwait, British special forces landed in the city to secure the British embassy. Local people took to the streets to celebrate the departure of what had been an occupying force. Armed members o

IN August 1990, Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces seized Kuwait in a military intervention. Baghdad’s aim was to secure the Gulf state’s oil reserves and expand the country’s authority in the Middle East. The United Nations called on Iraq to withdraw and

But Saddam’s officers lacked the confidence to present and consider ‘options’ fearing that a wrong decision may upset or aggravate their commander in chief, Saddam. He was the dominant decision maker in Iraq’s military and his miscalculations shaped

A particular concern between Baghdad and Tehran in the 1970s was control of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, a disputed area between the two countries formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers which discharge into the Persian Gulf at Bas

International leaders agreed that Saddam’s actions risked further conflict and in a unique Coalition of Arab nations, several influential Muslin nations joined the multi-national force to stop the spread of Baghdad’s bloody ambitions. Saddam Hussein

Political backing for intervention in Kuwait was global, including the UN. This avoided international condemnation of the military action. Jordan and Iran were vocal in their opposition to conflict while the most surprising reaction to the Iraqi inva