Latest news with #USSDewey
Newsweek
4 days ago
- Politics
- Newsweek
US Warship Challenged Beijing's South China Sea Claims, Navy Says
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A United States destroyer recently conducted a freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea, challenging claims by China and other countries, the Navy told Newsweek. The U.S. naval operation took place near the Spratly Islands, a cluster of islands claimed by China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Brunei. The U.S. Navy said the operation was specifically intended to challenge restrictions on passage by China, Taiwan and Vietnam. Newsweek also reached out to the Chinese, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese defense ministries outside of normal business hours on Monday by email for comment. Why It Matters The U.S. military has been maintaining its presence in the South China Sea—where China's sovereignty claims overlap with those of other countries—to uphold lawful use of the sea and international airspace, including the rights of freedom of navigation and overflight. The news of the recent U.S. freedom of navigation operation comes amid reports of a Chinese bomber deployment to a militarized island outpost in the Paracel Islands—located north of the Spratly Islands—and the return of an American aircraft carrier to the South China Sea. What To Know The U.S. Seventh Fleet—which maintains America's naval presence in the western Pacific and Indian Oceans—confirmed to Newsweek that on May 12, the destroyer USS Dewey asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near the Spratly Islands. "This freedom of navigation operation upheld the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea recognized by international law by challenging restrictions on innocent passage imposed by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam," the U.S. Seventh Fleet said in an email on Monday. According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, "ships of all states, whether coastal or land-locked, enjoy the right of innocent passage through [a] territorial sea." However, such passage must be conducted in a "continuous and expeditious" manner. The United States Navy destroyer USS Dewey conducts routine operations while transiting in the South China Sea on May 12, 2025. The United States Navy destroyer USS Dewey conducts routine operations while transiting in the South China Sea on May 12, 2025. Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Devin Monroe/U.S. Navy The Dewey—part of the U.S. Seventh Fleet's principal surface force—left the "excessive claim area" and continued transiting in the South China Sea after completing its operation. Meanwhile, a set of photos released by the U.S. Navy shows the USS Benfold, the Dewey's sister ship, operating at an undisclosed location in the South China Sea on May 12. The Benfold is also assigned to the U.S. Seventh Fleet as part of Destroyer Squadron 15. According to the caption, one of the photos shows an electronics technician with a Chinese name translating "incoming bridge-to-bridge voice communications" in the pilothouse of the Benfold—suggesting the American warship may have encountered the Chinese navy. U.S. military vessels and aircraft routinely interact with foreign forces while operating throughout the Indo-Pacific region, the U.S. Seventh Fleet told Newsweek, adding that all interactions were "consistent with international norms and did not impact the operation." United States Navy electronics technician 2nd Class Haoyu Zhao translates incoming bridge-to-bridge voice communications in the pilothouse of the destroyer USS Benfold while underway in the South China Sea on May 12, 2025. United States Navy electronics technician 2nd Class Haoyu Zhao translates incoming bridge-to-bridge voice communications in the pilothouse of the destroyer USS Benfold while underway in the South China Sea on May 12, 2025. Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Monica Walker/U.S. Navy What People Are Saying The Pentagon said in its 2024 Freedom of Navigation Report: "Excessive maritime claims are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention…Unlawful maritime claims pose a threat to global mobility and commerce, as well as the legal foundation of the rules-based international order. If left unchallenged, excessive maritime claims could limit the rights and freedoms enjoyed by every nation." The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Sunday: "On the South China Sea, there has never been any problem with regard to freedom of navigation and overflight there. China has always been committed to working with countries concerned to properly handle differences through dialogue and consultation, while safeguarding China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in accordance with laws and regulations." What Happens Next It remains to be seen how China, which has long claimed sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, will respond militarily to the recent U.S. Navy freedom of navigation operation.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Warships Caked In Rust Prompting Late Night Trump Texts To Navy Secretary Nominee
President Donald Trump, through his pick to be the next secretary of the navy, has thrust long-running criticisms of what is commonly called 'running rust' on American warships back into the mainstream limelight. Navy Secretary nominee John Phelan told senators yesterday that he gets late-night text messages from Trump complaining about the issue. Unaddressed rust and corrosion on Navy ships has downstream effects on maintenance and readiness, as well as less quantifiable impacts from how the service presents itself publicly at home and abroad. Phelan, a long-time businessman and prominent Trump donor with no prior military experience, testified at a confirmation hearing yesterday before the Senate Armed Services Committee about how he would run the Department of the Navy. If confirmed as secretary of the navy, Phelan would also be the top civilian official in charge of the U.S. Marine Corps. 'I jokingly say President Trump has texted me numerous times very late at night, sometimes after one [o'clock] in the morning' about 'rusty ships or ships in a yard, asking me what am I doing about it,' Phelan said in response to a question from Angus King, an independent senator from Maine. 'I'm not confirmed yet and have not been able to do anything about it, but I will be very focused on it.' Full clip: — John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) February 27, 2025 'Please don't give that to President Trump because I'll get a text at like one in the morning,' Phelan also said after Senator Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, showed a picture of the Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Dewey coming into port in Singapore last week. The picture in question, seen again in the social media post below, was taken by a local ship spotter and has been circulating online since at least Feb. 18. Dewey's outward appearance, which appears to be significantly worse looking on the port side than the starboard one, had already drawn new criticism around the 'running rust' issue from commentators on social media. USS Dewey (DDG 105) Arleigh Burke-class Flight IIA guided missile destroyer coming into Singapore – February 18, 2025 #ussdewey #ddg105SRC: INST- yplanesonly — WarshipCam (@WarshipCam) February 18, 2025 USS Dewey (DDG 105) Arleigh Burke-class Flight IIA guided missile destroyer leaving Singapore – February 19, 2025 #ussdewey #ddg105SRC: INST- thesummonuncle — WarshipCam (@WarshipCam) February 19, 2025 Correct. The other side is much worse. Check out the shot I posted today of her leaving Singapore. — WarshipCam (@WarshipCam) February 19, 2025 Which ship looks more rusty?The US Navy warship or the ship that has been laid up since 1969? — Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) (@mercoglianos) February 20, 2025 As already noted, the rusty appearance of Dewey and other Navy warships reflects real wear and tear that requires maintenance attention. Rust and corrosion, which are exacerbated by persistent exposure to salt water, can cause serious structural integrity and other problems, something the Navy does not deny. 'The harsh environment in which we operate degrades our ships, and our Sailors work hard to address corrosion along with all the maintenance and crew training required to sustain our Navy's warfighting readiness,' a Navy spokesperson told TWZ back in 2021 in response to questions about 'running rust' on the highly advanced stealth destroyer USS Zumwalt. USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyer coming into San Diego – December 9, 2021 #usszumwalt #ddg1000* photos courtesy of @cjr1321 — WarshipCam (@WarshipCam) December 10, 2021 Depending on the severity of the rust and corrosion, the remediation work required can be significant. This, in turn, can translate to more lengthy and costly maintenance periods and decreases in overall readiness. Keeping the ship in tip top shape! BM3 Curtis aboard USS Beloit (LCS 29) is putting in the hard work in grinding away rust to ensure its structural integrity and prepare for the upcoming AVCERT (Aviation Certification) inspection.#Readiness# — SURFLANT (@surflant) January 9, 2025 This is also not a new issue for the Navy and previously came to particular public attention during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw American warships make fewer port visits to help shield crews from the virus. As a result, those ships had fewer opportunities to more seriously address rust and corrosion. This had also put new emphasis on longer-standing debates about Navy safety regulations, which impose limits on the kinds of maintenance work that crews can do, especially at sea, as well as past switches to less toxic paints and coatings that critics say wear more readily. 'NAVSEA [Naval Sea Systems Command] has worked successfully for decades to improve the corrosion-control performance of coatings while simultaneously reducing the adverse impact of coatings on the environment. In the 1990s, Navy tank coatings had a performance life of five to seven years, but emitted paint solvents when applied,' a spokesperson for the command told Naval News in 2023 in response to questions about how new paints and coatings, specifically, had factored into the 'running rust' issue. 'NAVSEA worked with domestic and foreign commercial coating manufacturers to develop ultrahigh solids epoxy tank coatings that do not contain any paint solvent. Since these coatings were first applied in the early 2000s, many coated tanks have remained corrosion-free for 15 to 20 years. These coatings are required on all Navy ships and have contributed to extending the drydocking periodicities.' All of this rolls into the Navy's larger and very serious struggles with maintaining its ships and submarines, which have been well documented over the years, and is something TWZ has covered extensively. 'Our prior work found that the condition of the naval shipyards is poor, and their capital equipment is generally past its useful life. Their dry docks are unable to support newer ship classes, such as the Ford class aircraft carrier and some Virginia class attack submarines, and are vulnerable to flooding and seismic risks,' the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a Congressional watchdog, said in a new report released just yesterday. 'In addition, the shipyards' inefficient layouts contribute to thousands of days of maintenance delay for aircraft carriers and submarines. Absent improvements, the shipyards will be unable to support about a third of the Navy's planned maintenance availabilities for aircraft carriers and submarines through 2040.' Shipyard capacity for maintenance, or a lack thereof, also reflects broader concerns about the ability of the U.S. shipbuilding industry to meet the Navy's current and future needs. The Navy itself has previously briefed members of Congress on the extremely worrisome disparity in shipyard capacity between the United States and China, the latter being America's current chief global competitor. The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) has previously assessed that Chinese shipbuilders are 200 percent more capable of producing warships and submarines than their counterparts in the United States. The Navy has been trying for years now to help facilitate an expansion of the U.S. industrial base. The service has also been looking to see where foreign firms in allied and partner nations may be able to help provide additional capacity. All of this has been further compounded in recent years by often extended deployments for ships and submarines across the Navy's currently shrinking overall force structure, as well as recruiting and other manpower challenges. Last year, a bipartisan group of legislators introduced a broad-sweeping proposal to try to address many of these issues dubbed the Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security (SHIPS) for America Act, which you can read more about here. At the time of writing, the SHIPS for America Act has progressed little through the legislative process. At yesterday's hearing, Phelan was also grilled on these larger issues. He said he would bring a new 'sense of urgency' to shipbuilding and shipyard related matters if confirmed. The matter of 'running rust' on ships, specifically, has other important, if more subjective impacts. As highlighted by the USS Dewey recent stopover in Singapore, U.S. warships in foreign ports are very public symbols of American military prowess and general global influence. As such, them being well kept, especially externally, carries additional significance. There may also be negative impacts to general morale. 'It's terrible. I think they should be ashamed,' Phelan said at the hearing yesterday when shown the picture of the Dewey. 'Would you want to go on that ship?' Trump already has his own history of opining on the general aesthetics of Navy warships. 'The ships that they were building, they looked terrible,' Trump said during a speech at the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard in Wisconsin at the tail end of his first term in 2020. 'I said, 'That's a terrible-looking ship. Let's make it beautiful. It'll cost you the same, and maybe less.'' 'I said, 'This is not a good-looking ship. Let's change the design of it.' And I got people in, and we looked at different designs,' Trump continued. 'And as long as we're going to do it — and look at what you're doing, how beautiful it is. They gave me a beautiful model that's absolutely — it's like a yacht with missiles on it.' Trump was talking at that time about what is now known as the Constellation class frigate, which is derived from the Fregata Europea Multi-Missione (FREMM), or European Multi-Mission Frigate, developed jointly by France and Italy. The Navy has been roundly criticized since then for extensive changes to the Constellation design, which now shares relatively little with its Franco-Italian parent, leading to significant cost growth, delays, and technical issues, as you can read more about here. Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who served during Trump's first term, also wrote in his 2022 book A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times that the president was highly critical of the look of U.S. warships, especially the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. Esper said that Trump described unspecified Russian and Italian designs as looking 'nicer, sleeker, like a real ship,' as well. What new steps Phelan might take to address rust and corrosion on American warships, as well as the other shipyard-related issues facing the Navy, if confirmed as service's next top civilian, remain to be seen. He is already facing pressure from Trump to do more. Contact the author: joe@
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US Navy secretary nominee says Trump texts him in the middle of the night about rusty warships
Trump's Navy secretary nominee said the President texts him in the middle of the night about rusty warships. Phelan said Trump sends him pictures of worn ships asking him what he's going to do about it. During his first term, the President was said to be very focused on the look of warships. President Donald Trump's pick for US Navy secretary said multiple times on Thursday that he receives late-night texts from the President about rusty warships. "I jokingly say that President Trump has texted me numerous times very late at night — sometimes after one in the morning," John Phelan, a businessman tapped to lead the Navy, told lawmakers during his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing. He said that the president's late-night messages are about "rusty ships or ships in a yard, asking me, what am I doing about it?" Phelan added that he's told him, "I'm not confirmed yet and have not been able to do anything about it, but I will be very focused on it." Later in the hearing, Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, showed Phelan a recent picture of the destroyer USS Dewey covered in rust and asked him how he felt about it. He responded: "Please don't give it to President Trump because I'll get a text at like, one in the morning." He added he thought the rusty warship looked terrible and suggested that the Navy "should be ashamed." And that wasn't the last mention of it. Toward the end of the hearing, he noted Trump's urgency in addressing problems in the Navy. He said that "the president did text me, I think it was 1:18 in the morning, of like three Rusty ships in a yard and said what are you doing about this." The brown streaks of rust sometimes seen on Navy vessels are a sign of corrosion. It is a constant battle for Navy warships and their crews, and that fight is sometimes lost amid high operational tempos or maintenance delays, among other challenges. The questions to Phelan were part of the committee's concerns about how the nominee plans to address the US Navy's shipbuilding and maintenance issues, which include critical industrial base problems and severely delayed projects, such as the Pentagon's priority submarines. Phelan said one of his top priorities is to fix this shipbuilding issue, which is aligned with Trump's focus as well. The White House did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment on the texts Phelan mentioned. The texts would be on brand for the president, who took a keen interest in the look of Navy warships in his first term. In particular, he zeroed in on the new frigates and Ford-class carriers, calling some of the ship designs "terrible-looking" and "horrible." The president's former defense secretary, Mark Esper, wrote previously that Trump would gripe about the first-in-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, saying that the island "looks really bad." He also said Trump said US warships were "ugly" compared to Russian vessels. In June 2020 near the end of his first term, Trump jokingly took credit for the look of the first of the Navy's guided missile frigate vessels. "The ships that they were building, they look terrible," the president said, adding that when he looked at the design, he said, "That's a terrible-looking ship, let's make it beautiful." He said he eventually received a "beautiful model" of the frigate that he called "like a yacht with missiles on it." Beyond the appearance of warships, Trump has also complained about ship engineering, most recently criticizing advanced systems on the Ford. Read the original article on Business Insider
