In February of 2015, the United States Navy announced in a press conference to the House Armed Service Committee’s Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee that the number of submarines deployed by the Chinese Navy has exceeded that of the U.S. The United States currently has 71 commissioned submarines, while the Pentagon estimates that China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN)’s submarine fleet is now in the range of low seventies. Read more >>

Comtech EF Data Corp has received a USD$6.4 million contract extension from Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) for adaptive coding capability. Read more >>

The USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) has been launched by the United States Navy at Mobile, Alabama’s Austal USA shipyard. As the 16^th ship to be named after a woman and the 13^th to be named after a living person since 1850, the vessel was named after Gabrielle Giffords who was a former Congresswoman from Tucson, Arizona. The ship is the third Independence-variant of the original block buy and is the first of the three that is constructed using Austal’s LCS modular manufacturing facility. As continuous fitting and activation continues for the USS Gabrielle Giffords, the final delivery to the fleet is expected to be in 2017. Read more >>

Austal USA shipyard recently conducted a keel laying ceremony for the future USS Omaha, the sixth Independence-variant littoral combat ship (LCS). Read more >>

On February 22, 2015, the US Navy conducted its 155^th successful test flight of two unarmed Lockheed Martin-built Trident II D5 Fleet ballistic missiles. The first test flight of a Trident missile took place in 1989. The 155^th successful test flight marks over 25 years of reliability which is unmatched by any other ballistic missile. The missile was launched from a submerged Ohio-class submarine in the Pacific Ocean. The test flight demonstrates the missile’s reliability and the readiness of the Trident Strategic Weapon System. Read more >>