Aircraft Carriers III

USS Essex upgraded for F-35B operations

The U.S. Navy is currently modifying its Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD-2) to make it capable of deploying the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).

Scheduled to be completed in March 2017, Essex will be the third big-deck platform to feature the upgrades and will be the first to do a set of work-ups and deploy with them.

The F-35B is the world’s first supersonic short take-off, vertical landing (STOVL) fighter and will become the new standard across the amphibious fleet. As a Marine Corps aircraft, the JSF will be the next big step in Navy/Marine Corps integration.

“Whenever you bring new tech to the warfighter, it’s always exciting,” said Cmdr. Rob Hawthorne, Essex air boss. “It’s a fifth-generation strike fighter that incorporates fifth-generation technology. This will give the JSF a huge air superiority capability over legacy fixed-wing aircraft.”

Developmental testing on the JSF upgrades began Oct. 3, 2011, aboard USS Wasp (LHD 1) and continued supplemental testing aboard USS America (LHA 6). The upgrades will allow Essex to bring new capabilities to combatant commanders and enhance the limited ability to a critical capability while forward deployed.

The F-35B is one of three Joint Strike Fighter variants. The “B” was designed for use by the U.S. Marine Corps and is capable of short take-offs and vertical landings for use on amphibious ships or expeditionary airfields to provide air power to the Marine Air-Ground Task Force. The F-35B will replace the AV-8B Harrier and will continue test and evaluation at Naval Air Station Patuxent River prior to delivery to the fleet.

Essex is currently conducting a Planned Maintenance Availability at Naval Base San Diego to upgrade and modernize the ship and its systems.

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Indian Navy's oldest operational aircraft carrier INS Viraat, exHMS Hermes(R 12), sets sail from Kochi, Kerala state of India, Oct. 23, 2016. The warship INS Viraat started its last voyage from Kochi Sunday morning for decommissioning in Mumbai. (Xinhua/Stringer)

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bd popeye said:

ex RN-HMS Hermes(R 12) to be retired..amazing ship. Shes been in almost continuous Naval service since 1959. Wow!

Hermes was in service with the Royal Navy from 1959 until 1984, and she served as the flagship of the British forces during the 1982 Falklands War.

After being sold to India in 1986, the vessel was recommissioned and remained in service with the Indian Navy as INS Viraat until 2016.

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Chinese hackers targeted foreign government personnel who visited a US aircraft carrier the day before a contentious international court ruling on the

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, according to a US cyber security company.

The China-based group created an infected document impersonating an official message addressed to officials visiting the USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier which conducted patrols of the South China Sea in July.

The suspect document is dated July 11, the day before a tribunal in The Hague

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against China’s expansive claims in the region. The targets of the attack were delegates from a foreign government due to visit the aircraft carrier that day.

The document contained Enfal malware, which can be used to copy information from an infected computer or download further computer viruses.

According to FireEye, a US cyber security business, the China-based group that designed the suspicious document is the source of previous attempts to compromise US and Vietnamese national defence computer networks.

The likely goal of the “spear-phishing” attack — a attack in the form of an email that appears to be from someone known to the recipient — was to gather information on military manoeuvres and command and control systems, as well as policy issues, the company said.

There is no direct evidence to link the attempt with the Chinese government, and no indication the attack was successful.

According to FireEye’s iSight unit, which identified the attack, the command and control system used for the infected file shared an IP address with a domain previously used by the China-based group.

This system was first identified in June, while the suspect document surfaced in September, FireEye says.

FireEye says the file — which contains details of an itinerary for a visit to the aircraft carrier on July 11 this year — is likely to have been distributed through targeted email messages.

Tensions over the South China Sea have fuelled high levels of cyber espionage in the region, according to a FireEye expert.

“Many governments and militaries in Southeast Asia lack cyber security controls that can effectively match these elevated threats,” said Bryce Boland, the group’s Asia-Pacific chief technology officer.

“For example, personal webmail and unmanaged devices aren’t unusual, and many organisations lack the technology to detect unique attacks which haven’t been seen before.”

The USS Ronald Reagan and its escort ships conducted 53 days of operations in the western Pacific, including the South China Sea, this year.

The South China Sea patrols were intended “to maintain the seas open for all to use”, according to a US Navy statement at the time.

Commander Clay Doss, a spokesman for the US Pacific Fleet, said: “As a matter of policy and for reasons of operations security, we won’t comment on alleged vulnerabilities in networks or our efforts to mitigate them. We have full confidence in the integrity of the Navy’s networks on which we conduct critical operations.”

A US Navy official said that there was no indication the USS Ronald Reagan’s classified information systems had been compromised, nor that the ship’s operations in the South China Sea had been affected. The official said unclassified information about logistics was often shared with contractors and foreign governments to support port visits for ships.

In July a Chinese businessman was

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to nearly four years in jail for his part in an alleged conspiracy to steal military technical data from the computer networks of US defence contractors.

US prosecutors claim this conspiracy involved Chinese military officers.

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Jura said:

gosh ... dated October 21, 2016:
Chinese hackers targeted US aircraft carrier
Cyber security group says attack launched against visitors to vessel in South China Sea

source:

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MEDITERRANEAN SEA (Oct. 22, 2016) Marine Nationale Aircraft Carrier FS Charles de Gaulle (R 91) comes along side USS Ross (DDG 71), not shown, during a photo exercise. Ross, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, forward-deployed to Rota, Spain, is providing multi-warfare defense support to Charles de Gaulle carrier-based operations in the Eastern Mediterranean against identified ISIL positions in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. (U.S. Navy photos by Petty Officer 1st Class Theron J. Godbold/Released)

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