Wednesday, November 19, 2025
Abby Shepherd is a Navy reporter. Before joining Inside Defense in November 2023, she was an intern with Politico's E&E News and a city government reporter with the Eudora Times in Kansas. She graduated from the University of Kansas in May 2023, with degrees in journalism and political science.
An amendment included in the House defense policy bill -- passed by the House Armed Services Committee in a 57-1 vote late last night -- would allow foreign shipyard repairs on U.S. Navy ships, an issue also recently brought forward by Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro.
This year's biennial Rim of the Pacific exercise will kick off in late June, the Navy announced Tuesday.
The Navy's Program Executive Office for Unmanned and Small Combatants will brief industry members on how the Large Unmanned Surface Vessel program will impact surface warfare during an upcoming industry day.
The Navy's timeline for fielding the MQ-25 Stingray uncrewed aircraft system on certain aircraft carriers has shifted, after a recent provision was included in this week's House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee mark-up of the fiscal year 2025 defense policy bill.
To strengthen its organic industrial base -- made up of government-owned industrial centers -- the Navy has invested $345 million across 200 various projects at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division in Maryland.
A robotics technology company has been awarded a five-year contract for production, sustainment and development of the MK20 Defender Remotely Operated Vehicle platform -- which the Navy will use for its Maritime Expeditionary Standoff Response (MESR) -- according to a contract announcement.
The Navy needs to find a more cost-effective method of retaliating against Houthi drones and missiles in the Red Sea -- an ongoing threat posed toward merchant and military vessels since last October, Surface Warfare Division Director Rear Adm. Fred Pyle said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies panel Tuesday.
Funding for the procurement of the Medium Landing Ship should be prohibited until the Navy secretary ensures the ship's design meets several requirements, according to the recently released House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee’s mark-up of the fiscal year 2025 defense policy bill.
The creation of a national maritime strategy is necessary amid "great power competition, aging infrastructure and the threat of high-intensity war," according to a bipartisan, bicameral document released by lawmakers today.
A legislative proposal brought forward by the Navy will potentially allow the service to acquire foreign, used vessels to bolster sealift capacity.
There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution to shipbuilding delays, but labor is the most contributing factor, shipbuilder HII Chief Executive Officer Chris Kastner told investors in a first-quarter earnings call Thursday.
Capacity for ship repairs and construction continues to be a top issue for the Navy and Marine Corps, service officials told lawmakers today on Capitol Hill. Outsourcing ship repairs to foreign countries is a potential solution, the officials added, one already raised last month by Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro.
After hundreds of Red Sea attacks on Navy and commercial vessels over the past few months, there's a need for a steady supply of munitions like the Standard Missile-3, which Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro told lawmakers today the service needs more of.
The Navy's and Marine Corps' sealift capacity is not where it needs to be, lawmakers told service officials Tuesday at a House Armed Services readiness subcommittee hearing, which largely revolved around availability delays, recapitalization plans and potential solutions to construction backlogs.
The Navy plans to establish a new unmanned surface vessel squadron -- a new organization that will focus on tactics, techniques and procedures and the concept of operations for small USVs, according to a Navy official.
The Navy's Joint Prototyping and Experimentation Maritime Program plans to test the ability of sensors to detect unmanned vessels later this year and is requesting industry input on this type of technology, according to a request for information posted Monday.
The Navy wants to delay the addition of an advanced degaussing system on Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and install it on the next generation of destroyers -- a move it says would provide the service flexibility to balance warfighting capabilities with the expense and schedule constraints of future destroyer procurement.
The amphibious transport dock Richard M. McCool Jr. (LPD-29) was delivered to the Navy Thursday, according to HII and Naval Sea Systems Command announcements.
NATIONAL HARBOR, MD -- The Navy is consistently delivering heavyweight torpedoes despite there being a "long road" to reach that point, a Navy official told an industry audience at Monday's Sea Air Space conference.
The establishment of a Naval Air Warfare Rapid Capabilities Office is still under way, after being included in the fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.