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The U.S. Navy’s deep-diving rescue vehicle can reportedly reach depths of just 2,000 feet. The missing Titan submersible was aiming to go far deeper into the North Atlantic. Numerous complications could hinder the effort to rescue the five people aboard the deep-diving submersible Titan, which failed to return from a dive on Sunday to the wreck of the Titanic on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. The U.S. Navy has one submarine rescue vehicle, although it can reportedly reach depths of just 2,000 feet. That vehicle, called CURV-21, can reach depths of 20,000 feet.

Persons: — Organizations: U.S, U.S . Navy Locations: South, Newfoundland

☆ The Final Fight for Black Sailors Known as the ‘Philadelphia 15’
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( John Ismay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Just over a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor, 15 sailors assigned to the U.S.S. Philadelphia wrote a letter to a Black newspaper detailing the abuse and indignities they had faced on the warship solely because of the color of their skin. When they enlisted, the Navy had promised training and assignments that would lead to advancement, but the Black sailors soon found that those opportunities did not exist for them. The plight of the group, which became known as “the Philadelphia 15,” faded from public attention as World War II erupted. But the injustice they faced, and the stigma their discharge papers carried, lived on for more than 80 years.

Persons: ” Organizations: Navy, Philadelphia Locations: Pearl Harbor, Philadelphia

☆ The U.S. is providing $1.2 billion for Ukraine to buy air defense missiles and other crucial equipment.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( John Ismay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The goods will arrive in Ukraine in the months and years to come, as defense companies produce them. A major focus of the $1.2 billion in new funds for Ukraine will go to purchase air-defense missiles for Kyiv to use in repelling Russian aerial attacks, General Ryder said. Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, has been targeted repeatedly by Russian strikes, including on Monday and early Tuesday. “We’re going to continue to rush ground-based air defense capabilities and munitions to help Ukraine control its sovereign skies and to help Ukraine defend its citizens from Russian cruise missiles and Iranian drones,” he said. “This is something that we’re going to keep after both in the near term and the long term.”General Ryder also confirmed reports that an American-made Patriot air-defense system provided to Ukraine shot down a Russian Kinzhal missile last Thursday.

Russian service members rehearsing last week for the military parade in Moscow on Tuesday, when Russia celebrates the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. More recently, he has tried to wrap Ukraine into that narrative, falsely depicting it as a Nazi redoubt. The parade is likely to be subjected to closer scrutiny than usual, both inside Russia and beyond its borders. This year, the jets have skipped their usual practice runs over Moscow, raising questions about whether they will participate. Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said the march was canceled as a “precautionary measure” against possible attacks.

☆ Airman in Leaks Case Worked on a Global Network Essential to Drone Missions
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( John Ismay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — On an Air National Guard base in Cape Cod, Mass., more than 1,200 military service members and civilians maintain one of the largest support systems for Pentagon drone missions around the world. One of the workers was Airman First Class Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old accused of posting top-secret military reports online. It is also the result of a dramatic reorganization in the Air National Guard nearly two decades ago that left small, far-flung air bases in need of new responsibilities. The one on Cape Cod and many others became intelligence outfits. His arrest and subsequent Justice Department disclosures shined a light on a little-known Air Force mission that began in the 1990s and grew rapidly, eventually spreading to the base on Cape Cod.

☆ Army Grounds Nonessential Flights After 2 Helicopter Crashes
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( John Ismay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army said on Friday that it was grounding all Army flights except those needed for critical missions until aviation squadrons complete required training after two deadly helicopter crashes in a month. Units can resume flights after completing the daylong training, which can begin as early as Monday. Active-duty units are required to complete the training by May 5, and Army National Guard and Reserve units will have until May 31. The grounding of flights follows the deaths of 12 soldiers in two separate midair collisions during training missions. Both incidents remain under investigation, and there is no indication of any pattern between the two mishaps, the Army said in its statement.

☆ Western Weapons Supplies Fall Short of Ukraine’s Needs, Documents Show
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Lara Jakes | John Ismay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Western allies this week delivered some of the most powerful weapons that Ukraine says it will need for a looming counteroffensive against Russia: a Patriot air-defense system from Germany and the Netherlands. More 155-millimeter artillery from the United States. And on Friday, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III announced that Ukrainians would soon begin training, for the first time, on American M1 Abrams tanks — an important step to getting the sophisticated weapon to the battlefield. But the reinforcements still fall short of what even American military planners have assessed that Ukraine needs to make the most of an offensive expected to begin in coming weeks to retake more territory captured by the Russians. Classified military assessments dating to February and March, from leaked documents, show dire gaps in what allies had pledged to Ukraine and what, at least by then, had been delivered.

☆ Pentagon Aid Package to Ukraine Includes Decades-Old Anti-Tank Land Mines
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( John Ismay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s most recent package of weapons for Ukraine includes relics from the Cold War to help blunt Russian advances and limit their ability to maneuver during an expected spring offensive. Those weapons, M21 anti-tank land mines, have been in service with the Defense Department since at least the early 1960s. An unknown number of them will be sent to Ukraine as part of a $325 million package of aid from U.S. military stockpiles that was announced this week, the 36th such transfer of lethal matériel to Kyiv since August 2021. M21 mines — large metal-bodied weapons that are usually buried and explode when a vehicle drives over them — contain a specialized warhead built to punch through inches of armor plating. “Anti-tank land mines are an important defensive capability against Russia’s tanks and armored vehicles, helping Ukraine’s forces repel Russia’s attacks and shape the battlefield to Ukraine’s advantage,” Maj. Charlie Dietz, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement on Thursday.

Every day for months, Ukrainian soldiers have fired thousands of American-made artillery shells at Russian troops, and all of that ammunition begins its journey to the battlefield at factories in northeastern Pennsylvania. The oldest of those plants, in Scranton, first began making steel shells in the early 1950s for the Korean War. The empty shells are sent to rural Iowa, where they are filled with molten explosives and packaged for delivery.

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