1.
United States Navy
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The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
2.
United States Pacific Fleet
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The United States Pacific Fleet is a Pacific Ocean theater-level component command of the United States Navy that provides naval forces to the United States Pacific Command. Fleet headquarters is at Pearl Harbor Naval Station, Hawaii, with large facilities at North Island. A Pacific Fleet was created in 1907 when the Asiatic Squadron, in 1910, the ships of the First Squadron were organized back into a separate Asiatic Fleet. The General Order 94 of 6 December 1922 organized the United States Fleet, until May 1940, the Battle Fleet was stationed on the west coast of the United States. During the summer of year, as part of the U. S. response to Japanese expansionism, it was instructed to take an advanced position at Pearl Harbor. Long term basing at Pearl Harbor was so strongly opposed by the commander, Admiral James O. Richardson, political considerations were thought sufficiently important that he was relieved by Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, who was in command at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Pacific Fleet was formally recreated on 1 February 1941, on that day General Order 143 split the United States Fleet into separate Atlantic, Pacific, and Asiatic Fleets. On 7 December, the Fleet consisted of the Battle Force, Scouting Force, Base Force, Amphibious Force, Cruiser Force, Destroyer Force, also in Hawaii was the Fourteenth Naval District, commanded by Rear Admiral Claude C. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Pennsylvania was in dry dock and Colorado was being refitted at Bremerton Navy Yard, arizona was mated with Nevada and Oklahoma at that time. Other components of the Battle Force included Aircraft, Battle Force, with Carrier Division One and Carrier Division Two, plus Cruiser Divisions 4,5, the Scouting Force included Cruiser Division Three, Cruiser Division Nine and Submarines, Scouting Force. The Amphibious Force was formally known as Commander, Amphibious Forces, One of PhibPacs subordinate commands during World War II was Transports, Amphibious Force, Pacific Fleet, or TransPhibPac. The commander of TransPhibPac was known as ComTransPhibPac, in December 1941, the fleet consisted of nine battleships, three aircraft carriers,12 heavy cruisers, eight light cruisers,50 destroyers,33 submarines, and 100 patrol bombers. This was approximately the strength at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. That day, the Japanese Combined Fleet carried out the attack on Pearl Harbor, Navy to rely primarily on aircraft carriers and submarines for many months afterward. More minor battles included the Battle of Dutch Harbor, the West Loch disaster occurred at Pearl Harbor on 21 May 1944. The Pacific Fleet took part in Operation Magic Carpet, the return of U. S. servicemen, after the end of the Second World War. The organization of the Pacific Fleet in January 1947 is shown in Hal M. Friedmans Arguing over the American Lake, Bureaucracy and Rivalry in the U. S. Pacific, the RIMPAC exercise series began in 1971. On 7 March 1984, the Secretaries of Transportation and Navy signed a Memorandum of Agreement which created the Maritime Defense Zones, the Pacific MDZ is an echelon three Navy command under the Commander U. S
3.
Naval Base Point Loma
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These close-knit commands form a diverse and highly technical hub of naval activity. The on base population is around 22,000 Navy and civilian personnel, to provide direct day-to-day operation of base support functions and to ensure that the base best serves the Fleet and tenant commands. We are a team dedicated to providing the highest level of base operating support and quality of life services for all operating forces. The history of Point Loma Naval Base begins in 1795, the Spanish began to work building a fort at the base of Point Guijarros, opposite the tip of North Island. This fort was built on the land which is known as Ballast Point. Fort Guijarros was later finished in 1798 and then abandoned by the Spanish in 1845, in 1846 United States Capt. Samuel Du Pont, entered the abandoned land where the fort once stood and raised their flag. Shortly after in 1848 the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War, in February 1852 President Millard Fillmore set aside the southern portion of Point Loma of about 1,400 acres for military purposes. Subsequently, it was assigned to the U. S. Army and named Fort Rosecrans, after General William Rosecrans, NEL was renamed the Naval Ocean Systems Center in 1977 and incorporated into the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command in 1997. In 1932, the site of Fort Rosecrans was registered as California Historical Landmark #62, Submarine Group, San Diego was established in 1946, and Submarine Flotilla 1 was activated in 1949. In 1959 Fort Rosecrans was turned over to the U. S. Navy, the Navy Submarine Support Facility was established in November 1963 on 280 acres of the land. Bathyscaphe Trieste arrived at NEL in 1958, and modified Bathyscaphe Trieste II was based here from 1965 to 1984, on 1 October 1981 the base was designated as Naval Submarine Base San Diego. Starting in April 1995, several commands were decommissioned or their homeports were changed to meet the post-Cold War down-sizing requirements of the Navy, commands throughout San Diego were regionalized in an effort to provide equal or better base services while managing a reduced budget. The six naval installations on Point Loma were consolidated as Naval Base Point Loma on 1 October 1998, USS Alexandria USS San Francisco USS Pasadena USS Asheville USS Hampton Devil Ray Swamp Fox Narwhal Commander, U. S. Third Fleet Naval Mine and Anti-Submarine Warfare Command - Effective 1 October 2006, pending NMAWC Corpus Christi relocation associated with BRAC action, NMAWC was multi-sited with the commander and Vice Commander and headquarters in San Diego. FLTASWCOM DET NORFOLK is renamed NMAWC DET NORFOLK VA, NMAWC San Diego, in addition to commander NMAWC duties, continues to focus on ASW matters. NMAWC Corpus Christi continues to focus on MIW matters, Submarine Squadron 11 Military Sealift Command, Pacific Naval Training Center San Diego Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Center Official Website
4.
Vice admiral (United States)
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Vice admiral ranks above rear admiral and below admiral. Vice admiral is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant general in the uniformed services. U. S. Code of law explicitly limits the number of vice admirals that may be on active duty at any given time. The total number of active-duty flag officers is capped at 160 for the navy, for the navy, no more than 16. 7% of the services active-duty flag officers may have more than two stars. Some of these slots can be reserved by statute, officers serving in certain Defense Agency Director positions such as the Director of the Defense Logistics Agency, when filled by a naval officer, are vice admirals. The Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy is usually always a vice admiral, the President may also add vice admirals to the Navy if they are offset by removing an equivalent number of three-star officers from other services. Finally, all statutory limits may be waived at the Presidents discretion during time of war or national emergency, the three-star grade goes hand-in-hand with the position of office it is linked to, so the rank is temporary. Officers may only achieve three-star grade if they are appointed to positions that require the officer to hold such a rank and their rank expires with the expiration of their term of office, which is usually set by statute. The nominee must be confirmed via majority vote by the Senate before the appointee can take office, the standard tour length for most vice admiral positions is three years but some are set four or more years by statute. Some statutory limits under the U. S. Code can be waived in times of emergency or war. Three-star ranks may also be given by act of Congress but this is extremely rare, other than voluntary retirement, statute sets a number of mandates for retirement. Three-star officers must retire after 38 years of service unless appointed for promotion or reappointed to grade to serve longer, otherwise all flag officers must retire the month after their 64th birthday. The Secretary of Defense, however, can defer a three-star officers retirement until the officers 66th birthday, flag officers typically retire well in advance of the statutory age and service limits, so as not to impede the upward career mobility of their juniors. Since there is a number of three-star slots available to each service
5.
Fleet admiral (United States)
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Fleet admiral, officially known as Fleet Admiral of the United States Navy, is a five-star flag officer rank in the United States Navy. Fleet admiral ranks immediately above admiral and is equivalent to General of the Army and General of the Air Force. Although it is a current and authorized rank, no U. S. Navy officer presently holds it, with the last living U. S. Navy fleet admiral being Chester W. Nimitz, who died in 1966. The United States Navy did not create admiral ranks until the American Civil War, David Farragut was the first admiral in the U. S. Navy and wore a variety of elaborate sleeve insignia to denote his rank and position. Farragut was succeeded by David Dixon Porter, after the deaths of two men the United States Navy had no rank greater than rear admiral. The rank of Admiral of the Navy was then created in 1903 for George Dewey in recognition of his victory in the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish–American War. George Dewey held the authority of a fleet admiral while three permanent admiral positions also existed in the U. S. Navy for the Atlantic, Pacific. Throughout the 1920s and 30s, the highest rank in the U. S. Navy was that of admiral, in 1944 the Navy Department declared Deweys rank to be senior to the then newly created five-star rank of fleet admiral. The proper rank of admiral was created in 1944 in order to give United States military officers comparable rank to five-star officers of allied nations. The rank of admiral was created by Congress to be granted to four people during the World War II era. The United States rank of admiral was created by an Act of Congress for four officers to hold on a temporary basis under Pub. L. The rank was made permanent for the four individual holders by Pub. L, 79–333 on March 23,1946, but that law made no provision to establish the rank itself permanently. He would later be promoted to general of the Air Force on May 7,1949 after the Air Force was created as a separate service as part of the National Defense Act of 1947. The insignia for an admiral was composed of five silver stars in a pentagonal design. Worn on the dress uniform sleeve was a gold stripe two inches wide surrounding the sleeve two inches from the cuff with four half-inch stripes placed at 1/4 inch intervals. The single gold five-pointed star, one ray down, worn above the top stripe was not part of the rank per se, a close contender to receive the rank of fleet admiral was Admiral Raymond A. Spruance. Representative Carl Vinson, a supporter of Admiral Halsey, reportedly blocked the final promotion of Spruance to fleet admiral on several occasions. The first fleet admiral to leave active duty was Ernest King who retired immediately after the conclusion of World War II, Chester Nimitz and William Halsey both retired two years later while William Leahy was the last fleet admiral to leave active duty in 1949
6.
William Halsey Jr.
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William Frederick Halsey Jr. GBE, known as Bill Halsey or Bull Halsey, was an American fleet admiral in the United States Navy. At the start of the War in the Pacific Halsey commanded the task force centered on the carrier Enterprise in a series of raids against Japanese-held targets. He was made commander, South Pacific Area and led the Allied forces over the course of the Battle for Guadalcanal, in 1943 he was made commander of the Third Fleet, the post he held through the rest of the war. Halsey was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on October 30,1882 and his father was a descendant of Senator Rufus King, who was an American lawyer, politician, diplomat, and Federalist. After waiting two years to receive an appointment to the United States Naval Academy, Halsey decided to study medicine at the University of Virginia and he chose Virginia because his best friend, Karl Osterhause, was there. While there, Halsey joined the Delta Psi fraternity and was also a member of the secretive Seven Society, after his first year, Halsey received his appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, and entered the Academy in the fall of 1900. Halsey graduated from the Naval Academy on February 2,1904, after lettering in football as a fullback and earning several athletic honors. He spent his service years in battleships and sailed with the main battle fleet aboard the battleship USS Kansas as Roosevelts Great White Fleet circumnavigated the globe from 1907 to 1909. Halsey was on the bridge of the battleship USS Missouri on Wednesday, April 13,1904, No explosion occurred, but the rapid burning of the powder burnt and suffocated to death 31 officers and men. This resulted in Halsey dreading the 13th of every month, especially when it fell on a Friday, after his service on the Missouri, Halsey served aboard torpedo boats, beginning with USS Du Pont in 1909. Halsey was one of the few officers who was promoted directly from Ensign to full lieutenant, at that time, the destroyer and the torpedo boat, though extremely hazardous, were the most effective way to bring the torpedo into combat against capital ships. Lieutenant Commander Halseys World War I service, including command of USS Shaw in 1918, in October 1922, he was the naval attaché at the American Embassy in Berlin, Germany. One year later, he was given additional duty as naval attaché at the American Embassies in Christiana, Norway, Copenhagen, Denmark and he then returned to sea duty, again in destroyers in European waters, in command of USS Dale and USS Osborne. In 1934 the chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, Navy Admiral Ernest King, offered Halsey command of the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, Captain Halsey elected to enroll as a cadet for the full 12-week Naval Aviator course rather than the simpler Naval Aviation Observer program. I thought it better to be able to fly the aircraft itself than to just sit back and be at the mercy of the pilot. Halsey earned his Naval Aviators Wings on May 15,1935, at the age of 52 and he went on to command the Saratoga, and later the Naval Air Station Pensacola at Pensacola, Florida. Halsey considered airpower an important part of the navy, commenting, The naval officer in the next war had better know his aviation. Captain Halsey was promoted to admiral in 1938
7.
Numbered fleet
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In addition there was a Director of T&E and Operational Requirements, Surgeon General of the Navy, Chief of Naval Reserves, Chief of Oceanography, and Chief of Chaplains of the Navy. S. Fleet Cyber Command, United States Navy Reserve, United States Naval Special Warfare Command, while not widely publicized, groups of ships departing U. S. waters for operational missions gain a Task force type designation, almost always with the Second or Third Fleets. On entry into another numbered fleets area of responsibility, they are redesignated as a group from that fleet. For example, a task group departing the Eastern Seaboard for the Mediterranean might start out as Task Group 20.1, on entry into the Mediterranean. The United States Navy currently has six active numbered fleets and these six numbered fleets are grouped into operating forces, U. S. Fleet Forces Command Type commands, including Submarine Force U. S. TF20 works with the Combined Joint Operations from the Sea/Center of Excellence to complete its mission. Military Sealift Command serves not only the United States Navy, and it transports equipment, fuel, ammunition, and other goods essential to the smooth function of United States armed forces worldwide. Up to 95% of all supplies needed to sustain the U. S. military can be moved by Military Sealift Command, MSC operates approximately 120 ships with 100 more in reserve. Ships of the command are not manned by active duty Navy personnel, the Maritime Expeditionary Security Force’s primary mission is force protection conducted through fleet support with operations around the world. Two Maritime Expeditionary Security Groups in San Diego and Portsmouth, Va. supervise integration of coastal warfare assets trained to operate in high density, multi-threat environments. Coastal and harbor defense and protection of assets are placed under the jurisdiction of two Naval Coastal Warfare Groups, one for the Pacific Fleet and one for the Atlantic Fleet. Sixth Fleet is based in Naples, Italy and its flagship is USS Mount Whitney, normally, units assigned to Third Fleet undergo training cruises prior to deployment with either the Fifth Fleet or Seventh Fleet and are not intended for immediate use in battle. Only in the event of war does Third Fleet participate in active combat operations. Forming part of the Pacific Fleet, Third Fleet is based in San Diego, Seventh Fleet, the largest forward-deployed U. S. fleet, operates in the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean, stretching to the Persian Gulf and including much of the east coast of Africa. It forms the combat ready part of the Pacific Fleet. At any given time, Seventh Fleet consists of 40-50 ships operating from bases in South Korea, Japan and it is headquartered at Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan with USS Blue Ridge as its flagship. Naval shore commands, Commander Naval Forces Korea, Commander Naval Forces Marianas, and Commander Naval Forces Japan. U. S. Naval Forces Central Command / Fifth Fleet Fifth Fleets area of responsibility is the Middle East, including the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Gulf of Oman, Fifth Fleet is headquartered at Manama, Bahrain
8.
Bering Sea
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The Bering Sea is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises a deep basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves. The Bering Sea is separated from the Gulf of Alaska by the Alaska Peninsula, Bristol Bay is the portion of the Bering Sea which separates the Alaska Peninsula from mainland Alaska. The Bering Sea ecosystem includes resources within the jurisdiction of the United States and Russia, the interaction between currents, sea ice, and weather makes for a vigorous and productive ecosystem. Most scientists believe that during the most recent ice age, sea level was low enough to humans to migrate east on foot from Asia to North America across what is now the Bering Strait. Other animals including megafauna migrated in both directions and this is commonly referred to as the Bering land bridge and is believed by most, though not all scientists, to be the first point of entry of humans into the Americas. There is a portion of the Kula Plate in the Bering Sea. The Kula Plate is an ancient tectonic plate that used to subduct under Alaska, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Bering Sea as follows, On the North. The Southern limit of the Chuckchi Sea, Islands of the Bering Sea include, Pribilof Islands, including St. Paul Island Komandorski Islands, including Bering Island St. Lawrence Island Diomede Islands King Island St. The Bering Sea shelf break is the dominant driver of productivity in the Bering Sea. This zone, where the continental shelf drops off into the North Aleutians Basin is also known as the “Greenbelt”. Nutrient upwelling from the waters of the Aleutian basin flowing up the slope. The second driver of productivity in the Bering Sea is seasonal sea ice that, in part, seasonal melting of sea ice causes an influx of lower salinity water into the middle and other shelf areas, causing stratification and hydrographic effects which influence productivity. In addition to the hydrographic and productivity influence of melting sea ice, some evidence suggests that great changes to the Bering Sea ecosystem have already occurred. Warm water conditions in the summer of 1997 resulted in a bloom of low energy coccolithophorid phytoplankton. A long record of carbon isotopes, which is reflective of primary trends of the Bering Sea. Trends in carbon isotope ratios in whale baleen samples suggest that a 30–40% decline in average seasonal primary productivity has occurred over the last 50 years, the implication is that the carrying capacity of the Bering Sea is much lower now than it has been in the past. Other marine mammals include walrus, Steller sea lion, northern fur seal, orca, the Bering Sea is very important to the seabirds of the world
9.
Aleutian Islands
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The Aleutian Islands are a chain of 14 large volcanic islands and 55 smaller ones belonging to both the United States and Russia. Crossing longitude 180°, at which point east and west longitude end, the westernmost U. S. island in real terms, however, is Attu Island, west of which runs the International Date Line. The islands, with their 57 volcanoes, are in the part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Physiographically, they are a section of the larger Pacific Border province. These Islands are most known for the battles and skirmishes occurred there during the Aleutian Islands Campaign of World War II. It was one of two attacks on the United States during that war. The largest islands in the Aleutians are Attu, and Unalaska, Umnak, and Unimak in the Fox Islands. The largest of those is Unimak Island, with an area of 1,571.41 mi², followed by Unalaska Island, the axis of the archipelago near the mainland of Alaska has a southwest trend, but near 179° its direction changes to the northwest. This change of direction corresponds to a curve in the line of fissures that have contributed their products to the building of the islands. Such curved chains are repeated about the Pacific Ocean in the Kuril Islands, the Japanese chain, and in the Philippines. All these island arcs are at the edge of the Pacific Plate and experience much seismic activity, but are still habitable, the general elevation is greatest in the eastern islands and least in the western. The island chain is a continuation of the Aleutian Range on the mainland. The coasts are rocky and surf-worn, and the approaches are exceedingly dangerous and these volcanic islands reach heights of 6,200 feet. Makushin Volcano located on Unalaska Island, is not quite visible from within the town of Unalaska, though the steam rising from its cone is visible on a clear day. Residents of Unalaska need only to one of the smaller hills in the area, such as Pyramid Peak or Mt. Newhall. The volcanic Bogoslof and Fire Islands, which rose from the sea in 1796 and 1883 respectively, in 1906 a new volcanic cone rose between the islets of Bogoslof and Grewingk, near Unalaska, followed by another in 1907. These cones were demolished by an explosive eruption on September 1,1907. Newly found information in 2017, the volcanic cone erupted sending ash, the Aleutians seen from space The climate of the islands is oceanic, with moderate and fairly uniform temperatures and heavy rainfall
10.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
11.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
12.
Washington (state)
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It was admitted to the Union as the 42nd state in 1889. Washington is sometimes referred to as Washington State or the State of Washington to distinguish it from Washington, Washington is the 18th largest state with an area of 71,362 square miles, and the 13th most populous state with over 7 million people. Washington is the second most populous state on the West Coast and in the Western United States, Mount Rainier, an active stratovolcano, is the states highest elevation at almost 14,411 feet and is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States. Washington is a leading lumber producer and its rugged surface is rich in stands of Douglas fir, hemlock, ponderosa pine, white pine, spruce, larch, and cedar. Manufacturing industries in Washington include aircraft and missiles, shipbuilding and other equipment, lumber, food processing, metals and metal products, chemicals. Washington has over 1,000 dams, including the Grand Coulee Dam, built for a variety of purposes including irrigation, power, flood control, the Washington Territory was named after George Washington, the first President of the United States. The area was part of a region called the Columbia District after the Columbia River. The area was renamed Washington in order to avoid confusion with the District of Columbia, Washington is the only U. S. state named after a president. To distinguish it from the U. S. capital, which is named for George Washington, Washington is sometimes referred to as Washington State, or, in more formal contexts. Washingtonians and other residents of the Pacific Northwest refer to the state simply as Washington, calling the nations capital Washington, D. C. or, often, Washington is the northwestern-most state of the contiguous United States. Washington is bordered by Oregon to the south, with the Columbia River forming the western part, to the west of Washington lies the Pacific Ocean. The high mountains of the Cascade Range run north-south, bisecting the state, from the Cascade Mountains westward, Western Washington has a mostly marine west coast climate, with mild temperatures and wet winters, autumns and springs, and relatively dry summers. The Cascade Range contains several volcanoes, which reach altitudes significantly higher than the rest of the mountains, from the north to the south, these major volcanoes are Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Adams. Mount Rainier, the tallest mountain in the state, is 50 miles south of the city of Seattle and it is also covered with more glacial ice than any other peak in the contiguous 48 states. Western Washington also is home of the Olympic Mountains, far west on the Olympic Peninsula and these deep forests, such as the Hoh Rainforest, are among the only temperate rainforests in the continental United States. Eastern Washington – the part of the state east of the Cascades – has a dry climate. It includes large areas of steppe and a few truly arid deserts lying in the rain shadow of the Cascades. Farther east, the climate becomes less arid, with annual rainfall increasing as one goes east to 21.2 inches in Pullman, the Okanogan Highlands and the rugged Kettle River Range and Selkirk Mountains cover much of the northeastern quadrant of the state
13.
Hawaii
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Hawaii is the 50th and most recent state to have joined the United States of America, having received statehood on August 21,1959. Hawaii is the only U. S. state located in Oceania and it is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean. Hawaii is the only U. S. state not located in the Americas, the state encompasses nearly the entire volcanic Hawaiian archipelago, which comprises hundreds of islands spread over 1,500 miles. At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight main islands are—in order from northwest to southeast, Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and the Island of Hawaiʻi. The last is the largest island in the group, it is called the Big Island or Hawaiʻi Island to avoid confusion with the state or archipelago. The archipelago is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania, Hawaii has over a million permanent residents, along with many visitors and U. S. military personnel. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaii is the 8th-smallest and the 11th-least populous, but the 13th-most densely populated of the fifty U. S. states. It is the state with an Asian plurality. The states coastline is about 750 miles long, the fourth longest in the U. S. after the coastlines of Alaska, Florida, the state of Hawaii derives its name from the name of its largest island, Hawaiʻi. A common Hawaiian explanation of the name of Hawaiʻi is that was named for Hawaiʻiloa and he is said to have discovered the islands when they were first settled. The Hawaiian language word Hawaiʻi is very similar to Proto-Polynesian *Sawaiki, cognates of Hawaiʻi are found in other Polynesian languages, including Māori, Rarotongan and Samoan. According to linguists Pukui and Elbert, lsewhere in Polynesia, Hawaiʻi or a cognate is the name of the underworld or of the home, but in Hawaii. A somewhat divisive political issue arose in 1978 when the Constitution of the State of Hawaii added Hawaiian as an official state language. The title of the constitution is The Constitution of the State of Hawaii. Article XV, Section 1 of the Constitution uses The State of Hawaii, diacritics were not used because the document, drafted in 1949, predates the use of the okina and the kahakō in modern Hawaiian orthography. The exact spelling of the name in the Hawaiian language is Hawaiʻi. In the Hawaii Admission Act that granted Hawaiian statehood, the government recognized Hawaii as the official state name. Official government publications, department and office titles, and the Seal of Hawaii use the spelling with no symbols for glottal stops or vowel length
14.
Aircraft carrier
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An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the ship of a fleet, as it allows a naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. Aircraft carriers are expensive to build and are critical assets, there is no single definition of an aircraft carrier, and modern navies use several variants of the type. These variants are sometimes categorized as sub-types of aircraft carriers, Aircraft carriers may be classified according to the type of aircraft they carry and their operational assignments. Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, former head of the Royal Navy, has said, To put it simply, as of April 2017, there are 37 active aircraft carriers in the world within twelve navies. The United States Navy has 10 large nuclear-powered fleet carriers, the largest carriers in the world, the Royal Navy of Great Britain is building two 280-m / 920-ft carriers, the Queen Elizabeth, and the Prince of Wales scheduled to go into service in 2020-2023. These are the largest carriers capable of fast speeds, by comparison, escort carriers were developed to provide defense for convoys of ships. They were smaller and slower with lower numbers of aircraft carried, most were built from mercantile hulls or, in the case of merchant aircraft carriers, were bulk cargo ships with a flight deck added on top. Light aircraft carriers were fast enough to operate with the main fleet, three nations currently operate carriers of this type, ten by the United States, and one each by France and Brazil for a total of twelve in service. Short take-off but arrested-recovery, these carriers are generally limited to carrying lighter fixed-wing aircraft with more limited payloads, currently, Russia, China, and India possess commissioned carriers of this type. Short take-off vertical-landing, limited to carrying STOVL aircraft and this type of aircraft carrier is currently in service with Italy. Some also count the nine US amphibious assault ships in their secondary light carrier role boosting the total to thirteen. Helicopter carrier, Helicopter carriers have an appearance to other aircraft carriers. Some are designed for addition of, or may include, a ski jump ramp allowing for STOVL operations or may have a ski jump installed before retirement of STOVL aircraft. In the past, some conventional carriers were converted and called commando carriers by the Royal Navy, some helicopter carriers with a resistant flight surface can operate STOVL jets. Currently the majority of carriers, but not all, are classified as amphibious assault ships. The US has nine of this type, France and Japan three, Australia two, the UK one, the Republic of Korea one and Spain one, the US and Spains amphibious assault ships operate STOVL jets in normal deployment. Supercarrier Fleet carrier Light aircraft carrier Escort carrier Several systems of identification symbol for aircraft carriers, two months later, on 18 January 1911, Ely landed his Curtiss pusher airplane on a platform on the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay
15.
Cruiser
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A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundred years, and has had different meanings throughout this period. In the middle of the 19th century, cruiser came to be a classification for the intended for cruising distant waters, commerce raiding. Cruisers came in a variety of sizes, from the medium-sized protected cruiser to large armored cruisers that were nearly as big as a pre-dreadnought battleship. With the advent of the battleship before World War I. The very large battlecruisers of the World War I era that succeeded armored cruisers were now classified, along with dreadnought battleships, in the later 20th century, the obsolescence of the battleship left the cruiser as the largest and most powerful surface combatant after the aircraft carrier. The role of the cruiser varied according to ship and navy, often including air defense, during the Cold War, the Soviet Navys cruisers had heavy anti-ship missile armament designed to sink NATO carrier task forces via saturation attack. The U. S. Adams guided-missile destroyers tasked with the air defense role. Indeed, the newest U. S. Navy destroyers are more heavily-armed than some of the cruisers that they succeeded, currently only three nations operate cruisers, the United States, Russia, and Peru. The term cruiser or cruizer was first commonly used in the 17th century to refer to an independent warship, Cruiser meant the purpose or mission of a ship, rather than a category of vessel. However, the term was used to mean a smaller, faster warship suitable for such a role. The Dutch navy was noted for its cruisers in the 17th century, while the Royal Navy—and later French and Spanish navies—subsequently caught up in terms of their numbers, during the 18th century the frigate became the preeminent type of cruiser. A frigate was a small, fast, long range, lightly armed ship used for scouting, carrying dispatches, the other principal type of cruiser was the sloop, but many other miscellaneous types of ship were used as well. During the 19th century, navies began to use steam power for their fleets, the 1840s saw the construction of experimental steam-powered frigates and sloops. By the middle of the 1850s, the British and U. S. Navies were both building steam frigates with very long hulls and a gun armament, for instance USS Merrimack or Mersey. The 1860s saw the introduction of the ironclad, the first ironclads were frigates, in the sense of having one gun deck, however, they were also clearly the most powerful ships in the navy, and were principally to serve in the line of battle. In spite of their speed, they would have been wasted in a cruising role. The French constructed a number of smaller ironclads for overseas cruising duties, starting with the Belliqueuse and these station ironclads were the beginning of the development of the armored cruisers, a type of ironclad specifically for the traditional cruiser missions of fast, independent raiding and patrol
16.
Destroyer
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Before World War II, destroyers were light vessels with little endurance for unattended ocean operations, typically a number of destroyers and a single destroyer tender operated together. After the war, the advent of the missile allowed destroyers to take on the surface combatant roles previously filled by battleships. This resulted in larger and more powerful guided missile destroyers more capable of independent operation, the emergence and development of the destroyer was related to the invention of the self-propelled torpedo in the 1860s. A navy now had the potential to destroy an enemy battle fleet using steam launches to launch torpedoes. Fast boats armed with torpedoes were built and called torpedo boats, the first seagoing vessel designed to fire the self-propelled Whitehead torpedo was the 33-ton HMS Lightning in 1876. She was armed with two drop collars to launch these weapons, these were replaced in 1879 by a torpedo tube in the bow. By the 1880s, the type had evolved into small ships of 50–100 tons, in response to this new threat, more heavily gunned picket boats called catchers were built which were used to escort the battle fleet at sea. The anti-torpedo boat origin of this type of ship is retained in its name in other languages, including French, Italian, Portuguese, Czech, Greek, Dutch and, up until the Second World War, Polish. At that time, and even into World War I, the function of destroyers was to protect their own battle fleet from enemy torpedo attacks. The task of escorting merchant convoys was still in the future, an important development came with the construction of HMS Swift in 1884, later redesignated TB81. This was a torpedo boat with four 47 mm quick-firing guns. At 23.75 knots, while still not fast enough to engage torpedo boats reliably. Another forerunner of the torpedo boat destroyer was the Japanese torpedo boat Kotaka, designed to Japanese specifications and ordered from the London Yarrow shipyards in 1885, she was transported in parts to Japan, where she was assembled and launched in 1887. The 165-foot long vessel was armed with four 1-pounder quick-firing guns and six torpedo tubes, reached 19 knots, in her trials in 1889, Kotaka demonstrated that she could exceed the role of coastal defense, and was capable of accompanying larger warships on the high seas. The Yarrow shipyards, builder of the parts for the Kotaka, the first vessel designed for the explicit purpose of hunting and destroying torpedo boats was the torpedo gunboat. Essentially very small cruisers, torpedo gunboats were equipped with torpedo tubes, by the end of the 1890s torpedo gunboats were made obsolete by their more successful contemporaries, the torpedo boat destroyers, which were much faster. The first example of this was HMS Rattlesnake, designed by Nathaniel Barnaby in 1885, the gunboat was armed with torpedoes and designed for hunting and destroying smaller torpedo boats. Exactly 200 feet long and 23 feet in beam, she displaced 550 tons, built of steel, Rattlesnake was un-armoured with the exception of a 3⁄4-inch protective deck
17.
Frigate
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A frigate /ˈfrɪɡᵻt/ is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries. In the 17th century, this term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability and these could be warships carrying their principal batteries of carriage-mounted guns on a single deck or on two decks. The term was used for ships too small to stand in the line of battle. In the late 19th century, the frigate was a type of ironclad warship that for a time was the most powerful type of vessel afloat. The term frigate was used because such ships still mounted their principal armaments on a continuous upper deck. Ship classes dubbed frigates have more closely resembled corvettes, destroyers, cruisers. The rank frigate captain derives from the name of type of ship. The term frigate originated in the Mediterranean in the late 15th century, referring to a lighter galleass type ship with oars, sails and a light armament, built for speed and maneuverability. The etymology of the word is unknown, although it may have originated as a corruption of aphractus, aphractus was, in turn, derived from the Ancient Greek phrase ἄφρακτος ναῦς, or undefended ship. In 1583, during the Eighty Years War, Habsburg Spain recovered the Southern Netherlands from the rebellious Dutch and this soon led to the occupied ports being used as bases for privateers, the Dunkirkers, to attack the shipping of the Dutch and their allies. To achieve this they developed small, maneuverable, sailing vessels that came to be referred to as frigates, in French, the term frigate became a verb, meaning to build long and low, and an adjective, adding further confusion. Even the huge English Sovereign of the Seas could be described as a frigate by a contemporary after her upper decks were reduced in 1651. The navy of the Dutch Republic was the first navy to build the larger ocean-going frigates, the first two tasks required speed, shallowness of draft for the shallow waters around the Netherlands, and the ability to carry sufficient supplies to maintain a blockade. The third task required heavy armament, sufficient to fight against the Spanish fleet, the first of these larger battle-capable frigates were built around 1600 at Hoorn in Holland. The effectiveness of the Dutch frigates became most visible in the Battle of the Downs in 1639, encouraging most other navies, especially the English, to adopt similar designs. The fleets built by the Commonwealth of England in the 1650s generally consisted of ships described as frigates, the largest of which were two-decker great frigates of the third rate. Carrying 60 guns, these vessels were as big and capable as great ships of the time, however, most other frigates at the time were used as cruisers, independent fast ships. The term frigate implied a long hull design, which relates directly to speed and also, in turn, in Danish, the word fregat is often applied to warships carrying as few as 16 guns, such as HMS Falcon which the British classified as a sloop
18.
Submarine
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A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability, the term most commonly refers to a large, crewed vessel. It is also used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely operated vehicles and robots, as well as medium-sized or smaller vessels, such as the midget submarine. The noun submarine evolved as a form of submarine boat, by naval tradition, submarines are usually referred to as boats rather than as ships. Although experimental submarines had been built before, submarine design took off during the 19th century, Submarines were first widely used during World War I, and now figure in many navies large and small. Civilian uses for submarines include marine science, salvage, exploration and facility inspection, Submarines can also be modified to perform more specialized functions such as search-and-rescue missions or undersea cable repair. Submarines are also used in tourism, and for undersea archaeology, most large submarines consist of a cylindrical body with hemispherical ends and a vertical structure, usually located amidships, which houses communications and sensing devices as well as periscopes. In modern submarines, this structure is the sail in American usage, a conning tower was a feature of earlier designs, a separate pressure hull above the main body of the boat that allowed the use of shorter periscopes. There is a propeller at the rear, and various hydrodynamic control fins, smaller, deep-diving and specialty submarines may deviate significantly from this traditional layout. Submarines use diving planes and also change the amount of water, Submarines have one of the widest ranges of types and capabilities of any vessel. Submarines can work at greater depths than are survivable or practical for human divers, modern deep-diving submarines derive from the bathyscaphe, which in turn evolved from the diving bell. In 1578, the English mathematician William Bourne recorded in his book Inventions or Devises one of the first plans for an underwater navigation vehicle and its unclear whether he ever carried out his idea. The first submersible of whose construction there exists reliable information was designed and built in 1620 by Cornelis Drebbel and it was propelled by means of oars. By the mid-18th century, over a dozen patents for submarines/submersible boats had been granted in England, in 1747, Nathaniel Symons patented and built the first known working example of the use of a ballast tank for submersion. His design used leather bags that could fill with water to submerge the craft, a mechanism was used to twist the water out of the bags and cause the boat to resurface. In 1749, the Gentlemens Magazine reported that a design had initially been proposed by Giovanni Borelli in 1680. By this point of development, further improvement in design stagnated for over a century, until new industrial technologies for propulsion. The first military submarine was the Turtle, a hand-powered acorn-shaped device designed by the American David Bushnell to accommodate a single person and it was the first verified submarine capable of independent underwater operation and movement, and the first to use screws for propulsion
19.
Auxiliary ship
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An auxiliary ship is a naval ship which is designed to operate in any number of roles supporting combatant ships and other naval operations. Auxiliaries are not primary combatants, although they may have some limited combat capacity, auxiliaries are extremely important for navies of all sizes, as without them, the primary fleet vessels can not be effective. Thus, nearly every navy maintains a fleet of auxiliaries. However, the composition and size of these auxiliary fleets varies depending on the nature of each navy, smaller coastal navies tend to have smaller auxiliary vessels focusing primarily on littoral and training support roles. Larger blue-water navies tend to have large auxiliary fleets comprising longer-range fleet support vessels designed to provide support far beyond territorial waters, replenishment One of the most direct ways that auxiliaries support the fleet is by providing underway replenishment to major fleet units. This allows the fleet to remain on station, with the replenishment vessels bringing up fuel, ammunition, food, oilers are vessels specifically designed to bring fuel oil to the fleet, while the earlier Colliers supplied coal burning steamships. Tenders are specifically designed to support a type of smaller naval unit, most often submarines or seaplanes, transport Supporting forward operating bases requires immense transportation capacity. Transports are often converted merchant ships commissioned into naval service. Tankers are transports specifically designed to ship fuel to forward locations, transports are often employed not only carrying cargo for naval support, but in support of all forces of a nations military. In particular, troopships are used to large number of soldiers to operational theatres. Some transport ships are highly specialized, like the ships employed by the US Navy. Repair vessels range from small equipment ships to floating dry docks and these vessels also help maintain the harbor by dredging channels, maintaining jetties and buoys, and even providing floating platforms for port defense weapons. List of auxiliaries of the United States Navy List of auxiliary ship classes in service Cutler, Deborah W. Cutler, morris, Christopher G. Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology. Media related to Auxiliary ships at Wikimedia Commons
20.
Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet
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The Boeing F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornet are twin-engine carrier-capable multirole fighter aircraft variants based on the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. The F/A-18E single-seat and F/A-18F tandem-seat variants are larger and more advanced derivatives of the F/A-18C, the Super Hornet has an internal 20 mm M61 rotary cannon and can carry air-to-air missiles and air-to-surface weapons. Additional fuel can be carried in up to five fuel tanks. Designed and initially produced by McDonnell Douglas, the Super Hornet first flew in 1995, full-rate production began in September 1997, after the merger of McDonnell Douglas and Boeing the previous month. The Super Hornet entered service with the United States Navy in 1999, replacing the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, which was retired in 2006, the Super Hornet serves alongside the original Hornet. The Royal Australian Air Force, which has operated the F/A-18A as its main fighter since 1984, RAAF Super Hornets entered service in December 2010. The Super Hornet is a redesign of the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. The Super Hornets unique wing and tail configuration can be traced back to an internal Northrop project P-530,1965, this had started as a substantial rework of the lightweight F-5E with a larger wing, twin tail fins and a distinctive leading edge root extension. The Hornet proved to be effective but limited in combat radius, the concept of an enlarged Hornet was first proposed in the 1980s, which was marketed by McDonnell Douglas as Hornet 2000. The Hornet 2000 concept was an advanced F/A-18 with a larger wing, the end of the Cold War led to a period of military budget cuts and considerable restructuring. At the same time, U. S. Naval Aviation faced a number of problems, the McDonnell Douglas A-12 Avenger II was canceled in 1991 after the program ran into serious problems, it was intended to replace the obsolete Grumman A-6 Intruder and LTV A-7 Corsair II. The Navy considered updating an existing design as an attractive approach to a clean-sheet program. The next-generation Hornet design proved more attractive than Grummans Quick Strike upgrade to the F-14 Tomcat, at the time, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat was the Navys primary air superiority fighter and fleet defense interceptor. In 1992, the Navy canceled the Navy Advanced Tactical Fighter, the Super Hornet was first ordered by the U. S. Navy in 1992. The Navy retained the F/A-18 designation to help sell the program to Congress as a low-risk derivative, the Hornet and Super Hornet share many characteristics, including avionics, ejection seats, radar, armament, mission computer software, and maintenance/operating procedures. The initial F/A-18E/F retained most of the systems from the F/A-18C/Ds configuration at the time. The design would be expanded in the Super Hornet with an empty weight slightly greater than the F-15C, the Super Hornet first flew on 29 November 1995. Initial production on the F/A-18E/F began in 1995, flight testing started in 1996 with the F/A-18E/Fs first carrier landing in 1997
21.
Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye
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The Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye is an American all-weather, carrier-capable tactical airborne early warning aircraft. The fourth major version of the Hawkeye is the E-2D, which first flew in 2007, the E-2 was the first aircraft designed specifically for its role, as opposed to a modification of an existing airframe, such as the Boeing E-3 Sentry. Variants of the Hawkeye have been in production since 1960. The E-2 also received the nickname Super Fudd because it replaced the E-1 Tracer Willy Fudd, in recent decades, the E-2 has been commonly referred to as the Hummer because of the distinctive sounds of its turboprop engines, quite unlike that of turbojet and turbofan jet engines. In addition to U. S. Navy service, smaller numbers of E-2s have been sold to the forces of Egypt, France, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Singapore. Continual improvements in airborne radars through 1956 led to the construction of AEW airplanes by several different countries, the functions of command and control and sea & air surveillance were also added. The first carrier-based aircraft to perform missions for the U. S. Its design, initially designated W2F-1, but later redesignated the E-2A Hawkeye, was the first carrier plane that had been designed from its wheels up as an AEW and command and control airplane. These ‘smaller’ carriers were built during World War II and later modified to allow them to operate jet aircraft, consequently, various height, weight and length restrictions had to be factored into the E-2A design, resulting in some handling characteristics which were less than ideal. The E-2A actually never operated from the modified Essex class carriers, the first prototype, acting as an aerodynamic testbed only, flew on 21 October 1960. The first fully equipped aircraft followed it on 19 April 1961, by 1965 the major development problems delaying the E-2A Hawkeye got so bad that the aircraft was actually cancelled after 59 aircraft had already been built. Particular difficulties were being experienced due to cooling in the closely packed avionics compartment. Early computer and complex avionics systems generated considerable heat, without proper ventilation this would lead to system failures and these failures continued long after the aircraft entered service and at one point reliability was so bad the entire fleet of aircraft was grounded. The airframe was also prone to corrosion, a problem in a carrier based aircraft. The unreliable rotary drum computer was replaced by a Litton L-304 digital computer, in total,49 of the 59 E-2As were upgraded to E-2B standard. These aircraft replaced the E-1B Tracers in the various US Navy AEW squadrons, although the upgraded E-2B was a vast improvement on the unreliable E-2A, it was an interim measure. The US Navy knew the design had much greater capability and had yet to achieve the performance, in April 1968 a reliability improvement program was instigated. In addition, now that the capabilities of the aircraft were starting to be realized, improvements in the new and upgraded aircraft were concentrated in the radar and computer performance
22.
McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II
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The McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II is a single-engine ground-attack aircraft that constitutes the second generation of the Harrier Jump Jet family. Named after a bird of prey, it is employed on light attack or multi-role missions. The AV-8B is used by the United States Marine Corps, the Spanish Navy, a variant of the AV-8B, the British Aerospace Harrier II, was developed for the British military, while another, the TAV-8B, is a dedicated two-seat trainer. Early efforts centered on a larger, more powerful Pegasus engine to improve the capabilities of the Harrier. Due to budgetary constraints, the UK abandoned the project in 1975, following the withdrawal of the UK, McDonnell Douglas extensively redesigned the earlier AV-8A Harrier to create the AV-8B. The aircraft is powered by a version of the Pegasus. The AV-8B made its flight in November 1981 and entered service with the USMC in January 1985. Later upgrades added a night-attack capability and radar, resulting in the AV-8B and AV-8B Harrier II Plus, an enlarged version named Harrier III was also studied, but not pursued. The UK, through British Aerospace, re-joined the improved Harrier project as a partner in 1981, after corporate mergers in the 1990s, Boeing and BAE Systems have jointly supported the program. Approximately 340 aircraft were produced in a 22-year production program that ended in 2003, U. S. Army General Norman Schwarzkopf named the USMC Harrier II as one of several important weapons in the Gulf War. The aircraft took part in combat during the Iraq War beginning in 2003, the Harrier II has served in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan since 2001, and was used in Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya in 2011. Italian and Spanish Harrier IIs have taken part in conflicts in conjunction with NATO coalitions. During its service history, the AV-8B has had an accident rate, related to the percentage of time spent in critical take-off. USMC and Italian Navy AV-8Bs are to be replaced by the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the first-generation Harriers entered service with the Royal Air Force and United States Marine Corps, but were handicapped in range and payload. In short takeoff and landing configuration, the AV-8A carried less than half the 4,000 lb payload of the smaller A-4 Skyhawk, to address this issue, in 1973 Hawker Siddeley and McDonnell Douglas began joint development of a more capable version of the Harrier. Early efforts concentrated on an improved Pegasus engine, designated the Pegasus 15, although more powerful, the engines diameter was too large by 2.75 in to fit into the Harrier easily. In December 1973, a joint American and British team completed a document defining an Advanced Harrier powered by the Pegasus 15 engine. The Advanced Harrier was intended to replace the original RAF and USMC Harriers, the aim of the Advanced Harrier was to double the AV-8s payload and range, and was therefore unofficially named AV-16
23.
Bell AH-1 SuperCobra
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The Bell AH-1 SuperCobra is a twin-engine attack helicopter based on the United States Armys single-engine AH-1 Cobra. The twin Cobra family, itself part of the larger Huey family, includes the AH-1J SeaCobra, the AH-1T Improved SeaCobra, the AH-1W has been the backbone of the United States Marine Corpss attack helicopter fleet, but is being replaced by the Bell AH-1Z Viper. The AH-1 Cobra was developed in the mid-1960s as a gunship for the U. S. Army for use during the Vietnam War. The Cobra shared the proven transmission, rotor system, and the T53 turboshaft engine of the UH-1 Huey, by June 1967, the first AH-1G HueyCobras had been delivered. Bell built 1,116 AH-1Gs for the U. S. Army between 1967 and 1973, and the Cobras chalked up over a million hours in Vietnam. The U. S. Marine Corps was very interested in the AH-1G Cobra, but it preferred a twin-engine version for improved safety in over-water operations, however, the Marines won out and awarded Bell a contract for 49 twin-engine AH-1J SeaCobras in May 1968. As an interim measure, the U. S. Army passed on 38 AH-1Gs to the Marines in 1969, the AH-1J also received a more powerful gun turret. It featured a three barrel 20 mm XM197 cannon that was based on the six barrel M61 Vulcan cannon, the Marine Corps requested greater load carrying capability in high temperatures for the Cobra in the 1970s. Bell used systems from its Model 309 to develop the AH-1T and this version had a lengthened tailboom and fuselage with an upgraded transmission and engines from the 309. Bell designed the AH-1T to be reliable and easier to maintain in the field. The version was given full TOW missile capability with targeting system, in the early 1980s, the U. S. Marine Corps sought a new navalized helicopter, but it was denied funding to buy the AH-64 Apache by Congress in 1981. The Marines in turn pursued a more powerful version of the AH-1T, other changes included modified fire control systems to carry and fire AIM-9 Sidewinder and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. The new version was funded by Congress and received the AH-1W designation, deliveries of AH-1W SuperCobras totaled 179 new-built helicopters plus 43 upgrades of AH-1Ts. The AH-1T+ demonstrator and AH-1W prototype were later tested with a new experimental composite four-blade main rotor system, the new system offered better performance, reduced noise and improved battle damage tolerance. Lacking a USMC contract, Bell developed this new design into the AH-1Z with its own funds, by 1996, the Marines were again not allowed to order the AH-64. Developing a marine version of the Apache would have been expensive and they instead signed a contract for upgrading AH-1Ws into AH-1Zs. The Bell AH-1Z Viper features several design changes, the AH-1Zs two redesigned wing stubs are longer with each adding a wingtip station for a missile such as the AIM-9 Sidewinder. Each wing has two stations for 70 mm Hydra rocket pods, or AGM-114 Hellfire quad missile launcher
24.
Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk
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The Sikorsky SH-60/MH-60 Seahawk is a twin turboshaft engine, multi-mission United States Navy helicopter based on the United States Army UH-60 Black Hawk and a member of the Sikorsky S-70 family. The most significant airframe modification is a tail to reduce its footprint aboard ships. The U. S. Navy uses the H-60 airframe under the model designations SH-60B, SH-60F, HH-60H, MH-60R, all Navy H-60s carry a rescue hoist for SAR/CSAR missions. During the 1970s, the U. S. Navy began looking for a new helicopter to replace the Kaman SH-2 Seasprite. The SH-2 Seasprite was used by the Navy as its platform for the Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System Mark I avionics suite for maritime warfare and a secondary search and rescue capability. Advances in sensor and avionic technology lead to the LAMPS Mk II suite, in the mid-1970s, the Army evaluated the Sikorsky YUH-60 and Boeing-Vertol YUH-61 for its Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System competition. The Navy based its requirements on the Armys UTTAS specification to decrease costs from commonality, Sikorsky and Boeing-Vertol submitted proposals for Navy versions of their Army UTTAS helicopters in April 1977 for review. The Navy also looked at helicopters being produced by Bell, Kaman, Westland and MBB, in early 1978 the Navy selected Sikorskys S-70B design, which was designated SH-60B Seahawk. The SH-60B maintained 83% commonality with the UH-60A, other changes included larger fuel cells, an electric blade folding system, folding horizontal stabilators for storage, and adding a 25-tube pneumatic sonobuoy launcher on left side. Five YSH-60B Seahawk LAMPS III prototypes were ordered, the first YSH-60B flight occurred on 12 December 1979. The first production SH-60B made its first flight on 11 February 1983, the SH-60B entered operational service in 1984 with first operational deployment in 1985. The SH-60B is deployed primarily aboard frigates, destroyers, and cruisers, the primary missions of the SH-60B are surface warfare and anti-submarine warfare. It carries a complex system of including a towed Magnetic Anomaly Detector. Other sensors include the APS-124 search radar, ALQ-142 ESM system, munitions carried include the Mk 46, Mk 50, or Mk 54 torpedo, AGM-114 Hellfire missile, and a single cabin-door-mounted M60D/M2407.62 mm machine gun or GAU-16.50 in machine gun. A standard crew for a SH-60B is one pilot, one ATO/Co-Pilot, operating squadrons are designated Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron, Light. The SH-60J is a version of the SH-60B for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, the SH-60K is a modified version of the SH-60J. The SH-60J and SH-60K are built under license by Mitsubishi in Japan, after the SH-60B entered service, the Navy began development of the SH-60F to replace the SH-3 Sea King. Development of this variant began with the award of a contract to Sikorsky in March 1985, an early-model SH-60B was modified to serve as a SH-60F prototype
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This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the 
