Geoff Ziezulewicz

Feb 4, 2025 | twz.com | Geoff Ziezulewicz

The dual-band radar (DBR) aboard the Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), the ship’s primary sensor system, struggled to perform during a pre-deployment exercise and suffered failures as it grappled with the constant need for radar coverage. It remains unclear whether DBR’s issues impacted Ford’s operations during its first full deployment, which began in May 2023 and was extended before ending in January 2024, but the Navy is now seeking to replace Ford’s DBR entirely.

Feb 3, 2025 | twz.com | Geoff Ziezulewicz |Tyler Rogoway

The Navy has disclosed that the Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Preble successfully test-fired its High-Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) system to take out an aerial target drone in Fiscal Year 2024. It was the latest major demonstration of the surface fleet’s shipboard laser ambitions, even as other U.S. military laser efforts have faced a reality check in recent years.

Jan 31, 2025 | twz.com | Geoff Ziezulewicz

As it battled Houthi threats around the Red Sea last year, the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) also served as a testbed for vastly increasing the level of internet connectivity aboard the Navy’s deployed ships. Now we are learning specific details about how this mammoth change in at-sea connectedness impacted everything from how sailors went about their lives during a grueling deployment to how the ship and its air wing brought its firepower to bear on the enemy.

Jan 30, 2025 | twz.com | Geoff Ziezulewicz |Howard Altman

The skies over Washington D.C., where an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with a passenger airliner Wednesday night, killing 67, is the most tightly controlled and surveilled airspace open to civilian air traffic in the United States.

Jan 30, 2025 | twz.com | Howard Altman |Geoff Ziezulewicz

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that “there was some sort of elevation issue” with the Army Black Hawk helicopter that collided in mid-air with a passenger airliner Wednesday night over the Potomac River that is now being investigated. He also confirmed at a press conference that the Black Hawk was in the midst of a so-called “continuity of government” training mission.