United States Navy

The United States has shelved the handover of two leftover frigates to Turkey, as Congress excluded Turkey from a bill seeking permission to transfer vessels to foreign countries, citing Mediterranean tensions.

A laser weapon deployed aboard the USS Ponce in the Gulf has performed beyond expectations in four months of operational testing, the chief of Navy research said on Dec. 10, lifting hopes for a new U.S. defense against cheap anti-ship arms.
   

The U.S. space agency's Orion capsule blasted off Dec. 5 on its first journey into orbit, in a key test flight before carrying people to deep space destinations like Mars in the coming years.

The unmanned spacecraft soared to space at 7:05 a.m. (1205 GMT) atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket that rumbled and roared as it climbed above the Florida coast at sunrise.

Former American diplomat John Brady Kiesling, who served at the US Embassy in Athens for two stints during his nearly 20-year career, presents the results of nearly a decade of research into homegrown terror group November 17.

Vice President Joe Biden's son was discharged this year from the US Navy reserve after testing positive for cocaine, a US official confirmed to AFP on Oct. 16.

The US Navy will formally commission its new missile defence base in southern Romania on Friday, according to media sources.

The base in Deveselu is one of the two European land-based interceptor sites for a NATO missile shield, a scheme which is viewed with deep suspicion by Russia.

Human Rights Watch said Aug. 21 that hundreds of victims of a chemical weapons attack in Syria remained without justice one year on, days after Damascus’s stockpile was completely destroyed.

Today marked the first anniversary of the attack on the capital’s Ghouta region, a stronghold of the rebel movement, which the United States estimated killed up to 1,400 people.

All Syria's precursor chemicals that could be used to make deadly sarin gas have been destroyed on board a US Navy ship on the Mediterranean Sea, the world's chemical watchdog said on Aug. 13.
      

US guided-missile cruiser Vella Gulf entered the Black Sea on Thursday, "to promote peace and stability in the region", the US Navy announced.

The arrival of Vella Gulf is the latest bid by the United States to reassure NATO allies worried over Russia's support for Ukrainian rebels.

Last batch of Syrian chemical weapons delivered for neutralisation