For decades, the world relied on the powerful U.S. Navy to protect this vital sea lane. But as India and China gain economic heft, they are moving to expand their control of the waterway, sparking a new - and potentially dangerous - rivalry between Asia’s emerging giants.
China has given massive aid to Indian Ocean nations, [...]

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Venezuela fired live missiles from fighter jets and ships Friday during exercises intended to demonstrate the firepower of President Hugo Chavez’s military.
Smoke rose from ships off the La Orchila island military base as Otomat MK2 missiles arced into the sky and Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jets flew in formation.
The televised war games allowed the military to [...]

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The top U.S. Navy official in the Persian Gulf warned in an interview with ABC News that war with Iran would be “pretty disastrous,” with “echoes and aftershocks” reverberating throughout the region.
“Nobody I’ve spoken to suggests that going to war with Iran is a good thing,” Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff told ABC News. “The preferred [...]

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The U.S. Navy has positioned its advanced communications flagship off the coast of Lebanon ahead of a larger mission, an intelligence report says.
U.S. Navy spokesman Lt. Patrick Foughty said the the USS Mount Whitney, a 620-foot command and control flagship for the U.S. Navy’s 6th Fleet, is in the region “to support additional communications requirements [...]

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As America and its allies focus their diplomatic energy on the Middle East and Afghanistan, China continues to alter the balance of power in East Asia with little fanfare and even less resistance. Consider recent revelations that China has built a massive new naval base in Sanya, on Hainan Island. The strategically located base, which [...]

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The U.S. Navy, after nearly six years of warnings from Pentagon testers, still lacks a plan for defending aircraft carriers against a supersonic Russian-built missile, according to current and former officials and Defense Department documents.
The missile, known in the West as the “Sizzler,” has been deployed by China and may be purchased by Iran. Deputy [...]

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