David B. Larter

The Navy’s big guns are patrolling global hot spots, fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and facing down North Korea’s Kim Jong Un during an annual exercise that is inevitably increasing tensions with the rogue regime.

Sailors caught degrading their female shipmates online will be punished, said the four-star head of all Navy forces in the Pacific in a scathing message to his troops released overnight.

The victims targeted come from all corners of the Navy, from shore stations like Naval Station Norfolk and Naval Base San Diego to ships like the destroyer Cole and the carriers Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.

It’s not a peacetime Navy anymore. The rise in new dangers around the globe means sailors are now operating under almost constant threat of attack. That’s a big change — and the Navy’s top brass is telling sailors to get tough.

President Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Navy withdrew from consideration because of extensive financial ties that would not meet the Defense Department’s rigorous ethics standards, the Pentagon confirmed Sunday evening.

The Navy’s presence in the South China Sea is historically routine, but its patrols there have increasingly agitated China’s government, which has made sweeping territorial claims to maritime rights in the 1.35 million-square-mile sea.

Twenty concussion grenades turned up missing during an inspection and a criminal investigation is underway to track them down.

The return of a Navy carrier strike group to the South China Sea, as well as plans for new challenges of Chinese claims there, will likely raise tensions with Beijing.

Two of the Navy’s missile-laden surface combatants are operating in the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea in presence missions that have led to which has led to a number of confrontations with the Russian military over the past three years.