Official American accounts marked the service’s 250th birthday by showcasing foreign vessels
The 250th anniversary of the United States Navy has been marred by a series of online gaffes after officials and organizations mistakenly posted images of warships belonging to other nations, including Russia.
The Navy SEAL Museum in San Diego and Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes were among those to share the mistaken tributes to mark the anniversary on Monday. Some of the posts, which remained online for hours before being removed, were compiled by Wall Street Journal reporter Dave Brown in what he jokingly dubbed a “Hunt for Reds in October.”
Many of the photos hailed as symbols of US naval might in fact showed Soviet or Russian vessels, including the Slava-class cruiser Marshal Ustinov and the Sverdlov-class cruiser Mikhail Kutuzov – preserved as a museum ship in Novorossiysk since 2002. Others featured Danish, Japanese, and Indian ships, as well as apparent AI-generated images.
Mistaken use of foreign or digitally fabricated military imagery has become increasingly common in official posts, particularly with the rise of social media and generative AI tools. Critics say such blunders highlight a growing lack of professionalism in public communications.
