HII Awarded $296 Million Construction Preparation Contract Modification for John F. Kennedy (CVN 79)

Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) has received a $296 million contract modification, under a previously awarded contract, for continuation of long-lead-time material procurement for and advance construction of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy (CVN 79). The company's Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) division is the prime contractor.
This award enables NNS to continue preparations for the construction of John F. Kennedy, including engineering and planning efforts along with additional advance material procurement and complex component manufacturing. Long-lead-time materials include advanced weapons elevators, pumps, propellers, steel plate, piping and fittings.
John F. Kennedy is the second ship in the Gerald R. Ford class, the Navy's newest class of nuclear aircraft carriers. The Ford class incorporates many improvements in capability and is designed to reduce total ownership cost over that of the Nimitz class. The ship's first steel was cut in December 2010, and delivery to the Navy is scheduled no later than 2022.
"Advance construction and procurement enables us to transition smoothly from Ford into the bulk of Kennedy's construction starting in 2013, efficiently utilizing our labor and facility resources," said Mike Shawcross, NNS' vice president, John F. Kennedy construction. "We are working hard with the Navy to make the entire class more affordable, and we are taking full advantage of the lessons we are learning while building Ford and applying them to Kennedy. We are always looking at ways to improve carrier construction at the shipyard — from changes in how work flows through the yard to engaging our suppliers for their ideas that could improve efficiency."

Bath Iron Works Awarded $39 Million for DDG 1000 Class Services

The U.S. Navy has awarded General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, a business unit of General Dynamics, a $38.9 million modification to a previously awarded contract to perform class and engineering services associated with the detail design and construction of DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class ships.

Bath Iron Works will continue to provide manufacturing support services such as engineering, design, production control, accuracy control and information technology. Other class-support efforts include program management, contract and financial management, procurement and configuration/data management. The original contract was awarded in September 2011. Work is expected to be completed by October 2013.

Jeff Geiger, president of Bath Iron Works, said, "With all three Zumwalt-class ships now under construction, this award demonstrates the Navy's continued confidence in Bath Iron Works. The contract enables us to continue supporting the construction of DDG 1000-class ships and allows us to maintain the critical shipyard skills needed to efficiently produce them. Zumwalt (DDG 1000) is over 60 percent complete and we are leveraging what we've learned in building the lead ship to support our DDG 1001 and 1002 construction efforts. We remain focused on delivering high-quality, affordable Bath-built ships to the U.S. Navy."

Russia, Norway, U.S.A in Joint Naval Drills

U.S Russian and Norwegian naval forces are holding joint firing exercises in the Norwegian Sea, a Russian Navy official said on Wedensday.
The U.S. Navy's USS Farragut guided missile destroyer, Russia's Admiral Chabanenko Udaloy II class destroyer, and Norway's MS Nordkapp frigate are set to "perform firing exercises at an above-surface target" later on Wednesday, Vadim Serga, a spokesman for Russia's Northern Fleet, told RIA Novosti.

US Navy to christen ninth San Antonio-class LPD

The US Navy will christen the ninth San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship 'Somerset (LPD-25)' tomorrow at the Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) shipyard in Avondale, Louisiana.
Powered by four turbo-charged diesel engines to cruise at a speed of 22k, the San Antonio-class ship is 684ft-long with a displacement capacity of 24,900t, overall beam of 105ft and navigational draft of 23ft.
Capable of accommodating a landing force of 800 troops, the ship's flight deck is designed to carry two Sikorsky CH-53E Sea Stallion helicopters, six Bell AH-1W Super Cobra helicopters, four Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters or two Boeing Bell MV-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft.
It is designed to provide enhanced fighting capabilities, such as advanced command-and-control suite, increased lift-capabilities in the capacity for carrying vehicles cargo and provides improved ship-survivability for the crew.

U.S. Navy’s Latest 30-Year Shipbuilding Plan to Cost More Than the Navy Estimates

                              The deckhouse for DDG 1000 under construction at Ingalls Shipbuilding's      

 Congress requires the U.S. Navy to issue an annual report that describes its plan for building new ships over the next 30 years. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has prepared a report—required under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012—analyzing the Navy’s latest long-term shipbuilding plan, which covers fiscal years 2013 to 2042.

In its 2013 shipbuilding plan, the Navy envisions buying a total of 268 ships during the next 30 years at an average annual cost of $16.8 billion (all figures are in 2012 dollars), totaling $505 billion over 30 years. Those figures are solely for the construction of new ships, the only type of cost reported in the Navy’s long-term plans. Adding in the cost of other activities typically funded from the Navy’s budget accounts for shipbuilding, which include refueling of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and other items, yields an average cost of $18.8 billion per year.

CPI Aero Awarded $1M Contract by Northrop Grumman for Airborne Laser Mine Detection System Program

CPI Aerostructures, Inc. (CPI Aero) has been awarded a $1 million contract by Northrop Grumman Corporation to manufacture pod structural housings for the Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS).

In April 2012, the U.S. Navy issued a contract modification to Northrop Grumman to begin low rate initial production (LRIP) Lot 4. CPI Aero will manufacture a total of four pod structural housings under this new contract, with deliveries scheduled to commence in mid-2013.

To date, CPI Aero has delivered 10 ALMDS pod structural housings for LRIP Lots 1 through 3. Northrop Grumman’s ALMDS is part of the mine countermeasure mission package on the U.S. Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship and is designed for rapid wide-area reconnaissance and assessment of anti-ship mines in

Gulf: U.S. Navy opened fire on Indian fishermen

An American ship opened fire Monday on a small motor boat which seemed to threaten the coast of the emirate of Dubai, the Gulf, the Pentagon said. The USNS Rappahannock tanker opened fire with heavy machine guns against the civilian vessel "after she had not responded to warnings and then it was rapidly closing" the American ship, said the U.S. 5th Fleet. The Emirati authorities said Monday night that the boat was that of Indian fishermen.

The 5th Fleet based in Bahrain, says a person was killed and three others wounded. The incident occurred off the coast of Jebel Ali, a city of the emirate of Dubai with an EPZ. The tanker was fired after the boat against the usual warnings, including warning shots, according to a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity, who said that, since 2000 and the attack against the USS Cole off Yemen, the U.S. Navy was "very careful" to potential threats posed by small boats. An investigation was instituted, in the 5th Fleet.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy will accelerate the deployment of an aircraft carrier and its escort the Middle East to deal with tensions in the region, including Iran and Syria, said Monday the spokesman Pentagon, George Little. "The Secretary (of Defense Leon Panetta) approved late last week the request of Central Command to expedite four-month deployment of the USS John Stennis," said Mr. Little told reporters. CENTCOM is the U.S. command responsible for Middle East, stretching from the Red Sea to the Gulf and the western Indian Ocean.

LCS: U.S. Navy abandons the concept of "quick change of mission"

For the U.S. Navy, the idea was that the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) mission modules available that could be exchanged quickly, so that LCS can easily change mission: the fight against mines in the fight anti-submarine for example, during a single deployment.

But instead of taking only a few days as originally planned, it now appears that the change of mission modules could take several weeks. It is therefore likely that LCS assigned to a transaction to maintain its mission module until the end of the deployment, requiring other buildings, equipped with other mission modules, to provide flexibility initially expected.

This is one conclusion that the Navy has fired a series of exercises and progress reports on the actual capabilities of LCS. The LCS is also criticized because they fail to reach the capacity level of the buildings they replace. These evaluations are intended to determine that the LCS can and can not do, how it should be used, what type and level of support it needs, and changes that are needed for these buildings can sail and fight.

Initially, the U.S. Navy LCS replaces provided that the frigates, minesweepers and patrol vessels. But these new evaluations conclude that the LCS can not replace in terms of capacity frigates or mine hunters today, and they are too large to operate as patrol.

The LCS, according to estimates, is not able to accomplish most missions planned by the specifications.

Equipped with a mission module for anti-surface and maritime security, the LCS were deemed capable of conducting security cooperation mission of theater and maritime security, as the fight against piracy.

But the LCS can perform three main tasks provided for them - forward presence, sea control and power projection - and they can provide only humanitarian assistance or support to relief operations in natural disasters limited.

A significant gaps identified by the report is its inability to defend against cruise missiles, anti-ship, a weapon yet embarked on hundreds of small fast boats, implemented by most hostile marine. These are Chinese missiles and C-801 C-802, Russian SS-N-2 Styx, as the European missile and the Exocet and Harpoon U.S..

And the situation is improved by the fact that some possible solutions that could be installed on the LCS 1 Freedom can not be on the trimaran LCS 2 Independence, closer to the hull.

Another concern is the autonomy. Although the original specification called for an autonomy of 21 days, the two types of LCS does have room to store that 14 days of food.

Russian Warships Arrive at U.S. Pearl Harbor for Joint Drills

A group of Russia’s Pacific Fleet warships has arrived at the U.S. Pearl Harbor naval base to take part in the Rim of the Pacific international drills, a fleet spokesman said on Saturday

“During their long voyage from Vladivostok to Pearl Harbor, the warships’ crews held several firing drills, successfully destroying all the targets,” First-Rank Captain Roman Martov said.

The naval task group comprising the Admiral Panteleyev destroyer, the tanker Boris Butoma and the Fotiy Krylov salvage tug sailed off Vladivostok in the Russian Far East on June 13 to head for the U.S. Hawaiian Islands where the RIMPAC-2012 large-scale international naval exercises will be held.

The active phase of the drills will take place from July 11 through August 2 to involve 45 warships and support vessels from 22 countries, and also 100 combat aircraft and over 20,000 marines.

The Russian navy sailors will for the first time take part in the international naval maneuvers that have been held since 1971.

The drills will simulate dozens of combat missions and exercises, including marines’ interaction in humanitarian, search and rescue operations. The exercises will also practice the evacuation of civilians in an amphibious landing operation, and also joint anti-submarine, anti-aircraft and anti-ship defense.

“The drills program also envisages combat firing, using torpedoes and missiles. Russian sailors will have to accomplish missions to put up a naval blockade, ensure the freedom of sailing, fight piracy, arms and drugs smuggling,” Martov said. The RIMPAC drills were held for the first time in 1971 on the U.S. initiative and involved the navies of the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

Today the RIMPAC drills aim to practice the Pacific Rim navies and raise their readiness for operations to fight piracy, terrorism, and also carry out humanitarian missions in case of natural and man-made disasters.

NGC Awarded Contract to Modify E-6B With High-Speed, Secure Networking and Communications

The U.S. Navy has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a $44.3 million contract to integrate high-speed, secure communications and networking systems on an E-6B Mercury aircraft, part of the Take Charge and Move Out (TACAMO) strategic communications relay mission.

Navy E-6B TACAMO aircraft provide survivable and reliable airborne command, control and communications between the president of the United States, secretary of Defense, and U.S. strategic and nonstrategic forces.

With the Block II Modification, the E-6B aircraft will be able to connect to secure U.S. Department of Defense networks at high data rates while still in flight. The upgrade will enable users on board the aircraft to access mission-essential, near-real-time information from worldwide sources without impacting the operational performance of the aircraft.

"Northrop Grumman's innovative approach to integration allows the government to rapidly field emerging technologies for vital defense missions such as TACAMO within existing budget constraints," said Claude Hashem, vice president of network communications systems for Northrop Grumman Information Systems. "The Block II Modification will provide the E-6B community with superior networking capability that enables a significant increase in operational capability."

Northrop Grumman will design and produce networking and communications systems, first integrating the systems into the E-6B Systems Integration Laboratory and then on a single E-6B aircraft. Under the contract, awarded by the Naval Air Systems Command, Northrop Grumman will also provide testing, logistics and training to support operational fielding.

The Navy intends to field the enhanced capability to the entire fleet of E-6B aircraft through a follow-on contract. Navy E-6B aircraft are used to conduct both the TACAMO and U.S. Strategic Command Airborne Command Post missions.

Throwbots Get Ears

The U.S. Army and the Marine Corps have bought several thousand throwable robots for checking out inside buildings, caves or whatever. The Recon Scout throwbot manufacturer has responded to user requests and added a microphone to the throwbots capabilities.
 
These are small robots designed to be thrown into a dark room or cave and then move around while transmitting video and sound. Before the army and marines got enthusiastic about throwbots last year, the device was being used by police (especially SWAT teams) and some special operations units for years.
 
For a long time the concept of tossing small combat robots into a room, and letting them broadcast back video of what's there, was popular but never seemed to work. This was largely because the small robots never got small enough to toss or robust enough to work once they landed. That problem was solved in the last six years with the development of the Recon Scout, a small 18.6cm (7.4 inches) wide robot that weighs 540 gr (1.2 pounds). It's basically two wheels with a thick axle containing a battery and electronics. The infrared night camera can see about 8 meters (25 feet), while the day cam can see much farther. The night camera turns on automatically when it becomes too dark for the day camera.
 
The Recon Scout can transmit its images 30 meters (93 feet) from inside a building and three times that outside. In Afghanistan, the throwbot is often used outside, and thrown into a rocky area or over a wall.
 
Recon Scout moves at a speed of about 30 cm (one foot) per second and can survive being dropped about nine meters onto a hard surface. The controller weighs less than 900 gr (two pounds) and has a 88mm (3.5 inch), 640x480 pixel screen. The Recon Scout is maneuvered using video game like controls.
 
To use the Recon Scout IR you attach two antennae to the device, pull a pin to activate it, and then throw. The controller starts receiving transmissions as soon as the pin is pulled. Battery life depends on how much you move the device around but it's good for 10-15 minutes of movement, more than enough to check out a large area before sending the troops in.
 
Recon Scout IR systems cost about $8,000. A more rugged model, the Recon Scout XT is a little larger at 20.3 cm (8 inches) wide and weighing 590 gr (1.3 pounds) and has claws attached to its two wheels, enabling it to maneuver better in broken terrain. The XT model is designed to be thrown, much like a grenade, up to 40 meters (120 feet) and is more rugged. It is meant to operate in a more violent environment and outdoors. These XT models cost about $15,000 each.

U.S. Marines Transfer Excess Supplies to Afghans

U.S. Marines at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, recently transferred more than $85,000 worth of consumable medical supplies to the Afghan National Army.
 
The delivery included bandages and other supplies that would have been too expensive to ship back home. The May 24 handoff was one of several planned by the Afghanistan-based Marine Regional Logistics Support Command-Southwest.
 
The logistics center typically is a pass-through point, receiving goods and forwarding them quickly to units in the field. With U.S. forces leaving the region, the center is seeing a backlog of certain items, including medical supplies, said Lt. Cmdr. Ron Schoonover, health services support officer for 1st Marine Logistics Group.
 
“With the drawdown we have a lot of medical facilities in this part of the country that are basically closing up shop, and they have stuff that has been on the shelves for weeks or months. Now all of that is returning back to the logistics company,” Schoonover said.
 
Even before the troop withdrawal began, Marine logisticians knew they would likely have excess disposable medical materials, partly as a result of leftover supplies coming in from Iraq, and partly because of the uncertainties of troops’ demands, which often lead to stockpiling in the field.
 
“In this kind of environment you don’t necessarily know what you are going to need every day,” Schoonover said. In an effort to keep supplies available, planners in general prefer to have too much on hand, rather than too little.
 
The result has been an excess — and a quandary. It made no sense to merely dispose of the material, yet the cost of shipping made a return to the U.S. impractical.
 
“We’re not talking about any big-ticket items,” Schoonover said. “It’s basically just a box inside a box, and that takes up a lot of room.”
 
Despite the mutual benefit of donating medical supplies, planners had to navigate bureaucratic hurdles to make the handoff possible. In particular, there were issues of national sovereignty at play, Schoonover said. As a fledgling democracy, Afghanistan is eager not to be seen as being dependent on outside charity.
 
“I wish we could just give it over to them, but it was seen as significant for the Afghan government to be self-supportive,” Schoonover said. A formal approval process would ease that perception, while helping to keep a glut of material from piling up on the Afghan side. “There are things we would like to give them that they might not necessarily want or need.”
 
Eventually the Marines and the Afghan military forged an official process for handing over the supplies. Dr. Abdul Qayum Tutakhail, the surgeon general for the Military of Afghanistan, signed off on the project.
 
Besides aiding the Afghan Army, the donation of medical supplies helps Marine logistics run more smoothly by keeping the shelves clear for current needs. “Normally we don’t want to store a lot of things,” Schoonover said. “It is ordered, it shows up and we get it out [to the field] in the most expeditious means possible.”

Navy pushes for new class of aircraft carriers

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy is betting $42 billion on a new class of aircraft carriers, the world's biggest and costliest warships ever, even as the Pentagon budget shrinks and China and Iran arm themselves with weapons to disable or destroy the beheÖmoths.
The Navy says the new carriers rising 20 stories above the water, 1,092 feet long, moving at 30 knots with almost 5,000 Americans on board — can project U.S. power around the globe.
"A carrier is 4 1/2 acres of sovereign U.S. territory," said Capt. Bruce Hay, a Navy pilot who helps set requirements for the new carrier. "An aircraft carrier is a piece of America, and we're going to do what it takes to keep them relevant because a carrier is presence and American resolve all at one time."
The ships' rising costs are drawing scrutiny from lawmakers at a time when the military faces cuts in personnel and funding for new weapons. Critics see the new Gerald R. Ford-class carriers as big targets for rival militaries expanding their arsenals of ballistic and cruise missiles, undersea mines, submarines, drones and cyber weapons.
"Our future adversaries are developing a set of capabilities specifically for the purpose of attacking our aircraft carriers," Mark Gunzinger, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said.
Although it's still about five years from entering the fleet, the price tag for the USS Gerald R. Ford, the first carrier in the class being built by Huntington Ingalls Industries, based in Newport News, Va., already has climbed about 18 percent in four years to $12.3 billion, according to Defense Department data.
The Navy is trying to assure lawmakers that it was worth the money to start from scratch designing a new carrier.
With an electromagnetic system to launch aircraft similar to those used to propel roller coasters at Walt Disney World, the Ford-class carriers are designed to send swarms of fighter jets over vast expanses of water to deter potential enemies.
The Pentagon's revised global strategy, released in January, emphasizes a shift to the waters of the Asia-Pacific region at the same time the Pentagon is moving to cut $487 billion from previously planned spending over the next decade. More than $500 billion in additional defense cuts will be required unless the president and Congress agree on plans to avert the automatic reductions known as sequester that are set to begin in January.

Cost overruns

The Navy's oversight of construction on the Gerald R. Ford, or CVN-78, has drawn criticism as cost overruns of at least $800 million have been disclosed this year. Critics led by Sen. John McCain, a former Navy pilot, say the technologies that set it apart from the Navy's 10 existing carriers may not work as planned when the carrier is launched and begins testing as early as 2013.
"It's outrageous, it's a national disgrace," said McCain of Arizona, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. "They try all these experiments and all these different ideas that they have in the new class of carrier and obviously disregard the cost."
The Navy should have kept buying the proven Nimitz-class carriers, McCain said. The last carrier in the Nimitz class, the USS George H.W. Bush, was commissioned in 2009.
The number of aircraft regularly launched, or the sortie rate, will increase to 160 a day on the new carriers from 120 a day now on the Nimitz class, according to the Navy. The number of sorties can surge to 270 from 192 on the older carriers.
Dispatching more jets from a carrier doesn't provide a tactical advantage in an age of precision-guided weapons and Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from submarines, according to Norman Polmar, a naval analyst and author who has been a consultant to secretaries of the Navy.
"Do we need a new class?" Polmar said. "The answer is absolutely not. You want to kill someone's airfield, you launch 20, 30 Tomahawks, which go farther and are more accurate than planes, and you do not risk pilots."

Strike group

While a missile-armed submarine can move alone beneath the sea, a carrier must travel with a strike group that typically includes a guided-missile cruiser, two guided-missile destroyers, an attack sub and a combined ammunition, oiler and supply ship, according to a Navy fact sheet.
The Navy estimates that each Ford-class carrier will cost $27 billion to build and then operate and maintain for 50 years, $5 billion less than its Nimitz-class predecessors, even after the rising costs.
Half the savings will come from design and technology changes that will reduce the number of sailors needed, Rear Adm. Thomas Moore, who runs the Navy's carrier programs, said in an interview at the Washington Navy Yard. The Ford carriers will accommodate 4,660 personnel, down from 5,922, according to a presentation by Moore.
The Nimitz class was designed in the 1960s "when labor was cheap, and so we used manpower to accomplish all the functions," Hay, the Navy pilot, said in an interview at the Pentagon. "One guy grabbing a case of soda and going up and down a ladder, well, that is a pretty expensive way to transport material inside this kind of ship."
Some critics of the Ford class's rising cost, including McCain, say carriers remain the invaluable, and virtually unsinkable, centerpiece of U.S. naval strategy.
Others say carriers, like wooden men-of-war and steel battleships before them, aren't as useful as they once were. With the proliferation of drones and satellite imagery, carriers become easier to locate and thus potentially more vulnerable, according to Polmar.
While the Ford carriers are going to be "very formidable," the ships "may not be able to get close enough to a future enemy that has precision-guided anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles," Gunzinger said.

China anti-ship missiles

China is fielding DF-21 anti-ship missiles that may force U.S. carriers to operate 1,000 nautical miles or farther from an enemy's coastline early in a conflict, according to Gunzinger. Carrier-based jets with a heavy load of weapons are designed to strike at about 300 nautical miles without refueling, Polmar said.
China also is developing weapons to attack satellites and computer networks, disrupting long-distance U.S. military sensors and communications networks, Gunzinger wrote in a report last year for the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
Iran's arsenal includes ballistic missiles that can reach targets across the Persian Gulf region, Gunzinger wrote. Iranian officials have threatened to use anti-ship cruise missiles, smart mines that can sense their targets and swarms of small, fast-attack craft to exert their control over the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf shipping lanes, he wrote. The strait is about 21 miles across at its narrowest point, with the shipping lane in either direction only two miles wide, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Gunzinger said carriers should be equipped with stealth drones that can be launched undetected from greater distances to find and attack their targets.

$42.5 billion for three

The combined cost of three Ford-class carriers would be $42.5 billion, according to the Pentagon's Selected Acquisition Report published in December.
The $12.3 billion for the first carrier includes about $3.7 billion in design and development.
"You are making a $3.7 billion design investment for a class of ship that is going to be around for 94 years," Moore said. "This is not like building a Honda. It is probably the most complex piece of machinery that is built in the world."
Among new or updated equipment on the carrier will be its nuclear power plant, weapons elevators, arresting gear and a dual-band radar, according to Moore.
The launch system by General Atomics will use a moving electromagnetic field to propel aircraft from the deck instead of the steam-driven catapults on earlier carriers. The carrier will have three aircraft elevators, each weighing 120 tons and able to lift two fighter jets at a time, according to Huntington Ingalls.
The Navy is trying to reduce labor hours from 53 million on the first ship to 40 million or less for the third, according to Moore.
"I am absolutely incentivized to drive that cost down as low as possible," said Mike Petters, Huntington's chief executive officer. The company stands to lose as much as $194.3 million, more than 40 percent of a potential fee, based on the overruns projected by the Navy.
Huntington Ingalls, spun off last year by defense contractor Northrop Grumman, is working to preserve support for the increasingly costly ships in Washington. The company has a web of suppliers across the country that make the case to Congress each year to protect carrier funding.
From 2005 to 2011, the shipbuilder and its predecessor placed orders of about $3 billion in more than 330 of the 435 U.S. congressional districts, according to the Aircraft Carrier Industrial Base Coalition, a group that says it represents about 400 companies.
"When you have 45 states that provide stuff for the ship, it's a fairly large job-creator," said the Navy's Moore.

The USN Takes A Closer Look At Itself

The U.S. Navy has come up with yet another solution to its problem with an ever increasing number of commanders getting relieved from their jobs. The new solution standardizes how commanders are selected and incorporates the opinions of subordinates and peers when assessing command capability. These are all techniques long used successfully by business organizations. Actually, in the past the navy did consult senior NCOs (Chief Petty Officers) about officer leadership potential, but that practice fell out of favor some time before commander failures began to increase. The new navy procedures are experimental and not being implemented everywhere immediately.
It may take a while to reverse the trend of growing reliefs. Last year the navy broke a record when it relieved 35 senior commanders. Worse yet, 27 of them were commanding or executive officers on ships. This was higher than the previous record year, 2003, when 23 were relieved. Currently 2012 is on track to surpass 2003, and possibly match last year.
Since the end of the Cold War in 1991, the U.S. Navy has been experiencing a larger number of warship captains and other senior naval commanders getting relieved. It's currently over five percent of ship captains a year. At the end of the Cold War, in the late 1980s, the rate was about 3-4 percent a year. So why has the rate gone up? And why hasn't the navy been able to do anything to reverse this two decade long trend?
There appears to be a number of reasons for this, some of them new and unique, often having to do with the growth of political correctness. But most of the reliefs appear traceable to the performance rating system (where commanders evaluate their subordinates each year). Obviously, too many unqualified officers are getting promoted to commands they cannot handle. This is what the navy is trying to deal with via the changes in the assessment system.
These changes will address the damage done by a major assessment modification, in the 1990s, in which written comments on many aspects of an officer evaluation were changed to a 1-5 ranking system. That new method also forced raters to rank all their subordinates against each other. This was unfair to a bunch of high performing officers who happened to be serving together and being rated by the same commander.
The navy also wants to overcome the fact that only a small percentage of reliefs have to do with professional failings (a collision or serious accident, failing a major inspection, or just continued poor performance). Most reliefs were, and still are, for adultery, drunkenness, or theft. Or, in one case, it was telling jokes that sailors enjoyed but some politicians and journalists didn't. The hope is that comments from peers, subordinates and chiefs will reveal character flaws before they turn into commanders getting relieved.
With more women aboard warships there have been more reliefs for, as sailors like to put it, "zipper failure", especially if it includes adultery. Typically, these reliefs include phrases pointing out that the disgraced officer, "acted in an unprofessional manner toward several crew members that was inappropriate, improper, and unduly familiar." Such "familiarity" usually includes sex with subordinates and a captain who is having zipper control problems often has other shortcomings as well. Senior commanders traditionally act prudently and relieve a ship commander who demonstrates a pattern of minor problems and who they "lack confidence in".
Most naval officers see the problem not of too many captains being relieved but of too many unqualified officers getting command of ships in the first place. Not every naval officer qualified for ship command gets one. The competition for ship commands is pretty intense, despite the fact that officers know that whatever goes wrong on the ship, the captain is responsible.
It's a hard slog for a new ensign (officer rank O-1) to make it to a ship command. For every hundred ensigns entering service, only 11 of those ensigns will make it to O-6 (captain) and get a major seagoing command (cruiser, destroyer, squadron). Officers who do well commanding a ship will often get to do it two or three times before they retire after about 30 years of service.
So with all the screening and competition why are more unqualified officers getting to command ships and then getting relieved because they can't hack it? Some point to the growing popularity of "mentoring" by senior officers (that smaller percentage that makes it to admiral). While the navy uses a board of officers to decide which officers get ship commands, the enthusiastic recommendation of one or more admirals does count. Perhaps it counts too much. While the navy is still quick to relieve any ship commander that screws up (one naval "tradition" that should never be tampered with), up until that point it is prudent not to offend any admirals by implying that their judgment of "up and coming talent" is faulty.
In the aftermath of these reliefs it often becomes known that the relieved captain had a long record of problems. But because he was "blessed" by one or more admirals these infractions were overlooked. The golden boys tend to be very personable and, well, look good. The navy promotion system is organized to rise above such superficial characteristics but apparently the power, and misuse of mentoring has increasingly corrupted the process. The new assessment is supposed to make obvious issues that have, in the past, been hidden from sight (of the promotion boards).
And then there is the problem with not consulting the chief petty officers and the growing reverence towards zero tolerance. Asking the chiefs (Chief Petty Officers, the senior NCOs who supervise the sailors) might provide some illumination about officer potential. Unfortunately, over the last decade officers have been less inclined to ask their chiefs much. The "zero tolerance" atmosphere that has permeated the navy since the end of the Cold War has led officers to take direct control of supervisory duties the chiefs used to handle. The chiefs have lost a lot of their influence, responsibility, and power. They are getting some of it back as officers tire to trying to cover all the responsibilities demanded by political correctness and zero tolerance.
The problem is that, with "zero tolerance", one mistake can destroy a career. This was not the case in the past. Many of the outstanding admirals of World War II would have never survived in today's navy. For example, Bill "Bull" Halsey ran his destroyer aground during World War I, but his career survived the incident. That is no longer the case. It's also well to remember that, once World War II began, there was a massive removal of peacetime commanders from ships. The peacetime evaluation system selected officers who were well qualified to command ships in peacetime but not in wartime. There was a similar pattern with admirals.
Another problem is that officers don't spend as much time at sea, or in command, as in the past. A lot of time is spent going to school and away from the chiefs and sailors. For example, while the navy had more ships in the 1930s, than it does today, there were fewer people in the navy. That's because back then 80 percent of navy personnel were assigned to a ship and had plenty of time to learn how to keep it clean and operational. With that much less practical experience it's understandable that more captains would prove unable to do the job.

American Warships Mass Off China

The U.S. announced that it will have 60 percent of its 270 warships in the Pacific by the end of the decade. Actually, this is just a continuation of a process that began when the Cold War ended in 1991. But these changes move slowly. Largely this is the result of political problems that arise when you try to transfer the home ports (where the ships are when not at sea and where the families of the crews live, and spend their money) from one coast to another. The politicians representing states on the east coast raise a major stink when the navy tries to move the home ports. It's taken the navy a decade to muster the political clout to make the changes happen. Meanwhile, more and more ships based in east coast ports were serving temporarily in the Pacific or Middle East. Now the big shift has been taking place officially. There have been other indicators that this was happening.
 
For example, six years ago the U.S. Navy eliminated the Atlantic Fleet, after a century of existence. First established in 1906, the Atlantic Fleet was the first, world class, high seas, naval force from the Americas. At the time, there was fear that Germany's ambitious warship building program might someday endanger the United States. The Atlantic Fleet did go to war with the Germans in 1917, and again in 1941.
 
After 1945, the Atlantic Fleet remained a mighty force, in preparation for a potential battle with the growing naval power of the Soviet Union. But when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, their fleet wasted away within a decade. So the American Atlantic Fleet no longer had a major opponent. Meanwhile, China, North Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran provided plenty of work for the Pacific Fleet (which normally supplied ships for Middle East and South Asian emergencies.)
 
The Pacific Fleet still had a full plate after 1991, so the Pacific Fleet remained. The Atlantic Fleet was actually be renamed, and reorganized, into the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, which will be responsible for the training, maintenance and operation of naval forces (ships, aircraft and land installations) on both coasts. The Pacific Fleet will still stand ready to deal with potential problems in Asia.
 
Actually, the Atlantic Fleet did have its name changed once before, in 1922, to "Commander Scouting Force". It was changed back to Atlantic Fleet in 1941, just in time to fight the Germans once more. But the Russians are not expected to be a threat again, at least not any time soon.
 
For most of the past century, the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets were basically the two major parts of the U.S. Navy, and each developed unique customs. Sailors would often spend their entire careers in one fleet or the other. But when one was transferred, it was immediately apparent, once the transferred sailor arrived at the new location, that the two fleets were quite different. From now on, however, there will be the Pacific Fleet, and, "the rest of the navy."

Pentagon Looks to Expand Military Relationship With Vietnam

CAM RANH BAY, Vietnam — The U.S. Defense Department hopes to gain greater access for Navy ships into a key port here as the Pentagon looks to broaden its military partnership with Vietnam.

U.S. naval ship access into Cam Ranh Bay “is a key component of this relationship and we see a tremendous potential here for the future,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said during a June 3 visit to the dry cargo ship Richard Byrd, which is making a port call here.

Panetta is the highest-ranking U.S. government official to visit Cam Ranh Bay since the Vietnam War. President Lyndon Johnson visited Cam Ranh Bay in 1966.

Many considered Cam Ranh Bay “the jewel of deep, warm-water ports in Southeast Asia,” a defense official said. Protected by mountains, the bay served as a hub for U.S. military operations during the Vietnam War.

Now, Vietnam is trying to develop the bay into a prosperous international commercial port.

The Navy has been sending ships to Vietnam for port visits since 2003, the defense official said. Since then, more than 20 vessels have made visits to the country.

Access to Vietnamese ports is just one component of an expanding military relationship between Washington and Hanoi.

“We’ve come a long way, particularly with regards to our defense relationship,” Panetta said. “We had a complicated relationship, but we’re not bound by that history.”

Last year, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding, and the United States is looking to “expand that relationship” in a number of key areas, Panetta said.

The pact focuses on high-level exchanges, maritime activities, search and rescue, peacekeeping operations and humanitarian aid and disaster relief.

“[W]e want to work with Vietnam on critical maritime issues, including code of conduct, focusing on the South China Sea and also working to improve freedom of navigation in our oceans,” Panetta said.

A senior defense official called Panetta’s visit to the country “significant” and said Vietnam has “expressed a desire to engage more with the United States.”

“This visit is an effort to take additional steps in that direction to solidify what has become an important relationship for the U.S.,” the official said.

Panetta announced June 2 that the Navy would position 60 percent of its ships in the Pacific over the next decade as part of a new military strategy that calls for greater emphasis on the region. The vessels are now split evenly between the Atlantic and Pacific.

“For that reason, it will be particularly important to be able to work with partners like Vietnam to be able to use harbors like this as we move our ships out from our ports on the West Coast toward our stations here in the Pacific,” he said.

The Pentagon is looking to build capabilities of partner nations in the Asia-Pacific region.

“For that to happen, it is very important that we be able to protect key maritime rights for all nations in the South China Sea and elsewhere,” Panetta said.

The U.S. and Vietnam “normalized” relations 17 years ago.

“The visit is to take stock of where we’ve come, consolidate gains and look for new opportunities,” a second senior defense official said June 2.

Panetta has meetings scheduled with top Vietnamese officials in Hanoi on June 3 and also plans to visit a U.S. detachment that identifies the remains of Vietnam War casualties.

“This sacred mission will continue until all of our troops are accounted for,” Panetta said. “We stand by our pledge that we leave no one behind.”

Panetta served in the Army during the Vietnam War, but never saw combat in the region. His visit is the first time he has traveled to the country.

Chinook helicopter

The Chinook helicopter although good for heavy transport of arms, men and ammunition it is not good for stealth operations against nimble footed infantries in the eastern hemisphere.


1 single RPG from an Afghan Taliban brought this massive mammoth down on 6th August 2011. Mind you the accurate range of an RPG is hardly 250 meters

The crash killed 17 SEALs, 5 Navy special operations troops who support the SEALs, three Air Force airmen, a 5-member Army air crew, 7 Afghan commandos and an Afghan interpreter in August 2011

 

Navy Developing Web App to Detect Pirates

Development is underway on a Web-based application that will help U.S. sailors detect pirate ships, illegal fishing vessels, drug smugglers, arms traffickers and other bad guys in the ocean.
The application will combine automated vessel detection with behavioral analysis, said John Stastny, an engineer with the International Collaborative Development for Enhanced Maritime Domain Awareness, or ICODE MDA, which is helping to design it for the U.S. Navy. Doing this will allow sailors to identify and avoid ships engaging in suspicious at-sea maneuvers, which could signal the presence of pirates.
So, what exactly constitutes pirate behavior? That’s yet to be determined.
Stastny said the goal is to look at data to identify what kind of behavior is typical for a regular ship versus a pirate ship.
“That can help us develop models for what pirates are likely to do,” he explained.
The program will operate like iGoogle, an online dashboard that accommodates a user’s preferences and displays personalized data for local weather, email and news. But for this dashboard, the menu will focus on locating pirates.
“You’re going to have a base map that will show anomalies that are related to the piracy problem and a widget that shows which are high-risk vessels or high-risk areas for piracy today,” Stastny said.
These widgets, or Web-based applications, will be designed and built collaboratively with representatives from the Navy and researchers in Chile.
Because processing all of this data uses huge amounts of bandwidth, the program is designed to be used at onshore operations centers, Stastny said. But sailors at sea will still be involved and could still depend on it for critical information.
“What’s sent to the ships should be actionable intelligence only — positions and activities of pirates, for example,” he said.
In this way, afloat sailors will benefit from improved awareness of what is going on around them without having to deal with the realities of low bandwidth at sea.
The goal of detecting ships is to allow sailors to avoid a potentially hazardous encounter rather than always being on defense, said Jim Fallin, director of public affairs at Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific.
The app will be designed in an open-source format, meaning anyone can access the data, including civilians. The idea is to encourage information-sharing for better situational awareness with the U.S. and coalition navies.
Development of the program will begin in December and a prototype is expected by the end of 2013, Stastny said. The Defense Department awarded $1 million over two years for development of the widgets and framework.
This year there have been 121 attacks and 13 hijackings worldwide as of April 23, according to the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Centre. Currently, 12 vessels and 173 hostages are being held by Somali pirates. While the coast of Somalia is one of the worst areas for piracy attacks, other areas include Nigeria, Indonesia and the coast of South America.
Ultimately, Stastny said a $1 million investment in this project is not a high cost when compared to the damage done by pirates each year.
“What value do we place on keeping our sailors safer and shipping vessels safer through shared information?” Stastny asked. “When you consider the demonstrative propensity of pirates to take hostages and take large sums of money, I don’t agree it’s a high cost. It’s ... the right investment.”

USS Vandegrift (FFG 48) - Destroyers during Missile Exercise - US Navy

                                   USS Ingraham (FFG 61) Guided-Missile Frigate

                                 

                                    USS Curts FFG 38

                                USS Doyle FFG 39 

                            USS Halyburton 

                              USS Simpson (FFG 56) and USS Saipan (LHA 2) 

                                   USS Underwood FFG 36 

                                           USS Boone FFG 28

                                            
                                        USS Curts FFG 38

                           USS Taylor UNREP with USNS Supply 

                              USS Jarrett FFG 33 

            USS Elrod FFG-55 with a "scarecrow" gun where the SM-1 launcher w 

      

Cutting-edge Navy warship - USS Zumwalt- being built in Maine

USS Zumwalt Photo

An enormous, expensive and technology-laden warship that some Navy leaders once tried to kill because of its cost is now viewed as an important part of the Obama administration's Asia-Pacific strategy, with advanced capabilities that the Navy's top officer says represent the Navy's future.
The stealthy, guided-missile Zumwalt that's taking shape at Bath Iron Works is the biggest destroyer ever built for the U.S. Navy.
The low-to-the-water warship will feature a wave-piercing hull, composite deckhouse, electric drive propulsion, advanced sonar, missiles, and powerful guns that fire rocket-propelled warheads as far as 100 miles. It's also longer and heavier than existing destroyers -- but will have half the crew because of automated systems.