US Service Chiefs Update -- Areas of Interest
The conference opened with brief updates by the three US naval services’ chiefs. They addressed international operations and partnering with allies, and associated topics of interest to MILITARY TECHNOLOGY’s (MT) international readers. |
| The conference opened with US shipbuilders riding the bow wave of recent contract awards. On 31 March, the US Navy awarded contract modifications to both LCS teams. Lockheed received $362 million to build one FREEDOM-class ship (below), LCS 21, while Austal USA was awarded $691 million for two INDEPENDENCE-class ships (above), LCSs 22 and 24. Lockheed Martin also received $79 million for advanced procurement of LCS 23. (Photo: US Navy) |
Adm. Jonathan Greenert, US Navy’s Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), reminded the conference delegates that an average of 90-95 of his service’s ships is deployed around the world on any day. That number will increase through the decade. “The fiscal year 2016 budget request will allow us to annually operate about 120 ships around the globe through 2020,” he predicted.
The service leader also noted the Navy will strike a better balance between investing in payloads and platforms into the future budget years. On the topic of payloads, his message to industry representatives was to focus on modularity, allowing power and space for plug-and-play and related subsystems. To illustrate this point, he referred to his Navy’s expanding practice and interest in swapping seekers and other components among sea-, surface- and sub-surface missile systems. “We need ideas from industry on how to move our payloads forward,” he emphasised.
The CNO also noted his interest in partnering with the United Kingdom and its Royal Navy as the Lockheed Martin TRIDENT II D5 Fleet Ballistic Missile System evolves. Greenert confirmed the Pentagon’s plan to replace the USS OHIO SSBN–class programme is progressing. “The youngest OHIO-class ship is 17 years old. We expect to start ‘bending metal’ on the OHIO replacement in 2021."
The US sea service leader also noted the advancement to the next generation US SSBN force parallels the Royal Navy’s interest in modernising its fleet ballistic missile force. “The two nations’ boats (OHIO-class and VANGUARD-class for the UK) have a common missile compartment. We are very interested in working, testing and moving forward together,” he concluded.
For his part, Gen. Joseph Dunford, the US Marine Corps’ Commandant, pointed out his service’s ground-based Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force (Crisis Response) is fully operational. Indeed, the four-star general pointed out “On February 11 it was operational in US Central Command in six different nations.”
Adm. Paul Zukunft, the US Coast Guard Commandant, recalled the recent four-fold increase in human activity in the Arctic region, including a vigorous escalation in mapping activity of the sea shelf and other military and closely related missions. It should some as little surprise the senior service leader noted the Coast Guard’s interest to expand its Arctic Strategy, and allow it to complement the evolving US policy in the region.
Conference Floor Highlights
Day 1 of this year’s Navy League further strengthened the reality that innovation and value propositions in the maritime domain are alive and well on both sides of the Atlantic. Indeed, an attention-getting stop on the conference floor was the UK Technology Zone. Anchored by the booth presence of British Defence Staff representatives, the following UK-based exhibitors made it evident they were clearly open for business in the US naval marketplace - Babcock, BAE Systems, Chemring Countermeasures, Chesterfield Special Cylinders, Envitia, Link Microtek, MacTaggart Scott, Morgan Composites and Defence Systems, MSi Defence, Sonardyne, Vitavox, and the UK Science and Technology LaboratoryAdm. George Zambellas, Royal Navy First Sea Lord, encouraged delegates in his Monday morning remarks to formally open the booth, to visit the industry exhibitors from his nation.
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| Adm. Sir George Zambellas, Royal Navy First Sea Lord, opened the UK Tech Zone at this year's Navy League conference and encouraged delegates to view the technology and innovation offered by companies form his nation. (Photo: Crown) |
One representative company at this booth is Loanhead, Scotland-based MacTagggart Scott. The firm’s technology portfolio includes supplying retractable bow planes for various boats of the US Navy’s LOS ANGELES- and VIRGINIA-classes of submarines.
This year’s Navy League SEAS Expo also opened with US shipbuilders riding the bow wave of a flurry of recent orders and contracts – casting aside some recent, well founded anxiety about the state of the shipbuilding industrial base – and adding to some of the buzz on the conference floor.
Lockheed Martin builds the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) FREEDOM-class at Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wisconsin. Austal USA's shipyard for the INDEPENDENCE-class is in Mobile, Alabama. All odd-numbered LCSs are FREEDOM LCS 1-class vessels, all even-numbered ships belong to the INDEPENDENCE LCS 2 class.
On 31 March, the US Navy awarded contract modifications to both LCS teams. Lockheed received $362 million to build one FREEDOM-class ship, LCS 21, while Austal USA was awarded $691 million for two INDEPENDENCE-class ships, LCSs 22 and 24. Lockheed Martin also received $79 million for advanced procurement of LCS 23. The full-funding ships were provided for in the US Navy’s 2015 budget, while full funding for LCS 23 is part of the Pentagon’s 2016 request.
Neil King, Lockheed Martin’s director of its LCS programme, told MT that his team has delivered the first two ships of the LCS-1 class with LCS-5 scheduled for delivery this summer: “Then we’ll start serial production, being able to deliver one every six months.”
Two US yards build DDG 51 ARLEIGH BURKE-class destroyers – Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works yard in Bath, Maine. On 27 March, both destroyer-building shipyards received construction contracts for destroyers. Ingalls was awarded a $604.3 million contract modification to build the yet-to-be-named DDG 121, while Bath received a $610.4 million contract modification to build DDG 122. Both ships were funded in the Pentagon’s 2015 defense appropriations funding bill.
Amphibious Programmes Overview
At the conference’s opening bell, Textron Systems Marine & Land Systems of New Orleans, Louisiana, announced it received an $84 million contract modification to build two new Landing Craft Air Cushion vehicles, LCACs 102 and 103. The craft are part of the Ship to Shore Connector (SSC) programme, developed to replace the service’s legacy fleet of LCACs, which are rapidly nearing the end of their service life. |
| Textron Marine & Land Systems is fabricating and assembling the initial LCACs for the US Navy's SSC program at its 600,000sqft shipyard in New Orleans. (Photo: Textron) |
The Textron business unit will assemble crafts 102 and 103 at its New Orleans Shipyard. Deliveries are expected in the fourth quarter of 2019.
An update on other aspects of the SSC programme was gained by MT from Navy programme manager, Cpt. Chris Mercer and Bill Kisiah, a vice president programme prime contractor Textron Marine & Land Systems, at a conference floor briefing.
The mission of the new air cushion vehicles is to land surface assault elements in support of operational maneuver from the sea, at over-the-horizon distances, while operating from the Navy’s amphibious ships and mobile landing platforms. Like their younger siblings in the current LCAC fleet, these craft also will be used for humanitarian and disaster relief missions.
Mercer noted the new LCAC-100 class craft will carry 74 short tonnes (up to M1A1 Tank) – compared to 60t for the legacy craft – and have a range of 86nm. Fabrication and production of the first two craft of the class (100 and 10)1 continues at the Textron yard, with initial SSC delivery planned for the summer of 2017.
Textron’s industry team for the SSCs includes: Rolls Royce (engines), Alcoa Defense (aluminum material), L3 Communications (C4 and Navigation systems), Dowty Propellers (GE Aviation) for the propellers, and R. Cushman and Associates (gear boxes).
- The Navy programme manager also provided the latest details on fielding the initial ships of the new USS America (LHA-6) amphibious assault ship-class.
- The AMERICA remains on schedule for completing sea trails this month.
- Construction of USS TRIPOLI (LHA-7) is 23% complete at Huntington Ingalls Industries (Pascagoula, Mississippi).
- The Navy expects to issue a final Request for Proposal to industry “soon” for LHA-8.
- The new LHAs are being purpose built to embark and operate Lockheed Martin’s F-35B LIGHTENING IIs and Bell Boeing’s V-22 OSPREYs, among other aircraft. Whereas LHA-6 and-7 were built without a well deck, LHA-8 is being designed to embark and operate two LCACs.
Shortly before Navy League convened it was announced Raytheon and Kongsberg formed a teaming agreement for the Naval Strike Missile (NSM). The pact represents a second step in the companies' efforts to offer Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (OASuW) solutions to the many governments interested in this warfare mission. MT’s readers may recall that last year the two companies formed a similar agreement to develop the Joint Strike Missile, the air-launched version of the NSM. The NSM is in operation today –serving as the main weapon for Norway's new frigates and corvettes and Poland's land-based coastal defense.
With respect to the US market, Gary Holst, Kongsberg’s Business Development Director, pointed out NSM was successfully test-fired from the USS CORONADO littoral combat ship in September 2014. “We’re also interested offering this for the final 20 ships of the LCS programme” – what some are calling either the modified LCS or embryonic “fast frigate.”
Marty Kauchak, MILTECH’s US correspondent, provides this exclusive report from the exhibition hall and conference rooms of the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.
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