US Navy News

[James1978]

Swift Actions by JOs Prevented Warship Collision in San Diego Harbor, Investigation Finds
By: Sam LaGrone
April 13, 2023

The quick thinking of two junior officers aboard an amphibious warship prevented a collision in San Diego Harbor in November, according to an investigation obtained by USNI News on Thursday.

The near-miss between USS Harpers Ferry (LSD-49) and guided-missile destroyer USS Momsen (DDG-92) in the narrowest part of San Diego harbor was prevented in part by the officer of the deck and navigator on Harpers Ferry who, during a moment of leadership indecision, ordered a turn that moved the 17,000-ton ship out of the way of the smaller, more maneuverable destroyer.

The commander of Momsen ordered the destroyer to turn at the same time, preventing the two ships from colliding at a tight corner a little under three miles from the harbor entrance, according to the report.

Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener, the commander of Naval Surface Forces, endorsed the preliminary investigation in January.

“This near-miss collision between warships reminds us of the inherent risk present during operations at sea,” Kitchener wrote in his endorsement. “We must reduce and mitigate those risks through a diligent and focused performance during special evolutions or transits in restricted waters.”

While mistakes were made in the pilot house of both ships, Kitchener elected to take no administrative action against the sailors and leaders involved.

“The investigation findings focused on counseling and self-assessment of those involved in the incident, formalizing procedures and clarifying standing orders, and emphasizing continued professional growth of our command triads and bridge teams,” Navy spokesman Cmdr. Arlo Abrahamson told USNI News in a Thursday statement.

“It’s also important to note that some members of the bridge teams were lauded for their actions in preventing a collision,” he said. “As noted in the investigation findings, this inquiry was an opportunity to critically assess processes and implement lessons learned to ensure this type of incident does not occur again.”

Harpers Ferry left its pier at Naval Base San Diego on the morning of Nov. 29, 2022, heading west before an almost 90-degree turn south toward the harbor channel exit. Meanwhile, destroyer Momsen was returning to the naval base from a period underway.

The channel for San Diego Harbor is shaped like a hook curving around North Island. Ships leaving Naval Base San Diego sail northwest on a path that curves about 140 degrees around Naval Air Base North Island before heading almost due south through the channel.

Shortly after 10 a.m. local time, Harpers Ferry passed USS Tripoli (LHA-7) returning from its first deployment and headed into a turn in one of the tightest parts of the harbor.

Ships heading back to the naval base make the same trip in reverse through the narrow channel with piers, shallows and other hazards on either side of the harbor.

At 10:18, Harpers Ferry began a turn to port near the top of the channel. Coming north in the opposite direction, Momsen was bringing a harbor pilot aboard from a small tug.

Due to confusion on the bridge of Harpers Ferry, the watchstanders were unclear where Momsen was going. Based on the orientation of the ship, the Harpers Ferry bridge team thought Momsen could be cutting across the channel to the navy fuel pier.

In reality, Momsen had deviated from its planned passage and couldn’t turn to starboard with the tug attached. After bringing the pilot aboard, Momsen began its turn to starboard later than planned. By that point, Harpers Ferry had little room to maneuver.

“[Momsen] showed a target angle while embarking the pilot for almost 1.5 minutes that indicated they would not be able to comply with the [port to port] passage,” reads the investigation.

Unclear what Momsen was doing, the amphib’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Eric Winn, ordered Harpers Ferry to slow down and then stop to buy more time, but that diminished the amphib’s maneuverability.

“These actions show that [the Harpers Ferry] CO struggled in that moment to arrive upon the right solution to get [Harpers Ferry] out of danger. The period of indecision lasted for almost one minute and the rate of closure was about 333 yards every minute,” reads the investigation.

On the bridge of the amphib, Winn, the officer of the deck and the navigator gave contradicting orders that confused the conning officer.

“Interviews show at this time there was disagreement and confusion on the Harper Ferry bridge,” reads the investigation.
“In the critical moment when [Winn], [officer of the deck], and [the navigator] were all giving direction to the CONN, it is clear that the situation overwhelmed the CONN and she was no longer able to effectively execute her duties,” the report said.

The officer of the deck on Harpers Ferry took over as the conning officer and directed the ship to make a hard turn to port. Typically, the combat information center’s additional radars and sailors could have helped to track contacts, but the sailors were not aware of the situation on the bridge.

Meanwhile, Momsen’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Eric Roberts, and the bridge team realized that Harpers Ferry wasn’t in position for the ships to pass on each other’s port side. Roberts ordered the destroyer to make its own hard turn to port, avoiding a collision in one of the narrowest parts of the channel.

The two ships both turned to port at the same time, matching rudder movements, avoiding the collision and continuing on their path.

“Three major events prevented this near miss from being a collision: 1) the decisive actions taken by the Momsen Commanding Officer (CO) to maneuver to port, 2) the Officer of the Deck (OOD) onboard Harpers Ferry assuming CONN (Conning Officer) and maneuvering to port when he felt the point of extremis was reached, and 3) the decision by both the Momsen CO and Harpers Ferry OOD to shift rudders at approximately the same time to complete,” reads the investigation.

Aftermath
The investigation singled out the Harpers Ferry officer of the deck and navigator for praise in avoiding a collision, citing the improved officer of the deck training the Navy implemented after navigation errors aboard USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) and USS John McCain (DDG-56) resulted in the death of 17 sailors.

“The forceful backup provided by the [Harpers Ferry navigator and officer of the deck] was exactly the type of support they should have provided to their CO and is an affirmation of the Harpers Ferry bridge team’s emphasis on training and the robust changes made in Surface Navy OOD training since the events of Fitzgerald and John S. McCain,” reads the investigation.

Earlier this week, a USNI News article explored how the revamped navigation training for surface warfare officers has improved the basic skills of junior officers entering the fleet.

Following the investigation, the commanders of both ships were directed to provide an extensive after-action report on what they could have done to improve their performance, a Navy official told USNI News this week.

In his endorsement, SWO Boss Kitchener highlighted the incident as a learning tool.

“This preliminary inquiry is an opportunity to critically assess processes and implement lessons learned to ensure this type of incident does not occur again,” he wrote.

Harbor Views
The near-miss incident may have never become public if not for the local San Diego Web Cam network. Footage of the incident was broadcast across the country following the incident.

One of two webcams the group operates from the Cabrillo National Monument on National Park Service property caught the incident. The park is perched on a hill overlooking the harbor entrance just south of a densely packed residential neighborhood.

In the report, investigators cite the camera footage as a key tool used to analyze the incident, since there was no voice or video recording of the bridge. The Coast Guard has also used the camera to help with operations and to respond to incidents in the harbor.

This week, the National Park Service cut internet access to the two webcams that had been operating for more than ten years, San Diego webcam founder Barry Barhrami told USNI News on Thursday.

In a statement to USNI News, NCIS said regional agents informally discussed the cameras with the Park Service staff and that the Park Service made the decision to cut off internet access.

“NCIS expressed force protection concerns related to the private webcams and YouTube channel, which provided 24-hour webcam monitoring of vessels and equities located aboard Naval Air Station North Island, including aircraft hangers/flight lines, Naval Base Point Loma submarine assets, and the tracking of military personnel working aboard Naval Base Coronado,” spokesman Jeff Houston told USNI News in a statement on Thursday.

Barhrami told USNI News the monument is a popular tourist destination and already popular with photographers. Cutting off the cameras would do little to limit the visibility of landmarks like North Island and the Point Loma submarine base.

He said the cameras already voluntarily blocked views of the submarine base and the group took other measures to avoid endangering ships and aircraft underway. Nothing was preventing a private citizen from setting up their own cameras, Barhrami added.

“I guarantee you they won’t take the same steps to protect the forces,” Barhrami said.

[James1978]

Lockheed Martin Developing New, Larger VLS for DDG(X)
Aaron-Matthew Lariosa
14 April 2023

Lockheed Martin is developing a brand new Vertical Launching System (VLS) for the U.S. Navy’s Next-Generation Guided-Missile Destroyer program, also known as DDG(X). A company official revealed the preliminary details of the VLS to Naval News during an interview at Sea Air Space 2023 (SAS 2023).

The new VLS is called Growth-VLS (G-VLS), a completely new and separate VLS from Lockheed Martin’s Mk.41 series of launchers. As this is a relatively new development by Lockheed Martin, Naval News could not obtain photos or concepts of the launcher.

“We call it Growth VLS. If you look at the requirements that we do research on the DDG(X), it says that it needs to have a traditional Mk.41 VLS, and that it needs to have a larger VLS that can have greater depth and larger diameter missiles stored in it. So Lockheed Martin, when they saw those requirements a couple of years ago, started investment.”

G-VLS

Development on the system comes from one of the capabilities seen from DDG(X)’s concept, specifically that of “Large Missile Launcher cells.” These new cells are to support future missiles, such as hypersonics, that could not be supported by the existing Mk.41 VLS series due to width, depth, and other constraints. When asked what dimensions they were working with for DDG(X)’s new VLS cells, Lockheed Martin stated that the Navy did not specify and that they were designing G-VLS based “off their own research.”

The Lockheed Martin official emphasized that G-VLS could support the packing of multiple traditionally cell-sized missiles from the Mk.41 VLS, such as the Standard Missile family of missiles.

“But as part of being able to do a larger diameter missile, you could say take an eight-cell Mk.41 out, put what would be a four-cell with an exhaust on it. But those four cells would be able to handle quad packs of traditional missile canister-sized, or potentially larger missiles that will be coming in the future. So that’s part of one of the things we’re investing in that will help us maximize what you can do from your loadout perspectives and potentially even increase. Because if you think about it, with a four-cell quad pack that’s sixteen and more than the eight that were originally there, just because we changed the structure.”

The G-VLS is in the early stages of development, with technologies being taken away from existing VLS such as the ground-based Mid-Range Capability and the Single Cell Launcher

“Deleveraging what happened on MRC with a cylindrical exhaust, and some of the modifications that are part of the single-side VLS, that can be applied into a naval solution.”

G-VLS is being constructed this year for tests, although the Lockheed Martin official stated that these tests were only for fit checks and that no firing from the launcher would take place.

I guess the Mk57 VLS on the Zumwalt-class is a dead end?

[James1978]

Austal eyes 1,000 new hires for nuclear submarine work
By Bryant Harris
April 14, 2023

MOBILE, Ala. — Blue and yellow machines whirred, autonomously welding the steel that Austal’s Alabama shipyard will need to build nuclear submarine components as the company moves away from aluminum vessels.

Two massive yellow cranes moved horizontally across the ceiling above, illuminated by LED lights that grew dimmer farther down the 117,00-square-foot facility, delineating the point where a wall was knocked down one year ago to expand the building for the steel line.

Aluminum modules for the very last littoral combat ship under production stand among the steel sheets, which the Australia-based company will need for its new contracts: offshore patrol cutters for the U.S. Coast Guard, towing and salvage chips for the U.S. Navy, and key components for Columbia- and Virginia-class submarines.

Austal is banking on nuclear-powered submarine work as a major driver of growth in the coming years, to the point where the company will need to increase its workforce by a third. That would involve 1,000 additional hires to staff a new facility at the shipyard by the end of next year.

The planned facility, which is currently under design, is a physical manifestation of recent U.S. government investments aimed at expanding submarine production capacity.

“We’re putting a new building in that’s going to be dedicated fully to submarine work,” Larry Ryder, Austal’s vice president for business development and external affairs, told Defense News in an interview on Thursday. “It’s going to be about 1,000 jobs of output, supporting the submarine-industrial base.”

Broken down further, the company expects to hire an additional 200 employees at its Alabama shipyard for submarine work this year, with another 800 to join them once the facility is up and running next year.

The shipyard received a $50 million Defense Production Act grant to construct the new submarine module facility, which Austal matched with another $50 million from its own coffers. The facility will take about a year to construct.

Industrial base capacity has come under close scrutiny amid the recent trilateral AUKUS agreement, in which the U.S. and U.K. will help Australia acquire its own fleet of nuclear submarines. The U.S. Navy ultimately aims to build one Columbia-class and two Virginia-class submarines per year, and AUKUS mandates the U.S. sell Australia five of the latter class in the 2030s as an interim capability.

General Dynamics Electric Boat’s shipyard in Connecticut, which produces both submarine classes, ultimately elected to subcontract the production of multiple modules for these vessels to Austal, hoping that outsourcing to another shipyard will accelerate production timelines.

“We had capacity, we needed work, and the Navy knows we do quality work on time,” Ryder said. “Took a little while to get the relationship with Electric Boat. Like any prime, we’re all reluctant to give away work and trust somebody else with the quality. But we’ve got a real good relationship with them going now.”

Once Austal completes the command-and-control systems modules and the electronic deck modules for the submarines, it will ship them by barge to Electric Boat for installation.

The submarine work marks a significant turn of fortune for Austal after it lost a $5.5 billion Navy contract in 2020 to build a new class of frigates as the Littoral Combat Ship program neared its conclusion.

“It was about a year and a half ago we were looking at laying off 1,000 folks,” Ryder said. “Now we’re trying to hire 1,000 folks.”

[James1978]

Popular San Diego web cameras removed at Navy’s request
By Geoff Ziezulewicz
April 19, 2023

A group that runs an array of San Diego-based web cameras that capture Navy ships coming and going is calling foul after the National Parks Service removed two cameras overlooking San Diego Bay this month at the Navy’s request.

While Navy officials framed the recent cam removal as a matter of force protection, Barry Bahrami, a 52-year-old San Diego local who runs the volunteer San Diego Web Cam group, alleges that the cameras were removed from Cabrillo National Monument after they captured an embarrassing near-collision of two Navy ships in November.

That close call between the guided-missile destroyer Momsen and the dock landing ship Harpers Ferry came to be known as the “warship chicken” incident after San Diego Web Cam footage of the encounter went viral.

The parks service confirmed Friday that it had removed the two cameras at Cabrillo after the Naval Criminal Investigative Service requested they be removed “due to security concerns.” Bahrami said he was notified of the removal on April 11.

Cabrillo sits just south of Naval Base Point Loma, an installation that hosts Navy submarines and other assets. The site also sits right across the water from Naval Station North Island and the island of Coronado, the West Coast home of the Navy SEALs.

Before the parks service removed the cameras, they regularly broadcast footage of ships coming and going, garnering six million views online in the past year alone, according to Bahrami.

The cameras also provide a civil service, he said, allowing Navy families to watch their loved ones departing and arriving while providing cool footage for ship enthusiasts of all stripes.

NCIS spokesman Jeff Houston said in an email that the request to have NPS remove the Cabrillo cameras “was not related to the Harpers Ferry/Momsen incident.”

“NCIS verbally expressed force protection concerns recently related to the private webcams and YouTube channel, which provided 24-hour webcam monitoring of vessels and equities located aboard Naval Air Station North Island, including aircraft hangers/flight lines, Naval Base Point Loma submarine assets, and the tracking of military personnel aboard Naval Base Coronado,” Houston said.

But to Bahrami, the Navy’s push to remove the cameras didn’t make sense, given all the Cabrillo tourists and others in the area who can just as easily photograph and video Navy ships.

Bahrami pointed out that a visitor to Cabrillo can plop a quarter into stationary binoculars and take a look. “They’ll sell you a zoomed-in view of the sub base,” he said.

Houston did not answer Navy Times’ questions about why the threat posed by the cameras is any greater than all the other ways that area Navy bases can be recorded or photographed.

Bahrami said his club, which runs the cameras off donations, always keeps security at the forefront and does not broadcast footage of ships arriving and departing in real time.

He also said group members always ensured the Cabrillo feeds did not show any portion of the Point Loma base.

“Anyone in a condo or a or a house around the bay … or anyone at Cabrillo has a view” of the Point Loma base and can record, Bahrami said. “Anyone standing at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery can look down at this sub base.”

Other web cams capture ships coming and going from fleet concentrations elsewhere in the states, and Bahrami said he feels his group’s cams are being targeted because of the warship chicken incident.

“Why the San Diego Web Cam?” he asked. “Somebody got a little embarrassed maybe?”

He noted that the investigation into the warship chicken incident was released days after his cameras were removed from Cabrillo, where they had recorded for the past decade.

Bahrami also alleges he was warned that the Navy would seek to remove his cameras after they captured the incident.

“When that went viral, I cannot tell you the person’s name, but I received a call from a ranking individual telling me to watch my back,” Bahrami said. “They were after my cameras.”

Bahrami added that the Navy uses several maritime and aviation tracking systems that broadcast the positions of assets, including the Automatic Identification System, or AIS, for ships, and other tracking systems for aircraft.

“It’s the Navy themselves that are broadcasting all their precise positions,” he said. “It’s not the San Diego Web Cam.”

For now, Bahrami said his group continues to operate other cameras in the bay, and is scouting out sites for cameras to replace the two lost at Cabrillo.

He declined to say where those new cameras will be placed.

[James1978]

Gulf shipyards struggle to find workers amid shipbuilding spree
By Bryant Harris
April 25, 2023

WASHINGTON — A small houseboat floats on Bayou Lafourche in rural Louisiana, housing workers at the family-owned Bollinger Shipyards’ Lockport facility situated roughly 35 miles upstream from the Gulf of Mexico.

It’s one of the temporary living facilities that Bollinger maintains to house non-local workers and spare them lengthy commute times — one of the incentives the small shipyard offers to lure and retain employees from a limited pool of skilled shipbuilding labor in the region. Across the street, several workers in half-a-dozen fabrication plants are busy welding steel while electricians wade through a tangle of wires in assembled modules for the Coast Guard’s Fast Response Cutters.

Bollinger employs about 3,500 people at 14 facilities scattered throughout Louisiana and Mississippi, and CEO Ben Bordelon predicts that he will likely have to hire between 500 to 1,000 additional workers within the next two years, excluding subcontractors.

“Engineers right now are tough [to find], and designers,” Bordelon told Defense News in an April interview at the Lockport facility. “I hate to say just the basic stuff, but shipbuilders, welders, electricians, painters; we have a need right now for a lot of different crafts.”

The workforce shortages Bollinger faces are not unique. Shipyards across the country point to labor shortfalls as one of the biggest constraints hampering U.S. shipbuilding capacity, as the Navy scrambles to reach its statutorily required 355-ship fleet. A November analysis from the Congressional Budget Office found that the Navy’s plan will average between $30 billion and $33 billion in spending annually over the next 30 years.

Bollinger recently won a contract to build the Navy’s sixth berthing barge, used to temporarily house military personnel, but the competition for labor is particularly acute in the Gulf where the company must compete with two nearby behemoths in the industry as well as a bevy of smaller shipyards on top of the oil and gas industry.

The company frequently moves workers around its multiple facilities as production needs shift. For instance, its newly acquired facility in Pascagoula, Mississippi, requires an influx of labor to build the Coast Guard’s next Polar Security cutter. Pascagoula is also home to Ingalls Shipbuilding, the state’s largest employer with approximately 11,500 employees.

Ingalls, whose Navy contracts include the Arleigh Burke class destroyer and the amphibious San Antonio-class LPD, is also expected to go on a hiring spree.

“Workforce development is hard stuff, however we’re very focused on it and seeing good hiring trends,” Kimberly Aguillard, Ingalls Shipbuilding spokesperson, told Defense News.

Ingalls Shipbuilding President Kari Wilkinson told reporters in April at the annual Sea Air Space conference in Maryland that the company hired “thousands of people in a normal year.”

Forty-five miles away from Ingalls, Austal USA’s shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, employs nearly 3,000 people. Even as it wraps up work on assembling the Navy’s last Littoral Combat Ship, the shipyard seeks to increase the size of its workforce by one-third as it opens a new installation devoted exclusively to constructing submarine modules.

“We’re putting a new building in that’s going to be dedicated fully to submarine work,” Larry Ryder, Austal’s vice president for business development and external affairs, told Defense News in an April interview at the shipyard. “It’s going to be about 1,000 jobs of output, supporting the submarine-industrial base.”

The tight labor market and the new hiring gives workers greater leverage in salary negotiations.

Salary data aggregated by Glassdoor indicates that welders in the three states typically earn anywhere between $27,000 to $58,000 per year, with pay increasing for more specialized skillsets. The salary range for electricians in the area from $30,000 to $77,000 per year.

The companies are getting creative with the perks they offer to draw in workers while also investing in their own apprenticeship programs to build a future workforce pool in the hopes that it will benefit the shipbuilding industry in the region writ large.

For instance, Ingalls opened a Chick-fil-a in the middle of its shipyard to give employees an alternative to the relatively bland cafeteria food. Shortly after it opened, Ingalls had to take the franchise off of Google Maps after fried chicken fans unwittingly drove up to the secure yard in search of the franchise.

Meanwhile, Austal adjusted its shift schedule so its workers work 10 hour days for four days a week. Employees have the option of a three-day weekend or working overtime on Friday. It also runs its own training academy for apprentices, as do its competitors.

“You’ve got to have good safety programs, good benefits, good training – spending money up front on recruiting the right people,” said Bollinger’s Bordelon. “We offer recruiting bonuses internally.”

Ingalls partners with local schools and universities to recruit unskilled apprentices at the Maritime Training Academy at its shipyard. The facility houses multiple rooms, each devoted to a particular component of the craft like handling sheet metal. In one room, some eight trainees in hard hats and goggles practiced pipefitting with an instructor.

The academy allows trainees to begin working at Ingalls while learning hands-on shipbuilding skills, first in the classroom and then on actual modules in the yard as part of a two to three year program. It used to train more than 1,000 students before the height of the COVID pandemic, which lowered that number to 400. Ingalls hopes to increase its number of trainees to 800 by the end of this year and go beyond that next year.

“Ingalls hires on a scale far bigger than us,” said Austal’s Ryder. “Bollinger is hiring. We’re hiring. So, it’s a challenge. And we’ve got to to think beyond just Mobile. We’ve got to to think nationally on how do we draw people to the region.”

[James1978]

Commentary
Why the US Navy needs dedicated command ships
By Steven Wills
April 24, 2023

When there is talk of flat budgets and ship reductions, the U.S. Navy inevitably suggests the retirement of its dedicated command ships — in particular the 6th Fleet flagship Mount Whitney. The Mediterranean-based command platform is again on the chopping block, this time for retirement in 2026, according to the Navy’s latest report on its 30-year shipbuilding plan. While older than nearly all who sail in it, Mount Whitney and its Japan-based sister ship Blue Ridge are unique platforms capable of hosting battle staffs of multiple sizes while freeing combatant ships for operational, direct-action missions.

Suggestions that there is no need for a sea-based battle staff platform fly in the face of Cold War and recent history.

Conversion and hybrid flag platforms since World War II have been inadequate in capability or unable to support communications technology advancements. Today’s joint force needs multiple, sea-based options for staff placement, as increasingly accurate weapons make fixed land bases vulnerable. Command ships provide greater survivability and more flexibility than land-based counterparts.

Complex joint operations in the Pacific, such as the invasion of the Philippines in 1944 and even the compact June 6, 1944, invasion of Normandy, showed that cramming a senior admiral or general, staff, and radio needs into a combatant ship was good for neither party. Merchant ship conversions became popular as their lack of dedicated weapon systems meant they could have more space for flag facilities, additional radios, boats and staff berthing. One commander of 7th Fleet, Adm. Thomas Kinkaid, had used such a ship in the Leyte Gulf operations: the amphibious force command ship Wasatch.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur used the cruiser Nashville as his flagship for many of his World War II campaigns including Leyte Gulf, but switched to a converted Mount McKinley for the 1950 invasion of Inchon.

The 1970s inaugurated a new period in command ship development with the commissioning of the LCC class (Blue Ridge and Mount Whitney), which were purpose-built as command vessels with the space, weight, power and cooling margins for significant growth. While designated as amphibious command ships, both vessels have performed numerous other command and flagship duties over their long careers.

The converted cruisers and amphibious ships would have been superseded as flagships regardless of their age due to the growth in staff for joint operations. From operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm forward, the U.S. military has increasingly operated as a joint team directed by joint headquarters of increasingly larger size.

Modern, 24-hour continuous, complex joint operations require far greater numbers of people thinking and working to develop solutions for the commander on everything from combat operations, logistics, weather, and political impacts on operations. For a three-star fleet or four-star joint commander, this means hundreds of staff that must be housed, fed, given the chance for exercise and some leisure, and above all enough communication options to be a viable command center.

While some have suggested merchant or cruise ship conversions as cheaper options, costs are still significant. The expeditionary sea base class is a viable option, but the next ship in that class would need to be purpose-built as a command ship with a state-of-the-art communications suite and modularity to serve in a number of roles. The baseline expeditionary sea base is $650 million, but even with these modifications the price would likely remain less than $1 billion for a ship likely to serve three to four decades at good value to the taxpayer.

A cruise ship would be faster but would not be built to military survivability standards, and it would need significant communications upgrades and likely internal changes to accommodate a naval or joint staff of operational size.

Two decades ago the Navy planned a new class of joint command ships, JCC(X). That class never made it to construction due to continued Navy budget cuts during the global war on terror. The five-year hiatus in construction of the amphibious transport dock ship LPD 17 might have instead allowed for a new, four-ship build of two JCC(X) vessels and two new tenders on the same hull form as originally discussed in the early 2000s.

In the last 35 years it has been easy to command from shore-based headquarters often, as all those operations were focused on land-based objectives and had minimal maritime combat components. Some missions — like the 2011 Operation Odyssey Dawn joint multinational operation against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi — were forced to be commanded from the sea due to national caveats of NATO member states.

Moving command of the operation to the Mount Whitney allowed flexibility in conducting operations. Then-President Barack Obama gave a short time to prepare for the operation. And by stipulating “no boots on the ground in Libya,” he made a U.S. Navy command ship and its embarked maritime operations center’s team the perfect tool for the task.

The vast maritime spaces of the Indo-Pacific and Arctic regions limit the number of land locations for command and control, and advanced targeting available to peer competitors makes those land-based locations vulnerable to first-strike action. Having a sea-based command post does not mean that all operations need be controlled from those ships, but rather the command ships offer flexible alternatives for commanders to lead the fight from a mobile and less-targetable location.

Alternatives such as large deck amphibious ships (LHD and LHA) are available, but embarkation of a large staff with significant communications needs would significantly degrade the warfighting potential of those ships and deny operational commanders their full use. For all these reasons the Navy must ensure that Blue Ridge and Mount Whitney remain available as command ships until they can be properly relieved by new-construction command vessels.

Steven Wills is a naval expert at the Navy League’s Center for Maritime Strategy. He served for 20 years in the U.S. Navy.

[James1978]

Navy Will Have ‘Challenges’ Meeting Submarine Delivery Schedules, Admiral Tells Senate
By: John Grady
April 20, 2023

In February, nuclear ballistic missile submarine USS Louisana (SSBN-743) completed a mid-life refueling overhaul – the last for the Ohio-class submarines.

“Louisiana will be the last. The long availabilities are complete,” Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe told the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee on Tuesday.

Now, as the Ohios are set to depart the service, “Columbia-class is the priority,” Wolfe said.

“We’re going to have challenges” in meeting submarine production demands and keeping weapons systems modernization and delivery in synch with ship construction, Wolfe said.

“Most U.S. nuclear deterrent systems – including the SSBN fleet – are operating beyond their original design life. Replacement programs are ongoing, but there is little or no margin between the end of useful life of existing programs and the fielding of their replacements. As noted by the 2022 NPR [Nuclear Posture Review], we need to fully fund the Columbia class SSBN program to deliver a minimum of 12 boats on time, as the Ohio Class SSBNs begin to retire. We also need to continue to prioritize near-term investments in the submarine industrial base, Ohio-class sustainment and the second life extension of the TRIDENT II D5” missile, Wolfe wrote in his prepared testimony.

“On-time delivery” has become increasingly challenging.

USNI News reported last month that Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro told House appropriators that the Virginia-class attack boats program is “significantly behind” schedule.

The Navy’s plan was to build one Columbia-class sub and two Virginia-class per year, but the plan did not take into account deliveries to Australia.

General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News shipyards are the only yards capable of building nuclear-powered submarines. Instead of two Virginia-class per year, the Navy reported they are delivering 1.2 boats.

Testifying on an earlier panel at the same hearing as Wolfe, Vice Adm. James Caldwell, deputy administrator for naval reactors at the National Nuclear Security Administration, said his program “is delivering the life-of-the-ship reactor core and the electric drive propulsion system for Columbia.”

Panel Chairman Sen. Angus King, (D-Maine) noted that importance in the hearing. That reactor eliminates the need for a refueling overhaul over its 40-year life cycle. It also allows the Navy to field 12 ballistic missile submarines rather than 14 since extended yard periods won’t be needed, he said.

At the beginning of the year, the chairman and then-ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee expressed their concerns over shipyard space and workforce availability with the pending delivery of submarines to Canberra under the Australia-United Kingdom-United States [AUKUS] agreement.

Wolfe said the Navy is investing more than $2.4 billion over the next five years in modernizing and expanding yards. Rep. Joe Courtney, (D-R.I.), ranking member of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces panel, often said capacity ”is the biggest constraint” in growing the fleet.

Adding to construction challenges is a diminished and aging workforce in the nation’s shipyards. “We face the same challenges” in recruiting and retaining new workers in strategic systems, as does Caldwell with nuclear reactors, Wolfe said.

The strategic systems program “does not have the benefit of a healthy industrial base that comes from maintaining production and continuous development,” he said in written testimony. He noted the Navy has not called for a key component – integrated aeroshell – since the 1980s. The Navy needs to “re-invigorate a production capability that only reside in a small cadre of highly skilled experts in an exceptionally niche industry.” The aeroshell, also used by the Air Force and the United Kingdom, is the outer protective covering for warheads as they move through the atmosphere.

Members noted this was the 60th anniversary of the Polaris Sales Agreement that allowed sharing of nuclear propulsion and weapons technology with the United Kingdom and compared it to AUKUS.

“Let there be no doubt – AUKUS is a tremendous addition to my existing mission. …My program will be a key element of [its] success,” Caldwell said in written testimony. He added in oral testimony that “it will require a generational investment in people, nuclear technologies and facilities.”

Caldwell said there have been “incredible interactions” with the Australians during the 18-month consultation period from the date AUKUS was announced. “Stewardship” has been emphasized in handling nuclear technology safely and the need for governance and regulatory guidance. He added that has been “inherent in every part of the process.”

Six junior Australian naval officers are completing nuclear reactor school in Charleston, S.C., and will be assigned to American submarines. Caldwell said they will be given opportunities to learn on nuclear submarine operations with the United as they advance in rank.

He added the same holds true with Australians now assigned to the Royal Navy.

[James1978]

VCNO: Navy Set to Miss FY 2023 Recruiting Goals for Enlisted Sailors by Nearly 16%
By: Heather Mongilio
April 20, 2023

The Navy will likely miss its recruiting goals by 6,000 sailors for the current fiscal year, the vice chief of naval operations testified Wednesday.

The sea service is aiming to recruit 37,700 active-duty enlisted sailors for Fiscal Year 2023, a goal that VCNO Adm. Lisa Franchetti told the House Armed Services Committee the sea service will fall short of by 15.9 percent.

However, in Franchetti’s written testimony, the VCNO wrote that the Navy will likely miss its active-duty enlisted recruiting goal by 8,000 sailors. The sea service is also expected to fall short of meeting its reserve recruiting numbers by 3,300. Franchetti did not say in her oral or written testimony how the Navy would fare for active duty or reserve officers.

The difference between the recruiting numbers provided in Franchetti’s verbal and written testimony is due to the service’s recruitment increase from when she submitted her written statement and testified, Recruiting Command spokesperson Cmdr. Dave Benham told USNI News in a Thursday statement.

Recruiting numbers change as the year progresses and incentives are offered, Benham previously told USNI News. The recruiting command does not typically release recruiting numbers throughout the year because of the fluctuations.

“Ultimately we won’t know final numbers until the end of September, but the forecast is significantly better than it was several months back,” Benham said in a Thursday email. “This is reflective of various changes we have implemented during the year, to include CAT IV accessions for future Sailors with qualifying line scores, raising maximum enlistment age to 41, various waivers such as single parent, tattoos, and prior THC use, the just announced Future Sailor Prep Course, and other program changes coming soon.”

CAT IV refers to the Navy’s policy of accepting people who scored lower on their entrance test as long as they score well on the entrance vocational exam, USNI News previously reported.

“All of this is designed to reduce barriers to enlistment, and coupled with the extraordinary work of our recruiters in the field, is helping us reduce the projected shortfall, with an ultimate goal of reducing it as much as possible,” Benham continued.

The change in the potential shortfall is a prediction, according to Benham. The Recruiting Command bases predictions on updated recruitment numbers and estimates on how policy changes will affect the numbers, among other factors. The latest of these policies is the Future Sailor Preparatory Course, which will help those who have not met the physical requirements. An academic version is expected later this year.

The Navy is not alone in predicting that it will not meet recruiting numbers. The vice chiefs of the other branches joined Franchetti on the panel before the House Armed Services Committee. The Army and the Air Force are also expected to come up short on recruiting.

The Marine Corps will meet its recruiting goals, Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Eric Smith testified. The service also met its recruiting goals in FY 2022.

Last year, the Navy met its recruiting goals for active-duty enlisted sailors by 42 sailors. It raised recruiting goals to 37,700 for FY 2023, an increase of 3,400 over the previous year. The service did not meet FY 2022 recruiting goals for active-duty officers or the reserve.

[jemhouston]

What about modifying the LSD 41 Whidbey Island class ships?

[James1978]

U.S. Navy To Get New Unique Submarine: Virginia SSW
The USS Jimmy Carter is widely regarded as the most secretive submarine in the U.S. Navy. It is especially equipped for Seabed Warfare, unreported missions deep below the waves. Now a new seabed warfare submarine, using a Virginia Class hull, is planned.

H I Sutton
20 April 2023

The USS Jimmy Carter is currently the U.S. Navy’s principal seabed warfare submarine, specially fitted for covert spy missions deep beneath the waves. Now plans are underway to build a follow on special spy submarine using the newer Virginia Class hull.

A single Mod VA SSW (Modified Virginia, Subsea and Seabed Warfare) version of the Virginia Class is expected to be built.

Work is already underway at the famous Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Connecticut. A basic outline of the design was shared by General Dynamics Electric Boat’s President, Kevin Graney, in a January 2022 at a Connecticut Economic Summit in 2022. Since then some information about the SSW design has slowly emerged in open sources, but naturally the details remain cloaked. According to the Congressional Research Service, a single boat will be procured in the U.S. Navy’s 2024 budget. The calculated cost is $5.1 billion, almost a billion more than the baseline Virginia Class.

Seabed Warfare
Seabed warfare has been brought into sharp focus by Russia’s ongoing efforts to map undersea infrastructure. And by the September 2022 with the attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic. There is no suggestion that the USS Jimmy Carter was involved in the Nord Stream incident (it wasn’t!). But the attack shows the relevance of these capabilities. Most seabed warfare however is closer to espionage than sabotage. And the American submarines excel.

The history of operations against undersea infrastructure, such as sensor networks, communications and energy infrastructure goes back a long way. And both the U.S. Navy and Russian Navy have strong traditions.

In the 1970s Operation Ivy Bells saw the U.S. Navy tapping Soviet communications networks deep undersea. Tapping the cables which the Soviets thought were safe gave the U.S. valuable insight and intelligence. The first tap, in the Sea of Okhotsk was followed by several others of similar significance but less fame. The USSR only found out about them when a Soviet spy deep in the American intelligence apparatus, Ronald Pelton, betrayed them.

At first the U.S. Navy used a converted cruise missile submarine, USS Halibut. This was followed by USS Seawolf and then USS Parche, both of which were upgraded with extended hulls to carry the specialist equipment. Then in the 2000s one of the new Seawolf class submarines, USS Jimmy Carter, was built with the hull extension already fitted. This submarine becoming the premiere seabed warfare boat of the U.S. Navy. The new specialized Virginia class submarine will augment or succeed USS Jimmy Carter.

The Virginia SSW Submarine Design
Extract details of the new Virginia SSW submarine are, as we should expect, unclear. Even the USS Jimmy Carter which has been in service almost 20 years remains something of a mystery. However we can expect the new submarine to carry specialist uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs), remote operated vehicles (ROVs) and special operations submersibles.

Some of the vertical launch systems for missiles, known as VPMs (Virginia Payload Modules) will be repurposed for new systems. Additionally the keel beneath them will be extended. Exactly how this will interface with specialist submersibles can only be speculated at.

Russia too has a long tradition of seabed warfare. And relative to even the U.S. Navy, is heavily invested in this area. The largest submarines in service anywhere in the world are Russia’s fleet of specialist submarines. The U.S. Navy’s seabed warfare capability is likely more sophisticated, but Russia’s is broader and more plentiful.

So if the U.S. Navy wishes to retain any advantage it has, it is natural that it would look to have a successor to the USS Jimmy Carter.

[James1978]

Last Cyclone Patrol Ships Leave U.S. Navy, Many Will Serve in Foreign Forces
By: Aaron-Matthew Lariosa
April 26, 2023

The U.S. Navy decommissioned the last two Cyclone-class patrol ship at Naval Support Activity Bahrain last month, bringing the almost three-decade-long service of the PCs to an end. The Cyclones that have patrolled in and out of the Persian Gulf are set for foreign service. Over the last two years, the remaining PCs have been transferred via Foreign Military Sales to Bahrain, Egypt and the Philippines.

Built by Bollinger Shipyards, the 385-ton Cyclones have been a staple in littoral environments. Designed for patrol duties and interdiction, the vessels would serve in both the Navy and Coast Guard over the class’ service life, mostly in the Middle East, where the Navy preferred them over larger vessels for operations in the Persian Gulf. Since 2014, ten of the fourteen PCs of the class were stationed at Naval Support Activity Bahrain.

Philippine Navy’s Littoral Combat Force
In attendance for the decommissioning of the last PCs – USS Monsoon (PC-4) and USS Chinook (PC-9) – were their future operators. Monsoon and Chinook were officially transferred to the Philippine Navy during the same ceremony in which they were decommissioned at the pier in Bahrain. The Philippine delegation included the Commander of the Philippine Fleet Rear Adm. Renato David.

Philippine media outlet Inquirer received word from a senior Philippine Navy official that the PCs were due to arrive in May of this year. They are to spend 60 days in refit to adapt the vessels for Philippine service. Monsoon and Chinook will be the first PCs to enter the Philippine Navy since 2004, after the former USS Cyclone’s (PC-1) transfer to the Philippines via FMS.

For almost two decades the Littoral Combat Force, the command within the Philippine Navy responsible for patrolling the internal and littoral waters of the country, operated a single PC. BRP General Mariano Alvarez (PS-38), former USS Cyclone (PC-1), has distinguished itself in the Philippine Navy over the years in counter-insurgency and maritime security operations in the Southern Philippines, where the country faces various rebel groups.

General Mariano Alvarez was envisioned to be the first of many PC transfers to the Philippines. But with the Global War on Terror kicking off, the U.S. Navy retained the vessels for their own use.

Apart from these operations, the Philippines also wanted the PCs to modernize the LCF, with many of its vessels dated or nearing retirement. The Philippine Navy prioritized the transfer of PCs to the point that the service would rather take multiple PCs over a potential Hamilton-class WHEC transfer. The Philippine Navy sent exploratory teams over the years to PC homeports in Bahrain and Mayport, Fla., to evaluate which vessels could be transferred. Originally, the Philippine Navy wanted five PCs, but also said that if it came down to it they “will only get the best available units,” officials said.

In all, the Philippine Navy has received three of the 14 total PCs built. The Philippine service names for Monsoon and Chinook are unknown as of this time.

Royal Bahraini Naval Force
Bahrain is the largest operator of former Navy PCs, receiving five of the vessels in March of last year. The Royal Bahraini Naval Force frequently operated alongside Navy PCs, as many of them were stationed at Naval Support Activity Bahrain.

There are five former U.S. PCs in Bahraini service – the former USS Typhoon (PC-5), USS Tempest (PC-2), USS Squall (PC-7), USS Whirlwind (PC-11) and USS Firebolt (PC-10), according to Janes.

Prior to their transfer to the Royal Bahraini Naval Force, the PCs engaged with regional navies and were frequently seen in standoffs against Iranian naval forces across the Persian Gulf. In Bahraini service, the PCs will likely continue the same missions they had during their time in the U.S. Navy.

Egyptian Navy
The Egyptian Navy is the newest operator of PCs, receiving USS Hurricane (PC-3), USS Sirocco (PC-6), and USS Thunderbolt (PC-12) on March 21st. For their last voyage with the U.S. Navy, the three PCs sailed 4,000 miles from Naval Support Activity Bahrain to Alexandria. American sailors were joined by Egyptian sailors for the delivery of the PCs.

Egypt is a major partner in U.S. Naval Forces Central Command operations in the region. The Egyptian Navy commands Combined Task Force 153, one of four CTFs in the region that focuses on maritime security. CTF 153’s area of responsibility includes the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden.

Egypt’s efforts in the region have put their navy in frequent contact with the PCs constantly operating out of Naval Support Activity Bahrain. Like the Bahrani PCs, it’s also likely that the Egyptian PCs will perform the same missions that the vessels did in their American service.

The names or designations of the Egyptian Navy’s PCs are unknown as of this time.

Less in the Littorals
Three separate navies have increased their maritime security and littoral patrol capabilities with the transfers of the Cyclone-class. However, the decommissioning and transfer of the PCs reflect a trend in the U.S. Navy to move away from smaller vessels.

Alongside the PCs, the Navy has also shed the Mark VI patrol boats. Photographs taken by Chirs Cavas earlier this month show the Navy’s 12 Mark VIs are still laid up at Norfolk. The patrol boats were supposed to replace the PCs when those vessels reached the end of their service lives. But the costs of maintaining the patrol boats made the Navy move them to storage only a few years after they were built, the service has said.

Cyclones and other patrol boats carried out many important duties in U.S. 5th Fleet that now other assets must now perform. These missions include the escort of larger Navy warships through the Hormuz Strait, where U.S. ships have faced harassment from Iranian naval forces. The PCs also played an important role in stopping the seizure and/or retrieving stolen unmanned vessels from Iran.

With their absence, Coast Guard Sentinel-class cutters are now the only U.S. vessels in the Persian Gulf with similar capabilities to the Cyclone-class ships. Prior to retirement, the PCs regularly interacted with Sentinels in many joint operations in the region. An image released last week by the Coast Guard showed two Sentinels escorting an unmanned vessel through the Strait of Hormuz, a mission that usually included the presence of PCs.

[James1978]

Ransomware Attack Hits Marinette Marine Shipyard, Results in Short-Term Delay of Frigate, Freedom LCS Construction
By: Sam LaGrone and Mallory Shelbourne
April 20, 2023

The Wisconsin shipyard that builds the U.S. Navy’s Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ship and the Constellation-class guided-missile frigate suffered a ransomware attack last week that delayed production across the shipyard, USNI News has learned.

Fincantieri Marinette Marine experienced the attack in the early morning hours of April 12, when large chunks of data on the shipyard’s network servers were rendered unusable by an unknown professional group, two sources familiar with a Navy summary of the attack told USNI News on Thursday.

In a typical ransomware attack, attackers take the information on a server, encrypt it and set terms for a key that will unlock the data.

The attack on Marinette Marine targeted servers that held data used to feed instructions to the shipyard’s computer numerical control manufacturing machines, knocking them offline for several days. CNC-enabled machines are the backbone of modern manufacturing, taking specifications developed with design software and sending instructions to devices like welders, cutters, bending machines and other computer-controlled tools.

Based on information from the Navy, it’s unclear if the attackers stole any data.

In a statement to USNI News, Marinette Marine acknowledged there had been a cybersecurity incident at the shipyard.

“Fincantieri Marine Group experienced a cybersecurity incident last week that is causing a temporary disruption to certain computer systems on its network. The company’s network security officials immediately isolated systems and reported the incident to relevant agencies and partners. Fincantieri Marine Group brought in additional resources to investigate and to restore full functionality to the affected systems as quickly as possible, “ reads a statement from Fincantieri spokesman Eric Dent.

“Repair and construction operations continue at all three U.S. shipyards, however the company’s email and some networked operations remain off-line for now.”

Fincantieri would not elaborate beyond the statement.

In a separate statement to USNI News, Freedom-class prime contractor Lockheed Martin spokesperson said, “we face threats every day from sophisticated adversaries around the world and we regularly take actions to increase the security of our systems and to protect our employee, customer and program data.”

USNI News understands that as of Thursday afternoon, some of the CNC machines at Marinette were operational.

USNI News was visiting the shipyard in Marinette the day after the attack and observed shipyard workers using the panel lines that feed gray and pink steel through to build both the Constellation-class frigates and the multi-mission surface combatants for the Royal Saudi Navy.

The yard is currently on contract to build four combatants for the Saudis and three frigates for the U.S. Navy, with the service planning to ramp up procurement in the pursuit of buying two frigates per year.

The Navy acknowledged the attack in a statement but did not provide additional details.

“The Navy was made aware of a cyber-incident involving Fincantieri Marine Group. FMG is the parent company of Fincantieri Marinette Marine which has contracts with the Navy to construct the Constellation Class Frigate and Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ship. FMM also builds the Multi-Mission Surface Combatant,” reads the statement.
“FMG has taken measures to prevent further incursions and is conducting the required response, remediation and reporting actions. The Navy is actively monitoring the efforts.”

[James1978]

What about modifying the LSD 41 Whidbey Island class ships?

As command ships?
They are at least 15 years younger than Blue Ridge and Mount Whitney.
Two have already been decommissioned, with the rest proposed to decommission through 2024. If they aren't worn out and the work cold be done at a commercial yard?

Though I think Blue Ridge at least is scheduled to remain in service until 2039.

[James1978]

Navy Investigators Suspect Arson in Fire Aboard Docked Destroyer
28 Apr 2023
Military.com | By Konstantin Toropin

Navy investigators are offering a $2,000 reward for information on a December 2022 fire aboard the destroyer USS Carney, a blaze they have deemed likely to have resulted from arson.

In a social media post made Thursday evening, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service said it is looking "for information leading to the identification of those responsible for starting a fire" aboard the Mayport, Florida-based ship in the early morning hours of Dec. 23. The service had not previously indicated that it considered the blaze intentional.

In the days after the fire, there were hints that arson was a possibility when the Navy confirmed to Military.com that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF -- an agency that calls itself the main federal source for fire investigations and expertise -- was helping in the investigation.

phibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard in 2020, the Carney was not undergoing scheduled maintenance or moored at a shipyard.

In the case of the Bonhomme Richard, the Navy ultimately accused a young sailor of starting the inferno that claimed the ship, but the case fizzled at court-martial. The ship has since been decommissioned and sent to be scrapped.

[James1978]

Navy’s powerful new supercomputer — Nautilus — is officially open for DOD use
The system is housed at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command is headquartered.

By Brandi Vincent
April 27, 2023

The Navy’s leading high-performance computing services and support provider officially added a powerful new machine to its arsenal: a supercomputer named Nautilus.

With this new addition unveiled this week, Defense Department scientists and engineers now have a total of six supercomputers and associated, advanced resources to access via the Navy DOD Supercomputing Resource Center, or DSRC. It’s funded through the department’s High-Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP).

“Nautilus will support thousands of users from various communities in the DOD — chief among them Naval Oceanography,” Navy DSRC Director Christine Cuicchi told DefenseScoop in an email on Thursday.

The massive system is housed at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command is headquartered.

Though its name wasn’t revealed at the time, a deal for the supercomputer was among two contracts worth a total of $68 million that the Pentagon awarded to technology company Penguin Computing TrueHPC in 2021.

“To commemorate the first instance of a supercomputer architected by the company Penguin to be in the [DSRC], Nautilus was named after the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus (SSN-571) which was the world’s first operational nuclear-powered submarine. USS Nautilus was also the first submarine to transit the North Pole, during what was called Operation Sunshine,” Cuicchi explained.

Typically, high-performance supercomputers are measured in flops, or floating-point operations per second. Each flop essentially points to a possible calculation, like addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. A petaflop system can make one quadrillion of those calculations per second.

Poised to rank among the world’s most powerful supercomputers, Nautilus boasts a peak performance of 8.2 petaflops.

Cuicchi confirmed that the machine “was delivered to the Navy DSRC in 2022, and upon recently passing acceptance testing to ensure it meets performance requirements, is now available for up to 4,000 users.”

Those officials are largely on science and technology, and research, development, test and evaluation teams in the Navy, Army, Air Force and other DOD components. But soon, Nautilus will be open for use by all members in the DSRC network.

Navy officials are usually pretty tight-lipped about the applications that run on military supercomputers.

“A highly capable supercomputer, Nautilus will enable scientific discoveries that support the department in numerous scientific disciplines, including computational fluid dynamics to accelerate and improve ship and aircraft design and refinement; climate, weather, and ocean modeling to inform force and fleet movements; and computational chemistry including solid-state modeling used to develop new high performance materials for advance rocket engine components and semiconductor lasers — just to name a few,” Cuicchi noted.

The system features artificial intelligence- and machine learning-focused technology, as well, she added.

Nautilus is considered “the sister” to the HPE Cray EX supercomputer Narwhal, according to Cuicchi.

Following a recent boost that came around the same time of the new delivery, Narwhal — DOD’s largest unclassified supercomputer — now has a performance capacity of 13.6 petaflops of computing performance.

Narwhal is named after the only submarine in the Navy fleet to have been powered by a natural circulation nuclear power plant, USS Narwhal. It entered service at the DSRC in 2021.

“Much like the Navy DSRC weathered Hurricane Katrina without interruption to its service to DOD HPC users, USS Narwhal survived Hurricane Hugo while submerged in the Cooper River in [Charleston, South Carolina],” Cuicchi told DefenseScoop.

With these enhancements, the Navy DSRC now offers its users a total of more than 30 petaflops of aggregate computational capability.

“We’re thrilled to continue supporting the DOD with this powerful new supercomputer and await the exciting new discoveries it will enable,” Cuicchi said.

[James1978]

Navy commander pulled from job after SEAL candidate death
LOLITA C. BALDOR
May 2, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — The commander of the Naval Special Warfare Center who was reprimanded in connection with the death last year of a Navy SEAL candidate has been pulled out of his job about two months early, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Navy Capt. Brian Drechsler is being moved to another job as Navy officials seek new leadership for the Center, more than a year after SEAL candidate Kyle Mullen collapsed and died of acute pneumonia just hours after completing the grueling Hell Week test.

Drechsler was one of three Navy officers who received administrative “non-punitive” letters as a result of Mullen's death. They were not directly blamed for his death and Drechsler has not been formally relieved of duty, although such an investigation is likely a career-ender. His transfer is the first step in an ongoing review to determine if any additional punishment is warranted. Officials said Drechsler will be serving as a special assistant at Naval Special Warfare Command, and had been planning to retire.

Mullen’s death has shined a light on the brutal Hell Week that pushes SEAL candidates to their limits. The five-and-a-half day test involves basic underwater demolition, survival and other combat tactics, and during the test sailors get to sleep just twice, for two-hour periods only. It tests physical, mental and psychological strength along with leadership skills, and is so grueling that at least 50% to 60% don’t finish it.

In a brief statement released Tuesday, the command announced the change in leadership, but made no mention of Mullen. It said Navy Capt. Mark Burke will take over command of the center. The decision was made by Rear Adm. Keith Davids, who took over as commander of Naval Special Warfare Command last August. Officials said the change was done to bring new leadership in to address the ongoing challenges and not due to poor performance or wrongdoing.

Two others got non-punitive letters: Capt. Brad Geary, commanding officer of Naval Special Warfare’s Basic Training Command, and an unnamed senior medical officer. The medical officer remains in his same job and Geary moved to a staff job, in a change that was planned before the death.

In a message to his command, obtained by The Associated Press, Drechsler said, “It is crucial that we maintain the momentum we have made to improve our training, safety, and medical oversight while balancing the need to forge the world’s greatest warriors.”

A report released last October by the command concluded that Mullen, 24, from Manalapan, New Jersey, died “in the line of duty, not due to his own misconduct.” It said he had an enlarged heart that also contributed to his death, which came soon after he successfully finished Hell Week, which is part of the first phase of assessment for SEAL candidates striving to get into the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL, or BUD/S, class. The training was at the Naval Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado, California.

The report also raised questions about the monitoring of SEAL candidates as they grind through the arduous tests, and the adequacy of medical scrutiny on the sailors, who often avoid seeking medical help out of fear it will disqualify them.

Since Mullen's death, Drechsler and the command have instituted a number of changes, including advanced cardiology screening of SEAL candidates for heart problems; pneumonia prevention shots; more medical scrutiny after Hell Week ends; increased training regarding performance-enhancing drugs; and expanded training for instructors.

The medical examiner’s autopsy report found that there was no evidence of performance-enhancing drugs in Mullen’s system and that they were not a contributing cause of death.

Mullen first began BUD/S in July 2021, but suffered heat stroke and left the class for recovery. He was cleared to join another class, went through orientation and began again in January 2022.

The report said that during his first week, classmates said he had breathing issues, and they believed it to be swimming-induced pulmonary edema, which occurs when fluid accumulates in the lungs. The breathing problems were not reported to medical staff, the report said.

It said he was seen by medical staff during during the Hell Week test due to shortness of breath and problems with his knee. In medical checks after the test ended, his lungs were deemed “abnormal” and he went to the barracks in a wheelchair due to swelling in his legs. His condition worsened, and a medical officer recommended they call 911, but that wasn’t done until about 90 minutes later. He was taken to the hospital and died.

The reluctance by some candidates to seek medical help as well as the potential use of banned drugs by SEAL candidates are issues the Navy has been looking into.

Officials acknowledge that the use of performance-enhancing drugs has been a persistent problem, particularly with special operations forces and service members trying to get through rigorous training and evaluation courses. Some additional testing for the drugs is already being done in connection with the SEAL course. Since February 2022, more than 75 candidates — out of 2,500 — tested for higher testosterone levels, indicating possible drug use. Most returned to training after additional tests, or dropped out. About a dozen were determined to be using performance-enhancing drugs.

The banned drugs were a key focus of the ongoing investigation by the Naval Education and Training Command, or NETC. The command is taking a deeper look at the entire SEAL training course, including policies, procedures and proper oversight by commanders. The results of that investigation are expected to be released in about a month.

NETC is also reviewing the personnel decisions to determine if they were adequate or if any actions should be taken against others at the command.

Drechsler is a 1999 graduate of the Naval Academy, served in SEAL units throughout his career, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and has received the Legion of Merit award and three Bronze Stars, including two with a combat “v” for heroism. Burke is also a 1999 graduate of the Naval Academy and served in SEAL units through his career, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and received a Silver Star, five Bronze Stars with combat “v” for heroism and a Purple Heart.

[James1978]

U.S. Navy Sends Nontraditional Ships to Support Sudan Evacuation
By: Mallory Shelbourne
May 1, 2023

Without a carrier strike group or amphibious readiness group currently operating in the Middle East, the U.S. Navy has dispatched two little-known ship classes to help the State Department evacuate people from Sudan.

Spearhead-class Expeditionary Fast Transport USNS Brunswick (T-EPF-6) moved about 300 people from Port Sudan to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Monday. Meanwhile, Lewis B. Puller-class expeditionary sea base USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB-3) is also operating in the Red Sea, standing by to aid in the evacuation mission.

The EPFs, built by Austal USA in Mobile, Ala., and the ESBs, built by General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego, Calif., have both received attention from the Marine Corps in recent years as an interim solution to move Marines around for its island-hopping strategy while the Navy pursues the Landing Ship Medium. But both classes are now fulfilling missions typically performed by other U.S. Navy assets like amphibious warships at a time when the fleet is balancing operations between the Indo-Pacific, Mediterranean and the Middle East.

While one of the main Marine Corps missions is crisis response and humanitarian aid and disaster relief, service officials in the last year have highlighted the lack of available and ready amphibious warships to deploy and operate across the globe.

Since there are no nearby ARGs that could respond to the situation in Sudan, the Marine Corps’ senior officer told lawmakers last week that he “let down” U.S. Africa Commander Gen. Michael Langley.

“First, we would have gaps during the year when we would not have an at-sea capability for the combatant commander when something happened. We would not be deterring. We would not be in a position to respond,” Gen. David Berger told the House Armed Services Committee when asked what would happen if the Marine Corps has fewer than 31 amphibious warships, the statutory requirement.

“Here, places like Turkey or [the] last couple of weeks in Sudan, I feel like I let down the combatant commander because Gen. Langley needs options. He didn’t have a sea-based option. That’s how we reinforce embassies. That’s how we evacuate them. That’s how we deter,” he added.
“It opens up risks for the combatant commander. We have to have 31 at a minimum. Nothing less.”

Spearhead-class
The EPFs originally began as a joint program with the U.S. Army known as the Joint High Speed Vessel merging the Army’s Theater Support Vessel program and the Department of the Navy’s own effort to move Marines inside a maritime theater. The Navy and Marine Corps experimented with renting high-speed civilian ferries before settling on a final design.

However, by the time shipbuilder Austal USA delivered the first hull – USNS Spearhead (T-EPF-1) – in 2012, the Navy had taken charge of the program.

The aluminum catamarans are operated under Military Sealift Command and crewed by about 40 civilian mariners. Designed as an intra-theater connector, the EPFs can move troops and equipment at high speeds, with the ability to sail at 35 to 40 knots and a low draft capable of operating in almost any port.

They can transport up to 300 fully loaded combat Marines and an M-1 A2 main battle tank. The ships also have a helicopter deck large enough to land MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

ESBs
The Navy describes Puller as “the first purpose-built expeditionary sea base vessel” that can perform a variety of missions, ranging from small boat operations to anti-piracy.

Originally carrying the USNS designation under Military Sealift Command, in 2017 the Navy commissioned Puller as a warship so it could better support both the numbered fleet and combatant commanders in the Middle East. Then, in 2020, the Navy announced it would commission all ships in the class as warships with the USS designation.

Based on a commercial oil tanker, the U.S. Navy removed the middle of the ship so it could serve as a mission bay and then put a flight deck on the top for the new ESB design. The flight deck has four spots to accommodate both helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft.

The first two hulls in the class were designed to serve as an at-sea transfer point that would allow roll-on/roll-off cargo ships to load military vehicles onto Navy Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) without having to offload the gear at a port. The Navy abandoned the mobile landing platform concept after the first two ships delivered and pivoted to creating a large platform for special operations and mine countermeasure forces.

Following expeditionary transfer docks USNS Montford Point (T-ESD-1) and USNS John Glenn (T-ESD-2), Puller was the first built for the sea base mission.

The idea for the sea bases goes back to the Vietnam and Iran-Iraq wars when barges served as mobile platforms to stage forces without having a footprint ashore.

The Navy now has three ESBs commissioned, with three more under construction.

[James1978]

Navy’s mine-hunting package gets green light, ready for use on LCS
The mine countermeasures mission packages replaces the Navy's legacy Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships, among other platforms.
By Justin Katz
May 2, 2023

WASHINGTON — The Navy has given the official green light for its package of capabilities focused on defeating undersea mines to begin operations in the fleet.

The Littoral Combat Ships’ mine countermeasures mission package contains several systems that when used in conjunction with one another allow sailors aboard an LCS, or another vessel of opportunity, to detect and destroy undersea mines.

The milestone, known as “initial operational capability” or IOC, was granted Monday and is effectively an endorsement that the technology has been tested and proven enough so the broader fleet can begin using it.

“The declaration of the MCM MP and [associated sonar] IOC is a significant accomplishment for the LCS Mission Modules program and the future of mine countermeasures,” said Capt. Godfrey Weekes, the mission modules program manager. “This milestone enables the Navy to field modern MCM systems to the fleet, replacing aging platforms and sensors. The new equipment utilizes cutting-edge unmanned and autonomous technologies and keeps our sailors out of harm’s way.”

With the mission module operational, it clears the pathway for the Navy to retire its legacy mine-hunting capabilities, which includes Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships that work in conjunction with MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopters to achieve similar objectives.

The declaration comes as the Navy has had to increasingly defend its choices for the LCS program to lawmakers. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday has repeatedly testified that he believes the Navy’s best option is to retire certain LCS vessels much earlier than anticipated due to the lack of capability they’d bring to the future fight. Part of the reason the Navy wanted to decommission the ships stemmed from the failed effort to integrate an anti-submarine warfare mission package, which was thought to have been a technological failure.

“America cannot afford a hollow force,” Gilday told Senate appropriators last year while defending the budget request. “We have been there before, and we have seen tragic results. It is a mistake we must never repeat.”

It’s not an argument with which lawmakers, who are eager to see the Navy’s total ship count grow, have always been satisfied, but it has been Gilday’s message on LCS since last year when the service sought to decommission nine of those ships. Congress in its annual defense policy bill opted to save five of those LCS.

Despite the pushback last year — and during several previous years — the Navy in its fiscal 2024 budget request is continuing to seek permission to decommission two LCS, both of which have been in service for less than a decade — alongside some amphibious ships, which have stirred their own controversy.

[James1978]

US shipyards can’t build destroyers fast enough; can’t even build 2 a year, official says
May 02, 2023
By Liz Lawrence

U.S. shipyards cannot build destroyers fast enough to meet Congress’ push for three Arleigh Burke-class Flight III warships each year, according to a top Pentagon official.

Defense Department comptroller Mike McCord told United States Naval Institute News that shipyards can’t even produce two warships a year, making Congress’ request for three unrealistic.

“I’m not hating on DDGs – my only point was that last year Congress added a third and the reason we didn’t budget for three is, again, we don’t see the yards being able to produce three a year. We don’t see them being able to produce two a year,” McCord said. “And that’s just data.”

“It’s not what we wish to be true. But everybody’s struggling with skilled labor. Everybody’s struggling with supply chain,” he continued. “So it’s not getting better very fast from the data that I’ve seen – whether with submarines or DDGs. So two a year seems to be a reasonable place.”

Currently, the industry is able to build 1.5 destroyers annually.

“If you keep sort of placing orders for things faster than they can be delivered, it’s good for the books, the balance sheets of the companies. But are you really, as the buyer, are you in the best place you’d like to be with any leverage or are you actually short of leverage when, you produce on time or you don’t produce on time. It doesn’t matter to me – I’m going to keep writing you checks,” McCord said.

“It’s just sort of piling up in the orders book and we’re still going to have the same problems of the yards producing faster until we get through the supply chain and the workforce issues,” he added. “It is not to say that we would not be interest[ed] in a more robust production world where in having three DDGs or moving to three submarines, but it doesn’t seem to be … realistic.”

According to the budget outlook, the Navy plans to buy two ships each year through FY2028.

“We would love to live in a world where the yards could make three a year, or three submarines a year, but we don’t live in that world,” McCord said.

[James1978]

Fleet Forces chief wants to make a smaller Navy more lethal
By Megan Eckstein
May 3, 2023

NORFOLK, Va. — The head of U.S. Fleet Forces Command operates a fleet smaller than the Navy planned, due to delays in ship and submarine construction and maintenance.

But Adm. Daryl Caudle said reducing operations isn’t an option, as Navy forces routinely find themselves in contact with their Russian and Chinese counterparts and demand for their presence is on the rise.

So the admiral has put together a four-part plan meant to maximize the fleet’s usefulness.

Using Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday’s prioritization of readiness spending on people, maintenance, parts and training as a starting point, Caudle’s plan is intended to turn that readiness into operational lethality.

This plan focuses on improving how the Navy budgets for and creates readiness, how it trains, and how it can best employ those ready forces at home and abroad.

Long-term budgeting
There are some problems the Navy has that can’t be solved in a single five-year budget planning window, Caudle told Defense News in a March 30 interview in his Norfolk office.

And these problems hit at the heart of Navy priorities: sailors, maintenance, training.

The first piece of Caudle’s four-part plan addresses readiness problems across 15-year periods he views as more manageable from a cost and execution perspective.

For three initial readiness problems, Caudle charted an ideal spending path that would gradually fix these complex issues over three five-year budget planning windows. If they Navy had extra money one year, it could accelerate spending and bring about faster improvement; if budgets were tight, the Navy could make informed decisions about the risks it would incur by spending less.

“There’s transparency, there’s accountability, there’s risk illustration to it, which is very appealing to me so that I know kind of where I am,” he said.

Caudle developed these spending curves as the user of the manpower, spare parts and training, and passed them along to Navy budget teams in the Pentagon who he said have begun turning to them to inform budget decisions.

Caudle called this effort “committing to the curve,” and said he’s already briefed three- and four-star admirals.

He said there are three topics he addressed first: manning, repair parts and Live, Virtual and Constructive training systems.

“We’re undermanned,” he said. “I cannot apply enough money, enough resources, enough recruiting effort, enough retention effort in one five-year period to go compensate for the manning deficiencies. So you can see, if I can phase what that curve would look like over three [five-year Future Years Defense Programs] and keep us on plan, I can digest that amount of resource allocation, understand the risk that I’m taking … and then go solve this more gently over time, like an amortization process.”

On repair parts, Caudle said the service has accumulated a backlog of spending on parts, leading to frustration when maintainers can’t fix their ship or airplane because the needed part isn’t in the supply locker.

Caudle’s “curve” for repair parts would prioritize spending on high-impact parts, a small number of parts that account for a large percentage of maintenance troubles. The second priority would be parts for ships and planes going on deployment, and the lowest priority — and where the Navy could accept risk if funding is tight — would be routine parts for ships at homeport.

Caudle said he mapped out this spending curve too late to inform the FY24 budget proposal, but the chief of naval operations included in the service’s annual unfunded priorities list $175 million for spare parts for aircraft in deploying air wings, to bolster Navy spending to get “on curve.”

“We did some experimentation with the George Herbert Walker Bush air wing and plussed-up some of their supply parts that they took on board. And they have been able to maintain, on average, around three additional tactical airplanes up throughout their deployment,” Caudle said. “I’m in conversation today with other fleet commanders, and of course the CNO’s staff, on what level to fund our air wings so that we get the most readiness when they deploy, but we don’t break the bank.”

On LVC, the service already has mature, connected training systems on ships and training ranges, but it still needs to loop in aircraft and make the training systems more realistic and inclusive of new weapons. Caudle’s curve for LVC investments shows an affordable 15-year path to buying the additional training systems and doing the integration needed to connect the whole force in a virtual training environment.

One Atlantic concept
Caudle, since taking command of U.S. Fleet Forces Command in December 2021, has sought to maximize his ships and planes’ ability to meet operational commanders’ needs.

He said a new One Atlantic concept, which is another piece of his plan, will help share ready naval forces across the Atlantic.

One Atlantic would ensure that, if the other three prongs of his plan succeed in creating more readiness and lethality, he can apply that to real-world operations, particularly to deter Russia or respond to Russian threats on both sides of the Atlantic.

In some cases, that would mean pushing ships and submarines across the Atlantic outside of their normal deployment cycle. This happened with Virginia-class attack submarine Oregon, he said, which participated in a high-end exercise in Europe that U.S. 6th Fleet otherwise would have had to skip.

Oregon joined the Navy in February 2022 and hadn’t even conducted a post-delivery shipyard period — but Caudle said the boat and crew were ready enough to conduct this limited mission and fill a gap that deployed 6th Fleet forces couldn’t.

One Atlantic could also use ready forces on this side of the ocean or cover the seam between U.S. Northern Command and U.S. European Command, which Caudle said fellow Virginia submarine South Dakota did.

“I have three or four times now sortied South Dakota in support, under tactical command of U.S. 6th Fleet, to use South Dakota to counter Russian out-of-area deployers,” Caudle said, referring to Russian submarines that stray beyond their local waters.

“This idea of fungibility across the actual [Unified Command Plan] line is what improves our warfighting,” Caudle said, noting it’s also “a utilization improvement” at a time he doesn’t have enough ships in the inventory.

“If you have some deficits in your force structure, then you have to be more creative, so utilization of an asset is extremely important,” he said, adding that One Atlantic “improves the quality and amount of force that is ready to actually respond” to homeland defense missions and foreign threats.

Force-generation overhaul
One Atlantic only works if ships are ready outside their usual deployment schedule, which today is not always the case. So, the remaining two pieces of his plan deal with training and readiness generation.

For one, Caudle wants to overhaul the Optimized Fleet Response Plan, which governs ship maintenance, training and deployment.

The three-year OFRP cycle starts with ships in maintenance. They go into basic, advanced and integrated training, and then deploy. After the deployment, there’s a sustainment phase; depending on the circumstances, some ships stay highly ready at this time in the OFRP cycle, while others see their readiness tank before they head into maintenance again.

Caudle’s OFRP renovation questions how ships and staffs move through the three-year cycle and how ready they are at various points along the way. Caudle is specifically examining whether ships have proper manning and munitions during training and in sustainment — something that could make or break a ship being able to duck out of training to conduct a real-world operation, like South Dakota or Oregon did.

The Navy doesn’t have enough money, munitions, people or parts to keep all ships fully ready throughout the entire OFRP cycle, but he said the Navy needs to keep more ships highly ready during sustainment — through initiatives like the Task Group Greyhound anti-submarine warfare group — to realize One Atlantic.

“As I speak, there are submarines that have Russian and Chinese submarines on their screens. So we are, no kidding, the only force that every day [has] troops in contact with our peer adversaries,” the admiral said, making it important to have additional ships and submarines that are, or quickly can become, trained and certified outside the normal deployment cycle.

To that point, Caudle said his plan would make further investments in Live, Virtual and Constructive training systems and the Ready Relevant Learning training model to ensure individual sailors, small units and ship crews are as prepared as possible, so they can jump into action quickly if called upon outside of their typical deployment cycle.

Ready Relevant Learning is a five-year-old training and education reform effort that rephased sailor training in technical schools, on the waterfront and on ships. LVC systems allow sailors to experience complex training scenarios they couldn’t rehearse live, and with more repetition than the Navy could afford to conduct live, to bolster sailor- and crew-level proficiency.

Asked if the early progress the Navy has made in each of these four lines of effort — investing in training, revamping OFRP, drafting long-term readiness spending plans and enacting One Atlantic — has made the fleet more ready to fight tonight, Caudle said “we are world class at operations when it’s certified, trained, equipped and ready. I’m trying to make that tank larger, so that there’s more of that level.”

“Anybody who goes against the Navy we’re talking about will have a very, very bad day,” he said. “That’s what we want them to contemplate on. If they look and see that’s hollow, or there’s chinks in that armor, then I think it gives them maneuver room to do things we don’t want them doing.”