Zitat:U.S. Navy’s CNO Explains the Reasons for Retiring Older Ticonderoga-class Cruisers

The U.S. Navy has built 27 Ticonderoga-class AEGIS cruisers from 1980-1994 with 21 still in service, retired, and one laid up. These are the warships that often ride “Shotgun” to the aircraft carriers and provide close-in Fleet Air Defense for the carrier and usually carry the Air Defense Commander. The U.S. Navy plans to retire some of the oldest cruisers in FY2022 to save money, but Congress seems reluctant to approve, preferring not to reduce the size of the active combat fleet. […]

At the Sea Air Space 2021’s virtual Prequel on July 20, 2021, U.S. Navy’s Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), Admiral Michael M. Gilday, explained the reasons for the retirement of seven of the oldest AEGIS radar cruisers from the active fleet to save money by divesting in Legacy ships. […] The U.S. Navy believes that the money saved from the divestment of the seven Ticonderoga cruisers will go towards funding modernization programs and new shipbuilding efforts.

Zitat:Report to Congress on Navy Force Structure [...]

On June 17, 2021, the Navy released a long-range Navy shipbuilding document that presents the Biden Administration’s emerging successor to the 355-ship force-level goal. The document calls for a Navy with a more distributed fleet architecture, including 321 to 372 manned ships and 77 to 140 large UVs. A September 2021 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report estimates that the fleet envisioned in the document would cost an average of between $25.3 billion and $32.7 billion per year in constant FY2021 dollars to procure. These figures, the report states, are 10% to 43% higher the $22.9 billion in constant FY2021 dollars that Congress has appropriated, on average, for all Navy shipbuilding activities over the past five years. [...]

The Navy’s proposed FY2022 budget requests $18.1 billion for construction of new ships within its shipbuilding budget (the Shipbuilding and Conversion, Navy, or SCN, appropriation account), compared with $17.8 billion for construction of new ships within the SCN account projected for FY2022 under the Navy’s FY2021 budget submission, $22.8 billion in FY2022 for construction of new ships within the SCN account in the December 9, 2020, document, and an enacted FY2021 total of $20.1 billion for the construction of new ships within the SCN account. [...]

Key questions for Congress include the following: Is the Navy’s emerging force-level goal appropriate for supporting U.S. national security strategy and U.S. national defense strategy? Is the more distributed fleet architecture envisioned by the Navy the most cost effective fleet architecture for meeting future mission needs? Is the Navy’s proposed FY2022 shipbuilding program consistent with the Navy’s emerging force-level goal? Given finite defense resources and competing demands for defense funds, what is the prospective affordability of the Navy’s shipbuilding plans? Does the U.S. shipbuilding industry, including both shipyards and supplier firms, have adequate capacity for executing the Navy’s shipbuilding plans?

Zitat:Navy Creates New Atlantic Destroyer Task Group to Hunt Russian Submarines

The Navy has created a new task group on the East Coast to ensure it has ready destroyers that can deploy on short notice to counter the Russian submarine threat in the Atlantic Ocean. Task Group Greyhound – which officially declared initial operational capability on Sept. 1 – is a force-generation model for destroyers that is embedded within the Navy’s Optimized Fleet Response Plan. [...]

Greyhound is “designed to provide the fleet with predictable, continuously ready and fully certified warships,” Rear Adm. Brendan McLane, the commander of Naval Surface Force Atlantic, said in a Monday ceremony aboard USS Thomas Hudner (DDG-116) in Mayport, Fla. “The ships will be ready to accomplish the full range of missions – including tracking Russian undersea activity in the Atlantic and maritime homeland defense for our nation.” [...]

USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) – which recently completed several years forward-deployed in Rota, Spain and is now based in Mayport – and Thomas Hudner are the first destroyers to become part of the task group. USS The Sullivans (DDG-68), which is currently deployed with the United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth Carrier Strike Group, will join the task group in January when it returns. USS Cole (DDG-67) and USS Gravely (DDG-107) will become part of Greyhound next year when Donald Cook begins its maintenance period. [...] The ships will be based out of Mayport and Norfolk, Va., and the task group is set for full operational capability by June 2022, according to McLane, who noted the ships will still have a post-deployment stand-down so sailors can see family after being out at sea.

Zitat:Naming Commission Still Undecided How To Handle Ships with Confederate Ties

A commission tasked with identifying military assets with names tied to the Confederacy has not yet visited two ships that could be renamed.

The Commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense that Commemorate the Confederate States of America or Any Person Who Served Voluntarily with the Confederate States of America, which goes by the shorthand “The Naming Commission,” spent the past summer visiting military bases, mostly Army installations, which are named after members of the Confederacy. [...] The two ships the commission could visit are USNS Maury (T-AGS-66) and USS Chancellorsville (CG-62). [...]

Maury, an oceanographic survey ship, is named after Matthew Fontaine Maury, who laid the foundation for modern oceanography and is considered to have written the first oceanographic textbook. He resigned from the U.S. Navy and joined the Confederate States Navy. Maury was delivered in 2016. Chancellorsville is a guided-missile cruiser named after the Battle of Chancellorsville, a 1863 Confederate victory under the command of Gen. Robert E. Lee and Lt. Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.

Zitat:Navy Issues Contracts in First Step Toward $8B to Rebuild Two Public Shipyards

The Navy issued the first contracts to companies that will compete for about $8 billion worth of military construction projects at shipyards in Hawaii and Washington state, two of its four public shipyards long overdue for modernization that can support the fleet’s growing repair and maintenance backlog.

This first step in the Navy’s $ 21 billion plan to modernize its four public shipyards involves an initial $2 million “minimum guarantee” to each of four companies to compete for task orders for projects at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, Hawaii, and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Wash., according to yesterday’s Defense Department contract award announcement. Some of the projects that are part of the contract are planned for Guam and “other areas in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.” [...]

Each of the five companies – Bechtel National Inc. of Reston, Va.; Dragados/Hawaiian Dredging/Orion JV of Honolulu, Hawaii; ECC Infrastructure LLC of Burlingame, Calif.; Kiewit-Alberici SIOP MACC AJV of Vancouver, Wash.; and TPC-NAN JV of Sylmar, Calif. – received firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple-award construction contracts for Naval Sea Systems Command’s Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program.

Zitat:Construction Begins On US Navy’s Fifth Expeditionary Sea Base

Construction started on the fifth Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB), the future USS Robert E. Simanek (ESB 7), at General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (GD-NASSCO) in San Diego during a small ceremony, Dec. 1. [...]

The ESB ship class is highly flexible and used across a broad range of military operations supporting multiple operational phases, similar to the Expeditionary Transfer Dock class. Acting as a mobile sea base, they are part of the critical access infrastructure that supports the deployment of forces and supplies to provide prepositioned equipment and sustainment with flexible distribution. [...] GD-NASSCO has delivered three other ESBs and is currently constructing the future USS John L. Canley (ESB 6).

Zitat:U.S. Navy Commissions Its 69th Arleigh Burke-Class Destroyer

The U.S. Navy commissioned its newest guided-missile destroyer, USS Daniel Inouye (DDG 118), Dec. 8, 2021 in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. DDG 118 is the third of nine Arleigh Burke-class, "Flight IIA: Technology Insertion" variant. "Technology Insertion" ships are fitted with elements from the future DDG 51 Flight III. [...] The commissioning ceremony coincided with 80th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor Remembrance commemoration events and caps a weeklong series of events celebrating the ship and its namesake. On December 7, 1941, Inouye was a 17-year-old senior at Honolulu’s McKinley High School, and rushed to a Red Cross aid station to help civilians and Sailors wounded in the attack.

USS Daniel Inouye, the first U.S. warship to bear its name, is nearly 510 feet in length and has a navigational draft of 33 feet. Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers are the backbone of the U.S. Navy’s surface fleet and critical to the future Navy. They are highly capable, multi-mission ships, and can conduct a variety of operations, from peacetime presence and crisis management, to sea control and power projection – all in support of the United States military strategy.

Zitat:Huntington Ingalls launches San Antonio-class Richard M. McCool Jr.

According to a press release published by Huntington Ingalls Industries on January 10, 2021, the firm announced the successful launch of amphibious transport dock Richard M. McCool Jr. (LPD 29). [...] Richard M. McCool Jr., the 13th LPD in the San Antonio class of amphibious assault force ships, will support U.S. amphibious assault, special operations, and expeditionary warfare missions through the first half of the 21st century. [...]

Ingalls Shipbuilding is building the entire San Antonio class of ships, the newest addition to the Navy’s 21st-century amphibious assault force. The 684-foot-long, 105-foot-wide ships that displace 25,000 tons are used to embark and land Marines, their equipment and supplies ashore via air cushion or conventional landing craft and amphibious assault vehicles, augmented by helicopters or vertical takeoff and landing aircraft such as the MV-22 Osprey.

Zitat:FY 23 Budget: Navy Wants to Shed 24 Ships for $3.6B in Savings Over Next Five Years

THE PENTAGON – The Navy wants to decommission 24 ships in the upcoming fiscal year to save $3.6 billion over the next five years, the service announced today.

As part of its Fiscal Year 2023 budget request, the Navy plans to decommission nine Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships, five Ticonderoga-class cruisers, two Los Angeles-class submarines, four Landing Dock Ships, two oilers and two Expeditionary Transfer Docks. [...] Explaining the LCS decommissionings, Navy deputy assistant secretary for budget Rear Adm. John Gumbleton cited the service’s decision to abandon the anti-submarine warfare mission package for the LCS class because the Constellation-class frigate will have that capability. [...]

The first Constellation-class frigate isn’t slated to deliver until 2026 and won’t reach initial operating capability until 2030. [...] Asked about decommissioning the nine LCS, Meredith Berger, who is currently performing the duties of the under secretary of the Navy, said doing so allows the Navy to “free ourselves of some really costly repairs and maintenance.”

Zitat:Zur Erinnerung: Es ist nicht das erste Mal, dass die US-Marine von Thales hergestellte Ortungsgeräte wählt. Der französische Konzern beliefert die US-Marine mit gehärteten Niederfrequenzsonaren des Typs ALFS [Airborne Low Frequency Sonar] für ihre MH-60R "Seahawk"-Hubschrauber.

Zitat:HII Lays Keel of Future Aircraft Carrier USS Enterprise

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – HII has laid the keel block of the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN-80) on Tuesday, USNI News has learned. The seventh U.S. warship named after the Revolutionary War sloop, Enterprise formally began fabrication at HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding yard in Virginia, Rear Adm. James Downey, the program executive officer for carriers, told USNI News on Tuesday. [...]

Enterprise and follow-on ship the future USS Doris Miller (CVN-81) were bought as part of a block-buy strategy estimated to be valued at $24 billion, as part of a 2019 deal with HII. Miller is expected to deliver to the fleet by 2032. [...] Newport News is currently working on the three future Fords — John F. Kennedy (CVN-79), Enterprise and Miller – as well as the mid-life overhaul of USS George Washington (CVN-73) and USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74). The hulk of the decommissioned aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN-65) is also at the yard.

Zitat:First ship of John Lewis-class replenishment oiler conducts acceptance trials

According to information published by the U.S. Navy on May 2, 2022, USNS John Lewis (T-AO 205), the Navy’s lead ship of its new class of fleet replenishment oilers, conducted Acceptance Trials. [...] The John Lewis-class T-AOs will be operated by Military Sealift Command to provide fuel and lubricating oil, and small quantities of fresh and frozen provisions, stores, and potable water to Navy ships at sea, and fuel for the embarked aircraft.

The oilers feature the capacity to carry barrels of oil, a significant dry cargo capacity, aviation capability and a speed of 20 knots. NASSCO designed the new vessels with double hulls to protect against oil spills and strengthened cargo and ballast tanks. [...] The class will have a length of 746 ft (227.4 m), a beam of 106 ft 5 in (32.4 m) and a draft of 33.5 ft (10.2 m). She will reach a top speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph).

Zitat:U.S. Pacific Fleet Establishes USV Division

Commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet (CNSP) established Unmanned Surface Vessel Division (USVDIV) One during a ceremony, May 13, which also included a change of command ceremony for Surface Development Squadron (SURFDEVRON) One. [...] “To meet the challenges of the 21st Century, we must continue to innovate the surface force. USVDIV One will accelerate the delivery of credible and reliable unmanned systems in conjunction with increasingly capable manned platforms into the fleet.” (Cmdr. Jeremiah Daley, Commander of USVDIV One)

USVDIV One will oversee medium and large unmanned surface vessels including the Sea Hunter and its sister vessel, the Sea Hawk. [...] Capt. Shea Thompson relieved Capt. Jeffrey Heames as commodore of SURFDEVRON One. “It’s been an honor and privilege to lead a team of surface warriors who are shaping the future of our force,” said Heames. [...] Heames was SURFDEVRON One’s second commodore. Previously, he commanded USS Preble (DDG 88) and served as the Commodore for Destroyer Squadron 23.

SURFDEVRON One is responsible for the maintenance, training, and manning oversight for medium and large USVs, Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyers, and the future USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002).

Zitat:Biden Administration Basing Two More Destroyers in Rota, Spain

The Biden administration plans to station two more forward-deployed Arleigh Burke-class destroyers in Rota, Spain, the White House announced Tuesday. [...]

It’s unclear which ships will head to Rota or when they will depart. The Office of the Secretary of Defense did not immediately return a request for comment on the destroyers.

The two additional Arleigh Burke-class ships would join the four destroyers already based at Naval Station Rota. For the last year, USS Ross (DDG-71), USS Roosevelt (DDG-80), USS Porter (DDG-78) and USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) have been the quartet of ballistic missile defense destroyers based at Naval Station Rota as part of Forward Deployed Naval Force-Europe (FDNF-E).