US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Apr 9, 2019
Feb 28, 2019
while now
GAO Says Columbia Submarine Risks Running Over Budget Due to Immature Technology
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related is
Navy’s $128 Billion Nuclear Submarine Project Faces Audit
  • Inspector general to audit Columbia class propulsion, steering
  • Audit likely to finish as Congress mulls money for first sub
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The Pentagon’s inspector general plans to audit how well the Navy is overseeing development of the propulsion and steering system for its new $128 billion Columbia class of nuclear-armed submarines.

An audit this early in the Navy’s top-priority program -- at least 17 months before construction is scheduled to start on the first of 12 vessels -- signals concern about the potential risks in technology for the sub, which is still mostly in its design phase.

The review that’s likely to begin by June will “determine whether the Navy is managing the development” of the system to “ensure that it meets performance requirements without cost increases or schedule overruns,” the watchdog office said in its fiscal 2019 audit plan.

“There is a suggestion in this statement that the stern section may present some risk of cost growth or schedule delay,” Ronald O’Rourke, naval systems analyst for the Congressional Research Service, said in an email. Until now, he said, concern about cost and delay “has focused on things other than the stern section.”

The Navy disclosed last year, for example, that Electric Boat identified weld defects in missile tubes from one of three tube suppliers.

The review concerns the propulsor, which drives a submarine through the water, and the coordinated stern, which allows it to maneuver. The submarines are being built by
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’s Electric Boat division.

“We look forward to working with the DoD IG on any such effort,” said William Couch, a spokesman for the Naval Sea Systems Command. The audit is likely to be complete next year as Congress considers the fiscal 2021 defense budget. The Navy is expected to seek an increase in funds to start construction of the first vessel in October 2020.
 
Saturday at 12:39 PM
Apr 9, 2019
related is
Navy’s $128 Billion Nuclear Submarine Project Faces Audit



    • Inspector general to audit Columbia class propulsion, steering
    • Audit likely to finish as Congress mulls money for first sub
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anyway
GDEB gets $269m for US, UK SSBN missile tube work
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The US Naval Sea Systems Command has awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat (GDEB) a $269.3 million contract for work on missile tubes for the ballistic missile submarines of the US and UK.

The contract will see GDEB manufacture 42 missile tubes and missile tube outfitting material for the US Navy’s Columbia-class fleet and the Royal Navy’s Dreadnought-class SSBNs.

Most of the work will be performed at GDEB’s Quonset Point facility and is expected to be completed by May 2028.

The missile tubes are part of a joint US-UK Common Missile Compartment program which started in December 2008.

The program faced some problems in 2018 after
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was identified on missile tube systems manufactured by subcontractor BWX Technologies. The anticipated start of construction on the future USS Columbia in fiscal year 2021 was not affected by the issue, according to the US Navy.

The Royal Navy has already held a
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for the future HMS Dreadnought, starting construction of what will eventually be home to the control panels and switchboards serving the nuclear reactor.

The US Navy plans to build 12 units in the class to replace the current Ohio-class SSBNs while the four planned Dreadnought-class submarines will replace the Vanguard-class boats in Royal Navy service.
 
kinda addition to what I posted in the F-15 Thread 57 minutes ago
anyway
Boeing prepares St. Louis plant for likely Air Force F-15 orders
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:
The Air Force Hasn't Bought an F-15 in 15 Years. Boeing Is Preparing Just in Case
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It's been 15 years since Boeing's north St. Louis County plant churned out an
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fighter plane for the
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.

Orders from Singapore, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia have since sustained a manufacturing line that has built more than 1,500 of the fighters over nearly five decades. Boeing held production artificially low in an effort to keep the line running, adding on new orders when it could.

Now, the fighter's original customer has a renewed interest, and Boeing isn't wasting a moment to ready its F-15 production line for a fresh round of orders.

"The biggest ask from our customer, the Air Force, is rapid field deployment," said Prat Kumar, a Boeing vice president and program manager of F-15 programs. "Unless we kind of invest ahead of the opportunity, we won't be in a position to respond to that. As you can see we are putting an effort into getting ready."

As the U.S. military continues its move toward stealth fighters, namely Lockheed Martin's F-35, the days of the F-15, a fighter jet first developed in the early 1970s, seemed limited. Now, it may have a new lease on life with a surprise $7.8 billion budget request from the Air Force that included eight F-15s next year and 72 in the four years after that.

Even though a budget containing a fresh order of F-15s tricked out with modern defense, radar and operating systems has yet to make it through Congress, Boeing is readying itself and a production line that employs some 1,100 people.

On Tuesday, engineers and manufacturing experts huddled in a conference room off of the F-15 assembly floor rearranging models of the production line in an effort to find the most efficient way to put the fighter together. As a huge 2009 F-15 order from Saudi Arabia wraps up in the coming months, 36 more F-15s will move through the St. Louis assembly line en route to the Arab Gulf nation of Qatar, part of a $6.2 billion 2017 order that Boeing has already started.

Soon, the production floor will have to share space with models of the Air Force's new T-X training jet, the $9.2 billion contract Boeing won in late September. Already, it's building roughly one F-15 a month, but Boeing officials say the line can be upped to produce two to three of the planes a month with minimal modifications.

"With all the improvements we've done to the F-15 over the years, there's more interest in the F-15," said Andy Stark, manager of F-15 assembly. "We'd rather get ahead of the need versus waiting for the need to happen. So we're doing these studies so that way when the need occurs we've already got the business case and we're ready to pull the trigger."

Generations of workers have helped assemble the F-15 fighters over the years. Some workers said they've been building the planes for nearly 40 years, with employees working on the plane -- albeit one the company continuously modernizes -- that their grandfathers did.

"It's really a piece of the St. Louis heart," Stark said.

Improvements to the manufacturing process that help keep costs down and improve reliability often come from the mechanics on the line, he said. Several are patent holders. One, Bridgeton resident Alan Fiquette, 57, has worked on the F-15 for over 30 years and holds a patent for a drill tool he developed.

"I build hot rods at home, so this is like the ultimate hot rod," he said Tuesday. "It's a little more expensive."

Congressional battle looms

Though not stealthy like the newer
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, Boeing touts the affordability of the F-15 and new upgrades in its defense and electronic warfare systems. The new model, which Boeing is branding as the F-15EX, is also 50 percent cheaper per flight hour to operate, Kumar, the F-15 executive said.

Many of the upgrades to the jet have already been made, with what Boeing says is $5 billion worth of new investment made over the years by foreign customers.

"The good news is this is a continuous line, so if the budget goes through, we would be in a position to take a couple of jets on the existing line and convert them over for the U.S. Air Force next year," Kumar said. "As far as fighter programs go, that's lightning speed."

But Boeing's win could come at the expense of its competitor, Lockheed Martin, which makes the stealthy F-35 that is supposed to become the main fighter for the Air Force. In the budget request submitted to Congress last month, the Air Force cut its F-35 request to 48 from 54 from fiscal year 2021 through 2023, Bloomberg reported.

That's despite reports suggesting the Air Force did not initially request the F-15s in its budget but was pressured to include them by the secretary of defense's office.

"You say all sorts of things when you've been taken hostage," Richard Aboulafia, a longtime military aircraft analyst for the Teal Group, said of the Air Force's new F-15 orders. "I'm hard-pressed to meet anyone who wore Air Force blue who is not now in government who really likes this idea."

Meanwhile, the Pentagon's inspector general's office is expected to release a report soon on whether Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan improperly promoted the products of his old employer: Boeing. He had a 30-year career at Boeing and assumed the helm at the Defense Department following Jim Mattis' resignation in December. Some reports have indicated Shanahan disparaged the F-35 program, though he is far from the first official to criticize that program's cost and delays.

"I'm not expecting them to find any smoking gun there," Aboulafia said. "That is not going to be what kills this. It's going to be the F-35 caucus."

Even before the Air Force detailed its request, five senators from states where the F-35 is produced, including longtime member of GOP Senate leadership Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, sent a letter to President Donald Trump and Shanahan warning not to fund the F-15 at the expense of the F-35.

Thus far, Missouri and St. Louis' congressional delegation have been relatively quiet about the F-15 proposal. A spokesman for Rep. William Lacy Clay, a Democrat who represents the area where Boeing's plant is, said the congressman is supportive.

Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican who sits on the Appropriations Committee, called the F-15 program "critical" to the country's defense.

"With the aging F-15 C/D fleet in need of a replacement, the F-15EX is the most cost-effective alternative to meet readiness targets, address rapidly evolving threats, and avoid capability gaps that no other tactical fighter in the inventory can fill," Blunt said in a statement.

Aboulafia suspects some in the Pentagon like the idea of propping up the military aviation industrial base in St. Louis as a counterweight to Lockheed Martin. He expects the Air Force to move forward with at least some F-15 purchases, maybe about 30 of the jets over a couple of budget cycles. It may depend on whether more money can be found to buy more F-35s than are in the budget now, placating that program's supporters.

"My impression is this lasts as long as the Trump administration does, which might be a while," he said. "Might be a couple fiscal years. It might be six more fiscal years... They appear to be making this a high priority, and even though Congress controls the purse strings, the administration can be pretty forceful when it comes to getting its priorities across."

Even if the plan falters in Congress, the F-15 line in St. Louis is secure through the end of 2022 while the Qatar order is filled. Unlike the past, Kumar said Boeing executives aren't worried about the program's imminent shutdown. Like before, foreign orders could always keep the manufacturing line running for another decade.

"The world looks to what the U.S. Air Force does," Kumar said. "The very fact that the Air Force has requested it in the budget has already fueled a significant amount of interest."

A group of South Korean military officials was in the plant Tuesday. The country has bought the jet in the past, but it doesn't have any open orders now.
 

Brumby

Major
Congressional battle looms
Unfortunately I feel the fate of the F-15EX will be decided by politics and not on merit. Clearly there is a case and a need to address capacity through additional F-15 purchase but it will come at the expense of an equivalent number of F-35 buy. There is no getting around this problem when money is tight.

There is a need to address aging F-15s and F-35s are not the appropriate solution as pushed by some supporters. For example, there are 2 active F-15 squadrons - the 44th and 67th based in Kadena, Japan. F-15s with their 1100 nm range is ideal as front line units in that theater.

upload_2019-4-23_17-3-4.png
 

gelgoog

Brigadier
Registered Member
That is precisely why Japan wanted to purchase the F-22.
Still the single F-35 engine has almost as much power as the two F-15 engines.
Makes one think if with a proper fuselage it wouldn't have much more range.
 
Feb 9, 2019
OK, Roper: Hypersonics Capability Less Than Two Years Away
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2/7/2019
somehow related is
Lockheed Martin Working $2.5B in Hypersonic Weapon Contracts
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Lockheed Martin is working through $2.5 billion in military contracts to develop a variety of hypersonic weapons in a bid to catch up with developments from China and Russia, company chief executive Marillyn Hewson said during a Tuesday earnings calls.

The Pentagon has made moves to accelerate the development of hypersonic weapons in its latest guiding documents, and that has driven investment from the company, Hewson said.

“We have been investing in hypersonics for many, many years, and as a result of that, that’s why we’re leading in this trend of being able to bring capabilities forward. In terms in how the market is developing, it’s basically threat-driven, if you look at what was in the National Defense Strategy, Missile Defense Review,” she said.
“It’s clearly a need for us to not only address hypersonics but also counter-hypersonics as well.”

In the Tuesday morning call, Hewson highlighted the late-February contract with the Navy for development and testing of the service’s conventional prompt global strike concept that would notionally create a hypersonic glide vehicle that would ride a ballistic missile launched from a submarine down to its target.

“[We] received an order for over $800 million from the U.S. Navy to design, develop, build and integrate technologies to support the flight test demonstration of a new hypersonic boost-glide weapons system. Lockheed Martin was awarded the Navy’s conventional prompt strike weapons contract and will provide flight articles and support equipment for the systems flight test,” Hewson said.
“This order follows three previous awards the corporation has received in hypersonic weapons: the tactical boost-glide contract; the hypersonic conservational strike, or HACKSAW program; and the air-launched rapid response, or Arrow, program. These wins are being performed in three of our four business areas with the cumulative value of our hypersonic strike weapon award now exceeding $2.5 billion across the corporation.”

The February award by the Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) for the Intermediate Range Conventional Strike Weapon System is an early step in developing a hypersonic glide weapon body for all the services by 2025.

“We will explore several options to deploy this capability on various platforms and are working with the Army and Navy on deployment opportunities,” an SSP spokesperson told USNI News last month.

The Pentagon has stressed its lag against both the Chinese and Russians in hypersonics, and the Army, Air Force and Navy have pushed out to acquire the weapons.

The military has had some early successes in testing the concepts. In October 2017, the Navy conducted a successful $160-million test of a hypersonic glide vehicle that flew from Hawaii to the Marshall Islands – about 2,000 nautical miles.
 
noted
Military funds being used for border wall in Arizona, New Mexico
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The U.S. government is moving forward with plans to
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in Arizona and New Mexico.

The Department of Homeland Security issued waivers to environmental laws last week to build and replace 46 miles (74 kilometers) of barriers near Columbus, New Mexico, and 11 miles (17 kilometers) near Yuma, Arizona.

The barriers are being
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following President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration in February.

Last month, the federal government announced it had awarded contracts of nearly $1 billion to replace short barriers with tall fences in those areas.

The southern border has seen an influx of immigrants over the last several months and officials say they expect to make up to a million arrests by the end of the year.
 
Dec 31, 2018
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7. Navy mulls frigate choices


sounds like I'll make it or break with the FFG(X) cancellation prediction Oct 30, 2018
LOL!
and here comes
Report to Congress on U.S. Navy Frigate FFG(X) Program
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From the report
The FFG(X) programis a Navy program to build a class of 20 guided-missile frigates(FFGs). The Navy wants to procure the first FFG(X)in FY2020, the next 18 at a rate of two per year in FY2021-FY2029, and the 20thin FY2030. The Navy’s proposed FY2020 budget requests $1,281.2 million for the procurement of the first FFG(X). The Navy’s FY2020 budget submission shows that subsequent ships in the class are estimated by the Navy to cost roughly $900 million each in then-year dollars.

The Navy intends to build the FFG(X) to a modified version of an existing ship design—an approach called the parent-design approach. The parent design could be a U.S. ship design or a foreign ship design.At least five industry teams are reportedly competing for the FFG(X) program. Two of these teams are offering designs for the FFG(X) that are modified versions of the two Littoral Combat Ship (LCS)designs that the Navy has procured in prior years. The other three industry teams are offering designs for the FFG(X) that are based on other existing ship designs. One of these three other industry teams is proposing to build its design at one of the LCS shipyards. The Navy plans to announce the outcome of the FFG(X) competition in July 2020. The LCSprogram is covered in detail in another CRS report.

The FFG(X) program presents several potential oversight issues for Congress, including the following:

  • whether to approve, reject, or modify the Navy’s FY2020funding request for the program;whether the Navy has appropriately defined the cost, capabilities, and growth margin of the FFG(X);
  • the Navy’s intent to use a parent-design approach for the FFG(X) program rather than develop an entirely new (i.e., clean-sheet) design for the ship;
  • cost, schedule, and technical risk in the FFG(X) program;
  • whether any additional LCSs should be procured in FY2020 as a hedge against potential delays in the FFG(X) program;
  • the potential industrial-base impacts of the Navy’s plan to shift in FY2020 from procuring LCSs to procuring FFG(X)s;
  • whether to build FFG(X)s at a single shipyard, as the Navy’s baseline plan calls for, or at two or three shipyards;and
  • the potential impact of the FFG(X) program required numbers or capabilities of U.S. Navy cruisers and destroyers

Download the report
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.
 
Monday at 6:49 PM
Saturday at 12:39 PM
anyway
GDEB gets $269m for US, UK SSBN missile tube work
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now
Electric Boat 97% Done with Columbia Submarine’s Detail Design, Ahead of Construction Start Next Year
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General Dynamics’ Electric Boat shipyard is nearly done with the detail design of the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, the company CEO said today.

Phebe Novakovic said in the call on first quarter 2019 earnings that Electric Boat is 97-percent complete on the detail design and nearly 43-percent complete on construction design drawings.

“We will be at 83-percent complete at the start of construction, far in excess of historical design completion metrics for any class of warships,” she said.
“We have begun long-lead material construction on Columbia (SSBN-826) and will begin full construction of the first ship late next year.”

With the start of construction drawing nearer, she said the company is
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to support not only more work, but also work on larger modules and larger submarines.

“In response to the significant increase in demand from our Navy customer across all three of our shipyards, we continue to invest in each of our yards, with particular emphasis at Electric Boat to prepare for the higher production associated with Block V of the Virginia program and the new Columbia ballistic-missile submarine,” Novakovic said.
“As you may recall, both Columbia and the Block V represent a significant increase in size and performance, requiring additional manufacturing capacity and different logistics infrastructure to transport the larger modules from Quonset Point to the waterfront at Groton for final assembly and test.”

The Block V Virginia-class attack submarines will have an additional Virginia Payload Module section in the middle to give the subs more missile tubes, and the Columbia-class SSBN will be about two-and-a-half times the size of the Virginia SSN.

To support the larger submarines and the much greater amount of construction that will be happening at the yard at any given time beginning late next year, the company is investing capital expenditure (CapEx) money now. Novakovic said during the call that the company spent $243 million in CapEx in 2018 on its Marine Systems business – which includes Electric Boat; Bath Iron Works, which builds Arleigh Burke-class and Zumwalt-class destroyers; and NASSCO, which builds the Expeditionary Sea Base ships for the Navy.

“For 2019, we again expect the Marine segment to command the largest share of our capital budget, about half of our entire CapEx. Suffice it to say that we are poised to support our Navy customers as they seek to increase the size of their fleet,” she said.

Jason Aiken, the chief financial officer, said during the call that “capital expenditures of $181 million in the quarter were up about 75 percent from (the first quarter of 2018) as we invest in our shipyards to support the significant growth that is on the horizon. We still expect this year to be the peak at approximately 3 percent of revenues and returning to the 2-percent range thereafter.”
 
here's
Why the US Navy has 10 ships, 130 aircraft and 9,000 personnel in the Mediterranean
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Two deployed aircraft carriers, heading opposite directions, met up in the Mediterranean Sea to do some high-end ops and snap some selfies to commemorate the event.

The event happened after the carrier John C. Stennis strike group transited the Suez Canal, entering the Mediterranean, where the Abraham Lincoln strike group awaited.

The combined strike groups means that, right now, more than 130 U.S. aircraft, 10 ships and 9,000 sailors and Marines are now operating in close proximity in the eastern Mediterranean.

Only twice before in the past two decades have two U.S. aircraft carriers operated together in the Mediterranean Sea at the same time.

The last time was
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, when the carriers Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower crossed paths in June 2016 at the end and beginning of their respective cruises, operating together for a time.

Before that, you have to go back to 2003, when the Harry S. Truman and the Theodore Roosevelt both operated from the eastern Mediterranean flying combat sorties into Iraq during the opening days of Iraqi Freedom.

But this time, it’s the Russians who are most likely to pay attention to the Navy’s armada as tensions have risen in the adjacent Black Sea in recent months as the two Cold War adversaries have again become near-peer competitors.

“It’s a rare opportunity to train with two carrier strike groups together,” Vice Adm. Lisa M. Franchetti, commander of U.S. 6th Fleet, said in a April 22 statement as the Stennis arrived in the region.

“Dual carrier operations here in the Mediterranean showcase the inherent flexibility and scalability maritime forces provide to the joint force, while demonstrating our ironclad commitment to the stability and security of the region.”

The two strike groups began dual operations April 23, according to a statement from U.S. 6th Fleet in Naples.

The release said the pair of carriers will "complete high-end warfighting training" by working "multiple scenarios integrating the two air wings and surface ships with key allies and partners in the European theater."

Observing the operation kick off from the Lincoln, Adm. James G. Foggo III, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, said in an April 23 statement that “one carrier strike group provides tremendous operational flexibility and agility” while “two carrier strike groups operating simultaneously” with allied and partner navies “provides an unprecedented deterrent against unilateral aggression.”

On the Lincoln with Foggo was Jon M. Huntsman Jr., U.S. ambassador to Russia, who said that the carrier duo represented 200,000 combined "tons of international diplomacy.”

“Diplomatic communication and dialogue coupled with the strong defense these ships provide demonstrate to Russia that if it truly seeks better relations with the United States, it must cease its destabilizing activities around the world.”

The aircraft carriers are not only on scheduled deployments, but are also conducting homeport shifts, too. Both carriers have spent most of their respective service lives operating from U.S. West Coast bases.

The carrier Abraham Lincoln, which left Naval Station Norfolk on April 1, will eventually head to her new homeport of San Diego after a seven-year stay that included nearly four years in complex midlife overhaul. Lincoln is expected to arrive in SoCal later this calendar year.

For the carrier John C. Stennis, she deployed from Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton Oct. 15 and has been gradually heading east ever since. Stennis will ultimately end up in Norfolk in the next two months, where eventually it’s the next carrier slated for a mid-life service extension overhaul.

For Stennis, it’s also only the second time the ship has operated in the Mediterranean during her 23-year career.

Stennis last saw Norfolk on Feb. 26, 1998, when she headed west on her maiden deployment — and first homeport shift — heading ultimately for San Diego.

The ship passed through the Straits of Gibraltar 112 hours later — a 3,442 nautical mile high-speed run that averaged a speed of 30 knots.

Four days later, Stennis had passed through the Suez Canal and was heading to the Persian Gulf. Though the Navy doesn’t discuss ship’s schedules, this time she’ll probably stick around a little longer.
 
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