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Naval Today said:

Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding division launched the U.S. Coast Guard National Security Cutter James (WMSL 754) on Saturday. James is the company’s fifth NSC and is expected to deliver in 2015.

“Our learning curve continues to improve in this program, and the hot production line certainly provides a foundation for this progress to continue,” said Jim French, Ingalls’ NSC program manager. “We are able to provide an affordable ship for our customer while providing a capable ship to the Coast Guard fleet. Our shipbuilders’ effective and efficient work ensures the men and women who will serve on this ship, a high-quality product that will be a valuable asset for our nation for many years to come.”

Ingalls’ launch process moves the ship on rail cars over to the company’s drydock. The dock is moved away from the pier and then flooded to float the ship. Tugs then guide the ship to its berthing area where it will complete construction.

“We have an outstanding shipbuilding team who worked tirelessly to make certain this translation process and launch were completed as proficiently as possible,” said NSC 5 Ship Program Manager Jim McKinney. “Now we look forward to completing the construction so we can take her to sea next year and deliver another outstanding NSC to the Coast Guard.”

The first three NSCs have been commissioned, and the 4th, USCGC Hamilton (WMSL 753) will undergo sea trials this summer and is expected to deliver later this year. Ingalls’ sixth NSC, Munro (WMSL 755), began construction late last year and will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2015. The seventh ship, Kimball (WMSL 756), is scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2018.

Legend-class NSCs are the flagships of the Coast Guard’s cutter fleet. Designed to replace the 378 foot Hamilton-class High-Endurance Cutters that entered service during the 1960s. The Legend class vessels are 418 feet long with a 54-foot beam and displace 4,500 tons with a full load. They have a top speed of 28 knots, a range of 12,000 miles, an endurance of 60 days and a crew of 110.

NSCs are capable of meeting all maritime security mission needs required of the High-Endurance Cutter. They include an aft launch and recovery area for two rigid hull inflatable boats and a flight deck to accommodate a range of manned and unmanned rotary wing aircraft. The Legend class is the largest and most technologically advanced class of cutter in the Coast Guard, with robust capabilities for maritime homeland security, law enforcement, marine safety, environmental protection and national defense missions. NSCs play an important role enhancing the Coast Guard’s operational readiness, capacity and effectiveness at a time when the demand for their services has never been greater.

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House Adds 5 Growlers, Amphib to Defense Budget

The House Armed Services Committee added funding to the 2015 defense budget for five EA-18G Growler aircraft, a new amphibious assault ship and the refueling of an eleventh aircraft carrier for the Navy.

The HASC’s full-committee mark-up of the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act adds $450 million to the legislation for production of five new Growler aircraft even though the Navy’s unfunded priorities list asked for as many as 22 new Growlers.

“The 22 aircrafts would enable us to increase five of our carrier air wing squadrons from five aircrafts, which is the current program of record to seven aircrafts and give us an additional capability. Now we are going to conduct a fleet battle experiment this summer off the East Coast with one of our carriers,” Vice Adm. Paul Grosklags, the Navy’s top uniformed acquisition official, told Congress within the last several months.
Grosklags added that the 22 additional Growlers are particularly needed because the existing EA-6B aircraft will all be retired by 2019.

As of February of this year, the Navy has 97 Growlers in the inventory. The formal program of record calls for 138 Growler aircraft, Lt. Rob Myers, Navy spokesman, added. Each Growler is said to cost $62 million, Boeing officials said.

Boeing is lobbying for more Growlers saying it needs to have at produce at least two Super Hornets or Growlers per month to keep its production line in St. Louis open.

“The domestic budget for FY15 (fiscal year) have no Super Hornets’ or Growlers so it’s very important to us for Congress to act on the request by the Navy for their unfunded requirements,” said Mike Gibbons, program manager for F/A-18 and EA-18G Growler aircraft.

Industry sources say the Growler is well suited to counter emerging air defense system threats due to its ability to both jam and detect enemy signals. Air defenses have become more mobile, digital and computerized, industry experts said, making them more difficult for stealthy aircraft to avert, they say.

However, some analysts such as Loren Thompson, a consultant for Lockheed Martin and Boeing, have said that fifth generation stealth fighters are equipped to respond to next-generation air defenses. He said the Growler could be more easily detectable and therefore alert potential enemies as to the presence of other aircraft.

The Congressional committee also added $800 million in new funds to procure a 12th LPD 17 amphibious dock landing ship. Senior Navy leaders, who have said there is a greater need for amphibs than there are available ships, have previously said the service would only procure 11 LPD 17s.

A group of retired Marine generals, including former Commandant Gen. James Conway and former CentCom Commander Sen. James Mattis, wrote a letter to Congress asking that more funding be allocated for amphibs. In particular, the letter requests funding for the 12th LPD 17 and asks that the effort form the basis of the Navy’s effort to procure a new amphib called LX®.

Navy officials have said that the new LX® amphibdesign could be a new design or a configuration of several existing ships such as the existing LSD 41/49 dock landing ship or LPD-17 San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock.

Overall, service leaders say they will come up short of the 33 amphibious warships which the Navy and Marine Corps deemed an acceptable number. The Navy currently has 29 amphibs.

Also echoing the need for more amphibs, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos said there is currently a gap in the Mediterranean because so many Marine Expeditionary Units and Amphibious Ready Groups are in the Central Command area of responsibility.

“There’s no question that we would like to have more amphibious ships. I’d like to have 50-plus amphibious ships,” Amos told lawmakers

The HASC mark-up also adds $483 million to the refueling and overall for the USS George Washington, an aircraft carrier whose continued service will keep the Navy’s carrier fleet at 11.

If the USS George Washington is retired and not refueled to serve the remaining 25 years of its service life – then the Navy’s carrier fleet will drop to 10. Along these lines, the HASC mark also added $298 million for reactor and power unit funding to support the USS George Washington’s mid-life refueling and overhaul, a process which can take up to four years to complete.

The HASC mark-up also decreased funding for the Navy’s new DDG 1000 destroyer by $54 million and decremented the Littoral Combat Ship by $450 million, reducing the planned purchase from three per year down to two.

The Committee also added $82 million for plussed-up Tomahawk missile production. It remains to be seen how the House Appropriations Committee and Senate Committees will address these issues — so these mark-ups, while influential and significant, have a long way to go before being finalized.

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Jura said:

On Presidential Helicopters:

Posted on InsideDefense.com: May 8, 2014

Sikorsky -- the sole bidder in the Navy's competition to build a new presidential helicopter fleet -- yesterday won a $1.2 billion development contract that could yield another $149 million in award fees but includes options for fewer production aircraft than the Pentagon predicted in 2012, according to Navy officials and government documents.

On May 7, the Navy awarded Sikorsky and partner Lockheed Martin a $42 million down payment to begin developing six aircraft as part of the Presidential Helicopter Replacement Program, dubbed VXX.

The Navy and Sikorsky agreed to a $1.2 billion target cost for the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the VXX program. In accordance with the terms of a May 2013 request for proposals, which set a pool of potential award fees equal to 12 percent of the negotiated target cost, the total target price to develop the new helicopter -- including the potential $149 million profit fees -- is $1.4 billion.

Should the effort to integrate specialized equipment into the commercially developed S-92 aircraft incur cost growth, the Navy and Sikorsky will evenly fund overages up to $1.4 billion. Any additional cost beyond that would be borne solely by Sikorsky. Conversely, should the program execute under the target cost, the government and contractor would split the difference.

"The target price, target profit and share rations are consistent with terms of the May 2013 solicitation," Kelly Burdick, a Navy spokeswoman, said of the executed contract.

The Pentagon's production plans to recapitalize HMX-1 -- the Marine Corps squadron that operates the 19-helicopter presidential fleet of VH-3D and VH-60N aircraft -- have changed slightly.

The new program of record calls for buying a total of 23 aircraft, two of which would remain test assets, according to a Navy statement. In 2012, when the Navy announced the VXX competition, it pledged to buy as many as 25, two of which would be used for testing (DefenseAlert, Nov. 27, 2013).

"They don't need that many aircraft," Navy Capt. Dean Peters, head of the presidential helicopters program, said of HMX-1's requirement for the two helicopters removed from the program. The earlier requirement for 25 aircraft -- or a fleet of 23 operational helicopters -- was in part a legacy of the VH-71 program, Peters told InsideDefense.com in a May 8 interview.

Subsequent analysis revealed that the two additional aircraft were linked to assumptions about sustaining the AugustaWestland aircraft, which was the basis of the VH-71; with Sikorsky's S-92, the Navy determined that only 21 operational aircraft are needed, Peters said.

"They need 16 operational aircraft at any one time," Peters said of the Marines that operate the presidential aircraft fleet. "The 21 will ensure that 16 aircraft are ready for tasking at any time."

In March 2009, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates canceled the VH-71 program after numerous schedule delays and cost estimates that ballooned from $6.5 billion to $13.5 billion. The Navy then conducted three years of market research and an extensive analysis of alternatives before launching the VXX competition in November 2012.

In March, the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary for systems engineering, Stephen Welby, reported to Congress that the new VXX program is well positioned for engineering and manufacturing development.

"The VXX program has effectively used the trade study process to establish a reasonable set of achievable requirements and reduced technical risk. This approach, along with the program's informed systems engineering, program planning, and source selection efforts, should result in an executable acquisition program," the March report states.

The Navy's five-year spending plan for fiscal year 2015 sets aside $3.1 billion for the program, including $795 million for the first year of production in FY-19.

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kwaigonegin said:

It cost $3 billion for couple dozen helos?!?! And 1.2 billion in development upgrade on an existing design? Whiskey tango foxtrot! Someone is laughing all the way to the bank!.. And I say this as someone very pro military as you guys know.

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

check out the price tag on the older version of the program the VH 71 tipped the scales at 13 billion

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