Monday, November 10, 2025
Justin Katz was Inside the Navy’s associate editor until November 2020. He was previously a local news reporter in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. A New York native, he graduated from Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, with a bachelor’s degree in communication.
The upcoming request for proposals from the Navy's unmanned maritime systems office for the Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle will send a "clear signal" to industry about autonomy: intellectual property cannot come at the expense of the military's ability to "plug and play," according to a service official.
The Navy anticipates it will finish the modeling and simulation work associated with optimizing the layout of all four public shipyards by the end of fiscal year 2020, according to planning documents presented to contractors at a recent industry day.
The four additional Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicles programmed into the future years of the Navy's latest budget request are not guaranteed to be awarded to Boeing, which ostensibly won a competition last month to develop that vessel, according to the deputy program manager.
The Navy announced yesterday the destroyer Fitzgerald (DDG-62) successfully launched and moored pierside at Huntington Ingalls Industries' Pascagoula, MS, shipyard, where it has been undergoing repairs in a dry dock since January 2018.
The Navy earlier this month issued a request for information to identify contractors capable of providing ground-based training for the service's new training helicopter, dubbed TH-XX, according to a Federal Business Opportunities notice.
Huntington Ingalls Industries announced Friday it has received a $727 million advanced procurement contract modification from General Dynamics Electric Boat for Virginia-class Block V submarines.
The Defense Department has reprogrammed $216 million from the Navy’s operation and maintenance account to the National Defense Sealift Fund, according to an April 5 reprogramming document.
The Navy secretary today said he is "pretty confident" that the service's projected cost for the first next-generation frigate will be accurate, one day after a government watchdog criticized the Navy for underestimating the price on its most expensive shipbuilding program.
The Navy will host a forum for industry next month on what contractors could expect if the military's demand suddenly surged, according to the service's top civilian.
The Navy in February signed a $6.5 million contract with five companies to begin modeling and simulation efforts of Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, according to a Navy spokesman.
Lt. Gen. Eric Smith has been tapped to become the Marine Corps' deputy commandant for combat development and integration, according to an April 9 Defense Department statement.
The Navy will send Congress a legislative proposal to allow for a fifth assistant secretary position, according to the service's top civilian.
The Navy's cost estimate for the Columbia-class submarine is “not reliable,” and an independent assessment of the procurement price may not be ready in time to inform the fiscal year 2021 budget request, according to a new government watchdog report.
The Navy has expanded its cruise missile strategy to include “all non-nuclear offensive strike missiles” at around the same time it has completed an analysis of alternatives that will inform the service's next generation of strike capabilities.
The Navy expects its analysis of alternatives for a sixth-generation fighter aircraft to wrap up this spring, and a report will follow in the summer, according to the service's top air warfare requirements officer.
If Turkey were removed from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter supply chain, the program office expects there would be a slowdown of parts to the three production lines within three months time, resulting in between 50 and 75 aircraft being delivered late over a two-year period.
The Navy today announced it has stood up the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Plan program office, internally called PMS 555, and that office will be responsible for executing the service's $21 billion recapitalization plan.
The Navy in August will begin retrofitting a new cabin-pressure altimeter on more than 1,000 F/A-18 Hornets and Super Hornets, one of several modifications intended to prevent physiological episodes in pilots.
The Navy is accelerating its research and development to counter commercially available unmanned aircraft systems, and is partnering with the Defense Digital Service to do it, according to a March 28 memo obtained by Inside Defense.
Ahead of sending Congress a report detailing the costs of recapitalizing the surge sealift fleet, a Navy official told lawmakers this week the service will consider accelerating procurement of used vessels in lieu of extending ships' service lives.