Thursday, April 25, 2024
Lee Hudson was Inside the Navy's managing editor until June 2018. She has covered Navy and Marine Corps issues since 2011, reporting at the Pentagon, Capitol Hill, aboard ships and military facilities around the U.S. Previously she worked as a staff reporter at The Daily Review in Morgan City, LA, covering local government and crime. Lee graduated with a B.A. in Mass Communication and Marketing from Loyola University New Orleans.
With the delivery of the Navy's 30-year shipbuilding plan to Congress "imminent," the service is also preparing a new force-structure assessment that will include the ship requirement number for the fleet, according to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson.
The Marines need $158.9 million to base the F-35C carrier-variant on the West Coast at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, CA, according to a service official and the unfunded requirements list the service recently sent Congress.
The Marine Corps does not have any near-term plans to upgrade its humvee fleet but, if needed, the service has developed four concept designs that can be used to purchase kits within one year, according to service officials.
Once a decision is made this month on the Government Accountability Office's bid protest surrounding the Marine Corps' next-generation amphibious vehicle competition, it will be a few weeks until information is made public because the decision is covered by a protective order, Inside Defense has learned.
Highlights from the front page of this week's Inside the Navy
The Navy is laying out $5.1 billion in unfunded priorities that were not included its fiscal year budget request, and expects to officially send the list to Congress "soon," Inside the Navy has learned.
Navy leaders, who this summer plan to seek permission to formally launch their top-priority Ohio Replacement submarine program, do not yet have a plan for how to finance both it as well as the service's conventional fleet modernization needs -- a decision with enormous budgetary consequences.
The Navy has identified the F/A-18E/F program as a candidate for additional funding in fiscal year 2017 in the event Congress were to increase the amount of money available for defense, resources the service would use to buy an additional 12 aircraft as a hedge to keep the Boeing production line open in the event planned foreign F-18 orders do not materialize, according to a senior leader.
An influential senator who sits on both the defense authorization and appropriations committees wants to expand the National Sea-Based Deterrence Fund to include the Pentagon's entire nuclear enterprise.
The Navy will host an industry day for the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Arresting Gear production program for the third Ford-class aircraft carrier at the end of March in New Jersey, according to a Federal Business Opportunities notice.
The Navy's top acquisition official told lawmakers last week that the service's new cruiser modernization plan is driven by dollars and not strategy.
Marine Corps unfunded priorities, future training and testing against anti-ship cruise missiles highlight the front page of this week's Inside the Navy.
The Marine Corps has sent Congress an unfunded priorities list for fiscal year 2017 totaling $2.7 billion, the bulk of which would go toward aviation procurement including more Joint Strike Fighters, according to a document obtained by Inside the Navy.
The Navy is initiating a study of the effect downselecting to one Littoral Combat Ship contractor will have on the shipbuilding industrial base and the LCS program itself, top service officials have told Congress.
The Defense Department must begin a study on converting the Aegis Ashore test facility in Hawaii into an operational site to defend the homeland, according to the U.S. Pacific Command chief.
The Marine Corps ground procurement account in the fiscal year 2017 budget request took a major hit, but the service maintains the reduction in funding does not adversely impact its programs, according to a service spokesman.
The Navy and Marine Corps have 11 new-start efforts outlined in the fiscal year 2017 budget request, with seven of the those programs related to the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, according to justification documents submitted with the budget request.
After discovering the MQ-8 Fire Scout's landing system is susceptible to failures the Navy is looking for new technologies to augment the existing approach, according to a service official.
Delivery of the Navy's multibillion-dollar Ford-class aircraft carrier lead ship may be delayed by up to three months, according to the shipbuilder and fiscal year 2017 budget justification documents.
The Navy intends to release a draft request for proposals within the next few months for the highly anticipated unmanned airborne tanker operating from an aircraft carrier, according to a service official.