Friday, April 19, 2024
The Pentagon is appealing a $150 million cut in prior-year shipbuilding funds for the Navy's DDG-1000 program in the fiscal year 2010 House defense authorization bill, which the Defense Department argues would force the service to rebid the contracts and raise the cost of the three ships under contract.
Senate appropriators cut one Littoral Combat Ship from the Pentagon's request for three LCS vessels in its fiscal year 2010 budget, citing unrealistic cost estimates on the part of the Navy, according to a draft of the report accompanying the Senate version of the FY-10 defense appropriations bill.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead has tasked the Navy's capabilities and resources directorate to prepare a plan by next month on the lifecycle costs of the entire fleet, including the total ownership costs of each ship class in production.
Builder's trials for the first-of-its-kind General Dynamics-built variant of the Littoral Combat Ship are on hold until later this summer due to a leak in the ship's port gas turbine shaft seal, a company spokesman tells Inside the Navy.
"We are trying to come up with a plan to get them through the shortfall," Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) said at a breakfast with reporters in Washington. "We've got carriers that aren't going to have any airplanes."
Lawmakers "didn't have a clue" that the VH-71 Presidential Helicopter effort had escalated dramatically in cost before Defense Secretary Robert Gates halted the program earlier this year, Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA), chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, said this morning.
Eight Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee submitted a resolution late last month to order the Navy to provide a new 30-year shipbuilding plan, which the service declined to submit with the fiscal year 2010 budget request due to the ongoing Quadrennial Defense Review.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead told a House panel today that the Navy decided not to submit its annual 30-year shipbuilding report with the fiscal year 2010 budget request, opting to defer the plan until after the Defense Department completes the ongoing Quadrennial Defense Review.
The firing of the top military officer on the ground in Afghanistan will not change the mission of Marine forces in the central Asian country at this time, Lt. Gen. Dennis Hejlik, the commander of the II Marine Expeditionary Force, said this morning.
Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) and eight other senators sent a letter yesterday to Senate appropriators urging them to add $425 million for Navy ship maintenance and repair to the fiscal year 2009 defense supplemental bill.
The Navy is requesting $14.9 billion in its fiscal year 2010 budget to buy eight ships and $18.4 billion for aircraft procurement, but the service's 30-year ship and aviation plans will not be submitted to Congress due to the ongoing Quadrennial Defense Review, the Navy's budget chief told reporters this afternoon.
Pentagon budget officials said this afternoon that the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor could be a candidate to replace the canceled VH-71 presidential helicopter.
The Defense Department is slated to unveil its fiscal year 2010 budget request Thursday in a series of briefings, according to a Pentagon source.
Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway today defended the service's Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle program and told reporters that the V-22 tiltrotor will deploy to Afghanistan by the end of the year.
Ray Mabus, President Obama's nominee for Navy secretary, told lawmakers this morning that, if confirmed, he plans to review the department's acquisition work force.
Outgoing Pentagon acquisition czar John Young told reporters today that he supports the Navy's decision to build three DDG-1000 destroyers in Maine and re-start the DDG-51 destroyer line in Mississippi, but he noted that the DDG-1000 remains vital to the Navy's plans to build a future cruiser.
General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman have reached an agreement to have GD's Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine build three DDG-1000 vessels while Northrop's Ingalls yard in Mississippi re-starts production of DDG-51 guided-missile destroyers, a Navy spokesman told Inside the Navy this morning.
The Pentagon will recommend dramatic changes in the Navy's fiscal year 2010 budget, including the cancellation of the VH-71 presidential helicopter program and a proposal to build all three DDG-1000 destroyers at General Dynamics' Bath Irons Works shipyard in Maine, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced today at a press conference.
A ruptured fuel tank on an amphibious dock ship, the New Orleans (LPD-18), spewed 25,000 gallons of diesel fuel into the Strait of Hormuz after a collision with the attack submarine the Hartford (SSN-768), the Navy announced this morning.
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee today called for rebuilding the Navy's fleet, noting that the "right mix of vessels" is necessary to keep sea lanes open for global commerce.