Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Defense acquisition czar John Young said yesterday he soon plans to grant approval to the Navy to move forward with a contract award for the Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV), a platform the Army and Navy plan to procure to transit troops and equipment quickly within a theater of operations.
The Navy has a "substantial amount" of additional analytical work to do before making a final decision on the future of its destroyer fleet, Pentagon acquisition czar John Young told reporters today.
In yet-to-be-cemented program plans, the Navy has scrapped intentions to buy aviation-capable amphibious LHA replacement ships for the Maritime Prepositioning Force (Future) in the next five years and hopes instead to procure assault-echelon variants of the ship -- a move that satisfies one Marine Corps requirement at the cost of another.
The Navy is conducting a force structure review that could change the number of ships the service needs in the 2020 time frame to maintain sea control and support the maritime strategy issued last year, the Navy's top programmer told Inside the Navy in an exclusive interview last week.
House and Senate conferees authorized two Littoral Combat Ships in the fiscal year 2009 defense authorization bill, while deciding to delay enforcing a cost cap on the nascent vessels to FY-10 or later, according to the conference report released late last night.
Lockheed Martin delivered the first Littoral Combat Ship to the Navy today in a ceremony at Marinette Marine shipyard in Wisconsin where the first of its kind vessel was constructed.
Advisers to presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama talked about intel last week, urging U.S. agencies to better coordinate and share information at home and abroad, Inside the Navy reports:
After successful builder's trials and an evaluation by the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) in recent weeks, the Navy is poised to accept the first Littoral Combat Ship next month, service shipbuilding officials said today.
As two Navy ships and a Coast Guard cutter steam toward the Black Sea with humanitarian relief supplies for Georgians, the service is still mulling whether or not sailors will go ashore to assist the war-torn country, the commodore who is heading the mission told InsideDefense.com today.
Contradicting what senior Navy shipbuilding officials told lawmakers last month, Navy Secretary Donald Winter and Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England notified lawmakers yesterday that the service wants to complete construction of the third DDG-1000 hull in its current budget request, which the service testified is not equipped to counter current threats.
As the Navy grapples with major shipbuilding decisions, Rear Adm. Chuck Goddard, the head of the service's program executive office for ships, was temporarily removed from his duties this morning pending a review by Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Patrick Walsh, according to Rear Adm. Frank Thorp, the Navy's top spokesman.
The Navy's acting acquisition czar, John Thackrah, is creating a new position in his office to oversee acquisition workforce programs.
A high-level meeting was held late yesterday to discuss the fate of what was once slated to be the Navy's prized next-generation surface combatant, which the service has recently started to distance itself from as it prepares its next long-term budget plan.
Lacking war supplemental funds for the remaining months of the fiscal year, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England issued a memorandum Tuesday outlining guidance for the possible issuance of furlough notices to military personnel.
The military must continue to develop and field advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance technology, a key "enabler" in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nation's top uniformed official said this morning.
The Navy should not abandon the DDG-1000 next-generation destroyer program in favor of buying additional DDG-51 destroyers, despite congressional pressure and rising costs, Pentagon acquisition czar John Young told reporters this afternoon.
The House Armed Services seapower subcommittee cut one of the two requested DDG-1000 vessels in the Navy's fiscal year 2009 budget request in its mark-up of the FY-09 defense authorization bill, leaving the sea service the option to build a single DDG-1000 or two DDG-51 guided-missile destroyers.
Lockheed Martin filed an official protest earlier today with the Government Accountability Office over the Navy's recent decision to award a competitor the contract for a new unmanned surveillance aircraft.
The Navy's shipbuilding plan is a "sure loser" at the current rate the sea service plans to procure new ships, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) told reporters today.
Northrop Grumman has won the $1.16 billion award for the Navy's unmanned surveillance aircraft, the Pentagon announced at 5 p.m. today.