Welcome to MSW’s Scuttlebutt! Here’s the news for the day.



Feature - Explanation of My Thoughts...

MSW crew member Dade Bell (Karybdis) shares with us all the new ship model kits previews at the Nuremberg Toy Show.
New Kits




Battleship Memorial Park

Today’s website is Battleship Memorial Park which is the home of the USS Alabama and the USS Drum. Enjoy.
Website




This Day in U.S. Naval History

1862 - Union gunboats destroy Confederate ships during a victory in the Battle of Elizabeth City.
1900 - The first naval governor of Guam, Commodore Seaton Schroder, is appointed.
1960 - USS Sargo (SSN 583) surfaces at the North Pole.


Russian Navy ships continue missions in far-flung seas.
Source: Russian Navy

The Russian antisubmarine vessel Admiral Vinogradov, under the command of Captain First Class Piotr Podkopailo, continues its patrol mission in the waters around the Horn of Africa. A few days ago, the ship escorted a convoy of five ships. According to Krasnaya Zvezda, a publication of the Russian Armed Forces, the Admiral Vinogradov escorted the Ocean Lane, flying the Liberian flag; the tanker Stault Confederation, flying the flag of the Cayman Islands; the tanker Maier Pheonix, flying the Singaporean flag; the Skalo, flying the Libyan flag; and the Stepan Dezhnev, under the Russian flag.

The first Russian ship to patrol the waters off the Somali coast was the frigate Neustrashimy of the Russian Baltic Fleet. The ship patrolled the waters in the Gulf of Eden for a long time, helping protect international cargo ships from the attacks of pirates. Despite the fact that the Neustrashimy has left the Gulf of Eden and transferred patrolling responsibility to the antisubmarine ship of the Russian Pacific Fleet Admiral Vinogradov, the commander of the Neustrashimy, Captain 2nd Class Alexei Apanovich, continues to receive telegrams and letters thanking him and his crew for a job done professionally and successfully.

The sailors of the Northern sea will now take up the mission. The heavy nuclear missile cruiser of the Russian Northern Fleet Piotr Velikiy has completed its visits of the Indian port of Marmagao. The ship sailed from the southern African coast through the Indian Ocean. All the details of the Russian-Indian military exercises Indra-2009 were clarified during the unofficial visit to the Indian port. Before entering the Indian port, the Piotr Velikiy conducted maneuvers with the Indian ship Deli. The maneuvers included drilling of interaction and communication.

Planned flights over the central part of the Mediterranean Sea (western part of the Crete island) from the deck of the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kyznetsov have also taken place. The sailors and pilots fully completed the set missions. The technical means and weapons systems of the ship are in good functioning order. The Admiral Kuznetsov continues its mission in distant seas.

Meanwhile, the guard missile cruiser of the Russian Black Sea Fleet Moskva successfully completed a visit at the Italian port of Messina, where it took part in a solemn ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the earthquake that devastated that Sicilian city in 1908. Russian sailors saved more than 2,400 lives in those events. The captain of the Moskva, Captain 1st Class Igor Smolyak, officers of the staff of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Mayor of Messina Giuseppe Budzanki, and the Commander of the autonomous military-naval command of the islands of Sicily Admiral Andrea Toscano, as well as the city’s elite, deposited wreaths at the foot of the monument to the victims of the earthquake.

After leaving the Messina Strait, the Moskva and the Italian cruiser Andrea Dorina conducted military-naval exercises that involved ship-based helicopters.


New Navy Ship’s Cost Overstated in News Reports, Official Says
Source: U.S Department of Defense

WASHINGTON --- The projected unit cost of the next-generation U.S. Navy destroyer is much lower than the figures being cited in some news reports, a senior Defense Department official said here yesterday.

The DDG-1000 is a high-tech, guided-missile destroyer that is envisioned to eventually replace the Arleigh Burke class of warships developed 30 years ago.

The Pentagon would pay between $2.2 to $2.5 billion for each new DDG-1000 ship after the regular production line is up and running, John J. Young Jr., undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics told reporters at the Pentagon.

Young said he disagrees with news reports that say DDG-1000 vessels would cost up to $7 billion per copy. “There’s no basis for any [cost] projection that this ship is going to cost 5 or 6 or 7 billion dollars,” Young said.

The cost of a first prototype, or lead, DDG-1000 ship is about $3.3 billion because the government pays for the initial drawings and production set-up, Young said. The unit cost of follow-on ships would decrease due to industrial economies of scale, he said.

Conversely, unit production costs can rise if the number of items to manufacture is reduced from the original schedule, Young explained.

The DDG-1000 series is designated the Zumwalt class, named after late Navy Adm. Elmo Zumwalt Jr. The new ships feature computer-aided design, modular construction, high-tech armaments and radar, as well as a unique, streamlined hull design.

Originally, 32 DDG-1000 vessels were to be built at shipyards in Maine and Mississippi. Recent production plans called for two ships to be built.

However, the DDG-1000 is on hold for now, as Pentagon and interagency officials re-examine the project, Young said.

“Aside from the warfighting analysis, we do need to do some producibility analysis, manufacturing analysis and cost analysis,” he said.

Some officials suggest that modifying Arleigh Burke class ships would be a less expensive way to create a new vessel, Young said. That approach, he said, wouldn’t produce as much cost savings as imagined, and would result in a vessel possessing undesirable mass without the capabilities of the DDG-1000.

“You cannot do that without significant changes in that ship,” Young said of proposals to rework Arleigh Burke ships to create a new vessel. “You will have to add cooling capacity; you will have to add electrical generating capacity,” as well as upgraded radar equipment.

And, the Arleigh Burke class destroyer “has already gained weight because it is 30 years into its service life and ships are designed with a certain amount of weight-carrying capacity,” he said.



$200-Plus Million Congressional Cut to E-2D Advanced Hawkeye Puts 350 U.S. Jobs At Risk Cut Will Impact Florida Jobs Across Entire State
Source: Northrop Grumman Corp.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. --- Calling a $200-plus million cut to production procurement for the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye a “high risk'' move that will put U.S. jobs and global security at risk, Northrop Grumman Corporation and its 280-member supplier team is calling on Congressional leaders to restore the funding.

The reduction in funding jeopardizes the building of production aircraft initially planned in fiscal years 2009 and 2010.

“We've just completed a very successful Operational Assessment with our two E-2D Advanced Hawkeye System Development & Demonstration (SD&D) aircraft and we are on schedule with our three pilot production aircraft. There is a great sense of urgency today to restore production procurement dollars into the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye budget-otherwise hundreds of U.S. jobs will be lost and taxpayers will not derive the benefit of economies of scale,'' said Tom Vice, sector vice president for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems sector. “We have the manufacturing capacity now to accommodate up to ten E-2D's a year, which certainly supports the Navy's plan to contract for 70 more aircraft. More importantly, these budget cuts may delay Initial Operating Capability beyond the Navy's current program of record.''

Vice said the SD&D program has been performing very well, is meeting all contract commitments, and is currently on track for Milestone C in Spring 2009. “We entered flight test in 2007 in accordance with program milestones established at Milestone B in 2003. In August 2007, we were granted, via an Acquisition Decision Memorandum, release of Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) Lot 1 Long Lead Procurement. We have been successfully managing this program and are achieving all technical and program milestones. I can't understand this draconian cut now to what is widely recognized as a 'model' major defense acquisition program.''

“We have major concerns about the jobs impact and here's why. Northrop Grumman and its 280 suppliers will make their final E-2C Hawkeye deliveries this year, as well as transfer our two SD&D aircraft to Patuxent River Naval Air Station. During this critical transition to LRIP, a reduction in the number of aircraft the Navy had planned to produce has dramatic consequences. This will increase the unit cost to the Navy by approximately 20 percent. It will mean a loss of 350 jobs across our supplier base in 38 U.S. states beginning in the first quarter of 2009. This loss will erode the highly skilled workforce, particularly in the state of Florida, that has been dedicated to this program for decades,'' said Program Manager Jim Culmo, vice president of Airborne Early Warning and Battle Management Command and Control Programs. “Getting these critical skills back once they are gone is going to be extremely challenging.''

The E-2D Advanced Hawkeye is the Navy's carrier-based Airborne Early Warning and Battle Management Command and Control system, providing Theater Air and Missile Defense. Utilizing the newly developed AN/APY-9 Mechanically and Electronically Scanned Array Radar and the Cooperative Engagement Capability system, the Advanced Hawkeye works in concert with surface combatants equipped with the Aegis combat system and F/A-18E/F aircraft to detect, track and defeat cruise missile threats at extended range, providing battle group commanders required reaction time.

“Without Advanced Hawkeye operating from the decks of our nation's aircraft carriers, our joint forces operating in all warfighting scenarios will be at serious risk,'' Vice said. “In today's environment, we need to reduce the risk to our troops, not add to it.''


Photo of the Day



USS LST-357 loading vehicles for the Normandy invasion, 1944

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