Welcome to MSW’s Scuttlebutt! Here’s the news for the day.
On Display - Somewhere in the Pacific....
"Somewhere in the Pacific..." is Rui Matos (skipper) experiment on making a different kind of naval diorama. Enjoy this MOD.
On Display
Animated Video of Queen Elizabeth Class Aircarft Carrier and Joint Strike Fighter
Today’s website is Animated Video of Queen Elizabeth Class Aircarft Carrier and Joint Strike Fighter. Enjoy.
Website
This Day in U.S. Naval History
1898 - USS Oregon departs San Francisco for a 14,000-mile trip around South America to join the U.S. Squadron off Cuba.
1917 - The Navy Department authorizes enrollment of women in the Naval Reserve with ratings of yeoman, radio electrician or other essential ratings.
1942 - The Secretary of the Navy gives the Civil Engineering Corps command of the Seabees.
Aircraft Carrier Alliance Gives Green Light for Build Strategy to Deliver UK’s Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers and Announces More UK Contracts
Source: BVT Surface Fleet
The Alliance Management Board of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA) has approved a revision to the build strategy that will deliver the UK’s two Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers.
The ACA has adjusted its plans for the manufacture of the two 65,000 tonne ships in order to meet the MOD’s budget requirements, reduce risk and protect core capability in the main UK shipyards. This adjustment is in keeping with the outcome of the MOD’s Equipment Examination of late 2008 and the decision to re-schedule delivery of the two carriers.
The ACA has approved the following decisions under the developing build strategy:
--Lower Block 1 (the bow section) will be built by Babcock’s yards at Appledore and Rosyth;
--Lower Block 2 will be built by BVT Surface Fleet in Portsmouth;
--Lower Blocks 3 and 4 (the stern section) will be built by BVT on the Clyde;
--The sponsons (the overhanging upper hull structure) will be manufactured by Babcock Marine;
--and the two superstructure Islands will be built by BVT in Portsmouth.
Final assembly and integration of the two warships will be undertaken by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance partners at Rosyth.
The previous build strategy had planned for Lower Block 3 to be constructed at BAE Systems Submarine Solutions in Barrow, but existing and future workloads on submarine programmes have led to a lack of capacity to take on the additional carrier work. The team in Barrow will continue to provide engineering support to the build of Lower Block 3.
The ACA has also announced further shipbuilding orders worth up to £150M to UK shipyards. A&P Tyne on Tyneside and Cammell Laird on Merseyside have both been named as preferred bidders for the build of the large central Upper Blocks. This will secure further UK manufacturing jobs in addition to the £570M in equipment sub-contracts already placed with UK companies for the Queen Elizabeth class carriers.
Commenting on the revised build strategy, Geoff Searle, Programme Director for the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers, said:
“The Aircraft Carrier Alliance has developed a cost effective and low risk build strategy that I am confident will deliver the two carriers in line with the MOD’s requirements. It will also ensure that we retain the essential core skills in the UK maritime industry to deliver sovereign naval capability long into the future.
“I am delighted that we have also been able to announce that both the north-east and north-west regions, with their traditional shipbuilding heritage, will contribute to the build of these great ships”.
Tony Graham, MOD’s Head of Capital Ships, responsible for client oversight of the project, said:
“Alongside the developing build strategy, we are very pleased to announce additional shipbuilding work for the Queen Elizabeth Class carriers which further extends involvement across the UK. This provides greater certainty for our supplier base and keeps the project on a sure footing as we enter full scale manufacture.”
BACKGROUND NOTES:
The innovative Aircraft Carrier Alliance is a single integrated team formed from BVT Surface Fleet, Babcock, BAE Systems, Thales UK and the MOD (which acts as both partner and client.) It is responsible for delivering the Queen Elizabeth Class ships to time and cost.
Alliancing allows for the collaborative delivery of the aircraft carriers by bringing together all interested parties with a vested financial interest to make decisions to achieve what is best for the project, as well as providing the most effective way of managing risk and reward.
The contract to build the two new Aircraft Carriers for the Royal Navy - HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, was signed on 3rd July 2008. The in-service dates announced at the time of the Main Gate, 2014 and 2016, have been deferred by 1 to 2 years following MOD’s Equipment Examination.
The carriers will be the biggest and most powerful surface warships ever constructed for the UK and represent a step change in Joint Capability. They will enable the delivery of increased strategic effect and influence around the world, at a time and place of the UK’s choosing, and will be a key component of the improved expeditionary capabilities needed to confront the diverse range of threats in today’s security environment.
Second Fleet Ships Conduct Irregular Warfare Training
Source: U.S Navy
NORFOLK, Va. --- Second Fleet will conduct Fleet Irregular Warfare Training in the vicinity of the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) and in the Jacksonville Operating Areas March 9-16.
Ships participating in the training include the guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) and the guided-missile cruisers USS Anzio (CG 68) and USS Philippine Sea (CG 58).
Fleet Irregular Warfare Training is intended to better prepare individual unit ship commanding officers and their crews to operate in a complex, uncertain operating environment similar to the real-world environments experienced by units involved in counterpiracy and other irregular warfare support missions.
"This initial Fleet Irregular Warfare Training event is an important step for 2nd Fleet toward improving the quality and realism of training as we provide ready maritime forces for global assignment," said Commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet Vice Adm. Mel Williams Jr. "We will also continue to train and certify carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups/maritime expeditionary units for the high-end of military operations - major combat operations - but we will also ensure that individual units have the preparedness to operate alone in complex environments."
AUTEC, located in the vicinity of Andros Island, Bahamas, is a facility that supports the full spectrum of undersea warfare by providing accurate three-dimensional tracking, performance measurement and data collection resources for assessment of fleet training, tactical and material readiness.
Ships participating in the training will perform visit board and search procedures, anti-submarine warfare, counter-piracy, hostage scenarios and air defense exercises.
"With this training we're exposing ships to many different scenarios that they're likely to see in reality," said Capt. John Kersh, commander of Destroyer Squadron 24, which is the command element for the training exercise. "What makes this training unique is that we're doing multiple training scenarios all at once."
This training will test commanding officers and their Sailors in dealing with simultaneous irregular warfare settings ranging from counterpiracy to anti-submarine warfare.
"With piracy becoming a larger problem in the world today, it's necessary we are fully prepared to conduct counterpiracy operations wherever we are deployed," said Kersh.
"This is more difficult than just finding a base where pirates are located and destroying it, as pirates often pretend to be fishermen off the coast of Somalia; they're fisherman one minute and pirates the next, making it difficult to differentiate between the two. As a result, this presents us with a unique and difficult situation."
Another important aspect of this training is the communication between commanding officers and the various task forces with whom they will work for when deployed.
"By exposing these [commanding officers] to the stress that they'll see over there, they'll be more prepared and ready to execute when scenarios like the ones we're training for happen," said Kersh.
Navy Names Littoral Combat Ship USS Fort Worth
Source: U.S Navy
WASHINGTON --- Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter announced March 6 that the newest littoral combat ship (LCS) will be named USS Fort Worth.
The announcement continues the practice of naming the agile LCS vessels after American midsized cities, small towns and communities. For more than 150 years, the patriotic citizens of Fort Worth have supported the Navy and all of our men and women in uniform. Home to ranger outposts, training facilities, aviation depots, and defense manufacturing, Fort Worth has answered the call whenever our nation needed it.
Designated LCS-3, the future USS Fort Worth is designed to defeat littoral threats and provide access and dominance in coastal waters for missions such as mine warfare, anti-submarine warfare and surface warfare.
There are two different LCS hull forms -a semiplaning monohull and an aluminum trimaran- designed and built by two industry teams, respectively led by Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics. These seaframes will be outfitted with reconfigurable payloads, called mission packages, which can be changed out quickly. Mission packages are supported by special detachments that will deploy manned and unmanned vehicles and sensors.
USS Fort Worth will be 378 feet in length, have a waterline beam of 57 feet, displace approximately 3,000 tons, and will make speed in excess of 40 knots.
Photo of the Day
The Los Angeles class attack submarine USS Scranton (SSN 756) gets underway after a routine port visit to Souda Bay.
Gator
