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



Feature - Kaiten I

Taking a break on bigger submarines, Jan Klarbæk (MrMox) had a lot of fun with a much smaller subject.... Enjoy this feature!
Feature




The Columbus Foundation

Today’s website is the The Columbus Foundation. Go back in time a tour Columbus’ sailing ships Nina and Pinta. Enjoy.
Website




This Day in U.S. Naval History

1776 - The Continental brig Lexington captures the British ship Edward.
1917 - The Navy takes control of all wireless radio stations in the United States.
1942 - The Navy accepts African Americans for general service.
1945 - Lt. j.g. Ann Purvis and Ensign Jane Kendeigh become the first Navy flight nurses to land on an active battlefield (Iwo Jima).
1945 - Carrier aircraft defeat the last Japanese Navy sortie at the Battle of East China Sea; Yamato, the world's largest battleship, and five other ships are sunk.
1979 - The first Trident submarine, USS Ohio (SSBN 726), is launched at Groton, Conn.


Lockheed Martin Team Wins Role on U.S. Navy Information Fusion Contract
Source: Lockheed Martin

SAN DIEGO --- Lockheed Martin is one of two companies selected by the U.S. Navy to compete for future information fusion task orders established by the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division. The indefinite-delivery-indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract entails research and development of information fusion -- the blending together of source information to produce situational awareness, threat assessment, and resource management.

Lockheed Martin's team will compete for an indefinite number of tasks which have a contract ceiling of up to $103.8M over a five-year time period.

"Our team continues to develop sophisticated algorithms that advance the 'state of the possible' in different fusion and tracking domains from sub-surface to space," said Jim Quinn, vice president of C4ISR Systems for Lockheed Martin's IS&GS-Defense. "We are proud to provide the U.S. Navy with capabilities that will continue to improve real-time situational awareness at every echelon"

Information fusion enables U.S. forces to fully exploit the vast amount of data received from a multitude of sources -- acoustic, infrared images, video, human intelligence, radio intercepts, maritime signals, and friend or foe technology -- at the same time. Advancing information fusion technology for the warfighter has been a major priority for Lockheed Martin. Using sophisticated data processing algorithms to improve data accuracy and remove ambiguity, Lockheed Martin has tackled some of the field's toughest problems including enabling tactical level multi-discipline intelligence sensors to "fuse" data from multiple sources and sensors into one complete, meaningful depiction of the actual threat.

Lockheed Martin's Team includes Overwatch Tactical Operations (an operating unit of Textron Systems) and SIM-Tech. Efforts to be performed include research and development, integration and testing activities. The customer is the U.S. Navy's Information Fusion Center established by the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, Calif. The contract runs through January 2014.


Fincantieri to Build USS Fort Worth, Next Ship for the US Navy
Source: Fincantieri

The consortium led by Lockheed Martin, of which Fincantieri is a member, has been awarded an order by the US Navy to build “USS Fort Worth”, named after the town in Texas. This further vessel in the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program will be built by Fincantieri Marine Group at the shipyard of Marinette Marine Corporation (Marinette, Wisconsin) which delivered the first ship in the program, the “USS Freedom”, in September 2008.

The order has been financed by the allocation by the US Congress of 1 billion dollars for two LCS ships which will be purchased by the US Navy in 2009.

The overall program provides for the construction of 55 LCS ships for the US Navy which will be built by the two competing consortia – led by Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics - within 2020. Within September 2010 the next three vessels will be allocated, two of which to the winning consortium.

LCS are medium sized ships which are 115 metres long and have a beam of 13 metres. Displacement at full load is 3,000 tonnes and the vessels can reach speeds of over 40 knots thanks to a combined diesel/turbogas propulsion system. The ships have a single platform with three combat modules (surface, mine-hunting, anti-submarine), a large flight deck and a hangar for two helicopters. The hull has been developed from the design drawn up by Fincantieri for the fast monohull the “Destriero” (the vessel which won the prestige award “The Blue Ribbon”, crossing the Atlantic at the exceptional average speed of 53 knots, reaching peaks of 70 knots).

LCS are cutting edge, highly innovative vessels which will be deployed in missions to counter asymmetric threats from potential terrorist attacks. In addition it will also be possible to deploy these ships in a wide range of tasks such as support operations, humanitarian missions, patrolling and surveillance.

Given their flexible nature many foreign Navies have expressed great interest in purchasing vessels of this type.

Fincantieri Marine Group was recently set up by Fincantieri in the USA in conjunction with Lockheed Martin Corporation as a minority shareholder, following the acquisition of four shipyards in the area of the Great Lakes: Marinette Marine, Bay Shipbuilding, Cleveland Shiprepair, Ace Marine.

Commenting on the order the Chief Executive Officer of Fincantieri, Giuseppe Bono, said: “This first order confirms the strategic importance of our decision to be present in the US market. In times such as these, with a serious world crisis in which all merchant shipbuilding is suffering from a drastic reduction in orders, it is crucial to have a more important position in the naval sector. Business diversification, one of our company’s strengths, is the best response to the current downturn in demand from ship owners.”


Photo of the Day



The Columbus Foundation’s Santa Clara or “Pinta”

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