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



Annapolis Maritime Museum

Today’s website is the Annapolis Maritime Museum. Annapolis, like all other port towns, was long dependent upon waterborne transportation of passengers and goods. Nearly all necessities were shipped aboard boats of all types from small craft to heavily built coastal vessels. Enjoy.
Website




This Day in U.S. Naval History

1863 - Union gunboats pass Confederate batteries at Vicksburg.
1924 - Navy commences relief operations in Mississippi Valley floods, lasting until June 16.
1947 - Act of Congress gives Navy Nurse Corps members commissioned rank.
1959 - Helicopters from USS Edisto (AGB 2) begin rescue operations in Montevideo, Uruguay. By April 26, they had carried 277 flood victims to safety.


Russians, Ukrainians on German ship seized by Somali pirates
Source: en.rian.ru

Three Russians and two Ukrainians are among the crew of the German container vessel Hansa Stavanger captured by Somali pirates, the Sovfracht Maritime Bulletin reported on Monday.

According to Sovfracht, six Somali pirates in one boat carried out Sunday's hijacking, although there is most likely a pirate base ship nearby.

"The ship is carrying containers with Asian-made goods," the bulletin reported. "On board the Hansa Stavanger there are hundreds of containers worth tens of millions of dollars." It said this was the first hijacking of goods of this size, noting that the cargo could be easily unloaded and sent to shore.

Besides the Russian and Ukrainian crewmembers, there are 14 Filipinos on board the vessel.

Sovfracht reported that a warship from the European Union's Atalanta operation in the Gulf of Aden has set course for the hijacked vessel. There is no information on the condition of the crew or the cargo.

According to the UN, Somali pirates carried out at least 120 attacks on ships in 2008, resulting in combined ransom payouts of around $150 million.

Around 20 warships from the navies of at least 10 countries are involved in anti-piracy operations off Somalia. The East African country, ravaged by years of civil war, has no functioning government.


Contractors Reach Deal on Destroyer
Source: US Department of Defense

Two military contractors, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, agreed on Wednesday to a Pentagon deal that will clear the way for all three of the Navy’s multibillion-dollar stealth destroyers to be built at General Dynamics’ shipyard in Maine, Pentagon and industry officials said.

Northrop Grumman, which had expected to build one of the DDG-1000 destroyers at its shipyard in Mississippi, will contribute major components for each of the vessels. It will also receive contracts for two other destroyers as the Navy restarts production of an earlier model.
Stock analysts said the deal, pushed by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, appeared to be a winning proposition for both contractors.

“Mr. Gates delivered a gift to the shipbuilders,” said Loren B. Thompson, a military consultant and the chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute, a research group.
Military officials said the precise financial arrangements still needed to be worked out.

Pentagon officials had estimated that the first of the new destroyers, also known as the Zumwalt class, would cost $3.3 billion, with additional ships costing at least $2.5 billion each if the Navy had built the 10 that were originally planned.
But given Mr. Gates’s decision to limit the program to three ships, independent analysts said, various economies of scale would be lost, and the average cost could rise to $5 billion or more.

Still, in proposing a range of cuts in arms programs on Monday, Mr. Gates said he would build only one of the destroyers if General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman would not agree to have all three built at Bath Iron Works in Maine.
Mr. Gates said it would have been far too costly and inefficient to have both shipyards gear up to be the lead contractor.
Representative Gene Taylor, a Democrat from Mississippi and the chairman of a House armed services subcommittee, said the deal was good for Northrop Grumman because it ensured that the company was “aligned with where the Navy sees its future.”

Under the plan, Northrop Grumman will restart production of the DDG-51, also known as the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, at its Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., and build the first two ships. General Dynamics will build the third once it completes work on the DDG-1000s at the Bath Iron Works. Officials said it was likely that the companies would split any subsequent orders through some type of competitive bidding.

Military analysts have estimated that the DDG-51s could cost an average of $1.5 billion to $2 billion each, depending on how many are eventually built.

Navy officials had originally embraced the shift to the DDG-1000, in part because it would have new types of radars, designed by Raytheon, that allowed it to make precise scans in relatively cluttered areas near coastlines. That ability was designed to fit the Navy’s increasing emphasis on operating in shallower, coastal waters.
But as the cost estimates rose last year, Navy officials began backing away, saying they could no longer afford the ship.
Still, the DDG-1000 had substantial political support from Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Democrat from Massachusetts, where Raytheon is based, and other legislators from New England who were concerned about losing jobs at the Maine shipyard, which employs 5,600. The yard, which began building the first ship in February, expects to deliver it in 2013.

Analysts said that the Navy generally fared better than the Air Force and the Army in the Pentagon’s proposals.
Mr. Gates said the Navy would gradually slow the production of aircraft carriers, with the total dropping to 10, from 11, after 2040. Northrop Grumman, which builds the carriers, said in a note to employees that it believed that proposal “requires a closer look.”

Mr. Gates also said he would delay development of a new cruiser and amphibious ships.
But he endorsed the Navy’s goal of buying 55 Littoral Combat Ships, a high-speed coastal combat vessel that has experienced huge cost overruns. His proposals included money for expanding construction of the Virginia-class submarines to two each year, starting in fiscal 2011, from one now. And he said the Navy could start planning a new generation of ballistic missile submarines.


Photo of the Day



Amphibious assault vehicles from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit leave the amphibious dock landing ship USS Tortuga (LSD 46), not pictured, to conduct training at Gray Beach, Philippines during Balikatan 2009.

Gator