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



Victory at Sea – Battle of the Komandorski Islands

Step back in time to 1943 when elements of the American and Japanese navies dueled in the frigid waters of the north Pacific. Battle of the Komandorski Islands.




Northrop Grumman Awarded Planning Contract for the Refueling and Complex Overhaul of USS Abraham Lincoln
Source: Northrop Grumman Corp.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. --- Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Navy initially valued at $80.1 million to accomplish planning work for the refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72).

If all options of the contract are exercised, the full potential value of the contract could reach $678.6 million.

The company's Shipbuilding sector is the prime contractor for the work, which includes planning, design, documentation, engineering, material procurement, shipboard inspections, fabrication and preliminary shipyard or support facility work.

"Lincoln's RCOH will be a large and complex project," said Jim Hughes,Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding's vice president of aircraft carrier overhaul and carrier fleet support. "Advance planning for a project of this size is critically important to the success of the overall effort. A group of experienced shipbuilders will partner with the Navy using lessons learned from the four previous RCOHs accomplished at our Newport News shipyard to ensure the successful completion of this project from the planning stages to redelivery of the ship."

Christened in 1988 and delivered to the Navy in 1989, USS Abraham Lincoln is the fifth Nimitz-class carrier built by Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, the nation's sole designer, builder and refueler of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. It will also be the fifth ship of the class to undergo this major life-cycle milestone. More than 1,000 employees will support the planning effort.


Australian Submarines 'Poor Value for Money'
Source: Australian Strategic Policy Institute

Australia's insistence on maintaining a strong defence industry means it pays vastly more than other nations for its equipment, a study has found.

Conducted in the United States by McKinsey consultants, the study raises further concerns about the Rudd government's plans to acquire 12 submarines to replace the trouble-plagued Collins class vessels.

The report ranked the US and Australia equal last out of 33 countries on a measure of defence equipment output versus expenditure. Brazil, Poland and Russia headed the table.

''In general, countries that make it a point to support their domestic defence industries have higher procurement costs than those that rely on imports,'' the report says. ''Countries that procure older equipment from the global market tend to have very capable fleets for less money.''

The new submarine fleet for Australia was proposed in a defence white paper last year.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), in a study last year, put a price tag of $9 billion on buying off-the-shelf European submarines, and $36 billion on an Australian design and build.

''My understanding is that [build or buy] is still an open question,'' Andrew Davies, one of the ASPI study's authors, has told The Age.

''The government has been quite supportive of the submarine as it's been described in the white paper in all of its public discussions, but they have also stressed that no decision has been made yet. ''

Defence Materiel Minister Greg Combet told a conference in January the choices were between an off-the-shelf submarine, a reworked Collins or one designed from the ground up. But Mr Combet said an Australian design-and-build could provide ''significant potential industrial and military capability opportunities because of its size and duration, among other things''.

In the white paper, the government declared it was ''committed to ensuring that certain strategic industry capabilities remain resident in Australia''.

Dr Davies said that, despite the submarines controversy, Australia was inexorably moving towards buy, rather than build.

He said that the thought of supporting a local defence industry was often more attractive than the reality, despite the lure of retaining technology and creating jobs. ''There was no thought of assembling the Joint Strike Fighter or Super Hornet here,'' Dr Davies said. ''I think that trend has been a very clear one over the last 60 years but is only going to accelerate.''




Gates to Recommend Vice Admiral to Head F-35 Program
Source: U.S Department of Defense

WASHINGTON --- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates will recommend that President Barack Obama nominate Navy Vice Adm. David J. Venlet, commander of Naval Air Systems Command, to oversee restructuring of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program, a Defense Department official told a congressional panel today.

Ashton B. Carter, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, announced Gates’ choice of Venlet as he described a five-point restructuring plan for the F-35 program to the House Armed Services Committee.

Gates announced last month that he would elevate the program’s oversight to the three-star level to reflect the importance of the program to the future of military aviation.

The F-35 is the first aircraft to be developed to meet the needs of three services – the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps – and U.S. allies with variants being developed simultaneously by prime contractor Lockheed Martin. The F-35 is to replace the current F-15s, F-16s and F-18s, resulting in cost-savings and economies of scale not possible with maintaining separate aircraft.

Carter underscored the need to get the Joint Strike Fighter on track in light of delays and cost overruns.

“The Joint Strike Fighter is our largest, most critically important program,” he said. “It’s important to the three services and international partners to know if restructuring has placed us on a realistic and stable path.”

The department initially ordered 2,443 of the jets, and eight foreign militaries purchased an additional 730, Carter said. But cost estimates have risen from $50 million per aircraft when the program was introduced in 2001, to about $95 million, he said.
Gates added $450 million to improve the program, but a study by Carter’s office that began in November and was completed in January showed that the production line at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth, Texas, plant still was taking too long and delaying flight testing by at least two years.

“It became clear in November of last year that [the Joint Strike Fighter] would breach Nunn-McCurdy,” Carter said, referring to a 1982 law that calls for termination of weapons programs when costs grow by more than 25 percent above original estimates. “This indicated to the department that we needed to take a more forceful management stance,” he said.

As part of the restructuring plan, the department will reduce delays in the development and test schedule from 30 to 13 months by purchasing additional aircraft to add to testing, borrowing three operational test aircraft, and adding another software integration line, Carter said.

Also, the department will withhold [$614] million from the contract “since it is not reasonable for the taxpayer to bear the full burden,” he said.

Additionally, the department will reduce the concurrency of the development of the three variants, and will accept independent cost estimates as a basis for the program, Carter said.

“We believe this restructuring puts the [program] on a realistic path toward performance,” he said.

J. Michael Gilmore, the department’s director of operational test and evaluation, testified with Carter and told the committee he is concerned that the production stay on track to allow for adequate joint testing.

“My primary concern is that it be ready for joint testing to begin in 2015,” he said, with a completion date in April 2016.

“It is less costly to discover problems early with a robust developmental test program,” Gilmore said. The restructuring plan would ensure that adequate testing occurs, he added.

Despite the delays and cost overruns, Carter said, “no fundamental technical problems have surfaced, nor have the capabilities of the aircraft changed.”




U. S. S. Salt Lake City CA25

Today’s website is U. S. S. Salt Lake City CA25. Enjoy.

This Day in U.S. Naval History

1942 - Adm. Ernest King becomes both Chief of Naval Operations and Commander, U.S. Fleet.
1943 - The Battle of Komandorski Islands prevents Japanese reinforcements from reaching Attu.
1966 - Operation Jackstay is the Navy's first amphibious assault in Vietnam's inland waters.
1968 - Operation Bold Dragon III begins in the Mekong Delta.


Photo of the Day



The USS Salt Lake City in her Measure 32/14d war paint in 1944.

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