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



Full Build Review - USS Monssen/Livermore

Following his recent "In-box" style review of this kit on MSW, David J. Salvin (djandj) adds the icing to the cake with this "Full Build Review" feature.




Herley Lancaster Receives a $7.5 million Contract from the Republic of Korea Navy
Source: Herley Lancaster

LANCASTER, Pa. --- Herley Industries, Inc. announced today that the Republic of Korea ("ROK") Navy has awarded Herley Industries a follow-on contract valued at approximately $7.5 million for IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) shipboard Interrogators, transponders and ancillary equipment for installation on a series of patrol vessels. Herley's IFF system will interface with the ship's air search radar, surface search radar, and central fire control system, along with the ESM (Electronic Support Measure) equipment. Herley Lancaster will produce the equipment and will also provide the necessary on-site field engineering while performing the ship's radar integration and assisting in the cryptographic certification.

Richard F. Poirier, Herley CEO and President, commented, "We are very pleased to have received this follow-on contract from the ROK Navy during a recent visit to South Korea. This significant follow-on award demonstrates our customer's continued confidence in Herley products and support."

John A. Thonet, Chairman of Herley's Board of Directors congratulated Mr. Poirier and Howard Eckstein, Division President for Herley Lancaster, on the award, commenting, "Mr. Poirier and Mr. Eckstein were both in South Korea to receive this contract, having traveled to East Asia to meet with Herley's customers and key representatives to explore areas where Herley can further expand its presence in the international marketplace. A continued focus on foreign sales remains an important part of Herley's strategy to grow the Corporation organically."


Life-Cycle Costs of Selected Navy Ships
Source: Congressional Budget Office

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has analyzed the impact of operation and support (O&S) and other types of costs on the total life-cycle costs of four classes of Navy ships. The analysis—which aims to provide context for assessing the costs of the new littoral combat ship (LCS)—focuses on the following ship programs:

-- MCM-1 Avenger class mine countermeasures ships,
-- FFG-7 Oliver Hazard Perry class guided missile frigates,
-- DDG-51 Flight IIA Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers, and
-- CG-47 Ticonderoga class guided missile cruisers.

CBO chose those four classes because they have been in the fleet for decades, data for them are readily available, and they all conduct at least one mission that the LCS is also expected to perform. Using the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) definitions of cost categories, CBO calculated costs over the life of each type of ship in the following six categories:

-- Research and development,
-- Procurement,
-- Personnel,
-- Fuel,
-- Other operations and support, and
-- Disposal.

The resulting total life-cycle cost is smaller than the total ownership cost of a ship, which would also include indirect personnel costs (such as for recruiting, training, and medical support) and long-term infrastructure costs (for changes in bases, housing, and other infrastructure associated with a large-scale change in the size of the Navy). CBO does not have a reliable method to estimate those additional costs, however, so it limited its analysis to a ship’s life-cycle cost.

CBO’s analysis indicates that O&S costs—for personnel, fuel, and other items— make up 49 percent to 56 percent of the life-cycle costs of the four types of ships listed above (see Table 1). Personnel is the largest single element of O&S costs.

For a small vessel with a relatively large crew, such as the MCM-1 class mine countermeasures ship, personnel costs represent 38 percent of the ship’s life-cycle cost, compared with 29 percent for a CG-47 class cruiser, which is seven times bigger but has only four times as large a crew. Fuel costs account for a much smaller share of the life-cycle cost: 8 percent to 11 percent in the case of the frigate, destroyer, and cruiser. For the mine countermeasures ship, fuel costs make up only 1 percent of the life-cycle cost, largely because that ship travels at very slow speeds during mine-clearing operations.

Procurement costs account for most of the rest of those four ships’ life-cycle costs, ranging from 43 percent to 50 percent. Disposal costs for destroyers and cruisers have averaged a little less than $1 million per ship. In the case of FFG-7 frigates, the Navy has often sold retired ships or given them away to other countries. The Navy has not disposed of MCM-1 ships yet. But when it removed 12 MHC-51 coastal mine hunters, which are similar to the MCM-1s, from the fleet several years ago, it sold one and gave three to other nations. (The remaining eight are awaiting disposal.)




DGA Accepts First NH90 for the French Navy
Source: French Ministry of Defense

PARIS --- The Directorate-General of Armaments (DGA) on Friday, April 23, 2010 accepted the first NFH variant of the NH90 helicopter intended for the French Navy. It will shortly be handed over to the naval aviation command which will undertake operational test and evaluations, leading to its formal service introduction in late 2011.

DGA has ordered 27 NFHs, 27 in “support” version and 14 in “combat” version, which will all be delivered by 2021. The prime contractor is the NH Industries consortium (held by Eurocopter, 62.5%; AgustaWestland 32% and Stork Fokker 5.5%).

The NH90 program is a major European cooperative effort launched by France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, and extended in 2001 to Portugal and 2006 to Belgium.

It has been successful on the export market, as 14 countries have ordered 529 aircraft, 111 of them in the naval NFH version which has been selected by the Belgian, Dutch, French, Italian and Norwegian navies.

The NH90 NFH helicopter weighs about 10 metric tonnes, and was developed to replace European fleets of anti-submarine and anti-ship helicopters. It can also carry out other missions, such as maritime rescue, Combat Search And Rescue (CSAR), naval counter-terrorism and anti-piracy, minelaying, medical evacuation, and troop and logistic transport.

Its weight, size, automatically folding rotor blades and tail boom allow it to be embarked on light and heavy frigates (La Fayette, Horizon, FREMM, etc.) and on helicopter carriers (BPC class).

The NH90 NFH is the best-performing helicopter of its category. It is the first production helicopter fitted with fly-by-wire controls, and thanks to its manoeuvrability and agility it can fly missions by day and night, and by very adverse weather conditions. Its ergonomically-advanced glass cockpit is fitted with large, multifunction flat panel displays, while its composite carbon fibre airframe makes it lighter and less visible to radar. Furthermore, the NH90 offers a high degree of safety and survivability.

The aircraft intended for the French forces are produced at Eurocopter’s facility in Marignane, southern France.




Discoverer Enterprise - Drillship

Today’s website is Discoverer Enterprise - Drillship. Enjoy.


This Day in U.S. Naval History

1909 - Great White Fleet anchors in San Francisco.
1916 - First ship-to-shore radio telephone voice conversation from USS New Hampshire off Virginia Capes to SECNAV Josephus Daniels in Washington, DC.
1942 - CAPT Milton Miles arrives in Chungking, China, to begin building an intelligence and guerilla training organization, Naval Group China.
1945 - Naval landing force evacuates 500 Marshallese from Jaluit Atoll, Marshall Islands.


Photo of the Day



Transocean’s drill ship Discoverer Enterprise at sea.

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