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



BAE Systems to Modernize Destroyers Under U.S. Navy Ship Repair Contract
Source: BAE Systems

NORFOLK, Va. --- BAE Systems, Inc., a leading U.S. non-nuclear ship repair, modernization, and conversion company, will modernize 11 Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) class guided missile destroyers under a contract with the U.S. Navy with a potential value of $365 million. This work, along with the recent acquisition of Atlantic Marine, reflects BAE Systems' efforts to support new-era requirements of customers for the readiness and sustainment of equipment and systems.

The company received the multi-ship, multi-option drydock contract to service ships home-ported or visiting the Norfolk area.

The company will start executing the contract in August when it begins planning, modernization, maintenance, and repair work on the flagship of the class, the USS Arleigh Burke. The contract consists of an initial one-year award plus four option years. If all of the options are exercised, the total value of the engagement could reach between $350 million and $500 million.

“This contract, coupled with those for CG 47-class and amphibious ships in Norfolk, San Diego, and Hawaii, reinforces BAE Systems’ robust, trusted partnership with the Navy,” said Bill Clifford, president of BAE Systems’ Ship Repair business. “We already will be well into the DDG modernization process on the USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53) in San Diego when the USS Arleigh Burke comes into Norfolk for the same work. This will allow us to leverage our experience in San Diego to provide an enhanced final product to the Navy,” Clifford said.

Having executed 21 Chief of Naval Operations availabilities on DDG 51-class ships since 2006, BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair has more than 1.5 million man-hours of experience in DDG maintenance and repair. The company has also made significant investments in facilities and process improvements.

BAE Systems Ship Repair is a leading non-nuclear ship repair, modernization, and conversion company, focusing on drydock and ship repair services for the U.S. Navy, other defense agencies, and commercial customers. It has major operations in Norfolk, San Diego, San Francisco, and Hawaii, and it recently added operations in Mayport and Jacksonville, Florida; Moss Point, Mississippi; and Mobile, Alabama through the acquisition of Atlantic Marine.


Carrier Construction Begins on the Mersey
Source: U.K Ministry of Defence

The nationwide programme to build the Royal Navy's new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers passed another milestone when construction on the first ship, the Queen Elizabeth, began in Birkenhead yesterday, Monday 26 July 2010.

Birkenhead company Cammell Laird is the final shipyard in the programme to begin construction and will build two of the sections that will make up the ship's giant flight deck.

Construction began yesterday when Minister for International Security Strategy Gerald Howarth started the crane that laid the first of the steel plates for the flight deck.

Together the two sections will weigh in at 7,500 tonnes - more than a Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer.

The work is worth £44m to Cammell Laird and will provide a significant number of jobs in the area, boosting the local economy.

As he toured the yard, Mr Howarth met some of the 1,200-strong workforce involved in the project - including some of the 72 apprentices. He said:

"Aircraft carriers represent a national asset for the UK. Power and versatility make them a formidable warfighting tool and able to fulfil a wide range of requirements in an increasingly diverse and changing global defence landscape.

"The workers I have met here today are rightly proud to be a part of it and it's particularly exciting to see so many young apprentices learning their trade on such a prestigious project."

Six shipyards across the UK are involved in the massive construction project - Govan and Rosyth in Scotland, Portsmouth and Devonport in the south, and Newcastle and now Liverpool in the north - providing around 10,000 jobs, with thousands more suppliers contributing with smaller contracts through the supply chain.

The Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Philip Jones, said:

"Carriers offer invaluable freedom of action with four acres [16,000 square metres] from which to project power anywhere in the world.

"But they are much more than an air base capable of providing support to land operations and humanitarian assistance in disaster zones.

"They also play an important role in conflict prevention; their scale, range and capability making them a powerful statement of intent."




USS Essex Association

Today’s website is the USS Essex Association. Enjoy.


This Day in U.S. Naval History

1804 - American Squadron, including USS Constitution, attacks Tripoli.
1812 - Frigate Essex capture British brig Brothers.
1861 - Construction of USS Monitor authorized.
1861 - First manned ascent in a balloon from a ship, gunboat USS Fanny, to observe Confederate artillery position at Hampton Roads, Va.
1942 - Mildred McAffee (Horton) becomes the first woman officer commissioned into the Naval Reserve.
1950 - First Marine Corps aviation mission against North Korea by VMF-214, from USS Sicily (CVE 118).
1950 - First helicopter evacuation in Korea by VMO-6.
1958 - USS Nautilus (SSN 571) is first ship to reach the geographic North Pole while submerged.
1970 - USS James Madison (SSBN 627) conducts first submerged launching of Poseidon nuclear missile off Cape Kennedy.


Photo of the Day



Sailors and Marines conduct a monthly cleaning of the flight deck aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75).

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