NEW ORLEANS, La. — Textron Systems Corp. successfully delivered its first next-generation air-cushion vehicle, Ship-to-Shore Connector (SSC) Craft 100, to the U.S. Navy in February, the company announced. 

“We are proud to deliver the first of many Ship-to-Shore Connectors to the U.S. Navy,” said Henry Finneral, senior vice president of Textron Systems. “This delivery is the result of the dedication by the joint Navy and industry team and will provide the Navy with a needed capability to rapidly transport material, personnel and humanitarian assistance to shorelines.” 

Prior to delivery, Craft 100 underwent integrated testing to demonstrate the capability of its fly-by-wire steering, electrical and propulsion systems and completed its acceptance trials in December 2019. 

As the replacement for the existing fleet of Landing Craft, Air-Cushion (LCAC) vehicles, follow-on SSCs will primarily transport weapon systems, equipment, cargo and personnel through tough environmental conditions to the beach. The craft can travel at a sustained 35 knots and shares less than 1% of legacy LCAC original parts, representing a true upgrade for the LCAC forces at Assault Craft Unit (ACU) 4, ACU 5, and Naval Beachmaster Unit 7. The SSC also has an increased payload and service life of 30 years. 

The SSC is constructed at Textron Systems in New Orleans and built with similar configurations, dimensions and clearances to existing LCAC, ensuring the compatibility of this next-generation air cushion vehicle with existing well deck-equipped amphibious ships as well as expeditionary transfer docks and expeditionary sea bases. 

The Navy will continue to utilize Craft 100 as a test and training craft. There are 13 additional SSCs in various states of production. Builder’s trials for Craft 101 are scheduled for the first quarter of this year with acceptance trials following in the spring. 

EVENDALE, Ohio — GE Marine’s 4.6 MW LM500 marine gas turbines will power ships 13 through 16 of the Republic of Korea Navy’s PKX-B patrol boat program, the company said in a release. 

The 220-ton PKX-B Chamsuri II class ships will be built by the Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction shipyard, and the GE LM500 gas turbine modules will be manufactured, assembled and tested in-country by Hanwha Aerospace.  

In December 2019, the ROK Navy launched PKX-B ships five through eight with expectations to be delivered to the fleet by the end of 2020. Each ship can attain speeds over 40 knots powered by two GE LM500 gas turbines and two diesel engines in a combined diesel and gas turbine (CODAG) configuration. 

The PKX-B complements the larger, 500-ton PKX-A Gumdoksuri class patrol boats to provide maritime protection and defense in and along the ROK’s seaways. Both the PKX-A and PKX-B ships are powered by GE LM500 marine gas turbines; the first PKX-A Gumdoksuri in the 18-ship program entered service in 2008.  

“Thanks to our long-standing relationships in the Republic of Korea, we worked directly with key component manufacturers on a complete system design analysis and improvement program,” said GE’s Kris Shepherd, vice president and general manager of marine operations. “The end result was the PKX-B realized a 45% reduction in size and weight from its PKX-A predecessor by optimizing the package and gas turbine auxiliary systems to include an electric start system.”

WASHINGTON — Acting Navy Secretary Thomas B. Modly announced that he is commissioning a Blue-Ribbon Future Carrier 2030 (FC-2030) Task Force to conduct a six-month study that will reimagine the future of the aircraft carrier and carrier-based naval aviation (manned and unmanned) for 2030 and beyond. 

FC-2030 will be complementary to, and informed by, a broad review of national shipbuilding requirements being conducted by Deputy Defense Secretary David L. Norquist. U.S. Navy and Marine Corps uniformed and civilian leadership will be engaged in both efforts. 

FC-2030 will attract current and former leaders from Congress, leaders from the U.S. shipbuilding and supporting technology industries and current and former Pentagon leaders as well as thought leaders at war colleges, think-tanks and futurists from around the nation. 

“The long-term challenges facing our nation and the world demand clear-eyed assessments and hard choices,” Modly said. “Because we have four new Ford carriers under contract, we have some time to reimagine what comes next. Any assessment we do must consider cost, survivability and the critical national requirement to sustain an industrial base that can produce the ships we need —ships that will contribute to a superior, integrated naval force for the 2030s and far beyond. 

“Aircraft carrier construction sustains nearly 60,000 skilled jobs in over 46 states,” Modly added. “It can’t be simply turned on and off like a faucet. We must be thoughtful in how we approach changes as they will have lasting impacts on our national industrial competitiveness and employment.” 

The task force will be led by an executive director chosen from within the Department of the Navy’s Secretariat staff and assisted on a collateral-duty basis by representatives from the Office of Naval Research and the deputy chief of naval operations for Warfighting Development. 

With an executive director, the FC-2030 senior executive panel will consist of thought leaders with historical records of leading and contributing to large change in maritime defense strategies and programs. Former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) has agreed to serve as the honorary chairman of the executive panel. Former Nav Secretary John Lehman, former acting Deputy Defense Secretary Christine Fox, former Deputy Navy Undersecretary Seth Cropsey and former Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) have agreed to serve as executive members of the panel. 

“Our future strength will be determined as much by the gray matter we apply to our challenges as the gray hulls we build,” Modly said. “We need the best minds from both inside and outside of government focused on this issue.” 

The study will be conducted with the assistance of the Naval University System (U.S. Naval Academy, Naval War College, Marine Corps University and Naval Postgraduate School) as well as eligible federally funded research and development centers and naval warfare centers.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy still needs a large fleet of guided-missile destroyers (DDGs) to replace the guided-missile cruisers (CGs) being retired, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) said. 

Speaking March 9 at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), the ranking member of the Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee of the HASC, expressed concern over the Navy’s announcement that it would not extend the service life of the older Arleigh Burke-class (DDG 51) DDGs, some of which reach their maximum life in the mid-2020s. 

“Our DDG 51s are incredibly important, and doing the upgrades, especially on the Flight IIs, are important,” Wittman said. “There is still a lot of utility and life left in Flight I — there are some upgrades they can do … and bring the Aegis baseline systems up, put some more capable radars on those ships — I think that those things need to stay on track.”  

Noting the Navy’s 2021 budget plan to slow the rate of production on the new Flight III DDGs, Wittman said the plan “doesn’t get us to where we need to be, especially in light of retiring four CGs. If you’re going to take those cruisers out — remember, those cruisers are either part of the carrier strike group or the ballistic-missile defense mission — my counter to that is, what are you going to do to then replace them at some fairly fast pace with DDG 51s?” 

Wittman noted that “going south” on upfitting older DDGs, retiring CGs and not building the Flight III DDGs at a quick enough pace, a 355-ship Navy gets more distant. 

Asked by moderator Seth Cropsey about increasing the number of small combatants and unmanned surface vessels (USVs) instead of DDGs, Wittman said integration of USVs raises questions that have not yet been answered. 

“The only way you know that is to implement that, put it in place, and figure out what does it do well, what doesn’t it do well, and then you can ramp up production,” he said. “My concern is that if you replace a DDG 51 Flight III — that we know is an extraordinarily capable ship, even a modernization of a Flight I or you replace that with a unmanned platform — you have no idea at this particular point how useful that is going to be integrating these missions into the fleet. 

“Let’s build a number of [USVs], let’s integrate them in, let’s figure out what works and what doesn’t work, and then at some future date you can ramp up production and get a significant amount of capability and capacity,” he said. “But don’t do it too soon, where you waste resources and say, well these ships hadn’t worked out so well and we’re going to retire these. We see this with [littoral combat ships] and it really takes away from the effort necessary to build the fleet that we need for the future.” 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has ordered long-lead materials and activity to support production of eight P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft for its patrol squadrons plus 10 more for foreign military sales.  

Naval Air Systems Command has awarded an $800 million contract modification for long-lead materials and activities for Lot 11 production of 18 P-8As, including eight for the U.S. Navy, six for the Republic of Korea Navy and four for the Royal New Zealand Air Force, according to a Pentagon contract announcement. 

The funds for the work were appropriated in the fiscal 2020 budget.  

The Navy was authorized to procure nine P-8As in the 2020 budget, but one was targeted to be delayed or cancelled as part of a reprogramming request to shift some Defense Department funds to construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

WASHINGTON — The Navy will commission its newest Expeditionary Sea Base, USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB 4), during a 10 a.m. EST ceremony Saturday, March 7, in Norfolk, Virginia, the Navy’s Office on Information announced in a March 6 release. 

The future Hershel “Woody” Williams is the first ship to bear the name of Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officer Four Hershel Woodrow Williams, the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient recognized for heroism at the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. 

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia will deliver the commissioning ceremony’s principal address. The ceremony will be highlighted by a time-honored Navy tradition when Ms. Tracie Jean Ross and Ms. Travie Jane Ross, ship sponsors and daughters of Hershel “Woody” Williams, will give the first order to “man our ship and bring her to life!” 

“This ship honors a man who dedicated his life to service — heroic service as a Marine, and continued service to his fellow veterans,” said Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly. “This dedication will live on in USS Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams as the ship is deployed around the world bringing additional capability to our growing fleet. The ceremony on Saturday will also represent the dedication to service demonstrated by the men and women who worked tirelessly to build this ship and their commitment to quality and innovation.” 

The future Hershel “Woody” Williams is optimized to support a variety of maritime-based missions and designed around four core capabilities: aviation facilities, berthing, equipment staging support, and command and control assets. ESBs can be enhanced to meet special operations force missions through increased communications, aviation and unmanned aircraft system support. 

Built by General Dynamics NASSCO, the Montford Point-class is comprised of five ships across two variants: Expeditionary Transfer Docks and Expeditionary Sea Bases. Acting as a mobile sea base, ESBs are part of the critical access infrastructure that supports the deployment of forces and supplies to provide prepositioned equipment and sustainment with flexible distribution. 

The platform has an aviation hangar and flight deck that include four operating spots capable of landing V-22 and MH-53E equivalent helicopters, accommodations, work spaces, and ordnance storage for an embarked force. The platform will also provide unmanned aviation vehicle operations, enhanced command and control, communications, computers, and intelligence capabilities to support embarked force mission planning and execution. The reconfigurable mission deck area can store embarked force equipment including mine sleds and rigid hull inflatable boats. 

WASHINGTON — The fiscal 2021 budget proposal for a new version of the Tomahawk cruise missile will give the U.S. Marine Corps a new weapon for sea-control and sea-denial missions, the Corps’ top officer said. 

The budget proposes the procurement of 44 Maritime Strike Tomahawk (MST) missiles, which have a terminal multimode sensor for striking moving targets such as ships. 

Marine Commandant Gen. David H. Berger, testifying March 5 before the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that as the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have been thinking about future operations as an integrated naval force against a peer competitor, the Corps “assumes a role which we have not had in the past 20 years which is, how do we contribute to sea control and sea denial? The Tomahawk missile is one of the tools that is going to allow us to do that.” 

Asked about the MST by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Berger said that much like the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle, “for us [the MST] could be the answer or it could be the first step toward a longer-term answer five, six, seven years from now. But what we need is long-range precision fires for a small unit, a series of units, that can from ship or from shore hold an adversary’s naval force at risk. That missile is going to help us do that.” 

Asked by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) about the Ground-Based Anti-Ship Missile and the Remotely Operated Ground Unit Expeditionary (ROGUE) Fires Vehicle, Berger said that both capabilities — in wargames and in simulations — have proven useful, not necessarily game-changers, but definitely changing the calculus of an adversary. 

The ROGUE fires vehicle will be an unmanned vehicle based on the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.  

“Right now, that capability is something we don’t have,” he said. “Posed with that, [adversaries] have to act differently.” 

The commandant said that “ROGUE Fires in particular are on a great glidepath. We are investing in it. Who knows if that is the solution 10 years from now, but we are going down that glidepath right now. Ground-launched cruise missiles and everything long-range precision fires that’s in a small-enough that a small Marine unit can embark it and use it, we’re after it.  

Berger stressed that “we need naval ISR [intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance] that an expeditionary naval force that is operating in EUCOM [the European Command] or in the first island chain [of the Western Pacific] or wherever, has the means to pick up the targets forward in an expeditionary manner. They’ve got to be able to launch from naval platforms [and] from shore, and they’ve got to be small enough if they are going to be embarked with us that we can sustain them.” 

He said the Corps “has used MQ-9s for a year and a half in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, as a learning platform for us. That could close that kill chain organically.”

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy’s controversial decision to propose one Virginia-class attack submarine (SSN) instead of two in the fiscal year 2021 budget was a matter of budget priorities — not a concern over shipyard or program capacity to start construction of the Columbia ballistic-missile sub, the Navy’s top acquisition official told Congress. 

“I had less confidence six to nine months ago where we were seeing some of the Block IV [Virginia SSN] deliveries starting to move to the right, and the concern was can we maintain the cadence to not add risk to Columbia,” James F. Geurts, Navy assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition, said March 4 during testimony before Seapower and Projection Forces, a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee. 

Geurts repeated his previous assertion that “the No. 1 way to reduce risk to Columbia is a stable, well-performing Virginia program.” 

The Navy worked closely with the submarine builders, Electric Boat and Newport News Shipyard, to stabilize the transition from Block III to Block IV. 

“I am happy to report that over the last six months that has stabilized,” he said. “My concerns are not, now, ‘Can they execute?’ he said. “They just need to continue to execute.” 

Geurts said that at the time a “relief valve” was created by making the 10th Virginia-class SSN an option in the recent multiyear Block V procurement. The second 2021 Virginia SSN became “more of an affordability issue, not an execution issue,” he said. “I’m confident [the shipyards] can execute [building] the ship.” 

The second Virginia SSN is atop the Navy’s list of 2021 unfunded priorities. 

“We need to add that ship in this year, or we’ll just have to work on that at the start of Block VI,” Geurts said. “I don’t think there is a way to execute three [submarines] in a Columbia year with a high degree of success.” 

“Submarine construction is very sensitive to cadence … and dips in workload, so there is some work we’re going to do at the end of 2023 with the shipbuilder,” he added. “The last thing we want to do is lay off folks [only] to climb this giant Columbia wall. 

“If we cut short and have a large gap at the end of Block V [production] before having Block VI move in and Columbia start up, that will be a risk to execution not only in Virginia but to Columbia.” 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy is looking at acquisition strategies for procuring four amphibious warfare ships over the next few years to achieve economies, the Navy’s top acquisition official said. 

During March 4 testimony about the fiscal 2021 shipbuilding proposal before the Seapower subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee by James F. Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said he was pleased that the 2021 proposal had accelerated the planned procurement of amphibious assault ship LHA 9 from fiscal 2024 to fiscal 2023. 

Geurts said that the acceleration was enabled because Congress had appropriated funds and given incremental funding authority “relatively early to that need.”  

“Our challenge in the future budgets will be to place that money back in the program so we can deliver that LHA,” he said.  

Wicker asked about the possibility of a multiyear procurement for three Block II San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships (LPDs 31, 32 and 33) and LHA 9. He referred to a request last year from the Seapower subcommittee to “review alternative acquisition strategies for amphibious ships to leverage multiple-ship contracts, which have saved billions of dollars. In this review, the Navy reported that significant savings could be achieved by procuring various combinations of amphibious ships.” 

“There is tremendous potential as [said] in our report to Congress, and as we’ve looked at it even further to doing a block buy of the three LPDs and the LHA,” Geurts said. 

“We see that savings to be in that 8% to 12% range, which would be a billion dollars back in taxpayer savings. So, we’re looking at that closely. We’re also executing that advance procurement, long-lead funding that’s been appropriated with the incremental authority. The things that I’ve seen in the draft of the SHIPS Implementation Act in terms of giving us more authorities to do smart procurement will be tremendously beneficial.” 

The Huntington Ingalls shipyard where the Navy’s amphibious warfare ships are built is in Pascagoula, Mississippi. 

BATH, Maine — Construction of the future USS Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG 126) officially began at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works (BIW) shipyard on March 3. The milestone was marked by a ceremony at BIW’s structural fabrication facility in Brunswick, Maine, the Program Executive Office (PEO)-Ships said in a release. 

DDG 126 will be the first Arleigh Burke-class destroyer built in the Flight III configuration at BIW. Flight III destroyers will have improved capability and capacity to perform anti-air warfare and ballistic missile defense in support of the integrated air and missile defense mission. 

This system delivers quick reaction time, high firepower, and increased electronic countermeasures capability for anti-air warfare. 

The ship will honor Marine Corps Gen. Louis Hugh Wilson Jr., who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his leadership and daring combat tactics in the Battle of Guam in 1944. During a prolonged firefight with Japanese forces, Wilson led Marines under his command across rugged terrain to secure a strategic objective. Despite being wounded three times, Wilson and his men defended their position for more than 10 hours of combat. The following day, Wilson led a 17-man patrol to capture, secure, and hold a second position. 

“This is a tremendous occasion as we mark the start of construction on BIW’s first Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.” said Capt. Seth Miller, DDG 51 class program manager, PEO-Ships. 

“General Wilson embodied the spirit of our nation in his will to protect his fellow Marines and countrymen. What better way to honor him than to build a highly capable warship that advances our Navy’s ability to protect and defend our nation.”  

BIW also is in production on the future Arleigh Burke-class destroyers Daniel Inouye (DDG 118), Carl M. Levin (DDG 120), John Basilone (DDG 122), Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (DDG 124) and Patrick Gallagher (DDG 127) as well as the Zumwalt-class destroyer Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002).