WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy’s plan to procure only eight battle force ships in the 2021 budget came under expected fire from lawmakers during a Feb. 26 hearing on Capitol Hill. 

Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley testified at the hearing of the House Armed Services Committee to defend the Defense Department’s proposed fiscal 2021 budget. 

Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), in whose district the Electric Boat submarine construction yard is located, addressing the plan to procure only eight ships — including just one Virginia-class attack submarine — attacked the 2021 plan as deficient for several reasons. 

He noted that a Congressional Research Service report confirmed that one of the eight ships in the 2021 budget — LPD 31, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship — was authorized and partially paid for via the 2020 defense bill and as such is being double-counted. He said that the real ship procurement proposed for 2021 is only seven ships. 

“Two of those seven are tugboats — they’re salvage ships,” Courtney said in his remarks. “We are not getting briefings in this committee about Russian tugboats or Chinese tugboats. We, in fact, then are left with really five combatant ships.”  

Courtney also criticized the decision to request only one Virginia-class attack submarine versus the two planned, a decision that he said will exacerbate the Navy’s shortage of attack subs. 

“Just for the record, we are at 52 attack submarines today,” Courtney said to Esper. “With the retirement of Los Angeles-class submarines, which is going to accelerate over the next four or five years, that fleet is going to shrink to 44 subs. Your budget keeps us in that trough into the 2030s. It defies any analysis in terms of something that comports with the National Defense Strategy.” 

Courtney also pointed out to Esper that a 30-year shipbuilding plan — required by law — was not submitted with the 2021 budget submission. Esper said he hadn’t seen the 30-year plan but would send it to Congress after he reviewed it. 

“At the appropriate point I will share with you what I believe our future force structure should look like,” Esper said. “I am a big believer in attack submarines. … My gut tells me we need more than we planned for.” 

“But there are two competing pressures we have right now: a topline budget which actually gives us 2% less buying power,” he said. “But the second thing — and importantly — is I support what the Navy did in terms of moving $4 billion from shipbuilding to maintenance. A concern that the [chief of naval operations] has, that the acting secretary has, and I have is that we have a hollow Navy.” 

Esper cited a December Government Accountability Office report, which said that over the last five years, 75% of U.S. surface ships left maintenance late. 

“Half of those ships took over three months to get to sea,” he said. “What that equates to is that 19 in 2019 unavailable to go to sea. We cannot have a hollow Navy. I agree we need to build a 355-plus-ship Navy, but we cannot have a hollow Navy at the same time.” 

Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) pointed out that the budget plan to decommission four littoral combat ships, four cruisers and three dock landing ships seemed like math that “doesn’t add up to me to get to 355. In fact, we’re heading south on that.” 

Courtney also characterized the shipbuilding request as a “gut punch” to the welders, electricians and carpenters who build ships and to the supply chain that provides the materiel and components. 

“Lastly, it’s a punch in the gut to the combatant commanders,” he added. 

“In the last few days, we’ve had [Gen. Tod Wolters, commander, U.S. European Command] talk about a 50% increase in Russian submarine patrol operations. We’ve had [Adm. Woody Lewis, commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet] talking about the ever-increasing number of submarines [and Adm. Phil Davidson, commander, Indo-Pacific Command] saying that his ‘day-to-day submarine requirement is met by slightly only 50% of what I’ve asked for.’” 

STAFFORD, Va. — BAE Systems has received a $113.5 million contract from the U.S. Marine Corps for an additional 26 Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACV) under the low-rate initial production (LRIP) phase of the program, the company said in a release. This award brings the total vehicle orders for the ACV to 116 and moves the program closer to full-rate production. 

The ACV is a mobile, survivable and adaptable platform for conducting rapid ship-to-shore operations and brings enhanced combat power to the battlefield. BAE has been in low-rate production since 2018 on the personnel carrier variant in the ACV family, which is envisioned to consist of additional variants such as command and control, 30 mm medium caliber turret and recovery. 

“The ACV provides the most survivable and mobile amphibious vehicle to the U.S. Marines Corps for supporting the warfighters’ ability to successfully execute their unique expeditionary missions,” said John Swift, director of amphibious programs at BAE Systems. 

The BAE team and the Marines have made significant strides to reach full-rate production, including the completion of logistics demonstration as a critical enabler for the program to move into initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) with trained Marine maintainers. This and other major milestones such as operator training and additional testing will take place before full-rate production. 

The Marine Corps selected BAE along with teammate Iveco Defence Vehicles for the ACV program to replace its legacy fleet of Assault Amphibious Vehicles, which have been in service for decades and also were built by BAE Systems. 

ACV production and support is taking place at BAE locations in Stafford, Virginia; San Jose, California; Sterling Heights, Michigan; Aiken, South Carolina; and York, Pennsylvania.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Aerojet Rocketdyne has been awarded a $63.2 million “other transaction authority” by the U.S. Navy to develop an advanced propulsion system for the Mk54 Mod 2 Advanced Lightweight Torpedo (ALWT), the company said in a release. 

“We have developed mission-critical propulsion and power systems for the U.S. Navy for more than 60 years,” said Eileen Drake, Aerojet Rocketdyne’s president and CEO. “Aerojet Rocketdyne is a world-class developer of high-performance propulsion systems, and we look forward to applying our expertise to support the development of the Advanced Lightweight Torpedo.” 

For the authority, Aerojet Rocketdyne will develop a prototype Stored Chemical Energy Propulsion System (SCEPS) power plant and afterbody/tailcone that ultimately would be integrated into the ALWT. The SCEPS improves the capabilities of the Mk54 torpedo. 

The Mk54 Lightweight Torpedo, an anti-submarine warfare weapon, is used by U.S. surface ships, fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. 

HONOLULU — The U.S. Coast Guard interdicted several foreign vessels whose crews were fishing inside the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) on two separate occasions in the first two months of 2020, according to the Coast Guard’s 14th District.  

“While we’ve seen incursions into the EEZs of partners and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing on the high seas, these are the first interdictions we’ve had in the U.S EEZ since 2012,” said Lt. Jason Holstead of 14th District Response Enforcement. “The combination of partnerships, electronic methods and putting assets on the scene to catch violators in the act is essential to deterring IUU fishing in Oceania.” 

In both cases, the Coast Guard was conducting maritime domain awareness flights in the zones off Guam and Hawaii with Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft crews based at Air Station Barbers Point. 

Case packages were forwarded to the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement for further actions. The investigations are pending.  

The living marine resources (LMR) mission is one of two Coast Guard missions devoted to protecting fisheries inside and outside U.S. waters. While LMR focuses on domestic fisheries, other law enforcement focuses on illegal incursions by foreign fishing vessels into the U.S. EEZ. An EEZ is defined as the region extending 200 miles beyond a nation’s shores. The Coast Guard leverages partnerships and 13 bilateral agreements between the U.S. and other nations in the Pacific to enforce fisheries regulations and combat IUU fishing.  

Fishing within the United States generates more than $200 billion and employs 1.7 million people annually. IUU fishing represents an estimated monetary loss of $10 billion to $23 billion for legitimate fishers. Globally, commercially landed tuna and tuna products have a value of $10 billion to $12 billion per year to the fishermen who target these species and more than $42 billion per year at the final point of sale. These conservative totals do not account for noncommercial tuna activity including sport fishing and tourism. 

According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Pacific Ocean — also known as the “tuna belt” — represents 65% to 70% percent of globally harvested tuna. 

According to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), the international body that manages tuna fishing in the same waters, state fishers caught nearly 2.85 million metric tons of the primary commercial tuna species in 2014. This catch’s worth was valued at more than $5 billion to fishers in the region and more than $22.68 billion at the final point of sale. Tuna caught in the WCPFC convention area accounts for more than half of the landings, dock value and end value of all commercial tuna fisheries.  

While the Coast Guard is not the only agency responsible for protecting fisheries, it plays a significant role. The Coast Guard has enforcement authority over 202 separate commercial fisheries. 

“While regulation compliance among U.S. fishers is near 97%, some of the lowest policed areas, such as the waters in the western and central Pacific, are responsible for the highest percentage of significant violations. This is where the efforts of the Coast Guard 14th District and partners are so important,” Holstead said. “In 2019, we conducted numerous routine and analysis-based patrols throughout the region in support of IUU fishing detection and deterrence.” 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has given its E-2 Hawkeye squadrons a new designation to more accurately reflect the aircraft’s expanded capabilities and missions. 

The service has changed the name from Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron to Airborne Command and Control Squadron, effective Jan. 1, said Lt. Travis Callaghan, a spokesman for commander, Naval Air Forces, in response to a query from Seapower. 

The E-2 was fielded in 1965 during the Vietnam War as a radar early warning aircraft that was able to detect and track airborne targets and provide radio voice commands and data link tracks to enable fighters to intercept enemy aircraft or cruise missiles. Over the succeeding decades and as the sophistication of the E-2’s radar increased and other sensors were added, the aircraft added to its portfolio battle management, strike control, land force support, rescue coordination, drug-interdiction operations and other tasks that went beyond simple early warning. 

The current version in production, the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, built by Northrop Grumman and equipped with Lockheed Martin’s APY-9 radar, includes modern capabilities such as Cooperative Engagement Capability and Navy Integrated Fire Control, which enhance its role as the Navy’s “quarterback in the sky.”  

Each of the Navy’s nine carrier air wings is equipped with one E-2C or E-2D squadron. Four squadrons are based at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California, and one is based at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, while five are stationed at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, one being a replacement training squadron. 

The airborne command and control squadrons will retain the VAW acronym that has been in use since the 1950s. 

PASCAGOULA, Miss. — The future guided-missile destroyer USS Delbert D. Black successfully completed builder’s trials on Feb. 22 after spending three days underway in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Navy’s Program Executive Office (PEO)-Ships. The trials were conducted by the shipbuilder, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Ingalls Shipbuilding Division. 

The ship was previously underway for Alpha trials in December and will be underway again in March for acceptance trials, which will be conducted by the U.S. Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey. 

“The Navy and our dedicated shipbuilders have continued to make strides towards delivering this exceptional capability to the fleet and performed well during builder’s trials,” said Capt. Seth Miller, DDG 51 class program manager, PEO-Ships. “This ship continues the proud Aegis shipbuilding legacy and will provide the Navy with a 21st-century fighting edge.”  

Delbert D. Black is configured as a Flight IIA destroyer, which enables power projection, forward presence and escort operations at sea in support of low intensity conflict/coastal and littoral offshore sarfare as well as open ocean conflict. DDG 119 will be equipped with the Navy’s Aegis Combat System.  

HII’s Pascagoula shipyard also is producing the future destroyers Frank E. Petersen Jr (DDG 121), Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123) and Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), the first ship to be built in the Flight III configuration. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — A Virginia-class attack submarine heads the U.S. Navy’s fiscal 2021 unfunded priorities list, according to Feb. 19 letter to Congress from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday. Three types of aircraft and one logistics proof-of-concept ship round out the top five unfunded priorities. 

Every year the services provide to congressional defense committees a list of procurement, operations and base infrastructure requirements that they would like Congress to fund should it wish to allocate more funds or to fund different priorities than some of those in the budget submission. 

A Virginia SSN order at $2.8 billion would be in addition to the one funded in the budget and enable the Navy to build a total of 10 Virginia SSNs under the Block V multiyear contract. 

The Navy also would like to add five F-35C Lightning II strike fighters to the 11 requested in the 2021 budget. Including spare parts, the addition would cost $525.5 million. 

The service also would like to procure an additional two E-2D Advanced Hawkeye command-and-control aircraft, upping the buy from six to eight for $357 million. The Navy has program of record of 77 — up from 75 — and has an objective of procuring a total of 86 E-2Ds. 

The Navy also would like to add two CMV-22B Osprey carrier-onboard-delivery aircraft to the six in the budget, which would require $211.4 million, including spare parts and spare engines. This also would increase the number of CMV-22Bs in the program to 46. 

As the Navy defines its requirements for a Small Auxiliary Logistics Platform for distributed maritime operations, it would like to fund — for $12 million — the lease of an additional offshore support vessel to support demonstrations “to evaluate potential solutions for refuel, re-supply and re-arm logistics mission requirements,”  the letter said. 

The Navy also would like to double the number of Next-Generation Jammer shipsets to six; procure 20 additional Naval Strike Missiles (NSMs), along with installation of an NSM launcher on an amphibious transport dock ship; procure two Surface Mission Modules for littoral combat ships; and purchase 100 more AIM-9X Block II air-to-air missiles; procure 6,392 sonobuoys to make up for unplanned operational expenditures; and upgrades to the Dual Band Radar on USS Gerald R. Ford and the Multifunction Radar on the Zumwalt-class destroyers. 

MOBILE, Ala. — The U.S. Navy’s 12th expeditionary fast transport (EPF), the future USNS Newport (EPF 12), was launched at Austal USA’s shipyard on Feb. 20, according to the Navy’s Program Executive Office-Ships said.  

The launching of an EPF is a multistep process. The ship modules are constructed in Austal’s manufacturing facility, then transported to the assembly bay. When ready for launch, the ship is translated by heavy-lift machinery to a docking barge in the Mobile River and further translated onto a floating dry dock. From there, the dry dock is submerged and the ship is launched. The translation and launch takes place over the course of two days. 

“We are excited to get Newport in the water, so we can shift focus to final outfitting and trials,” said Tim Roberts, strategic and theater sealift program manager, PEO-Ships. “EPFs increase our reach, improving our ability to sustain our Navy and Marine Corps forces around the globe.” 

EPFs are versatile, noncombatant transport ships that are being used for high-speed transportation of troops, military vehicles and equipment. They support a variety of missions including overseas contingency operations, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, support of special operations forces, theater security cooperation activities and emerging joint sea-basing concepts.   

EPFs can transport 600 short tons 1,200 nautical miles at an average speed of 35 knots. Each vessel includes a flight deck to support day and night aircraft launch and recovery operations. The ships are capable of interfacing with roll-on/roll-off discharge facilities, as well as on/off-loading vehicles such as a fully combat-loaded Abrams tank. 

The Newport is on track to be delivered later this year. Austal USA has also started construction of the future USNS Apalachicola (EPF 13) and is under contract to build the future USNS Cody (EPF 14). 

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The U.S. Coast Guard is expanding its Charleston, South Carolina, station
into a major Atlantic base and home to its newest class of cutters.

In addition
to five 418-foot national security cutters, the Coast Guard’s largest and
newest sea-going patrol vessels, Charleston will be the homeport for a
complement of yet to be built offshore patrol cutters.

“Charleston
is a first stop to nationwide investment in our service, our facilities and our
people,” Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz said in his State of the Coast Guard
address, which was live streamed from Charleston on Feb. 20.

Over the
next five years the Coast Guard plans to consolidate its campus along one
waterfront, starting with $140 million to begin upgrading shoreside facilities.
The improvements could turn Charleston into one of the nation’s largest
concentrations of Coast Guard assets and people. The port of Charleston is experiencing
unprecedented change, Schultz said, noting that by 2021, Charleston will have
the deepest harbor on the East Coast.

However, 40%
of Coast Guard buildings around the country are over 50 years old, leading to a
$2 billion backlog of facility repairs for mold, leaky roofs, flooding and
outdated building standards. The Coast Guard’s fiscal year 2021 budget request
is $12.3 billion, $77 million more than the $12.2 billion approved last
year.

There are
also problems with the agency’s 1990s-era computer hardware and software.
“Years of investment tradeoffs have brought our information technology to the
brink of catastrophic failure,” Schultz said. Over the summer, more than 95
vital systems went off-line for several days due to a single server malfunction.

To address information
technology issues, Schultz released the Coast Guard’s Tech Revolution Road Map
for digital modernization. Upgrades are planned over the next three years,
starting with increasing Coast Guard external internet speeds and doubling
connectivity for major cutters in 2020.

Communication
is also a problem in the Arctic, Schultz noted. The medium icebreaker Healy is
without reliable communications for a large part of its multimonth patrol above
the Arctic Circle. Last month the harsh environment in Alaska knocked out
communications equipment.

“As commandant, I need my operational commanders to be able to communicate with every Coast Guard asset — anytime, anywhere,” Schultz said. “We are exploring new satellite communications capabilities with the Department of Defense and industry, as well as renewing land-based communications capabilities in Alaska.” Arctic communications, however, are a “whole-of-government” issue, he said, adding “we must work together to solve our communication blackout in the Arctic now.”

The first of the 360-foot offshore patrol cutters, the Argus, is under construction with delivery planned in 2022. The OPC program calls for 25 hulls, ultimately making up almost 70% of the Coast Guard’s offshore presence.

They will replace the service’s 210-foot medium-endurance cutters and become “the backbone of our modernized fleet,” Schultz said. They will also play a critical role in the Coast Guard’s campaign against narcotics trafficking in the Western Hemisphere.

In a move to expand maritime domain awareness across the Pacific Ocean, the service is partnering with Global Fishing Watch, an international, no-profit big data technology platform that leverages satellite data to track global commercial fishing activity.

WASHINGTON — Digital modernization of U.S. Navy back-office
operations is a largely overlooked activity that can improve readiness, cut
costs and deliver educational content and training to personnel, acting Navy Secretary
Thomas B. Modly said on Feb. 21.

Participating in a panel discussion with U.S. Army Secretary
Ryan McCarthy and U.S. Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies, Modly and the others were asked what
technologies were underappreciated or promised unexpected benefits.

The Army secretary cited long-range precision fires. The Air
Force secretary mentioned GPS and the other existing technologies in space that
she noted were “ubiquitous but invisible.” Modly singled out digitalization for
opening up “huge opportunities to improve our networks and how we do business
through better use of technology.”

The Department of the Navy is at least 15 years behind the
private sector in the ability “to understand where things are in our inventory
system,” Modly said. As an example, he cited an audit conducted in 2019 that
found a warehouse in Florida containing aircraft parts worth $150 million.

“We didn’t know we had the parts. We didn’t know we had the
warehouse,” he said. A week after the parts were input into the Navy’s
inventory system, there were $20 million in requisitions for those parts “for
aircraft that were down for [lack of] parts we didn’t know we had,” Modly said.

During discussion of other topics, Modly said he didn’t
think the Navy Department budget top line — or the Defense Department’s — was
likely to grow much soon. To contend with the pressures of increasing the size
of the surface force to 355 ships and improving readiness, Modly said leaders
will need to look internally to find savings “in the way we traditionally do
things” to fund the priorities outlined in the National Defense Strategy.

He said some “North Stars” point the way in the recently completed Integrated Naval Force Structure Assessment, which has not been made public. Additionally, Modly has ordered a stem-to-stern review to find savings to fill the budget gap. If 5% to 6% of the $207 billion Navy budget can be freed up, he said, “we can start moving down the path” to a 355-ship-plus Navy in the next 10 years. All three secretaries said they were cooperating with each other and industry on the development of hypersonic weapons.

However, Modly noted that moving such new technology to production is a “big, big leap.” He added that the military needs to send strong signals to industry about where it is headed. “But a lot of this technology is really new, so we have to make sure it works before we jump too far.”