2018 Budget Battle Between Defense, Budget Hawks Begins; Nukes Top Priority

2018 Budget Battle Between Defense, Budget Hawks Begins; Nukes Top Priority
2018 Budget Battle Between Defense, Budget Hawks Begins; Nukes Top Priority

CAPITOL HILL: The Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee thinks President Trump’s 2018 spending plan is dead on arrival and has already gone to the Budget Committee to get a much bigger defense budget. Mac Thornberry also doesn’t want defense increases offset by steep cuts to the Coast Guard or State Department, as Trump proposed. Thornberry…

Trump Calls For 12 Carriers, But How Fast Will We Get There?

Trump Calls For 12 Carriers, But How Fast Will We Get There?
Trump Calls For 12 Carriers, But How Fast Will We Get There?

Speaking today on the hangar deck of the almost-completed aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, President Donald Trump explicitly pledged to build “the 12-carrier Navy we need.” Ever since the USS Enterprise retired in 2012, the Navy has had only 10 aircraft carriers, with the Ford soon to be commissioned as the 11th. On current plans,…

62 % Of F-18 Hornets Unfit To Fly, Up To 74% In Marines

62 % Of F-18 Hornets Unfit To Fly, Up To 74% In Marines
62 % Of F-18 Hornets Unfit To Fly, Up To 74% In Marines

UPDATED with Marine Corps data CAPITOL HILL: More than 60 percent of Navy and Marine Corps strike fighters are out of service, the Navy confirmed today. While 62 percent of fighters are effectively grounded, the overall figure for all naval aircraft is 53 percent. [UPDATE: With some of the oldest fighter jets in service, Marine Corps…

355-Ship Fleet Costs $5B Extra Per Year: CRS

355-Ship Fleet Costs $5B Extra Per Year: CRS
355-Ship Fleet Costs $5B Extra Per Year: CRS

WASHINGTON: Building the Navy’s 355-ship fleet will be even harder than we thought, according to a new study from the Congressional Research Service. Veteran Navy expert Ronald O’Rourke estimates that, even if US shipyards work 50 percent faster than today, we wouldn’t have enough aircraft carriers until roughly 2030 — 14 years from now — and enough…

Stealth Destroyer DDG-1000’s Biggest Trials Lie Ahead

Stealth Destroyer DDG-1000’s Biggest Trials Lie Ahead
Stealth Destroyer DDG-1000’s Biggest Trials Lie Ahead

WASHINGTON: As shipbuilder Bath Iron Works laid the keel for the third and final destroyer of the DDG-1000 class, the Navy and industry were struggling to understand embarrassing breakdowns on the first ship, the USS Zumwalt. Congress fears there could be worse to come. “The hard work hasn’t really begun yet in terms of delivering the…

Bilden Would Be Least Experienced Navy Secretary Since 1980

Bilden Would Be Least Experienced Navy Secretary Since 1980
Bilden Would Be Least Experienced Navy Secretary Since 1980

CORRECTED: Bilden is least experienced, not 2nd to last WASHINGTON: Trump’s pick for Navy Secretary, Philip Bilden, has less relevant experience than any of his predecessors since 1980, Breaking Defense has found. To be precise, every Navy Secretary for 36 years has had significant prior experience in either government or the defense industry or both: Bilden…

Trump WH Makes It Official: Bigger Navy, Air Force & ‘End’ To Sequestration:

Trump WH Makes It Official: Bigger Navy, Air Force & ‘End’ To Sequestration:
Trump WH Makes It Official: Bigger Navy, Air Force & ‘End’ To Sequestration:

WASHINGTON: Soon after President Donald Trump took the oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution,” the White House posted two documents declaring they would boost the size of the Navy and Air Force, increase our offensive and defensive cyber capabilities and end sequestration. In the first document, Making Our Military Strong Again, the Trump Administration…

Build More Ships, But Not New Designs: CNO Richardson On McCain Plan

Build More Ships, But Not New Designs: CNO Richardson On McCain Plan
Build More Ships, But Not New Designs: CNO Richardson On McCain Plan

CLARIFIED w/ CNO response WASHINGTON: The Navy wants a 355-ship fleet. Can US shipyards build it? Yes, they can, the Navy leaders are insisting. But, the Chief of Naval Operations warned this morning, to keep production swift and steady, we should be careful about replacing existing designs — including the Littoral Combat Ship — with all-new warships…

Fixing The Ford, Getting Creative With Carriers

Fixing The Ford, Getting Creative With Carriers
Fixing The Ford, Getting Creative With Carriers

This week, the Navy finally announced a delivery date for the long-delayed and $2.4 billion over-budget aircraft carrier, the Gerald Ford (CVN-78). “In hindsight,” said Adm. Thomas Moore, head of Naval Sea Systems Command, the Navy should have tested the Ford’s ambitious new systems more extensively on shore before installing them aboard ship. But building a…

Navy Will Get Supercarrier USS Ford In April – Finally

Navy Will Get Supercarrier USS Ford In April – Finally
Navy Will Get Supercarrier USS Ford In April – Finally

UPDATED with Rep. Wittman comment WASHINGTON: The long-delayed super-carrier USS Ford is “99 percent” complete and will be delivered to the Navy in April, the Navy announced late Wednesday. A date for commissioning the $13 billion ship into service has still not been yet. The Ford is the first all-new carrier design in 40 years —…

Fix Readiness First, Shipbuilding Second: Navy To Trump

Fix Readiness First, Shipbuilding Second: Navy To Trump
Fix Readiness First, Shipbuilding Second: Navy To Trump

WASHINGTON: Sure, the Navy needs more ships, but first and most urgently, it needs to fix the ships it already has. That’s what Navy leaders are telling Donald Trump. “When the transition team came around to all of us in the building and asked us what we could do with more money right now, the…

Columbia Costs: Is It $100B OR $128B? Well, Yes. Read Kendall’s ADM Memo.

Columbia Costs: Is It $100B OR $128B? Well, Yes. Read Kendall’s ADM Memo.
Columbia Costs: Is It $100B OR $128B? Well, Yes. Read Kendall’s ADM Memo.

WASHINGTON: Replacing aging Ohio-class nuclear missile submarines could cost so much it busts the Navy budget. But how much? That gets complicated. The media’s been saying $128 billion. The Navy would prefer we say $100 billion. Both figures are right. The difference is inflation. Last Wednesday, when Pentagon procurement chief Frank Kendall gave the go-ahead…

Kendall Says Full Speed Ahead On Navy Nuke Missile Subs: $128B Columbia Class

Kendall Says Full Speed Ahead On Navy Nuke Missile Subs: $128B Columbia Class
Kendall Says Full Speed Ahead On Navy Nuke Missile Subs: $128B Columbia Class

WASHINGTON: Pentagon procurement chief Frank Kendall just approved the Navy’s top-priority program, the Columbia-class nuclear missile submarine, to start detailed design work and engineering. Known in Pentagonese as a Milestone B decision, undersecretary Kendall’s okay lets the Navy spend the $773 million Congress voted for the program in last month’s Continuing Resolution. [CORRECTED:] The projected procurement…

2017 Forecast: Trump Is The Navy’s Best Friend

2017 Forecast: Trump Is The Navy’s Best Friend
2017 Forecast: Trump Is The Navy’s Best Friend

WASHINGTON: Of the four armed services, the Navy seems set for the smoothest sailing under Donald Trump. The President-Elect’s pro-Russian sentiments cast doubt on the US Army’s main mission, even as he seeks to swell the service’s ranks. His personal intervention in programs like Air Force One and the F-35 has alarmed the Air Force.…