Even as one official warned that budget pressures would squeeze the budget, another said the nation must expand the defense industrial base to build a 355-ship Navy.
By Paul McLearyThe Navy may back off its much-publicized call for a 355-ship fleet and look at new options like unmanned vessels, the Chief of Naval Operations said.
By Paul McLearyWASHINGTON: The Navy signed a massive, $15.2 billion contract with Huntington Ingalls Industries-Newport News Shipbuilding this evening for two more Ford-class aircraft carriers, hours after a Pentagon report listed a litany of problems with the ambitious program. The contract pays for completion of in 2028 of the USS Enterprise, which began in 2017. It also…
By Paul McLearySmaller unmanned vessels will act as expendable scouts and decoys, larger ones — over 50 meters — will carry masses of missiles, while manned ships will carry both the largest systems and the human beings essential for rapid adaptation in combat.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The Marines want Vertical Launch System missile tubes on their new amphibious ships — but the Navy isn’t planning to leave room for them.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: Four years after Lockheed Martin inked a $11.2 billion deal to sell Saudi Arabia an upgunned variant of its Littoral Combat Ship, the company is starting work on the first vessel later this year, a company official confirmed Wednesday. The work on four Multi-Mission Surface Combatants will take place at Fincantieri-owned Marinette Marine in…
By Paul McLearyWASHINGTON: After years of delays, budget fights, and searing debates over the role that the ship will play, three Littoral Combat Ships will head out on their first deployments this year. “We’re deploying LCS this year. It’s happening. Two ships are going on the West Coast, one ship is going on the East Coast,” said…
By Paul McLearyCongress is evaluating the proposal to issue a $24 billion contract for the Navy’s next two carriers, as the service looks at months of work to fix ongoing problems with the Ford-class’s first ship.
By Paul McLeary“The waste would be absolutely stunning,” Secretary Spenser said. To cut the already-completed 2020 budget plan so steeply on such little notice, he said, “some of the scenarios will make your eyes water for what we will have to do” in his shipbuilding and maintenance accounts.
By Paul McLearyWASHINGTON: The once-revolutionary prospects of the Navy’s Zumwalt-class destroyer continue to be whittled away. Having lost some of its touted stealth capabilities and suffered a series of engine and electrical problems, now it’s likely to ditch its long-troubled gun. The Advanced Gun System on the Zumwalt never lived up to its billing. When the Navy…
By Paul McLearyTwo years have passed since Le Bourget hosted the last Euronaval show, two years during which the maritime world has become increasingly multipolar. For example, just in the submarine business, more than 40 countries are nowadays involved. In the meantime, Russia added 28 new ships to its fleet in 2018 alone, while China, with a…
By Murielle DelaporteThe 12-hull, $128 billion Columbia class program is the Navy’s cornerstone project not only for a new class of submarines, but also for the United States’ nuclear triad, which relies on a mix of air, land, and sea-launched nuclear missiles.
By Paul McLearyA British defense official talked up the good news about British defense spending in DC this week — including on many US-built weapons — but some dark clouds hang over the ambitious plan.
By Paul McLearyWASHINGTON: President Trump has just issued orders to cut the defense budget, and hasn’t tweeted for a while about his campaign pledge to build a bigger Navy, but the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee wants to get a 355-ship fleet back on the agenda. Jim Inhofe — who’s likely to retain the SASC chairmanship…
By Paul McLeary