Multi-ship amphib buy could net $900M in savings, say Navy, Marine Corps officials

Multi-ship amphib buy could net $900M in savings, say Navy, Marine Corps officials
Multi-ship amphib buy could net $900M in savings, say Navy, Marine Corps officials

Lawmakers gave the Navy authorities to ink a multi-ship amphib deal years ago, but the service has not utilized that power yet.

HII studies own potential changes to the amphibs amid Pentagon cost squabbles

HII studies own potential changes to the amphibs amid Pentagon cost squabbles
HII studies own potential changes to the amphibs amid Pentagon cost squabbles

An Ingalls executive told reporters the company is acutely aware that affordability is top of mind for the Navy and Marine Corps when it comes to amphibious shipbuilding.

HII’s Ingalls seeks stability in amphibs, ‘absolutely’ eyeing second frigate yard competition

HII’s Ingalls seeks stability in amphibs, ‘absolutely’ eyeing second frigate yard competition
HII’s Ingalls seeks stability in amphibs, ‘absolutely’ eyeing second frigate yard competition

A company executive says the yard is “fully modernized” after spending more than a billion dollars over several years to improve its facilities.

Navy Rushes Shipbuilding Deals To Keep Yards Going In Pandemic

Navy Rushes Shipbuilding Deals To Keep Yards Going In Pandemic
Navy Rushes Shipbuilding Deals To Keep Yards Going In Pandemic

“We’re gonna have to brave the storm together, especially some of the smaller suppliers,” said Lucas Hicks, vice president of new construction aircraft carrier programs.  

Huntington-Ingalls Sinks $2B Into Shipyards: Digital Plans & Computerized Welding

Huntington-Ingalls Sinks $2B Into Shipyards: Digital Plans & Computerized Welding
Huntington-Ingalls Sinks $2B Into Shipyards: Digital Plans & Computerized Welding

“Each of your crafts — electrical, pipefitting, pipe-welding, painting, your riggers… still require some human touch,” Kastner told me. “Digital tools… free the craftsman up a bit to not do the grunt work.”

Shipyards Serving US Navy Already Use Chinese-Built Drydocks

Shipyards Serving US Navy Already Use Chinese-Built Drydocks
Shipyards Serving US Navy Already Use Chinese-Built Drydocks

WASHINGTON: At least three shipyards that do work for the US Navy have bought and used drydocks from China. This would seem to lower the stakes for Huntington-Ingalls Industries, currently searching for a Chinese drydock of its own with help from homestate Senator Thad Cochran, as reported yesterday in the Washington Post. BAE Systems’ San Diego yard…

Navy Seeks To Boost Shipbuilding: Amphibs, Subs, Destroyers

Navy Seeks To Boost Shipbuilding: Amphibs, Subs, Destroyers
Navy Seeks To Boost Shipbuilding: Amphibs, Subs, Destroyers

CAPITOL HILL: Despite tight budgets at the Pentagon, the Navy wants to speed-up several shipbuilding programs — amphibious warships, destroyers, and submarines — and Congress seems inclined to give them the money. That’s testimony both to the perennial political popularity of shipbuilding, which employs a lot of voters, and to the rising strategic anxiety over…

Where Are The Icebreakers?!

Where Are The Icebreakers?!
Where Are The Icebreakers?!

We’ve got something here for Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Angus King and Coast Guard Commandant Paul Zukunft to read before they speak Wednesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on “National Security Challenges and Icebreaking Operations in the Arctic.” Scott Truver, known to most serious students of Navy shipbuilding, argues the case for icebreakers.…

More Ships, More Missiles, Less Waiting: Rep. Forbes Talks 2016 NDAA

More Ships, More Missiles, Less Waiting: Rep. Forbes Talks 2016 NDAA
More Ships, More Missiles, Less Waiting: Rep. Forbes Talks 2016 NDAA

CAPITOL HILL: More ships. More weapons. Less waiting. That’s the essential philosophy of Rep. Randy Forbes, chairman of the House subcommittee on seapower. In the draft National Defense Authorization Act headed for mark-up next week, he certainly seems to have gotten his way — on amphibious assault ships, submarines, land-based cruise missiles, and more. “My…

Half Of Shipbuilders ‘1 Contract Away’ From Bust: Stackley

Half Of Shipbuilders ‘1 Contract Away’ From Bust: Stackley
Half Of Shipbuilders ‘1 Contract Away’ From Bust: Stackley

WASHINGTON: “About half” of the shipyards building US Navy vessels are “one contract away” from leaving the business, the Navy’s top procurement officer told the Senate today. After decades of decline due to foreign competition, the US shipbuilding industry has become so fragile and so dependent on government contracts that the Navy is taking unprecedented and…

Sub Builders Face Triple Threat: Ohio, Virginia, & VPM

Sub Builders Face Triple Threat: Ohio, Virginia, & VPM
Sub Builders Face Triple Threat: Ohio, Virginia, & VPM

CAPITOL HILL: It’s a problem the US Navy wants to have, but it’s still a problem. If the service gets enough money both to build its top priority, the Ohio Replacement Program nuclear missile submarine, and to keep producing its vaunted Virginia-class attack subs, then so much new work will be hitting the shipyards so rapidly that they’ll be…

Can Navy Afford Next-Gen DDG-51 Destroyer, Packard Award Or Not?

WASHINGTON: It’s not a Nobel Prize, but the Packard Award matters in the big-dollar world of defense procurement. Last week, utterly overshadowed by elections, the Department of Defense awarded the Packard to the Navy’s DDG-51 destroyer, the sleek grey mainstay of the fleet. With 62 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers already in service, four under construction, and…