Who’s who in Air Force acquisition, and new surface Navy tech
The Weekly Break Out digs into the Air Force's alphabet soup and visits the annual Surface Navy Association expo.
Talk To Us First, THEN Congress: Navy Acquisition Officials
“From an industry perspective, calling us, engaging us, talking to us, and synchronizing that alignment can be most helpful. It can also be, frankly, harmful if the appropriators or the authorizers get some stray voltage that doesn’t match up to the story."
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Why enterprise IT modernization matters now – and how to “delight by design”
Do more with less: streamline workflows, reduce duplication, invest upfront to save long-term.
Saudis Save Wisconsin Shipbuilder: Fills Gap Between LCS & Frigates At Marinette
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 […]
‘Be Ready To Fight Now’: Top Admiral On Russia & China
"The Battle of Guadalcanal was a brutal campaign, but shows us what the next fight could be like," Vice Adm. Brown said. "Usually, the CO (skipper), XO (executive officer) and senior officers – even admirals – were killed immediately – but what happened?"
HASC Chair Thornberry To SecDef Mattis: Share Readiness Info
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon was urged today by one of its best friends on Capitol Hill to share more information about how ready American forces are for war, after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Chief of Naval Operations John Richardson urged more restraint in releasing information. “I think we need to talk more,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman […]
Top Gun For Warships: SWATT
SURFACE NAVY ASSOCIATION: As the overstressed surface fleet struggles to rebuild its readiness for great power war, it’s adding a whole new type of training exercise called SWATT. Modeled on the Top Gun program for naval aviators — itself created to rebuild dogfighting skills after heavy losses in Vietnam — Surface Warfare Advanced Tactical Training […]
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Answering the demand signal to move faster, field sooner, iterate continuously
As threats rapidly evolve, digital engineering, manufacturing capacity and robust supply chains are critical to meeting challenges.
Navy Says It Can Buy Frigate For Under $800M: Acquisition Reform Testbed
SURFACE NAVY ASSOCIATION: The Navy’s frigate program is pioneering new procurement processes to get ships faster and cheaper. For the frigate, that means the cost should come in below the current target of $800 million, the program executive officer for small ships said here. (The maximum allowable cost per ship is $950 million). For the […]
LCS Grows Teeth, At Last…
SURFACE NAVY ASSOCIATION: The Littoral Combat Ship is finally about to get the capabilities envisioned for it at the start, 15 years ago, Navy leaders told the annual conference here. The four much-criticized ships now in service have boast little firepower: a 57 millimeter deck gun; two 30mm autocannon, and a MH-60 helicopter (with varying […]
New Icebreaker Will Have Space, Power For Weapons: Coast Guard
SURFACE NAVY ASSOCIATION: The Coast Guard’s new heavy icebreaker will have space, weight, and electrical power set aside to carry offensive weapons, Commandant Paul Zukunft said here today. While Adm. Zukunft has publicly advocated making the icebreaker capable of carrying cruise missiles, this is the first confirmation we’ve seen that design work is indeed underway. […]
Raytheon Touts Cross Domain Solutions For Navy
As the surface Navy intensively strives to achieve the cross domain capabilities so essential to warfighting success against a near-peer competitor, Raytheon is using its wide spectrum of defense technologies to support those efforts. Modern warfare increasingly requires operations across all of the five domains of land air, surface, subsurface, space and cyberspace. A key […]
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America must adopt a Sixth Domain of warfare doctrine
The Sixth Domain is not defined by geography. It’s a new kind of conflict in which autonomy and networked systems allow thousand-dollar consumer electronics to destroy multi-million-dollar conventional weapons systems.
Navy — Don’t Classify It! Tell America ‘The Story Of Seapower’: Rep. Gallagher
CRYSTAL CITY: When the Chief of Naval Operations told the Navy in March to close its mouth about readiness issues he was heading in the wrong direction, a Marine and member of the House Armed Services Committee told the Surface Navy Association this morning. Rep. Mike Gallagher, who served two tours in Anbar Province before […]
Frigate Design Awards By April; $950M Max, VLS Mandatory
UPDATED with CNO comment on importance of program CRYSTAL CITY: By the end of March, the Navy will award four to six contracts for “conceptual” designs of a future frigate. That ship that must cost under $950 million, have “Grade A shock hardening” on key systems to survive blasts, and carry at least 16 Vertical Launch […]
Navy In Midst Of High-End War ‘Renaissance:’ Vice Adm. Rowden
UPDATED: Adds CNO Vision CRYSTAL CITY: Despite collisions this summer that killed 17 sailors and called into question basic seamanship skills, the Navy is undergoing a ‘renaissance’ in high-end warfighting capabilities, the commander of Naval Surface Forces says. New weapons, improved training, and a growing cadre of surface warfare specialists — veritable “Jedis” — are making […]
LCS Can Too Fight Russia, China: Navy Leaders
WASHINGTON: Is the Littoral Combat Ship a real warship? That question has bedeviled the small, sleek, lightly armed ships for years. Now it’s taken on new urgency as the Defense Department and the Navy both refocus on high-intensity, high-tech warfighting against “great powers” — i.e. China and Russia. Defense Secretary Ash Carter wants to cut […]