US Coast Guard Cutter Healy
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The US Coast Guard awarded Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle, WA a $12.5 million modification to a previously awarded contract (HSCG85-05-C-625306) in support of repairs and alterations performed during the triennial Dry-Docking Planned Maintenance Availability (DPMA) of the icebreaker USCG Cutter Healy (WAGB-20).

The contract modification provides for repair and maintenance of the ship’s main propulsion system, auxiliary systems, and other structural, mechanical, and electrical features aboard the ship, including underwater hull inspection and renewal.

The USCG Cutter Healy is the USA’s largest icebreaker…

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On the list again
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Naval Open Source Intelligence is a good set of quick links to international navy-related stories in the news. Each year, they also add a summary of their take on the most significant trends and items to their “Naval Year in Review” set.

They’ve added the 2008 list, which includes piracy, the continuing crisis in US Navy shipbuilding (4 of last 5 years, see DID), environmental groups’ lawfare against the US Navy (2 of last 3 years, see DID), the steady growth of the Chinese Navy, the use of semi-submersibles to smuggle drugs into the USA (see readings), humanitarian operations, arctic sovereignty, and more.

Small business qualifier Nana Pacific LLC in Anchorage, AK received a $6.7 million firm-fixed-price contract for construction of a new antenna addition and a weather vestibule between existing buildings, relocation of a fuel storage tank, and expansion of the area within the security fence at Fort Greely, Alaska, an existing defense satellite communications system facility.

Fort Greely is a launch site for anti-ballistic missiles and home of the Cold Regions Test Center (CRTC), as it is one of the coldest areas in Alaska (get the current forecast). Imagine the fun experience in store, with work lasting through fall and winter and ending on March 15, 2008. This was a sole source contract initiated on Nov. 13, 2006 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Elmendorf Air Force Base, AK (W911KB-07-C-0002).

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K-159 before departure,
moored at Gremikha base
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According to a British report published June 10, 2005, Russia’s scrapped atomic submarines pose a serious nuclear threat. Russia must act to prevent a nuclear accident in northwest Russia’s Barents Sea region, home to 118 scrapped nuclear submarines as well as spent nuclear fuel storage sites, said Mark Gerchikov, coordinator of the report from British consulting firm National Nuclear Corporation. It was funded by the 60-nation European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The USSR built 450 naval nuclear reactors, beginning in 1958. Of these, two-thirds are located in the Barents Sea region, representing 20% of the world’s nuclear reactors. “Certain nuclear installations are in such a state that we cannot exclude a chain reaction” leading to a nuclear accident, Gerchikov said at the report’s presentation.

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