CH-53E, Cobra Gold 2002
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Contract for Cobham, new Sikorsky facility. (Feb 22/10)

The U.S. Marines have a problem. The CH-53E Super Stallion medium-heavy lift helicopters they rely upon to move troops, vehicles, and supplies off of their ships are wearing out. Fast. Yet the pace demanded by the Global War on Terror is relentless, and usage rates are 3 times normal. Attrition is taking its toll, and CH-53s are being recalled from “boneyard” storage at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, AZ, in order to maintain fleet numbers in the face of recent losses and forced retirements. No flyable spare airframes are left, and by 2012-2015, replacements will be urgently needed.

Enter the Heavy Lift Replacement (HLR) program, also known as the CH-53X and given the formal designation CH-53K in April 2006. DID describes the CH-53K’s requirements, covers some of the potential improvements, and notes the treacherous political waters this program will need to survive, in order to wind up delivering US Marines the tools they’ll need to survive.

• The HLR Program Lifts Off
• The CH-53X / CH-53K [updated]
• HLR Program: Contracts, Events & Milestones [updated]
• Appendix A: Flying Between Scylla and Charbydis: Navigating The Political Shoals (April 2006)
• Appendix B: Interesting Ideas: The CH-53X Skycrane Concept
• Appendix C: Additional Readings & Sources
  
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LPD-17 cutaway
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Up to $249.4 million to Northrop Grumman to provide LCE&S services for the LPD-17 San Antonio class amphibious assault ships. (Feb 16/10)

LPD-17 San Antonio class amphibious assault support vessels are just entering service with the US Navy. Between 10-12 scheduled ships of this new class are slated to assume the functional duties of up to 41 previous ships. Much like their smaller predecessors, their mission is to embark, transport, land, and support elements of a US Marine Corps Landing Force. What changes are the ships’ size, their cost, and the capabilities and technologies used to perform those missions. Among other additions, this new ship is designed to operate accompanying platforms like the Marines’ MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, and the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle amphibious armored personnel carrier.

While its design incorporates notable advances, the San Antonio Class has also had its share of teething problems. So, too, has the New Orleans shipyard to which most of this contract has been assigned. The number of serious issues encountered in this ship class have been much higher than usual, and more extensive. The initial ships have been criticized for sub-standard workmanship, and it took 2 1/2 years after the initial ship of class was delivered and accepted before any ship of class was sent on an operational cruise. Whereupon the USS San Antonio promptly found itself laid up Bahrain due to oil leaks. Meanwhile, costs are almost twice the originally promised amounts at over $1.7 billion per ship – 2 to 3 times as much as many foreign LPD classes, and more than 10 times as much as Singapore’s 6,600 ton Endeavour Class LPD.

DID’s FOCUS articles offer in-depth, updated looks at significant military programs of record. This is DID’s FOCUS Article for the San Antonio Class, detailing the ships’ unique features and capabilities, its program innovations and issues, ship timelines, and related contracts throughout the program’s history. As has become DID custom, the most recent additions are highlighted in green type...

• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Capabilities and Features
• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Process & Issues
• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Program, Budgets & Timelines
• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Contracts and Events (1996-Present) [updated]
• Appendix A: Additional Readings & Sources – LPD-17 Ship Class
• Appendix B: Additional Readings & Sources – News and Views
  
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General Dynamics Team
Trimaran LCS Design
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New RFP provokes questions, sonar solicitation, “water wings” for LCS 1. (Feb 25/10)

Exploit simplicity, numbers, the pace of technology development in electronics and robotics, and fast reconfiguration. That was the US Navy’s idea for the low-end backbone of its future surface combatant fleet. Inspired by successful experiments like Denmark’s Standard Flex ships, the US Navy’s $30+ billion “Littoral Combat Ship” program was intended to create a new generation of affordable surface combatants that could operate in dangerous shallow and near-shore environments, while remaining affordable and capable throughout their lifetimes.

It hasn’t worked that way. In practice, what the Navy wanted, the capabilities needed to perform primary naval missions, and what could be delivered for the sums available, have proven nearly irreconcilable. The LCS program has changed its fundamental acquisition plan several times since 2005, and canceled contracts with both competing teams, without escaping any of its fundamental issues. This public-access FOCUS article offer a wealth of research material, alongside looks at the LCS program’s designs, industry teams procurement plans, military controversies, and contracts.

• LCS: Concept & Needs
• LCS: The Competing Teams
• LCS Solution = Standard Equipment + Mission Modules
• LCS: Controversies & Cautions
• LCS: Budgets and Program Structure [updated]
• LCS: Export Potential
• LCS: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• LCS Ancillaries: Mission Module & Weapon Contracts & Key Events
• Additional Readings & Sources [updated]
  
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[by John MacNeill]
Goo goo g’joob!

The Walrus heavy-transport blimp (“heavy” as in “1-2 million pounds”) was among a range of projects on the drawing board in the mid ‘00s. It offered the potential for a faster and more versatile sealift substitute. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded phase 1 contracts, but things seemed to end in 2006. Yet the imperatives driving the need for Walrus, or even for a much smaller version of it, remain. Is the Walrus dead? And could it, or a Hybrid Ultra Large Aircraft (HULA) like it, rise again?

Recent presentations and initiatives in several US armed services indicate that it might…

• WALRUS: Concept & Key Technologies
• WALRUS: The Program
• Walrus & HULAs: Contracts and Key Events
• Additional Readings
  
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Small business qualifier Environmental Management Inc. (dba EMI Services) in Idaho Falls, ID won a combination firm-fixed-price (FFP), indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract for facilities maintenance and repair and heavy equipment repair at US Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, US Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) New River, and other USMC properties in the eastern North Carolina area.

The maximum dollar value, including the base period, 4 one-year options, and 5 one-year award options, is $187.3 million ($161.5 million FFP and $25.8 million IDIQ).

Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, NC is the home of the USMC’s Expeditionary Forces in Readiness. MCAS New River, also in Jacksonville, is the principal USMC helicopter operating location on the East Coast, and supports aircrew training in the H-53 helicopter…

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Maersk MPS Ship

Honeywell Technology Solutions in Jacksonville, FL received a not-to-exceed $45 million modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-award-fee task order to provide prepositioning and logistics support services to the US Marine Corps.

Honeywell’s logistics support efforts include maintenance, supply, and inventory management of prepositioned combat assets aboard ships.

Under the original $707 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract (M67004-09-D-0020), Honeywell supports the Maritime Prepositioning Ships (MPS) Program and the Marine Corps Prepositioning Program-Norway…

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EFSS Concept
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The U.S. Marine Corps sees the 120mm Expeditionary Fire Support System (EFSS) mortar as the 3rd leg of its triad of land-based fire support for expeditionary operations.

General Dynamics – Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD-OTS) in St. Petersburg, FL got the go-ahead to make 20 EFSS and supporting equipment under a $20.8 million firm-fixed-price delivery order 0021, part of a previously awarded contract (M67854-05-D-6014). GD-OTS will supply 20 full-rate production EFSS together with their corresponding basic issue item kits, additional authorization list hardware and mortar weapon spares. The GD-OTS subcontractor on the program is TDA Armements (THALES Group) in La Ferte-Saint Aubin, France.

DID has more on the EFSS and a recently awarded GD-OTS contract for the related Internally Transported Vehicle…

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LCAC versatility
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Oceaneering International’s Marine Services Division in Chesapeake, VA won a $14 million firm-fixed-price contract to extend the service life of 3 landing hovercraft. Oceaneering is performing the work under the Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) Service Life Extension Program (SLEP), which extends the expected service life of the LCAC by 50%, from 20 years to 30 years. The scope of this contract includes repair and upgrade of the buoyancy box, gas turbine engine replacement, installation of a new skirt, installation of an integrated C4N equipment package, craft alterations, and repair work. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring its cumulative value to $38.9 million.

LCACs are high-speed, fully amphibious hovercraft capable of carrying a 60-ton payload (75 tons in overload) over water and land at speeds in excess of 40 knots and a nominal range of up to 200 nautical miles. Carrying equipment, troops, and/or supplies, the LCAC launches from inside the well deck of an amphibious warship, then travels the waves at high speed, runs right through the surf zone near the beach, and stops at a suitable place on land. “LCAC Hovercraft: US Navy’s Champion Schleppers Get SLEPped” (subscriptions) discusses the LCAC hovercraft and the SLEP.

Oceaneering will perform the work in Norfolk, VA and expects to complete it by November 2012. This contract was competitively procured via FedBizOpps.com, with four offers received by the Naval Sea Systems Command at the Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC (N00024-09-C-2240)

Air Rover ECU
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Air Rover Inc. of Tyler, TX, won a maximum $15 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price contract for Environmental Control Units (ECUs) from the Navy. The units will be used for various types of expeditionary facilities (e.g., shelters, enclosed trailers, and tent complexes). The Navy has a current requirement for 4 units to be delivered.

Air Rover works directly with the U.S. armed forces to research and manufacture field-deployable ECUs to cool living quarters and electronics. In response to troop feedback and technological advances, Air Rover’s engineering team designed modular ECUs to produce cold, refrigerated air in extreme climatic conditions that range from 50 degrees to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. A recent LA Times article noted the costs involved, however, and called attention to a temporary fix that gets much better efficiency from Army ECUs.

Air Rover expects to perform the work at its Tyler, TX, headquarters and to complete it by May 2014. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via FedBizOpps.com and the internet, with 5 offers received by the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, IN (N00164-09-D-JS25).

LHA-R Concept
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Modern U.S. Navy Amphibious Assault Ships project power and maintain presence by serving as the cornerstone of the Amphibious Readiness Group (ARG) / Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG). A key element of the Seapower 21 doctrine pillars of Sea Strike and Sea Basing, these LHA/LHD ships transport, launch, and land elements of the Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) via a combination of LCAC hovercraft, amphibious transports and vehicles, helicopters, and aircraft.

Designed to project power and maintain presence, LHA-Replacement (LHA-R, aka. LH-X and now the America Class) large deck amphibious assault ships will replace the LHA-1 Tarawa Class. They’re based on the more modern LHD Wasp Class design, but remove the LHD’s landing craft and well deck. The end product is essentially a revival of the World War 2 escort carrier concept, with integrated berthing, cargo, and light vehicle spaces for Marines. LHA-R ships will be almost 80 feet longer than USS Wasp and 10 feet wider, since they don’t have to fit through the Panama Canal. As a result, these ships will weigh in at 50,000 tons/ 45,700t fully loaded rather than 42,400t full load for LHD 8. Though DID uses the term “escort carriers” due to the size of their aerial complement, note that their overall displacement will be larger than France’s 43,000t FNS Charles De Gaulle nuclear powered aircraft carrier.

DID’s FOCUS articles offer in-depth, updated looks at significant military programs of record, and this is DID’s FOCUS Article concerning the America Class LHA/CVLs. The latest development is the formal selection of its propulsion system, which is not exactly a surprise…

• America Class Ships: 21st Century Escort Carriers
• The LHA-R Program [updated]
• America Class: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
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