General Dynamics Team
Trimaran LCS Design
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The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is the U.S. Navy’s newest surface combatant class. Optimized for shallow seas and operations within 100 miles of shore, but deployable across the ocean, LCS ships are a centerpiece of the USA’s new focus on littoral warfare. They will help to counter growing “asymmetric” threats like coastal mines, quiet diesel submarines, global piracy, and terrorists on small fast attack boats. They will also perform intelligence gathering and scouting using helicopters and UAVs, offer some ground combat support capabilities, and share tactical information with other Navy aircraft, ships, submarines, and joint units. Swappable “mission modules,” UAV robot aircraft, and robotic UUV and USV vehicles will give these small ships the specialized capabilities they require for each of these roles – and the quick-replace adaptability they need to keep up.

At present, 2 teams are competing for the final LCS design. The General Dynamics team is offering a futuristic but practical high-speed trimaran based on Austal designs and experience. The Lockheed Martin team offers a high-speed semi-planing monohull based on Fincantieri designs that have set trans-Atlantic speed records. Team Lockheed’s efforts have run into serious trouble, including cancellation of the contract for their second ship. The General Dynamics/Austal team hit the same rocks soon afterward, in part because of the US Navy’s unusual proposal for future business arrangements.

DID places recent developments in context by explaining a bit more about the US Navy’s new surface combatant; detailing the teams, key time line events, and contract awards under the program to date; and providing additional resources and links to complete our in-depth coverage. New material appears in green type. The latest updates include the launch of Austal/GD’s LCS 2 Independence…

• LCS = Standard Equipment + Mission Modules
• LCS: Budgets and Program Structure
• LCS: Designs & Teams
• LCS Controversies
• LCS: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• LCS Ancillaries: Mission Module & Weapon Contracts & Key Events
• Additional Readings & Sources
  
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T-AKE Construction
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The entire T-AKE dry cargo/ ammunition ship program could have a total value of as much as $6.2 billion in exchange for 14 ships, as the US looks to modernize its supply ship fleet. Indeed, the House Armed Services Committee recently put together an FY 2008 budget that added $456 million for another T-AKE ship – though this figure would not cover all of the internal systems et. al. that must be added to make it operational.

How do T-AKE ships fit into US naval operations? What ships do they replace? What’s the tie-in to US civilian industrial capacity? How were environmental standards built into their design? And what contracts have been issued for T-AKE ships to date? DID has answers in this FOCUS Article; recent updates tinclude the mystery of the disappearing shipbuilding appropriation, and the launch of USNS Amelia Earhart…

• T-AKE Ships: Mission & Capabilities
• T-AKE Ships: The Civilian Industry Angle
• T-AKE Ships & the Environment
• T-AKE Ships: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources
  
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Booz Allen Hamilton in Norfolk, VA received a $25.6 million cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price contract to provide expertise in change management, organizational barrier identification and removal, and key enterprise performance metrics to the US Navy. This contract includes a base year and 4 one-year options, which if exercised, bring the total estimated value of the contract to $120.1 million.

Work will be performed in various locations around the continental United States (CONUS), and the base year will be complete by January 2009. Contract funds will expire at the end of the fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured though Government-wide Points of Entry, Navy Electronic Commerce On-line, and Federal Business Opportunities websites, with 3 offers received by the Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Norfolk (N00189-08-D-0022).

SSN Cassabianca
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France’s semi-private naval design & construction firm DCNS has signed a “purchase general contract” for R&D cooperation with Russia’s the Krylov Shipbuilding Research Institute, via Rosoboronexport. It is an amplification of the Letter of Intent the two companies signed during the 2006 Paris Euronaval exhibition.

Work is expected to include “technical relationships for hydrodynamic studies and experimentations… for surface ships as much as for submarines is within the R&D scope of the general contract.” DCNS release.

B-52H: to 2030?
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The current US Air Force fleet, whose planes are more than 23 years old on average, is the oldest in USAF history. It won’t keep that title for very long. Many transport aircraft and aerial refueling tankers are more than 40 years old – and under current plans, some may be as many as 70-80 years old before they retire. Indeed, even if the US military gets every plane it asks for in its future plans, average aircraft age will continue to rise. Nor is the USA the only country facing this problem.

As this dynamic plays out and average age continues to rise, addressing the issues related to aging aircraft becomes more and more important in order to maintain acceptable force numbers, readiness levels, and aircraft maintainability; avoid squeezing out recapitalization budgets; handle personnel turnover that becomes more and more damaging; and keep maintenance costs in line, despite new technical problems are arising that will present unforeseen difficulties. Like F-15 fighters under flight restrictions due to structural fatigue concerns. Or grounded entirely.

The biggest contracts aren’t always the ones deserving of the most attention. Enter the USA’s Joint Council on Aging Aircraft (JCAA) – and DID’s Spotlight article, which seeks to place the situation and its effects in perspective, via comments and articles that draw on senior sources within the US military and key outside observers….

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DID covered evolving US anti-submarine warfare strategy back in 2005, including the growing importance of dealing with super-quiet diesel-electric submarines in shallow-water littorals.

In response, one of the early-stage Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) approaches involves thinking entirely outside the sonar box. We talk about “submariner dolphins” – but maybe the creature they really need to emulate is the shark. Now a recent contract indicates that the US military is making real progress toward that goal…

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On November 7, 2006 The US Department of Defense has awarded a Raytheon/ US Navy partnership a Performance Based Logistics Award (sub-system level) for performance based logistics that has improved the availability, reliability and mission success of the AN/AAS-44(v) forward looking infrared system for the H-60 Seahawk helicopter. This FLIR system allows H-60 aircrews to detect, track, classify, identify and attack targets such as fast patrol boats, mine-laying craft, or even land targets. Along with Raytheon, the award recognizes Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), Fleet Readines Center Southeast, and the Naval Inventory Control Point.

Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) is in the fourth year of a 10-year firm fixed price contract valued at $123 million to provide performance based logistics and mission support for the AN/AAS-44(v) FLIR. “Performance-based logistics” is a global trend in advanced militaries; it can use a range of contract options, but its core focus is a shift from pay-per-part to paying for agreed-upon benchmarks of performance in reliability, availability, et. al. Award documentation notes that the Raytheon/ Navy AN/AAS-44(v) team has steadily maintained 100% availability and achieved a 40% growth in system reliability improvement. The program is also providing increased spares availability, a 65% improvement in logistics response time, and estimated savings and cost avoidance for the Navy of $31 million. Raytheon release.

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Adm. John B. Nathaman

Defense News conducted an extensive interview with Admiral John Nathman, commander of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command on Aug. 4, 2006, at Adm. Nathman’s headquarters in Norfolk, VA.

Subjects discussed included how the job of Fleet Forces Command has evolved since its creation in 2001, global piracy, the “thousand ship navy” concept, new directions in anti-mine warfare, developments related to the Littoral Combat Ship and its program innovations, et. al. The answers were substantive, and the interview is worth your while.

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Earlier DID articles have covered this issue from various points of view – see esp. DID’s December 2005 “Costing the CVN-21: A DID Primer” and the April 2006 piece “RAND: UK Offers Shipbuilding Industry Lessons for USA.” Now RAND turns its attention more fully to the US Navy and shipbuilding industry. Its summary page notes that:

“Over the past several decades, the increases in acquisition costs for U.S. Navy amphibious ships, surface combatants, attack submarines, and nuclear aircraft carriers have outpaced the rate of inflation. To understand why, the authors of this book examined two principal source categories of ship cost escalation: economy-driven factors (which are outside the control of the Navy) and customer-driven factors (features for which the Navy has the most control). The authors also interviewed various shipbuilders to find out their views on other issues contributing to increasing costs. Based on their analysis, the authors propose some ways the Navy might reduce ship costs in the future, including limiting growth in features and requirements and reconsidering the mission orientation of ships. It is recognized, however, that such reductions come at a cost, since the nation and the Navy understandably desire technology and capability that is continuously ahead of their competitors.”

The full, 124-page report can be found here in PDF format.

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DID reader Lee Wahler points us to Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter’s recent address to the annual meeting of the Navy League [PDF format], which focused on the problem of naval shipbuilding costs. DID has covered this issue before, but Winters’ speech went beyond that in some interesting ways.

Some key excerpts from the speech follow – and the opening sets the tone:

“After three months in the job as Secretary, I have some observations regarding the relationship between the Navy and industry that I would like to focus on over the next few minutes. There are some positive conclusions – but, at the same time, there are warning signs that the relationship between the Department of the Navy and industry, a relationship that won hot and cold wars, is beginning to fray under the tensions of the fiscal and security environments of today and tomorrow.”

I thought this next bit was his most compelling statement…

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