RV Kilo Moana

Contract for 2nd ship of class. (Feb 3/12)

The USA’s University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System conducts research throughout the world’s oceans, and their fleet has shifted to 4 basic research vessel types: Global, Ocean/Intermediate, Regional and Coastal/Local. From 2014 onward, new Ocean Class ships will replace aging Intermediate Class ships in current use, and serve alongside the new SWATH-hulled RV Kilo Moana [T-AGOR 26]. Growing trends towards larger, interdisciplinary science teams, using more sophisticated research equipment, means a need for larger and more sophisticated ships. They new Ocean Class will provide parties of up to 25 scientists with an advanced blue-water platform that can stay at sea for up to 40 days, and cover up to 10,000 nautical miles.

Can they be built affordably? The US Navy is managing the competition, construction, and chartering process, and the 1st build contract was issued in October 2011:

• The Ocean Class
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  Continue Reading… »

• The RAND Corporation researched ways to reduce attrition in US Air Force training programs, which they believe could produce significant savings.

• The GAO finds DOD’s reporting of the costs involved in operating and supporting major programs to be lacking with a number of inconsistencies and under-reported amounts.

• DARPA is organizing a Proposers’ Day on Feb. 21 in Arlington, VA, to present its High-Assurance Cyber Military Systems (HACMS) whose goal is to secure embedded computer system software.

• A&P and Thales Australia are partnered to bid on long-term support of HMAS Choules, the RAN’s newest amphibious ship.

• 1st French Army NH90 TTH “Caiman” unveiled [in French].

• Fighting base realignment is guaranteed work for lobbyists. What’s less guaranteed are the chances that a bill introduced by Senate Republicans to partially undo sequestration gets traction with Democrats.

• CACI International’s revenue grew by 12% to $973M for its second FY12 quarter. Funded backlog at the end of 2011 was stable at $2.19B out of an $8B total. Meanwhile Harris Corporation had a flat second quarter at $1.45B in sales, with an increase in exports to compensate for lower US sales.

Hawaii Superferry

Cost actually $70M; Handover to Navy; Financial details. (Jan 29/12)

In his April 6/09 discussion of the FY 2010 budget, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates said that the US military wanted to charter another 2 “JHSV-like” fast catamaran ships from 2009-2011, until the JHSV ships begin arriving. That meant JHSV-winner Austal would find its products competing once more with Incat, which has had 4 of its wave-piercing catamarans chartered by various American services. Their Swift wave-piercing catamaran is currently chartered by the Navy as HSV-2, just as the Austal-built Westpac Express is chartered by US Military Sealift Command for the Marines.

One obvious stopgap option is the Hawaiian Superferry catamarans, a larger pair of Austal-built ships that resemble the Westpac Express. They were even pressed into service when Haiti’s disaster struck, but the actual sale of the ships by US MARAD has been a much slower process.

Austal MRV/JHSV concept

Hawaii Superferries to supplement JHSV; Cut to program. (Jan 26/12)

When moving whole units, shipping is always the cheaper, higher-capacity option. Speed and port access are the issue, but what if getting there was faster, and full-service ports weren’t necessary? After Australia led the way by using what amounted to fast car ferries for military operations, the US Army and Navy picked up the idea themselves. Both services leased Incat TSV/HSV wave-piercing catamaran ship designs, while the Marines’ charged ahead with very successful use of Austal’s Westpac Express high-speed catamaran. These Australian-designed ships all give commanders the ability to roll on a company with full gear and equipment (or roll on a full infantry battalion if used only as a troop transport), haul it intra-theater distances at 38 knots, then move their shallow draft safely into austere ports to roll them off.

Their successful use, and continued success on operations, attracted favorable comment and notice from all services. So favorable that the experiments have led to a $3+ billion program called the Joint High Speed Vessel. These designs may even have uses beyond simple ferrying and transport.

• The US Military’s HSV/TSV Experience
• The JHSV Ships
• The JHSV Program [updated]
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources
  Continue Reading… »

MLP concept

Converteam picked for propulsion & power system; Ships named; Keel laid; Article updated. (Jan 19/12)

The Montford Point Class Mobile Landing Platform is intended to be a new class and type of auxiliary support ship, as part of the US Navy’s Maritime Prepositioning Force of the Future (MPF-F) program. They’re intended to serve as a transfer station or floating pier at sea, improving the U.S. military’s ability to deliver equipment and cargo from ship to shore when friendly bases are denied, or simply don’t exist. That’s very useful in disaster situations, and equally useful for supporting US Marines once they’re ashore.

It’s an interesting and unusual concept, one closely connected to the au courant concept of “seabasing”. The final MLP design changed substantially from the initial requirements, which lowered the platform’s cost along with its capabilities. Time will tell if the initial choices and tradeoffs were well-conceived or not. With contracts to build the ships underway, the remaining question is whether the ships can be built to meet the more limited promises that are being made now…

• Seabasing & MLP: Concept and Execution [updated]
  • The MLPs
  • Seabasing, Ancillaries & the MPF-F
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings [updated]
  Continue Reading… »

USNS Comfort, Haiti 2010

Boston Ship Repair, LLC in Boston, MA recently won a $9.2 million firm-fixed-price contract for a 60-day regular overhaul/dry-docking of Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort [T-AH-20] for ship repair and maintenance. Work will include dry-docking and undocking of the ship; tank preservation; freeboard preservation; underwater hull painting; switchboard upgrade, sea valve repair; and pump overhauls. The contract includes options which could raise its value to $11.9 million.

Comfort’s primary mission is to provide emergency, on-site care for deployed U.S. military forces, and the ship is also used extensively for humanitarian engagement missions around the world. Work will be performed in Boston, MA, and is expected to be complete by April 13/12. This contract was competitively procured via a solicitation posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website, with more than 50 companies solicited and 3 offers received. US Navy Military Sealift Fleet Support Command manages the contract (N40442-12-C-5001).

• The US Navy takes delivery of the 25,000t LPD 22 San Diego. Commissioning is set for Spring 2012, in her homeport of… San Diego.

• The Pentagon hopes supply routes in Pakistan will be reopened soon. Driving through Russia and other countries surrounding Afghanistan is more expensive and takes more time.

• 5 Polish soldiers died from a roadside bomb explosion earlier today in Afghanistan. It appears they were driving one of the Cougars leased to Poland by the US.

• Navistar finished its FY11 strongly with $13.96B in revenue and a $320M pre-tax income. Earlier this year billionaire investor Carl Icahn disclosed he had built positions of almost 10% in both Navistar and Oshkosh.

• Boeing has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with 2 Brazilian companies to strengthen its Super Hornet bid in the F-X2 competition. Brazil has made it clear that offsets would bear a lot of weight in its decision, while Boeing is not giving up on the fighter market.

• France takes delivery of the 1st of 8 more Airbus CN-235 light transports, 2 months ahead of schedule. They were bought as an immediate stopgap, due to A400M delays and a C160 fleet that’s aging out.

• Eurocopter delivered the first 2 Ecureuil AS350 B2s of a total 9 helicopters ordered by the Ecuadorian Armed Forces in July 2010.

• Will we see unmanned surface vessels (USVs) built and used to fight piracy?

• Germany’s military is facing retention issues after it transitioned away from compulsory military conscription earlier this year.

Westpac, Expressin’

The Westpac Express fast ferry ship has been instrumental in changing the way the US Navy approaches sealift in the Western Pacific. It’s fast enough to substitute for airlift in many cases, and large enough to move a Marine battalion with its gear. Early trials went very well, and the innovative designs and performance of Australian shipbuilders Austal and Incat laid a foundation of manufacturing experience and customer comfort that led to the innovative GD/Austal trimaran design for the new Independence Class “Flight 0” Littoral Combat Ship, while spawning a major acquisition program in the Joint High-Speed Vessel (JHSV).

HSV Westpac Express isn’t a Navy-owned ship; technically, it’s a chartered vessel. In July 2005, we noted an 18-month extension to its charter. In 2006, that service period was extended still further via a new charter, lasting up to 5 years. During that charter’s period, a bankruptcy in Hawaii created an opportunity to buy the Austal-built catamaran Superferry MV Huakai, which will replace Westpac Express in the Pacific. Until then, the USMC needs one more contract extension…

SBX-1, Pearl Harbor

6-month extension for Boeing. (Dec 13/11)

As rogue state proliferation by the likes of North Korea made missile defense a growing priority for nations including the USA, Japan, and Israel, the USA began to look at the linchpin of any defense: powerful radars that could both track ballistic missiles, and guide interceptors. The USA has its BMEWS tracking system, but that would not serve. America’s Safeguard ABM system was dismantled long ago – though Russia still maintains its counterpart System A-135 network around Moscow. Something new would be needed.

Enter Raytheon’s new XBR radar, based on an SBX-1 platform that looks a lot like a mobile oil drilling rig. Basing the radar at sea offers numerous advantages. One is the obvious ability to move the radar as threats materialize, allowing much greater coverage with fewer radars. Another is the ability to protect allies, without having to invest in expensive systems whose regional capabilities and value to the USA could be put at risk by the decisions of a single foreign government. In exchange for this freedom from political interference, of course, the designers must contend with nature’s.

Boeing SBX system is linked to its land-based GMD (Ground-based Mid-course Defense) missile system but can also operate with other naval and land elements…

• The XBR Radar & SBX Platform
• Contracts & Events [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources
  Continue Reading… »

RFA Largs Bay

Long term support bid partnership. (Jan 30/12)

The fate of a nearly-new British amphibious support ship, RFA Largs Bay, was all about timing.

Britain commissioned 4 of the 176m long, 16,200t Bay Class LSD amphibious ships to renew a very run-down capability. The new “Alternative Landing Ship Logistic” ships were built from the same base Enforcer template that produced the successful Dutch Rotterdam and Johann de Witt, and Spanish Galicia class programs. Britain ordered 4 of these ALSL/LSD-A ships into its Royal Fleet Auxiliary, and active use began with RFA Largs Bay’s commissioning in 2006. By 2011, however, Britain’s fiscal situation was so dire that a strategic review marked RFA Largs Bay for decommissioning in April 2011, after just a fraction of its 30+ year service life. That was bad timing for Britain, but good timing for others.

Especially Australia. They won the tender, and then went on to add a combination of leased, bought, and borrowed vessels to fill in for the RAN’s suddenly-unserviceable amphibious fleet, until their new Canberra Class LHDs arrive in mid-decade…

• Largs Bay: 5 Potential Customers, 1 Winner
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings