USS Theodore Roosevelt’s Mid-Life RCOH Overhaul

CVN-71, Indian Ocean

The USS Theodore Roosevelt [CVN 71] was built by Northrop Grumman’s Newport News sector. Commissioned on Oct 25/86, CVN 71 is expected to remain in service until 2036. As it approaches its mid-life stage, however, the wear begins to show. Instead of putting a ramp on its flight deck, buying it a nice red car, and pairing it with much younger ships, the US government has begun preparing for the refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) of the carrier and its reactor plants.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt arrived at the Newport News shipyard in August 2009 to begin its RCOH, and Northrop Grumman has valued the planning phase alone at $558 million. So what exactly is a RCOH, and how expensive is it likely to get before all is said and done?

Rapid Fire Sept. 4, 2014: Senate Panel Rules Out Boots on the Ground in Syria

• After hearing John Kerry and Chuck Hagel (see video below), the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee came up with a resolution [PDF] narrowing the scope of a possible military intervention against Syria by explicitly ruling out the presence of US troops “on the ground in Syria for the purpose of combat operations.” Kerry would still like the President to have that option, were Syria to “implode.” A similar hearing is scheduled today with the House foreign affairs panel at 12pm ET. House leadership is lined up behind the president, which does not necessarily mean the rank and file will follow.

• India’s Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses published a column accusing the US of selective memory, and possibly double standard, on post-WWI use of chemical weapons. Some of the cited historical precedent is contentious.

• Huntington Ingalls Industries will close its Gulfport Composite Center of Excellence by May 2014, acknowledging they had little choice after the Navy decided to use steel on Zumwalt destroyers.

• AM General and Navistar are both filing GAO protests against USSOCOM’s award to General Dynamics for Ground Mobility Vehicle (GMV) 1.1, reports Defense News. Such protests are almost Standard Operating Procedure these days.

• The US Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) has conducted joint helicopter crash tests in cooperation with NASA and the FAA.

• The Pentagon is backtracking from a milestone set 2 years ago by then-SecDef Leon Panetta that was meant to get the department closer to its deadline to finally be fully auditable by FY17.