WASHINGTON — Acting Navy Secretary Thomas B. Modly announced that he is commissioning a Blue-Ribbon Future Carrier 2030 (FC-2030) Task Force to conduct a six-month study that will reimagine the future of the aircraft carrier and carrier-based naval aviation (manned and unmanned) for 2030 and beyond. 

FC-2030 will be complementary to, and informed by, a broad review of national shipbuilding requirements being conducted by Deputy Defense Secretary David L. Norquist. U.S. Navy and Marine Corps uniformed and civilian leadership will be engaged in both efforts. 

FC-2030 will attract current and former leaders from Congress, leaders from the U.S. shipbuilding and supporting technology industries and current and former Pentagon leaders as well as thought leaders at war colleges, think-tanks and futurists from around the nation. 

“The long-term challenges facing our nation and the world demand clear-eyed assessments and hard choices,” Modly said. “Because we have four new Ford carriers under contract, we have some time to reimagine what comes next. Any assessment we do must consider cost, survivability and the critical national requirement to sustain an industrial base that can produce the ships we need —ships that will contribute to a superior, integrated naval force for the 2030s and far beyond. 

“Aircraft carrier construction sustains nearly 60,000 skilled jobs in over 46 states,” Modly added. “It can’t be simply turned on and off like a faucet. We must be thoughtful in how we approach changes as they will have lasting impacts on our national industrial competitiveness and employment.” 

The task force will be led by an executive director chosen from within the Department of the Navy’s Secretariat staff and assisted on a collateral-duty basis by representatives from the Office of Naval Research and the deputy chief of naval operations for Warfighting Development. 

With an executive director, the FC-2030 senior executive panel will consist of thought leaders with historical records of leading and contributing to large change in maritime defense strategies and programs. Former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) has agreed to serve as the honorary chairman of the executive panel. Former Nav Secretary John Lehman, former acting Deputy Defense Secretary Christine Fox, former Deputy Navy Undersecretary Seth Cropsey and former Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) have agreed to serve as executive members of the panel. 

“Our future strength will be determined as much by the gray matter we apply to our challenges as the gray hulls we build,” Modly said. “We need the best minds from both inside and outside of government focused on this issue.” 

The study will be conducted with the assistance of the Naval University System (U.S. Naval Academy, Naval War College, Marine Corps University and Naval Postgraduate School) as well as eligible federally funded research and development centers and naval warfare centers.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy still needs a large fleet of guided-missile destroyers (DDGs) to replace the guided-missile cruisers (CGs) being retired, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) said. 

Speaking March 9 at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), the ranking member of the Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee of the HASC, expressed concern over the Navy’s announcement that it would not extend the service life of the older Arleigh Burke-class (DDG 51) DDGs, some of which reach their maximum life in the mid-2020s. 

“Our DDG 51s are incredibly important, and doing the upgrades, especially on the Flight IIs, are important,” Wittman said. “There is still a lot of utility and life left in Flight I — there are some upgrades they can do … and bring the Aegis baseline systems up, put some more capable radars on those ships — I think that those things need to stay on track.”  

Noting the Navy’s 2021 budget plan to slow the rate of production on the new Flight III DDGs, Wittman said the plan “doesn’t get us to where we need to be, especially in light of retiring four CGs. If you’re going to take those cruisers out — remember, those cruisers are either part of the carrier strike group or the ballistic-missile defense mission — my counter to that is, what are you going to do to then replace them at some fairly fast pace with DDG 51s?” 

Wittman noted that “going south” on upfitting older DDGs, retiring CGs and not building the Flight III DDGs at a quick enough pace, a 355-ship Navy gets more distant. 

Asked by moderator Seth Cropsey about increasing the number of small combatants and unmanned surface vessels (USVs) instead of DDGs, Wittman said integration of USVs raises questions that have not yet been answered. 

“The only way you know that is to implement that, put it in place, and figure out what does it do well, what doesn’t it do well, and then you can ramp up production,” he said. “My concern is that if you replace a DDG 51 Flight III — that we know is an extraordinarily capable ship, even a modernization of a Flight I or you replace that with a unmanned platform — you have no idea at this particular point how useful that is going to be integrating these missions into the fleet. 

“Let’s build a number of [USVs], let’s integrate them in, let’s figure out what works and what doesn’t work, and then at some future date you can ramp up production and get a significant amount of capability and capacity,” he said. “But don’t do it too soon, where you waste resources and say, well these ships hadn’t worked out so well and we’re going to retire these. We see this with [littoral combat ships] and it really takes away from the effort necessary to build the fleet that we need for the future.” 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has ordered long-lead materials and activity to support production of eight P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft for its patrol squadrons plus 10 more for foreign military sales.  

Naval Air Systems Command has awarded an $800 million contract modification for long-lead materials and activities for Lot 11 production of 18 P-8As, including eight for the U.S. Navy, six for the Republic of Korea Navy and four for the Royal New Zealand Air Force, according to a Pentagon contract announcement. 

The funds for the work were appropriated in the fiscal 2020 budget.  

The Navy was authorized to procure nine P-8As in the 2020 budget, but one was targeted to be delayed or cancelled as part of a reprogramming request to shift some Defense Department funds to construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

WASHINGTON — The Navy will commission its newest Expeditionary Sea Base, USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB 4), during a 10 a.m. EST ceremony Saturday, March 7, in Norfolk, Virginia, the Navy’s Office on Information announced in a March 6 release. 

The future Hershel “Woody” Williams is the first ship to bear the name of Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officer Four Hershel Woodrow Williams, the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient recognized for heroism at the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. 

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia will deliver the commissioning ceremony’s principal address. The ceremony will be highlighted by a time-honored Navy tradition when Ms. Tracie Jean Ross and Ms. Travie Jane Ross, ship sponsors and daughters of Hershel “Woody” Williams, will give the first order to “man our ship and bring her to life!” 

“This ship honors a man who dedicated his life to service — heroic service as a Marine, and continued service to his fellow veterans,” said Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly. “This dedication will live on in USS Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams as the ship is deployed around the world bringing additional capability to our growing fleet. The ceremony on Saturday will also represent the dedication to service demonstrated by the men and women who worked tirelessly to build this ship and their commitment to quality and innovation.” 

The future Hershel “Woody” Williams is optimized to support a variety of maritime-based missions and designed around four core capabilities: aviation facilities, berthing, equipment staging support, and command and control assets. ESBs can be enhanced to meet special operations force missions through increased communications, aviation and unmanned aircraft system support. 

Built by General Dynamics NASSCO, the Montford Point-class is comprised of five ships across two variants: Expeditionary Transfer Docks and Expeditionary Sea Bases. Acting as a mobile sea base, ESBs are part of the critical access infrastructure that supports the deployment of forces and supplies to provide prepositioned equipment and sustainment with flexible distribution. 

The platform has an aviation hangar and flight deck that include four operating spots capable of landing V-22 and MH-53E equivalent helicopters, accommodations, work spaces, and ordnance storage for an embarked force. The platform will also provide unmanned aviation vehicle operations, enhanced command and control, communications, computers, and intelligence capabilities to support embarked force mission planning and execution. The reconfigurable mission deck area can store embarked force equipment including mine sleds and rigid hull inflatable boats. 

WASHINGTON — The fiscal 2021 budget proposal for a new version of the Tomahawk cruise missile will give the U.S. Marine Corps a new weapon for sea-control and sea-denial missions, the Corps’ top officer said. 

The budget proposes the procurement of 44 Maritime Strike Tomahawk (MST) missiles, which have a terminal multimode sensor for striking moving targets such as ships. 

Marine Commandant Gen. David H. Berger, testifying March 5 before the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that as the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have been thinking about future operations as an integrated naval force against a peer competitor, the Corps “assumes a role which we have not had in the past 20 years which is, how do we contribute to sea control and sea denial? The Tomahawk missile is one of the tools that is going to allow us to do that.” 

Asked about the MST by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Berger said that much like the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle, “for us [the MST] could be the answer or it could be the first step toward a longer-term answer five, six, seven years from now. But what we need is long-range precision fires for a small unit, a series of units, that can from ship or from shore hold an adversary’s naval force at risk. That missile is going to help us do that.” 

Asked by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) about the Ground-Based Anti-Ship Missile and the Remotely Operated Ground Unit Expeditionary (ROGUE) Fires Vehicle, Berger said that both capabilities — in wargames and in simulations — have proven useful, not necessarily game-changers, but definitely changing the calculus of an adversary. 

The ROGUE fires vehicle will be an unmanned vehicle based on the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.  

“Right now, that capability is something we don’t have,” he said. “Posed with that, [adversaries] have to act differently.” 

The commandant said that “ROGUE Fires in particular are on a great glidepath. We are investing in it. Who knows if that is the solution 10 years from now, but we are going down that glidepath right now. Ground-launched cruise missiles and everything long-range precision fires that’s in a small-enough that a small Marine unit can embark it and use it, we’re after it.  

Berger stressed that “we need naval ISR [intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance] that an expeditionary naval force that is operating in EUCOM [the European Command] or in the first island chain [of the Western Pacific] or wherever, has the means to pick up the targets forward in an expeditionary manner. They’ve got to be able to launch from naval platforms [and] from shore, and they’ve got to be small enough if they are going to be embarked with us that we can sustain them.” 

He said the Corps “has used MQ-9s for a year and a half in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, as a learning platform for us. That could close that kill chain organically.”

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy’s controversial decision to propose one Virginia-class attack submarine (SSN) instead of two in the fiscal year 2021 budget was a matter of budget priorities — not a concern over shipyard or program capacity to start construction of the Columbia ballistic-missile sub, the Navy’s top acquisition official told Congress. 

“I had less confidence six to nine months ago where we were seeing some of the Block IV [Virginia SSN] deliveries starting to move to the right, and the concern was can we maintain the cadence to not add risk to Columbia,” James F. Geurts, Navy assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition, said March 4 during testimony before Seapower and Projection Forces, a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee. 

Geurts repeated his previous assertion that “the No. 1 way to reduce risk to Columbia is a stable, well-performing Virginia program.” 

The Navy worked closely with the submarine builders, Electric Boat and Newport News Shipyard, to stabilize the transition from Block III to Block IV. 

“I am happy to report that over the last six months that has stabilized,” he said. “My concerns are not, now, ‘Can they execute?’ he said. “They just need to continue to execute.” 

Geurts said that at the time a “relief valve” was created by making the 10th Virginia-class SSN an option in the recent multiyear Block V procurement. The second 2021 Virginia SSN became “more of an affordability issue, not an execution issue,” he said. “I’m confident [the shipyards] can execute [building] the ship.” 

The second Virginia SSN is atop the Navy’s list of 2021 unfunded priorities. 

“We need to add that ship in this year, or we’ll just have to work on that at the start of Block VI,” Geurts said. “I don’t think there is a way to execute three [submarines] in a Columbia year with a high degree of success.” 

“Submarine construction is very sensitive to cadence … and dips in workload, so there is some work we’re going to do at the end of 2023 with the shipbuilder,” he added. “The last thing we want to do is lay off folks [only] to climb this giant Columbia wall. 

“If we cut short and have a large gap at the end of Block V [production] before having Block VI move in and Columbia start up, that will be a risk to execution not only in Virginia but to Columbia.” 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy is looking at acquisition strategies for procuring four amphibious warfare ships over the next few years to achieve economies, the Navy’s top acquisition official said. 

During March 4 testimony about the fiscal 2021 shipbuilding proposal before the Seapower subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee by James F. Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said he was pleased that the 2021 proposal had accelerated the planned procurement of amphibious assault ship LHA 9 from fiscal 2024 to fiscal 2023. 

Geurts said that the acceleration was enabled because Congress had appropriated funds and given incremental funding authority “relatively early to that need.”  

“Our challenge in the future budgets will be to place that money back in the program so we can deliver that LHA,” he said.  

Wicker asked about the possibility of a multiyear procurement for three Block II San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships (LPDs 31, 32 and 33) and LHA 9. He referred to a request last year from the Seapower subcommittee to “review alternative acquisition strategies for amphibious ships to leverage multiple-ship contracts, which have saved billions of dollars. In this review, the Navy reported that significant savings could be achieved by procuring various combinations of amphibious ships.” 

“There is tremendous potential as [said] in our report to Congress, and as we’ve looked at it even further to doing a block buy of the three LPDs and the LHA,” Geurts said. 

“We see that savings to be in that 8% to 12% range, which would be a billion dollars back in taxpayer savings. So, we’re looking at that closely. We’re also executing that advance procurement, long-lead funding that’s been appropriated with the incremental authority. The things that I’ve seen in the draft of the SHIPS Implementation Act in terms of giving us more authorities to do smart procurement will be tremendously beneficial.” 

The Huntington Ingalls shipyard where the Navy’s amphibious warfare ships are built is in Pascagoula, Mississippi. 

WASHINGTON — The admiral in charge of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear weapons arsenal said the new warhead in development is needed to modernize the arsenal. 

Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe, director of Strategic Systems Programs (SSP), testifying on March 3 in Washington before the Strategic Forces subcommittee of the House Armed Forces Committee, said the W93 warhead and Mark 7 re-entry aeroshell are needed to pace the threat. 

The proposed fiscal 2021 budget reflects the direction to pursue the W93 warhead and Mark 7 aeroshell program of record, which “will address an evolving threat environment and ballistic missile warhead modernization requirements, will improve operational effectiveness for U.S. Strategic Command and will mitigate technical, operational, programmatic and geopolitical risk in the sea-based leg of the deterrent,” Wolfe said. 

“The SSP fiscal 2021 budget request not only funds the sustainment of today’s deterrent but it also begins the investment to build and re-energize capabilities, technologies, work force and critical skills required of any nuclear nation.” 

The SSP budget “reflects important investments in our follow-on Trident D5 Life-Extension 2 need for strategic deployment no later than 2039 in an evolving threat environment,” he said. 

Wolfe said the modernization efforts will produce “just-in-time replacements,” noting that the recapitalization “has left no margin for unanticipated challenges and technical work that we have not executed in over 30 years. … We must begin now. Now is the right time to ensure that the sea-based deterrent continues to meet strategic requirements.” 

He said the refurbishment of the W76 warhead family has been completed and a small number of them have been modified with a low-yield option. The timeline for completion of the W88 Warhead Alteration 370 program has been modified to reach production in 2021. 

Lisa Gordon-Haggerty, administrator of the National Nuclear Safety Administration who also testified at the hearing, said the W93 warhead will be based on previously deployed and tested nuclear explosive components. 

Wolfe said it has been 30 years since a new aeroshell had been developed and that “we’ve got to look how we can produce an aeroshell, agnostic of whatever the final solution is. We’ve got to have this for all of our systems as we move into the future.” 

FORT WORTH, Texas — Lockheed Martin and the F-35 Joint Program Office have delivered the 500th F-35 Lightning II strike fighter, the company said March 3. The F-35 surpassed 250,000 flight hours last month. 

The 500th production aircraft is a U.S. Air Force F-35A, to be delivered to the Burlington Air National Guard Base in Vermont. The 500 F-35s include 354 F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variants, 108 F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variants for the U.S. Marine Corps and 38 F-35C carrier variants for the Navy and international customers. The 250,000 flight hours include developmental test jets and training, operational, U.S. and international F-35s.  

“These milestones are a testament to the talent and dedication of the joint government, military and industry teams,” said Greg Ulmer, Lockheed’s vice president and general manager of the F-35 program. “The F-35 is delivering an unprecedented fifth-generation combat capability to the warfighter at the cost of a fourth-generation legacy aircraft.” 

The F-35 operates from 23 bases worldwide. More than 985 pilots and over 8,890 maintainers are trained. Nine nations use the F-35 from their home soil, eight services have declared initial operating capability and four services have employed F-35s in combat operations.

PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — The Specialized and Proven Aircraft program office (PMA-226) recently completed a modification on several U.S. Navy F-16A Fighting Falcon aircraft to increase readiness and service life, according to Naval Air Systems Command. 

The FalconUp modification improves F-16A readiness by extending their fatigue lives by more than 500 hours and provides the configuration baseline to incorporate the funded Falcon Star program, which adds an additional 3,750 hours to the service lives of the aircraft. 

“The FalconUp upgrade incorporates structural improvements that extend the service life of the aircraft from 3,665 hours to 4,250 hours,” said Capt. Ramiro Flores, PMA-226’s program manager. “The program procured and installed proven structural modification kits on 10 U.S. Navy aircraft that enhanced and strengthened their internal structure.” 

PMA-226 used a rapid acquisition approach, in this case a build-to-print strategy to minimize risk and eliminate the need for test plans, systems engineering plans and design reviews. Build-to-print is a process in which a manufacturer produces products, equipment or components according to the customer’s exact specifications. 

The program office leveraged existing designs that the U.S. Air Force and international partners have used to install the modification and have been including it in production of the F-16 for more than two decades. The Navy competitively awarded the contract to ES3 Prime Logistics Group Inc., which has previously manufactured the same components for the Air Force and PMA-226. 

“Since the proven design has flown thousands of hours in this configuration, and it doesn’t require expansion of the current flight envelope, we were able to deliver this training capability to the warfighter much faster than a traditional program,” said Lt. Cmdr. Heather Bliss, PMA-226 adversary program team co-lead. 

“The upgrade allows the Navy to provide mission ready adversary aircraft for Naval aviation advanced tactical and aerial combat training, extending the operational life of the F-16A through 2025,” said Boyd Forsythe, PMA-226 adversary program team lead.