ARLINGTON, Va. — The admiral in charge of the Navy’s surface warships said a littoral combat ship (LCS) soon will deploy with a laser weapon system on board. 

Vice Adm. Rich Brown, commander of Naval Surface Forces, in a Jan. 6 media teleconference, embargoed until Jan. 13, said the weapon system will be installed in the Freedom-class USS Little Rock (LCS 9). Brown said the laser system would be installed in the ship midway during its deployment during a crew swap and planned maintenance availability.  

The Little Rock, based in Naval Station Mayport, Florida, is expected to deploy sometime over the next year. The Navy was not ready to discuss the origin or type of laser weapon system to be installed. 

The Navy already has installed a laser weapon system on the amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland (LPD 27). Earlier, an experimental laser weapon system, the SEQ-3, was deployed to the Persian Gulf in 2014 on board the USS Ponce, which since has been decommissioned. 

NORFOLK, Va. — BAE Systems has received a $175 million contract
from the U.S. Navy to modernize the guided-missile cruiser USS Vicksburg, the
company said in a Jan. 6 release. The Vicksburg will undergo about 18 months of
work at the company’s shipyard in Norfolk, the ship’s homeport.

The modernization period (MODPRD) contract includes options that,
if exercised, would bring its cumulative value to $175.1 million.

BAE Systems initiated the first phase of Vicksburg’s
modernization program in May 2017. The company will begin the final phase of
work, called MODPRD, later this month. Under
the new contract, the shipyard’s employees and industry partners will work on
the ship’s weapons and engineering equipment, including its gas turbine
propulsion system, restore crew habitability spaces and support the
installation of a new Aegis combat system, communication suite and CANES
(Consolidated Afloat Network Enterprise System). The Vicksburg’s MODPRD is
scheduled to be complete in July 2021, allowing the ship to rejoin the
operational fleet afterward.

BAE’s Norfolk shipyard also is performing similar work on the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg. The Gettysburg’s MODPRD work began in January 2019 and is expected to be complete this fall. The Gettysburg and Vicksburg were commissioned in the early 1990s, but BAE’s work is expected to extend the service lives of both ships into the mid-2030s.

“Over the last few years, BAE Systems has worked extensively on modernizing the Navy’s Atlantic Fleet cruisers,” said Dave Thomas, vice president and general manager of BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair. “The Vicksburg and Gettysburg modernizations are big jobs. Our experience with cruisers and the expertise of our ship repair partners will return these vital combatants to the fleet with clear improvements and upgraded capability to carry out their missions.”

MARINETTE, Wis. — The future USS St. Louis has completed acceptance trials in Lake Michigan, Lockheed Martin said in a release. 

Now that trials are complete, the ship will undergo final outfitting and fine-tuning before delivery. LCS 19 is the tenth Freedom-variant LCS designed and built by the Lockheed Martin-led industry team and is slated for delivery to the U.S. Navy early next year. 

“The LCS fleet is growing in numbers and capability, and LCS 19’s completion of acceptance trials means the Navy will shortly have 10 Freedom-variant fast, focused-mission ships in the fleet,” said Joe DePietro, Lockheed’s vice president and general manager of small combatants and ship systems. 

“As each Freedom-variant hull deploys, we seek out and incorporate fleet feedback and lessons learned to roll in capabilities for new hulls. As a result, LCS 19 includes a solid-state radar, upgraded communications suite, increased self-defense capabilities and topside optimization, among other updates.” 

More than 500,000 nautical miles are under the keel of Freedom-variant LCS. The Freedom variant has completed three successful deployments with a fourth ongoing. In October, LCS 7 (USS Detroit) deployed to the U.S. Southern Command supporting the Martillo campaign, a multinational effort targeting illicit trafficking routes in Central American coastal waters. 

LCS is designed to deliver speed to capability and to grow as the missions it serves evolve. Today, the Freedom-variant LCS delivers advanced capability in anti-submarine, surface and mine countermeasure missions. The Freedom-variant LCS is targeted for warfighting upgrades to enhance situational awareness and evolve the ship’s self-defense capabilities. These upgrades are already underway; LCS computing infrastructures are receiving cyber upgrades and over-the-horizon missiles are being installed in support of upcoming deployments. 

MOBILE, Ala. — The U.S. Navy accepted delivery of its 11th Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF), the future USNS Puerto Rico, from Austal USA on Dec. 10. 

Delivery marks the official transfer of the ship from the shipbuilder to the Navy.  EPF 11 will be owned and operated by Military Sealift Command. 

“We are excited to accept delivery of another versatile ship, further expanding the advantage of our civilian mariners at sea,” said Capt. Scot Searles, strategic and theater sealift program manager, Program Executive Office-Ships. “Delivery of our 11th ship is a testament to the inherent flexibility of the EPF class.” 

EPFs are shallow-draft, all-aluminum, commercial-based catamarans that are capable of intra-theater personnel and cargo transport, which provide combatant commanders high-speed sealift mobility. EPFs enable rapid projection, agile maneuver and transport of personnel, equipment and supplies over operational distances with access to austere and degraded offload points. 

As versatile, noncombatant vessels, EPFs provide increased operational flexibility for a wide range of activities including maneuver and sustainment, relief operations and flexible logistics support. 

These vessels are capable of interfacing with roll-on/roll-off discharge facilities, and on/off-loading a combat-loaded Abrams Main Battle Tank. EPFs include a flight deck to support day and night aircraft launch and recovery operations and airline-style seating for 312 embarked forces, with fixed berthing for 104. 

Austal USA is also in production on the future USNS Newport (EPF 12) and USNS Apalachicola (EPF 13) and is under contract to build the future USNS Cody (EPF 14). 

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — In a ceremony celebrating the U.S. Navy’s newest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the American hero for whom the ship is named, Huntington Ingalls Industries’ christened John F. Kennedy on Dec. 7 at the company’s Newport News Shipbuilding division, the company said in a release. 

“We are here to celebrate America’s military might and the brawn behind it,” said Jennifer Boykin, president of Newport News Shipbuilding. “We are here to celebrate innovation, pride and perseverance that is the American way, and we are here to honor the patriot who inspired it. I speak for every Newport News shipbuilder — 25,000 strong — and the thousands of suppliers across the nation who support us when I say that we are proud to build John F. Kennedy.” 

Former U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, the ship’s sponsor and daughter of President Kennedy, smashed a bottle of American sparkling wine across the bow to christen the ship. During her remarks, she reflected on christening the first aircraft carrier named in her father’s honor. 

“This ship will represent the ideals he lived by — courage, sacrifice and belief in freedom — and it will help make real his vision of a more just America and a more peaceful world,” Kennedy said. 

“I’m so proud to be sponsor of this ship and to join with all of you to bring her to life. I look forward to being part of her odyssey and of her extended family. Most of all, I hope she will carry my father’s spirit with her as she sails, his leadership in wartime, his courage in crisis and his commitment to the hard and steady work of building peace.” 

More than 20,000 guests attended the ceremony, including members of the Virginia congressional delegation U.S. Sen. Mark Warner and U.S. Rep. Robert C. Scott, who both offered remarks, and U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria. Other speakers included former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Adm. Frank Caldwell, director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. 

Ceremony participants included James Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition; Vice Adm. Thomas Moore, commander of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA); Adm. Christopher W. Grady, commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command; and Capt. Todd Marzano, the ship’s prospective commanding officer. 

Retired Navy Adm. Tom Fargo, HII’s chairman of the board, and Mike Petters, HII’s president and CEO, attended — as did Newport News employees who are building Kennedy, Kennedy’s crew, Navy personnel and other government officials. Former Sailors who served on the first USS John F. Kennedy, which was built and christened at Newport News in May 1967, also attended the ceremony. 

“As we observe ‘a date which will live in infamy’ on this 78th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, this magnificent vessel we see before us today is a symbol of our nation’s strength, of our technical achievements and of the critical service our men and women in uniform provide for this nation and the entire world,” said Charles Frank Bolden Jr., a retired U.S. Marine Corps major general and former NASA administrator and astronaut who served as the principal speaker. 

“This carrier is also a tangible example of the legacy of a great man who risked his own life volunteering for hazardous duty in the Pacific during World War II in the wake of Pearl Harbor and later came to embody a time of optimism that he translated into a vision for taking humans beyond the sphere of our planet.” 

Since the first cut of steel in February 2011, more than 5,000 shipbuilders have helped to construct Kennedy, and suppliers from 46 states across the country have contributed specialized parts, skilled services and support to carrier production. In the weeks following the christening, the carrier will be launched into the James River and moved to a pier where outfitting and testing of its systems will continue until the ship is delivered to the Navy in 2022. 

“President John F. Kennedy taught us that deterrence will always cost less than war,” said Thomas Modly, acting secretary of the Navy. “The purpose of our military, including this warship that bears his name, must be to ensure our nation’s commitment to peace and prosperity for all nations of the world.” 

WASHINGTON — The new chief of naval operations (CNO) is planning on a return to large fleet exercises and plans to hold them annually, part of an initiative to conduct fleet-level naval warfare in an era of great power competition. 

In his Fragmentation Order (“Frago”) 01/2019, a refinement of his predecessors Design for Maritime Security 2.0, Adm. Mike Gilday called for a mastery of fleet-level warfare, noting that “fleet design and operating concepts demand that fleets be the operational center of warfare.” 

At the Dec. 5 U.S. Naval Institute’s Defense Forum in Washington, Gilday said that fleet commanders ought to “drive the fight.” 

In the Frago, Gilday said the Navy “will learn from fleet battle problems and the Large-Scale Exercise (LSE) 2020, then restore annual LSEs as the means by which we operate, train and experiment with large force elements. Fleet exercises will be led by fleet commanders leveraging operational concepts like Distributed Maritime Operations, Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations, and Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment.  

“Combined with wargaming, the exercises will serve as the key opportunity for experimentation and the development and testing of alternative concepts,” he wrote. “These exercises and experiments will inform doctrine and tactics; future fleet headquarters requirements, capacity and size; and investments in future platforms and capabilities. As we develop our plans for future LSEs, we will leverage experience from Combatant Command, Joint and other service exercises to better prepare the Navy to integrate, support and lead the Joint Force in a future fight.” 

Gilday said at the forum that “fleet commanders ought to own the physical and virtual battlespace that they are responsible for and then drive the fight.” 

“In order to be able to fight as a fleet, we can’t continue to use strike groups and ARGs [amphibious ready groups] around the world in these constabulary positions,” he said. “As some point, you’re going to have to bring together the garage band and make it work at the fleet level. Then we have to exercise as a fleet.” 

The CNO noted that the Navy has invested in maritime operations centers at fleet headquarters. 

“These are a great capability that give that fleet commander the ability to fight,” he said. “We need to do more than war-gaming; we need to exercise it. The only way to do that is with iron out there at scale.” 

Gilday said the LSEs will involve several strike groups — carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups — and will be run from the fleet level.  

For the 2020 LSE, he also plans to introduce an information warfare cell inside the fleet maritime operations center to conduct cyber and influence operations.   
 
Lessons learned from the exercises will be used to inform budget submissions for fiscal 2023. 

WASHINGTON — The Navy’s force structure — “gray hulls” — is the current top focus for the acting secretary of the Navy as the service nears completion of a new force structure assessment and plans its 2021 budget proposal. 

“We have to figure out this force structure,” said Thomas Modly, acting secretary of the Navy since the resignation of Secretary Richard V. Spencer, speaking Dec. 5 at the U.S. Naval Institute’s Defense Forum held at the Newseum in Washington. “We have to make sure we’re investing in the right things. The investment in these things [ships] takes a long time to come to fruition. We need to think about what 355 [ships] means. If 355 is not the number, we need to know what the right number is and we ought to be lobbying for that, making the case for it, arguing in the halls of the Pentagon for a bigger share of the budget if that’s what’s required. We have to come to a very clear determination of what that means, and also all the equipment we need to support that. 

“We have to get our story straight first,” Modly said, also noting the need to focus on the readiness of existing ships. 

The Navy is in the midst of a new force structure assessment that incorporates the Marine Corps and is known as the Naval Integrated Force Structure Assessment, in keeping with the guidance from the new Marine Corps commandant, Gen. David H. Berger, to return the Marine Corps to its roots as a Fleet Marine Force. The force structure assessment is due for completion in December. 

Modly was clear that the Navy — currently at 290 ships in its battle force — does not have enough ships for its missions. 

“We don’t have a plan for 355 [ships],” Modly said. “I’m not sure it’s the right force mix anymore.” 

He stressed the need for agility in the fleet to adapt to rapidly changing world and technological developments. 

“We’ve had a gradual loss of our competitive advantage,” he said.  

Modly’s second focus priority is what he called “gray matter” — human capital— which he said is the “enduring competitive advantage” of the United States military. He said the military needs a new human capital strategy and needs to think of human capital as part of the networked Navy. 

His third focus priority in what he calls “gray zone” — all of the things that often escape the attention they need and affect greatly the daily and long-term operations of the Navy and Marine Corps. He included in this category such things as space operations; information management; working with partners and allies; the department audit; and counter-intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. He said the Navy and Marine Corps should look at developing asymmetric advantages over potential adversaries because using conventional forces to handle every contingency would be prohibitively expensive. 

The two senior officers who are leading the drive to design
the future naval forces said they are directing a closely integrated Navy and
Marine Corps force structure assessment and plan to review the initial findings
on a rolling basis in future years.

Vice Adm. James Kilby, Deputy Chief
of Naval Operations for Warfighting Requirements and Capabilities, and Lt. Gen.
Eric Smith, Deputy Marine Corps Commandant for Combat Development and
Integration, said they have been directed by their service chiefs to scrape the
traditional separated force structure design process and develop a single
integrated naval force.

A key element in that cooperative effort is the sweeping
changes in the numbers and type of ships in the amphibious forces proposed in
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger’s planning guidance. Ronald O’Rourke,
the veteran naval forces analyst at Congressional Research Service, said, “If
much of this is implemented, it would result in a once-in-a-generation change
in Navy force structure.” The scope of the potential changes also is shaped by Chief
of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday’s revision of his predecessor’s “Design
for Maritime Superiority,” which emphasizes offensive capabilities, extensively
promotes unmanned systems and demands affordability.

Those three and Michael Petters, CEO at Huntington Ingalls
Industries – the Navy’s biggest shipbuilder — appeared in a panel at a Dec. 5
U.S. Naval Institute forum asking the question: “Are we building the naval
power the nation needs?”

Kilby said the Navy’s force structure assessments in the past
“were done pretty much in isolation” by the Navy staff. But the CNO and Berger said,
”Turn that on its head,” and he and Smith “are creating that integrated piece,”
which will be given to the systems requirements officials to flesh out. He said
the first iteration would be finished by the end of this month and they will
continue from there. The joint assessment team would remain and continue the
process in a “rolling assessment, an ongoing analysis.”

Smith said, “We don’t have all the answers, but what we know
is we’re a joint naval force. …  I’m in
support of the fleet.” That would mean as the Marines develop new longer-range
precision weapons, “I’m assuming my missiles should be able to shoot a ship,”
he said. Kilby said they had to learn from the joint assessments whether “this
force mix allow us to do things differently.” For example, he said, “If what
the Marines do influences what happens at sea, I can change my plans.”

Petters and O’Rourke said the drive for a significantly
different force and the need to field new systems faster to keep pace with
their peer competitors’ rapid development could change the way the Navy designs
and tests new ships, using more prototyping and accepting the risk of failure.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy will christen its newest Independence-variant littoral combat ship (LCS), the future USS Mobile (LCS 26), during a 10 a.m. Central Time ceremony Saturday, Dec. 7, in Mobile, Alabama, the Defense Department said in a Dec. 4 release. 

U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, representing Alabama’s first district, will deliver the christening ceremony’s principal address. His wife, Rebecca Byrne, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of South Alabama, will serve as the ship’s sponsor. In a time-honored Navy tradition, Rebecca Byrne will christen the ship by breaking a bottle of sparkling wine across the bow. 

”USS Mobile is a marvel of engineering,” said Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly. ”She will extend our capabilities for any mission, from the middle of the ocean to the shallowest of waters, enhancing our ability to project power ashore and at sea. This Independence-class LCS will extend the maneuverability and lethality of our fleet to confront the many challenges of a complex world.” 

LCS is a highly maneuverable, lethal and adaptable ship designed to support focused mine countermeasures, antisubmarine warfare and surface warfare missions, according to the Navy. The ship integrates new technology and capability to affordably support current and future mission capability from deepwater to the littorals. Using an open architecture design, modular weapons, sensor systems, and a variety of manned and unmanned vehicles to gain, sustain and exploit littoral maritime supremacy, LCS provides U.S. joint force access to critical areas in multiple theaters. 

The LCS class consists of two variants, the Freedom variant and the Independence variant, designed and built by two industry teams. The Freedom variant team is led by Lockheed Martin in Marinette, Wisconsin (for the odd-numbered hulls). The Independence variant team is led by Austal USA in Mobile, Alabama (for LCS 6 and the subsequent even-numbered hulls). 

LCS 26 is the 13th Independence-variant LCS and the 26th in the class. It is the fifth ship named in honor of the port city on Alabama’s Gulf Coast. The first Mobile was a side wheel steamer that operated as a Confederate government operated blockade runner. It was captured by U.S. forces at New Orleans in April 1862, commissioned as Tennessee and later renamed Mobile. The second Mobile was a passenger liner operated by Hamburg Amerika Lines between Germany and the United States until the outbreak of World War I. It was taken over by the Allied Maritime Council and assigned to the United States after the Armistice and commissioned March 1919. The third Mobile (CL 63) was commissioned March 24, 1943. It participated in numerous campaigns in the Pacific during World War II and received 11 battle stars for her service by the time she was decommissioned May 1947. The fourth Mobile (LKA 115) was an amphibious cargo ship that served from September 1969 until decommissioning in February 1994.   

ARLINGTON, Va.  —The Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, the future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79), will be christened on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2019, during an 11 a.m. ceremony at Newport News, Virginia, the Defense Department said in a Dec. 4 release. 

John F. Kennedy is the second aircraft carrier of the Gerald R. Ford class, slated to replace USS Nimitz (CVN 68), when that ship is decommissioned. 

Former NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, also a retired major general of the U.S. Marine Corps, will deliver the ceremony’s keynote address. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, President Kennedy’s daughter, will serve as the ship’s sponsor and break a bottle of American sparkling wine against a plate welded to the hull. 

”USS John F. Kennedy will carry the legacy of its namesake and the power of our nation,” said Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly. ”The advanced technology and warfighting capabilities this aircraft carrier brings to our global challenges will strengthen our allies and partners, extend our reach against potential adversaries and further the global mission of our integrated naval force.” 

CVN 79 is the second aircraft carrier to honor President John F. Kennedy for a lifetime of service to the nation. The president wore the uniform of our nation as a Navy lieutenant during World War II and served as the 35th president of the United States from January 1961 to November 1963. 

John F. Kennedy, along with its embarked air wing and other strike group assets, will provide the core capabilities of forward presence, deterrence, sea control, power projection, maritime security and humanitarian assistance. 

Built by Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding division, the Gerald R. Ford class incorporates advances in technology, such as a new propulsion system, electric plant, Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG), machinery control, radars and integrated warfare systems. 

At 1,092 feet in length and 100,000 tons, CVN 79 incorporates more than 23 new technologies, comprising dramatic advances in propulsion, power generation, ordnance handling and aircraft launch systems.  These innovations will support a 33% higher sortie generation rate at a significant cost savings, when compared to Nimitz-class carriers. The Gerald R. Ford class also offers a significant reduction — approximately $4 billion per ship — in life-cycle operations and support costs compared to the earlier Nimitz class. 

The ceremony can be viewed on the Navy Live blog at http://navylive.dodlive.mil.