PASCAGOULA, Miss. — The keel-laying and authentication ceremony for the future USS Bougainville (LHA 8) was held March 14 at the Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) Pascagoula shipyard, the Naval Sea Systems command said in a release.

The ship’s sponsor, Ellyn Dunford, authenticated the keel by having her initials welded into the keel plate.

Traditionally, keel laying marks the first step in ship construction. However, with today’s advanced modular shipbuilding, the keel-laying ceremony now recognizes the joining together of a ship’s components and is a major milestone in the ship’s construction. Fabrication of Bougainville began in October.

“We are honored to have Ellyn Dunford with us today to commemorate this milestone,” said Tom Rivers, Amphibious Warfare program manager, PEO Ships. “The production team has made steady progress and we look forward to bringing the next generation of amphibious capabilities to Navy and Marine Corps warfighters.”

The future USS Bougainville is the third ship of the America (LHA 6) class of amphibious assault ships built to facilitate forward presence and power projection. LHA 8 is the first Flight I ship of the America class with a reincorporated well deck to increase operational flexibility while maximizing the aviation capability inherent on the Flight 0 ships, USS America and the future USS Tripoli.

Designed to support the Marine Corps tenets of Operational Maneuver from the Sea and Ship-to-Objective Maneuver, America class ships are capable of rapid combat power buildup ashore the America class accommodates the Marine Corps’ Air Combat Element, including F-35B Joint Strike Fighter and MV-22 Osprey, essential to maintaining power projection, air superiority and theater logistics.

HII’s Pascagoula shipyard also is in production on Tripoli (LHA 7), the guided-missile destroyers Delbert D. Black (DDG 119), Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123), Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), and amphibious transport dock ships, Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28) and Richard M. McCool Jr. (LPD 29). The shipyard also is

under contract for six Flight III Arleigh Burke class destroyers awarded as part of the fiscal 2018-2022 multiyear procurement.

WASHINGTON — Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer said the new class of towing, salvage and rescue ship will be named Navajo in honor of the major contributions the Navajo people have made to the armed forces, the secretary’s public affairs office said in a March 12 release.

The new class of vessels will be based on existing commercial towing offshore vessel designs and will replace the current T-ATF 166 and T-ARS 50 class ships. The first ship of this class will be named USNS Navajo and designated T-ATS 6.

“The Navajo people have fought and served our armed forces with honor and valor in nearly every major conflict since the birth of our nation, so it is fitting and right to name a new class of ship in their honor,” Spencer said. “The Navajo class of towing, salvage and rescue ships will serve our nation and continue the legacy of the Navajo people, and all Native Americans.”

The contract includes options for potentially seven additional vessels, and each additional ship will be named in honor of prominent Native Americans or Native American tribes.

Gulf Island Shipyards was awarded a $63.5 million contract for the detail design and construction of the new towing, salvage and rescue ship, which will be based on existing commercial towing offshore vessel designs and will replace the current T-ATF 166 and T-ARS 50 class ships in service with the U.S. Military Sealift Command.

The T-ATS will serve as open ocean towing vessels and will additionally support salvage operations and submarine rescue missions. The first ship in the class will be built at the company’s shipyard in Houma, La., and is expected to be completed in March 2021.

WASHINGTON — The Navy’s top officer said that he is concerned about the agility of the Navy to outpace its potential adversaries in the current era of great power competition.

“This is a strategic Achilles’ heel for us,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John M. Richardson said March 13, speaking at the McAleese Defense Programs Conference in Washington. “We are just not moving capability forward to the hands of our sailors as fast as we need to.”

“I worry sometimes that we say, this conflict is going to go OK because our sailors are better trained than their sailors,” Richardson said. “That margin is too close for me. But when I’m relying on the quality [of our sailors], it’s true, but when I’m relying on the quality of our training, that’s far too close a margin.

“Or we say, ‘Hey, we’re mechanically a more innovative people’ — that may be true,” he said, noting that still is too close a margin.

“Part of this is to make sure that our worst pilot can beat their best pilot because we put him or her in an aircraft that is just that vastly superior,” Richardson said. “We don’t send our teams into a fair fight.”

“We’ve got to get that capability moving faster,” he said. “We’ve done a lot in our budget to try to accelerate these things. We’ve got about $1.3 billion in what we call accelerated acquisition programs.”

As examples, Richardson listed some accelerated programs such as high-power lasers (including one being installed on a ship this year); unmanned systems such as the MQ-25 unmanned aerial refueling aircraft; new family unmanned underwater and surface vehicles; Conventional Prompt Strike; the Digital Warfare Office; and live virtual constructive training.

WASHINGTON — The addition of a third Virginia-class attack submarine (SSN) in the proposed 2020 defense budget is a long-sought goal of the leaders of the Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee. If approved, the third SSN would help with the construction of the Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine, a congressman claimed.

“Chairman Joe Courtney [D-Conn.] and I were pretty adamant with [then-Defense] Secretary Mattis and said, ‘Listen, we need to add another Virginia-class submarine as we’re transitioning into Columbia class,’ ” said U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), speaking March 13 at the McAleese Defense Programs Conference in Washington. “It does two things: it gives us an additional submarine and gets us hopefully above the 42 number [the low in 2028 before the number increases toward 66] and, if you do that in combination with taking existing nuclear plants that we can replace into some of the 688[-class] submarines [Los Angeles-class SSNs], we can get close to 50 [SSNs] when it’s all said and done.

“But it also helps us to de-risk Columbia,” Wittman said. “It lets us put work force into place that develops the knowledge, skills and abilities to transition directly over from building a third Virginia-class submarine to building the Columbia class. As we know with new boats in these programs — we watched it with Virginia class and others — the learning curve is steep, where all the risk is embedded in the early side. When you look at welds and all the things that happen with these ships, we want to make sure we de-risk that.

Courtney, who also spoke at the conference, noted that the effort to include the third SSN in the 2019 budget failed, but also noted that, with the administration now supporting the third SSN in the 2020 budget, “even though we lost the battle [in 2019], we won the war.”

On another topic, the Navy’s plan to cancel the Refueling and Comprehensive Overhaul (RCOH) of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman was met with concern from both Courtney and Wittman. The Truman is 23 years old, and its service life could be extended to 50 years with the RCOH, as has been done with the oldest half of the 10 Nimitz-class carriers to date.

Courtney, who pointed out that the Navy already has purchased the nuclear reactors for the Truman, said the plan to cancel the RCOH “doesn’t make any business sense to me.”

Wittman, noting that the move would drop the aircraft carrier force level to 10 ships, said: “I would argue that it is not wise.”

Aircraft carriers “are still extraordinarily critical elements of sea power, projecting power forward,” Wittman said.

The Department of the Navy (DoN) is requesting $205.6 billion for fiscal 2020 — $159.7 billion for the Navy and $45.9 billion for the Marine Corps. The 2020 request represents a significant increase over the fiscal 2019 budget of $196.1 billion.

The Navy’s base 2020 request is 29 percent of the overall Defense Department base request of $545 billion. The total DoD request of $718 billion includes the $545 billion plus Overseas Contingency Operations funding of $164 billion and $9 billion for emergency funding for activities such as hurricane relief. The DoN’s OCO funding of $44.7 is included in the DoN’s budget total.

The DoN’s $205.6 billion request includes $52 billion for military personnel; $68.5 billion for operations and maintenance; $61 billion for procurement; $20 billion for research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E); $3.1 billion for military construction; and $366 million for family housing.

“This [budget] fields a formidable force in all domains of operations,” said Rear Adm. Randy B. Crites, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for budget, briefing reporters March 12 at the Pentagon.

The end-strength of active-component Navy personnel is planned to rise to 340,500, an increase of 5,100 over 2019. Reserve personnel are planned to decrease slightly by 100 to 59,000. DoN civilian manpower is slated to grow, from 214,284 to 217,476.

During 2020, 10 ships are planned for delivery: four Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers (DDGs); three Virginia-class attack submarines (SSNs); two littoral combat ships (LCSs); and one Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport (T-EPF). Also during the year, the Navy plans to retire two Los Angeles-class SSNs and three Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships. The battle force strength will grow by five ships to 301 in 2020.

The Navy has budgeted $23.8 billion for shipbuilding and conversion, the largest amount requested in 20 years, although, because in 2019 Congress added three ships in the 2019 budget, the 2019 total was larger at $24.2 billion. The 2020 budget requests funds for 12 ships: the third Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier, the future USS Enterprise; three Virginia-class SSNs, two of which will be equipped with the Virginia Payload Module; three Flight III Arleigh Burke-class DDGs; one FFG(X) frigate, the lead ship of its class; two John Lewis-class fleet replenishment oilers (T-AO); and two towing, salvage and rescue ships.

For the Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine, the Navy has requested $533 million in RDT&E funds. Construction of the first Columbia-class hull is planned for 2021.

The Navy expects to save $254 million ($2.5 billion over five years) from divestment of the planned service-life extension of Ticonderoga-class cruisers.

Also requested in the shipbuilding account are the construction of four LCU 1700 utility landing craft and the refueling and comprehensive overhaul of one Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. The Navy is gapping for a year the procurement of the LCAC 100 class of ship-to-shore connectors as that program is restructured.

The Navy is requesting the cancellation of the future RCOH — scheduled to begin in 2024 — for the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman with plans to retire the ship early and use the funds towards other programs. the procurement of Ford-class carriers. The Navy’s official budget document said the adjustment is made to balance the fleet’s high-end platforms with “a greater number of complementary, more affordable, potentially attritable options.”

The Navy plans to fund two large unmanned surface vessels (LUSVs) with $373 million in RDT&E funds and begin experimenting with them to develop such vessels with an offensive missile capability. Transition to procurement is expected to begin in 2021.

The Navy requests $18.6 billion in 2020 for 148 aircraft for the Navy and Marine Corps. The fixed-wing aircraft include 10 F-35B and 10 F-35C Lightning II strike fighters for the Marine Corps and 10 F-35Cs for the Navy; 24 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike fighters; four E-2D Advanced Hawkeye early warning aircraft; six P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft; three KC-130J Super Hercules for the Marine

Corps; and 22 ex-Swiss Air Force F-5 adversary aircraft, 11 each for the Navy and Marine Corps to recapitalize the older F-5 inventory.

Rotary-wing and tiltrotor aircraft requested in the budget include six CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopters and six VH-92A presidential transport helicopters for the Marine Corps; 38 helicopters of a design yet to be selected to replace TH-57 training helicopters; and 10 CMV-22B Osprey carrier-onboard-delivery aircraft for the Navy. Deliveries of more MV-22B Ospreys for the Marine Corps is gapped for 2020.

Large unmanned aircraft requested include two MQ-4C Tritons for the Navy and three MQ-9 Reaper medium-range UAVs, the first of this type for the Marine Corps.

WASHINGTON — The nation’s seaborne logistics capability is atrophying and in need of rejuvenation, senior government officials said in testimony before Congress. Maintaining older ships is proving more costly than anticipated, driving officials to seek new or used ships to replace some in the current inventory.

Testifying March 7 before a joint hearing of the Seapower and Projections Forces subcommittee and Readiness subcommittee of the House Armed Service Committee were Army Gen. Steve Lyons, commander, U.S. Transportation Command, and retired Navy Rear Adm. Mark Buzby, administrator of the Maritime Administration (MARAD), a Department of Transportation agency that maintains the Ready Reserve Force (RRF), a fleet of sealift and specialized ships available on a reduced operational status for call up to service.

Of interest are the 46 ships of the RRF and the 15 sealift ships operated by the Military Sealift Command. The average age of the RRF ships is 44 years and are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. Of the RRF ships, 21 are steam-powered, an obsolescent propulsion technology for which qualified mariners to operate it are decreasing in numbers.

Lyons noted that commercial ship companies look to retire ships at the 15-year mark to avoid the maintenance and repair costs of older ships.

He said the readiness of the 15 surge sealift roll-on/roll-off ships currently is only 65 percent.

“The need to recapitalize is urgent,” Lyons said. “I believe accelerating the used vessel purchases with the authority … Congress provided in the last two years is the most practical way ahead.”

Buzby said the key to sustaining sealift capability is the “acquisition and conversion of used ships for the RRF, beginning with the purchase of two vessels as authorized by the FY [fiscal year] ’18 NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act].”

He said that in January the Navy, in coordination with U.S. Transportation Command, “provided MARAD with the desired characteristics for replacement ships to be acquired from the commercial market. MARAD then released a request for information to identify suitable ships, and responses are due back [on March 16].”

Buzby said that of the 50,000 large, oceangoing commercial vessels in the world, 181 sail under the U.S. flag, including 82 vessels operating exclusively in international trade and the remainder in domestic trade. He said that these commercial ships are critical to sustaining the employment base for mariners for the RRF. He also noted that of 82 U.S.-flag ships in international trade, MARAD’s Maritime Security Program helps sustain a fleet of 60 militarily useful ships with mariners fully qualified for sealift operations.

“I am deeply concerned about our ability to muster an adequate number of mariners to operate the sealift fleet for surge and sustainment operations during a mobilization lasting about six months,” Buzby said.

Buzby said the Navy is funding some service-life extensions (SLEPs) of MARAD ships, but “the pace of repair is outpacing the pace of service-life extension,” noting that many of the repairs involve structural steel repairs. “We’re not making any headway toward extending that service life.”

He said that the SLEPs for each ship cost from $800,000 to $3.5 million, and often three times what was budgeted.

Service-life extensions are not returning the investment that we thought,” Lyons said.

Buzby said that used ships vary in cost “from $25 million, maybe to $60 million” depending on age “and a new ship is 26 times that.”

“If you look at the investments the Navy in the out-years, it’s very, very hard to compete a sealift new-build that is 26 times as expensive as an acquired used [ship] solution,” Lyons said.

New or used roll-on/roll-off ships are the primary recapitalization requirement for sealift, Buzby said.

ANDOVER, Mass. — Mercury Systems Inc. has received a $2.8 million order from a leading defense prime contractor for modular rackmount servers to be used in a naval weapon system, the company said in a March 7 release. The order was booked in the company’s fiscal 2019 third quarter and is expected to be shipped over the next several quarters.

Currently deployed on over 40 naval programs, Mercury’s EnterpriseSeries rackmount servers are designed for mission-critical applications.

“Performance, availability and versatility are extremely important to our customer,” said Scott Orton, vice president and general manager of Mercury’s Trusted Mission Solutions group. “Designed to meet both current and future deployment needs, our composable servers not only minimize cost but also offer long-term sustainability.”

ARLINGTON, Va. — The extended-range version of the AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile – Extended Range (AARGM-ER) is proceeding into engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) with the March 7 Defense Department contract announcement of a contract award to Northrop Grumman.

Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, Northridge, California, was awarded a $322.5 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract from the Naval Air Systems Command to provide for the EMD phase, which will include “the design, integration and test of a new solid rocket motor for the AARGM-ER.”

The AARGM-ER will be integrated on the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike fighter and EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft and configured for internal carriage on the F-35AC Lightning II joint strike fighter.

“AARGM-ER extended range coupled with AARGM lethality will meet a critical defense suppression requirement while protecting our strike aviators,” said Cary Ralston, vice president, defense electronic systems, Northrop Grumman, in a March 8 release.

“The AARGM-ER program is leveraging the AARGM that is currently in production,” the Northrop Grumman release said.

The AARGM is an improved version of the AGM-88 High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM), an air-launched missile used to suppress and destroy enemy air defenses. The AARGM is currently deployed with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps on the F/A-18C/D Hornet; the U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler aircraft; and the Italian Air Force’s Tornado electronic combat aircraft.

Work on the EMD phase is expected to be completed in December 2023.

WASHINGTON — The Navy has established Program Executive Office Columbia (PEO CLB) to focus entirely on its No. 1 acquisition priority, Research, Development and Acquisition Public Affairs said in a March 6 release.

PEO CLB will provide oversight of the construction of 12 Columbia-class submarines (SSBN) that will help the Navy maintain a credible, survivable and modern sea-based strategic deterrent into the 2080s.

“This is the Navy’s most important program and establishing a new PEO today will meet tomorrow’s challenges head on,” said James Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for acquisition, research and development.

“The evolution from initial funding to construction, development and testing to serial production of 12 SSBNs will be crucial to meeting the National Defense Strategy and building the Navy the nation needs. PEO Columbia will work directly with resource sponsors, stakeholders, foreign partners, shipbuilders and suppliers to meet national priorities and deliver and sustain lethal capacity our warfighters need.”

Geurts announced that Rear Adm. Scott Pappano will assume the first office of PEO Columbia.

PEO Columbia will be part of Team Subs and will work closely with PEO Submarines and the Naval Sea Systems Command’s In-Service Submarine Directorate (SEA 07) on all submarine and affiliated programs, including life-cycle support. PEO CLB will focus on the design, construction and sustainment of the Columbia program and associated efforts that include interface with Strategic Systems Program and the United Kingdom for the Dreadnought Program.

The Columbia-class is a critical shipbuilding program and must deliver on time to meet U.S. Strategic Command nuclear deterrence requirements due to the Ohio-class submarines reaching maximum extended service life. The first Columbia-class ship is on track to begin construction of USS Columbia (SSBN 826) in fiscal year 2021, deliver in fiscal year 2028, and on patrol in 2031.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy has posted a draft Request for Proposals for its next warship design, the FFG(X) next-generation guided-missile frigate.

“The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) intends to issue a solicitation under full and open competition in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2019 for the detail design and construction (DD&C) of guided-missile frigates under the FFG(X) program,” said the announcement posted on the FedBizOps website on March 2. “The solicitation will provide for DD&C of up to ten (10) FFG(X) ships, post-delivery availability support, engineering and class services, crew familiarization, training equipment and provisioned item orders.”

The Navy plans to purchase 20 new frigates, the first beginning in fiscal 2020, scheduled for delivery in 2023. The designs submitted by shipbuilders are required to be based on “an existing parent ship design that has been demonstrated at sea. … FFG(X) ships must be constructed in a United States shipyard. Each offeror may submit only one proposal as a prime contractor. However, offerors may act as subcontractors under a prime contractor in one or more proposals.”

Five companies are expected to respond to the final RfP: Austal USA, Fincantieri Marine, General Dynamics Bath Iron Works Huntington Ingalls Industries and Lockheed Martin, all of which were contracted to develop frigate designs. The competition is open to other builders as well. Unlike in the Littoral Combat Ship program, only one hull type will be selected.

The RfP is under the purview of the Program Executive Office — Unmanned and Small Combatants.

The FFG(X) will be equipped with the Raytheon-built Enterprise Air Search Radar; the Block II of the SLQ-32(V)6 SEWIP (Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program), with a space reservation for SLQ-32(V)7 SEWIP Block III; the Cooperative Engagement Capability; the COMBATSS-21 combat system; the SQS-62 variable-depth sonar; the TB-37 multifunction towed array; the SQQ-89(V)15 antisubmarine warfare system; and data links 11, 16 and 22.

The new frigate’s weapons will include a battery of over-the-horizon cruise missiles; a Mk110 57 mm gun, a 32-cell Mk41 Vertical Launching System — armed with the Standard Missile-2 surface-to-air missile and Block II of the Evolved SeaSparrow Missile, and, in the future, an ASROC-like anti-submarine missile — a Rolling Airframe Missile launcher, and, potentially in the future, a laser weapon.

The ship will be able to carry one MH-60R Seahawk helicopter, one MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle, and two 7-meter rigid-hull inflatable boats.