[Cabeça de Martelo]

http://www.naval.com.br/blog/2015/12/07/mais-fotos-do-futuro-uss-zumwalt-em-provas-de-mar/

[olisipo]

Uma estética naval.... futurista? Como este

[olisipo]

The future Arleigh-Burke class destroyer USS Ralph Johnson (DDG 114) being transferred to the dry dock at Huntington Ingalls Industries in Newport News, Virginia.

[Nuno Bento]

WASHINGTON — The US Navy's fight to buy 52 variants of its littoral combat ship (LCS) from two shipbuilders may have taken a fatal blow this week after the secretary of defense directed the service to cap its buy at 40 ships and pick only one supplier. The directive also orders the Navy to buy only one ship annually over the next four years, down from three per year.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter, in a Dec. 14 memo to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, told the Navy to "reduce the planned LCS/FF procurement from 52 to 40, creating a 1-1-1-1-2 profile, for eight fewer ships in the FYDP, and then downselect to one variant by FY 2019."

FF is a Navy designation for frigate. Beginning with LCS 33, the Navy is planning to build a more heavily-armed LCS variant with the FF designation — the result of a 2014 directive from then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to produce a more powerful ship.

The "1-1-1-1-2" profile would provide for one ship each year in 2017-2020 and two ships in 2021, the end of the current future years defense plan (FYDP).

Carter, in the Dec. 14 memo, directs the Navy to reallocate savings from the LCS/FF cuts to buy more F/A-18 and F-35 aircraft, more SM-6 surface-to-air missiles, and support Virginia Payload Module (VPM) development for future Virginia-class submarines. The VPM is an extra hull section that would be built into Block V submarines and mount four large vertical payload tubes.

The directive to cut the LCS comes in the face of strenuous Navy objections. The service has argued that building a ship takes much longer than ordering a new aircraft or missile.

“It’s unfortunate that we find ourselves in this situation, because the Navy needs both an increase in ship numbers and a bump in warfighting capability. In this case there is no right or wrong answer.”
Defense official
The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), said one Pentagon source, wants "capability over capacity" in its changes. The Navy's argument, the Pentagon source said, is that "decisions you make on ships impact you for 5-10-20 years. Decisions you make on aircraft can be changed the next year."

Carter's directive is the latest in an increasingly acrimonious back-and-forth exchange over the fiscal 2017 defense budget, due to be sent, in the form of a Resource Management Decision, on Friday to the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

According to the Pentagon source, the Navy successfully fought back an OSD move to cut two destroyers from the shipbuilding plan.

The Pentagon also considered cancelling the third ship of the DDG 1000 class — Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002) — but that issue appears to have been decided in favor of keeping the ship.

Not in the Navy or Pentagon request, but expected to be added by OMB, is a plus-up of more than $2 billion to develop the SSBN(X) Ohio Class Replacement submarine. The cost of that program is expected to place considerable pressure on Navy shipbuilding budgets through the 2020s.

It is not clear from where OMB is pulling the additional SSBN(X) funding.

Another directive from OSD, the Pentagon source confirmed, is to alter again the service's plan to withdraw from active duty 11 cruisers and upgrade them for further service as carrier anti-air warfare escorts. The complicated issue has been hugely contentious in Congress the last three years, undergoing multiple changes in committee. It remains a thorn on the Hill, where further changes are likely to be met with critical skepticism.

One defense official decried the LCS cuts.

"It's unfortunate that we find ourselves in this situation, because the Navy needs both an increase in ship numbers and a bump in warfighting capability," the defense official said Dec. 16. "In this case there is no right or wrong answer."

The Navy has long argued it needs ship numbers to keep up worldwide posture and presence. The fleet today stands at 272 ships, but the latest fleet plan shows a rise to 308 ships in the 2020s. The LCS fleet is a major component in keeping to that goal.

The LCS program is unique among Navy ship classes and features two entirely different designs, the 3,300-ton Freedom class is produced by Lockheed Martin, while the 2,800-ton Independence class is built by Austal USA. Six LCSs are in commission, at least 14 are in various stages of construction, and another six are under contract. Lockheed's ships are built at Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wisconsin, while Austal USA's shipyard is in Mobile, Alabama.

Two years ago, the Navy fought hard to fend off LCS cuts. Mabus personally made his case to Hagel to beat back acting defense under secretary Christine Fox's attempt to cut the program. Mabus saved the ships, but Hagel countered with a directive to develop a more heavily armed frigate version. The Navy is working through decisions of the frigate variant, and is expected to make some of those details public in the president's 2017 budget submission to Congress.

The Pentagon's Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) also has repeatedly evaluated the program, often proposing alternative designs. At one point, CAPE reportedly favored a version of Norway's 5,400-ton Spanish-designed Fridtjof Nansen-class missile frigates fitted with a lightweight Aegis combat system. More recently, one source said, the group was considering an updated version of the 1,000-ton Badr-class frigates designed and built in the US in the early 1980s for Saudi Arabia.

"In the last two months, the third deck has gone in two directions, generally to cut the program," said the Pentagon source, speaking of Carter's offices on the building's third floor.

"In the last year we went through a study to upgrade the ship, make it more capable. Now in CAPE some are arguing for a less-capable hull."

The Pentagon source was unconvinced the LCS cuts will result in real savings.

"It is our contention that the savings the third deck tells us will be achieved by the LCS cuts won't happen. In the end, if you break a multiyear buy it's going to end up costing more, not less."

Additionally, the Pentagon source said, "the cuts will have industrial base impacts. And we are sending a message to Saudi, for example, of our confidence in the ship."

Saudi Arabia agreed this fall to buy four missile-armed variants of the Lockheed LCS frigate — the first international sales of an LCS design.

Ships vs. Aircraft

The jump in aircraft is good news for F-35 maker Lockheed Martin and Boeing, who makes the E, F and G variants of the F/A-18 Super Hornet.

Boeing is struggling to keep open its Super Hornet manufacturing facility in St. Louis. The Navy planned to end F/A-18 procurement in 2014, but Boeing — still hoping for a foreign military sales (FMS) deal— eked out 12 new aircraft in the 2016 budget deal approved Dec. 16 by Congress. The company has an agreement to supply Kuwait with at least 28 aircraft, but the Kuwaiti deal is hung up with several US FMS deals to Middle Eastern countries.

Meanwhile, the Navy is not expected to request any 18s in the 2017 budget, and Carter's directive provides aircraft no sooner than 2018.

The company, one industry source said, would need an additional eight aircraft in 2017 to avoid a production gap and resultant layoffs before work on the 2018 jets could begin.

The argument over ships or aircraft has been simmering inside the Pentagon, according to one congressional source.

"There is a big food fight between shipbuilding and aviation," the congressional source said. The Navy favors ships, while "the aviation advocate is someone in OSD."

Another Hill source noted that the moves to cut ships in a presidential election year could be "a calculated risk that Congress won't go along with it." Other sources agreed that a Republican congress could restore the ships, at least in the 2017 budget, even though the LCS program remains controversial.

Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Alabama, in whose district Austal USA builds the Independence-class LCS, reacted quickly to the news of the cuts after seeing this story in Defense News.

"Our Navy is at risk across the world, and the weak and impotent Obama Administration seeks to further undermine our position with this ill-considered decision," Byrne wrote in an e-mail. "Make no mistake about it, from Mobile to Marinette, from San Diego and Jacksonville, the bell has rung, and those in the Pentagon need to hear that this will not stand. Not just for our shipyards but also for our Navy and for the defense of the people of the United States of America."

One political arena where the cuts are likely to quickly reverberate is in the presidential election. Most Republican candidates have cited a shrinking Navy is a critical need that needs to be addressed, and the factually-correct claim that "the Navy is the smallest since it's been since World War I" has become almost a mantra. A Democratic budget that reduces ship numbers is likely to become a lightning rod.

[Lusitano89]

[olisipo]

 

US carrier strike group joins France in combined combat ops against Islamic State 

http://www.janes.com/article/56910/us-carrier-strike-group-joins-france-in-combined-combat-ops-against-islamic-state

[Lusitano89]

[mafets]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/iran-release-sailors-diplomacy_56967e1de4b0778f46f7a863

WASHINGTON -- If Iranian officials holding 10 U.S. Navy sailors on Farsi Island this week was the the first test of U.S.-Iran relations in a post-nuclear deal environment, the outcome was vindicating for proponents of diplomacy between the two countries.

But you wouldn’t know it from listening to conservative hawks.

After Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps detained the sailors accused of crossing into Iranian waters on Tuesday night, nuclear deal critics crowed that the altercation was a huge embarrassment for President Barack Obama, who was scheduled to deliver his final State of the Union address hours later.

“Obama’s humiliatingly weak Iran policy is exposed again,” tweeted presidential candidate Gov. Jeb Bush (R-Fla.). Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) suggested the president may need to delay his speech in order to address Iran’s “pattern of aggravating action.” The event proceeded as scheduled, and Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) criticized Obama for failing to mention the Farsi Island incident. Notorious Iran fearmonger Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) called on the president to rip up the nuclear deal if the American sailors were not returned “immediately.”

The nuclear accord has so far been successful in compelling Iran to scale back its nuclear program, which was the Obama administration’s stated sole reason for entering the negotiations. Iran is currently ahead of schedule in dismantling key components of its nuclear program, as required by the July 14 agreement signed by Iran, the U.S. and five world powers. The International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to inspect Iran’s revamped and downsized nuclear infrastructure as early as this weekend. If it verifies that Iran is complying with the agreement, that will trigger widespread international sanctions relief.

It’s not entirely fair to use this week's incident to measure the success of the nuclear accord, which was never intended to resolve other issues between the U.S. and Iran -- of which there are many. However, even those who defended the Obama administration’s reasoning for keeping the nuclear deal separate from other issues hoped that increased diplomacy between the two nations would translate into greater cooperation on non-nuclear matters.

And it appears it has.

By Tuesday night, Reuters reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had assured U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that the sailors would be returned promptly. Despite a lack of formal diplomatic relations, the two men had developed a functioning working relationship during months of intense negotiations over the nuclear agreement.

At 6:59 a.m. EST on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Ash Carter confirmed the American Navy sailors were back in U.S. hands -- approximately three hours before administration officials had projected they would be. The Americans were released “after it was realized that their entry into Iran’s territorial waters was unintentional,” Iranian state-run news channel IRINN announced.

Cumprimentos

[NVF]

US Navy plans SLEP for Super Hornet fleet

http://www.janes.com/article/57646/us-navy-plans-slep-for-super-hornet-fleet

The US Navy intends to launch a service life extension programme (SLEP) for its fleet of Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet combat aircraft, a notice posted on the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website reveals.

The notice, which was originally published by the The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) on 19 January and updated on 1 February, is for Boeing to undertake a SLEP of the F/A-18E/F aft fuselage to extend the life of the aircraft upwards from the current 6,000 hours.

NAVAIR revealed no details pertaining to the number of aircraft involved, the extent of the increase in the service life of the aircraft, timelines, or contract values. Neither did the notification say whether the effort would be extended to international operators, which are currently limited to Australia but expected to include Kuwait shortly.

The US Navy fields approximately 550 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, the first of which entered service in the late 1990s. The earliest aircraft to be delivered are expected to reach the end of their current 6,000-hour service lives in about 2017, which is two years ahead of the planned declaration of initial operating capability for the carrier variant Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft.

Delays to the F-35C have already prompted the US Navy to execute a SLEP for 150 of its more than 600 legacy F/A-18 Hornet fleet (including US Marine Corps [USMC] assets). The goal of this particular SLEP is to increase the service life of the 1980s-vintage jets out to 10,000 hours, with the aim of keeping them in operational service until 2035. Other enhancements being considered for the legacy Hornets include a new active electronically scanned array (AESA) integrating the Link 16 datalink, colour screens in the cockpit and navigation upgrades with a moving map display, new Naval Aircrew Common Ejector Seats, and the Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System.

With the earliest delivered Super Hornets set to reach the end of their service lives in about 2017, the US Navy is to roll out a service life extension programme for the type that should help offset delays with the F-35C. Source: US Navy

[Lusitano89]

[NVF]

Ohio-Class Subs Approaching Several Firsts As Navy Prepares Them To Reach 42 Years of Service

http://news.usni.org/2016/02/03/ohio-class-subs-approaching-several-firsts-as-navy-prepares-them-to-reach-42-years-of-service

The Navy’s imperative to provide “uninterrupted strategic deterrence” with its ballistic missile submarines requires it meets two goals: development of the new boats must stay on schedule, and the old boats must make it to the end of their expected service lives.

The latter isn’t easy – the Navy is counting on the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) to stick around for 42 years each, something that’s never been done. The longest-serving American submarine, the boomer USS Kamehameha (SSBN-642), retired in 2002 after 36 and a half years of service. USS Ohio (SSGN-726) has been around for just over 34 years and still needs to make it another eight – a mandate that keeps Capt. Scott Pappano, his team at Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), and other offices throughout the Navy busy.

Pappano, the program manager for strategic and attack submarines at NAVSEA, told USNI News in a Jan. 28 interview that “we have a very good, well designed ship that was designed for a 30-year service life.” In 1995 the Navy tasked sub builder General Dynamics Electric Boat with analyzing what it would take to get the boats to 42 years of life, and after a few additional trade studies the NAVSEA decided in 1998 to pursue the life extension.

Many of the ideas and challenges – both in the hull, mechanical and electrical (HM&E) side and the non-propulsion electronics systems (NPES) side – that were discussed 20 years ago are now coming to a head, Pappano said.

It was clear going into the life extension effort that the electronics would need to be updated. More recently, however, the Navy realized that the analog data processing and tactical systems the SSBNs were using were not only harder to maintain and operate, but would also be unsustainable past Fiscal Year 2018 due to the ability to get spare parts and other factors.

Pappano said the Navy decided to bring the SSBNs into the Submarine Warfare Federated Tactical Systems (SWFTS) program, an open architecture electronics system with regular hardware and software updates. The attack submarines and the guided missile subs – four SSBNs, including Ohio, that were converted into SSGNs to deploy conventional weapons – already used SWTFS. USS Rhode Island (SSBN-740) will be the first boomer to get the SWFTS systems.

Rhode Island went into the Norfolk Naval Shipyard last month for its mid-life Engineered Refueling Overhaul, and that 27-month period will be filled with both planned work from the class maintenance plan as well as initiatives meant to keep the boat ready and relevant through the second half of its 42 years.

The upgrade to SWFTS equipment will be “easier logistically, easier to maintain” for the fleet and the operators, and “it also brings great capability to the ship as well, essentially gives it an attack submarine tactical systems suite,” Pappano said. Major sections of the control room, computer stations, sonars and more will be ripped out of the sub while in dock for the refueling, and new computer servers and other equipment will be installed. This also gives the Navy the opportunity to install the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) – one of the major modernization efforts the Navy is trying to schedule for all classes of ships in the fleet, which will also keep the SSBNs relevant and easier to maintain and upgrade through the end of their service lives.

Rhode Island, as the fourth youngest SSBN, will get the SWFTS and CANES upgrades during its midlife refueling. Older boats may get these upgrades during the second engineering refit period (ERP), which comes at 32 years of service, or the work may be scheduled at another time when the public shipyards can handle the work and the fleet commanders don’t need the sub.

USS Henry M. Jackson (SSBN-730) will be the first to go into the 32-year-mark ERP later this year – another reminder of the importance to get the new class of ballistic missile submarines designed, built and ready to deploy on time.

“We’ve never operated a submarine up to 42 years before,” Pappano said, and though he’s confident the boomers will make it to 42 years, there is no room for error when it comes to having the lead ship in the new class of SSBNs ready to deploy when Henry M. Jackson decommissions.

“We don’t have the wiggle room to go beyond [42 years] right now. That’s my position and I’m sticking to it,” Pappano said.

On the HM&E side of the house, some of the work being done today was predicted by early analysis – replacing piping in the steam distilling plants, replacing analog computers and preserving the hull, for example, Pappano said. The Navy is monitoring the Ohio-class boats reassessing the plan to preserve them every few years “to make sure we’ve investing modernization dollars in the right systems.”

Helping this effort is the converted SSGNs.

“SSGNs have essentially become canaries in the coal mine for us,” Pappano said. These four boats are used in the littorals rather than open ocean, run at higher speeds and surface and dive more frequently than their SSBN counterparts, creating “accelerated aging of the platform.”

“We can learn a couple things from the SSGN operations hopefully ahead of the SSBN,” he said, noting that the SSGNs have already seen wear and tear in the sanitary piping systems and the trim and drain system used to maintain neutral buoyancy – indicating that repairs or replacements for these systems may be in the SSBNs’ future.

Pappano said the Navy has a good handle on the work they know they must accomplish to keep the SSBNs sailing, but as the boats near the end of their 42 years “some of those unknown unknowns may get uncovered.”

“My biggest concern is what I don’t know about the hull that hasn’t come up and bit me yet,” he said. He noted the Navy has prioritized the Ohio-class maintenance and modernization efforts due to its strategic importance and that he hopes that funding remains in place throughout the budget process.

The Blue crew of the ballistic-missile submarine USS Henry M. Jackson (SSBN 730) transits the Hood Canal as it returns home to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor following a routine strategic deterrent patrol on Sept. 30, 2015. US Navy photo.


The Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine USS West Virginia (SSBN 736) departs Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va. following an engineering refueling overhaul on Oct. 24, 2013. US Navy photo.

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[Lusitano89]

Obama entrega Medalha de Honra a Navy SEAL que salvou médico no Afeganistão


Edward Byers torna-se hoje o sexto soldado das forças de operações especiais da Marinha norte-americana - os Navy SEALs - a receber a mais alta condecoração militar dos Estados Unidos.

A Medalha de Honra é-lhe entregue pelo presidente Barack Obama, na Casa Branca, pelas sua ações numa operação de resgate no Afeganistão em dezembro de 2012.

As ações do sargento-chefe Edward Byers nessa missão noturna da Equipa Seis - nome que designa as unidades de Navy SEALs, como a que matou o líder da Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden - para resgatar o médico norte-americano Dilip Joseph das mãos dos talibãs superaram de tal forma as expectativas que a Marinha dos EUA nem hesitou.

"Não há qualquer margem de dúvida ou hipótese de erro em conceder esta condecoração" a quem revelou tal "bravura e autossacrifício", afirmou fonte do Pentágono, sob anonimato, citada pelo jornal norte-americano USA Today.

A operação manteve-se secreta até ao início deste mês, quando o cruzamento da informação da Casa Branca (anunciando a cerimónia) com a história contada em livro por Dilip Joseph permitiu conhecer os contornos dessa missão.

"A Medalha de Honra é muito poucas vezes atribuída e apenas por feitos em combate de elevado relevo e demonstrando muita bravura", explicou em declarações ao DN o tenente-coronel paraquedista Miguel Machado.

Havendo apenas 77 militares vivos com essa condecoração nos Estados Unidos, "um país que anda constantemente em guerra e tem centenas de milhares de militares em operações todos os anos, é fácil ver que é mesmo muito difícil de alcançar. Não basta ter entrado em meia dúzia de operações de combate, é preciso ter uma carreira de combatente e ter levado a cabo atos de muita bravura", enfatizou.

Edward Byers, que está a frequentar o curso de Estudos Estratégicos na Universidade de Norwich, no Vermont, tem diversas condecorações, entre as quais sobressaem cinco Medalhas de Bronze e duas Purple Heart (Coração Púrpura) - que distinguem militares feridos ou mortos em combate.

"O ato individual que teve foi o corolário de muitas outras ações de combate" e a Medalha de Honra também pelo "acumular de atos heroicos, inclusive tendo sido ferido duas vezes", assinalou Miguel Machado, editor do site especializado www.operacional.pt.

A operação de resgate daquele médico norte-americano ocorreu a 8 e 9 de dezembro de 2012. Após quatro horas de caminhada pelas montanhas afegãs, os SEALs, equipados com óculos de visão noturna, invadiram a habitação. Identificado o refém Dilip Joseph, Byers atirou-se para cima dele para o proteger dos tiros - enquanto mantinha um talibã preso pela garganta contra a parede até ser morto por outros operacionais.

"Unidades destas só atingem este grau de eficiência com muito treino, mas acima de tudo muito combate real e equipamento do mais moderno que existe e, também, toda uma estrutura de informações e de apoio" para conseguir "montar uma operação em quatro dias, saber onde está exatamente o refém num local remoto e lançar uma operação de noite envolvendo, além dos helicópteros e dos operadores que lá foram, uma enorme panóplia de meios aéreos e outros militares de reserva para eventual intervenção/evacuação médica", assinalou ainda Miguel Machado.

DN

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