The Adastra appears to be largely derived from the larger, deeper diving, and longer ranged Scorpene, there us 70% commonality, but in a package better suited to countries that do not have to deploy over long distances or deploy much past the continental shelf.
The Astute, lead ship in a new class of British SSNs, has had its entry into service delayed by some months as a result of problems in test, so sea trials have been delayed.
The system is currently about 47% over budget, but this number is expected to increase.
Some things are the same the world over.
Well, it looks like the sad saga of the DDG-1000 Zumwalt destroyers may become even sadder, as there are now doubts that the two ships purchased may never sail.
Noah Schactman cites a report from Defense News:
Issues have arisen in guaranteeing the seals between the composite construction panels of the huge Zumwalt deckhouse… [where] all of the ship’s major sensors… are embedded in the structure, and all of the ship above the first superstructure level is contained…
[O]ne source familiar with the situation said the Navy is so worried about the problem that it has been canvassing other manufacturers of composite structures to see if an alternate production source could be found.
So will any Zumwalts be built?
… Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and a key supporter of the DDG-1000, told Defense News, “I still expect the Navy’s going to abandon the DDG-1000.”
It sure sounds to me like the ships cannot be built right now.
Background here.
This is not surprising. The SS-N-27 Sizzler is a tough nut to crack to create a viable simulator, and in doing so, it means that ATK will have accumulated the expertise necessary to create a full up missile version.
I would not be at all surprised if they have the missile on the market in the next 5-7 years.
Background here.
Specifically, the fact that naval inspectors flagged the New Orleans, the 2nd of the San Antonio class LPDs, as degraded in basic combat capabilities, despite the fact that the US Navy formally accepted the ship.
It’s bad enough that the San Antonio could not deploy with its strike group earlier.
Our defense procurement system is at least as broken as our financial system.
The Gerald R. Ford, which will succeed the Nimitz Class, and contain such bits of tech as (quoting from article):
a new flight deck with an improved weapon handling system, advanced arresting gear, a newly developed electromagnetic aircraft launch system, new and simplified nuclear propulsion plants and a new electrical power generation system.
One hopes that its progress will be smoother than the Littoral Combat Ship or the DDG-1000 Zumwalt’s, but I doubt it.
So, now the Venezuelan and Russian naval units will be conducting joing exercises in the Caribbean.
Gee, you back a coup, with the idea that the coup plotters will kill the guy, then call him names for a few years, and he runs crying to the Russkies…How ungrateful.
They found 9 ships that appear to date from the 1600s while new highway tunnel in Norway.
They appear to be very well preserved, so it should be an interesting archeology find which will help bridge a gap in knowledge between viking longships and more modern watercraft.
It appears that the US Navy will be shifting strategy away from littoral (coastal) operations.
The article makes some grandiose statements about how a new networked battlespace will require naval ships to operate further offshore, but I think that this is bunk. Rather there are two imperatives driving this decision:
Basically, the F-35B STOVL appears to be a bit light in bring back weight, so the Royal Navy is looking at landing at slow speed,shipboard rolling vertical landing (SRVL).
The aircraft would land at an air speed of somewhere around 60 kt airspeed (the ship would be doing 25 kts, so the deck speed would be 35 kts) to allow for an additional ton or so of fuel or ordinance brought back at landing.
Galrahn at Information Dissemination has review the Navy budget, and found a nugget, that the Navy is intending to upgrade the DDG-1000 Zumwalt class ships to be able to launch the Standard SM-2 missile.
The lack of this capability was given as one reason to can the entire class, and Galrhan is angry that the Navy, upon canceling the program, did not tell Congress about the upgrade proposal.
Me, I’m upset that the navy was willing to accept delivery of a ship that was incapable of defending itself. I’m even more upset that they did so knowingly.
So the first first littoral combat ship got underway at the end of last month, more than a year behind schedule, and at twice the forecast cost.
The ships, the size of a large corvette or small frigate, are intended to work in coastal waters.
Interestingly enough, the Israelis are considering the conventionally hulled LCS as the basis of a ship for their navy, but they are ditching the modular weapons system, because they feel that it leaves the ship too lightly armored.
That is the money quote on the cancellation of the DDG-1000 at 2 ships. It appears that while it could technically carry Standard missiles in its vertical launchers, it could not guide the missiles, and would have had to rely on another ship to do so:
However, in the current program of record, the DDG-1000 cannot perform area air defense; specifically, it cannot successfully employ the Standard Missile-2 (SM-2), SM-3 or SM-6, and is incapable of conducting Ballistic Missile Defense.
(emphasis mine)
No Standard missile capability, so it’s just point defense (Sea Sparrow), and ground attack. As Galrahn notes, that makes it a more expensive variant of the Arsenal Ship canceled in the late 1990s, despite the fact that the navy very strongly implied, through the DDG designation (the “G” standing for guided missile air defense), and through its expansive descriptions of the sensor suite, that the ship could provide air defense.
It appears that the threats from new generations of anti-ship missiles will have the navy buying more Burke class DDGs, though some DDG-1000 tech would make into the new build destroyers, primarily electric drives and the new gun, along with systems to allow for a reduced crew size.
So the US Army is forced to up their own “Swift Boat” corps, and members of the 101st Airborn are now on boats.
I’m sure that they will do a good job, and it appears that these guys are gung ho about this, but the Navy should handling things like patrolling the Euphrates river.
As Galrahn notes, “Imagine a world where the Navy’s leadership was excited about doing the Navy’s job as those Army guys reportedly are.”
So, the Navy has discovered that the second Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), now $300 million over budget and one year late, did not have effective oversight on costs, or on schedule, it would appear.
At first, it seemed fairly straightforward, with friends of the DDG-1000 fighting it out with friends of the DDG-51, though it is complicated because, even the Navy doesn’t want any more, Admiral Mike Mullen, who is chairman of the JCS, spent a lot of time defending it, and the policy direction, to Congress.
Well, John Murtha just made everything a lot more complex. He’s proposing that instead of putting the money in either destroyer, that the money be put into an LPD-17 amphibious warfare ship, two T-AKE auxiliary dry cargo dock carriers, and long lead items for the next Virginia class submarine.
Thing is, Murtha is probably right. The surface combatant fleet, destroyers basically, is the youngest part of the fleet, and the old ships that need to be replaced are amphibious warefare craft and support ships, and the Submarines are the only survivable combatants in a surface engagement with a peer power (which is at least 20 years away), and are useful at surveillance and things like inserting SEAL teams.
The US Navy has proposed ending production at 2 Zumwalt class DDG-1000, and making up the difference with additional DDG-51s, and incumbent Republican Susan Collins opposes this while Democratic challenger Tom Allen supports it.
The total amount of dollars from the Navy would be similar, but the Burkes have more local content, as the Zumwalts are made from modules from all around the country (the better to spread the pork around to many Congressional districts)and then assembled at Bath Iron Works, so the Burkes mean more money for Maine, which should be a selling point for Allen.
This is a good move, the ships are too big and too expensive, costing at least 2½ times that of the Arleigh Burkes that they are to replace.
Susan Collins, the Senator from Bath Iron Works Maine, one of the two shipyards constructing the Zumwalt‘s, appears to be resigned to the termination of the program, though she wants more Burkes to be constructed, which are also made at BIW, which indicates that Congress won’t ram more DDG-1000s this down the Navy’s throat.
I would expect to see some investigation on integrating some of the DDG 1000 specific systems into the Burkes, specifically, the SPY-3 radar and the 155mm Advanced Gun System.
Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Gary Roughead, has been highly critical of the program since his appointment in September, 2007, and sent a letter to Sen. Ted Kennedy saying that the DDG-1000 would not be cheaper to opperate than the DDG-51 Burkes.
MiG is saying that it will be MiG-29K carrier variant to the Indian Navy shortly.
Unfortunately, the ship that they are to serve on, the Admiral Gorshkov, is still in refit in Russia, and it will be at least two years late.
Of interest is that the MiG-29K’s avionics will operate on a MIL STD 1553B bus, a western standard.
Well, it looks like the Navy is coming to its senses, and that it will be trying to terminate its DDG-1000 Zumwalt class destroyer at just two ships.
I think that this is a good thing. They are too damn expensive to build many, and whatever capabilities you add, you lose too much coverage. A large ship (14,500 tons) simply can not be in two places at once, while two (or three) smaller Burke class destroyers can.
It’s the sensible decision, but I agree with Galrahn that there is a risk that Congress may overrule the Navy, because there are prominent people who want the defense pork, which would be a damn shame.