Since 11-30-05
SS News Daily
for 30NOV05
Since 11-30-05
The Daily Internal Information Source for the U.S. Navy Submarine Force
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U.S. Navy photo by JO1(SW) Stefanie Holzeisen-Mullen, Public Affairs Center Norfolk, 29 NOV 05
Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe/Commander, U.S. 6th Fleet Public Affairs, Navy Newsstand, 29 Nov 05
By Journalist 1st Class Mike England, Naval Air Station Jacksonville Public Affairs, Navy Newsstand, 29 Nov 05
U.S. Navy data given to China
By Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, November 30, 2005
By Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg.com, November 28, 2005
By Hope Yen, Associated Press, 29 NOV 05
U.S. Navy photo by JOC(SW/AW) Mark Piggott, COMNAVSUBFOR Public Affairs, 29 NOV 05
By Charles Snyder, Taipei Times, 30 Nov 05
From NISnews.nl, 30 Nov 05
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U.S. Navy photo by JO1(SW) Stefanie Holzeisen-Mullen, Public Affairs Center Norfolk, 29 NOV 05
The fast attack submarine USS Charlotte (SSN 766) arrived at Naval Station Norfolk on Tuesday, November 20, after transiting to the East coast from their homeport in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The nuclear-powered attack submarine will undergo a Depot Modernization Period at Norfolk Naval Shipyard before returning to the Pacific Fleet in late 2006.
Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe/Commander, U.S. 6th Fleet Public Affairs, Navy Newsstand, 29 Nov 05
NAPLES, Italy (NNS) -- In a move to adjust its forces to meet current and future readiness needs in the European theater, the United States and Italy have decided to remove U.S. Navy forces from La Maddalena, Sardinia.
The U.S. and Italian governments are working on a timeline for the withdrawal of forces.
The United States has determined that the capabilities provided by the installation are no longer required due to the realities of the new century’s security environment.
The facility was originally built to meet Cold War security threats.
The departure of the Navy will affect approximately 1,800 people employed on the base. Approximately 1,100 are U.S. Navy personnel serving aboard USS Emory S. Land (AS 39) and the associated submarine support squadron. There are an additional 475 military members, 150 local nationals and 75 U.S. Navy civilians employed at the Naval Support Activity. Including family members, there are approximately 2,500 U.S. personnel stationed at La Maddalena.
No decision has been made on a prospective homeport for Emory S. Land, a maintenance and logistics support ship that provides support and repair services to U.S. Navy ships.
Future U.S. requirements will be considered in re-locating resources to support theater-wide transformation and security plans.
The scheduled removal of U.S. forces in La Maddalena is not expected to impact the Navy’s mission of providing peace and security in the region.
By Journalist 1st Class Mike England, Naval Air Station Jacksonville Public Affairs, Navy Newsstand, 29 Nov 05
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (NNS) -- Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command held an open house and a public hearing Nov. 21 on the proposed Undersea Warfare Training Range (USWTR), which would be located more than 50 miles off Jacksonville’s coastline, at the Wilson Center for the Arts at Florida Community College Jacksonville’s South Campus.
The range would instrument a 500-square-nautical-mile area of the ocean with undersea cables and sensor nodes, and would be primarily used for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) training by U.S. Atlantic Fleet units. Establishment of the range would not result in an increase in sonar activity, but would allow monitoring of exercises currently conducted.
"The purpose of this event is to educate the public about what the Navy would like to do and to listen to any concerns or inputs they may have," said Jim Brantley, with U.S. Fleet Forces Command.
The open house featured five different booths encompassing different areas of concern for many citizens. They addressed topics such as the purpose and need for the range, location and installation of the range and the effects of sound on marine mammals. Subject matter experts passed out information and listened to the concerns of Jacksonville’s citizens throughout the open house.
The public hearing kicked off with opening remarks by Capt. Bill Toti, officer-in-charge of the Fleet ASW Command, Norfolk, Va. Toti explained that the growing threat of ultra-quiet submarines makes the USWTR an essential training tool for submariners.
"USWTR is a critical part of the Navy’s ASW training," Toti said during the hearing. "There are no training ranges offshore of the U.S. East Coast that can replicate the open ocean and provide real-time feedback on the effectiveness of our ASW capabilities. This is important because modern submarines are becoming increasingly quiet as technology improves. Active sonar continues to be the best way to detect a quiet submarine before it is close enough to fire a torpedo."
Aileen Smith, natural resources manager for the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, addressed the environmental impact the training range would have on the area. "We have spent a lot of time evaluating the potential impact of the range and have come up with a plan to minimize its impact on both the environment and [marine species]," she said
"There will also be long-term, independent monitoring of the site by scientists."
Copies of the Navy’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) were available for citizens to look over during the open house. The DEIS went over the Navy’s proposed construction and operation of the USWTR.
It would be located approximately 50 nautical miles from the coastline to the center point of the range, outside of U.S. territorial waters. The instrumental area would be connected to the shore via a single trunk cable. The proposed action would require logistical support for ASW training, including the launch and recovery of non-explosive exercise training torpedoes and submarine simulators.
A few citizens in attendance voiced their opinions about the proposed project. Some came out in favor of the USWTR, while others were concerned by the range’s potential environmental impact.
Jeff Chastain, a Jacksonville citizen since 1959, came to the open house to support the Navy and learn more about the proposed project. "It seems like the Navy really needs this range to keep their fighting edge," he stated. "I have no doubt that the Navy will do everything it can to ensure that the environmental impact will be minimal."
Smith said the Navy has received many helpful ideas during previous public hearings on how whales and other sea life could be protected. She said that one of the reasons the Navy conducts hearings such as this is to take suggestions from citizens about ideas they may have overlooked.
The Northeast Florida coastline is one of three potential sites for the new range. The coasts of North Carolina and Virginia are the other areas. The Navy currently has an instrumented training range off the U.S. West Coast.
Navy officials have extended the public comment period to allow for additional public review and comment. Citizens, groups or organizations have until Dec. 28 to comment on the USWTR by writing to: Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic, ATTN: Code EV42KJ (Keith Jenkins), 6506 Hampton Boulevard, Norfolk, Va. 23508-1278.
For additional information on Navy activities involving sonar and marine species, visit www.whalesandsonar.navy.mil <http://www.whalesandsonar.navy.mil>.
U.S. Navy data given to China
By Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, November 30, 2005
A defense contractor charged with failing to register as a Chinese agent admitted passing data on U.S. Navy arms technology to China for 22 years, including information on next-generation destroyers, an aircraft carrier catapult and the Aegis weapons system, according to new court papers in the case.
Two federal judges in Los Angeles on Monday reversed earlier rulings and ordered the contractor and his brother held without bond. The rulings followed testimony from FBI agents in the case.
Court papers released Monday, including a detention motion filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Staples, also identified the Chinese military intelligence handler who received the information from defense contractor Chi Mak and his brother Tai Mak, who also is in the Chinese military.
The court documents shed new light on what U.S. intelligence officials say will be one of the most damaging cases of Chinese technology spying on U.S. weapons, even though the information compromised was not secret.
According to court papers, Chi Mak, an electrical engineer who worked on more than 200 Navy contracts, told investigators two days after his Oct. 30 arrest that he had been sending sensitive but unclassified documents on weapons research to China since 1983.
According to the papers, Chi Mak admitted passing to China information on:
· Direct current-to-direct current (DDC) converters for submarines.
· A 5,000-amp direct current hybrid circuit breaker for submarines.
· Electro-Magnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), a new system to launch aircraft from carriers using magnets instead of steam.
· The power distribution system for the Aegis weapons system and its Spy-1 radar, used on the Navy's most advanced guided missile destroyers and cruisers.
· A study that reveals the methods used by U.S. warship personnel to continue operating after being attacked. Officials said the paper is a blueprint for attacking and disabling warships.
· Modifications and Additions to Reactor Facility (MARF), a nuclear reactor located at the Navy's Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory that's used for testing prototype nuclear reactors. Investigators found a detailed, hand-drawn map of that facility in Chi Mak's house.
Prosecutors argued in court that Chi Mak planned to retire to China in March and thus posed a flight risk.
U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney, who ordered Chi Mak to be held without bond, dismissed a defense lawyer's claim that the charges were exaggerated. "You're talking about billions of dollars of technology that puts our country at serious risk," he said.
Investigators found data on the DDX destroyer program on encrypted files carried by Tai Mak, a Phoenix television engineer, when he was arrested along with his wife Oct. 28 at Los Angeles International Airport as they prepared to travel to China. The documents were labeled "proprietary" and "restricted," the court papers stated.
Chi Mak and his wife also were arrested Oct. 28 and initially charged with theft of government property and conspiracy. The charges against Chi Mak, his wife and Tai Mak were later reduced to failing to register as government agents. Tai Mak's wife was charged in a separate indictment with running a marriage fraud business.
According to the papers, Chi Mak, who was recently fired from his defense contractor job at Power Paragon, initially traveled to Hong Kong and gave the stolen information to his brother. Tai Mak then passed it to Pu Pei-Liang, identified by the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) as a research fellow at the Center for Asia Pacific Studies (CAPS) at Zhongshan University in Guangzhou, China. Later, Tai Mak served as the courier for the data.
During an intercepted telephone call to Mr. Pu on Oct. 19, Chi Mak stated he was part of the "Red Flower of North America," the code name that the FBI thinks was used to identify the spy ring.
The NCIS said the center in Guangzhou is run by the Chinese military and conducts operational research for it, including acquiring U.S. Navy technology.
By Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg.com, November 28, 2005
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s shoddy work on a new amphibious warfare vessel may result in the U.S. Navy redrawing its shipbuilding contracts to guard against having to pay for poor performance, officials said.
The Navy's general counsel, Alberto Mora, is studying current contracts with an eye to renegotiating them and ensuring that all future contracts include language that guarantees ``we attain the level of performance we are entitled to,'' Assistant General Counsel for Acquisition Sophie Krasik said.
The initiative was spurred by former assistant secretary for acquisition John Young, who was angry the Navy had to pay Northrop, the largest U.S. shipbuilder, $40 million to fix leaky welds and poorly strung cable on the new LPD-17 after it was delivered in July.
``The Navy has been frustrated for some time now about rising shipbuilding costs so if it turns out that, on top of these rising costs, the quality of workmanship has declined in some instances, that would only add to frustrations,'' said Ronald O'Rourke, a naval analyst for the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
Krasik said Mora has a small team of legal and technical experts reviewing current contracts and industry standards with an eye to new contract language and other legal remedies.
“Everything is on the table but we obviously recognize that an existing contract, if we made a change, would need to be bilateral, but if we have rights that we think need to be enforced we would certainly try to do that,” Krasik said in an interview Nov. 22.
Krasik said the Navy has not discussed potential contract revisions with Northrop or No. 2 U.S. shipbuilder General Dynamics Corp. or with shipbuilding industry groups. Mora's team wants to finish its work early next year and may implement new language incrementally, she said.
The Navy's standard contract requires it to reimburse companies even if the work is substandard or must be redone, Young said in an interview Nov. 4 before he became the Pentagon's director of research and development. That requirement is standard in the shipbuilding industry, he said.
``Precedent says when the government signs a cost-type contract, it pays costs -- regardless of performance,'' and ``I don't think that's where the pendulum ought to be,'' Young said. ``We shouldn't have to pay tax dollars for any level of bad performance.''
To make his point, Young cited two shipbuilding programs: the LPD-17 amphibious warfare vessel and the USS Virginia submarine.
On the Virginia, built by General Dynamics Corp. and Northrop Grumman, ``there were defective circuit breakers installed and we paid the company to buy those products, inspect and install,'' he said. After all that, the circuit breakers didn't work and the Navy then had to pay Northorp again for new ones and, ``if they were defective, replace, reinstall.''
On the LPD, the first of nine San Antonio-class amphibious warfare vessels, the welding and cabling was severely flawed, Young said.
The ship, with the $40 million extra for repairs, is now expected to cost $1.6 billion, or about 64 percent more than projected in the mid-1990s. The vessel was delivered in July, three years late and with more repairs needed.
``We had way too many pipe joints that were defective and leaked,'' Young said. ``When I pay government money for people to weld pipe, I ought to have a certain expectation that the failure will be modest. We were off-the-scale on failure rate for these,'' he said. Northrop fixed all the LPD-17 flaws, Young said.
``I've asked the legal team to check whether there are certain standards of performance we could potentially put in a contract that say -- `yes, we'll pay your costs but if you are significantly out-of-bounds relative to a reasonable expectation of quality, the government shouldn't have to pay for that cost,''' Young said.
Northrop Grumman in a statement declined to directly address Young's comments or the Navy's contract review.
``The first five ships of LPD-17 program are being procured under `cost-plus-award-fee' contracts,'' said spokesman Randy Belote. ``The contract vehicle was initiated by the Navy to help reduce the financial risk to contractors for the production of the totally new LPD-17 class of ships which specified significantly more stringent requirements than previous amphibious class ships.''
By Hope Yen, Associated Press, 29 NOV 05
WASHINGTON - More cocaine is likely to come into the United States from South America as the U.S. diverts resources from its drug-control strategy to hurricane relief and the war on terror, congressional investigators say.
The report prepared by the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, found that U.S. cocaine seizures from 2000 to 2004 increased by 68 percent to a record 196 metric tons in the "transit zone," the area between the U.S. and South America.
But the Pentagon's attention to armed conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and the Homeland Security Department's focus on Hurricane Katrina threaten to undermine recent achievements, the GAO said in its report.
The report, an advance copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, offers a sobering look at the future of government efforts to stymie America's $65 billion illegal drug habit. It notes that while drug seizures have increased, U.S. cocaine supplies and the number of users (2 million) have not fallen, apparently due to a rise in shipments.
"We need to be more effective and better prepared because these are routes that not only move illicit drugs today, but can easily move other more dangerous commodities such as terrorists in the future," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who requested the study.
In the report, the GAO pointed in particular to reduced use of the Navy's P-3 maritime patrol aircraft "due to structural problems," a slowing Coast Guard response because of aging ships, and a surface radar system on Coast Guard aircraft that is "often inoperable."
Since fiscal year 2000, the number of hours flown by the Navy P-3s has decreased nearly 60 percent to about 1,500 hours in fiscal year 2005, according to the study.
"Various factors pose challenges to maintaining the current level of transit zone interdiction operations," the GAO said in calling on the Pentagon and Homeland Security to develop a long-term strategy to plan for a likely shortfall in ships and aircraft.
In their official responses, the departments said they were working to boost resources for drug control but acknowledged they were constrained partly by the perceived threat level as well as availability of funding. The decline in Navy aircraft for drug patrols should not be interpreted as "a lack of DoD resolve," the Pentagon wrote, citing "warfighting requirements."
While committed to "robust support" of drug control, "unforeseen events such as Hurricane Katrina relief efforts may temporarily impact asset availability," Homeland Security said in its response. The GAO attributed recent successes in drug seizures to better intelligence and increased cooperation between the Homeland Security, Defense and Justice departments, allowing them to succeed with fewer resources based on targeted raids.
It also cited the use of Coast Guard helicopters equipped with machine guns and sniper rifles to hunt down drug boats, as well as cooperation from several allied nations - France, Netherlands and the United Kingdom – that helped make up for the dropoff in Pentagon aircraft for surveillance.
Still, the decline in U.S. antidrug activity poses challenges, the report said. Cooperating nations in South America have said they don't have the resources to compensate for declining U.S. involvement, the report said, citing a lack of secure communication equipment or vessels of their own.
"While some short-term fixes have been taken, the longer-term implications of further declines in the availability of monitoring and interdiction assets have not been addressed," the GAO said.
U.S. Navy photo by JOC(SW/AW) Mark Piggott, COMNAVSUBFOR Public Affairs, 29 NOV 05
Captain John Daugherty, COMNAVSUBFOR Chief of Staff (right), frocked five new petty officers assigned to the staff of Commander, Naval Submarine Forces on Tuesday, November 29, 2005. They are, from right to left, IT1 Steven L. Boyd, ET1(SS) Christopher L. Goodwin, IT2(SW/AW) Wesley H. Griffin, JO1 Christina M. Shaw and CTO1(SW) Bobbie J. White.
China may have upper hand in five years: US report
By Charles Snyder, Taipei Times, 30 Nov 05
Within five years, China's armed forces may be able to prevent the US from coming to Taiwan's aid against a military attack from China, a new US congressional report warns. Some expert observers, the report adds, feel that the Chinese military may already have such capabilities.
With current US naval capabilities, it could take two weeks or longer for the US to respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan, lessening the chances that it could thwart China, the report says.
The document, China Naval Modernization: Implications for US Naval Capabilities, Background and Issues for Congress, was prepared in secret by the Congressional Research Service to help Congressional committees with oversight of the military to plan for US defense needs in the Western Pacific. It was published on Monday by the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy, an organization that brings security-related information to public attention.
"Some analysts speculate that China may attain [or believe that it has attained] a capable maritime anti-access capability, or important elements of it, by about 2010," the report says.
Anti-access capability refers to preventing US naval access to the Taiwan Strait.
The issue of when China could attain such capabilities, the report says, "is significant because it can influence the kinds of options that are available to US policymakers for addressing the situation."
The potential for a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait was a main focus of the report.
"Observers believe that China's military modernization is aimed at fielding a force that can succeed in a short-duration conflict with Taiwan that finishes before the United States is able to intervene," the report says.
The Pentagon wants Taiwan to focus on acquiring systems that would "lengthen the time Taiwan could deny the PRC [People's Republic of China] from gaining air superiority, sea control, and physical occupation of [Taipei]," it says.
The time needed would be "at least five days" after a "credible warning" that an attack is imminent or underway.
But even then, the congressional researchers warn, the US navy might not be up to the task.
The report notes that so-called "early arriving forces," often involving warships stationed close to the Strait, would be of particular importance in a short conflict over Taiwan. Addressing this could involve having US warships based in locations such as Japan, Guam, Singapore or Hawaii, rather than the US West Coast.
At an expected average speed of 25 knots (46kph), over long Pacific Ocean distances for US submarines, aircraft carriers, cruisers and destroyers, a ship based in San Diego, California would take nearly 10 days to reach an area east of Taiwan after setting sail.
By contrast, a US warship based in Yokosuka, Japan, would take just under two days, one in Guam would take 2.2 days, and a ship sailing from Pearl Harbor in Hawaii would take more than seven days.
But added to these times would be delays for at-sea refueling, rough sea conditions, and the need to avoid sea mines and deal with other contingencies. Moreover, it would take time to get a ship and its crew ready to leave port.
Depending on a ship's status, "preparing it for rapid departure might require anywhere from less than one day to a few days," the report quotes a military expert as saying.
At present, the US has only one aircraft carrier based in the Western Pacific -- in Japan. The closest additional carriers are on the US West Coast, although carrier groups are regularly at sea in the Pacific, patrolling the area and conducting drills to hone their wartime skills.
"Given that a conflict with China could begin with little warning, this means that as much as two weeks could elapse before additional aircraft carriers reach the area of combat operations," the report quotes another expert as saying.
From NISnews.nl, 30 Nov 05
THE HAGUE, 30/11/05 - The Royal Navy is prepared to open the Submarine Service to women. The navy is thereby breaking with a long tradition.
The navy's advice on opening up the service will be presented to Defence State Secretary Kees van der Knaap tomorrow. According to a navy spokesman, he will "undoubtedly approve" the plans.
The navy bases its positive attitude on a survey of the situation in submarine services in other countries. In Norway and Germany, it has for some time been customary for women to form part of submarine crews. In Norway there has already been a female submarine commander.
Labour (PvdA) woman MP Eijsink spent a week on HMS Dolfijn submarine last year by way of a trial. She concluded that women on submarines was a bad idea. "It will lead to tensions, and that could endanger safety," she said.
State secretary Van der Knaap appointed the first female general this year. He also wanted to include women in the Commando Troops Corps (KTC), but withdrew this plan following protests from these special forces.