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for 14DEC05
Since 12-14-05
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Navy Sustains Carrier Requirement Under $13.4 Billion Plan
By Geoff Fein, Defense Daily 14 DEC 05
US Navy Reins In Costs To Fund Larger Fleet
By Andrew Koch, Janes Defence Weekly 14 DEC 05
U.S. Weighs Whether To Build Some New Nuclear Warheads
Idea Is to Replace Aging Ones With More Reliable Type; Critics Dispute the Need
By Carla Anne Robbins, Wall Street Journal, Pg. 1, December 14, 2005
State Officials Offer Help As Electric Boat Faces Slowdown
Preliminary meeting prompted by layoffs, shrinking workload
By Anthony Cronin, New London Day, 14 Dec 05
Anteon to be Acquired by General Dynamics for $55.50 Per Share
By Anteon International Corporation
Neglect Led To Infant's Death, Police Say
Deputy Prosecutor Says It's The Worst Case Of Neglect He's Seen In 28 Years.
By Josh Farley, Kitsap Sun (WA) 14 DEC 05
Killer Whales: Protection From Us
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer 14 DEC 05)…OPED
PHOTO & STORY:
Submarine Culinary Specialists recreate historic
house in gingerbread for holidays
By JO1 Christina M. Shaw, COMNAVSUBFOR Public Affairs
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Navy Sustains Carrier Requirement Under $13.4 Billion Plan
By Geoff Fein, Defense Daily 14 DEC 05
The Navy's future ship inventory plan for the next 35 years demonstrates the service's desire to get back up to 12 aircraft carriers, maintain the current fleet of Aegis cruisers, and keep fleet numbers above 300, according to a document outlining the Navy's $13.4 billion baseline inventory.
However, attack submarines will fall below requirement beginning in FY '20 as the number of SSNs drops below 50 in the out-years, according to a document obtained by Defense Daily.
Additionally, the 30-year fleet plan shows that the Navy does not intend to replace the SSGN submarines at the end of their service life. And the Navy will build only one Maritime Preposition Force (Future) squadron—the platforms that will be part of the service's future sea base operations.
The $13.4 billion baseline was one of three scenarios examined by the Navy. The two other scenarios used baselines of $15 billion and $10.5 billion--what some consider a worst- case scenario.
While all the scenarios maintained the Navy's requirement for a 313-ship fleet, each met the requirement in different ways.
The $13.4 billion baseline is the current Navy plan.
It's hoped the baseline will provide the shipbuilding industry with a good read on where the Navy is headed for the next 30 years, a Navy source said.
Under the $15 billion baseline, the Navy would add an additional CG(X) cruiser in 2020.
SSN numbers would also decline at a slower pace.
The $10.5 billion scenario includes a reduction in CG(X) procurement to one ship per year and an apparent reduction in planned Virginia-class procurement to something less than two per year (rather than a solid two per year starting in FY '12) that shows up in the middle years before SSN-774(X)s begin to enter service at two per year, Ron O'Rourke a defense analyst with the Congressional Research Service, told Defense Daily.
Under the $13.4 billion baseline, the Navy plans to reach 300 ships by FY '10 and maintain at least a 300-ship Navy out to 2035. The fleet will reach a high of 332 ships by FY '19.
"They can do it without including high numbers of LCS (Littoral Combat Ship)," O'Rourke said.
Under the $10.5 billion baseline, the Navy would reach 300 ships in FY '09. However, the fleet numbers would begin dropping in FY '11, hitting a low of 281 ships in FY '25 and not getting back to 300 until FY '33.
LCS inventory will reach its peak in 2019 at 55 ships and remain at that level to at least 2035 under the $13.4 billion baseline. The Navy would not reach an inventory of 55 LCS until 2030 under the $10.5 billion baseline.
The Navy will take delivery of the first LCS in 2007, adding up to 16 ships by 2010 at a rate of two to three a year. However, from 2010 to 2016, the Navy will add six LCS per year to the fleet.
While the 55 LCS in the document is a considerable decline from what some, such as former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark, had at one time talked about (75 to 100), the number of ships remains near the high end of the original plan of 30 to 60 LCS.
General Dynamics [GD] and Lockheed Martin [LMT] are competing for the LCS contract.
Although the aircraft carrier fleet will drop to 10 (under all three baseline scenarios) in FY '13 and '14 with the retirement of the USS Enterprise (CVN-65), it will gradually climb back up beginning in FY '15, reaching 12 aircraft carriers in FY '19 and a high of 13 in FY '23, before falling back down to 12 in FY '25.
"It shows the desire to get back up to 12 carriers even though [the Navy] settles for 11," O'Rourke said.
The Navy has dropped one DD(X) from its list, showing a final inventory of seven ships beginning in FY '18. Additionally, in FY '14, the service will begin adding DD(X) to its inventory at a rate of one every five years, instead of every six years.
Pentagon acquisition chief Ken Krieg authorized DD(X) to enter the systems development and demonstration phase of the acquisition process in November. The Navy was also told it could buy up to eight ships.
However, the service has yet to formalize an acquisition plan beyond the dual lead ship proposal that would have both General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman [NOC] build simultaneous lead ships.
The Navy will also begin adding its next generation missile cruiser CG(X) to the fleet in 2017. O'Rourke said an issue could arise should DD(X) and CG(X) become so expensive that the Navy can't buy one of each in FY '17 and '18.
There could be trade-offs in the near term and in the "long term [the Navy could] face challenges with getting new ships," he said.
The Navy will reach its peak of 19 CG(X)s in FY '28. Under the $10.5 billion baseline scenario, the Navy wouldn't add a second CG(X) to its inventory until 2020.
Under all three scenarios, the service will maintain its fleet of 22 Aegis cruisers (CG-47) through FY '20. The Aegis fleet will slowly decline until FY '28, when the Navy will have only one remaining cruiser in service.
O'Rourke said this shows that the Navy wants to hang on to the Aegis cruisers even though CG(X) is coming into service.
The submarine fleet will maintain at least 50 SSNs through FY '22, before declining to 38 by FY '35. However, the four Ohio-class SSGNs will be out of service by FY '29.
"[The Navy] will take time to glide down to 48 SSNs," O'Rourke said. "The Navy does not intend to replace the SSGN at the end of its service life."
Under the $13.4 billion baseline, the Navy will fall below its requirement for SSNs in FY '20, and the numbers will slowly decline to the low 30s by 2035. The decision not to replace the SSGN will leave the Navy below its requirement on Ohio-class submarines as well, according to the document.
There will also be only one squadron of MPF(F) ships, according to the document. Under the $13.4 billion baseline, the first of the MPF(F) ships will enter service in FY '12 and the full contingent of 12 MPF(F) ships will be reached by FY '18. The Navy had considered as many as three MPF(F) squadrons, each consisting of 14 ships.
However, at a price tag of $14 billion per squadron, some lawmakers questioned the need for more than one. Of the 14 ships in the MPF(F), 12 will be new construction. The Navy already leases the dense pack shps, but the service is looking to buy them. The service either currently has some MPF(F) ships in the fleet or will be taking delivery of them over the next few years. But the ships planned for MPF(F) will be in addition to the current Navy numbers. For example, the large medium-speed roll-on/roll-off (LMSR) ships are all delivered. The Navy has one in its Maritime Propositioning Force (Enhanced) or MPF(E) squadron and the rest were built for the Army (Defense Daily, July 18).
However, under the $10.5 billion baseline, the date the MPF(F) squadron is completed is delayed three years, reflecting delayed procurement of LHA/LHDs, LMSR(mod)s, and MLPs for that squadron, O'Rourke added.
Additionally, the Navy has a follow-on for DDG-51, currently called DDG(X), that will enter the fleet in the FY '25 time frame. The service also plans a major modification to its fleet of Virginia-class submarines beginning in FY '27, the document said.
US Navy Reins In Costs To Fund Larger Fleet
By Andrew Koch, Janes Defence Weekly 14 DEC 05
The US Navy is poised to release a new shipbuilding plan that will peg the future fleet at 313 vessels. To be affordable, the navy will have to successfully shave costs off its shipbuilding Greater budgetary stability will help reduce some of those costs
Faced with a shrinking fleet and rising shipbuilding costs, the US Navy is preparing to release a plan to reverse those trends.
The document outlines how the navy intends to grow its fleet of ships from about 280 today to 313 by 2020. The service has struggled in recent years to rein in spiralling costs and the declining numbers of ships being built, but with the Department of Defense (DoD) Quadrennial Defense Review and Fiscal Year 2007 budget deliberations in their final throes, navy shipbuilding appears poised to stave off cuts that were under serious consideration until recently.
"I'm bullish on the shipbuilding account in the US Navy," said Rear Admiral Charles Hamilton, the service's programme executive officer for ships. "We are raising the TOA [total obligation authority, or funding profile] and we are fencing the TOA [for shipbuilding]," he said.
For the shipbuilding plan of new Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Mullen to come to pass, the service will have to dedicate about USD13 billion a year to shipbuilding accounts in times of tight funding.
In past years, shipbuilding accounts have been raided to pay for other pressing priorities. Now, the navy has signalled its intentions to keep the plans stable. "Once we define this number, we are going to stick to it," said Vice Admiral Lewis Crenshaw, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Resources, Requirements and Assessments. Industry and military officials said the effects of past instability have led to major programme delays and escalating costs.
The officers spoke at a defence and aerospace conference sponsored by Credit Suisse First Boston and Aviation Week on 7 and 8 December.
However, stability will only reduce some costs and the navy will need to chop more off its skyrocketing shipbuilding bills if the plan is to be affordable. To address the issue, the service intends to reconsider requirements and strive for threshold - rather than more expensive and technically challenging objective - goals in initial variants of new ships.
For example, to pay for the seven DD(X) destroyers, the plan envisions, the navy intends to shave USD300 million off the cost of the lead ship and USD200 million off each vessel thereafter, Rear Adm Hamilton said. Much of those savings will also be applicable to the 19 CG(X) cruisers the plan calls for because the service is committed to using the same hullform and common technologies for both vessels.
Rear Adm Hamilton noted that a similar process will be used for the LHA-Replacement, which is set to go before a senior DoD review board in January. The navy intends to have a total of 31 amphibious vessels in service, including LHA-Rs, along with 12 still-tobe- defined Maritime Preposition Force (Future) ships.
Its fleet of 2020 will also contain 11 aircraft carriers, 62 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, 55 Littoral Combat Ships, 14 ballistic missile submarines, four nuclearpowered guided-missile submarines, 30 combat logistics force vessels and 20 command or support ships. The plan calls for the retirement of all 17 mine warfare vessels and 30 guided-missile frigates.
The navy would also keep 48 nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs), which is a reduction from the current fleet of 52 but meaningfully more than the 41 or so under previous navy projections. To reach that number, the plans envisage building two Virginia-class SSNs per year and cutting the costs of each to USD2 billion - a reduction of about USD500 million.
Efficiencies gained from higher production rates will account for some of those savings, but it is unclear how the remainder would be achieved. Similar cost controls on other ships will be vital if the plan is to be successful.
Personnel reductions are one mechanism the navy intends to use to garner savings necessary to pay for its modernisation initiatives, Vice Adm Crenshaw said. In recent years the navy has trimmed the size of its uniformed forces as it has used technology to reduce the number of sailors needed to man each ship. He said that process will continue, adding that the navy will also look at how civilian navy personnel and outsourced contractors - funded under operations and maintenance accounts - can also be cut back.
U.S. Weighs Whether To Build Some New Nuclear Warheads
Idea Is to Replace Aging Ones With More Reliable Type; Critics Dispute the Need
By Carla Anne Robbins, Wall Street Journal, Pg. 1, December 14, 2005
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. -- On this remote mesa where the atom bomb was born, a fresh question is in the air: Does the U.S. need new nuclear weapons?
Some 15 years after the Cold War, and at a time when the U.S. is demanding others restrain their nuclear ambitions, the Bush administration thinks the answer is yes. With little notice, it has been pressing Congress to fund research into a new generation of nuclear weapons.
Lawmakers have twice turned down proposals to design a new nuclear "bunker-buster" bomb, to blow up buried caches of weapons. But last month, with little debate, Congress approved $25 million for research into what is supposed to be a sturdier, more reliable warhead than those designed during the Cold War. If the work is successful, the U.S. could someday spend billions of dollars replacing much of the current arsenal.
The U.S. hasn't designed or built a new nuclear warhead since the late 1980s. It hasn't tested one since 1992. U.S. officials say the aging arsenal is becoming increasingly difficult and costly to maintain, and was designed to deter a foe far different from those the U.S. now faces. "You would not create the current stockpile if you were starting now," says Linton Brooks, head of the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the arsenal.
President Bush has committed to deep cuts in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The overall stockpile numbers are classified. But by 2012 the cuts would leave the U.S. with about 2,200 nuclear warheads deployed on long-range launchers, along with some 700 short-range weapons. In addition, the Pentagon is expected to keep some 3,000 backup warheads, as a hedge against technical failures or a resurgent Russia. Mr. Brooks says with a more dependable warhead, along with a revival of the weapons-production complex, the U.S. should be able to make "significant" cuts in the hedge.
Critics say any international perception that the U.S. is strengthening its nuclear capability with new warheads could severely undercut its credibility at a time when it is pressing North Korea and Iran to curb nuclear appetites. "You cannot tell people that nuclear weapons are bad for you but we are modernizing ours," says Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Some also question the technical rationale. Currently, the U.S. spends billions of dollars each year to monitor its stockpile and extend the weapons' life. Critics say some minor changes in this maintenance effort could buy even more time.
Some also say any plan to build new warheads without testing them -- which is the administration's declared goal -- could leave more doubt, not less, about the arsenal's reliability. "We'll have to see how much of a change they're proposing, but it's hard to understand how a redesigned warhead that's never been tested would give you higher confidence than warheads which have been tested more than a thousand times," says Sidney Drell, a Stanford University physicist and member of the Jasons, a scientific group that advises the government on weapons issues.
Scientists at Los Alamos are engaged in their own vigorous debate. Joe Martz, a chemical engineer, heads a small team working on a preliminary design for a more-reliable warhead. He says new technology should permit crafting one that is easier to build, cheaper to maintain and safer to store, and that wouldn't need testing. At the same time, he fiercely opposes the Pentagon's proposed nuclear bunker-buster, saying any change that might make it more tempting to use nuclear arms would be "destabilizing."
When the Defense Department chose this spot in late 1942 as the site for its secret atom-bomb program, there was little here but farms and the Los Alamos Ranch School, built to toughen up sickly East Coast boys. The military put up a barbed-wire fence around the newly created town, then an interior fence around the lab itself, to keep the work secret even from scientists' families.
Reminders of that history are never far away. Los Alamos, now a town of 18,000, has an Oppenheimer Drive (after J. Robert Oppenheimer, head of the Manhattan Project), a Trinity Drive (after the desert site of the first test) and two atomic-bomb museums.
Inside the lab's security fences today, scientists are focused on more recent history and what they fear is a steady erosion of skills. "The really scary thing is that there are only two designers [of warheads' plutonium triggers] left at the laboratory who have underground-test experience," says James Peery, one of the weapons program's directors.
The U.S. got out of the business of making nuclear weapons almost by inadvertence. By the late 1980s, the Cold War was winding down and the once-sacrosanct weapons complex began to face public scrutiny. Under pressure from Congress and environmental groups, the Energy Department admitted in 1988 to causing radioactive and toxic pollution at installations in a dozen states.
The next year, federal agents, looking into allegations of illegal dumping and falsified records, raided and closed Colorado's Rocky Flats plant, which produced all of the arsenal's plutonium triggers. Then the first President Bush, amid his unsuccessful 1992 re-election campaign, reluctantly agreed to a congressionally mandated moratorium on testing.
A reprieve of sorts came in the mid-1990s. The Clinton administration, committed to a test-ban treaty that the Senate never did ratify, agreed to spend billions at the labs for technology to ensure the nuclear stockpile's continued reliability without test explosions.
Even after more than 1,000 test blasts, scientists had a limited understanding of what happens inside a nuclear warhead in the few billionths of a second as it explodes. They had still less experience with the effects of aging on warheads that once were replaced every 15 or 20 years. Today, in a program known as stockpile stewardship, the U.S. uses elaborate machines to try to determine how well its aging nuclear arms would work if the U.S. ever needed to detonate one.
A 220-foot-long electron accelerator, housed inside a thick concrete blockhouse here, produces some of the world's most powerful X-rays to photograph the inside of a mock nuclear warhead as it's subjected to the searing heat and pressure of a conventional explosion. Supercomputers then extrapolate the resulting data to gauge how the components would hold up under the far greater extremes generated by a nuclear chain reaction.
On a recent morning, scientists provided a taste of what their mix of real and virtual testing can do. They used computers to simulate the stress on foam used to hold a nuclear warhead together for the few microseconds needed to ensure that its series of explosions goes off.
Inside a small room called the Cave, engineers projected a greatly magnified three-dimensional model of the foam's cellular structure as it was compressed by a virtual nuclear explosion. Projected on the floor, ceiling and three walls, the yellow foam's branches, looking like undersea coral, sprouted dots of red as the foam began to break down under the pressure. The engineers then replayed this slowed-down virtual explosion, rotating the foam and the blast direction to get a view from all sides. The process enables them to see whether the foam holds up without setting off a warhead to find out.
The stewardship program has given the labs enough confidence that it plans to begin replacing certain aging components of a 30-year-old warhead called the W-76, the most numerous one in the arsenal. The plan is to extend its life another 30 years.
Still, the Bush administration came to office questioning how long this arsenal could be maintained without new testing, and determined to revive the weapons production complex and begin developing new warheads. A 2001 review identified a new set of potential adversaries, including Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Syria and China. It called for a broader array of nuclear capabilities, including weapons that could go after hardened, deeply buried targets, and less-powerful warheads to reduce "collateral damage."
Officials saw the huge warheads that deterred the Soviets as much less credible against today's far weaker adversaries. Leaders of nations such as North Korea or Iran, they argued, would be unlikely to believe a U.S. president would order even a retaliatory strike with arms that might kill hundreds of thousands.
Hobson's Choice
Early proposals from the administration to study new nuclear weapons met little congressional resistance. But in 2004 it ran into an unexpected foe: an Ohio Republican congressman named David Hobson, head of the House subcommittee that funds nuclear-weapons programs. He was critical of what he saw as poor security and management problems at the labs. But more than anything, he opposed a new nuclear bunker-buster.
"We can't tell other countries don't build any nuclear weapons, but we're so superior that we'd like a new weapon of our own," he says. Mr. Hobson has stared down both the administration and the nuclear labs' top congressional patron, Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici of New Mexico, blocking funding for design of a bunker-buster that would put a harder case around an existing warhead.
At the same time, Mr. Hobson has become the leading proponent of building a new, sturdier replacement warhead, an idea pitched to him by Los Alamos scientists. He says it makes technical sense and would also help head off pressure to build new designs such as the bunker-buster. The reliable warhead "only replaces what we have -- there's no new mission," so it should be easier to explain internationally, he says. When the administration sought money last year to study weapons that would have new missions, he redirected the funds to what his staff dubbed the Reliable Replacement Warhead.
By spring of 2005, the administration's Mr. Brooks also had become a champion of the replacement warhead. He spoke of designing a new stockpile that was more reliable, less expensive, more environmentally sound and ultimately smaller.
He also made clear, in congressional testimony, that the administration set its sights beyond that. The reliable-warhead program, he said, would help create a flexible nuclear infrastructure able "to provide new or different military capabilities" if needed. And he pressed for funding to begin planning for a new plutonium-trigger plant, replacing Rocky Flats. This year, when the administration asked for $9.4 million to study the reliable warhead, Congress, at Mr. Hobson's urging, appropriated nearly three times that.
Exactly how new this warhead would be isn't yet clear. Teams at Los Alamos and at California's Lawrence Livermore Lab now are working on competitive designs. They've been told to design a warhead that has the explosive power of the W-76, but inside the larger body of a more powerful warhead, the W-88.
The end of the Cold War makes this possible, says Los Alamos's Mr. Martz. When the U.S. was packing 10 warheads on a single missile to confront the Soviet Union, the labs were told to design the most powerful warheads they could with the least size and weight. So they took risks, such as using the smallest possible amount of plutonium that would ignite a full thermonuclear explosion.
Not having to make a warhead so light gives designers more options. For instance, instead of surrounding the plutonium "pit" with beryllium, which is light but toxic and creates cleanup issues, they can use a heavier metal such as titanium or even stainless steel. They also can put in more-effective trigger locks, to make it harder for a terrorist who stole a warhead to set it off.
Mr. Martz says the freedom to make a heavier warhead could also include a heftier plutonium pit, to ensure the full explosion ignites. As a result, he believes -- though he won't guarantee -- that all these changes wouldn't require testing. He says he also can't guarantee there will never be a need to test older warheads to confirm their reliability.
Quiet Preparations
Outside Las Vegas, the government's Nevada underground test site is quietly preparing for such possibilities. The test site has stayed alive by doing its own share of virtual testing. Almost 1,000 feet below the desert floor, inside a maze of well-lit tunnels, engineers do "subcritical" experiments: compressing aging plutonium samples nearly to the point of a chain reaction to see how they perform.
Since the Clinton administration, the site has been kept three years short of readiness to conduct new tests. The Bush administration won funding to shorten that to two years.
Early next year engineers will lower a new plutonium trigger, made experimentally at Los Alamos, into a 600-foot hole, drilled in the 1970s. They'll then implode it, short of a nuclear explosion. The experiment will give crane operators their first practice in over a decade in lowering a test canister. Other technicians will get experience in feeding in diagnostic cables.
Such simulations lead some to wonder if this administration or a future one might use the reliable-warhead program as an excuse to resume testing or -- something now forbidden by law -- as an opening to build new military capabilities. "I don't trust this group....We have to be on guard," Rep. Hobson says.
Raffi Papazian, Los Alamos's lead engineer at the site, says he and his colleagues are aware the actions might be misread. "We've worked with the State Department" to explain to embassies there's no plan to violate the test moratorium, he says.
State Officials Offer Help As Electric Boat Faces Slowdown
Preliminary meeting prompted by layoffs, shrinking workload
By Anthony Cronin, New London Day, 14 Dec 05
State officials met with Electric Boat leaders Tuesday and offered their assistance to ensure that the submarine builder remains competitive as it braces for a slowdown in submarine maintenance and repair work. The state officials also said they will help EB shipyard workers with job and career training as the company prepares to trim its overall work force by as much as 20 percent in the coming year.
“This was a very good initial meeting,” said James Abromaitis, commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development. “It was good to get all the issues onto the table.”
In addition to Abromaitis, Shaun Cashman, the state's labor commissioner, and representatives from the state's Office for Workforce Competitiveness and newly formed Commission on the Diversification for Southeastern Connecticut attended the session. State officials met for more than two hours with John Casey, EB's president, and his top staff to discuss the looming layoffs over the next year that could affect up to 2,400 EB workers companywide.
EB, which is dealing with a low submarine production rate, has been told by the Navy that future submarine maintenance and repair work will be shifted away from private yards such as EB onto the Navy-owned yards. In addition, the shipyard is dealing with a continuing decline in design-related work for submarine projects, which is putting increasing pressure on its designer work force.
The state's congressional delegation is pushing for more work to be funneled to the shipyard, because they fear a loss of these specialized jobs through layoffs or attrition could leave a gaping hole in the submarine industrial base. Submarine experts have pointed to Britain as a case in point, since it let its submarine production dwindle over the years, resulting in the atrophying of valuable skills, from shipyard workers who understand the intricacies of a nuclear submarine to the skilled workers who design the boats. Without a steady - and sustainable - production rate and future design work on the boards, experts fear some of those skills could further erode in this country as well.
Both state and EB officials stressed that Tuesday's meeting was preliminary because specifics on the actual number of workers to be affected next year is in flux.
Casey welcomed the exploratory meeting with state officials. He said the group agreed to meet periodically “to review the employment situation and ideas the state may have to improve our competitiveness.”
Casey also thanked Gov. M. Jodi Rell for taking the initiative to establish the working group.
“We are committed to working together in the future,” he said.
EB is building the equivalent of a half-submarine a year as part of a teaming agreement with the Northrop Grumman Newport
News Shipyard in Virginia. EB, along with this state's congressional delegation, would like a yearly production rate of two submarines a year.
Abromaitis said officials discussed a number of areas where EB needs to remain competitive, including energy costs, healthcare costs and work-force availability. He said the state has a number of programs available to help firms maintain their competitive footing and would consider any programs that could help EB and its workers.
While declining to discuss specifics, Abromaitis said the governor, her staff and her commissioners are committed to doing whatever is necessary to help EB and its workers.
Anteon to be Acquired by General Dynamics for $55.50 Per Share
By Anteon International Corporation
FAIRFAX, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 14, 2005--Anteon International Corporation (NYSE: ANT), a leading information technology, systems integration and engineering services company, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement for Anteon to be acquired by General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) for $55.50 in cash for each outstanding Anteon share. The total value of the transaction, including General Dynamic's assumption of Anteon's debt, is expected to be approximately $2.2 billion at closing. Anteon expects the transaction to close by the end of the second quarter in 2006.
The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of each company and is subject to approval by Anteon shareholders, customary regulatory reviews and other closing conditions contained in the transaction agreement. Anteon's board of directors is unanimously recommending that Anteon's shareholders approve the transaction.
Joseph Kampf, Anteon president and chief executive officer, said, "I am confident that this transaction provides tremendous value for our shareholders and is in the best interests of our customers and our employees. For almost ten years, Anteon has seen tremendous growth in the market and now, combined with the integrity, strength and vision of General Dynamics, will be able to provide our employees with even more opportunity for success."
Senior management from both Anteon and General Dynamics will discuss the transaction and answer questions from investors and financial analysts at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, December, 14, 2005 at the Four Seasons Hotel New York, 57 East 57th Street, New York, New York. The conference will be webcast through a link at the Anteon web site at www.anteon.com and at the General Dynamics website at www.generaldynamics.com.
General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, employees approximately 71,900 people worldwide and had 2004 revenue of $19.2 billion. The company is a market leader in mission-critical information systems and technologies; land and expeditionary combat systems, armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and business aviation.
Anteon was advised by Bear Stearns & Co., Inc. and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, who acted as financial and legal advisors, respectively, in connection with this transaction.
Neglect Led To Infant's Death, Police Say
Deputy Prosecutor Says It's The Worst Case Of Neglect He's Seen In 28 Years.
By Josh Farley, Kitsap Sun (WA) 14 DEC 05
PORT ORCHARD - Richeal Marie Rhoades, 21, brought her two young children to Bremerton in August in anticipation of her husband's — and their father's — arrival. He was stationed aboard the USS Maine, which was moving to Bremerton.
But before he ever got here, their younger child, 18-month-old Brenda Amythest Rhoades, was dead, allegedly from a combination of sickness, malnutrition and outright neglect at the hands of her mother.
Rhoades is being held at Kitsap County Jail on $500,000 bail. Authorities from Bremerton Police and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service began to piece together the death of the young girl Monday, after her husband, Michael, reported it to authorities when he went on duty. They found the body of the infant in a sealed box in a downstairs closet in the family's home. The box apparently had been there since mid-November.
Police placed Rhoades under arrest for second-degree manslaughter after interviewing her. She made an initial appearance in Kitsap Superior Court Tuesday.
County prosecutors haven't decided yet on whether to charge Rhoades with second-degree felony murder or second-degree manslaughter but said they will do so by her arraignment, scheduled for Thursday. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Christian Casad said that in 28 years at the courthouse, he couldn't recall a more severe case of neglect. No charges have been filed against Rhoades' husband Michael, Casad said. "Right now, we're dealing with her," he said.
Rhoades recounted the events leading up to Brenda's death to police during an interview at the Naval Criminal Investigative Services' Special Assault Unit Monday. The following account is taken from court documents filed in the case. According to documents filed in the case, Rhoades said she moved the family from Kings Bay, Ga., to the Jackson Park Naval Housing Area in August, ahead of her husband, Michael. A submariner, he awaited transport on board the USS Maine, which arrived in Kitsap Saturday after a 75-day journey around the tip of South America. Rhoades said that after moving into Jackson Park she began to suffer from depression.
She told authorities she stopped wanting to take care of the 18-month-old infant and their 3-year-old son. She said that in November she contemplated suicide and did "the bare minimum" to care for the children. The son survived because he was able to go to the kitchen to get his own food and water.
Rhoades told police she put Brenda's crib in her bedroom so that she could see the child and not have to leave her own room. At first she was giving Brenda six to seven bottles of milk a day and changing her diapers when she woke up in the mornings and from naps. Eventually, Brenda got three bottles of milk and only had her diaper changed once a day. She was never taken out of her crib and never fed solid food, Rhoades said.
About a week before Thanksgiving, Rhoades reported her depression worsened. When she'd change Brenda, she'd throw the discarded diapers in a bin in Brenda's room. The smell got so bad, Rhoades said she opened a window — but forgot to close it as Brenda slept that night.
The following day, the baby was noticeably sick and Rhoades said her temperature was 102 degrees. And though she knew of Brenda had a fever, was malnourished and was suffering from diaper rash, she told police she feared that if she sought medical attention for her daughter she would be reported and her children would be taken away.
Rhoades said she gave Brenda children's aspirin in an attempt to make her better. After one instance in which her son was "fighting bedtime," Rhoades told police she was "exhausted and tired of taking care of the kids."
She locked her son in his room and closed the door in Brenda's room, where she left them to go sleep. She told police that her son was locked inside for about 30 hours; Brenda went without any attention for about 42 hours.
When Rhoades next found her she was dead, and she placed the baby's body in a garbage bag with her soiled diapers, police reports said, adding she knew what she'd done and how she'd done it.
Still afraid of "what might happen to her," Rhoades didn't call 911, opting instead to play "Final Fantasy XI" online on her computer, she told police. She also went to a neighboring apartment for Thanksgiving and told the residents there that Brenda was "staying with some friends."
The baby's body stayed in the garbage bag in her room until Rhoades found out her husband would arrive home Sunday. She sealed the bag with Brenda's body inside a box.
When Michael returned home, police reports said Rhoades told him of Brenda's death, but that he had to return to duty, and she wasn't able to "explain everything."
When her husband again returned home, she explained the situation, after which they went to McDonald's, came home, "were intimate with each other," and "looked at the computer for while," before going to bed at 3 a.m., police reports said.
Her husband woke up late for work Monday, but when he left, he told her he was going to "tell somebody" about what had happened. He reported it to Navy authorities on Monday.
Killer Whales: Protection From Us
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer 14 DEC 05)…OPED
People can't communicate in a whale dialect but they should raise their voices for orcas.
After a recent decision to declare the Puget Sound killer whales endangered, the National Marine Fisheries Service has released a proposed conservation plan to protect them. The public has until Jan. 3 to comment.
As the Post-Intelligencer reported, environmentalists have expressed concerns that the Fisheries Service will emphasize goals rather than concrete actions. The advocacy groups led the way in pushing the federal government to list the whales under the Endangered Species Act, so their concerns deserve attention.The groups hope officials will look seriously at controls on shipping routes and curbs on Navy sonar training around orcas.
And they are worried about seasonal effects on hungry orca calves from barge
operations if a Maury Island gravel mine is allowed to expand.
Fisheries officials say they don't see any immediate tightening of controls on most activities around the Sound. Although decisions certainly must be made on the basis of considered scientific judgments, the plan seems heavy on research.
It is important to be aggressive in protecting creatures whose size often makes them at least as visibly emblematic of the Sound and the Northwest as salmon. Rebuilding orca populations is about much more than symbolism. The well-being of both the killer whales and salmon provide indicators of how healthy Puget Sound is for people and the society built on the water's edges.
The Delaware House Gingerbread House was a labor of love for Naval Submarine Forces culinary specialists – with over 150 hours of fine craftsmanship. The gingerbread house is on display through the holiday season at Nauticus in downtown Norfolk, Va. Culinary Specialist 2nd Class (SS) Jacquet Colbert (shown above right) was one of several Sailors that helped put this holiday creation together.
Submarine Culinary Specialists recreate historic house in gingerbread for holidays
Story and Photos by JO1 Christina M. Shaw, COMNAVSUBFOR Public Affairs
NORFOLK, Va. -- The culinary specialists assigned to Commander, Naval Submarine Forces (COMNAVSUBFOR) have headed back to the kitchen this year to carry on a Submarine Force tradition, the annual Holiday Gingerbread House.
The edible masterpiece is a recreation of the “Delaware House,” the 1907 Jamestown Exposition House built by the state of Delaware and home of the Commander, Naval Submarine Forces.
The small “winter wonderland” is created with an enormous amount of teamwork and edible ingredients by COMNAVSUBFOR’s own culinary staff. “This is the sixth year we have replicated the house,” said CS1(SS) Raymond Olsen. “It takes approximately 20 pounds of flour, 10 pounds of sugar, 12 jars of molasses, three dozen eggs and 12 different kinds of candy.”
When completed, the house stands a whopping 26 inches tall and 36 inches wide, weighing in excess of 120 pounds. Creating this massive holiday delicacy takes approximately six weeks to complete.
For the culinary specialists involved in creating this miniature duplicate of Delaware House, the change of pace is a welcome way to get in the holiday spirit and gives them a chance to really show off their pastry skills.
“It’s fun to do and it gives a chance to use our imagination and show off some of our talents that aren’t normally used,” said CS1(SS) Andrew Harrison.
The first gingerbread house was made from a store bought kit, but throughout the last five years, the CS’s have come up with templates made of wood to keep the design consistent.
The rest is completely a creation of the imagination, using everyday food items like frosted mini-wheats to adorn the roof to create the illusion of a snowcapped roof.
Other tricks of their trade include Christmas trees made of icing and sprinkles for colored lights and caramel candies for flowerpots. “I get a lot of my ideas from watching the Food Network,” explained Harrison. “This year, for example, I added Christmas lights and a Santa Claus to the top of the house.”
Although the home is mostly for fun and decoration, it’s not always as smooth sailing as people would like to believe.
“The gingerbread dough is pretty tough to roll out and once it’s put in the oven, it has to be hard as a brick in order for it to be able to hold itself up,” said Olsen.
The Hampton Roads community will get an opportunity to see the completed gingerbread house. It will be on display at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum at the Nauticus National Maritime Center in downtown Norfolk beginning Wednesday, December 14, through the remainder of the holiday season.
“Last year, we decided to offer the gingerbread house to the Hampton Roads Naval Museum, and the feedback was great” said Lt. Cmdr. Jensin Sommer, COMNAVSUBFOR Public Affairs Officer.
“They requested we lend them the house each holiday season,” she continued. “Now, more people are able to appreciate our amazing CS’s efforts and the beauty of the house.”