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Spec Ops Have New Home At Sea
Sub Converted
From Nuclear Threat To SEAL Delivering Strategic Force
NAVY TIMES 13 FEB 06
By Andrew Scutro
Bush offers Conn. defense contractors billions but no budget
surprises
By ANDREW MIGA
(Associated Press Writer)
From Newsday Inc. (February 6, 2006)
Navy Procurement Budget Rises With Addition Of New Aircraft And
DD(X)
DEFENSE DAILY
7 FEB 06
By Geoff Fein
U.S. Navy photo, 4 February 2006
Military author Joe Buff presents a memento to MMCM (SS) Paul Wierbonics, Chief of the Boat, USS Springfield (SSN 761) during a recent visit aboard the fast attack submarine. Built by the Electric Boat division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut, USS Springfield is the 47th Los Angeles class SSN delivered to the U.S. Navy. Since her commission in 1993, Springfield has conducted eight deployments.
Spec Ops Have
New Home At Sea
Sub Converted
From Nuclear Threat To SEAL Delivering Strategic Force
NAVY TIMES 13 FEB 06
By Andrew Scutro
ABOARD THE USS OHIO — Ohio lurks 60 miles inside Washington. Submerged at periscope depth in 40 fathoms of water, the Navy's newly converted guided-missile submarine stalks Whidbey Island, north of Seattle, from deep inside the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Invisible, Ohio's advantage is obvious. Peeping at Whidbey Island through his periscope from 12,000 yards offshore, Ohio skipper Cmdr. Michael Cockey can make out the island bluffs beyond a stormy haze.
Modern submarines, including massive fleet ballistic missile submarines, have long been able to sneak close to shorelines undetected. However, the Ohio and three former boomers now under conversion deliver addition-al capability.
They can launch people and Tomahawk missiles, not nuclear warheads. "The added benefit is we can bring Special Forces with us, and they can carry out strikes with the intelligence we get," Cockey said.
In a real-world scenario, Cockey and his crew can stay underwater for about as long as he wants, conducting long term surveillance missions, intercepting signal traffic from shore and waiting for targets to form. They can also launch a clandestine SEAL reconnaissance mission or a missile strike. Or both.
Cockey's boss, Squadron 19 commodore Capt. Derek Hesse, is also in the control room, checking the ship's position and reveling in the possibilities.
He knows a lethal, watchful warship has arrived, with no one above the waves any wiser.
"Other surface ships can't go in there that close to hostile countries," Hesse said.
Rejoining the fleet
On Feb. 7, Ohio formally returns to service after being reconfigured from a ballistic-missile submarine to an SSGN. After a series of evaluations and further modifications, it will deploy in late 2007.
The first of the Ohio-class boomers, the 25-year-old boat was set to be scrapped. Now, Ohio and the next three boats in the class — Michigan, Florida and Georgia — will see another 20 years of service as special operations/guided missile strike boats.
The Navy plans to spend $4 billion to convert all four boats. The last in line, Georgia, returns to the fleet in September 2007.
They will be forward deployed and manned with alternating blue and gold crews of 15 officers and 139 enlisted sailors. An 0-6 will captain the boat.
Ohio will work out of Guam and Florida will be forward-based in Diego Garcia in 2008, according to current plans.
Rear Adm. Frank Drennan commands Submarine Group 9 at Naval Base Kitsap Bangor.
"They'll be at sea a majority of the time because that's where they belong," Drennan said during a media embark Jan. 29.
Under the current deployment schedule, ships will spend 100 days in a U.S. home port, then deploy for 73-day cruises with 21-day upkeep periods at the forward base between each cruise.
"When it leaves, it's gone almost a year," Drennan said.
With the Navy pushing surface combatants further into the world's "green water" coastal areas with vessels like the Littoral Combat Ship, the new SSGNs will also operate close to the beach. It's a dramatic shift from their former duty: poised for nuclear apocalypse in the dark depths of the world's oceans.
Reconfiguring for SEALs At the heart of SSGN's newness is the conversion of its 24 Trident missile tubes. The two
tubes closest to the sail have been reconfigured as lock-in/lock-out chambers for special operations forces.
The other 22 tubes can be loaded with seven Tomahawk land attack missiles apiece. The maximum missile strike load: 154. If a larger special operations mission is anticipated, 15 tubes can be packed with 105 Tomahawks and the unarmed tubes can be used to stow SEAL ordnance and gear.
And depending on the configuration, swimmers can either pass straight through the two lockout hatches into the sea, up through the same hatches into a dry deck shelter or, if it gets fully developed, into a minisub known as an Advanced SEAL Delivery System.
During Ohio's two-year conversion, the landing deck was flared out four feet on each side to accommodate two dry deck shelters or ASDS.
Standing at the top of a converted tube; with the hatch above the only barrier to the sea, Cmdr. Claude Lim looks like he's standing inside a silo with shower heads. Lim, a SEAL, comes from Naval Special Warfare Group 3 in San Diego, which specializes in operating from the current model minisub.
The 30-inch hatch atop the tube allows the SEALs to push out their combat rubber raiding craft after the lockout chamber has been flooded down.
The shower heads and faucets built into the side of the converted tube allow returning swimmers to rinse their gear of saltwater and then hang it on a powerful dryer down below.
Inside the missile tube compartment, there's berthing for 66 special operators in addition to ship's crew. In a pinch, the SSGN can haul 105 special operators with extra gear lockers and workout spaces for embarked SEALs.
"This is a premier platform for clandestine operators," Lim said.
Room to operate
While the conversion from ballistic missiles creates room in the tubes themselves, it also creates the rarest commodity in a submarine: open space.
Gone are the bulky inertial navigation machines used to guide the nuclear missiles. The suddenly freed-up space behind the control room now accommodates a Battle Management Center with room for a 30-man mission planning staff.
Using the latest integrated systems available in the fleet, the mission staff can provide, receive and monitor information in real time around the globe, officials say.
And when the command and control system is fully installed, the SSGN can act as a submerged command post.
Air Force, Army and Marine special operations forces have shown interest in operating from the SSGN. The presence of a high-flying Air Force officer is perhaps the most unusual.
Capt. Mark McGill, a special tactics officer with the 22nd Special Tactics Squadron based at McChord Air Force Base in Washington, said his troops can use Ohio as a clandestine forward air control and reconnaissance plat-form. Air Force special operators may also use SSGN for pilot recovery missions. McGill said they've even tested hand-launched UAVs to gather targeting data.
"In a nutshell, we can do that, have it and blast it back on satcomm to an air operations center," he said.
Navy Capt. Dave DiOrio works as the program director for SSGN at Submarine Force Headquarters in Norfolk, Va.
The potential of SSGN is just being tapped, he said.
Already, testing is underway on how Ohio might leverage unmanned aerial and underwater vehicles as well as several new forms of ordnance, including the Littoral Warfare Weapon. The LWW — essentially a sub-launched AIM-9 Sidewinder missile — would be used defensively against anti-submarine aircraft and small warships.
The universal encapsulation system to get the missile or other payload through the water to the surface is still in the works.
"Getting it out of the sub is the final step we're working on," he said. DiOrio said the SSGNs will all see more
upgrades, such as night vision and recording capabilities for periscopes.
For all the attention being paid to the super-fast LCS, of which the Navy plans an eventual fleet of 55, the converted Cold War-era SSGN will be ready to deploy at the end of next year.
And it will be headed straight for the shallow water.
"This is the first vessel to go into the littorals and do something worthwhile for the Navy," DiOrio said. "SSGN working in concert with LCS brings a formidable force into the littoral to fight the war on terror.”
Lawmakers Seeking seed Money To Boost production By 2009
By Anthony Cronin, New London Day, 7 Feb 06
President Bush's nearly $2.8 trillion federal budget for fiscal 2007 includes about $2.6 billion for one Virginia-class submarine, which the state's congressional delegation says is not enough to counter a shrinking submarine industrial base.
The submarine appropriation, which was in the expected amount, is part of a record $439.3 billion defense budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, an increase of 7 percent over current expenditures and a steep 48 percent jump from 2001 defense spending.
The president released his overall 2007 spending plan Monday.
In addition to the Virginia-class sub funding, the budget also calls for some $2.2 billion for Blackhawk helicopters manufactured by Stratford-based Sikorsky. It also includes more than $2 billion for the F-22 fighter program for the Air Force and nearly $1 billion for five Joint Strike Fighters, which will be used by the Air Force, the Navy and the Marine Corps. Those fighters use engines manufactured by East Hartford-based Pratt & Whitney. Both Sikorsky and Pratt & Whitney are owned by Hartford-based United Technologies Corp.
U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., a proponent of building more Virginia-class submarines, said he is concerned that the president's budget still does not “lay the groundwork” to produce two submarines a year. He warned that other nations, such as China, are rapidly building up their submarine fleets.
Dodd, along with U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, and U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., are pushing for “seed” money, known as advanced procurement funding, in the fiscal 2007 budget that would provide funds to ramp up production for two subs a year in the fiscal 2009 budget. Simmons said he plans to introduce legislation to put advanced procurement funds into the 2007 budget.
The Navy has favored building two Virginia-class submarines a year by fiscal year 2012. Now that the president has released his 2007 budget proposal, Congress will begin its own budget-review process, hoping to secure a final federal spending plan by Oct. 1.
Lieberman applauded the billions allocated toward Connecticut defense contractors, including EB and Sikorsky. “The funding for aircraft and submarines made or partially made in Connecticut will also keep high-paying defense jobs in our state,” he said.
Groton-based Electric Boat and Northrop Grumman Newport News in Virginia together produce the equivalent of one submarine a year in a unique teaming arrangement. This past week, the Pentagon said in its Quadrennial Defense Review that it would support moving to two subs a year “not later than” 2012 and also advocated a $2 billion price tag per boat. Currently, the submarines carry a $2.4 billion price tag. The review is mandated every four years by Congress.
EB has said it will downsize its total work force of some 11,500 this year by between 1,900 and 2,400 through attrition, retirements and layoffs because of the continuing decline in submarine design work and an expected drop-off in submarine maintenance and repair. EB is one of this region's largest employers, with about 8,500 in Groton and about 2,000 at its Quonset Point, R.I., facility.
The defense budget for 2007 calls for about $84.2 billion in procurement-related expenses, up about 10 percent from the 2006 budget, while research and development-related costs are about $73.2 billion, up more than 3 percent from 2006 costs.
The president is calling for the building of seven new warships in fiscal year 2007, including the Virginia-class sub. The Navy is increasingly looking to new warships with the capability to handle combat threats in littoral waters -- those close to shore.
Bush wants to spend $957 million for two Littoral Combat Ships and $2.6 billion to start construction on two DD(X) next-generation Navy destroyers. The Navy envisions a future maritime fighting force that includes Littoral Combat Ships, DD(X) destroyers and the future CG(X) cruisers, a multimission successor ship to the DD(X).
The president's defense budget also will include a 2.2 percent increase in basic pay, and will substantially increase the size and capabilities of the U.S. Special Operations Command, which oversees special operations forces. The president wants to shift 2,000 Marines into the Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, and also advocates adding “thousand of new (Army) Rangers, (Navy) SEALS, civil affairs” and others to ensure that this nation can supply an adequate number of special operations-trained forces to hot spots around the world.
The 2007 defense budget also calls for a build-up in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, known as UAVs, as well as unmanned ground vehicles, called UGVs, which are playing an increasing role in this country's conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bush offers Conn. defense
contractors billions but no budget surprises
By ANDREW
MIGA (Associated Press Writer)
From Newsday Inc. (February 6, 2006)
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's $2.7 trillion budget would boost defense spending, providing billions of dollars for Connecticut defense contractors who make submarines, jet engines, helicopters and other weapons.
The spending plan calls for a 6.9 percent increase in the Pentagon budget but the $439 billion defense budget doesn't offer Connecticut any surprises that would undo massive layoffs at Electric Boat or spur unexpected expansion by manufacturers.
"Many of our nation's critical defense programs are made in Connecticut and this budget reflects their importance in our national defense," Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. said.
The proposed budget is for the fiscal year that begins next Oct. 1. It now goes to Congress for consideration.
Jet fighter engines, helicopters and a submarine topped the list of big-ticket defense items for Connecticut defense contractors.
"Once again Sikorsky, Pratt and Whitney and Hamilton Sundstrand workers in Connecticut and elsewhere will do their part to build the helicopters, engines and other systems that will keep our fighting forces aloft," said Lisi Kaufman, senior vice president of government and international affairs at United Technologies Corp., the parent company of Sikorsky, Pratt and Hamilton.
The Defense Department wants as much as $2 billion for 81 Black Hawk and Navy Hawk helicopters built by Stratford-based Sikorsky Aircraft, according to budget documents released Monday by the Pentagon.
The next-generation combat plane, known as the Joint Strike Fighter, is in line for about $6.5 billion. East Hartford's Pratt and Whitney is building the main engine, known as the F135, for the fighter jet.
The Pentagon scrapped funding for a backup engine for the Joint Strike Fighter that was being developed by a partnership between General Electric and Rolls Royce.
"This budget also signals a strong vote of confidence in Pratt and Whitney's F135 engine, the first flight test version of which has just been delivered _ on spec, on time and on budget _ to propel the Joint Strike Fighter," Kaufman said. "We are totally committed to ensuring that the Pentagon's confidence is well-placed."
Pratt and Whitney is also building engines for the Air Force's F-22A Raptor stealth fighters. The fighter program is slated to get about $2 billion in Bush's budget.
The Navy budget includes approximately $2.5 billion for a Virginia-Class submarine. Electric Boat is building the sub along with Virginia's Newport News Shipbuilding. Connecticut lawmakers, hoping to save jobs at Electric Boat, are lobbying the Navy to increase sub production to two ships per year soon.
The company said as many as 2,400 workers could be laid off this year.
"As other nations are building up their own submarine fleets, it is essential that we make critical investments to ramp up our own submarine production to maintain the United States' naval superiority throughout the world," Dodd said.
The president's budget, meanwhile, will trim the growth in Medicare and some other domestic programs. Bush wants to curb Medicare spending by about $35.9 billion over the next five years. Hospitals and other health care advocates are expected to fight the president's proposal.
By Dale Eisman, The Virginian-Pilot, February 7, 2006
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration outlined plans Monday to spend more than $500 billion on the military next year but proposed only a 2.2 percent pay increase for troops, the smallest raise since 1994, and called on military retirees to pay a larger share of their health care costs.
The Pentagon will need $439 billion for “peacetime” operations in 2007, according to the proposal. The administration plans to ask Congress for an additional $50 billion to cover the cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and its pursuit of terrorists around the world, a figure that probably will increase if insurgent attacks in Iraq continue at their current pace.
Wartime operations currently are costing just less than $7 billion per month, Pentagon Comptroller Tina Jonas said.
The budget proposal includes $127 billion for the Navy, a $4.4 billion increase from this year. It would finance construction of seven ships, including a submarine that would be built in part at Northrop Grumman’s Newport News shipyard, but sticks with an earlier Pentagon plan to delay work on a new aircraft carrier - another project for the local yard - until 2008.
Congress added $87 million to the 2006 budget to try to jump-start work on the carrier, called CVN-21, but Rear Adm. Stan Bozin, the Navy’s budget director, said the money came too late in the planning process .
The budget also reaffirms the Navy’s plan to retire the carrier John F. Kennedy this year, reducing the carrier fleet to 11, the lowest total in decades. Congress interceded last year to retain the Kennedy, but Navy officials say that at age 38, and in need of a major overhaul, the ship should be mothballed.
“We believe that we can fully support the nation’s requirement and direction with 11 carrier strike groups,” Bozin said. Operating the ship for five more years would cost the Navy more than $1 billion, exclusive of repairs, Bozin said.
The Kennedy is based in Mayport, Fla. near Jacksonville. Its retirement could have major implications for Hampton Roads. Navy leaders have signaled their desire to shift a Norfolk-based flattop to Mayport once the Kennedy has departed. The Hampton Roads Planning District Commission estimates that would drain 3,000 jobs and an estimated $225 million annually from the local economy.
Bozin said the Navy expects 14 new ships, financed in past years, to enter the fleet in 2007, with 12 retiring. That would boost the total to 283 and halt a decline that began more than a decade ago. The service is to release a 30-year shipbuilding plan today that reportedly will call for a fleet of 313 ships.
Overall, the administration’s plan calls for a 7 percent increase in defense spending and begins what officials said will be a series of new investments in fighting “irregular wars,” such as the Iraq insurgency.
The administration wants to add 14,000 special operations troops, including a new force within the Marine Corps, and proposed a five-year, $760 million program to give cultural and foreign language instruction to more troops.
The budget also proposes a five-year, $11.6 billion investment in additional unstaffed aircraft, which U.S. forces in Iraq have found useful in tracking insurgent movements, and calls on the Navy to develop three squadrons - 36 boats - of river-going attack craft similar to the swift boats of the Vietnam War era.
The spending plan, including projected expenses for the war on terrorism, is the largest for the military since 1952, near the height of the Korean War, said Steven M. Kosiak, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
Defense and homeland security are among the few growth areas in the administration’s spending proposals across the federal government. Some of those programs are growing only modestly or facing a budgetary ax .
The administration’s proposed 2.2 percent pay increase for service members is the smallest such increase since 1994. That year, President Clinton had asked for no pay raises, but Congress provided a 2.2 percent increase.
Officials confirmed Monday that the administration will try to stem the growth in the military’s health care costs by asking thousands of military retirees to pay more for health insurance .
Retiree groups, which have secured a variety of enhanced benefits on Capitol Hill in recent years, already are organizing to fight the higher fees, including a more than 200 percent increase in what retired officers younger than 65 pay for coverage under Tricare Prime, the military’s premium health plan.
The new fee of $700 per year for individual retired officers, or $1,400 for family coverage, still is far less than the retirees would pay for comparable coverage from civilian providers, said Dr. William Winkenwerder, the Pentagon’s top health official. Retired enlisted members would pay less than officers, though their premiums would roughly double, officials said.
Tricare premiums have not been adjusted since 1995. B ecause health care costs have been rising quickly, those premiums now cover only 12 percent of the military’s health care costs, officials said, down from 27 percent.
Jonas and Winkenwerder emphasized that the proposed increases do not cover active duty troops. They also do not apply to military retirees older than 65, who are eligible for coverage under Tricare for Life, a Medicare supplement.
Locally, the budget proposal also calls for cutting two popular homeland security grant programs that provided equipment and training to police and medical crews.
Funding for the Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention program and the Metropolitan Medical Response System could be shifted to other grant programs or could end up being restored, federal authorities said. That still left officials in Hampton Roads antsy .
Under the medical response system, 16 Hampton Roads communities joined together to develop a regional plan to handle the medical consequences of a major natural or artificial disaster.
The terrorism prevention program provided Virginia police departments with $8.7 million last year and $11 million in 2004 to buy gas masks, radios and other gear.
The budget provides $175 million in grants - the same as last year - to improve security at the nation’s 361 ports. The U.S. Coast Guard, however, estimates that as much as $6 billion is needed to bring ports nationwide into compliance with a 2002 federal law requiring stricter port safeguards, said Ed Merkle, security director for the Virginia Port Authority, which operates three cargo terminals in Hampton Roads.
“We realize that we still have a long ways to go,” Merkle said.
Staff writers Tim McGlone and Gregory Richards contributed to this report.
By Christopher P. Cavas, Defense News, 6 Feb 06
The U.S. Navy will ask for $127.3 billion in fiscal 2007, down $1.7 billion from the figure forecast a year ago.
The request includes seven ships, the same FY07 number planned last year. But the list has changed slightly, according to a Navy budget briefing document obtained by Defense News.
As expected, two $3.3 billion DD(X) destroyers will be requested in 2007, rather than one each in 2007 and 2008. The move is in line with the service’s new “two-lead-ships” approach for the DD(X) program, which was approved by the Pentagon late last year. Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics are each expected to receive an order to build a ship, if the request is approved by Congress. Although final figures aren’t yet available, the Navy is expected to ask for the DD(X) procurement funds to be spread between 2007 and 2008.
To compensate, the ninth LPD 17 San Antonio-class amphibious ship has been pushed back from 2007 to 2008.
In addition to the two destroyers, the Navy also will ask for one SSN 774 Virginia-class submarine; two Littoral Combat Ships (LCS); one LHA 6 amphibious assault ship - also known as the LHA(R) program - and one T-AKE dry-cargo ammunition ship.
The Navy also will again ask to decommission the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy in 2007 and reduce the carrier fleet by one to 11 ships, a move backed up by the Pentagon in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). Congress denied the service’s request last year to take the ship out of service for cost reasons, but Navy officials appear confident the move will be approved.
The QDR also recommended an increase in the Navy’s procurement of Littoral Combat Ships, and the future year plan now adds one LCS each year from 2009 through 2011, for six ships per year.
The budget document repeats last year’s assertion that the size of the fleet has bottomed out and will begin to rise, from the 281 ships in service today to 285 next year. Fourteen new ships are forecast to enter the fleet in 2007, while a dozen will be decommissioned.
Longer-range plans also show that initial planned procurement of the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has dropped slightly. The Navy now plans to order only eight, not 10, F-35s in 2008. Plans for the next three years remain steady, however, with a total of 109 aircraft to be bought through 2011.
The Navy will accelerate the effort to shrink the number of uniformed personnel, sloughing off an additional 4,600 officers and sailors by the end of 2007. Officials, who were previously aiming for a force of 345,300, now want it to number just 340,700 - saving $972 million in 2007 alone.
The Marines are budgeted for 175,000 troops, but Congress already has approved growing that figure to 179,000. The services are allowed to exceed their personnel authorization by 2 percent, and the Marines currently can expand to about 181,000. The service expects to pay for the troop increases through emergency supplemental funding.
The budget also will ask for several new joint capabilities for the Marines and Navy, including the new Marine Corps Special Operations Command, a Riverine Capability and Expeditionary Security Force for the Navy, and a National Maritime Intelligence Integration Center. The new capabilities are to be funded under operation and maintenance accounts.
The briefing document also forecasts savings from the Base Realignment and Closure decisions made last year. Closure costs are expected to peak at around $1 billion in 2009 but drop off shortly thereafter, and the Navy’s predicted savings should exceed costs beginning in 2010.
A defense official said the budget increases the fleet’s force count and allows the Navy to “sustain this high level of readiness that we’ve gotten to in the past couple years.”
Navy Procurement Budget Rises
With Addition Of New Aircraft And DD(X)
DEFENSE
DAILY 7 FEB 06
By Geoff Fein
The Navy's $127.3 billion budget reflects an increase in procurement by $2.2 billion, as the service begins to recapitalize its aircraft fleet and starts construction on DD(X).
However, it trims research and development by $1.8 billion as more platforms begin to transition into production.
Overall, the Navy will see a $4.4 billion increase in its budget from FY '06 to FY '07.
The budget did not contain any funds for operations in Afghanistan or Iraq.
The service will operate with a fleet of 285 ships, two more than in FY '06. However, that total also includes decreases in the number of attack submarines (down from 55 in FY '06 to 52 in FY '07) and in aircraft carriers (12 in FY '06 down to 11 in FY '07). The service's plan to reduce the carrier fleet to 11 has been steadfastly opposed by lawmakers.
Last year during its budget briefing, a Navy official said the service planned to retire an aircraft carrier and reach a force structure of 285 ships. Neither of those plans came true in 2005.
Lawmakers bitterly opposed retiring a carrier and included language in the FY '06 defense bill prohibiting the Navy from taking such action.
"We hope to have a discussion on that," Rear Adm. Stan Bozin, director, office of the budget for the Navy, told reporters yesterday.
However, he acknowledged that any decision to retire a carrier would require a change in the law.
The Navy was directed to wait until the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) was released before making any decision on the fate of its carrier fleet, Bozin said.
The QDR supports 11 carriers, he added. The Navy is also in the midst of studies examining the cost of maintaining the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67), Bozin added. In response to a question, he said it could cost $1 billion through the Future Years Defense Plan (FYDP).
The Navy will also do an environmental assessment for moving the nuclear-powered USS George Washington (CVN-73) to Japan to replace the USS Kitty Hawk (CV- 63).
Bozin added that the Navy is undertaking initiatives to lower the cost of the Virginia-class submarines. "Going to two a year would help," he said.
The Navy is hoping to lower the cost of each Virginia-class hull from an average of just over $2.5 billion to $2 billion.
The FY '07 budget continues the increase in investment, rising from $52 billion in FY '06 to $59 billion in FY '07 and continuing a steady climb across the FYDP.
In FY '07, the service will begin construction on seven new ships including: one Virginia-class submarine; two DD(X) combat ships (under the dual-lead ship acquisition plan); two Littoral Combat Ships (LCS); and LHA-6.
The service has moved construction of one LPD-17 to FY '08.
General Dynamics [GD] and Northrop Grumman [NOC] are competing for the DD(X) contract.
The Navy will take delivery of 165 aircraft in FY '07, 31 more than in FY '06. Included in the mix are: 30 Boeing [BA] F/A-18E/F; 25 Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Sikorsky [UTX] MH-60R helicopters; 18 Sikorsky MH-60S; 21 Raytheon [RTN] T-6A Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS), 18 Bell Helicopter Textron [TXT] AH-1Z/UH-1Y helicopters; and four Lockheed Martin KC-130J tankers.
After a steady increase in research and development (R&D) funding ($17.1 billion in FY '05, $18.7 billion in FY '06), the Navy's FY '07 R&D budget falls to $16.9 billion. The decrease in R&D investment reflects the maturation of several programs and their transition to production, Bozin said.
The Navy plans to procure: 1,877 Tactical Tomahawks between FY '07 and FY '11; 2,389 Joint Stand-Off Weapons (JSOW) between FY '09 and FY '11; 6,578 Laser Guided Bomb (LGB) between FY '07 and FY '09. Raytheon builds the Tactical Tomahawk and JSOW.
The Navy will begin procurement of the Trident II missiles beginning in FY '08 (12), and 24 in FY '09, FY '10 and FY '11. The service will buy 150 AMRAAM, missiles in FY '07, followed by buys of 140 in FY '08 and 150 in FY '09, FY '10 and FY '11.The Navy will procure 637 Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder Missiles between FY '07 and FY '11.
The Marine Corps will begin initial procurement of General Dynamics Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) in FY '07. According to the Navy budget, the Marine Corps will procure 15 EFVs in FY '07, 17 in FY '08, 26 in FY '09, 42 in FY '10 and 100 in FY '11.
The Marine Corps has revised its numbers for Humvee procurement beginning in FY '07. For the FYDP, the Navy has planned to procure a total of 6,610 Humvees. That number has been lowered to 4,896. The Marine Corps plans to procure one fewer Joint Lightweight 155mm Howitzer in FY '07 (34), but add five more in FY '08 (47) than it had planned in previous budget documents. U.K-based Vickers Shipbuilding & Engineering Ltd. developed the weapon.
The Navy will also stand-up three riverine units, each comprised of 12 boats per unit. Bozin said the Navy "would have to move funding to make it happen."
The $439.3 billion military bill bears tough news for local economy.
By David Lerman, Daily Press, 7 Feb 06
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's new defense budget triggered a fresh battle with Congress over aircraft carriers, with proposals that could shrink the Navy's fleet and trigger layoffs at the Newport News shipyard.
Hoping to transform the military for the war on terrorism, the Pentagon unveiled a $439.3 billion spending plan Monday that puts off construction of a future aircraft carrier until 2008, despite efforts by Congress to get the work started in the upcoming fiscal year. The budget also signaled a renewed commitment to mothballing the USS John F. Kennedy this year, shrinking the fleet to 11 carriers.
The twin actions, if approved, could have a profound impact on Northrop Grumman Newport News, the nation's sole builder of aircraft carriers.
Lawmakers have warned that a one-year delay in construction could trigger hundreds of temporary layoffs if the shipyard is unable to find additional work. Shrinking the fleet could mean less work for the yard in future decades, though the immediate impact might be small.
Just two months ago, Congress passed a provision requiring a 12-carrier fleet, while adding money to this year's budget in hopes of avoiding a one-year construction delay. The loss of an active-duty carrier in Hampton Roads, which could be triggered by the retirement of the Kennedy, would send thousands of jobs to other parts of the country.
Navy officials acknowledged that the law governing carrier numbers would need to be overturned before they could make good on their budget plans. But in presenting their new budget Monday, they appeared ready to make that case on Capitol Hill.
"The Navy supports 11 carriers to be able to accomplish what we believe is our mission," said Rear Adm. Stan Bozin, director of the Navy's budget office. "We hope to engage the Congress."
Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, helped save the Kennedy last year. But Warner also said the decision might have to be reconsidered this year in an effort to cut costs.
Keeping the Kennedy operational could blow a $1 billion hole in Navy budgets over the next five years, Bozin said.
The one-year delay in the start of CVN-21 - a next-generation carrier already straining Navy budgets - came as little surprise. The move was first proposed a year ago, as Navy leaders sought to free up money for other ships and programs. Even when Congress added money last year to get the carrier back on schedule, Navy officials warned the effort came too late because the Navy had stopped hiring the designers needed for a 2007 construction start.
Virginia Rep. Jo Ann Davis, R-Gloucester, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, pledged again Monday to try to avoid the one-year delay.
"This is an issue of national security and she will work with her colleagues in Congress to keep the CVN on its original schedule," said Chris Connelly, Davis' chief of staff.
Asked to explain the rationale for the delay, Bozin said, "It has to do with competing priorities and funding requirements. To move that amount of money is very difficult."
The carrier battles illustrate the economic pain involved in reshaping the military for what defense officials call "the long war" against terrorism.
All told, the 2007 defense budget proposed Monday boosts military spending over this year's level by 7 percent, exclusive of war costs, Pentagon figures show.
When war spending is included, the proposed budget would mark a 50 percent increase from 1998 defense spending levels, said Steven Kosiak, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
But the overall spending increase - which stood in contrast to the budgets for most of the president's domestic programs - masks wholesale changes within the Defense Department as it tries to adjust to 21st-century threats.
Even as spending increases, for example, the size of the traditional Navy and Air Force would shrink. Each service would lose about 12,000 positions next year.
By contrast, special operations forces - like the Army's Green Berets - would grow significantly. The budget calls for increasing the number of special forces combat battalions by 27 percent, from 15 battalions to 19. The number of special op troops would grow by more than 14,000.
The budget also provides $3.7 billion next year for the Army's Future Combat System - an effort to modernize ground forces with improved battlefield communications and equipment. An additional $11.6 billion would be spent over five years to buy 322 unmanned aerial vehicles to increase the number of unmanned missions available to combat commanders by 75 percent, the Pentagon said.
"The fiscal 2007 budget reflects the department's continuum of change as we defend our nation, engage in the long war against terrorist extremism, and prepare for future potential adversaries," said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who presented the budget to Congress Monday.
While continuing to trim personnel, the Defense Department has sought to improve benefits in recent years. Military pay would increase by 2.2 percent - resulting in a 29 percent increase since 2001, officials said. The basic housing allowance would increase by 5.9 percent to avoid any out-of-pocket housing costs for troops living off base.
The budget also includes a measure to rein in soaring health care costs that could trigger howls of protest from military retirees. Health insurance premiums for retirees under the age of 65 could triple in some cases. An officer's premium could increase from 42 cents per day to $1.28 per day, officials said.
The budget contains some modest good news for Hampton Roads. Production of the Air Force's F-22A Raptor - flown at Langley Air Force Base - would be extended to 2010, increasing the number of planes that could be purchased from 179 to 183. No new planes would be purchased next year, but the budget provides $2.78 billion in advance funds for multiple purchases of 20 planes per year, beginning in 2008.
The budget also includes, as expected, $2.6 billion for one Virginia-class submarine, continuing the practice of buying one new submarine each year - the contract for which will be shared by Newport News and its sister submarine builder in Connecticut. But the plan appears to do nothing to advance the Navy's goal of doubling submarine production to sustain the dwindling fleet.
"We need to get the cost down," Bozin said
And the budget would buy 30 F/A-18 Super Hornet Navy jets, which are flown at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach.
For Newport News, the budget provides about $1 billion to continue the refueling of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier.
UPI, 6 February 2006
BOSTON, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Last autumn's test of AIM-9X missile showed the weapon holds promise as an anti-aircraft component of the arsenal carried by U.S. submarines.
Raytheon said Monday that the AIM-9X launched at the McGregor range in New Mexico last November successfully locked onto and destroyed a drone helicopter, raising the possibility that submerged subs could someday shoot down enemy aircraft.
"The implications of this first phase test are far-reaching," said Raytheon's Dan Smith. "It provides the Navy with a low-cost solution ... in its approach to littoral (coastal) warfare without having to go through a costly and lengthy research and development process."
The AIM missile is currently launched from fighter planes; however the Navy is eyeing it as part of its Joint Battlespace strategy for future operations in shallow coastal waters. Littoral warfare is seen as a likely scenario for the Navy in the 21st Century as opposed to the "blue-water" battles in the open seas that were envisioned during the Cold War.
Raytheon said the AIM would be added to the torpedoes and cruise missiles currently carried aboard submarines and would "enable the submarine force to strike targets with surprise from shallower coastal waters."
The metamorphosis from air-launched to underwater will involve developing the ability to place the AIM into a waterproof vertical-launch capsule that will get the missile above the surface where its motor will switch on and its guidance system will locate the target.
The recent testing showed that the missile can promptly acquire the target and get itself into a stable flight path toward the unsuspecting aircraft or surface ship victim, Raytheon said.
The
launch was carried out from a Chaparral missile launcher against a slow-moving
drone. The goal was primarily to observe the capabilities of the upgraded
guidance system and target-acquisition software.
By Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, February 7, 2006
A new Pentagon strategy report and recent congressional testimony by the director of national intelligence show the Bush administration remains divided on the threat posed by China's rise.
The Quadrennial Defense Review report made public last week bluntly states that China is the greatest potential challenge to the U.S. military and is rapidly building up its military.
John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, by contrast, stated in an annual intelligence threat briefing for Congress that China's rise is similar to that of democratic India. He left out any reference to the threat to Asia or the United States posed by the military buildup.
The Pentagon report said the U.S. goal is to help China pursue peaceful economic development and political liberalization, "rather than military threat and intimidation." It notes that Beijing is investing heavily in military force, "particularly in its strategic arsenal and capabilities designed to improve its ability to project power beyond its borders."
To deal with the threat of China and other emerging threats, the Pentagon report calls for "pursuit of investments that capitalize on enduring U.S. advantages in key strategic and operational areas."
The military currently is studying how to improve its capability for "deep strike" weapons that can reach inside continental China, including long-range missiles and bombers and possibly space weapons.
In his prepared statement to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Mr. Negroponte sought to minimize China's rise by listing it with India as two emerging powers.
"China is a rapidly rising power with steadily expanding global reach that may become a peer competitor to the United States at some point," he said.
Mr. Negroponte's softer comments on China contrast with those of CIA Director Porter J. Goss last year when he told the same committee that China's modernizing military forces "threaten" U.S. forces and interests in Asia.
A senior DNI official said Mr. Negroponte's testimony, the first by the new director, was structured to present "challenges" for intelligence rather than to identify specific threats and enemies.
How to deal with China, a communist dictatorship that has reformed economically but not politically, is the subject of a vigorous policy debate inside government.
Some officials -- who dominate the State Department and the intelligence agencies -- consider China a non-threatening state that will evolve into a benign power through trade and other global economic interaction.
Other officials, however, view China as a growing potential danger, engaged in strategic deception to mask hidden goals and objectives.
According to Pentagon officials, early drafts of the strategy report made no mention of China because some officials argued that China's rise was not strategically significant.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld rejected that approach and required the report to include references to China's military buildup and the need for the U.S. military to respond to it.