US Navy ships and weapon systems

The Admiral In Charge of Navy Intelligence Has Not Been Allowed to See Military Secrets For Years

For more than two years, the Navy’s intelligence chief has been stuck with a major handicap: He’s not allowed to know any secrets.

Vice Adm. Ted “Twig” Branch has been barred from reading, seeing or hearing classified information since November 2013, when the Navy learned from the Justice Department that his name had surfaced in a giant corruption investigation involving a foreign defense contractor and scores of Navy personnel.

Worried that Branch was on the verge of being indicted, Navy leaders suspended his access to classified materials. They did the same to one of his deputies, Rear Adm. Bruce F. Loveless, the Navy’s director of intelligence operations.

More than 800 days later, neither Branch nor Loveless has been charged. But neither has been cleared, either. Their access to classified information remains blocked.

Although the Navy transferred Loveless to a slightly less sensitive post, it kept Branch in charge of its intelligence division. That has resulted in an awkward arrangement, akin to sending a warship into battle with its skipper stuck onshore.

[Epic Navy bribery scandal shows how easy it can be to steal military secrets]

Branch can’t meet with other senior U.S. intelligence leaders to discuss sensitive operations, or hear updates from his staff about secret missions or projects. It can be a chore just to set foot in colleagues’ offices; in keeping with regulations, they must conduct a sweep beforehand to make sure any classified documents are locked up.

Some critics have questioned how smart it is for the Navy to retain an intelligence chief with such limitations, for so long, especially at a time when the Pentagon is confronted by crises in the Middle East, the South China Sea, the Korean Peninsula and other hotspots.

“I have never heard of anything as asinine, bizarre or stupid in all my years,” Norman Polmar, a naval analyst and historian, said in an interview. (end of excerpt)

Oooops, the testers bite back, my highlight on the put down, probably career harming.

The Director of Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E), the Pentagon's independent test office, is standing behind its critical test report on the Littoral Combat Ship after the US Navy called the assessment "unfair."

The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), designed for close-shore combat, was unable to effectively defend itself against smaller attack boats, according to a recent report by the DOT&E. The tests pitted the LCS USS Coronado against attack boats, which infiltrated the ship's "keep-out" zone, the report stated. The Coronado ultimately destroyed the attackers, but the simulation showed that the ship would have suffered heavy damage.

A US Navy official, speaking to Breaking Defense on condition of anonymity, called the DOT&E findings "unfair," pointing out that the LCS was not equipped with its missile package.

In a letter, the DOT&E responded that the unnamed Navy official "was apparently not familiar with the basis for the test and many of his statements are incorrect or not related to what was being tested."

The Navy "established a much lower performance threshold" for the missile-less LCS in a classified 2013 memo from the then-Vice-Chief of Naval Operations, DOT&E said. "It also defined what the Navy considered to be a successful engagement, specifically requiring each target to be neutralized before any of them closed to within the Navy prescribed minimum stand-off range – a range selected based on the distance at which threat weapons would have a good chance of hitting the LCS. In reality, there are several threat weapons that could hit LCS from an even greater distance …."

Even judging by these lower standards, however, LCS allowed the enemy boats too close, DOT&E said. "Though the ship was able to eventually repel the simulated attack, this was after the targets had successfully penetrated the Navy's prescribed stand-off range," the letter stated. "In a real battle, there would be a good chance LCS might have sustained damage at that point that could have affected its subsequent capability to successfully repel the attack."

The LCS will be tested again when the Longbow Hellfire surface-to-surface missiles are added in 2017, although it will be tested "more robustly," the DOT&E wrote.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/us/20160204/1034182843/pentagon-tester-stands-by-report.html#ixzz3z9DbA3H1

Pentagon Budget Requests $2B for Tomahawks, $2.9B for SM-6

The Pentagon’s budget submission will contain a request for $2 billion spread over the next five years to purchase 4,000 Tomahawk weapons while funding the development of more advanced capabilities.

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter revealed the Tomahawk buy during a Tuesday visit to Naval Air Station, China Lake, California, while also noting that the budget will commit almost $1.5 billion to development of two other advanced weapons.

Then on Wednesday, the Secretary announced the budget will also include $2.9 billion over the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) for the SM-6 interceptor, both to purchase 650 of the weapons and to advance them to become an anti-ship missile for the first time.

Developed by Raytheon, the Tomahawk is a mainstay for ship-based weaponry, but has been restricted to striking at fixed targets. However, company executives revealed last January that Raytheon has invested in a multi-modal seeker that would allow the missiles to hit moving targets.

“We want to diversify the kinds of targets that they can hit, from land attack, which is probably how you first met the Tomahawk many years ago, to an anti-ship version so that we continue to diversify our suite of anti-ship missiles,” Carter said Tuesday. “Again, in the spirit of making everything we have lethal.”

The company estimated last year that that adding a moving target capability would cost about $250,000 for each missile, which already cost $1.1 million each.

While not explicitly mentioning the new Tomahawk sensors, Carter did note that the department is using this fiscal year 2017 budget request to ensure “we’re making investments in weapons and sensors and capabilities.”

Carter previously revealed that the Pentagon will request $1.8 billion in 2017 to buy more than 45,000 precision-guided munitions, which are being expanded at fast rates dues to the ongoing fight against the Islamic State group, commonly known as ISIS or ISIL.

Added to that is “about $927 million over the FYDP” for the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, or LRASM, and another $418 million over the FYDP for the Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile – Extended Range (AARGM-ER) weapon, Carter said.

The secretary indicated that improving lethality to munitions is something of a theme for the budget, adding that the investments represent “big, big, big money for munitions, very important.”

That theme continued with the SM-6 news, giving another Raytheon product a major boost in the budget.

A Pentagon official told Defense News that the department has successfully modified the SM-6 to be an anti-ship missile, rather than just a ballistic missile defense weapon.

Now you see Garry was right those aegis ashore sites in Poland and Romania with SM-3 interceptors can be replaced with SM-6 interceptors also which gained anti-ship missile capability thus it can act as a cruise missile to launch on Russian soil.


‎‎"This new anti-ship mode makes the SM-6 highly lethal due to its speed and agility and nearly overnight doubles the purpose of every such missile used across our fleet of Aegis destroyers," the official said. "This is an example of what the secretary sees as thinking differently and how through innovation we will continue to improve the unparalleled capabilities of the US Navy."The SM-6 provides an over-the-horizon engagement capability when launched from an Aegis warship and uses the latest in hardware and software missile technology to provide needed capabilities against evolving air threats.

Flight test Alpha was the longest downrange, and flight test Bravo was the longest cross-range intercepts with an SM-6 to date. Along with flight tests Alpha and Bravo, flight test Delta successfully intercepted two targets with simultaneous engagements, and flight test Golf successfully intercepted a target with electronic counter-measures

According to media reports, Carter also pledged that the budget will request funding for nine Virginia-class attack submarines and 10 Aegis destroyers over the next five years. It will also include money to purchase 10 F-35C models for the Navy and 3 F-35B models for the Marines over what had been planned. This occurs as the Air Force is looking to draw down its planned FY17 buy of the F-35A model by five planes, sources told Defense News.

And in good news for Boeing, Carter said the budget plan also calls for 16 F/A-18 Super Hornets over the FYDP. Boeing has been desperate to keep production flowing on the Super Hornet, produced in its St. Louis facilities.

"The U.S. Navy's FY17 budget request is set to transform the Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) system into the Carrier-Based Aerial-Refueling System (CBARS). The reason for the move is mainly to adress a shortfall in carrier based fighters and to free F/A-18E/F Super Hornets from their aerial refueling missions so they may focus on strike and air to air missions.

The new CBARS program will create an UAV for aerial refueling duties to extend the range of manned fighters. The United States Navy's Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program was to develop an autonomous aircraft carrier-based unmanned combat aerial vehicle to provide an unmanned intelligence and strike asset to the fleet.



UCLASS was succeeding to the Unmanned Combat Air System-Demonstration (UCAS-D) program which produced the Northrop Grumman X-47B demonstrator aircraft. The X-47B performed launches and recoveries from US Navy aicraft carriers at sea in 2013 and 2014. Northrop Grumman demonstrated last year that X-47B could be refuelled in the air. According to early rumors, CBARS could retain some of the ISR mission sets originally planned for UCLASS, but for sure will lose its combat and strike abilities."

Source: http://www.navyrecognition.com/index.php/news/defence-news/2016/february-2016-navy-naval-forces-defense-industry-technology-maritime-security-global-news/3542-us-navy-turns-uclass-combat-uav-program-into-cbars-aerial-refueling-uav.html

"As the division of the US military most responsible high-tech developments, DARPA has announced that April will the launch of a futuristic ship that is designed to detect and fight submarines at sea. But the thing is, the ship doesn't even have a crew; it's completely autonomous. That means it's basically a robotic, submarine-hunting drone yacht. Unfortunately, because it's the military, they have to give it an acronym for its long, ridiculous name, instead of just calling it an "autonomous submarine hunter."



The ship's official name is "Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel," which get shortened down to "ASW Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel" before finally getting the acronym "ACTUV" (simply pronounced as "active"). Measuring 132-feet long and weighing 140 tons, ACTUV will be christened on April 7th in Portland, Oregon this year. While the vessel and its software surely cost a lot of money to develop, DARPA says the fact that it's autonomous will result in huge savings on daily operation.



ACTUV's main purpose will be to detect and locate diesel electric submarines that are trying to remain stealthy. In order to send it on its way, the Navy will release sonar buoys to point the ship in the right direction, afterwards its short- and long-range sonar will take over.After the April unveiling, DARPA says ACTUV will go through 18 months of testing and demonstrating its capabilities. Aside from hunting submarines, the agency envisions the ship being used for supply delivery to other vessels, reconnaissance, and to counter undersea mines."

Source: http://www.slashgear.com/darpa-is-launching-an-autonomous-submarine-hunting-robot-ship-in-april-14426816/

Militarov wrote:"As the division of the US military most responsible high-tech developments, DARPA has announced that April will the launch of a futuristic ship that is designed to detect and fight submarines at sea. But the thing is, the ship doesn't even have a crew; it's completely autonomous. That means it's basically a robotic, submarine-hunting drone yacht. Unfortunately, because it's the military, they have to give it an acronym for its long, ridiculous name, instead of just calling it an "autonomous submarine hunter."



The ship's official name is "Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel," which get shortened down to "ASW Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel" before finally getting the acronym "ACTUV" (simply pronounced as "active"). Measuring 132-feet long and weighing 140 tons, ACTUV will be christened on April 7th in Portland, Oregon this year. While the vessel and its software surely cost a lot of money to develop, DARPA says the fact that it's autonomous will result in huge savings on daily operation.



ACTUV's main purpose will be to detect and locate diesel electric submarines that are trying to remain stealthy. In order to send it on its way, the Navy will release sonar buoys to point the ship in the right direction, afterwards its short- and long-range sonar will take over.After the April unveiling, DARPA says ACTUV will go through 18 months of testing and demonstrating its capabilities. Aside from hunting submarines, the agency envisions the ship being used for supply delivery to other vessels, reconnaissance, and to counter undersea mines."

Source: http://www.slashgear.com/darpa-is-launching-an-autonomous-submarine-hunting-robot-ship-in-april-14426816/

Since it's unmanned, they wont have any complaints when it's blown to bits.

Militarov wrote:"As the division of the US military most responsible high-tech developments, DARPA has announced that April will the launch of a futuristic ship that is designed to detect and fight submarines at sea. But the thing is, the ship doesn't even have a crew; it's completely autonomous. That means it's basically a robotic, submarine-hunting drone yacht. Unfortunately, because it's the military, they have to give it an acronym for its long, ridiculous name, instead of just calling it an "autonomous submarine hunter."



The ship's official name is "Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel," which get shortened down to "ASW Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel" before finally getting the acronym "ACTUV" (simply pronounced as "active"). Measuring 132-feet long and weighing 140 tons, ACTUV will be christened on April 7th in Portland, Oregon this year. While the vessel and its software surely cost a lot of money to develop, DARPA says the fact that it's autonomous will result in huge savings on daily operation.



ACTUV's main purpose will be to detect and locate diesel electric submarines that are trying to remain stealthy. In order to send it on its way, the Navy will release sonar buoys to point the ship in the right direction, afterwards its short- and long-range sonar will take over.After the April unveiling, DARPA says ACTUV will go through 18 months of testing and demonstrating its capabilities. Aside from hunting submarines, the agency envisions the ship being used for supply delivery to other vessels, reconnaissance, and to counter undersea mines."

Source: http://www.slashgear.com/darpa-is-launching-an-autonomous-submarine-hunting-robot-ship-in-april-14426816/

Annddd first photo:

You forgot to remove the watermark

See my reply on DARPA thread.

max steel wrote:You forgot to remove the watermark

See my reply on DARPA thread.

They do not have rights on this photo as they did not take it, nor did they buy out any rights, they can put whatever watermark they feel like and i have obligation not to give a damn.

LCS 4 completes survivability trial off California coast

LCS is a boondoggle for navy.

USS Coronado (LCS 4) completed its Total Ship Survivability Trial (TSST) off the California coast on 28 January. According to NAVSEA, during the trial Coronado 's crew handled damage scenarios, including fire, smoke, electrical failure, flooding, ruptured piping, and structural failure.

"The purpose of the TSST is to evaluate the ship's systems and procedures following a simulated conventional weapon hit," NAVSEA stated in a release. "The primary areas that are evaluated include the ship's ability to contain and control damage, restore and continue mission capability, and care for personnel casualties.

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Littoral Combat Ship Is 'Dearly Needed' in Pacific, Navy Commander Says

he littoral combat ship Fort Worth has been sidelined at a pier here for several weeks after an in-port accident, an embarrassing setback to a deployment so successful that the cruise had just been extended.

Coming just a few weeks after another LCS, the Milwaukee, broke down off Virginia and had to be towed to port, the incidents have further damaged the reputation of a type of ship struggling to prove itself in the face of constant criticism.

But the Navy's senior commander in the Western Pacific still expresses confidence in the ships.

"LCS is dearly needed out here," Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, commander of the Japan-based US Seventh Fleet, told reporters here Monday.

"I think this is an ideal ship for this area. I like the size, the capability, multi-mission [features], there's also room for growth. And it complements so many navies in this region."

The ship's cruise had been a great success, Aucoin noted.

"Up until this incident, Fort Worth did very well," he said. "It made all its scheduled events."

The accident took place Jan. 12 while the Fort Worth was undergoing maintenance at the Changi Naval Base in Singapore. Early reports, according to Navy sources, indicated the ship's port and starboard main propulsion diesel engines were started — ones that turn shafts into a combining gear, allowing operators to shift between diesel and gas turbines to drive the ship. But lubrication oil for the combination gears apparently was not turned on, and the system suffered serious damage.

Details of the damage, however, remain a secret.

"There's a [mishap] investigation going on with Fort Worth to determine what happened," Aucoin said. "I don't want to get into prematurely saying what happened.

"But it sounds like we didn't follow established standard operating procedures with the startup of the diesel engines, and it impacted the combining gears.

"We're still determining the extent of the damage and how to fix it," Aucoin said, "but it looks like operator error that led directly to this failure.

"This is a momentary setback," Aucoin added. "I wish it hadn't happened. But we're going to fix it and we're going to continue on track, because it's a great platform to help us in this region."

Aucoin spoke to reporters on the eve of the Singapore Airshow, the region's largest. As expected, most questions revolved around China's actions in and around the South China Sea. Aucoin acknowledged the Chinese were being provocative, particularly with extensive artificial island-building that is inflaming already sore tensions in the region.

But he also continually stressed ways to cooperate with China, including having more People's Liberation Army Navy participation in more multinational exercises.

"I'm stressing the multilateralism that is very important to strengthen our alliances and partnerships in this area, that helps us with the collective security in this region," Aucoin said. "I'm pushing for more multilateral exercises working closely with all the countries in the region, to actually include China."

Pressed by reporters to speak to US intentions regarding freedom of navigation exercises through waters that China is claiming as the result of the artificial islands, Aucoin was adamant. "We're going to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows.

"We want to make sure this is a global commons that can be used by all countries.

"We would like China to be more transparent about what their intentions are," Aucoin added. "I think that would relieve some of the angst that we're now seeing. We're unsure where they're taking this."

He noted there was risk that at-sea confrontations could grow into serious incidents, and cited work between the US, China and other countries to establish a protocol for such encounters. Called CUES — Code for Unplanned Encounters At Sea — the agreement has been signed by the US and Chinese navies.

But the Chinese have been employing new and ever-larger Coast Guard ships — painted white rather than Navy grey — in carrying out provocative behavior, and many smaller ships, seemingly local fishing or cargo ships, are being manned by Chinese government-organized militia, using aggressive tactics to threaten or even damage other ships.

"We've done a lot with CUES to address combatant-to-combatant [encounters] so there's no miscalculation," Aucoin said. "But I have a greater fear that some of these others, Coast Guard — what we refer to as "white shipping" — cabbage ships [local cargo ships], I'm not sure about their professionalism. I think that having a code of conduct to cover that would be a good thing. That definitely is a concern of mine."

"I'm asking our Coast Guard to become more involved to help us with these types of operations," Aucoin added, because it's not simply grey hulls any more."

Aucoin praised the US Navy's relationship with Singapore, which allows the US to support its LCSs at Changi, and where US P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft will sometimes operate.

"The occasional operation of a P-8 detachment out of Singapore really helps us collectively with the security in the region," he said.

BAE Systems to Upgrade Criticized US Littoral Combat Ships in San Diego

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/military/20160220/1035073387/littoral-combat-ships-upgrade-bae.html#ixzz40iFtO4Wr

"A U.S. Navy Aircraft Vehicle Modification and Instrumentation team is hard at work augmenting instrumentation to an Edwardsassigned KC-135 tanker.

The unusual arrangement started when the Navy PMA-290 program office approached the 412th Test Management Group about using the Edwards AFB-instrumented KC-135 to certify their P-8A Poseidon from Navy unit VX-20 at Patuxent River, Maryland, for aerial refueling.

The P-8A Poseidon is a long-range, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft. It functions as a multi-mission aircraft used by the U.S. Navy for anti-submarine warfare and communications command control, and intelligence missions. It possesses an advance mission system that ensures maximum interoperability in future battle space, which is capable of broad area maritime and literal operations. It will also influence how the Navy's maritime patrol and reconnaissance forces train, operate and deploy.

While the 412th Test Engineering Group was all too happy to offer their support with an instrumented KC-135, the Navy program needed additional instrumentation. "The Instrumentation division is very busy right now working other projects - KC-46, [Joint Strike Fighter] ...we just didn't have the capacity to [make additional modifications]," said Steve Parker, 412th TENG, Global Reach Instrumentation lead. "So I approached the Navy and asked if they could support with their own instrumentation engineers and technicians and they said, 'Yes, absolutely.'" Feb. 3, an eight-man AVMI team from the Naval Air Systems Command arrived at Edwards to begin modifying the KC-135 using the Air Force processes. The 412th TENG will oversee the modifications as they continue to work towards the first test flight slated for March 31.

The AVMI team also worked closely with the 412th Test Wing Mod Dock team to work through design reviews, program management, installations and inspections. According to Leonard Roen, 412th TMG, the flight test will mark the first time that the Navy has accomplished aerial refueling behind an Air Force tanker with a center-boom system. He also added that the data collected by the new instrumentation will be used to create a robust, high fidelity simulator that will be used to train and maintain proficiency of Navy aircrew. "This simulator is expected to save the Navy multi-millions of dollars in the future by not requiring actual flight time to train the aircrew," said Roen.

When they first arrived, Parker didn't know what to expect of the Navy AVMI team. "I was very cautious at first, but based on what I've seen and what I've heard; gosh I'm really impressed with those folks," said Parker. "The team is fast, the quality of the work they've done so far has been terrific." The AVMI team will work closely with the 418th Maintenance Squadron for support in their modifications. According to Roen, the Air Force will also benefit from the work the Navy is doing because the new instrumentation can be utilized by other programs in the future.

"This is an outstanding example of utilizing trained personnel from other services to meet the needs of test programs. With manpower limitation, it is critical that DOD shares what we can, when we can," said Roen. "This cooperation will significantly improve the data collection effort that would not have been possible without this sharing of trained personnel. Using this as an example could lead to other opportunities in the future and allow for more efficient testing and data gathering."

Source: http://www.edwards.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123469153

Lockheed Martin's Billion-Dollar Drone Submarine Faces Cancellation Newest Drone Became an Epic Failure

max steel wrote:Littoral Combat Ship Is 'Dearly Needed' in Pacific, Navy Commander Says

When did the Chinese Coast Guard turn into The Pirates of the Pacific, did Sao Feng take over, he must be pissed about losing Singapore.

max steel wrote:Lockheed Martin's Billion-Dollar Drone Submarine Faces Cancellation Newest Drone Became an Epic Failure

Bhahahaha....... and another one bites the dust.

AlfaT8 wrote:

max steel wrote:Lockheed Martin's Billion-Dollar Drone Submarine Faces Cancellation Newest Drone Became an Epic Failure

Bhahahaha....... and another one bites the dust.

They're planning to replace it with "Knifefish" Robo-Sub. These drones are for mine-sweeping and mine warfare.

max steel wrote:

AlfaT8 wrote:

max steel wrote:Lockheed Martin's Billion-Dollar Drone Submarine Faces Cancellation Newest Drone Became an Epic Failure

Bhahahaha....... and another one bites the dust.

They're planning to replace it with "Knifefish" Robo-Sub. These drones are for mine-sweeping and mine warfare.

Interesting, then i guess it's time to develop mines that can "relocate" themselves.

"BY ACCIDENT OR NOT, A U.S. NAVY E-6B IS FLYING OVER CONUS USING CALLSIGN “TRUMP.”

This is really interesting: at 18.15 GMT an E-6B Mercury (TACAMO – “TAke Charge And Move Out”) that appear to have departed from Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, is flying at 29,000 feet over central U.S. Based on the information gathered by Planefinder.net via ADS-B, the aircraft is serialled 162784 and it is flying more or less southbound over Arkansas, after crossing the airspaces over Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. And, most interesting, it’s using a somehow unusual callsign: Trump. Not sure the reason behind this callsign.

Most probably someone thought that it was funny to give a “Doomsday” plane the name of the (controversial) candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in the 2016 election as a radio callsign. Or maybe something else. Who knows? Anyway, the “Mercury” are U.S. Navy operated aircraft that play an extremely important role for U.S. National Security: they are used to relay instructions to the fleet ballistic missile submarines in case of nuclear war but also act as back ups of the four E-4Bs NAOC (National Alternate Operations Center), working as ABNCP (Airborne Command Post) platforms (hence “Doomsday Plane“).

They are often trackable online, while performing various critical missions: the so-called Looking Glass mission (mirroring the ground-based C3 center at Offutt AFB and relaying orders); talking to submarines trailing a 26,000 ft wire antenna; launching commands to ICBMs (InterContinental Ballistic Missiles) via Airborne Launch Control System, and performing C3 (Command Control Communication) operations to forces operating in theatre. But they were never seen or heard using such a callsign before Mar. 8, when E-6B 162784 was caught using “Trump” for the first time. BTW, as “Trump” continues its flight southbound, another E-6B is flying over northeastern U.S. with a less weird callsign: “Leon 55.”







Source: http://theaviationist.com/?p=37676

Navy Again Reduces Scope of Destroyer Modernization, 5 Ships Won’t Receive Any Ballistic Missile Defense Upgrades

Five Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers (DDG-51) will forgo a combat system upgrade that would allow the ships to fight ballistic missile threats as part of a reduction in modernization funding included in the Navy’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 budget that will save the service $500 million over the next five years, USNI News has learned.

Modernization periods for five Flight IIA Burkes — USS Howard (DDG-83); USS McCampbell (DDG-85); USS Mustin (DDG-89); USS Chafee (DDG-90); USS Bainbridge (DDG-96) — will not include the Baseline 9C Aegis Combat System series of processing power and software upgrades to bring an Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) capability to the destroyers, according to an unclassified version of the current modernization plan seen by USNI News.

Instead, the ships will undergo a much more modest upgrade that will focus on hull, mechanical and electrical (HM&E) systems repairs, leaving the ships — all commissioned between 2001 to 2004 — without any ballistic missile defense (BMD) capability.

Additionally — without the Baseline 9 upgrade — the ships will not be wired into the Navy’s emerging Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air (NIFC-CA (pronounced: nifk-kah)) that would allow destroyers to download targeting information from assets outside of the range of their SPY-1D radars to attack air and BMD threats with the Raytheon Standard Missile 6 (SM-6).

The budget line item in FY 2016 budget reduces modernization funding by $63.1 million — about what it would cost to upgrade a ship to Baseline 9 — which precluded the Baseline 9 upgrade for Howard.

Equivalent cuts to the Burke modernization line in the Navy’s Future Years Defense Plan (FYDP) — about $500 million over five years, USNI News understands — created a knock-on effect for the McCampbell, Mustin, Chafee and Bainbridge modernizations preventing the service from buying long-lead materials for the ships and allowing even a basic BMD capability, USNI News has learned.

When asked about the reductions following a House appropriations hearing on Thursday, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Jonathan Greenert told USNI News the cuts were a result of hard fiscal choices and reflected the service’s priorities.

“When I bring the budget to the Secretary [of the Navy] and say ‘Here are the mandates. You saw the priorities’ and then you get to modernization and asymmetric capability and say ‘Here’s where we stand versus the other important matters that we need, I recommend that we’re going to have to defer these modernizations’ and that’s when the ballistic missile defense modernization came out,” he said.

Currently, the Navy’s number one priority is the $100 billion design and construction effort for a new nuclear ballistic missile submarine to replace the aging Ohio-class boomers (SSB).

Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) — chairman of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee — said the reduction in the modernization was shortsighted.

“This is just another example of a critical upgrade being deferred by budget cuts. This decision was not strategy-driven, it was budget-driven. Demand for ballistic missile defense capacity and for ships that can be integrated into Navy anti-aircraft battle networks is higher than ever,” Forbes told USNI News on Tuesday following an earlier version of this post.
“These kind of decisions ought to be based on what we need for national security, not what we want to spend.”

Begun in 2007, the Baseline 9 upgrade was designed as a transformational upgrade that would not only replace aging the 1980s AN/UYK-43 32-bit military standard (MILSPEC) computers with much more easily upgradeable and powerful modern commercial computers but also give ships more flexibility in the targets they could handle.





Baseline 9 Types

9A:Upgrade for Ticonderoga-class cruisers that does not include BMD capabilities.

9C: Upgrades Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyers with the Lockheed Martin Multi-Mission Signal Processor that will allow the destroyers to switch between BMD and the air defense role.

9D: Is a variant of the 9C program for new construction ships, starting with the planned John Finn (DDG-113).

9E: Is the Baseline 9 variant for the Navy’s Aegis Ashore program.
Legacy BMD capable ships make a choice between BMD and AAW modes.

Initially, the service had planned to upgrade all of its Burkes to Baseline 9 but decided last year to limit the upgrades to earlier Flight I and II DDGs citing the time and the cost of the upgrades.

Instead, the service decided to include HME upgrades and an install a BMD upgrade on the legacy MILSPEC computers on 21 of the 28 Flight I/IIs, Navy officials told USNI News last year.

The five Flight IIAs in the scheme will not see even the limited BMD capability installed in the older ships, according to a draft of the Navy’s FY 2016 fielding profile obtained by USNI News.

Officials at Lockheed Martin — the prime contractor for the Aegis modernization — told USNI News in February the company was working with the service on ways lower costs ways to increase the BMD capabilities of the Flight I/II upgrades.

US development in UUV


Boeing’s New Autonomous Sub Can Dive to 20,000 Feet Deep





EXPLORING THE BOTTOM of the ocean is tedious, difficult work. Traditionally, there have been two good options. You go with a manned submersible, like James Cameron used in those scenes from Titanic, or try an unmanned craft, tethered to a ship on the surface via a long umbilical cord.

Neither’s a great option. Any person down there faces an inherent safety risk, and if nothing goes wrong, they’ll spend a lot of time looking at absolutely nothing interesting. Tethered craft require expensive ships to sit on the surface while they poke around, and they can’t be used if the surface weather is bad enough.

That’s why these days, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) are the new best thing for tasks like oil and gas surveying, searching for sunken ships and aircraft, and mapping underwater features. Because it’s nearly impossible to communicate with a craft at the bottom of the ocean without a physical connection, these machines must be able to operate completely autonomously, without any kind of human intervention.

To meet the demand, Boeing has built the Echo Seeker, a 32-foot-long autonomous submarine that can hang out in the abyss for up to three days at a time. It’s the younger brother of the Echo Ranger, a smaller submarine Boeing built a little more than a decade ago and has used to help discover shipwrecks off the California coast.

The Seeker’s larger size allows it to run for twice as long and go twice as far as its predecessor. Boeing’s used the extra interior cargo space—170 cubic feet, compared to 25 in the Ranger—to increase payload capacity, and packed it with enough silver-zinc batteries to keep it running for days on end. At a typical speed of 3.5 mph, it’s got enough life to travel 265 miles without recharging. And it fits inside a standard 40-foot shipping container—important for moving it quickly and safely around the world.


A team of 50 people spent three years developing the Echo Seeker. The one unit that’s been built is still in testing, swimming in a 33-foot deep pool at a Boeing facility in Huntington Beach, California.

When it’s at the bottom of the ocean, the Echo Seeker will have very limited contact with its controllers—there’s no GPS, radio, or line of sight communications. Its acoustic communication system runs, at best, around 300 baud—equal to the modems people used in the 1980s.

That means the vehicle must be able to complete all its tasks—surveying or searching or exploring—on its own. Because the ocean floor is in many places poorly mapped, the Echo Seeker must be smart enough to see things like mountains or canyons and avoid them as necessary. Or it can follow a “nap-of-the-earth” type path and stay a certain height above the ocean floor no matter the terrain. Its onboard synthetic aperture sonar lets it stay as high as 300 feet off the bottom, scanning a path two miles wide with a resolution of 10 centimeters, to keep it out of trouble and complete its mission.

Getting back to base is just as important. Once its mission is complete, or if it has a system failure of some kind, Echo Seeker will return to a preset rendezvous point and slowly swim in circles (it’s hard to stay still in the constantly moving ocean), loitering while awaiting further instructions. If it doesn’t hear from its human buddies, it will head to the bottom and drop anchor, conserving battery life. It can go into a low-power mode for months, shutting down non-essential systems and patiently awaiting further instruction.

Boeing won’t say how much it spent developing the Echo Seeker, or how much it will cost to buy, but don’t expect it to be cheap. The good news is that it’s loaded with failsafes to make sure it doesn’t get stuck underwater. Most systems are redundant, with two motors and dual controllers. If all those fail, there are two auxiliary thrusters, less powerful but still be enough to get it back to the rendezvous point.

If the Echo Seeker‘s battery dies, its “doomsday machine” kicks in. The borderline analog computer can sense when everything has gone haywire, and take over the ballast controls and shed weights to bring the submersible up to the surface. It’s powered by a section of the battery that isn’t used during normal operations, and there’s a separate acoustic path that folks at the surface can trigger remotely. The Boeing team calls it the “Last Failsafe.” And, unlikely as it may be, if all of that craps out and it gets stuck on the ocean floor, no one gets hurt and you can go get it—even if it takes months to mount a “rescue.”

Boeing says it’s still in the market evaluation phase, but sees a lot of promise for autonomous underwater vehicles, especially since it should be significantly cheaper to operate over long periods than manned or tethered options. It says it got great feedback about the smaller Echo Ranger from potential clients like oil and gas exploration firms, NOAA, and the US Navy, with most interested in a bigger, longer-running sub.

Stealthy Drone Can Hide Underwater For Months, Then Float To Surface To Take-Off







After months of analysis and experimentation, a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab announced the successful development of a reliable sea-to-air UAV. Dubbed the Corrosion Resistant Aerial Covert Unmanned Nautical System -- or CRACUNS for short -- Johns Hopkins' drone has the ability to reside for months underwater without deteriorating or decaying. Once given the signal, the CRACUNS would then rise to the water's surface and begin flight, capable of undertaking a variety of missions.

In order for the drone to accomplish this, the team had to develop a body that contained no structural metal parts or machined surfaces. The composite-body had to not only be extremely lightweight, but able to be submerged in water and hold up to constant water pressure. CRACUNS project manager Jason Stipes said in a published press release, "Engineers at APL have long worked on both Navy submarine systems and autonomous UAVs. In response to evolving sponsor challenges, they were inspired to develop a vehicle that could operate both underwater and in the air."


Before the university started work on the project, it knew there were two massive challenges it had to overcome before the CRACUNS could ever become a reality. First off, it had to manufacture an extremely lightweight, composite-body that was not only capable of being submerged but able to hold up to constant water pressure. Thanks to the Johns Hopkins fabrication experts, the APL had the most innovative and advanced fabrication and additive manufacturing techniques available to them from the start.

“CRACUNS successfully demonstrated a new way of thinking about the fabrication and use of unmanned systems,” APL’s Rich Hooks said.


The APL’s second challenge was to make sure the drone could effectively operate after staying submerged for long periods of time. What particularly stood in the lab’s way was finding an effective method for sealing the craft’s electronics. To start, the team first sealed CRACUNS’ sensitive components inside a dry pressure vessel before coating its exposed motors with a commercially available protective coating. After submerging the drone in salt water for two months, the team found no sign of decay and that the CRACUNS operated at full capacity.

“APL’s culture of innovation and mission-ready solutions continues to deliver success for our sponsors,” said Sea Control Mission Area Executive, Christopher Watkins.

Success, indeed, and likely a fixture of not just U.S. Navy operations but the entire U.S. military in the very near future.

USN begins testing of SPQ-9B radar with periscope detection upgrade

The US Navy (US Navy) has completed the first shipborne 'light-off' test of an AN/SPQ-9B horizon search radar upgraded with a Periscope Detection and Discrimination (PDD) capability, the US Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) revealed on 18 March.

The 12 March 'light off' was conducted on board the CG 47 Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Lake Champlain (CG 57) during live-fire testing off the Californian coast.

Navy Awards General Dynamics Bath Iron Works $644 Million for Construction of DDG 51 Class Destroyer

he U.S. Navy has awarded funding for the planning and construction of DDG 124, the Fiscal Year 2016 Arleigh Burke-class destroyer under contract at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works. The $644.3 million contract modification fully funds this ship, which was awarded as part of a multi-year competition for DDG 51 class destroyers awarded in 2013. The total value of the five-ship contract is approximately $3.4 billion. General Dynamics Bath Iron Works is a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD).

Fred Harris, president of Bath Iron Works, said, "This funding will allow us to continue our efforts associated with planning and construction of DDG 124. The men and women of Bath Iron Works are working hard to continuously improve our processes as we contribute to the U.S. Navy's important shipbuilding programs."

There are currently four DDG 51 destroyers in production at Bath Iron Works: Rafael Peralta (DDG 115), Thomas Hudner (DDG 116), Daniel Inouye (DDG 118) and Carl M. Levin (DDG 120).

The Navy has named DDG 124 the Harvey C. Barnum, Jr., after a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer who received the Medal of Honor for valor during the Vietnam War. Colonel Barnum served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Reserve Affairs and as Acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs).

The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer is a multi-mission combatant that offers defense against a wide range of threats, including ballistic missiles. It operates in support of carrier battle groups, surface action groups, amphibious groups and replenishment groups, providing a complete array of anti-submarine (ASW), anti-air (AAW) and anti-surface (SuW) capabilities.

Designed for survivability, the ships incorporate all-steel construction and have gas turbine propulsion. The combination of the ships' AEGIS combat system, the Vertical Launching System, an advanced ASW system, two embarked SH-60 helicopters, advanced anti-aircraft missiles and Tomahawk anti-ship and land-attack missiles make the Arleigh Burke class destroyers the most powerful surface combatants ever put to sea.Bath Iron Works currently employs approximately 6,100 people.

Militarov wrote:"As the division of the US military most responsible high-tech developments, DARPA has announced that April will the launch of a futuristic ship that is designed to detect and fight submarines at sea. But the thing is, the ship doesn't even have a crew; it's completely autonomous. That means it's basically a robotic, submarine-hunting drone yacht. Unfortunately, because it's the military, they have to give it an acronym for its long, ridiculous name, instead of just calling it an "autonomous submarine hunter."

U.S. Navy’s sub-hunting drone ships will hit the open ocean this summer




Drones may known for their prowess in the skies, but thanks to some new developments at the U.S. Navy, they’ll soon be turning the open seas into their turf as well. A new video shows off an autonomous watercraft dreamed into reality from the men and women at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), all with the hopes of tracking submarines that haunt the depths of the ocean.

The very first prototype is meant to demonstrate the potential of what will ultimately become a fleet of unmanned ships, known as Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessels (to be pronounced “active” for short). The 132 foot long vessel managed to log a top speed of 27 knots during its test in Portland, Oregon, and it’ll be ready for open seas this summer when it launches from the California coast. The drone ship’s official christening is fast approaching on April 7, and the Navy seems pretty excited by the prospects of “an unmanned vessel optimized to robustly track quiet diesel electric submarines.”

In addition to tracking submarines, the ACTUV could prove useful in a number of additional operations.Everything from serving as a supplier to other ships, countering undersea mines, and aiding in the logistics of complex operations could be carried out with these unmanned vessels, especially given their ability to remain at sea for three months at a time without a human crew.

In preliminary tests, the drone has successfully tracked a submarine from 1 kilometer away, which the Pentagon says is a major improvement in the technology. “Picking up the quiet hum of a battery-powered, diesel-electric submarine in busy coastal waters is like trying to identify the sound of a single car engine in the din of a major city,” said Rear Admiral Frank Drennan, commander of the Naval Mine and Anti-Submarine Warfare Command.


ACTUV ships are also expected to help lower costs for the U.S. Navy, helping it save human capital and resources with this autonomous technology. It’s still unclear as to whether these water drones will be weaponized, but if you happen to see an unmanned vessel floating around the California coast this summer, don’t be alarmed. It’s just an ACTUV ship, waiting to do its duty.