Huntington Ingalls Sees Record-Breaking 2020, Moving to Integrating Business Lines

By: Megan Eckstein

February 11, 2021 3:35 PM

USNI.org

Ingalls Shipbuilding in May 2019. HII Photo

After coming through 2020 with record sales and growing its unmanned systems portfolio through acquisitions and partnerships, Huntington Ingalls Industries plans to use that momentum in 2021 to integrate its different business lines to help its customers tackle more complex challenges, the company president said today.

Noting the hardship of the pandemic in 2020 but the optimism of coming through it in a strong position, HII President and CEO Mike Petters told investors in a company earnings call today that, “from the very beginning, we viewed COVID-19 as a human capital crisis, and we made the decision to give the workforce the flexibility they needed to deal with the disruption in their personal lives. This, in turn, allowed us to preserve the significant investment we have made over the past five years hiring, training and qualifying our workforce so that they would be available to execute our record backlog as we emerge from the pandemic. After finishing 2020 with two consecutive strong quarters, I am convinced more than ever that we have a very solid foundation and a bright future for our business.”

Among the 2020 achievements that Petters described were delivering two Navy and one Coast Guard ships; and bolstering its standing in the unmanned market by acquiring companies Hydroid and Spatial Integrated Systems, developing a strategic alliance with a third company, Kongsberg Maritime, and breaking ground on its Unmanned Systems Center of Excellence in Hampton, Va.

Additionally, Petters said, “sales of $2.8 billion for the quarter and $9.4 billion for the full year were approximately 14- and 5-percent higher than 2019, respectively, and they represent record highs for the company.”

These record sales helped create a record backlog of $46 billion in shipbuilding, ship maintenance, nuclear energy and other work.

Though the company is in a strong position, Petters said the company this year will add a new chief operating officer position to begin to integrate the main business lines – Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi, Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia, and the Technical Solutions business that is increasingly focused on unmanned technologies. Christopher Kastner, HII’s chief financial officer, will take over the COO job later this month.

USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is pulled from its berth at the Huntington Ingalls Industries at Newport News Shipbuilding, Va; into the James River on Oct. 25, 2019. Ford is passing the former USS Enterprise (CVN-65). USNI Photo by Mark D. Faram

“I see this as the next step in the maturation of HII. Our governance model has typically been very federated, pushing as many decisions as far away from the center of the company as possible. But what we are hearing from our customers is that they are looking for us to be able to bring different parts of our business together in order to solve their complex problems,” Petters said during the call.
“They actually see us as more of an integrated whole than a collection of businesses, and it’s up to us to find ways to create value from this opportunity set by smartly collaborating across our shipbuilding and technical solutions segments.”

Asked for more details later in the call, Petters added that “what we were hearing from our customers is, this capability in this part of your business is something we could use in this part of your business; whether it was the way we were buying material, or a technology we were looking at, additive manufacturing, maybe some artificial intelligence, our information management systems, those kinds of things,” he said.
“There were several of those that, when they added together, it just made more sense for us to start thinking about it.”

Petters said he had been thinking about moving the company in this more integrated direction for a few years and that the time was right now, as the Navy, Coast Guard and other customers were being asked to do more amid tight budgets.

“They’re starting to become a little bit more integrated, and the problems they’re facing are becoming more complex, and so as a result we need to bring a more integrated approach to solving that.”

Despite the record-breaking business HII did during 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic did create some setbacks for the company. Specifically, Petters announced in an August call that, with about 35 percent of the hourly production workforce not showing up on any given day due to being ill, being in quarantine, taking care of children who were home from school and more, the shipyard had to prioritize which projects to keep on track and which to let slip. In consultation with the Navy, the Newport News Shipbuilding yard prioritized repair work on submarines and the refueling and complex overhaul of aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN-73) over building new submarines. As a result, the Virginia-class program took a financial hit, and sub construction timelines slipped in some cases by two or three months, in some cases by two or three quarters on the fiscal year calendar.

Today, Petters said that the company had laid out a new pace for Virginia-class SSN construction and that Newport News Shipbuilding was staying on that pace and meeting milestones “with gusto.”

John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) leaving dry dock in 2019. US Navy Photo

Petters was also asked about the Navy’s ongoing studies into a light carrier program, something that was proposed in former Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s Battle Force 2045 shipbuilding plan, which proposed zero to six light carriers and said more studies were needed. Naval Sea Systems Command engineers are already conducting cost and engineering studies.

Petters said HII would support the Navy in whatever it decided to build, but indicated supercarrier construction would continue.

Though the Navy at several points over the past 60 years has questioned whether a conventional carrier would be more affordable, Petters said the question remains, “can you get 80 percent of the capability for 80 percent of the cost? The answer is almost always no, because it turns out that the cheapest thing that we do in the carrier business is build volume – and so if you want to take a carrier that’s 100,000 tons and you want to drive it to, pick a number, 60 or 70,000 tons, and you want to take the reactors off of it, you’ve just completely changed the capability set, and you’re still going to spend a lot of money building that 60,000-ton ship.”

Petters said he thinks the Navy is taking a serious look at light carriers today and “we stand ready to support the Navy in whatever their mission is and wherever they need to go.”

But, he added, “we’re very proud of the [USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78)], and I would tell you that as a lead ship the Ford cost was too high. We made significant capital investments to drive that cost down inside the shipyard, and we’ve taken 15 percent of the man-hours out of the [future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79)], between Fordand Kennedy, and we’ve streamlined the supply chain. And so we’re taking cost out of that ship.”

Additionally, he said the Navy has repeatedly said it would save $4 billion from buying Enterprise (CVN-80) and Doris Miller (CVN-81) in a two-carrier contract, in addition to the savings the shipyard will see as it applies lessons learned to make each ship more efficient than the last.

“As the Ford (class) becomes more affordable, that makes that comparison become even tougher,” Petters said of the light carrier.

Fincantieri Marinette Marine Breaks Ground on Major Expansion Project

Courtesy Fincanteri Marinette Marine

BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE  02-09-2021 08:36:00 

Shipyard groundbreaking ceremonies are a rare occurrence in the COVID-19 era, and when they occur, they are grounds for celebration. On Tuesday, Fincantieri Marinette Marine broke ground on a new enclosed fabrication facility to accommodate production of the U.S. Navy's new FFG(X) frigate, the future Constellation class. 

Although Fincantieri Marinette would have preferred to hold an all-hands groundbreaking ceremony with the entire shipyard staff and the local community, it opted for a scaled-down version due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The attendees had a lot to celebrate: the new Building 34 will be the largest in the yard's history, and it will support work on a 10-hull, $5.5 billion contract for the Navy (if all options are exercised).

The multi-million dollar building is just one component of Fincantieri's $200 million capital expansion in Wisconsin. In addition, the largest ship lift in the U.S. is being built along the waterfront, as well as improvements to other buildings to facilitate upcoming frigate production. 

Across the bay at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding, construction is already under way on several new buildings where large blocks of the frigate’s hull will be constructed, then shipped to Marinette, where they will be joined together inside of Building 34.

“Building 34 is a key element to our Constellation-class frigate production,” said Dario Deste, president and CEO of Fincantieri Marine Group. “This will allow us to complete construction of two 500-foot ships at the same time inside of a massive climate-controlled facility. We are improving our facilities, but also adding to our workforce, with engineers, project managers, and nearly every skilled trade."

Fincantieri's FFG(X) design is based on its existing FREMM frigate, which is in use with French, Italian and Moroccan forces. The FREMM ("Fregata Europea Multi-Missione") has been in service since 2012, and the Italian Navy variant has a 30-knot top speed, a range of 6,800 miles and a 130-member crew. 

The FFG(X) is a multi-role surface combatant with built-in capability to conduct air defense, anti-submarine warfare and surface warfare operations. Its systems will be derived from standard Navy gear, like an AN/SPY-6-based radar, a Baseline Ten (BL10) Aegis Combat System and a complement of Mk 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) cells for SM-series missiles. These systems are in use aboard multiple U.S. Navy vessel classes, making it easier to keep spare parts in stock and train sailors on a common platform. FFG(X) will replace the lightly-armed Littoral Combat Ship variants in future production. 

Fincantieri Marinette Marine announces construction of largest building in company history

wearegreenbay.com | 16h

MARINETTE, Wis. (WFRV) – Fincantieri Marinette Marine has announced the construction of the largest building in the company’s history. Building 34 will allow for crews to construct two, Constellation-class frigate 500-foot ships at the same time. Fincantieri Marinette Marine was awarded the contract by the United States Navy to design and build the first Constellation-class guided-missile frigate in April 2020 with an option to build nine additional ships.

Wittman: HASC Republicans Will Keep Up Push for Larger Navy

By: Mallory Shelbourne

February 5, 2021 3:56 PM

USNI.org

Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.)

Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee will maintain their focus on building a larger Navy to counter China in the Indo-Pacific, the panel’s new number-two Republican told USNI News.

Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) said that, while the new Biden administration will want to evaluate the plans for Navy shipbuilding, he believes the emphasis on China as the main challenge for the U.S. will drive the strategy and make a larger fleet essential going forward.

“You might have a debate about what classes of ships you want to prioritize or how you integrate unmanned platforms. But I think overall the idea is you have to be able to counter the Chinese and in turn our other adversaries, including the Russians that, while they’re not modernizing at the pace that the Chinese are, they have some pretty capable assets that do place the United States at risk. So you have to be able to do those things,” Wittman, who this week was named the new vice ranking member on the committee, told USNI News in a Thursday interview.

“So I’m hopeful that they’ll look at that and if there are changes, they’re semantic changes, not wholesale changes to what we need to build. To me, I think it’s pretty simple and straightforward,” he continued. “You have to have attack submarines. I think you need to be able to build them at a higher rate that is three per year. I know you can’t just flip the switch and do that. Make sure we’re staying on track with Columbia [ballistic missile submarine], the same with Ford [aircraft carriers]. Staying on track with multi-ship procurement on [amphibious ships] and the same with DDGs.”

While the Trump administration during its last weeks in office unveiled a shipbuilding blueprint – billed as the Fiscal Year 2022 30-year shipbuilding plan – that called for a sustained funding boost to build a much larger fleet, it’s unclear what the Biden administration will do with the proposal.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Harker said this week he expects to have a better understanding of the Biden administration’s priorities for shipbuilding once more officials like the deputy defense secretary and the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget are confirmed by the Senate. Harker said some parts of the proposal from the last administration will likely remain, but some will not.

Norman Bialk TIG welds an aluminum frame in the Hull Outfitting Shop. Newport News Shipbuilding

The Trump plan, led by the White House, projected the Navy having 405 manned ships by 2051 and at various points in the 30-year proposal building three Virginia-class attack boats per year – two objectives Wittman said he supports. The blueprint also showed the Navy spending $147 billion from FY 2022 to FY 2026 to buy 82 new ships. The FY 2021 Future Years Defense Program – unveiled as part of last year’s budget request – only showed the Navy spending $102 billion to purchase 44 ships between FY 2021 and FY 2025, a request that didn’t sit well with many HASC members who thought the Navy needed to buy more ships to keep pace with the threats.

Despite the support for more ships, service officials have spoken openly about the likelihood of flat or declining defense budgets in the coming years. Wittman said he and HASC Ranking Member Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) will push to maintain defense spending at current levels to pursue both modernization and increased readiness for the services.

“And that means making sure that we stand by the funding levels that we’ve had in the past. In fact, I would argue you have to be able to factor in an element of inflation to make sure we have the dollars necessary,” Wittman said.

“You know that those dollars are needed, as we’ve seen in the National Defense Strategy, the 30-year shipbuilding plan, Battle Force 2045, however you want to parse it out. Those things are incredibly important,” he added, referring to the Battle Force 2045 shipbuilding objectives pushed by former Defense Secretary Mark Esper last year.

Rogers, who recently assumed the role of the top Republican on the panel after former Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) retired, tapped Wittman this week to serve as his vice ranking member.

Wittman, who also serves as the ranking member of the HASC seapower and projection forces subcommittee, said he spoke with Kathleen Hicks – Biden’s nominee to serve as the deputy defense secretary – about the Battle Force 2045 plan and the long-term shipbuilding blueprint.

Virginia-class submarine Washington (SSN-787) under construction in 2016 at Newport News Shipbuilding, Va. HII Photo

“It’s a strategic issue. I think there’s agreement across the spectrum within the Pentagon. Obviously I know the new folks want to come in, they want to look at things as they get in. That’s a natural prospect. It happens every time when you have a new SECDEF,” Wittman said.
“And they’re not going to come in and say, ‘oh yeah everything is great’ until they’ve had a chance to take a look at it and determine. And listen, they’ll probably want to put their imprint on it and say, ‘well we think a little change here a little change there.’”

“But I just don’t see with the challenges that we face that there should be wholesale changes to it. Again, I can’t project what they might do,” he added. “But I think if they look at this from a standpoint of the National Defense Strategy, of the needs of the requirements going forward to counter the Chinese, to me it’s pretty straightforward in what we need to do in terms of rebuilding and modernizing our Navy.”

The Virginia congressman emphasized the need for bipartisanship on HASC and said Democrats will likely need Republican votes to pass the annual National Defense Authorization Act due to the party breakdown in the lower chamber.

“I know that the chairman has indicated he wants that to be the case, as well as the ranking member. So I think that’s where we’ll be,” he said of a bipartisan approach to the annual policy bill.

Republicans on HASC also hope to legislate outside of the NDAA, Wittman said, pointing to acquisition reform as a potential avenue for its own bill.

“The NDAA becomes this massive undertaking,” he said. “I think there’s an opportunity for us to do some other things outside the NDAA that complement that and that lets us maybe narrow down the things we focus on in the NDAA.”

USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) conducts cyclic flight operations while steaming in the Atlantic Ocean on Nov. 13, 2020. US Navy Photo

Wittman said that as the vice ranking member, he is focused on keeping the Navy’s ship acquisition programs, like the Columbia-class submarine, the new Constellation-class frigate and the Ford-class aircraft carriers, on schedule.

“All those things are critically important. They have to be part of our plan if we’re really serious about countering the Chinese. We see the naval presence that they’ve been able to build over the years. It is significant,” Wittman said.

“It used to be that we’d look at China and we would talk about quantity. But today, China has quantity and quality, something that is very concerning as we look to strategically assure that we have the advantage over the Chinese,” he added. “And I would argue in many areas they’re either equal to or potentially have surpassed us.”

Navy: Constellation Frigate, DDG(X) Programs Mark Start of ‘Surface Ship Renaissance’

By: Megan Eckstein and Mallory Shelbourne

February 3, 2021 3:30 PM

USNI.org

Rendering of USS Constellation (FFG-62). Fincantieri Image

The Navy already has models of the Constellation-class frigate and the upcoming DDG(X) destroyer in the water at Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock in Maryland and is using a new set of engineering best practices to guide the development of both programs, several Navy officials explained last week.

The Fiscal Year 2020 defense bill ordered the Navy to create a senior technical authority for every ship class, who would be responsible for overseeing a ship design process that would better understand critical systems early in the new ship’s development and create a plan to reduce risk through significant testing and modeling work, Carey Filling, the director of the Surface Ship Design and Systems Engineering directorate at Naval Sea Systems Command, and the senior tech authority for DDG(X) and the frigate, said last week.

Filling, speaking at a virtual event hosted by the American Society of Naval Engineers, said there’s a “surface ship renaissance” happening and he’s excited about the new development path the Navy is using for these two programs that will play such important roles in the future fleet – including a more aggressive requirements development and management process, early and frequent design reviews of individual components and a mandate to conduct land-based testing.

The DDG(X) program, formerly called Large Surface Combatant or DDG Next, is among the first major programs that will go through this new process under a senior tech authority. Its topline requirements were just approved by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday at the end of 2020, NAVSEA Commander Vice Adm. Bill Galinis said during a separate panel at the ASNE event. Filling said the Navy is already trying to minimize risk on the program, even ahead of bringing in industry and starting a competition.

The service has an evolved design based on both the Arleigh Burke-class and Zumwalt-class destroyers, and “that model and the frigate are trading time in the tank off and on, so the Carderock team is working on many ships to keep up with our requests,” Filling said.

Filling added that his team also has an evolved design of an integrated power system that takes lessons from the Zumwalt destroyer, the Ford-class aircraft carrier and the Columbia-class submarine. DDG(X) will ultimately have a next-generation IPS – informed by these three current programs but not a duplicate of any single one – to meet the Navy’s vision for how DDG(X) should operate.

“We definitely feel it’s going to be an IPS, we’ve decided on that. We have not decided on the particular plant, we’re still exploring options. So we’re open to new ideas,” Filling said.

USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) passes national historic site Fort McHenry as she departs Maryland Fleet Week and Air Show Baltimore. US Navy Photo

The ship will have “range and miserly fuel consumption, so we are looking at various plants that optimize that because what we’re trying to optimize is time on station. We want that ship to be able to stay forward, stay on station and be able to deliver ordnance on target. That’s one of the things right now that limits us on DDGs, they don’t have the legs of the previous cruisers. So we’re heavily focused on that, and making sure that that ship has the ability to stay on station,” he added.

Even in this early stage of development, under the new STA processes, review boards with representation from the NAVSEA engineering directorate, the resource sponsor at the surface warfare directorate (OPNAV N96) and the Program Executive Office for Ships are already convening to look at early ideas for critical systems the DDG(X) will use and seek ways to reduce risk, with a particular focus on the hull form and the propulsion system.

“The team is working hard to drive that design forward and take us to the next level. We’re looking forward this year to have industry, particularly the shipyards and our [original equipment manufacturers], engaged to a greater extent,” Filling said.

On frigate, Filling said the program formally kicked off before Congress passed the FY 2020 defense bill, so it wasn’t bound by the new requirements. Still, he said, the Navy had already been moving in a similar direction, and so the frigate development plan gives a glimpse of what’s to come for DDG(X).

One of the most important things the frigate program did was craft the capability development document at the Navy level instead of with the Joint Staff. This allowed the Navy to share detailed specifications with potential shipbuilders from the start, and as shipbuilders proposed ideas that could drive down cost or boost performance, the Navy on its own could update requirements in both the CDD and the specifications. Filling said the end result was a design that is affordable, producible and ensured the shipbuilder’s voice was captured in the process.

“Right now at the maneuvering and seakeeping basin out at Carderock there is a segmented frigate model running in the basin right now, running alongside several other surface ships, so it’s good to see a surface ship renaissance out there at Carderock,” he said.

Even though the Constellation-class (FFG-62) design is based off the FREMM multi-mission frigate operated by the French and Italian navies, the length and beam were increased to meet Navy specifications, so the altered hull will need to go through testing to ensure the new dimensions are effective on the high seas, Filling said.

Cables running to one of two Advanced Induction Motors on USS Zumwalt. USNI News Photo

Filling also said he and his counterparts at NAVSEA’s engineering directorate (SEA 05) were conducting formal Systems Engineering Technical Reviews (SETRs) on frigate components. Frigate contractor Fincantieri brought with it many of its original equipment manufacturers, but the Navy is still conducting a full detail design process to ensure that, as some components are moved to U.S.-based manufacturing plants or swapped for new American components, the systems still work well together in the final frigate design.

Because the frigate program started before the FY 2020 defense bill passed, it is not technically required to create a land-based engineering site – but Filling said the Navy is making plans right now to set one up at Naval Surface Warfare Center Philadelphia, where most of the other LBESs will be located.

“Maybe [we’re] a little bit behind where we’d like to be in the newly envisioned STA process, but we’re working fast to get that done,” he said of building an LBES to support the frigate program.

With so many new ship programs coming up in the next few years and the requirement for all of them to have land-based test sites for critical components, Filling said there’s a “full-court press” with the program executive offices, the NAVSEA engineering team and the NSWC Philly team to get multiple test facilities opened and to coordinate all the military construction work that goes along with that.

In his presentation at ASNE, Galinis talked about the importance of land-based testing, saying the work makes a “tremendous difference” and is “mitigating a lot of risk” in the programs.

He also talked about the challenge of designing DDG(X) compared to the frigate: when the Navy kicked off its FFG(X) competition, it required that shipbuilders base their proposals on a mature ship design already in use somewhere else in the world. The Navy has concluded there are no sufficient parent designs for the DDG(X) competition, but Galinis said there are still a lot of lessons learned from past work that can apply.

USS Sterett (DDG-104) steams at night in the Gulf of Oman on Nov. 4, 2020. US Navy Photo

“You can’t evolve a current design if you don’t have a parent design you can leverage,” he said.
“You’re kind of starting from scratch, right, from a whiteboard. And so this is kind of where we are with the DDG(X) program, that we’re getting ready – we’ve got the top-level requirements, we’ve done some very early concept design work on that (with) the warfare center at Carderock, with SEA 05 and other organizations kind of leading that. And what they’ve taken on on that effort there is really kind of using set-based design versus maybe the more traditional point-based design that many of us are familiar with.”

In a point-based design, he explained, the Navy would have a single design in mind and iterate as it learns more, slowly evolving that one design until it’s finessed enough to meet all the requirements.

Since there’s no good starting point for DDG(X), the Navy is using a “set-based design, where you start looking at a large number of designs. Maybe your requirements aren’t fully defined yet. You’re looking at different new technologies and everything like that. But it really kind of gives you an opportunity to look really across a broader spectrum, if you will, at different designs that are out there and then modulate on those to kind of learn about the different design attributes and neck down to kind of a single design,” he added.

Galinis said this approach allows the Navy to look not just at other destroyer designs but more broadly at “foundational design attributes that really led to successful designs that we’ve been able to continue to evolve and to upgrade over time,” including the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, the Los Angeles-class submarine, the Arleigh Burke destroyer, and the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock.

Filling said the team has learned several things already from these other ship classes, including the interplay between hull size and an IPS system, and how to buy sufficient data rights for the ship upfront.

On the IPS, Filling was asked during a question-and-answer session about IPS’s size and whether it would force the Navy to look at a larger hull size for DDG(X).

USS Kidd (DDG-100) transits the Eastern Pacific Ocean, Nov. 27, 2019. US Navy Photo

He said the “design is still in progress, so I can’t tell you a lot, but certainly the team has looked at ships as small in displacement as DDG-51, ships that have been larger than Zumwalt. Certainly because of our desire for affordability and getting this both quality and quantity, the design space has been driven kind of smaller, and the team definitely thinks we can get IPS in the hull.”

He said the Navy was committed to using an integrated power system because the ship has to generate fewer kilowatts overall when power is shared across hotel services, combat systems and propulsion. IPS is the only way to enable future radars, electronic attack systems, lasers and other directed energy weapons, he said, and it’s the best way to generate the fuel efficiency and range the Navy requires from DDG(X).

He said the engineering team is looking into energy storage options now, which “can also help drive the IPS plant smaller.”

Rear Adm. Jason Lloyd, the deputy commander for ship design, integration and engineering (SEA 05), said during the presentation with Filling that the IPS design also allows for more flexibility to share power between combat and propulsion systems.

“You can get a significant amount of electrical power by slowing down a ship a knot. And so there’s a very, very good tradeoff there: hey, we can slow down a few knots and get the full combat systems power, or if you go full speed on the ship and get partial combat systems power,” Lloyd said.
“So there’s a real good tradeoff there that allows the IPS system to really deal with … ensuring that we have power for future weapons capabilities as well as current ones.”

Sailors man the rails aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) in 2019 as the ship pulls into Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. US Navy Photo

Filling also addressed data rights, saying the Navy had learned a lot with the Zumwalt program on what the shipbuilder needed for efficient digital ship design versus what the Navy needs to buy access to so it can maintain the ships later on.

“We need very robust models of how to build ships and how to build combat systems; those don’t translate well for the later fleet operation of ship and maintenance of a ship. So for DDG(X), the intent is obviously let the shipbuilders have their model for production, but we keep a much lighter model for the future maintenance and operation of the ship,” Filling said.
“And I think something that worked well on Zumwalt was we were able to take that model and … the ship actually has tablets that do the maintenance onboard, which is something I don’t think any other ship in the fleet has. So they can walk around and have a lighter version of the ship model, system models, the diagrams, right on their hip on a robust ruggedized tablet. And our [Regional Maintenance Centers] engineers use the same tablets when they go aboard Zumwalt (DDG-1000) and Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001). So I think we’re taking a similar strategy for DDG(X).”

Independence-Class LCS Offloads $200M in Cocaine in San Diego

USS Gabrielle Giffords intercepts a low-profile smuggling boat in the Eastern Pacific, December 2020 (USN)

BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE  02-02-2021 01:49:00 

On Monday, U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy crewmembers from the Independence-class LCS USS Gabrielle Giffords offloaded nearly six tons of cocaine at a pier in San Diego. The haul, valued at more than $200 million, was seized in the Eastern Pacific as part of the long-running fight against drug trafficking in the transit zones off Central America.  

Consistent with protocol, Gabrielle Giffords' interdictions were all performed by an embarked Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET). Monday's offload also included the results of three Coast Guard cutters' efforts.

“When you are covering a drug-smuggling transit zone the size of the continental United States, every ship makes a huge difference,” said Lt. Jonathan Dietrich (USCG). “The seamless integration between our Law Enforcement Detachment and the crew of the USS Gabrielle Giffords was a major reason why we were successful in interdicting such a large amount of drugs and prevent them from reaching our streets.”

Images courtesy USCG

USS Gabrielle Giffords and LEDET 407 were responsible for most of the haul, seizing 10,500 pounds of cocaine and 4,000 pounds of marijuana in five intercepts; the cutter Seneca carried out one intercept and seized 350 pounds of cocaine; the cutter Legare seized 50 pounds of cocaine and 3,400 pounds of marijuana; and the cutter Spencer seized about 400 pounds of cocaine and 1,500 pounds of marijuana. 

"The impressive results of the USS Gabrielle Giffords deployment and drug offload represent more than just a local victory of keeping drugs off our streets," said Rear Admiral Brian Penoyer (USCG), the commander of the 11th Coast Guard District. "The Coast Guard and the Navy have worked together for years to keep our waters and shores safe from a number of maritime threats, and we are honored to continue that tradition as we look toward the future."

The ceremony also marked a homecoming for the USS Gabrielle Giffords, which has been deployed to 7th Fleet and 4th Fleet for the past 17 months. 

“I am incredibly proud of the Gabrielle Giffords team and all they have accomplished”, said Cmdr. Rion Martin, the vessel's commanding officer. “This dynamic team of Sailors, Coast Guardsmen and Marines demonstrated sustained superior performance with physical, mental and emotional toughness while executing a range of maritime operations.”

For years, U.S. Southern Command has advocated for the deployment of LCS vessels like the Gabrielle Giffords to the drug-running transit zones of the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. Historically, the actionable intelligence on smuggling boats has exceeded the number of cutters available to conduct interdictions, limiting the potential of the campaign. With their cutter-like construction, speed and armament, combined with their relatively low levels of Navy operational tasking, the two LCS classes have attracted interest as an extra law enforcement and maritime security platform in the 4th Fleet area of responsibility. 

Acting SECNAV: Navy Shipbuilding Faces Review from Incoming Biden Officials

By: Mallory Shelbourne

February 2, 2021 5:27 PM

• USNI.org

In this aerial photograph, the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) sits at Pier 3 at Newport News Shipbuilding division. The ship is approximately 76 percent complete and is progressing through final outfitting and testing. Huntington Ingalls Industries photo.

As the Biden administration continues filling key positions, its plans for the Navy should come into better focus, according to the service’s top civilian.

Speaking at the National Defense Industrial Association’s virtual Expeditionary Warfare conference on Tuesday, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Harker said he expects to have a clearer understanding of the Biden administration’s shipbuilding plans once administration officials like the deputy defense secretary, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, and the OMB deputy director are confirmed to their posts.

“As those people start filling in, we anticipate getting more clarity on the priorities of the administration as we go forward,” Harker said. “The timeline for us to present the budget is to hopefully get something over to Congress in May, with a lot of work being done internal to the department as we look at that.”

The Senate confirmed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last month to lead the Pentagon and held a confirmation hearing on Tuesday for Austin’s designated deputy, Kathleen Hicks. Neera Tanden, President Joe Biden’s nominee to serve as the OMB director, is slated to appear next week in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee as part of the nomination process. Biden chose Shalanda Young, the Democrat staff director for the House Appropriations Committee, to serve as the OMB deputy director.

Budget submissions are often delayed when there is a change in administration. While the Trump administration during its last few weeks in office unveiled a shipbuilding plan led by the White House that called for a significant funding boost for more ships, it remains unclear what the Biden administration will do with the proposal. The Trump White House plan, released as a Fiscal Year 2022 shipbuilding blueprint, projected the Navy spending $147 billion between FY 2022 and FY 2026 to purchase 82 new ships. The FY 2021 Future Years Defense Program published last February had only projected the Navy spending $102 billion to buy 44 ships across the five-year plan.

“The last administration had a very aggressive focus on shipbuilding. They diverted funds from some areas in order to fund that and source that. And they also identified internal efficiencies. There were a lot of savings that were identified that went into the development of that budget. I was involved with that along with many many other people,” Harker said.
“And one of the things that we did while building that was identify exactly what went in across various tranches so that the new administration had the ability to come in and make changes based on the administration priorities.”

“I don’t know what those priorities are. I do know that the secretary has said that the pacing threat is China, which means that it’s a maritime strategy, so we require a strong maritime force – a joint Navy/Marine Corps force that’s ready to provide credible deterrence to China,” he added.

Harker said he believes parts of the Trump plan will remain intact, but some likely will not.

“I don’t think everything that was in the shipbuilding plan will stay there, but I think there are some key elements of that that absolutely will,” he said.

“We’ve gone forward with reprogramming to open up to do the work in order to potentially open up another yard for frigates,” Harker added. “So I think there’s a strong interest in allowing us to continue to grow the naval force to get up to 355 plus ships.”

The 355-ship goal stems from the 2016 Force Structure Assessment unveiled at the end of the Obama administration. Since then, both the Navy and former Defense Secretary Mark Esper conducted evaluations to determine both the number and types of ships the service would need in a future conflict, one that the National Defense Strategy expects to be with Russia or China.

Harker called the 355 objective a “non-partisan” issue.

“I don’t see that changing with the current administration,” he said. “I believe that the investment is something that we will continue to make.”

The acting Navy secretary would not put a specific number on what the service’s budget should be, but said the more than $200 billion it typically gets is warranted.

“But I wouldn’t want to throw out a number and say that we need X because it’s going to vary based on where you’re willing to accept risk,” Harker said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin emphasized during his confirmation hearing that he sees China as the “pacing threat” for the U.S. and said he would “update” the National Defense Strategy, published in 2018 by former Defense Secretary James Mattis.

“We’ll have to have capabilities that allow us to hold – to present a credible threat, a credible deterrent, excuse me, to China in the future. We’ll have to make some strides in the use of quantum computing, the use of AI, the advent of connected battlefields, the space-based platforms. Those kinds of things I think can give us the types of capabilities that we’ll need to be able to hold large pieces of Chinese military inventory at risk,” Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month.

“And so I believe that we still have the qualitative edge and the competitive edge over China,” he added. “I think that gap has closed significantly and our goal will be to ensure that we expand that gap going forward.”

As the services have recalculated to adhere to the NDS, some officials have called for the Navy to get a bigger piece of the Defense Department budget due to the maritime nature of a possible conflict in the Indo-Pacific region and the service’s responsibility to build the sea-based leg of the nuclear triad.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley in December alluded to this suggestion when he said the Pentagon’s strategy would focus on air and naval power if it faced a decreased top-line budget.

“The fundamental defense of the United States and the ability to project power forward – which is one of the American ways of war – and the ability to set conditions for decision, that will always be for America, that’s going to be naval and air and space power,” Milley said at the time.

Kathleen Hicks: Current Navy Shipbuilding Plan Needs ‘Future Analysis’

By: John Grady

February 2, 2021 6:36 PM • Updated: February 4, 2021 7:08 AM

USNI.org

Deputy Defense Secretary nominee Kathleen Hicks. Center for Strategic and International Studies Photo

The nominee for the number-two civilian job in the Pentagon told a Senate panel on Tuesday the Navy’s proposed long-term shipbuilding plan would “require future analysis to validate the numbers.”

Before that work could kick-off, Kathleen Hicks said during her confirmation hearing to serve as deputy defense secretary that she would want to have a Navy civilian leadership team in place.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who asked the question during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, pointed out that the long-delayed Fiscal Year 2021 plan calls for 82 additional manned ships to be built between 2022 and 2026, while the current budget would add 44 over five years. The plan’s estimated price tag for the 82 warships would be $147 billion. The current budget forecast for the 44 would be $102 billion.

Oversight committees in both the House and Senate complained last year that then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s decision to hold back the release of the plan while Congress crafted the Navy’s budget for the coming year complicated their efforts. The delay also threw into question long-range spending forecasts for all the services.

When the plan was released, Russell Vought, the Trump administration’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a statement, “our updated 30-year shipbuilding plan is a credible, affordable roadmap for achieving maritime supremacy – all while tightening our belts – and sending a strong message to our adversaries like China.”

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and the change in the administration following the November election signaled that defense spending would flatten or decline, outgoing SASC chairman Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said in his opening remarks Tuesday.

Controlling the pandemic and spurring the economy into recovery are the highest priorities of the Biden administration, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said recently.

The coming fiscal years will be the first without the restraint of the Budget Control Act on defense and domestic spending. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in introducing Hicks to the committee, praised her “mastery of black arts in the Pentagon” in working through the first years of sequestration when she served as the principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy during the Obama administration.

Like her prospective boss, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, recently told the committee, Hicks said “China is the pacing challenge of our time.” Acknowledging Beijing’s growing number of warships, advances in ballistic and cruise missiles, and other technologies like hypersonics and artificial intelligence, Hicks said “we must modernize” the services.

In follow-up questions, Hicks said modernization includes the nuclear triad, its command-and-control systems and the industrial base as a top priority.

“The triad has served us very well,” she said.

If confirmed, she pledged support for the Pacific Defense Initiative, created in the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act to reinforce allies and partners in similar ways to what is being done to counter Russia in Europe.

Using the Trump shipbuilding plan as one way to address the Chinese challenge, she found some “operational themes I’m interested in.” Among those she mentioned were autonomy, dispersal of forces and “growing the number of small surface combatants.” In answering other senators’ questions on specific systems and technologies that need to be modernized, she cited quantum computing, hypersonic missiles and “challenges to the U.S. in the undersea domain.”

The Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group and units from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JSMDF) and Australian Defense Force (ADF) participate in trilateral exercises supporting shared goals of peace and stability, while enhancing regional security and the right of all nations to trade, communicate, and choose their destiny in a free and open Indo-Pacific. US Navy photo

The goal is for the United States to “have a qualitative advantage over adversaries,” she said.

She said she wanted to cut the unnecessary layers of regulatory paperwork to entice smaller, more innovative tech companies to approach the Pentagon with their ideas. For industry, Hicks said the department needs to involve it in the design phase and not present a “fait accompli” on what the Pentagon wants in a system without outside comment. The Navy has adopted a similar philosophy in how it developed the requirements for the Constellation-class frigate and looking to apply it to future shipbuilding programs.

On the personnel side, at least two senators on the committee – Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Angus King (I-Maine) – said they found the report on violence, sexual assault, harassment and retaliation against whistleblowers at Fort Hood, Texas, so alarming they now favored removing the chain of command from these cases.

As SECDEF Austin testified, Hicks said, “the problem doesn’t appear to be getting any better.” She said she believed prosecution and accountability, including removing commanders from these cases, need to be on the table.

In the past, the panel split three ways on command involvement in these cases. King and Kaine, who were leaders of the middle group calling for more reforms but keeping the chain of command involved, said during the hearing that the earlier efforts have not worked.

The Senate is expected to confirm Hicks’ nomination. Before her nomination, she was a senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Hicks is also a member of the board of the U.S. Naval Institute.

Report to Congress on U.S. Navy Ship Names

USNI.org

The following is the Jan 19, 2021 Congressional Research Service report, Navy Ship Names: Background for Congress.

From the report

Names for Navy ships traditionally have been chosen and announced by the Secretary of the Navy, under the direction of the President and in accordance with rules prescribed by Congress. Rules for giving certain types of names to certain types of Navy ships have evolved over time. There have been exceptions to the Navy’s ship-naming rules, particularly for the purpose of naming a ship for a person when the rule for that type of ship would have called for it to be named for something else. Some observers have perceived a breakdown in, or corruption of, the rules for naming Navy ships. Section 370 of the FY2021 NDAA (H.R. 6395/P.L. 116-283 of January 1, 2021) establishes a commission regarding the removal and renaming of certain assets of the Department of Defense (including ships) that commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America.

For ship types now being procured for the Navy, or recently procured for the Navy, naming rules can be summarized as follows:

• The first and second SSBN-826 class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) have been named Columbia (in honor of the District of Columbia) and Wisconsin. The Navy has not stated the naming rule for this class of ships.

• Until recently, Virginia (SSN-774) class attack submarines have generally been named for states, but the four most recently named Virginia-class boats have instead been named in honor of earlier U.S. Navy attack submarines.

• Of the Navy’s 15 most recently named aircraft carriers, 10 have been named for past U.S. Presidents and 2 for Members of Congress.

• Destroyers are being named for deceased members of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, including Secretaries of the Navy.

• The first three FFG-62 class frigates have been named Constellation, Congress, and Chesapeake, in honor of three of the first six U.S. Navy ships authorized by Congress in 1794. The Navy has not stated the naming rule for this class of ships.

• Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs) have been named for regionally important U.S. cities and communities.

• Amphibious assault ships are being named for important battles in which U.S. Marines played a prominent part and for famous earlier U.S. Navy ships that were not named for battles.

• San Antonio (LPD-17) class amphibious ships are being named for major U.S. cities and communities and cities and communities attacked on September 11, 2001.

• John Lewis (TAO-205) class oilers are being named for people who fought for civil rights and human rights.

• Expeditionary Fast Transports (EPFs) are being named for small U.S. cities.

• Expeditionary Transport Docks (ESDs) and Expeditionary Sea Bases (ESBs) are being named for famous names or places of historical significance to U.S. Marines.

• Navajo (TATS-6) class towing, salvage, and rescue ships are being named for prominent Native Americans or Native American tribes.

Navy Working on Better Maintainability, Self-Sufficiency for LCS and Rest of Surface Fleet

By: Megan Eckstein

January 20, 2021 5:06 PM

USNI.org

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) training ships JS Kashima (TV 3508), left, and JS Shimayuki (TV 3513), right, sail alongside the Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10) during an exercise, June 23, 2020. US Navy Photo

Navy officials in Washington and on the waterfront are trying to help the Littoral Combat Ships grow more reliable and maintainable, amid a surface navy-wide effort to focus on crew-level maintenance as a means of improving operational availability.

The LCS program has had eight major deployments since its first overseas deployment in 2013. Commander of Naval Surface Forces Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener said among the biggest lessons learned from those has been the need to make crews more self-sufficient and able to keep their ship available for fleet commanders’ tasking.

He highlighted an LCS Strike Team being led by Program Executive Officer for Unmanned and Small Combatants Rear Adm. Casey Moton, which aims to address class design issues, increase the availability of spare parts – especially proprietary parts and diagnostic tools that maintenance contractors have access to but fleet sailors don’t – and increase accountability for ships’ post-shakedown availabilities.

“These efforts drive toward increased ship reliability and more operational days across the entire class,” Kitchener said last week during the annual Surface Navy Associations symposium.

In a separate panel at the conference, Moton addressed the strike team, saying “the bottom line is that the availability of the ships to the fleet commanders has not been what it needs to be, and we’ve had reliability issues in areas such as propulsion, cranes, radars and some other areas. We set up a strike team that’s a cross-functional mix of our shipbuilders and sustainers, and they are working very hard with a sense of urgency, going after specific problems.”

Moton went on to call it “an effort that first looks at reliability and making sure that we have all the feedback from our recent deployments in terms of what systems need to go be worked, and we’re hard at work with that,” he continued.
“And then also on the maintainability side, we’re working very hard to reduce the amount of time, once a system does go down, how long it’s going to take to get that system up. And there’s two pieces there: one is, we’re working with industry on how to more quickly get the original equipment manufacturer out there when we need to do the repairs, but the other aspect to be honest is to improve the Navy’s self-sufficiency. And Adm. Kitchener talked a fair amount about this earlier; I am fully onboard supporting and trying to make that happen. So getting our crews, getting our [Regional Maintenance Centers], getting our [In-Service Engineering Agents] better able to troubleshoot to support those ships, to prevent failures from happening. And this strike team is really focused on that, and it’s a key effort for me, one that we are working very closely with industry and are going to continue to do that.”

USS Detroit (LCS-7) departs Naval Station Mayport for a scheduled deployment in 2019. US Navy photo

Moton mentioned that a specific effort on the reliability side was the Freedom-variant combining gears, for which the Navy and industry were conducting a root cause analysis. USNI News has since reported that the Navy declared the combining gears to be a class-wide defect for which builder Lockheed Martin would be responsible for fixing in new ships in the production line and existing ships already delivered to the Navy.

Moton said the strike team had already resolved many issues and “actually had a significant number of fixes that we were able to roll in to the shipbuilding line during new construction, so that’s been very fruitful.”

Asked by USNI News during a question and answer session whether the strike team would continue its work indefinitely or would reach a point of conclusion, Moton said the organization would continue on, but that didn’t mean it was dragging its feet on implementing changes.

“I think for a while, as we do these initial deployments and we continue to support the ships, there will be lessons learned, there will be issues that pop up, which we will have to go after. So I don’t see it necessarily ending, but I also don’t see it dragging out,” he said.
“We have to move with a sense of urgency, and we are getting after … reliability and the failure modes that have caused us the most problem.”

Additionally, Moton said, the strike team was also working with PEO USC, Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Supply Systems Command, Kitchener as the type commander, and original equipment manufacturers in industry “to be able to respond more quickly and to be able to get more self-sufficiency into the crews.”

While Moton addressed self-sufficiency at the waterfront – Navy personnel being able to troubleshoot and fix the ships with less reliance on industry – Kitchener in his remarks addressed self-sufficiency during deployments, noting that empowering the Navy Maintenance Execution Teams (METs) instead of relying on shore-based maintenance teams from shipbuilders Lockheed Martin and Austal USA would be important as the LCS started deploying in greater numbers and spreading beyond today’s hubs in Singapore and in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Though the Navy has experimented with expeditionary maintenance teams that could work out of non-hub locations such as Japan, the service is now also eyeing using its Expeditionary Fast Transports as something of an LCS tender for at-sea maintenance. Rather than send the LCS METs ashore, they could deploy aboard the EPF and stay near the LCS in case at-sea repairs beyond the capability of the crew were needed.

Expeditionary fast transport ship USNS Brunswick (T-EPF 6) departs Naval Base Guam, passing the MSC expeditionary fast transport ship USNS Fall River (T-EPF 4) and marking the start of Pacific Partnership 2019. Navy photo

“In this case, [USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10)]’s MET is forward-deployed aboard the USNS Burlington (T-EPF-10), keeping that maintenance capability in theater with the ship,” Kitchener said in his remarks. Giffords and Burlington are operating in U.S. Southern Command waters, conducting missions with partners and recently taking on Marines from Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Southern Command (SP-MAGTF-SC) aboard Burlington.

Cmdr. Nicole Schwegman, a spokeswoman with Naval Surface Force Pacific, told USNI News that “The concept of utilizing expeditionary fast transport (EPF) vessels as maintenance support platforms for littoral combat ships (LCS) is not entirely new—it has been demonstrated previously on a small scale—but this is the first time that we have leveraged EPF to host LCS maintenance personnel capable of providing this level of robust sustainment support. We are continually looking for new and different ways to sustain LCS when operating forward to provide the Fleet Commanders with increased operational flexibility. Embarking Sailors on an EPF affords us an opportunity to build on previous LCS maintenance efforts and refine the LCS expeditionary maintenance concept. We are committed to developing multiple maintenance avenues for sustaining forward deployed LCS.”

Separate from the strike team, Kitchener is wrapping up his own LCS study, a follow-on to the major 2016 LCS study that revamped the entire ship program. The current study isn’t expected to have such dramatic results, but Kitchener said he’s focused on making sure the LCS ships are given the right mission sets, made as lethal and capable as possible, have a maintenance organization that can create higher operational availability, and have the best manning and training model.

Without revealing any results of the LCS study, Kitchener said last week that planned maintenance availabilities were being revisited, questioning whether monthly PMAVs were the right periodicity.

“My sense after looking at this program from both my last job, this job, is no, I don’t think it is. So we’re working with the team on that,” he said.

Kitchener said he was focused on improving waterfront maintenance for all surface ships, including deep looks at spare parts availability and other factors that could help maintainers get work done faster and get ships back to operating.

USS St. Louis (LCS-19) flies ceremonious flags at Naval Station Mayport. US Navy Photo

“We still struggle to acquire the parts our sailors need. Supply chain gaps, outdated business roles, funding shortfalls, and inaccurate prediction models continue to impede our ability to effectively maintain the waterfront,” he said.
“We’re actively contributing to a larger Naval Sustainment effort, leveraging an analytical approach to improve our supply chain’s performance globally. Within this effort, I am leading a specialized Demand Management Team aimed at improving the surface force’s sparing readiness and lowering cost by using improved material predictions to reduce unplanned maintenance. We have also partnered with the NAVSUP and NAVSEA teams on a Maritime Spares Campaign to revise our policies and improve our ordering process. If we can improve our sparing, we can increase system service life, reduce the repair burden in maintenance availabilities and generate more ships ready for tasking.”

Kitchener said a West Coast pilot program recently kicked off that could expand to the rest of the fleet if successful. Along with the fleet commander, he said he’s looking at spare parts issues that most affect the readiness of ships’ ballistic missile defense systems specifically.

“What are the ones that actually reduce the [casualty repair] time? And so we invested some money in that,” Kitchener said.
“We just got the ship parts out on the ship now, and we’re going to monitor that and see how we’re doing. I think the skillsets are there. I would tell you, if you go down there, sailors are doing their maintenance.”

Navy Integrating Littoral Combat Ships, Expeditionary Sea Base into New Operating Concepts

By: Megan Eckstein and Mallory Shelbourne

January 18, 2021 10:22 AM • Updated: January 19, 2021 11:20 AM

USNI.org

USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB 4) conducte maritime operations off the coast of Mogadishu, Somalia in support of Operation Octave Quartz (OOQ) on Dec. 22, 2020. US Navy Photo

Surface warfare leaders throughout the Navy last week mused about how to employ new classes of ships such as the Littoral Combat Ship and Expeditionary Sea Base, as the fleet transitions to a new type of operations against peer competitors.

While much of the talk around implementing concepts like Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO) and Expeditionary Advance Base Operations (EABO) have centered on brand new ship classes – the Light Amphibious Warship, the Next-Generation Logistics Ship and the Large Unmanned Surface Vessel – there’s a set of ship classes that are still new and finding their place in the fleet that could be quite useful to DMO and EABO, these leaders said last week at the annual Surface Navy Association symposium.

Among these ships is the LCS.

Commander of Naval Surface Forces Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener said last week that the LCS is already being eyed to support Navy-Marine Corps EABO operations, and their utility there would only grow as the ships are made more lethal.

“I talk a lot with [U.S. 7th Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Bill Merz] out here, a big fan of LCS. If you look at the things we want to do in the 7th Fleet warfight, and you look at LOCE (Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment) and EABO and things like that, that’s what he wants to use them for,” Kitchener said.
“And there’s a lot of capability there. Every LCS now is getting NSM, the (naval) strike missile, so that’s a capability that we’re really excited about. … In the fight out here, that’s exactly what we’re looking at, is integrating there in the littoral, bringing that strike capability.”

The new Light Amphibious Warships will be the primary ships conducting EABO, carrying groups of about 75 Marines as they maneuver around island chains and shorelines, stopping to conduct missions ashore and then heading back out to sea to evade targeting by the adversary. Though the Marines will carry some land-based anti-ship missiles with them, integrating LCS into that mission set would provide a sea-based strike capability for the Marines as they move around and conduct their missions.

USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10) transits the Eastern Pacific Ocean on Oct. 6, 2020. US Navy Photo

While 7th Fleet is eyeing the LCSs to perform strike and EABO missions, U.S. Southern Command is eyeing the ships for their strengths in counter-drug missions.

During his keynote address at SNA, SOUTHCOM Commander Adm. Craig Faller said the platform has helped his combatant command perform anti-drug missions. As the Trump administration ramped up its counter-drug operations last year, Navy warship presence within U.S. 4th Fleet increased.

“I think deploying them here on these short patrols into SOUTHCOM [area of responsibility] is a good test to their capability, builds confidence in the crew. It has made a difference in the threat,” Faller said of the LCS. “When they come with unmanned – [MQ-8C] Firescout – and [helicopters] and the large flight deck, there’s a lot of flexibility there. And that flexibility has proven itself. And they’ve had a very good track record of taking down illicit traffickers and deterring illicit trafficking by their very presence.”

In the coming years, the LCSs will only grow more lethal and survivable to take on whatever mission fleet commanders ask of them.

In a separate panel at the SNA symposium, Program Executive Officer for Unmanned and Small Combatants Rear Adm. Casey Moton said that a lethality and survivability package of upgrades would be coming to the LCSs soon.

“We have major upgrades for the ship combat systems planned,” he said, referring to a long-talked-about L&S package to backfit LCSs with some of the upgrades that were added later in the production line.
”The ships right now are getting [the Naval Strike Missile over-the-horizon missile], but starting in FY ‘23 they’ll get a more comprehensive upgrade to improve their lethality and survivability. And design efforts are proceeding in earnest this year” at PEO USC and PEO Integrated Warfare Systems.

Moton added that the package included upgrading the Independence-variant ships to an Aegis-based common combat system, adding the Nulka decoy system and the SEWIP Lite electronic warfare package to all the LCSs in the fleet, along with other upgrades.

“The bottom line is, LCSs with Naval Strike Missiles, along with the rest of our fleet, are all going to be platforms which can’t be ignored by a potential adversary. So the intention is for them all to have that capability,” he said.

Kitchener said in his speech that the LCSs would be “on the front lines” in the Pacific and that the fleet would keep pushing to make them as lethal and as reliable as possible for any future fight.

USS Detroit (LCS-7) sails in formation with the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Lassen (DDG-82), USS Preble (DDG-88) and USS Farragut (DDG-99) while conducting maritime security operations in the Caribbean Sea. US Navy Photo

“I see it as a fairly youthful platform, and I think we’ve learned a lot with these deployments, and we’re figuring out how to make them more lethal, and we think we’ve figured out what missions we want them to do out there, and so I think it’s going to be kind of exciting,” he said.
“We’ve just got to deliver: we’ve got to deliver with a sustained plan of, okay, how many are we going to get out there next year, how many the following year, and we’ve got to meet that requirement. So that’s the challenge.”

In addition to the LCS, combatant commanders are considering how to use the large, flexible ESBs in their theaters. USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB-3) is based in Bahrain to support missions in U.S. 5th Fleet, and last year USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB-4) was sent to operate out of Souda Bay, Greece, in support of U.S. Africa Command.

Faller said he has sought an ESB for his area of responsibility, arguing SOUTHCOM is a good region to test out operational concepts.

“I strongly support one here in this theater. I made that pitch during the combatant command review. Then-[Defense Secretary Mark] Esper agreed with me, asked the services to look at prioritization. We’re still working through that. But there is future plans to have one in this region,” Faller said.
“And I know that our Marine Corps forces … will use that as an expeditionary platform. This is a great theater to test concepts. We’re short distances from [Naval Base] San Diego and [Naval Station] Mayport and big training ranges and capable partners. Peru has an amphibious shipbuilding capability and they welcome that type of training, for one example.”

While SOUTHCOM hopes to get an ESB, 7th Fleet is likely to get the future USS Miguel Keith (ESB-5), the next ship in the class the Navy will commission. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command chief Adm. Phil Davidson said last week he could use the ESB in regional exercises and that the vessel would help the joint force in its current transitional phase.

“Access to the region in competition – day-to-day, phase zero, how it will be employed – and on the road to crisis, and then in conflict, is going to be critically important. And the ESB, with the developing concepts, naval and joint, is going to be a critical component of that,” Davidson said when asked how he could use an ESB operationally.

San Diego, CA – The future USNS Miguel Keith (ESB 5) departs General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. shipyard in San Diego, Calif. During the weeklong acceptance trials, the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey conducted comprehensive tests to demonstrate and evaluate the performance of all of the ship’s major systems in 2019. NASSCO photo

“In the competition phase, some of the things that we can do to enhance our design and posture in the region would include the use of exercise-related construction, a facilitation and housing of Seabees, [Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers], things like that – that could build command and control nodes, warehouses, runways, seaports, things like that,” he continued.
“That brings exceptional capability. Additionally, bringing to our exercise program here – joint under INDOPACOM authority, certainly the kind of exercises that [U.S. Pacific Fleet] does under the resources provided by the service – there is plenty of opportunity for ESB interaction there too.”

Though, as Faller and Davidson suggested, the ESB platform is ripe for experimentation, one speaker last week foot-stomped the ESB’s original mission: mine warfare.

Maj. Gen. Tracy King, the director of expeditionary warfare on the chief of naval operations’ staff (OPNAV N95), said during the symposium that “the ESB is a blank pallet. … You can do just about whatever you want to. If I’m not mistaken, it’s the second-largest landing space in the fleet, so it’s got a beautiful [flight deck], several landing spots. With some additional modifications she can theoretically take [Joint Strike Fighter] if we wanted to. MV-22s. Right now we’re putting habitability pods on them to double the size of the deployed contingent. She can easily handle that. But when you walk around, it’s got lots of space, has plug-and-play capabilities.”

Though that space could be used for any number of things – hosting special operations forces, acting as a lilypad for Marines conducting EABO, serving as a forward medical facility, or more – King reminded the audience of the ESB’s strength for mine countermeasures missions.

“Talking to the Woody Williams skipper and the other ESB skippers, they are not at all fearful of mines because it’s highly survivable,” he said.
“We’re going to get surprised – even though we want to keep the man out of the minefield, if you’re going to get close to a minefield, it’s probably best to be in an ESB because she can take a hit and keep on ticking.”