Budget Industry - Merchant Marine News

$3.6B Marine Corps Wish List Again Asks for Stalled Amphibious Warship

For the second year in a row, the Marine Corps is asking Congress for an amphibious warship the Navy doesn’t plan to buy. At the top of the Marines’ Fiscal Year 2024 unfunded priorities list is $1.7 billion for LPD-33, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock that the Navy did not include in its five-year […]

Shipbuilder welding on the bow section of a future San Antonio-class amphibious warship at Ingalls Shipbuilding on Aug. 4, 2022. USNI News Photo

For the second year in a row, the Marine Corps is asking Congress for an amphibious warship the Navy doesn’t plan to buy.

At the top of the Marines’ Fiscal Year 2024 unfunded priorities list is $1.7 billion for LPD-33, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock that the Navy did not include in its five-year budget outlook released last week. While the amphibious warship is the top priority for the Marine Corps, the funding comes out of the Navy’s shipbuilding account.

The $3.6 billion wish list from the Marine Corps also asks for $1.085 billion for its Force Design 2030 initiative – which includes $93 million for “initial and outfitting spares” for the Marines’ CH-53K King Stallion heavy lift helicopter, $253 million for two more KC-130J aircraft and spares and $36.4 million for one KC-130J Weapon Systems Trainer and spares. All of that money would come out of the Navy’s aircraft procurement account. The wish list also asks for $122.4 million in aircraft procurement funding for four more engines and lift systems for the F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, plus spare parts.

Also under the Force Design section of the wish list is $160 million for four AN/TPS-80 G/ATOR Radar systems, $206.3 million for Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTV) and trailer and $5.1 million for Joint All Domain Command and Control. The funding for those items would come out of the Marine Corps’ procurement account.

The wish list also asks for $116.8 million for other modernization efforts, including $67.5 million for three UC-12W Beechcraft King Air 350ER with spare parts and the cargo door. The rest of the list is seeking $757.6 million for military construction items, which includes $227.4 million to update Marine Corps Base Hawaii’s water reclamation facility and $145 million for Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point’s low altitude air defense maintenance and operations facilities.

The Marine Corps’ unfunded priorities list and the Navy’s budget forecast show a continued divide in the Pentagon over the future procurement of amphibious ships. Last year, the Marine Corps put $250 million in advanced procurement funding for LPD-33 at the top of its wish list. This followed the Navy’s announcement in the FY 2023 budget rollout that it would end LPD-17 Flight II procurement after buying LPD-32.

Congress ultimately supported the Marine Corps, including the $250 million in advanced procurement for LPD-33 in the FY 2023 spending and policy bills. Despite receiving the advanced procurement funding from lawmakers, the Navy again zeroed out funding for LPD-33 and the LPD-17 Flight II line in its FY 2024 Future Years Defense Program.

Navy officials say the halt to the LPD-17 Flight II line is so the service can perform studies to assess both the capabilities and numbers of amphibious ships the service needs and to evaluate cost savings.

Last week, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger spoke at the same Washington, D.C., conference where they presented two different views of costs associated with buying the LPDs.

“Congress has given us the authorities in the latest [National Defense Authorization Act] to do a bundle buy and we all agree that that’s the way that we ought to go after these ships. But to go after a single ship in ‘25, and put that in the budget now – based on where we are with all this churn on cost and so forth and this concern about the cost of those ships – it’s like telling a car dealer, ‘hey I really want to buy that minivan. I’m going to buy that minivan. Now let’s roll up our sleeves and talk about price,’” Gilday said.

“It’s not going to drive down the price of that ship. It needs to be competitive. Actually, with that production line and that ship, it’s not competitive. One company builds it,” he added.

But Berger cited inflation as the reason why the LPDs have become more expensive and argued the Navy likely won’t find more cost savings because in 2014 it chose to to pursue the Flight II line over a new design to save money.

“For a year and a half, little by little, [we looked at] what could be pulled out of there but still do what we needed to do,” Berger said of the 2014 evaluation.
“So from my perspective, that thoroughness that I saw and all of the staff meetings and all that took us to the final Navy decision to go with the Flight II – all that made perfect sense. And there was a lot of head butting on every little detail. So I don’t know doing that again with the same ship – I don’t know what you find out that we don’t already know.”

DDG(X) $122M Land-Based Test Site Opens in Philadelphia

Program Executive Officer Ships opened the land-based test facility for its next-generation guided-missile destroyer propulsion system in Philadelphia, the Navy announced this week. The site at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division will host a $122 million full-scale complete integrated propulsion system for the DDG(X), according to a budget summary of the site reviewed […]

Notional Navy DDG(X) hull design. PEO Ships Image

Program Executive Officer Ships opened the land-based test facility for its next-generation guided-missile destroyer propulsion system in Philadelphia, the Navy announced this week.

The site at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division will host a $122 million full-scale complete integrated propulsion system for the DDG(X), according to a budget summary of the site reviewed by USNI News.

As part of the Fiscal Year 2020 and 2022 National Defense Authorization Acts, Congress directed the Navy to create a land-based test site to prove out the propulsion system of the future guided-missile destroyer and other ship types like the Constellation-clas guided-missile frigate and the Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle.

The Navy set aside $145.8 million for the DDG(X) program in the FY 2023 budget request. The bulk of that funding was for the land-based demo.

Unlike the current Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, the DDG(X)’s IPS will not have a direct mechanical connection to the ship’s props. Instead, the IPS will power an extensive ship-wide electrical grid that gives the future warship an extra margin for power for directed energy weapons and high-powered sensors.

The original IPS was developed for the Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyers that generate 75 megawatts of power via a pair of Rolls Royce MT-30 gas turbines and smaller MT-5 gas turbines. Development and installation of the system was a prime reason the trio of Zumwalt-class ships were delayed in their entrance to the fleet.

The service did not say in its statement whether the land-based test site would feature the same power plant as the Zumwalts.

The announcement is the latest in the development process for what will be the Navy’s first new clean-sheet ship design in more than 20 years.

The service announced the plan for the ship early last year during the Surface Navy Association symposium. The Navy wants to take the existing Aegis Combat System, AN/SPY-6 air and missile defense radar and combine them in a new hull with directed energy weapons and hypersonic weapons.

“We would use a proven combat system on that ship. But we need a ship that has more space and allows for more weight and for capability growth over time. An example might be hypersonic missiles, just based on the size of those missiles. We couldn’t fit those in a current Arleigh Burke, or even a Flight III. [DDG(X) is] a deeper ship, if you will, from that standpoint,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said in September.

The Navy will be the lead design agent for the destroyers, with support from General Dynamics Bath Iron Works and HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding, USNI News reported.

The 13,500-ton DDG(X) could cost up to $3.4 billion a hull, according to a November estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.

As of January, the Navy estimated it would award the contract for the first hull in 2030.

“We’re in preliminary design. So, we have about … seven years to iterate on this, as we go from preliminary design to a more detailed design later in this decade,” Rear Adm. Fred Pyle, the director of surface warfare on the chief of naval operations’ staff (OPNAV N96), told USNI News at the time.

U.S. Needs Air Superiority, Ship-Killing Weapons to Defend Taiwan, Pacific Air Forces Commander Says

The ability to sink Chinese warships armed with surface-to-air missiles is critical to defending Taiwan, the Air Force’s top officer for the Pacific said Tuesday. “We need better weapons to attrit those ships,” Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach said. He noted that China’s angry response to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) visit to Taiwan last summer included […]

Soldiers from a M110A2 self-propelled artillery squad from the Republic of China (Taiwan) Army. CNA Photo

The ability to sink Chinese warships armed with surface-to-air missiles is critical to defending Taiwan, the Air Force’s top officer for the Pacific said Tuesday.
“We need better weapons to attrit those ships,” Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach said. He noted that China’s angry response to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) visit to Taiwan last summer included encircling Taiwan with warships as a demonstration of its anti-access, area denial capability.

“One thing that people often don’t think about with respect to air superiority is weapons to be able to kill ships,” Wilsbach said, speaking during an online session with the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute.

He also advocated for advanced radars positioned east of Taiwan.

He pointed to Russia’s problems in Ukraine, both in logistics and in the ground battle since it lacks superiority in the air. He added that an amphibious invasion, which China would have to undertake against Taiwan, is far more difficult than crossing a land border.

Air superiority, “which wasn’t there, resulted in so much loss of life,” he said. Wilsbach estimated Russian casualties at 100,000 since the war began in February 2022.

Wilsbach said that if the Pacific Air Forces had an additional dollar, he’d spend it on air superiority. He mentioned more F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters that allies Japan and Australia also fly, advanced semi-autonomous drones similar to Canberra’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat, the stealthy B-21 bomber and better aerial intelligence surveillance with the E-7 Wedgetail as systems to meet that goal. Further out would come the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter, a sixth-generation manned aircraft to succeed the F-22.

Although China’s leadership has “a hard time getting past their obsession with Taiwan,” Wilsbach said he doesn’t think China wants to engage in this fight. “Certainly, Taiwan doesn’t,” he added. He said attrition in any conflict with China would reach levels on all sides “more closely paralleling World War II.”

To deter China’s ambitions, the Air Force “is looking for as many airfields where we can disperse the force” and locations to pre-position equipment and fuel across the Pacific. The command is also addressing “the tyranny of distance” problem that the region poses for logistics to continue operations after an attack. Wilsbach highlighted American fighter jets returning to Clark Air Base in the Philippines as an example of dispersed operations. He noted that this was the first time fifth-generation F-22 stealth fighters had landed there. The two planes belong to the 525th Fighter Squadron at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.

The landings demonstrate the impact of the expanded treaty basing arrangements that the U.S. has with the Philippines. Rehabilitation started on runways at Baca as part of the agreement covering three other installations to expand U.S. presence in the South China Sea, USNI News reported earlier this week.

Wilsbach said the Fiscal Year 2023 budget has provided money “to expand runways, ramp space and weapons and fuel storage” to a more dispersed force.

Like the Marine Corps and Navy, the Air Force is looking to spread its operations over wider areas under its Agile Combat Employment program. Wilsbach added that Japan and Australia are distributing their forces to different locations to complicate any enemy’s attack planning. The Air Force is also working with the Army on missile and hypersonic defenses for dispersed operations.

“They realize with precision guided munitions you’re not going to be able to be based [on] a very large base when attacked” and continue to operate as before. He said there is funding in the FY 2024 budget to continue developing solutions for those attacks, including rapid runway repair. He mentioned a quick-drying concrete that allows them to be “ready for operations in three hours.”

“Construction, that’s happening. Prepositioning, that’s happening,” Wilsbach said.

“Allies and partners are very interested” in information sharing about their capabilities and available assets. He said they bring significant electronic warfare capabilities and cyber and space strengths to a potential conflict.

This sharing among allies and with the other services extend to exercises like COPE North. This year’s drill involves the American, Japanese and Australian air forces operating from a number of bases, as well as aircraft from France.

“Exercising on a very frequent basis helps us to be interoperable,” he said.

FY 2024 Budget: Navy Wants to Grow by 5,000 Sailors, Invest in Quality of Life Issues

THE PENTAGON – As part of the Fiscal Year 2024 budget request, the Navy is placing a focus on recruitment, retention and quality of life issues as it seeks to add 5,000 sailors to the ranks next year. The Navy’s budget request includes funding for a pay raise, as well as a litany of personnel-focused […]

Recruit Training Command’s Pass-In-Review Feb. 24, 2023. More than 40,000 recruits train annually at the Navy’s only boot camp. US Navy Photo

The Navy’s budget request includes funding for a pay raise, as well as a litany of personnel-focused items. Adding in a focus on personnel continues the Navy’s attention to areas such as suicide prevention and sexual assault.

Focusing on people makes sense, Master Chief Petty Officer James Honea said.

“The people are what make those ships lethal,” Honea told USNI News in an interview this week.

In FY 2024, the Navy requested to spend $38.5 billion to support an end strength of 347,000, according to the personnel budget book released by the Navy.

The $38.5 billion includes pay for sailors and midshipmen, as well as a permanent change of station and other personnel costs, according to budget documents. The military overall will see a 5.2 percent pay raise, Michael McCord, the Pentagon’s top budget officer, said during a March 13 budget briefing.

Despite facing challenges with recruitment, the Navy’s FY 2024 budget calls for an increase in both average and end strength compared to Fiscal Year 2023.

FY 2023 has end strength at 341,736 and average strength at 343,465, according to the personnel budget book. That’s an increase of 5,264 for end strength in FY 24 and 2,689 for average strength. Numbers for FY 23 and 24 are estimates.

In order to meet the FY 2024 personnel goals, the Navy will need to meet 39,500 active-duty enlisted accessions, according to the budget books. The FY 2023 goal is 37,700, USNI News previously reported.

The Navy’s budget request also includes funding for increased mental health care services, said Undersecretary of the Navy Erik Raven during a March 13 budget briefing.

“This request adds $29 million and expands programs like sailor assistance and intercept for life (SAIL), the command individual risk and resiliency assessment system, and adds two additional warrior toughness teams,” Raven said.

Mental health care has been a challenge for the Navy, as well as the military as a whole, Honea said, due to the overburdened providers in the service. That often means that sailors have to seek services outside of the military.

Sailors have suggested that the Navy remove a referral requirement for telehealth appointments for mental health care, an idea Honea supports.

Funding in the budget will also go toward sexual assault prevention and childcare centers, Raven said.

Childcare has become another large issue facing the Navy, and the military as a whole. Staffing shortages have made it more difficult to find enough employees to run the centers, Honea said.

The Navy is looking to increase capacity where it can, Honea said. It’s also examining increasing wages to attract more childcare workers, while also looking at what partnerships might be available with local childcare businesses.

Funding in the budget will also go to quality housing, especially for sailors and Marines who are at industrial shipyards, Raven said.

Housing is an area of focus for Honea, who heard from sailors about housing during a recent Reddit Ask Me Anything.

Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy James Honea speaks with sailors and answers questions during an all-hands at Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka (CFAY) on Feb. 10, 2023. US Navy Photo

“I want there to be greater access for all sailors to have housing off ship,” Honea told USNI News. “I want there to be a greater separation from their work life and their home life. I want every sailor to have a barracks room or to have an apartment or housing outside the fence line.”

Sailors need to have personal space, something that is hard to come by when living on a ship, outside of a deployment. They also need a chance to be able to step away from work, Honea said.

“That’s just to treat them as good humans, as people,” he said. “But I think that’s necessary for their mental wellbeing.”

Treating sailors better could summarize most of the objectives Honea has as MCPON. He wants sailors to be able to talk to him, but he also wants them to have the confidence and trust to be able to go to their leaders with their concerns.

Leaders need to develop soft skills, as well as their technical Navy skills, he said. The Navy is using enlisted leadership development programs to help train facilitators who then can train leaders.

Learning soft skills and growing emotional intelligence is not a sign the Navy is getting soft, Honea said. The Navy is operating forward, certified and ready, he said.

The sailors today are just as qualified as the ones he served with early in his Navy days. They’re even healthier, he said, noting that alcohol and tobacco use is down since he joined the sea service.

And the soft skills he wants leaders to have are not new either. Honea talked about how his own commanders made sure he was able to attend the birth of his son as an example of leaders caring for their sailors.

Sailors and officers are each other’s families when abroad, Honea said.

“We need to be better attuned and take better care of one another,” he said.

OSD Comptroller Says U.S. Shipyards Can’t Build 3 Destroyers a Year

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Navy is keeping a two-ship-per-year cadence for its destroyer line because that’s a realistic goal for industry to work toward, according to the Pentagon’s top budget officer. Despite Congress’ push for the Navy to start buying three Arleigh Burke-class Flight III destroyers per year, the Fiscal Year 2024 budget request unveiled […]

Arleigh Burke destroyers Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125), Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG-123) and the Legend-class cutter Calhoun (WMSL-759) at Ingalls Shipbuilding on Aug. 4, 2022. USNI News Photo

Despite Congress’ push for the Navy to start buying three Arleigh Burke-class Flight III destroyers per year, the Fiscal Year 2024 budget request unveiled last week showed the service buying two destroyers. That’s because U.S. shipyards are not yet able to build two destroyers per year, let alone three, Mike McCord said last week.

“I’m not hating on DDGs – my only point was that last year Congress added a third and the reason we didn’t budget for three is, again, we don’t see the yards being able to produce three a year. We don’t see them being able to produce two a year. And that’s just data. It’s not what we wish to be true. But everybody’s struggling with skilled labor. Everybody’s struggling with supply chain. So it’s not getting better very fast from the data that I’ve seen – whether with submarines or DDGs. So two a year seems to be a reasonable place,” McCord told USNI News at the McAleese Conference.

During the budget rollout last week, McCord said industry is currently building 1.5 destroyers per year, a number Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday has also cited when arguing that the shipyards have limited capacity.

McCord also argued that asking for more destroyers than industry can build takes away leverage from the Navy to negotiate with shipbuilders on price.

“If you keep sort of placing orders for things faster than they can be delivered, it’s good for the books, the balance sheets of the companies. But are you really, as the buyer, are you in the best place you’d like to be with any leverage or are you actually short of leverage when, you produce on time or you don’t produce on time. It doesn’t matter to me – I’m going to keep writing you checks,” McCord told USNI News.

The comptroller said both he and Susanna Blume, the director of the Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) Office of the Secretary of Defense, don’t think putting more funding toward an extra destroyer is a wise use of resources that will help shipbuilders deliver it to the Navy quicker.

“It’s just sort of piling up in the orders book and we’re still going to have the same problems of the yards producing faster until we get through the supply chain and the workforce issues,” McCord said. “It is not to say that we would not be interest[ed] in a more robust production world where in having three DDGs or moving to three submarines, but it doesn’t seem to be … realistic.”

General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, one of the yards that build the destroyers, has spent the last several years digging through a backlog of work at its Maine yard that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated. HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding, the other yard that builds the Arleigh Burke destroyers, has performed better. Ingalls is also winding down the Coast Guard’s Legend-class National Security Cutter production line, which could open up more capacity at its yard in Pascagoula, Miss.

A spokeswoman for Ingalls Shipbuilding told USNI New in a statement that the yard is ready to support building three destroyers per year should the Navy go this route.

“Our shipbuilders will position to support whatever destroyer cadence the Navy needs and we have started by building, testing and taking the first Flight III ship to sea, which will be delivered later this year. We are a committed partner to not only our customers but to our network of nearly 1,200 suppliers as well. Together, we can build three DDGs a year if that is what the Navy and our country need,” Kimberly Aguillard said in a statement.

USS Carl Levin (DDG-120) at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works. BIW Photo

USNI News reached out to a spokesperson for Bath Iron Works but did not immediately receive a response.

Lawmakers have urged the Navy to work toward buying three destroyers per year and added a third destroyer on top of the Navy’s request for two in FY 2023. Congress also included a provision in the FY 2023 policy bill that would allow the Navy to ink a multi-year procurement deal for as many as 15 Flight III destroyers. If the multi-year procurement contracts are for fewer than 15 destroyers, the Navy must include at least one “pre-priced option” so it has the opportunity to buy 15 ships, according to the bill language.

Despite the authorities, the Navy, for now, is planning to buy two destroyers per year. The Future Years Defense Program, or the service’s five-year budget outlook, shows the Navy buying two ships per year from FY 2024 through FY 2028.

“We would love to live in a world where the yards could make three a year, or three submarines a year, but we don’t live in that world,” McCord said last week at the budget rollout.

SECNAV, CNO Pushing Plans to Decommission 11 Warships in Fiscal Year 2024

THE PENTAGON – After unveiling a budget that wants to decommission 11 warships next year, Navy officials are appealing to the public to allow the service to move ahead with their proposal. Officials last week reiterated the Navy’s divest-to-invest approach, which argues the service needs to shed older ships to invest in newer capabilities and […]

USS Vicksburg (CG-69) getting repaired at BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair, Va., on April 8, 2022. Christopher P. Cavas Photo used with permission

THE PENTAGON – After unveiling a budget that wants to decommission 11 warships next year, Navy officials are appealing to the public to allow the service to move ahead with their proposal.

Officials last week reiterated the Navy’s divest-to-invest approach, which argues the service needs to shed older ships to invest in newer capabilities and platforms.

“One of the things we have to get real about, instead of talking about estimated service life, talking about actual service life,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said last week at the annual McAleese Conference.

“Ships need to be workable and they need to be usable. So those ships that aren’t either – usable or workable – I might be able to replace those with something that’s a little bit more agile. We may have to use them a little bit differently – get back to driving adaptability, effecting change,” he added.

It’s an argument the Navy has made before and lawmakers have rejected. In unveiling its Fiscal Year 2024 budget proposal, the Navy announced plans to retire eight ships before they reach their expected service lives: two Independence-class Littoral Combat Ships, three Whidbey Island-class dock landing ships and three Ticonderoga-class cruisers. Of those eight vessels, the service tried decommission four of them last year: dock landing ships USS Germantown (LSD-42), USS Gunston Hall (LSD-44) and USS Tortuga (LSD-46) and cruiser USS Vicksburg (CG-69). But lawmakers ultimately blocked the service from shedding those hulls in FY 2023. The Navy is trying once again to retire them.

“The entering argument for us is our top line. And so I said earlier, we’re only going to have a navy as big as we can afford. And so then what we do is we stratify all of our platforms in terms of lethality, and that’s also informed by sustainability – what’s going to cost just to keep those ships – as well as reliability,” the CNO said.
“The friction with the Congress is capacity in the repair yards and I get that. But just having visited a repair yard with a cruiser that’s undergoing modernization as well as an older amphib, they are not making money on those ships,” Gilday added. “And they are not lethal. We’re not going to get them underway for the fight. So my proposal is let’s reinvest in something that is going to be lethal, and it is going to put us in a position of advantage against the pacing threat.”

In addition to the eight ships the Navy wants to decommission early, the service also wants to retire cruisers USS Antietam (CG-54) and USS Leyte Gulf (CG-55), and Los Angeles-class submarine USS San Juan (SSN-751). Those ships have remained in the fleet past their expected service lives.

Cruisers

USS Anzio (CG-68) pier-side at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on April 7, 2022. USNI News Photo

For the last several budget cycles, the Navy has tried to decommission its aging Ticonderoga-class cruisers after pursuing a modernization program meant to extend the ships’ service lives past their planned 35 years.

“The cruiser mod program – we had kind of one vision how that’d play out. There were a number of factors that kind of led into how the strategy was developed. But I can tell you – the ones that are in the yard right now – the cruisers are just, I’ll say a little bit long in the tooth,” Naval Sea Systems Command chief Vice Adm. Bill Galinis said last week.

“We know how to modernize combat systems. We know how to modernize C4I systems, even the [hull, mechanical and engineering] systems. But [what] we’re seeing on the cruisers right now is really just the infrastructure of the ship. Its’ the hull. It’s the deckhouse. It’s the structural members of the ship. That’s really where the challenge is.”

As lawmakers considered the service’s proposal to decommission Vicksburg last May, the ship was 85 percent of the way through the modernization overhaul meant to extend its service life at BAE Systems Ship Repair in Norfolk, Va. Jay Stefany, the principal civilian deputy to the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, at the time confirmed to lawmakers that the service spent nearly $300 million to upgrade Vicksburg. Congress rejected the service’s proposal, barring it from decommissioning the cruiser in FY 2023.

In addition to Vicksburg, the FY 2024 request wants to decommission USS Shiloh (CG-67), as outlined in the FY 2023 30-year shipbuilding plan, and moves up the decommissioning for USS Cowpens (CG-63) from FY 2026. The accelerated timeline for Cowpens would save $130.1 million across the five-year Future Years Defense Program, according to the Navy.

Without naming specific ships, Gilday said cruisers are having to pull into ports while on deployment for structural repairs.

“For cruisers as an example, I’m pulling them into Souda Bay, Crete or I’m pulling them into Djibouti during deployment to fix holes in the ship below the water line. I got water going into berthing compartments. So those are considerations as well,” the CNO said.

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, speaking at the same conference last week, said he’d like to divest of the aging cruisers so he can put more money into the Arleigh Burke-class Flight III destroyers.

Over the years, Navy officials have argued to Congress that the dollars they’re putting toward the Ticonderoga-class cruisers would be better spent on modernization efforts.

“That’s our challenge right now with the cruisers is just, we’re not going to get the return on investment if we were to do all the work that we need to do on those ships and make them combat relevant to the force going forward,” Galinis said at the McAleese conference.

Landing Ship Docks

USS Gunston Hall (LSD-44) enters port in Tallinn, Estonia for a scheduled port visit on Aug. 5, 2022. Estonian Navy Photo

In addition to the cruisers, the Whidbey Island-class dock landing ships – planned to have 40-year service lives – have also been at the top of the Navy’s decommissioning list the last few years.

Asked last week how much it would cost to keep Germantown, Gunston Hall, and Tortuga in the fleet, Gilday said he didn’t know the exact number but that it’s a “substantial” amount of money.

“If I take a look at what eats up our accounts – I take a look in a repair yard – I take a look at new work and growth work. On average, our new work is about 5 percent and our growth work is at about 16 percent across ships in the Navy and shipyards,” Gilday said.

“With that particular old amphibious ship, new work’s at 68 percent. So she is 4 years behind out of the shipyard. She’s costing us millions more than we need. We have to make tough decisions here. That’s money that we could pivot somewhere else,” the CNO added. He did not disclose the name of the amphibious ship.

Like Vicksburg, the Navy as of last May had spent nearly $300 million to upgrade Tortuga, which at the time was in a yard for repairs.

Gilday said he’ll have more maintenance availabilities to fund next year, and with ships waiting to go into the yards, he could use that money for other overhauls. Del Toro also pointed to the ships waiting for repairs and argued the older ships have more issues once they get to the yards.

“You want to reduce maintenance delays in the Navy to get the most bang out of the buck for the American taxpayer, well get rid of those old ships that have been sitting in shipyards for upwards of three and four years. They’re old, folks. As you open them up, you discover even more problem sets with them. They’re very close to their extended service life. You may ask why are they under their extended service life? Well, we’ve operated the living hell out of these ships, Del Toro said.

The Navy secretary said he recently saw Germantown, which has a crane aboard that has not been operable for six years. Despite efforts to repair it for several months, Del Toro said the crane is still not functioning.

“The wood deck on Germantown is starting to break through. Okay, she’s the last LSD with a wood deck in the Navy. You know how much it costs to replace that wood deck? I don’t know either, but I know it’s a lot of money. Okay, and what I will tell you is, what am I going to get out of that? Am I going to get one more year of operation at the cost of $250, $300, $400, $500 million?”

While Del Toro argued he would rather put that money toward new LPDs or the Marine Corps’ pursuit of Landing Ship Medium, the Navy has effectively ended the LPD line by pausing procurement for an indefinite amount of time.

Littoral Combat Ships

The Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Montgomery (LCS 8) returns to homeport at Naval Base San Diego following the successful completion of a 12-month rotational deployment on June 10, 2020. US Navy photo.

While the Navy is trying to retire the fleet’s aging vessels, the service has also repeatedly asked to decommission some of the newest ships in service.

Over the last few years, the Navy has tried to decommission both the Freedom-class and Independence-class LCSs, but focused more intently on the Lockheed Martin and Fincantieri Marinette Marine-built Freedom ships because of a class-wide problem with the combining gear that marries the ship’s diesel engines with its gas turbines.

In accordance with last year’s 30-year shipbuilding plan, the FY 2024 recent budget proposal wants to decommission Independence-class Littoral Combat Ships USS Jackson (LCS-6) and USS Montgomery (LCS-8), commissioned in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Austal USA built both ships – slated to each have a 25-year service life – at its yard in Mobile, Ala.

Gilday last year argued that the Freedom-class ships could not stand up well in a potential conflict against China or Russia. Galinis last week made the same point about the Independence-class ships.

“You start looking at some of the earlier Littoral Combat Ships. Again, some of the things that we learned on the early ships of the two classes – both the Freedom and the Independence class – and then you look at the armament and the weapons, the combat capability on those ships, they just don’t support the high-end fight that we’re getting ready for right now. And so again, look at it really from a combat capability perspective and that’s what we’re kind of looking with why those ships should probably come out of service,” Galinis said.

Congress

Dry dock flooding begins for the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Vicksburg (CG-69) departure from BAE Systems Ship Repair dry dock pier on June 10, 2021. US Navy Photo

While the Navy’s proposal lays out its decommissioning plans for the year, Congress will ultimately get the final say.

Lawmakers have criticized both the Navy’s dives to invest budgeting approach and its decommissioning strategies, but have also allowed the service to retire older ships.

“Some of these ships – especially the Littoral Combat Ships – are among the newest in the fleet. The Navy claims they don’t have enough sufficient funding to maintain and operate these ships, but that’s not the case. Instead, they’ve mismanaged billions of dollars in maintenance funding. One glaring example of this is the USS Vicksburg, a cruiser up for decommissioning this year,” Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), who now chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said at a hearing last year.
“At a time when the ship is still in its maintenance period, the Navy is proposing to scrap it. If the Navy experts expect Congress to support its vision for this fleet, it must do a much better job of managing the inventory it has. We will not stand idly by as valuable taxpayer funds are wasted.”

Of the five cruisers the Navy wanted to divest of in FY 2023, lawmakers only stopped the service from retiring Vicksburg, which had not reached its 35-year service life and was nearly finished with its modernization overhaul. The other four cruisers had either reached or surpassed their expected 35-year service lives.

Last year Congress also saved the three LSDs up for decommissioning again this year – Germantown, Gunston Hall, and Tortuga – which are now 38, 35, and 34 years old, respectively. Lawmakers also saved five Littoral Combat Ships but did not specify which ones in the FY 2023 policy bill.

U.S. Bombers Drill with Japanese, South Korean Fighters After North Korean Missile Launches

U.S. forces conducted separate presence drills with South Korea and Japan over the last several days in response to multiple North Korean ballistic missile launches. U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers and F-16 and F-35A Lighting II fighters flew with Republic of Korea Air Force Sunday. In a separate drill, U.S. Air Force B-1Bs and […]

Japanese sailors aboard JS Atago (DDG-177) drill with US Navy destroyers. JMSDF Photo

U.S. forces conducted separate presence drills with South Korea and Japan over the last several days in response to multiple North Korean ballistic missile launches.

U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers and F-16 and F-35A Lighting II fighters flew with Republic of Korea Air Force Sunday. In a separate drill, U.S. Air Force B-1Bs and Japan-based U.S. F-16 Falcons joined Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-15s.

Sunday’s drill with the ROKAF was part of the ongoing Freedom Shield, which began on March 13, Japanese officials said.

From Saturday to Sunday, destroyer USS Milius (DDG-69) and Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) destroyer JS Atago (DDG-177) conducted a ballistic missile defense exercise in the Sea of Japan.

The exercise was conducted to practice connecting networks between each Aegis warship and sharing targeting information for ballistic missile targets, according to the release.

“For the defense of Japan and the realization of a ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific,’ there can be no unilateral changes to the status quo by force,” reads the statement.

North Korea fired a Hwasong-17 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) on Thursday, its second ICBM launch this year. State-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) described the ICBM launch as a response to the ongoing drills by the U.S. and South Korea. On Sunday, North Korea launched a single ballistic missile, with Japan’s Defense Ministry saying the missile was launched toward the east from near the west coast of North Korea and flew a distance of approximately 500 miles with a maximum altitude of about 30 miles before landing in the Sea of Japan.

In the Philippines, amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA-6) docked in Manila on Sunday for a port visit, the Manila Bulletin reported. America drilled with amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (LHD-8) in the East China Sea Thursday.

Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA)-122, assigned to the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) embarked with the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), held forward rearming and refueling operations with America. Fighter aircraft launched from Makin Island, landed on America to refuel and returned to Makin Island.

A U.S. Air Force 34th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron B-1B Lancer receives fuel from a 909th Air Refueling Squadron KC-135 Stratotanker during a flight over the Pacific Ocean, March 19, 2023. US Air Force Photo

“It adds another layer of operational effectiveness when assets from multiple ARGs, MEUs or ships are able to team up to conduct operations,” said Rear. Adm. Derek Trinque, commander, Task Force 76/3 in a statement.
“Flexing our ability to conduct FARS operations provides a greater operating radius of all our aircraft.”

The Marine F-35s joined up with EA-18G Growlers from Navy Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 135, assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) – 5, and trained with cruiser USS Shiloh (CG-67) and destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG-93). The Makin Island ARG, which along with Makin Island, includes amphibious transport docks USS John P. Murtha (LPD-26) and USS Anchorage (LPD-23), completed multinational Exercise Cobra Gold 23 in Thailand on March 10. The America ARG, which includes America, amphibious transport dock USS Green Bay (LPD-20) and dock landing ship USS Ashland (LSD-48), completed the bilateral U.S.- Japan Iron Fist 23 exercise in Japan on March 12.

On Friday, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) frigate CNS Binzhou (515) was sighted sailing eastwards in an area 100 miles west of Amami Oshima island.

The PLAN frigate subsequently sailed northeast through the waters between Amami Oshima and the uninhabited volcanic island of Yokoate-jima and entered the Pacific Ocean. Japanese officials said that destroyer escort JS Jintsu (DE-230), minesweeper JS Shishijima (MSC-691) along with JMSDF P-1 Maritime Patrol Aircrafts (MPA) of Fleet Air Wing 1 based at JMSDF Kanoya Air Base, Kyushu and Fleet Air Wing 4 based at Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Honshu, monitored the PLAN frigate.

On Saturday in Singapore, French amphibious assault ship FS Dixmude (L9015) and frigate FS La Fayette (F710), which form the Mission Jeanne D’Arc 2023 deployment arrived at Changi Naval Base for a port visit, having concluded the French-led multinational exercise La Perouse in the Indian Ocean on March 14.

U.S. Begins Air Base Rehab in Philippines as Part of Basing Agreement

MANILA – The United States and the Philippines started rehabilitating the runway of the Basa Air Base in Pampanga on the island of Luzon, one of the five original Philippine military sites identified to host rotating American troops and their equipment under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). Rehabilitation of the runway started after eight […]

U.S. Air Force Airmen from the 3rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron prepare an F-22A Raptor assigned to the 525th Fighter Squadron for departure from Clark Air Base, Philippines, March 14, 2023. US Air Force Photo

Rehabilitation of the runway started after eight years of delays and legal challenges to the EDCA, Department of National Defense Officer-in-Charge Carlito Galvez Jr. said on Monday.

“=Today, we laid down the time capsule to signify openly the start of the necessary rehabilitation of the Basa Air Base as one of the EDCA priorities,” Galvez said.

Secretary of the U.S. Air Force Frank Kendall attended the ceremony at the air base.

The rehabilitation of the 2,800-meter runway will cost $25 million, excluding “improvements” and the construction of the wing’s operation center, Galvez said.

“The runway rehabilitation, which is expected to be completed in September 2023, would make Basa Air Base ideal for the efficient conduct of joint task force exercises and as a natural hub for HADR (humanitarian assistance and disaster response) operations, especially that we are a disaster-prone country,” he said.

Out of the 15 EDCA projects, five have been completed, five are still ongoing and the remaining five are up for implementation, Galvez said.

Aside from Basa, the four other original sites that will host American forces and their equipment are Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, Antonio Bautista Air Base in Palawan, Benito Ebuen Air Base in Mactan, Cebu and Lumbia Air Base in Cagayan de Oro.

The U.S. Embassy in Manila said that $11.4 million has been allocated for EDCA works at Fort Magsaysay, $1.8 million for Antonio Bautista; $2.7 million for the Benito Ebuen and $3.7 million for the Lumbia Air Base.

Late last year, Philippine military officials disclosed that the U.S. asked for four additional sites for the EDCA, and these camps are located in the provinces of Palawan, Zambales, Cagayan and Isabela.

Officials of Cagayan, led by Governor Manuel Mamba, however, are not amenable to hosting American forces in the province, but Galvez said Monday that Mamba has already withdrawn his opposition.

Local reports said the U.S. and Philippines were close to announcing two of the sites.

“The two countries will announce as soon as they can,” Kendall said during a press conference.

The EDCA was originally drafted in 2014 following the departure of the U.S. military in 1991. The agreement allows for U.S. forces to stage material and rotate forces throughout sites in the country. In February, during a visit by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the agreement added five more additional sites for use by U.S. forces. Manila and Washington also have a 1951 mutual defense pact.

The public ceremony comes as tensions between Beijing and Manilla have been on the rise over Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, China Coast Guard and Chinese Maritime Militia ships operating near Philippine holdings.

Pentagon: Red Hill Defueling on Track, Joint Task Force Starting Environmental Assessment

The Navy is on target to meet the July 2024 deadline to defuel the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Hawaii, the Department of Defense said Thursday. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Vice Adm. John Wade, commander of the Joint Task Force – Red Hill, and other Navy and defense leaders this […]

Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Fleet Logistics Center (FLC) Pearl Harbor employees uses tools to relocate contaminated soil onto a wheelbarrow as part of NAVFAC Public Works Department and Joint Task Force-Red Hill’s (JTF-RH) hazard material spill recovery operation at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility (RHBFSF) in Halawa, Hawaii, Dec. 1, 2022. US Army Photo

The Navy is on target to meet the July 2024 deadline to defuel the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Hawaii, the Department of Defense said Thursday.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Vice Adm. John Wade, commander of the Joint Task Force – Red Hill, and other Navy and defense leaders this week to discuss the progress on defueling the bulk fuel storage facility.

In addition to Wade, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gilbert Cisneros Jr., Indo-Pacific Command Adm. John Aquilino and Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante participated in the meeting with Austin.

Austin ordered the closure of Red Hill after a November 2021 leak caused fuel to get into the Hawaiian drinking water, affecting military families and local residents.

The Navy and Department of Defense plan to defuel Red Hill and then close it, with it potentially used later for other storage.

The Navy has continued to monitor water levels around Red Hill, while the Defense Department opened up health care resources for those affected by the contaminated water, according to a readout of Austin’s meeting with the other officials.

The Joint Task Force also announced this week that it would start an environmental assessment as part of defueling efforts.

“By understanding the possible environmental effects of our proposed actions, we will be able to use best practices and minimize impacts, ensuring we are good stewards of the environment,” Wade said in a Navy news release. “We will also ensure that the public is informed about any environmental effects considered in the decision-making process. This is the right thing to do.”

The environmental assessment is in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act and is required before Red Hill can be defueled. The assessment will look at the potential environmental effects of relocating the fuel using a tanker ship, according to the news release.

A public comment period on the environmental assessment is expected to open on June 9.

Report on National Security Implications of 5G Networks

The following is the March 14, 2023 Congressional Research Service In Focus report, National Security Implications of Fifth Generation (5G) Mobile Technologies. From the report The fifth generation (5G) of mobile technologies will increase the speed of data transfer and improve bandwidth over existing fourth generation (4G) technologies, in turn enabling new military and commercial […]

The following is the March 14, 2023 Congressional Research Service In Focus report, National Security Implications of Fifth Generation (5G) Mobile Technologies.

From the report

The fifth generation (5G) of mobile technologies will increase the speed of data transfer and improve bandwidth over existing fourth generation (4G) technologies, in turn enabling new military and commercial applications. 5G technologies are expected to support interconnected or autonomous devices, such as smart homes, self-driving vehicles, precision agriculture systems, industrial machinery, and advanced robotics. 5G for the military could additionally improve intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems and processing; enable new methods of command and control (C2); and streamline logistics systems for increased efficiency, among other uses. As 5G technologies are developed and deployed, Congress may consider policies for spectrum management and national security, as well as implications for U.S. military operations.

Download the document here.