The questions on how to modify Virginia-class attack submarines to install nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missiles and how much the changeover would cost are not easily answered, the Navy’s director of strategic systems programs told a key Senate panel this week.
Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe on Wednesday, “we’ve started to look at that” and “we’ve asked for flexibility.” He added, “it would be premature to give a cost estimate of the...
Even with space available in shipyards, fewer than 40 percent of Navy ships completed availability repairs on time, the Government Accountability Office’s director of defense capabilities and management told the Senate Armed Services readiness subcommittee last week.
Diana Maurer told the Senate panel Wednesday her office put shipyard conditions second only to...
https://news.usni.org/2024/05/07/gao-tells-senate-panel-u-s-shipyards-are-major-readiness-concern
The Senate Armed Services seapower subcommittee chair said the Navy needed to “run fast” to catch up on delays to the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine program and also meet the U.S. commitment of delivering at least three Virginia-class submarines in the 2030s to Australia.
During a hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) questioned Navy leaders how the service...
U.S. Capitol on Dec. 29, 2022. USNI News Photo
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A mid-year budget review between the Defense Department and congressional committees could be the first step to improve relations between the Pentagon and Capitol Hill over spending, the chair of the commission charged with recommending ways to streamline the process told reporters on Monday.
When the budget is first presented, “an avalanche of information” is sent to Congress, but that slows down with additional data that is often...
https://news.usni.org/2023/08/15/new-report-calls-for-rethink-of-how-dod-presents-budget-to-congress
Lt. Gen. Christopher Mahoney. US Marine Corps photo
The White House is set to nominate Lt. Gen. Christopher Mahoney as the next assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, according to a Senate notification
Although the Biden administration has not officially announced Mahoney, the Senate Armed Services Committee received the nomination for Mahoney as ACMC as well as for the promotion to general, according to Congress’s website. SASC received the nomination on Tuesday.
Mahoney will replace current...
Lt. Gen. Christopher Mahoney. US Marine Corps photo
The White House is set to nominate Lt. Gen. Christopher Mahoney as the next assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, according to a Senate notification
Although the Biden administration has not officially announced Mahoney, the Senate Armed Services Committee received the nomination for Mahoney as ACMC as well as for the promotion to general, according to Congress’s website. SASC received the nomination on Tuesday.
Mahoney will replace current...
The following is the July 18, 2023, Congressional Research Service report, Hold on Nominations.
From the report
In the Senate, a hold on a nomination is a communication to the majority or minority leader that a Senator would object to approving the nomination by unanimous consent. When Senators inform their leader that they would object to approving a category of nominations by unanimous consent, such as all nominations to a particular government agency, they are said to be placing a blanket hold
https://news.usni.org/2023/07/18/report-to-congress-on-senate-nomination-holds
The future Richard M. McCool Jr. (LPD-29) launching at Ingalls Shipbuilding, Mississippi. HII Photo
The Senate Armed Services Committee authorized the Navy to buy 10 battle force ships in its version of the annual defense policy bill, an increase from the nine ships the service asked for in its budget proposal.
The Fiscal Year 2024 legislation, which passed the committee this week and will now go to the Senate floor, approves one Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine, two Flight III Arleigh...
U.S. Capitol on Dec. 29, 2022. USNI News Photo
The House Armed Services Committee passed its annual defense policy bill early Thursday, authorizing the Navy to buy a total of 10 ships, an increase from the requested nine in the budget proposal.
The advanced legislation allows the Navy to buy one Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine, two Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, two Virginia-class attack boats, two Constellation-class frigates, one San Antonio-class LPD-17 Flight II...
https://news.usni.org/2023/06/22/hasc-advances-ndaa-authorizing-10-ships-creating-slcm-n-program
Freedom-class littoral combat ships USS Sioux City (LCS-11) and USS Milwaukee (LCS-5) moor alongside one another during a nesting evolution on Naval Station Mayport, Fla. on March 25, 2019. US Navy Photo
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said the U.S. military doesn’t have a choice in retiring legacy systems, like the Littoral Combat Ship, to make way for future shipbuilding investments.
The Pentagon and Congress must make “difficult decisions” as to what stays and what goes in...