Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), Washington, D.C., yesterday awarded two shipyards contracts worth a total of $253,923,531 for work on Arleigh Burke class destroyers. Both contracts include options that, if exercised, could substantially increase their value.
BAE Systems – San Diego Ship Repair, San Diego, Calif., has been awarded a $177,821,136 firm-fixed-price, undefinitized contract modification to a previously awarded undefinitized contract action N00024-24-C-4423 for the repair,...
Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener, Commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, speaks with Capt. Wayne P. Liebold, executive officer of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD-2), during a scheduled visit to the ship on Jan. 5, 2023. US Navy Photo
The Navy has set a new goal to have 75 mission-capable surface ships that are prepared to deploy at any given moment
The readiness objective to keep a little less than half of the surface ship inventory ready to deploy is part of a larger...
Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener, commander, Naval Surface Force, speaks with junior officers at the Mariner Skills Training Center, Pacific (MSTCPAC) on May 6, 2022. US Navy Photo
Surface warfare reforms crafted to improve mariner skills and manage demand for ships are trickling into the fleet five years after two fatal collisions in the Western Pacific forced the Navy to retool how the service trains the surface fleet.
Multiple investigations and criminal prosecutions found that basic failures in...
In a case stemming from the August 21, 2017, collision between the USS John S McCain and the tanker Alnic MC, U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty ruled yesterday that the United States was 80% responsible for the collision and that the owner of the Alnic, Energetic Tank Inc., was 20% responsible.
Ten sailors aboard the USS John S McCain died in the accident and 48 were injured when the ships collided in the Middle Channel passage of the Singapore Strait Traffic Separation Scheme.
There were no...
The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90) sails in formation with the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain (CG 57) and Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Winnipeg (FFH 338) in the Phillipine Sea on Oct. 3, 2021. U.S. Navy Photo
The U.S. Navy on Friday refuted Russian claims that it prevented a U.S. destroyer from crossing into its territorial waters in the Sea of Japan.
USS Chafee (DDG-90) was conducting “routine operations” and preparing for flight...
The following is the National Transportation Safety Board recently released Safer Seas Digest 2020 that summarizes major maritime accidents and lessons learned including the 2017 collision of USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) off Japan and the collision of then-under construction USS Delbert Black (DDG-119).
From the report
The 42 marine accidents included in Safer Seas Digest 2020 involved contact with fixed objects, sinkings, collisions, fires, explosions, floodings, groundings, and capsizings. The...
https://news.usni.org/2021/08/25/ntsb-2020-digest-of-maritime-accident-investigations
A report commissioned by four members of Congress in the wake of several high-profile Navy losses of lives and warships makes disturbing reading. Entitled “A Report on the Fighting Culture of the United States Navy’s Surface Fleet,” it was commissioned by, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) along with Representatives Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), and Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.).
“The findings of this report are very concerning,” said Cotton. “Our sailors are too often deprived of the training...
https://www.marinelog.com/news/report-slams-surface-navy-culture-leadership/
Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Mike Gilday tours Bath Iron Works with Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Angus King on May 10, 2021. US Navy Photo
While the Navy is focused on readiness to prevent the pitfalls of an overworked and untrained force, it must also manage the need for modernization with maintaining the current fleet, the service’s top officer said today.
Asked about over tasking sailors and assets and its effects on retention, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday described a need...
Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) is lowered from the heavy lift transport MV Treasure on December 13, 2017. US Navy Photo
The Navy is poorly positioned to fully repair its fighting fleet of warships damaged in future high-end battles, the Government Accountability Office found in a report released this week.
The GAO found that the Navy would struggle if conflict erupted and several ships sustained sufficient battle damage that ships’ crews couldn’t repair. “
https://news.usni.org/2021/06/02/gao-navy-not-ready-to-repair-battle-damaged-ships
Tensions have been escalating in the South China Sea (SCS) in recent weeks, as Beijing tests the resolve of new US President Joe Biden by ramping up activity in pursuit ..