The Ship Model Forum

Navy says it will lose millions by not committing to 10 destroyers in upcoming contract
By Megan Eckstein
May 18, 07:00 PM


WASHINGTON � The U.S. Navy doesn�t want to promise to buy too many ships in the next five years, in case it can�t follow through due to budget or supply chain constraints.
But its unwillingness to guarantee work to shipbuilders will cost the sea service millions of dollars in the long run, a top official told Defense News.
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US Navy envisions larger fleet despite long-range plans reflecting budget crunch
By Megan Eckstein
Apr 29, 09:40 AM

WASHINGTON � Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday mused about a day when the U.S. Navy might be able to buy a dozen or more ships each year. The Navy would be given the funding levels, and the surface ship industrial base would have grown the capacity, to support building three destroyers a year, two or three frigates a year, an amphibious transport dock every other year, and a larger number of supply ships.

But as he made clear in his remarks this week, that day is not today.

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A ship that can�t combat threats �doesn�t do me good�
By Diana Stancy Correll
Apr 5, 01:03 PM

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro has said ships that can�t combat threats to the service are dead weight � comments that come as the force seeks to decommission 24 ships next fiscal year.

When asked what the Navy is doing to grow the fleet, Del Toro said it�s outfitting ships with the right capabilities to accomplish their missions � something he considers �far more significant to me than anything else.�

�It just doesn�t do me good to have lots and lots of ships that aren�t effective against the actual threat itself,� Del Toro said at the Navy League�s annual Sea-Air-Space conference on Tuesday. �It�s a combination of the right capacity, right capability to deliver the right lethality where we need it.�

The Navy�s fiscal 2023 budget request, unveiled March 28, requests nine ships including two Virginia-class attack submarines, two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, one Constellation-class frigate and one America-class amphibious assault ship.

It�s also asking to decommission 24 ships from the fleet � 16 of which would retire prior to the end of their service lives. Included in that group are nine Freedom-variant littoral combat ships, one cruiser and two expeditionary transfer docks.

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US Navy seeks to end San Antonio-class ship production, reducing fleet by 8 amphibious hulls
By Megan Eckstein
Mar 28, 04:36 PM
WASHINGTON � The U.S. Navy wants to buy one last San Antonio-class amphibious ship and then end the production line, the service announced in its fiscal 2023 budget request.

The LPD-17 class got off to a rough start in its construction, but transformed into a model acquisition program and a workhorse of the fleet. These ships, built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi, haul Marines and their gear as part of amphibious ready group/Marine expeditionary unit (ARG/MEU) formations.

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Navy Wants to Scrap 9 Littoral Combat Ships Along with 15 Others to Pay for New Carriers and Submarines
28 Mar 2022
Military.com | By Konstantin Toropin
The Navy wants to scrap 24 ships this coming year as part of its latest budget proposal, a move designed to give military planners enough money to modernize the rest of the fleet.

The sea service explained as part of the release of its budget request Monday that its ongoing commitment to both the new Ford-class aircraft carriers and the upcoming Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine created a "pressurization," forcing the Navy to decommission the large number of ships.

Rear Adm. John Gumbleton, the Navy's budget chief, told reporters that the plan is to get rid of five cruisers, nine littoral combat ships, four landing dock ships, two submarines, two oilers and two expeditionary transfer docks.

Gumbelton explained that 56% of their $27.9 billion shipbuilding budget "is for nuclear ships" - the aforementioned Ford and Columbia - and as a result, the Navy officer said the branch was forced to think hard about where to get money to modernize the rest of the fleet.


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Navy Clear to Decommission 5 Cruisers, Unclear Which Ships Will Leave the Fleet
By: Sam LaGrone
March 23, 2022 5:26 PM


Five cruisers that could be targets for decommissioning this year, according to the Navy�s latest inactivation plan.

The Navy is clear to decommission five Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers following the passage of the Fiscal Year 2022 defense appropriations bill, USNI News understands.

The overdue spending bill follows the FY 2022 defense policy bill and allows the Navy to decommission five of the seven cruisers originally requested as part of the White House�s budget request.

Congress didn�t spell out which five cruisers will leave the fleet, according to the FY 2022 defense authorization bill that was signed into law in December, and the Navy isn�t sure which ones will go.

�The Navy is moving forward with the formal process outlined in the FY22 NDAA to approve the five Ticonderoga-class Cruiser hulls that will decommission in Fiscal Year 2022,� reads a Navy statement. �The Navy will share the specific hull numbers and plans for the decommissionings as the information is available for release.�

In July, the Navy�s most recent decommissioning memo identified seven ships, two of which were to leave the service in February � Norfolk, Va.,-based USS Vella Gulf (CG-72) and USS Monterey (CG-61).

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As US Navy rethinks its fleet, Ingalls Shipbuilding faces uncertain future
By Megan Eckstein
Mar 14, 06:00 AM


WASHINGTON � As recently as three years ago, the U.S. Navy�s long-term shipbuilding plan laid out a stable path for Ingalls Shipbuilding.

The Navy planned to buy two or three Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers each year, splitting the work between the Pascagoula, Mississippi-based Ingalls shipyard and General Dynamics� Bath Iron Works in Maine.

The service was also set to purchase San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks well into the future, initially at one every other year but eventually moving to one per year.

While the next America-class amphibious assault ship, LHA-6, would be stretched over a longer-than-ideal construction timeline, the Navy would eventually buy one every three or four years. And though the Coast Guard�s Legend-class National Security Cutter program was coming to an end, there were several options for the Navy to replace that work.

But over the past three years, the service has tightened its budget and changed its requirements, making the future look far less rosy for Ingalls Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries.

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HII lays keel of 78th Burke-class Destroyer for US Navy


Naval News Staff 11 Mar 2022

NAVSEA press release

The ship is named for the late Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska. Stevens was the longest-serving Republican U.S. Senator in history at the time he left office and was the third senator to hold the title of president pro tempore emeritus. He was the president pro tempore of the United States Senate in the 108th and 109th Congresses.

The contemporary keel-laying ceremony represents the joining together of a ship�s modular components at the land level. The keel is authenticated with the ship sponsors� initials etched into a ceremonial keel plate as part of the ceremony. Sponsors of DDG 128 are Catherine Stevens, wife of the ship�s namesake, and Susan Stevens Covich and Lily Stevens Becker, daughters of the namesake.

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Navy offers a new argument for decommissioning cruisers: They�re not safe.
By Megan Eckstein
Mar 9, 03:08 PM

WASHINGTON � The U.S. Navy has tried to convince Congress to let it decommission the cruiser fleet by making cost-based arguments.
It�s tried readiness-based arguments, too, noting the drain on the ship repair industry.

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Navy should be �offended� by its own maintenance and manning faults, admiral says
By Megan Eckstein and Diana Stancy Correll
Wednesday, Jan 12


ARLINGTON, Va. � The Navy should be piqued more easily by the things it�s not doing well, according to the commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command.

�We need to be offended by not having the right manning. We need to be offended by not getting ships out at the right time,� Adm. Daryl Caudle said at the annual Surface Navy Association conference Jan. 12. �It needs to be palpable, and not just like, �Okay,� and just kind of kick the can down the road.�

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US Navy works to speed up damage assessments, ship repairs
By Megan Eckstein
Thursday, Jan 13

ARLINGTON, Va. � The U.S. Navy is paying more attention to its battle damage assessment and repair capabilities, as it considers what it needs in order to win a war against a sophisticated adversary.
Rear Adm. Eric Ver Hage, the commander of the Navy�s Regional Maintenance Center, said the service went so far as to use the burned-out hull of the former amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard to practice this work. The ship caught fire in July 2020 and was decommissioned in April 2021.

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A US commander says he wants to see a lot more aircraft carriers in the Pacific to check China and Russia

Ryan Pickrell
Fri., December 3, 2021, 8:03 a.m.�4 min read


The USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) and USS Nimitz (CVN 68) Carrier Strike Groups (CSGs) steam in formation.US Navy

The US Navy recently conducted joint exercises with allies and partners in the Pacific.
The 7th Fleet commander said it was "an incredible amount of power" but added that more was needed for deterrence.
"Four aircraft carriers is a good number, but six, seven or eight would be better," he said.

The commander of the US Navy's 7th Fleet stated recently he would like to see a lot more US and allied aircraft carriers in the Indo-Pacific region to deter rivals China and Russia, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Following a multinational naval exercise in October involving two US aircraft carriers, a British carrier, and a Japanese helicopter carrier, the US Navy linked up with Japan, Australia, Canada, and Germany in November for Pacific drills.
During that most recent exercise, 7th Fleet's Vice Adm. Karl Thomas called the joint force "an incredible amount of power" but noted that more would be better to send a message to potential adversaries that "today is not the day" to start a fight, WSJ reported.
Thinking "about how we might fight, it's a large water space, and four aircraft carriers is a good number, but six, seven or eight would be better," the fleet commander said.

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Sea power panel backs block buy of amphibious ships
By: Joe Gould ? 4 days ago

WASHINGTON ? A House panel on Wednesday advanced a proposal to authorize the Navy to make a block buy of amphibious ships for one more year, meant to save taxpayer dollars, proponents say.

The House Armed Services Committee�s sea power subpanel voted to adopt the plans, part of an amendment from its top Republican, Rep. Rob Wittman of Virginia. As expected, lawmakers also advanced the broader sea power mark for the sweeping fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.

If passed into law, Wittman�s language would extend authorities from the FY21 NDAA related to a bundled contract for the amphibious assault ship LHA-9 and amphibious transport docks 31, 32 and 33.

�This is all about the amphibious ship bundle, to make sure that [the Office of the Secretary of Defense] continues the effort to purchase these ships,� Wittman said. �We know there�s been a delay by [the Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office], but I believe it�s incredibly important for this nation to make sure that we exercise the savings, which would be nearly a billion dollars, in buying four ships under this authorization to purchase amphibious ships in this bundle.�
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Seeking to justify the Navy�s proposal to decommission the warships, Kilby cited fuel tank leaks that have repeatedly plagued the aging cruisers.

�She missed roughly one-third of the deployment because of maintenance things, not because her radar was down, not because her combat system wasn�t capable, not because she didn�t have a full magazine � but she had tank top cracking that required her to get that fixed to be safely underway,� Kilby told HASC last month, referring to a 2017 deployment for Lake Champlain.

�Vella Gulf missed a month of her previous deployment and has missed two and a half months of her current deployment. So all that, in my mind, has to go into the mix when we factor the availability and reliability of those ships. Those missile tubes will only count if they�re underway alongside the carrier,� he added, referring to Vella Gulf, which had to return to port for the first two months of its recent deployment due to maintenance issues that included fuel tank leaks.

Navy releases long-range shipbuilding plan that drops emphasis on 355 ships, lays out fleet design priorities
By: Megan Eckstein ? 3 days ago
WASHINGTON � The Navy submitted an update to Congress to its annual long-range shipbuilding plans, one that takes a step back from the much-talked-about standard of a 355-ship fleet and instead lays out priorities for a future distributed naval force.
The new document lays out a manned fleet as low as 321 manned ships and potentially as large as 372 manned ships.
A fleet of 321 manned ships would be a departure from past modeling, wargaming and analysis that pointed to a fleet of 355 or more manned ships to counter threats from China and Russia in a future fight. The lower number, though, is more in line with current fiscal constraints and industry capacity. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said this week that, �based on the top-line that we have, that we can afford a Navy of about 300 ships� � and there�s not much hope that Navy shipbuilding budgets will increase drastically in the next few years.
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Navy Speeds Up Ship Retirements as It Ramps Up Investment in New Platforms
28 May 2021
Military.com | By Hope Hodge Seck
The Navy is on a mission to transform the fleet with innovative new ship platforms -- and it's forging ahead with plans to retire old ships to support that effort.
The service's $163.87 billion fiscal 2022 budget request, narrowly up from $162.9 billion last year, includes funding for a smaller fleet of 346,200 sailors, down 1,600 from last year's end strength. A Defense Department budget summary notes that the smaller force is due in part to the Navy's decommissioning plans, particularly the 2021 retirement of the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard following a devastating fire.
"These reductions are partially offset by new construction crews on various platforms including Virginia-class submarines and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers," it notes.

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US Navy inks deal for a tenth Virginia-class submarine
By: David B. Larter ? 2 days ago
WASHINGTON � The U.S. Navy on Friday sealed the deal on a 10th ship in its latest iteration of the Virginia-class attack submarine, issuing a $2.4 billion adjustment on a contract initially awarded in December 2019.
The original contract was for nine boats with an option for a 10th, which brings the total cost of the contract with prime contractor General Dynamics Electric Boat to $24.1 billion. The net increase for the contract is $1.89 billion, according to a General Dynamics release. Huntington Ingalls Industries� Newport News shipyard is the partner yard in the program.
The president of General Dynamics Electric Boat, Kevin Graney, said in a statement that the shipyard is pleased to have the work and that his team is ready to take on the challenge of simultaneously building the Virginia class and the new � and much larger � Columbia-class next-generation ballistic missile submarine.

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The US Navy�s shaky plan to save its shipyards is getting overhauled
By: Joe Gould and David B. Larter ? 2 days ago
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Navy is reworking its tenuous plan to revitalize its public shipyards, where the fleet�s nuclear maintenance is done, as it has become clear that the facilities can�t meet the needs of the current fleet, let alone accommodate a growing fleet.
The head of Naval Sea Systems Command, Vice Adm. Bill Galinis told the House Armed Services Committee readiness subcommittee that the Navy is studying how much money it would need to accelerate its ongoing 20-year, $21 billion plan to recapitalize its four public shipyards by five or ten years.
To go faster and meet the needs of a growing fleet, the Navy is trying to determine how to juggle ship maintenance and repair work with renovations of aging dry docks and equipment associated with its Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Plan, or SIOP. That may require extra funding, Galinis said.

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