US Navy Remains Committed to Railguns

Following a flurry of reports in December predicting the Navy's $500 million electromagnetic railgun experiment was dead on arrival, the chief of Naval Operations told lawmakers this week that the death of the program was greatly exaggerated.

"[We are] fully invested in railgun; we continue to test it," Adm. John Richardson told the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense during a Wednesday hearing on Navy and Marine Corps budget issues. "We've demonstrated it at lower firing rates and ... shorter ranges. Now we have to do the engineering to, sort of, crank it up and get it at the designated firing rates, at the 80- to 100-mile range."

Richardson was responding to a question from Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, who expressed concern about the proven capability of the Navy's railgun weapon, which has yet to leave its test site at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, Virginia.

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USS Zumwalt Left Bath Ironworks for San Diego

The first in a class of new guided missile destroyer has left its Maine shipyard to start a three-month journey to its homeport in San Diego, Calif.

Zumwalt (DDG-1000) headed to the Atlantic down the Kennebec River from its berth at the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works shipyard on Wednesday, the Navy announced.

Following the ship’s planned commissioning in Baltimore on Oct. 15, the ship will then transit to California for a post-delivery maintenance availability focused on activating the ship’s combat system. The ship is set to be “integrated into the fleet” by 2018, the service said on Wednesday.

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The USS Zumwalt even made its first port call en route.

And has arrived in Norfolk.

LRASM Successfully Test Fired From Underway Naval Test Ship

Lockheed Martin has completed the third of three test shots to prove that their air-launched Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) can be fired from a surface ship on the move, company officials told USNI News on Wednesday.

The Monday test at the Navy’s Point Mugu Sea Range, California took the same weapon Lockheed developed for a DARPA program to be launched against ships from fighters and bombers and loaded it into the same launch system used on the service’s guided missile destroyers and cruisers.

“We’re doing it to demonstrate that LRASM can be integrated onto a ship with software changes only and it won’t be a huge bill to put LRASMs in the surface fleet,” Scott Callaway — LRASM Surface-Launch director at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control — told USNI News.

Lockheed refurbished a Mk 41 Vertical Launch System cell for the test, combined the 500 nautical mile range LRASM with an additional booster and tied it to a Tactical Tomahawk Weapon Control System (TTWCS) for guidance – all installed on Navy’s Self Defense Test Ship, the former USS Paul Foster.

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US Navy Christens 2nd Zumwalt USS Monsoor

The Navy on Saturday christened the guided missile destroyer USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001), named in honor of a Navy SEAL who was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in Iraq.

Monsoor recognizes the service and sacrifice of Petty Officer 2nd Class (SEAL) Michael A. Monsoor, who was killed when he jumped on an enemy hand grenade to save his comrades during combat in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2006.

Sally Monsoor, petty officer Monsoor’s mother, smashed the traditional bottle of sparkling wine across the bow to formally christen the ship during the June 18 ceremony at the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works shipyard in Bath, Maine.

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Monsoor is the second ship in the Zumwalt class of futuristic guided missile destroyers, which have a stealth design that gives the 610-foot-long, 15,000-ton warship the radar cross section of a fishing boat. The Zumwalt ships are armed with two 155mm guns to provide long-range, precise fire support for Marines ashore and have an integrated power system that drives the ship and energizes all of its housekeeping and combat systems. Monsoor will be prepared for builder’s trials and then Navy acceptance trials later this year and is expected to be delivered to the Navy in 2017.

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Northrop to Build Laser Weapon Prototype for the US Navy

The Navy is working with Northrop Grumman on a three-year deal to develop a ship-board laser weapon engineered to quickly incinerate enemy drones, small boats, aircraft, ships and missiles, service officials told Scout Warrior.

"This system employs multi-spectral target detection and track capabilities as well as an advanced off-axis beam director with improved fiber laser technologies to provide extended target engagement ranges. Improvements of high power fiber lasers used to form the laser beam enable the increased power levels and extended range capabilities. Lessons learned, operating procedures, updated hardware and software derived from previous systems will be incorporated in this demonstration," Dr. Tom Beutner, director of the Air Warfare and Weapons branch, Office of Naval Research, told Scout Warrior in a written statement.

The 12-month, $53-million deal with the Office of Naval Research will develop a Laser Weapon System Demonstrator through three phases; the phases include an initial design phase, ground-testing phase and then weapons testing at sea aboard a Navy Self Defense test ship, a Northrop statement said.

“The company will design, produce, integrate, and support the shipboard testing of a 150-kilowatt-class solid state (electric) laser weapon system,” the Northrop statement added. “The contract could grow to a total value of $91 million over 34 months if ONR exercises all of its contract options.”

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The US Navy's Railgun Effort Gets Profiled

A warning siren bellowed through the concrete bunker of a top-secret Naval facility where U.S. military engineers prepared to demonstrate a weapon for which there is little defense.

Officials huddled at a video screen for a first look at a deadly new supergun that can fire a 25-pound projectile through seven steel plates and leave a 5-inch hole.

The weapon is called a railgun and requires neither gunpowder nor explosive. It is powered by electromagnetic rails that accelerate a hardened projectile to staggering velocity—a battlefield meteorite with the power to one day transform military strategy, say supporters, and keep the U.S. ahead of advancing Russian and Chinese weaponry.

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US Navy Studying Placing Laser Weapons on Burke Flight III Destroyers

The officer in charge of the US Navy's (USN's) DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyer restart programme said on 17 May that the navy is examining directed energy weapons for possible inclusion on future ships.

"I can tell you we're looking intently at things like LaWS [Laser Weapon System] and the next generation of LawS, for a directed energy weapon," Captain Mark Vandroff said during a briefing at the Navy League's 2016 Sea-Air-Space symposium in National Harbor, Maryland. A technical feasibility study is ongoing, he confirmed to IHS Jane's .

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USS Zumwalt has Begun Naval Acceptance Trials

The guided missile destroyer Zumwalt (DDG-1000) left the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works shipyard for its acceptance trials ahead of delivery to the U.S. Navy, the service announced on Wednesday.

This morning, the 16,000-ton warship transited down the Kennebec River to the Atlantic Ocean for the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) evaluation before the ship’s anticipated delivery to the service in May.

“While underway, many of the ship’s key systems and technologies including navigation, propulsion readiness, auxiliary systems, habitability, fire protection and damage control capabilities will be demonstrated to ensure they meet the Navy’s requirements,” read a statement from Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA).

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How Stealthy is the US NAvy's new Zumwalt Clas Destroyer?

The future USS Zumwalt is so stealthy that it'll go to sea with reflective material that can be hoisted to make it more visible to other ships.

The Navy destroyer is designed to look like a much smaller vessel on radar, and it lived up to its billing during recent builder trials.

Lawrence Pye, a lobsterman, told The Associated Press that on his radar screen the 610-foot ship looked like a 40- to 50-foot fishing boat. He watched as the behemoth came within a half-mile while returning to shipbuilder Bath Iron Works.

"It's pretty mammoth when it's that close to you," Pye said.

Despite its size, the warship is 50 times harder to detect than current destroyers thanks to its angular shape and other design features, and its stealth could improve even more once testing equipment is removed, said Capt. James Downey, program manager.

During sea trials last month, the Navy tested Zumwalt's radar signature with and without reflective material hoisted on its halyard, he said. The goal was to get a better idea of exactly how stealthy the ship really is, Downey said from Washington, D.C.

The reflectors, which look like metal cylinders, have been used on other warships and will be standard issue on the Zumwalt and two sister ships for times when stealth becomes a liability and they want to be visible on radar, like times of fog or heavy ship traffic, he said.

The possibility of a collision is remote. The Zumwalt has sophisticated radar to detect vessels from miles away, allowing plenty of time for evasive action.

But there is a concern that civilian mariners might not see it during bad weather or at night, and the reflective material could save them from being startled.

The destroyer is unlike anything ever built for the Navy.

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US Navy Awards $151 Million Contract for V-22 Design Changes Needed to Supply Ships

Naval Air Systems Command awarded the Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office $151 million to begin engineering the Navy variant of the V-22 Osprey, which the service will use as a carrier onboard delivery plane.

The funding, adding onto an existing contract with Bell-Boeing, covers non-recurring engineering costs to add extended range, high frequency beyond line-of-sight radio and a public address system to the baseline MV-22 used by the Marine Corps. The Navy announced in February that its variant would be called the CMV-22B, a designation that combines the cargo-carrying nature of the Air Force’s CV-22 and the multimission and special forces-capable nature of the Marines’ MV-22.

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An Exclusive Look by Defense News at the USS Zumwalt During Builder's Trials

All ahead one third on the starboard shaft.” The order was called out by the Bath Iron Works (BIW) conning officer, clearly heard in the hushed atmosphere of the pilot house. The bridge was dark except for the dim glows of flat-panel displays as the 16,000-ton destroyer moved away from the Portland, Maine, pier.

Perhaps thirty people were crowded into the space. The navigating team was led by Captain Earl Walker, the shipyard’s long-time chief pilot, and all the controls were manned by civilian engineers and shipbuilders working for BIW, which owns the Zumwalt until it is formally handed over this spring to the US Navy. Other engineers -- from the shipyard, Raytheon and other manufacturers -- looked over the operators’ shoulders.

Unusually for a ship on builder’s trials, the civilians were joined by about 130 members of the destroyer’s US Navy crew, on board to get their first chance to sit down and operate the ship that later this year they will call home.

This was the third night out for the Zumwalt on her second series of builder’s sea trials, the first “alpha” trials having been carried out in early December. The ship, which will eventually go to sea with a crew of 147, was carrying 388 souls, one of the highest numbers Zumwalt likely will ever carry during a planned service life of about 40 years.

The 610-foot-long destroyer moved out slowly from the pier, making a sharp left turn, then a right to come into the channel. As she moved out of Casco Bay into the Atlantic, a slight sea was running, enough to throw spray from her sharp, wave-piercing prow and occasionally spit on the bridge. A slight glow in the darkness ahead belied the white running light on the Zumwalt’s bow – a change from the mast position required on other ships because the destroyer’s stealthy design leaves nowhere else to put it.

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USS Zumwalt Finishes Builder's Trials

Next generation guided missile destroyer Zumwalt (DDG-1000) is back at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works shipyard after four days of successful builder’s trails, according to the service.

The service will now prepare for next month’s acceptance trials ahead of delivery of the ship to the Navy. The ship arrived Thursday afternoon to the Maine yard, sources who saw the ship return to its pier at BIW told USNI News.

During the four days of trials, “representatives from BIW, PCU Zumwalt, the Navy’s Program Office, SUPSHIP Bath and various technical subject matter experts, including Raytheon personnel, tested several ship systems including key propulsion and auxiliary systems as well as boat operations,” read a Friday statement provided to USNI News by the service.

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USS Zumwalt has Started Builder's Trials

The guided missile destroyer Zumwalt (DDG-1000) left today for a final set of builder’s trails ahead of an expected delivery to the U.S. Navy next month, a spokeswoman with the service told USNI News on Monday.

The ship left the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine, down the Kennebec River to the Atlantic Ocean for the builders trails ahead of additional tests once the ship is fully in the possession of the service.

“DDG-1000 departed Bath, Maine, today to conduct builder’s trials, during which many of the ship’s key systems and technologies will be demonstrated including on the Advanced Induction Motor (AIM), Integrated Propulsion System (IPS), Boat Handling and auxiliary systems,” read the statement from Capt. Thurraya Kent.

“In addition to systems testing, the Navy-industry team will be conducting numerous operational demonstrations in preparation for Acceptance Trials in April, as well as crew familiarization and counterpart training in support of crew certification, sail away milestones and commissioning October 15, 2016.”

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Littoral Combat Ship/frigate Program Woes now Spread to Congress

The future of the Littoral Combat Ship/frigate program is still far from decided with the split between factions spilling into a Tuesday Senate hearing.

It has been clear for months that the Navy and Defense Department do not see eye-to-eye on the issue of how many small surface combatants to buy and from how many shipyards. What began as a whispered-about schism turned public earlier this month, with Navy Secretary Ray Mabus telling a congressional subcommittee that decisions about the program’s future “will be made by the next administration and by Congress,” not by Defense Secretary Ash Carter.

On Tuesday, it became clear that difference of opinion exists in Congress, too.

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on March 15, chairman Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) – a vocal critic of the LCS program – praised the decision to curtail production of what he called an expensive and unproven platform. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), in whose home state half of the LCSs are built, warned the discussion wasn’t over.

During his opening statement, McCain railed against the program.

“Initial cost-overruns more than doubled the cost of each Littoral Combat Ship, and development costs now exceed $3 billion and counting,” he said.

“Meanwhile, key warfighting capabilities of the LCS, including mine countermeasures and anti-submarine warfare, have fallen years behind schedule and remain unproven. Because of the long running cost, schedule, and performance issues with this program, I support the (Defense) Department’s proposal to down-select to one variant no later than 2019 and reduce the inventory objective to 40 ships. I am encouraged to see the Navy has begun the process of identifying the LCS replacement, and I hope we can transition to a more capable small surface combatant expeditiously.”

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Up Through the Ice

Future US Navy Attack Subs Will be Radically Different

The Navy won’t begin buying its next-generation attack submarine until 2034, but researchers are already hard at work on two key components of the SSN(X) program: an electric drive system for quieter operations, and the ability to control multiple unmanned underwater vehicles at once for extended influence.

These attack boats will operate through the end of the 21st century and perhaps into the 22nd century – and Program Executive Officer for Submarines Rear Adm. Michael Jabaley believes there will still be a place for submarines in naval operations as long as the boats can keep up with changes in the operating environment.

“There’s been a lot of discussion about the future of submarines and the future of stealth and the future of anti-submarine warfare – and we take all of that into account and still firmly believe there’s a significant role for the submarine in the United States Navy well into the heart of this century and beyond,” Jabaley told USNI News in a March 3 interview.

“Now, that said, there are a lot of things that are happening that require some fundamental changes to what we consider an attack submarine to be. And some of it we’re already doing” as the office works through the design of the upcoming Ohio Replacement Program ballistic missile submarine.

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Scuffle in the South China Sea #32: Bringing out the BFGs

The US and China hae been going back and forth over the South China Sea.  It seems that Obama has grown a little tired of the game and sent a carrier battle group centered on the USS John Stennis to confront China.

US Navy may Postpone or Cancel the Railgun Demonstration at Sea

The Navy is considering accelerating developmental testing of its high-tech, long-range Electro-Magnetic Rail Gun by expanding the platforms from which it might fire and potentially postponing an upcoming at-sea demonstration of the weapon, service officials told Scout Warrior.

Such a strategy, service officials explain, might help speed-up testing of both the rail gun launcher and hypervelocity projectile. This approach might allow the rail gun hypervelocity projectile to fire a 5,000-mile and hour projectile from a wider range of existing maritime and land-based platforms such as deck-mounted Navy 5-inch guns and Army artillery systems.

“The Navy is studying the pros/cons of forgoing a 2016 at-sea demonstration of the Railgun system, with an eye toward potential opportunities for accelerating testing of Railgun and the associated hypervelocity projectile. Discussions are ongoing,” Matt Leonard, spokesman for Naval Sea Systems Command, told Scout Warrior.

Navy officials now explain that this planned at-sea demonstration may be delayed. This might help weapons developers further accelerate development of both the gun launcher and the hypervelocity projectile it fires. While plans for the weapon’s development are still being deliberated, one possibility may the integration of the projectile onto existing weapons platforms such as the Navy’s deck-mounted 5-inch guns or Army Paladin self-propelled howitzers which fire artillery.

As a result, postponing the at-sea demonstration may help Navy developers accelerate testing of both the gun launcher and projectile, enabling them to explore firing from a range of different platforms.

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US Navy to Test Fire Railgun on USNS Trenton Later This Year

The Navy plans to test-fire a deadly high-tech, long-range electromagnetic weapon against a floating target at sea later this year – as part of the fast-paced development of its new Electromagnetic Rail Gun.

The rail gun uses an electromagnetic current to fire a kinetic energy warhead up to 100 miles at speeds greater than 5,000 miles an hour, a speed at least three times as fast as existing weapons.

In the upcoming test, the kinetic energy projectile will seek to hit, destroy or explode an at sea target from on-board the USNS Trenton, a Joint High Speed Vessel, service officials said.

The test shots, which will be the first of its kind for the developmental, next-generation weapon, will take place at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

During the test, the rail gun will fire a series of GPS-guided hypervelocity projectiles at a barge floating on the ocean about 25 to 50 nautical miles away,

The weapon will be fired against a floating target, in an effort to test the rail gun’s ability to destroy targets that are beyond-the-horizon, Navy officials said.

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The Freedom Class Litoral Combat Ship may be Fundamentally Flawed

After only a month after the USS Milwaukee suffered from a mechanical failure, the USS Fort Worth, deployed in Singapore, has suffered an engine problem as well.  

There has been some speculation the Freedom class is fundamentally flawed; though, the US Navy is saying the problems between the USS Milwaukee and the USS Fort Worth suffered are not related.  I think a lot of people are wondering about that.

I would not want to be Lockheed right now, given that the Navy has been directed to down select to a single LCS class and build the frigate from a single of the two classes.  Additionally, the Independence class received IOC today and Austal received a contract (paywall) to do the work to produce a design for a frigate based on the Independence class.