USS Porter shortly after its collision in August, 2012. US Navy Photo
The Navy issued a $49.4 million contract to fully fund the repairs to the USS Porter (DDG-78) putting aside one of the last iconic effects of a combined Fiscal Year 2013 Continuing Resolution and mandatory sequestration budget cuts, according to a Tuesday release from Naval Sea Systems Command. Read More
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel at National Defense University in Washington, D.C., on April 3, 2013.
The Pentagon has issued a budget that hopes to sidestep mandatory sequestration cuts as part of a larger Obama administration spending reduction strategy.
The $526.6 billion budget, announced Wednesday at a press briefing at the Pentagon, is part of the larger budget proposal across government that would save $1.8 trillion over ten years. Read More
Adm. Jonathan Greenert addressing a crowd in March. US Navy Photo
In a time of fiscal “reduced visibility” the Navy’s strategy remains “to be where it matters,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert said on Monday in a speech to the Navy League Sea Air Space Exposition 2013 at National Harbor, Md. Read More
Adm. Jonathan Greenert gives an April, 1 2013 video message to the fleet. US Navy Photo
The Fiscal Year 2013 defense bill, signed into law last week, will halve the $ 9 billion in budget cuts the Navy it feared it would have to absorb, said Adm. Jonathan Greenert in a message to the Navy released on Monday. Read More
USS Abraham Lincoln towed to Newport News Shipbuilding on March, 28 2013. HII Photo
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) has won a $2.6 billion contract for the refueling and complex overhaul of the nuclear aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), according to a Friday release from the Pentagon. Read More
Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Jonathan Greenert testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies about the devastating affects of the continuing resolution and sequestration on military readiness. US Navy Photo
A group of ten Congress members are urging the Navy not to defer maintenance of surface ships as part of the service’s plan to find money to cover mandatory budget cuts. Read More
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) arrives at Newport News Shipbuilding for its 44-month refueling complex overhaul (RCOH) on March 28, 2013. HII Photo
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) has arrived at Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) Newport News Shipbuilding facility to begin its mid-life refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH), Naval Sea Systems Command officials told USNI News on Thursday. Read More
Sailors’ vehicles are parked on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) on March, 13 2013. US Navy Photo
When in doubt about grave questions, reach for the classics. What would the likes of Alfred Thayer Mahan or Julian Corbett say about the fate of the big-deck aircraft carrier or nuclear carrier (CVN)? I suspect their ghosts would voice skepticism. Read More
From the March Congressional Budget Office report on Pentagon spending cuts: In 2013, the Department of Defense (DoD) faces an 11 percent reduction (after adjusting for inflation) in its base budget from the amount it received in 2012. (The base budget funds the department’s normal activi- ties but excludes overseas military operations like those in Afghanistan.) Under current law, the department’s bud- gets will increase by a cumulative total of 2 percent more than inflation between 2013 and 2021, still well below its funding in 2012 in real (inflation-adjusted) terms. Those limits are mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA), which capped annual funding for defense and nondefense agencies during that period. Read More
From the March 14, 2013 Congressional Research Service report:
The Navy’s FY2013 budget submission calls for procuring nine Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) class destroyers in FY2013-FY2017, in annual quantities of 2-1-2-2-2. The five DDG-51s scheduled for procurement in FY2013-FY2015, and one of the two scheduled for procurement in FY2016, are to be of the current Flight IIA design. The Navy wants to begin procuring a new version of the DDG-51 design, called the Flight III design, starting with the second of the two ships scheduled for procurement in FY2016. The two DDG-51s scheduled for procurement in FY2017 are also to be of the Flight III design. The Flight III design is to feature a new and more capable radar called the Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR). The Navy for FY2013 is requesting congressional approval to use a multiyear procurement (MYP) arrangement for the nine DDG-51s scheduled for procurement in FY2013-FY2017. Read More