Category Archives: Budget Industry

Document: 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review

Document: 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review

pentagon-DC1

The following is from the executive summary of the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review, released on March, 4 2014.
The United States faces a rapidly changing security environment. We are repositioning to focus on the strategic challenges and opportunities that will define our future: new technologies, new centers of power, and a world that is growing more volatile, more unpredictable, and in some instances more threatening to the United States. Read More

Document: Congressional Report on Navy Littoral Combat Ship Program

Document: Congressional Report on Navy Littoral Combat Ship Program

Fort Worth (LCS-3) conducts builders trials in 2011. Lockheed Martin Photo

Fort Worth (LCS-3) conducts builders trials in 2011. Lockheed Martin Photo

The following is the Feb. 25, 2014 update on the Littoral Combat Ship program from the Congressional Research Service. 
On February 24, 2014, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced that the Department of Defense (DOD) intends to truncate the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program to 32 ships— a reduction of 20 ships from the previously planned total of 52 LCSs. Through FY2014, a total of 20 LCSs have been funded. Under the Navy’s FY2014 budget submission, LCSs 21 through 24 were scheduled to be requested for procurement in FY2015. Read More

Huntington Ingalls and VT Halter Marine Protest Coast Guard Cutter Design Contract Awards

Huntington Ingalls and VT Halter Marine Protest Coast Guard Cutter Design Contract Awards

Coast Guard rendering of the planned Offshore Patrol Cutter. The service plans to announce the final three designs later this year. US Coast Guard Photo

Coast Guard rendering of the planned Offshore Patrol Cutter. The service plans to announce the final three designs later this year. US Coast Guard Photo

Huntington Ingalls Industries and VT Halter Marine have filed a protest over the design contract awards for the Coast Guard’s planned Offshore Patrol Cutter, according to Tuesday filings with the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Read More

Document: Report on Navy Shipboard Lasers

Document: Report on Navy Shipboard Lasers

The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) installed aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG-105) US Navy Photo

The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) installed aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG-105) US Navy Photo

The following is from the Feb. 7, 2013 Congressional Research Service report, Navy Shipboard Lasers for Surface, Air, and Missile Defense.

More powerful shipboard lasers, which could become ready for installation in subsequent years, could provide Navy surface ships with an ability to counter a wider range of surface and air targets at ranges of up to about 10 miles. These more powerful lasers might, among other things, provide Navy surface ships with a terminal-defense capability against certain ballistic missiles, including China’s new anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM). Read More

Coast Guard Chief Papp: Service 'Shouldn't Bear Full Brunt' of New Icebreaker Cost

Coast Guard Chief Papp: Service ‘Shouldn’t Bear Full Brunt’ of New Icebreaker Cost

Coast Guard Icebreakers Polar Star (WAGB-10) and Polar Sea (WAGB-11) moored in an undated photo.

Coast Guard Icebreakers Polar Star (WAGB-10) and Polar Sea (WAGB-11) moored in an undated photo.

The Coast Guard will likely need help from other government agencies to fund its proposed new $1 billion heavy icebreaker the service says it needs to operate in the Arctic and Antarctic, outgoing USCG commandant Adm. Robert Papp told reporters Wednesday following his final State of the Coast Guard address in Washington, D.C. Read More

Hagel: Navy to Lay Up 11 Cruisers, Carrier Cut Decision Delayed until 2016 Budget

Hagel: Navy to Lay Up 11 Cruisers, Carrier Cut Decision Delayed until 2016 Budget

USS Lake Erie (CG-70) operates with other cruisers off the coast of Hawaii on Jan. 27, 2014. US Navy Photo

USS Lake Erie (CG-70) operates with other cruisers off the coast of Hawaii on Jan. 27, 2014. US Navy Photo


The U.S. Navy will “lay up” half of the service’s fleet of Ticonderoga-class missile cruisers under the President’s fiscal year 2015 budget proposal.

“Half of the Navy’s cruiser fleet— or 11 ships —will be ‘laid up’ and placed in reduced operating status while they are modernized, and eventually returned to service with greater capability and a longer lifespan,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters during a briefing at the Pentagon on Monday.
“This approach enables us over the long-term to sustain and modernize our fleet of cruisers.” Read More

Pentagon Caps LCS at 32 Hulls, Hagel Directs Navy to Evaluate ‘Capable and Lethal’ Frigate Designs

Pentagon Caps LCS at 32 Hulls, Hagel Directs Navy to Evaluate ‘Capable and Lethal’ Frigate Designs

USS Freedom (LCS-1), left, and USS Independence (LCS-2) in 2012. US Navy Photo

USS Freedom (LCS-1), left, and USS Independence (LCS-2) in 2012. US Navy Photo

The Pentagon will cut the final number of the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) by 20 — from 52 to 32 — and shortly begin a study on a new frigate for the service, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told reporters at a Fiscal Year 2015 Defense Department budget preview on Monday afternoon. Read More