Tag Archives: Air and Missile Defense Radar

Navy Sees No Easy Answer to Balance Future Surface Fleet

Navy Sees No Easy Answer to Balance Future Surface Fleet

USS Spruance (DDG-111) and the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay (CG-53) line up in a formation prior to a replenishment-at-sea with the USNS Tippecanoe (T-AO-199) on March 12, 2019. US Navy Photo

THE PENTAGON – Based on the Navy’s current vision of its future fleet, the service will be too top-heavy in the coming years, having more large combatants than it says it needs and not enough small combatants. But many attractive options exist today to add lethal capabilities to these large combatants and to extend their lives, and fewer options exist to speed the growth of the small combatant fleet, leaving the Navy pondering how best to invest in its surface force, the service’s top requirements officer told USNI News. Read More

Arleigh Burke Program Manager: Flight III  Production 'On Track'

Arleigh Burke Program Manager: Flight III Production ‘On Track’

Artists rendering of the first planned Flight III Arleigh Burke destroyer, Jack H. Lucas. HII Photo

Artists rendering of the first planned Flight III Arleigh Burke destroyer, Jack H. Lucas. HII Photo

This post has been updated to clarify that a new program office for the large surface combatant has not yet been created. Capt. Casey Moton said the current Arleigh Burke program office has a major role in the development effort until a program office for LSC was stood up.

Arleigh Burke DDG-51 Flight III program is on track, with the first ship under construction and two more under contract. But making the transition from the earlier Arleigh Burke-class destroyers has required a significant number of design changes and challenges, driven mainly by the requirement to install the powerful new Raytheon AN/SPY-6 air and missile defense radar, the program manager said on Thursday. Read More

Navy's Next Large Surface Combatant Will Draw From DDG-51, DDG-1000 -- But Don't Call it a Destroyer Yet

Navy’s Next Large Surface Combatant Will Draw From DDG-51, DDG-1000 — But Don’t Call it a Destroyer Yet

Artist’s concept of a DDG-51 Flight III with AMDR. Raytheon Photo

THE PENTAGON – The Navy will buy the first of its Future Surface Combatants in 2023 – a large warship that will be built to support the Arleigh Burke Flight III combat system and will pull elements from the Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) and Zumwalt-class (DDG-1000) destroyer designs. Read More

Top Stories 2017: U.S. Navy Acquisition and Maintenance

Top Stories 2017: U.S. Navy Acquisition and Maintenance

USNI News polled its writers, naval analysts and service members on what they consider the most important military and maritime stories in 2017.

The following is part of a series. Please also see Top Stories: International AcquisitionNavy OperationsMarine Corps OperationsMarine Corps and Coast Guard AcquisitionInternational Operations and New Administration

2017 began with the promise of planning for a larger fleet: at the end of 2016, the Navy announced a 355-ship requirement, and the incoming Trump Administration expressed its support for a larger military and a heftier Navy. Few concrete steps were taken this year, though, to begin a buildup – though many programs that will be pivotal to the 355-ship fleet of the future reached significant programmatic milestones in 2017. 

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DDG-51 Flight III Design Efforts Nearly Complete; Radar, Power Systems Testing in 2018

DDG-51 Flight III Design Efforts Nearly Complete; Radar, Power Systems Testing in 2018

A crane lifts the Air and Missile Defense Radar into place for its upcoming tests at the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility, in June 2016. Raytheon photo.

WASHINGTON NAVY YARD – The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer program office has completed 3D modeling of its Flight III design upgrade and will spend 2018 testing major components of the new configuration, the program manager told USNI News. Read More

House Armed Services Committee Debates Hypoxia, LCS Buys, CVN-78 Shock Trials, Flight III Upgrade Schedule

House Armed Services Committee Debates Hypoxia, LCS Buys, CVN-78 Shock Trials, Flight III Upgrade Schedule

The House Armed Services Committee passed its annual defense bill on Thursday after a 14-hour markup, sending the bill to the full House of Representatives with no major changes to its recommended procurement profile.

Though few amendments that passed directly affect Navy and Marine Corps programs, several that failed or were withdrawn sparked serious debates about how the Navy ought to address pressing issues of the day: hypoxia concerns in the Navy’s fighter fleet, how to transition from the Littoral Combat Ship, industry’s ability to upgrade to the Flight III guided-missile destroyer design and more. Read More

Raytheon Awarded $92M Navy Contract for Future Carrier, Big Deck AESA Radars

Raytheon Awarded $92M Navy Contract for Future Carrier, Big Deck AESA Radars

Aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) sits pier side in the early morning light at Newport News Shipbuilding in 2014. US Navy Photo

Aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) sits pier side in the early morning light at Newport News Shipbuilding in 2014. US Navy Photo

Radar maker Raytheon has been awarded a $92 million contract to develop a new Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar for the U.S. Navy’s new Ford-class carrier fleet and big deck amphibious warships, company officials told USNI News on a Monday conference call. Read More

Long-Range Ship Plan: Navy to Pursue Block Buys for DDGs in 2018, SSNs in 2019

Long-Range Ship Plan: Navy to Pursue Block Buys for DDGs in 2018, SSNs in 2019

Virginia-class attack submarine Minnesota (SSN-783) under construction in 2012. US Navy Photo

Virginia-class attack submarine Minnesota (SSN-783) under construction in 2012. US Navy Photo

The Navy told Congress it would pursue a 10-ship multiyear procurement contract for its Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers in Fiscal Year 2018 as part of its newest long-range shipbuilding plan, which also announced a nine-ship attack submarine block buy and delays in several auxiliary ship programs. Read More