The Need for [U.S. Navy Shipbuilding] Speed
The Navy wants, and needs, more ships; but it can’t build them fast enough.While the U.S. Navy aims to achieve a 355-ship fleet, it is decommissioning older (and some not so old) ships at about the same rate it's adding new ones.A Congressional Research Service report stated that, as of April 17, 2023, the Navy included 296 battle force ships. "The Navy projects that under its FY2024 budget submission, the Navy would include 293 battle force ships at the end of FY2024 and 291 battle force ships at the end of FY2028."But there is progress…
Navy Prepares Remote Minehunting System as Future Asset
The Navy completed technical evaluation and training of the Remote Minehunting System (RMS) aboard USS Bainbridge (DDG-96) in Panama City on July 28. The evaluation enables the Navy to continue training on the system, designed as part of the mine warfare mission package for the littoral combat ship. "This is all in preparation for the operational evaluation (OPEVAL) to be conducted in the South Florida Test Facility this September," said Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City RMS Project Engineer Keith Hartless. Senior Chief Mineman Paul King of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Mine Countermeasure (MCM) Detachment 1 praised RMS as cutting-edge technology during his pierside preparations. "This is the future in the making," said King.
Navy Evaluates Remote Minehunting System
The Navy completed technical evaluation and training of the remote minehunting system (RMS) aboard USS Bainbridge (DDG-96) in July 28. The evaluation enables the Navy to continue training on the system, designed as part of the mine warfare mission package for the Littoral Combat Ship. "This is all in preparation for the operational evaluation (OPEVAL) to be conducted in the South Florida Test Facility this September," said Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City RMS Project Engineer Keith Hartless.
NAVFAC Southeast Awards Contract for Littoral Warfare Systems Facility
Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southeast awarded a $12.5 million contract on April 28 to Harry Pepper & Associates, Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla. for the design and construction of a Littoral Warfare Systems Facility at Naval Support Activity Panama City, Fla. The Littoral Warfare Systems Facility will be a center of excellence for research, development and integration of existing and future adaptive force packages. These modular and deployable packages will provide warfighting capability to nontraditional and unconventional maritime platforms within Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Panama City Division's global maritime partnerships.
LCS Mine Warfare Sailors Complete RMS Operational Assessment
The Remote Minehunting System (RMS) successfully completed the test phase of a formal Operational Assessment designed to validate the system's mine hunting capabilities and operational availability on Aug. 21 at Lockheed Martin’s Riveria Beach, Fla., Test Facility. The RMS is one of several next-generation Naval mine countermeasure systems being developed by the Navy. The two Engineering Development Model (EDM) RMS systems will be formally accepted by the Navy in the very near future. The objective of the Operational Assessment was to demonstrate the last two items remaining in RMS development; system availability and crew training.
LCS Mission Packages Being Assembled, Tested at Panama City
As the first two Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) seaframes are taking shape, the first mission packages are being assembled and tested at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) in Panama City, Fla. LCS will be a reconfigurable, focused-mission ship that employs modular mission packages to counter anti-access threats in the littoral from mines, submarines and small, fast attack boats. “It has a very focused mission in a particular operating environment against very specific threats,” said Capt. Walt Wright, program manager for LCS Mission Modules in the Navy’s Program Executive Office for Littoral and Mine Warfare. “We’re bringing a large number of individual systems primarily focused on unmanned platforms -- unmanned underwater vehicles…
Sea SLICE Provides Glimpse of Future
As first reported in the July edition of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News, Lockheed Martin's Sea SLICE advanced technology demonstration vessel recently provided the Navy a sneak peak of a small, fast, stable ship with multi-mission modularity in its role as a Littoral Combat Ship surrogate in the Navy's Fleet Battle Experiment - Juliet, which took place along the San Diego coast from July 24 - August 7. Arriving in San Diego with no combat systems aboard in early June, the ship was transformed in less than a month into a bristling littoral combatant complete with: the 35-mm Millennium Gun; NetFires missile launching system; FLIR Systems Inc.
