Maritime Memos

A somewhat opinionated commentary on U.S. maritime matters.

IF THE FRENCH CAN SELL LHAs TO RUSSIA, WHY CAN'T WE?

Defense News reports that Russia is now talking to France about buying not one but four Mistral-class helicopter carriers.  Read the story here.  As you can imagine, this ticks off a lot of U.S. senators, who, having an average age of 63, are still fighting the Cold War.  But think how badly the Russian Navy would get screwed up if it had to buy ships from Northrop Grumman.  February 9, 2010.

ALAKAI STILL IN NORFOLK

Nineteen days after being mobilized for Haiti, the ex-Hawaiian SuperFerry Alakai is still in Norfolk.  Why?  February 8, 2010.

ONE DECENT WEB SITE

Here's at least one decent DOD web site, at U.S. Fleet Forces Command.  Good for Admiral Harvey.  Note the excellent map of Haiti Operations that's halfway down the page.  February 8, 2010.

US SHIPPING SCRAPS TWO MORE ITBS

Tradewinds reports that US Shipping has sold two more of its ancient ITBs for scrap.  The ITB New York went for about $3.6 million and the ITB Baltimore for about $4.5 million.  Progress, of a sort.  February 7, 2010.

DON'T LOOK TO GOVERNMENT WEB SITES FOR USEFUL INFORMATION ON THE HAITI STORY

If you want to know what's gong on in Haiti as far as the maritime side of things is concerned - you know, fixing the port facilities, latest ship deployments, putting cargo ashore, etc. - don't waste your time visiting U.S. Government web sites.  They are almost completely useless.  Visit the media portals of the Navy, MSC, MARAD and the Coast Guard to see what I mean.  The Coast Guard's is the worst, especially with that thoroughly off-putting opening question.  Badly designed web sites, astonishingly user-unfriendly, providing little or no useful information and hardly any pictures, and what info there is is far from up to date.  Where's the hard data?  What ships are where?  What are they doing?  What have they achieved so far?  What equipment are they using?  What's the plan for the next few weeks?  Do you see this kind of info anywhere?  No.  Or any decent pictures?  No again.  It's not as if this is a war and the info might be classified.  No, it's just incompetence.  Meanwhile, there's information and there are pictures out there if you have lots of time to search for them, just not on the Government web sites that you and I pay for.  February 6, 2010.

HUAKAI AT WORK IN HAITI

Army equipment coming ashore from the former Hawaiian SuperFerry.  February 5, 2010.

ANTILLEAN SHIPPING AND SEABOARD MARINE DELIVERING TO HAITI

Two more U.S. shipping companies that are pulling out all the stops for Haiti are Antillean and Seaboard.  See a series of great photographs on Antillean's web site here.  Read Seaboard's latest report here: note the high-tech pier they are using.  February 4, 2010.

INLS AT WORK IN HAITI

Three excellent pictures of the INLS handling cargo from the USNS PFC DeWayne T. Williams.  February 4, 2010.

OFFSHORE SERVICE IS $18 BILLION INDUSTRY

OMSA has just published a study of the economic impact of the offshore service industry - both shipbuilders and vessel operators.  The key conclusions are that U.S. businesses experience about $18.1 billion in new sales annually as a result of economic activities within this segment of U.S. shipbuilding and offshore vessel operations.  These new businesses help to generate about $4.6 billion in new household earnings annually for U.S. workers.  Approximately 103,160 jobs are supported by the economic activity of these segments, with average annual earnings of about $43,992.  And it is estimated that the federal government collected nearly $1.4 billion annually in taxes directly and indirectly in 2008, and $770.8 million in state and local government taxes in the same year.  Read OMSA's announcement here and the study itself hereFebruary 4, 2010.

THE NAVY'S 30-YEAR PLAN

The new 30-year plan is interesting, reflecting several changes in policy since the previous edition.  Click here to see a summary table.  I have broken down the categories defined in the plan by vessel type but, because the plan is not quite as detailed as I would have liked, I'm not 100% positive that I did it correctly.  In any case, the key points for me are:

•   Bad news for Newport News and Electric Boat as the carrier and submarine schedules are both cut back and stretched out.

•   Mixed news for Bath and Ingalls as the DDG schedule is cut back and the CG(X) goes away, but overall this schedule looks better for long-term workload planning.

•   No surprises for the LCS contractors: the planned force structure is still 55 boats.

•   Good news for Ingalls as the amphib schedule seems to be strongly supported and more logical than it was, although the LCC program goes away.

•   Excellent news for NASSCO as the MLP not only survives but will be based on NASSCO's Alaskan crude carrier design, and the next-generation T-AO, of which 19 are planned, is also to be based on a commercial design, presumably NASSCO's product carrier.

•   Wonderful news for Austal as the Navy now plans to buy 22 more JHSVs over the next 12 years, and that doesn't include the ones the Army will buy.

•   Not much else: two ASs, which would have to be built in a big yard, four T-ATFs, four T-ARSs and five T-AGOSs.

•   Note that 156 of the 276 ships in the table - about 5 ships a year - are large enough to require a big shipyard, while 120 - about 4 ships a year - can and will be built in mid-size shipyards.  How times have changed!

February 4, 2010.

THE DECLINE IN EDITING

The almost complete lack of competent editing in today's media was emphasized this morning by the headline over a long article in the New York Times about Admiral Mike Mullen.  The headline?  "General's Opposition to Gay Policy was Years in the Making".  Amazing.  February 4, 2010.

PROPOSED 28TH AMENDMENT

Have you seen the language that's being circulated?  I kinda like it and it's hard to imagine more than 535 people being against it.

"Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and Representatives; and Congress shall make no law that applies  to the Senators and Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States."

The general idea is to prevent them from exempting themselves from the laws that they inflict on the rest of us, which at present they do wholesale.  Oh, I know it's totally impractical, but just discussing it might get their attention.   February 3, 2010.

NAVY RELEASES NEW 30-YEAR SHIPBUILDING PLAN

The latest edition of the Navy's 30-year shipbuilding plan is out.  Read it here.  Comment and discussion tomorrow.  February 3, 2010.

VT HALTER DELIVERS FISHERIES RESEARCH VESSEL

VT Halter Marine has delivered the Bell M. Shimada, (R 227), the fourth of four FRVs it has been building for NOAA.  Read NOAA's announcement hereFebruary 3, 2010.

COAST GUARD ANNOUNCES OPC ACQUISITION STRATEGY

Simultaneous with the Administration's budget request of $45 million for the design of the Coast Guard's OPC, or next-generation medium-endurance cutter, the Coast Guard has announced its acquisition strategy for this program.  Read it here.  There will be three Phase I design contracts followed by a winner-takes-all construction contract.  Who are the probable competitors?  NGSB and BIW, of course, but they will be too expensive.  Bollinger, Marinette and VT Halter Marine, certainly: these three are the likely Phase I contractors.  Dark horses include Todd, Derecktor and Signal Ship Repair (ex-Bender).  And just to complicate things, wouldn't it be interesting if Austal were to have a candidate design?  February 3, 2010.

ASN "CONFIDENT" IN NGSB

The ASN(RDA), Sean Stackley, is quoted in the Newport News Daily Press as saying that "he is confident in Northrop Grumman Corp.'s ability to deliver quality ships to the Navy despite widespread problems reported last week on surface ships built at Northrop's Gulf Coast shipyards".  Read the story here.  Well, he's about the only person outside Northrop Grumman who is, and his statement is way out of line.  This is further evidence that the Navy and the big defense contractors are closely allied in their incompetence and unable to maintain a proper customer-supplier relationship.  What Stackley, whose qualifications for being ASN include having been in charge of the disastrous LPD 17 program, should have said was something like " I am no longer confident that Northrop Grumman has the ability to deliver quality ships to the Navy and I require them to take immediate and effective action to restore my confidence."  February 3/4, 2010.

NOTHING FOR TITLE XI

The entire MARAD budget request for 2011 is only $352 million, almost all of which is either for the operation of Kings Point or for subsidies to employers of Kings Point graduates.  Nothing for Title XI, which actually creates jobs in the U.S.  Why don't we just close MARAD down?   February 3, 2010.  Apostrophes deleted February 4.

AMFELS DELIVERS JACK-UP TO MEXICAN OPERATOR

The Brownsville rig builder has delivered the LeTourneau Super 116-E jack-up Tuxpan to Perforadora Central, SA.  Read the announcement here.   February 2, 2010.

NAVY BUDGET COVERS ONLY NINE SHIPS

The FY11 budget request totals $16.6 billion and provides for nine new ships.  Notable are the decision to kill the CG(X) and LCC(R) programs and the lack of any NDSF ships.  A tenth ship, a JHSV, will be paid for separately, by the Army.  February 2/5, 2010.

SC,N Program Qty. Amount ($000)   NDSF Program Qty. Amount ($000)
Carrier Replacement Program 0 2,639,569   MPF MLP 0 380,000
Virginia Class Submarine 2 5,132,688   Post Delivery and Outfitting 0 31,202
CVN Refueling Overhauls 0 1,663,836   National Def Sealift Vessel 0 1,463
DDG 1000 0 186,312   LG Med Spd Ro/Ro Maintenance 0 106,898
DDG-51 2 2,970,174   DoD Mobilization Alterations 0 25,902
Littoral Combat Ship 2 1,509,335   TAH Maintenance 0 24,384
LHA Replacement 1 949,897   Strategic Sealift Support 0 4,875
Intratheater Connector 1 180,703   Research And Development 0 28,012
Oceanographic Ships 1 88,561   Ready Reserve Force 0 332,130
Outfitting 0 306,640        
Service Craft 0 13,770        
LCAC SLEP 0 83,035        
Total SC,N 9 15,724,520   Total NDSF 0

934,866

 

COAST GUARD BUDGET INCLUDES AN NSC AND FOUR FRCs

The FY11 budget request includes $538 million for the fifth NSC; $45 million for the selection of a design for the OPC; $240 million for four more FRCs; and $42 million for ten more RB(M)s.  February 2, 2010.


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