Back to news

March 20, 2024 | International, Naval

Navy 30-year shipbuilding plan relies on more money, industry capacity

The Navy says it needs 381 ships and can get there by 2042 — assuming shipyards deliver on time and the Navy gets all the money it requests.

https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2024/03/20/navy-30-year-shipbuilding-plan-relies-on-more-money-industry-capacity/

On the same subject

  • Navy Inks Deal For New Unmanned Fleet

    July 14, 2020 | International, Naval

    Navy Inks Deal For New Unmanned Fleet

    The $34 million deal marks the service's first real thrust to get unmanned ships into the water, despite Congressional worries the service is moving too fast. By PAUL MCLEARYon July 13, 2020 at 5:37 PM WASHINGTON: Despite deep and bipartisan skepticism from Capitol Hill over its plans to build three new classes of unmanned warships, the Navy went ahead today with its plans to begin building as many as 40 Medium Unmanned Surface Vessels. The service awarded L3 Technologies Inc. a $34.9 million contract for a prototype MUSV, along with an option for up to eight additional ships. If the company builds those eight unmanned ships, the contract will be worth $281 million through June 2027. Overall, the Navy wants to build about 40 MUSVs in coming years, which will clock in at between 45 to 190 feet long, with displacements of roughly 500 tons. The medium ships are thought to skew more toward mission modules revolving around intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance payloads and electronic warfare systems. In their versions of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, however, both the House and Senate told the Navy to slow down on its acquisition of some unmanned ships, specifically the Large Unmanned Surface Vessel. Both documents boost Congressional oversight over the LUSV, an ambitious new ship the Navy hoped to begin building in 2023. While the MUSV will focus on gathering intelligence, the LUSV will act as a forward-deployed missile launcher, bristling with missile tubes and other weapons, Navy planners have said. Lawmakers are looking to ensure the Navy finalizes its design and operational plans before building the larger ship, something the service has struggled with as it built other classes such as the Littoral Combat Ship, the Ford class of aircraft carriers, and the Zumwalt destroyers, all of which fell behind schedule, went over budget and struggled with new technologies. “USVs are one of the centerpieces of distributed maritime operations,” Rear Adm. Casey Moton, head of the Unmanned and Small Combatants office, said last month at a U.S. Naval Institute event. The ships will act as platforms to enable the fleet to spread out and counter China's ambitions in the Pacific either as a forward screen for a carrier strike group or as vessels pressed forward with an acceptable risk of attrition. The Navy hasn't yet fully prepared to deploy or sustain a new fleet of unmanned vessels, Capt. Pete Small, program manager for unmanned maritime systems said in May. “Our infrastructure right now is optimized around manned warships,” Small said. “We're gonna have to shift that infrastructure for how we prepare, deploy, and transit” over large bodies of water before the navy begins churning out unmanned ships in greater numbers, he added. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/07/navy-inks-deal-for-new-unmanned-fleet

  • US Air Force looks to small businesses for an AI-integrated simulator

    June 27, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Other Defence

    US Air Force looks to small businesses for an AI-integrated simulator

    By: Kelsey Reichmann WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force is hosting an innovation contest for small businesses to improve simulators with technology like artificial intelligence. The Air Force released a list of areas in which it's interested, including interoperability among networked simulators; cloud-based simulators; and performance-based training, data collection and analysis. Maj. Patrick Kawonczyk, who will lead the Simulators Pitch Day event Dec. 4, told Defense News that artificial intelligence can be used “within a learning management system to suggest techniques, tactics or procedures, which need to be practiced more for proficiency.” Kawonczyk added that AI could benefit the service by improving data analysis, conceptual developmental ideas and predictive analysis in maintenance. “AI bridges the gap between the human and machine interface,” Col. Philip Carpenter, the senior materiel leader with the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center's Simulator Program Office, said in an email. “It helps orchestrate the interaction with a student and then presents learning material in response to a student's performance. This allows better customization and can help address the unique needs of each student.” Proposals from industry are due July 1, after which a two-week evaluation process will occur and then a one-week contracting period, according to an Air Force news release. The proposal period will be broken up into two phases. The first will involve awards to small businesses, which can then submit proposals for the second phase. “Select companies with Phase I or Phase II proposals will be invited to present to an Air Force panel at the Simulators Pitch Day event Dec. 4 in Orlando, Florida,” the release said. After the Simulators Pitch Day, all companies involved can present pitches to defense industry executives and venture capitalists at a media event, the release notes. “We are not asking small business to go out and invent something new,” Margaret Merkle, program manager in the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center's Simulators Division, said in the news release. “We are asking if they have technology that we can leverage for the Air Force. Ultimately the idea is to connect with industry which will help us move into the latest technological space faster.” https://www.defensenews.com/training-sim/2019/06/25/us-air-force-looks-to-small-business-for-an-ai-integrated-simulator/

  • New testing begins on new GE/Air Force 'adaptive' engine

    September 10, 2021 | International, Aerospace

    New testing begins on new GE/Air Force 'adaptive' engine

    Wright-Patt oversees as GE begins testing on new adaptive engine

All news