July 19, 2018 | International, Naval
By: David B. Larter
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy needs to get the permission of lawmakers to move $62.7 million to fix a number of hiccups in its high-tech new carrier, the Gerald R. Ford, during its post-shakedown availability that kicked off July 15.
The money, part of a larger DoD reprogramming request from June, will go toward fixing a number of issues that arose during its recently concluded post-delivery trials, according to a copy of the request obtained by Defense News.
According to the document, the Navy needs to move:
By: David Larter
The Navy told Congress in May that it was going to exceed the Ford's $12.9 billion cost cap because of needed repairs and alterations. The $62.7 million was part of that total repair bill.
The repairs and technology setbacks extended the Ford's PSA at Huntington Ingalls' Newport News Shipbuilding from eight months to 12 months, according to a statement from Naval Sea Systems Command, and significantly added to the cost. The ship will then proceed to full-ship shock trials ahead of its first deployment, a priority pushed by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., according to the document.
Since its delivery, the Ford has spent 81 days at sea during the eight times it was underway, a July 15 NAVSEA release said.
“The ship has completed 747 shipboard aircraft launches and recoveries against a plan of approximately 400,” the release said. “CVN 78 successfully completed fixed-wing aircraft/helicopter integration and compatibility testing, air traffic control center certification, JP-5 fuel system certification, daytime underway replenishment capability demonstration, ship's defensive system demonstration, Dual Band Radar testing, and propulsion plant operations.”
April 11, 2024 | International, Land
If you use FortiClientLinux, update immediately. Critical vulnerability could let attackers run code on your system. Patch now, get the details here.
September 19, 2023 | International, Aerospace, Land
As part of the contract Elbit Systems will provide several hundred SkyStriker units.
March 26, 2019 | International, Aerospace
BY MARCUS WEISGERBER The acting defense secretary's ties to the company had nothing to do with the decision, a senior defense official said Friday. The decision to buy new Boeing F-15s reflects the Pentagon's desire to keep two American companies making fighter jets into the next decade — and not the acting defense secretary's ties to the company, a senior defense official said Friday. The 2020 budget request contains $1.1 billion to buy eight F-15X jets, a new variant of an aircraft the Air Force last bought nearly a decade ago. The twin-tailed plane was chosen over Lockheed's cheaper single-engine F-16 in part to keep a second U.S. manufacturer in the tactical-jet business as the Pentagon begins exploring new technologies for a new generation of warplanes, the official said. “One of the considerations was the diversity of the industrial base,” the official said. “If we look at something as important as the tactical aircraft industrial base and we look forward into sixth-generation [fighter] production and competition and that kind of stuff,...gaining diversity in that industrial base is going to be critical.” The senior defense official emphasized that Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, who formerly worked as a Boeing executive, was not involved in the decision to buy the F-15X. Full article: https://www.defenseone.com/business/2019/03/pentagon-were-buying-f-15s-keep-2-fighter-makers-business/155773