Kratos Receives $57.6 Million Contract for 70 BQM-177A Aerial Targets

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  3 novembre 2020 | International, Naval

  BWXT CEO: Navy’s Next-Generation SSN(X) Attack Boat Will Build Off Columbia Class

  By: Sam LaGrone November 2, 2020 6:52 PM The Navy's next attack submarine will feature technology in the Columbia-class program and be significantly larger than the current class of the Virginia-class attack submarines, the chief executive of BWX Technologies said on Monday as part of the company's third-quarter earnings call. The head of the company that builds the nuclear reactors for the Navy's aircraft carriers and submarines said the follow-on to the Virginia SSN would be significantly larger than the current crop of attack boats. “We do expect it will be a larger type of submarine, probably in the size class of the Columbia, but there's not much more to tell than that. But we're working with our Navy customer in what that would look like and how we could take that into production,” Rex Geveden said. “It has the moniker SSN(X) until it gets a class name, and there's some thought, discussion and analysis. It would be the follow-on to the Virginia fast-attack submarine, and it would feather in sometime in the late 2030s.” USNI News understands that Geveden was referring to the submarine's diameter rather than its underwater displacement. The Columbia class is planned to displace about 20,000 tons – about 2,000 more than the current Ohio ballistic missile submarines. The current Virginias displace about 8,000 tons. The Columbia-class hulls are about 42-feet in diameter, while the Virginias are 36-feet wide. A wider hull for submarines can improve characteristics like stealth, allowing ship designers to build in more sound-deadening technology and allow room to develop systems to increase a boat's speed, but it is more expansive to build. The comments are in line with remarks from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, who called for the development of a more aggressive attack submarine as a lynchpin of future fleet build-up. “The advantage we have in the undersea is an advantage that we need to not only maintain, but we need to expand. I want to own the undersea for forever because I know that I can be really lethal from the undersea,” he said last month. “When you think attack boat, you're thinking, that can move around the timing and tempo of an operational commander's need to deliver ordinance on target in a timely fashion. And so it's got to be a fast sub as well.” After the Cold War, the U.S. submarine fleet pivoted from the deep-diving, heavily armed Seawolf-class of attack submarines to the Virginia-class, which was optimized to perform signals intelligence and special operations missions in the littorals. “Specifically, the Navy indicates that the next-generation attack submarine should be faster, stealthier, and able to carry more torpedoes than the Virginia class—similar to the Seawolf-class submarine,” the CBO said in late 2018. The return to a more heavily armed, faster submarine is in line with the latest National Security Strategy that places Russia and China at the top of the threat list. Geveden was optimistic on BWXT's outlook for work to build reactors for the Navy's carriers and submarines well into the future. “The nuclear operations groups has really ramped up on the first Columbia, and we are having expectational performance on that program for the Navy customer, and we anticipate another order in the next multi-year pricing agreement,” he said. “We also had an exceptional year of performance on aircraft carriers benefitting from the acceleration of the Ford-class and believe this program will continue for decades as the U.S.'s main force projection asset.” While the company is bullish on the outlook for submarine work, it remains unclear at what rate the Navy will be buying them. Like General Dynamics Electric Boat, which briefed investors last week, BWXT has not received a clear signal from the Navy that it would need to build submarines at the rate of three a year, in line with a call from Secretary of Defense Mark Esper as part of his Battle Force 2045 plan. “In the previous shipbuilding plan, there were 48 fast attack submarines. In the current one, it went to 66. Esper said he was looking at something like 70 to 80 fast attack submarines in the fleet,” Geveden said. “When we last discussed any capital needs around that, what we said was if there was a single year of a third Virginia, we could probably accommodate that without any additional buildout. We haven't evaluated a permanent three-Virginia tempo, and we haven't discussed any capital needs around that, but we would have to invest in that case.” https://news.usni.org/2020/11/02/bwxt-ceo-navys-next-generation-ssnx-attack-boat-will-build-off-columbia-class

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  2 juin 2020 | International, Naval

  All aboard the Sea Train!

  Imagine the following scenario. Four medium-sized U.S. Navy vessels depart from a port along the United States' coast. There's no crew aboard any of them. About 15 nautical miles off the coast, the four vessels rendezvous, autonomously arranging themselves in a line. Using custom mechanisms, they attach to each other to form a train, except they're in the water and there's no railroad to guide them. In this configuration the vessels travel 6,500 nautical miles across the open ocean to Southeast Asia. But as they approach their destination, they disconnect, splitting up as each unmanned ship goes its own way to conduct independent operations, such as collecting data with a variety of onboard sensors. Once those operations are complete, the four reunite, form a train and make the return journey home. This is the Sea Train, and it may not be as far-fetched as it sounds. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is investing in several technologies to make it a reality. “The goal of the Sea Train program is to be able to develop and demonstrate long-range deployment capabilities for a distributed fleet of medium-sized tactical unmanned vessels,” said Andrew Nuss, DARPA's program manager for Sea Train. “So we're really focusing on ways to enable extended transoceanic transit and long-range naval operations, and the way that we're looking to do that is by taking advantage of some of the efficiencies that we can gain in a system of connected vessels — that's where the name ‘Sea Train' comes from.” According to DARPA, the current security environment has incentivized the Navy and the Marine Corps to move from a small number of exquisite, large manned platforms to a more distributed fleet structure comprised of smaller vessels, including unmanned platforms that can conduct surveillance and engage in electronic warfare and offensive operations. While these unmanned vessels are smaller and more agile than their large, manned companions, they are limited by the increased wave-making resistance that plagues smaller vessels. And due to their size, they simply can't carry enough fuel to make the long-range journeys envisioned by DARPA without refueling. By connecting the vessels — physically or in a formation — the agency hopes the Sea Train can reduce that wave resistance and enable long-range missions. In February, the agency released a broad agency announcement to find possible vendors. Citing agency practice, Nuss declined to share how many proposals were submitted, although he did say there was significant interest in the announcement. The agency completed its review of any submissions and expects to issue contracts by the end of the fiscal year. Sea Train is expected to consist of two 18-month periods, where contractors will work to develop and test technologies that could enable the Sea Train concept. The program will culminate with model testing in scaled ocean conditions. If successful, DARPA hopes to see the technologies adopted by the Navy for its unmanned platforms. “What we're looking to do is be able to reduce the risk in this unique deployment approach,” Ness said. “And then be able to just deliver that set of solutions to the Navy in the future, to be able to demonstrate to them that there is, potentially, a new way to deploy these vessels, to be able to provide far more operational range without the risk of relying on actual refueling or in-port refueling.” And while DARPA's effort is focused on medium-sized unmanned vessels — anywhere from 12 to 50 meters in length — the lessons learned could be applied to larger or smaller vessels, manned or unmanned. https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/2020/06/01/all-aboard-the-sea-train/

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  7 août 2019 | International, Aérospatial

  Here’s why Boeing is getting $55.5M to fix a problem with the Air Force’s new tanker

  By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The Air Force will pay up to $55.5 million for Boeing to redesign the KC-46's boom, but it will cost more than that to field a fix to the problem. According to a Aug. 2 contract announcement, the award will pay for a “system level hardware and software critical design review of the boom telescope actuator redesign,” and Boeing will receive $21 million of the proposed award value immediately. But because the contract has yet to be definitized, Boeing could receive up to $55.5 million once terms of the deal are cemented. And since initial award only covers the redesign of the boom — not the costs of testing, fabricating and retrofitting the new booms on existing aircraft — it stands to reason that the Air Force will owe additional money to Boeing to completely fix the issue. Unlike the other remaining critical deficiencies on the KC-46 program, the Air Force has agreed to foot the cost of fixing the boom problem, as it is a change in the service's initial requirements. Boeing's current boom design meets international standards for thrust resistance, and the Air Force accepted that design at Milestone C in 2016, when the KC-46 was cleared for production. But later flight tests demonstrated that the boom produces too much thrust resistance to refuel the A-10, necessitating a change in design. In January, an Air Force official told Defense News the process of redesigning and manufacturing the new booms could take about two years. The Air Force plans to buy 179 KC-46s over the life of the program. After years of delays due to technical issues, the service signed off to accept the first tanker in January, which was then delivered to McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., later that month. The KC-46 made its first flight for the initial operational test and evaluation phase on June 4 at McConnell AFB. Boeing is on the hook to pay for the other major critical deficiency: a redesign of the Remote Vision System, a collection of cameras and sensors that allow the boom operator to steer the boom into the fuel receptacle of the receiving aircraft. The service became aware of this problem after pilots experienced difficulties directing the boom during refueling, sometimes scraping the surface of the receiver aircraft — a mistake that could compromise the low observable coating of stealth aircraft. Despite this issue, the Air Force has decided to accept KC-46 tankers so that pilots can begin training with the new aircraft. However, the service is withholding up $28 million per plane in order to incentivize Boeing to move quickly on a redesigned RVS. About $360 million has been withheld so far, according to Defense One. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/08/06/heres-why-boeing-is-getting-555m-to-fix-a-problem-with-the-air-forces-new-tanker/