Free Republic

Ship christenings at Newport News Shipbuilding are typically a who's who of political figures, and Saturday's event honoring the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford is no exception. Past aircraft carrier christenings have drawn presidents to the shipyard, but not this time. A shipyard spokeswoman said Ford administration figures — Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and chief of staff (and eventual veep) Dick Cheney — will be there. Democratic heavyweight Carl Levin, a senator from Ford's home state of Michigan, will also be on hand. President Barack Obama, who gave a major policy speech on sequestration at the shipyard in February,...

Modern Man Tries to Build a 3,500 Year Old Boat from the Bronze Age and Fails A team of people from 2012 tried to re-create and build a boat from 1550 BC, the Bronze Age, but failed spectacularly. When the ship was lowered into the ocean, it immediately filled with water and started sinking. Yikes, we suck. The team was made up of British archaeologists and craftsmen who have been hammering away and building the boat with Bronze Age tools and methods for the past three months. The boat it was based on, used oak planks sewn together with yew...

Russian Navy orders 3 more Krivak IV class frigates Russia's United Shipbuilding Corporation said on Wednesday it has signed a contract with the Defense Ministry on the construction of another three Krivak IV class frigates for the Russian Navy. The new contract under the 2011 state defense order stipulates the construction of the warships by 2016. The first three Krivak IV class frigates are being built at the Yantar Shipyard in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad. The warships are expected to enter service with Russia's Black Sea Fleet based on the Crimean peninsula. A Krivak IV class frigate is equipped...

Korea to Export Military Vessels to India, Indonesia Korea is expected to sell minesweepers worth US$500 million to India and submarines worth $1-1.2 billion to Indonesia, a government official said on Thursday. They are the country's biggest arms exports so far, exceeding even the $400 million sale of T-50 supersonic trainer jets to Indonesia. "Outbidding an Italian rival early this year, a Korean firm has been chosen as the priority negotiating partner for India's minesweeper project," a government source said. "The negotiations are in their final stage and the contract will likely be signed as early as August." India is...

Overdue and over budget: $8bn destroyer plan in crisis EXCLUSIVE Cameron Stewart From: The Australian BITTER infighting has erupted between government and industry over the nation's largest defence project, the $8 billion plan to build the navy's new air warfare destroyers, which is two years late and hundreds of millions of dollars over budget. The government was yesterday forced to admit publicly that the flagship project was badly behind schedule after it became aware The Australian had the story and was planning to publish it today. Insiders say the plan to build three 6500-tonne destroyers is in crisis barely a...

'India eyes mega-Navy spend - $50 bn' Agencies Posted: May 16, 2011 at 1641 hrs Singapore India is to invest USD 46.96 billion as part of moves to boost up its naval forces over the next 20 years adding 101 new warships, ranging from sophisticated destroyers to nuclear submarines. "Going by the investment value, India is expected to build sophisticated destroyers, new generation and new radar vessels, nuclear submarines, and amphibious ships," Naval analyst Bob Nugent and vice president of the United States-based AMI International, said here today. Speaking at a pre-event press conference for the International Maritime Defence Exhibition...

East/West Divide Grows In the International Navy Shipbuilding Business June 2011 By Stew Magnuson The United Arab Emirates’ new corvette-class ship sat along the dock at a recent trade show. Its manufacturer, Abu Dhabi Shipbuilding, wanted to show off its indigenously built vessel and it was the main attraction at the first ever NAVDEX exhibition, a new section to the Middle East’s largest arms show, IDEX, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. But little of what the company featured came from the UAE. The design of the planned fleet of six Baynunah-class ships originated at Constructions Mecaniques de Normandie of...

Successful Launch of Second Multi Mission Frigate for the Royal Moroccan Navy (Source: Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding; issued Feb. 4, 2011) At Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding in Vlissingen, on February 2, the second Multi-Mission Frigate under construction for the Royal Moroccan Navy, was rolled out of the assembly hall. The 98 metre-long ship has been constructed entirely on land at the DSNS yard at Vlissingen-East and is now ready, on schedule, to be completed at the Vlissingen-City shipyard. Heavy Lifting and Transport company Mammoet Europe B.V., moved the 1700 ton vessel from the assembly hall to the pontoon after which...

Russian's new mega-yacht leaves German dockyard one year late Berlin - The biggest luxury yacht on the planet, the 535- foot Eclipse, on Thursday left the German dockyard where it was built, presumably bound for delivery to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. Legends have surrounded the huge white boat ever since its keel was laid down in a Hamburg dockyard. It is being delivered a year late, reportedly because of a dispute with Abramovich over the price. Some insiders claimed this week the wallpaper was manta-ray leather and the decoration included real fossils. But they denied claims in British tabloids that...

NEWPORT NEWS — — Foreign ownership of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s nuclear shipbuilding business "would present significant challenges" for the U.S. Navy, a spokesman said Monday. Northrop, whose Newport News shipyard is the sole manufacturer and refueler of the Navy's nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and one of two to build nuclear-powered Navy submarines, said last week it is seeking strategic alternatives for its shipbuilding enterprise, which includes selling or spinning off the unit.

The stakes could not be higher. When the Navy later this year picks a winner to build its littoral combat ship, no matter which contractor is selected, the decision will be seen as a turning point for the troubled program. For the Navy, it will be a chance to prove it can acquire relatively affordable ships. When LCS was first conceived earlier this decade, it was supposed to cost $220 million, but the price tag eventually more than doubled. Now, with a new acquisition strategy, Navy officials are hopeful that they can carry the program through, and procure 66 ships...

Russia's Black Sea Fleet based in Ukraine's Crimea will receive new frigate-type vessels and diesel-powered submarines by 2015, a top naval officer said Friday. The unnamed admiral gave his reaction to RIA Novosti on some media reports that had earlier said at least two corvettes and three subs would join the Black Sea Fleet within the next five years. "In line with the approved shipbuilding program and armaments program until 2015, the Black Sea Fleet is to receive two frigates and three diesel submarines," the admiral said, stressing that he indeed meant frigates, which are capable of traveling much longer...

This year’s report reflects the naval capabilities projected to meet the challenges the nation faces over the next three decades of the 21st century. The structure requirements articulated in this report are based upon the 313-ship force originally set forth in the FY 2005 Naval Force Structure Assessment that was reported to Congress and referred to by the Chief of Naval Operations in his FY 2009 budget testimony, as amended by decisions made by the Secretary of Defense in the FY 2010 President’s Budget as well as decisions made during the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). As such, the battle...

The big question for the Navy in advance of the QDR and the 2011 budget release was would DOD reconcile the growing gap between the Navy’s shipbuilding and funding plans? The answer is no. They didn’t even try. The QDR pretty much defers on the subject of tying future shipbuilding to strategy. There is some vague talk in the document about the need for the Navy and the Air Force to jointly develop an air-​​sea battle concept to ensure power projection, but it provides no further details. As for the Navy budget, the 2011 request increases funding for new ship...

You could say that the three biggest challenges facing the U.S. Navy's shipbuilding program are money, money, and money. The service has a clear vision of how to construct a networked, flexible fleet suitable for use across the spectrum of conflict. But it only gets $13-14 billion per year to build the warships that will populate that fleet. That isn't much for a country that relies on its Navy every day to sustain nuclear deterrence, assure free transit of sea lanes, and carry the global war on terror to the enemy. However, with the government borrowing $4 billion per day...

Many species of marine creatures are very well suited to their watery environment, with precisely arranged gas exchange organs, properly angled eyeball parts, and streamlined bodies with appropriate musculature for expert swimming. They also have a continuously sloughing slime layer that lubricates their underwater motion. Rahul Ganguli of Teledyne Scientific in California is experimenting with ways to provide a similar slime for ship hulls to glide through water more efficiently...

Five words would change law, have big impact on ocean carriers and shippers All U.S.-flag ships in international commerce would have to be built in the United States if language approved July 9 by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee becomes law. Shippers of government-impelled cargo such as food aid, project or military cargo that require U.S. flag vessels for transport would likely incur higher rates. Experts said it would be impossible to calculate how much, but owners would have to recover the higher relative cost of building a ship in the U.S. The change — spelled out in...

> "What should the Navy look like? It should look like it can build ships," said Lehman, who led the service for six years in the Reagan administration. "They should sound like they know what they are doing and that it can execute the plan. That today, is not the case." >

The Navy took delivery of its newest aircraft carrier, USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), from Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding. George H.W. Bush is the 10th and final Nimitz-class aircraft carrier.

It's a boom to business for a Marinette County shipbuilder, where a government contract saved hundreds of jobs. The news broke late Monday afternoon that Marinette Marine was signed to share a $1 billion contract to build one of two Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) for the U.S. Navy. "I hope it is a big burst of enthusiasm out in the shipyard to know that there won't be any additional layoffs," Marc Jamo, contracts manager for Marinette Marine, said. "The way the economy was, everyone was very much afraid. This is the only place in town holding its own, so it...