Naval News Today
Sub funding gets boost from Armed Services Committee
The House Armed Services Committee voted Wednesday to add money to sustain a doubling of submarine production beginning in 2010, a year earlier than the Navy planned.
Faced with a dwindling submarine fleet, lawmakers are pushing the Navy to buy two submarines a year instead of one as quickly as possible. Northrop Grumman’s Newport News shipyard builds submarines in a joint partnership with General Dynamics’ Electric Boat yard in Connecticut.
Last week, the House seapower subcommittee added $300 million as a down payment to buy two submarines in 2010. But the Navy would then buy only one in 2011, before resuming to two a year beginning in 2012.
The full committee upped the ante Wednesday by providing an additional $422 million down payment to buy two submarines in 2011 as well.
The Navy says it needs 48 attack submarines, but its long-range shipbuilding plan would leave the military with as few as 41 submarines in future decades unless production is increased.
Military: Gunmen in Nigeria oil region hijack boat
Unidentified gunmen in Nigeria’s restive south have hijacked an oil-services vessel carrying 11 crew members, the military said Wednesday.
The hijackers are demanding about $250,000 for the release of the boat and the crew, including one Portuguese and one Ukrainian, said military spokesman Maj. Sagir Musa.
The boat, used for maintaining oil infrastructure in Africa’s biggest petroleum producer, was taken on Tuesday in the southern Niger Delta, Musa said. The situation remained unresolved Wednesday, he said, giving no further details.
Raytheon says anti-submarine torpedo tests successful
Raytheon is hoping its experimental “Fish Hawk” torpedo can do for anti-submarine warfare what so-called “smart bombs” did for air-to-ground warfare.
The Waltham-based defense giant said yesterday it has successfully tested a new “high altitude anti-submarine” torpedo that was recently dropped from a 15,000-foot high aircraft and hit its designated target off the coast of Florida.
The Fish Hawk is basically a kit of wings and highly sophisticated GPS and navigational systems that are attached to a regular lightweight torpedo.
The technology is similar to GPS-guided “smart bombs” that also have fins that direct a bomb’s flight to a target.
A Raytheon spokesman said the intent of Fish Hawk is to avoid having aircraft dip to as low as 500 feet above water before dropping a precision-guided torpedo that hunts down enemy subs.
Local company’s offshore platforms to battle piracy
A Titusville company has a preliminary agreement with the Nigerian government for a $750 million contract to provide an offshore security system designed to combat piracy off the coast of the West African nation.
SeaAway will provide offshore platforms and buoys — called the Sea Sentinel system — as part of the Nigerian contract, in addition to training security personnel to staff the system, said Titusville resident Stephan Kroecker, the company’s founder and chairman.
“Nigeria has become the No. 1 nation for piracy, so much so that it’s having an effect on the economy,” Kroecker said.
Officials: Navy jet drops bomb, misses target, sparks fire
Officials are investigating how a Navy fighter jet from Virginia dropped a 500-pound laser-guided bomb a mile off target and sparked a wildfire in the Ocala National Forest in Florida.
Naval Air Station Jacksonville says about 150 acres burned after an F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter dropped a bomb that landed outside the target range.
The jet that dropped the bomb was from Strike Fighter Squadron 213, based out of Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
U.S. Forest Service fire management officer Mike Drayton told the Ocala Star Banner Tuesday’s fire was contained. He said no structures were damaged and no one was hurt in the blaze.
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Bio: I currently teach security studies at the graduate level, hold a BS in management and a MA in national security studies, and am pursuing a MA in systematic and philosophical theology. I've written for Navy Times, Proceedings, Armed Forces Journal and a number of blogs. As a 24-year veteran of the U.S. Navy and Navy Reserve, I attained the rank of Commander, deployed five times for four different conflicts and served as a Foreign Area Officer and a Surface Warfare Officer. During my seven years in the private sector, I worked in the fields of information technology and publishing, and even ran for public office once.
