by Craig Hooper on September 30, 2010
San Francisco Fleet Week is a community effort. Fleet Week organizers (myself included) worked hard to raise the $1.2 million dollars we needed to throw an appropriately-sized gala for the Navy and Marine Corps. Many local companies dug deep. Some gave until it hurt. Everybody from Google Earth to Solazyme to Bank of America to […]
by Craig Hooper on September 28, 2010
The indefatigable Peter Frost from the Newport News Daily Press sunk his teeth into the Virginia Class sub-skin failures (which we have been covering here, here and here), leading to a nice article that, earlier this week, bounced the ball down-field a good bit. Sharing a story with the grand-old-man of naval observation, Norman Polmar, […]
by Craig Hooper on September 28, 2010
The IDF is facing a manning problem. According to Ha’aretz, the Israeli Defense Forces’ sub fleet is working to expand the submariner pipeline, growing from three sub teams to a total of ten. Are women going to be a part of this new cadre? Look, finding enough guys capable of completing the grueling training cycle […]
by Craig Hooper on September 25, 2010
UPDATE: Interested news media can contact Craig Hooper at craig.hooper@nextnavy.com. Earlier this week, the Virginia Class Program Office indulged in some nimble footwork to minimize the scope of their emergent hull treatment debonding problem. First, they told observers that only three of the first four Virginia-class subs suffered the most serious hull treatment failures–the USS […]
by Craig Hooper on September 24, 2010
So Austal CEO, Bob Browning, is leaving Austal. As of November 15. What does it mean? As somebody who has written about Bob Browning before–here and here–I can’t resist the opportunity to speculate as to what Bob is up to. In press, the only real hint comes from al.com, that says: Browning, who lives in […]
by Craig Hooper on September 23, 2010
Sooo…who remembers, waaay back in February 2009, when a desperate NAVSEA was looking to get 3-5 tons off the LCS-1? Remember what they wanted to take out? I do. From Janes: Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) told Jane’s that officials are considering taking out components “that have become unused on the finished ship”. The proposed […]
by Craig Hooper on September 21, 2010
I joined the President of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, C. Michael Petters and Dave Heebner, the executive vice-president of General Dynamics Marine Systems, in a NDIA post on recent shipbuilding developments (i.e. the T-AO(X) acceleration). Here’s what Sandra Erwin, the Editor of their flagship National Defense Magazine, included of my interview: Lumping the T-AO(X) acceleration with […]
by Craig Hooper on September 21, 2010
UPDATE: Interested news media can contact Craig Hooper at craig.hooper@nextnavy.com. Don’t bother asking the Virginia Program Office (PMS-450) when they noticed the Special Hull Treatment was prone to debond, because they don’t know. The Program Office’s story changes by the month. Here’s their story as of July 15, 2010–the Virginia Program Office to Inside The […]
by Craig Hooper on September 16, 2010
I am not funded by any shipyard, but, for the past several months–on my own swiftly depleting savings, so to speak–I have been pressing for the next-generation, double-hulled T-AO(X) program. Tomorrow, if the early reports are valid, the SECNAV will formally announce the acceleration of the T-AO(X) program–starting procurement of the first hull in 2014 […]
by Craig Hooper on September 12, 2010
Erstwhile NextNavy amigo Christopher Albon and I pounded out another call for more U.S. hospital ships–a second Great White Fleet, as it were. After watching many calls for new–or more–hospital ships go ignored, I can only wonder if things might change now that some new hospital ships, supported by a well-funded and savvy diplomatic corps, […]