In Press: NextNavy with the National Defense Industrial Association

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 […]

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Dear Virginia-class Program Office: Get yer story straight

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 […]

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T-AO(X) accelerated: Will total tanker purchase grow too?

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 […]

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In Press: Stoking the soft-power arms race!

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, […]

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In Press: Sacramento Bee covers the USS Iowa

September 9, 2010

I had a chance to chat via email with Sac Bee scribe Jeff Mitchell on the debacle that is the USS Iowa preservation movement. That exchange provoked a

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Virginia Class: When does hull coating separation endanger the boat?

September 6, 2010

UPDATE: Interested news media can contact Craig Hooper at craig.hooper@nextnavy.com. After the Pentagon’s top weapons tester at DOT&E released a scathing report on the Virginia Class sub’s tendency to shed it’s sound-dampening hull coating, Alan Baribeau, the Naval Sea Systems Command’s talking head for the Virginia Class program office, told Inside the Navy (sorry, no […]

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Tim Colton Tours Austal Shipyard….

September 1, 2010

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The LCS Decision: Lockheed Spins DOD Buzz (UPDATED)

August 30, 2010

If you want to see the latest odd twist on the Littoral Combat Ship contest, go read this piece over at DOD Buzz. It is a beautiful example of Lockheed-generated spin–spin so desperate and contrived I wonder if something happened recently to make the wheels come off the LCS-1 bid. DOD Buzz reports, all in […]

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The LCS Decision: LCS-2 Will Win

August 20, 2010

Yes, the decks are stacked against my guess, but…I’m gonna put my chips on the table here. I think the LCS-2 will win the LCS sweepstakes this fall. By the end of September, even! First, all that internal volume in LCS-2 has a quality all it’s own. If we plan to use the LCS as […]

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Meet the 23rd Secretary of Defense:

August 17, 2010

Just a wild and unsupported guess, but you heard it here first…Should Gates leave office to run for the presidency or something, the next SECDEF will be Ray Mabus. Seriously, If SECNAV Mabus were a stock, I’d buy, buy, buy… (And as an extra bonus, here’s a neat picture of the next SECDEF chatting with […]

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