Future maritime security
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In continuing the discussion sparked by my recent DefenseOne.com proposal to build a new National Shipyard, let’s take a few minutes to examine maintenance work-load estimates. Even though low-balling the cost of operations and maintenance is an old, long-standing habit in certain parts of the Pentagon, the game is no longer fun, and it needs […]
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I published a commentary over at DefenseOne.com last week, suggesting that the Navy commission a new public shipyard. You can read it here, but the general gist is this: The U.S. Navy’s four public shipyards are overwhelmed. Budget documents show that their workload exceeds their capacity by 117 to 153 percent — that is, there’s too much to get done […]
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The misguided drumbeat to privatize America’s four remaining public shipyards is proceeding apace. The latest volley, fired by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), is a September 2018 report, “Comparing the Costs of Submarine Maintenance at Public and Private Shipyards.” CBO researchers looked at the DSRA costs (Docking Selected Restricted Availability) for SSN-688s over the PAST […]
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What is Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) going to offer for the FFG(X) competition? America is in the midst of a multi-billion-dollar competition for the next surface combatant, and HII–after years of gleeful anti-LCS rabble-rousing, agitating for FFG(X) and showing all kinds of notional National Security Cutter (NSC)-based FFG(X) prototypes–has gone completely and utterly quiet. Why […]
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With all the fun and excitement of Washington’s Sea/Air/Space exposition, it was easy to overlook one of the more interesting and consequential displays of the show. Most observers missed it–because this Huntington Ingalls offering was stuck off on a tractor-trailer, off the display floor. It was parked way out back, beyond the reach of the […]
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A few decades and a couple defense cuts ago, some wise ‘ole marketer floated the concept that America’s national security depended upon the guaranteed health of the (then) six “large” U.S. naval shipyards: Northrop Grumman’s Avondale, Ingalls and Newport News yards and General Dynamics’ Bath Ironworks, NASSCO and Electric Boat acquisitions. This idea of a […]
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In naval shipbuilding, General Dynamics is crushing the competition. They are simply outthinking and out-maneuvering everyone. It’s not a twist of fate, either–they’re reaping the rewards of a lot of solid strategic thinking and years of strategic positioning. They’re hitting at all cylinders. Over at today’s Defense News, Chris Cavas gives us all a lesson on […]
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It has been great to see Virginia Class sub builders race each other to drive down cost and schedule. But when these competitive pressures start to impact crew safety, we all need to step back, take a few deep breaths, and re-evaluate. For the PCU North Dakota, the pressure to make schedule–and improve upon the […]
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Despite some recent balance sheet successes from Navy Shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) and a one-year reprieve on downsizing the nuclear carrier fleet, the company’s mid-term prospects are very worrisome. This opinion stands as something of a contrarian view. And it certainly disagrees with Wall Street–after HII peeled away from Northrop Grumman in early 2011, […]
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With the Navy’s stunning elimination of the DDG-1000 composite deckhouse and the subsequent handoff of all Huntington-Ingalls DDG-1000 work to Bath Ironworks, a bigger story has gone un-discussed–what makes the Navy’s preference for shipyard work-share–a model that helped the Virginia Class Submarine become a major procurement success–actually work? For the uninitiated, the Navy’s work-share concept […]
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Contact Craig Hooper:
Email Contact: craig.hooper@nextnavy.com
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This is a personal endeavor. The content available on NEXTNAVY.COM is solely the opinion of the author and does not represent the opinions of his employer(s).
RECENT REVIEWS:
A stakeholder on "Running on empty":Recent Publications
"The U.S. Needs a New Public Shipyard," DefenseOne, January 16, 2019.
"It took Comfort 39 Days to Get Pierside in Puerto Rico: That's a National Security Problem," DefenseOne, November 6, 2017.
"Marine National Monuments are Defense Assets," DefenseOne, September 19, 2017.
"Restoring American Seapower: A New Fleet Architecture for the U.S. Navy," Center For Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, 2017.
"The real game-changers of the Pacific Basin," Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute, April 2011; 137
"China at sea," Hoover Digest, March 2011; 2.
"Running on empty,"Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute, October 2010; 136: 60-65.
"Nobody asked me, but...the Olympia needs our help," Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute, July 2010; 136: 10-11.
"'Get off the fainting couch': Stop worrying and start managing the Chinese ASBM threat," Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute, April 2010; 136: 42-47.
"Ospreys mean less at home," The North County Times/The Californian, January 3, 2010.
"America’s fading legacy in the Pacific," The Los Angeles Times, June 5, 2009.
"Preparing for the next big quake," The Berkeley Daily Planet, April 30-May 6, 2009; 11(5); Page 13.
"The Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle: A poster child for next-war-it is?," Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute, November 2008; 134: 22-26.
"To win hearts and minds, give Coast Guard new hospital ships," National Defense Magazine, November 2008; 93: 28. With James Doblow
"Don’t hate San Francisco! Engage, don’t estrange," Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute. October 2007; 133: 64-68.
"Going down with the ships," The Washington Post, March 5, 2007.
""LCS: A step, not an end - correspondence," Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute. February 2007; 133: 6-7.
"Communicable Disease Control in California," White Paper for 2007 California Health Strategy Summit. With R.J. Melton and G. Rutherford.
"The peril of power: Navigating natural gas infrastructure," Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute. June 2006; 132: 40-44.
"Emerging issues in natural gas security: Does perception management mask reality?," In Proceedings of Environment Canada’s 29th Arctic and Marine Oilspill (AMOP) Technical Seminar, Environment Canada, Ottawa 2006: 517-524.
"Protein engineering: Security implications: The increasing ability to manipulate protein toxins for hostile purposes has prompted calls for regulation," EMBO Reports June 2006; 7: S14-17. With J. Tucker.
"A Gunboat Navy for the 21st Century—correspondence," Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute December 2005; 131: 64-65.
"Biology on the battlefield: Rethinking the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention," The Yale Politic. December 29, 2005.
"The mosquito can be more dangerous than the mortar round: The obligations of command," Naval War College Review, Winter 2005: LVIII, Vol. 1. 77-87. With Arthur M. Smith.
"Building a fleet for coastal rescue," The Boston Globe, January 4, 2005.
"Harbor Safety," The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, October 12, 2003.
"Projecting biomedical security," Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute July 2003; 129: 63-66.
"Strategic biodefense: A call to reinvent the hospital ship," Navy Medicine March-April 2002; 93: 31-35.
"Poxvirus Dilemmas—correspondence," New England Journal of Medicine 1998; 339: 2027-2028.
"Think Small," Foreign Affairs 1998; 77 (3): 158. Letter.