Posts tagged as:

Littoral Combat Ship

In Press: Talking Gene Taylor’s Big LCS Move in the Mobile Press-Register

by Craig Hooper on December 4, 2010

Yesterday I got to chat with the Mobile Press-Register’s indefatigable reporter Dan Murtaugh about Congressman Gene Taylor’s (D-MS) change of heart about the LCS program.  Frankly, I am delighted–Congressman Taylor, as an outgoing Congressman and confirmed LCS foe, had no real reason to promote the program.  If he had done nothing, and allowed the Navy [...]

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LCS-1: More reasons to worry about Fincantieri

by Craig Hooper on November 30, 2010

As the PCU Fort Worth, LCS-3, prepares for a Dec 4 launch-date, I am increasingly concerned about Fincantieri’s “Italianate” management of the Marinette Shipyard. I suspect the LCS-1 team underbid. Aside from Fincantieri’s foreign ownership, overall low level of investment in their US yards and the disparity between Fincantieri’s U.S.-based workers and their Italian counterparts, [...]

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Italian Government to manage U.S. naval shipbuilding program?

by Craig Hooper on November 29, 2010

Here’s a question for Congress as it mulls the Littoral Combat Ship decision: Is it wise to have the fabrication of U.S. naval combatants dependent upon the Italian government? If Congress acts upon the dual-buy or, if not, the Navy just ends up approving a down-select to build LCS-1 Freedom-class boats (perish the thought!), Italian [...]

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Shipyards, Tea Leaves and the LCS: Austal is gonna win

by Craig Hooper on November 19, 2010

As the Navy works to cajole a lame-duck Congress into approving the Navy’s proposal to build 10 variants of each LCS model, it is interesting–and potentially educational–to observe the shipbuilders who have skin in this fight–the recently divorced General Dynamics/Austal team, and the Marinette/Lockheed team. Marinette Marine:  Puttin’ on a show! In Wisconsin, Marinette, after [...]

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What Work wants, he gets: The lesson of the LCS Unselect

by Craig Hooper on November 12, 2010

The lesson of the LCS “Unselect” is this: What Undersecretary Robert Work wants, Undersecretary Robert Work gets. (A corollary lesson is that Sean Stackley (perhaps atoning for his role as LPD-17 Program Manager from 2001-5) is the guy who actually does Work’s dirty work, but more on that at in a later post..) It’s worth [...]

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Prompt Global Strike will transform U.S. Naval Power:

by Craig Hooper on July 8, 2010

As many of you know, I’m occasionally contributing to the military.com universe as their resident Naval Analyst.  In today’s post, I wonder what will happen if, over the next two years, the 7,804 Vertical Launch System (VLS) cells in the surface fleet suddenly acquired a Prompt Global Strike capability? It’s just a DARPA project now, [...]

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LCS-1: Not accounting for extended shipyard tours?

by Craig Hooper on June 8, 2010

In theory, the LCS platform is meant to be used hard–handed off to new crews quickly, and then sent on deployment after deployment–but, in practice, well, um…not so much: The Freedom has been at San Diego since finishing up her maiden deployment April 23. A number of minor problems cropped up during her cruise, including, [...]

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Mulling the LCS down-select:

by Craig Hooper on February 12, 2010

As the Littoral Combat Ship program faces an abrupt down-select to a single hull, the Navy must brace for some nasty litigation. The spurned party–either Lockheed or General Dynamics–will be poised to contest the selection process. With little in the way of “real world” operational data available, advocates of either platform will have ample grounds to poke holes in the [...]

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