by admin on November 12, 2014
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 […]
by admin on October 2, 2014
The American habit of cramming the functions of four to five legacy ship classes into a single, bespoke multifunction hull is–for now–over. With the U.S. fleet operating only a handful of core classes, and looking at one-for-one replacements of existing platforms (at best), the U.S. Navy is now free to get back to focusing on […]
by admin on March 30, 2014
As Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel heads off to Asia to urge resolution of some of Asia’s island disputes, many Americans will continue to scratch their heads in wonder as to why several Asian countries are at loggerheads over some small, seemingly useless and unpopulated islands. It’s a hopeless case of nationalism gone amok, signal […]
by admin on February 25, 2014
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, […]
by Craig Hooper on March 1, 2011
It is always easy to point at the latest shipbuilding “disaster” and claim that it is the “greatest” fiasco ever. It’s true that smaller-scale shipbuilding SNAFUS are a fact of life. But these days, to some observers, mistakes are a distinguishing characteristic of naval shipbuilding. The big “disaster” of my era is the LPD-17. But […]
by Craig Hooper on February 28, 2011
Until last year, one of the most annoying things about being a long-standing LPD-17 critic was the constant push-back from pro-LPD-17 partisans (my criticism began here and, oh, here). There is no denying that the LPD-17, as planned, is a capable and exciting platform. The only problem, which the Virginian-Pilot’s Navy scribe Corinne Reilly details […]
by Craig Hooper on November 6, 2010
Loren Thompson, the erstwhile employee of Lockheed Martin, slaps the Pentagon’s testing community, dismissing J. Michael Gilmore’s testing and evaluation community as a tribal manifestation of bureaucratic bloat. In Loren’s latest missive, he claims that the F-35 delay will be… “…caused by the desire of the Pentagon’s testing community to conduct a vast array of […]
by Craig Hooper on February 18, 2010
Given the ongoing troubles with USS New York (LPD 21), CNO Admiral Gary Roughead’s November 7, 2009 speech at LPD-21’s commissioning ceremony is rather distressing. Here’s the relevant snippet: “…The ship across the way is now ready to serve our great nation; ready to sail in cialis soft price harms way on any point on […]
by Craig Hooper on January 26, 2010
Notice how stories detailing the LPD-17 powerplant “crisis” focus on LPD-17, 18 and 21? Notice how the reporting, in passing, note that LPD-19 and 20 encountered similar engine problems, but, after maintenance, both seem to have dodged a bullet? Well, not so fast…it looks like the USS MESA VERDE (LPD-19) had substantive powerplant issues before her shock trials (back in August-September 2008)–USS MESA VERDE suffered a “catastrophic” mishap even […]