House Passes Bill
To Buy 10 Navy Ships
The House-passed version of the
fiscal 2010 defense appropriations
bill includes $15.8 billion to buy 10
Navy ships, two more than requested by the Obama administration.
Included in the bill is money for
one DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class
destroyer, one Virginia-class submarine, four Littoral Combat Ships, two
Intra-Theater Connector Ships and
two T-AKE auxiliary dry cargo ships.
In addition, the bill funds the
third and last DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer the Navy wants to
buy, the 10th LPD 17 amphibious
transport dock ship and the final
increment of funding for the CVN
78 aircraft carrier.
JIM LO SCALZO
The bill also includes $387.5
million requested to begin development of a replacement for the
Ohio-class submarine.
Vice Adm. Vivien S. Crea, outgoing
Coast Guard vice commandant, was
the first female vice service chief in
the history of the U.S. military.
Crea Steps Down as
USCG Vice Commandant
The second in command of the
Coast Guard, Vice Adm. Vivien S.
Crea, stepped down as vice commandant during a change-of-watch
ceremony Aug. 7 at Coast Guard
Telecommunications and Information Systems Command, Alexandria, Va.
The ceremony marked the transition of authority to her successor,
Vice Adm. David P. Pekoske. Crea
will retire in October.
In 2006, Crea became the service’s first female vice admiral and
vice commandant, and the first
female vice service chief in the history of the U.S. military.
“That will never be taken away
from her,” said Adm. Thad Allen,
Coast Guard commandant, during a
portrait-unveiling ceremony at
service headquarters in Washington
Aug. 6.
“We have known each other
since the Fourth of July, 1986, and
we have been fast friends ever
since then,” Allen said.
Crea has held the position since
2006. She also is the service’s current “Ancient Albatross,” the
longest-serving, active-duty Coast
Guard aviator.
Pekoske, a 32-year Coast Guard
veteran, last served as Pacific Area
commander.
Marine Corps EFV
‘Tracking Quite Well’
In his last week in office, Roger
Smith, outgoing deputy assistant
secretary of the Navy for expeditionary warfare, said the Marine
Corps’ Expeditionary Fighting
Vehicle (EFV) program is “
tracking along quite well on [a] new
schedule” and will not “go down
easy,” despite the inclusion of the
program as a topic for the
Quadrennial Defense Review
(QDR), due in February.
The Marine Corps’ core competency of amphibious power-projection over the beach is one of
the things being studied during the
QDR. The General Dynamics-built
EFV, under development to replace
the AAV7, is designed to carry
Marines from amphibious warfare
ships 25 miles offshore.
“The strategy is going to have to
swing pretty wide for there to be a
different manner in which we’re
going to have assured access into
certain regions of the world,”
Smith said Aug. 5 in a Pentagon
meeting with reporters. “I personally believe that we probably
would need to retain that type of
capability in some amount of
capacity. That doesn’t mean there
aren’t other ways to do the mission.
That would probably be the last
manner of combat operation you’d
want to execute.
“The Joint Staff validated the
requirement back in June 2007
when we went through the Nunn-McCurdy certification process and
approval,” he said.
The Nunn-McCurdy statute requires congressional notice in the
event of 15 percent cost growth, plus
formal certification/restructuring in
the event of a 25 percent cost-growth
breach.
EFV development was slowed
by reliability concerns during
operational testing. The program
was revamped in 2007 to produce
seven redesigned prototypes at
$16.8 million each for the program’s system development and
demonstration phase.
Cmdr. Victor Chen, the Navy’s
spokesman for research, development and acquisition, said the EFV
continues to exceed a key performance parameter in reliability of 43. 5
hours in mean time between failures, with 61. 7 hours predicted as
achievable. Initial operational capability for the EFV is set for 2015.
A concern that the EFV is vulnerable to improvised explosive
devices is driving efforts to improve
the personnel protection qualities of
the vehicle. Smith said armor that
can be applied to the vehicle after
coming ashore is under design.
“From all types of modeling …
that armor will provide very good
protection to the vehicle,” he said,
pointing out that some sort of plan
is needed to provide and install the
armor before the vehicle proceeds
inland for extended operations.
