BULLHORN #39
17 APR 09
ANAers!!!
We hope the plight of incomes
taxes is well behind you and the joy of spring is all
about you!
Without recapping all the ‘ungood’
economic news, it should be no surprise that the
military is facing its own economic issues. Added to
that, the administration’s changing priorities in the
military means its budget is being cut significantly.
Very recently VADM Dunn, our
President, highlighted a few of the most significant
problems in his latest BLUE STRIPE #9, which we hope
you were able to disseminate as widely as possible.
Those issues really need to be worked as hard as we
possibly can.
The attached BULLHORN contains
more on the problems about which VADM Dunn wrote.
Thankfully, there is some good news as well, as you
will see in the attached articles also.
Please give this BULLHORN maximum
exposure – pass it to ALL HANDS!
This BULLHORN is being sent in
.rtf format in response to comments that the MSWORD
formats are not as convenient to use for some readers.
MEMBERSHIP!!!!
Best regards,
Dutch
ASSOCIATION OF NAVAL AVIATION
in the NEWS!
Group Decries Pending ‘Fighter
Gap’
(NAVY TIMES 03 APR 09) ... Andrew
Tilghman
The so-called “fighter gap” is
growing, and the Navy should step up its demands for
more money to buy new aircraft, according to a letter
from the head of the Association for Naval Aviation.
Robert Dunn, the president of the
association, sounded the alarm in a strongly worded
letter to the group’s members March 30, warning that
this year’s defense budget could cripple naval
aviation.
“Now is the time to turn on our
transmitters and get this message to the highest levels
in the Pentagon and on the Hill!” Dunn wrote in the
letter, known as a “blue stripe.”
“I encourage each of you to offer
your support — both publicly and privately — for
acquisition of these necessary aircraft,” Dunn wrote.
In October, Dunn warned about the
“fighter gap” — the projected 10-year span beginning in
2015 when F/A-18 Hornets start retiring faster than new
Joint Strike Fighters arrive to replace them. He
estimated the gap to be “at least 125” at the time.
“If anything, things have gotten
worse,” he said, pointing to the fact that “aircraft
are being over-utilized” in Iraq and Afghanistan and
the “ongoing attacks in the Pentagon and on Capitol
Hill.”
“At the current rate, given no
further procurement, the Navy will be as many as 150,
perhaps as many as 200, strike fighters short of what’s
needed within five years, and that’s with the most
optimistic projection of JSF production,” he wrote.
Dunn also voiced concern over the
budgeting for the E-2D Hawkeye program and the
long-term strain on the EA-18G Growler, since the Air
Force no longer has a comparable electronic warfare
platform.
The number of aircraft correlates
with the number of carriers in the fleet. Although
Congress has mandated 12 carriers, current budget
projections may only support ten, Dunn said.
“For whatever reasons certain
minds are made up. It will take more than Navy analysis
and pleas to change those minds,” Dunn wrote. “It will
take the sum total of the voices of concerned citizens
from around the country in support of the Navy to make
the situation known to bureaucrats, the administration
and legislators of both parties.”
The association is a
Virginia-based not-for-profit group of both active-duty
military and civilians interested in naval aviation.
Mabus Nominated To Lead Navy
(THE DAY, (CT) 28 MAR 09)
Jackson, Miss. - President Barack
Obama on Friday nominated former Mississippi Gov. Ray
Mabus to be secretary of the Navy, choosing a political
supporter with a two-year career in the service.
Mabus, 60, is a Democrat and
campaigned extensively for Obama last year. He had been
previously talked about as a candidate for a place in
Obama's cabinet as secretary of education.
If confirmed, Mabus would succeed
Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter. The secretary is the
civilian leader of the service and is responsible for a
wide range of duties, from recruiting and mobilizing to
overseeing the construction and repair of ships,
equipment and facilities. At this critical moment in
our nation's history, I am grateful that these
exceptional public servants have chosen to help my
administration bring the change our country needs
today, Obama said in a statement announcing Mabus'
selection and other administration posts.
Mabus served in the Navy from
1970-72 as a surface warfare officer on the Newport,
R.I.-based USS Little Rock. Before then, he was in the
Naval ROTC while he was an undergraduate student at the
University of Mississippi.
He was governor of Mississippi
from January 1988 to January 1992. He also served as
U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1994-96 under
President Bill Clinton. Mabus' name surfaced as a
possible Navy secretary soon after Clinton was elected
president, but he was not nominated for the post. Mabus'
term as governor overlapped part of Clinton's tenure as
governor of neighboring Arkansas.
Mabus would not discuss the
nomination, saying he was told to refer all calls to
the White House. His nomination still must be confirmed
by the U.S. Senate.
U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.,
said Friday that as a member of the Armed Services
Committee, he will fully support Mabus' nomination. I
look forward to assisting in his confirmation process
and to working with him to strengthen and improve our
Navy, Wicker said. Mabus was an early supporter of
Obama's presidential campaign, endorsing the Illinois
senator in 2007 and surprising some political observers
who had expected Mabus to support Hillary Clinton
because of Mabus' past political ties to Bill Clinton.
Mabus has a master's degree in political science from
Johns Hopkins University and a law degree from Harvard
University.
From June 2006 to April 2007, Mabus was chairman
and CEO of Foamex International Inc., and helped
move the manufacturer of polyurethane foam products
out of bankruptcy. He has served on the boards of
several corporations and charities.
Carrier Bush To Start Acceptance
Trials In Two Weeks
(NORFOLK VIRGINIAN-PILOT 01 APR
09) ... Matthew Jones
The aircraft carrier George H.W.
Bush is expected to undergo acceptance trials soon,
according to the shipyard. Trials are expected to begin
in about two weeks, said Jennifer Dellapenta of
Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding. Delivery of the last
Nimitz-class carrier is expected to follow, she said.
The $6.3 billion ship was granted
a special commissioning status during its ceremony in
January. It passed sea trials, also known as builder's
trials, in February.
Operational training is set for late this year.
Operational deployment is expected to begin in
2010.
CNO Wants Faster Decommissioning
For Enterprise
(NAVY TIMES 05 APR 09) ... Andrew
Scutro
The aircraft carrier Enterprise,
aging and one of a kind, may be out of the fleet sooner
than expected.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm.
Gary Roughead said he intends to get the required
congressional dispensation to decommission the ship in
2012 or 2013, taking the flattop fleet down to 10 ships
for a few years until the Gerald R. Ford comes online.
That’s expected in 2015.
“We really need to take Enterprise
out of service,” he told Navy Times. “That ship is old,
and it has served extraordinarily well. It has served
longer than any aircraft carrier in the history of the
United States Navy. And it’s time. She’s safe. She’s
going through an availability now. But Enterprise
deserves to go to pasture.”
The Big E currently is slated for
decommissioning in 2012, pending the congressional
waiver.
“I’ve got to get relief from the
law, but I’d like to get her out in ’12 or ’13,” he
said. “What we have to do is go before the
authorization committees and make the case [for 10
carriers].”
Commissioned in 1961, the
Enterprise was the world’s first nuclear-powered
aircraft carrier. In 1962, it was part of the 2nd Fleet
quarantine of Cuba during the nuclear showdown with the
Soviet Union.
In 1965, the carrier became the
first nuclear-powered ship to engage in combat during
strikes on North Vietnam.
Roughead said CVN 65 will deploy
one last time — and then that’s it.
Big E’s age and number of reactors
— eight — mean the decommissioning process will be
long, labor-intensive and expensive.
“Enterprise just doesn’t lay up
like a conventional ship,” he said. “We have never
decommissioned a nuclear aircraft carrier, and it’s a
significant undertaking. We have to get on with that
process because it’s going to take us a while to do
that.”
While Beltway insiders are
speculating on an eventual reduction in the carrier
fleet down to nine, Roughead said doing without the
Enterprise will be feasible until Ford joins the fleet.
“We have looked at our carriers and carrier
schedules to meet the presence requirements from
combatant commanders. And because of the Fleet
Response Plan we can do it with 10 carriers,” he
said. “I do believe that our carrier force of 11 is
what the nation and the Navy needs to fulfill the
presence requirement and the response requirement.”
Navy Orders More Bell H-1 Helos
(AERO NEWS NETWORK 05 APR 09)
Bell Helicopter announced that the
US Navy has awarded a new production contract to Bell
for the purchase of Lot 6 of the H-1 Upgrade Program,
an award worth $288 million.
The 16 aircraft in Lot 6 include
five AH-1Z aircraft and 11 UH-1Y aircraft. All 16
aircraft will be built at Bell's Military Aircraft
Assembly Center in Amarillo, TX with deliveries of
completed Lot 6 aircraft scheduled to begin in 2011.
Officials at Naval Air Systems
Command, Patuxent River, MD signed the new production
contract March 27. Bell is now on contract to produce a
total of 65 upgraded H-1 aircraft for the Marines: 17
AH-1Z attack aircraft and 48 UH-1Y utility aircraft.
So far, the company has delivered 23 upgraded H-1
helicopters: six AH-1Zs and 17 UH-1Ys.
Effects Of 2008 Boeing Strike A Concern
GAO: P-8A Program Cut Seventh Test
Aircraft To Handle Rising Costs
(INSIDE THE NAVY 06 APR 09) ...
Dan Taylor
The P-8A Poseidon maritime
surveillance aircraft program had to cut its seventh
test aircraft to cover cost increases and development
contract costs grew by $1.4 billion, according to a new
Government Accountability Office report.
“Original plans called for seven
test aircraft, but the seventh aircraft has been cut
from the program, in part to cover increases in
contract costs,” states the March 30 report, titled:
“Defense Acquisitions: Assessment of Selected Weapon
Programs.”
The program has also seen
development contract costs rise from $3.9 billion to
$5.3 billion “as a result of delays in design drawing
release and additional costs to mitigate software
development risks,” the report states.
However, GAO notes that, despite
the cost increases and an expected seven-month delay in
test aircraft delivery, “the program still plans to
meet the cost and schedule targets in its program
baseline.”
Defending the aircraft, the
program office states in the report that the P-8A
“continues to meet or exceed the cost, schedule and
performance parameters defined in the P-8A Acquisition
Program Baseline Agreement” despite rising costs.
The decision to cut the seventh
test aircraft was made after Boeing experienced
problems with releasing the drawings, prompting the
company to file an “over target baseline” request in
January 2007, according to Capt. Mike Moran, the
program manager, in an April 3 e-mail response to
questions from Inside the Navy.
The P-8A is the next-generation
maritime surveillance aircraft slated to replace the
Navy’s aging fleet of P-3C Orions. The P-8A is built
using a 737-800 commercial jet airframe, allowing it to
be built off an already-busy production line.
Moran told ITN in November that a
recent two-month strike at Boeing could cause some
delays to the program but likely nothing significant.
However, GAO expressed concern in the report about the
strike, which “may result in additional costs and
delays in test aircraft deliveries.”
“Program officials stated they
plan to make trade-offs within the program to pay for
strike-associated costs,” the report continues.
Moran said April 3 that the Navy
and Boeing “developed and is currently implementing a
recovery plan which will fully mitigate the strike
impact to the P-8A program,” adding that the program
was already a month ahead.
The first aircraft will be
delivered in August -- seven months later than
originally planned -- and flight tests will begin
shortly afterward. That aircraft “will not be fully
configured as originally planned,” the report states.
The second and third test aircraft
will support developmental and operational testing and
will be fully mission capable, but they will not be
production-representative prototypes, according to GAO.
“Only the final three test
aircraft will be fully configured, fully
mission-capable, integrated, production-representative
prototypes,” the report states. Those aircraft will not
be built until after the low-rate initial production
decision in May 2010.
The program is already operating
on a tight schedule. Initial operational capability is
slated for 2013, but the program hopes to make the
aircraft available sooner than that by training air
crews early so the first airplanes will be available to
the Navy even before IOC is reached, Moran said in
November.
The aircraft experienced some
problems with weight growth, but the program has
managed to trim off 3,500 pounds, GAO states.
Discussing technology maturity,
the report notes that the program has “replaced two
technologies with less capable but more mature backups
which still meet P-8A requirements.” Also, the program
recategorized one technology as a developmental risk
because additional qualification may be needed, thus
the technology may not be fully mature before
production and could cause delays if design changes are
necessary, the report states.
Turning to design maturity, GAO states that the
program has released 96 percent of the total
expected design drawings. “However, the potential
for design changes remains while the program
demonstrates the maturity of critical technologies,
completes testing of key subsystems and manages
weight growth,” the report adds. --
Push for Fewer Super Hornets May
Widen `Fighter Gap'
(DEFENSE NEWS – 13 APR 09)
The so-called "strike fighter
gap" may grow under U.S. Defense Secretary Robert
Gates' 2010 budget proposal.
Gates proposed cutting the
number of F/A-18 fighter jets the U.S. Navy will buy
next year from the Navy's planned 40 to 31. A Navy
official confirmed that includes F/A-18E/F Super
Hornets as well as EA-18G Growlers, which use the same
Boeing-made airframe but are outfitted for electronic
warfare.
"That would be a major cut in
what we expected," said Douglas Royce, an aviation
expert at Forecast International, a Connecticut-based
defense research firm.
Advocates for naval aviation
have been warning about a shortfall in tactical
aircraft as older F/A-18 Hornets wear out faster than
F-35C Lightning IIs can replace them.
Last year, Navy officials
estimated the fighter gap would reach 125 jets for the
Navy and Marine Corps starting in 2016 and extend for
several years.
In his April 6 news conference,
Gates declared his intention to accelerate production
of the F-35, but it remains unclear whether that means
the naval variant, scheduled to become operational in
2015. The naval F-35C has been a lower priority than
the A and B models designed for the Air Force and
Marine Corps.
It also remains unclear how the
cuts will affect the Growler. Last year's plans called
for the Navy to buy 85 Growlers by 2012, when the last
EA-6B Prowler will be retired. The Growler is critical
to the U.S. military because the Air Force has no
primary electronic attack aircraft.
The declining size of the Navy's
aviation fleet has been a concern for Robert Dunn, a
retired vice admiral and the president of the
Association of Naval Aviation. On March 30, Dunn sent a
letter to the group's members saying wartime demands
are wearing out aircraft more quickly than the Navy has
acknowledged.
"If anything, things have gotten
worse," Dunn wrote, adding that "aircraft are being
over-utilized" in Iraq and Afghanistan and highlighting
"ongoing attacks in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill"
on aviation resources.
"At the current rate, given no
further procurement, the Navy will be ... perhaps as
many as 200 strike fighters short of what's needed
within five years, and that's with the most optimistic
projection," Dunn wrote several days before Gates
announced the cuts.
A spokesman for Boeing declined
to discuss the potential impact on the company's F/A-18
contract with the Navy.
Critical to the future fleet is
how long the older F/A-18 A-D models can last. "The
question was, `How far could you go with the Hornets?'"
Vice Adm. David Architzel, principal deputy for the
assistant Navy secretary for acquisition, told Congress
on March 25.
The Navy has already extended
Hornets' original lifespan from 6,000 flying hours to
8,000. The latest plan calls for stretching that to
8,600 hours, which will add about two years of service
life and cost about $500,000 per aircraft, Architzel
said.
Stretching the Hornets to 10,000 hours — a
concept that has been discussed for months — will
be tough. "That is a significant investment that
would take a significant amount of maintenance and
depot work," Architzel said.
Gates' Plans Leave Navy Abilities
Largely Intact
(DEFENSE NEWS – 13 APR 09)
The U.S. Navy emerged from U.S.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates' April 6 briefing much as it
had entered.
Under Gates' recommendations, which
will be worked into the White House budget request and
potentially altered by Congress, the Littoral Combat Ship
effort will run to 55 hulls, with three new contracts to be
awarded in fiscal 2010. The DDG 1000 program will end with
three destroyers, although the arrangements for building
them have changed. The production of Arleigh Burke-class
destroyers will restart. The Navy will operate 11 aircraft
carriers until it drops to 10 three decades from now.
But Gates also announced that the
Navy will charter four joint high-speed vessels in fiscal
2010, instead of two, tiding the service over until it
takes delivery of its own JHSVs in 2011.
And the secretary proposed adding
ballistic missile defense capability to six Aegis ships
next year, and pledged that the Defense Department would
spend an additional $700 million on the SM-3 interceptor
missile and other missile defense systems.
Amphibious ships were the one major
area where Gates' budget redirected a Navy plan. He said he
would wait one year before asking for an 11th San
Antonio-class amphibious transport dock and one sea-basing
ship.
The secretary also appeared to push
off further the oft-delayed CG(X) cruiser.
In his news conference, Gates
threatened to end the DDG 1000 program at two hulls unless
shipbuilders Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics could
come to terms over a new deal on building DDG 1000s and DDG
51s.
The companies wasted no time. The
following day, the companies agreed that GD's Bath Iron
Works in Maine will build all three DDG 1000s, which Navy
officials said would save money by preventing simultaneous
first-of-class efforts in two yards. In exchange,
Northrop's Gulf Coast shipyards will build the first two
new DDG 51s, and the yards would alternate building the
ships after that.
Neither the Navy nor GD would give
details on Bath's DDG 1000 arrangement. Bath had already
begun work on the first ship, the Zumwalt, before the
arrangement was revised.
Mississippi Rep. Gene Taylor, a
Democrat who chairs the House Armed Services seapower
sub-committee, and whose district includes Northrop's
yards, praised the arrangement. In a statement, he said
Northrop would begin building the first two destroyers —
the unnamed DDGs 113 and 114 — in 2010.
Maintaining 11 Carriers
Gates' plan for the carrier program
keeps the force at 11 flattops through 2040, at which point
the force will drop to 10. He did this by planning to build
a new carrier every five years instead of the today's
four-year cycle. He said this puts the program "on a more
fiscally sustainable path."
But the Navy is expected to drop to
10 carriers for at least three years as early as 2012,
starting when the Enterprise is decommissioned and ending
when the first-in-class Gerald R. Ford enters the fleet.
Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, recently
said he wants to decommission Enterprise rather than put
the aging carrier through another expensive overhaul.
Congress must approve the temporary drop to 10 carriers.
Navy officials have said they believe
it can cover the gap by surging non-deployed ships if
necessary.
"The Navy can manage the 33-month
period by adjusting carrier maintenance schedules and
lever-aging the FRP [Fleet Response Plan] to meet
[combatant commander] demands for carrier presence and
maintain a surge carrier force for responding to
contingencies during this period," a Navy official said in
a written statement.
According to the Navy official, the
shift in build rate to a five-year cycle has nothing to do
with concerns over the Ford's still-in-development
Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), which does
away with steam-powered catapults.
"Shifting the aircraft carrier build
rate is unrelated to EMALS development and will not impact
[Ford] production," he said.
Gates affirmed the Navy's existing
plans by recommending that in fiscal 2010 "we will begin
the replacement program for the Ohio-class
ballistic-missile submarine program."
Construction of the next class of
boomers is expected to begin in 2019 and the initial
operating capability reached before the oldest Ohio-class
hits the end of its service life, projected to be 42 years,
according to the Submarine Indus-trial Base Council, a
lobby group. Detailed design is set to begin in 2012.
Both U.S. nuclear submarine
builders, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, are
expected to vie for participation in the program, according
to company officials. GD's Electric Boat Division built the
Ohio class.
The Rand Corp., which analyzes defense
issues, suggested in 2007 that the Navy begin the new
boomer program this year, in part to forestall a pending
loss in skilled ship designers.
"For the first time since the
creation of nuclear-powered submarines, the U.S. Navy is
facing a period when it will have no design program under
way for a new class of nuclear submarine or a major upgrade
of an existing class," Rand reported.
The ballistic missile submarine
fleet will also get a thorough examination during the
Quadrennial Defense Review and the Nuclear Posture Review,
expected to be released in 2010.
====================================================================
No Tilt Rotors, For Now, To Afghanistan
(NAVY TIMES 20 APR 09)
Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway
says the MV-22 Osprey, with its speed and nimbleness, is
"made for Afghanistan."
But as about 8,000 Marines prepare
for a deployment there with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary
Brigade, the Corps' premier medium-lift aircraft isn't
going with them.
"It is unlikely that we'd have any
Osprey squadrons to put into Afghanistan for a while,"
Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Eric Dent said. "Maybe later
this year."
Instead, the Corps will send two
CH-53 helicopter squadrons to Afghanistan as part of the
brigade's aviation assets. Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron
772, based at Naval Air Station Willow Grove, Pa., will
deploy with three-engine CH-53E Super Stallions handling
the MEB's heavy-lift operations. The second squadron—
HMH-362 from Marine Corps Air Facility Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii
— will deploy with dual-engine CH-53D Sea Stallions
handling medium-lift needs, which typically include medical
evacuations and troop transportation.
Had the Corps been able to maintain
its original production schedule for the Osprey, none of
these decisions likely would be necessary. But with a
checkered history that includes three fatal Osprey crashes
preceding the aircraft's recent success, the Corps is still
standing up MV-22 squadrons as the aircraft become
available.
Currently, there are three fully
operational Osprey squadrons, all based at Marine Corps Air
Station New River, N.C. Two are otherwise committed, with
Marine Tiltrotor Squadron 263 working up to become the
first Osprey squadron to deploy with a Marine expeditionary
unit in May and VMM-266 nearing the end of a seven-month
deployment to Iraq.
That leaves only the third fully operational
squadron, VMM-162, and one nearly operational squadron,
VMM-261, which transitioned from the CH-46 helicopter
to the MV-22 less than a year ago.
Small-Deck Gators To Host Ospreys
MV-22 Had Been Slated For Big Ships
Only
(NAVY TIMES 20 APR 09)
The Navy has begun operating the
Marine Corps' MV-22 Osprey on small-deck amphibious ships,
as part of the Corps' strategy to begin sending tilt-rotors
with every deployment of East Coast amphibious groups.
In March, Osprey pilots landed and
took off from the dock landing ship Ponce and the
amphibious transport dock Fort McHenry, a pair of gators
designed and built long before the U.S. fielded tilt-rotor
aircraft. Engineers weren't sure how the flight decks
aboard the 38-year-old Ponce and the 22-year-old Fort
McHenry would accommodate the 47,000-pound Os-prey. Until
now, Ospreys had been planned to fly from big-deck
amphibious assault ships only.
Engineers from Naval Sea Systems
Command and Naval Air Systems Command are analyzing the
effects of the heat from the Ospreys' exhaust on Ponce's
and Fort McHenry's flight decks, NavSea spokeswoman Katie
Roberts said. As that analysis is completed, pilots are
using "mitigation measures" to protect the ships' decks,
she said, including keeping one of the aircraft's nacelles
beyond the edge of the deck, over the water.
The ships are scheduled to accompany
the amphibious assault ship Bataan on a deployment in May
with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit — the first such
deployment without the Corps' venerable CH-46 Sea Knight
helicopters, Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Eric Dent said.
Although the Ospreys will be based
on the big-deck Bataan, they'll also need to pick up and
drop off Marines and their gear on the small decks to take
the place of the helicopters. Putting together the Ospreys
and smaller gators presented "a few integration
challenges," said Rear Adm. Tom Eccles, NavSea's chief
engineer, but officials said they didn't think the ships
would require major modifications to handle the Ospreys.
Integrating old and new Navy and
Marine Corps equipment is "a challenge that will always be
present," Eccles said April 8 at a convention of the
American Society of Naval Engineers.
"Missions and adversaries change
shape while ships don't, which means we have an awesome
responsibility not to predict the future, but to build
capability that allows for new mission sets," he said.
Amphibious ships have carried
Ospreys before to drop them off in Iraq, but never as the
main aviation element on a MEU float.
This summer, the Navy will
experiment with operating an Osprey from a San
Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, Roberts said, and
engineers plan to take what they've observed from all types
of LPDs and LSDs to determine if the ships need permanent
upgrades.
The Ospreys need no changes to take off and land on
the smaller flight decks, Roberts said.
Roosevelt Strike Group Heading Home
(ASSOCIATED PRESS 15 APR 09)
NORFOLK, Va. - Six thousand sailors
are heading back to Hampton Roads this weekend after a
seven-month deployment.
The Navy said Tuesday the Theodore
Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group is returning to Norfolk
after supporting maritime security in the Navy’s 5th, 6th
and 7th Fleet areas of operation.
Due to arrive Friday are the guided
missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG 61) and the guided missile
destroyers USS Mason (DDG 87) and USS Nitze (DDG 94).
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore
Roosevelt (CVN 71) is scheduled to arrive on Saturday.
VAQ-141 Ends Combat Deployment
Starts Growler Transition
(WHIDBEY EXAMINER (WASH.) 15 APR 09)
NAS Whidbey's Electronic Attack
Squadron 141 "Shadowhawks" are coming home this week after
a seven-month combat deployment aboard USS Theodore
Roosevelt (CVN 71) in support of Operation Enduring
Freedom.
Four EA-6B Prowlers and 16 aviators
were scheduled to fly in April 15 at 6 p.m., followed by
two airlifts the next day with the 180-plus maintenance and
support personnel.
The squadron left for deployment Sept.
6, 2008, providing electronic attack support for Carrier
Air Wing Eight. As USS Roosevelt transited to the Central
Command Area of Operations, the ship, along with VAQ-141,
made history as the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier
to visit Cape Town, South Africa in over 40 years.
VAQ-141 supported coalition ground
forces in Afghanistan, resulting in the Commander, Naval
Air Forces Atlantic 2008 Battle "E" Efficiency Award and
the Radford Award for aviation excellence. They flew 559
total sorties, with 220 combat flights and 1,300 flight
hours.
The Shadowhawks will say goodbye to the venerable
Prowler to become the second squadron to transition to
the new EA-18G Growler. After spending time off with
family and friends, half of the maintenance department
personnel will travel to Naval Air Station Lemoore,
Calif., for systems specific training on the Growler.
After transition and pre-deployment work-ups, VAQ-141
will make a maiden cruise aboard the Navy's newest
carrier, the USS George H. W. Bush.
Push For Fewer F/A-18s Could Widen
Fighter Gap
(NAVY TIMES 16 APR 09) ... Andrew
Tilghman
The so-called “strike fighter gap” may
grow under Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ new cost-cutting
budget.
Gates proposed a cut in the number of
F/A-18 jets the Navy will buy next year, a move that could
add to the fighter shortage looming as many of the older
Hornets begin to wear out.
Gates said April 6 that the Navy will
buy 31 “F/A-18s” in fiscal 2010. A Navy official said that
includes F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets as well as EA-18G
Growlers, which use the same Boeing-made airframe but are
outfitted for electronic warfare.
Gates’ number is nine fewer than the
40 warplanes the Navy planned to buy in fiscal 2010
according to last year’s budget. The Navy said last year it
intended to buy 18 Super Hornets and 22 Growlers.
“That would be a major cut in what we
expected,” said Douglas Royce, an aviation expert at
Forecast International, a Connecticut-based defense
research firm.
Advocates for naval aviation have been
warning about a looming fighter gap, a shortfall in
tactical aircraft as the older F/A-18 Hornets wear out
faster than the new F-35C Lightning IIs can replace them.
Last year, Navy officials estimated
the fighter gap would reach 125 jets for the Navy and
Marine Corps starting in 2016 and extend for several years.
It is not clear whether Gates’ plan
includes an effort to speed up the Navy’s version of the
F-35, which would reduce the fighter gap. The plane, also
known as the Joint Strike Fighter, is scheduled to become
operational in 2015. Gates proposed an expansion of the
F-35 program, but the Navy’s carrier variant has been the
lowest priority among the three versions of the F-35, after
the A and B models designed for the Air Force and Marine
Corps.
It also remains unclear how the cuts
will affect the Growler. Last year’s plans called for the
Navy to buy 85 Growlers by 2012, when the last EA-6B
Prowler will be retired. The Growler is critical to the
U.S. military because the Air Force has no primary
electronic attack aircraft.
The declining size of the Navy’s
aviation fleet has been a concern for Robert Dunn, a
retired vice admiral and the president of the Association
of Naval Aviation. On March 30, Dunn sent a letter to the
group’s members saying that wartime demands are wearing out
aircraft quicker than the Navy has acknowledged.
“If anything, things have gotten
worse,” Dunn wrote, adding that “aircraft are being
over-utilized” in Iraq and Afghanistan and highlighting
“ongoing attacks in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill” on
aviation resources.
“At the current rate, given no further
procurement, the Navy will be as many as 150, perhaps as
many as 200, strike fighters short of what’s needed within
five years, and that’s with the most optimistic projection
of JSF production,” Dunn wrote several days before Gates
announced the cuts.
Dunn said further cuts are a concern,
but the full picture of the Navy’s plans will not emerge
until annual budget is sent to Capitol Hill later this
spring.
“We really have to wait until we see
the figures and what is presented to the Congress,” Dunn
said April 8.
A spokesman for Boeing declined to
discuss the potential impact on the company’s F/A-18
contract with the Navy.
Critical to the future fleet is how
long the older F/A-18 A-D models can last.
“The question was, ‘How far could you
go with the Hornets?’” Vice Adm. David Architzel, principal
deputy for the assistant Navy secretary for acquisition,
told Congress on March 25.
The Navy has already extended Hornets’
original lifespan from 6,000 flying hours to 8,000. The
latest plan calls for stretching that to 8,600 hours, which
will add about two years of service life and cost about
$500,000 per aircraft, Architzel said.
Stretching the Hornets to 10,000 miles
[hours – Dutch]— a concept that has been discussed for
months — will be tough.
“That is a significant investment that
would take a significant amount of maintenance and depot
work to bring those up to speed. And that’s not funded,
that’s not in the plan today, but it’s being looked at to
see what we’d do if need be,” Architzel said.
Sailors’ jobs and careers may be at
stake if the Navy faces a dramatic cut in the number of
fighter planes and struggles to maintain enough aircraft to
support 10 carrier air wings under the current
configuration.
“If Congress does not fund those
aircraft, then those people will just go away and do
something else,” Dunn said. “We tend to focus too much on
the commanding officers and the pilots — it’s really the
enlisted troops, who are the skilled technicians, who make
thing go. The bigger problem is with the enlisted
technicians and other support.”
