Naval Nuclear Propulsion

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 A decision by the Nuclear Weapons Council to “refresh” the conventional high explosives (CHE) in the W88 warhead as part of a previously planned replacement of the warhead’s arming, fuzing and firing mechanism will push back the completion of a First Production Unit on the Navy portion of a planned […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/27/2015 Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) is prepared to boost spending on its Newport News, Va., shipyard to support Ohio-class Replacement (ORP) development as the parallel procurement timelines of that program and Virginia-class submarine are expected to require greater capital expenditures, HII CEO Mike Petters said last week. “As the submarine industrial […]

How would the Navy manage to build the Ohio-class Replacement in concert with the Virginia Payload Module (VPM) in the Virginia-class attack submarine in the 2020s? Sean Stackley, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, said yesterday during a hearing of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower & Projection Forces that […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/20/2015 The final update of the Trident 2 D5 architecture before the debut of the Ohio-Class nuclear submarine replacement program is on track to be completed by 2024, Navy Strategic Systems Programs Director Vice Adm. Terry Benedict said this week. Construction on the Ohio-Class Replacement is expected to run from 2021 […]

The Navy is continuing to work with the Air Force to cooperate on sustaining their respective ballistic missiles as Navy Director of Strategic Systems Programs Adm. Terry Benedict estimated yesterday at the Nuclear Deterrence Summit in Washington, D.C., that submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) will compose about 70 percent of U.S. deployed strategic nuclear warheads after […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/13/2015 Naval Sea Systems Command, Strategic Systems Programs and Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command are seeking input “for potential small business sources” to provide maintenance and technical engineering services in support of the Data Processing Subsystem (DPS) Program, Command and Control System (CCS) and Non-Propulsion Electronics System (NPES) of the […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/13/2015 General Dynamics this week reported a $1.4 billion backlog for engineering services for design and development of the Ohio-Class Replacement submarine at the year-end of 2014, representing about 4.5 percent of total backlog reported for GD’s Marine Systems group at the end of 2014, according to the company’s 10-K filing. […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/13/2015 Navy Strategic Systems Programs awarded Charles Stark Draper Laboratory a maximum amount $302.4 million sole-source, firm-fixed-price, fixed-price-incentive and cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for ongoing work of the Trident D5 MK 6 Guidance System Repair Program with failure verification, test, repair and recertification of inertial measurement units, electronic assemblies and electronic modules, according […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/6/2015 Coupled with a tight funding environment, the Navy’s Feb. 2 release of its Fiscal Year 2016 budget request, which contains $10 billion in programmed funding over the Future Years’ Defense Program for research and development and advanced procurement of the Ohio-Class Replacement Program (ORP), has raised questions about whether the […]

Former Naval Reactors Government Affairs director Adam DeMella is joining the majority staff of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee where his portfolio will include the National Nuclear Security Administration, NS&D Monitor has learned. DeMella headed up Naval Reactor’s government affairs shop from 2001 until December. DeMella will assume most of the portfolio of […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/6/2015 The Navy is continuing to accelerate the pace of returning W76-0 warheads to the National Nuclear Security Administration for storage and plans to be finished shipping the warheads back to the agency by FY 2016, the NNSA said this week. Fiscal Year 2016 budget documents released this week revealed work […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 2/6/2015 Despite earlier outcry from the Galveston, Texas, City Council over the Army Corps of Engineers’ planned decommissioning of the Sturgis Barge last year, the city council approved the permit needed to move forward with the project in the city’s port late last month. USACE completed an Environmental Assessment as […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/2/2015 The Obama Administration is requesting $1.4 billion in Fiscal Year 2016 for the Ohio-Class Replacement program, a project that officials say the Navy plans to fund out of its own account from Fiscal Year 2016 to FY 2020, and that will take about two-thirds of the service’s shipbuilding budget if […]

Four months after Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said the estimated $100 billion Ohio-Class Replacement could “gut” the service’s shipbuilding budget, a senior budget analyst on Friday told reporters the program and its Sea-Based Deterrence fund could siphon money from other branches of the military as well. “[J]ust because you reclassify the budget account, it doesn’t get […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/23/2015 If the estimated $100 billion Ohio-Class nuclear submarine replacement program does not receive the funding it requires, the ship’s stealth capability could be among the first elements to get chopped from the program, according to Bryan Clark, Senior Fellow on the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment’s Strategic Studies team. […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/9/2015 With the $100 billion Ohio-Class submarine replacement program threatening to disrupt the Navy’s goal of building up to a 300-ship fleet by 2019, the service’s top acquisition official on Jan. 6 underscored the need for Congress and the Navy to have a “very important discussion” on SSBN(X) funding. Speaking during […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/9/2015 Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) on Jan. 2 released a sources sought notice and questionnaire for Base Operations Support (BOS) at Naval Submarine Base (NSB) Kings Bay. “Any resulting contract will be Firm Fixed Price (FFP) with Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) provisions,” the notice states. “The contract term will […]

The Sea-Based Deterrence Fund that Congressional authorizers approved in the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act represents a "zero-sum" game without additional top-line funding to relieve the financial burden the Ohio Replacement Program is expected to have on the wider Navy shipbuilding budget, a top Navy official said earlier this week. Speaking Tuesday during […]

Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) on Friday released a sources sought notice and questionnaire for Base Operations Support (BOS) at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay. “Any resulting contract will be Firm Fixed Price (FFP) with Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) provisions,” the notice states. “The contract term will be a base period of one year, […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 12/19/2014 A report released this week by the Congressional Budget Office estimates the total production cost of the Ohio-class replacement submarine at $92 billion, compared with the Navy’s $79 billion estimate. While the Navy has asserted its estimate is partly explained by a would-be favorable cost-by-weight ratio generated through its plan […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 12/19/2014 As the Navy continues its investigation into alleged recordings of undressed female sailors aboard the USS Wyoming ballistic missile submarine, NS&D Monitor has learned new details surrounding the documented events. Whereas previous media reports suggested that a 24-year-old male was the subject of an investigation focusing on the alleged recording […]

A report released Monday by the Congressional Budget Office estimates the total cost of production of the Ohio-class replacement submarine at $92 billion, compared with the Navy’s estimate of $79 billion. Additionally, CBO estimates research and development on the next-generation submarine to cost $10 to $15 billion, bringing the total projected cost to $102 to […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 12/12/2014 After news broke that allegations of a sailor secretly recording female officers showering aboard a nuclear missile ballistic missile submarine had surfaced, House lawmakers expressed concern about morale in nuclear forces. Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee in a statement released Dec. 5, called the […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 12/12/2014 The Senate is expected to vote as early as today on a Fiscal Year 2015 omnibus spending bill unveiled on Dec. 9 which would allocate $853.3 million for research, development, testing and evaluation for the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine replacement program. The appropriations bill, approved by the House Dec. 11, […]

Congressional appropriators unveiled an omnibus spending bill last night which would allocate $853.3 million to the Ohio-class replacement program. The bill tacks an additional $4 million on top of the Obama Administration’s $849.3 million Fiscal Year 2015 request, for development of the ship’s propulsion component. The National Defense Authorization Act for FY 15 includes a […]

After news broke that allegations of a sailor secretly recording three female officers showering aboard a nuclear missile ballistic missile submarine had surfaced, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee in a statement released Dec. 5, called the news of alleged misconduct aboard the USS Wyoming “unwelcome and unacceptable,” and added […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 11/21/2014 As part of an effort to revamp shipyards, which house aging SSBNs and staff a rapidly aging civilian workforce, the Navy plans to update infrastructure at Strategic Weapons Facilities, and to hire approximately 2,450 civilian shipyard and refit facility workers. Hiring will include 100 military and civilian personnel for the […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 11/7/2014 The Navy’s most senior officer this week expressed concern that sequestration could prompt slashes in construction personnel for nuclear forces, and could result in a long struggle to reprogram funding for projects like the Ohio replacement.  Speaking Nov. 4 at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, Chief of […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 11/7/2014 A lack of an Environmental Impact Statement for the Army Corps of Engineers’ decommissioning of the Sturgis barge in Galveston, Texas, has the local city council up-in-arms over the Corps’ handling of the project. The Corps issued a contract to CB&I Federal Services earlier this year for the dismantlement […]

The Navy’s most senior officer on Tuesday expressed concern that sequestration could prompt slashes in construction personnel for nuclear forces, and could result in a long struggle to reprogram funding for projects like the Ohio replacement. Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, Chief of Naval Operations, said that the prospect of […]