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For those interested in keeping up on a daily basis. This news site is indispensable.
Heres the link:
http://www.subsim.com/nucleus/index....rchive=2005-03
Heres a sample:
Admiral Warns Against Cutting Sub Fleet
Kenny Says Dropping Number Of Boats To 28 Would Be ‘nonsensical'
By ROBERT A. HAMILTON
Day Staff Writer, Navy/Defense/Electric Boat
Published on 3/11/2005
Groton — The submarine force could drop to about half its current size in less than 25 years based on current trends, so the Navy has to redouble its efforts to find a way to produce more boats, said Rear Adm. Mark W. Kenny, commander of Submarine Group Two at the Naval Submarine Base.
“Numbers count,” Kenny said during an interview Thursday. “We're on a road right now that will get us to 28 submarines unless we change what we're doing today. ... It's nonsensical to think that as a nation we would go that low in the submarine force with the threats that we face in the near and long term.”
Kenny said the Navy is looking at ways to boost the procurement budget or to develop less-expensive alternatives to Virginia-class submarines that are being co-produced by Electric Boat in Groton and Northrop Grumman Newport News (Va.) Shipbuilding.
It's also considering management techniques, such as assigning two crews to each attack submarine to enable it to spend more time at sea, though those are only short-term fixes, he said.
“All I can say from my perspective is we will need ships,” Kenny said. “We can't see 28 submarines in any configuration being enough to do what we're required to do.”
Kenny, who assumed command of Group Two and the Navy Region Northeast in January, is a 1977 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He commanded the USS Birmingham, during which time he was nominated for the Arleigh Burke Trophy as the most improved submarine in the Pacific Fleet and earned the coveted Battle Efficiency “E” for combat readiness.
Kenny was also Pacific Fleet nominee for the Rear Adm. Jack Darby Award for Inspirational Leadership and was selected for the Vice Adm. James Bond Stockdale Leadership Award during his command tour.
Kenny said he's not being parochial by advocating more submarines, but as an admiral with almost 28 years of Navy experience he knows what such a decline in the fleet would mean to national security.
“I don't look at it as a submariner, I look at it from a national perspective,” he said. “The risk involved in that is unacceptable. As a submariner, as a citizen in the heartland of America, America needs more than 28 submarines.”
•••
Until recently, submarine officers have been unwilling to acknowledge the fleet might sink from its current level of 54 boats to as low as 40, though the most recent defense budget proposal, which would essentially eliminate five submarines from the future fleet, has sparked concern.
The spending package proposed by President Bush would delay from 2009 until at least 2012 a plan to boost production of Virginia-class subs from one to two a year, which the shipyards have said is critical to maintain the industrial base.
At more than $2.5 billion per boat, and a shipbuilding budget barely four times that amount that must be stretched over a range of warships, pessimists worry the Navy may never be able to get submarine production to two a year.
In addition, the budget eliminated two planned submarine refuelings, which means the Navy will lose those Los Angeles-class submarines halfway through their 33-year service life.
A Navy force structure chart now tracks two lines for submarines:
• If production continues at one per year, the force level falls to 28 in 2029 and 2030, before edging back up to 33, where it will stabilize.
• If production is boosted to two a year starting in 2012, the line flattens out at 40 in 2028 and 2029, before starting to climb back up to level off at 66.
Various strategies are under investigation that could help boost submarine numbers by making them less expensive or giving them greater capability.
The Navy has joined with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to investigate technologies that might result in a half-size, half-price, but full-capability Virginia-class submarine, and the president's budget provides $600 million over the next five years to develop technology for an “undersea superiority system.”
But Kenny said he worries that might not be enough when the cost is so high that it consumes a quarter of the Navy shipbuilding budget to build one submarine.
“We can't continue on that track,” Kenny said. “Something has got to change ... I think our leadership understands that. We're trying to work out through different studies, concept designs. Virginia is part of that answer. From my perspective it should be the answer. We have it, it's available, it's a successful program. We need to go to two a year as soon as possible. I think any submariner will tell you that.”
After five years in Pentagon assignments, he said, he knows that the submarine force structure “is the most studied issue out there ... The answer comes back 45 to 67, I don't care who studies it, from what perspective, from what agenda, it's indisputable.”
Heres the link:
http://www.subsim.com/nucleus/index....rchive=2005-03
Heres a sample:
Admiral Warns Against Cutting Sub Fleet
Kenny Says Dropping Number Of Boats To 28 Would Be ‘nonsensical'
By ROBERT A. HAMILTON
Day Staff Writer, Navy/Defense/Electric Boat
Published on 3/11/2005
Groton — The submarine force could drop to about half its current size in less than 25 years based on current trends, so the Navy has to redouble its efforts to find a way to produce more boats, said Rear Adm. Mark W. Kenny, commander of Submarine Group Two at the Naval Submarine Base.
“Numbers count,” Kenny said during an interview Thursday. “We're on a road right now that will get us to 28 submarines unless we change what we're doing today. ... It's nonsensical to think that as a nation we would go that low in the submarine force with the threats that we face in the near and long term.”
Kenny said the Navy is looking at ways to boost the procurement budget or to develop less-expensive alternatives to Virginia-class submarines that are being co-produced by Electric Boat in Groton and Northrop Grumman Newport News (Va.) Shipbuilding.
It's also considering management techniques, such as assigning two crews to each attack submarine to enable it to spend more time at sea, though those are only short-term fixes, he said.
“All I can say from my perspective is we will need ships,” Kenny said. “We can't see 28 submarines in any configuration being enough to do what we're required to do.”
Kenny, who assumed command of Group Two and the Navy Region Northeast in January, is a 1977 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He commanded the USS Birmingham, during which time he was nominated for the Arleigh Burke Trophy as the most improved submarine in the Pacific Fleet and earned the coveted Battle Efficiency “E” for combat readiness.
Kenny was also Pacific Fleet nominee for the Rear Adm. Jack Darby Award for Inspirational Leadership and was selected for the Vice Adm. James Bond Stockdale Leadership Award during his command tour.
Kenny said he's not being parochial by advocating more submarines, but as an admiral with almost 28 years of Navy experience he knows what such a decline in the fleet would mean to national security.
“I don't look at it as a submariner, I look at it from a national perspective,” he said. “The risk involved in that is unacceptable. As a submariner, as a citizen in the heartland of America, America needs more than 28 submarines.”
•••
Until recently, submarine officers have been unwilling to acknowledge the fleet might sink from its current level of 54 boats to as low as 40, though the most recent defense budget proposal, which would essentially eliminate five submarines from the future fleet, has sparked concern.
The spending package proposed by President Bush would delay from 2009 until at least 2012 a plan to boost production of Virginia-class subs from one to two a year, which the shipyards have said is critical to maintain the industrial base.
At more than $2.5 billion per boat, and a shipbuilding budget barely four times that amount that must be stretched over a range of warships, pessimists worry the Navy may never be able to get submarine production to two a year.
In addition, the budget eliminated two planned submarine refuelings, which means the Navy will lose those Los Angeles-class submarines halfway through their 33-year service life.
A Navy force structure chart now tracks two lines for submarines:
• If production continues at one per year, the force level falls to 28 in 2029 and 2030, before edging back up to 33, where it will stabilize.
• If production is boosted to two a year starting in 2012, the line flattens out at 40 in 2028 and 2029, before starting to climb back up to level off at 66.
Various strategies are under investigation that could help boost submarine numbers by making them less expensive or giving them greater capability.
The Navy has joined with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to investigate technologies that might result in a half-size, half-price, but full-capability Virginia-class submarine, and the president's budget provides $600 million over the next five years to develop technology for an “undersea superiority system.”
But Kenny said he worries that might not be enough when the cost is so high that it consumes a quarter of the Navy shipbuilding budget to build one submarine.
“We can't continue on that track,” Kenny said. “Something has got to change ... I think our leadership understands that. We're trying to work out through different studies, concept designs. Virginia is part of that answer. From my perspective it should be the answer. We have it, it's available, it's a successful program. We need to go to two a year as soon as possible. I think any submariner will tell you that.”
After five years in Pentagon assignments, he said, he knows that the submarine force structure “is the most studied issue out there ... The answer comes back 45 to 67, I don't care who studies it, from what perspective, from what agenda, it's indisputable.”