United States Navy.

 

 

 

www.navy.mil

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The U.S.S. Mustin is the Navy's newest destroyer, as of August, 2003. The Mustin is the Navy's first combat ship to be commanded by a woman, CDR Ann Clair Phillips. Its homeport is San Diego.

 

 

 

 

WASHINGTON -- On October 1 the Navy began offering a new short-term enlistment program aimed at expanding the opportunities for all Americans to serve in the United States Navy. Known as the National Call to Service (NCS), the program provides the Navy and the other military services a new way to reach a group of young Americans who otherwise might not serve in the military because of the length of traditional enlistment options. The program works like this: A recruit enlists under NCS and incurs a 15-month active-duty service obligation following completion of initial-entry training. The 15-month obligation begins after a Sailor has completed his or her respective Navy School. Navy Schools can run from three-months to 18-months depending on rating. Following successful completion of active duty obligation, Sailors may re-enlist for additional active duty or transfer to the selected reserve for a 24-month obligation. Upon completion of service obligation, Sailors may remain in the selected reserve or transfer to the individual ready reserve for the remainder of an eight-year national commitment. While in the individual ready reserve, these young people will be given the opportunity to move into one of the other national service programs, such as AmeriCorps or the Peace Corps, and time in those will count toward their eight-year total obligation. "The National Call to Service Program will be limited to high-quality recruits, those with a high school diploma and scores in the top half of aptitude tests," said Vice Adm. Gerry Hoewing, Chief of Naval Personnel. "We hope this will make the military more attractive to college-bound youth who might volunteer to take a short period out between high school and college to serve their nation." The option may also attract college graduates interested in serving their country before attending graduate school. Perhaps the largest potential pool for the option are community college graduates who after serving the initial active duty period might use available incentives to enter a four-year school. There are four incentives available under the NCS Program. The first is a $5,000 bonus payable upon completion of active duty service. The second is a loan-repayment option also paid at the end of the active-duty portion. The legislation allows for repayment of up to $18,000 of qualifying student loans. The final two incentives are tied to, but not part of, the Montgomery G.I. Bill. One gives 12 months of a full Montgomery G.I. Bill stipend -- currently about $900 a month. The other incentive offers 36 monthly payments at one-half of the current Montgomery G.I. Bill stipend. "This is a great option for high school graduates or even college students who want to serve the country, see the world and then go to school," Hoewing added. Each service will set their own enlistment criteria. The first people who opted for this program entered the delayed-entry program beginning Oct. 1. Basic medical specialties, some engineer skills, personnel, administration and combat specialties will generally be offered. Traditional enlistment terms are three, four, five and six years in comparison to the nominal 15 months of service for the NCS Program. The Navy intends to recruit and select up to 1,000 Sailors for this new national service program.

 

 

 

 

WASHINGTON -- The newest Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyer, Chafee, will be commissioned Saturday, October 18, 2003, during an 11 a.m. eastern ceremony in Newport, R.I. The ship honors John Hubbard Chafee of Providence, R.I. Chafee distinguished himself as a U.S. senator, Navy secretary, Rhode Island governor, and a Marine -- with service as both an enlisted man and commissioned officer. Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Michael W. Hagee, will deliver the ceremony's principal address. Serving as co-sponsors for the ship will be Virginia Chafee, wife of the ship's namesake and Diane Blair, wife of retired Navy Adm. Dennis C. Blair, former commander, U.S. Pacific Command. In the time-honored Navy tradition of commissioning U.S. naval ships, the co-sponsors will give the order to "man our ship and bring her to life!" Chafee is the 40th ship of 62 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers currently authorized by Congress. This highly capable multi-mission ship can conduct a variety of operations, from peacetime presence and crisis management to sea control and power projection, in support of the National Military Strategy. Chafee will be capable of fighting air, surface, and subsurface battles simultaneously. The ship contains myriad offensive and defensive weapons designed to support maritime defense needs well into the 21st century. Cmdr. John W. Ailes of New London, Conn., will become the ship's first commanding officer. Chafee will be homeported in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and will have a crew of approximately 30 officers and 355 enlisted. Built by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, the 9,100-ton Chafee is 511 feet in length, has a waterline beam of 59 feet, an overall beam of 66 feet, and a navigational draft of 33 feet. Four gas turbine engines will power the ship to speeds of more than 30 knots.

 

 

 

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii -- The Navy is adapting the Fleet Response Plan (FRP), a program developed to change the way ships deploy and to provide the United States with a greater range of naval options, adding the element of unpredictability to naval efficiency.

"Through the FRP, the President and Secretary of Defense have a responsive, flexible Navy that can be called upon to deploy whenever we're needed with as little as 30 days notice," said Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet Adm. Walter F. Doran. "With the current world situation, this is the way we're going to have to run our Navy."

The idea behind FRP is to keep the Navy ready to surge and to vary the lengths of deployments, meaning the Navy will be more flexible, ready to deploy whenever, wherever.

While the Navy has been forced to extend deployments to fight the war on terrorism, FRP does not mean Sailors will always spend more than six months at sea. According to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark, through FRP, the possibility exists for shorter, more frequent deployments during ships' operational availability.

"I would rather muster two battle groups for three months and do something really significant internationally, and cooperate with partners in training and so forth, than just go over and hang out for six months without purpose," Clark told a Navy Times editorial board. "The position that I'm pushing is that we should be less interested in presence and more interested in presence with a purpose."

By increasing the duration of time a ship can be deployed, the operational availability of several ships will always overlap, giving the Navy the possibility of deploying multiple ships or battle groups at once.

"Just because a carrier strike group or an expeditionary strike group is surge-capable, it does not mean they will be surged, nor does it mean that if surged, they'll be gone for six months," Doran said. "All groups will still have a set deployment date, but once they get to a certain period in their training, if we ask for them, if they're needed to surge for an operation, they can be deployed. FRP is the way we are going to run the Navy in the future, because it gives our nation's leaders the flexibility they need.

"This is a new operational concept that relies on active involvement by all levels of the chain of command to work," Doran said. "It is important for each ship, each squadron and each submarine crew to talk about the FRP model, so our Sailors and their families have a better idea of what to expect with future fleet operations."

 

 

 

 

 

This Association strongly disagrees with that position. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5/28/2004: Navy Shows Off Next-Generation Vessel By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, USA American Forces Press Service

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- The huge vessel looks quite out of place among the small yachts and sailboats at a shallow pier. Neighborhood people on their morning jogs and dog walks looked amazingly at the HSV 2 Swift on its four-day port call here March 30. Many of those visiting the ship during an open house about six miles from the Pentagon wondered how an 11,000-ton vessel could be moored so close to dock. A look down at the depth mark on one of the vessel's unique-style catamarans show it's floating in less than nine feet of water. As tour guide Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jorge Flores, explained, "Not many captains could drive a vessel in less than 12 feet of water and still be the captain." The HSV, which stands for high-speed vessel, may pave the way forward in the Defense Department's transformation. The Army is interested in how to get troops and equipment into the theater quicker. The Navy is looking for a platform to conduct a variety of sea-based operations, such as mine sweeping. The Swift has thus far proved it can do both. The HSV 2 Swift may one day become the Defense Department's transformation into the future. The Swift floats on two sleek, wave-piercing catamarans and can travel at speed of 42 knots or 85 plus kilometers per hour. The Navy has a two-year lease on the vessel. The ship can berth as many as 350 troops when modified for a deployment. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample. The Swift is currently under Navy-Army joint testing as the next platform for military operations in a littoral environment operations conducted very near the coast or shoreline. In the past, the military has relied mostly on airlift and sealift to deploy troops and equipment. Ocean travel has meant slow, deep-draft vessels. However, the SWIFT has a lightweight aluminum hull, which makes it fast and agile. It can even maneuver right up to the shoreline. Two companies primarily constructed the vessel. Australian shipbuilder Incat, builds some of the worlds fastest vehicle and passenger ferries, and Louisiana-based Bollinger Shipyards, Inc., builds military patrol boats, offshore oil field support vessels, tugs, rigs and lifeboats. The Navy has a two-year lease on the Swift at a cost of $21.7 million a year. The Swift is currently operating as an interim Mine Warfare Command and Support Ship. It's undergoing testing for mine countermeasures and as a sea-basing platform. The Swift is also being looked at for other transformational modular mission payload initiatives. The Army is evaluating two similar, leased ships, the HSV-X1 Joint Venture and the TSV-1X Spearhead. The Swift has a stern ramp capable of loading and unloading a variety of military vehicles and can hold 615 metric tons of equipment. For example, it can carry the 60-ton M-1A1 main battle tank. The craft is also fitted with a load-compensating crane that can launch and recover small boats and unmanned vehicles of up to 26,000 pounds while under way. A variety of helicopters can use its flight deck. But Navy officials say what also makes the Swift unique is the vessel's high speed, shallow drafts, versatility and maneuverability. Flores says the ship can "turn on a dime" and when it comes to speed, no other Navy ship is faster. The Swift floats on two sleek wave-piercing catamarans propelled by four jet- propulsion diesel engines, together producing about 40,000 horsepower. The ship can reach up to 42 knots or 85-plus kilometers per hour "warp speed" considering the average Navy ship cruises at about 12 knots. And Flores says that when under attack, "Speed is my best friend." "If there is a threat, I can get away from it to eliminate that threat and at the same time I can use my ship's self-defense weapons to neutralize the threat without placing the ship in danger." The Swift's self-defense mechanism includes seven crew-served 25-50 mm machine guns, and a grenade machine gun. But the ship offers more than just speed. Its open design allows it to be configured for a variety of military missions, according to Navy Cdr. Clark Price, the vessel's captain. "We can work with SEALs one day, switch over to mine sweeping the next, then flight ops the next," he said. "We can do multiple missions altogether -- that's the great thing about this ship." Price pointed out the ship could even be turned into a hospital in a day. Since its maiden voyage, the Swift, which was delivered to the Navy on Aug. 15, 2003, has already proven its versatility. The ship served in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom as a logistics base and a staging platform for Navy- Marine SEAL teams operating off of Umm Qasr, Iraq. There the ship also tested its mine-warfare capabilities. Recently the Swift returned from Puerto Cortez, Honduras, after delivering 195 pieces of cargo, including tanker trucks, cranes, ambulances and construction equipment to Navy and Army personnel there building schools and medical clinics to help the local governments as part of a humanitarian mission. Flores said the Swift was able to unload cargo from heavy ships at sea and ferry it 120 miles to shore in about three hours. Before the Honduras exercise the Swift completed West African Training Cruise- 04, an exercise designed to enhance security cooperation between the United States and participating West African nations. During the exercise 150 sailors and Marines conducted littoral training, including riverine operations and small-boat raids.

 

 

4/1/2004:

 

Navy Cracking Glass Wall Between Reserve, Active Forces

By RICHARD R. BURGESS
Managing Editor

Sea Power


A second-class petty officer aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise operating in the Persian Gulf earlier this year received a message about a family emergency back home. The ship, which had gone through intensive pre-deployment training with its assigned reserve component, had to replace the petty officer.

The ship’s crew identified a reservist by name and called him in New Jersey, asking if he could come forward for two weeks. Within 48 hours, the reservist had been flown aboard the carrier and was manning a console.

"That’s integration, that’s surge, and that’s what we are going to do in the future," Vice Adm. John G. Cotton, commander, Naval Reserve Force, told Sea Power.

A naval aviator and an airline pilot on leave from American Airlines, Cotton was recalled to active duty nine months ago to head the Naval Reserve and reshape the force. His office is in the section of the Pentagon that was rebuilt after terrorists crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the building on Sept. 11, 2001. The pilot of that airliner, Capt. Charles F. Burlingame, was a fellow Navy Reserve aviator and one of several friends that Cotton lost in the attack.

Cotton is helping to steer the Naval Reserve through one of most sweeping realignments in its history. Active-reserve integration (ARI) ranks No. 5 on the Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark’s list of priorities, and he has charged Adm. William J. Fallon, commander of Fleet Forces Command, with formulating the requirements for implementing ARI Navy-wide.

Cotton has assigned one of his flag officers, Rear Adm. David O. Anderson, to a cell created by Fallon and headed by active-duty Rear Adm. James A. Winnefeld Jr. that is conducting a zero-based review of the Naval Reserve.

"Fallon himself started this two years ago," Cotton said. "Nobody had a holistic view of everything. So Adm. Fallon’s done that for the first time. This cell metrically looks at every billet, every capability, every unit, and they question everything we’ve done in the reserve and they weight it. On a scale of one to 10, does the fleet actually need this to sail, or does it not need this at all? Is this a surge requirement or a day-to-day requirement? Is it a valid mission for a reservist, contractor, government worker or active-duty sailor?"

Cotton said that the "most startling conclusion" was that what had to be fixed most in Navy active and reserve components was the culture. The active component had to be educated about what the reserve could do, he said.

"We’re about 80 percent complete in the first phase" of the review, Cotton said. The review "will never end; it will be continuous. The first time you will see some of the zero-based review decisions is in the fall when the [fiscal year] 2006 budget is on Capitol Hill."

The most far-reaching change with active-reserve integration is in unified planning. "There are no Naval Reserve requirements, there are only Navy requirements," Cotton said. "For the first time, reservists become part of the program, rather than an addition at the end; we actually get built into the system.

"As a nation we can no longer afford to have separate and unequal forces. We can’t have what we used to call ‘weekend warriors.’ The average reservist now doesn’t do weekends. The average reservist now supports what I call supportive commands whenever they can."

Since 9/11, approximately 26,300 Naval Reservists — about 28 percent of the force — have been mobilized in support of the global war on terrorism. Currently there are approximately 1,000 Naval Reservists — including 500 Seabees — in the Persian Gulf area.

However, Cotton noted, "the real story … is how many folks don’t have to be mobilized, who are written into the day-to-day plans of the Navy to support them in the training, the watch-standing, the deployment, the graduate-level training. For example, this week alone, there are 21,000 reservists, on orders, right now, performing operational support to the fleet in some substantive manner."

Cotton points to the success of the support given to flight training by reserve aviators as an example of wise and flexible use of reserve forces. He recently flew in a training aircraft with a furloughed airline pilot on a one-year recall to the Navy. "He has thousands of hours of experience and now he’s teaching young students air combat maneuvering."

Another airline pilot gives the Naval Air Training Command six to eight days per month. "All those skill sets we need are already paid for," he noted. "How do we bring all the sunk costs of training and better utilize them? Instead of having a separate force, the active component is taking ownership of the reserve component, and the active duty [component] is actually going to be responsible for the readiness of its reserve component, as it always should have been."

Cotton says that changes in the personnel system might be required to effectively use the skills that Naval Reservists bring to the fleet. The requirement that reservists retire at age 60 complicates recruiting a 45-year-old surgeon, for example, who could not accrue enough time for retirement.

Flexible contracts may be the answer, he said. Some people with certain skill sets need minimum training before serving. "We hired a doctor who was 68 and we sent him forward to the desert because he wanted to fix soldiers."

Recruiting is one area in which integration is already moving forward. Reserve recruiting has been merged with recruiting for the regular Navy. "In the future I see Navy reservists going to full boot camp, going to A-School [primary skills training], and then picking up a commitment to stay in the Navy Reserve," Cotton said.

Ironically, the high retention rates of active-duty sailors during the last two years have the unintended consequence of making recruiting veterans for the Naval Reserve more difficult, said Rear Adm. Daniel L. Kloeppel, commander, Naval Air Force Reserve. The Naval Reserve traditionally relies on highly trained personnel leaving active duty to fill many of its billets.

"Because we are getting a little smaller, I don’t foresee any issue in the future," Cotton said. "In the 2005 budget, [the Navy] has programmed minus 7,900 active personnel and minus 2,500 reserve personnel. So we will recruit less."

The extensive reserve infrastructure also is going through realignment. As of October 2003, Commander, Naval Installations, the Navy’s landlord, absorbed every Naval Reserve activity into its command.

"We can’t think of ourselves as separate reserve activities in the heartland, we have to think of ourselves as part of a Navy region. We will never build another Navy-Marine Corps Reserve center," Cotton said. "We will only build armed forces reserve centers, or joint operational support centers."

Today a "reservist in blue jeans" can go into any of 27 joint reserve centers at midnight and, "with good connectivity, work on [intelligence] products for Bosnia, Iraq, Korea, and not have to be in-theater sleeping in a tent, eating MREs (meals ready to eat) and being force-protected."

Joint headquarters units also will be established in each of the states, manned by members of all seven reserve components. "What an amazing concept: people who live in a region will be asked to respond and protect that region," Cotton said.

The Naval Reserve also currently operates a fleet of eight frigates and 15 mine warfare ships. Their future in the realignment will be decided by the Navy leadership, under the one-Navy concept.

 

 

 

The Navy introduced a set of concept working uniforms for Sailors E-1 through O-10 Oct. 18, in response to the fleet's feedback on current uniforms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by Journalist 2nd Class Matt Grills
Navy News Service

NORFOLK, Va. - The Navy commissioned its most advanced guided-missile destroyer to date, USS Nitze (DDG 94), in a ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., March 5.

Cmdr. Michael Hegarty took command of Nitze in a ceremony that included remarks from former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, Undersecretary of the Navy Dionel Aviles, Rear Adm. Charles Hamilton II, program executive officer - ships, and Rear Adm. Michael Nowakowski, commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. U.S. Reps. Bobby Scott, 3rd District of Virginia, and Randy Forbes, 4th District, were among the honored guests.

Lehman congratulated Nitze's inaugural crew, saying they are privileged to serve on a ship that will project U.S. power during wartime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

·  NAS Pensacola is being “realigned” with a net loss of 1579 jobs.

·  Naval Reserve Center, St. Pete is being closed. Loss of 12 jobs.

·  Naval Support Activity, Panama City, FL to be “realigned” for a loss of 24 jobs.

·  Naval Station, Pascagoula is to be closed. Loss of 963 jobs. 

·  Naval Support Activity, New Orleans is being closed. Loss of 2711 jobs. jobs.

·  Naval Station, Ingleside, Texas to close for a loss of 2218 jobs.

·  Naval Reserve Center, Orange, Texas is closing for a loss of 11 jobs.

·  NAS Corpus Christi to be “realigned” for a loss of 1025 jobs.

 

UPDATE 8/24/2005:

 

Groton was removed from the final list of reccommended base closings today by BRAC.

Some say that this was because of lobbying efforts by Connecticut's two U.S. Senators.

Primarily, instead, it was because of lobbying efforts by the

United States Navy Veterans Association, via our own contacts which neither of those Senators had, stressing that the closure would have the appearance of mean spiritedness and revenge to be closing down a major naval base in a 'blue' state, regardless of the other merits of the case. Further, once BRAC made the decision to take Groton off the list of recommended closings, it became logically inconsistent to keep a major USAF base in South Dakota (a "red" state) on the list, so that base was removed from the closure list also. Thus the Association saved not only a major naval base from closure by its efforts, but a USAF base in South Dakota as well.

 

Groton is one of three major submarine bases the Navy has on our East Coast, the other two being in the South.

 

 

 

10/20/2005:

 

Group Sues Navy to Limit Sonar It Says Harms Marine Life

By Marc Kaufman

Washington Post Staff Writer

Loud blasts of sound from the sonar systems of Navy ships are killing and disorienting whales and other marine mammals and should be far more strictly limited, an environmental group argued in a federal lawsuit filed yesterday.

The suit, filed in California by the Natural Resources Defense Council, charges that routine use of mid-frequency sonar in Navy training and testing is illegal under federal law and is needlessly harmful.

The group sued the Navy over its use of low-frequency sonar in 2002 and negotiated a settlement limiting its use. The new suit calls on the Navy to make changes to its far more extensive use of mid-frequency sonar, as well.

"Military sonar needlessly threatens whole populations of whales and other marine animals," said Joel Reynolds, a senior attorney at NRDC. "In violation of our environmental laws, the Navy refuses to take basic precautions that could spare these majestic creatures."

Lt. William Marks, a Navy spokesman, disputed NRDC's assertions, saying that "the Navy complies with the law. We recognize that active sonar testing and training must be accomplished in an environmentally sound manner."

The suit does not ask the Navy to stop using sonar -- which tracks submarines -- but to limit its use in testing and training, and to be more careful about where and when