Welcome to the CavasShips Podcast with Christopher P. Cavas and Chris Servello…a weekly podcast looking at naval and maritime events and issues of the day – in the US, across the seas and around the world. This week…MARINE COMMANDANT BERGER spends time with reporters while at the Reagan Defense Forum and Chris and I discuss the high points of the proposed National Defense Authorization Act.
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This Week’s Naval Round Up:
The House of Representatives on December 8 passed its version of the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Bill. The bill – which provides authorities and policies for the defense department but not the actual funding of the Pentagon, authorized nearly $858 billion for National Defense, including $32.6 billion for 11 Navy battle force ships – three destroyers, two attack submarines, one frigate, one amphibious transport dock ship, two expeditionary fast transports, a fleet oiler and towing, salvage and rescue ship. The three destroyers are the first of a 15-ship multi-year authority providing for three destroyers per year. We’ll talk more about what’s in the bill in a few minutes.
Two US Navy aircraft carriers this week emerged from significant overhauls and are returning to the fleet. The CARL VINSON on December 4 completed a six-month availability at North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego, while on the same day the DWIGHT D EISENHOWER wrapped up a 13-month overhaul at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Both ships will soon begin the process of qualifications and training in advance of their next deployments.
Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron Fourteen – the Vanguards of HM-14 – flew its final squadron flight on December 8 at Norfolk, Virginia. The Vanguard, who specialize in mine countermeasures conducted from MH-53 Echo Sea Dragon helicopters, are being disestablished in July 2023 after 45 years of service. HM-14 is one of only two Navy minesweeping helicopter squadrons, along with the Blackhawks of Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 15. Both are being disestablished as the Navy changes its approach to mine countermeasures with the fielding of new manned and unmanned systems.
The Canadian frigates VANCOUVER and WINNIPEG returned to Canada’s west coast naval base at Esquimalt December 5 after a seven-month cruise. The ships began the cruise by taking part in RIMPAC exercises in Hawaii, cruised to the South China Sea and Malaysia, took part in numerous exercises including a ballistic missile defense exercise, visited Japan and carried out a Taiwan Strait transit.
In new ship news, up at the General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, a keel ceremony was held on December 7 for the new Virginia-class attack submarine ARIZONA, SSN 803. It’s the first time since 1914 that construction has begun for a US Navy ship named ARIZONA. The first USS ARIZONA, of course, was a battleship that was sunk in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The ARIZONA’s sponsor, Nikki Stratton, is the granddaughter of Seaman First Class Donald Stratton, who was a survivor of the attack. The sunken battleship continues to be maintained by the National Park Service as a memorial to all those lost in the attack. There has been no new USS ARIZONA since 1941, along with two other ships lost in the attack, the USS OKLAHOMA and USS UTAH. All three names are now being perpetuated with new submarines.
And another keel ceremony was held on December 5 at General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard in San Diego, where Kathleen Kennedy Townsend was on hand to sponsor the new fleet oiler Robert F. Kennedy (T-AO 208).
Cavas Squawk:
This past week I was over at Sparrows Point near Baltimore, Maryland to have a good look at the wooden sailing sloop CONSTELLATION in drydock. Pretty cool stuff indeed! And while the ship was truly fascinating – it’s not every day you have a chance to walk underneath a big ship dating from 1854 – what was also interesting was where the drydocking is taking place, in something called Sparrows Point Shipyard.
I had no idea what the Sparrows Point Shipyard was. I know that the area was once an immense, sprawling Bethlehem Steel industrial complex that included the world’s largest steel mill and a major shipbuilding operation. Today all that is gone, replaced by huge distribution centers and a variety of training and storage facilities. The shipyard itself closed in 2004, and nearly all its facilities have been demolished. One relic of those days, however remains – a huge graving dock – a drydock in which big ships can be built as well as repaired.
The drydock is huge – 1,200 feet long – four football fields – and 200 feet wide. Tucked up in one corner was the tiny CONSTELLATION, not even 200 feet long.
But what is Sparrows Point Shipyard I asked? Turns out it is not a shipyard in the traditional sense with land, facilities and workers. It’s just the drydock and a couple cranes. Historic Ships in Baltimore, the organization that operates the CONSTELLATION, rented the drydock and equipment, hired shipyard workers for the job, hired the expertise needed to plan and execute the task. Voila, instant shipyard. This particular operation will close out when the CONSTELLATION is towed back to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, and another client already is lined up to undertake its own work in the dock.
This sort of pop-up shipyard is a model that is growing in various parts of the country. An operation with minimal permanent infrastructure, facilities and workforce, an adaptable and expandable organizational model better equipped to withstand the inconsistencies of weather or customer funding. And it has implications for the Navy and the Coast Guard.
I’ve seen this sort of thing in Florida and in Virginia with yards doing work for the Coast Guard and for the Navy’s Military Sealift Command, and it is an industrial model that appears to be expanding. At the moment it doesn’t seem to be applicable for more sophisticated work, such as an Aegis destroyer, but it seems to be working for less-complex jobs. It might also have potential to handle emergent repair work. It’s not perfect of course – one cannot replace the experienced workforce needed to support a naval warship, and specialized facilities are usually not so portable. But the model has certain applications. It’s one more piece in the overall capacity issue that is a central feature of any discussion of Navy shipbuilding and support.
