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…There’s a lot going on around the US Navy and a lot to discuss. We’ll dive into some of those areas, including the Pentagon’s Replicator initiative and the possible long-term effects of the high pace of carrier deployments.
Please send us feedback by DM’ing @CavasShips or @CSSProvision or you can email chriscavas@gmail.com or cservello@defaeroreport.com.
This Week’s Naval Round Up:
Five U.S. Marines were killed February 6 when their CH-53E Sea Stallion helicopter crashed in Pine Valley, California about 50 miles east of San Diego. The Marines were from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361 on a flight from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego. The cause of the accident is under investigation.
In the campaign against Houthi weapons in Yemen threatening international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, US and British forces carried out several strikes against Houthi missiles and unmanned vessels and aircraft before they could be launched. One of the strikes, on February 8 hit, according to U.S. Central Command, four Houthi unmanned surface vessels and seven mobile anti-ship cruise missiles preparing to launch. Two other Houthi USVs were destroyed on February 5.
The Houthis on February 6 launched six anti-ship ballistic missiles – three were aimed at the Greek bulker STAR NASIA in the Gulf of Aden. One missile exploded near the ship causing minor damage and another landed in the water but nearby. The US destroyer LABOON shot down the third missile. The other three missiles landed in the southern Red Sea near the cargo ship MORNING TIDE with no damage.
In Britain, the planned deployment of the aircraft carrier HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH was cancelled just hours before it was due to leave Portsmouth for NATO exercises. The British Royal Navy said that routine pre-sailing checks on February 3 turned up an issue with a coupling on the ship’s starboard propeller ship. As a result, the Navy said, Queen Liz’s sistership PRINCE OF WALES will instead take part in NATO Exercise Steadfast Defender while repairs are made. PRINCE OF WALES was undergoing pierside maintenance at Portsmouth and could not immediately get underway. The incident was reminiscent of the situation in August 2022 when PRINCE OF WALES broke down with a machinery issue just a few miles after clearing Portsmouth harbor to begin a deployment to the United States. In that incident, QUEEN ELIZABETH carried out the deployment while PRINCE OF WALES spent several months under repair.
The US, Japan and Australia carried out trilateral operations in the South China Sea February 7 through the 8th. The US destroyer JOHN FINN and littoral combat ship GABRIELLE GIFFORDS were among the ships taking part. On February 9, the GABRIELLE GIFFORDS joined with the Philippine Navy’s frigate GREGORIO DEL PILAR to patrol in the South China Sea – the third in what’s being termed a Maritime Cooperative Activity between the US and the Philippines in the region.
German Navy chief Vice Admiral Jan Christian Kaack said in early February the F125-type frigate BADEN-WUERTTEMBURG and supply ship FRANKFURT-AM-MAIN would make a round-the-world cruise beginning in May 2024. The F125 frigates are a new type that, while very large, are relatively lightly armed and configured for more multi-mission operations. The last German round-the-world cruise was by the frigate BAYERN from 2021-2022, but the upcoming deployment will differ in likely being a westward direction, crossing the Atlantic before entering the Pacific. Germany this will join several European nations planning to deploy to the Pacific theater during 2024, including a likely participation by Italy’s aircraft carrier CAVOUR in the bi-annual Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC exercise out of Hawaii in mid-summer, and an expected deployment to the Pacific by France’s carrier CHARLES DE GAULLE.
In a January letter to the Greek government, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken expanded potential United States offers of military assistance to include, quote, “up to four littoral combat ships.” Greece has long been known to be interested in acquiring recently decommissioned US Navy Freedom-class LCSs, which include the MILWAUKEE LCS 5, DETROIT LCS 7, LITTLE ROCK LCS 9 and SIOUX CITY LCS 11 along with the first ship, FREEDOM LCS 1. In the letter, which was reported by several media outlets, Blinken said the US government will submit proposed ship transfer legislation to Congress for the ship transfers. Lockheed Martin, builder of the Freedom-class ships, has proposed a variety of lethality upgrades for the LCSs.
The Australian Department of Defense said February 4 that 37 Royal Australian Navy officers and sailors have reported aboard the U.S. Navy submarine tender EMORY S LAND at Guam. The move is part of preparations for the beginning of Submarine Rotational Force-West, the plan to begin rotating 4 US and 1 UK submarines operating from HMAS Stirling in Western Australia. Australian personnel will spend up to five months aboard the EMORY S LAND, one of two US submarine tenders based at Guam.
In the U.S. on February 8, the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit, or DIU, said it has chosen three vendors to prototype and develop unmanned underwater vehicles for the U.S. Navy. The companies are Oceaneering International, Kongsberg Discovery, and Anduril Industries. DIU said the “agreements highlight the importance of improving underwater capabilities, leveraging unmanned systems, and tackling present and future maritime dangers in a cost-effective and scalable manner.”
In new ship news – Ingalls Shipbuilding announced February 5 that the amphibious transport dock ship RICHARD M McCOOL JR LPD-29 has completed builders’ sea trials. The McCOOL is a “Flight I-plus” variant of the San Antonio LPD-17 class and is the first ship of any kind fitted with the rotating SPY-6(V)2 variant of the new EASR Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar, a Raytheon sensor being developed in several versions to operate from different classes of ships. The first SPY-6(V)1 is fitted to the Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer JACK M LUCAS. McCOOL still has to complete acceptance trials before being delivered to the US Navy.
Austal USA announced this week that US Navy acceptance trials for the littoral combat ship KINGSVILLE LCS 36 were completed on January 31. After the KINGSVILLE, only one more Independence-class ship remains to be completed, the PIERRE LCS 38.
Austal also announced February 6 they will begin construction this summer of a major new expansion of its Mobile, Alabama shipyard. The work includes a large three-bay ship assembly building and a new shiplift system designed to build Constellation-class frigates as well as US Coast Guard Offshore Patrol Cutters and other vessels. The shiplift will be able to lift or launch ships up to 18,000 tons – far larger than any ships now under construction in the yard. The expansion is a part of a major effort at Austal to move heavily into steel-ship construction.
And in old ship news – the US Coast Guard cutter STEADFAST WMEC-623 was decommissioned in a ceremony February 1 at Coast Guard Station Astoria, Oregon. The Reliance-class medium endurance cutter was built in Lorain, Ohio and first entered service in September 1968, a career of 56 years.
Servello Squawk:
Last year Under Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks unveiled Replicator, the latest and most ambitious department effort, aimed at rapidly scaling capabilities in the face of high-end competition.
Replicator’s initial task is to scale and field thousands of attritable autonomous systems within the next 18 to 24 months, leveraging AI, unmanned, and dual use technology. The goal is to integrate these technologies into an operational framework that helps pursue its foreign policy goals in the Indo-Pacific, European and Central Command areas of responsibility.
Skeptics applaud the new thinking and the chance at potentially moving things a bit faster, but openly wonder whether these innovations will fully meet the demands of an increasingly complex and competitive operational environment. They argue that parallel efforts to what’s already in the works might take away needed intellectual and fiscal resources. Further they wonder if the services will receive these new technologies with open arms or will they simply be cast aside in favor of more traditional technology?
I get that there are a ton of questions surrounding Replicator and how this tech will be fielded, tested and integrated into our operating forces. But if we wait for all of the answers to the same cultural and “what-if” operational questions that have dogged traditional military innovation for decades…we will miss our moment.
Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East highlight how outnumbered forces can use commercially derived drones, electromagnetic warfare systems, sensors, and satellite communications to gain a battlefield edge against even first-rate militaries. Washington and its allies could retain their ability to deter and defeat aggression by harnessing the capabilities defending Ukraine today, and a wide range of new companies are emerging to help field new information and automation capabilities. Replicator helps make this hope more of a reality.
Challenges posed by adversaries like China, Russia, and Iran are too immediate to rely on long-term solutions – today’s available military and commercial technologies are more than sufficient to counter threats and exploit asymmetric opportunities.
And while the recent joint Navy and Defense Innovation Unit vendor selection for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles does not fall under the Replicator program, there are many similarities and shared goals between the two efforts as DoD and the services look to bring needed under sea capabilities to the joint force quicker.
If Replicator and DIU sister programs live up to their hype, it could create a streamlined pathway across the so-called “valley of death” to quickly bring needed technology to operators in months rather than multiple budget cycles.
I think Keith Richards and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones said it best…
You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, well, you might find, you get what you need.
My belief is the Replicator program and the fast prototyping and acquisition associated with it may not be the all-encompassing acquisition reform we want, but it might just bring the need technology that we need.
