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…the commercial ship repair business is a major key to keeping the US Navy’s ships in fighting trim but – like just about everything — it is rife with problems and issues. Paul Smith, head of ship repair at one of the Navy’s largest commercial repair yards, BAE Systems, is back with us to key in on the difficulties and issues surrounding the repair of US Navy ships.
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 News:
The destroyers COLE and BULKELEY took part in the defense of Israel October 1st when they launched about a dozen Standard SM-3 missiles against ballistic missiles launched by Iran against Israel. USNI News reported it appears to be the second publicly-revealed combat use of the SM-3, a Standard missile variant specifically developed to counter ballistic missile targets. Iran appears to have launched about 200 missiles at Israel during the attack, with the majority apparently intercepted by land-based Iron Dome missiles. Earlier on September 29th, the Pentagon announced the deployments of the USS WASP Amphibious Ready Group and the USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN carrier strike group would be extended, again in anticipation of a potential widening of the conflicts centering on Israel. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, who had been operating in the US Central Commands area of operations in the Red Sea, passed through the Suez Canal and, like the WASP group, was operating in the Mediterranean by the end of September.
A joint force of nine Chinese and Russian warships is patrolling the western Pacific, the Russian Defense Ministry said October 1. Two Russian destroyers and three corvettes joined with two Chinese destroyers, a frigate and a fleet oiler after live fire exercises in the Sea of Okhotsk. The naval movements follow reports by the US Coast Guard that a four-ship formation of two Chinese Coast Guard ships and two Russian Border Guard ships were on patrol by mid-September in the Bering Sea. On September 29, the Russian MoD said two nuclear-powered submarines – the ballistic missile submarine IMPERATOR ALEKSANDR III and the attack submarine KRASNOYARSK, arrived at the Russian Navy’s submarine base at Vilyuchinsk on the Kamchatka peninsula. Both submarines were commissioned in December and transferred to the Pacific Fleet via the polar route.
The amphibious assault ships USS BOXER and South Korea’s MARADO maneuvered together over two days beginning October 2nd, the Republic of Korea’s Navy announced. The exercises took place off Pohang on South Korea’s east coast.
The destroyer USS OSCAR AUSTIN left Norfolk September 30 to shift homeport to Rota, Spain. OSCAR AUSTIN will become the fifth US destroyer forward-deployed at Rota, joining four destroyers already homeported there. A sixth, yet-to-be-named destroyer will transfer to Rota during 2025, a force expansion ordered by President Biden to beef up US forces in Europe.
On the US East Coast, a tentative contract agreement was reached October 4th between the International Longshoreman’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance. ILA members began a strike at all major ports on the East Coast on October 1, but agreed on October 3rd to return to work pending an agreement. The strike, which did not affect military cargoes or cruise ship operations, caused billions in losses to shippers even though the action lasted just short of three days.
In new ship news, the littoral combat ship BELOIT LCS 29 was delivered to the US Navy on September 30 from Lockheed Martin. The ship is the 15th Freedom-class LCS produced by Lockheed Martin and Fincantieri Marinette Marine Group at Marinette, Wisconsin. The Beloit is expected to be commissioned in 2025. Only one more Freedom-class ship, the CLEVELAND LCS 31, remains under construction.
The Russian Project 22350 frigate ADMIRAL ISAKOV was launched September 27 at Severnaya Works in Saint Petersburg. The ship is the fourth unit of the ADMIRAL GOLOVKO class, at 5,400 tons the largest surface ships being built in Russia. Beset by numerous problems, including finding a new supplier for engines after imports of Ukrainian engines were cut off in 2014, the ship has been under construction since 2013.
CHOGEI, the fifth Taigei-class diesel-electric attack submarine for the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, was launched October 4 at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ shipyard in Kobe City, Japan. The Taigei-class subs use lithium-ion batteries to power their electric motors – Japan is so far the only nation to use lithium-ion batteries rather than lead-acid batteries. The Taigei class is being built at two shipyards, MHI and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Japan has launched a new submarine every October for some years now.
The British nuclear-powered attack submarine HMS AGAMEMNON was launched October 3 at BAE System’s shipyard at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Construction of the AGAMEMNON, sixth of a planned seven submarines of the Astute class, is considerably behind schedule, with AGAMEMNON initially scheduled for launch in 2020. One more unit of the 7,400-ton submarines, the AGINCOURT, also is under construction.
