Ford family celebrates beginning of aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford construction

The 38th president’s daughter, Susan Ford Bales, declared the keel “truly and fairly laid” at an authentication ceremony attended by congressmen, dignitaries and shipworkers at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding’s shipyard.

Bales, the ship’s sponsor, on Friday added her initials in chalk on a metal plate, which was welded to the 900-ton keel — the building block upon which the carrier will rise.

Susan Ford Bales, daughter of former President Gerald R. Ford and ship's sponsor of the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), writes her initials onto a metal plate during the keel laying and authentication ceremony. Gerald R. Ford is the newest class of aircraft carrier. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kevin S. O'Brien/Released)

Robert Bowker welds the initials of Susan Ford Bales into the keel of the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) during a keel laying and authentication ceremony at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding in Newport News. Gerald R. Ford is the newest class of aircraft carrier. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kevin S. O'Brien/Released)

Ford served aboard USS Monterey (CVL-26) during World War 2 and was nearly washed overboard during Typhoon Cobra. As I wrote in that post, Murdoc doesn’t really believe that ‘Ford’ is a good choice for the name of an aircraft carrier, particularly a lead ship. But I guess it could have been worse.

Here’s a video from WOOD-TV:

The ship is scheduled to enter service in 2015.

Potential 767 and 777-based platforms make up the “7A7 family of tankers.”

Last week I pointed out a story which claimed that the Prince of Wales, the second of two new British aircraft carriers, could be switched to a helicopter-only commando carrier.

British defence equipment and support minister Quentin Davies called the report “complete rubbish.”

He also noted that the British have no intention to cut back on the number of F-35s they plan to purchase. This had been the reason cited for the downgrading of the carrier.

F-35B
A Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft is on display at the production facility in Fort Worth, Texas, Aug. 31, 2009. (DoD photo by Cherie Cullen/Released)

Rising costs, changing threats and rival aircraft — manned and unmanned — could cut nearly in half the number of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters that ultimately are built, a Dutch defense analyst said in a report to the Dutch parliament. And if fewer planes are built, the price for each, already $100 million or more, will undoubtedly increase, analyst Johan Boeder warned.

A “likely estimate” is that 2,500 F-35s eventually will be built, Boeder wrote in a report delivered to Dutch lawmakers in September.

Lockheed Martin disputes that conclusion, but Barry Watts of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments thinks it might be accurate.

Current plans call for the U.S. military to buy 2,443 F-35s, “but if history is any guide, I would not hold my breath waiting” for that many purchases to be completed. “I think the number is going to be about half of that,” said Watts, who is a retired Air Force combat pilot and former chief of the Pentagon’s Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation.

Watts said he expects the Air Force to buy 800 to 1,000 F-35s instead of the 1,763 in current service plans. The Air Force can get by with fewer F-35s because it has decided to keep its A-10s and F-15Es in service.

One thing to keep in mind is that the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have meant a lot more flying for our planes than in a normal peacetime environment. The option to just keep flying the older fighters isn’t going to be there in ten years like it is today.

[Lockheed spokesman Chris Geisel] said that the U.S. still intends to buy 2,443 F-35s, Britain plans to buy 138 and the seven other nations participating in the F-35 program plan to buy about 700. “There are no indications from any of the partner countries that they are going to trim back,” he said.

As noted last week, Great Britain is considering cutting its buy to around 50 and turn its second Queen Elizabeth-class carrier into a helicopter carrier.

Now that F-22 production is being ended, in part because the F-35 can more cheaply do a lot of what’s needed in today’s world, are we going to see F-35 procurement further hamstring our air superiority?

UPDATE: (05 Nov 2009) A British official stated that they have no plans to reduce the number of F-35s they’ll buy or to downgrade the carrier to helicopters only.

House, Senate negotiators fund second F-35 engine

U.S. House and Senate negotiators defied a White House veto threat and agreed on Tuesday to include $560 million in the fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill for an alternate F-35 engine, several sources familiar with the talks told Reuters.

President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have repeatedly said they oppose funding for the second F-35 engine, which is being built by General Electric Co and Britain’s Rolls-Royce Group Plc given mounting pressures on the U.S. defense budget.

But administration officials issued more cautious statements on Tuesday, which several sources said signaled that the White House was easing off its veto threat.

Murdoc has long been in favor of the alternative engine in principle and is glad to see that, once again, the F136 appears to have survived.

Note: You probably saw the Blogad advertisements for the GE/RR F136 program running on this site recently. Those were purchased normally as standard Blogads, and Murdoc Online has received no compensation for writing this post or for supporting the F136 program. If, in the future, Murdoc receives an F136-powered F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter in appreciation for his efforts, he will be sure to disclose it in order to remain compliant with new FTC standards.

Two Northrop Grumman-built Ships — Dewey (DDG 105) and New York (LPD 21) — Delivered On Gulf Coast in the Same Week

PASCAGOULA, Miss. and AVONDALE, La., Aug. 25, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) delivered two ships to the U.S. Navy this week at its Gulf Coast shipyards in Pascagoula, Miss. and Avondale, La. Company and Navy officials signed documents officially transferring custody of the Aegis guided missile destroyer Dewey (DDG 105) in Pascagoula on Monday, Aug. 17 and the amphibious transport dock ship New York (LPD 21) at the New Orleans facility on Friday, Aug. 21.

Northrop Grumman delivered two ships to the U.S. Navy this week: the Aegis guided missile destroyer Dewey (DDG 105) in Pascagoula on Monday, Aug. 17 and the amphibious transport dock ship New York (LPD 21) at the New Orleans facility on Friday, Aug. 21.

Does that image look a little odd?

After Bold Rhetoric, House Leaves Tanker Decision to Pentagon Brass

After a great deal of talk about requiring the US Air Force to buy new tanker aircraft from both Boeing and Northrop Grumman/EADS, the House Appropriations Committee version of the defense bill appears to encourage but not require it:

Analyzing the panel’s wording is crucial, according to several analysts, and that is just what Pentagon officials will do when a final spending bill is hammered out later this year.

The report language is laden with words and phrases such as “option” and “the committee believes” and “one or more contracts.”

The military is required to decide whether or not to split the buy by October 1st.

Firing an Excalibur round from an M777 A2 Lightweight Howitzer tank on Camp Fallujah, Iraq, Nov. 4, 2007.

Refitted Excalibur Rounds Hit Test Targets

Raytheon on Aug. 1 test-fired its GPS-guided 155mm XM982 Excalibur artillery shell with a new inertial measurement unit (IMU), hitting all nine targets in a trial at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., company officials said.

The Excalibur rounds “had an average impact distance of less than two meters versus a threshold requirement of 10 meters,” said Michelle Lohmeier, Raytheon’s deputy program manger, land combat product line.

The new IMUs, built by Atlantic Inertial Systems, Plymouth, England, were added over the past several weeks after reliability failures with the previous Honeywell-built IMUs.

The old IMUs had a failure rate of about 5% and new Excalibur buys are on hold until the issue is resolved. The Army says no combat rounds have had the problem.

Air Force requests 100 light-attack planes

The USAF put out a request for information about procuring up to 100 light attack/recon aircraft.

Specifications call for the plane to have two seats, four positions for weapons or external fuel tanks and an onboard laser designator. The plane must also have the ability to carry a minimum of two 500-pound bombs, launch 2.75-inch rockets and fire a gun.

They should have issued this RFI about ten years ago.

I think that prop-driven planes will always be the first to come to mind here, and I’ve long argued that such planes could do a lot of good in today’s environment. However, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if something along the lines of a modernized A-37 Dragonfly with upgraded engines might not be in order.

Meanwhile, the T-37 Tweet, upon which the Dragonfly was based, has just been retired.

Pentagon, Eyeing Iran, Wants to Rush 30,000-Pound Bomb Program

The U.S. Defense Department wants to accelerate by three years the deployment of a 30,000-pound bunker-buster bomb, a request that reflects growing unease over nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea.

Comptroller Robert Hale, in a formal request to the four congressional defense committees earlier this month, asked permission to shift about $68 million in the Pentagon’s budget to this program to ensure the first four bombs could be mounted on stealthy B-2 bombers by July 2010.

The MOP is the GBU-57A/B and each B-2 will be able to carry two of the monsters.