MANAMA, Bahrain – Naval forces from Pakistan and the United States completed a four-day bilateral training exercise, Inspired Union 2024, in Karachi, Pakistan, May 2.

Bougainville (LHA-8) at Ingalls Shipbuilding launched on Sept. 30, 2023. USNI News Photo

WASHINGTON, D.C. ­– Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro has named the next America-class big deck amphibious warship after the Helmand province campaign in Afghanistan.
“In keeping with naval tradition of naming our Navy’s amphibious assault ships after U.S. Marine Corps battles,” he said during a keynote at the Modern Day Marine conference on Thursday.
“I am honored to announce today that the future LHA-10 will be named USS Helmand Province, recognizing the bravery and sacrifice of our Marines and Sailors who fought for almost 20 years in the mountains of Afghanistan.”

Following Del Toro’s announcement, Marine commandant Gen. Eric Smith spoke on his experience as the commander of Regimental Combat Team 8 who fought in Helmand in 2011.

“Helmand province holds a unique place in the hearts of this generation of Marines,” Smith said.
“From 2009 to 2014 this region was the center of efforts to give stability and security to a troubled land. Helmand province as many of you know, it was not just any theater of war. It was the heart of the opium trade, a Taliban stronghold, and the terrain is rugged and formidable as any. And yet, that our Marines and sailors and allies and partners showed what it means to be the tip of the spear.”

Del Toro named Smith’s wife Trish Smith as Helmand Province’s sponsor.

In 2022, Del Toro named LHA-9 after the first and second Battle of Fallujah in Iraq. In November, the Navy awarded a $130 million advanced procurement contract award to HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi.

The 45,000-ton ship will be the third Flight I America-class ship following Bougainville (LHA-8) and Fallujah.

The Flight Is will have a well deck capable of carrying two Landing Craft Air Cushion hovercraft. The first two Americas ­– USS America (LHA-6) and USS Tripoli (LHA-7) – were built without well decks and oriented around Marine Corps aviation assets like the F-35B Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter and the MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor.

The following is the April 29, 2024, Congressional Research Service report, Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter (Polar Icebreaker) Program: Background and Issues for Congress.

From the report

Required number of polar icebreakers. A 2023 Coast Guard fleet mix analysis concluded that the service will require a total of eight to nine polar icebreakers, including four to five heavy polar icebreakers and four to five medium polar icebreakers, to perform its polar (i.e., Arctic and Antarctic) missions in coming years.

Current operational polar icebreaker fleet. The operational U.S. polar icebreaking fleet currently consists of one heavy polar icebreaker, Polar Star, and one medium polar icebreaker, Healy. A second Coast Guard heavy polar icebreaker, Polar Sea. Polar Sea, suffered an engine casualty in June 2010 and has been nonoperational since then. Polar Star and Polar Sea entered service in 1976 and 1977, respectively, and are now well beyond their originally intended 30-year service lives. The Coast Guard plans to extend Polar Star’s service life until the delivery of at least the second Polar Security Cutter (PSC; see next paragraph).

Polar Security Cutter (PSC). The Coast Guard PSC program aims to acquire four or five new PSCs (i.e., heavy polar icebreakers), to be followed at some later point by the acquisition of new Arctic Security Cutters (ASCs) (i.e., medium polar icebreakers). The Coast Guard in 2021 estimated PSC procurement costs in then-year dollars as $1,297 million (i.e., about $1.3 billion) for the first ship, $921 million for the second ship, and $1,017 million (i.e., about $1.0 billion) for the third ship, for a combined estimated cost of $3,235 million (i.e., about $3.2 billion). The procurement of the first two PSCs is fully funded. The Coast Guard’s proposed FY2024 budget requested $170.0 million in continued procurement funding for the PSC program. The Coast Guard’s proposed FY2025 budget requests no procurement funding for the PSC program. The Coast Guard originally aimed to have the first PSC delivered in 2024, but the ship’s estimated delivery date has been delayed repeatedly and may now occur no earlier than 2029. Another potential issue concerns the accuracy of the PSC’s estimated procurement cost, given the PSC’s size and internal complexity as well as cost growth in other Navy and Coast Guard shipbuilding programs. The PSC’s estimated procurement cost per weight is roughly half that of the Navy’s LPD-17 Flight II and LHA amphibious ships. These amphibious ships are equipped with expensive combat system equipment that is not included in the PSC design, but whether this would account for all of the difference in cost per weight between the PSC design and the two amphibious ship designs is not clear. If substantial cost growth occurs in the PSC program, it could raise a question regarding whether to grant some form of contract relief to the PSC shipbuilder.

Commercially available polar icebreaker (CAPI). The Coast Guard’s proposed FY2024 budget requested $125.0 million in procurement funding for the purchase of an existing CAPI that would be modified to become a Coast Guard polar icebreaker. The Coast Guard’s proposed FY2025 budget requests no procurement funding for CAPI, but the Coast Guard’s FY2025 Unfunded Priorities List (UPL) includes an item for $25.0 million in procurement funding for the ship.

Great Lakes icebreaker (GLIB). The Coast Guard’s proposed FY2024 budget proposed to initiate a new procurement program for procuring a new GLIB that would have capabilities similar to those of Mackinaw, the Coast Guard’s existing heavy GLIB. The Coast Guard’s proposed FY2024 budget requested $55.0 million in initial procurement funding for the ship, and the Coast Guard’s FY2024 UPL included an item for an additional $20.0 million in procurement funding for the ship. The Coast Guard’s proposed FY2025 budget requests no procurement funding for GLIB, but the Coast Guard’s FY2025 UPL includes an item for $25.0 million in procurement funding for the ship.

Download the document here.

DOD’s recently published National Defense Industrial Strategy lays out four long-term strategic priorities to help build a modernized defense industrial ecosystem.

Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Christopher Grady. DoD Photo

Downing Iranian-supplied missiles and drones with multi-million dollar SM-2 missiles to protect shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden is a bad exchange that must change, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday.

“It has been an air-defense fight” in which the Navy and Air Force, along with allies and partners in Operation Prosperity Guardian, have largely prevailed in demonstrating “how we bring defense in depth,” Adm. Christopher Grady said during a U.S. Naval Institute-CSIS Maritime Security Dialogue.

To change the cost-benefit equation, he wants more directed energy systems deployed “where a drop of fuel becomes a weapon” to destroy attacking unmanned systems.

For the Navy, in particular, he said Red Sea operations have shown how “the ships, carrier and air wing” can “learn quickly and fast” in responding to evolving threats that have included ship hijackings, unmanned surface and subsurface vessels’ attacks, in addition to missile and unmanned aerial vehicle strikes.

But “the solution [in the Red Sea] is not a military solution,” he said, referring to the larger conflict between Israel and Hamas that began in October. The fighting in Gaza shows no signs of ending soon. The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, when they began attacking merchant shipping heading to and from the Suez Canal, said their strikes would be limited to vessels delivering goods to Israel.

As months passed, the attacks became indiscriminate, including on U.S. Navy ships participating in Operation Prosperity Guardian, an international effort by more than 20 nations like the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, to protect merchant shipping in the region.
“I would like to see more from concerned stakeholders,” Grady added.

As part of Prosperity Guardian, the U.S. and U.K. have carried out airstrikes on suspected missile launch sites and assembly facilities in Yemen that have produced mixed results. Since the first attacks in the fall, an estimated 70 percent of the maritime traffic that routinely passed through those waterways have changed course to sail around Africa rather than risk a transit near Yemen.

The Houthis have now extended their missile attacks into the Indian Ocean, according to press reports.

“I don’t know if [the Houthi missile and unmanned systems’ attacks] deter” merchantmen from sailing in those waters, but they have forces commercial shipping companies to consider what routes to take, Grady said.

When asked to evaluate how air defense worked on April 13, when Iran retaliated against Israel for targeting Iran’s Syrian embassy, Grady said that like the Aegis destroyers, Israel, allies and partners “did their jobs.”

Iran fired more than 200 drones and cruise missiles, but only a few made it through Israeli defenses.

“Years of training together” paid off in knowing “who’s going to shoot what, when. You don’t do that overnight,” he added.

As for the impact of Iran firing “one-way drones” on Israeli targets, he said they were “not very successful.”

Grady said Ukraine’s need for air defense is an area “that concerns me most.” The $60 billion aid package passed after a six-month delay in Congress is coming at a time when Russia has adopted a “we’re coming after critical infrastructure and the electric grid” strategy to alter the course of the war in its third year.

The package also addresses immediate needs, like artillery and 155 mm shells, long-range munitions, electronic warfare systems and unmanned capabilities.

Grady said both the Russian and Ukrainian militaries “are learning organizations” and understand the value of “never underestimating your enemy” to adapt. The war has seen forces “weaponizing” iPhones and employing unmanned systems in the air and on the water.

While both sides still use the Soviet tactic of “shoot and then move,” relying heavily on artillery to clear the way for an infantry assault, unmanned aerial vehicles have stymied Russia’s massed armor attacks from the beginning, he said.

The increased use of electronic warfare to jam GPS targeting has also changed throughout the war. “Early on, we didn’t see EW,” but now “it’s certainly one of the battlefield characteristics” in Ukraine, Grady said.

With 18 months left to serve in his position, Grady said he wants to strengthen the joint requirements process. Grady said he and his two immediate predecessors have taken steps to reduce the stovepiped process of committing to individual service-specific systems and shift to a portfolio approach in the Pentagon and on the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, which includes all of the service vice chiefs.

The combatant commanders’ need for hardware and software quickly versus the services looking at the future creates “a constructive tension” over requirements, he said. Grady wants to “put teeth in the JROC,” where the services would follow through on its decisions.

“Traceability” through a “scorecard” would allow the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs to see if and how a gap is closed. During his remaining time in office, he doesn’t expect to see a change in the Goldwater-Nichols law that restructured the services’ and Pentagon’s role.

Exercise African Lion provides an opportunity to conduct realistic, dynamic and collaborative readiness training in austere environments, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said.

Virginia-class submarine USS Oregon (SSN 793) transits the Thames River during routine operations in Groton, Conn., on Oct. 6, 2022. US Navy Photo

A group of 120 House lawmakers are asking the House Appropriations defense subcommittee to add another Virginia-class attack submarine to the Navy’s Fiscal Year 2025 shipbuilding budget.
The group, led by Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), argued the Navy’s purchase of one Virginia in FY 2025 puts submarine suppliers at risk and sets the Navy back in its goals for the program, according to a letter to HAC-D chair Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) and ranking member Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.).

“While the FY25 budget request includes substantial investments in the nationwide submarine industrial base, there is no alternative to stabilize the supply chain other than consistent procurement of two Virginia-class submarines in FY 2025,” reads the letter.
“The proposal to request one attack submarine is contrary to the Department of Defense’s National Defense Industrial Strategy, which cites procurement instability as a systemic challenge. This proposal is also an alarming deviation from the Virginia-class procurement profile in the FY 2024 Future Years Defense Plan and 30 Year Shipbuilding Plan.”

The service funded one Virginia-class as part of its March budget request. Navy officials justified the move by pointing to the backlog of submarine work at builders General Dynamics Electric Boat and HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding that translates to the yards delivering 1.3 boats a year. Instead of funding a second attack boat, the Navy set aside money for advanced procurement to support submarine suppliers. The request is seeking $3.6 billion for the FY 2025 boat and an additional $3.7 billion in advanced procurement money for boats in FY 2026 and 2027.

Courtney, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee’s seapower and projection forces subcommittee, and others argue that not funding the second boat will hurt suppliers that aren’t part of the advanced procurement pool. Courtney said his staff said that those suppliers will be out about a $1 billion.

During a Wednesday hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro defended the decision to buy one boat based on the Electric Boat and Newport News delivery rate, pointing to the delivery of Virginia-class attack boat New Jersey (SSN-796) last week.

“I’m trying to work with industry to increase the production rates,” Del Toro said during the hearing.
“New Jersey, for example, was delivered just last week, and it was delivered almost three years late. If all the submarines that we had ordered actually had been delivered on time … we’d actually have five additional submarines in our fleet today to be able to meet our operational needs.”

Del Toro also said the advanced procurement money is not meant to replace the work a new submarine contract would give suppliers.

“The purpose of advanced procurement money … isn’t to fully fund all the vendors that are in the supply chain,” Del Toro said during the hearing.
“It’s to fund those vendors that are most critical to the supply chain. I don’t think there’s ever been a confirmation that we can support full funding of all the vendors across the entire spectrum.”

Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) said that asking for only one submarine in the budget could send the wrong signal to Australia as part of the AUKUS nuclear submarine agreement. Canberra is set to buy three to five Virginia-class submarines for the Royal Australian Navy.

“Now the Australians look at that and they go well, wait a minute, we thought we had an AUKUS agreement here… We thought we were going to be able to buy some from the United States?” Wittman asked during the hearing.
“If you are an Australian looking at this you’d go, ‘is the U.S. really serious about this [agreement]?’”

During the hearing, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti gave some additional details on the planned repair for big deck amphibious warship USS Boxer (LHD-4) in the water at Naval Station San Diego, Calif. After leaving in early April, Boxer was unable to continue a deployment to the Western Pacific due to damage to the starboard rudder.

“[Boxer] has a bearing on her starboard rudder that is not in good condition, so it needs to be replaced,” Franchetti told the House panel.
“We are evaluating the different procedures that will be done to repair her – right now about a four to six-week repair. We look to be able to finish that repair pier-side –the bearing is available – and then get her back out on deployment.”

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith told Rep. Trent Kelly (R-Miss.) how losing a big deck would affect a deployment.

“We’re designed to operate on a three-ship, amphibious ready group, one big deck LHA or LHD and … two LPDs,” Smith said.
“When you lose your big deck, you lose most of your aviation assets and you lose your crisis response force.”

The three-ship Boxer Amphibious Ready Group was scheduled to leave in January with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Units embarked, but only USS Somerset (LPD-25) left on time, requiring the Navy and Marine Corps to retool their participation in several Western Pacific exercises. The third ship in the ARG, USS Harpers Ferry (LSD-49), joined Somerset in the South China Sea for the recent Balikatan 2024 exercise series.

Earlier this week, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jim Kilby told the House Armed Services readiness subcommittee that the Navy is having difficulty maintaining older big-deck amphibious ships like Boxer.

“We found our amphib ships – the big decks in particular with steam plants – are having larger growth work than most of our ships and it’s a challenge because of availability of parts, artisans, etc.,” Kilby told the panel on Tuesday.

Chinese aircraft carrier Fujian. Xinhua Photo

China’s third aircraft carrier Fujian (18) left Shanghai on Wednesday morning to conduct its first sea trial, according to a report by People’s Liberation Army News. Meanwhile, the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) first batch of female naval aviators carried out their first solo flight on Apr. 25.
Fujian left Jiangnan Shipyard at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, according to PLA News, with the sea trial being conducted to test and verify the reliability and stability of the carrier’s power, electrical and other systems. No details were given as to the location or duration of the sea trials, but the China Maritime Safety Administration issued a navigational hazard safety notice for an area 80 miles away from Shanghai starting from Wednesday and concluding on May 9. The PLA News report stated that since the carrier was launched in 2022, its construction has been on schedule and it had completed its mooring trials, equipment adjustment and met the technical requirements to sail for sea trials.

The 80,000-ton carrier is China’s first CATOBAR (Catapult Assisted Take-Off Barrier Arrested Recovery) carrier, in contrast to CNS Liaoning (16) and CNS Shandong (17), which both use ski jumps to assist aircraft launches. Fujian also uses the EMALS (Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System) to launch its aircraft. Currently, only the Gerald R. Ford-class U.S. carriers feature EMALS, though the French PANG (porte-avions de nouvelle génération) new-generation aircraft carrier that will enter service in 2038 will also employ EMALS.

Shandong conducted nine sea trials from May 2018 to November 2019 before it was commissioned in December 2019, though it remains to be seen as to whether Fujian will conduct the same number of trials and in the same time length.

Fujian is expected to enter service by late next year or in 2026, allowing the PLAN’s carrier strike groups (CSGs) to maintain a higher deployment tempo. Neither the Liaoning and Shandong CSGs have conducted a deployment for this year. Liaoning is working its way to operational readiness after coming out of a year-long refit that began in February 2023. Shandong has remained in its home base in Sanya conducting in port drills and crew training since December last year, when it returned from northern China after conducting a month of training of carrier aviation pilots.

In March, Yuan Huazhi, political commissar of the PLAN, told Chinese media that China would announce a fourth carrier soon and would also reveal if it would be a nuclear powered or a conventionally powered like its existing three carriers. So far no official announcement has been made.

With a third and potentially fourth carrier, the PLAN’s carrier aviation force will need to expand, leading to the service in April 2023 opening pilot recruitment to women for the first time. The first batch of female pilot trainees carried out their first solo flights on Apr. 25 at the PLA Naval Aviation University in Yantai, according to a PLA Daily report.

The initial report did not disclose how many trainees made the flights, though a second report by PLA Daily stated that all trainees completed their solo flights successfully and during the hour-long flight, instructors on the ground did not have to issue any corrections to the trainee pilots. All the trainee pilots were born after the year 2000, according to PLA Daily.

PLA Daily also reported that in the summer, the female trainee pilots will carry out advanced flight training which will include instrument flying, navigation, formation flying and night flying. In its 2023 recruitment announcement, PLAN stated that after two months of basic training, cadet pilots would undergo 3-4 years of flight training at the PLA Naval Aviation University before graduating for assignment, thus, at the earliest, China will have its first batch of female naval aviators in late 2026.

NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, Va. — Reserve Sailors from the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and U.S. 5th Fleet enterprise developed and tested their warfighting readiness from April 18 to April 21 on board Naval Station Norfolk during Mako Storm 2024.

HALAWA, Hawaii — Navy reduces granular activated carbon water pumping system rates from 4.2 to 1.8 million gallons per day.

STRAIT OF GIBRALTAR – The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Carney (DDG 64) transited the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea, Apr. 30, 2024.

NEWPORT, R.I.– The U.S. Naval War College (NWC) will hold the 10th iteration of its Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Symposium onboard Naval Station Newport, May 2-3.

The following is the April 29, 2024, Congressional Research Service report, Navy Columbia (SSBN-826) Class Ballistic Missile Submarine Program: Background and Issues for Congress.

From the report

The Navy’s Columbia (SSBN-826) class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) program is a program to design and build a class of 12 new SSBNs to replace the Navy’s current force of 14 aging Ohio-class SSBNs. Since 2013, the Navy has consistently identified the Columbia-class program as the Navy’s top priority program. The Navy procured the first Columbia-class boat in FY2021; the boat was funded with three-year incremental funding in FY2021-FY2023. The Navy procured the second Columbia-class boat in FY2024; the boat is being funded with two-year incremental funding (also called split funding) in FY2024-FY2025. The Navy wants to procure the remaining 10 boats in the program—boats 3 through 12—at a rate of one per year in FY2026-FY2035.

The Navy’s FY2025 budget submission estimates the total procurement cost of the first boat at $15,179.1 million (i.e., about $15.2 billion) and the procurement cost of the second Columbia-class boat at $9,283.1 million (i.e., about $9.3 billion). The first boat’s procurement cost is much higher than that of subsequent boats in the class because the first boat includes most of the detail design/nonrecurring engineering (DD/NRE) costs for the class. (It is a long-standing Navy budgetary practice to incorporate the DD/NRE costs for a new class of ship into the total procurement cost of the first ship in the class.) The first boat’s estimated procurement cost includes $6,557.6 million for plans, meaning (essentially) the DD/NRE costs for the class. Excluding costs for plans, the estimated hands-on construction cost of the first ship is $8,621.5 million (i.e., about $8.6 billion).

The Navy’s proposed FY2025 budget requests $3,341.2 million (i.e., about $3.3 billion) in procurement funding to complete the procurement cost of the second Columbia-class boat and $6,215.9 million (i.e., about $6.2 billion) in advance procurement (AP) funding for Columbia-class boats to be procured in FY2026 and subsequent years.

Issues for Congress for the Columbia-class program include the following:

The impact of an estimated 12- to 16-month delay in the delivery of the first Columbia-class boat on the Navy’s plans for replacing Ohio-class SSBNs on a timely basis;
industrial-base challenges of building both Columbia-class boats and Virginia-class attack submarines (SSNs) at the same time;
the risk of cost growth in the Columbia-class program; and
the potential impact of the Columbia-class program on funding that will be available for other Navy programs, including other shipbuilding programs.

Download the document here.

Chinese cutters CCG-3105 and CCG-5303 deploy water cannons on BRP Bagacay (MRRV-4410) near Scarborough Shoal on April 30, 2024. Philippine Coast Guard Photo

Three China Coast Guard cutters rammed and used water cannons on a Philippine patrol and supply mission in the South China Sea near Scarborough Shoal on Tuesday, according to Philippine Coast Guard officials.
The attack on the supply mission comes ahead of a planned civilian convoy to the disputed feature and amid the ongoing Balikatan 2024 military exercise with the U.S.

The joint Philippine Coast Guard-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources mission was composed of the patrol vessels BRP Bagacay (MRRV-4410) and BRP Datu Bankaw (MMOV-3004), deployed to the area with the intent of resupplying Philippine fishermen operating in the region, which is within the Philippine exclusive economic zone.

Datu Bankaw sustained eight water cannon blasts and three rammings from China Coast Guard and maritime militia vessels during the incident, according to local media. In a video taken by News5 onboard Datu Bankaw, the Chinese cutter is seen targeting the civilian vessel’s navigational equipment. The vessel’s electric and radio communication systems were also damaged, according to a statement by Philippine Coast Guard Commodore Jay Tariela.

https://x.com/_GioRobles/status/1785151555228082581

Meanwhile, water pressure from the simultaneous water cannon deployment by Chinese cutters CCG-3105 and CCG-5303 damaged railings and other superficial structures onboard Bagacay. After the incidents, the two vessels conducted damage assessments twenty nautical miles away from Scarborough Shoal.

Chinese state media said the Philippine vessels were conducting dangerous maneuvers and that the China Coast Guard was “forced to use water cannons to warn the vessel.”

“The operation was reasonable, legitimate and professional,” reads a Global Times post on X.

Despite the harassment and attacks, the mission succeeded in resupplying Philippine fishing vessels in the evening.

Scarborough Shoal. NASA Photo

A cascade of diplomatic support also flowed in following the encounter, including a tweet by the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines, MaryKay Loss Carlson, that the Philippines “can count on U.S. support as #FriendsPartnersAllies to uphold freedom of navigation and international law.”

This latest incident comes amid Balikatan 2024, the largest annual U.S.-Philippine military exercise. Included in this year’s exercise was a combined multilateral maritime exercise that took place in the South China Sea. However, while People’s Liberation Army Navy spy ships stalked the drills, these activities were not conducted in the vicinity of Scarborough Shoal.

The Philippine Coast Guard said China deployed another floating barrier blocking access to the shoal. Chinese forces placed a barrier at Scarborough Shoal last year that was removed by the Philippine Coast Guard.

In the coming weeks, the Philippine civic coalition Atin Ito is slated to conduct its own resupply and observation mission to Scarborough Shoal between May 14 to 17. According to the organization, over 100 civilian fishing vessels are expected to join the convoy.

This is Atin Ito’s second convoy to assert Philippine sovereignty in the South China Sea following an unsuccessful attempt in December.

Organizers of the convoy plan to distribute supplies to Philippine fishermen, embark media to document their voyage and place buoys emblazoned with the words “WPS, Atin Ito,” which translates to “the West Philippine Sea is Ours.” The West Philippine Sea is what Manila calls the area of the South China Sea that resides within its exclusive economic zone.

Amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD-4) steams in the Pacific Ocean, April 4, 2024. US Navy Photo

Divers will attempt to repair the big deck amphibious warship USS Boxer (LHD-4) in the water while the ship is pierside at Naval Station San Diego, Calif., USNI News has learned.

The effort will focus on repairs to the starboard rudder and the bearing that failed following Boxer’s departure for deployment on April 1, Navy officials told USNI News.

“The issue is the ship’s starboard rudder and roller bearing system. A series of inspections and assessments determined a waterborne repair is the most efficient way to execute maintenance and repairs,” reads a statement from Naval Surface Force provided to USNI News.
“USS Boxer will execute repairs to its starboard rudder at Naval Station San Diego. The waterborne repairs will be conducted at the pier and will likely not require a dry dock. Boxer may resume its deployment as soon as this summer.”

U.S. Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Stephen Koehler made the determination for Boxer to get fixed under water on Monday afternoon after reviewing recommendations from U.S, 3rd Fleet commander Vice Adm. Michael Boyle and Naval Surface Force commander Vice Adm. Brendan McLane, defense officials confirmed to USNI News.

A defense official told USNI News the repairs could take one to two months to complete. In parallel, the Navy is investigating the root cause of the rudder failure to see if “materials, parts or a faulty installation” are to blame for the failure of the starboard rudder, reads the statement from the service.

Boxer has been dogged with engineering issues since it completed an extensive modernization period in 2022. Navy officials have blamed contractor performance and quality assurance for a delay in a deployment that was supposed to start in January.

Sailors assigned to Boxer’s engineering department were found to be negligent in two command investigations. For example, in 2023 during sea trails, Boxer’s main reduction gear, the complex gearing mechanism that links the output of the steam plant to the props, ran without lube oil for two hours.  It’s unclear whether the previous issues are related to the current rudder issue.

A workman is dwarfed by the stern of the Amphibious Assault Ship USS WASP (LHD-1) as he puts the final touches on the recently completed vessel in dry dock. US Navy Photo

Before Monday’s decision, the Navy considered dry docking Boxer to repair the rudder, but the two dry docks in San Diego that are large enough to accommodate the 41,000-ton big deck amphib are occupied. The dry dock at BAE Systems’ San Diego repair yard is occupied by Littoral Combat Ship USS Oakland (LCS-24). General Dynamics NASSCO is hosting USS Chung Hoon (DDG-93), which is undergoing an availability to install the AN/SLQ-32(V)7 Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program Block 3 as part of the DDG Mod 2.0 program.

The Navy also considered moving the ship north to Vigor’s ship repair yard in Portland, Ore., but the idea lacked appeal because the top ten feet of the ship’s mast would have to be removed to fit under a bridge over the Willamette River, sources familiar with the idea told USNI News.

Now with a path forward, the Navy and Marine Corps intend to deploy Boxer following the repairs.

Boxer is the flagship of the Amphibious Ready Group that includes USS Somerset (LPD-25) and USS Harpers Ferry (LSD-49). Somerset and Harpers Ferry, with elements of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit embarked, are currently operating in the South China Sea. The two ships are part of the Balikatan 2024 exercise taking place with the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Boxer was slated to be a key platform for the exercise during the at sea period. How the deployment will proceed is still an open question. Somerset deployed in January for a series of exercises and Harpers Ferry departed in early April.

The emergent Boxer repair highlights troubles the Navy has had with maintaining the big deck fleet – the majority of which are powered by older steam boilers rather than modern diesel or maritime gas turbines.

“We found our amphib ships – the big decks in particular with steam plants – are having larger growth work than most of our ships and its it’s a challenge because of availability of parts, artisans, etc., “ Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jim Kilby told the House Armed Services readiness subcommittee on Tuesday.

Senior leaders from the uniformed services’ reserve component branches spoke out in favor of aligning pay and benefits within their organizations during a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense budget hearing.