Pollution response training held

PENSACOLA, Fla. - The U.S. Coast Guard on Wednesday conducted pollution response training for the deployment of the Spilled Oil Recovery System in Pensacola Bay. Members from the Eighth Coast Guard District Response Advisory Team, Coast Guard Gulf Strike Team and Coast Guard Sector Mobile, Ala., deployed aboard the USCG Cutter Cypress, a 225-foot seagoing buoy tender homeported in Mobile. The exercise is to test and improve the Coast Guard's ability to assemble and deploy the Cypress' SORS to recover surface oil from the water after a spill or release. Following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil Spill, all Coast Guard sea-going buoy tenders have to be equipped with oil skimming systems. The Cypress has a crew of 50. (Source: U.S. Coast Guard, 11/30/11)

Union members vote Thursday

PASCAGOULA, Miss. - Union workers at Ingalls Shipbuilding vote Thursday on a company offer to extend the current contract. Ingalls is offering three raises and a one-time $1,000 bonus next month if workers will vote to extend their work contract for three years. Health care premiums will go up by increments each year and the bonus, which will be subject to taxes and deductions, will replace a cost-of-living adjustment due next year. If the workers turn down the offer, the unions would go into a full contract negotiation in March. (Source: Sun Herald, 11/29/11)

Coast Guard cutter launched

The U.S. Coast Guard announced the launch of its third Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter, the William Flores, at Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, La. The launch of the 154-foot cutter into the waters of Bayou Lafourche marks a production milestone as the Fast Response Cutter readies for sea trials, delivery, crew training and eventual commissioning. The William Flores is scheduled to be delivered and commissioned in 2012. The cutter will be homeported in Miami, with a crew of 24 to conduct alien migrant interdiction operations, port, waterways and coastal security patrols, search and rescue and national defense missions. (Source: U.S. Coast Guard, 11/29/11)

Work boat show set to begin

NEW ORLEANS -- The International WorkBoat Show, called the largest maritime trade show in North America, gets under way Wednesday at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The event is expected to draw 13,000 visitors, and organizers expected 1,000 exhibitors showing their products and meeting with customers and other vendors. On Tuesday there's a separate one-day summit that includes a roundtable and networking opportunities. (Source: New Orleans Times Picayune, 11/27/11)

Contract: Lockheed Martin, $11.7M

Lockheed Martin Corp., Baltimore, Md., is being awarded an $11,683,081 modification to previously awarded contract for MK 41 Vertical Launching System ordnance alteration kits, production support material, interim support parts, and equipment in support of DDG 51 class new construction, Aegis modernization programs, and Aegis ashore programs. The MK 41 VLS provides a missile launching system for CG 47 and DDG 51 class surface combatants of the Navy, surface combatants of allied navies, and Aegis ashore requirements for Missile Defense Agency's Ground Ballistic Missile Defense Program. The MK 41 VLS is the primary missile launching system aboard Navy combatants used to store, safe, inventory and launch missiles of various types. Work will be performed in Baltimore, Md. (41.1 percent); Lewisburg, Tenn. (19.1 percent); Ft Walton Beach, Fla. (18.8 percent); Johnstown, Pa. (9.2 percent); Simpsonville, S.C. (5.5 percent); Clearwater, Fla. (3.2 percent); and Sterling Heights, Mich. (3.1 percent), and is expected to be completed by September 2014. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 11/23/11)

Contract: HII, $51.3M

Huntington Ingalls Inc., Pascagoula, Miss., is being awarded a $51,342,168 modification to previously awarded contract for life cycle engineering and support services for Landing Platform Dock 17 class integrated shipboard electronic systems. Work will be performed in Pascagoula, Miss., and is expected to be completed by December 2012. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 11/22/11)

CID stands up commands

PENSACOLA, Fla. - The Center for Information Dominance stood up two new commands Nov. 14. The request for the new commands, the Center for Information Dominance Unit (CIDU) Corry Station and CIDU Monterey, was approved by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus Oct. 31. The new commands are in response to the "expanded size of the detachment and assigned cyber training mission." Annually, CID Unit Corry Station, Pensacola, Fla., trains about 9,000 Navy and Joint Cryptologists, Information Systems Technicians and Information Warfare and Information Professional officers, while CID Unit Monterey, Calif., trains about 1,200 Cryptologic Technicians and Foreign Language Officers. In remarks during the stand-up ceremony at Corry Station, CID Commanding Officer Capt. Susan K. Cerovsky compared the shore-based commands to that of a newly-commissioned ship. With a staff of nearly 1,300 military, civilian and contracted staff members, CID Corry Station oversees the development and administration of more than 168 courses at four commands, two detachments and 16 learning sites throughout the United States and in Japan. CID Corry Station provides training for about 24,000 members of the U.S. Armed Services and allied forces each year. (Source: NNS, 11/21/11) Note: Keesler Air Force Base, Biloxi, Miss., is the Air Force's center for electronics training, including cyber security.

Navy wants superferries

NORFOLK, Va. - The Navy is working with the U.S. Maritime Administration to permit the transfer of two high-speed superferries, the Alakai and the Huakai, into naval service, according to a Navy spokeswoman. The Maritime Administration took over the two Hawaiian superferries, both built by Austal USA in Mobile, Ala., in July 2009 after a bankruptcy judge ruled that the owner could abandon them to lenders. The administration, which guaranteed the loans, moved them to Norfolk and eventually bought the vessels. Huakai was used in the military's relief efforts after the Haiti earthquake in January 2010. The Navy first expressed interest in the ships when the Maritime Administration took them in 2009. Built to move cars and people among the Hawaiian Islands, the ferries can cruise at 35 knots and carry 836 passengers and 282 cars. The Maritime Administration said Friday that a deal had yet to be reached. (Source: Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 11/21/11)

Navy updates sci-tech priorities

WASHINGTON - The Office of Naval Research has released the latest update to the Naval Science and Technology Strategic Plan. It reflects future naval requirements, including a new emphasis on autonomous systems. "Our superiority at sea demands that we maintain superiority in science, engineering and technology," said Sean J. Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition. Key areas of difference between the 2011 biannual plan and the 2009 version include a new emphasis on accelerating insertion of mature technologies to the fleet and consolidating 13 “S&T Focus Areas” into nine, including the new category of Autonomy and Unmanned Systems. It also places an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and mathematics initiatives aimed at increasing the talent pool of future naval scientists and engineers. ONR provides the science and technology necessary to maintain the Navy and Marine Corps' technological advantage. (Source: NNS, 11/17/11) Gulf Coast note: The region is involved in unmanned systems and is also home to a Naval Research Lab detachment at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

LPD 22 finishes acceptance trial

LPD 22. Ingalls photo

PASCAGOULA, Miss. - Huntington Ingalls Industries announced that the company's sixth amphibious transport dock, San Diego (LPD 22), successfully completed its Navy acceptance trial this week. The ship returned to Ingalls Shipbuilding Thursday after a two-day sea trial. With the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey observing, Ingalls' test and trials team tested the ship's main propulsion, steering, communications suite and deck missions systems. Many tests, including anchor handling, ballasting/de-ballasting the well deck and ventilation systems were performed while at sea. Shipbuilders will spend the next month putting the final touches on LPD 22 before the amphibious transport dock ship delivers in mid-December. (Source: Huntington Ingalls via GlobNewswire, 11/18/11)

Shipyard workers get details

PASCAGOULA, Miss. - Workers at Ingalls Shipbuilding this morning received flyers outlining the terms of a proposed 3-year contract extension between all unions at the Pascagoula facility and the shipyard. The extension would take the contract to March 8, 2015 and includes three wage increases and a $1,000 bonus in lieu of cost of living adjustments. Union members will vote Dec. 1. (Source: Sun Herald, 11/18/11)

Signal to repair rig

MOBILE, Ala. - Signal International, headquartered in Mobile, will repair an oil rig damaged off the coast of west Africa, the company said. Signal sent a crew to Port Gentil in Gabon to help transport the Hercules 185 jack-up rig across the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico to the company's Pascagoula, Miss., repair yard. It's expected to arrive Nov. 29. Signal will hire up to 300 workers over the next month or two to complete the job and others. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 11/17/11)

Two shipbuilders land contracts

VT Halter Marine of Pascagoula, Miss., and Eastern Shipbuilding Group of Panama City, Fla., each were chosen to build eight offshore supply vessels for Covington, La.-based Hornbeck Offshore Services, according to the company. The Mississippi Press reports that Hornbeck's contracts with the two companies for 16 vessels is valued at some $720 million. (Source: Mississippi Press, 11/17/11)

Ingalls to offer contract extension

PASCAGOULA, Miss. - Ingalls Shipbuilding confirmed to the Sun Herald that it's going to offer workers a three-year contract extension. The details of the proposal have been negotiated between the company and union leaders and will be explained in a flier to be handed out Friday beginning with the first shift at 6 a.m. Workers who are members of a union will have an opportunity to vote on this issue Dec. 1. (Source: Sun Herald, 11/17/11)

Keel laid for first DDG 1000

DDG 1000. U.S. Navy illustration

BATH, Maine - The Navy laid the keel Thursday for its first Zumwalt-class destroyer, DDG 1000, at General Dynamics-Bath Iron Works shipyard in Bath, Maine. Keel laying was once traditionally the formal recognition of the start of the ship's construction, but today's modular shipbuilding allows fabrication of the ship to begin months before. Still, the keel laying remains the ceremonial beginning of the ship. Construction of DDG 1000 began in February 2009, and it's now more than 60 percent complete and scheduled for delivery in fiscal year 2014. Construction on the second ship began in March 2010. (Source: NNS, 11/17/11) Gulf Coast note: Ingalls' Composites Center of Excellence in Gulfport, Miss., is building the DDG deckhouses, helicopter hangars and parts of the ships' peripheral vertical launch systems. (Feature story on the composite center)