VT Halter launches barge

PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- VT Halter Marine Inc., has launched Barge B. No. 272, the second of two Articulated Tug Barge units built for Bouchard Transportation Co. It's 628 feet by 91 feet by 47 feet, with a 250,000-barrel capacity. When completed, the barge will be paired with the tug M/V Donna J. Bouchard, launched Sept. 15. VT Halter Marine is part of Vision Technologies Systems Inc. (Source: Sun Herald, 11/24/15)

DDG-51 Flight III collaboration

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Navy and shipbuilders Huntington Ingalls Industry (HII) and Bath Iron Works are collaborating on detail design of the Flight III upgrade for Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyers (DDG-51). The upgrade adds an air and missile defense radar to the ship class starting in FY 2016. HII of Pascagoula, Miss., and BIW of Bath, Maine, have both responded to the Navy’s draft Request For Proposal (RFP) for FY-16 ship construction, according to DDG-51 program manager Capt. Mark Vandroff. The shipyards have taken Navy preliminary designs, broken into 17 statements of work, and are working together to develop a 3D model of the ship – including all equipment and distributed systems. The air and missile defense radar, Raytheon’s AN/SPY-6, is in engineering and manufacturing development. NAVSEA has estimated Flight III follow-on ships, under two-per-year, multi-year buys, would cost $1.75 billion each. The draft RFP is out and the Navy has responded to industry comments, but Vandroff could not discuss details including the date for release for the final RFP. (U.S. Naval Institute News 11/12/15) Gulf Coast Shipbuilding: In February 2015, HII-Pascagoula, Miss., and BIW were awarded separate $13.5 million modifications to previously awarded contract for the DDG-51 Class Flight III upgrade design services to replace the SPY-1D(V) radar with the Air and Missile Defense Radar.

DDG-1000 completes first ‘fast cruise’

BATH, Maine – The first-in-class guided missile destroyer USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) just completed its first four-day “fast cruise” Oct. 15, according to an internal release from the Bath (Maine) Ironworks shipyard. Round 2 could be as early as mid-November. The fast cruise was the first demonstration of the continuous operation of all systems required in underway operations, Steve Colfer, BIW’s Director of Test & Trials, said in the release. USS Zumwalt’s first sea trials will be a seven-day “shake down” that could begin as early as Dec. 7, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Sean Stackley told Defense News. (Source: Bangor Daily News 11/12/15) Gulf Coast Shipbuilding Note: Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Composite Center of Excellence in Gulfport, Miss., built and delivered the composite deckhouses and hangars for DDGs 1000 and 1001. The 900-ton deckhouses provide an advanced structure to house the ship’s bridge, radars, antennae and intake/exhaust systems and are designed to provide a smaller radar cross-section than any other ship in the Navy fleet. Since providing those two deckhouses, HII's Gulfport center has been shut down.

Cutter Munro to be christened

PASCAGOULA, Miss. – Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding will christen the sixth U.S. Coast Guard National Security Cutter, Munro (WMSL 755), on Saturday at 10 a.m. Adm. Paul Zukunft, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, is the keynote speaker. Munro died in 1942 on Guadalcanal after volunteering to evacuate a detachment of Marines facing annihilation by a large enemy force. He succeeded in safely extricating them and in doing so was mortally wounded. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, the Coast Guard’s sole recipient of the award. Munro is the sixth Legend-class cutter built by Ingalls. (Source: HII, 11/10/15)

DDG-51 delay considerations

The Navy is considering extending the delivery dates for the first two restart Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers (DDG-51) to Bath (Maine) Iron Works. The two restarts – Peralta and Hudner - were part of the Navy’s restart of the DDG-51 line announced in 2009 following cancellation of the Navy’s proposed next-generation cruiser (CG(X)) and the downsizing of the DDG-1000 line to three ships. Since DDG-51 work resumed in 2011, BIW has had issues related to managing costs for the restarts. According to the contract awards from 2011 to 2013, costs per-hull at BIW increased about $31 million to about $710.8 million. In comparison, rival Huntington Ingalls Industries shrunk its cost per hull about $31 million to about $666.2 million in 2013. (USNI News 11/09/15) Gulf Coast Shipbuilding Note: In deals between the Navy, BIW and HII’s Ingalls shipyard at Pascagoula, Miss., BIW was given the original task of restarting the DDG-51 production line.

Navy diver to get HoF honor

The Cayman Islands’ Department of Tourism has named five new inductees into the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame (ISDHF). Among the inductees is Bob Barth, regarded as the most famous living U.S. Navy diver. Honorees will be inducted at a ceremony in Caymans in September 2016. Barth is a pioneer in saturation diving, which assists in reducing the risk of decompression sickness while exploring oceans’ depths. He also aided in the creation of the U.S. Navy Decompression Tables associated with the Navy’s Genesis and SEALAB projects. Barth trained NASA astronauts on sonar equipment used for detecting objects underwater. (Source: CNS Local Life 11/10/15) Gulf Coast Maritime Note: In recognition for unique contributions to diving, the U.S. Navy named its Panama City, Fla., dive-training facility the CWO Robert A. Barth Aquatic Training Facility.

MS delegation headed to Israel

JACKSON, Miss. - Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant traveled to Israel Nov. 7 with a delegation of state economic development workers and private business executives, including Airbus Helicopters Inc. of Columbus. Bryant is scheduled to speak Nov. 9 at a defense conference in Tel Aviv and will discuss Mississippi's role in researching and building unmanned aerial vehicles and Mississippi State University’s role as lead for the National Center of Excellence for Unmanned Aircraft Systems. The Israeli-owned Stark Aerospace company operates a UAV assembly plant in Columbus. (Source: The AP 11/07/15) Gulf Coast Maritime Note: Representatives of the Mississippi State Port Authority and Huntington Ingalls Industries, which operates a Pascagoula shipyard that is one of Mississippi's largest private employers, were also among the delegation.

Artists sought for Gulf Marine fest

BILOXI, Miss. – Organizers of the ‘Celebrate the Gulf Marine Education Festival’ have announced its deadline of Jan. 14, 2016, to enter the event’s 2nd annual poster contest. Amateur and professional artists may submit original poster designs to depict the conservation or scenic qualities of Mississippi’s Gulf Coast resources for the event’s poster design. ‘Celebrate the Gulf’ is sponsored by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources and held in conjunction with ‘Art in the Pass’. To be held April 2 at War Memorial Park in Pass Christian. (Source: Department of Marine Resources 11/04/15)

CBO: Shipbuilding plan falls short

ARLINGTON, Va. - The Navy will have to fund its shipbuilding account by $16.5 billion annually to accomplish its 30-year shipbuilding plan for 2016 – about 30 percent more than Congress has appropriated in recent years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In an October report - “An Analysis of the Navy’s Fiscal Year 2016 Shipbuilding Plan” - CBO said the 2016 plan falls short of some goals. The Navy’s goal for the fleet is 308 ships. There are presently 273 ships. The report says the Navy’s 2016 plan would buy a total of 264 ships through 2045: 218 combatants and 46 combat logistics and support ships. The Navy estimates that buying those new ships under the 2016 plan would cost $494 billion (in 2015 dollars) over 30 years – about $16.5B a year. CBO estimated the cost to be $552 billion over 30 years, or an average of $18.4 billion. The estimates are at odds because the Navy and CBO use different estimating methods. (Source: Sea Power 10/30/15)