Firm chosen for hatchery project

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Pensacola, Fla.-based Baskerville-Donovan engineering was chosen to provide architectural and engineering services for an $18.8 million downtown fish hatchery project. The contract, which will be negotiated between Florida Wildlife Commission and Baskerville over the next 60 days, could be as much as $682,000 for the design work. The $18.8 million project would come from a $1 billion fund set-aside for restoration of natural resources damaged by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (Source: Pensacola News Journal 01/27/16)

Navy Gulf Coast history

Today (Jan. 27) in Gulf Coast history: Coastal Patrol Ship USS Shamal (PC 13) is commissioned in 1996 at Bollinger Shipyard in Lockport, La. In 2014, Littoral Combat Ship USS Coronado (LCS 4) was commissioned at Austal USA Shipyard in Mobile, Ala. (Source: Naval History Command 01/27/16)

UNO earns $1M Navy enviro grant

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory awarded an almost $1 million grant to the University of New Orleans for its newly established Joseph Canizaro and James Livingston Center for Environmental Informatics. The grant money is to assist researchers develop ways of mining and visualizing data that the Navy collects about oceans and the atmosphere. The new center focuses on data information and how it is applied to environmental science. (Source: Times-Picayune 01/25/16)

HII, Navy talk new BMD ship

The Navy has been in discussions with Pascagoula, Miss.-based shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries about a new missile defense variant of the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock (LPD-17). The new vessel could eventually be equipped with new radars, railguns and lasers. The troop carrier has the size and margins for that type of heavy-weight mission, industry officials claim. “You can put a lot of additional weight (and) some modern technologies, like ballistic missile defense radars,” HII VP Brian Cuccias told National Defense Magazine. If built, the ship would be the largest surface combatant for the Navy since WWII. (Source: The National Interest 01/15/16)

Second thoughts to LCS cuts?

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s decision to cut back on the number of Littoral Combat Ship buys may not be the final word, informed sources told Breaking Defense. The Office of the Secretary of Defense, and possibly Deputy Secretary Bob Work, may be thinking about back-tracking on Carter’s December memo to drop 12 ships (from 52 to 40). Last month’s decision memo may have bypassed some of the usual vetting process on its way to SECDEF. Two of the sources have traced the memo to LCS hard-line critics at the Office of Coast Assessment and Program Evaluation. A potential new debate at OSD gives hope and new credibility to LCS defenders – including that of SECNAV Ray Mabus and CNO Adm. John Richardson. CNO called the proposed cuts for FY-17 “pre-decisional”; and may be a sign it gets reconsideration. “There is a good deal of finger-pointing in OSD now,” one source said, along with being “a little embarrassed.” (Source: Breaking Defense 01/15/16) Gulf Coast Shipbuilding Note: Austal USA Shipyard at Mobile, Ala., builds one of two LCS variants.

Mobile channel dredging

The Dutra Group, headquartered in San Rafael, Calif., was awarded an $8,000,000 Army Corps of Engineers’ Mobile, Ala., division contract to rent a hopper dredge with attendant plan and operators for maintenance dredging of the Mobile harbor channel. The estimated completion date is March 14, 2017. (Source: DOD 01/15/16)

EPF 7 christening at Mobile

MOBILE, Ala. – The Navy will christen its newest expeditionary fast transport ship USNS Carson City (EPF 7) here on Jan. 16 from the Austal-USA shipyard. The fast transport honors the city of Carson City, Nev. Susan Asbury Crowell, wife of Carson City Mayor Robert Crowell, will serve as the ship’s sponsor. EPF 7 will be the second Navy ship named for the city. The first was designated PF 50 and commissioned March 24, 1944. PF 50 received two battle stars for WWII service. The EPFs were formerly known as Joint High-Speed Vessels. (Source: Sea Power 01/14/16)

SECNAV: Will meet shipbuilding goals

The Navy is on schedule to reach its shipbuilding goals despite a Defense Secretary directive to reduce the number of Littoral Combat Ship buys by 12, according to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. SECDEF Ash Carter told the Navy to reduce its procurement of LCS from 52 to 40 in the FY 2017 budget. Mabus wouldn’t directly comment on the order, but said that the FY-17 budget hasn’t yet been submitted. Regardless of FY-17, Navy’s “decisions that we have made over the past seven years (through FY-16) will ensure that our fleet gets up to more than 300 ships," Mabus said. Shipbuilding is not the work of one person or administration, he noted. It must be maintained over the course of years. From 9/11 to 2009, the Navy put 41 ships under contract. In the past seven years, the Navy will have contracted 84 ships. Mabus highlighted the achievements of the LCS program while emphasizing the increased capability of future ships in the classes. (Source: National Defense 01/14/16) Gulf Coast Shipbuilding Note: Last month, USS Jackson (LCS 6) was commissioned from the Austal-USA shipyard in Mobile, Ala. There are now 19 LCS authorized and appropriated, at an average ship construction cost of $337 million each. Newer frigates are being consider to replace LCS using one of the LCS variant hull designs, and which will provide more fire power, be able to deploy with carrier strike groups, and have robust anti-mine countermeasures and anti-submarine capabilities.

CG moves on new icebreakers

WASHINGTON – The Coast Guard released a proposed federal acquisition timeline and requirements notice Jan. 13 for two new heavy-duty icebreakers; and planned to meet with interested firms at an industry day in March. The notice was intended to obtain information about what firms had the ability to build and develop the icebreakers, and to explore potential leasing options. The CG hopes to release a draft Request for Proposals in the first quarter of FY 2017; and award a contract in the final period of either FY-18 or FY-19. (Source: Reuters 01/14/16) Gulf Coast Shipbuilding Note: Huntington Ingalls Industries of Pascagoula, Miss., which built the newest CG icebreaker and delivered it in 1999, has said it was “absolutely interested" in building icebreakers for the Coast Guard.

BAE to cut U.S. ship repair jobs

Britain’s BAE Systems plans to lay off more than 800 ship repair workers at two of its American East Coast facilities at Jacksonville, Fla., and Norfolk, Va., due to the lack of Navy and commercial work. The biggest pending layoffs will be at Norfolk, where 530 are to be laid off about March 18. At BAE’s two ship Jacksonville repair yards, 300 are to be laid off due to declines in commercial shipbuilding and repair work. (Source: Defense Daily 01/12/16) Gulf Coast Shipbuilding Maritime Note: BAE has seven ship repair yards in the U.S. BAE's Southeast Ship Repair is based in Mobile, Ala. There were no layoffs mentioned for the Alabama facility.

CG nabs illegal Gulf poachers

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The Coast Guard seized 3,249 pounds of illegal catches from three Mexican fishing boats poaching – with 11 Mexican nationals aboard - in Gulf of Mexico waters off South Padre Island, Texas, on Jan. 8. The “lanchas” were stopped, and illegal catch confiscated (44 sharks, 99 red snapper). The fishermen were using gillnets and long-line fishing gear, and “stealing tons of fish out from under law abiding recreational and commercial fishermen,” said Lt. Cmdr. Mike Bell, commanding officer of Coast Guard Station South Padre Island. The Mexican nationals were transferred to the CG base for processing. (Source: US Coast Guard 01/09/16)

CNO visits Ingalls

PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding division hosted Adm. John Richardson Thursday as part of his visit to shipyards in the region. This was his first visit to Ingalls as Chief of Naval Operations. Richardson received updates on Ingalls’ shipbuilding programs and toured the facility. Richardson, who took office as CNO last September, received briefs on the four classes of military ships Ingalls is building for the Navy and U.S. Coast Guard before touring the shipyard, including stops on the guided missile destroyer John Finn (DDG 113) and amphibious transport dock John P. Murtha (LPD 26). Ingalls currently has 10 ships in various stages of construction. (Source: HII, 01/08/16)

Contract: Multiple, $99M

Vernadero Group Inc., Phoenix, Ariz. (W91278-16-D-0002); Gulf South Research Corp., Baton Rouge, La. (W91278-16-D-0004); Trinity Analysis and Development Corp., Shalimar, Fla. (W91278-16-D-0005); Marstel-Day LLC, Fredericksburg, Va. (W91278-16-D-0006); Stell Environmental Enterprises Inc., Elverson, Pa. (W91278-16-D-0007); HelioTech, Anchorage, Alaska (W91278-16-D-0009); and Trinity Analysis and Development Corp., Shalimar, Fla. (W91278-16-D-0011), were awarded a $99,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for environmental support for the South Atlantic Division, Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, Mobile, Ala., with an estimated completion date of Jan. 6, 2021. Bids were solicited via the Internet with 43 received. Funding and work location will be determined with each order. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile, is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 01/07/15)

Contracts: Multiple

Twelve contractors have been awarded contracts for an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, fixed-price contract for international ocean transportation and intermodal distribution services through U.S. Transportation Command’s Universal Service Contract-8. The awards are as follows: American President Lines LTD Inc., Scottsdale, Ariz., an estimated $257,131,913 (HTC711-16-D-W002); Maersk Line LTD, Norfolk, Virginia, an estimated $227,835,577 (HTC711-16-D-W014); Matson Navigation Co. Inc., Oakland, Calif., an estimated $95,294,998 (HTC711-16-D-W015); Hapag-Lloyd USA LLC, Piscataway, N.J., an estimated $92,075,357 (HTC711-16-D-W012); American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier LLC, Woodcliff Lake, N.J., an estimated $66,941,381 (HTC711-16-D-W003); Farrell Lines Inc., Norfolk, Va., an estimated $64,360,874 (HTC711-16-D-W009); Liberty Global Logistics LLC, Lake Success, N.Y., an estimated $55,788,479 (HTC711-16-D-W013); Totem Ocean Trailer Express Inc., Federal Way, Wash., an estimated $30,438,795 (HTC711-16-D-W025); Central Gulf Lines Inc., Mobile, Ala., an estimated $24,494,841 (HTC711-16-D-W005); TransAtlantic Lines,* Greenwich, Conn., an estimated $20,596,119 (HTC711-16-D-W027); Sea Star Line LLC, Jacksonville, Fla., an estimated $20,148,725 (HTC711-16-D-W020); and Young Brothers LTD,* Honolulu, Hawaii, an estimated $18,494,963 (HTC711-16-D-W029). Work will be performed worldwide as specified on each individual order and is expected to be completed Feb. 28, 2017. The contracting activity is the U S Transportation Command Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Ill. (Source: DoD, 01/06/16)

OTH missile for LCS

The Navy hopes to place an over-the-horizon missile onto a Littoral Combat Ship’s deck by year’s end, according to the service’s director of surface warfare. Rear Adm. Peter Fanta said placing an OTH missile aboard an LCS was “an absolute requirement” for the Navy. Despite mid-fiscal year move-around funding challenges, Fanta says everybody’s on board with it, including engineers that have already been studying which missiles could operate from an LCS. The idea of adding an OTH missile to an LCS platform came from an up-armored LCS-based frigate study. (Source: USNI News 01/07/16) Gulf Coast Shipbuilding Note: The Mobile, Ala.-based Austal USA shipyard builds even-number hull LCS of the Independence Class. The OTH missile and LCS would be much more connected than a previous one-time demonstration of firing a Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile from the Austal-built USS Coronado (LCS-4). USS Independence (LCS 2) is currently conducting its mine-countermeasure warfare package in the Gulf of Mexico, and using Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., as its temporary home port.

Lewis class Navy oilers

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced Jan. 6 that the first in class ship of the Navy’s next generation class of fleet replenishment oilers will be named for civil rights activists and current U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.). He was a keynote speaker at the historic March on Washington in 1963 and led more than 600 peaceful protestors across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., in 1965. Lewis was elected to Congress in 1986. The future T-AO 205 “will serve as a visible symbol of the freedoms Rep. Lewis holds dear, and his example will live on in the steel of that ship and in all those who will serve aboard her," said Mabus. The future USNS John Lewis will provide underway replenishment of fuel and stores to Navy ships at sea and jet fuel for aircraft assigned to aircraft carriers. A contract will be awarded for the ship this summer 2016. Construction is expected to begin in 2018. (Source: USNI News 01/06/16) Gulf Coast Shipbuilding/Maritime Note: Six ships of the planned 17-ship Lewis-class are part of a complicated shipbuilding deal between General Dynamics and Huntington Ingalls Industries of Pascagoula, Miss. Either yard is set to build the half dozen oilers or unnamed LHA-8 amphibious warship follow-ons to the America-class (LHA-6) amphibs.