Industry input: Navy changes course

The Navy is moving away from its future vision of a program that would produce one ship hull for five mission sets, following feedback from the shipbuilding industry, and is now weighing use of two or more designs. Industry provided feedback on the Navy’s Common Hull Auxiliary Multi-Mission Platform (CHAMP) concept, which would produce a new reconfigurable-hull construction for use in strategic sealift, aviation intermediate maintenance support, medical services, command and control, and submarine tending. Industry input indicated that the use of two or more new, modified, or conversion designs may provide a more affordable and ultimately more operationally effective solution to CHAMP, according to Navy spokesperson Colleen O'Rourke. The Navy plans to issue Request for Proposals by the end of December, and may award multiple contracts for industry studies. A concept design option could be awarded in FY 2019 and a preliminary design option could be ready in FY-20, she confirmed. Two shipbuilders – Austal USA of Mobile, Ala., and General Dynamics’ NASSCO in San Diego – confirmed they sent white papers to the Navy advocating studies on how existing hulls could be modified to be suitable for one or more CHAMP missions. The duo suggested the Navy has the foundations for four of CHAMP's five mission sets - strategic sealift mission may require a clean-sheet design, says a NASSCO executive. The Navy's most recent cargo ship design, the Watson class, is more than two decades old. Huntington Ingalls Industries declined comment, citing potential competition. Congress has authorized and appropriated $36M - double the request - for CHAMP to accommodate accelerating its procurement time line. Tom Wetherald, director of business development at General Dynamics NASSCO, said the company's Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB) could be an entry point for industry studies on a hull to execute the aviation maintenance or submarine tending missions. Austal exec Larry Ryder suggested a modified version of the Mobile-based Expeditionary Fast Transport (EFT) could satisfy CHAMP's medical and command and control missions. Both NASSCO's ESB and Austal's EPF are still in production. (Source: Inside Defense 11/29/18)