Valerie Insinna
Defense Daily
10/30/2015
If a yearlong continuing resolution (CR) is enacted, the Navy will pull out all stops to protect the Ohio replacement program and keep it on schedule, but not all programs will be as lucky, a top Navy official said last week. One casualty would be the heavyweight MK 48 torpedo production restart, which would likely be delayed.
"This is a very challenging way to take a force and try to adapt to a changing world when you are locked by law into what you were doing last year. That’s inherently corrosive to innovation, change and adaptation,” said Rear Adm. Charles Richard, the director of submarine warfare (N97), after an Oct. 22 speech at the Naval Submarine League’s annual symposium.
In a short term situation, there’s a degree of management that program officials can do to mitigate adverse effects, but as the CR drags on, the harder that becomes, Richard said. Further, “bureaucratic magic doesn’t occur without effort,” and when staff members have to focus their energy on protecting a program from the CR’s effects, they might not be able to do other work needed to drive the program forward.
“But we will maintain it [the Ohio replacement] as the highest priority and don’t see a delay as a result of that,” he said.
The Ohio replacement program schedule has already slipped two years, and further delays would likely cause a gap between the retirement of the original Ohio-class and its successor, George Drakeley, executive director for Program Executive Office Submarines, said in an earlier speech.
The program will be ramping up rapidly over the next couple of years to start building the lead ship in 2021, he said. The program office plans to issue a request for proposals this year for a contract that includes detailed design work as well as construction for the first two submarines.
"This is a contract that will run from FY [fiscal year] 2016 until FY 2031. You’re talking about a 15-year contract here and over $6 billion,” he said. “So it’s a big deal."
To begin buying long-lead materials in 2019, the contract will have to have 83 percent of the design done by then, he said.
Next week, program officials will be meeting with Navy leadership to set a technical baseline, an event known as Gate 4.
“We kind of thought we were passed the issues of needing a Gate 4,” Drakeley said, but Navy acquisition chief Sean Stackley required it to help control costs.
Officials will then meet with the Defense Acquisition Board to get approval to release the request for proposals, he said.
Drakeley described the Ohio Replacement submarine as a blend of innovation and commonality. Survivability and stealth are important, so a large-aperture bow array sonar. will be added to the ship. A new “X stern” will help improve maneuverability through the turns. An electric drive constructed with permanent magnets will help it meet acoustic requirements, he said. However, it will also reuse components and systems from other submarines, such as the SWFTS combat system.
Production and procurement of the heavyweight MK 48 torpedo is scheduled to restart this fiscal year, and it would be vulnerable if the current CR—which prohibits the services from beginning new programs —is extended for an entire year, Richard said.
The production restart will turn the MK48 into a modular weapon that can be easily upgraded with new payloads, propulsion systems and fuel supplies, Drakely said. Today, the service can only upgrade the forward part of the torpedo with new sonar and electronics.
