Photo caption: Sailors assigned to the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) and Marines assigned to Marine Attack Squadron (VMA) 223 participate in flight quarters on the ship’s flight deck, Dec. 4, while the ship is underway conducting aviation certifications in the Atlantic Ocean. Iwo Jima was built at HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Isaac Rodriguez)

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Dec. 13, 2024

HII’s Weekly News Digest is compiled every Friday by the Corporate Communications team to summarize and highlight news stories of significance to the company.

House Passes $883 Billion NDAA: The Hill reported on Wednesday that the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has passed the House. The $883.7 billion bill includes several measures to bolster the U.S. military’s readiness, workforce, and technological capabilities. CQ reported Tuesday that the key provisions address rising costs in submarine programs, including a $10.7 billion funding request for Virginia– and Columbia-class submarine programs, essential for maintaining production and workforce stability. The act also allows shipyards to use incremental funding to increase wages, a step toward alleviating workforce challenges. NextGov reported the NDAA enhances investments in artificial intelligence and quantum technologies, with pilot programs and a focus on improving efficiency in shipyard operations. These measures reflect a new focus on addressing inflation-related cost growth and supporting workforce retention to ensure timely submarine deliveries.

NNS Christens Virginia-Class Submarine Arkansas (SSN 800): The Associated Press reported on Sunday that Carlotta Walls LaNier, one the nine Black students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957, launched a bottle of sparkling wine into the hull of Virginia-class submarine Arkansas (SSN 800) on Saturday during a christening ceremony at HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro called the ship “the very best of our submarine force capabilities.” KARK reported on Sunday that Arkansas is the 27th Virginia-class submarine and the 13th built at NNS.

Ingalls Shipbuilding Undocks Zumwalt (DDG 1000): USNI News reported on Friday, Dec. 6, that HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division re-floated USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) after the first-in-class guided-missile destroyer was fitted for conventional hypersonic missiles. During Zumwalt’s time at the shipyard, Ingalls replaced the original twin 155mm Advanced Gun Systems with new missile tubes. Zumwalt and the other two ships in the class will be the Navy’s first at-sea platforms to field the Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) missile — a weapon designed to strike targets thousands of miles away with no warning. Ingalls removed the forward gun mount and ammo loading mechanism storage from Zumwalt and added four large diameter tubes that can each field three weapons for a total of 12. The Navy anticipates testing the weapon at sea in 2027 or 2028, Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe, the Navy’s director of strategic programs, told reporters last month. Maritime Executive reported on Sunday that second-in-class USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001) will be next in line for conversion, and the work will be performed at Bath Iron Works. The total program cost for the upgrade is estimated at $1.1-2.0 billion.

Pentagon Utilizing $100 Million To Fund Artificial Intelligence Projects: Breaking Defense reported on Wednesday that the Pentagon is setting up a new AI Rapid Capabilities Cell meant to accelerate the military’s adoption of large language models and other forms of generative artificial intelligence. The new AIRCC will implement the recommendations from the now-disbanded Task Force Lima. The cell will be run by CDAO but work closely with the Defense Innovation Unit, the Pentagon’s outreach arm to Silicon Valley and other centers of private-sector innovation nationwide. The cell will have $100 million in funding to launch four efforts including: $40 million in Small Business Innovation Research grants to small and non-traditional companies working on GenAI; $35 million for four pilot projects to test “frontier” GenAI; $20 million to build digital “sandboxes” with the computing power required to test the expected wave of new GenAI tools; and $5 million to beef up ongoing GenAI testing under the CDAO’s quarterly Global Information Dominance Experiments. Defense Scoop reported on Wednesday that outgoing DOD Chief Digital & AI Officer Radha Plumb said she couldn’t provide a specific timeline for when new tech shepherded by the rapid capabilities cell will be ready for deployment, noting that it will depend on the performance of the technologies in testing and experimentation.

Del Toro Plans Firepower Upgrades On Littoral Combat Ship: USNI News reported on Wednesday that the Navy is planning a lethality upgrade on both classes of the littoral combat ship that includes the ability to launch larger missiles like the SM-6. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro told attendees at the Naval Institute’s Defense Forum Washington that the Navy will upgun the ships with naval strike missiles and containerized Mk-41 vertical launching systems. Overall, the Navy plans to field a fleet of 25 littoral combat ships – 15 Independence-class ships equipped with a mine countermeasures mission package that will eventually replace the legacy Avenger-class MCM ships based in Bahrain and Japan and 10 Freedom-class ships that will field a variation of the surface warfare package that will include Naval Strike Missile and Hellfire AGM-114L Longbow strike missiles in addition to the MK-70 launchers.

HII’s Weekly News Digest is produced by HII’s Corporate Communications team and posted to Homeport every Friday.

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