Photo caption: SOUTH CHINA SEA (May 5, 2024) Sailors assigned to the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Somerset (LPD 25) and U.S. Marines assigned to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit transport vehicles and gear in the well deck while underway in the South China Sea during Exercise Balikatan 24. USS Somerset was built by HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Evan Diaz)
May 10, 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.
One Year In, AUKUS Pillar I Advances Initiatives: Defense News published a report on Thursday that highlights several accomplishments between the United States and Australia involving Pillar I of the AUKUS agreement over the past year. Australia and the U.S. are already training the officers and sailors to operate a Virginia-class attack boat as well as the civilians who will maintain it, even though Australia won’t take possession of its first nuclear-powered submarine until 2032. Training the uniformed personnel is just one piece of a flurry of industrial, legislative and acquisition activity that’s taken place since the AUKUS three-phase plan was laid out in March 2023. Australia has eight officers in an inaugural training cohort that began in 2023. Three of those eight will be moved into an accelerated training pipeline, and one will eventually be the first Australian Virginia-class commanding officer, said Dan Packer, the director of naval submarine forces for AUKUS. In December, the U.S. and Australia also finalized a Foreign Military Sales case to procure submarine training devices, including simulators, to support the 2027 establishment of Submarine Rotational Force-West in Australia’s HMAS Stirling base.
Senator Push To Increase Defense Spending In FY25: Politico reported on Wednesday that Senate Defense Appropriations Chair Jon Tester said Wednesday an $895 billion cap on defense spending set by last year’s bipartisan debt deal isn’t enough to meet the military’s growing requirements. Breaking Defense reported on Wednesday that the committee’s ranking Republican member, Susan Collins, is in lockstep with Tester in calling for an increase in defense spending. Comments made by Tester and Collins during a budget hearing with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are the strongest indication yet of bipartisan support for hiking the Pentagon budget beyond the level sought by President Joe Biden. Austin said the $895 billion cap forced the Pentagon to spend money on bolstering immediate military readiness and put off some modernization priorities that won’t come to fruition until the 2030s. Both members noted that planned defense spending does not keep up with inflation. Brown noted that future investments are being pushed off due to the need to stay under spending cap.
HII Announces Latest REMUS UUV Sale To UK Royal Navy: The Defense Post reported on Tuesday that the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy has signed an agreement to procure a fleet of REMUS unmanned underwater vehicles from HII. The service will purchase three REMUS 100s and five REMUS 300s to support the British Ministry of Defence’s ongoing efforts to modernize its naval capabilities concerning countermeasures, underwater exploration, and surveillance missions. While both UUVs have a maximum speed of 5 knots, the REMUS 300 model has a modular design to support users in both expeditionary and long-endurance operations. Marine Technology News reported on Monday that the Royal Navy has been a longtime customer of HII’s having purchased its first two REMUS 100s in 2011, both of which are still in operation. Naval Technology reported on Tuesday that 12 NATO member countries, including the U.S., use REMUS UUVs. In December 2020, HII delivered new REMUS 100 UUVs to the German Navy.
DOD Secures First Trance Of Replicator Funding: Defense Scoop reported on Monday that the Department of Defense has secured the funding it needs to move forward with the first tranche of systems for its Replicator initiative. DOD will use the funding to accelerate programs and field thousands of “attritable autonomous” systems across multiple domains by August 2025 to help the U.S. armed forces counter China’s military buildup. Defense One reported on Monday that $300 million has been approved in this year’s Defense Appropriations Act, and the remaining $200 million comes from “existing authorities and Defense-wide sources.” DOD is asking for another $500 million in the fiscal year 2025 budget proposal. Meanwhile, Reuters reported on Monday that the Pentagon has announced that AeroVironment Inc.’s, tab Switchblade-600 loitering munition is the first weapon to be publicly confirmed to be part of the Replicator initiative. More tranches and systems are expected to be announced as a part of the $1 billion Replicator idea first announced in August by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks.
| Social Media Highlight Of The Week
Posted Thursday on HII’s Facebook page: “Johnnie Rainey, a Master Shipbuilder at HII’s #NewportNewsShipbuilding division, was recently featured in Virginia Business magazine. Join us in thanking him for his 42 years of service as a welder!” |
strong>Del Toro Announces Virginia-Class SSN 811 Name, Sponsor: USNI News reported on Wednesday that the 38th planned Virginia-class nuclear attack submarine will be named Miami (SSN 811), and that Gloria Estefan will be the sponsor. On Tuesday, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro announced that the Block V attack boat will be named for the Florida city during a concert featuring Estefan during the Navy’s fleet week in Miami. Estefan, whose father was in the Army and fought in the Vietnam War, performed as part of the fleet week program. The announcement comes a week after Del Toro revealed the next America-class amphibious assault ship, LHA 10, will be named in honor of the Marines, Navy corpsmen, allies and partners who served and died in Helmand province, Afghanistan. In May, at New York Fleet Week, Del Toro announced that Virginia-class attack boat SSN 810 will named after the city of San Francisco.
HII’s Weekly News Digest is produced by HII’s Corporate Communications team and posted to Homeport every Friday.
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