In Forbes: Coast Guard Yard Funding–Staying Alive
September 8, 2021Well, we’ve come a long way from where we started four months ago–back when I pointed out that the Coast Guard Yard was left entirely out of the Shipyard Act, a massive, 25ドル billion dollar effort to fund all the emergent needs at the Navy’s four public shipyards. Now, it looks like my pestering may […]
In Forbes: Using Buoys As Maritime Autonomy Ground-Truth
August 31, 2021I have a small piece in Forbes discussing what buoys–the original maritime autonomous systems–can offer our hype-driven race for autonomous maritime systems. The answer is, basically, ground truth. Buoys are so mundane, and have so much sea-time, that nobody bothers to shape their performance rates. And, after more than a couple centuries of design refinement, […]
In Marine News: Shipbuilding And The Navy of Tomorrow
August 5, 2021Last month, I had a piece published in one of the magazines in the MarineLink constellation–the link is here. Please go read it! For the piece, I was charged to discuss the technical and geopolitical drivers of naval shipbuilding, so there was a lot to cram into the essay. It’s a bit dense. At any […]
Columbia Class Troop Carriers: Mixing Up The Fleet Mix
July 19, 2021After three generations of converting surplus/obsolete SSBN hull forms to commando carriers, it’s time to start planning for a Columbia Class commando-carrying variant. Despite a lot of classification, open records suggest undersea commando carriers have accumulated a record of success that stretches back to World War II. And with the Marine Corps already organizing their […]
In CRS: Discussing Large Surface Combatants
July 16, 2021With the release of the Pentagon’s 30-year naval force structure estimates, the indefatiguable Ronald O’Rourke, over at the Congressional Research Service, updated his analysis of the Navy’s surface combatant programs, using, in part, my concerned post over at Forbes.com (here). In the Forbes piece, I detailed how the Pentagon could be setting up to ramp-down […]
In Forbes: A Small Rant On The Littoral Combat Ship
June 29, 2021It is really annoying to publish a story where Navy PR sources tell me that on-land testing of the Freedom Class gear is still underway, only to see another part of the Navy, barely twenty-four hours after I posted this, trot out Vice Admiral Roy Kitchener, the commander of naval surface forces, to tell a […]
In Forbes and In Press: Talking To POGO About Shipyards
June 14, 2021POGO is doing some interesting work on keeping shipyards accountable. The indefatigable Jason Paladino has a pretty good explainer up, talking about the Shipyard Act–identifying concerning issues like the “no-strings-attached” aspects of the 25ドル billion shipyard supplement, the apparent “quid-pro-quo” on the lobbying/campaign donation side of the shipyard business, as well as questioning the private […]
In Forbes: First Freedom Class Fix In “Early” FY 2022?
June 7, 2021Here’s the link. So the Freedom Class’ combining gear fiasco–which smart people saw coming waaaay back when LCS-1’s combining gear was first delayed–is moving ahead, with the Navy expecting Lockheed Martin to deliver a tested fix by “early” FY 2022. Good luck. As a pessimist, I suspect this announcement was too aggressive, when the Navy […]
In Marine News Magazine: Column the Maritime Commerce Cutter RFP
June 7, 2021Link is here and here. My first column with the Marine News constellation of trade magazines! The Maritime Commerce Cutter fleet is due for an upgrade–and the entire class will be the Coast Guard’s primary inland representative as America’s waterways undergo both an economic renaissance and enormous technical change. These boats are unglamorous, and, while […]
In Forbes: Time To Bring USCG Funding To The Floor
May 27, 2021Here’s the link. Yesterday, Roger Wicker introduced a big Coast Guard funding bill. That’s great news, but the legislation itself is largely a bundle of other much-needed Coast Guard funding proposals that, after getting introduced years ago, never saw the light of day. It’ll join a raft of other USCG funding proposals that are working […]