Local submarines chosen for first female crew members

Two Navy submarines built in part in Rhode Island and based in Groton, Conn., have been chosen as the first U.S. attack submarines that will have women in their crews, the Navy announced Tuesday.

 

The Virginia and the Minnesota, members of the Virginia class of nuclear submarines, will each have three female officers beginning no later than January 2015, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced in a statement.

 

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, of Rhode Island, a member of the Armed Services Committee, applauded the announcement. "I think it's a strong, positive step forward," he said in an interview. "It will increase the talent available to operate" Virginia-class submarines.

 

The three female officers on each of the submarines will share a three-person stateroom in a part of the boat reserved for officers, according to Lt. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the submarines based at Naval Submarine Base New London, in Groton.

 

They will share bathroom and shower facilities with male officers, but the facilities will be scheduled so that they are for men part of the time and women at other times, Hawkins said. That same arrangement is used aboard Ohio-class ballistic- and guided-missile submarines, larger boats that already have women on their crews.

 

"No modification is necessary for the Virginia-class submarines that were selected," Hawkins said.

Each of the two subs will have one female supply officer and two female officers who are nuclear-trained and will work in a variety of departments onboard, such as engineering, navigation and weapons, Hawkins said.

 

Female supply officers already served aboard Navy surface vessels, so they will be selected as more seasoned officers to mentor the other two, more junior officers, Hawkins said. He said that, typically, the junior officers will be ensigns when assigned to the submarine, while the supply officer will be a lieutenant junior grade or a lieutenant.

 

It will take until near the end of next year for the officers to report to the subs because the junior officers need to undergo a year of nuclear training before reporting for duty.

 

"There's a number of women in the training pipeline that have yet to receive their assignment," Hawkins said. "Only upon passing are you assigned the next step."

 

Women had been barred from serving on submarines until the Navy changed its policy in April 2010. Since that time, the Navy has assigned 43 women to six Ohio-class boats: the ballistic-missile submarines Wyoming, Louisiana and Maine; and the guided-missile submarines Florida, Georgia and Ohio.

 

Virginia-class submarines are built by General Dynamics Electric Boat in cooperation with Newport News Shipbuilding. Hull sections and interior components are built at Electric Boat's shipyard in Quonset Point, then barged to either Electric Boat's Groton shipyard or Newport News, in Virginia, depending upon which of the partners has been assigned final assembly of the boat.

 

USS Dallas - SSN 700

The Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Dallas (SSN 700) departs Naval Submarine Base New London for a scheduled underway. (U.S. Navy photo by Lt. j.g. Jeffrey Prunera)

Sub with new design nears completion in Groton

The first in a series of Navy attack submarines with a newly redesigned bow is nearing completion at Groton's Electric Boat, which says it is on track to beat production deadlines with the boat that will become the USS North Dakota

The military contractor, which got a boost this week when Congress agreed to not delay the purchase of a Virginia-class sub, is hoping that its record of delivering submarines under budget and ahead of schedule will help protect it from cuts in Washington.

"There's no question we're in a very constrained fiscal environment," said Robert Hamilton,  a company spokesman. "Any program that is over-running on costs and schedule is going to get a second look."

The last major piece of the new submarine, the 113-foot-long bow section, arrived at the Groton shipyard a week ago from the company's partner contractor in the Virginia-class submarine project, Newport News Shipbuilding. The Navy contract calls for the completed sub to be delivered in August 2014.

The new design introduces larger, more versatile weapons tubes in the bow. Despite the changes, the submarine is expected to be ready for delivery ahead of schedule, partly because the design reduced the number of parts in the bow and made construction more manageable, said Chris Cameron, a construction program manager at Electric Boat.

The U.S. is building two Virginia-class submarines a year, at a cost of about $2.6 billion each. The cost-savings for the Navy that come with the redesign of the bow will add up to about $800 million over 20 submarines, Hamilton said.

A budget proposal from President Barack Obama had called for the Navy to purchase only one submarine in 2014, but the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives agreed this week to include money for a second sub that year in the National Defense Authorization Act.

Bob Ross the director of the state's Office of Military Affairs noted the Virginia-class program has been praised for efficiency by the defense secretary.

"It's really great from our position to be able to articulate that this is the premier, major acquisition program in the country right now," Ross said. "It puts us on very solid ground when we argue don't disrupt that production schedule."

Like other defense contractors around the state and the nation, Electric Boat is still keeping a wary eye on developments in Washington, where talks are under way to reach a deal that would avoid the double hit of tax hikes and automatic spending reductions dubbed the "fiscal cliff."

Even if those automatic cuts do not take effect, Ross said Connecticut is expected to see a 10 percent reduction in its defense spending over the next six years. He said the automatic cuts could raise that figure as high as 18 percent, but officials have no way to know which programs would be hit.

"The sooner we deal with this issue and remove the uncertainty, the better it is for all of defense contractors in the state," Ross said.

Electric Boat has bead on future of submarines

Nearly everyone at Electric Boat is focused on current submarine programs. Three people are not.

They are the concept formulation group, or in EB lingo, CONFORM. Their sole job is to figure out how today's submarines can be made to do more and how future submarines should be made for what they may be called on to do.

"We're the ones charged with maintaining that focus," said John Biederka, director of the group.

This is the group that developed the early concept for a system of tubes that allows Los Angeles-class attack submarines to launch Tomahawk missiles vertically.

Team members came up with the idea for a module with missile tubes to boost firepower on the newest attack submarines, the Virginia class.

Also, they found a way to tweak the last submarine in the Seawolf class so it could be tasked with highly classified missions involving special forces and could test new systems.

Not all engineers enjoy concept development; they are used to knowing every detail of a particular task at hand. The three men of CONFORM -- who, combined, have a century of experience at EB -- are the most futuristic thinkers of the engineering force. They are the visionaries.

The core group of three -- Biederka, Pat Bevins and Steve Menno -- provides continuity, but they fan out across EB, Biederka said, to "bring the ideas of the whole company to bear.

"We've got a huge resource of ideas here in the folks that are at Electric Boat," Biederka said. CONFORM "allows those ideas to come together and get sorted out so we can find the good ones."

Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, the chief of naval operations, said in a recent interview that the Navy has to dominate the undersea domain, to "own it," and "the centerpiece of it is the submarine."

Submarines of the future, he said, will have to be stealthy "of course" and "be able to (connect) with other sensors, platforms and payloads."

The military works across areas of warfare known as domains -- air, land, sea, space and now cyberspace. Submarines will have to operate across the domains, Greenert said. There is research into missiles that submarines could launch at aircraft, while submarines, using antennas, could be an instrument in the cyber domain, he added.

"They're stealthy and they can be in places that other things can't, so how do we use that to great effect?" he said.

"They can deliver a Tomahawk cruise missile," he said. "We're familiar with that. So what else? What other kind of system or weapon can they deliver? We will have to see what is the over-arching potential in special warfare."

Sometimes the members of CONFORM see the need for a capability and then approach the Navy. Other times the Navy poses a straightforward question: "Can you put this missile on this boat?," for example.

Franz Edson, a past director of CONFORM, recalled when Navy officials visited the shipyard in the 1990s because they needed a submarine with enhanced war-fighting capabilities that was big enough to accommodate advanced technology for classified research -- and they needed it right away.

"It was an emergent need to perform a mission," said Edson, who is now EB's director of mission systems and business development. "They came to us with their hair on fire, just about literally."

EB had a narrow window since the USS Jimmy Carter would be the third and last ship of the Seawolf class. But CONFORM already had hundreds of ideas. The group narrowed the field to three, and EB extended the hull of the Jimmy Carter by 100 feet.

Edson, who works closely with Biederka, said EB is "never satisfied with the status quo.

"We always want to make it more capable, more cost- effective, safer," he said. "CONFORM feeds that need. People want a venue to do that."

Fewer submarines planned in Groton

The U.S. Navy plans to keep fewer submarines in Groton as the military shifts its focus toward Asia, the top admiral said.

The Naval Submarine Base is expected to have two squadrons with six attack submarines per squadron by 2020, down from the 16 submarines it has now, Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert told The Day of New London

Greenert said there won’t be a major departure of submarines and crews. He said submarines that are taken out of commission at the base in Connecticut will not always be replaced, while submarines at western bases will be replaced.

‘‘We’re pretty well set up to execute this strategy, and now we have to evolve and make that rebalance that is called for,’’ Greenert, the chief of naval operations, told the newspaper.

He said the Navy wants to establish or re-establish relationships with numerous allies throughout Asia.

Despite the emphasis on operations in the Pacific, Greenert said the Navy needs to keep all three of its submarine bases on the East Coast. He said the Norfolk naval station in Virginia does not have the capacity to take in the submarines from Groton and it would cost too much to move the submarine school from Groton. A base in Georgia hosts ballistic-missile submarines, and Greenert said they need to remain there as a strategic deterrent.

US submarine captain fakes death to end affair

A Navy officer who was dismissed last month as commander of a Connecticut-based nuclear submarine faked his own death to end an affair he was carrying on with a mistress, investigation documents show.

Navy Cmdr. Michael P. Ward II was relieved of his duties aboard the USS Pittsburgh a week after taking command of the attack submarine.

Investigators found that Ward sent his mistress an email from a fictitious person named Bob in July, posing as a co-worker and saying that Ward had died unexpectedly, according to a report obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jennifer Cragg, a spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh's submarine group in Groton, said Ward has received a letter of reprimand for adultery and other military violations.

Details of the affair were first reported by The Day of New London.

Ward, a 43-year-old Buffalo native, is assigned to a submarine group in Groton. He has not responded to requests for comment.

The woman learned that Ward was still alive when she turned up at Ward's former residence in Burke, Va., to offer condolences. The new owner told her that Ward had moved to Connecticut to take command of a submarine.

"She was very surprised," Jon Boyle, the new owner, said in a telephone interview.

Boyle said the woman appeared to be in her 20s and was accompanied by another woman with a child, and they said they had driven 3 1/2 hours from Chesapeake, Va. "She told me they were good friends and they'd known him a while."

Ward, who had been working at the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, met the woman through an online dating service in October and used an alias to communicate with her by email, the investigation report says. The married officer visited her during trips to the Norfolk, Va., area for training and they spent a weekend together in Williamsburg, Va., in November. The woman was not named.

After moving to Connecticut, Ward learned that his mistress was pregnant. In late July, he met with her in Washington to discuss how to handle the pregnancy. Soon afterward the woman lost the baby because of complications, the investigation report says.

Investigators said the relationship ended in late July, but Ward stayed in touch with the woman by phone and email to "manage the particulars of the relationship" even after taking command of the submarine.

The documents don't indicate whether the woman knew Ward was married.

"Commander Ward's dishonesty and deception in developing, maintaining, and attempting to end his inappropriate relationship ... were egregious and are not consistent with our Navy's expectations of a commissioned officer," wrote Navy Capt. Vernon Parks, commander of a submarine development squadron.

The investigation began when a relative of Ward's mistress contacted the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Cragg said.

Ward was found guilty of Uniform Code of Military Justice violations on Sept. 5, including dereliction of duty, unbecoming conduct and adultery, and received the punitive letter of reprimand, Cragg said.

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, a Democrat whose eastern Connecticut district includes the submarine base, said it is a sad situation.

"The Navy doesn't kid around with its leadership," he said. "These positions, to command submarines, are very competitive and I think the Navy is right to hold people to the highest standard."

Groton - Shays Clashes With McMahon Over Submarine Base

In some of his harshest comments yet, former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays said Monday that Republican Linda McMahon is "clueless,'' "beyond an amateur,'' and not qualified to be a U.S. senator.

Shays made his remarks after McMahon said last week that she would be open to reviewing potential base closures, depending on which military operations would be cut.

Shays and others said the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) process could be disastrous for the Navy's submarine base in Groton and the nearby Electric Boat factory that builds nuclear submarines. The overall economic impact of the base and the factory to Connecticut is $4 billion annually and 31,000 jobs, officials said.

The base is not in any immediate danger of closure, and the next round in the BRAC process is not expected to start until 2015.

McMahon responded later Monday at the state AFL-CIO convention in Hartford, saying, "What I am stressing is that I will fight tooth and nail to keep our sub base open here in Connecticut because I believe it is not only central to our national defense but also to the economy.''

She added, "I'm not worried about the process. I'm worried about fighting for the sub base.''

But Shays said he is far more qualified to represent Connecticut in any potential battles to keep the submarine base open.

"First, she's clueless about the process,'' Shays said of McMahon. "I don't know how to say it any differently than that. And her people are clueless. Second, she doesn't have the experience or the knowledge to know how to fight this process.''

He said that McMahon's experience as a professional wrestling entrepreneur with Stamford-based WWE does not provide any background for handling the difficult questions on military spending and base closures.

"I think she is beyond an amateur,'' Shays told reporters at the U.S. Submarine Veterans Club. "This is an individual who has been in an arena, but it hasn't been a real arena. It is an arena that promotes bullying, degradation of women and minorities and those who have special needs. It's pretty incredible to think that the arena that she is in would prepare her for this [political] arena.''

He added, "She's not qualified to be the next senator, clearly. If you had enough debates, you would see it. That's why she doesn't want debates.''

At the moment, the candidates have only one more scheduled debate that is set for July 18 at NBC Connecticut in West Hartford.

The problem, Shays said, is that no one knows which bases will be on the BRAC list until after the lengthy studies are done and the recommendations are made by the Pentagon.

"This is such a basic concept,'' Shays told reporters. "For her to say that she would think that BRAC provides efficiencies after we've gone through five of them. For her to say that she would support it, unless the sub base was on it, just blew me away.''

McMahon also blasted Shays on Monday for multiple votes that he made as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, including BRAC votes dating to 1991. She said that he voted in 2002 to start the BRAC process that eventually threatened the Groton base years later.

McMahon added that Shays had voted in similar fashion to U.S. Rep. Christopher Murphy, the leading Democratic candidate in the race, as "typical career politicians'' on votes on defense issues.

Shays, though, said that McMahon had misunderstood his final BRAC vote, saying he only approved the recommendations for base closings after the proposed sub base closure in Groton had been removed from the bill.

"Once again, she's showing her ignorance. She's criticizing me,'' Shays said.

As they head toward the Republican primary on Aug. 14, Shays was trailing McMahon by 29 percentage points in the latest Quinnipiac University poll.

Shays surrounded himself Monday with local officials, including Groton Mayor Heather Somers, former Groton Mayor Jane Dauphinais, and former Sen. Catherine W. Cook, a Mystic Republican who served for 14 years in the state legislature.

"Trust me. The Pentagon, perennially, puts Groton on the list,'' Cook said.

The bruising 2005 battle over the submarine base was eventually won by Connecticut through the efforts of then-Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, then-U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman and then-U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd. Shays himself was part of the group that battled the closure, but he said that Simmons had done about 50 percent of the work of the entire group. Shays said he simply wants to avoid the entire struggle in the future.

"We know that we can't go through another round,'' Shays said. "We've learned from the past. No new BRAC. Period. Case closed. I will fight it as hard as I can possibly fight anything.''

US Senate candidates spar over Groton sub base

Connecticut's leading candidates for U.S. Senate are sparring over who is best-positioned to protect the Groton submarine base, a huge employer that is vulnerable to Pentagon spending cuts.

U.S. Rep Chris Murphy and former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays are touting their Washington experience as they target former wrestling executive Linda McMahon, who says politicians like them carry some of the blame for the government being in such financial straits.

None of the candidates argues for anything less than an all-out effort to protect Naval Submarine Base New London. But the posturing over the last week highlights how candidates on both sides are trying to use a theme of government insider versus outsider to their advantage ahead of the November election.

Since the administration of President Barack Obama raised the possibility of base closings in January, Connecticut officials have been rallying to stress the importance of the sub base and the investments made by the state to increase its military value. The base was nearly closed in 2005 by a Base Closure and Realignment Commission, called BRAC, and many fear it soon will be targeted again.

On a visit Monday to Groton, Shays criticized McMahon, his rival for the Republican nomination, for telling a reporter from The Day on a stop there last week that her support for a BRAC round would depend on the proposed cuts. He noted Congress would have to authorize the process before the Pentagon announces the proposed cuts.

"She just really is frankly pretty clueless about this," said Shays, who served in Congress from 1987 until 2009.

Murphy, a Democrat, also said McMahon's initial comments suggest a lack of familiarity with the law surrounding BRAC. He said in an interview that discussion of a new round of base closings is premature because the government has not achieved the savings that the last round was designed to generate.

McMahon, who has the GOP endorsement in the Aug. 14 primary, has benefited from a political climate that does not necessarily favor experience in Washington. Her campaign lumped McMahon's rivals in with other elected officials in criticizing Congress for not doing more to avoid the need for cuts.

"Congress' failure to act is what has led us to this point of even having a discussion of a possible BRAC," said McMahon spokeswoman Erin Isaac, who added that Congress has not made any "meaningful" attempt to cut spending.

Isaac said McMahon would protect the base through a jobs plan that prioritizes defense spending.

Asked about criticism that her comment showed a lack of understanding, McMahon told reporters Monday that she is worried about fighting for the sub base, not the process.

"What I am stressing is that I will fight, tooth and nail, to keep our sub base open here in Connecticut because it is not only central to our national defense, but also to the economy of Connecticut. So, that's exactly where I'm going to be," she said after delivering a speech at the Connecticut AFL-CIO political convention.

The Groton base pumps $4.5 billion a year into Connecticut's economy and supports at least 15,000 jobs around the southeastern section of the state. Since escaping the last round of base closings, the state of Connecticut has committed $50 million for improvements to help increase the value of the base, which is the home port for about 16 nuclear-powered attack submarines.

Former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, a Shays supporter who led the charge to keep the base open in 2005, said he believes Shays is the only candidate with the political connections needed to help the base survive another potential BRAC.

"We're very vulnerable politically. We need a U.S. senator who knows the players and knows the game," Simmons said. "The consequences are potentially disastrous."

Robert Ross, the director of the state's Office of Military Affairs, said whoever wins the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Joseph Lieberman will have a significant responsibility to help keep the base open. But he said he expects whoever wins will be a quick study.

"They'll come up to speed very quickly, just like Senator Blumenthal did," Ross said.