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.

 

General Dynamics Awarded $209 Million for Future Virginia-class Submarines

The U.S. Navy has awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat a $208.6 million contract modification to buy long lead-time material for three Virginia-class submarines. Electric Boat is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD).

Recognized as a model defense-acquisition program for its technical excellence and schedule performance, the Virginia-class submarine program provides the Navy with the capabilities required to dominate both the open ocean and the littorals. In partnership with the Navy, Electric Boat is driving innovative cost-saving efforts, without impacting capabilities, through overall efficiency improvements, decreased ship-construction labors costs and shortened ship-construction cycle times.

As a result of this successful program performance and demand for the versatile capabilities of the Virginia-class submarine, the Navy authorized Electric Boat to start construction of two submarines per year beginning in 2011. This contract provides funding for the second fiscal year (FY) 14 Virginia-class submarine, SSN-793, and two FY 15 submarines, SSN-794 and SSN-795. Items funded include steam and electrical-plant components, main propulsion unit and ship-service turbine generator sets, and miscellaneous hull, mechanical and electrical-systems components to support construction of the submarines.

With this modification, the overall contract is worth $595 million. It was initially awarded in April 2012.

Vikramaditya aircraft carrier to leave harbor after boilers repaired in early July

The Indian aircraft carrier, the Vikramaditya (formerly Admiral Gorshkov), being upgraded by the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk, will resume at-sea trials in early July 2013, a spokesman for the Russian Navy's Main Staff told Interfax-AVN on Tuesday.

 

"Under the new timeframe, the Vikramaditya will leave the harbor on July 3. The at-sea trials plan will be fully implemented, despite the previous results," he said.

But before the sea trials the ship will spend two months at the Sevmash dock, where its underwater part will be examined between early May and late June.

Part of the crew will go ashore to their winter apartments in about ten days, and only several dozen crewmembers under Captain First Rank Igor Ryabko's and his Indian colleague Suraj Berry's command, will stay, alongside Sevmash specialists and observation officers, he said.

"After the boiler facility's sealing is replaced in February the crew will gather together to begin preparations for at-sea trials," the spokesman said.

He said steam boilers malfunctioned when the aircraft carrier was undergoing sea trials, which necessitated adjustments in the delivery schedule.

United Shipbuilding Corporation President Andrei Dyachkov told the media on October 30 in St. Petersburg that the work on the Vikramaditya would have been finished in October 2013 and the ship will be handed over to the Indian customer before the end of 2013.

The contract to refit the Russian heavy aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov for the Indian Navy was signed in 2004. The funding included $974 million to restore and upgrade the ship, and $530 million to deliver 16 MiG-29K fighter jets and Kamov Ka-31 and Ka-27 anti-submarine helicopters.

The Vikramaditya was to be handed over to the customer back in 2008. The deadline was rescheduled due to a large amount of work planned. The price of the deal increased, too. The project is now estimated at $2.3 billion, according to unofficial sources.

NNS launches Navy submarine

Virginia class submarine being built for the U.S. Navy has been launched by Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding.

The USS Minnesota (SSN 783) is more than 90 percent complete, the company said.

"Launch is a significant accomplishment in the life of a submarine," said Jim Hughes, NNS vice president of submarines and fleet support. "It's an opportunity for our incredible shipbuilders to stand back and take pride in their work.

"Thanks to their tremendous efforts and steadfast determination, Minnesota's progress is nearly one year ahead of schedule and has been built using about 600,000 fewer man-hours than the previous boat."

The Minnesota is the 10th submarine of its class. Construction of the submarine began in 2008.

For the launch into the James River in Virginia the Minnesota, a 7,800-ton vessel, was moved from the NNS facility into a floating dry dock using a transfer car system and then submerged.

The vessel was moved by tugboats to a submarine pier for the final stages of outfitting and testing.

Newport News Shipbuilding and General Dynamics Electric Boat Exchange Submarine Modules

Two Virginia-class submarine modules were moved simultaneously for the first time Wednesday between Newport News Shipbuilding and General Dynamics Electric Boat's facilities in southern New England. The increased shipment capacity is in support of the U.S. Navy's two-submarines-per-year build r

The module that comprises the torpedo room for North Dakota (SSN 784) was loaded onto the sea shuttle, which is used for the two-plus-day voyage to Electric Boat's main shipyard in Groton, Conn. Right behind it was the module containing the auxiliary machine room (AMR) for John Warner (SSN 785), which is headed to Electric Boat's fabrication plant in Quonset Point, R.I. The AMR, which departed on a commercial barge, comprises machinery such as a back-up diesel generator, pumps, motors and other electrical equipment.

This use of the commercial barge also represented the first time two major modules were being moved simultaneously between Virginia and southern New England.

"These shipments represent the 99th and 100th barge shipments between Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding," said Jim Hughes, NNS' vice president, Submarines and Fleet Support. "It's satisfying to see these units being exchanged at such a remarkable pace, and we look forward to turning the final products over to the U.S. Navy."

In addition to these 100 shipments, General Dynamics Electric Boat has made about 900 shipments between its Groton and Quonset Point facilities using its sea shuttle barge, said Kurt A. Hesch, Electric Boat's vice president for the Virginia program.

"Barge shipments help make modular construction possible," Hesch said. "Without this, heavy lift capability shipments would have to be much smaller, much more assembly would have to be done at the delivery yard, and there would be a corresponding loss of efficiency."

HII is teamed with Electric Boat, a business unit of General Dynamics, to build Virginia-class submarines. Using millions of parts from more than 4,000 suppliers in 50 states and the District of Columbia, the submarines incorporate dozens of new technologies and innovations and are the first major combatants designed with the post-Cold War security environment in mind.

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) designs, builds and maintains nuclear and non-nuclear ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard and provides after-market services for military ships around the globe. For more than a century, HII has built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. Employing more than 37,000 in Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana and California, its primary business divisions are Newport News Shipbuilding and Ingalls Shipbuilding.