Navy News: Saga of the USN's LCS ship buy & the F-35B Debacle

Discovered this bit of news over on the Information Dissemination blog. Then also back on November 10th, on James Hasik's blog.

The U.S. Navy might be changing its mind and wants to get BOTH types of Littoal Combat Ship (LCS) program. Up until now, the USN was saying it was going to choose one or the other - not both! Politics sticking its nose in to save jobs (and the congressman's phoney bloney job to parapharase that line from Blazing Saddles).

But even more telling is this article posted on Next Navy by Craig Hooper. The F-35B purchase for not only the United States, but for foreign nations who have already sunk big bucks into designing and building flatops to handle the STOVL aircraft design that might in fact be dropped because it canot meet its performace goals. Included with this article is a photoshopped picture of two different carrier designs that are in the works.

Quote: So, if the F-35B does go away, America’s major Pacific allies will be left with, well, a brace of aircraft-less aircraft carriers. And that, on the part of those who spent their treasure to buy F-35B-friendly platforms, is going to sting a bit. Nobody likes to be left holding a few multi-billion dollar platforms that fail to provide the expected operational benefits.

With China looking set to finally field their first aircraft carrier, the demise of the F-35B means that America’s Asian partners will “loose face”–and a substantial security blanket. While it is too early to know just what the ramifications the likely F-35B implosion may have upon Pacific security, at the end of the day, it isn’t good news if regional partners cannot respond in kind to a Chinese carrier task force. End Quote.

But even more telling, Craig Hooper puts forth the notion that China herself might fill the void with their own design! Oh wait! The DEW Line did publish photos of some new Chinese VTOL design. China's aircraft manufacturer AVIC showed off at the 2010 Zhuhai airshow, a stealthy/fan-in-fuselage/compound-pusher/VTOL strike aircraft with internal weapons bays. FlightGlobal photographer Tom Gordon snapped photos of the model on the display stand.

Here is a YouTube video of the Japanese newest helicopter carrier, the Hyuga.

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The Koreans have their own carrier in the works known as DOKDO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ROKS_Dokdo_(LPH_6111).jpg).

Bottom line, we have new flatops and the F-35B was promised to be the be all end all for these baby flattops. And it looks like the F-35B will not be around for much longer.

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Ref. 1. Information Dissemination blog. "Coach Says 'Go For Two!'" November 18, 2010. (http://www.informationdissemination.net/2010/11/coach-says-go-for-two.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+InformationDissemination+(Information+Dissemination)).

2. James Hasik "Is buying two types of littoral combat ship good for the US Navy?" November 10, 2010.(http://www.jameshasik.com/weblog/2010/11/is-buying-two-types-of-littoral-combat-ship-good-for-the-us-navy.html).

3. Next Navy "In the Pacific, the F-35B debacle is a strategic nightmare" by Craig Hooper. November 17, 2010. (http://nextnavy.com/in-the-pacific-the-f-35b-debacle-is-a-strategic-nightmare/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+NextNavy+(Next+Navy)).

4. Flight Global.com. "China's AVIC unveils stealth Zhuhai surprise" by Stephen Trimble. November 18, 2010. (http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/).

Japan is Getting Back into Carriers Again - Just Call Them Helicopter Destroyers.

Its ironic that I came across this information recently.

Back in college, My friend Tony (aka Anthony Tully), and I would discuss history and current world events. Well Tony, who is really into World War Two Japanese Navy history, and now has one book of his own under his belt (Battle of Surigao Strait); and a co-authorship on another one (Shattered Sword-The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway with Jonathan Parshall). Well, like I said before, we would talk about future military projections of power when we were going to Texas Tech University back in the early 1980s.

Back then, we still had to deal with the (in hindsight now) the tail end of the cold war. But our discussions would end up with Japan having to take on more responsibility for its defense against a more aggressive Red China of the future. The Japanese constitution forbids it to have Aircraft Carriers, a means of projecting power. That is one of the reasons why it is referred to as a Helicopter Destroyer.

So Japan would have to have Aircraft Carriers again is what we thought. Well, sure enough - that trend is taking place now. The Japanese Ministry of Defense released on Sept 7, 2009 its 4.85-trillion yen budget plan for the net fiscal year. The most notable items in that budget was an upgrade to the nation's missile defense system. The second item was the purchase of another helicopter carrier- correction, Helicopter Destroyer.

Based on the current Hyuga-calls helicopter destroyer class, the new helicopter carrier is expected to be 25% longer that the Hyugas and capable of carrying 9 helicopters that can conduct limited naval resupply as well as antisubmarine operations.

This is in light of the Chinese Navy's recent submarine construction. But, China is bulding its own flattops too now.

Currently, the 18,000-ton, 610 foot long, Hyuga (DDH 181) is jointed by sister ship Ise. A third ship of this class is still planned. The next carrier will be longer with a flight deck of 763 feet long. It will weigh in at about 25,000 tons. Currently these ships will operate the SH-60s of which 10 to 11 can be carried by the Hyuga class. Crew size is in the 350 personnel range.

Checking out Wikipedia, DDH-181(Hyuga) and sister DDH-182 (Ise), will be able to operate Harriers and F-35 Lightning IIs when they become operational. The ships will then be equipped with a 12 degree ski-jump.

As for weapons for self-protection; (16) Mk41 VLS (Vertical Launch System) cells for anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles. (2)20mm Phalanx cannons. (2)triple 12.75-inch torpedo mounts.

Hyuga and Ise are of special interest to me. As a younger man, I was into building 1/700ths scale ship models from Tamiya and similar model companies. On of the first models I ever bought in this scale was of the Japanese WW2 hybrid battleship/carrier Ise. Both the Ise and the Hyuga were sunk in the same week(July 25) in World War 2.

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Ref.

(http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htnavai/articles/20090904.aspx)

(http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090901p2a00m0na012000c.html)

Janes articles (http://www.janes.com/news/defence/naval/jni/jni090424_1_n.shtml)

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyūga_class_helicopter_destroyer)