Category Archives: Department of Defense

Historic Navy Ships Rotting at the Docks

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There are several aircraft boneyards with the largest being 2600 acres.

360 degree VR Aerial Views of Davis-Monthan AMARG courtesy of AerialSphere, LLC Reclaiming parts from grounded aircraft has allowed an estimated 3200 aircraft to continue flying. But what about historic navy ships with long histories? Photo essay

There has to be several more options to preserve these mighty ships. Your comments are encouraged.

Thanks to Chris Woodyard:

LOS ANGELES – The Lane Victory is one of the last of hundreds of hastily built cargo ships that helped win World War II, a testament to Rosie the Riveter and thousands of workers – women and men – who toiled on the homefront.

Today, the retired armed Merchant Marine freighter fights age, rust and deterioration.

 

Around the country, many naval memorials – proud decommissioned naval ships that played a key role in America’s 20th-century wars – languish in increasingly desperate shape, eaten away by corrosion that their volunteers do their best to keep out of sight of tourists, such as the throngs expected this Memorial Day weekend.

They include the battleship USS Texas, the only large warship left in the USA to not only have served in the First World War but to have lived on long enough to blast the beaches of Normandy during the D-Day invasion. Now the dreadnought’s only battle is a daily struggle to keep from sinking in its berth near Houston.

Or the destroyer USS The Sullivans, named for five brothers killed when their cruiser was torpedoed and exploded during World War II. There is a fundraising campaign for the Fletcher Class-ship on display in Buffalo, New York, to patch the hull, which leaks. The seagoing greyhound was given a thin steel skin for speed, not expected to last 75 years.

For America’s veterans and others trying to keep the vessels shipshape, the lack of money can be heartbreaking.

“You fall in love with the damn thing,” explained Chris “Frenchy” Marmaud, a volunteer on the Lane Victory. “It’s big and ugly and old, just like the crew. It’s a challenge to keep it alive.”

Often, it’s too big a challenge.

The Navy and other government agencies allowed groups around the country to take ships to use for museums rather than sending them straight to the scrapyard. In some cases, veterans groups wanted them as tributes to military service. In others, cities sought to make them the centerpiece of waterfront attractions.

Amid the enthusiasm for putting them on display, there’s been scant attention given to the sky-high costs of maintenance.

So many ships were doled out that they compete for volunteers and visitors within a few miles of each other. The Lane Victory shares the Port of Los Angeles with another, more recent-vintage museum ship, the battleship USS Iowa, which is about 5 miles from a nonmilitary floating attraction, the retired 1930s ocean liner Queen Mary in Long Beach.

“The Navy released ships to different cities because it was a great recruiting tool, and no one was looking at the end game,” said John Brady, CEO of the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, home to the cruiser USS Olympia, flagship during the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War in 1898, and the retired submarine USS Becuna.  “The people responsible for these ships are very committed to them, (but) they are competing for a very limited funding pool.”

Floating moneypits

The biggest problems are financial. A statue in a park or town square to commemorate a general, a battle or a war can last generations with minimal maintenance. Ships require periodic trips to shipyards to have their hulls cleaned, painted and patched. The ravages of water exposure, exacerbated by salt, means a never-ending fight against rust. Trips to drydock can run into the millions of dollars – then the refurbishing lasts only about 25 years, depending on the ship.

Many of the ships might be deemed national treasures, but the museum groups said they’ve largely gone without offers of federal funding from the Navy or elsewhere. The Navy says the 47 museum ships under the country that it no longer owns are now the responsibility of the states or nonprofits that took them. The groups must fend for themselves, looking mostly to ticket and gift store sales or corporate and individual donations for support.

Though some ship memorials are big successes – the retired aircraft carriers USS Midway in San Diego and USS Intrepid in New York and the battleship USS Missouri in Pearl Harbor are popular attractions – it’s often the less-visible ships that are in the deepest trouble.

Veterans filed suit to try to stop a plan to tow the submarine USS Clamagore, on display in Charleston, South Carolina, out to sea and sink it. That way, at least divers could enjoy what’s left of it.

Tom Lufkin joined a group to try to save the Clamagore. Though the sub looks distressed on the outside, where pieces of its deck have been removed, its inner hull is intact, he said.

“She is not in bad shape,” he said.

Mac Burdette, executive director of the Patriots Point Development Authority that operates the Clamagore along with the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown and destroyer USS Laffey, is in a bind. He said he either needs to spend $8 million to restore the sub or $3 million to have it towed out to shallow water and sunk.

“You can’t save every ship,” Burdette said. “The best thing we can do to end this suffering is to turn her into a veterans’ memorial off the coast of South Carolina where she can continue on patrol forever.”

His larger problem is the Yorktown. He said it would cost $50 million over the next 20 years to deal with holes and corrosion near the waterline. The authority owes millions it borrowed from the state for renovating Laffey a few years ago.

“You cannot sell enough tickets and T-shirts to make that work out,” Burdette said.

Patriots Point has an advantage: 400 acres of property that can be developed, creating income streams to help cover a large part of the ship renovation tab.

Other ship museums get creative in scrounging for money. USS Hornet, the retired aircraft carrier that recovered the Apollo 11 capsule after the moon landing in 1969, rents out its cavernous hangar deck on San Francisco Bay for high school proms and other community events.

The Lane Victory has generated revenue over the years from TV and movie productions and as a training venue for law enforcement SWAT teams.

It has big bills to pay and a lot of yard work that needs to be done. It needs repairs to one of its steam engines, a trip to drydock for painting and hull cleaning and to settle debts it has accumulated. Total costs are sure to run upward of $6 million. The ship needs a paint job, and rust is visible on the masts.

The freighter was built in the port, close to where it is docked today. It transported supplies at the end of World War II. The ship’s proudest moment came in the next war, Korea, when it and another Victory ship evacuated thousands of refugees.

Out of hundreds of Victory ships built, the Lane Victory is one of only three that still exist in the USA. Until 2014, it hosted day sailings that included food, a 1940s-style band and vintage fighters that staged mock attacks to show off the ship’s anti-aircraft guns.

Since an engine problem occurred, the Lane Victory has languished dockside as its motley crew of mostly retirees tries to make repairs and raise money to get the ship back out to sea.

One veteran seaman, Issie Deitsch, 91, who said he endured three sinkings during World War II, said he was invited to join the Lane Victory crew, “and I stayed on ever since. I love ships, and I love working on ships.”

‘Piece of history’

No one who knows the ship doubts its significance.

“It’s a vital piece of history,” said David Jones, who leads the U.S. Merchant Marine Veterans of World War II in preserving the ship and offering tours.

But many don’t know that history.

“For the younger generation, they don’t understand why these ships are important,” said Jonathan Williams, board president of the Historic Naval Ships Association. “World War II for today’s generation is almost like the Civil War to the generations of the 1930s and 1940s.”

Williams, who heads the organization that runs the battleship Iowa, is reorienting the ship to try to generate excitement around a modern subject – showcasing the Navy’s surface fleet – rather than just history.

The group trying to save the Texas looked at using holograms to re-create life during the battleship’s long history. But those efforts are overshadowed by just trying to keep the 105-year-old vessel afloat.

The dreadnought may get a lucky break. Though no federal money is available, the state may come through. The Texas Legislature is considering a measure that could deliver funds to save the historic landmark.

If it passes, it won’t be a moment too soon. Leaks have become so severe that every day, the pumps struggle to discharge about 250,000 gallons of seawater. “She is dying a slow death,” said Bruce Bramlett, executive director of the Battleship Texas Foundation.

Almost $60 million has been spent shoring up or replacing the battleship’s ribs and internal support. To seal the leaks, the hope is that a steel hull can be applied at a cost that could exceed $35 million.

Scrapping the battleship would be no bargain, either. As an old ship that might not be capable of being towed, it might have to be cut up in place at a tab of $30 million.

“On one hand, you have the undoable, and on the other, you have the unthinkable,” Bramlett said.

He is sure of one thing: If nothing is done, “it’s just a matter of time. Salt water wins the fight every single time.”

 

$37 Million for Migrant Detention Facilities is NOT Enough

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Click this link to see the video of the new detention facilities.

Now after watching that video we see how the Border Patrol cant do their real job and the need for the military supplementing surveillance and security.

HOUSTON — 

The Trump administration wants to open two new tent facilities to temporarily detain up to 1,000 parents and children near the southern border, as advocates sharply criticize the conditions inside the tents already used to hold migrants.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a notice to potential contractors that it wants to house 500 people in each camp in El Paso, Texas, and in the South Texas city of Donna, which has a border crossing with Mexico.

Each facility would consist of one large tent that could be divided into sections by gender and between families and children traveling alone, according to the notice. Detainees would sleep on mats. There would also be laundry facilities, showers, and an “additional fenced-in area” for “outside exercise/recreation.”

The notice says the facilities could open in the next two weeks and operate through year end, with a cost that could reach $37 million.

But the agency has said its resources are strained by the sharp rise in the numbers of parents and children crossing the border and requesting asylum. It made 53,000 apprehensions in March of parents and children traveling together, most of whom say they are fleeing violence and poverty in Central America. Many ultimately request asylum under U.S. and international law.

FILE - Immigrant children are led by staff in single file between tents at a detention facility next to the Mexican border in Tornillo, Texas, June 18, 2018. Immigrant children are led by staff in single file between tents at a detention facility next to the Mexican border in Tornillo, Texas, June 18, 2018.

In a statement Tuesday, CBP said it urgently needed additional space for detention and processing.

“CBP is committed to finding solutions that address the current border security and humanitarian crisis at the southwest border in a way that safeguards those in our custody in a humane and dignified manner,” the statement said.

The Border Patrol has started directly releasing parents and children instead of referring them to immigration authorities for potential long-term detention, but families still sometimes wait several days to be processed by the agency and released.

Land near the bridge in Donna was used last year as a camp by active-duty soldiers when they were ordered to South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.

The Border Patrol also established a tent facility at Donna to hold migrants in December 2016, in the last weeks of the administration of former President Barack Obama, in response to a previous surge of migrants from Central America.

Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, said she had been allowed to visit the tent facility in 2016. She said that facility had been “open and clean,” but noted she visited before it began detaining people.

“Detention is never a good idea for any family,” Pimentel said. “I believe families are victims of a lot of abuse, and we just add to that abuse by the way we respond to handle and process them.”

Oil Tankers Sabotage Using Limpets (UAE)

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So far we know: We know it’s 4 Vessels, one Norwegian, and 2 Saudi. So, we are waiting on the EOD teams’ reports. Limpets are not really meant to sink a ship but rather interrupt maritime traffic either by causing leaks or destroying the rudder system(s).

• US Aiding w Investigation • Coast Guard: Exercise Caution • State Dept & UAE gov tight-lipped •Fmr US Amb.: Extremely Worrisome • : Could beef up US presence in region.

Iran?

The landing platform dock amphibious ship USS Arlington has also been dispatched to the region along with at least one Patriot missile battery. F-15Cs from RAF Lakenheath also showed up in the area late last week, although we still don’t know if their arrival was long-planned. Then again, it seems most of this was already scheduled to some degree, but portions of it were pushed forward due to the intelligence about potential pending Iranian aggression which remains nebulous at best, at least in terms of what the public has been told.

As for the attacks on the tankers, the New York Times states that Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said the two tankers suffered “significant damage” from the incidents, but they did not result in a major release of oil into the sea. One of the ships was supposedly on its way to pick up oil from Saudi Arabia and deliver it to the United States. The attacks occurred off of UAE’s Fujairah Emirate, one of the biggest bunkering locales for ships in the entire region.

Zarif/Iran Making War Noise, Pentagon Ready

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Iran of course is angry the United States declared the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp a terror organization. Well, it is. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is making the media rounds and he is throwing out words like war, military intervention and conflict. Reinforcing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s stance, Zarif warned: “If the United States takes the crazy measure of trying to prevent us from doing that, then it should be prepared for the consequences.” He did not give specifics.

Kerry, Zarif named candidates for 2016 Nobel Peace Prize

Zarif is even making noise about prisoner swaps as this shows some desperation including blocking the Strait of Hormuz from maritime oil tanker traffic. Stop the oil sanctions and we can pursue a prisoner swap..hummm. Zarif has also suggested possible cooperation with the United States to bring stability to Iraq and Afghanistan, a priority for both Tehran and Washington, but did not mention Syria.

US Central Command Chief General Kenneth McKenzie said on Saturday that the United States would deploy the necessary resources to counter any dangerous actions by Iran, Sky News Arabia reported.

“We’re gonna continue to reach out to our partners and friends in the region to ensure that we make common cause against the threat of Iran,” McKenzie, on an official visit to the Gulf region, was quoted as saying by Sky News Arabia.

“I believe we’ll have the resources necessary to deter Iran from taking actions that will be dangerous,” he said, according to a transcript released by the Abu Dhabi-based channel.

He said: “We will be able to respond effectively.”

Tensions between Tehran and Washington have risen since the Trump administration last year withdrew from an international nuclear deal with Iran and began ratcheting up sanctions.

Earlier this month, the United States blacklisted Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Washington on Monday demanded buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers which allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers, most of them in Asia, to continue importing limited volumes.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and some senior military commanders have threatened to disrupt oil shipments from Gulf countries if Washington tries to strangle Tehran oil exports.

McKenzie also said a reduction of US troops in Syria would be done cautiously.

“On the long term, we’re gonna reduce our forces in Syria, we recognize that, that’s the guidance in which we are operating.”

“That will be something that we will look at very carefully as we go forward,” the general said.

President Donald Trump had ordered the withdrawal of US troops Syria in December after he said they had defeated ISIS extremist group in Syria.

In February, a senior administration official said the United States will leave about 400 US troops split between two different regions of Syria.

McKenzie also said he was confident that the US is going to have “a long term presence in Iraq, focused on the counter-terror mission.”

Army’s Wish List Against China/Russia

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It appears some real strategic thinking and application is happening here and that is a good thing. These lists for more reconnaissance aircraft is a good thing for sure.

Russia's Hybrid Warfare Strategy • Full Version

U.S. Army leaders revealed Tuesday that they are briefing top military commanders about new weapons being built specifically for “high-intensity conflict” against China and Russia, in a new effort to assure that they could provide vital firepower for those potential battlefields of the future.

Reconnaissance aircraft, team reach milestone > U.S. Air ...

Army Secretary Mark Esper said he wants to shift some money away from vehicles and aircraft more suited for conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and into “what I need to penetrate Russian or Chinese air defenses.”

Among the new weapons and technologies he said are critical: long-range artillery, attack and reconnaissance aircraft, air and missile defenses, and command-and-control networks. Esper said the artillery — known as Long-Range Precision Fires — could be used “to hold at bay Chinese ships.”

Army officials recently briefed Adm. Philip Davidson, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, who oversees all U.S. military personnel in the Asia-Pacific region. This comes as the Army plans to rotate thousands of soldiers on expeditionary deployments throughout the Pacific — an expansive region often associated with Navy and Air Force military operations.

“We want to talk to [U.S. European Command] as well,” Esper said. “What we’re trying to do is go out and tell them what we’re doing.”

Last year, the Army held a series of reviews that recommended cutting or reducing nearly 200 weapons projects, freeing up $25 billion for investment in higher-priority programs. Among the projects cut are upgrades to Boeing-made CH-47 Chinook helicopters and buys of Oshkosh-made Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, the Army’s replacement for Humvees. Esper said he needs to shift money into “Future Vertical Lift,” an effort to build faster helicopters and tilt-rotor aircraft — similar to the V-22 Osprey —  instead of upgrades to older, larger, and slower helicopters.

“What I don’t have right now is an attack/reconnaissance aircraft,” Esper said, Tuesday during a briefing at the Pentagon. “That’s what I need to penetrate Russian or Chinese air defenses. I’m not going to do that with a CH-47.”

The Army is evaluating prototypes built by Bell and a Lockheed Martin-Boeing team, as it determines the makeup of a new generation of military helicopters.

Army leaders plan to cut the number of Joint Light Tactical Vehicles they will buy from Oshkosh but the size of the reduction has not been finalized, Esper said. Army Undersecretary Ryan McCarthy has previously said the service plans to cut 1,900 vehicles.

“We are certainly cutting the total number. I know that much,” Esper said. “But whether it … finals out; right here today, I can’t tell you. In five years, I could maybe have a different number for you.”

The secretary said that they decision to buy Chinooks and JLTVs was made before the Trump administration’s January 2018 National Defense Strategy put the Pentagon on a path to preparing for great power competition with Russia and China. That strategy reduced the Defense Department’s priority on counterterrorism and counterinsurgency fights in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other spots like Syria, which had dominated much of the past two decades. In its wake, the Army is building new doctrine that will be evaluated over the next 12 to 18 months. The results of those wargames will determine how many soldiers and weapons are needed in the future.

“They were in many ways designed for a different conflict,” he said, of Chinooks and JLTVs. “It doesn’t mean we won’t use them in future conflicts, but now my emphasis has to be on rebuilding my armor, rebuilding my fighting vehicles, having aircraft that can penetrate Russia and Chinese air defenses, that can shoot down Russian and Chinese drones and missiles and helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. We’re in this transition period and so some folks are caught in that transition.”

Meanwhile, where is the strategic thinking when it comes to hybrid warfare?

The Pentagon wants to develop a way to detect those signs by analyzing the myriad actions in what it calls the “gray zone”–behaviors in a variety of areas that, considered separately, may or may not mean anything but when examined together could indicate malicious intent–and is putting artificial intelligence (AI) to work on the problem.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched a new program intended to better understand and interpret an adversary’s gray zone engagement as potential signals of pending aggression. The Collection and Monitoring via Planning for Active Situational Scenarios (COMPASS) program will incorporate AI, game theory, modeling, and estimation technologies to decipher the often subtle signs that precede a full-scale attack.

“The ultimate goal of the program is to provide theater-level operations and planning staffs with robust analytics and decision-support tools that reduce ambiguity of adversarial actors and their objectives,” said Fotis Barlos, DARPA program manager. “As we see increasingly more sophistication in gray zone activity around the world, we need to leverage advanced AI and other technologies to help commanders make more effective decisions to thwart an enemy’s complex, multi-layered disruptive activity.”

The attention to gray zone activity reflects the multi-pronged tactics used in hybrid warfare, of the type employed by Russia in Georgia in 2008 and in Ukraine since 2014. Cyber attacks to shut down the power grid, conduct digital espionage, and sow economic disruption, along with social media campaigns aimed at manipulating public opinion, coincided with the covert movement of troops and equipment into Ukraine. Not only have these tactics proved to be effective, their subtle, sometimes untraceable methods can lend a level of plausible deniability to the attacks. And NATO has said that clandestine hybrid attacks can achieve their aims before being noticed, too late for an effective response.smilelaugh