Riverine ... the more the better

Riverine.

You love it, I love it ... and it gets new kit and a new attitude.

Check out the specifics at USNIBlog.

FREMM Bulks Up

If it means they have to paint the FREMM pink and call the first in class the USS BARACK OBAMA (FFG 62), then so be it.

No shock for the Front Porch here that I've been TEAM FREMM from the start. It is, really, the best choice.

Do what needs to be done. I've already accepted the sub-optimal 57mm main gun in the hope that there will be a Flight II that will put a proper 5" up front - but one step at a time.

Let's do this sooner more than later.

To meet the U.S. Navy’s famously high survivability standards, the FREMM frigate design has had to hit the gym and pack on hundreds of thousands of pounds of muscle in pursuit of wining the Navy’s FFG(X) competition.

U.S. Navy ships are built like linebackers: able to take hit upon hit and stay in the game. But that comes at the cost of extra steel. And in the case of Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri’s FREMM, it meant adding hundreds of tons of steel,
...
“[The extra steel is] going into scantling, ballistic and frag protection, the way the spaces are laid out: We’re as compliant as a DDG. That’s a lot of steel. The compartmentation, the toughness of the ship, the U.S. requirements that are different from the European ships — we moved around some of that extra space; it gets classified very quickly.”

What hasn’t been compromised has been the modularity of the ship that creates routes for major equipment to be brought in and out of the hull so that replacing, for example, major engine or computer components doesn’t require cutting a hole in the ship, Hunt said.

The berthing compartments are also the same: four- to six-person staterooms with private showers for each room.

The last part there? That should seal the deal for everyone.

Moran’s Defenestration

Back in May, in a rare set up for a smooth transition in an administration characterized by “acting” officials, gapped billets, backlogged confirmations, and general staffing disarray, Admiral Moran was confirmed by the Senate to be the next CNO once Admiral Richardson’s term ended.

And then last night, news broke that he is resigning after 38-years of service.

That is the “what” but not the “so what.” Here’s the “so what.”

What happened has laid bare a deep, structural rot in our Navy that I am not sure … no, I am sure … cannot and will not be fixed with the present civilian leadership we have. As a matter of fact, they are encouraging the rot they were – as part of the present administration’s charter – sent to repair.

Let’s dive in and review the wave tops. I’ve gone through a few drafts over the last 12-hrs after some raging over on twitter, but have waited for more information to come out this AM. The core issues remain the same, so let’s run with them.

First, ignore the conjecture. Ignore the conspiracies (though there is a non-zero chance of all too normal undermining at the 4-star level). Ignore the usual suspects who are pounding on the same little tin-drum agenda they always pound on. This is very simple.

What has happened is another scalp has been handed by those who hold power to the unaccountable Star Chamber and their unsurvivable witch hunts. We have at the highest levels, non-resilient power with clay feet where titanium moral courage is needed.

The signal it sends to our Navy is cancerous and destructive to the very foundations of our service culture – or what is left of it.

Let’s go to the facts with the following assumption; words mean things. Another assumption; SECNAV Spencer and Admiral Moran are saying exactly what happened. If not, there are larger issues. I will give them the benefit of the doubt as on whole they are both good and honorable men.

First, as reported by Sam LaGrone, SECNAV Spencer;

Adm. Bill Moran recently brought to my attention that over the past two years he maintained a professional relationship with an individual who was held accountable and counseled for failing to meet the values and standards of the Naval profession. While I admire his faithful service and commitment to the Navy, this decision on his part to maintain that relationship has caused me to call his judgment into question. Therefore, today I accepted Adm. Moran’s request to retire.

The current Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. John Richardson, will remain the CNO. I will make my recommendation for a new CNO candidate to the Acting Secretary of Defense.

I have a strong vision for the Department of the Navy — one that includes trust among Sailors, Marines, and Civilians and an urgent resolve by all to live up to the nation’s high standards for our Navy and Marine Corps. Department leadership must reflect that vision, and there must be no doubt we are wholly committed to ensuring a culture and work environment where every person is treated with dignity and respect and free from hostile behavior of any kind.

Adm. Bill Moran has served this country honorably for decades. I am grateful for the years of dedicated service by him and his family.

Now Admiral Moran:

I informed the Secretary of the Navy today that I have decided to decline my appointment as the next Chief of Naval Operations. He has expressed his support.

I made this difficult decision based on an open investigation into the nature of some of my personal email correspondence over the past couple of years and for continuing to maintain a professional relationship with a former staff officer, now retired, who had while in uniform been investigated and held accountable over allegations of inappropriate behavior.

To be clear, my decision to maintain this relationship was in no way an endorsement or tacit approval of this kind of conduct. I understand how toxic it can be to any team when inappropriate behavior goes unrecognized and unchecked. Every Sailor is entitled to serve in an environment free of harassment or intimidation.

As painful as it is to submit my request to retire, I will not be an impediment whatsoever to the important service that you and your families continue to render the nation every day.

I believe in the institution. And I believe I am doing right by it.

Serving in the United States Navy has been a high honor and privilege. For over 38 years, I have drawn so much satisfaction from that service and nothing has made me more proud than to have been a United States Sailor.

I thank President Trump and Secretary Spencer for the opportunity they gave me, and I deeply regret any inconvenience my decision causes them.

So, the core issue here goes back to Chris Servello. If you don’t know the background of the “Naughty Santa” kerfuffle, I’ll let you google it. No CM, not even NJP, just another IG Star Chamber exercise of professional destruction.

This is now the go-nogo point for CNO? Really?

What did Moran do? He worked with a subordinate on and off for over a decade. They had a mentor/mentoree relationship as our Navy has encouraged people to do for decades. As with all long term mentoring relationships, you get to be at least close acquaintances, if not friends. That is how normal humans work.

Mentoring relationships can only properly function if there is a high degree of trust and a feeling of two-way loyalty. Again, this is how normal, healthy relationships work. Part of being a mentor is being there to provide advice and counsel through the good times and the bad. To work through rough patches and plan for a successful path through milestones and obstacles that life will always put in your personal and professional life.

You also need steadfastness. Steadfastness should come naturally to normal, healthy relationships, but it can be difficult for some as life brings enough challenges on its own – to bring the problems of those you mentor just adds to the load you are carrying. It takes men and women of character, and dare I say virtue, to be steadfast with those they mentor when they run in to tough times.

On the other side, there is a not well hidden sickness in our Navy that may be worse than in the general population due to how close you can get to people in the pressure cooker 24/7/365 that is the military; abandonment.

You will never find out faster the character of those you call acquaintances and friends than when you find yourself in any kind of scandal. At the first gust of crisis, the thin, hollow, and poorly anchored are the first to disappear. As the gale increases, more and more break away until sometimes you are alone. Being alone as the world around you swirls out of control is a nightmarish place. If you are the cause of the chaos, it is easy to fall in to self-pity at best, life-threatening depression at worse.

If when you are at your lowest, there are those who are standing there ready to help you recover, then you are a blessed person. They will be the supports that help you and those who count on you to recover and move on. They are the ones that have demonstrated character and are an example of the best personal loyalty has to offer.
By standing with you to help, they do not necessarily ignore or condone what you may have done – what they do is recognize your humanity and the fact that, like them, you are an imperfect being in a fallen world.

They know no one is perfect and life is short. What matters most is what we do for those who need us – especially those who feel they can rely on us in times of trouble.

To abandon those who you led to think could rely on you is a deeply unethical, immoral, and sociopathic act. It goes beyond seeing people as just objects to be used, it places “you” at the center of the universe and your personal comfort and ambition at the center of all you do.

Is that what we want to reward as a Navy? Is that what we want to promote in our leaders? If so, then if the present justifications stand, that is exactly what we are doing.

All Moran did here was to keep in touch with a mentoree who had a very human moment of weakness around the wrong people at the wrong time. That empathy and, yes, loyalty, is what we want in our leaders. If not, we will quickly distill nothing but a leadership that is a carnival of grotesques thoroughly populated with sociopaths, high-functioning autists, and the slippery, calculating types whose drive to power will be littered with destroyed careers, cratering retention, and an abundance of leaks when advantageous to themselves or the agendas they approve of.

For officers of character like Moran, what does it signal? I think Moran tells us; leave. This is an organization that does not desire men and women of character who see their Sailors as people, not objects; who see people has imperfect being of value, not useful block in building temples to their own ambition; who see service to nation as a driver, not using the nation to serve their rapacious egos and feed deep insecurities.

At this moment in time, what has our Navy lost? We have lost one of the most anticipated leaders rising to CNO I have seen in my adult life.

Moran was the right man at the right time for CNO. Full stop.

As we go in to the Terrible 20s where budgetary knowledge will by key in getting the most of every dime after two lost decades of acquisition malpractice, the Flag Officer who knows the budget process better than any is gone. A 38-years investment in leadership development, gone. A good man who cares about Sailors and the long term health of our Navy, gone.

Worse, a message to our fleet is clear and bright; we want sociopaths. Mentoring is only transactional.

We have punished virtue and will reap a bitter harvest.

Lastly, I have to say the advice I took myself and told anyone who would listen after Tailhook holds true.
1. Never live on base.
2. There is no such thing as a Navy social event, they are work events.
3. Never have more than 1-drink per hour at a Navy social event. Better yet, only have one drink, none if you can.
4. Show up on time and leave early.
5. When deployed, be exceptionally careful who is on your liberty crew. The smaller the better, and if possible, if you are a male do not include a female who has a DOD ID. If you have a female on your liberty crew, see #2-4 above and perform a filtering iteration of this bullet. Spin off a single sex sub-group NLT 2100 or two drinks, whichever comes first.

As for mentoring? Do the right thing, and if things go sideways - let others publish and be damned.

Who knows, perhaps you will work for someone who is willing to look the harpy commissariat in the face and tell them to pack sand. Perhaps when it is your time in the barrel, you will have the support by your superiors that you would give to your subordinates. It is a gamble, but one at the end of the day you can look yourself in the mirror and be content with.

I am willing to make this bet; Admiral Moran will have no problem looking himself in the mirror in the AM. He did the right thing. Chris should not feel bad, he’s gone through enough and this isn’t on him in the slightest.

There are a lot of people who should be haunted by shame, and if they are not, then those who know them need to be aware of the type of person they are working with and act accordingly.

What a waste. What a huge loss for our Navy. What a huge loss for our nation.

Pray for peace, as I don’t see this type of institutional character having what is needed for war.

Words Have Meaning

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

LCS 2.0

Is a simple port visit a win for LCS?

I think it is.

Thoughts over at USNIBlog ... and no, I was not drinking when I wrote it.

Double-Pumping Truman: I Thought we Weren't Doing this Anymore?

Maybe it is just me, but in the self-reflection that the Navy community underwent after the horrible summer of 2017 and the growing realization of issues revolving from undermanned and under-maintained ships, that we were going to do a better job of not "shooting up the horse" by burning out sea-duty Sailors and the ships they serve on.

Already down the memory hole?

Via Megan Eckstein at USNINews, in part;

USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) and its carrier strike group are getting ready for another deployment overseas, after completing a two-part deployment last year.

... likely this fall.

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) would have been the next carrier to head out from the East Coast under previous plans, USNI News understands, but its maintenance availability ran 19 months – more than triple the planned six-month maintenance availability the Navy planned to conduct. USNI News confirmed that the Truman CSG is heading out for its second deployment in the place of the IKE CSG, which will still have to go through its whole training cycle after wrapping up its maintenance and conducting post-maintenance sea trials in early April.

Four sources familar with the planning told to USNI News that the Truman CSG is prepping for this double-pump deployment, which will take place during the strike group’s “sustainment phase” in the Optimized Fleet Response Plan (OFPR) readiness generation model and will not delay the ship from conducting maintenance of its own. The sustainment phase reserves time for the ships to keep their readiness up through home-based training activities or larger exercises in case they are called upon to surge forward or deploy for other reasons.

The Truman Strike Group last year departed in April, returned home in July for a working homeport visit, and then departed again from September to December. Rather than conducting operations in the Middle East, the carrier strike group conducted flight operations north of the Arctic Circle for the first time since the Cold War, operated in Norwegian waters during the Trident Juncture 2018 exercise, and patrolled the Mediterranean Sea.

There will always be a reason to ask more. The USN has a culture of, "can do." It is up to senior leadership to say, "no."

Instead of underlining a new era, it appears we are simply regressing to the mean.

This also calls in to question those who have stated that we have enough carriers that we can not refuel the TRUMAN next decade. 

A lost opportunity resulting in another stew of mixed messaging floating in a bed of cynicism.

Vice Adm. Thomas Moore, USN Goes Salamander on Corrosion

David Larter remains the town crier for the most critical long-term crisis in our Navy, corrosion prevention. Here and elsewhere, we beat the drum with him - and good people with important jobs are starting to speak out. Excellent! 

“Corrosion is one of the big things if we want to keep the ships around for 40-45 years; we have to do what is necessary on the corrosion side of things,” Moore said. “I don’t have the exact numbers, but we are spending $10 billion on our ship depot maintenance. And I’m guessing that several billion of that is corrosion-related, so it’s a significant portion of the budget.

“We have to stay on top of it. We have to be willing to do the work necessary to limit corrosion on the ship. And it’s not just at the depot. It’s in intermediate maintenance and its with ship’s force. We have to recognize that this is a law-of-physics thing and stay on top of it.”

When you do the regression analysis, here is the hard truth of one of the largest variables with a relatively inelastic demand curve; manpower.

For a couple of decades the wrong people have been running our manpower reviews with the wrong charter; efficiency. While important, efficiency should never get 51% of the vote over effectiveness.

The Transformationalists and their manpower lackeys have had their day in the sun. They have been measured and found wanting.

The dramatic slide in corrosion control is, at least, being discussed in open at the very highest levels. Great - now let's do something about it.

Yes, people are expensive, yet so is having much of your battleforce looking like that 55 Buick in the cow pasture off of GA HWY 82 since 1978 with the pine tree growing out of the trunk.