The Navy Vol_67_No_2 Apr 2005 - Navy League of Australia

Flash TrafficThe ship honours Medal of Honorrecipient Rear Adm. Isaac CampbellKidd. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio,on March 26, 1884, and graduated fromthe U.S. Naval Academy in 1906. OnDec. 7, 1941, Kidd was commander ofBattleship Division One and the seniorofficer present afloat during the Japaneseattack on Pearl Harbor. From the bridgeof his flagship, the USS ARIZONA,Kidd directed the counterattack againstenemy aircraft until the magazine ofARIZONA was exploded by enemyordnance, eventually sinking the ship,and a direct hit to the bridge took hislife.Two previous U.S. Navy destroyershave been named in honour of Kidd. Thefirst ship was a Fletcher-class destroyerthat was in service from 1943-1974.It is now a floating veterans memorialand museum in Baton Rouge, La. Thesecond, a Kidd-class destroyer wasalso built at Northrop Grumman ShipSystems. It served from 1981-1998 andwas then sold to Taiwan.KIDD is the 50th ship in the ArleighBurke class of guided-missile destroyers.Singapore to acquireSeahawkSix new Sikorsky S-70B navalhelicopters will join the Republic ofSingapore Navy’s (RSN) operation inthe next few years, the Ministry ofDefence (MINDEF) announced in astatement on recently.Equipped with advanced anti-surfaceand anti-submarine warfare sensors andweapons, the helicopters will operate offthe RSN’s new frigates.The Singaporean Ministry of defencenoted that this acquisition would enhancethe RSN’s capability to undertake awide spectrum of missions and carryout its mission of defending Singaporeand its vital sea lines of communicationsmore effectively.Under a contract signed betweenMINDEF and Sikorsky AircraftCorporation of the United States, thehelicopters are scheduled for delivery tothe RSN between 2008 and 2010.Final Arleigh BurkeorderedThe US Department of Defense hasannounced that Bath Iron Works, a unitof General Dynamics, received a $562.1million modification to its FY02-05DDG-51 class multi-year contractto build the final ship of the ArleighBurke class. As the 34th DDG-51 classdestroyer built by Bath Iron Works,DDG-112 represents the culminationof new construction for the US Navy’sAEGIS shipbuilding program and marksthe beginning of a major transition forthe Navy as it moves from the DDG-51to the next generation of destroyer, theDD(X).The Honorable John J. Young Jr.,assistant secretary of the navy forresearch, development and acquisition,described the action as another“landmark on the highway” of AEGISshipbuilding.“This is the last of 62 DDG-51class ships, the final act of a play thatwill be reviewed as one of the mostsuccessful defence acquisition programsin history,” said Young.The first of the RAAF’s new 737 Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning & Control aircraft over Sydneyduring a recent visit to Australia. The aircraft was visiting the bi-annual Avalon airshow and returnedto the US for further fitting out and tests before returning later this year to enter service with theRAAF’s 2 Squadron based at Williamtown in NSW. (RAAF)Like its other Arleigh-Burke classships, DDG-112 will be a 9,200-tonmulti-mission guided missile destroyercapable of conducting a variety ofoperations, from peacetime presenceand crisis management to sea controland power projection, in support of theNational Military Strategy. DDG-112will be capable of fighting air, surfaceand subsurface battles simultaneouslyand will contain myriad offensive anddefensive weapons designed to supportmaritime defence needs well into the21st century.The ship will be built in Bath,Maine, and the Navy expects deliveryin December 2010. DDG-112will benefit from the considerabletechnological advancements andengineering upgrades that have beendeveloped, tested and installed inthe class since the commissioning ofDDG-51 July 1991.Second French aircraftcarrier design phasebeginsThe French Minister of Defence,Mrs Michèle Alliot-Marie, has launcheda design phase for the French Navy’ssecond aircraft carrier.This step marks the end of theprogram’s preparatory phases, duringwhich the aircraft carrier’s maintechnical and operational characteristicswere defined. They also validated theFrench President’s decision to optfor conventional, rather than nuclear,propulsion for the new ship.Teams from the Ministry of Defenceand participating manufacturers willnow undertake the ship’s detailed design,which will lead to the beginning of theproduction phase, presently scheduledfor 2006.A contract for the design work, worthapproximately 100 million EUROs, willbe awarded by the defence procurementagency, DGA, to DCN and Thales NavalFrance, which will act as joint primecontractors. Other major manufacturersinvolved in the naval sector, such asAlsthom-Chantiers de l’Atlantique andEADS will also participate in the designphase.Inline with the strategic guidelinesdecided during the French-Britishsummit meeting of November 2004, thedesign phase will include risk reductionand co-operative opportunity studies so18 VOL. 67 NO. 2 THE NAVY