Upgrading Duncan Hunter's Navy

Marinelink is reporting the Navy is upgrading Duncan Hunters fleet.

Great Eastern Group, Inc., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is being awarded a $10,843,223 modification to previously awarded contract N61331-07-C-0011 for crew support, operation and maintenance of the SeaFighter (FSF-1)...

Work will be performed in Panama City, Fla., and is expected to be completed by Aug. 2010. Contract funds in the amount of $314,052 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City, Fla., is the contracting activity.

The official DoD release:

Great Eastern Group, Inc., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is being awarded a $10,843,223 modification to previously awarded contract N61331-07-C-0011 for crew support, operation and maintenance of the SeaFighter (FSF-1). The SeaFighter (FSF-1) is a wave-piercing catamaran (262 ft long/950 ton displacement/15 ft draft) powered by a Combined Diesel or Gas (CODOG) power plant. The SeaFighter (FSF-1) operates as a technology demonstrator/risk reduction platform. Work will be performed in Panama City, Fla., and is expected to be completed by Aug. 2010. Contract funds in the amount of $314,052 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City, Fla., is the contracting activity. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City, Fla., is the contracting activity.

August 2010? That seems like a really long time for a ship less than 1000 tons to be worked on. Anyone have any details why, other than to park Duncan Hunters Navy on the beach?

While we enjoy giving Duncan Hunter a hard time over his little Navy, we would add that if John Murtha really wanted to get the Navy's attention, he could always suggest canceling the DDG-1003, build his LPD-26, and build 6 of these to beef up the Navy's homeland security and MIW strategy. Considering how many hits our recent MIW disccusion got this month, it appears the topic is very popular among naval and coast guard centric observers.

If someone other than Duncan Hunter just suggested it, at least then the rest of Congress could ask the following questions.

1) How does the Sea Fighter class not fit into the Homeland Security aspect of the Maritime Strategy? A modular payload ship with high speed that can support fast humanitarian response, MIW, and SOF in any number of theaters appears to fit very well into the Maritime Strategy. Why doesn't the Navy think so?

2) How does the DDG-1000 class fit into the Maritime Strategy?

We don't actually advocate building more Sea Fighters, well maybe... more commands are very important, but we would absolutely love to know the answer to the two questions posed above.

While Duncan Hunter's Navy isn't popular within the Navy, it is very hard to intellectually argue these little fast platforms somehow don't fit in the new maritime strategy better than the DDG-1000. Yes we are aware FSF-1 isn't fully NVR, however we have done some research on this, and even once you apply NVR to these little bastards they cost less than $160 million each. That is cheaper than a F-22A, and yet it meets almost every necessary metric for the GWOT the Nation is fighting today. While this blog has obviously not been a big fan of Duncan Hunters earmark baby in the past, I admit I'm warming up to ship a bit.

A build of 6 would replace half the Ospreys recently retired, and these little FSFs can do what the Ospreys could do, and a hell of a lot more.