Sub Leaders Talk Integration Enlisted women to join undersea fleet in 2016 (NAVY TIMES 27 OCT 13) ... Sam Fellman The silent service is moving forward with plans to bring enlisted women aboard, the submarine brass said at its annual gathering one of the few topics aside from the pervasive gloom about what falling budgets will mean for leaders’ priorities, especially building the next-generation boomers. When sub admirals surfaced for their annual convention, they also said some attack boats saw longer deployments recently, but that those are exceptions to the six-month norm. And they talked about upcoming milestones for the integration of women, now set to occur in the attack-boat force. Some highlights from the Naval Submarine League symposium, held Oct. 23-24 in Falls Church, Va.: Next Phase Of Integration Officials aim to start the final phase of the historic integration effort in 2016, when enlisted women could begin serving aboard submarines. This is a top priority of Navy Secretary Ray Mabus; the symposium marked the first mention of a timeline for female blue shirts in the sub force. “It’s our every intent to meet the guidance of the secretary of the Navy to do that if practical in 2016,” said Vice Adm. Mike Connor, head of Submarine Forces, responding to a question about integration, on Oct. 23. Officials are studying the steps forward, as the integration of enlisted ranks will be more complicated than that for officers, who share staterooms in small numbers and can come aboard in smaller groups. Connor said Rear Adm. Ken Perry, theheadofSubmarineGroup2, is leading a study of which subs should get enlisted women and the modifications the subs will need. “It gets a little more complicated to do the berthing arrangements, and that affects some choices we’ll have to make, but [we’ll] keep marching down that in a very deliberate manner,” Connor told the audience of admirals, retired submariners, contractors, officers and a few sailors. This builds on the integration of the attack-sub fleet, the last all male portion of the undersea force, which is set for2014and2015, when female officers report for duty aboard four Virginia-class boats. While officials did not say where female enlisted would first serve, it is most likely to be the boomer and guided-missile fleet – those submarines are larger than Los Angeles- class attack boats and already have 43 female officers to serve as mentors; the force first integrated in late 2011. Officials plan to recruit midcareer female sailors who are trained to run nuclear reactors aboard aircraft carriers to be the most seasoned part of the blue-shirt contingent, there to guide younger women. Operations Tick Up The undersea force’s deployment pace ticked up in the past year, with officials having to extend an unspecified number of attack boats to respond to crises. But the sub fleet’s boss said attack subs were mostly hewing to six-month deployments – a schedule that looks appealing next to the carrier strike group cruises now stretching beyond eight months. “Our op tempo is up a little bit,” said Connor in answer to an audience member’s question. “Our nominal deployment length is six-month deployments. We’re trying to stick with that.” That schedule improves sailor quality of life and ensures that the Navy doesn’t wear out its attack boat fleet before each hull reaches its expected 33 years of service. Connor did not mention the boomer fleet, where crews typically deploy for three months, then hand off the boat to an alternate crew. In some cases, attack boat cruises stretched past six months, Connor said, without naming any particular. “When we have to surge to increase our presence for short periods of time, the preferred way that we do that is to extend those ships that are already on deployment. Because what we want to do is preserve the training cycle,” Connor continued. “So how are the troops taking that? They’re taking it well because they know what they’re doing. It’s very meaningful work. The results are very tangible to those who know. And when we communicate that to the families and we’ll tell them that their husbands and wives are gonna be home a little bit later than you thought but they’re doing something very important. They’ve been very good about that.” ‘Pressure We Haven’t Seen’ As the first of the sub brass to speak, the nuclear Navy’s boss set the concerned tone. He warned that funding cuts and uncertainty are consuming much of his senior management’s attention and that leaders at all levels, whether running a reactor or training new technicians, need to insist on technical compliance. The “trust but verify” mindset is the key to safely diving subs and running reactors, which have little margin for error. “This work is extremely complex,” said Adm. John Richardson, the director of naval nuclear propulsion, in his Oct. 23 speech. “It must be done to the highest standards and it takes a proper amount of resourcing to do that type of work, and those resources are un-der great pressure – pressure we haven’t seen in decades.” This stress, Richardson cautioned, is especially centered on the sub brass’ foremost priority: the next-generation ballistic-missile submarine. Building these SSBN(X)s in the 2020s is the Navy’s top acquisitions priority. But research funding needed to seed this vessel’s development is endangered by budget cuts, with some saying the cost of building 12 boats could bust shipbuilding budgets. Sub leaders disagree, saying these vessels are critical to nuclear superiority because they represent the most stealthy and survivable part of the nuclear triad that also includes bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The design calls for state-of-the-art upgrades like a super-quiet electric-drive and enough enriched uranium to last through its 40-year service life – features that may face the budget ax. “There’s tremendous pressure when we discuss requirements,” Richardson said. “And the question goes something along the lines of, ‘How fast do we need this to go? Does it really need to go that fast? Does it need to be able to dive that deep? To be that quiet? How many ships do we really need?’ Twelve. ‘And how many missile or torpedo tubes do we really need? Or do we need a torpedo room at all?’ “And the driving gravitational force on this conversation is all so that we can reduce the cost,” Richardson said, warning that cutting costs today may make them dangerous for crews or functionally obsolete against future adversaries. Some industry insiders in attendance took Richardson’s remarks as a reaction to the decree of the Navy’s top acquisitions officer that 11 of the boats must cost no more than$4.9billion, a cap experts worry could compel designers to sacrifice some advanced features.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 14:27:52 +0000
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