Defense One | June 5, 2024

The BuildSubmarines ad blitz is part of an innovative campaign to shore up one particular aspect of the industrial base.

The U.S. Navy, along with its shipbuilders and their thousands of specialty suppliers, need more than 100,000 workers to help build attack and ballistic missile submarines over the coming decade. That’s according to BuildSubmarines.com, whose ubiquitous ads you may have seen during reality TV shows, on NASCAR hoods, at WNBA games, and amid Major League Baseball broadcasts. But what is that website and who runs it?

BuildSubmarines.com is the public face of an innovative, multi-organization effort to woo American workers to join a crucial part of the defense industrial workforce. The hub is BlueForge Alliance, a not-for-profit organization founded in November 2022 with a Navy contract and a mandate to gin up a new generation of shipbuilders.

Read Full Story HERE.

Stars & Stripes | May 22, 2024

Forty ships from nearly 30 nations are slated to participate in this summer’s Rim of the Pacific exercise in and around the Hawaiian islands, the Navy said in a news release Tuesday.

The biennial RIMPAC, which the U.S. Navy touts as the largest international maritime exercise in the world, has been held 29 times since it began in 1971.

The training starts June 26 and runs through Aug. 2 and will include three submarines, 14 land-based forces, more than 150 aircraft and about 25,000 personnel, according to the Navy.

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The San Diego Union-Tribune | May 21, 2024

The USS Greeneville on Monday was added to the stable of Los Angeles-class, fast-attack submarines that are homeported in San Diego Bay as part of Submarine Squadron 11.

Naval Base Point Loma now has five of the nuclear-powered submarines, which are regularly sent on deployment to the Indo-Pacific, sometimes to help protect carrier strike groups based in San Diego.

Read Full Story HERE.

Defense News | May 13, 2024

The House Armed Services Committee will try to partially fund a second Virginia-class submarine in fiscal 2025 to mitigate harm to the industrial base it says will come from the Navy’s one-boat request.

The service has bought Virginia-class attack submarines at a rate of two per year since 2011. It has also pitched this continuous and predictable construction pace as key to getting back to on-time deliveries and increasing industrial base output to support the AUKUS agreement between Australia, the U.K. and the U.S.

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Defense News | May 8, 2024

The fleet size has remained stagnant for at least a decade, even as demand for these stealthy forces increased. Attack submarines would be pivotal in a conflict against China. They’re also in high demand within the European theater in order to counter Russia’s sophisticated submarine fleet. And they’ve even made history in the Middle East, with the Virginia-class sub John Warner becoming the first in its class to fire Tomahawk missiles in combat during a 2018 strike on Syrian chemical weapons facilities.

The situation will worsen before it improves, according to the Navy’s long-range shipbuilding and fleet inventory plan, which shows the force dipping to 47 later this decade before hovering in the mid-50s for many years. The fleet isn’t projected to hit 66 until 2054, well beyond the “decade of concern” — when military officials say the threat of conflict with China will peak.

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Bowfin News | May 1, 2024

On May 1st, at the newly opened Daniel Akaka VA Clinic in Kapolei, HI held a Veteran Service Organizations Information Fair. The event was sponsored by the VA.

Bowfin Base Subvet & Red Cross volunteer, Rodney Boucher talked to approximately 50 Veterans & dependents. Of which five were qualified Submariners.

Big mahalo to Rodney for representing Bowfin Pearl Harbor Base Submarine Veterans.

Find out more HERE.

Stars & Stripes | April 25, 2024

The Navy has received the USS New Jersey (SSN 796), its 23rd Virginia-class fast-attack submarine from Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding division on Thursday April 25th.

New Jersey is the 11th Virginia-class submarine delivered by NNS, and the 23^rd built as part of the teaming agreement with General Dynamics Electric Boat.

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Defense News | April 17, 2024

A House panel has made clear it wants the Navy to buy two attack submarines in fiscal 2025 in order to keep the submarine-industrial base on a path of recovery, despite the service requesting just one.

In a fiscal year when the defense budget is capped at 1% growth above the previous one, the Navy elected to ask for six ships in its FY25 budget, including one Virginia-class attack submarine. That submarine program is supposed to be on a cadence of two per year or greater to support the needs of both the U.S. and Australian navies. The latter is acquiring submarines as part of the trilateral AUKUS agreement also involving the U.S. and the U.K.

Read Full Story HERE.