Over the next five years, the Navy is pouring $1.65 billion into amphibious ship modernization, to include weapons, combat systems, software, communications equipment and self-defense systems.
The upgrades will allow the ships to operate in high threat areas and are critical for integrating the Lockheed Martin (LMT)-manufactured F-35 joint strike fighter onto amphibs in 2018, said Rear Adm. Peter Fanta, the Navy’s director of surface warfare. That $1.65 billion sum is already built into the fiscal year 2016 budget request.
Despite that investment, the first few years of F-35 operations on amphibious ships will likely be rife with disappointment because the full capability of the Joint Strike Fighter will not yet be resident in the aircraft, Fanta said. Lockheed Martin is still developing the final software iteration, which won’t be available until 2017 at the earliest.
“We will not be able to bring that data fully aboard in that first deployment. We will learn where our holes are,” he said. “The aircraft will talk to each other. The aircraft will pass data back and forth to the ship. We probably will be disappointed in the fact that we could do so much more with them in that first deployment.”
Certain amphibious ships will require structural changes to accommodate the F-35, said Marine Maj. Gen. Robert Walsh, director of expeditionary warfare.
“That’s exciting, but that’s a real challenge to move forward with that when you have a fifth generation [fighter] for the first time coming onboard,” he said.
USS Wasp (LHD-1) has already been modified to accommodate the F-35 for operational tests. Next up will be retrofitting the USS America (LHA-6), said Rear. Adm. David Gale, program executive officer ships.
The America will undergo 12 modifications according to the Navy’s current plans, he said. The most time-consuming upgrade is to strengthen the flight deck, a process that includes tearing apart the deck, welding in new material, and moving the existing wiring, piping and ventilation deeper inside the deck.
The next ship in the series, USS Tripoli (LHA-7), will be produced with those modifications built in. “The deck is thicker right from the start, and the structural supports of the deck are being built into the ship,” Gale said.
The F-35B is much different than the AV-8B Harriers it will be replacing, Walsh noted. “The Harrier mindset [was to] phase it ashore quickly and operate it in close air support. This is fifth generation. How do we operate integrally into the battle force?”
To help answer those questions, the Navy and Marine Corps formed an “F-35B ship integration council” to bring together stakeholders and develop requirements for technologies necessary to operate the joint strike fighter off amphibious ships, said Walsh, who is head of the council.
The F-35 must also be integrated with other systems onboard amphibs, Fanta said. Part of the Navy’s $1.6 billion investment will go toward making Raytheon’s (RTN) Ship Self Defense System—a combat system installed on LPD-17 class, LHD-1 class, LHA-6 class amphibious ships and LSD-41 class amphibious ships—interoperable with the F-35 as well as the Rolling Airframe Missile Block 2 and Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile Block 2, he said. Both missiles are made by Raytheon for the purpose of defending against air and anti-ship missile threats.
The new RAM and ESSM are more maneuverable and have more advanced guidance systems than their predecessors, Fanta said. Their associated launchers and radar will need to be modified to accommodate the missiles’ weight and to allow data to flow back and forth between the systems and the ship. Development of the RAM and ESSM Block 2 is already underway, and both could be deployed within two to three years, Fanta said.
Besides that, the service is looking for advanced radar that can detect high-end missiles and interface with the Joint Strike Fighter, Fanta said. Those systems could be either forward- or back-fit on amphibious ships.
The service also is interested in upgrading targeted communications systems used by the Navy and the Marine Corps, which have become disparate during the last decade. Some of the Marine Corps’ recent communications equipment, which was developed for use in mountain and desert environments, is not compatible with the salty air pervasive at sea, Fanta said. And although Navy ships have the size, weight, power and cooling to accommodate the expeditionary services’ equipment, modifications may be needed to ensure that they don’t cause spectrum management issues.
The service is also looking where it can equip its combat logistics forces with new weapons to give those ships a self-defense capability, Fanta said. One option is adding Raytheon’s SeaRAM anti-ship missile defense system launchers, but no final decision has been made.