THE INDUSTRIAL BASE: Ingalls Christens Aegis DDG Preble; Mason's Launch Ends Era at Bath

By RICHARD R. BURGESS, Managing Editor

Two more Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided-missile destroyers (DDGs) have been christened with the names of American heroes, and one of them has the distinction of becoming the last ship built by Bath Iron Works to be launched by sliding down the way.

DDG 88--the 38th Burke-class ship and the 17th built at the Ingalls Shipbuilding yard in Pascagoula, Miss.--has been christened Preble by Connie Rae Clark, the ship's sponsor and wife of Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark. She was joined by three matrons of honor: her daughter-in-law, Christine Clark; her sister-in-law, Elaine Johnson; and Adm. Clark's cousin, Judy Gowan. Ingalls Shipbuilding is a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems Sector.

Rep. Edward L. Schrock (R-Va.), a retired Navy captain, was the principal speaker at the christening ceremonies. Also speaking at the 9 June ceremonies were Adm. Clark, Rear Adm. William W. Cobb Jr., program executive officer for theater surface combatants; Rear Adm. David M. Stone, commander of Cruiser Destroyer Group Five; Rear Adm. Jan C. Gaudio, commander of Navy Region Southeast; Capt. Phil Johnson, supervisor of shipbuilding, conversion, and repair, Pascagoula; and Jerry St. Pe, CEO of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems Sector. The Navy League's Pascagoula-Moss Point Council, led by Dennis Knecht, assisted in sponsoring the christening activities.

"Preble will be able to strike at targets hundreds of miles away, while maintaining her status as the least vulnerable military platform other than a submarine," said Schrock. "She can strike her adversaries wherever they exist, whether ashore, in the sky, on the seas, or under the seas; and in the future Preble will be a critical part of the sea-based missile-defense system shielding America and her allies from weapons of mass destruction."

DDG 88 is the sixth ship named for Revolutionary War hero Commodore Edward Preble (1761-1807), who joined a privateer at age 16 and two years later was appointed a midshipman in the Massachusetts State Marine and served on the 26-gun frigate Protector. Preble was captured in 1781 after participating in two engagements with British ships and was held on the prison ship New Jersey but later released. He joined the crew of the Winthrop and led a boarding party to capture a British brig in the face of heavy shore fire.

After the American Revolution, Preble served 15 years in the merchant marine. He was commissioned in the U.S. Navy in 1798. In 1803, Preble commanded the Third Squadron from his flagship, the USS Constitution, and deployed to the Mediterranean. He promoted a treaty with Morocco and established a blockade of Tripoli. After returning to the United States in 1805, he became engaged in shipbuilding activities in Portland, Maine.

The first ship named Preble was an 80-ton sloop that took part in the Battle of Lake Champlain in 1814. The second was a sloop-of-war that participated in the blockade of Confederate ports during the Civil War before being destroyed by fire in Pensacola Harbor in 1863; the third was a destroyer (DD 12), built in 1901, that participated in rescue operations following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, and later participated in convoy duty during World War I.

The fourth Preble (DD 345, later DM 20, later AG 99) was present at Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack and earned eight battle stars during World War II before being decommissioned in 1945. The fifth Preble (DDG 46), commissioned in 1960, saw extensive action off Vietnam and provided protection to the fleet until her decommissioning in 1991.

When commissioned in 2002, the new 509.5-foot, 9,300-ton Preble and her crew of 383 officers and Sailors will be homeported in San Diego, under the command of Cdr. Timothy Balzer.

Historic Launch at BIW

DDG 87 was christened Mason just before it slid down an inclined way at the Bath Iron Works (BIW) shipyard in Bath, Maine, ending the yard's 117-year tradition of launching ships at Bath in this manner. Thousands of people were on hand to witness the historic launch as the ship's sponsor, Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), smashed a bottle of champagne against the ship's bow and sent the ship down the way into the Kennebec River. All future ships built at BIW will be assembled on a land-level transfer facility from which the ships will be moved into a floating drydock and later floated into the river.

Rear Adm. David L. Brewer III, vice chief of Naval Education and Training, was the principal speaker at the 23 June ceremonies. Also speaking at the ceremonies were Snowe; Sen. Susan M. Collins (R-Maine); Rep. Thomas H. Allen (D-Maine); Rep. John E. Baldacci (D-Maine); Secretary of the Navy Gordon England; Rear Adm. William W. Cobb Jr., program executive officer for theater surface combatants; Rear Adm. James A. Johnson, representing Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark; and BIW President Allan Cameron. Also participating was Capt. Richard Hepburn, supervisor of shipbuilding, conversion, and repair at BIW.

The Mason--the 37th ship of the Arleigh Burke class and the 21st built by BIW--is the third U.S. Navy ship to bear that name. DD 191, commissioned in 1920, was named for John Young Mason, secretary of the Navy under Presidents John Tyler and James K. Polk; Mason later served as minister to France--where he joined James Buchanan and Pierre Soule, ministers to Great Britain and Spain, respectively, in issuing the famous Ostend Manifesto in October 1854. The manifesto served as the rationale for the seizure of Cuba if Spain would not sell the colony to the United States. DD 191 was decommissioned in 1941.

The second Mason (DE 529)--commissioned in 1944--was named for Ens. Newton Henry Mason, an aviation cadet assigned to Fighting Squadron Three who was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for skill and courage in aerial combat against Japanese forces in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942. The second Mason was the only U.S. Navy destroyer to be manned with a predominantly black enlisted crew, with black Americans allowed to serve in ratings other than cooks and stewards. Seven crew members of the second Mason were on hand for the launch of the third Mason.

Cdr. David Gale will take command of the 509.5-foot, 9,200-ton Mason and her crew of 365 officers and Sailors when she is commissioned in the spring of 2003 and assigned to her home port of Norfolk, Va.

New MSC Container Ship Named For Army MOH Recipient

A U.S.-flagged container ship chartered by the Military Sealift Command has been named for a U.S. Army soldier who was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism during combat in World War II.

The M/V Staff Sgt. Edward A. Carter Jr. was christened by Allene Carter, daughter-in-law of the ship's namesake, assisted by her daughter, Sandy Carter, who served as maid of honor, and Karen Carter, Sgt. Carter's other daughter-in-law, who served as matron of honor.

Brig. Gen. Donald D. Parker, commanding general of the Deployment Support Command, was the principal speaker at the 12 June ceremonies at the Norfolk Shipbuilding and Drydock Company (NORSHIPCO) shipyard in Norfolk, Va. NORSHIPCO prepared the 949.8-foot ship for naval service.

Staff Sgt. Carter--the son of an African-American missionary father--grew up in India (where his mother was from), attended military school in Shanghai, China, and in the 1930s joined the Chinese Nationalist Army to fight the invading Japanese. Discharged for being underage, he later joined the Abraham Lincoln Battalion of the International Brigade, a volunteer unit that fought on the side of the communist-backed Republicans in the Spanish Civil War.

Carter joined the U.S. Army in 1941 and was sent to Europe in 1944 to transport supplies. Repeatedly denied combat duty because of his race, he eventually was allowed to fight when the need for reinforcements became critical. While assigned to a convoy on its way to Speyer, Germany, his unit was attacked, and he volunteered to lead three men to attack an enemy position. Two of his men were killed, a third seriously wounded, and Carter himself was wounded by five bullets. Carter hid behind an embankment and killed six of the eight German soldiers approaching his position, then captured the other two--who divulged valuable information on enemy positions.

Carter was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his exploits. He died in 1963. Long after his death, the Army conducted a study to determine why no African-Americans received the Medal of Honor during World War II. After reviewing the cases of nine African-Americans Congress decided to award seven of the individuals, including Carter, the Medal of Honor.

The new ship--which is equipped with four cranes and is designed to carry 2,500 20-foot containers--will carry containerized ammunition and will be assigned to a prepositioning squadron stationed at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

Defense Industry Notes

* AIL Systems has been awarded a $38.5 million Naval Air Systems Command contract for the fabrication of 78 Universal Exciter Pods for Navy and Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler electronic attack aircraft. Deliveries are expected to be completed by August 2003.

* Northrop Grumman has delivered the last of 36 new-production Group II versions of the E-2C Hawkeye radar warning aircraft for the U.S. Navy--six weeks ahead of schedule, company officials said. The first production Hawkeye 2000 version is scheduled for delivery in October 2001. Northrop Grumman also has been awarded a contract to upgrade a former U.S. Navy E-2C to the Hawkeye 2000 configuration for the Egyptian Air Force, which now operates five E-2Cs (all of which will be upgraded to the Hawkeye 2000 export configuration).

* Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems­Undersea Systems has delivered its 100th SQQ-89 undersea warfare system to the U.S. Navy. The SQQ-89--the first of which was delivered 15 years ago--is installed on Navy surface combatants and integrates a variety of sensors--e.g., a hull-mounted sonar, a sonobuoy processing system, and a weapons launch system--with the Aegis combat system to counter submarines and other undersea threats. The 100th unit will be installed on the Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided-missile destroyer Mason, which was recently launched in Bath, Maine.

* The Ocean Sciences Division of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) has been awarded a $6 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the first phase of the Robust Sonar Program. DARPA officials say the agency hopes to develop submarine towed-array sonar systems optimized for the littoral environment, as well as "a new generation of advanced array signal-processing capabilities for [the] detection and tracking of submarines."

* Textron Systems has been awarded a $130 million Air Force contract for 300 CBU-105 sensor-fuzed weapons for the Air Force and 900 BLU-108 submunitions for the Navy's AGM-154B Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW). Each AGM-154B carries six BLU-108s--a total of 24 warheads in each JSOW.

* Keystone Shipping has signed a $240 million agreement with the new Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyard--located at the former U.S. Navy shipyard in Philadelphia--to build four new product tankers. Each tanker will displace approximately 46,000 deadweight tons and carry approximately 330,000 barrels of liquid products. *

Boeing X-32B Completes First Vertical Landings

The X-32B STOVL (short-takeoff/vertical landing) version of Boeing's Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) concept demonstration aircraft (CDA) has reached a major milestone with the completion of its first vertical landings following transition from conventional to STOVL flight. The landings were completed on the X-32B's 49th and 51st test flights, both conducted at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.

Dennis O'Donoghue--Boeing's lead STOVL test pilot--shifted the aircraft's engine thrust from the cruise nozzles to the lift nozzles and decelerated to a hover 150 feet above the ground. O'Donoghue then settled the aircraft to 50 feet and maneuvered over the hover pit, where the aircraft then landed vertically. "Transition to STOVL flight was smooth, and flying qualities, hover, and vertical landing performance mirrored our predictions," O'Donoghue said.

The 27 June landings came three days after the X-32B completed four hovers during five flights. "The plane was extremely stable during hover," O'Donoghue said. "I was very impressed with the X-32B's controllability, responsiveness, and the ease of moving into and out of the hover."

Boeing officials have stressed the "simplicity, reliability, and low-risk aspect" of its STOVL system, as well as the "low maintenance and safety" of the company's third-generation direct-lift system.

"Reducing maintenance is extremely important to the military services, particularly from a life-cycle cost standpoint, and our reliable, safe, proven system fits the bill," said Frank Statkus, Boeing vice president and JSF program general manager. "We're improving--not inventing--which will guarantee the lowest technical and cost risk going into the next phases of the program."

Statkus also said that the X-32B's STOVL system operates at acoustic and temperature levels lower than predicted at full power.

Successful Vertical Launch for Lockheed Martin X-35B

The X-35B--Lockheed Martin's STOVL (short takeoff/vertical landing) version of its Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) concept demonstration aircraft (CDA)--has launched, hovered, and landed vertically using its shaft-driven lift-fan engine.

Lockheed Martin test pilot Simon Hargreaves engaged the lift-fan propulsion system on 24 June at Palmdale, Calif., flew the 35,000-pound X-35B straight up to a sustained position 25 feet above the ground, and held position for approximately 35 seconds before settling the aircraft back to the ground in a vertical landing. The aircraft hovered for two minutes during a flight the next day.

"The lifting power is incredible and the handling is extremely precise," Hargreaves said. "The flight occurred with minimal pilot inputs--I was essentially a passenger. This speaks volumes about the quality of the aircraft and the propulsion system."

"The airplane held its above-ground position at significantly less than full throttle," said Harry Blot, Lockheed Martin vice president and deputy program manager for the company's JSF program. The flight was conducted at an altitude of 2,500 feet above sea level, he pointed out, where engine performance "is typically lower compared to sea-level operations." Rolls-Royce developed the lift-fan for the X-35B.

Later key events in the X-35B test program will include conversions to and from the conventional and STOVL modes, short takeoffs, and vertical landings. The sites selected for subsequent test flights include Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. (where the aircraft will be demonstrated at sea level).

Halter Marine Inc., a division of Friede Goldman Halter, has been awarded a U.S. Army contract for the design and construction of a logistics support vessel (LSV), as well as spare parts, technical services, and options to build two more LSVs. The contract is worth $26.9 million and--if all options are exercised--potentially worth more than $78 million. The 313-foot ship--designed to carry more than 2,000 tons of deck cargo--will be built at Halter Moss Point shipyard in Escatawpa, Miss. Halter has built all six of the LSVs currently in Army service; the new LSVs, if all three are built, will be based in Hawaii and in Baltimore, Md.