U.S. Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, a 2018 Wash100 recipient, has unveiled the name USS Beloit for the next Freedom-class littoral combat ship and USS Santa Barbara for the future Independence-variant vessel.

The service said Tuesday USS Beloit or LCS 29, which will be built by a Lockheed Martin–Fincantieri Marinette Marine team, is named after Beloit, Wis.

Meanwhile, USS Santa Barbara or LCS 32, which will be constructed by Austal USA, is dubbed in honor of Santa Barbara, Calif.

Both ships will be designed to travel at speeds over 40 knots.

USS Beloit is also the first ship to bear its name, while USS Santa Barbara is the third successor of the designation.

The Navy has purchased 32 littoral combat ships, with 10 vessels under construction and 16 already delivered.

Two military heads have said adopting a modernized logistics process will help speed up the delivery of aviation parts to aircraft maintainers and provide cost savings, USNI News reported Tuesday.

Lt. Gen. Steven Rudder, deputy commandant for aviation at the U.S. Marine Corps, noted during the U.S. Naval Institute and Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Maritime Security Dialogue that additive manufacturing will accelerate the spare part logistics system.

He believes 3D printing will help contractors develop small aircraft components onsite, making more replacements available when they are needed instead of going through various lengths to produce them.

However, Rudder explained that additive manufacturing is still limited to non-air-worthy components, which can hinder vendors from supplying parts that still need to be assessed for flight suitability.

Meanwhile, Vice Adm. DeWolfe Miller, commander of the Naval Air Forces, said understanding and strengthening the aviation parts supply chain is critical in maintaining aircraft and reducing expenses.

The U.S. Navy has started following a new logistics sustainment system that aims to modify the acquisition and development process for replacement parts, as well as focus on assigning parts that will return to the military after they arrive.

Richard Spencer, secretary of the U.S. Navy and a 2018 Wash100 recipient, has said there is a need for the service to address its recruitment and retention issues to modernize its culture, Federal News Network reported Friday.

Spencer believes there is a need to encourage more people to join the military, as the Navy and the rest of the U.S. armed forces are recruiting talent from the same group of potential service members.

“We have to make a compelling argument for people to come into the service and serve their country. We believe we have those programs laid out for both the Navy and the Marine Corps,” he explained.

On the other hand, the Navy official said the service is working on its readiness issues, with 76 out of 110 recommendations from a strategic readiness review already implemented. 

The Navy is also leveraging data analytics processes to monitor the performance of new programs and make necessary modifications.

Army Secretary Mark Esper has said the service has evaluated every activity and program within the “equipping peg” and identified $25B in funds that could be shifted toward its top six priorities for modernization, Defense News reported Monday.

The service’s modernization priorities are the next-generation combat vehicle; long-range precision fires; network; soldier lethality; future vertical lift; and air and missile defense.

“That dollar figure is a low-end number over the Future Years Defense Program,” he said Monday at a press briefing at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference.

“We had to make those trade-offs, and it resulted in, again, reductions and cancellations and consolidations, so that is our intent as we continue to go through the other pegs,” he noted.
 

U.S. Army Undersecretary Ryan McCarthy told Defense News in an interview published Monday about the service’s efforts to transition the Army Capabilities Integration Center and Research Development Engineering Command to Army Futures Command.

He said the branch expects to complete the move of the center under Futures Command by the end of fall 2018 and the R&D command by next spring.

McCarthy noted that the acquisition military deputy will work with Gen. John Murray, head of Army Futures Command, as an adviser to facilitate collaboration.

“We really wanted to do this so we could draw those two communities as close together as possible to continue to work and improve upon a collaboration between the teams,” he added.

McCarthy also discussed how the service will transition legacy systems into modernized platforms over the next decade and his involvement in the Army’s Command Accountability and Execution Review initiative.