The Navy reevaluated a contract ceiling increase for the legacy Navy-Marine Corps Intranet and changed it to $4.924 billion, nearly $600 million lower than the initial increase, which the Navy blamed on Next Generation Enterprise Network program delays. 553 words

PANAMA CITY, FL -- Officials throughout the Navy and Marine Corps are bracing for a connector shortfall a few years down the road and are searching for ways to mitigate the effects on amphibious operations and seabasing. 1283 words

The V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft's unique abilities will make it an ideal fit in the Asia-Pacific region conducting humanitarian operations, a major shift from its combat focus in Iraq and Afghanistan, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos said last week. 506 words

PANAMA CITY, FL -- As the Littoral Combat Ship's mine countermeasures mission package nears the end of its testing in fiscal year 2013, the mission module integration program manager said he is done making major changes to the items included in the package, although he added he is continuing to make improvements.653 words

The Navy has been working to improve the readiness of its surface combatant and amphibious warfare ships, but the service "faces risks to fully implementing its strategy and has not assessed these risks or developed alternatives to mitigate them," according to a Sept. 21 Government Accountability Office report titled, "Navy Needs to Assess Risks to Its Strategy to Improve Ship Readiness." The report states that while the service has developed a new strategy to better integrate maintenance actions, training and manning, other factors such as high operational tempos and supporting organizations' staffing levels "could delay the entry of some ships into the strategy and the execution of the strategy."110 words

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos said last week that the Joint High Speed Vessel will be the perfect ship to transport Marines and their equipment across the vast Pacific Ocean, but until they arrive, the service isn't averse to leasing commercial ships to help do the job. 374 words

The Navy is still about eight years away from fielding the Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) aircraft, but it is still unclear exactly what role the aircraft will play in the field -- something the service likely will have to decide within the next year or so, according to an analyst. 468 words

The Navy could start buying up to 1,000 systems for jamming improvised explosive devices in fiscal year 2014 to help fulfill a stated Marine Corps need for 370 dismounted and 2,040 mounted systems, according to a notice on Federal Business Opportunities. 317 words

PANAMA CITY, FL -- The Navy is expanding its use of small boats, particularly as mine countermeasures assets, by improving their ability to launch and control unmanned vehicles. 670 words

PANAMA CITY, FL -- The program executive office for Littoral Combat Ships is taking a hard look at reducing the time it takes to find, identify and neutralize mines, even if its ultimate time-reducing set-up -- a single-pass detect-to-engage system -- remains out of reach in the near-term, officials said here earlier this month. 864 words

PANAMA CITY, FL -- As the Navy increasingly turns to Military Sealift Command ships to augment its connectors and fill in gaps in the fleet, officials are stumbling upon some questions over just what a vessel that is not commanded by a naval officer can do compared to its commissioned USS counterparts. 784 words

The Navy has completed almost one third of the work needed to achieve auditability department-wide in 2017, according to Gladys Commons, assistant secretary of the Navy for financial management and comptroller. 453 words

The Navy intends to release a draft request for proposals this week for Aegis Combat System ship integration and test (SI&T) efforts, which includes integration into future Aegis-equipped ships as well as fleet modernization, according to an official. 378 words

The Ohio-class replacement submarine program continues on a path to achieve cost-savings by partnering with the United Kingdom Successor submarine program by designing missile tubes both submarines will use, according to a Navy official. 542 words

Sequestration would prevent the Navy from completing maintenance on ships in a way that would allow those vessels to be returned to the fleet quickly, reducing the service's forward presence for years, beyond just lowering ship totals, the Navy's No. 2 official told Congress last week. 551 words

The next Joint Strike Fighter program executive officer this week delivered a blunt assessment of the major changes needed to the way the F-35 is managed -- primary among them a reset of the relationship between manufacturer Lockheed Martin and the program office, which he termed "the worst I've ever seen."1002 words

The Pentagon has designated the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System as a major subprogram of the CVN-78 Ford-class aircraft carrier to help Congress obtain visibility into its development and procurement costs, according to a recent letter Defense Department acquisition chief Frank Kendall sent lawmakers.674 words

The Navy is readying plans to launch a new competition for the Ship Self Defense System (SSDS) Combat System Engineering Agent (CSEA), an estimated $500 million effort to manage a system that Raytheon developed and has provided exclusive support for since 1994 as part of a wider effort to force long-term, sole-source suppliers to compete for continued work.537 words

The Pentagon needs to ensure its systems are prepared to engage in operations around the world, especially in maritime areas, after spending the past decade being optimized for the hot desert and high mountains of Afghanistan, a Defense Department official focused on special operations said last week.459 words

The Navy is maintaining and sustaining its principal airborne signals intelligence capability, the EP-3E Airborne Reconnaissance Integrated Electronic System II, "in a manner that meets the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance requirements" of the combatant commands, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the head of the Pentagon's intelligence shop have told lawmakers in a letter.306 words