Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and again thank you for the opportunity to present the work done by the men and women of Strategic Systems Programs. I appreciate the opportunity to kick this off today. I’ve got a lot of information to present to you today. I will use this fo- rum as my report card to this community on where we stand, what our progress is, what are our challenges are, and where are we headed. I’ve got a lot to present, so I’m going to push a lot of information to you this morning and then hopefully I’ll have some time at the end to take some questions. But let me get rolling here.
Let me start with this, and I’d like to focus on the red block in the middle. This is a new responsibility that the Secretary of the Navy and the CNO assigned to the director of SSP, and that is to act as the Navy’s
nuclear deterrent regulator. We started with a clean sheet of paper and we’ve been working that for the last two years.
Essentially what CNO Greenert asked us to do was to look at all the other commands in the Navy that provide services and support to the Fleet to ensure that we, at all times, can do the mission assigned to the United States Navy for Navy nuclear deterrence. So we have worked collaboratively with all these other commands to come up with an infra- structure. The basis of this is to provide the CNO quarterly updates, but most importantly once a year — and I just delivered my second report to the CNO — an end-to-end assessment of where we stand in the Navy, where the shortfalls are, and then we bring those up through the N-STAR (Deputy CNOs) committee in the Pentagon up to the CNO for his focus as he develops the budgets and moves forward.
The three commands in red are commands that we added just this year: NETC for training and education to ensure that we are delivering to the fleet officers and enlisted with the right skill set to do the Navy nuclear deterrent mission; SPAWAR, who has been assigned the respon- sibility as the chief engineer for the NC-3 part, the Navy’s portion of that; and then NAVFAC, because there is such a propensity of programs and projects moving through the system right now that are critical for us to deliver the Columbia-class submarines. So, this second report to the CNO is a very extensive report, and I’ll just give you the bottom line, which is we are in good shape to continue to deliver 70 percent of this nation’s strategic nuclear deterrent.
These have been my five priorities for the time I have been the di- rector. People, Wholeness, which is another word for, do I have the right amount of money and do I have the right amount of money in the right appropriations to execute the mission? D5-LE2 – I’ll focus a little bit more on that later, which is what’s coming down the road. Infrastructure and Capabilities, and finallyEnterprise Information Management.
Let me talk about people. In the last two years, I have done a turnover plan of all my commanding officers that report to me as an echelon II. That turnover is complete in preparation for my departure as the director. Wholeness, I’ve spent a lot of time with Mr. Stackley ensuring that I had the right appropriations in order to execute both the program of today and the program of the future. D5 LE-2, I’ll address that in the future. Infrastructure and Capabilities, we have had the same industry partners since the beginning of this program on sole source contract. That’s good.
The problem that we face is some of those industry partners are lo- cated in geographic parts of the country which is making it very expen- sive for us to sustain the talent necessary to get this program through 2084. So, the major move that we initiated with Lockheed is we made a decision to move the FBM program out of Sunnyvale, California. That’s huge.
We have been in Sunnyvale, California since 1956 when we started the program. I just met yesterday with Marilyn Hewson, and that effort is well underway. We’ll move the remaining 650 people that are in the program in Sunnyvale.
Half of them, the design engineers, will move to Denver, Colorado, which is where Rick Ambrose has base systems programs. The remain- ing half will move down to the Cape, where we have over the last two decades moved 650 people out of Sunnyvale. So we’ll be about 1,000 people strong, 1,000 Lockheed Martin people strong, at the Cape down in Florida.
That’s a significant cost savings, cost avoidance in the future, as we work with N97. We’ve estimated that’s somewhere north of $60 million a year rate differential by moving out of Silicon Valley as they’re pres- surized with the dot.com infrastructures.
Enterprise Information Management. We love our paper in SSP. We have more paper than probably anybody in the Navy. We have process- es, we have procedures, we have instructions, we have operating docu- ments. We love our paper.
The problem is as I turn over the workforce and I bring in the next generation of engineers and support folks, they don’t like paper. They like their phones, they like electronic formats. So we have an extensive effort ongoing of taking all the lessons learned, all the good information, all the required processes and procedures, and transferring that into a format that will support not only this current workforce but more impor- tantly the workforce of the future as we move towards 2084.
That is not an insignificant effort. That’s a program in and of itself. We build missiles and we do special weapons – we don’t do information management. I will tell you it’s not simple, so we’re learning a lot as we go through here. But I think this is necessary if we’re going to keep a viable workforce moving forward.
I’ll talk extensively through the system. Let me just kind of give you the key code on this. Green means those subsystems are, in my mind, done, certified and we’re in production in support of the fleet.
The two in yellow don’t mean I have problems or I’m not on track. What they mean is they’re not done yet. And I’ll spend more time talking about that as we move forward.
Let me talk about the flight systems. Again, yellow is not bad. Yel- low means I’m on track, I’m on schedule, but there’s still work to be done.
In the Mk-IV-Alpha warhead refurbishment, again Trident can carry two warheads, the Mk-IV and the Mk-V. The Mk-IV, in concert with NNSA and the DOE, we have just surpassed 88 percent of production. We will finish that production program next year. That warhead is then viable for decades into the future. That’s very important.
On the Mk-V-Alt warhead refurbishment, again we are right on track for the IOC in December of ‘19. That is not only a new arming, fusing and firing circuit on that warhead for parts obsolescence, there is also, at the direction of the Nuclear Weapons Council, a conventional high explosive refurbishment in that warhead. And again, that warhead will be good for decades into the future.
We’ve come through all the D5 LE flight tests. I now have D5 LE missiles deployed on six submarines in the Fleet, enough that I can start the CET program, the commander’s evaluation program for
STRATCOM this fiscal year. So, we’ll start flying those missiles for score. I have every confidence that we will meet our commitment that the D5 LE program and the D5 program are identical in terms of reli- ability and accuracy. And so STRATCOM is planning on targeting those identically, which is a major issue with STRATCOM. That was a com- mitment that we made.
We remain in continuous production of solid rocket motors. We are the only strategic asset in production for solid rocket motors at Orbital ATK, and we will continue that into the future.
Let me talk about shipboard systems for a second. Again, shipboard systems has been a real paradigm change in SP over the last two decades, specifically here, and I’ll talk from 2010 forward. We went to a concept called Shipboard Systems Integration where we made a commitment to the operational force that we would get on the boat, do the modification, and get off the boat within the 35-day refit cycle.
So if you picture that, there’s a picture and I’m cutting that picture into small bite-sized pieces. I have to get it in — I have to get in, do my work and get off in 35 days. The challenge is, whatever I leave has to be certified to launch a strategic asset.
So from a technical standpoint, this has been a real challenge in or- der to execute this plan, in order to get us to that line there in ‘24, which is my baseline that I will deliver to PEO Submarines and Admiral Gog- gins in PMS-397, and that will be the baseline for the Columbia-class. So, we are marching through this.
The launcher and fire control LIS system, that is our effort to put lasers as the initiators on the gas generators for the launcher subsystems instead of electro-mechanical initiation. That is a huge A-subzero give back to the fleet because I can break that firing circuit without removing the missile in order to do any launch tube work. We’ll put that on Ohio. We’ll certify that. That gives me some A-subzero back through the life of Ohio, but that will be the baseline on Columbia and that will be time back to the TYCOMs and the operational forces.
The fire control refresh and the nav refresh, we broke the nav sub- system into two pieces, the shipboard components, the cabinets and the move to COTS in nav. We have completed five boats in that nav refresh. And when we do that, we have to match in fire control.
The nav refresh and ESGN replacement is the last and it is my critical path to get to Columbia. We will replace the ESGNs with new technol- ogy. We have come through all the lab testing. We have had those new IFOGS on the USNS Waters, which is our surface ship, for the last 18 months, over 2,500 hours at sea. We are today implementing two Temp Alts – one on an East Coast submarine, one on a West Coast submarine. We will place those IFOGS in the third position on the bed plate, on the binnacle, and we will put those to sea for an extensive period of time and test, matching their performance against the existing ESGNs. And when we have appropriate confidence, we will then remove the ESGNs and put the IFOGs in as a replacement. So again, we’ll use the Ohio, we’ll get the Ohio in that configuration with absolute confidence as we move towards the Columbia-class. That’s right on track.
Let me talk about facilities for a second. We just recently had EHW2, our Explosive Handling Wharf number 2 down at SWFLANT, returned to us. That was stripped down to bare bones and totally refurbished. That facility is now good for 30 to 40 years in the future. We are in the process today, and we will certify authority to use, Explosive Handling Wharf number 2 at SWFPAC.
If you remember, that was a single point failure. We had one EHW out on the West Coast where the majority of boats are today. The lead- ership decided that was an unacceptable risk. We have built this facility, and as I said, we are in literally the absolute final months of certification.
That will be opened to the Fleet here early next year. That’s a major step forward in risk reduction as we move the program forward.
The perimeter intrusion detection and assessment system or PIDAS. That is basically taking the entire waterfront at both Kings Bay and Ban- gor into a secure posture for nuclear weapons security. The infrastruc- ture is in place. The sensors and all the security systems are in place, and we are in the final phases of grooming and certifying that system. That will be fully operational in 2018, and we’re moving right along with that. That really upgrades the security posture on the waterfront at Kings Bay and Bangor.
Again, the limited area production storage complex – or LAPSC. This is the United States’ most advanced and complex facility for nuclear weapons security. It doesn’t look like much. What you can’t see, is the super Walmart-sized facility buried under the ground. This facility is
fully operational and all the assets are now safe and secure and we are doing full production in this facility. This was another major security upgrade on the West Coast.
When Admiral Johnson was PEO Submarines he asked me to do two things to risk reduce the Columbia-class. One is to come up with a concept called SWS Ashore. In typical PEO Submarines where I’m a sub to the PEO, he gave me a lot to start with.
This is what he gave me to start with. This is an original Polaris complex down at the Cape. That’s what it looked like. He said, I need a facility that conceptually looks like this, and I need it pretty quick because we’re going to do all the ship integration and test procedure, verification and validation, in this facility. So, get to work.
The concept with this facility is the left side, which is the side that’s kind of in the darker orange or darker brown, is the Ohio side. You see the super structure complex on there. We’ll do service unit ops on top of that. The far side, the right side in that picture, is the Ohio Re- placement side where we’ll put the first tube off the production run — and I’ll explain that in a moment — with environmental chambers on the top and the bottom in order to certify and validate the missile heat- ing and cooling complex. In the middle is where we’ll put the missile control center module, which Electric Boat will use in the Ohio-class.
We built this facility so the roof can come off. We’ll crane the MCCM, the MCC Module, in as that’s completed. That’s now in pro-duction at Electric Boat. This facility will be a shore facility for the
remainder of Ohio and into Columbia. That’s the concept.
The first thing we had to do was drain the pits. They were literally filled with rainwater from years and years of non-use. We employed
some of the most extensive security processes that we could afford, giv- en Admiral Johnson’s budget that he gave me.
I have no idea how that critter got in there, but we stopped work until we got him out.
We then went to the recycle bin and we negotiated with Electric Boat. Many of you will recognize, this is WSSLBEF at Electric Boat cut in half. We put it on a barge and moved it down the East Coast, and then trucked it over here; two great Ohio-class missile tubes that in the program sense would have been foolish to throw away. We refurbished those, got a crane and put them in there. They fit just like they should, and we now have those two Ohio-class tubes in the left side of that com- plex.
Here you see hatch operations as well as those tubes refurbished inside that building. That side of the facility is certified for Ohio. That’s the reality right there. So very much like the concept, and again, we’re right on track there. In fact, this is the first missile tube coming out of BWXT being loaded.
That is the first Columbia-class/Ohio Replacement missile tube. That fixture has been delivered to Electric Boat. In fact, that tube is on
the R-fixture being outfitted today. Again, it serves two purposes. One, it will immediately go down to the Cape as soon as it is done. More im- portantly, it is the tube second to the prototype, and sort of the demo tube that was on the R-fixture.
This is the first missile tube that Electric Boat is using to verify and validate their process. So we’re moving right along there. In fact, I was
told this morning that Electric Boat has accepted the second missile tube at Quonset Point, and so we’re moving forward.
I went back into the archives, 60 years this month, we used com- pressed air to prove that we could launch a missile out of a submarine tube, which is a pretty fascinating piece of history. That was done at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard. It no longer exists.
When we looked at reconstituting the launch tube capability for this program, that has been dormant for about 20 years. A lot of environ- mental changes in those 20 years. Materials, glues, adhesives – basically everything that we used in the original D5 design, is no longer available. We needed to look at how we could certify this, because we’re going to do a production run of 240 launch tubes for both the U.S. and the United Kingdom, and we want to start with the right design moving forward.
We looked at reconstituting Hunters Point for an underwater launch capability. Again, it was cost prohibitive in my discussions with Admiral Johnson. So, we came up with another concept. We’d do it land-based, above ground and we would certify the design and get locked down for
production. So that’s again the concept.
In typical Admiral Johnson’s attitude, he gave me a lot to work with. That’s what he gave me. He gave me a couple of acres out in the middle of nowhere in China Lake and said, get to work.
So, we did. We built a big pit, put the foundation in, you can see that about mid-point into design we were filling the arrestment pit with gravel. I’ll explain how this works here in a second. So, there’s reality.
In the bottom left-hand corner, you will see the two shapes that look like missiles. Those are actually cement objects from the original D5 test series. We don’t throw anything away in this program. We had those, we pulled them out and we refurbished them, and so we’ll run this test program with those two cement shapes which are perfectly weighted and have the exact moments of a Trident II D5 missile.
The complex on the right is actually the launch tube complex. That top comes off. That top is on so that we can environmentally condition everything we need. Just prior to the test, we lift that top part off of the complex and we shoot.
This was the first shot. This is the shape actually leaving the tube. I’ll give you kind of a still set here. You can see as we launched the first shape out, and it just falls into a gravel pit.
It’s pretty simple from an engineering standpoint. A lot of you engi- neers may be asking, wait a minute, how are you going to do the under- water cross flow? We have an answer for that.
We will attach a cable to the nose of this device, and as the object is launched the cable will put the cross-flow vector on the moment. It’s been tested. It works. We have actually shot seven tests. We have a very analytical process to go through and certify one, that our data matches the Hunter’s Point, that our data matches what we are seeing at sea. Then we will move through and certify all the materials, the adhesives, the glues, the cross-flow capability, and then we will move into production on this.
(Video played).
I’d just remind you, that’s 140,000 pounds. It’s about as simple as it gets.
But I think for every submariner in here, and for everybody who does this business, that drove home a very important point to me. When I look at my aspects and my accountability for this system, there are certain specific safety aspects which I will never violate. One of them is the requirements to ensure that at every moment I can guarantee we will have first stage ignition. That drives home to me, and I’ve used it with my engineers, why that firing chain, from the missile in the tube through first stage ignition and moving that 140,000 pounds away from the sub- marine and the men and women who are on that submarine, is absolutely paramount. If I take a missile, that missile is going to do exactly that, except it’s not going to land in the gravel pit, it’s going to come back through the water right back at that submarine, which is unacceptable in anybody’s mind, especially in mine as the director of SSP.
I’m using that as a training tool, in addition to doing what we’re doing for getting ready for production.
That’s what we’re doing on life extension. That gets us through the Ohio-class submarines to that little triangle there that’s created from the end of the Ohio and the beginning of the Columbia. That ensures my ability to honor my commitment that the Trident II D5 LE system will not only exist on Ohio through its life, but also be the initial out-load on the Columbia-class.
The second picture down there is the recognition that I am out of production on Trident. I do not have enough missiles — we do not have enough missiles — to get through 2084. So, there will be a need to fol- low-on to the Trident II D5 LE program.
So the first thing I needed to do, and I’ve spent the last couple of years working with DASN Ships), Mr. Stackley as the RDA and now Ms. Stiller as the acting RDA, to get fully aligned, agreement and doc- umented, what is my acquisition approach and what is my acquisition baseline update for moving forward? I have that, and I have that not only agreed to, I have that documented. So, we are off and moving in this approach.
I want to stress that this is notional. The acquisition approach that I have received approval to proceed on is a D5 LE2 capability. The reason I stress this is, go back to my comment, I am the only strategic asset in constant production for solid rocket motors. Those motors were designed with a 25-year life.
Through our surveillance program and through a lot of good engi- neering and block upgrades over time, we have now moved those motors out to approximately a 33-year life. We’re not going to throw those away. That just doesn’t make sense.
So the minute we say we’re going to pull motors through, basically everything in the blue box has the opportunity to pull through. They’re great designs. I’m no longer in production. I’ll have to re-qualify, but why change something that works from an engineering standpoint, just like it should?
The yellow box is a recognition that we’re going to make some ma- terial changes. I think everybody who has been associated with Trident
is amazed at the fact that the nose fairing is made of wood. We lift 140,000 pounds through that nose fairing structure made of wood, and we’re not going to do that anymore, mostly because we’re out of wood, not because that’s a bad design.
The equipment section we will re-design specifically for cost. When we built the equipment section back in the late ‘70s, early ‘80s, graphite composite manufacturing was in its infantile state. We can do that in a much more efficient manner.
The equipment section will be the same size, it will just be a lot cheaper. The same with the inter-stage. So again, that drives us to the green box which is where the primary focus will be for the D5 LE sys- tem.
Avionics – we can do this missile with a lot less packages. We can do this missile with a potential avoidance of coming back to certify the missile in the facility if we change packages. Guidance we can do better.
Post-boost control system – today we have four gas generators which are in continuous burn during post-boost control system. The heat soak on the integrated bow assembly is huge. We had to use some very exotic materials back then. We think we can do that better, and then we’ll move through the rest of the system. So, the focus will be on the green box.
We’ve set up working groups: acquisition and cost sub-working group; engineering and development integration, flight leads, shipboard leads, those are all stood up. We have been talking to OSD Policy, to the Joint Staff, to the Fleet, to STRATCOM on, what can you perceive being an additional requirement or an extension of the requirements that we could be forced or required to meet for LE2? And then ConOps, how can we produce and operate our strategic weapons facilities more efficiently, and how will we integrate this over time in order to minimize the A-subzero impact with the Fleet? All these working groups are stood up and starting.
We’ve gone through trade studies. We had 99 original R&D trades submitted. Every engineer wanted their area upgraded. It’s cost-pro- hibitive, so we’ve come through a system which is, again, in accordance with the blue box, the yellow box, the green box, and the working groups will narrow that down. We’ve had discussions with N97 about what that looks like moving forward
But regardless of what we do, we will do it in the same systems engi- neering discipline that we have built the system to date, with one excep- tion. We will integrate into our systems engineering process the require- ment for cyber security moving forward to 2084. Not cyber security in the concept that most of us are focused on today, IT. We’ll move it into a cyber security with regards to the weapons system. Those two things are different. I consider, as we should be, I think we’re on the bleeding edge of cyber security concepts and innovative thought processes as we move forward within SSP. You should require that I am there, and you should not be surprised that we are working that very, very aggressively to ensure that this system is safe and always available to the leadership should it be necessary.
I’ve talked about where we’re going. But I’d like to spend just the last couple of minutes — this will be my last opportunity to address this group. I’ve been very privileged to do this for the last seven and a half years, and I just wanted to take a snapshot and represent the men and women, the military, the civilians and the contractors who deliver what I just said, and kind of give you a sense of the pace that we have been working at.
Since I took over as the director in May of ‘10, to today we’ve had 37 flight tests, 12 FCETs firing 27 missiles, six U.S. DASOs certifying six platforms back to the operational fleet, and eight missiles, and two UK DASOs, in support of the United Kingdom under the Polaris-Sales Agreement. We have had many, many opportunities from a security, and most importantly from a safety standpoint, to have an accident or an inci- dent which would have negatively affected this program. We’ve moved 277 and 241 missiles to the Fleet, down to the wharf and back, and we have done the requisite number of service unit ops with the weapons in both SWFLANT and SWFPAC. Every one of those is an opportunity to have a bad day and negative effect. And again, the safety concept that we have embedded within the culture of this program, I think can’t be evidenced any more than just looking at those numbers over that period of time.
That SSI program that I talked about, we’ve done 82 increment up- grades and never once have we been the reason why a boat has failed to sail as we’ve done SSI during this time. We’ve done 34 shore facilities to ensure that the crews are trained appropriately, and then 48. We have 18 more increments that we will do this fiscal year.
Production is just knocking it out of the park. We have delivered 110 IMUs to the new Mark VI Mod 1, and 132 EAs. As we’ve learned from all of our test flights on that, we’ve actually upgraded that number of requisite systems to tweak it prior to entering the CET phase.
Most importantly, we have supported 231 patrols for D5 to ensure that at all times the SWS has met its reliability, accuracy and availability numbers in support of the United States. Perhaps most importantly, we were the flight from Mars evidenced on the West Coast. This is DASO-26 For those of you who haven’t seen this picture this was an amazing flight.
That flight was delayed due to range fouling. We actually shot just as the sun had gone over the horizon. That’s actually off of San Diego, not off of San Francisco. We were in second stage burn and the apogee hit a point where the sun hit the plume from the second stage. That is the photo that was captured.
That was seen as far inland as Arizona and as far north as Oregon. It lit up the Internet.
(Laughter).
Yeah, there’s some pretty amazing YouTube videos on that. So, it was a tremendous achievement on that flight.
Finally, I don’t have a slide on it, but I am very proud to report that at 0300 on Monday night, SSP flew from Hawaii PMRF II to near Kwajalein, the first conventional prompt strike missile from the United States Navy in the form factor that would eventually, could eventually, be utilized if leadership chooses to do so in an Ohio-class tube (Editors note: to clarify, from an Ohio-class SSGN (not SSBN) or Virginia-class VPM). That’s a monumental achievement, again, to the men and women that in addition to everything I just talked about that is being done on the strategic weapons side, that in parallel we have supported the OSD AT&L defense-wide account for technology demonstration. On our first go out of the box, a very successful flight of a conventional prompt strike maneuvering re-entry body. So, I’m very proud of that.
With that, ladies and gentlemen, it has been a real privilege to be here, not only today but for the last eight years, to be a part of this. I look out, I’ve been mentored and supported by many of you. I have grown tremendously in my interactions with industry partners sitting here. I appreciate the opportunity and I am tremendously humbled to be the representative of the men and women of Strategic Systems Program.
Thank you very much.
