Zoe Glasson, Sophie Qin, Madeleine Nyst and Patrick Kennedy
Sea State
Delays are catching, it seems—at least when it comes to building frigates. We heard on The Strategist last week about the rumoured delays of Australia’s own future frigate program; now the US Navy has announced a postponement of at least a year in awarding a construction contract for the Littoral Combat Ship’s successor. The reason for the delay is perhaps best be summed up by the title of The National Interest’s blog on the subject—‘U.S. Navy delays buying more frigates until they know how to build them’. The USN now intends to award the initial contract for the new frigates in fiscal year 2020, ‘to ensure designs are mature’, a postponement that’s been welcomed by the Government Accountability Office due to the number of unknowns about the frigate’s costs and capabilities.
Talking underwater just got a whole lot easier, thanks to JANUS. Developed by the NATO Science and Technology Organisation Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation, JANUS will enable interoperability between networks of unmanned systems from different manufacturers. The JANUS protocol has now been recognised as standard by NATO member states, making it the first internationally recognised digital underwater communication protocol.