class

Last week, the U.S. Navy announced that future stretched Virginia class nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSN) fitted with Virginia Payload Modules (VPM) will be recategorized as guided missile types (SSGN). In doing so, the service disclosed that two Block V Virginia class boats will lack a VPM, and the four large vertical launch tubes contained therein, rather than just one as had been previously understood. Now, the Navy has confirmed to TWZ directly that the second VPM-less Block V will have a one-of-a-kind seabed warfare configuration. This will allow it to conduct espionage missions on the seafloor, a role currently filled by the USS Jimmy Carter, a one-off subvariant of the Seawolf class attack submarine.

In its August 3 press release, the Navy said it planned to acquire 19 VPM-equipped Virginia class SSGNs across the Block V and Block VI subclasses. As TWZ noted at the time, this created a discrepancy of one submarine based on publicly stated procurement plans. It was already known that the first of the 12 Block Vs, the future USS Oklahoma, would lack a VPM, but the expectation had been that the other 11 would have this feature. The Block VI production run is currently set to consist of nine more submarines, all with VPMs. We correctly posited last week that the outlier could be the seabed warfare submarine, the basic plans for which emerged some years ago now.

“19 of the VPMs will be re-classified as SSGNs with two of the Block V SSNs to be built in non-VPM configurations,” a Navy spokesperson told TWZ when asked for clarification.

“A later Block V submarine will not have VPM and will be a Subsea and Seabed Warfare (SSW) focused platform,” the same Navy spokesperson subsequently confirmed to TWZ in response to our follow-up questions.

The Navy has declined to name the specific Block V Virginia class submarine that will be configured for the seabed warfare role. We know from the statement above that it will not be the future USS Oklahoma (also known by the hull number SSN-802). We also know that the second Block V Virginia, the future USS Arizona (SSGN-803), will be the first to feature the VPM.

So the seabed warfare version will be one of the other 10 planned Block V Virginia class submarines. All of those future boats (hulls 804 through 813) have already been assigned official names, which are, in order: USS Barb, USS Tang, USS Wahoo, USS Silversides, USS John H. Dalton, USS Long Island, USS San Francisco, USS Miami, USS Baltimore, and USS Atlanta. As an aside, Barb, Tang, Wahoo, and Silversides will be the first Navy submarines in decades to be named after ‘denizens of the deep.’ Since the 1970s, the service has largely been naming new attack submarines after cities and states, a decision you can read more about in detail here.

As noted, the Navy has previously disclosed plans to acquire a one-off Virginia class submarine in a seabed warfare configuration, but has offered little in the way of specifics to date. General Dynamics Electric Boat has shared some additional information in the past. This company is one of two prime contractors involved in producing Virginia class boats, with the other being the Newport News Shipbuilding division of Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII).

“Our Virginia class submarine program is evolving … over time to accomplish new missions, and we’re taking the existing hull form and modifying that to incorporate new weapons, sensors, and improved stealth features,” Kevin Graney, then President of General Dynamics Electric Boat, said during a presentation as part of a summit hosted by the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA) in 2022. “One of the most significant design changes we’ve implemented in recent times and currently ongoing is the Virginia Payload Module, which will carry an enhanced strike capability. …basically an 84-foot hull section that includes four additional missile tubes.”

You can watch Graney’s 2022 presentation in full below. His overview of the Virginia class program at that time starts at approximately 21:52 in the runtime, if the video does not advance to that point automatically.

Electric Boat’s ‘Once-in-a-Generation Expansion’

General Dynamics Electric Boat’s main shipyard, as well as other facilities, are in Connecticut. The company also has a major hull-fabrication and outfitting facility in neighboring Rhode Island. Graney retired in 2024.

“We’re developing … a seabed warfare variant, and this ship is designed to interact with the seafloor,” Graney also said during his 2022 presentation. “This design will repurpose some of those missile tubes that I referred to in the VPM design to perform those missions.”

An accompanying slide in Graney’s presentation – seen in part at the top of this story and below – showed a rendering of the seabed warfare variant. As depicted, the design features a pronounced additional bulge under the center of the hull in the same general area where VPM will be fitted on other Block V boats.

This is fully in line with how Jimmy Carter is known to be modified. The main difference between that submarine and the other two Seawolf class boats is the addition of a 100-foot hull extension known as the Multi-Mission Platform (MMP). From what has been publicly released in the past, the MMP is capable of launching and recovering remotely operated vehicles (ROV), uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUV), and other specialized payloads. There is also a reconfigurable command and control room, storage spaces, and other special missionized equipment. The submarine also has auxiliary thrusters and other unique features to help it land on the seafloor or otherwise keep its position underwater. Altogether, Jimmy Carter‘s unique features are understood to be optimized for covert and clandestine underwater espionage missions, including inspecting, manipulating, and even collecting objects of interest from deep on the ocean floor.

Beyond repurposing the space set aside for the VPM, what other modifications the seabed warfare version of the Virginia might receive are unknown. The Seawolf class, in general, is understood to have particularly good deep-diving capabilities, among other attributes, even compared to the Virginia class that came afterward. All three Seawolf class submarines – the other two being the USS Seawolf and the USS Connecticut – continue to be in high demand because of the advanced capabilities the design offers at its core. The continued importance of these submarines is underscored by the Navy’s ongoing work to return Connecticut to service after it suffered major damage, particularly to its bow, from a collision with an underwater seamount in the South China Sea back in 2021.

The floor of the ocean has long been an important, but challenging domain for underwater operations, including when it comes to cutting or tapping into critical fiber optic communications cables and destroying pipelines. Being able to examine, or even recover, objects of interest from the seabed has been and continues to be a critical element of so-called foreign materiel exploitation (FME) operations, as TWZ has explored in great detail in the past.

The importance of the seabed is only set to grow going forward. China, Russia, and others are working to expand their undersea infrastructure, often in support of nominally civilian activities that could have obvious dual-use applications. The Russian Navy, in particular, and the Soviet Navy before it, has its own particularly long history of covert and clandestine seabed warfare operations utilizing special mission submarines and submersibles, specialized surface ships, and uncrewed platforms.

Overall, including a new highly specialized version of the Virginia class design to supplement, or even eventually supplant, Jimmy Carter makes good sense. The Navy currently expects the Block V Virginia class submarines to be delivered between 2028 and 2034. Jimmy Carter was commissioned in 2005 and will be 29 years old when the last Block V boat arrives, at least according to the present schedule. This one-of-a-kind subvariant of the Seawolf class itself replaced the equally uniquely modified Sturgeon class attack submarine USS Parche, which was inactivated in 2004 after three decades of service.

As TWZ discussed in detail last week, the decision to recategorize VPM-equipped Block V submarines as SSGNs is meant to underscore the Navy’s separate commitment to filling separate looming capability gaps. The Navy is now starting the process of retiring its four Ohio class SSGNs, all of which were originally built as nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs). Those boats are also among the most heavily in-demand submarines the Navy has in service today. They are really more multi-mission platforms able to provide a wide range of special operation support, underwater command and control, and intelligence fusion functions, on top of their long-range strike capabilities, as you can read more about in this past feature of ours.

It has also been pointed out that the Navy is now unlikely to acquire a new SSN class, at least technically, for many years. The Navy has plans to acquire a new class of attack submarines, currently referred to as SSN(X), which has been discussed in the past as more of a true successor to the Seawolf class. However, the service does not now expect the first of those boats to enter service until the mid-2040s. At the same time, it is also worth noting that the decision to change the hull classification of VPM-equipped Virginia class from SSN to SSGN is largely administrative from what has been disclosed so far. Block V versions, at least, are expected to have the same capability mix as before.

SSN(X) “will complement the Virginia class to create a mixed attack submarine force built to penetrate and dominate heavily defended adversary areas,” according to the long-term shipbuilding plan the Navy released back in May. “With a larger payload volume, superior survivability, and organic hosting of unmanned robotic and autonomous systems (RAS), SSN(X) will assure continued persistent access to denied zones and eliminate enemy safe havens.”

“Block VI, really, that will become the jumping-off point, we think, for the SSN(X) program, and we expect to continue to incorporate even more advanced stealth and performance features,” General Dynamics Electric Boat’s Graney had also said back in 2022.

Whether the new SSGN nomenclature for Virginia class submarines equipped with the VPM results in any significant changes to how the submarines are employed remains to be seen.

What we do know now for sure is that two of the Navy’s future Block V Virginia class submarines will lack the VPM, and the second one will be a highly specialized seabed warfare version completely unlike any other.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

During his eight seasons as a head college football coach, Lincoln Riley often faced a frustrating conundrum when it came to playing freshmen: Were a handful of plays at the end of a blowout really worth burning a whole year of eligibility?

“I can remember at times going to a player in the game,” Riley said Tuesday. “‘We can probably play you like five to 10 plays at the end of the game. But if you do that, we can’t play you anymore, or we’re going to have to take your redshirt.’ We’re having to talk about that in-game. … You had to be ready to adjust on the fly.”

But after years of meticulously monitoring that playing time, those adjustments will no longer be necessary, after the NCAA adopted new eligibility rules in June. The new model gives athletes a blanket five years to compete, effectively eliminating the need for redshirts or special waivers. It also could alter how rosters are constructed.

Riley has been calling for the rule change since shortly after he became USC’s head coach. And it is now being implemented at the best possible time for his Trojans.

With so many highly touted freshmen from USC’s No. 1 recruiting class sure to see the field this season, there’s no need now for Riley or his staff to look four years into their future while deciding when and how to give them game-day snaps.

“Now you can just make the best decision in the moment,” Riley said. “I think that’s great for the player. … Just play the guys who deserve to play.”

For USC, it means that a fleet of first-year players are sure to see the field, not just during the nonconference slate but beyond, as Riley and his staff feel out which members of the Trojans’ 2026 class could contribute when the schedule suddenly stiffens in late September.

“Any opportunity that we get a chance to play these guys, however it comes out,” Riley said, “you love the fact to be able to do it.”

Some schools could land veteran roster reinforcements as a result of the rule change after a judge granted an injunction allowing anyone in the class of 2022 who would’ve used the fifth year of eligibility to return to claim it. The decision is being appealed by the NCAA. Former USC wideout Jay Fair has indicated on social media that he intends to pursue that route, but as of Tuesday, Fair hadn’t rejoined the program.

The Trojans stand to benefit more than most from the new eligibility rules this season. But Riley does have one issue with the new rule. It currently stipulates that a player’s eligibility clock begins with either their full-time enrollment or the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever occurs first.

Trent Mosley smiles while leading Santa Margarita to a Division 1 title. Mosley is among the freshmen at USC who will benefit from new eligibility rules.

(Craig Weston)

So as it stands, any freshman with a birthday prior to Sept. 1, 2006, is left with one fewer year to play than their freshmen counterparts.

At USC, that affects two members of the 2026 recruiting class — wide receiver Trent Mosley and safety Madden Riordan.

For Mosley, a former Rancho Santa Margarita star, a fifth year may not ultimately matter. He’s already 20 years old and on track to potentially start in the slot as a freshman.

But USC’s coaches were quick this week to note that the Trojans’ freshmen, no matter how talented, still had some acclimating to do.

“Age is really just a number,” inside receivers coach Chad Savage said of Mosley. “When you’re a freshman and you come into college, there’s a big learning curve, right? Whether it’s playbook, whether it’s everyday life, whether it’s the weight room, whatever it may be, um, I think from a maturity standpoint, he is very mature, but it’s just one step in front of the other, every single day with Trent.”

Tanook Hines, USC’s top returning receiver, was a bit less restrained in his evaluation.

“Trent Mosley definitely stands out,” Hines said. “He seem like a vet, like he’s already been here.”

Riordan, meanwhile, is older than some of the vets on USC’s defense, including junior starting linebacker Desman Stephens, who already has 26 games under his belt at USC. It follows then that Riordan’s football IQ has made an impression with coaches early on.

He’s one of the several freshmen who might have been on the brink of a redshirt, given his weight. But Riordan added almost 15 pounds during the summer to hit 180 and could push for a place in USC’s defensive back rotation.

Riley said he believes Mosley and Riordan — and any other freshmen, for that matter — should get the chance to play all five seasons. No matter how old they are when their college careers start.

“We have a few guys that we are in the process of seeking some clarification and potentially getting some relief on that,” Riley said of the age restrictions. “Our belief is if they’re five for five coming out of high school, they should be five for five. We should keep it simple.

“Hopefully we get to that point.”

A man was travelling home when he was offered a first class upgrade – but in a remarkable act of kindness, he gave it to a stranger sitting next to him, sparking a friendship that has lasted more than 20 years

A man has won hearts after explaining why he handed over a complimentary first-class upgrade to a complete stranger.

He recounted how he was heading back to Florida from Costa Rica after spending several weeks working overseas. Utterly shattered, he asked his company to book an aisle seat so he could stretch out his legs during the flight. But when he boarded, he found a “rather large woman” sitting in his allocated seat. He explained on Reddit: “As I checked my ticket, she explained she had sprained her ankle and would I mind sitting in the middle seat, as she was having trouble getting in and out of the seats.

“I looked at her and realised that she and I were probably the same age. I don’t normally like middle seats, but she needed the aisle seat more than I and so I said ‘sure’.”

The pair struck up a conversation and began learning about one another’s lives when, half an hour into the flight, a flight attendant approached him with a complimentary upgrade offer.

He revealed: “I thought about it for a moment and said to my seatmate, ‘Why don’t you go ahead and go up. you can use that seat more than I can’. She looked surprised and shed a tear before accepting.

“The flight attendant took her up, and then came back (with a drink) and said: ‘We’re not supposed to do that, but thank you for helping her’.

“Anyway, that was more than 20 years ago, and we still correspond from time to time. Sometimes, little acts make large impacts.”

One social media user responded: “That’s such a beautiful reminder that small kindnesses can mean the world to someone else.”

Another chimed in: “Exactly, you showed how little kindness can ripple into something much bigger, you showed love to the family that means a lot to them.

“This is the kind gesture the world need without anticipating anything in return.”

A third added: “That’s such a wholesome story. Funny how what feels small to us can mean the world to someone else. You never know the weight someone’s carrying when you decide to help. Makes me think those little choices on flights or in lines stick with people way longer than we realise.”

Yet another user shared: “Reading this hit me because I remember when I was a kid, strangers did the same so my mum could sit with me on flights.

“I never realised how huge that was until I got older. Honestly, it’s just a good reminder that kindness has a ripple effect. Now I try to do one small ‘inconvenience’ a week on purpose, kind of keeps me grounded.”

Travel chaos

It comes as a passenger sparked a debate after reclining their plane seat on a long-haul flight without first checking behind them.

Like many passengers on long journeys, they decided to get comfortable after the meal service had finished and prepared to recline their seat before trying to get some sleep.

However, what happened next was the last thing they expected. As they pushed their seat backwards, they suddenly heard somebody shouting: “Whoa, whoa, whoa!”

At first, they assumed the noise was coming from the TV show they were watching on their tablet and carried on as normal.

But moments later, a passenger sitting behind them tapped on their seat and delivered a stern warning.

Future subvariants of the U.S. Navy Virginia class nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) fitted with Virginia Payload Modules (VPM) will now be categorized as guided missile types (SSGN) instead. The VPM is a 70-foot hull extension that contains four additional large vertical tubes designed to launch Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles, Intermediate-Range Conventional Prompt Strike (IRCPS) hypersonic missiles, and other payloads. The recategorization decision comes as the service is moving to retire all four of its Ohio class SSGNs by the end of 2029. The Ohio SSGNs are some of the most capable and heavily-in-demand submarines in the Navy’s inventory today.

The Navy currently plans to acquire 19 VPM-equipped Virginia class SSGNs, according to a press release the service put out today. The first boat in this class to feature the VPM will be the future USS Arizona, which is actually the second Block V subvariant being built. The first Block V version, the future USS Oklahoma, will lack a VPM, but the other 10 boats in this batch are expected to have this feature.

Block VI Virginia class submarines are also expected to have VPMs, as well as other upgraded capabilities. However, last week, the Navy announced a new monster $76.6 billion contract award for nine Block VI boats, as well as five additional Columbia class nuclear ballistic missile submarines, or SSBNs. This creates a discrepancy of one submarine (11 Block Vs together with nine Block VIs, for a total of 20, not 19) when it comes to the stated SSGN plans. One possible explanation might be that the outlier is a planned one-of-a-kind seabed espionage subvariant. TWZ has reached out to the Navy for clarification.

Regardless, the decision to formally recategorize Virginia class submarines with VPMs as SSGNs is significant.

“This reclassification is a clear acknowledgment of the increased lethality VPM brings to the undersea fight,” Navy Vice Adm. Rob Gaucher, Director of Submarine Programs, said in a statement. “These VPM-equipped SSGNs will ensure the Navy continues to dominate the undersea domain for decades to come. By integrating this additional payload capacity, we will have the ability to surge strike power to assure our allies, deter aggression, outmatch any adversary, and give our Fleet commanders an incredibly versatile, hard-hitting instrument of national power.”

“Reclassifying Virginia Payload Module-equipped submarines as SSGNs accurately reflects the extraordinary strike capacity, operational flexibility, and global reach these platforms bring to the Fleet,” Navy Adm. Daryl Caudle, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), the service’s top office, also said in his own statement. “These submarines will provide our Nation with a powerful and persistent deterrent, expand options for our combatant commanders, and ensure the Navy remains ready to fight and win whenever and wherever called upon.”

Virginia class submarines with VPMs do have significantly greater magazine depth than their predecessor. Block I and II boats had vertical launch system (VLS) arrays capable of firing a dozen Tomahawks. Block III and IV versions have a pair of Virginia Payload Tubes (VPT) in place of the earlier VLS configuration, but with the same number of tubes (12) for Tomahawks.

VPM-equipped types will be able to carry 28 more Tomahawks for a total load of 40. Using different inserts, future Virginia class SSGNs will be able to carry other munitions in those tubes. This includes the aforementioned IRCPS hypersonic missiles. The Navy is also now looking to acquire a surface-to-air missile designed to be fired vertically from these submarines, which you can read more about here.

It should be noted here that all Virginia class submarines have four 21-inch torpedo tubes, which also offer another option for launching Tomahawks. They can also be used to fire Harpoon anti-ship cruise missiles, as well as launch and recover uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUV). It’s also possible, if not highly probable, that the VPMs will be capable of launching (and potentially recovering) other payloads, including additional uncrewed platforms.

Some existing Virginia class submarines can be fitted with Dry Deck Shelters (DDS) on top of their hulls for deploying special operations forces, swimmer delivery vehicles (SDVs), and other assets, as well. That is a capability that could be carried over to the enlarged SSGNs.

All of this brings us to the matter of the Ohio SSGNs. These boats are best known for being able to carry up to 154 Tomahawks at once, though they more typically deploy with loads of around 100 of those missiles. However, these submarines, which were converted from Ohio class SSBNs, are really multi-mission platforms. Beyond their ability to launch barrages of dozens of Tomahawks, they can act as motherships for special operations forces and uncrewed platforms, as well as serve as underwater intelligence fusion nodes and command centers. You can read more about their capabilities in this past War Zone feature.

“This transition [in categorization from SSN to SSGN] comes at an important moment as USS Georgia, one of the Navy’s four Ohio class guided-missile submarines, begins the inactivation process after more than four decades of exceptional service,” CNO Caudle also said in his statement today. “Georgia and her sister ships proved the enduring value of combining undersea stealth with unmatched clandestine strike capability. The next generation of Virginia class SSGNs builds on that legacy with greater survivability, adaptability, and sustained combat power.”

USS Georgia returned home from its final scheduled operational patrol last month. It is now scheduled to be formally inactivated next year.

At the same time, as TWZ has noted for years, the VPM-equipped Virginia class boats will not be a one-for-one replacement for the Ohio class SSGNs, at least based on what is publicly known about the former’s expected capabilities. Just in terms of missile launch capacity, each one of the converted Ohios is equal to roughly four Block V/VI Virginias. This means the Navy will need to field 16 new Virginia SSGNs before it fills the gap left by the retirement of USS Georgia and its three sisters, and can then start adding capacity with three additional boats. The Navy is facing a broader deficit in VLS capacity across its surface and subsurface fleets in the coming years, due also in part to the impending retirement of the last of its Ticonderoga class cruisers.

It is unclear what other capabilities the Block V and VI Virginia class submarines might have that will help make up for the loss of the specialized intelligence gathering and command and control tasks currently performed by the Ohio class SSGNs. As noted, some existing Virginia class submarines also perform the special operations support mission, but on a more limited level.

“By putting high-volume, long-range precision strike capabilities directly into the hands of the Fleet, these SSGNs will serve as a vital cornerstone for Distributed Maritime Operations and high-end warfighting,” the Navy’s press release today says. “Once operational, these highly survivable platforms will be dynamically employed across crucial global theaters – providing persistent forward presence, reinforcing robust alliance deterrence, and standing ready to project decisive combat power at a moment’s notice.”

On top of all this, the Navy does not expect the full fleet of 19 Virginia SSGNs to be in service until Fiscal Year 2038, at the earliest. This will be nearly a decade after the last Ohio SSGNs sail into mothballs. Concerns are regularly voiced now about the ability of General Dynamics Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding (a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries) to keep up with demand for submarines in this class. There is even more pressure on the program with the addition of plans to sell some of those boats to Australia as part of the trilateral Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) defense pact. The Navy is hoping to see the Virginia class production rate eventually rise to two per year, but is not expecting that to come until sometime in the 2030s.

If nothing else, the Navy has at least outlined more of a formal plan to supplant the Ohio class SSGNs with what it has now dubbed Virginia class SSGNs.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

After more than 42 years of service as one of America’s most potent power-projection platforms, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Georgia has returned home from operations for the final time ahead of its retirement. The boat is one of four Ohio class nuclear-powered guided missile submarines, or SSGNs. The SSGNs are some of the most capable and in-demand submarines in the U.S. Navy’s inventory today, but all are set to leave service before the end of the decade.

The USS Georgia returned to its homeport of Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Georgia, on Monday. The boat is scheduled to be officially inactivated on July 31, the first step on a long road through retirement that is set to end with it being recycled.

Georgia was first commissioned as an Ohio class nuclear ballistic missile submarine, or SSBN, in 1984. It was the last of the four Ohio class boats to be converted into a conventionally armed SSGN, returning to the fleet in its new form in 2008. However, it was used as the main testbed for proving out the concept initially, as you can read about in much more detail in this past TWZ feature.

The Ohio class SSGNs are most widely known for their ability to carry up to 154 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles. However, they typically only carry around 100 of these weapons – a still impressive amount – and are actually highly capable multi-mission platforms. These boats can be fitted with up to two dry deck shelters, for deploying special operators underwater, including in mini-submarines, as well as uncrewed platforms. They are also equipped to act as discreet underwater intelligence fusion nodes and command centers.

This unique mix of capabilities has led the four converted Ohios to become among the most heavily tasked submarines in the Navy. The public presence of one of these SSGNs, as well as their SSBN cousins, in any region of the world sends powerful signals to opponents, as well as allies and partners. Over the years, they have made somewhat regular appearances during spikes in geopolitical friction globally.

USS Georgia, specifically, has been used for this purpose on several occasions in the past, especially in the Middle East. In late 2020 and early 2021, Georgia made rare publicized trips on the surface through the Strait of Hormuz during periods of particular tension with Iran. In May 2021, Iranian boats harassed the submarine and its escorts during one of these transits, prompting a U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat to fire warning shots.

Iranian fast boats around USS Georgia in the Strait of Hormuz

The USS Georgia is also very likely to have been the submarine that fired more than two dozen Tomahawks at the Iranian nuclear facility at Isfahan as part of Operation Midnight Hammer in 2025. Whether or not it took part in subsequent strikes on Iran as part of Operation Epic Fury this year is unclear.

Despite what the Ohio class SSGNs continue to bring to the table, the Navy currently plans to inactivate all of them over the next three years. The plan had previously been to have all of these boats out of active service by 2028. This timeline has now been just slightly extended, with the USS Ohio, USS Florida, and USS Michigan set to follow Georgia into retirement in Fiscal Years 2027, 2028, and 2029, respectively. USS Ohio is also notably the lead boat in the class and, by extension, the oldest, having entered service in 1981.

As it stands now, there is no direct replacement for the Ohio SSGNs in the Navy’s shipbuilding pipeline. The service does have a number of Virginia class attack submarines capable of supporting special operations missions in service now and is planning to acquire enlarged Block V subvariants. Each Block V will feature what is known as the Virginia Payload Module (VPM), which gives the boat four additional larger vertical launch tubes, and will really make it more of an SSGN. Between the VPM and the existing launch tubes carried over from the Block IV design, these submarines will be able to carry up to 40 Tomahawk missiles at a time. The VPM tubes will also be able to accommodate the forthcoming Intermediate-Range Conventional Prompt Strike (IRCPS) hypersonic missile. However, no version of the Virginia class is expected to provide the same level of capability, at least in some regards, as is found on the Ohio SSGNs, based on what is publicly known. The first Block V Virginia class submarine with the VPM is not expected to enter service until 2028.

The Navy is also in the process of replacing its Ohio SSBNs with new Columbia class types. There has been talk in the past of acquiring new “Large Payload Submarines,” possibly based on the Columbia design, as a more direct replacement for the Ohio SSGNs. However, the Columbia class program has suffered delays and cost growth, and the priority remains on getting the new SSBNs into service. It is critical for those boats to be delivered on a tight schedule to ensure there is no gap in the ability of the maritime leg of America’s nuclear triad to meet operational requirements.

In the meantime, the USS Georgia is already heading toward retirement and, unless the Navy changes course, the last of these highly capable submarines will be out of active service by 2029.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

The White House has formally registered its opposition to a move by Congress to block work on the nuclear-powered Trump class battleship unless the U.S. Navy provides assurances that key weapon systems are “sufficiently mature.” The House Armed Services Committee has already demanded a report from the Secretary of the Navy outlining the steps the service is taking to ensure the battleship program won’t exacerbate existing construction delays on aircraft carriers and submarines.

Earlier this week, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a Statement of Administration Policy regarding the latest draft of the annual defense policy bill, or National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), for Fiscal Year 2027 that is now making its way through the House of Representatives. The document offers support for and opposition to various sections of the proposed legislation, which is also known as H.R. 8800.

“The Administration appreciates that H.R. 8800 would provide authorization of the 18 ships requested in the Budget. These ships are a direct commitment to restoring America’s maritime dominance and maritime industrial base,” OMB’s statement, which was published on July 21, declares. “In addition, the Administration appreciates the bill’s support of the Battleship program by fully authorizing the $1 billion in advance procurement necessary to accelerate the delivery to the Fleet.”

“However, the Administration opposes the bill’s excessive reporting requirements in section 131 regarding the Administration’s priority Battleship program,” it continues. “The Administration strongly opposes any reporting requirements that delay the Battleship program without supporting national security requirements.”

On July 21, USNI News also reported that OMB was pressing members of Congress to include funding to start work on the first Trump class battleship in a proposed temporary spending bill, or Continuing Resolution. A temporary funding package could be needed if legislators cannot pass a more formal budget by September 30, when the current fiscal year ends.

When it comes to Section 131 of H.R. 8800, the provision is brief, but pointed. At the time of writing, it reads, in full:

“The Secretary of the Navy may not enter into a contract or other agreement that includes a scope of work for the construction of the lead ship of the Battleship program until the date on which the Secretary certifies to the congressional defense committees that the weapon systems planned for inclusion in such lead ship are at a sufficiently mature technology readiness level.”

The section does not name any particular weapon systems or define what level of technological readiness would be deemed sufficient. To date, the Navy has described the planned Trump class battleship as a 35,000-ton-displacement warship with a diverse array of weapons. The ship is set to be able to fire nuclear and conventional missiles, including hypersonic types, from several very large Vertical Launch System (VLS) arrays. It will also have an electromagnetic railgun, a pair of traditional 5-inch naval guns, various laser directed energy weapons, and additional weapon systems for close-in defense.

TWZ previously reported on this provision, which has been in the proposed legislation since at least May. As we wrote in the past:

“In terms of technological maturity, the railgun presents particular questions. Between 2005 and 2021, the Navy had an active railgun program. Despite promising developments, plans for an at-sea test were repeatedly pushed back before the entire effort was shelved. Major technical hurdles were cited as a key factor in that decision. The railgun itself was effectively placed in storage at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico.“

“However, it emerged earlier this year that the Navy had conducted a new round of testing of the railgun at WSMR in February 2025. Whether the Navy has any plans to pick up where it left off with this prototype design, which was developed by BAE Systems, or pursue a new one remains unclear. General Atomics, which previously supported U.S. Army railgun efforts, has publicly expressed interest in being involved in arming the Trump class.”

“While the Navy has been very active in developing and fielding laser directed energy weapons, this is another area where the service has faced continued challenges in expanding their operational use. The plans for the Trump class specifically call for a 300-kilowatt-class laser, which is far more powerful than any of the designs the Navy has integrated on its warships to date. The service currently has eight Arleigh Burke class destroyers with the Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN), as well as another one of those warships with the High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS). HELIOS is a 60-kilowatt-class design, though there has been talk about scaling up its power rating to 150 kilowatts. ODIN’s power rating does not appear to be officially confirmed, but it is understood to be significantly lower than that of HELIOS. You can read more about all of this here.”

“The Intermediate Range Conventional Prompt Strike (IRCPS) hypersonic missile, another key component of the future Trump class arsenal, is also still in development. The first test launch from a warship, the stealth destroyer USS Zumwalt, is expected to come next year. IRCPS is the Navy half of a joint program with the U.S. Army, which is working to field a land-based version of the same missile. The Army refers to its complete weapon system as the Dark Eagle. The Army had suffered significant setbacks in the past with the Dark Eagle, but the service had blamed those issues on the launcher rather than the missile.”

For its part, OMB’s July 21 statement does not respond to any particular concerns that might be raised by Section 131, either.

Section 131 represents just one small portion of the questions, concerns, and criticism that members of Congress have leveled at the Trump class battleship program. The first one of these ships, currently set to be named the USS Defiant, has an estimated price tag of $17 billion. This would make the vessel more expensive than each of the next three Ford class aircraft carriers. The future USS Defiant is also not currently expected to enter service until 2036. The Navy has already outlined plans to order 14 more of these battleships between Fiscal Years 2029 and 2055, as well.

With this in mind, as noted, the House Armed Services Committee has separately asked for a report from the Secretary of the Navy, to be delivered no later than March 1, 2027, on the potential industrial impacts. A particular issue is the strain that work on the Trump class could have on America’s limited nuclear shipbuilding enterprise. Currently, there are only two U.S. shipyards qualified to build nuclear-powered vessels and only one supplier of naval reactors. Currently, the only nuclear-powered ships in the Navy are aircraft carriers and submarines. The service has not operated a nuclear-powered surface combatant in decades, and it has been even longer since one was built in the United States.

TWZ has repeatedly raised questions about the basic industrial capacity to support the battleship program since it was first rolled out to the public in December 2025. It is worth noting here that third, fourth, and fifth Ford class carriers now under construction – the future USS Enterprise (CVN-80), USS Doris Miller (CVN-81), and USS William J. Clinton (CVN-82) – have all suffered delays. Concerns are also regularly voiced about potential setbacks in the construction of new Virginia class and Columbia class submarines. Navy officials have been saying for years now that there is little, if any, margin left in the Columbia class delivery timeline, which is a critical matter of national security. It is essential for those boats to be delivered on a tight schedule to ensure there is no gap in the ability of the leg of America’s nuclear triad to meet operational requirements.

The battleship effort is of particular significance to President Donald Trump and has been presented as a signature program for his administration. At the same time, the schedule that has been laid out so far means that major decisions about how to proceed in acquiring these ships, if at all, will run into the next administration. Any delays will only push that timeline further to the right at a time when there are already major competing priorities for defense spending. Some members of Congress have openly questioned whether the battleship effort is the best use of available resources already.

The annual NDAA is still far from being finalized. The House’s version will need to be reconciled with the one being advanced in the Senate before the bill can be put to a vote, let alone sent to Trump’s desk to be signed into law (or vetoed). This is a process typically marked by lengthy negotiations, and Section 131, as well as other provisions, could change in the future or be removed entirely.

Whether or not a larger political fight around the Trump class battleship emerges remains to be seen. However, OMB has now made clear publicly that the administration is against the inclusion of the guardrails around the program that the current version of H.R. 8800 proposes to establish.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — This summer’s World Cup will be remembered for a lot of things.

It was the first to be played in three countries, the first with 48 teams and the overall attendance nearly doubled the previous record. Norway’s Erling Haaland and Cape Verde’s Vozinha were captivating while Egypt and Canada both won World Cup games for the first time, advancing to the Round of 16.

And Spain, glorious Spain, gave up just one goal in eight games to dethrone the reigning champions and become the first nation in history to own both the men’s and women’s World Cup titles at the same time.

But the tournament will also be remembered for a classless and churlish Argentina, which forever stained itself with a thuggish performance in the game and an ungracious one afterward.

If La Albiceleste had simply kept its composure it would have secured a place next to Brazil and Germany, the only other countries to reach three finals in four World Cups, as one of the greatest teams of all time. Instead, some of its players turned the postgame handshakes into a brawl, with Argentine midfielder Leandro Paredes drawing a red card for grabbing Spain’s Eric Garcia by the throat and shoving him to the turf.

It was believed to be the only red card ever handed out after a World Cup final, and the ignominy it brought was well-deserved. But the childishness was just beginning. When Spain assembled on the podium to accept the World Cup trophy, which had been Argentina’s moments earlier, the South Americans turned their backs.

More than an hour later Lionel Messi, who has cemented his stature as the greatest player in World Cup history, soiled that status by leading the players out of the locker room and through a back exit to the team bus, avoiding the media many had been so eager to speak with during the team’s unbeaten run to the final.

Argentina’s Nahuel Molina, top, reacts after Spain won the World Cup final between Spain and Argentina in East Rutherford, N.J.

(Pamela Smith / Associated Press)

It was an attack on class and decorum as well as violation of FIFA rules, which require players to leave the stadium through a “mixed zone” accessible to media. They are not required to stop or speak, but certainly someone owed some accountability to the tens of thousands of fans in Argentine jerseys who packed Times Square and MetLife Stadium over the weekend and the millions in Argentine who filled plazas and town squares to watch the team play.

“We’ve been great in victory and we need to be great in defeat,” Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni said moments after Paredes was booked for assault. “We have shown today that we know how to lose, too. We lost the game and we accept that.”

Scaloni, who did address the media, later broke down in tears.

“I already cried all the tears I had in the dressing room,” he said in Spanish.

Scaloni, 48, may be out of a job when his contract expires in December, but his message for the fans was don’t cry for me, Argentina.

“It is hard to ask people to enjoy this equally. It is very hard to convince people that this is a triumph,” said Scaloni, who has lost just twice in 15 World Cup games.

“When you win, not everything is good. When you lose, not everything is bad.”

But while Argentina was being petty and petulant, Spain was practically perfect in every way. Not only did it concede just one goal in the tournament, it held Argentina without a shot into extra time Sunday — the first time that’s ever happened in a World Cup final — and ran its unbeaten streak to a record 38 games overall.

The win, which came on substitute Ferran Torres’ goal moments into the second extra-time period — and less than 20 minutes after Argentina was reduced to 10 men when Enzo Fernández was given a second yellow card for a foolish tackle — not only made Spain the first country to be the men’s and women’s world champion at the same time, it also made it the first to be the men’s world, European and Olympic champion at the same time.

No country in history has dominated the sport as Spain is dominating it now. And since Spain is the second-youngest team to win the World Cup in 56 years, La Roja could be on top for some time.

“After the match, some of the players who have been with us the longest asked me ‘coach, what is left for us win? We’ve won everything,’” said Spain’s manager Luis de la Fuente. “I told them, well the next match in September.”

That’s a UEFA Nations League match with England, which finished third in this World Cup. A little further down the road is the 2030 World Cup, which Spain will co-host, making it the first country in history to defend its title at home.

“When you arrive at a moment like today and think about the journey we’ve taken, you realize the importance of that process,” said De la Fuente, a former youth national team coach who managed many of the players on the World Cup team — among them Dani Olmo, Mikel Merino, Mikel Oyarzabal, Unai Simón, the tournament’s top goalkeeper, and Rodri, tournament’s top player — to U-19 and U-21 European titles.

“We certainly wouldn’t be here today — we wouldn’t have achieved anything — without the journey we’ve shared with these players,” the coach continued. “We have that raw material, those wonderful Spanish footballers. And they way they compete, that is what brought us here.

“That goes back many years.”

De la Fuente, soft-spoken and professorial, is also scrupulously polite, an example many of his players follow. And while it is undoubtedly easier to display grace and dignity in victory than it is in defeat, the difference in the way Argentina and Spain exited the World Cup was far greater than the gap that separated them on the scoreboard, something De la Fuente unwittingly highlighted in speaking about his team late Sunday.

“It seems people were surprised that, alongside talent and brilliance, good people can also play the game,” he said. “This proves that it is possible; that good, supportive, generous people with strong values can form a genuine team.

“We played against the best national teams in the world, yet we were the best team. We demonstrated that a team built on good people — supportive people, people who hold values and principles that prioritize the common good over individual interests. Traveling with people like that makes for a better, safer journey.”

In Spain’s case, it also makes a World Cup champion.

Staff writers Eduard Cauich and Jad El Reda contributed to this story.

On a recent summer day at Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences, students ambled through yawns, braces and acne into their creative writing class. The day’s lesson tackled “style,” that elusive, ultra-subjective choice of expression.

“Who was the first author you encountered to do something different on the page?” asked the teacher, Clarke E. Andros.

They named Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein and Lemony Snicket before moving on to a précis of Joy Williams’ flash fiction. “These stories are weird — she’s weird,” Andros warned.

In some ways, high school looks much the same as it did 20, even 100 years ago: sleepy eyes either light up or glaze over when a teacher poses a Socratic question. Nervous laughs and unexpected insights emerge as young people use stories to make sense of themselves and the world around them.

(Fingerprint; Penguin Classics; Pantheon)

The idea of the “Great American Novel” took shape in the aftermath of the Civil War, when a fractured nation looked to literature to define itself. As classrooms evolved, so did the canon that reflected America’s changing identity.

But the syllabus today is at a tipping point. Forces — some visible, some harder to see — are upending literature and education itself. American students are in a decade-long reading recession, while fewer students are reading for pleasure than in previous generations.

Reading scores among high school seniors are at their lowest in decades, according to federal testing data, while schools across the country are grappling with how to respond to waning attention spans and artificial intelligence. The Los Angeles Unified School District has begun a course correction, voting to limit student use of laptops and tablets during class — the first major American school system to do so.

We spoke with five high school English teachers across the city — three from LAUSD, one from a charter and one from a private school — to find out what literature belongs in today’s classroom, and which stories can help us understand America, past and present.

Interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.

Raquel Olvera, Roosevelt High School, Boyle Heights

What books in the American literary canon are you teaching (old and new)?

In 11th-grade American Literature, as part of the LAUSD-approved Odell curriculum, we read four book options: “Friday Night Lights,” “Beloved,” “The Great Gatsby” and “The Warmth of Other Suns.” For my 10th-grade World Literature course, I like “Antigone” and “Things Fall Apart.” I also teach “In Cold Blood,” using it to explore Americans’ fascination with true crime and what the genre reveals about race, gender, class and the justice system.

(Simon & Schuster; Sky Publishing; Vintage)

What’s one work from the canon adults should revisit today?

“The Great Gatsby.” When I read it in high school, I wasn’t engaging with its undercurrents of racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, gender or sexuality in the way I do now. Its themes of power, wealth, consumerism and American identity remain as relevant as ever.

What are English teachers up against in the classroom in 2026?

Besides large class sizes and underfunding, I think public educators are largely battling apathy. Students and young people aren’t engaging with books like they used to. A side effect of that is a lack of empathy and curiosity. At the very least, you can model what it means to be a reader and a writer, and hope that years later, students remember that one nerd English teacher who showed them what humanity can look like.

Schehrezade Lodhy, Da Vinci Schools, El Segundo

What books in the American literary canon are you teaching (old and new)?

Students really enjoy Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” — it’s all about the human condition and cancel culture, forbidden love and lies and deceit, with witches in the forest. In poetry, we explore a range of American voices, from Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes to Amanda Gorman, and sometimes even song lyrics. I also use “The Moth: Storytelling” podcast when students are working on personal essays. The goal is to make literature, poetry and storytelling as accessible as possible. At a charter school, we have quite a bit of autonomy with what we teach.

What’s one work from the canon adults should revisit today?

James Baldwin’s “Giovanni’s Room” and “Go Tell It on the Mountain.” I read Baldwin a few summers ago, and that was quite an education for me. Unfortunately, some of the content is a bit too mature for high school, but I do talk about Baldwin a bit in my classes when we cover African American authors.

(Reader’s Library Classics; W. W. Norton & Company; Simon & Schuster)

What are English teachers up against in the classroom in 2026?

Artificial intelligence, big time. I really pared back technology in my class, and we’ve pivoted back to paper and pencil. Going into my 18th year of teaching, my biggest goal is re-creating that experience of thinking critically for oneself and studying literature through a critical lens. We’re in this era of going back to the basics. With decreased attention spans, teachers are being forced to become even more creative. It feels like we’re reinventing ourselves every year.

Aiden Brown, John F. Kennedy High School, Granada Hills

What books in the American literary canon are you teaching (old and new)?

From an educationally traditional background, I still believe in canon disruption — mixing the new and old. In American Lit, I’ve taught “Their Eyes Were Watching God” 11 times now. It’s a hard one to get on the first try because the vernacular is so particular, but when we read it physically while also listening to the audiobook, it’s such a great novel to hear. I pair it with bell hooks’ “All About Love.” I teach “Macbeth” from a performance-based lens, making it less intimidating. My favorite book is “Frankenstein,” written by a teenage girl who invented science fiction. My ninth-graders’ favorites were “Fahrenheit 451,” “The Odyssey” (Emily Wilson translation) and “Persepolis,” a graphic novel about a girl discovering punk rock and rebelling against the established order.

What’s one work from the canon adults should revisit today?

All of the lonely young men need to reread “The Great Gatsby,” and anyone freaked out by the state of the world should read “Parable of the Sower.” One quote from the book hangs on a poster board in my classroom: “A community’s first responsibility is to protect its children — the ones we have now and the ones we will have.”

What are English teachers up against in the classroom?

Teenagers are still the funniest people on the planet. As the world around them becomes more atomized, I find that they’re increasingly interested in connection. In the classroom, we are seeing skill loss and a decreased ability to focus on a task. I don’t think that’s just because of AI or the pandemic — it’s also phones, screens and the world kids are growing up in. One thing teachers seem to agree on is a return to pen and paper.

Clarke E. Andros, Crossroads School, Santa Monica

What books in the American literary canon are you teaching (old and new)?

A newer addition I would recommend is “Hunger: A Novella and Stories” by Lan Samantha Chang. Especially in California, we have a lot of great Asian American literature, including works by Amy Tan, but I enjoy the writing level in Lan’s — it’s accessible to students but pushes them, all about intersectional identity and the first-gen experience. A lot of the Latino students I’ve taught in Los Angeles also connect with that book.

(Penguin Classics; Grand Central Publishing; Mariner Books Classics)

What’s one work from the canon adults should revisit today?

“Of Mice and Men.” Revisiting it today opens up deeper conversations about labor, social conciousness and power. Steinbeck creates a microcosm of American society, where disability, gender, race and class are all represented and shaped by an economic hierarchy. The characters are left navigating a world where people often turn on each other rather than challenge the systems around them. It’s novella-length, so you could read it in a Sunday morning.

What are English teachers up against in the classroom in 2026?

We’re up against systems that often prioritize ed-tech and third-party vendors over smaller class sizes and more teachers. When I was at LAUSD, it was clear from our superintendent — who just stepped down over his fraud investigation — was just in bed with tech. It’s hard for me to imagine the folks in power didn’t look at [the failed AI chatbot venture] and see it as a grift.

On the flip side, at hyper-competitive, elite schools like this, students are approaching high school with college in mind rather than with high school in mind. When students understand the value of the process, they’re less likely to look for an easy shortcut like AI.

Adam Tan, Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies, Mid-City

What books in the American literary canon are you teaching (old and new)?

With independent reading, memoirs are big, like “Crying in H Mart” and Sylvia Plath’s fictionalized “The Bell Jar.” Younger kids gravitate to “Musashi,” a celebrated epic based on a famous samurai. We have a lot of Korean American students here, so they like “Pachinko,” dealing with racism and the Korean population in post-World War II Japan. I’ll also throw in “The Bluest Eye.”

In ninth grade, we read “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Of Mice and Men,” “The Thief and the Dogs” and “Romeo and Juliet,” with the film adaptations to use media literacy. In American Literature, the major texts are “The Great Gatsby,” “The Things They Carried” and “The Crucible.” We also read nonfiction articles, including pieces on AI and robots, while focusing on rhetorical devices.

(Blackstone Publishing; Knopf; Little, Brown and Company)

What’s one work from the canon adults should revisit today?

“The Catcher in the Rye” benefits from the distance of adulthood. It’s a novel about disillusionment and the search for identity, but when you revisit it, you also see that it’s very much a love story. I often encourage students to look for forms of love beyond romance — love for family, friends and fellow human beings. Even today, students can tell you that the biggest phony in the book is Holden himself. The novel reminds us that while literature may not have answers to the world’s problems, it can help us examine our wounds and find solace in art.

What are English teachers up against in the classroom in 2026?

A lack of accountability in the modern world. In general, we have a school district focused on 100% graduation rates, no F’s. [LAUSD] wanted everything on computer, and now they want less computer time, which is great, but not everyone at top management is on the same page. Teachers are often trying to balance what the district wants with what we know our students need.

What I try to instill instead is an intrinsic desire to grow as a thinker. How do you make sure students are reading without taking the joy out of it? A lot of us are going back to pen and paper. Despite all the concerns about AI, I still think the soul and spirit of young people is as strong as ever. The core is not rotting.

Decades of Hollywood empire-building ended with a quake in 2017 when Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch decided to sell much of his Fox entertainment holdings amid the rise of Netflix and other tech giants.

This week, another titan who has been instrumental in shaping American media and telecommunications began to unwind his Hollywood holdings.

Brian L. Roberts — who with his father built Comcast into a cable TV and internet colossus — announced his company would spin off its prestigious NBCUniversal unit into a separate publicly traded company sometime next year.

The move reverses Roberts’ purchase of NBCUniversal in 2011 — a bold bet that created a behemoth with popular programming and cable pipes to pump that content into consumer homes.

Comcast’s breakup marks the close of a Hollywood era, one dominated for 40 years by a class of maverick moguls: Murdoch, CNN founder Ted Turner, Viacom’s Sumner Redstone, cable titan John Malone and the Philadelphia-based Roberts family.

Now, a new crop of leaders has emerged, reflecting Silicon Valley’s vast influence over the film and and TV business, which has been upended by streaming and, now, artificial intelligence.

“There was a time that Murdoch, Malone and Brian were really industry leaders who could affect change,” said Bank of America managing director Jessica Reif Ehrlich in an interview. “That’s not true any longer.”

Analysts widely believe Monday’s announcement is a prelude to eventual sales of both Comcast and NBCUniversal, a theory that Comcast rejects.

Roberts, 67, told analysts he will remain involved in both NBCUniversal and Comcast after the separation. Still, he plans to relinquish his chief executive role after 25 years and a half century at Comcast. Roberts has picked trusted associates to run each firm, and his family will continue to hold controlling shares of both companies.

But the shift underscores a dramatic loss of clout by Comcast and other traditional media enterprises. Netflix, Apple, Amazon and Google’s YouTube have diminished the industry’s financial pillars — box office receipts and cable programming fees — and given consumers control over when and how they watch programming.

Murdoch was the first to flee. In 2014, he was rebuffed in his $80-billion bid to beef up his 21st Century Fox by buying HBO, CNN and other Time Warner assets. Murdoch’s defeat led to the Fox asset sale to Walt Disney Co.

Last fall, Comcast made a run for the same properties with a plan to unite NBCUniversal with Warner Bros.

Instead, 43-year-old tech scion David Ellison — with help from his billionaire father, Oracle software co-founder Larry Ellison — scooped up the prize for a staggering $111 billion.

The pending blockbuster merger of Ellison’s Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to reshape the industry and leave NBCUniversal increasingly vulnerable to a takeover.

“It looks like Comcast’s NBCUniversal was left standing on the dance floor without a partner,” MoffettNathanson media analyst Robert Fishman wrote in a Tuesday note to investors.

Paramount’s play for Warner Bros. came a month after Ellison finalized his family’s purchase of cash-strapped Paramount from Shari Redstone. The one-two acquisition punch would propel the Ellison family to top-tier moguls with influence over CNN, CBS News, HBO, Turner Classic Movies and two historic Hollywood studios.

“It’s a flagging industry. … The industry will have to consolidate to survive,” said C. Kerry Fields, a USC Marshall School of Business economics professor. “Those who have content plus [streaming] distribution are going to be the winners.”

Roberts knows distribution. His father in 1963 bought his first cable TV system in Tupelo, Miss. It was a quirky bet for Ralph Roberts, who figured his belts and suspenders business would soon be toast as beltless polyester pants became the rage.

Brian Roberts joined Comcast as a high school intern, setting up supermarket promotions. In 1975, he became a trainee cable installer, climbing poles and stringing cables. He joined Comcast full time in 1981 after graduating the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

For more than 30 years, he worked in tandem with his dad. With key associates, they built the nation’s foremost cable TV service — then the entertainment gateway — and grew stronger by offering internet, phone and then wireless service.

Analysts credit the 2011 purchase of NBCUniversal as a huge success; Comcast rescued a company that was on the ropes due to General Electric’s under-investment.

Over the years, Comcast rebuilt NBC and Spanish-language Telemundo, writing big checks for the best sports rights, including the FIFA World Cup, NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball.

Comcast also recognized value in theme parks and invested heavily, building Universal Studios as a formidable rival to Disney. NBC finished the season in first-place among traditional TV broadcasters and its L.A. film studio is an industry leader.

But the world has changed.

“One of the defining characteristics of this company has always been our willingness to look ahead, embrace change, and position ourselves for the future,” Roberts told analysts during a Monday call.

Reif Ehrlich, the Bank of America analyst, said Comcast needed to do something — or watch its stagnant stock sink farther.

Wall Street has punished the company amid steep losses in its cable TV and broadband internet units, and because NBCUniversal has historically generated its biggest profits from its cable channels.

In January, Comcast spun off those networks, including CNBC, MS NOW, USA Network and Golf Channel, to create a new entity called Versant.

But the move failed to boost Comcast’s battered stock, which dropped 3.3% on Wednesday to $23.73.

Five years ago, Comcast stock topped $50 a share.

“It was just a very challenged market on both sides, and it’s getting worse, not better,” Reif Ehrlich said.

Comcast faces competitors beyond traditional telecommunications firms, including AT&T and T-Mobile. SpaceX’s Starlink provides satellite internet service.

NBCUniversal must jockey alongside other well-capitalized players, including Amazon, Netflix and Disney. NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, has struggled to get traction. It counted 46 million paying subscribers as of the first quarter, a fraction of Netflix’s 325 million and the nearly 132 million subscribers of Disney+.

“It’s kind of a subscale player,” Reif Ehrlich said. “It’s just a real battle, and NBC has expensive sports rights.”

Roberts conceded the difficult landscape on the analyst call.

“The world is changing faster than ever,” Roberts said. “Technology, consumer behavior, competition, capital requirements are all evolving at an unprecedented pace … When we acquired NBCUniversal, more than 15 years ago, the industry looked very different.”

He will retain control for at least three years. The NBCUniversal spin-off is envisioned as a tax-free transaction for shareholders, providing a short-term buffer from deal-making to preserve that structure.

NBCUniversal could be up for grabs by 2029 — a pivotal year when the NFL is expected to open negotiations for a new round of broadcast rights. That auction is expected to draw heavy interest from Amazon and other streamers — not just veterans Fox, NBC, Disney’s ESPN and Paramount’s CBS.

“Brian Roberts has already proven his willingness to play the long game and with continued control should be the end decision maker,” Fishman said.

Much like Murdoch, who is now 95 and partially retired.

“Rupert was the smartest guy in Hollywood — he got out at the top,” Reif Ehrlich said.

He entrusted power to his 54-year-old son, Lachlan, who has been busy remaking Fox after the 2019 sale to Disney, which included Fox’s film and TV studios, streaming service Hulu and the FX and National Geographic channels. Fox also unloaded its regional cable sports networks — a savvy move before that business cratered.

The Murdochs kept Fox Sports, the Fox broadcast network, TV stations, Fox News Channel and the studio lot.

The company has been expanding. Lachlan Murdoch led Fox’s purchase of Tubi, which provides free TV channels and movies for smart televisions, keeping Fox in the streaming game. The company launched Fox News and weather products, and subscription service Fox One, which streams the company’s sports and news.

Earlier this month, Lachlan Murdoch stunned the industry by agreeing to pay $22 billion for Roku, a leading streaming platform that reaches 100 million viewers worldwide. Murdoch called the proposed purchase “a defining moment for Fox.”

Sometime in the next few weeks, the decommissioned Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser ex-USS Mobile Bay, the 7th example of her class built, will be sent to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean by friendly forces, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. The Tarawa class ex-USS Peleliu (LHA-5) amphibious assault ship will also be pummeled to its doom by friendly fire. These are two very high-profile and vastly different targets, which will make for a uniquely interesting pair of SINKEX drills. The event will take place during the 30th Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) biennial international maritime exercise.

RIMPAC 2026 began June 24 and runs through July 31; however, the date and manner of the sinking are not yet known. The sinking exercise (SINKEX) is the capstone event at each RIMPAC, though the type of surplus ship used varies.

Mobile Bay was decommissioned in 2023 and determined ineligible to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places a year later, sealing its fate.

USS Mobile Bay (CG 53) Outbound – August 18, 2023 – San Diego, California

Commissioned on Feb. 27, 1987, Mobile Bay took part in a number of major events during its 36 years in service.

“The ship’s operational history includes the 1989 evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon; launching 22 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAMs) in support of Operation Desert Storm and the evacuation of thousands of people displaced by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the vicinity of Subic Bay, Republic of the Philippines during Operation Fiery Vigil in 1991,” according to the Navy. It also participated in the “U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (CGLED) seizure of 10.5 metric tons of cocaine approximately 800 miles southwest of Acapulco, Mexico, and launching TLAMS in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.”

USS Mobile Bay CG-53 in Desert Storm

In addition to the date of its sinking being so far unknown, we also do not know how Mobile Bay will be struck. These events are used to test out a variety of weapons systems and crews to see how they perform. This often includes the ship being hit by many different kinds of weapons.

In the most recent SINKEX, for instance, we wrote that a U.S. Air Force B-2A Spirit bomber fired an AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) at the ex-USS Juneau during Valiant Shield 2026 in the Western Pacific. You can read more about that in our story about that here. Oftentimes everything from torpedoes to short-range missiles to rocket artillery to airborne gunfire is used to maximize the sacrifice of the retired hull.

Mobile Bay, which took part in RIMPAC 2022, is one of four Ticonderoga class cruisers set to be disposed of by a SINKEX. In addition, the ex-USS Vella Gulf, the ex-USS Antietam and the ex-USS Port Royal are all facing the same fate, according to Navy records.

The ex-USS Valley Forge was the first of the decommissioned Ticonderogas to be sunk, during target practice in Hawaii in November 2006.

The Ticonderogas carry Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAM) and serve as air and missile defense batteries and command and control platforms. They are also equipped with Harpoon anti-ship missiles and MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopters, and execute anti-submarine warfare operations. 

Built in the 1980s and early 1990s, these cruisers primarily provide the backbone of a carrier strike group’s air warfare capabilities.

There are nine ships in this class still serving in the Navy. Of those, a half dozen are slated to be decommissioned in the coming years, while the remainder — USS Gettysburg, USS Chosin and USS Cape St. George — have been modernized or are close to finishing modernization and will serve out toward the end of the decade.

The effort to keep these ships afloat has been costly and controversial, which you can read more about in our story about the process here.

The Navy is billing RIMPAC 2026 as the largest in the history of these exercises.

“Thirty nations, over 30 surface ships, five submarines, 15 national land forces, more than 206 aircraft and 30,000 personnel will train and operate in and around the Hawaiian Islands during the exercise,” the Navy said in a release. “RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants that are critical to ensuring the security of sea lanes and stability across the region.”

It will be interesting to see how the ex-Mobile Bay is ultimately disposed of. We will provide an update when more information is available.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

(When it closed for upgrades, the kids on our street were so bereft that they set up a lemonade stand, hoping it would help expedite the pool’s reopening.)

The pool is open year-round, but it’s especially popular in the summer, when it offers recreational swimming, swim lessons starting at 6 months old, a junior lifeguard program, lap swimming and other sports.

There’s a fun activity pool for kids ages 4 and under, with waterslides, dumping water buckets, a play area and a shallow wading pool with a beach-style entry. Chaise longues, picnic tables with umbrellas, and multiple lifeguards give the public pool a resort feel.

On a recent Friday, the main Olympic-sized pool was busy with families, but there were still plenty of lanes open for lap swimming. I tried a Monday evening Aquatic NoodleFit class, where you use a pool noodle for low-impact resistance training while standing in the center of the pool. The instructor, Karen Eldridge, was warm and welcoming and gave clear instructions, even working up a sweat herself as we followed her moves on the pool deck. The workout was challenging and fun, but not overwhelming for students of all levels, body types and ages, thanks to the water’s support.

During the week, the activity pool is usually not crowded, but on weekends, staff closely monitor capacity as it can get busy. Burbank residents get priority and can buy presale wristbands online at BurbankParks.com from Monday to Friday between 9 and 10 a.m. If you can’t get into the activity pool, don’t worry. The recreational pool is a fun and easy backup option.

Size: 50 by 18 meters
Temperature: 80 to 82
Swim lanes: 7
Depth: 2.5 feet to 8 feet and a 12-foot diving well
Admission: Lap swimming, $5 to $9. Monthly membership, $41 to $96. Activity pool, $4. Water fitness classes are subscription-based and range from $99 to $110, depending on the class. (My Aquatic NoodleFit class costs $109 as a nonresident for an 11-class series).
Parking: Free.
Hours: Lap swimming, 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Monday through Thursday; 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Friday; 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Recreational swimming, 11:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.
Extras: Activity pool, snack bar, vending machines.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited 529 artists and executives to join its membership Wednesday, including actors Jenna Ortega, Teyana Taylor, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth and Josh O’Connor and filmmakers Benny and Josh Safdie, as the organization continues to reshape the body that votes on the Oscars.

If all invitees accept, the academy’s voting membership will grow to 10,338 members, up from roughly 6,000 a decade ago, as the organization continues to expand its ranks and broaden its international reach. Overall membership, including emeritus members who no longer vote, will rise to 11,319.

The academy’s expansion accelerated after the 2015 #OscarsSoWhite controversy, which drew attention to the organization’s overwhelmingly white and male membership and prompted a sustained effort to recruit more women, people of color and international filmmakers. The academy met its initial post-#OscarsSoWhite diversity targets several years ago but has continued to expand and internationalize its membership.

The latest class includes 95 Oscar nominees, 21 Oscar winners and three recipients of Scientific and Technical Awards.

“We are delighted to invite this remarkable group of film artists and professionals from around the world to join the Academy,” academy CEO Bill Kramer and President Lynette Howell Taylor said in a joint statement. “Through their commitment to filmmaking, this year’s exceptionally talented class has made significant contributions to our global movie industry.”

The academy said 42% of this year’s invitees are women, 56% are from underrepresented communities and 53% are from 60 countries and territories outside the United States. Last year’s class was 41% women, 45% from underrepresented ethnic or racial communities and 55% international.

Across the academy’s overall membership, 36% are women, 25% come from underrepresented communities and 22% are international, according to the organization.

Other notable invitees include actors Jon Bernthal, Julia Garner, Bill Skarsgård, Anthony Ramos, Jemaine Clement, Jenny Slate and Simu Liu; singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles; documentary filmmaker Andrew Jarecki (“Capturing the Friedmans”); and director Zach Cregger (“Weapons”).

Nine individuals, including filmmakers Benny Safdie (“The Smashing Machine”) and Josh Safdie (“Marty Supreme”), received invitations from multiple branches and must choose one upon accepting membership.

Membership in the academy is by sponsorship rather than application. Oscar nominees are automatically considered for membership in the year they are nominated, while branch executive committees review additional candidates before recommendations are approved by the academy’s Board of Governors.

The latest class is five names fewer than last year’s group of 534 invitees. The academy’s largest-ever class came in 2018, when it invited 928 new members as part of a broader effort to diversify its ranks.

The 99th Oscars will take place March 14, 2027, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.

Welcome back to The Times’ Lakers newsletter, where the offseason is back in full swing.

The Lakers have the 25th pick in the NBA draft, which begins Tuesday at Barclays Center, tipping off what is expected to be a consequential, potentially roster-flipping offseason. Next week, the free agency frenzy kicks up. Players including Austin Reaves, Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart must decide on their player options by June 29 at 8:59 p.m. PT. Free agents can start negotiations at 3 p.m. on June 30 and put pen to paper as soon as July 6 at 9:01 a.m.

Don’t expect the Lakers’ biggest question to be resolved by then.

LeBron James may drag his retirement debate into the summer as the 41-year-old considers stretching his career to a record-extending 24th season. Before we worry about one career that feels like it will never end, we’ll look at careers that are just starting.

With the 25th overall pick…

The crowd of reporters gathered around AJ Dybantsa’s table was four or five rows deep before the potential No. 1 pick even arrived for his interview at the NBA’s predraft media availability Monday. Across the ballroom at this luxe Manhattan hotel, Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, who any other year could be a lock for the top selection, fielded questions from an equally large gaggle of reporters.

This draft class is drawing attention for its incredible talent and depth. ESPN front office insider Bobby Marks said there are “three No. 1 picks” between Dybantsa, Peterson and Duke’s Cameron Boozer. The excitement shouldn’t stop at just the top of the group.

“What I love about the draft is Jalen Brunson went 33rd, Tyrese Maxey went 21st, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went 11th, and Steph Curry went right after Johnny Flynn and Ricky Rubio,” ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla said. “… Love the top four, also know this draft is such an inexact science.”

This draft is considered one of the deepest in a generation, even outside of the clear-cut top four of Dybantsa, Peterson, Boozer and North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson. But after the forward-heavy top tier, the group probably will be remembered for its talented and diverse group of guards. That’s not necessarily the best fit for the Lakers, who are targeting wings and bigs to build around Luka Doncic.

Mock drafts put prospects including Dailyn Swain, Isaiah Evans, Chris Cenac Jr., Tarris Reed, Henri Veesaar and Jayden Quaintance within the range of the Lakers’ 25th pick. But the draft unravels in unpredictable ways. Teams are approaching the later picks with caution and curiosity.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

“A lot of the teams in the 20s right now are trying to figure out who’s going to be there,” ESPN draft analyst Jeremy Woo said on a conference call with reporters. “I think 25 is right around where the talent pool kind of drops into that next tier of guys.”

Evans, a 6-foot-6 guard from Duke, said he wasn’t offended by prognostications that place him late in the first round. He cares only that he goes to “a city that is going to accept me.” Evans shot 36.1% from three-point range on 7.4 attempts per game last season for the Blue Devils, averaging 15 points and 3.2 rebounds.

Seeing the long list of sleeper picks who turned into All-Stars, MVPs and champions showed Swain that when he hears his name called Tuesday isn’t matter as consequential as what he plans to do next.

“Once I get drafted, whenever that is, I have the same opportunity as the next person,” Swain said. “So I’m just trying to take complete advantage of that and make the most of my opportunity.”

In young players, the Lakers look for “game processors, highly competitive, basketball IQ, team-first players,” president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said at the end of the season. Those are qualities the Lakers can develop in their next key role player.

Pelinka called player development “a very important area for us to have Lakers excellence in.” Less than 24 hours after being eliminated by a much deeper Thunder team, Pelinka cited Oklahoma City second-year guard Ajay Mitchell as a success story the Lakers want to emulate. The 2024 second-round pick was a playoff game changer for the Thunder, averaging 22.5 points and six assists while shooting 56.3% from the field during Oklahoma City’s second-round sweep.

The Lakers, one year removed from drafting a promising player in the second round, are looking for similar growth from Adou Thiero.

The 6-foot-8 forward has the youth and athleticism Pelinka called “North Stars” for the team’s roster decisions. Compared to his older, ground-bound teammates, Thiero looked ready to leave the atmosphere on some of his rebound attempts.

Coach JJ Redick said multiple times during the season that this would be an important summer for Thiero. His rookie season was marred by persistent knee injuries, first to his surgically repaired left knee and then to his right knee after an MCL sprain kept him sidelined for months. He was not able to participate in summer league or much of the preseason.

Thiero said after the season that he anticipated playing summer league games with his offseason priority being to develop his shooting.

“Just getting the confidence to take the open shot when it’s there,” Thiero said. “Just keep building on my offensive game, try and get more comfortable with the speed of the NBA. … Try to be a little bit more of an impact player for the team.”

Thiero attempted three three-pointers in his rookie season and made one. During his G League appearances, Theiro averaged 15.4 points, shooting 62.5% from the field, and was nine for 14 from three. In college, he was a career 28.4% three-point shooter with 74 attempts in three years.

The Lakers start summer league in San Francisco on July 3 in the California Classic. The four-team event also includes the host Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat.

Favorite thing I ate this week

Pesto ham sandwich with roasted tomato soup.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

Before starting the summer league circuit next month, I enjoyed some time at home this June. One of my favorite meals to make at home is a pesto sandwich with homemade roasted tomato soup. I usually like roasted chicken, but I used the ham I already had on hand on sourdough with harvarti and provolone cheese and homemade pesto. I make the pesto with basil, walnuts, Parmesan cheese, garlic and lemon. Instead of olive oil, I use avocado to bind everything together so it doesn’t soak through the bread as easily. You’re welcome to steal this hack for your next sandwich.

In case you missed it

Lakers likely to select a big man or wing in first round of NBA draft

Plaschke: Lawrence Tanter was the Lakers’ smooth operator whose subtlety spoke volumes

Lakers promote Lawrence Tanter to special advisor for game presentation

Until next time…

As always, pass along your thoughts to me at thucnhi.nguyen@latimes.com, and please consider subscribing if you like our work!

The saga of the Constellation class frigate is emblematic of so many chronic issues with the Navy’s way of procuring warships. The vessel that was supposed to make the wrongs of the Littoral Combat Ship debacle right failed spectacularly and the timing couldn’t have been worse. Now Constellation is dead and the Trump administration is building a different frigate from a different yard. While the Navy has said why it is moving on, we wanted the other side of the story. We recently had a conversation with George Moutafis, CEO of Fincantieri Marine Group, to get exactly that.

Before we get to the questions and answers, however, here is the backstory.

The U.S. Navy needed the Constellation class frigate, badly, and the program to construct it seemed built to deliver. Rather than a clean-sheet design, the service chose the proven Franco-Italian FREMM as its parent design, betting that adapting an existing platform would be far faster and cheaper, and overall less risky than starting from scratch.

It wasn’t. Among the issues plaguing the program, constant change orders pushed the design far from its origins. Two years into construction, the first ship was barely 10% complete while its design was still being finalized. Meanwhile, costs and schedules blew well past original projections.

As a result of these issues, the Navy late last year cancelled the program. That left Fincantieri’s Wisconsin yard sidelined while a contract to replace the Constellation class frigate went to rival Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula.

In the wake of the program’s implosion, the Navy created the Vessel Construction Manager (VCM) system. It uses a hired manager to hold the prime contract and run the show, overseeing shipyard performance, controlling subcontracts, and acting as a buffer between the service and the builder to keep costs and schedules on track.

In a wide-ranging, hour-long exclusive interview, Moutafis – appointed CEO on July 1, 2025 as the wheels were already falling off this project – gave us unique insights into Fincantieri’s version of how Constellation turned into a debacle and what needs to change as a result. He also touched on an array of other topics, which we will address in future installments.

Some of the questions and answers have been edited for clarity.

Q: Why was the Constellation class frigate cancelled from your point of view? What happened that caused the program – which was seen as a must-succeed endeavor, and hugely promising – to get to the point where it was shuttered?

A: It’s for sure a tricky situation. On one hand, the way the Constellation class program was initially laid out and envisioned – potentially a lot of the things that were driving it may have been ahead of its time.

So, while you’re saying you want to attempt to do one thing, but at the same time you’re not evolving the way you execute can lead you to an undesired effect. And I say this because in my eyes, some of those lessons learned out of Constellation are being manifested in the things that the Navy has been rolling out the past few months – a new approach that empowers PAEs [Navy Portfolio Acquisition Executives] to make decisions, to minimize change, to embrace innovation and new technologies. All these elements that we see now being rolled out, I think to a certain degree, connect back to lessons that have been learned out of the Constellation class journey.

Q: What lessons, specifically?

A: Figure out what you want to prioritize, to what extent you want to prioritize schedule, and what’s the best way to say this. When you know when you need something delivered and at what pace, then enable the right level of decision-making. Because otherwise – I don’t want to sound this the wrong way – but perfection sometimes is the enemy of more than good enough.

Going beyond the Constellation class, now the needs are for vessels to be out there for the warfighter as soon as possible. For sure, we will see many cases where it will be considered that a vessel with these capabilities – even though potentially, in some areas, it may not have enough tons of steel on its sides, or whatever – it will be good enough to assist the warfighter as they head into harm’s way.

Those trade-offs are now being placed at the PAE level, allowing Navy leaders at that level to make the right decisions – figuring out whether to continue going down a design spiral versus just moving out with production and enabling us to have the right capabilities on time for the warfighter.

You can see former Navy Secretary John Phelan announce the cancellation of the Constellation class in the following video.

Q: Could the Constellation class have been salvaged? What would have needed to change to get it to a place where it was affordable, on time and efficient?

A: I think the initial and envisioned approach was a healthy one. Had we kept on track with what was, back then, the principles that led to the selection – but also how it was originally set up – we probably would have kept closer to the original design. And thus allowing [us] to be closer to the original schedule. And thus allowing [us] also to build the vessel that was desired, without delays or major changes.

On our end, from day one or day two – let me say that once the Navy decided their shift, we opted to consciously become a true partner and showcase that we are a true partner to the Navy and the nation. We said, ‘Okay, we will adjust, we will move forward.’ And it’s a clear reality that what we have in Wisconsin is an asset for the Navy, especially in a time like this that leaves all of us eager to serve the way you would need us to serve – whether it’s today through serial production of landing ships and/or icebreakers or others. And in the future, should the small surface combatant segment have additional needs, it’s obvious that the infrastructure [in Wisconsin] has been built to ideally serve that type of vessel, so we’re ready to answer the calling.

Q: Why didn’t the Navy just take the base class and do minimal modifications to it? It became what seemed like a totally new ship.

A: That’s a great question, Howard, but I would need to speculate to answer that one, and I wouldn’t want to do that, because you’re right. But at the same time – what’s the saying? Hindsight is 20/20. It’s probably one of those occasions at this point. But it’s a great question. I’d love to be with you when we pose it to the right folks.

Q: But what do you think is the answer to that question, from your point of view?

A: From our point of view – from the get-go, when the award was made, it was made because there was a review of the requirements, a review of the design, and a review of all the elements that led to recognition that the parent design possessed exactly the right features to represent the path forward. So collectively, we had marched on that path. We might find ourselves in a different situation right now, but like I said, it’s one thing asking somebody to change their M.O. and adopt a new approach without fully empowering them or doing something drastic to signal that type of transformation. And it’s another where we said ‘we will try this new approach.’ But there was a lot of follow-through that was needed.

Everybody has developed experiences in certain ways, and everybody – especially when you have folks that have been doing it for decades – has developed their own rules of thumb and approaches to dealing with certain situations. It’s not easy to pivot an entire structure to a new idea or a new approach. So like I said, probably it was the right idea, but a little bit ahead of its time.

Q: What do you think of the lessons that should be learned from the Constellation class’s story?

A: I want to be a glass-half-full type of guy, so that’s why I connected back the things that I’ve been seeing being rolled out by our Navy the last few months as indeed adopting some of those lessons learned. So I’ll go back to the fact that they’ve decided to find new ways to apply the principle that schedule is king. And those new ways include changes that are not just at the leadership level, not just at the level following that, but indeed of restructuring and reorganizing the teams that are there to implement those guidelines – because that’s key in order to be able to change your ways and adopt lessons learned.

So I’m hopeful that this new approach of the PAE setup will be an enabler to adopt the lessons learned: of how to move fast, of how not to mess with a design especially when it’s meeting and exceeding requirements, of how to manage change – not in the rollout of a change, but in the decision-making of whether to adopt change or not. So a lot of those new ideas that they’ve been trying to apply are promising to that effect.

Q: The Navy adopted the new VCM program to oversee construction of the new Landing Ship Medium (LSM) vessels you are working on. This is a direct result of what happened with the Constellation class, right?

A: I would definitely think so, because it indicates the whole idea that the Navy is recognizing – instead of applying the typical layers of full team presence in the shipbuilder’s yard, additional layers of engineering design, etc. – we’re saying, ‘Okay, in a case where we want to go fast, let’s make our decisions ahead of time, select the design, check it quickly ahead of time, and assign it as a production-related design in the hands of that VCM, and allow an industry set of characters between the VCM and the shipbuilder to deliver.’

Q: What does Fincantieri have to give up in this VCM approach?

A: Thinking on this – Fincantieri, as a global group, likes to be end-to-end with the end customer. Our strategy is to develop the design according to the needs and requirements, move forward all through construction, and even post-construction to provide full support throughout almost the entire lifecycle of a vessel. That’s the Fincantieri model around the globe.

In this case, we’re looking to adjust to the approach that the Navy is looking to apply – and we can view it as a benefit. We can take it on as a build-to-print: be the shipbuilder that respects this design, doesn’t try to mess with it, just works out all the kinks to ensure producibility, and then moves swiftly into quick serial production.

From that perspective, we’re not really giving up something – we’re just placing at the disposal of the nation the assets that are already in place, and looking to produce as many vessels as quickly as possible.

Q: How will this speed up U.S. shipbuilding?

A: How I interpret this strategy is the Navy saying: in programs that work, find an approach that allows them to almost get out of the picture. They recognize schedule is priority number one and a quality vessel is priority number two. In order to enable that ‘build more and build fast’ approach, they’re seeking to place somebody – the VCM – to take on the construction, provide them with a mature, production-ready design with no changes to it, and enable the kind of interaction you’ve seen in commercial shipbuilding. That allows those two parties – the VCM and the shipbuilder – to work fast through daily decision-making in a way that favors schedule without compromising quality.

They’re seeking to equip the VCM with a design that will not be touched – a build-to-print situation – and empower them to make these types of decisions daily, so that at the end of the day they simply deliver a vessel to the Navy, minimizing the Navy’s need or propensity to intervene.

It’s an innovative approach, and it definitely requires all parties to give up habits and practices that have taken hold in the past. As long as parties stick with this new approach, it has a great chance of success. On our end, we’re trying to be disciplined in respecting it and pushing forward.

Our next installment of this interview focuses on how Fincantieri is planning to help build Trump’s Golden Fleet and the challenges ahead.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

Members of Congress are looking to block the U.S. Navy from starting construction of the first nuclear-powered Trump class battleship until the service provides assurances that key weapon systems are “sufficiently mature.” The battleships are to be armed with railguns, high-power laser directed energy weapons, and other advanced weapons that have yet to be fully proven out. Legislators are also looking to compel the Navy to devise a strategy for future subvariants of the FF(X) frigate, including the potential for a version with a built-in Vertical Launch System (VLS). TWZ was first to confirm that the initial FF(X) design would lack a VLS, a decision that has prompted questions and criticism.

The battleship and frigate provisions are included in an early draft of the annual defense policy bill, or National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), for the 2027 Fiscal Year, which the House Armed Services Committee released late yesterday. The Trump class battleship and FF(X) are set to be some of the Navy’s top shipbuilding priorities in the coming years.

Tying the battleship construction timeline to weapon system progress

The section in the proposed legislation regarding the Trump class battleship is brief, reading as follows:

“The Secretary of the Navy may not enter into a contract or other agreement that includes a scope of work for the construction of the lead ship of the Battleship program until the date on which the Secretary certifies to the congressional defense committees that the weapon systems planned for inclusion in such lead ship are at a sufficiently mature technology readiness level.”

The provision does not name any particular weapon systems or define what level of “technology readiness” would be accepted as “sufficiently mature.”

The Navy currently plans to arm the 35,000-ton-displacement Trump class battleships with a mixture of nuclear and conventional missiles, an electromagnetic railgun, a pair of traditional 5-inch naval guns, various laser directed energy weapons, and additional weapon systems for close-in defense. The missiles, which will include hypersonic types, are to be loaded inside very large VLS arrays.

In terms of technological maturity, the railgun presents particular questions. Between 2005 and 2021, the Navy had an active railgun program. Despite promising developments, plans for an at-sea test were repeatedly pushed back before the entire effort was shelved. Major technical hurdles were cited as a key factor in that decision. The railgun itself was effectively placed in storage at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico.

However, it emerged earlier this year that the Navy had conducted a new round of testing of the railgun at WSMR in February 2025. Whether the Navy has any plans to pick up where it left off with this prototype design, which was developed by BAE Systems, or pursue a new one remains unclear. General Atomics, which previously supported U.S. Army railgun efforts, has publicly expressed interest in being involved in arming the Trump class.

While the Navy has been very active in developing and fielding laser directed energy weapons, this is another area where the service has faced continued challenges in expanding their operational use. The plans for the Trump class specifically call for a 300-kilowatt-class laser, which is far more powerful than any of the designs the Navy has integrated on its warships to date. The service currently has eight Arleigh Burke class destroyers with the Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN), as well as another one of those warships with the High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS). HELIOS is a 60-kilowatt-class design, though there has been talk about scaling up its power rating to 150 kilowatts. ODIN’s power rating does not appear to be officially confirmed, but it is understood to be significantly lower than that of HELIOS. You can read more about all of this here.

The Intermediate Range Conventional Prompt Strike (IRCPS) hypersonic missile, another key component of the future Trump class arsenal, is also still in development. The first test launch from a warship, the stealth destroyer USS Zumwalt, is expected to come next year. IRCPS is the Navy half of a joint program with the U.S. Army, which is working to field a land-based version of the same missile. The Army refers to its complete weapon system as the Dark Eagle. The Army had suffered significant setbacks in the past with the Dark Eagle, but the service had blamed those issues on the launcher rather than the missile.

More context about what planned weapons systems for the Trump class may have prompted the House Armed Services Committee to include this section in the draft NDAA are likely to emerge as the proposed bill is refined. Nuclear propulsion and other planned aspects of the ship could present their own challenges during development and production. The U.S. Navy has not procured a nuclear-powered surface combatant of any kind since the Cold War.

For its part, the Navy has said it will leverage significant prior work on weapons and other systems to help reduce risk and ensure the battleship program remains on schedule.

“We intend to, with all we can do, use pull-through technologies, [including] things from that we’ve worked on with DDG(X),” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said at a hearing earlier this month. “It will have the SPY-6 radar. It will have the Baseline 10 Aegis combat system. It will pull through, of course, the A1B Ford class reactor plant and all the design that goes with that. The only thing inherently new to it will be the actual hull itself, and so most of the fixtures in it. And I would say the directed energy [weapons] and up gunning, that will also be new.”

One of the “mistakes that we’ve done before, quite frankly,” is “we’ve started to build before the design is mature enough,” the CNO also said at a roundtable on the sidelines of the Navy League’s Sea Air Space 2026 in April. “And we want to make sure that we’re at [sic] least a very, very high level – I won’t try to give a percentage, but you can think like 80% or more design – before the first weld is done.”

The Navy is understood to still be in the very early phases of laying out the Trump class design.

The provision in the draft NDAA could easily delay the start of work on the first of these battleships, which could set back the entire schedule for the program. As it stands now, the Navy is looking to order the lead ship, set to be named the USS Defiant, in Fiscal Year 2028. With an estimated price tag of $17 billion, this ship would cost more than each of the next three Ford class aircraft carriers, and is not expected to enter service in 2036. The Navy also currently plans to buy 14 more battleships between Fiscal Years 2029 and 2055. As TWZ has previously explored in detail, many significant questions remain about the future of the Trump class, including whether the program will ultimately come to fruition at all.

Plans for future FF(X) frigate subvariants

In its current form, the draft NDAA would also require the Secretary of the Navy to “submit to the congressional defense committees a strategy for the iterative development of the FF(X) class frigate” within 180 days of the bill becoming law. The Secretary would also be compelled to provide a briefing to update legislators on their progress in devising this strategy within 90 days.

The strategy would have to include the following:

• “Information on the estimated timeline for each planned variant (commonly known as a ‘‘Flight’’) of the FF(X) class frigate”
• “Details on the integration of additional capabilities for future Flights of the frigate, such as vertical launch systems or improved sensors, and implications for the space, weight, power, and cost of the hull form.”
• Any additional mission sets or combat functions that may be added to the concept of operation for FF(X) class frigates.”

The Navy has already confirmed that the FF(X) design will based on that of the Legend class cutter currently in service with the U.S. Coast Guard. As mentioned, the fact that the first of these frigates, at least, will lack a VLS array has raised significant questions about this program.

The FF(X) configuration that has been shown so far will have essentially the same integrated armament as the Navy’s much-maligned Littoral Combat Ships (LCS). The limitations of both subclasses of LCS explicitly led the Navy to pursue the Constellation class frigate. Despite the Constellation class being based on the established Franco-Italian Fregate Europea Multi-Missione (FREMM; European Multi-Mission Frigate in English), repeated design changes turned the program into a boondoggle. It was finally cancelled last November.

The Constellation class would have featured a 32-cell Mk 41 VLS array. There had already been a debate about whether this was sufficient VLS capacity to meet operational requirements, something TWZ previously explored in detail.

The Navy’s current stated vision for the Flight I FF(X) configuration is to utilize containerized weapons and other systems to make up for gaps in integrated capabilities. The frigates are also expected to act as motherships for future fleets of uncrewed surface vessels, which could provide additional distributed weapons and sensor capabilities and capacity.

“While Flight I of the FF(X) Class (currently planned as at least the first 2 ships) does not incorporate a traditional fixed VLS battery, it retains the capability to deploy VLS-equivalent payloads through modular, mission-tailored configurations,” according to the Navy’s 2027 Fiscal Year budget request. “This approach provides an inherent growth path for VLS and other capabilities through containerized solutions in early flights, reinforcing the platform’s adaptability while mitigating cost, schedule, and integration risks associated with fixed VLS installation.”

A containerized VLS, in particular, would be far more limited in capacity than a traditional built-in Mk 41 and Mk 57 array.

At the same time, the Navy’s budget documents make clear that there are already plans for “studies for future flights [that] will consider expanded capabilities including Vertical Launch Systems, and Anti-Submarine Warfare systems.”

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), the shipbuilder behind the Legend class design on which the FF(X) will be based, has shown multiple concepts for derivatives with integrated VLS arrays and other additional capabilities in the past, as seen in the video below.

Patrol Frigate Variants – Information Video

When it comes to the battleship and FF(X) provisions in the draft NDAA, it is also important to remember that this legislation is not yet finalized and could easily change in the weeks and months ahead. The House’s version of the bill will also need to be reconciled with what the Senate puts forward, a process often marked by lengthy negotiations. The House and Senate will both need to pass the finalized version, and then the President has to sign it into law.

As the name makes clear, the battleship program is of particular significance to President Donald Trump, which will be an important factor in these processes. Even before his first term, Trump had expressed interest in returning battleships to the Navy’s combat fleets, but there had been no indications of any formal moves to pursue this ship before last year. With the schedule the Navy has laid out now, major decisions about how to proceed in the production of these ships, if at all, will fall to the next administration. There are already massive competing priorities, and some members of Congress have already questioned whether the battleship effort is the best use of available resources.

It’s also worth noting here that Trump has long been very outspoken when it comes to Navy shipbuilding design decisions, especially from an aesthetic perspective.

The House Armed Services Committee has at least taken steps now toward putting a hold on production of the first Trump class battleship until it is confident that key weapon systems are mature, as well as pushing the Navy to lay a formal plan for future versions of the FF(X) frigate.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

First-year baseball coach Dino Flores of Fremont High teaches health, and for the entire semester, he had a freshman from Venezuela, Roiber Colmenares, sitting in class.

One day, Colmenares asked Flores a strange question.

“Hey Mr. Flores,” he said in Spanish. “Do you know how I can join the baseball team?”

“Yes I do,” Flores said.

Colemenares told him playing baseball was all he did in Venezuela.

Then Flores had Colemenares show him how to field a ground ball with an imaginary ball in class.

“That’s when I knew we had something special,” Flores said. “Just his movement you could tell he’s a baseball player.”

With Colmenares leading the way, Fremont has advanced to face Hamilton in Friday’s 2:30 p.m. Division III final at Stengel Field. The Division II final will have South East playing Roosevelt at 5:30 p.m. at East Los Angeles College.

“He’s our best hitter and best pitcher,” Flores said of the 5-foot-8, 140-pound freshman.

Fremont used to be a baseball power, having won five upper-division City titles, the last in 1963. There also was a 3A title in 1992.

“The history is well documented,” Flores said.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

WHEN it comes to flying to the States, a major airline has unveiled a huge new revamp of their planes – and it’s making it much comfier to fly long-haul.

Having flown to and from America several times over the past five years to visit family, I quickly found a love for United Airlines‘.

Follow The Sun’s award-winning travel team on Instagram and Tiktok for top holiday tips and inspiration @thesuntravel.

The airline recently announced they were launching a brand new ‘Elevated’ cabin on their 787-9 Dreamliner between San Francisco and London Heathrow, upgrading every single class from economy to business.

This includes the rollout of the first ever new business class United Polaris Studio suites, which have more spacious seats, larger screens and Bluetooth connectivity.

I, however, was trying out United’s new Premium Plus Economy seat which they say has “elements normally reserved for business class customers” – a welcome sight when leaving gloomy London.

Read more on travel inspo

STAYCAY

Our travel experts’ best-kept-secret UK holiday spots for summer – from £37 a night

YES YOU MAY

FREE and cheap family days out and activities across the UK for May half term

There’s a total of 35 United Premium Plus seats arranged in a 2-3-2 configuration in the new cabin design, each with privacy dividers and a built-in reading light – both firsts for United Premium Plus seats.

And in all honesty, the seats felt closer to business class than economy and even better than some business class seats I’ve experienced on other airlines.

I opted for the very first row with enough room that when stretching out my legs straight, they still didn’t hit the wall in front of me.

Plonking myself down in my aisle seat – which actually felt more like an armchair – I was immediately impressed by how comfortable it was.

And then when it came to checking out the generous 40.6cm 4K OLED screen, I was excited to snuggle down and watch one of the latest film releases.

Pressing play on Wuthering Heights, I connected my Airpods to the Bluetooth to listen in to the film and placed my phone on the quartzite cocktail table between my seat and the next seat to connect it to the wireless charging.

As for the amenities, a small ‘United 100’ pouch to celebrate the airline’s centenary was on my seat featuring branded socks, an eye mask and some Vitamin C Perricone MD products.

Also on my seat was a Saks Fifth Avenue pillow and blanket, which added to my cinema experience when Wuthering Heights started to play.

When it comes to space, passengers get 96.5cm pitch and 50.8cm width, and then 15cm of recline – which while not much felt spacious enough and with the new privacy screen acting as a good headrest, I was more than comfortable.

Power outlets and bottle holders are located between the seats for added convenience too.

Located on one armrest is also a remote for the TV and a small cubbyhole where you’ll find your overhead earphones.

Of course, you can now also get Starlink Wi-Fi on United flights – even if it is just for messaging – which I have to admit was super speedy.

Another thing I love about United is that you are always fed well,

My first meal consisted of an artichoke salad and bread for starter, with roast chicken for my main and chocolate truffles for dessert.

Mid-flight, I then enjoyed a chicken burrito and before landing, tucked into another salad and a paneer curry.

In between these courses, the cabin crew were great at always ensuring I had enough water or a drink of my choosing – whether that be alcoholic or non-alcoholic.

United aims to have at least 30 planes with the new Elevated interior flying by the end of 2027.

So if you’re trying to decide which airline to go with on your next trip to the US? I’d recommend United – if you want a business class experience on a premium economy budget.