ARLINGTON, Va. — HII’s Mission Technologies division has developed a new generation of medium unmanned underwater vehicle (MUUV) — the REMUS 620 — that leverages advances incorporated in its smaller REMUS 300 UUV, the company said in a Nov. 7 press conference and news release.  

The REMUS 620 is based on the design of the REMUS 300, which has been selected by the U.S. Navy as its new Lionfish small UUV. The REMUS 620 will feature longer range and endurance, capable of a battery endurance of up to 110 hours and a range of 275 nautical miles. With a synthetic-aperture sonar installed, the REMUS 620 will have a battery life of 78 hours and a range of 200 nautical miles. The MUUV can sprint up at 8 knots and will have a navigation accuracy of 0.1% of distance travelled, said Duane Fotheringham, president of Mission Technologies’ Unmanned Systems business group.  

The 12 ¾-inch-diameter REMUS 620 has the same size and weight as the REMUS 600, of which the company has delivered 175 to customers in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Japan. The REMUS 600 is the basis for the U.S. Navy’s MUUVs currently used by mine countermeasures squadrons (Mk18 Mod 2 Kingfish), Naval Oceanographic Office (Littoral Battleship Sensing-Autonomous Undersea Vehicle) and submarine force (LBS-Razorback). The REMUS 620 is designed for such missions as mine countermeasures, hydrographic surveys, intelligence collection, surveillance, cyber warfare and electronic warfare. 

The REMUS 620, developed with HII’s internal funding, features modern core electronics and navigation and communications systems and modular, open architecture interfaces to accommodate wet or dry payloads, including towed payloads and custom payloads developed by customers. The UUV includes HII’s Odyssey suite of advanced autonomy solutions for intelligent, robotic platforms, including the Odyssey Mission Management Software. 

Mission data can be offloaded from the UUV by a removable hard drive, WiFi and Iridium satellite link, with other options including line-of-sight RF, high-data rate transmission, acoustic modems, optical modems and plug-in ethernet, Fotheringham said.   

The REMUS 620 features several interchangeable batteries that can be quickly exchanged for fully charged batteries. 

The REMUS 620 can be deployed from submarines, surface combatants, amphibious warfare ships, small manned or unmanned craft and helicopters. The new UUV can also be a platform from which to launch small UUVs or UAVs. 

Fotheringham said that the U.S. Navy has said it has launched and recovered REMUS 600 Razorbacks from the dry-deck shelters of submarines and out of torpedo tubes. 

“Recently there has been quite a bit in the press about the Navy’s efforts for launch and recovery of UUVs back into the torpedo tubes,” he said. “Those stories indicated the Razorback vehicles are being tested with that capability of recovery back into a torpedo tube.” 

He said the capability to recover UUVs back into a torpedo tube is being worked by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where the REMUS technology originally was developed. 

“That solution that [Woods Hole] is developing for torpedo tube recovery is also compatible with the REMUS 620,” Fotheringham said. 

“Retaining a forward strategic advantage requires the ability to deliver a multitude of effects from under the sea,” Fotheringham said. “The REMUS 620 is the first medium UUV designed to accurately deliver this range of advanced above-and-below water effects at long range.” 

“We are prototyping and building the first vehicle now,” Fotheringham said. “We expect the first vehicle to be completed and in the water in 2023 with customer delivery in late ’23 or early ‘24.” 

He said HII was in discussions with the U.S. Navy about the REMUS 620 but was not free to offer details. 

TUPELO, Miss. — U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., a leading seapower advocate in the Senate, praised the the planned acquisition of VT Halter Marine Inc., and ST Engineering Halter Marine Offshore in Pascagoula, Miss., by Bollinger Shipyards, in a Nov. 7 statement. 

“This is an exciting new chapter for shipbuilding in Mississippi. Bollinger Shipyards, and its leaders, bring a wealth of knowledge and experience in domestic shipbuilding,” Wicker said. “This new partnership will help Mississippi’s talented shipbuilders continue to produce world-class ships for our nation, including the Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter.” 

Bollinger Shipyards, the largest privately owned and operated shipbuilder in the United States, announced Nov. 6 that it had entered into an agreement to acquire VT Halter Marine, Inc. and ST Engineering Halter Marine Offshore (“STEHMO”), together a leader in the design, engineering, construction, and repair of complex, state-of-the-art vessels for government and commercial customers, from parent company ST Engineering North America, a leading technology, defense and engineering group. The transaction expands Bollinger’s new construction and repair capacity and capabilities to better serve its key defense and commercial customers.  

“For over 75 years, my family has been dedicated to providing our government and commercial customers with the highest levels of quality, support and service in the U.S. shipbuilding industry,” said Ben Bordelon, CEO and president of Bollinger Shipyards. “The addition of VT Halter Marine and STEHMO in Pascagoula, Mississippi, is strategic as it further strengthens our position in the industry and U.S. defense industrial base by allowing Bollinger to expand our footprint, capabilities and suite of innovative solutions that we can provide to our customers. From Day One, the Bollinger team will leverage our proven and best-in-class management team, operational excellence and existing capability to ongoing commercial and government programs, especially the Polar Security Cutter program.” 

This acquisition creates expanded opportunities for Bollinger to better serve and deepen its relationships with its key defense and commercial customers with an increased capacity and footprint, improved efficiencies, enhanced economies of scale and access to a large skilled workforce, including increased engineering capacity. It also brings expanded capabilities for future programs, including an ACAT I program. 

Bollinger’s acquisition increases the shipyard’s growing new construction and repair portfolio. All ongoing programs are to be conveyed with the transaction. Notably, the Polar Security Cutter (PSC) program for the U.S. Coast Guard and the Auxiliary Personnel Lighter-Small (APL(S)) program for the U.S. Navy. Given the proximity to Bollinger’s existing facilities, Bollinger will be able to support further efficiencies and resolution of any potential capacity constraints. 

In addition to construction of the U.S. Coast Guard Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter (FRC) program, Bollinger builds the Mine Countermeasures Unmanned Surface Vessel (MCM USV) and the Towing, Salvage and Rescue Ships (T-ATS) programs for the U.S. Navy, as well as the Regional-Class Research Vessel for the National Science Foundation and Oregon State University. Bollinger also has two active contracts with General Dynamics Electric Boat to build a 618-foot by 140-foot state-of-the-art Floating Dry Dock and a 496-foot by 95-foot Pontoon Launcher, both of which will support the construction and launching of the U.S. Navy’s Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarines. In addition, Bollinger is participating in industry studies for two government programs, including the U.S. Navy’s Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle (LUSV) program and the U.S. Navy’s Light Amphibious Warship (LAW) program. 

Bordelon continued, “Bollinger takes great pride in being a major job creator in Louisiana. Today, we’re excited to grow and expand that legacy to Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. We have always said that our greatest strength has and continues to be our people. By combining our skilled workforces, we’ll ensure coastal Mississippi remains synonymous with defense shipbuilding and remains a major part of our industrial base.” 

The acquisition includes 378 acres comprising two shipyards in Pascagoula and two dormant yards north of Pascagoula. The newly acquired yards will be renamed Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding and Bollinger Mississippi Repair. The Pascagoula facilities are strategically located with direct, deep-water access to the Gulf of Mexico and houses corporate office space, engineering, fabrication, warehousing and a foreign trade zone. The shipyard consists of 225,000 square feet of covered production area in the main fabrication assembly buildings. The facility is capable of producing Panamax-sized vessels up to 50,000 dead-weight tons and features an expanded 225.6-meter (740-foot) tilt-beam launch system.

JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii — The Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Chicago (SSN 721) returned to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam following a seven-month deployment, Nov. 2, 2022, commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, said in a Nov. 4 release. 

It was the submarine’s final deployment before decommissioning, which is scheduled to begin in 2023 following 37 years of service. 
 
Chicago departed Pearl Harbor March 28, 2022, for a regularly scheduled deployment, during which the submarine and its crew performed a full spectrum of operations, to include anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare in the Indo-Pacific region. 
 
“I’m extremely proud of not only the Chicago Sailors but the Chicago families and supporters,” said Chicago’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Andrew Kopacz, from Hartford, Wisconsin. “Being gone from home is a challenge for the crew and we could not have remained focused on the mission without knowing our families were strong back at home. This crew demonstrated the fortitude, resiliency, and enthusiasm that make this country great. We are eager to reunite with our families and enjoy some down time in their company.” 
 
Chicago’s crew trained to be combat-ready prior to departure and maintained those high standards throughout the deployment. 
 
“The toughness and positive attitude displayed by the entire Chicago crew has been extraordinary,” said Master Chief Information Systems Technician (Submarines) Christopher Kyser, from Warner Robins, Georgia, Chicago’s Chief of the Boat. “The work put in by Chicago Sailors to maintain a presence at sea has been impressive. I couldn’t be more proud of the work our Sailors have put in over the last seven months to keep the oldest submarine in the force in top shape during her last deployment. Special thanks to all the families for keeping the home front secure and enabling us to accomplish our primary mission. None of this would be possible without your sacrifice.” 
 
During the deployment, more than 50 Chicago Sailors became fully qualified in submarines, earning their submarine warfare specialist designation dolphins. 
 
“The most memorable part of deployment has been seeing my junior Sailors qualify for their dolphins,” said Torpedoman’s Mate 1st Class Devon Schilling, from Sacramento, Calif. “I have been on board Chicago for five years, and I have never been more proud than I am now, seeing the boys I trained turn into men. I am always proud to gain a new brother or sister of the ‘fin.” 
 
Chicago was commissioned Sept. 27, 1986. Chicago is the thirty-fourth Los Angeles-class submarine and the fourth U.S. Navy ship to be named for the city of Chicago, Illinois. It is 360 feet long with a beam of 33 feet. 

PENSACOLA, Fla. — The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Reliance (WMEC 615) returned to their homeport in Pensacola, Nov. 4, following a 67-day Caribbean Sea patrol.  

During the patrol, Reliance’s crew collaborated with numerous Coast Guard assets and other Department of Homeland Security boats and aircraft to detect, deter and intercept unsafe and illegal ventures to the United States. 

In support of the Coast Guard’s Seventh District, Reliance primarily patrolled the South Florida Straits, south of the Florida Keys and the Windward-passage, off the northwest coast of Haiti, contributing to the interdiction and care of 613 migrants and 13 detainees. Additionally, Reliance’s crew repatriated 120 migrants to Santiago, Cuba, marking the first visit by a U.S. warship to the port in more than 50 years. 

“I am extremely pleased by this crew and proud to be a part of this team. Reliance departed homeport shorthanded and was immediately put to the test, performing especially high-tempo migrant interdiction operations. At all hours of day and night, the Reliance crew responded superbly, facilitating the safe care and repatriation of a historic surge of Cuban migrants while also completing qualification requirements and robust training exercises necessary following the summer transfer season,” said Cmdr. Brian Chapman, commanding officer of Reliance. 

Reliance is a 210-foot medium-endurance cutter homeported in Pensacola with a crew of 77. The cutter’s primary missions are counter-drug operations, migrant interdiction, enforcement of federal fishery laws and search and rescue in support of Coast Guard operations throughout the Western Hemisphere.

HONOLULU — The Coast Guard Cutter Oliver Berry (WPC 1124), a 154-foot Fast Response Cutter homeported in Honolulu, patrolled the Independent State of Samoa’s exclusive economic zone while partnering with Samoan Maritime Police and Fisheries Officers, where they executed four safety and living marine resources boardings on Samoan and foreign flagged fishing vessels in Samoan waters, identifying six violations, the Coast Guard 14th District said in a Nov. 4 release.  

During their expeditionary patrol across Oceania, Oliver Berry’s crew is collaborating with partner governments like Samoa to conduct bilateral shiprider boardings to strengthen maritime domain awareness and resource security within their EEZs; an EEZ is the area of coastal water within a certain distance of a nation’s coastline to which the country claims exclusive rights for drilling, fishing and other economic ventures. 

The U.S. Coast Guard employs 11 bilateral law enforcement agreements with Pacific Island Forum nations, including Samoa, to help ensure the nations’ maritime resource security and sovereignty. These programs highlight the shared commitment to ensuring security and freedom of navigation in the Pacific.  

“Collaborating with our partners throughout Oceania is essential in ensuring a free and open Blue Pacific,” said Lt. Cmdr. Micah Howell, commanding officer of the Oliver Berry. “It is a privilege, and we are proud to support Samoa through dedicated partnership in the effort to maintain maritime governance and security.” 

Oliver Berry’s crew also enjoyed a multitude of community engagements during their time in Samoa. These engagements included crew visits to the National University of Samoa Maritime School and Samoa’s Victim Support Camp, and a beach cleanup with staff from the U.S. Embassy, Peace Corps and Samoa Tourism Authority.  

The crew also provided tours of Oliver Berry for the Maritime Division of the Ministry of Police, Prisons and Corrections Services, the Ministry of Works, Transport and Infrastructure, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, members of the media and students from the National University of Samoa Maritime School and St. Mary’s College.   

Oliver Berry’s crew will continue patrolling the Blue Pacific across the high seas in support of Samoa, Tonga and Kiribati to combat illegal, unregulated fishing, demonstrating the United States Coast Guard’s enduring commitment to our partner nations throughout Oceania. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has installed a 3D printer capable of producing metal parts for ships on the amphibious ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) in an experiment that could be expanded to across the fleet, a Navy official told Seapower in an interview. 

The Navy has already experimented with 3D-printing parts, but they have used polymer printers in the past. But since most of the parts that need replacing are metal, they have limited utility — hence the impetus for this test, said Jim Pluta, additive manufacturing program manager at Naval Sea Systems Command. The Navy completed installation of a metal 3D printer on the Bataan on Nov. 3. 

“When sailors deploy forward and they’re out on a ship at sea and something breaks, that’s when you know you need a replacement part,” Pluta said. “Sometimes they have it on ship, and sometimes they don’t.” 

As a result, if a part breaks and there is no replacement immediately available, the crew has to wait for a part to be delivered or has to make do until the ship returns to port. 

“If there’s a failure of a smaller subcomponent, rather than order that larger assembly or larger system, they can print that smaller subcomponent that failed,” Pluta said. “They reverse engineer or design it using CAD [computer-aided design] and create a replacement part that maybe didn’t exist or existed only from the manufacturer. Instead, they print that part on demand and put it into the larger system, and it can be brought up to fully mission capable again.” 

Pluta said the research and development into this system has been going on for about four years, starting with the polymer printers that are fairly inexpensive to install. But a 3D printer for metal has been the main goal, he said. 

“Most everything aboard ship is made of metal and not plastic,” he said. “We’re looking at this as a fairly permanent installation.” 

Pluta says it’s possible this technology will go on the entire fleet, although it is much better suited at the moment for larger ships like aircraft carriers and amphibious ships. But it could go on other vessels, such as submarines, as long as the Navy can find printers that can handle the shipboard motion, vibration and acceleration. Printers can also have a large footprint, so the space it takes up is also a factor. 

Pluta said even if printers couldn’t be placed on every ship, there could be a model where a printer is shared among a carrier strike group that is underway, with a printer on one ship producing parts that are shared between the vessels. 

“Ideally those larger vessels could take requests from ships that accompany it,” he said. “They’ve demonstrated that recently where we installed a printer on [aircraft carrier USS John C.] Stennis [CVN 74] and used the printer for prototyping with a polymer printer. So, they’ve demonstrated that capability.” 

BUSAN, Republic of Korea — Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Mike Gilday and his wife Linda Gilday visited the Republic of Korea (ROK), Nov. 3-4, to meet with U.S. Sailors and military leaders, as well as ROK officials, the CNO’s Public Affairs Office said in a Nov. 4 release.  

Adm. Gilday met with the Chief of Naval Operations of the Republic of Korea Navy Adm. Lee, Jong-Ho, and Commander, Republic of Korea Fleet Vice Adm. Kang, Dong Hoon.  

“The alliance and close relationship between our naval forces is a linchpin of security in Northeast Asia,” said Gilday.  “Our alliance provides a stabilizing and deterring presence and our commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea remains ironclad.”  

“Lately, the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] is raising levels of provocation by launching missiles and artillery shells, flying warplanes and seriously threatening peace and security in the international community,” said Lee. “We have to bolster the two navies’ military engagement and combined defense posture to prepare for the current, critical security situation.” 

“The U.S. remains committed to peace and prosperity through the region in order to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Gilday added.   

CNO visited Seoul, Busan and Gyerong, ROK. At each engagement, Gilday emphasized the significance of presence and the strength of the partnership between the U.S. and ROK navies, as well as the importance of forward-deployed naval forces. Throughout his visit, Adm. Gilday spoke with U.S. Sailors, as well as service members assigned to the ROK navy. 

He also offered his sympathies to ROK following the recent tragedy in Seoul. 

“With great sorrow, my wife Linda and I grieve alongside the people of Korea,” said the CNO. “Our hearts are heavy. We will never forget the strength of the families and the community with whom we met over the past two days.”  

The Gildays also toured Commander, Naval Forces Korea headquarters, attended an awards ceremony and reenlisted Sailors. 

The U.S. and Republic of Korea navies regularly operate together for many bilateral exercises and operations. Joint exercise Vigilant Storm started this week and focuses on building interoperability and readiness. Recently, both navies participated in the Korean-led exercise Hoguk, an annual exercise conducted by ROK marines. The ROK recently also hosted the 2022 Multinational Mine Countermeasures Exercise and Symposium at Busan Naval Base, which was an opportunity for leaders from multiple nations to meet and share knowledge about mine countermeasures. 

This past September, USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) pulled into Busan, for the first time since 2017, marking the Japan-based carrier’s first trip to the ROK in nearly four years. CNO Gilday visited ROKS Marado (LPH 6112) over the summer during exercise Rim of the Pacific 2022.  

Gilday’s visit to ROK precedes a trip to Japan for the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force International Fleet Review and Western Pacific Naval Symposium. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The admiral in charge of the U.S. Navy’s attack submarine program gave an update on the SSN(X) program while talking about the root causes of challenges the service faces from maintenance backlogs during an address at the Naval Submarine League’s annual symposium in Arlington, Virginia, Nov. 2. 

Rear Adm. Jonathan Rucker, program executive officer for attack submarines (PEO SSN), said that the Navy was in the midst of looking at the trade space for SSN(X), which involves technology assessments and capability reviews leading up to an analysis of alternatives. 

“This is really a team effort,” he said. “We’re working with the shipbuilders, we’re working across government, we’re working across industry to see what technologies are going to make the most sense. 

“We want to learn from other platforms, so we put in the most capability we can but obviously we will not set [ourselves] up for capability that will not deliver,” he added. 

He noted that the program has delivered 21 Virginia-class submarines to date with another 17 under contract or in construction, with two planned for delivery this year and two next year as well. 

But the main struggle he highlighted had to do with the maintenance backlog the fleet faces, particularly when it comes to submarines. Of the 57 attack submarines in the fleet, 18 of them are unavailable because of maintenance. 

“We should be down much lower,” Rucker said. “We should be at 10. … So we’re not where we need to be. That’s just a fact.” 

He identified three main causes for this: planning, material and shipyard throughput. 

With regard to planning, he noted that 30% of maintenance is unplanned, which is a major driver of maintenance time. The program’s goal is to reduce that figure to 10% by 2026, he said. 

Rucker also said that about half of the material for maintenance isn’t ordered until the start of the submarine’s availability, leading to delays because there is often a long lead time associated with that material. 

He vowed to take efforts to address all three areas in order to get the maintenance backlog under control. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The commander of U.S. submarine forces in the Pacific Fleet struck a defiant tone in discussing the challenge posed by China at the Naval Submarine League’s annual symposium in Arlington, Virginia, Nov. 2, vowing that the United States would “not yield any ground to our competitor.” 

Competition between the United States and China has increased in recent years due to U.S. naval drills in China’s backyard and U.S. involvement in Taiwan, and U.S. officials in recent years have taken an even sterner tone with how the growing naval power operates in the East and South China seas. Rear Admiral Jeffrey T. Jablon, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet submarine force, told symposium attendees that his “No. 1 focus” is the People’s Republic of China (PRC), despite Russia’s more acute and immediate activity in Ukraine, and he vowed that the United States would only increase its presence off the coast of China. 

“The PRC’s rapid growth in military capability reinforces the critical importance of not only maintaining but … expanding our reach,” Jablon said. “We will maximize our strength in the undersea domain.” 

He said that he would ensure the Pacific submarine fleet would be “ready at all times for full-spectrum cross-domain operations,” adding that his office had established a campaign plan for submarine forces that he described as “warfighting first, people always and safety is the bedrock of everything we do.” 

The most important line of effort in that plan, he said, is modernizing the Navy’s fleet of ballistic missile submarines armed with nuclear weapons, pointing to efforts to maintain the Ohio-class SSBNs out until the 2040s while building the follow-on Columbia-class program. 

Another line of effort is to “prepare for the fight in the ‘decade of maximum danger,'” Jablon said. 

“That specifically refers to the PRC,” he said. “We’ve heard ‘we’re in an inflection point,’ ‘it’s a critical decade,’ ‘it’s a decisive decade.’ And it’s true. That’s my No. 1 concern. … China has built the largest Navy in the world, guaranteeing its numerical advantage in the South and East China seas. 

“We will intensify our efforts to prepare our undersea force to deter and, if necessary, to beat the PLAN [People’s Liberation Army Navy],” he continued. “We will not yield any ground to our competitor.” 

ATLANTIC OCEAN — The Navy’s Fleet Experimentation Program (FLEX), featuring unmanned aerial and surface vehicles, was held on the Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport vessel USNS Burlington (T-EPF-10) in the waters around Key West, Fla. Oct. 16-21, 2022, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet Public Affairs said in a Nov. 3 release. 
 
Organized by U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet, and the Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) sponsored SCOUT initiative, the goal of FLEX was to test, evaluate and showcase the latest unmanned vehicles to strengthen and increase warfighter capabilities. 
 
The purpose of this event is to bring new technology to address operational problems in the fleet,” said Christopher Heagney, the Naval Air Fleet and Force advisor to U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet and ONR. “Manned systems have an operational penalty of having people. The operational commander is assuming a high risk when there is a person who can be captured or killed. By having an unmanned system we are able to eliminate that.” 
 
Heagney said Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-South) only has a limited number of assets to interdict illicit trafficking in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility. If those assets break, they lose valuable time going back to port, getting repair parts and returning. Unmanned platforms could present a solution by transporting those parts to where they need to be at sea. 
 
ONR’s SCOUT initiative is an ongoing, multi-agency experimentation campaign for identifying alternative ways to bring unmanned technologies to solve warfighter problems, operationalize them and bring them to the Fleet. SCOUT is committed to getting nontraditional, commercial-off-the-shelf, government-developed and/or government-sponsored technologies to the fleet rapidly. 
 
The Key West FLEX employed commercially developed unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and unmanned surface vehicles (USV) to carry out diverse tasks related to drug interdiction including tracking and identifying specific targets, logistics and re-supply and forward-deployed combat repair. The unmanned vehicles performed re-supply maneuvers in the ocean and at inland and coastal locations. 
 
Industry leaders agree that the ultimate goal is to lessen the danger to warfighters through the use of unmanned systems and thus enhancing their capabilities. One day these technologies such as delivery of equipment and parts, fuel, provisions and medical supplies can be vital to mission safety and success of warfighters operating in austere conditions. 
 
“FLEX is an important and productive partnership between 4th Fleet, Center for Naval Analysis and the Office of Naval Research as well as industry partners to implement solutions to pressing operational problems,” said Rear Adm. Doug Sasse, 4th Fleet’s reserve vice commander. “Efficient flow of logistics in a contested environment is going to be a key enabler to the Navy and Marine Corps operating concepts of distributed maritime operations (DMO) and expeditionary advance-based operations (EABO), and a lot of the technology that we have incorporated as part of FLEX will help DMO and EABO reach full potential.” 
 
ONR SCOUT, Fourth Fleet and JIATF-South worked alongside other commands including the Naval Research Laboratory, Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, Defense Innovation Unit and Naval Air Systems Command. ONR sponsored Scientists-to-Sea went underway with Burlington to see the technology firsthand.    
 
“This year is quite exciting as we have been building on previous events to improve our capabilities at sea, leveraging unmanned assets in order to do what we want, and do it out at sea,” said Capt. Chip Wrye, the director of the Maritime Operations Center. “Specifically, this week we have been figuring out how to move packages between ships that are each individually moving, and do it in a way that the unmanned asset can find the receiving ship, and transfer its package to that ship without putting personnel in harm’s way.” 
 
“FLEX and the ONR SCOUT collaboration event was a great opportunity to see the mission readiness of industrial capabilities to mitigate logistical support challenges to deep-sea operations, which drive Navy and Coast Guard ship day availability to JIATF-South,” said Jeffrey Havlicek, J7 director for Innovation and Technology, JIATF-South. “This event showcased a menu of options and generated comparative insights vital to our mission-area analysis of low-cost resupply at sea.” 
 
The Key West FLEX event was the culmination of multiple scenario-based demonstrations of technology capabilities and characteristics held this year leading up to a large-scale main experimentation event in March 2023. 
 
U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet supports U.S. Southern Command’s joint and combined military operations by employing maritime forces in cooperative maritime security operations to maintain access, enhance interoperability, and build enduring partnerships in order to enhance regional security and promote peace, stability and prosperity in the Caribbean, Central and South American region.