ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has placed an order with Lockheed Martin for four MH-60R Seahawk multi-mission helicopters for the government of Greece. 

The Naval Air Systems Command, through the Foreign Military Sales Program, awarded a $194 million contract modification to Lockheed Martin for the helicopters and three airborne low-frequency sonar systems to be used by the helicopters, according to an Oct. 26 Defense Department contract announcement. 

The MH-60R is the U.S. Navy’s maritime strike and anti-submarine helicopter. The helicopter type also has been exported to the Royal Australian Navy, the Royal Danish Air Force, and the Royal Saudi Navy. Greece would be the fifth operator and has stated an intent to procure seven. Other nations intent on procuring MH-60Rs are the Republic of Korea and India, which have announced plans for 12 and 24 helicopters, respectively.  

Work on the contract modification is expected to be completed in February 2025.   

ARLINGTON, Va. — Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., a Lockheed Martin company, has received an order from the U.S. Navy for six CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopters for the U.S. Marine Corps. 

The Naval Air Systems Command awarded a $550.4 million contract modification to Sikorsky for Lot IV Low-Rate Initial Production of six CH-53Ks, according to an Oct. 26 Defense Department contract announcement. 

The contract modification also includes “associated aircraft, programmatic and logistics support, rate tooling and physical configuration audits.” 

The CH-53K is the Marine Corps’ heavy-lift replacement for the CH-53E Super Stallion. Designed to lift nearly 14 tons at a mission radius of 110 nautical miles, in Navy high/hot environments, the CH-53K is designed to lift triple the baseline CH-53E lift capability. The CH-53K will have an equivalent logistics shipboard footprint, lower operating costs per aircraft, and less direct maintenance man hours per flight hour.  

The Marine Corps has a requirement for 200 CH-53Ks. The work for the order is expected to be completed in July 2024.   

PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — The U.S. Navy awarded a contract to Vertex Aerospace, LLC (Vertex) on Oct. 20, 2020, for the Contractor Logistics and Maintenance Support (CLS) in support of the Advanced Helicopter Training System (AHTS) program for $70.4 million for the base year, with six options for a total contract value of $465.2 million, the Naval Air Systems Command said in an Oct. 23 release. 

Three proposals were submitted for the contract. The task order contract for CLS was awarded on a best-value tradeoff basis with a base and six options. CLS availability is scheduled to begin in calendar year 2021 and continue through calendar year 2027. 

The procurement of this CLS includes logistics, maintenance and supply for both the TH-73A and the TH-57. The resultant task order award will provide services and materials necessary to provide aircraft maintenance and logistics aircraft support for both the TH-73A and the TH-57 platforms, to include: the repair of airframe and aircraft subsystems, including engines; maintenance/repair and logistics support of support equipment (as required); and maintaining records and reporting for aircraft and associated systems. 

Using a combination of best industry and Navy practices, AHTS will ensure Chief of Naval Air Training efficiently produces rotary wing aviators who are prepared for advanced rotary wing and intermediate tilt-rotor training and who will meet the challenges faced in the fleet through 2050. 

“The new Leonardo TH-73A helicopters are the cornerstone of AHTS, which is the planned replacement to address the capability and capacity gaps of the current aging TH-57 Sea Ranger helicopter training platform,” said Capt. Holly Shoger, Naval Undergraduate Flight Training Systems Program Office (PMA-273) program manager. “This contract ensures the Navy can successfully maintain the TH-57 helicopters until the TH-73A is operational in the fleet. Vertex will ensure the Navy has capacity to train several hundred aviation students per year at Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Milton, Florida.”  

EVENDALE, OHIO (October 26, 2020) – GE Marine recently hosted a virtual meeting that drew more than 60 attendees from the United States Navy, Bath Iron Works, Huntington Ingalls and other strategic partners, to celebrate the teams involved in the Module Modernization Program (MMP). The event also lauded those individuals who participated in the manufacturing and assembly of this first new module for the Arleigh Burke destroyer USS Ted Stevens (DDG 128).

This four-year collaborative U.S. Navy program resulted in the design, development, qualification and manufacture of a new lightweight composite module design for GE’s LM2500 marine gas turbine. GE currently has orders for 52 new composite enclosures for U.S. and international navy applications.

“This new module design provides significant weight reduction, improved sensors, along with reduced noise transmission and thermal heat rejection,” said Lee Fuglestad, U.S. Navy Technical Director of the AEGIS Destroyer Program Office (PEO Ships PMS 400). Fuglestad was the sponsor and leader of the MMP. “The lightweight enclosure is especially important since the U.S. Navy has more than 370 GE LM2500 engines in service as the backbone of the DDG fleet, logging over 6 million operating hours.”

“The MMP team is an excellent model of how the U.S. Navy and industry can partner on state-of-the-art fleet improvements. With delivery of DDG Flight III destroyers planned through 2028, GE’s LM2500 gas turbines will power these U.S Navy surface combatants until the 2070s,” Fuglestad concluded.

In addition to representatives from GE Marine, attendees included the U.S. Navy; Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, the lead design services shipyard; Huntington Ingalls, Pascagoula, Mississippi, construction lead on DDG 128; RL Industries, Fairfield, Ohio, composite fiber enclosure development and production; and Leonardo DRS Power Technology, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, gas turbine package integration.

According to Tony Mathis, Vice President, GE Military Systems, “GE appreciates the U.S. Navy’s leadership that brought the MMP team together. During this time of COVID, we are especially grateful for the opportunity to say thank you to our employees and our great partners that developed and produced this game-changing product.”

The virtual meeting included a summation by the U.S. Navy and GE team members of the improvements to the LM2500 including the composite module and components that yielded a 6,000-pound weight savings. In fact, GE recently delivered the first lightweight LM2500 composite module to Austal USA, Mobile, Alabama, for the future USS Santa Barbara (LCS 32). The future USS Ted Stevens (DDG 128), expected to be delivered in 2024, is under construction at Huntington Ingalls Industries shipyard.

MMP improvements include fewer shock mounts for weight reduction all while leveraging the experience and loadings from previous LM2500 shock tests with running units. The lightweight composite module wall temperatures are 25 F to 50 F degrees cooler so there is less heat rejected into the engine room.

USS AMERICA–The first-in-class amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) participated in advanced combined operations with Japan this week in the western Pacific Ocean, the ship’s public affairs office said in an Oct. 25 release. 

America conducted integrated air defense operations on Oct. 20 with F-35A Lightning II aircraft from the Japan Air Defense Command. The advanced training operations were designed to increase the tactical proficiency, lethality, and interoperability of the amphibious forces of the America Expeditionary Strike Group and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) in the maritime domain. 

“The U.S.-Japan alliance has been the cornerstone of stability and security in the Indo-Pacific for more than sixty years,” said Capt. Luke Frost, America’s commanding officer. “We have no more capable partner in the world than the Japan Self Defense Force. Every opportunity we have to continue to train and exercise together improves our interoperability and strengthens our joint integrated capabilities.” 

Our alliance will continue to play that role in the future. Operations included advanced tactics, techniques, and procedures to exercise command and control in employing the F-35A Lightning II in air defense and sea control. 

“These are the most advanced capabilities to ever sail or fly. America is a fifth-generation amphibious assault platform, built from the keel up to optimize the most advanced capability of the fifth-generation F-35 platform. We are forward-deployed to integrate exactly these advanced capabilities with Japan, recognizing the importance of our alliance and working together to maintain regional peace and stability,” said Frost. 

“The training proved to be a very significant opportunity for us,” said Col. Shinichi Nomura, flight group commander, 3rd Wing, Japan Air Self-Defense Force. “Training with assets of other services is essential to improve interoperability and joint operations capability.” 

USS America and the Japan Self Defense Forces operate routinely together in the Indo-Pacific to strengthen a shared commitment to regional stability and a free and open Indo-Pacific. 

“I am assured that our participation not only contributed to improving tactical skills but also confirming the robust Japan-U.S. alliance and commitment to the Indo-Pacific region,” said Nomura. “We will continue moving forward and further strengthen the Japan-US alliance and partnership.” 

America, the flagship of the America Amphibious Ready Group, is forward-deployed in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility to support stability and security in the Indo-Pacific region. 

LOCKPORT, La. — U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien recently announced plans to conduct a feasibility study on whether to base U.S. Coast Guard Sentinel Class Fast Response Cutters (FRCs) in American Samoa to counter “destabilizing and malign actions” by China in the Indo-Pacific region. Together with the FRCs currently based in Apra Harbor, Guam, these Cutters will help the United States challenge Chinese aggression, maintain the United States’ commitment to peace and prosperity, and ensure that America remains the partner of choice in the region, Bollinger Shipyards announced in an Oct 22 release. 

“As the Coast Guard continues to evolve to meet the most pressing maritime and national security threats of the day — be it IUU fishing, piracy, drug or human trafficking — a larger fleet and expanded presence of American-made white hulls with red racing stripes around the globe will help further the regional partnerships and alliances necessary to curb the creeping influence of America’s strategic competitors and adversaries and reaffirm its continued leadership and commitment to rules-based order and maritime governance around the world,” said Ben Bordelon, president and chief executive officer of Bollinger Shipyards and chairman of the Shipbuilders Council of America.

“Should the proposed feasibility study demonstrate a need for additional FRCs, Bollinger Shipyards and the maritime defense industrial base stand ready to construct and deliver the high-quality and high-endurance vessels necessary to carry out and perform the mission at hand.” 

Earlier this year, Bollinger Shipyards delivered the USCGC Oliver Henry to the U.S. Coast Guard, which is the second of three FRCs to be home-ported in Apra Harbor, Guam, in support of Operation Aiga, which is an effort to strengthen island nations in Oceania, including through fishery patrols and enforcement. This USCGC marked the 163rd vessel Bollinger has delivered to the U.S. Coast Guard in its 35-year period and the 40th FRC delivered under the current program. Commandant of the Coast Guard Adm. Karl Schultz has acknowledged the importance of the Guam homeporting, saying, “by placing an ocean-going Coast Guard buoy tender and FRCs, we will promote ‘rules-based order,’ build capacity and affirm the United States’ positive and enduring role in the region.”  

In the feasibility study announcement, National Security Advisor O’Brien explained the rationale for the study’s launch by saying, “The USCG continues to modernize and enhance the capabilities of its fleet of major cutters, which play a prominent role in protecting our vital national interests, and where appropriate, those of our partners in the region. To that end, the USCG is strategically homeporting significantly enhanced Fast Response Cutters, built in a proven Louisiana-based shipyard, in the western Pacific.”  

O’Brien states that the new generation of Fast Response Cutters will “conduct maritime security missions, such as fisheries patrols, enhance maritime domain awareness and enforcement efforts in collaboration with regional partners who have limited offshore surveillance and enforcement capacity, and ensure freedom of navigation. … Enhancing the presence of the USCG in the Indo-Pacific ensures the United States will remain the maritime partner of choice in the region.” 

Bordelon continued, “Bollinger is honored to support and enhance the Coast Guard’s operational presence and mission in the Indo-Pacific region. Building quality vessels for the U.S. Coast Guard provides critical assets to bolster our national security interests, both domestic and abroad. We are proud and humbled to be partners in the FRC program.”   

The FRC program has had a total economic impact of $1.2 billion since inception in material spending and directly supports more than 650 jobs in south Louisiana. The program has indirectly created 1,690 new jobs from operations and capital investment and has an annual economic impact on GDP of $202 million, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) on the economic Importance of the U.S. Shipbuilding and Repair Industry. Bollinger sources over 271,000 different items for the FRC consisting of 282 million components and parts from 965 suppliers in 37 states.  

The FRC is one of many U.S. Government shipbuilding programs that Bollinger is proud to support. In addition to the design and construction of the FRC, Bollinger is participating in Industry Studies for five Government programs, including the U.S. Coast Guard’s Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) program, the U.S. Navy’s Common Hull Auxiliary Multi-Mission Platform (CHAMP) program, the U.S. Navy’s Auxiliary General Ocean Surveillance (T-AGOS(X)) program, the U.S. Navy’s Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle (LUSV) program and the U.S. Navy’s Light Amphibious Warship (LAW) program. 

The FRC is an operational “game changer,” according to senior Coast Guard officials. FRCs are consistently being deployed in support of the full range of missions within the United States Coast Guard and other branches of our armed services.  This is due to its exceptional performance, expanded operational reach and capabilities, and ability to transform and adapt to the mission. FRCs have conducted operations as far as the Marshall Islands — a 4,400 nautical mile trip from their homeport. Measuring in at 154 feet, FRCs have a flank speed of 28 knots, state of the art C4ISR suite (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance), and stern launch and recovery ramp for a 26-foot, over-the-horizon interceptor cutter boat. 

SAN DIEGO – The U.S. Navy has identified the two-person aircrew killed in a crash Friday in Foley, Alabama, as U.S. Navy Lt. Rhiannon Ross, 30 years old, from Wixom, Michigan, and U.S. Coast Guard Ens. Morgan Garrett, 24 years old, from Weddington, North Carolina, commander, Naval Air Forces, said in an Oct. 25 release. 

A U.S. Navy T-6B Texan II trainer aircraft crashed in a residential area of Foley at approximately 5 p.m. CDT Oct. 23. No civilians were injured as a result of the crash. 

Local and Navy emergency personnel responded to the scene to secure the area and ensure the safety of the local community. The Navy is working with local authorities to investigate the incident. 

Ross, an instructor pilot, and Garrett, a student aviator, took off from Naval Air Station Whiting Field, Milton, Florida, on a routine training flight.  

WASHINGTON — The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO) of 135 AGM-84H Standoff Land Attack Missile Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) Missiles and related equipment for an estimated cost of $1.008 billion, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in an Oct. 21 release.  

In addition, TECRO has requested to buy four ATM-84H SLAM-ER Telemetry Missiles and 12 CATM-84H Captive Air Training Missiles (CATM).  Also included are 151 containers, spare and repair parts, support and test equipment, publications and technical documentation, personnel training and training equipment, U.S. Government and contractor representatives’ technical assistance, engineering and logistics support services, and other related elements of logistics support.  The total estimated program cost is $1.008 billion. 

This proposed sale will improve the recipient’s capability to meet current and future threats as it provides all-weather, day and night, precision attack capabilities against both moving and stationary targets.  The recipient will be able to employ a highly reliable and effective system to increase their warfighting effectiveness as needed, which can counter or deter aggressions by demonstrated precision against surface targets.  This capability will easily integrate into existing force infrastructure as it will only improve defense against opposing threats.  The recipient will have no difficulty absorbing these systems into its armed forces. 

The principal contractor will be the Boeing Company, St. Louis, Missouri.   

Implementation of this proposed sale will require the assignment of two U.S. contractor representatives to the recipient for a duration of eight years to support technical reviews, support, and oversight. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Marine Corps has redesignated a squadron forward -deployed in Japan in preparation for its transition to the F-35B Lightning II strike fighter. The transition will result in the second F-35B squadron forward-deployed to Marine Aircraft Group 12 — a unit of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing (MAW) — based at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni.  

Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 242 (VMFA(AW)-242 was re-designated Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 242 (VMFA-242) on Oct. 16, the 1st MAW said in an Oct. 23 release. 

VMFA-242 has been operating the F/A-18C/D Hornet from Iwakuni, and upon transition will be the second F-35B squadron based there. VMFA-121, the Corps’ first operational F-35B squadron, had been stationed at Iwakuni since January 2017. VMFA-121 has been deploying F-35Bs on board the amphibious assault ship USS America, which is home-ported in Sasebo, Japan.  

“The increased capability of F-35B, along with our other fifth-generation capabilities in III MEF [Marine Expeditionary Force] enable us to support Fleet Marines, Joint and Allied partners on a moment’s notice,” said Brig. Gen. Chris McPhillips, the commanding general of 1st Marine Aircraft Wing headquartered in Okinawa, Japan. “F-35B gives us the ability to dominate air and sea space and persist wherever we are without rival. It is an expeditionary platform that literally holds doors open for the Fleet Marine and Joint Force. F-35B basing in Japan is not by accident, it has occurred here more rapidly than in other parts of the world, which is a testament to our commitment to Japan and the region.” 

NORWALK, Conn. — Norwalk-based First Harvest Navigation, a marine transportation company that connects family farms to urban and suburban neighborhoods, has selected Boston-based Sea Machines’ technology to launch the first autonomous hybrid cargo vessel in the U.S. Powered by Sea Machines’ SM300 autonomous command and remote-helm control system, the U.S.- built, electric-powered Captain Ben Moore will also be the first hybrid cargo vessel to feature remote crew-assist technology and to generate zero emissions.  
 
Installation of Sea Machines’ SM300 aboard the Captain Ben Moore, a 63-foot x 21.3-foot aluminum catamaran, will take place in November 2020. Once complete, vessel’s intelligent capabilities will offer First Harvest Navigation redundancy and flexibility for crew shifts, with the capability to autonomously command Captain Ben Moore from the company’s land-based control station. In addition to autonomous control and remote vessel monitoring tools, the SM300 system also features obstacle detection and collision avoidance technology for added operational safety. 
   
Captain Ben Moore will enter service between Norwalk and Huntington, New York, to deliver food and other cargo faster, more reliably and more affordably than truck transportation to East Norwalk’s Harbor Harvest food market, while also reducing regional highway congestion. Comparable trucking services require a near nine-hour round trip to deliver within this location. First Harvest Navigation completes the terminal-to-terminal voyage in approximately 35 to 45 minutes. 
   
“Part of our transportation goals are to develop autonomous, hybrid catamarans to move farm products across Long Island Sound. The Sea Machines SM300 autonomous navigation system will help us achieve many of our goals because it enables shipping movements to be completed very reliably and efficiently in a seamless and sustainable delivery system,” said Bob Kunkel, president, First Harvest Navigation. “Shifting cargo from streets and highways also alleviates the growing congestion, lower emissions and reestablishes our waterways as a viable and cost-efficient alternative to land-based transport.” 
   
“Sea Machines and First Harvest Navigation are aligned in our commitments to innovation to bolster the U.S. marine highway system and in our support of family farms,” said Michael G. Jonson, founder and CEO of Sea Machines. “The SM300 ensures predictable and performance-based vessel operations while providing a 24/7 crew support system that is always on watch. It often takes determined entrepreneurial leaders like First Harvest Navigation to move an industry into new waters and Sea Machines is pleased to support the achievement of their goals.” 
   
The hybrid vessel can carry approximately 28 pallets, 10 of which are positioned in a fully refrigerated and protected walk-in space. The remaining cargo spaces are open and covered according to customer requirements. It is powered by a pair of Cummins QSB 6.7 diesels, generating 104 kW each at 2,400 kW, and lithium batteries connected to a pair of BAE Systems HybriDrive electric motors.