MIAMI — Coast Guard Sector Miami and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Field Operations law enforcement teams interdicted about 33 pounds of cocaine Monday after conducting a joint boarding of the motor vessel La Temperance on the Miami River, the Coast Guard 7th District said in a Sept. 16 release. 

The motor vessel was boarded due to the last port of call and suspected fraudulent mariner credentials. 

While the law enforcement teams inspected common spaces on the vessel, a CBP K-9 unit detected and found 20 packages of cocaine. 

“This successful joint boarding illustrates the power of the DHS Security Regional Coordinating Mechanism to combat illicit trafficking,” said Capt. Jo-Ann Burdian, commander, Sector Miami. “We work together each day with our partners to improve the safety and security of Miami’s ports and waterways.” 

“This is the latest example of strong partnerships developed in Florida to combat illicit smuggling tactics and keep drugs off our streets,” said Miami Seaport Port Director Jorge Roig. “CBP’s mission demands vigilance as we address all the border security threats.” 

Enforcement actions are pending. 

PASCAGOULA, Miss. — Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding division announced today the successful completion of builder’s sea trials for the U.S. Coast Guard’s newest national security cutter (NSC), Stone (WMSL 758), the company said in a Sept. 14 release. The ship spent three days in the Gulf of Mexico testing propulsion and auxiliary equipment, as well as various shipboard systems.   

“Every successful sea trial is a major accomplishment for our shipbuilders, but this set proved to be a particularly substantial undertaking,” said Jay Boyd, Ingalls’ NSC program manager. “Since the year began, our team has persevered through every challenge. Learning through each obstacle presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the NSC team has worked tirelessly to ensure the Coast Guard receives another high-performance cutter to help protect our nation.” 

In the weeks preceding NSC 9 builder’s trials, safety precautions were put in place to minimize the potential risk of COVID-19 to participants while at sea. The number of shipboard riders was reduced by one-third to allow for adequate social distancing. Those allowed onboard were tested for COVID-19 one week prior to sail, and were screened the morning of departure. Masks were required at all times, food services were staggered, and in addition to the cutter’s regular cleaning regimen, each individual received their own personal supplies to clean their way in and out of spaces onboard the ship. 

Ingalls has delivered eight Legend-class NSCs with two more under construction, and one additional under contract. Stone (WMSL 758), the ninth NSC, is scheduled for delivery later this year. 

NSC 9 was named to honor Coast Guard officer Commander Elmer “Archie” Fowler Stone, Coast Guard aviator number one, who made history in 1919 for being one of two Coast Guard pilots in the four-man air crew who completed the first transatlantic flight in a Navy seaplane.  

The Legend-class NSC is the largest, most technologically advanced ship in the Coast Guard’s fleet, which enables it to meet the high demands required for maritime and homeland security, law enforcement, marine safety, environmental protection and national defense missions. NSCs are 418 feet long with a top speed of 28 knots, a range of 12,000 miles, an endurance of 60 days and a crew of 120. 

HONOLULU — The Coast Guard Cutter Kimball (WMSL 756) returned to Honolulu Sunday following its nearly two-month patrol supporting the multi-country maritime Operation Nasse throughout Oceania, the Coast Guard 14th District said in a Sept. 15 release. 

Operation Nasse is an annual Pacific Quadrilateral Defense Coordination Group operation consisting of assets from the United States, Australia, France, New Zealand, and Pacific Island Forum Fisheries Agency which completed Aug. 23. 

“This is the first time the Coast Guard has sent a surface asset to participate during the Pacific Quadrilateral Defense Coordination Group’s operation,” said Lt. j.g. Joseph Fox, an assistant combat systems officer aboard the Kimball. “Service members from the Coast Guard Cutter Kimball and an Air Station Barbers Point HC-130 aircrew conducted joint missions with their multi-national counterparts to achieve the common goal of preventing illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in the Pacific.” 

The purpose of this year’s operation was to investigate the effect COVID-19 had on fishing activities on the high seas and to identify fishing vessels not complying with the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) conditions. Illegal, unregulated or unreported (IUU) fishing undermines a nation’s sovereignty, threatens its economic security, and weakens global rules-based order. 

Each participating country provided assets to support the operation including flights by RNZAF P-3K Orions based out of Auckland, Australian Maritime Border Command Dash 8s based out of Brisbane, and French Guardians from Noumea. 

The partner’s cooperation provided a significant reach in surveillance which allowed the French patrol boat “La Glorieuse” and the Kimball to home in on specific vessels identified as possibly being of interest to confirm their activities were within regulations. 

Air and sea surveillance, and maritime intelligence sharing provided an opportunity for the participants to work collaboratively to detect, deter, suppress, and report potential IUU fishing activity. 

In addition to Operation Nasse, the crew of the Kimball also conducted a high seas patrol off American Samoa and Fiji. 

Working closely with their Fijian counterparts, the crew supported U.S.-Fiji bilateral agreements and enforced partner nations respective Exclusive Economic Zones while promoting legal, sustainable fisheries. 

In the Pacific, the annual tuna catch is estimated at over $5 billion and provides a significant percentage of the income of many of the South Pacific Nations. Ensuring that vessels operating on the high seas are complying with WCPFC regulations to protect fish stocks and other marine life resulting in these valuable resources remaining sustainable for future generations. 

All asset crews were working to national rules regarding COVID-19, implemented to keep all personnel as safe as possible while still being able to achieve many of the operational goals. 

MELBOURNE, Fla.—The U.S. Navy has awarded L3Harris Technologies a $104 million follow-on contract to supply the next production lot of the electronic warfare (EW) system that protects F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet aircraft against electronic threats. The announcement was made on Sept. 10 in conjunction with vHook’20 being held virtually, September 10-12. 

L3Harris will manufacture and deliver Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures (IDECM) jammer systems for the F/A-18C/D/E/F variants, with deliveries under the new contract expected to be completed by May 2024. The L3Harris ALQ-214A(V)4/5 is the key Onboard Jammer for the IDECM program, protecting the aircraft from electronic threats, including sophisticated integrated air defense systems. The company has received more than $2 billion in awards to date from the Naval Air Systems Command for AN/ALQ-214 development and production. 

“Our commitment to continually modernize F/A-18 EW systems has helped to keep naval aviators ahead of emerging threats and out of harm’s way for more than two decades,” said Ed Zoiss, President, L3Harris Space and Airborne Systems. “This longterm collaboration with the Navy and continued development of advanced EW technology uniquely positions L3Harris to provide the jammer solution for the F/A-18 throughout the service-life of the aircraft.” 

L3Harris has delivered EW solutions for a wide variety of airborne platforms for more than 60 years, including strategic bombers, tactical fighters and rotary aircraft.   

L3Harris’ Space and Airborne Systems segment provides space payloads, sensors and full-mission solutions; classified intelligence and cyber defense; avionics; and electronic warfare solutions. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The number of ship days delayed by maintenance has been reduced by 80% in fiscal 2020, a senior Navy engineering duty officer said, even with the COVID-19 pandemic affecting operations.  

“The needle is really moving, and moving in a good direction,” said Rear Adm. Eric Ver Hage, commander, Regional Maintenance Center, speaking Sept. 15 in a webinar of the Virtual Fleet Maintenance & Modernization Symposium of the American Society of Naval Engineers. “Even with the challenges of COVID, we’ve achieved an 80% reduction in the days of maintenance delay in [fiscal] ‘20 as compared to [fiscal] ’19.” 

Ver Hage said, “It’s not just about on time, it’s also getting the required work complete. In our 2020 DDG [guided-missile destroyer] availabilities, we are tracking to complete 99% of all of our mandatory technical requirements, the things required to keep a ship operating to its full expected life cycle. That also is an improvement over last year.” 

The admiral said that fiscal 2020 has been a super-busy year, with 50 CNO [chief of naval operations] availabilities and another 100 in planning; almost 700 emergent availabilities; 20,000 intermediate-level tasks; and 25,000 technical assists.  

He said that also conducted were 157 ship readiness assessments, which help “our ships prepare for deployment and really importantly, on preparing for the next CNO avail.” 

Ver Hage said the accomplishments were the result of “a great team effort,” while noting that “there has been steadily improving collaboration between industry and the government.” 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The first of a new class of berthing barges is soon to be delivered to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, followed early next year by a delivery to the East Coast, a Navy official said. 

The first one, APL 67, is nearing completion [and] is going to Pac Fleet,” said Rear Adm. William Greene, fleet maintenance officer, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, speaking Sept. 15 in a webinar of the Virtual Fleet Maintenance & Modernization Symposium of the American Society of Naval Engineers. 

Greene said the second barge of the class, APL 68, will be delivered to the East Coast in February 2021. The subsequent deliveries will alternate between the West and East Coasts.  

He said the 27 legacy berthing barges on the East Coast “are reaching the end of their service lives.” 

Officially designated non-self-propelled auxiliary personnel lighters (small) (APL(S)), the barges provide living space and berthing for the crew — particularly the duty section — of a ship that is going through extensive maintenance. Often the maintenance on a ship requires that berthing, climate control, food service, and water supply, and other services be shut down during renovation.  

The new APL(S)-67-class barges will have a length of 269 feet, a beam of 69 feet, and a draft of seven feet. They will have berthing for 74 officers and 537 enlisted personnel. The messing facilities will be able to accommodate 56 officers and 228 enlisted personnel at a time. The barges also feature washrooms, classrooms, lounges, laundry facilities, offices, a barber shop, a fitness center and a medical facility. 

The barges are not self-propelled but can be towed to the port or harbor area where the maintenance is to be performed.  

VT Halter Marine was awarded a $78 million Navy contract in September 2018 for two berthing barges with options for four more which, if exercised, would raise the contract value to $244 million.  

KODIAK, Alaska — The crew aboard Coast Guard Cutter Douglas Munro (WHEC 724) returned to homeport following a two-month-long Operation North Pacific Guard  (NPG) patrol, focused on enforcing international fishery regulations, Monday, Sept. 14, 2020, the Coast Guard 17th District said in a Sept. 15 release. 

NPG is an annual high seas U.S. fisheries international law enforcement operation designed to detect and deter illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activity, including large-scale high seas pelagic drift-net fishing. The NPG includes multilateral and bilateral international agreements with the United States to advance the conservation and management of high seas fisheries resources. 

Douglas Munro’s crew began their patrol just south of the Aleutian Islands and spent 59 days enforcing fisheries regulations while traveling 12,500 miles throughout the Pacific Ocean. During this time, to ensure compliance with Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission and North Pacific Fisheries Commission regulations, the Munro crew conducted inspections aboard 11 fishing vessels of various nationalities. 

To better enable both aerial reconnaissance and search and rescue missions, the Munro crew embarked an aviation detachment and an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco, California. 

“This has been an extremely exciting and rewarding patrol,” said U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Riley Gatewood, commanding officer, Douglas Munro. “It was like watching a home-run derby; the crew absolutely crushed each ball into the bleacher seats. The 11 at-sea boardings bolstered U.S. presence that promoted a strong deterrent value, relevancy, and directly contributed to the economic stability and food security for the region. Their outstanding results, positive attitude and exceptional work ethic set the standard for future U.S. Coast Guard engagements.” 

Thanks to a partnership with the Kodiak Area Native Association, the Munro crew conducted pre-deployment COVID-19 testing, followed by a 14-day monitoring period in order to ensure the safety of the crew during the current global pandemic. Throughout their patrol, the crew maintained strict health precautionary measures and minimized interactions with others to ensure sustained mission readiness. 

While patrolling in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands, the Douglas Munro crew rendezvoused with Coast Guard Cutter Munro (WMSL 755). Commissioned in 2017, the Munro is the sixth 418-foot, Legend-class national security cutter in the Coast Guard. The Munro is one of the four national security cutters homeported in Alameda, Calif., and is bearing the same namesake of Douglas Munro, the Coast Guard’s only World War II Medal of Honor recipient. 

Commissioned in 1971, Douglas Munro is the Coast Guard’s only remaining 378-foot High Endurance Cutter from a fleet that was once twelve strong. High Endurance Cutters have a crew of 160 and have long served as the capital ships of the Coast Guard cutter fleet. Douglas Munro has earned the title of the America’s Bering Sea Cutter, for her extensive resume of arduous patrols in perilous Aleutian waters. Even after nearly 49 years of service, Douglas Munro remains versatile and can operate globally in the most demanding open ocean environments, from the North Pacific’s hazardous fishing grounds to the wind-swept isles of the Aleutians. 

SAN DIEGO — General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA‑ASI) concluded a set of maritime test flights over the sea-lanes off the coast of Southern California on Sept. 11, using the MQ-9B SeaGuardian Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS), the company said in a Sept. 14 release. 

This was the first MQ-9B configured for surveillance operations over open-water and served to demonstrate MQ-9B capabilities in the maritime environment. 

“The SeaGuardian’s debut demonstrated persistent situational awareness in the maritime domain for our customers,” said Linden Blue, CEO of GA-ASI. SeaGuardian is an MQ-9B SkyGuardian configured for maritime ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) mission. 

The Southern California test flight demonstrated how SeaGuardian can be used for a variety of maritime missions, including surface search, subsurface search, littoral surveillance, anti-piracy and search and rescue. MQ-9B is all-weather capable, and compliant with STANAG 4671 (NATO Airworthiness type-certification standard for UAS). This feature, along with its operationally proven collision-avoidance radar, enables flexible operations in civil (including ICAO) airspace. 

The aircraft onboard sensors included the GA-ASI Lynx Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), a Raytheon Intelligence & Space SeaVue Expanded Mission Capability radar, a Raytheon Intelligence & Space Multi-Spectral Targeting System, a Leonardo Electronic Support Measure/Electronic Intelligence SAGE 750, a Shine Micro Automatic Identification System (AIS), an Ultra sonobuoy receiver and a General Dynamics Mission Systems–Canada sonobuoy processor. 

INDIAN HEAD, Md. — Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division (NSWC IHEODTD) announces its new name, Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division (NSWC IHD). The name change reflects not only an alignment with its other warfare center counterparts, but also better represents the broader scope of activities at the command. 

The command is the only warfare center that included a function in its title, a result of the 2013 merger of then two separate Warfare Center Divisions (Indian Head and EOD Technology). Each of the other nine warfare centers are named only after their geographic location. 

“An unforeseen consequence of our old ‘merged’ name was that it gave a limited impression that the only activity at the command is EOD. While our name was obviously inclusive to that mission, it excluded many of the other capabilities at the command such as cartridge actuated devices and propellant actuated devices; chemical, biological and radiological defense; energetics systems engineering; research, development, test, and evaluation; and production,” said NSWC IHD Technical Director Ashley Johnson. 

“This name change does not change our staffing or dedication to our critical EOD Department mission. It does not change who we are as a command. We are still the Navy’s premier facility for ordnance, energetics and EOD solutions. What does change is the streamlining of our name to align with the rest of our NAVSEA family, and an expansion of the perception to external entities of our command as a whole,” said Capt. Scott Kraft, NSWC IHD commanding officer and deputy executive manager for DoD EOD Technology. 

The command has the largest workforce in the DoD dedicated to EOD and energetics and is home to more than 2,000 employees, approximately 70 of which hold doctorates. NSWC IHD also has eight detachments including sites in Picatinny, N.J.; Rock Island, Ill.; McAlester, Okla; Ogden, Utah and employees stationed throughout the world. The command’s unique synergy and balanced capabilities address all aspects of the energetic technical discipline to include basic research, applied technology and technology demonstration, and prototyping. 

NSWC IHD — a field activity of the Naval Sea Systems Command and part of the Navy’s Science and Engineering Establishment — is the leader in ordnance, energetics, and EOD solutions. The Division focuses on energetics research, development, testing, evaluation, in-service support, and disposal; and provides warfighters solutions to detect, locate, access, identify render safe, recover, exploit, and dispose of explosive ordnance threats. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy has laid out the planned configuration of its carrier air wings of the future in a presentation to a convention of active and retired naval aviation personnel.  

Speaking Sept. 11 at the Virtual Hook convention webinar of the Tailhook Association, Rear Adm. Gregory N. Harris, director of Air Warfare in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, addressed the future and specified to some degree the numbers and types of aircraft in the future air wing envisioned by the end of the 2020s.  

As illustrated in a PowerPoint slide, the future wing would still include 44 strike fighters as it does now, but the mix of Block 4 F-35C Lightning II fighters and Block III F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters changes from 10 and 34, respectively, to 16 and 28. The strike fighters would equip one 16-aircraft F-35C squadron and three F/A-18E/F squadrons totalling 28 Super Hornets.   

The other aircraft in the wing would include five-to-seven EA-18G Growler electronic combat aircraft, five E-2D Advanced Hawkeye command-and-control aircraft, six-to-ten MH-60 Seahawk helicopters, three CMV-22B Osprey carrier-onboard delivery aircraft, and five-to-nine MQ-25 Stingray aerial tanker unmanned aircraft.   

Next year, USS Carl Vinson will deploy, taking a 10-aircraft F-35C squadron (Strike Fighter Squadron 147) on the aircraft’s first carrier deployment. The ship also will carry two 10-aircraft F/A-18E squadrons and one 14-aircraft F/A-18F squadron, according to a source.  

The deployment also will mark the first for the CMV-22B.   

The second carrier deployment of the F-35C is scheduled in 2022 by Marine Fighter Attack 314.