With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan largely in the rearview mirror and a growing emphasis on the Pacific region and littoral operations, the U.S. Marine Corps is committed to returning to its amphibious roots. And that includes a major restructuring of the service itself that involves getting lighter and more agile.

One of the ways the Marines are doing that is by embracing new technology — such as drones small enough to fit in a rucksack. And one of the new unmanned aircraft the service is experimenting with is SkyRaider — a platform that is small in stature but aims to make a big impact and show that an increasing number of missions can be done by smaller and more technologically advanced equipment.

Check out the digital edition of the September Seapower magazine and other past issues here.

The Marines have started to ramp up their procurement of the SkyRaider. Manufacturer FLIR Systems received a $10 million contract for dozens of the drones. SkyRaider has long-range, high-resolution electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) imaging sensors, and it can also be used for delivering external loads, asset extraction and “other specialized missions,” according to a June 30 FLIR Systems statement announcing the contract award.

“The SkyRaider vertical takeoff and landing small unmanned aircraft system [sUAS] was procured to fill a capability gap,” the Marine Corps said in a statement, noting that the need for SkyRaider came out of the Small Unit Remote Scouting System operational requirements document and a series of Urgent Universal Needs Statements.

“The SkyRaider vertical takeoff and landing small unmanned aircraft system [sUAS] was procured to fill a capability gap.”

Marine Corps statement

“The sUAS will be primarily supporting the ground combat element, specifically our infantry and our light armored units by providing improved electro-optic and IR capabilities, along with an ability to carry light payloads within size, weight and payload restrictions,” the statement reads. “As we procure more systems, we plan to expand usage to other units.”

The Marine Corps plans to buy 71 systems in fiscal 2021, 60 in 2022 and 53 in 2023.

More Than Just a Drone With a Camera

David Proulx, vice president of product development for FLIR, told Seapower in an interview that while it may resemble a commercially available drone, this system has capabilities that go far beyond anything available to consumers.

For one thing, it has a robust operating envelope that can handle some of the more extreme environments that the Marines have to deal with, Proulx said.

“The Marines don’t get to just deploy on nice, sunny days at reasonable altitudes,” he said. “We had to build a UAS that can keep pace with their operations, tolerate winds at 50 miles per hour, fly up to 15,000 feet and tolerate precipitation.”

Additionally, the SkyRaider is more than just a drone with a camera, he said.

“Our customers, as their missions evolve from [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] to resupply to providing aerial comms relays, they need something that can adapt to those missions,” Proulx said. “We not only offer a range of payloads, but different operating envelopes.”

He said the UAS is designed to operate without constant input from an operator or even an active GPS signal. It can be autonomously launched and recovered on moving platforms.

SkyRaider is brand new — FLIR launched the drone at a conference just two years ago, and the UAS was in development for three years before that.

FLIR has been working on enhancements to the platform. For example, the company recently expanded its payload from 4.4 to 7 pounds.

“That may not sound like a lot from a manned aviation perspective, but for a small drone that can fit in a rucksack, it’s important,” Proulx said. “In terms of the cameras and optics it can carry, we’re now talking about payloads where previously you would need a Group 2 or 3 UAS.”

FLIR recently expanded SkyRaider’s payload from 4.4 to 7 pounds. “That may not sound like a lot from a manned aviation perspective, but for a small drone that can fit in a rucksack, it’s important.”

David Proulx, FLIR vice president of product development

FLIR is also looking to make the UAS usable from the deck of a ship, primarily for use in littoral environments as opposed to the open sea. The SkyRaider could help a ship’s crew get closer to a target or see around obstacles. It also can operate as a communications relay that provides over-the-horizon connectivity, essentially acting as a communications node in the sky.

Jonathan Wong, a policy researcher at Rand Corp., said the Marine Corps has been getting more creative in its use of small UAS.

Small UAS are “a relatively new technology that they know has broad military utility, but they’re not sure how,” Wong said. “They could have taken a traditional acquisition route of exhaustively figuring out what they need and then procuring that solution at scale. Instead, they bought a wide range of platforms in relatively small quantities, gave them to Marines, and said, ‘Here, figure out what you can do with this.'”

The Marines have experimented with these UAS, hanging radios from them to serve as retransmission nodes or even using them to support light armored recon missions, Wong said.

“That iterative approach is evident in the force redesign efforts that [Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger] is pursuing,” Wong said. “He calls out sUAS specifically, because the Marine Corps is convinced that they can be a force multiplier, especially for disaggregated or distributed units. However, the Marine Corps also sees that the threat environment demands that sUAS be more lethal and more robust and autonomous in terms of being able to operate in a communications-degraded environment.”

He added that SkyRaider appears to be a step in that direction. While the drone is not lethal, it can do things that previous platforms in its size and weight category could not do.

“It can carry a payload. It can operate autonomously,” he said. “The current contract that the Marine Corps has signed with FLIR isn’t huge — it calls for dozens, not thousands, of systems. But it strongly indicates that the Marine Corps is continuing to iterate in this technology space.”

Just as “Big Navy” is conducting programs to modernize its battle fleet, one of its fleets of small boats has been going through a substantial modernization: the small surface craft that support special operations forces (SOF), in particular the Navy’s SEALs and Marine Raiders in their clandestine operations.

The SEALs use special operations craft, operated by special warfare combatant craft operators, to approach shores and insert and extract teams of special warfare operators. These craft are fast, quiet, capable of shallow-water operations, and armed with machine guns for use if their cover is blown. The small craft also can be used for coastal patrol missions and to interdict hostile craft and conduct visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) missions.

Check out the digital edition of the September Seapower magazine and other past issues here.

Navy Special Warfare Command, the parent unit of the SEAL teams, as a component of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), receives much of its equipment not through normal service acquisition channels but through SOCOM. SOCOM is a combatant command but is unusual in that it has its own acquisition budget and programs.

Special Warfare Small Boat Recapitalization Well Underway

During a May webinar, the vSOFIC (Virtual Special Operations Forces Industry Conference), Special Operations Command provided an unusual look into the acquisition programs of its naval craft and showed the special warfare community nearing completion of recapitalization of two classes of small boats and well along in a modernization program that will increase the capabilities of its special operations craft.

The Navy’s special operations boat capabilities and capacity has expanded greatly over a decade ago, when the special boat squadrons operated the Mark V special operations craft, the Naval Special Warfare Rigid-Hull Inflatable Boat and the Special Operations Craft-Riverine (SOC-R).

The CCA “is a great workhorse. It’s small enough, modular [and] easy to move around a theater, which is a great attribute for SOF craft.”

Capt. Rocky Russell, Special Operations Command program manager for surface systems

The aluminum-hull, 33-foot-long SOC-R, built by U.S. Marine Inc. (USMI), is designed for short-range insertion and extraction of SOF in riverine and littoral environments. The 40-plus-knot craft, heavily armed with machine guns, carries a crew of four as well as eight SOF personnel.

“At any given time, we’ve got 12 that are in training or in deployment rotations,” said Capt. Katherine Dolloff, who leads the Special Operations Command’s program executive office for maritime. “We’ve got 12 that are in lay-up. This is our only riverine capability.”

“It’s a great hull,” said Capt. Rocky Russell, Dolloff’s program manager for surface systems. “It’s aging. We’re working on the sustainment. We’re starting to think about the serious design effort on what the next-generation craft should look like.”

Craft to replace the Mark V boats are well established. 

“The program for the Mark V special operations craft ended in 2013 as next-generation craft were being procured to replace the legacy craft,” said Lt. Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, a SOCOM spokesman.

The first craft to modernize the special boat squadrons is the combatant craft-assault, built by USMI. The 41-foot combatant craft-assault (CCA) is a low-observable, composite material, medium-range boat that provides expanded range, payload and speed over similar-sized special warfare craft such as 11-meter rigid-hull inflatable boats. The CCA is equipped with a small mast with a surface search radar, electro-optical/infrared sensor and satellite communications. It also can be airdropped from a C-17 transport aircraft.

Seven-Year Road for a ‘Workhorse’

Development of the CCA began by 2010 and the first boat was delivered 2013. Full operational capability was reached in 2017 with 32 CCAs fielded.

“This is a great workhorse,” Russell said. “It’s small enough, modular [and] easy to move around a theater, which is a great attribute for SOF craft. [It] can carry squad-size elements. It’s great for the VBSS mission and getting operators where they need to go. … We’re heavily employed overseas, doing great things.”

“We did just award a new [five-year] production contract with USMI, which will both add to the [CCA] fleet and replace aging craft,” Dolloff said.

Russell said the CCA design is “stable in the hull form, but we’re actually working on some major modifications, one of them being a new mast to incorporate the CC FLIR II [Combatant Craft Forward-Looking Infrared II] and a new comms box setup that help us have more modular, adaptable configuration for bringing systems on and off the CCA as technology evolves and mission needs evolve as well.”

This year, SOCOM will field the last of the current production run of the main replacement for the 82-foot-long Mark V, the combatant craft-medium (CCM) Mk1, built by Vigor Works. The CCM is a 60-foot fast craft designed to be clandestine, agile, and adaptive and that can insert and extract SOF in a medium threat environment. The CCM is small enough to be carried inside a C-17 transport aircraft, a large advantage over the legacy Mark V, which required the larger C-5 transport for movement.

The CCM was ordered in 2014 under an indefinite quantity contract. A total of 30 had been ordered as of 2020. Initial operational capability was achieved in fiscal 2015, and full operational capability is in track by the end of fiscal 2020.

“We’ve got 27 of 30 craft fielded [as of May 2020],” SOCOM’s Dolloff said. 

“The CCM has been on a deployment cycle,” Russell added. “It’s done many things down range. There has been a big learning curve for us on a craft like this. It’s not quite as large as the Mark V, but it comes with a lot of different aspects that make it suited for today’s environment.”

“As pleased as the operators are with the CCM, SOCOM is focused on bringing a lot of things to CCM,” Russell said. “One of those is maritime precision engagement. We’re going to see a topside configuration change with the integration of CC FLIR II.”

Maritime precision engagement is envisioned to be “a standoff, loitering, man-in-the-loop weapon for combatant craft capable of targeting individuals, groups, vehicles [and] small oceangoing craft with low collateral damage,” he said, noting that the installation would involve craft alterations, launchers, and missiles.

Russell said the maritime precision engagement was a “very difficult challenge for the SWAP [size, weight and power] conditions on CCM to get it integrated smoothly.”

The CC FLIR II, built by FLIR Systems, is a “big upgrade from our legacy maritime FLIR,” Russell said. It is used to detect, recognize, identify, range, track and highlight objects of interest.

“It is in production and actually going on the craft,” he said, noting that as of May, 21 of 58 ordered had been delivered. Initial operational capability was achieved in fiscal 2018. Full operational capability is scheduled for fiscal 2024.  

Another plus for the CCM is Maritime Tactical Mission Networking, nicknamed “Mountain Man.” This is being added to “give this boat much more connectivity to prove utility to offboard partners and bring situational awareness to the crew and whatever ground force we are carrying,” Russell said.

The program office also is working to install a retractable .50-caliber Mk50 machine gun system that retracts into the bow of the CCM.

Large, Stealthy, Exotic SEALION Gains Favor

The largest craft in the Navy Special Warfare Command’s fleet is the combatant craft-heavy (CCH) Mk1, which also is the most exotic and stealthy.

Known as the SEALION, for SEAL Insertion, Observation and Neutralization, the 40-ton, 80-foot low-profile craft built by Vigor Works, could be described as a semisubmersible. It has retractable masts for sensors and communications. Jet Skis, inflatable rubber raiding craft and diving equipment can be carried and launched out the stern. The SEALION also can be transported inside a C-17 aircraft. SEALION is based on an earlier prototype, the Alligator, which has been transferred to Israel, according to one report.

The Navy developed two as demonstrators, SEALION 1 and SEALION 2, and SOCOM was able to turn them into operational craft, Dolloff said. “One is forward deployed at any given time, … focused on national-level missions.”

The first two SEALIONs entered service with SOCOM in 2014.

“It’s a great craft,” Russell said. “Low numbers [in service], but it can do things that other craft can’t.”

A third SEALION is being built at Vigor. In June 2017, the company was awarded a $17 million contract for SEALION 3, which is designed based on the lessons learned from operation of the first two SEALIONs. Delivery is expected in 2021.

“We’re really excited to get SEALION 3 into the force,” Russell said. “That should be in early calendar 2022.”

In March 2019, SOCOM held a capability collaboration event to assess a CCH Mk2, a well-deck-capable, diesel-powered boat capable of crossing the ocean and delivering and extracting SOF and launching and recovering small unmanned surface and underwater vessels. But SOCOM is not actively pursuing that program, Russell said.

NEW ORLEANS – The Navy accepted delivery of the next-generation landing craft, Ship-to-Shore Connector (SSC), Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) 101, Aug. 27.  LCAC 101 is the second craft delivered by Textron Systems to the Navy this year, the Program Executive Office-Ships said in an Aug. 28 release. 

The LCAC is a high-speed, over-the-beach, fully amphibious landing craft capable of carrying a 60-70 ton payload. The LCAC replaces the existing fleet of legacy LCAC vehicles, and will primarily transport weapon systems, equipment, cargo, and personnel of the assault elements through varied environmental conditions from amphibious ships to and over the beach. 

The delivery follows the successful completion of Acceptance Trials with the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey. During these at sea trials, the craft underwent testing to demonstrate the capability of the platform and installed systems across all mission areas to effectively meet its requirements.  

“Our next generation surface connectors are going to significantly enhance the Navy and Marine Corps team’s capability to execute missions – from humanitarian assistance to amphibious assault,” said Capt. Cedric McNeal, amphibious warfare program manager, Program Executive Office Ships. “We have 12 additional craft in production with another 10 on contract, positioning us to steadily deliver increased capability to our fleet over the coming years.”  

LCACs are constructed at Textron Systems in Slidell, Louisiana and are built with similar configurations, dimensions, and clearances to legacy LCAC, ensuring the compatibility of this next-generation air cushion vehicle with existing well deck equipped amphibious ships, as well as Expeditionary Transfer Dock and the Expeditionary Sea Base. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The surface warfare director in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV) said the back-fit of the new SPY-6 radar in the Flight II Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyer (DDG) is a “few years out.” 

Speaking Aug. 27 in the Surface Navy Association’s First Waterfront Symposium webinar ships, Rear Adm. Paul Schlise, director, Surface Warfare, said the new SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radar is on track to be installed on the first Flight III DDG, which he said is 36% complete. 

The Flight III is designed to have the SPY-6 installed from the start, but the Navy also plans to back-fit some Flight II DDGs with the Raytheon-built radar.    

Schlise said the SPY-6 back-fit will begin with the later Flight II DDG modernizations. 

“[The back-fit] has some requirements process to go through here in the [Pentagon],” he said. “As with everything we do at the OPNAV staff, it gets stacked against all the other priorities across all the [warfare directors].” 

“The great news is that the radar is continuing to perform well,” he said. “The elements are [being delivered] on time and the testing is tracking along. The back-fit has got a ways to go in terms of the point at which we cut them in, which is a few years out, into the DDG Mod program, but it’s on track.” 

The admiral said he is “happy to say [that the SPY-6] has been a real success story in terms of development,” he said. “The capability is fantastic; the testing is tracking.” 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The secretary of the Navy and chief of naval operations announced the following assignments in an Aug. 28 Defense Department release: 

Rear Adm. Collin P. Green will be assigned as chief of staff, U.S. Special Operations Command, Tampa, Florida. Green is currently serving as commander, Naval Special Warfare Command, San Diego, California. 

Rear Adm. John F. Wade will be assigned as director of operations, J3, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Camp H. M. Smith, Hawaii. Wade is currently serving as director, maritime operations, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, Norfolk, Virginia. 

Rear Adm. Fred I. Pyle will be assigned as director, maritime operations, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, Norfolk, Virginia. Pyle is currently serving as commander, Navy Warfare Development Command, Norfolk, Virginia. 

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton (WMSL-753) returned home Friday to Charleston after completing a 60-day patrol throughout the Eastern Pacific Ocean, the Coast Guard 7th District said in an Aug. 28 release.  

The crew offloaded $228 million worth of cocaine and marijuana Thursday at Port Everglades.    

Hamilton’s crew interdicted nine drug-laden vessels while patrolling the Eastern Pacific Ocean.  Described as “go-fast” vessels, they intentionally travel at high speeds trying to avoid interdiction. Hamilton’s law enforcement team detained all 25 suspects, transferred six others and handed them all over to Federal authorities for potential prosecution.  

During one of the interdictions, Hamilton’s crew worked alongside the USS Nitze, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer homeported in Norfolk, Virginia to interdict a go-fast vessel 76 miles South of Panama. The Nitze deployed with a Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment Team which enables Navy ships to conduct counter-drug operations and enforce U.S. laws. Nitze launched their MH-60 Seahawk helicopter to provide airborne support and disable the vessel while Hamilton’s boarding team conducted the law enforcement boarding. The teamwork between Nitze and Hamilton led to the seizure of 1,500 kilograms of cocaine and apprehension of three suspected drug smugglers.  

“We are proud to support the President’s national security strategy by keeping illegal drugs off American streets. Our efforts also degrade transnational criminal organizations, bring stability to Central America, and increase interoperability with our partner nations,” said Capt. Timothy Cronin, commanding officer of Hamilton. “I am extremely proud of this crew how they managed to sail short-handed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and still deliver tremendous results.”   

The Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton is one of two 418-foot National Security Cutters (NSC) homeported in Charleston. With its robust command, control, communication, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance equipment, the NSC is the most technologically advanced ship in the Coast Guard’s fleet. NSCs are equipped with three state-of-the-art small boats and a stern boat launch system, dual aviation facilities, and serve as an afloat command and control platform for complex law enforcement and national security missions involving the Coast Guard and numerous partner agencies.  

Hamilton’s crew, along with an aviation detachment from the Coast Guard’s Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron, began her deployment in early July as part of a partnership falling under Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) South, a component of U.S. Southern Command. JIATF South, located in Key West, oversees the detection and monitoring of illicit traffickers and assists U.S. and multi-national law enforcement agencies with the interdiction of these activities. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Coast Guard’s Pacific Area commander says she does not know yet how long it will take, or how much it will cost, to repair fire damage to the only U.S. ice breaker patrolling the Arctic.  

The temporary loss of the Coast Guard Cutter Healy underscores the need for more ice breaking capability in the waters of the “high latitudes,” where “presence equals influence,” Vice Adm. Linda Fagan said Aug. 27 at the Surface Navy Association’s First Virtual Waterfront Symposium. 

The Healy was 60 nautical miles off Seward, Alaska, heading into the second half of its deployment to the Arctic, when an electrical fire broke out in one of the ship’s main propulsion motors on Aug. 18. No injuries were reported, and the blaze was extinguished quickly. With the starboard propulsion motor and shaft no longer operational, the Healy returned to its homeport in Seattle for repairs and the Coast Guard canceled further Arctic operations with no indication when they will resume. That leaves just one sea-going U.S. icebreaker, the 44-year-old Polar Star, to serve both the Arctic and Antarctic.  

The Healy had completed 103 days in the Arctic, Fagan said, and was heading back to continue a combined mission of supporting scientific research and patrolling the maritime boundary with Russia in the Far North. The Healy’s absence in the Arctic emphasized the Coast Guard’s need for the polar security cutter (PSC) program. 

The planned 460-foot PSCs will serve as heavy ice breakers as well as performing other Coast Guard missions in the Arctic such as maritime safety and search and rescue operations.  

“The United States is an Arctic nation,” Fagan said, “and polar capability is the cornerstone of a whole of government approach and strengthens our interoperability with [the Defense Department].” Construction is slated to begin on the first PSC early next year and “we hope to have the first one in the 2024 timeframe,” Fagan said, adding “This is a critical investment for the nation.” 

In her live streamed appearance at the symposium, Fagan praised another Coast Guard investment: small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS). She said the Boeing Insitu ScanEagle drone, deployed with five of the National Security Cutters (NSCs), Stratton, James, Munro, Kimball and Waesche, has been a “key enabler” in the Western Pacific and the High Latitudes. In addition to adding ScanEagles to three more of the 418-foot NSCs, Bertholf, Hamilton and Midgett, Fagan said the Coast Guard is exploring the need for a land-based UAS, on the U.S. southwest border, possibly in partnership with Customs and Border Protection.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Marine general assigned to the Navy as its director of expeditionary warfare says that Marine Corps forces will be more in support of the Navy than being the supported force. 

“We’re going to have Marines out there sinking ships,” said Maj. Gen. Tracy W. King, director, Expeditionary Warfare, speaking Aug. 27 in the Surface Navy Association’s First Waterfront Symposium webinar.   

King was referring to the Marine Corps’ plans to acquire anti-ship missiles such as the Naval Strike Missile to stage at expeditionary bases and engage enemy naval vessels with those precision weapons in what the Corps calls Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations. 

“Per the commandant’s [Gen. David Berger’s] guidance, we need to be an extension of the fleet,” King said. “It’s not, ‘What can the Navy do for the Marine Corps?’ It’s the exact opposite. If you just think of some of the missions that the Navy is going to have to do when she gets in close: fast FIAC [fast inshore attack craft] comes to mind. The Marine Corps can really help with [countering] that. If you get a Cobra [attack helicopter] on you, you are not getting away. 

“Our examination of the coming fight is that it is going to begin in a very distributed fashion,” King said. “If we do come to blows with China, it’s going to be very confused for the first 30 or 45 days, but we must fight in a distributed fashion. … It’s simply harder.”  

King said that “one of the things the American joint force does much better than its potential adversaries is that we don’t culminate … because of our logistic tails. If we have to distribute across an archipelago or wherever, that’s going to become increasingly difficult, as is command and control. 

“The Marine Corps’ ability to project power over the shore stems directly from its relationship with the Navy,” he said. “That’s our center of gravity. What the Navy and Marine Corps team provides the Joint Force is the ability to do it at a time and place of our choosing, to use the oceans as maneuver space.” 

King said that distributed maritime operations “have all the benefits of mass absent the risks of concentration. … That is going to be extremely difficult for our adversary to counter. We have to mess up the calculus of our adversaries. Being able to distribute and maintain the lethality that comes with the U.S. Joint Force is something we have not done normally. We normally concentrate to do that, and we don’t want to do that in the coming fight with China.” 

King pointed to the Light Amphibious Warship (LAW) being developed by the Navy as a key tool in achieving distributed maritime operations. He said the LAW is not meant to replace the large amphibious warfare ships currently in the fleet but is meant to enhance the ability of the fleet to conduct distributed operations. 

“The LAW is going to be a lily pad that carries excess fuel, that can make water, that Marines can actually live on,” he said. “I see them as part of the crew.”  

Regarding the larger amphibious warfare ships in the fleet, King said they need increased lethality, particularly the San Antonio-class amphibious platform dock ships. 

“We owe that to our Sailors and to our Marines. We’re working on that as well.”  

King said the Navy and Marine Corps will continue to deploy amphibious ready groups with Marine expeditionary units embarked as a “force of presence, not a force to take into high-end combat.” 

MIAMI —The Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton (WMSL 753) crew offloaded approximately 11,500 pounds of cocaine and approximately 17,000 pounds of marijuana, worth more than $228 million, on Aug. 27, in Port Eveglades, Florida. 

The drugs were interdicted in the international waters off the coasts of Mexico, Central, and South America and in the Caribbean Sea. Coast Guard cutters and U.S. Navy ships seized and recovered contraband during 13 interdictions of suspected drug smuggling vessels: 

• The cutter Hamilton crew was responsible for nine interdictions, seizing approximately 9,700 pounds of cocaine and 9,000 pounds of marijuana. 
• The cutter Resolute (WMEC 620) crew was responsible for one interdiction, seizing approximately 1,100 pounds of marijuana. 
• The USS Nitze (DDG 94) crew with embarked Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment Team 406 was responsible for two interdictions seizing approximately 1,700 pounds of cocaine and approximately 6,100 pounds of marijuana. 
• The USS Shamal crew with an embarked Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment Team 109 was responsible for one interdiction, seizing approximately 800 pounds of marijuana.  

“We are proud to support the president’s national security strategy by keeping illegal drugs off American streets,” said Capt. Timothy Cronin, commanding officer of Coast Guard Cutter (CGC) Hamilton. “I am extremely proud of this crew as they sailed short-handed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and delivered tremendous results.” 

On April 1, U.S. Southern Command began enhanced counter-narcotics operations in the Western Hemisphere to disrupt the flow of drugs in support of presidential national security objectives. Numerous U.S. agencies from the Departments of Defense, Justice and Homeland Security cooperated in the effort to combat transnational organized crime. The Coast Guard, Navy, Customs and Border Protection, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with allied and international partner agencies, play a role in counter-drug operations. 

The Hamilton is a 418-foot national security cutter homeported in Charleston, South Carolina. The Resolute is a 210-foot medium-endurance cutter home-ported in St. Petersburg, Florida. The USS Nitze is a 510-foot Arleigh Burke-class destroyer homeported in Norfolk, Virginia. The USS Shamal is 179-foot coastal patrol ship homeported in Jacksonville, Florida. 

OTTAWA — Following a survey with over 18,000 respondents, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) has chosen a new English rank designation for its junior ranks that will result in more gender-neutral terms than the current titles, which are not reflective of the modern, progressive service that is the RCN today, according to an Aug. 27 release. The RCN is continuing to work to create a more inclusive environment within the workplaces, whether that is at sea or at home, the Canadian Armed Forces release continues. 

The RCN’s junior ranks will soon be known as Sailor erd Class (formerly Ordinary Seaman), Sailor 2nd Class (formerly Able Seaman), Sailor 1st Class (formerly Leading Seaman) and Master Sailor (formerly Master Seaman). 

These changes help retain the history of these roles and align the English rank designation with the existing ranks in French. These new rank designations will be effective upon the issuance of a CANFORGEN in early September. At that point, the junior ranks will begin referring to shipmates using the new rank designations. 

“By adopting gender-neutral designation for junior members of the Royal Canadian Navy, we demonstrate to all Canadians that the Canadian Armed Forces will welcome anybody who wants to serve their country and uphold the values of inclusion and diversity,” said Harjit S. Sajjan, minister of National Defence. “We will continue to work to build a diverse force that is representative of the Canadians they protect.” 

In an effort to ensure that this new rank designation reflects the thoughts and ideals of the Royal Canadian Navy, and Canadians, a survey was completed internally and externally, the results of which helped to inform decision-making for this new designation. 

“The Royal Canadian Navy, our senior service, continues to adapt to better reflect Canadian society,” said Gen. Jonathan Vance, chief of the Defence staff. “Today’s announcement of changes to junior ranks nomenclature is just one example of how we continue to work to remove barriers to a more inclusive Canadian Armed Forces.”