ARLINGTON, Va. — BAE Systems has expanded its capacity to manufacture its Riptide family of autonomous unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) a year after the company acquired Riptide Autonomous Systems. The company also has been integrating its sensor packages on the UUVs.  

BAE has built a new manufacturing facility in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a “multimillion dollar state-of-the-art prototype and production site … that greatly increases capacity for both vehicle development and personnel focused on the Riptide product line,” the company said in a release.   

The Riptide UUVs are used by the U.S. Navy and other government agencies, said Dr. John Hogan, director of the Sensor Processing and Exploitation group at BAE Systems, in an interview with Seapower. He was not at liberty to discuss the customers’ use in any detail.  

The Riptide family consists of three types of portable small UUVs, which the company said in a release “are sophisticated yet simple, efficient and highly flexible platforms that offer performance discriminators including being able to perform at greater depth, at longer range, with more endurance, and at greater speed.” 

The Riptide family includes a 25-pound, 4.875-inch-diameter Micro UUV; a 65 to 120-pound, 7.5-inch-diameter, one-man-portable (1MP) UUV; and a 120 to 240 pound, 9.375-inch-diameter two-man portable (2MP) UUV. The Micro UUV now features enhanced functionality. The prototypes of the 1MP and 2MP have been completed. 

“Additionally, we have developed the first prototype of our 6,000-meter-rated UUV,” Hogan said in the release. “This depth in a small UUV will allow unparalleled flexibility and cost efficiency by taking on missions unprecedented for the small class of UUVs, reducing the barriers to access the deep ocean.”  

Hogan told Seapower the Riptide UUVs have a “very efficient computing system” and have the lowest power usage rate in the industry. 

He told Seapower that the systems and sensors that can be employed in the UUVs include navigation, communications, electro-optical and electronic warfare. The UUVs use waypoints for navigation and a have an open architecture for integrating sensors. 

Hogan pointed to the the Navy’s ANTX-19 demonstration last year in which a Riptide UUV was used for signals intelligence collection. The UUV recorded radio transmissions and was able to transmit the data acoustically to a surface vessel.    

“As joint all-domain operations become the Department of Defense’s (DoD) operational norm, there is increased need for undersea platforms capable of integrating key payload and autonomy technology,” Hogan said in the release. “In the time since the acquisition was announced, we have made tremendous technology and integration progress that positions us to serve our DoD customer base as well as commercial, research and development, and educational organizations to affordably and expertly explore under the sea. 

“Our Riptide family of autonomous undersea vehicles brings a sustainable and scalable solution for developers of autonomy and behaviors, power systems, subsea sensors, and new payloads,” Hogan said in the release. “Among the many commercial and military-based uses for our UUVs and sensor packages are seabed surveillance, harbor protection, intelligence collection, infrastructure surveillance, oil and gas survey, and mine countermeasures.” 

BAE Systems has set a commercial pricing model for the Riptide family to “streamline vehicle acquisition by employing standard, mission-focused system configurations that satisfy our broad customer base while continually enhancing vehicle quality, reliability and repeatability,” the release said. 

EASTERN PACIFIC OCEAN (NNS) — The Arleigh Burke-Class Destroyer USS Pinckney (DDG 91) with embarked U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) team seized more than 3,000 pounds of cocaine May 14, the U.S. 4h Fleet/U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command said in a May 21 release.

A U.S. Navy maritime patrol aircraft assigned to the “Tridents” of Patrol Squadron 26 first spotted the low-profile vessel (LPV). Pinckney, with its embarked helicopters assigned to the “Wolf Pack” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 75 and the embarked LEDET, moved into position to intercept the LPV.

Pinckney and the embarked LEDET recovered a total of 70 bales of cocaine totaling an estimated 1,400 kilograms, worth over $28 million wholesale value.

“This was truly a team effort,” said Cmdr. Andrew Roy, USS Pinckney commanding officer. “The air support we received was first class. We were able to safely and successfully conduct this operation due to the outstanding professionalism of the Navy – Coast Guard team.”

USS Pinckney is deployed to the U.S. 4th Fleet area of operations conducting U.S Southern Command and Joint Interagency Task Force South’s enhanced counter drug operations missions in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.

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, U.S. 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.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy released a request for proposals for the design, development, test and production of the Medium Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (MUUV) May 21, the Program Executive Office Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC) said in a May 22 release. The solicitation will support the next generation of the PEO USC’s Unmanned Maritime Systems Program Office’s Razorback Unmanned Underwater Vehicle and the Naval Sea Systems Command Expeditionary Missions Program Office’s Maritime Expeditionary Mine Countermeasures UUV (MEMUUV) system. 

The MUUV will be a modular, open-systems and open-architecture UUV. In the Razorback Torpedo Tube Launch & Recovery (TTL&R) configuration, it will provide submarine-based autonomous oceanographic sensing and data collection in support of intelligence preparation of the operational environment. In the MEMUUV configuration, it will provide persistent surface-launched-and-recovered mine countermeasures. 

The notional MUUV will contain a common baseline vehicle architecture, including sensors and components, for the submarine and expeditionary configurations. Launch-and-recovery systems will reflect each configuration’s unique requirements and missions.  

The MEMUUV is designed for launch from Navy and Marine Corps surface vessels, vessels of opportunity or land-based forward operating bases. The Razorback derives from the Navy’s submarine-launched Littoral Battlespace Sensing Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (Submarine) effort which has two deployment configurations: Dry Deck Shelter and TTL&R. Only TTL&R variants are included in the current solicitation. 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate confirmed retired admiral and current ambassador Kenneth J. Braithwaite to be the 77th Secretary of the Navy. Braithwaite’s nomination was approved on a voice vote May 21 before the Senate left for a weeklong Memorial Day break.

Braithwaite, who was nominated to the top civilian job in the Navy Department by President Donald Trump in November, is a retired Navy rear admiral and current U.S. ambassador to Norway. A 1984 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Braithwaite is a former P-3 naval aviator who became a public affairs officer. He left active duty in 1993, resuming service in the Navy Reserve until 2011. He worked in the private sector and government after leaving active duty. 

At his May 7 confirmation hearing before the Armed Services Committee, Braithwaite pledged to restore good order and discipline in the Navy, which he said was in “troubled waters” after being rocked in recent years by the “Fat Leonard” corruption scandal, fatal at-sea collisions in 2017, recent judicial missteps and the COVID-19 crisis aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt. 

“It saddens me to say the Department of the Navy is in troubled waters due to many factors, primarily the failure of leadership,” Braithwaite told the panel. “Successful organizations have a strong culture, which always starts with leadership,” he said, adding that his No. 1 priority, if confirmed, would be ‘’to restore the appropriate culture in the United States Navy.” The Navy’s culture wasn’t broke, he noted, but “I think it’s been tarnished.”  

Trump tapped Braithwaite for the Navy job after Richard Spencer abruptly left last November following the president’s decision to intervene in the discipline of a Navy SEAL convicted in the military justice system of posing with the corpse of an ISIS fighter. Thomas Modly, who replaced Spencer, serving as acting Navy Secretary, resigned in the midst of the Roosevelt COVID-19 crisis, which grew into a political imbroglio after Modly relieved the aircraft carrier’s captain. Army Undersecretary James McPherson, a retired Navy admiral, was appointed acting Navy secretary until a permanent secretary could be confirmed. 

ARLINGTON, Va. – A lone gunman trying to crash security at the North Gate of Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, was stopped by Naval Security Forces, the Navy said May 21.

Early reports from the base on Twitter said Naval Security Forces responded to an active shooter at approximately 6:15 a.m. local time. That notice said the said shooter “has been neutralized.”

The latest information from the Navy Office of Information said, “The shooter no longer poses a threat.” One Sailor attached to Navy Security Forces at the air station sustained minor injuries and was released from a local hospital, according to the Navy statement.

The FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) are investigating with local law enforcement. FBI is the lead investigative agency.

The incident took place just three days after the Justice Department and FBI announced the Saudi gunman who killed three Sailors and wounded eight others at a NAS-Pensacola, Florida, last December had incriminating cell phone evidence linking him to an al-Qaida affiliate. Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman, at a press briefing on an unrelated matter May 21, said that since the NAS-Pensacola shootings, the department had increased security at installations, but he did not know the exact measures taken at the Texas facility.

FBI officials are saying the incident at Corpus Christi was terrorism-related. Authorities previously said a shooter had been “neutralized,” but there may be a second person of interest still at large, FBI Supervisory Senior Resident Agent Leah Greeves said during a short press briefing. The agent did not provide additional information but said the shooter is deceased.

The base, on the Gulf Coast of Texas, was on lockdown after the incident began, but the Navy said the installation was open with traffic flowing through the South Gate. The North Gate remained closed.

ARLINGTON, Va. — Sidelined pier-side for nearly two months after an outbreak of COVID-19 infected 1,100 crew members, hospitalized several and killed one, the USS Theodore Roosevelt sailed from Naval Base Guam on May 21 on a test run to ensure the carrier’s aircraft and personnel are ready to resume their mission.

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, the first Navy warship to endure an outbreak of the virus at sea, is underway to begin a 10- to 14-day “shakedown cruise type of activity” that includes recertifying Carrier Air Wing 11, the ship’s flight deck and the crew, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman told media assembled there.

See: More Returning Theodore Roosevelt Sailors Test Positive for COVID-19

After the air wing completes carrier qualification flights, the Theodore Roosevelt will return to Guam to pick up remaining crew members who have been quarantined while recovering from the virus, Hoffman said, adding that there’s been no change in the carrier’s mission to the Indo-Pacific.

The Navy has learned a lot about social distancing, the wearing of face coverings, frequent testing and temperature surveillance since the first cases appeared aboard the carrier in March, Hoffman said, but “no one going into this believes this is the last we’ve seen of [the] coronavirus.”

Nevertheless, “We’re not going leave our ships in port. We’re not going stand down. We’re going to continue to sail, continue to patrol,” he added.

After moving nearly 4,000 crew members off the ship and cleaning the entire vessel from bow to stern, hundreds of crew, enough to operate the ship while it is underway, have returned from quarantine after passing rigorous return-to-work criteria. Scaled-back manning allowed the ship to bring on board the right makeup of personnel required to safely operate and complete a particular mission requirement, according to a Navy statement.

“We are scaling our manning on board based on our mission requirement,” said Capt. Carlos Sardiello, the Theodore Roosevelt’s commanding officer. “Carrier qualification requires fewer personnel than other missions and bringing fewer Sailors on board will enable enhanced social distancing while underway,” he added.

In addition to social distancing, Sailors aboard will execute Navy COVID-19 prevention and mitigation policies, including all required lessons learned from a safety stand down last week and a simulated underway earlier this week.

During the simulated underway, known as a “fast cruise,” the crew walked through routine and emergency procedures while executing COVID-19 mitigation measures, including wearing masks, medical surveillance of 100% of the crew, adjusted meal hours, minimizing in-person meetings, sanitizing spaces and a simulated medical evacuation.

“It feels great to be back at sea,” said Rear Adm. Stu Baker, commander of Carrier Strike Group 9.

“Getting Theodore Roosevelt and Carrier Air Wing 11 one step closer to returning to their mission in the Indo-Pacific is a great achievement for the crew,” Baker said.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy’s newest aircraft carrier is progressing through its post-shakedown workload and is preparing to integrate its assigned air wing, Carrier Air Wing 8 (CVW-8). 

Although the Ford has conducted more than 3,000 catapult launches and arrested landings, those have been performed by test units, training squadrons, fleet replacement squadrons and other fleet squadrons. When CVW-8 comes aboard in early June, the ship and its air wing will be integrated as a warfighting team for the first time. 

The Navy and its industry partners have been working to ready the Ford to embark the 1,200 personnel and prepare for flight operations with CVW-8.  

James. F. Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, said in a May 20 teleconference with reporters that “the next thing with [Ford] will be embarking the air wing and going to cyclic ops.”  

On May 18, the carrier completed 167 launches and arrested landings — far greater than the ship’s previous record of 135, Geurts said. 

The Ford, built by Huntington Ingalls’ Newport News Shipbuilding, is equipped with the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG), both built by General Atomics. Both, plus the Advanced Weapon Elevators (AWEs) designed for the Ford class, are key to achieving the sortie rate that will increase the carrier’s striking power over Nimitz-class carriers.  

The AWEs, 11 of which the Ford is to be equipped, are necessary to speed ordnance to the flight deck for arming of aircraft. The “bomb farm” that the Nimitz class had on the narrow part of flight deck on the starboard side of the island superstructure to temporarily park weapons carts is not a feature of the Ford class. The difficulties with equipping the Ford with the AWEs has played a significant part in the delays of the aircraft carrier becoming deployable. 

Geurts said the Navy/industry team has been steadily working through the AWE issues and recently certified the aft Lower Stage 5 AWE that lifts ordnance from the aft magazine to the flight deck. With this AWE operational, the carrier air wing can conduct some at-sea training with inert ordnance.   

Geurts also said that the forward lower AWE, Lower Stage 1, which “will give access to the forward ammo bay,” is set to be operational by the end of fiscal 2021. “The remaining elevators are really more about getting additional capacity and redundancy,” he said. 

Capt. Joshua Sager Sager assumed command of CVW-8 on March 5. He has accumulated more than 3,600 flight hours and has completed more than 900 carrier arrested landings. 

“It is an absolute honor and privilege to stand before you as the newest commander of Carrier Air Wing Eight,” Sager said at his change-of-command ceremony, as reported by the Navy News Service. “I look forward to continued service with the more than 1,700 outstanding men and women who comprise one of the finest organizations in this great Navy. We look forward to our upcoming integration with the USS Gerald R. Ford as we expand the capabilities of our service’s newest and most advanced nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.” 

CVW-8 consists of seven aircraft squadrons flying F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, E-2C Hawkeyes, and MH-60S/R Seahawks. A squadron of EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft is expected to join the wing later.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Northrop Grumman has manufactured and tested the first industry-built Very Lightweight Torpedo (VLWT) for the U.S. Navy, the company said in an article posted May 21 on its website.  

The prototype torpedo is based on the Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Laboratory’s (PSU-ARL) design that was distributed to defense industrial manufacturers in 2016. Northrop Grumman, which funded the research and development, will offer the design-for-affordability improvements to this VLWT as Northrop Grumman’s response for the Navy’s Compact Rapid Attack Weapon program. 

Northrop Grumman is the only company in full-rate production of Mk54 and Mk48 torpedo nose arrays and has delivered over 600 Mk54 arrays and over 70 Mk48 arrays to the U.S. Navy. 

Applying its engineering and manufacturing expertise, Northrop Grumman improved upon the VLWT baseline design to replace high-cost components and drive overall affordability, reproducibility and reliability. Those altered sections were built and tested using PSU-ARL’s own test equipment for confidence. 

“The successful testing of the torpedo nose on the first try is a testament to Northrop Grumman’s design-for-affordability approach, which will significantly reduce cost without sacrificing operational performance,” said David Portner, lead torpedo program manager, undersea systems, Northrop Grumman. 

Northrop Grumman assembled the prototype VLWT using a Stored Chemical Energy Propulsion System manufactured by teammate Barber-Nichols Inc. of Denver, Colorado. 

Northrop Grumman’s torpedo design and production legacy reaches back over 80 years to World War II through its Westinghouse acquisition. In 1943, Westinghouse won the Navy contract to reverse engineer a captured German electric torpedo and in 12 months began producing the Mk18 electric torpedo, which turned the tide of the undersea warfare in the Pacific. Northrop Grumman has been at the forefront of torpedo design and production ever since, to include the current MK48 Common Broadband Advanced Sonar System (CBASS) heavyweight torpedo and MK50 Lightweight Torpedo. 

“The nation needs advanced undersea warfare capabilities now more than ever,” said Alan Lytle, vice president, undersea systems, Northrop Grumman. “We are ready to support fielding the VLWT which will increase subsea lethality and enable innovative concepts of operations for multiple warfighting platforms.”  

Northrop Grumman’s manufacturing plan would span the country by building components in California, Utah, Minnesota, Colorado, West Virginia and Maryland. 

SAN DIEGO — The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Active offloaded more than 2,000 pounds of cocaine worth about $37 million on May 20 that was seized in early May from known drug-transit zones of the eastern Pacific Ocean, the Coast Guard’s 11th Disrict said in a release. 

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, U.S. 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 fight against drug cartels in the eastern Pacific requires unity of effort in all phases from detection, monitoring and interdictions, to criminal prosecutions by international partners and U.S. attorneys in districts across the nation. The law enforcement phase of counter-smuggling operations in the eastern Pacific is conducted under the authority of the 11th Coast Guard District, headquartered in Alameda. The interdictions, including the actual boardings, are led and conducted by members of the U.S. Coast Guard. 

“This patrol, and this interdiction in particular, highlights the resilience and professionalism of Active’s crew,” said Cmdr. James O’Mara, commanding officer of Active. “We cancelled a port visit, stretched logistics and diverted 500 miles to get on target and do our job. No captain could ask or expect more from a crew, especially given all the adversity overcome during this patrol. Though I know if more were required, this crew would rally and answer the call, the way they always do.” 

Active is a 210-foot medium-endurance cutter commissioned in 1966 and homeported in Port Angeles, Washington. 

PACIFIC OCEAN — Sailors aboard USS Zumwalt, working with engineers and technicians from Navy surface warfare centers, executed a “structural test fire” of the Mark 46 Mod 2 Gun Weapon System (GWS) at the Naval Air Weapons Center Weapons Division Sea Test Range, Point Mugu, on May 16, according to a U.S. 3rd Fleet release. 

“The privilege of being a ‘first-in-class’ ship includes having the opportunity to systematically conduct testing across the breadth of systems installed onboard the ship,” said Capt. Andrew Carlson, Zumwalt’s commanding officer. “The real plus is conducting those tests, such as today’s live fire with the Mark 46 GWS, which provide tangible evidence of combat capability maturation.” 

The Mark 46 GWS is a remotely operated naval gun system that uses a 30 mm high-velocity cannon, a forward-looking infrared sensor, a low-light TV camera and a laser rangefinder for shipboard self-defense against small, high speed surface targets. It is a program of record already successfully installed and operated on LPD-17- and LCS-class ships. The test firing aboard the Zumwalt was the first large caliber weapons firing event for the Zumwalt-class destroyer program and occurred only three weeks after the Navy officially accepted delivery of the combat system. 

Test fires assess structural and electrical components of the ship against shock and vibration of the weapon firing. They also measure potential hazards to personnel or degradations to adjacent equipment as a result of firing live ordnance. The tests are a coordinated effort between the Zumwalt Class Destroyer Program Office, the U.S. 3rd Fleet, Commander, Naval Surface Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet, and the Naval Sea Systems Command surface warfare centers in Dahlgren, Virginia, Port Hueneme, California, and Indian Head, Maryland. 

“Today’s event is the first in a chapter of live-fire test events over the next year that will prove the lethal capability that these ships will bring to the fight,” said Lt. Cmdr. Tim Kubisak, the Zumwalt test officer for the Program Executive Office for integrated warfare systems, embarked aboard the Zumwalt. 

The Zumwalt-class destroyer is designed and built to execute multiple maritime missions, including deterrence and power projection. The ships’ stealth and ability to operate in both the open ocean and near-shore environments creates a new level of battlespace complexity for potential adversaries.  

The Zumwalt is 100 feet longer and 13 feet wider than the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, providing the space required to execute a wider array of surface, undersea and aviation missions.