ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has awarded Boeing a $1.5 billion production contract for the next 18 P-8A Poseidon aircraft, the company announced in a release. The contract includes eight aircraft for the U.S. Navy, six aircraft for the Republic of Korea Navy and four aircraft for the Royal New Zealand Air Force. 

The Republic of Korea Navy and Royal New Zealand Air Force acquired the aircraft through the foreign military sales process and will receive the same P-8A Poseidon variant designed and produced for the U.S. Navy. The Royal New Zealand Air Force is expected to begin receiving aircraft in 2022 and the Republic of Korea Navy is expected to begin receiving aircraft in 2023. 

The P-8 is a long-range multimission maritime patrol aircraft capable of broad-area, maritime and littoral operations. A military derivative of the Boeing 737 next-generation airplane, the P-8 combines superior performance and reliability with an advanced mission system that ensures maximum interoperability in the battle space. 

The P-8 is militarized with maritime weapons, a modern open mission system architecture and commercial-like support for affordability. The aircraft is modified to include a bomb bay and pylons for weapons. It has two weapons stations on each wing and can carry 129 sonobuoys. The aircraft is also fitted with an in-flight refueling system. 

With more than 254,000 flight hours to date, the P-8A Poseidon and P-8I variants patrol the globe performing anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, humanitarian and search-and-rescue missions. 

Since August, Adm. Mike Gilday has
led the world’s most powerful navy as the 32nd chief of naval operations. The son
of a Sailor and a native of Lowell, Massachusetts, he is a surface warfare
officer who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and holds master’s degrees
from the Harvard Kennedy School and the National War College.

At sea, he deployed with USS Chandler
(DDG 996), USS Princeton (CG 59) and USS Gettysburg (CG 64). He commanded
destroyers USS Higgins (DDG 76) and USS Benfold (DDG 65) and subsequently
commanded Destroyer Squadron 7, serving as sea combat commander for the Ronald
Reagan Carrier Strike Group.

As a flag officer, he served as commander, Carrier Strike Group 8, embarked aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), and as commander, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command and U.S 10th Fleet.

Check out the digital edition of the April Seapower magazine here.

His staff assignments include the
Bureau of Naval Personnel, staff of the CNO and staff of the vice CNO. Joint
assignments include executive assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff and naval aide to the president.

As a flag officer, he served in joint
positions as director of operations for NATO’s Joint Force Command Lisbon; as
chief of staff for Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO; director of
operations, J3, for U.S. Cyber Command; and as director of operations, J3, for
the Joint Staff. He recently served as director, Joint Staff.

Gilday answered questions from Senior
Editor Richard R. Burgess in writing.

Why the renewed
emphasis on mastering fleet-level warfare?

GILDAY: The nature of
war at sea today is changing. Maritime operations stretch from the seabed to
space and across the electromagnetic spectrum. Long-range missiles that fly at
supersonic and hypersonic speed have decreased the amount of time a commander
has to make decisions, and the emergence of cyber and space as warfighting
domains have created a much more complex operating environment for our Sailors.
 

To meet these challenges, our fleets must
be the operational center of warfare. Fleet commanders must own the physical
and virtual battlespace they are responsible for and drive the fight, if
required to do so.

“We fight and win as a team, and we are better when we integrate more closely with the Marine Corps. We will build capability with our most natural partner, tying more closely with them at all levels.”

However, to be able to fight as a fleet,
we must exercise as a fleet. We have made great investments in our maritime
operational centers [MOCs], which gives fleet commanders the ability to do just
that. We need to exercise — and the only way to do that is with iron out there
at scale. 

Upcoming fleet exercises, like Large
Scale Exercise 2020, will leverage operational concepts like Distributed
Maritime Operations, Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations and Littoral Operations
in a Contested Environment. Combined with war-gaming, future exercises will
serve as the key opportunity for experimentation and the development and
testing of alternative concepts. These exercises and experiments will inform
doctrine and tactics, and future fleet headquarters requirements, capacity and
size, and investments in future platforms and capabilities.

Going forward, we must leverage experience from combatant command, joint and other service exercises to better prepare the Navy to integrate, support and lead the joint force in a future fight.

The Optimized Fleet Readiness Plan and Dynamic Force Employment, in theory, would seem to be in tension. How should the Navy ensure a sustainable personnel tempo while keeping adversaries off balance?

GILDAY: People are our most important resource, and the Navy cannot succeed without its Sailors — they are our asymmetric advantage.

While we strive to have a predictable model for our Sailors and their families, it’s important to remember that sometimes the world gets a vote, which may require us to respond at a moment’s notice — and differently than we planned.  

In which aspects do you see integration with the U.S. Marine Corps as having the greatest potential for improving naval power?

GILDAY: We fight and win as a team, and we are better when we integrate more closely with the Marine Corps. We will build capability with our most natural partner, tying more closely with them at all levels.

Together, we will build Navy-Marine Corps integration by aligning concepts, capabilities, programming, planning, budgeting and operations to provide integrated American naval power to the Joint Force. Opportunities for increased integration include our cyberspace operations, war-game and exercise programs, development of the Naval Tactical Grid, and potential Dynamic Force Employment options. 

Alongside the United States Marine Corps, our Navy is the bedrock of integrated American naval power.

Where
do you see the best application of unmanned systems for naval warfare?

GILDAY: Unmanned is an
important part of the future. It must be a central component of our future
battle force to support the way we want to fight in a distributed way. Going
forward, I believe there will be a requirement for seaborne-launched vehicles
to deliver effects downrange, likely using a mix of manned and unmanned assets.
Ultimately, we must leverage technology to expand our reach, lethality and
warfighter awareness in undersea, surface and air domains. We must continue to
experiment more with unmanned, and we need to do it with greater speed. 

Based on your experience, what does the Navy need to do to be prepared for war in the cyber domain?

GILDAY: Cybersecurity is commanders’ business. Commanders need to own it. Commanders must understand the status of their networks and systems and the potential operational risk they are assuming if readiness has degraded.

Going forward, we need to invest in training and retaining the best and brightest, and in cyber infrastructure; treat the network ([Navy-Marine Corps Intranet], ONE-NET, afloat networks) like the warfighting platform it is, giving priority to ensure it is secure and defended; defend forward — disrupt threats before they reach our networks; develop cyber-resiliency (think shipboard damage control) — identify, protect, detect, react and restore the network; integrate MOC to MOC, across the fleets and interagency, in every major exercise and operation; [and] partner with other services, interagency, industry, allies and partner nations.

“We must ensure the fleet’s readiness today so we can deliver credible ready forces tomorrow. This includes the prioritization of force design and the delivery of naval forces capable of imposing lethal power to any adversary and aggressive pursuit of increased lethality and modernization across the Navy.”

What have you learned the most about your role so far as a member of the Joint Chiefs?

GILDAY: My role as a Joint Chief is one that I take extremely seriously, and it is important that I provide the president, secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs the best military advice I can. That is why I spend a lot of time studying and thinking about near-peer competitors, potential adversaries and our future force.

What are the main priorities of the Navy’s 2021 budget?

GILDAY: The Navy’s first acquisition priority is recapitalizing our strategic nuclear deterrent. We will continue to drive affordability, technology development and engineering integration efforts to support Columbia’s [ballistic-missile submarine] fleet introduction on time or earlier, maintain mastery of the undersea domain and sustain a formidable forward presence through our aircraft carrier fleet.

We must ensure the fleet’s readiness today so we can deliver credible ready forces tomorrow. This includes the prioritization of force design and the delivery of naval forces capable of imposing lethal power to any adversary and aggressive pursuit of increased lethality and modernization across the Navy.

How do you explain the lower shipbuilding budget and the early ship retirements given the need for a larger fleet?

GILDAY: The fiscal 2021 budget supports implementation of the National Defense Strategy, which remains our guidepost and drives our decision-making. While we are committed to building the largest Navy we can, the capacity reductions in the recent budget submissions were made with the service’s priorities of strategic deterrence, readiness, lethality and modernization in mind. We remain focused on maximizing the naval power of our ships, aircraft, unmanned vehicles, weapons and systems we have today in our fleet.

Our balanced approach in our budget submission provides a Navy ready to fight today while committing to the training, maintenance and modernization to provide a Navy ready to fight tomorrow. Naval power is critical to implementing the National Defense Strategy. But naval power is not just a function of fleet size: It is a combination of the readiness, lethality and capacity of that fleet.

Our
No. 1 priority is the Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine. This request
also heavily invests in readiness accounts, such as ship and aircraft depot
maintenance and modernization, manpower, live virtual constructive training,
steaming days, and flying hours. It invests in new systems to make our fleet
more lethal, including increasing our weapons inventory, bolstering the range
and speed of those weapons, exploring directed energy weapons, and
incorporating new technologies such as hypersonics. This request grows our
fleet in size, generating sustainable, capable capacity.

The
configurations in some older platforms require a significant amount of
modernization, and we believe that the significant investment necessary for modernization
necessary to ensure platforms can operate in contested environments is better
utilized in other programs.

Looking to the next 10 years, how can the Navy best balance the funding needs between current readiness and new acquisition

GILDAY: Mission No. 1 for every Sailor — active and Reserve, civilian and uniform — is the operational readiness of the fleet.

We
must ensure the fleet’s readiness so we can deliver credible ready forces. This
includes the prioritization of force design and the delivery of naval forces
capable of imposing lethal power to any
adversary. That must be balanced with an aggressive pursuit of increased
lethality and modernization across the Navy, against the constraints of our
budget topline. 

Going forward, we will continue to
prioritize investments using the National Defense Strategy as our
guidepost. 

With the nuclear deterrent as the Navy’s No. 1 priority, what concerns do you have about the Columbia SSBN being on track to deploy on time?

GILDAY: Lead-ship construction for Columbia began in 2020 and the Navy continues to identify opportunities to drive schedule and cost margin. While the construction schedule is aggressive, it is achievable. The Navy is actively overseeing shipbuilders as they manage the submarine and aircraft carrier industrial base suppliers to minimize risk and incorporate recent lessons learned.

Why is the Navy asking for more Sailors
for the fleet?

GILDAY: To operate effectively as a force, we
need to properly man our ships, submarines and aviation squadrons, and this
budget request supports that effort with a 2% increase in active-duty Sailors (plus
7,300 from fiscal 2020 to 2021). Recruiting, developing and retaining a
high-quality military and civilian workforce is essential for our warfighting
success.

How is the budget strengthening the nation’s sealift capability?

GILDAY: We have a three-prong approach to strengthening our sealift capability, which includes the procurement of commercial vessels with 20 to 25 years of life remaining at a cost of $30 million, as opposed to acquiring new vessels at a cost of $300 million, $400 million or $500 million. Additionally, the Navy is conducting at service life extension [SLE] on existing sealift ships, which includes six service life extensions, put in place last year. The Navy intends to increase SLEs from six to 10 in 2021. 

The U.S. Navy wants Sailors to toughen up.

That’s not to suggest Sailors lack in the toughness department. But working in today’s Navy can be stressful, and Sailors need the tools to handle the burden. Soon they may get them — thanks to a program in its pilot stage, Warrior Toughness.

The 3-year-old program — confined to the crews of some Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, principally the USS Maryland — could one day be used all across the sea service.

Check out the digital edition of the April Seapower magazine here.

Rear Adm. Michael D. Bernacchi, commander of Submarine Group 10, told Seapower that the program is a new approach to making sure Sailors are prepared for stressful jobs.

“What we were looking to do was to arm Sailors with additional tools to allow them to deal with stress so that they could perform better in stressful situations — both chronic and acute stress,” he said.

In creating the program, Bernacchi took lessons from the Navy SEALs, who are famous for their ability to adapt and even thrive in the most stressful situations imaginable.

“We wanted to adapt that to the general Sailor to give them more tools, whether that be standing the midwatch or dealing with a fire or whatever the case may be, you could respond well in any stressful situation and recall information,” he said.

Back to the Basics of Mind, Body, Soul

Bernacchi said there was nothing “new or magical” about the Warrior Toughness Program — it’s just about getting back to the basics of the mind, body, and soul and recognizing that they are all integral to the success of individuals.

“It’s about training your mind, understanding why it does the things that it does, making sure you’re in physical shape, understanding Navy core values — it’s a lot of different things, and we took a lot of it from the SEALs,” he said.

“What we were looking to do was to arm Sailors with additional tools to allow them to deal with stress so that they could perform better in stressful situations — both chronic and acute stress.”

Rear Adm. Michael D. Bernacchi, commander, Submarine Group 10

Right now, the program is just being tested on submarines, where Sailors have to deal with a lot of chronic stress just from living in that environment. However, Bernacchi envisions developing a fleet version that could be used in individual units.

When it was first rolled out at Navy Recruit Training Command, some Sailors were a little bit hesitant to embrace the new way of approaching training, but eventually most were on board, he said.

“When we started it at boot camp, most people didn’t want to do it,” he said. “I remember it getting called ‘recruit yoga’ and all kinds of other things. But you saw a huge increase in the performance of divisions, and then people wanted it. That’s the same thing we’ve seen here [aboard submarines].”

But what does the Warrior Toughness program look like from a Sailor’s point of view? Master Chief Matthew Glisson, Sub Group 10’s engineering department master chief (EDMC) and the Warrior Toughness lead, said there are many components. “There are psychology and a mindfulness techniques,” he said. “We’ve got a breathing technique called ‘recalibrate’ … where one learns to focus. The other benefit is that it lowers the heart rate.”

Another technique practiced in Warrior Toughness is the “body scan” — where a Sailor tenses as many muscles in their body as possible to find out where the tension is located. Then there’s “mental rehearsal,” where a Sailor envisions, in as much detail as possible, a stressful scenario and then rehearses what their immediate actions would be and where they can draw on certain tools to cope with and perform in that situation.

Four Pilot Programs on Four Subs — Then Off to Study the Data

Four pilot programs on four submarines will be up and running by the end of 2020, including the one that started on the USS Maryland last October. The next pilot will launch in April, and then another a month after. Once Warrior Toughness gathers enough data from the first three, the program will determine which sub should get the fourth pilot. After the fourth, the program will examine the data, see what has been and what has not been successful, and then potentially create a larger program from it.

The program’s exists because the Navy recognized that it hadn’t ever focused on the issue of stress, Bernacchi said. “We have never in the Navy sat down and taught you, ‘Hey, this is how you physically deal with stress,'” he said. “No one’s ever taught me how to meditate before. No one’s ever taught me, ‘Hey, this is how chemistry in your brain works.’ I’ve never had a psychologist sit there and explain to me that this is the chemical reaction when fear strikes, and this is how you counter it.”

“In the training cycle we just came out of, we found a lot of uses in the strategic and tactical warfare simulator training environment, and we were able to apply stress-management and mindfulness exercises.”

Cmdr. Michael Paisant, commanding officer, USS Maryland Gold crew

Cmdr. Michael Paisant, commanding officer of the USS Maryland Gold crew, said the crew has already just about reached the “run” phase of “crawl-walk-run” with this program.

“We’re still trying to figure out — specifically on board — how we’re going to apply it,” he said. “In the training cycle we just came out of, we found a lot of uses in the strategic and tactical warfare simulator training environment, and we were able to apply stress management and mindfulness exercises.”

For example, during a portion of the training that involved piloting the submarine into ports, Sailors underwent breathing and mindfulness exercises as well as a visualization exercise as they went through each stage of the navigation process. The crew is also looking at ways to apply Warrior Toughness in a maintenance environment and not just operationally.

Paisant acknowledged that some of the crew was skeptical of the program at first, but since it began he says there’s been a lot of buy-in.

“They initially may have thought it would be another thing added to their plate, which it is not,” he said. “It’s focused on the individual Sailor, and on being a better spouse, a better leader. I think they’ve seen the benefits of it, and I’ve had a lot of folks say, ‘Hey, I do this all the time now. I do this in my personal life.’ I think my crew has really embraced it.”

Bernacchi hopes to see the program continue to evolve and eventually make all Sailors ready to protect the nation while dealing with any kind of stress — even the worst trauma imaginable. “When we take a missile hit to a carrier and lose 1,300 Sailors, are we going to be able to take a knee, gather ourselves, and then turn around and deliver the blow to kill the enemy who did that?” he said. “The answer is, we have to. But I don’t want to wait. Throughout our history we’ve shown we can do that, but it takes time to adapt. It takes time to get over the shock.

“The next battle, because of the speed of weaponry and everything else, we may not have that time,” he added. “So, I need to have Sailors who are ready to fight from the very second it goes off. And that’s what this is about.”

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Mitcham Industries’ Klein Marine Systems unit recently delivered the first micro-MA-X (µMA-X System) in support of the U.S. Navy’s next-generation small-class unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV) evaluation sponsored by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), the company said in a release. 

DIU is a defense organization focused exclusively on fielding and scaling commercial technology across the U.S. military to help solve critical problems. 

The µMA-X system is the first in a series of new imaging products based on Klein’s previously announced MA-X technology and designed for both commercial and military unmanned vehicle markets. 

The reduced size and power requirements of the µMA-X system make it an ideal payload for the rapidly growing UUV market. MA-X technology represents a high-quality, cost-effective nadir imaging solution that has long been sought by the industry. Traditional side scan sonar imaging creates a nadir gap directly under the path of the vehicle. The µMA-X system fills that gap, when paired with conventional side scan, eliminating the need for additional time for overlapping survey lines to achieve 100% coverage. For UUVs, this translates into extended mission duration, or shorter time to cover the same area. 

One of the key discriminators of the µMA-X, particularly for the defense sector, is the ability to produce high-quality imagery of the nadir area that is comparable to the traditional side scan images. This allows for the data acquired by the system to be fed directly into existing automatic target recognition software allowing for automated detection and recognition of targets of interest. 

“The µMA-X system is the result of a fast-tracked, internally-funded development, and we are very excited to have the U.S. Navy evaluate its effectiveness for the Maritime Expeditionary Mine Countermeasures Unmanned Undersea Vehicle program,” said Guy Malden, co-CEO of Mitcham. 

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — The University of California San Diego Medical Center has requested Marine Corps Systems Command’s (MCSC) assistance to help medical professionals as they deal with the evolving crisis of COVID-19, the command said in a release. 

On March 16, Dr. Sidney Merritt, an anesthesiologist at UCSD Medical Center, contacted MCSC’s Advanced Manufacturing Operations Cell and requested help in coordinating 3-D printer assets to design parts to enable the simultaneous ventilation of multiple patients. 

AMOC sought collaboration with the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific Reverse Engineering, Science and Technology for Obsolescence, Restoration and Evaluation Lab to rapidly design, print, test and evaluate prototype ventilator splitters using various materials. 

The AMOC team also worked with the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery for support in evaluating, certifying and approving the parts prior to delivery to the medical center. 

On March 18, Merritt provided design files for the ventilator splitter based on a successful test print conducted by the UCSD engineering team. UCSD requested assistance in printing ventilator splitters in higher resolution and with diverse materials that could meet specific design requirements. 

After receiving the design files, AMOC and the NIWC Pacific RESTORE lab printed several prototypes using different materials. In less than a day, AMOC used its industrial printer in Quantico, Virginia, and the RESTORE Lab employed its organic printers to produce initial prototypes. 

The 3-D-printed ventilator splitters were scanned to ensure accuracy with the design files and then brought to UCSD Medical Center for fit testing and further design analysis. 

AMOC’s reputation in advanced manufacturing has grown since its establishment in 2019. The cell has demonstrated the ability to produce 3-D-printed parts and provide other sustainment and manufacturing solutions. When called upon, the AMOC can produce parts in a fraction of the time it takes traditional manufacturers. 

“AMOC’s response to this situation demonstrates how additive manufacturing can respond quickly to supply chain disruptions and rapidly prototype, evaluate and test new solutions to meet emerging urgent requirements,” said Scott Adams, AMOC lead at Marine Corps Systems Command. 

The rapid response by AMOC and the NIWC Pacific RESTORE lab to UCSD Medical Center’s request for support indicates how the Department of the Navy is prepared to respond to the medical community during the COVID-19 crisis. 

“I couldn’t be prouder of the Marine Corps and NIWC Pacific team,” said Carly Jackson, the chief technology officer at Naval Information Warfare Systems Command. “We are demonstrating the power, agility and speed of response that our Naval research and development centers bring to bear in times of national need.” 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Coast Guard has awarded eight offshore patrol cutter (OPC) industry studies contracts, the service announced in a release. These awards support the Coast Guard’s strategy to mitigate OPC program risk and establish a new, fair and open competitive environment to complete the OPC program of record.  

Industry studies contracts were awarded to: 

• Austal USA of Mobile, Alabama: $2 million base award ($3 million total potential value) 
• Bath Iron Works of Bath, Maine: $2 million base award ($3 million total potential value) 
• Bollinger Shipyards Lockport of Lockport, Louisiana: $2 million base award ($3 million potential value) 
• Eastern Shipbuilding Group of Panama City, Florida: $1.1 million base award ($1.2 million potential value) 
• Fincantieri Marinette Marine of Marinette, Wisconsin: $2 million base award ($3 million total potential value) 
• Huntington Ingalls, Inc. of Pascagoula, Mississippi: $2 million base award ($3 million total potential value) 
• Philly Shipyard of Philadelphia: $2 million base award ($3 million total potential value) 
• VT Halter Marine of Pascagoula, Mississippi: $2 million base award ($2.9 million total potential value) 

Under their respective contracts, the awardees will assess OPC design and technical data, provided by the Coast Guard, and the program’s construction approach. Based on their analyses, the awardees will recommend to the Coast Guard potential strategies and approaches for the follow-on detail design and construction (DD&C). The awardees will also discuss how they would prepare the OPC functional design for production. The awardees may also identify possible design or systems revisions that would be advantageous to the program if implemented, with strategies to ensure those revisions are properly managed. 

The Coast Guard will use the industry studies results to further inform its follow-on acquisition strategy and promote a competitive environment for the DD&C award. Participation in industry studies is not a pre-requisite for submitting a DD&C proposal. 

The OPCs will replace the service’s aging medium-endurance cutters, which are becoming increasingly expensive to maintain and operate. The OPCs will bridge the capabilities of the national security cutters, which patrol the open ocean, and the fast response cutters, which serve closer to shore. 

The current OPC DD&C contract is for up to four hulls. The contract was adjusted as part of a request made by the incumbent, Eastern Shipbuilding Group, for extraordinary relief. The request was a result of devastation caused when Hurricane Michael made landfall in Panama City, Florida, on Oct. 10, 2018. Hurricane Michael caused extensive damage to the ESG’s shipyard and the Panama City region.

NORFOLK, Va. — The Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort arrived in New York City on March 30 in support of the nation’s COVID-19 response efforts, the U.S. 2nd Fleet announced. 

While in New York, the ship will serve as a hospital for non-COVID-19 patients admitted to shore-based hospitals and will provide medical care to include general surgeries, critical care and ward care for adults, allowing local health professionals to focus on treating COVID-19 patients and for hospitals there to use their intensive care units and ventilators for those patients. 

Comfort is a seagoing medical treatment facility that has more than 1,200 personnel embarked for the New York mission, including U.S. Navy medical and support staff assembled from 22 commands as well as over 70 civil mariners. 

“The USNS Comfort arrives in New York City this morning with more than 1,100 medical personnel who are ready to provide safe, high-quality health care to non-COVID patients,” said Capt. Patrick Amersbach, commanding officer of the USNS Comfort Military Treatment Facility (MTF). “We are ready and grateful to serve the needs of our nation.” 

Comfort’s primary mission is to provide an afloat, mobile, acute surgical medical facility to the U.S. military that is flexible, capable and uniquely adaptable to support expeditionary warfare. Comfort’s secondary mission is to provide hospital services to support U.S. disaster relief and humanitarian operations worldwide. 

“Like her sister ship, USNS Mercy, which recently moored in Los Angeles, this great ship will support civil authorities by increasing medical capacity and collaboration for medical assistance,” said Rear Adm. John Mustin, vice commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command. “Not treating COVID-19 patients … but by acting as a relief valve for other urgent needs, freeing New York’s hospitals and medical professionals to focus on the pandemic.” 

“This USNS Comfort team of Sailors, Marines and civilian mariners came together during the transit to New York City and our medical professionals are ready to begin receiving patients from local hospitals tomorrow,” said Capt. Joseph O’Brien, mission commander of Task Force New York City. “Our personnel are our strength — the men and women of our military services accomplish incredible things every day, and I am confident in their abilities as we start the next phase of this mission.” 

The ship expects to begin receiving patients 24 hours after arriving in New York. All patient transfers will be coordinated with local hospitals, thus ensuring a consistent handoff of care between medical providers. Patients will not be accepted on a walk-on basis and should not come to the pier expecting to receive care. 

“The last time that this great hospital ship was here was in the wake of 9/11, where she served as respite and comfort for our first responders working around the clock,” Mustin said. “Our message to New Yorkers — now your Navy has returned, and we are with you, committed in this fight.”

PASCAGOULA, Miss. — The USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28) was successfully launched at the Huntington Ingalls Industries Ingalls Division shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, on March 28. Fort Lauderdale is the Navy’s 12th San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship. 

On March 7, 2020, the ship was transferred from the land-level facility to the dry dock in preparation for floating off. During the launch, the dry dock was slowly flooded until the ship floated off the blocks. 

“I am thrilled to get Fort Lauderdale in the water, so we can begin final outfitting and eventually take the ship out to sea for trials,” said Capt. Scot Searles, LPD 17-class program manager for PEO-Ships. “The San Antonio class has proven essential to expeditionary warfighters, and we are eager to deliver another ship to the fleet.” 

San Antonio-class ships support embarking, transporting and landing elements of 650 Marines by landing craft or air cushion vehicles. The ships’ capabilities are further enhanced by their flight decks and hangars, which can operate V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. Because of the ships’ inherent capabilities, they can support a variety of amphibious assault, special operations and expeditionary warfare missions, operating independently or as part of Amphibious Readiness Groups, Expeditionary Strike Groups or Joint Task Forces. 

Ingalls Shipbuilding also is in production on the USS Richard M. McCool (LPD 29) and Harrisburg (LPD 30). LPD 28 and 29 will serve as transition ships to LPD 30, the first LPD 17 Flight II ship.

ARLINGTON, Va. — Restrictions imposed by the battle against the coronavirus are presenting the U.S. Marine Corps with an array of new challenges — from maintaining grooming standards to how, when and where America’s force in readiness can train safely in a pandemic.

In a joint Pentagon press briefing on March 26 with Marine Commandant
Gen. David Berger, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said the Marines have
scaled back training at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms
and the Mountain Warfare Training Center, both in California. They also have
canceled training with foreign partners and much of the Headquarters Marine
Corps staff have been ordered to work from home.

See: More Cases on Roosevelt as COVID-19 Spreads Across Navy, Marine Corps

Promotion boards can spread out over several rooms and
shooters can spread out on the firing line of a pistol range, but “in a live-fire
exercise you can only do so much to moderate social distancing,” Berger said.

“The Marine Corps is unique,” the commandant explained. “We
are mandated by law to be the nation’s most ready force.” He has given local
commanders leeway to operate as they see best depending on the local situation
rather than issuing a blanket, Corps-wide list of restrictions. When it comes
to training, Berger said, “commanders are taking measures that make sense but
also making sure their units are trained and ready to go.”

“This is a unique time. We’re trying to find unique answers. It’s not going to be the same as sitting in the bleachers at graduation. There’s no way to replicate that.”

Sgt. Major of the Marine Corps Troy Black

Basic training graduations have been closed to all
outsiders, including family, to prevent spreading disease. “It’s driving us to
be pretty creative,” Berger said. The ceremonies are now televised and
digitally recorded for each new Marine.

“This is a unique time. We’re trying to find unique answers,”
said Sgt. Major of the Marine Corps Troy Black, but he conceded “it’s not going
to be the same as sitting in the bleachers at graduation. There’s no way to
replicate that.”

Although leaders have halted face-to-face meetings between
recruiters and enlistment prospects, the Marines have not stopped training or
bringing new recruits to boot camps in California and South Carolina. Both facilities
have begun screening incoming recruits before they depart from processing stations
and when they arrive at the recruit depot. Any showing symptoms are isolated. At
least two have tested positive for the virus, but no drill instructors have,
Modly said.

“Everybody’s still getting their head shaved as long as the
barbers come to work,” Berger said, “but there will come that time when it gets
worse and worse and worse, where barbers won’t come to work. In that case we’ll
have to make a decision: ‘Do Marines cut Marines’ hair?’ Commanders at both of
our recruit depots have thought their way through it.”

Berger noted headquarters hasn’t said grooming standards are
relaxed for a given period. “What we have said is commanders have the latitude
to make adjustments based on what’s available at your location.”

ARLINGTON, Virginia — The Navy has ordered two more Navajo-class T-ATS towing, salvage and rescue ships, the Defense Department said in a March 25 contract notice.   

The Naval Sea Systems Command has awarded Gulf Island Shipyards LLC in Houma, Louisiana, a $129.9 million firm-fixed-price contract modification “to exercise options for the construction of two additional towing, salvage and rescue ships (T-ATS) and for the performance of unique item identification on the T-ATS 6-class program.  

“The contract also includes options for associated support efforts related to the ship design and construction for special studies, engineering and industrial services, provisioned items orders, unique item identification and data rights license,” the notice said. “Work is expected to be complete by October 2022.”   

The Navajo-class T-ATS is designed to combine and replace the current capabilities of the three Powhatan (T-ATF 166) class of fleet ocean tugs and two Safeguard (T-ARS 50) class rescue and salvage ships, which will reach the end of their expected service lives starting in 2020.  

The Navajo-class is designed with 6,000 square feet of deck space for embarked salvage and rescue systems. The ship will have an overall length of 263 feet and a beam of 59 feet. It will be able to carry a 1,796-ton load.  

Gulf Island Shipyard is currently building the first three T-ATSs: the future USNS Navajo (T-ATS6), USNS Cherokee Nation (T-ATS 7) and USNS Saginaw Ojibwe Anishinabek (T-ATS 8). These three ships are scheduled for delivery in 2021.