ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy is installing control centers for unmanned aerial vehicles on its aircraft carriers as the ships go through overhauls and maintenance periods, a Navy official said.

Capt. Chuck
Ehnes, the Navy’s program manager for in-service aircraft carriers, speaking
Jan.16 at the Surface Navy Association gathering here, said the Unmanned
Aviation Warfare Centers (UAWCs) are being installed to operate the MQ-25A
Stingray unmanned aerial tanker and any follow-on UAVs the Navy plans to
operate from its aircraft carriers.

Ehnes said
the UAWC is one of several phased modernizations being conducted on the
carriers in service to upgrade their warfighting capabilities.

Over time,
carriers are receiving numerous modifications to prepare to operate the F-35C
Lightning II strike fighter, the CMV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor carrier onboard
delivery aircraft and the MQ-25. The carriers also are receiving additive
manufacturing labs and upgraded cybersecurity.

Ehnes said the carriers also are receiving the Distance Communication and Maintenance System (DCoMs), a remote conferencing system that will enable Sailors to discuss maintenance issues with technical experts ashore. He compared the new DCoMs to a telemedicine system will be a “potential game-changer” in reducing the need for tech assist visits and the dispatching of repair teams.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The U.S. Navy’s newest aircraft carrier will go through a rigorous period
of tests and trials over the rest of fiscal 2020, a Navy official said.

Speaking Jan.
16 at the Surface Navy Association gathering here, Capt. Ron Rutan, the Navy’s
program manager for the USS Gerald R. Ford, lead ship of its class, said the
ship gets underway “11 times over 220 days” starting Jan. 16, continuing 18
months of post-delivery testing and trials, which will run into through the
second quarter of fiscal 2021.

Rutan said the ship will have contractor personnel on board continuing work while the ship is at sea. The Navy plans to complete work on the seven Advanced Weapon Elevators that have not yet been certified. He said that four others already have been certified and they have been put through more than 5,000 cycles, including runs while the carrier has been put through high-speed turns that simulated Sea State 5.

One of the 11
events this quarter of the fiscal year will be used to certify the ship’s
flight deck.

The carrier
is scheduled for full-ship shock trials during the third or fourth quarters of
fiscal 2021.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy’s program
manager for the next three aircraft carriers said the sea service is
considering the business case for a single-phased delivery of the future USS
John F. Kennedy (CVN 79).

Speaking Jan. 16 at the Surface Navy Association’s symposium here, Capt. Philip Malone, the program manager for CVN 79, CVN 80 and CVN 81, said the Navy is looking at the possibility of delivering JFK with a single-phased approach. The current plan with a dual-phased approach includes delivering with some navigation and aviation capability followed by a second phase in which combat systems would be installed. 

One advantage of a two-phased delivery is
that the most recent mission systems can be installed before final delivery,
avoiding an obsolescence that can occur in the long timeline of a carrier’s
construction. An advantage of the traditional practice of a single-phased
delivery is having a completed ship at commissioning.

Malone said he is working with the Navy
secretariat to determine the effects of a single-phased delivery on cost and
build time.

James F. Geurts, assistant Navy secretary for
research, development and acquisition, told reporters Jan. 17 that the
discussion of a single-phased construction included “looking at a new version
of a radar, combat systems, the people and making sure we have the right
balance. Delivering an integrated ship with all its functions is an
attractive model to look at hard.”

Geurts said the decision on the single-phased
delivery would be made “in the next 30 to 45 days.”

“Mr. Geurts is aggressively pursuing
integrating lessons learned on CVN 78 to improve efficiencies and affordability
for the rest of the Ford class,” said Capt. Danny Hernandez, Navy acquisition
spokesman. “Delivery approach is one of the items that Mr. Geurts has the team
looking at.”

A major difference between CVN 78, the
USS Gerald R. Ford, and CVN 79 is that the dual-band radar on CVN 78 will be
replaced on CVN 79 by the SPY-6(V)3 Enterprise Air Search Radar.

CVNs 79, 80 and 81 are scheduled for
delivery in 2024, 2028 and 2032, respectively. The Navy expects the total
ownership cost savings of $4 billion for each ship over their 50-year service
lives, as compared to the Nimitz class.

Malone said the construction of USS John
F. Kennedy is incorporating more than 60,000 lessons learned from the
construction of the Gerald R. Ford.

He also said JFK will
receive modifications to operate the F-35C strike fighter after its
post-shakedown availability. The modification involves changes in the squadron
ready room and the flight deck’s jet-blast deflectors, among others. He said
his office is evaluating the impact of the installations on the carrier’s
schedule.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Lockheed Martin will continue supporting engineering and fielding efforts for the Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) AN/SLQ-32(V)6 under a $13.9 million engineering services contract awarded by the U.S. Navy, the company said in a Jan. 13 release.

Services include engineering efforts to
perform analysis and design, document engineering baselines and modification of
systems, subsystems and components for test and evaluation.

“We
are proud to continue providing the U.S. Navy with ongoing engineering services
for the SEWIP program. Our partnership and commitment to the Navy and to
keeping our warfighters safe is our No. 1 priority,” said Hamid Salim, vice
president of advanced product solutions for Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission
Systems. “The SEWIP system enables electromagnetic spectrum dominance for our
naval fleet.”  

AN/SLQ-32(V)6
incorporates electronic support receiver, antenna and combat system interface
upgrades as well as adding the high gain/high sensitivity adjunct sensor, the specific
emitter identification adjunct sensor, the AN/SLA-10D blanker and a liquid conditioning
unit.

This
award is part of a five-year contract totaling $75 million if all options are
exercised. Work will be performed at the corporation’s electronic warfare
center of excellence in Syracuse, New York.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The strategy behind the integration of the Navy and Marine Corps is being
driven by China’s emergence as a sea power, according to the commandant of the U.S.
Marine Corps.

“The thing
that has driven us to where we are right now is the paradigm shift by China
moving to sea,” after years of building up its defensive forces and weaponry, Gen.
David H. Berger said Jan. 15 at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium
here.

“We can no
longer afford for the Navy and Marine Corps not to be integrated,” he said,
adding “It’s a must-do. Our naval force is unbalanced.”

In an era of
global terrorism and asymmetric warfare, both services had different tasks to
do that strayed from traditional fleet operations. However, for the next 20 to
40 years, with a rising China and a resurgent Russia creating a new ‘great power
competition,’ the tasks and the challenges have changed.

A Sept. 6,
2019, memo signed by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday and Berger stated
the services will work on a “comprehensive naval force architecture”
and an integrated force-structure assessment.

The Navy has
largely been a big ship, standoff force with long-range precision weapons. The
Marines have handled a number of tasks such as counter-insurgency, infantry
patrolling and urban and mountain warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s been
years since most Marines have logged sea duty aboard ship.

Berger said
he and Gilday are developing a force structure that provides depth “all the way
forward and all the way back.” A standoff force won’t provide the deterrence
needed in the future, he maintained. “The farther you back away from China,
they will move toward you,” Berger said, adding that any forward projecting
force must be able to switch to offense if deterrence fails. “We will not be
given the chance to swap out that [deterrent] force for another force. A great
power competitor will not allow us to do that,” he noted.

Deterrence is the underpinning of the National Defense Strategy, Berger told Seapower when asked how units like the 700 Marines rotating through training tours in Norway since 2017 fit into the new strategy.

“The forces that we have in Europe, and specifically in Norway, are part of U.S. deterrence against Russia or anyone else doing bad behavior. If that doesn’t work out on some future date, the forces that are in Norway and Europe have to be ready to fight immediately. They have to have the equipment; they have to have the training. They have to be ready.”

Asked about
the focus on China, Berger said, “I think the read of the National Defense
Strategy is pretty straightforward. What the primary focus is, in the primary
theater is not exclusive, of course, but it does prioritize. That’s where we
take our lead from.”

ARLINGTON,
Va. — Raytheon Co. has completed the first recertificated Tomahawk cruise
missile, one that it modified to the Block V configuration, a Navy official
said.

The missile
is one of the first five Block VI Tactical Tomahawk missiles that have been
inducted into the recertification process, which takes missiles at the midlife
15-year mark for overhaul and modernization. 

Capt. John
Red, the Navy’s Tomahawk program manager, speaking to reporters Jan. 15 at the
Surface Navy Association symposium here, said that all Block IVs will be
converted into Block Vs.

All Block Vs
will feature a new data-link radio and antennas and navigation system. The
Block Va version also will feature a new seeker kit to hit moving targets and
will be called the Maritime Strike Tomahawk (MST). The Block Vb version will
feature the Joint Multi-Effects Warhead System.

Red was not
at liberty to discuss the MST’s seeker in detail but described it as a “multimode
seeker with the ability to discriminate targets.”

The Tomahawk
missile first entered combat in January 1991 in Operation Desert Storm. More
than 2,000 have been fired at hostile targets over three decades.

Red said the
remaining Block III Tomahawks, which first entered service in 1994, are being
withdrawn from use and are being “demilitarized.”

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy’s program manager for the Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyer praised the capability being built into the ship as it transforms into an offensive surface strike platform from a land-attack ship, possibly to include a new missile strike capability. 

The Zumwalt is being lauded “as the premier strike platform for the U.S. Navy,” said Capt. Kevin Smith, the Navy’s Zumwalt program manager, speaking Jan. 15 at the Surface Navy Association convention here, noting that the ship was “designed to be stealthy and designed to carry the fight to the enemy.” 

Smith said the Navy is looking at the Zumwalt as a platform for a conventional prompt strike capability. He also said the Navy is looking at adding Tomahawk Block V — the Maritime Strike Tomahawk — to the Zumwalt’s arsenal. Under the current plan, the Block IV Tactical Tomahawk missile will be arming the Zumwalt. 

Smith noted that the Zumwalt will be equipped with the Standard SM-6 Block 1A multipurpose missile, the Standard SM-2 missile and the SPY-3 radar. 

He also said the two Advanced Gun Systems on the ship are still in lay-up pending the development of a replacement projectile.  

The current commanding officer of the USS Zumwalt, Capt. Drew Carlson, also spoke about the Zumwalt’s at-sea periods in 2019, when the ship operated in the eastern Pacific and made port calls in Victoria, British Columbia; Ketchikan, Alaska; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; and San Francisco. The ship operated in Sea State 6 in the Gulf of Alaska. 

“I’d rather be in heavy seas on this ship than on any other I have been on,” Carlson said, noting that the ship now is 60% to 70% complete with hydrodynamic testing. 

“This ship is very stable,” he said, noting that experience should quiet the anxiety about the stability of the Zumwalt’s tumblehome hull form. 

Carlson said that some of the criticism of the Zumwalt is the constant comparison with the Arleigh Burke-class DDG. He said it is important to think of it as a new type of ship. 

“Maybe DDG is not the right [term] for it,” he said, musing that maybe it could be a cruiser or some other type. “It’s not the Arleigh Burke destroyer.”  

Smith said the combat systems activation of the Zumwalt should be completed by March 2020 — pending concurrence of the chief of naval operations — and is scheduled to achieve initial operational capability in September 2021. 

In 2020, the Zumwalt will be engaged in live-fire trials, operational concept development and tactical development. 

He said the USS Michael Monsoor is 93% complete and will complete its combat systems availability during the second quarter of 2020. It will begin its combat systems activation sometime in 2020. 

The third and final Zumwalt-class ship, USS Lyndon B. Johnson, is at Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine and is 90% complete with its hull, mechanical and electrical phase. Delivery to the Navy for its combat systems installation is scheduled for December. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy is proceeding with studies and concept development for three special-mission ships to replace existing ships in the Military Sealift Command.

Speaking Jan. 15 at the Surface Navy Association symposium here, Matt Sermon, the executive director for Amphibious, Auxiliary and Sealift Office, Program Executive Office-Ships, said the Navy plans to build new ocean surveillance ships (T-AGOS), a new cable-laying ship (T-ARC) and a new oceanographic survey ship (T-AGS).

The Navy expects to issue during the second quarter of fiscal 2020 a request for proposal for industry studies for the new T-AGOS, which will be a SWATH (small waterplane, twin-hull) ship, as are the current T-AGOSs. A contract award for the Industries Studies Request for Proposals is expected in the third quarter of the year.

A new T-ARC is needed to replace the USNS Zeus, a one-of-a-kind cable laying ship, which has been in service since 1984. The 2020 budget has authorized research, development, test and evaluation funds for the program. T-AGS-67 will be a follow-on Pathfinder-class ship that will be similar to T-AGS-66, the USNS Maury, which introduced a “moon pool” for launch and recovery of unmanned underwater vehicles.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The first of seven Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers entered into
the Cruiser Modification Program has been returned to the U.S. Navy’s fleet for
service.

USS Cowpens
went through the modification at the NASSCO shipyard in San Diego over the last
four years, Capt. Kevin Byrne, the Navy’s program manager for surface ship modernization,
said Jan. 15 at the Surface Navy Association symposium here.

Under the
modification, the major addition is the Baseline 9A upgrade to the Aegis Combat
System with ballistic-missile defense (BMD) capability, along with the addition
of the SPQ-9B radar, the Navy Integrated Fire Control capability and the
SQQ-89(V)15 anti-submarine warfare system and the Multifunction Towed Array. The
ship’s Combat Information Center is revamped, the superstructure is
strengthened and provisions for the embarked MH-60R helicopters are included,
among other hull, mechanical and electrical improvements.

Also going
through modernization are USS Gettysburg at the BAE Systems yard in Norfolk,
Virginia, and USS Chosin, which soon will be towed to the Vigor shipyard in
Portland, Oregon. USS Cape St. George will follow at Vigor later in 2020, and USS
Vicksburg enters the BAE yard in Norfolk this month. USS Hue City is the next
to be inducted.

The seven
cruisers are part of the 11 that the Navy decided to take out of service for
modernization, but the Navy is keeping four in service for the time being to
maintain a robust BMD force structure.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — American commerce depends on the seas, and it’s the U.S. Navy that
secures that economic prosperity, the chief of naval operations said here, arguing
for a bigger slice of the Defense Department budget.

“American
commerce is maritime commerce. The American economy flows from the sea,” Adm.
Michael Gilday told an audience Jan. 14 at the Surface Navy Association symposium.

Addressing a
ballroom packed with Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and foreign military personnel as
well as industry representatives, Gilday reminded them that infrastructure improvements
to several ports around the world were funded by the Chinese government, which he
said is trying to expand “a network of influence which helps them assert
control over an international system we’re trying to protect.”

To meet the
challenge of the “great power competition,” the Navy needs to grow the fleet’s
capabilities while it maintains and modernizes existing platforms, Gilday said.

“We need
more money. We need more top line,” he added.

The current
practice of dividing the topline defense budget roughly into thirds for the
Army, Navy and Air Force “does not reflect a strategy,” according to Gilday.
Just 1% of the total defense budget would give the Navy an additional $7
billion a year for shipbuilding.

As an
example of Navy funding challenges, the CNO cited the Columbia class submarine
program, which he called his highest priority. The Ohio class subs will be 42
years old when they are all retired.  In
the 1980s, when that program was in full swing, it accounted for about 20% of
the shipbuilding budget. Today, the Columbia program accounts for roughly 25%
of shipbuilding funding, and it is expected to grow to 32% between fiscal 2022
and 2030.

“Lot of
dough,” Gilday said, adding that, in the 1980s, the Navy’s share of the budget
was 38%. Now, it’s 34%, he said.

“We, collectively, have to do a better job of
making the case [for] what the United States Navy does for our fellow citizens,”
he added.