ARLINGTON, Va. — The continuing resolution currently in effect instead of an enacted fiscal 2020 budget already is taking a toll on the readiness of U.S. Navy units and acquisition plans, with two ship overhauls delayed indefinitely and more to come unless Congress acts soon, Navy officials said.  

Seven weeks into fiscal 2020, a CR is limiting Navy budget expenditures to 2019 levels, the sole year in the last decade in which the defense budget was enacted on time. When a CR is in effect, not only are expenditures and production orders limited but no new programs can be started. 

Inefficiencies also are induced that complicate government and industry planning, cause cash-flow problems and add costs to programs. The cascading effects include uncertainty in hiring workers and ordering materials. The uncertainty of the duration of the CR magnifies the problems for planners. 

“The No. 1 impact of a CR is instability,” said James F. Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, who spoke with Thomas W. Harker, assistant secretary of the Navy for financial management and comptroller, at a Nov. 15 media roundtable in the Pentagon. “It makes all your work unstable and inefficient.” 

Geurts said the Navy has had to postpone indefinitely the overhauls — called “availabilities” by the Navy — of two Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, USS Bainbridge and USS Gonzalez, which were supposed to start on Nov. 7 and Nov. 8, respectively.  

Burned by many years of CRs, the Navy has learned to plan few new program starts for the first quarter of a fiscal year to reduce the impact of a CR. 

Geurts presented an analysis of the effects of the six-month CR and a year-long CR to reporters. A six-month CR would force the Navy to delay the procurement of one Virginia-class submarine, one Navajo-class towing, salvage and rescue ship and two utility landing craft and the start of the refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis. It also would delay the production of 32 new training helicopter systems, 22 F-5 adversary jets, five F-35C strike fighters and three MQ-9 Reaper UAVs, the latter for the Marine Corps. The CR also would create a cash shortfall of $1 billion for maintenance, equipment and spare parts and delay 17 new-start research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) projects. 

A year-long CR would delay all of the above plus the completion of five ships; the start of the FFG(X) frigate program; the procurement of a KC-130J tanker aircraft; more than 500 weapons; and another seven RDT&E projects, plus 33 military construction projects. 

The RDT&E projects delayed would include new unmanned systems planned for the fleet such as the Large Unmanned Surface Vessel, Conventional Prompt Strike, Artificial Intelligence development, surface and shallow-water mine countermeasures development, and digital warfare. 

The one-year CR would restrict operations and maintenance with a shortfall of about $5.6 billion, which would result in the cancellation of 14 ship availabilities; shut down nondeployed carrier air wings and expeditionary squadrons; reduced flight hours for aircraft and steaming days for ships; delays in repairs of hurricane-damaged bases; and delays in Marine Corps unit training and exercises.    

Geurts said the top three procurement programs that would be impacted by a CR would be the new Advanced Helicopter Training System, the FFG(X) and the RCOH of the USS John C. Stennis. 

Geurts said the Navy has some flexibility to deal with anomalies in the budget to shore up some programs. The sea service is working on plans to keep the Columbia ballistic-missile submarine program from being affected and to start the construction program in 2021 on time despite the CR. 

The Columbia is the Navy’s top procurement priority.

MOORESTOWN, N.J. — The radar technology formerly known as Lockheed Martin’s Solid State Radar (LM SSR) has been designated as AN/SPY-7(V)1 by the U.S government. 

The Japanese Ministry of Defense selected AN/SPY-7(V)1 for two planned Aegis Ashore installations in 2018. Additionally, variants of AN/SPY-7(V)1 will be used by the Royal Canadian Navy for the Canadian Surface Combatant program and the Spanish Navy for the upcoming F-110 frigate program. 

“Lockheed Martin’s solid-state solution meets the mission now and is flexible to adapt to the evolving threats of the future,” said Paul Lemmo, vice president and general manager at Lockheed Martin. “This new designation solidifies our ability to provide the most technically advanced capabilities our warfighters require.” 

AN/SPY-7(V)1 is a modular and scalable solid-state radar, allowing for continuous surveillance and protection. It will be fully integrated with the Aegis Combat System, providing advanced technology for future ship classes.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk repatriated 23 of 28 Dominican migrants to the Dominican Republic navy in Santo Domingo following the interdiction of an illegal migrant voyage in the Mona Passage, the Coast Guard 7th District said in a release. 

Five of the interdicted migrants remain in Puerto Rico to face possible federal prosecution on charges of violating U.S. Code for attempting to illegally re-enter the United States, which carries a potential maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000. 

The interdiction was the result of ongoing efforts in support of Operation Unified Resolve, Operation Caribbean Guard and the Caribbean Border Interagency Group (CBIG).  

“We are glad that we were able to arrive in time to safely recover all 28 migrants from this grossly overloaded vessel,” said Lt. Christopher Martin, commanding officer of the Donald Horsley. “This vessel could have easily capsized, and the people onboard would have had a very little chance of survival since they basically possessed no lifesaving equipment onboard. We appreciate the collaboration and coordination of are CBP partners, which allowed for a prompt response and successful outcome in this case.” 

The interdiction took place Nov. 14 after a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations DHC-8 patrol aircraft crew sighted a migrant boat just off Mona Island. The Donald Horsley diverted to the scene and interdicted the 30-foot migrant boat with 28 adult Dominican men aboard. 

The crew of the Donald Horsley transferred the migrants to the cutter Mohawk for their repatriation, while the five migrants awaiting prosecution were transferred to the cutter Joseph Napier. Ramey Sector Border Patrol agents in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, received custody of the five migrants awaiting federal prosecution.

SAN DIEGO — The U.S. Navy accepted delivery of its third expeditionary sea base (ESB) ship, USNS Miguel Keith (T-ESB 5), on Nov. 15, Program Executive Office-Ships said in a release. 

Delivery marks the official transfer of the ship from the shipbuilder to the Navy. The USNS Miguel Keith will be owned and operated by Military Sealift Command. 

“The Navy and industry team overcame significant setbacks in the construction of this ship, and I’m extremely proud of the urgency and determination displayed on everyone’s part to deliver a high-quality ship that will support our operational requirements in the 7th Fleet area of operations,” said Capt. Scot Searles, Strategic Sealift and Theater Sealift program manager, Program Executive Office Ships. “Like the ship’s namesake, those who sail aboard Miguel Keith will embody his dedication to service to our country.” 

ESBs are flexible, modular platforms that are optimized to support a variety of maritime-based missions such as special operations force and airborne mine countermeasures support operations in addition to humanitarian support and sustainment of traditional military missions. 

ESBs include a four-spot flight deck and hangar and a versatile mission deck and are designed around four core capabilities: aviation facilities, berthing, equipment staging support and command and control assets. ESBs will operate as the component commander requires, providing the fleet with critical access to infrastructure that supports the flexible deployment of forces and supplies. 

USNS Miguel Keith was built by General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard in San Diego. NASSCO is under contract for detail design and construction of ESBs 6 and 7 with an option for ESB 8.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Dominican Republic navy air and surface units interdicted 52 migrants aboard a makeshift vessel during an illegal voyage on Nov. 13 in the Mona Passage, according to the Coast Guard 7th District. 

The group of migrants included 51 Dominican and one Cuban national, 39 men and 13 women, who were safely returned to the Dominican Republic. The interdiction was the result of ongoing efforts in support of Operation Caribbean Guard and the Caribbean Border Interagency Group (CBIG). 

“The close collaboration and effective communication between the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection and Dominican Republic Navy responding assets led to the interdiction and safe recovery of all 52 migrants,” said Cmdr. Beau Power, Sector San Juan chief of response. “People should not take to the sea as part of an illegal migrant voyage; they are extremely dangerous.” 

The interdiction took place on the morning of Nov. 14, after a CBP Air and Marine Operations DHC-8 patrol aircraft crew sighted a migrant vessel, about 15 nautical miles northwest of Mona Island. Coast Guard watchstanders in Sector San Juan diverted the cutter Donald Horsley to carry out the interdiction and alerted Dominican navy authorities, whom also diverted the Dominican coastal patrol boat Bellatrix to the scene. 

The Bellatrix arrived on scene and stopped the migrant vessel. Shortly thereafter, the Donald Horsley arrived on scene and assisted with the transfer and safe removal of the migrants to the Bellatrix for return to the Dominican Republic.

WASHINGTON — Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer announced a future Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer will be named in honor of late Sen. Thad Cochran, a Navy veteran, the secretary’s public affairs said in a release. 

Cochran was commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1959 after graduating from the University of Mississippi with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and completed his service in the U.S. Navy in 1961. 

He served on the staff of the Commandant of the 8th Naval District in New Orleans; taught military law and naval orientation at the Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island; and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve. 

Cochran went on to serve in the House of Representatives from 1973 to 1978 and represented Mississippi in the U.S. Senate from 1978 to 2018. He was recognized as the 10th longest-serving senator in the U.S. history. He was chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee from 2005 to 2007 and from 2015 to 2018. 

“From his service as a legal officer aboard the heavy cruiser USS Macon, to his dedicated work on behalf of our Sailors and Marines on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Thad Cochran was always a strong advocate for our nation’s defense and a courtly voice for cooperation and civility in American politics,” Spencer said. “We mourned his passing this May, but his legacy will live on wherever this Arleigh Burke-class destroyer may serve.”   

Arleigh Burke-class destroyers conduct a variety of operations, from peacetime presence and crisis response to sea control and power projection. The USS Thad Cochran will be capable of fighting air, surface, and subsurface battles simultaneously and will contain a combination of offensive and defensive weapon systems to support maritime warfare, including integrated air and missile defense and vertical launch capabilities. The ship will be 509 feet long, have a beam of 59 feet and be capable of operating in excess of 30 knots.

WASHINGTON — Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer announced a future Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer will bear the name of the late Sen. Richard G. Lugar, a Navy veteran, Spencer’s public affairs office said in a release. 

Lugar served in the Navy from 1957 to 1960 and represented Indiana in the U.S. Senate for 36 years. He died April 28. 

“Senator Lugar dedicated his life to his country, first through service in the U.S. Navy then through service in Congress,” Spencer said. “I am honored to name a future Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer after him. It is fitting this class of ship should bear Senator Lugar’s name, just as he served under Admiral Burke in life. This ship and her crew will continue his legacy of service, safeguarding the safety and security of America and her allies all over the world.” 

Lugar attended Officer Candidate School in Rhode Island, with follow-on training in Florida, before serving as an intelligence briefer for Adm. Arleigh Burke, who was chief of naval operations at the time. 

As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Lugar was a co-creator of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which provided funding and expertise to secure and dismantle nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and delivery systems around the world. In recent years, funding provided through the program has focused on export and border control programs and on the detection of radiological weapons. 

In 2013, Lugar was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

The future USS Richard G. Lugar will be capable of fighting air, surface and subsurface battles simultaneously and will contain a combination of offensive and defensive weapon systems to support maritime warfare, including integrated air and missile defense and vertical launch capabilities. The ship will be 509 feet long, have a beam of 59 feet and will be capable of operating in excess of 30 knots. 

The Navy Department is
aggressively pushing its new “Education for Seapower” initiative because it
will need Sailors and Marines who will have the mental flexibility and critical
thinking skills to compete and win in an era of “great power competition” and
rapidly changing technology, naval leaders of the effort said Nov. 14.

Educating its leaders is
more important now because of “the new strategic environment we’re in” and the
rapid changes in technology, said Undersecretary Thomas Modly, who has been
tasked to drive the initiative. Looking at the future, “it’s going to be
unpredictable” and the naval services “will need intellectual flexibility,
Sailors and Marines able to respond to the changing conditions,” he said.

America’s strategic competitors, who Modly prefers to call “adversaries,” are overtaking U.S. technological advantages, so success will be determined by how America can use the technology, Modly said at a forum sponsored by the U.S. Naval Institute and hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

When a skeptical member of
the audience asked what problem the program is trying to solve, Modly said it
was trying to answer the question “is the naval education system really able to
provide the officers we will need to solve” the strategic problems the new era
will bring.

John Kroger, a former
enlisted Marine and experienced educator, said he took the newly created job as
the Navy Department’s Chief Learning Officer because “better education in the
Navy and Marine Corps is fundamentally important to competing.” Because the
great technological and economic advantages America had in the 1980s and 1990s
have been eroded by the great power competitors, “we’re not going to be a
credible force unless we educate,” Kroger said.

Navy Secretary Richard
Spencer launched Education for Seapower, referred to as E4S, on Feb. 12 saying:
“I am convinced, now more than ever
before, that the intellectual development of our naval leaders is the most
critical warfighting capability for our national security.”

E4S was advocated by a panel
of former senior Navy, Marine and diplomatic leaders who looked critically at
the Department’s top educational institutions, including the Naval Academy, Naval Postgraduate School, Naval
War College and Marine Corps University, and key civilian academic
institutions. It envisioned establishing a Naval Community College, with
residential and online course and universal transcripts so “enlisted Sailors
and Marines could earn accredited associate’s degrees in technology-rich fields,
and a new Naval University System that retains the strengths of current
educational institutions, while aligning strategic intent in order to provide
increased agility,” according to the Navy’s announcement.

Modly and Kroger said formation of those institutions is still in process.
Kroger said he hoped to be able to name the community college officials soon.
His top immediate priority, he said, was “developing the first-ever
comprehensive Navy educational strategy” that would guide the program going forward.

Those two officials and a later panel of the leaders of the Naval Academy, Postgraduate School and Marine Corps University, wrestled with unresolved issues of how the educational progress of officers and enlisted leaders would be considered in the annual fitness reports and evaluations, how civilian educational institutions would collaborate with the new naval educational structures and how the increased emphasis on education would mesh with the current intensive focus on military training, given the pressure on naval personnel’s time.

Kroger said he did not see military training and education being separate efforts but as a needed blend. With the increased technical levels of warfighting, “training is going to become even more complex going forward. The fundamental thing you get from education is how to learn,” he said. The officials said the education programs they were creating would include cultural aspects as well as technical fields to better prepare naval personnel to engage with foreign allies and partners and confront the adversaries.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Harriet Lane intercepted a suspected semi-submersible smuggling vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Oct. 23 and seized about 5,000 pounds of cocaine, the Coast Guard Atlantic Area said in a release.  

The crew was alerted to the presence of the vessel by the crew of a maritime patrol aircraft on patrol in the region. Boarding teams from the cutter deployed in interceptor boats and stopped the vessel just before midnight. 

The boarding teams took control of the vessel before the four suspected smugglers aboard could sink the craft using installed scuttling valves. Cocaine valued at about $69 million was later removed from the semi-submersible. 

“I am really proud of our crew and the precision and professionalism with which they conducted this interdiction,” said Cmdr. Dorothy Hernaez, commanding officer of the Harriet Lane. “It was an all-hands-on-deck effort to properly position the cutter and to safely make the seizure. This interdiction was made possible by great teamwork, including excellent air support provided by Joint Interagency Task Force South and assistance from Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf’s crew in off-loading the bulk contraband from the vessel.” 

Coast Guard assets deployed in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean increase the U.S. and allied presence in these known drug transit zones off the coasts of Central and South America, in support of the Coast Guard’s Western Hemisphere Strategy.  Interdictions are in support of Campaign Martillo, a regional initiative targeting illicit trafficking that threatens security and prosperity at the national, regional and international levels. 

The interdictions are facilitated by detection and monitoring information from Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) South, located in Key West, Florida. The law enforcement phase of counter-smuggling operations in the eastern Pacific is conducted under the authority of the Coast Guard 11th District headquartered in Alameda. Interdictions, including the actual boarding, are led and conducted by Coast Guard law enforcement personnel.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s head of operational test and evaluation said the earliest the F-35 Lightning II strike fighter’s Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) could resume is mid-2020, when the Joint Simulation Environment is ready. That evaluation, paused earlier this year, must be completed before full-rate production of the F-35 can be approved.  

The full-rate production decision likely will be delayed until early fiscal 2021. The Defense Department is planning for low-rate initial production through Lot 14 of the F-35. Under low-rate production, more than 458 F-35s of all three variants have been fielded so far. The F-35A and F-35B have flown in combat.    

“So far the JOTT [Joint Operational Test Team] has conducted 91% of the open air test missions, actual weapons employment, cybersecurity testing, deployments and comparison testing with fourth-generation fighters, including the congressionally directed comparison test of the F-35A and the A-10C,” said Robert Behler, the Pentagon’s director of operational test and evaluation, testifying Nov. 13 before a joint hearing of the Readiness and Tactical Air and Land Force subcommittees of the House Armed Services Committee. “IOT&E events have assessed the F-35 across a variety of offensive and defensive roles.  

“Operational suitability of the F-35 fleet remains below service expectations,” Behler said. “In particular, no F-35 variant meets the specified reliability or maintainability metrics. In short, [for] all variants, the aircraft are breaking more often and are taking longer to fix. However, there are several suitability metrics that are showing signs of improvement this year.  

“There are two phases of IOT&E remaining,” he said. “The first is electronic warfare testing against robust surface-to-air threats at the Point Mugu [California] Sea Range. The other is testing against dense surface and air threats in the Joint Simulation Environment [JSE] at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River [Maryland]. I would approve the start of these tests when the necessary test infrastructure is ready.  

“The Joint Simulation Environment is essential,” he said. “The JSE is a man-in-the-loop synthetic environment that uses actual [F-35] aircraft software. It is designed to provide scalable, high-fidelity, operationally realistic simulation. I would like to emphasize that the JSE will be the only venue available other than actual combat against peer adversaries. To adequately evaluate the F-35, due to the inherent limitations of open-air testing, these limitations do not permit a full and adequate test of the aircraft against the required types and density of modern threat systems, including weapons, aircraft, and electronic warfare that are currently fielded by our near-peer adversaries. Integrating the F-35 into the JSE is a very complex challenge, but is required to complete IOT&E, which will lead to my final IOTE report.” 

The current schedule indicates that the JSE will not be ready to start final phase of operational testing until July [2020], he said.    

Behler said that his organization has been closely with the F-35 Joint Program Office and the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River to determine when the JSE will be ready. There are enormous challenges and there are a lot of unknown unknows still out there.  

“I do believe the JSE development — the “F-35 in a Box” integration into JSE — is on track,” said Lt. Gen. Eric T. Fick, program executive officer for the F-35, who also testified at the hearing.  

The F-35 in a Box is the simulation of the aircraft and its sensors that fits in the JSE.  

“To put it in context, we’re not only integrating the F-35 in a Box into this environment, we’re also integrating all of the blue and red threat vehicles — ground systems, airborne systems, weapons, electronic warfare — and all of the things that you need to bring a full 8-on-8 [aircraft] or greater scenario to life in a synthetic environment,” Fick said. “We’re trying to come as close to a combat environment without putting iron in the sky.”