STAFFORD, Va. — BAE Systems has received a $120 million contract from the U.S. Marine Corps for additional Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACVs) under a third order for Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP), the company said in a release. This award is a next step on the path to Full-Rate Production. 

An Oct. 29 Pentagon announcement said the order was for 30 ACVs.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QK7xUtzjA4

This latest contract is for the ACV personnel carrier variant (ACV-P), an eight-wheeled amphibious assault vehicle capable of transporting Marines from open-ocean ship to shore and conducting land operations. Each vehicle embarks 13 Marines in addition to a crew of three.  

“This award further validates the Marine Corps’ confidence in the vehicle’s proven capability in meeting their amphibious mission and represents an important step toward fielding the vehicle in the Fleet Marine Force. The ACV is a highly mobile, survivable and adaptable platform designed for growth to meet future mission role requirements while bringing enhanced combat power to the battlefield,” said John Swift, director of amphibious programs at BAE Systems.  

Current low-rate production is focused on the ACV-P variant. More variants will be added under Full-Rate Production to include the command and control (ACV-C), 30 mm medium-caliber turret (ACV-30) and recovery variants (ACV-R) under the ACV Family of Vehicles program. BAE Systems previously received the Lot 1 and Lot 2 awards. 

The Marine Corps selected BAE Systems along with teammate Iveco Defence Vehicles for the ACV program in 2018 to replace its legacy fleet of Assault Amphibious Vehicles, which have been in service for decades and were also built by BAE Systems. 

ACV production and support is taking place at BAE Systems locations in Stafford, Virginia; San Jose, California; Sterling Heights, Michigan; Aiken, South Carolina; and York, Pennsylvania. 

WASHINGTON — The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford is back in its homeport at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, after successful completion on Oct. 30 of its post-shakedown availability/selected restricted availability, Program Executive Office (PEO) Aircraft Carriers announced. 

Completion of the availability marks a significant milestone for the Ford, the first ship in a next-generation class that will serve for 50 years as a centerpiece of U.S national defense. 

“This is a warship like none other, and the process of returning her to fleet service reflects the great technical skill, professionalism and tenacity of the government/industry team,” said Rear Adm. James Downey, program executive officer for aircraft carriers. 

A PSA is a typical period of construction availability in the early life of a ship during which the Navy and shipbuilder resolve issues that arise in initial at-sea periods and make any needed changes and upgrades. 

CVN 78’s PSA began on July 15, 2018, and included work on Advanced Weapons Elevators (AWEs), repairs to the ship’s main reduction gear, improvements to the throttle control system, upgrades to the advanced arresting gear and numerous other maintenance tasks. 

During the PSA, most discrepancies — known as “trial cards” — that had been identified during previous workups were addressed, with few remaining to address in future maintenance availabilities. As a first-of-class ship, such discrepancies are not unexpected, and the U.S. Navy is incorporating lessons learned from CVN 78 to inform design and actively improve oversight of future ships of the class. 

The program manager for USS Gerald R. Ford, Capt. Ron Rutan, acknowledged that unique challenges accompany technological advances. 

“The design and execution challenge in delivering a first-of-class warfighting platform is not only to make CVN 78 better, but also to enhance production on the next ships in the class — the future USS John F. Kennedy and future USS Enterprise,” Rutan said. 

The Gerald R. Ford class incorporates 23 new technologies with advances in propulsion, power generation, ordnance handling and aircraft launch systems. These innovations will support a 30% higher sortie generation rate, executed with a 20% reduction in crew compared to Nimitz-class carriers. The Gerald R. Ford-class carrier offers a 17% reduction — about $4 billion per ship — in life-cycle operations and support costs compared to the Nimitz class. 

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The future John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) marked another milestone leading up to the christening of the second Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier as Huntington Ingalls Industries-Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) flooded the ship’s dry dock on Oct. 29. 

The John F. Kennedy has been under construction at NNS in Newport News since 2015 and continues to prepare for its christening, which is scheduled for Dec. 7.  

The JFK’s launching occurred about three months early, according to the original schedule for the carrier. Other milestones had been reached leading up to the dry dock flooding, including laying of the ship’s keel on Aug. 22, 2015, and placement of the 588-metric-ton island superstructure on May 29. 

Capt. Todd Marzano, JFK’s commanding officer, and its crew participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 1 to officially establish the crew and designate the building where the Sailors will work during the carrier’s continued construction. 

Ensign Cheyenne Scarbrough, a John F. Kennedy crew member from San Francisco, brings a plethora of skillsets and experience to include the honor of being a double plank owner. 

“CVN 79 has come a long way since I first observed initial construction in the dry dock back in 2015 following the keel laying.”

Capt. Todd Marzano, JFK’s commanding officer

“Being assigned to the future John F. Kennedy allows me another chance to start from ground zero, streamline processes and bring the ship to life,” said Scarbrough, who has served 17 years in the U.S. Navy and received her commission in March. Scarbrough has served on USS Enterprise (CVN 65), USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) and USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78). 

While Scarbrough brings experience on both Nimitz and Ford-classes of aircraft carriers, Senior Chief Logistics Specialist David Adkins brings his experience serving on board the first USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67). 

“I embarked on board USS John F. Kennedy while assigned to VFA-81 in 2004,” said Adkins, an 18-year veteran from Jacksonville, Florida. “For me being part of ship’s company now is definitely a point in my career where I have gone full circle.” 

Marzano, who served on board USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) while it underwent maintenance at NNS as future John F. Kennedy’s keel was laid, emphasized his perspective in leading his crew throughout the ship’s construction.  

“CVN 79 has come a long way since I first observed initial construction in the dry dock back in 2015 following the keel laying,” Marzano said. “At that point I had no idea I’d be fortunate enough to be the ship’s first commanding officer, and I’m incredibly honored, humbled and excited to be given the opportunity to lead such an amazing team of high-quality crew members.”

FORT WORTH, Texas — The F-35 Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin finalized a $34 billion agreement for the production and delivery of 478 F-35s at the lowest price in the history of the program, according to a Lockheed release. The contract includes all U.S., international partners and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) aircraft in Lots 12, 13 and 14. 

In the deal, the F-35 program exceeds its cost-reduction targets for each variant of the joint strike fighter — and the price per unit of the F-35A, the U.S. Air Force version, including aircraft and engine, is below $80 million in both Lots 13 and 14. 

The F-35A unit cost represents an estimated overall 12.8% reduction from Lot 11 costs for the F-35A conventional landing variant and an average of 12.7% savings across all three variants from Lot 11 to 14. The other variants are the vertical take-off and landing F-35B, the U.S. Marine Corps version, and the F-35C, equipped for U.S. Navy aircraft carrier operations. 

“Driving down cost is critical to the success of this program. I am excited that the F-35 Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin have agreed on this landmark three-lot deal,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Eric Fick, F-35 program executive officer. “This $34 billion agreement is a truly historic milestone for the F-35 Enterprise.”  

The agreement includes 291 aircraft for the U.S. armed services, 127 for F-35 international partners and 60 for FMS customers. 

“With smart acquisition strategies, strong government-industry partnership and a relentless focus on quality and cost reduction, the F-35 Enterprise has successfully reduced procurement costs of the fifth-generation F-35 to equal or less than fourth-generation legacy aircraft,” said Greg Ulmer, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program vice president and general manager. 

More than 450 F-35s operate from 19 bases around the globe. More than 910 pilots and 8,350 maintainers have been trained, and the F-35 fleet has surpassed more than 220,000 cumulative flight hours. Eight nations have F-35s operating from bases on their home soil and seven services have declared initial operating capability for the aircraft.

The Persian Gulf is one of the most important commercial shipping regions in the world — and also one of the most fraught with danger for shippers in recent years.

While most people think of the U.S. Navy alone in patrolling the Gulf, the sea service is slowly building a coalition of countries to help maintain security for shippers, relying on allies with shared interests to help them keep a sharp eye on the region and any problems that may arise.

Check out the digital edition of November’s Seapower magazine here.

Australia reportedly became the latest to join a U.S.-led naval group to protect commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman in the wake of alleged attacks by Iran against vessels in those waters — allegations that Iran denies. But even before recent tensions with the Iranians, the two gulfs have been important choke points for shipping, making the area of high interest to commercial shipping and the nations who rely on the cargo that travels through it.

“The United States believes that the freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce are important principles based upon international law that should be preserved by a collective effort of the international community,” Lt. Pete Pagano, spokesman for Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, said via email. “As such, the recent attacks on international shipping that threaten the freedom of navigation in the region require an international solution.”

The U.S. 5th Fleet-led International Maritime Security Construct (IMSC) includes international partners Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Australia and the United Kingdom. This group conducts maritime domain awareness and surveillance of the region to create a common operational picture that helps the partners protect maritime shipping there.

“The operation is designed to preserve the free flow of commerce and deescalate regional tensions,” Pagano said. “The IMSC is active and engaged in this vital mission with each partner nation determining their own level of participation.”

The group was created in recognition of just how critical it is that the maritime domain be secure for commerce, especially in this region.

“The United States believes that the freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce are important principles based upon international law that should be preserved by a collective effort of the international community.”

Lt. Pete Pagano, spokesman for Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet

“As we join together with other concerned nations, our posture and patrols increase our surveillance of the maritime transit lanes — it is purely preventive and defensive in nature — nonprovocative and de-escalatory,” Pagano said. “With that said, recent aggressive attacks on Saudi infrastructure and international tankers at sea provide great impetus for all forces in this region to be prepared to defend themselves. The IMSC allows for, augments and synchronizes that defensive posture and readiness of partner nations as a prudent precaution.”

Nations Committed to Joint Shipping Lane Defense

In mid-September, Vice Adm. Jim Malloy, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), kicked off the opening ceremony for the IMSC main planning conference aboard the HMS Cardigan Bay.

“In light of recent threats to international shipping, representatives reaffirmed their nations’ continued commitment to safeguarding freedom of navigation in the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, the Red Sea, and the Straits of Hormuz and Bab al Mandeb and discussed multinational efforts aimed at enhancing maritime security throughout key waterways in the region,” according to a U.S. Central Command statement.

The 5th Fleet also leads the CMF, which focuses on illegal trafficking, terrorism and smuggling — and it includes one task force, CTF-150, that is keenly focused on keeping the maritime domain secure.

CMF covers about 3.2 million square miles of international waters and includes 33 member nations: Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia, The Netherlands,  New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, The Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, United Kingdom, United States and Yemen.

“The 33 nations that comprise CMF are not bound by either a political or military mandate,” U.S. Naval Forces Central Command says on its website. “CMF is a flexible organization. Contributions can vary from the provision of a liaison officer at CMF HQ in Bahrain to the supply of warships or support vessels in task forces, and maritime reconnaissance aircraft based on land. We can also call on warships not explicitly assigned to CMF to give associated support, which is assistance they can offer if they have the time and capacity to do so whilst undertaking national tasking.”

CMF started about a decade ago as a mechanism to bring Gulf countries into a joint group with the United States to tackle challenges in that region, said Bryan Clark, a senior fellow for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

“They identify threats, share information and coordinate activities to intercept bad actors in the Persian Gulf,” Clark said. “CTF-150, which is a coalition or combined task force run by 5th Fleet, draws more broadly from countries that have an interest in keeping Persian Gulf waterways safe and free from threats. It’s more focused on protecting shipping lanes than strictly counter-trafficking or counter-terror efforts.”

As a result, CTF-150 includes countries from outside the Gulf that have a vested interest in keeping the shipping lanes there open, which means countries such as Turkey, Pakistan or even Japan. Even European countries provide some help occasionally.

The CMF and CTF-150 “have been pretty successful in terms of maintaining situational awareness, because you have a like-minded group of countries, giving you more eyes,” Clark said.

That said, the presence of other countries is nowhere near as ubiquitous as that of the United States. The CMF is successful more in terms of situational awareness and increasing collaboration between nations — the U.S. Navy still is doing most of the heavy lifting, Clark noted.

“Thus far, it’s been more of a messaging success than an operational one,” he said. “The countries that have come [into CMF] have been major players, but haven’t necessarily sent over lot of ships, and maybe ships they sent over would have been sent to CTF-150 anyway.”

Either way, one could argue that the CMF and CTF-150 have led to a reduced threat of terrorist attacks on the waterways, Clark said.

The U.S. Navy is taking some new initiatives
to sustain the ships of its busy fleet, including additional oversight, new
contracting strategies, shipyard workload stability and capital investment in
shipyard infrastructure.

The initiatives are focused on getting ships and submarines through their maintenance periods on time and back to the fleet to meet the requirements of combatant commanders. As the fleet — run hard by decades of war or crisis — grows in numbers, the challenge becomes greater.

Check out the digital edition of November’s Seapower magazine here. 

In an Aug. 23 release, James
Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition,
announced that the Department of the Navy was establishing a new deputy
assistant secretary of the Navy for sustainment (DASN-S) to develop, monitor
and, implement policy and guidance throughout the Navy who “will enable us to
better plan, program, budget and execute the Navy’s sustainment mission.” 

“Sustainment
is as critical as new construction to ensure the Navy is ready to deploy,”
Geurts added. “This position will allow us to improve and align the complex
drivers of maintenance and modernization completion — that in turn will
increase our output to the fleet. We have to get better, and this will help.” 

“We have grown the size of the naval shipyards from 33,850 [workers] to over 36,100 in the past three years. The goal was to get to 36,100 by the start of [fiscal 2020]; we actually got there a year early. That is good news, and that capacity is starting to yield some results to deliver the last eight of the last nine carriers [from maintenance] on time.”

Vice Adm. Thomas Moore, Naval Sea Systems Command

The
new DASN-S will have funding oversight and will “manage Navy and Marine Corps
sustainment and life-cycle management policies,” the release said. The new
position was authorized by Congress in the 2018 National Defense Authorization
Act. 

The new deputy “will help facilitate and
ensure we are putting the same level of aggressiveness into new tools, new ways
of doing business, new ways to contract for that effort, making sure that
they’ve got the full horsepower of the secretariat as [Naval Sea Systems
Command Vice] Adm. [Thomas] Moore’s teams execute that effort,” Geurts said in
an Aug. 23 media roundtable at the Pentagon, which Moore also attended.  

Moore said at the event that the Navy had been
focusing on building the workforce at its shipyards — necessary because the
backlog of ship maintenance occurred in part due to a shortage of skilled
workers.

“We have grown the size of the naval shipyards
from 33,850 [workers] to over 36,100 in the past three years,” he said. “The
goal was to get to 36,100 by the start of [fiscal 2020]; we actually got there a year early. That is good news,
and that capacity is starting to yield some results to deliver the last eight
of the last nine carriers [from maintenance] on time.” 

Moore said the Navy also is focused on getting
workers qualified more quickly by establishing learning centers. 

“Right now, what we are seeing is that [for]
the average worker — from the time we bring them in the door to the time they
are a productive person — we have cut the time in about half. … Even though
half my workforce has less than five years of experience, that trend is also
starting to turn in the right direction.” 

Moore also said the 20-year Shipyard
Infrastructure Optimization Plan (SIOP), implemented in March 2018 for aircraft
carriers and submarines in Navy-owned shipyards, has already “resulted in
significant investments in capital expenditures, great support from the Navy
and the budgets in ’18, ’19 and ’20 and great support from [Congress]. That is
a key enabler.” 

He pointed out that many shipyards are
hundreds of years old and the SIOP is engaged in building them into 21^st
century naval facilities by modernizing dry docks, replacing outmoded equipment
and improving workflow. In the 2021 budget proposal, the Navy plans to include an initiative
like SIOP to come up with creative ways to make capital investments in private shipyards.   

“We will look at dry-dock capacity, capital
expenditures, etc.,” Moore said. “It’s a little bit different to execute the
plan because, unlike in the public sector where we own everything and we can
budget for this, this [involves] individual private companies, and so, we’re
working with [Geurts] to come up with some creative ways as to how we could go
execute this. For instance, we could do like we do with small business
innovative research. The Navy would have a pool of money and, if industry came
to us with a good idea in their yard, maybe we could self-fund some of
it.”  

Geurts said that the Navy is looking at other
shipyards that could be certified for Navy work, even though they have no
current Navy contracts.  

The
Navy is also executing a Perform to Plan initiative that identifies performance
gaps and barriers to execution so they can be addressed to improve performance,
according to the Aug. 23 release. 

USS Boise Illustrates Submarine Upkeep Challenges

Moore spoke of submarine maintenance being the
toughest challenge, noting that the extensive delay in returning the Los
Angeles-class attack submarine USS Boise to service was “the poster child” of
that challenge. The Boise completed its last deployment in 2015 and lost its
dive certification in 2017. He said the Boise delay caused the Navy to
recognize that the sea service did not have enough shipyard capacity for its submarines.  

There are only two private shipyards capable
of handling work on nuclear-powered submarines: Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport
News Shipbuilding in Virginia and General Dynamics Electric Boat in
Connecticut. These companies are occupied with construction of new submarines.  

“We were kidding ourselves that we could get
the work done,” Moore said. “In many ways, Boise caused us to really take a
hard look at what we needed to do in the naval shipyards and, also, caused us
to recognize that we would like to have some surge capacity in the private
sector, working with both Newport News and [Electric Boat] to give them work
when it makes sense. We have had some challenges with them the first time for
them to do submarine maintenance work in a long time. It is different than
building submarines. And so, they have had some proficiency challenges, which
we are working our way through.  

“We have to be careful that we’re not stepping
into the new construction lane with everything going on with Columbia [ballistic-missile
submarine] and [Virginia-class attack submarine] Block V, etc.,” he said.
“Newport News has expressed a very strong interest in developing a capacity to
do submarine sustainment over the long haul similar to what they do with carrier
maintenance today.” 

“In many ways, Boise caused us to really take a hard look at what we needed to do in the naval shipyards and, also, caused us to recognize that we would like to have some surge capacity in the private sector.”

VICE ADM. THOMAS MOORE

Moore said the Boise “will actually start at
Newport News probably in April 2020.” 

He explained that delays can be described in
terms of maintenance delay and idle time, the latter being the time a submarine
is idle awaiting the beginning of maintenance. Some idle time results when the
Navy squeezes more operational time out of a sub deployment, causing a boat to
miss its slot in the maintenance schedule. 

“What the data told us is that, if you
consider the variables to be idle time and maintenance delays, 80% of that was
due to the maintenance delays, and only about 20 percent of it was idle time,”
Moore said. “What we have focused on first from a systems standpoint is to fix
the maintenance delays and that is by growing the capacity of the shipyard.
We’re starting to see those maintenance delays [were cut] in half between ’18
and ’19 [and] the amount of workload carryover between what we saw at its peak
in ’16 to today has been reduced by 75%.” 

The idle time is coming down as well because
of the Navy’s initiatives — “down to about 1,800 total days of idle time, of
which 1,200 is Boise,” Moore said. “When you take Boise off the table, it’s
really relatively small and my expectation is that, by the end of fiscal ’20,
we will have no more idle time.”  

For the Surface Fleet, Enticing Private Yards to
Build Capacity 

In the private shipyards, where much surface
ship maintenance takes place, the Navy is working to entice growth in capacity.
Results so far are positive. 

“The data is getting better,” Moore said.
“Last year, we delivered 16% of our DDGs [guided-missile destroyers] on time.
“This year, it was up to about 40%, and we are forecasting that the next eight
DDGs will be on time.”

“Currently, 75% of the DDGs are on plan to
their life-cycle health assessment and, by 2023, we will have gotten the other
25% back on plan,” he added. “The [nuclear power community] have always been
very meticulous about staying onto the class maintenance plan. We’ve been a
little bit less rigorous on the surface side of the house probably over the
last 10 to 15 years, and we’ve paid the price for that.”  

Moore said that part of the success is
attributed to a new contracting strategy: “bundling [shipyard] availabilities
together so that they have an opportunity to project workload out,” enabling
shipyards to see the stability of enough work to cut costs and maintain the  workforce.

He said the Navy was not happy with the cost
and schedule performance of cost-plus contracts with a single company for five
years at a time. The service then switched to fixed-price contracts for one ship at a time, but
this made the private shipyards reluctant to hire additional workers when they
did not know if they would win the next contract. With the shipyard reluctant, hiring lagged behind the workload, resulting in delays in
delivery back to the fleet. Bundling fixed-price contracts is the new plan. 

Moore has been working with Geurts on bundling
availabilities together so that if a shipyard wins, it is “going to win
availabilities over a two-, three-, four-year period head-to-toe, then you’ve
got a stable plan and you can then go make capital investments in your plan,
and you can hire to have that workforce trained.”  

“My priority for the fleet is, ships come in on time, ships go out on time and they go out with all the work done.”

James Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition

Another factor in delayed delivery is having maintenance
plans that aren’t executable. Moore said that working with the fleets to
provide an executable, level-loaded plan for the shipyards, staying away from
overloading them, is yielding progress in tackling the workload.  

Moore
said that NAVSEA’s “partnership with the fleets has been as good as it has ever been in
the 25 years [that] I’ve been a maintenance provider.” 

The Navy also is reducing quality assurance
checkpoints by 50%, which will cut shipyards’ costs. Moore cited the example of
a DDG hull being painted at a Vigor shipyard adjacent to a commercial ferry also getting fresh
paint. Vigor’s president pointed out to Moore that painting the DDG cost four
times more and took twice as long as the ferry work — and the difference was the
Navy’s onerous checkpoints. The ferry’s painter also provided a warranty. Moore
said the Navy will conduct a pilot project this year with two ships under a
contract with a warranty. 

“In return, we’ll reduce the checkpoints, and
let’s see if we can get the cost and the schedule down,” Moore said. “There are
a number of things out there like that that, over years, we have just added
bureaucracy into the system that really doesn’t add any value to get the work
done.” 

Geurts, referring to the Navy’s 30-year
maintenance and modernization plan that supplements the 30-year shipbuilding
plan, said: “We’ve got to get those balanced up right so that we cannot only
deliver the capabilities needed but sustain them to provide the operational
commanders the capabilities they need.  

“My priority for the fleet is, ships come in
on time, ships go out on time and they go out with all the work done,” he said.
“The fleet uses the term ‘on time in full.’ So, my priority is getting
credibility in the system so that a fleet commander is confident when they turn
a ship over to us to go do the maintenance work that it comes out on time and
in full. 

“Part of the rigging for speed is not just
delivering in peacetime, it’s really getting prepared for wartime,” he said.
“Ready to me means ready tonight to fight and then ready for the fights that
are coming in the future. It’s not just about meeting a schedule or a budget
target. If we can’t do the peacetime stuff well with credibility, we’re really
going to struggle in wartime mode.” 

Geurts said that sustaining the lethality of the
fleet is a matter of maximizing availability, capacity and capacity, and “the
trick is getting those synchronized and mutually supporting, not competing. To
some degree, if you spend too much time worrying about new construction but you
don’t worry about maintenance, then you’re not maximizing that investment. If
all you are doing is worrying about maintenance and not tracking the costs and
trying to drive that cost down, you won’t have money to modernize and build new
things.”

LINTHICUM, Md. — Northrop Grumman Corp., in partnership with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), successfully completed a test in the development of the Integrated Topside (InTop) Low-Level Resource Allocation Manager (LLRAM) program last month at NRL’s test facility in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, the company said in an Oct. 28 release. 

LLRAM in conjunction with the InTop Electronic Warfare/Information Operations/Communications (EW/IO/COMMS) system demonstrated the simultaneous sharing of a single antenna, while flexing its adaptable size and antenna pattern capabilities, and performing a mission that would have required multiple dedicated antennas in the past. The significance of the test is to enable future antenna reductions on ships that are already capacity-constrained, allowing for more advanced warfighting capabilities in an ever-increasingly complex battlespace environment. 

“The Northrop Grumman/NRL demonstration of LLRAM concepts was conducted in the same environment that proved crucial to the development of the SEWIP Block 3 EDM [Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program Block 3 Engineering Development Model],” said Mike Meaney, vice president, maritime electronic and information warfare, Northrop Grumman. 

“The efficiency of signal sharing capabilities, scalability and advanced resource management capabilities developed on the Low-Level Resource Allocation Manager program will allow for a significantly reduced footprint topside.” 

The demonstration showed that the EW/IO/COMMS Advanced Development Model for SEWIP Block 3 can serve as a platform for proving out advanced multi-function concepts using existing NRL test assets. 

LLRAM and EW/IO/COMMS were developed under the Office of Naval Research Electromagnetic Maneuver Warfare Command and Control Integrated Topside Innovative Naval Prototype. The system leverages four active Electronically Scanned Arrays (low-band transmit/receive and high-band transmit/receive) and intended platforms include cruisers, destroyers and aircraft carriers.

BOSTON — The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Spencer returned to Boston on Oct. 27 after conducting an 80-day counter-drug patrol in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the Coast Guard’s 1st District said in a release. 

Spencer’s crew seized about 700 kilograms of cocaine, valued at $19 million, after interdicting a smuggling vessel.   

The crew’s patrol spanned more than 14,000 nautical miles and focused on enforcing international counter-trafficking laws, supporting U.S. partnerships with Central and South American countries and helping to preserve national security. 

The crew also responded to multiple search-and-rescue cases, including a distress call from an aircraft experiencing engine failure.  

“Spencer’s crew is happy to be home and is looking forward to spending time with family and friends in their homeport of Boston … during the holidays,” said Cmdr. Thomas Rodzewicz, the cutter’s commanding officer.  

Spencer is a 270-foot medium-endurance cutter with a crew of 100.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy’s top acquisitions official said all advanced weapons elevators (AWE) on the new aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford will be operational by 18 months after post-delivery trials and testing begins and that a team of experts will be formed to carry over lessons learned as the AWEs are installed in each new carrier of the Ford class. 

James F. Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, told media at an Oct. 28 Pentagon roundtable that Huntington Ingalls’ Newport News Shipbuilding will form a team of experts on the installation and repair of the AWEs that will carry over as the next three carriers (CVNs 79, 80 and 81) follow the Gerald R. Ford in construction. The Navy will form a team of AWE experts to certify the installation. 

The AWEs are one of five major technologies introduced on the Ford and have proven to be the most troublesome. The ship’s dual band radar, electromagnetic aircraft launch system and advanced arresting gear and new-design nuclear reactor are all doing well in trials, but the 11 AWEs — crucial to bringing ordnance up to the flight deck rapidly enough to provide the carrier’s design sortie generation rate — have proven difficult to install and operate. 

Geurts, who visited the Gerald R. Ford at sea on Oct. 27, said the Navy has certified the three upper AWEs (plus one utility or medevac elevator). Newport News Shipbuilding is working on the seven elevators that operate from the ship’s two weapons magazines.

He said that seven remaining AWEs will be installed and certified in sequence to allow access to both the fore and aft magazines to ensure that both are accessible as early as possible as redundancy develops. Three of the lower AWEs were exercised during the carrier’s first at-sea period this year while Geurts was visiting the ship in preparation for certification. 

The goal for the Navy is to have all 11 AWEs operational by the time the 18-month post-delivery trials and testing is completed in mid-2021. 

During the testing, the carrier will be put through several trials, including re-certification of its flight deck, the arresting gear, the catapults, fuel system and many other systems. 

During the recent trials attended by Geurts, the Ford’s propulsion plant was tested at full throttle. “The propulsion plant activities are looking pretty solid,” he said. 

Geurts said the Navy is building a full digital twin of the AWE and is building a land-based test site for it at Naval Surface Warfare Center Philadelphia to troubleshoot any AWE issues. He said that adjusting the AWEs for the next carrier, John F. Kennedy, will not require a huge amount of work.

YOKOSUKA, Japan — The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain completed its necessary repairs and is underway to conduct comprehensive at-sea testing, according to a U.S. Pacific Fleet release. 

The ship underwent repairs and extensive and accelerated upgrades over the last two years following an August 2017 collision with a tanker ship off the coast of Singapore that left 10 of the McCain’s crew dead and another five injured. 

During the at-sea testing, the ship and her crew will perform a series of demonstrations to evaluate the ship’s onboard systems. Among the systems that will be tested are navigation, damage control, mechanical and electrical systems, combat systems, communications and propulsion application.  

USS John S. McCain, assigned to Destroyer Squadron 15 (DS 15) and forward-deployed to Yokosuka, completed her in-port phase of training and will continue at-sea training in the upcoming months to certify in every mission area the ship is required to perform and prepare for return to normal operations. 

“The USS John S. McCain embodies the absolute fighting spirit of her namesakes and shows the resiliency of our Sailors. She has completed her maintenance period with the most up-to-date multimission offensive and defensive capabilities, preparing her to successfully execute a multitude of high-end operations,” said Capt. Steven DeMoss, commander of DS 15. 

“This whole crew is eager to get back to sea, and that’s evident in the efforts they’ve made over the last two years to bring the ship back to fighting shape and the energy they’ve put into preparing themselves for the rigors of at-sea operations,” said Cmdr. Ryan T. Easterday, USS John S. McCain’s commanding officer.