WASHINGTON —
Adm. Michael M. Gilday succeeded Adm. John M. Richardson as the chief of naval
operations in ceremonies Aug. 22 at the Washington Navy Yard.

Navy
Secretary Richard V. Spencer, who presided over the ceremonies, praised Gilday.

“As Adm.
Richardson begins his well-deserved retirement, I know he’s leaving feeling
secure and able to sleep at night because Adm. Mike Gilday is assuming the
tiller as 32nd chief of naval operations,” Spencer said.

“Adm. Gilday
has already played a critical role in restoring readiness, and he is
well-positioned to take over our integrated naval force as we march into the
future. Just look at those shoulders, ladies and gentlemen. There is a mantle
for some heavy weight and gravity.”

“From his
distinguished commands at sea to his cooperation with NATO allies to confront
the great power competition to his innovation of Cyber Command, Adm. Gilday has
demonstrated what an outstanding leader and officer he is,” Spencer added. “His
most recent as director of the Joint Staff has given visibility into the
challenges he will now face. It’s a unique transition in that regard. I am confident
he will attack this responsibility with the urgency that I continually beat on
the drum for the United States Navy. We can achieve our next-generation
integrated naval force we need under his command. Of that I am sure.”

Spencer also
praised the service of Richardson.

“I could not
have asked for a better business partner,” Spencer said. “Wearing the Title 10
hat that I do, that is the highest compliment I can pay John Richardson. He has
done more for this Navy to put us in a ready lethal position than many before.
No effort was too great, no detail too small, as he really did help us navigate
the rocks and shoals to deliver the Navy the nation needs. … He has embraced
emerging technologies, he has pushed this Navy forward on its front feet, to be
faster, quicker to deliver what our Sailors and Marines need.”

Richardson
also praised his successor, saying that Gilday “is a
true cutting-edge warfighter, a surface warrior who, by virtue of his
leadership at 10th Fleet, fully appreciates the challenges we face in the cyberwarfare
arena and the increasing pace of competition in new domains. His experience as
the director of the Joint Staff will ensure that the Navy continues to look for
every opportunity to collaborate with other services, allies and partners
around the world. The Navy will be in good hands with Adm. Gilday at the helm.”

Gilday
spoke briefly and praised the direction of the Navy set under Richardson.

“I believe our Navy’s strategic direction is rock solid and that our Navy is in great shape,” he said. “We are recruiting and retaining a high-quality force, we are providing well-trained combat-ready forces forward, around the globe. We are modernizing our Navy at a scope and pace not seen in decades. I can say all that, in large part, due to the leadership of our 31st CNO.”

As the Navy’s most senior officer, Gilday also is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where he “acts as an adviser to the President of the United States, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council and the Secretary of Defense,” an Aug. 22 Navy release said. “Under direction of the secretary of the Navy, the CNO is responsible for the command, utilization of resources, and operating efficiency of naval forces and shore activities assigned by the secretary.”

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The man in charge of the Maritime Administration (MARAD) laid out his
priorities for the agency in a speech that included course corrections for the
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, shoring up the Ready Reserve Force and defending
the Jones Act.

Maritime Administrator Mark Buzby, a retired Navy rear admiral, spoke Aug. 21 in Arlington at a breakfast hosted by the Navy League of the United States and his first priority was getting the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy “back on track.”

He said the
academy had been on a “not good course for the last few years” with some
leadership problems, including sexual harassment issues. He said the new
superintendent, Rear Adm. Jack Buono, and the new academic dean, John R.
Ballard, were a “dynamic duo [that] really turned things around.”

Buzby added
that the “culture has turned around” and that “the midshipmen have taken
ownership of the issue.”

He said his
second priority is to ensure that the Ready Reserve Force (RRF) is “ready to
answer the call.”

The RRF is a
fleet of sealift ships kept in a reduced operating status manned by a skeleton
crew that can be activated for service normally in five days, though some are
activated for use on occasion, including two serving today. No-notice
activations are conducted each year to test the ability to get underway. Buzby
is concerned that some of the RRF ships are so old that many parts are not even
manufactured any more.

“Today, the
RRF is at 76% readiness,” he said.

Buzby said
programs are underway to modernize the RRF, including service-life extensions
for some ships out to 60 years; buying newer used ships and modernizing them;
and building new ships. The first two ships are being procured with $61 million
by 2021.

The MARAD
administrator’s third priority is to make a vigorous defense of the Jones Act,
a 99-year-old law — officially the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 — that in
general requires that cargoes carried between U.S. ports be carried on ships
that are U.S.-built, U.S.-crewed and U.S-owned.

The Jones Act
is “under attack on many, many fronts,” he said.

There are
about 40,000 Jones Act-compliant vessels of all sizes in the United States but
only 99 are large, ocean-going vessels, he said, plus 81 are involved in
international trade. Together, those 180 ships proved the employment pool of
merchant mariners to provide crews for the RRF.

“We’re about
1,800 mariners short,” Buzby said, about 45 ships worth of crew members. “We
need more places for people to work in peacetime.”

“If you took
the Jones Act away, those American jobs would, in all likelihood, go away,” he
said. “You are talking about the majority of the ships that employ
unlimited-tonnage mariners, so it would have a tremendous impact on our
national security and our economic security.”

One challenge with the RRF is that ship engineers with experience with steam plants are increasingly fading away, but 24 of the 46 RRF ships are steam-powered. Buzby also said that MARAD expects to award $293 million early next year in a port infrastructure development program. MARAD typically spends $20 million each year for small shipyard initiatives and $7 million in marine highway grants.

See video of Buzby’s Navy League speech here.

NASHUA, New Hampshire — BAE Systems has received a Block 4 modernization
contract award from Lockheed Martin to enhance the offensive and defensive
electronic warfare capabilities of the F-35 Lightning II fighter, BAE said in a
release.

Under the contract, BAE Systems will modernize its AN/ASQ-239 Electronic Warfare/Countermeasures (EW/CM) system to address emerging threats.

“The F-35 will be in service for decades, and we’re
committed to providing our pilots with an AN/ASQ-239 capability that affords a
decisive and sustained EW operational advantage,” said Deborah
Norton, vice president of F-35 Solutions at BAE Systems. “Our robust, modular
architecture enables us to efficiently insert new capabilities, supporting the
next wave of technical innovation while proactively addressing total product
lifecycle sustainability.”

BAE Systems has been the EW supplier for the F-35 program for the past 14 years, designing and developing the Block 1, Block 2 and Block 3 configurations, and delivering production units for each of the Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) Lots 1-11. The Block 4 program is a multiyear, multicontract design and development effort that will add 11 new capabilities to the EW system.

BAE Systems has delivered more than 500 F-35 AN/ASQ-239 EW/CM shipsets to date and is matching aircraft production with continual on-time delivery as the program ramps to full-rate production.

The Marine Corps’ top combat development officer told an
unmanned systems forum that the Corps is looking for families of unmanned systems
that will allow small units to persist and survive inside an enemy’s
weapons-engagement zone, such as those China is creating in the Western
Pacific.

One of the key systems the Marines want is an unmanned
long-range surface vessel that could link up with amphibious or support ships
far from the threat zone and move personnel or supplies to Marines conducting
Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO), Lt. Gen. Eric M. Smith said Aug.
20. The service also is still pursuing a large Group Five unmanned aircraft
under the Marine Air Ground Task Force UAS Expeditionary (MUX) program.

“The goal is for us to be able to persist inside that
weapons engagement zone of any adversary, to create problems and challenges, to
make that adversary change his behavior or change the course of actions they
are intending to pursue,” said Smith, who is commander of the Marine Corps
Combat Development Command.

Smith told the AUVSI Unmanned Systems forum that the Marines
were interested in all types of unmanned platforms — surface, subsurface,
aviation and ground. But they are looking for relatively inexpensive families
of systems that can be fielded in significant numbers, “because there is a
quality in quantity.”

Smith, who recently took the MCCDC post after commanding the
Okinawa-based III Marine Expeditionary Force, said everything they buy “has to
have range to get us out in the Pacific … because the ranges are stunning. … It
is stunningly difficult to maneuver and to get around in the Pacific.”

The general urged the industry representatives in the
audience to read the planning guidance released last month by Marine Corps
Commandant Gen. David H. Berger because it sets the path the Corps is to
follow. That future will include conducting EABO missions, which he likened to
“a raid. We’re going to go in, grab a piece of terrain, to do some refueling,
perhaps launch a few long-range precision missiles, and then we’re coming out.
When I say coming out, we’re not leaving the engagement zone, we’re just moving.
… I need systems that allow me to get in, get out. Whether it’s moving people
or things.”

“If we can persist … inside that weapons engagement zone at
a company, platoon level,” they could “be more than a nuisance. We can be a
lethal force, that causes an enemy to divert their course of action.”

Smith said he recently observed a simulation of the long-range surface vessel that the Corps is considering. In response to a Seapower question, he said evaluators were using an 11-meter rigid inflatable boat with unmanned controls to test the concept. “What we’re looking for is a long-range vessel that has the ability to do resupply, to move personnel, or cargo, that can move over long distances” in the kind of sea states prevalent in the Western Pacific.

“We need things that will link up with ships to offload things that we bring” and move them independently in and out of the EABO site. Asked about the MUX, which has gone through several changes in required capabilities, Smith said he was making a trip to the West Coast with Maj. Gen. Steven Rudder, the deputy commandant for aviation, to review the latest ideas for it.

WALLOPS
ISLAND TEST FACILITY, Va. — Raytheon Co. and the U.S. Navy completed the first
system-level tests of SPY-6(V)2, the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR),
at the Surface Combat System Center at Wallops Island, Virginia, Raytheon said
in a statement.

In the
first test the radar searched for, detected, identified and tracked numerous
targets — including commercial aircraft. In a second exercise, the maturity of
EASR integration enabled the radar to track multiple targets continuously for
several hours during a test involving another system.

EASR, the
newest sensor in the Navy’s SPY-6 family of radars, provides simultaneous
anti-air and anti-surface warfare, electronic protection and air traffic
control for aircraft carriers and amphibious warfare ships.

“Moving
quickly from radar installation at Wallops Island to ‘tracks on glass’ in less
than three months is a major accomplishment,” said Navy Capt. Jason Hall, program
manager for above water sensors, Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare
Systems. “The EASR program is progressing extremely well. We are now one step
closer to production and delivering the radar’s unmatched capability to the
surface fleet.”

Two
variants of EASR are being built: a single-face rotating array designated
AN/SPY-6(V)2 for amphibious assault ships and Nimitz-class carriers and a three
fixed-face array designated AN/SPY-6(V)3 for Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft
carriers and the future FFG(X) guided missile frigates.

Both versions of EASR are built on scalable Radar Modular Assembly, or RMA, technology as well as a software baseline that has been matured through development and test successes of AN/SPY-6(V)1, the Navy’s program of record for the DDG 51 Flight III destroyers. These individual radars can integrate to form arrays of various sizes to address any mission on any ship. EASR also adds air traffic control and weather capabilities to the mature SPY-6 software baseline.

Upon completion of system-level testing in the fourth quarter of 2019, EASR will shift from the engineering and manufacturing development phase to the production phase. The first delivery of AN/SPY-6(V)2 will be to LHA 8, the third America-class amphibious assault ship.

JUNEAU, Alaska — The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Mellon
(WHEC-717) continues their North Pacific patrol in support of Operation North
Pacific Guard (NPG) 2019, protecting living marine resources, enforcing
international fisheries agreements and conducting global security missions, the
Coast Guard 17th District said in a statement.

Since June, Mellon’s crew has conducted 40 boardings and
issued 61 violations. A total of 25 were serious violations because of their
potential to severely impact fisheries and/or blatant disregard for
conservation and management measures. Their most frequent violations were
improper vessel marking (9), illegal shark finning (4) and improper use of or
intentional tampering with the vessel monitoring system (2).

“These fisheries patrols are vital to demonstrating the
U.S. commitment to our regional partnerships while strengthening regional
maritime governance and promoting sustainability of living marine resources,”
said Capt. Jonathan Musman, commanding officer of Mellon.

“I’m extremely proud of the work we’ve done this patrol,
and it’s a direct result of the hard work of this crew as well as the continued
support of our international partners. Together, we’ve put in a lot of hours
and a lot of work, and we’ve seen impressive results because of it.”

Mellon’s deployment is in support of U.S. goals for the
conservation and management of high seas fisheries resources to eliminate
illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activity from the North
Pacific.

NPG 2019 showcases a multimission effort between the
Coast Guard, NOAA, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, five Pacific Rim
countries and three regional fisheries management organizations. Unlike
previous years’ operations, Mellon has conducted high-seas boardings and
inspections on the North Pacific Fisheries Commission fishing vessels, while
continuing to conduct Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission
boardings.

“We’ve seen a 344% increase in boardings and 867% increase
in violations compared to last year’s operation,” said Lt. Cdr. Kristen
Caldwell, living marine resource program manager for the Pacific Area. “This
increase highlights the significance of employing differing authorities, all
aimed at mitigation of IUU fishing, capitalizing on a highly capable resource
to maximize time on scene and the targeting of IUU vessels.”

NPG 2019 was designed to conduct law-enforcement
operations in support of RFMO in the North Pacific Ocean. Through the North
Pacific Coast Guard Forum and North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission’s
enforcement coordination process, each partner nation contributes to this
at-sea enforcement effort by providing surface patrols and/or air surveillance.

This operation is in direct support of the National
Security Strategy as it aligns with the tenant of “achieving better outcomes in
multilateral forums” as well as by addressing the risks to sovereignty of
developing nations by China identified in the Indo-Pacific Region. The 2018
National Defense Strategy (NDS) also has identified China as a “strategic
competitor using predatory economics to intimidate its neighbors while
militarizing features in the South China Sea.” A goal of the NDS is to “support
U.S. interagency approaches and work by, with, and through our allies and
partners to secure U.S. interests and counteract this coercion.”

Due to the increasing threat, complexity and diversity of
tactics in IUU fishing, it is critical to ensure oversight and enforcement in
regions in which the United States has jurisdiction and authority to mitigate
the rapidly developing influence of specified fleets known to engage in IUU
fishing. Efforts to increase the ability of the United States to check the
threat of IUU fishing in the Pacific Ocean have been continuous, with the
recent success of the adoption of high-seas boarding inspections (HSBI) for the
Northern Pacific Fisheries Commission and continued efforts in the Western and
Central Pacific Fisheries Commission and North Pacific Anadromous Fish
Commission’s Convention Areas.

During NPG 2019, Mellon embarked two Canadian shipriders
from the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans as well as two aircrews
from Coast Guard Air Station North Bend.

Mellon, a 378-foot high-endurance
cutter with a crew of 150, is homeported in Seattle and routinely deploys in
support of counter-drug and alien migrant interdiction, living marine resources
and search-and-rescue missions.

CHANTILLY, Va. — VT Group, a middle-market technology
integrator and C4ISR solutions provider, has been named by Naval Information
Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR) as one of six award winners for an indefinite
delivery, indefinite quantity contract.

VT Group will compete for work in the areas of afloat
installation and integrated command, control, communications, computers, intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems aboard the U.S. Navy’s growing fleet
of surface ships and submarines. The contract vehicle has a ceiling value of
$2.45 billion over a five-year base period and one five-year option period.

VT Group has a 50-year history providing the Navy with C4ISR
solutions and full lifecycle engineering services — in the air, ashore and at
sea. Its maritime solutions business has integrated C4ISR technologies aboard
every existing class of warship and submarine, building differentiated
expertise in undersea warfare platforms and systems.

“VT Group is proud of its longstanding partnership with
the U.S. Navy,” said John Hassoun, VT Group president and CEO.

“This award showcases our
growing portfolio of fleet modernization capabilities and highlights the
exceptional performance of our shipboard leaders and technicians. We look
forward to continuing to provide NAVWAR with the deck-plate innovations and
engineering expertise they have come to expect from our team.”

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The U.S. Navy is creating a new high-level position in the office of the Navy
secretary to oversee information management policy, including cybersecurity.
The position will be the special assistant for information management and will
be given authorities on the level given to the four assistant secretaries of
the Navy.

A person has
been selected for the position and that person’s name will be announced in
coming weeks, Navy Undersecretary Thomas B. Modly said when he spoke to
reporters Aug. 16 at the Pentagon.

Navy
Secretary Richard V. Spencer commissioned an independent cybersecurity study last
year in the wake of some significant cyberbreaches in the industrial base. Spencer
sought the assessment to see how the Navy was doing in cybersecurity and how it
should be organized to combat such threats.

“No one at a
senior level had responsibility for this,” Modly said, noting that the CIO
office was “more of a compliance shop, less for developing strategy.”

Modly said
the Navy wanted to change the portfolio of one of its ASNs but that Congress
did not like the idea. Like the other military branches, the Navy is limited by
law to four assistant secretaries, three of whom must be an ASN for research, development
and acquisition, an ASN for manpower and reserve affairs and one for financial management
and comptroller. The fourth, an ASN for energy, installations and environment,
is allowed by law but not prescribed.

Given the
limitation to four ASNs, the Navy elected instead to create the special
assistant, who will report directly to Modly and Spencer.

Modly has
been acting as chief information officer for the Navy, a position with has been
vacant for 20 months, to maintain “the elevation of the job.”

He said that
his meetings with the Defense Department’s CIO and the CIOs of the other
services convinced him of the need for the Navy to have an official to set
policy for information management, especially for cybersecurity. The CIO
position exists in the law.

The new
special assistant, who also will be the Navy’s CIO, will not require
confirmation by the Senate. The position will be co-located with the
department’s chief management officer and will be at an echelon just below the
ASNs. Modly said it would be an “E-ring office” in the Pentagon.

The special
assistant will oversee two four directors: chief technology officer, chief data
officer, chief of digital strategy, and chief information security officer. In
addition, two officials, the deputy chief of naval operations for information
warfare and the Marine Corps’ deputy commandant for information, will be
dual-hatted as deputies to the special assistant.

“We are
intending to bring in people from the private sector to help us in this
particular office, so we’re scouring both internally and externally to find the
right types of people to bring in, particularly in the digital strategy area
and the data strategy area,” Modly said. “There’s a lot more expertise outside
this building that inside this building and we need to rely on the lessons
learned in the private sector to do that.”

He said that
a couple of functions of the chief management officer that would migrate to the
special assistant’s portfolio, including chief data officer.

Modly said the new office
would not involve adding a huge staff at the headquarters, just “moving pieces
around the chessboard,” and that he did not anticipate that additional funding
would not be needed.

HONOLULU —
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Midgett (WMSL-757) arrived Aug. 16 at its new
homeport in Honolulu, the Coast Guard Pacific Area said in a statement. 

The
Midgett is the eighth of the Coast Guard’s national security cutters and the
second to be homeported in Hawaii. Its sister ship, the Cutter Kimball (WMSL-756)
arrived on Dec. 22. Both cutters are scheduled to be commissioned Aug. 24 during
a ceremony presided over by Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz. 

“The
U.S. Coast Guard has an enduring role in the Indo-Pacific Region, going back
over 150 years, and our commitment today is as strong as ever,” Schultz said.
“The national security cutters are the flagships of the fleet, and the
homeporting of the Kimball and Midgett in Hawaii and their future deployments
throughout the Indo-Pacific demonstrate the U.S. Coast Guard’s dedication to
safeguarding the nation’s maritime safety, security and economic interests
throughout the region.”

Advanced
command-and-control capabilities and an unmatched combination of range, speed
and ability to operate in extreme weather enable national security cutters to
deploy globally to confront national security threats, to strengthen maritime
governance, to support economic prosperity and to promote individual
sovereignty.

Known as
the Legend class, national security cutters are capable of executing the most
challenging national security missions, including support to U.S. combatant
commanders. They are 418 feet in length, 54 feet in beam and 4,600 long tons in
displacement. They have a top speed of more than 28 knots, a range of 12,000
nautical miles, an endurance of up to 90 days and can hold a crew of up to 150.
These new cutters are replacing the high endurance Hamilton-class cutters (378
feet) that have been in service since the 1960s.

While
national security cutters possess advanced capabilities, more than 70% of the
Coast Guard’s offshore presence exists in the service’s aging fleet of medium-endurance
cutters. Many of these ships are more than 50 years old and are approaching the
end of their service life. Replacing the fleet with new offshore patrol cutters
is one of the Coast Guard’s top priorities.

Midgett is named to honor all members of the Midgett family who served in the Coast Guard and its predecessor services. At least 10 members of the family earned high honors for their heroic lifesaving efforts. Among them, the Coast Guard awarded various family members seven gold lifesaving medals — the service’s highest award for saving a life — and three silver lifesaving medals.

The Midgett’s transit to Hawaii was punctuated by two interdictions of suspected low-profile go-fast vessels in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, the first July 25 and a second July 31. The boardings resulted in a combined seizure of over 6,700 pounds of cocaine, estimated to be worth over $89 million.

HONOLULU —
The Coast Guard Cutter William Hart (WPC-1134) arrived in Honolulu Harbor on
Aug. 17, becoming the third 154-foot fast-response cutter homeported in Hawaii,
the Coast Guard 14th District said in a release.

The FRCs
are some of the newest Coast Guard vessels to come online, replacing the aging
patrol boat fleet currently in use. The FRCs represent the Coast Guard’s
commitment to modernizing service assets to address the increasingly complex
global maritime transportation system.

FRCs boast
advanced command, control, communications, computers, intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance systems designed to assist the cutter’s crew
with their primary mission to patrol coastal regions.

Recently,
the FRCs already stationed in Honolulu participated in longer over-the-horizon
voyages to the Republic of the Marshall Islands and Samoa, displaying the
potential of these cutters and their importance to the Coast Guard’s overall
Pacific strategy and regional partnerships.

William
Hart, the cutter’s namesake, was a Gold Lifesaving Medal recipient who rescued
a crew member of the tug Thomas Tracy. In 1927, Hart dove into the water in a
70-mph gale off Absecon, New Jersey, to save the mariner, who went overboard in
the storm.

Throughout
the 1930s, Hart served in the Army Corps of Engineers before returning to the
Coast Guard in 1939, advancing to chief petty officer and serving as a
boatswain’s mate. Once the United States entered World War II, Hart was
commissioned as a lieutenant junior grade and served in both the Atlantic and
Pacific theaters. He retired from the Coast Guard in 1950.

William Hart is the last of the three FRCs to be stationed in Hawaii. The crew transited the vessel from Key West, Florida, following delivery and preparation for sailing. Three more are scheduled to be homeported in Guam, increasing the Coast Guard 14th District’s total number of FRCs to six.

The Coast Guard is acquiring a total of 56 FRCs to replace the 110-foot Island-class patrol boats. Coast Guard Sector Honolulu, to whom the cutter crew will report, plans to commission the William Hart in a ceremony Sept. 26.