SAN DIEGO —
The guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem (DDG 63) arrives at its new homeport,
Naval Base San Diego, July 18, following 14 years of forward-deployed service
in the Indo-Pacific region operating from Japan, the commander, Naval Surface
Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, said in a July 17 release.

As part of
the U.S. 7th Fleet’s Forward Deployed Naval Forces in Japan, Stethem worked
alongside allies and partners to provide security and stability throughout a
free and open Indo-Pacific. Stethem arrived in Yokosuka, Japan, in June of
2005. While serving in 7th Fleet, Stethem conducted a wide range of operations,
exercises and port visits, including disaster relief as well as search-and-rescue
missions. In 2011, the ship supported Operation Tomodachi to provide relief to
Japanese citizens affected by the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami, and this
year, joined Japan-led search operations for a missing Japan Air Self-Defense
Force F-35.

While in San
Diego, Stethem will undergo a planned maintenance and modernization period.
Stethem will be fitted with the latest combat system suite, which includes
state-of-the-art air defense, ballistic-missile defense, surface warfare and
undersea warfare capabilities.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The new commandant of the Marine Corps has made force design as his top
priority as he moves to shape the Marine Corps for the future.

The “Commandant’s Planning Guidance” (CPG), issued by Gen. David H. Berger July 16, lists his five top priority focus areas: force design, warfighting, education and training, core values, and command and leadership.

Berger said
that changes will be based on “where we want the Marine Corps to be in the next
5-15 years. … We cannot afford to retain outdated policies, doctrine,
organizations or force development strategies.”

The CPG
affirms that the Corps is preparing for operations in the event of a high-end
fight.

“The Marine
Corps will be trained and equipped as a naval expeditionary force-in-readiness
and prepared to operate inside actively contested maritime spaces in support of
fleet operations,” the CPG said. “In crisis prevention and crisis response, the
Fleet Marine Force — acting as an extension of the fleet — will be first on the
scene, first to help, first to contain a brewing crisis and first to fight if
required to do so.”

Berger said
the Corps “should take pride in our force and recent operational successes, but
the current force is not organized, trained or equipped to support the naval
force — operating in contested maritime spaces, facilitating sea control or
executing distributed maritime operations. We must change. We must divest of
legacy capabilities that do not meet our future requirements, regardless of
their past operational efficacy.”

He said that
there is “no piece of equipment or major defense acquisition program that
defines us. … Likewise, we are not defined by any particular organizing
construct — the Marine Air-Ground Task Force cannot be our only solution for
all crises. Instead, we are defined by our collective character as Marines and
by fulfilling our service roles and functions prescribed by Congress.”

Berger said
he has “already initiated, and am personally leading, a future force design
effort. Going forward, CD&I [Capabilities Development and Integration] will be the only organization authorized to publish force
development guidance on my behalf. We will divest of legacy defense programs
and force structure that support legacy capabilities. If provided the
opportunity to secure additional modernization dollars in exchange for force
structure, I am prepared to do so.”

The
commandant emphasized the need to improve integration with the Navy. He pointed
out that the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act removed the preponderance of the FMF
[Fleet Marine Force] from fleet operational control and disrupted the
long-standing Navy-Marine Corps relationship by creating separate Navy and Marine
Corps components within joint forces. Furthermore, Navy and Marine Corps
officers developed a tendency to view their operational responsibilities as
separate and distinct, rather than intertwined. With the rise of both land- and
sea-based threats to the global commons, there is a need to reestablish a more
integrated approach to operations in the maritime domain. Reinvigorating the
FMF can be accomplished by assigning more Marine Corps forces to the fleet;
putting Marine Corps experts in the fleet Maritime Operations Centers; and also
by shifting emphasis in our training, education and supporting establishment
activities.”

He said that the
Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) will remain the Corps’ principal warfighting
organization but that the three MEFs need not be identical.

“III MEF will
become our main focus-of-effort, designed to provide U.S. Indo-Pacific Command
(U.S. INDOPACOM) and the commander, 7th Fleet with a fight-tonight, standing
force capability to persist inside an adversary’s weapon systems threat range,
create a mutually contested space and facilitate the larger naval campaign,”
the CPG said. “When modernized in a manner consistent with the vision above,
III MEF will be a credible deterrent to adversary aggression in the Pacific.”

“I MEF will
also be focused on supporting the commander, USINDOPACOM and the commander, 3rd
Fleet,” Berger said. “I MEF will continue to provide forces to USINDOPACOM to
build partner capacity and reinforce deterrence efforts and must be prepared to
impose costs on a potential adversary, globally. We will increasingly accept
risk with I MEF’s habitual relationship with CENTCOM [U.S. Central Command];
however, 7th Marines is at present purpose-built to support CENTCOM
requirements; thus, I MEF will continue to support CENTCOM requirements within
the capacity of 7th Marines.

“II MEF will
undergo substantial changes to better align with the needs of commanders of 2nd
and 6th Fleets,” he said. “During a major contingency operation or sustained
campaign ashore, necessary combat power will be provided to the committed MEF
through global sourcing by the total force.

Berger said
the Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) is “no longer has the same relevance as it
once had to the fleet; however, this will change. We will consider employment
models of the Amphibious Ready Group (ARG)/MEU other than the traditional
three-ship model. We will accept and prepare for fleet commander employment of
LHA/Ds [amphibious assault ships] as part of three-ship ESGs [Expeditionary
Strike Groups] as desired. I see potential in the “Lightning Carrier” concept,
based on an LHA / LHD; however, do not support a new-build CVL [light aircraft
carrier]. Partnering a big-deck amphib with surface combatants is the right
warfighting capability for many of the challenges confronting the joint force,
and provides substantial naval and Joint operational flexibility, lethality and
survivability.”

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII)
took another step toward delivery of the submarine Delaware (SSN 791) to the
U.S. Navy when the first meal recently was served aboard the nuclear-powered
fast attack submarine.

On the menu: salad, sausage and spaghetti with a choice
of meat sauce or Alfredo.

“The first meal is a significant event in construction
for both shipbuilders and the Navy crew,” said Bob Bolden, director of
Virginia-class submarine construction at HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding
division. “This is a result of shipbuilders and Sailors working side by side
and is one of the last steps in the journey to bringing the ship to its
operational state to support sea trials and delivery.”

The Virginia-class submarine is pierside at Newport News
and is in the final stages of construction and testing.

“I appreciate Newport News Shipbuilding’s superb work
through our construction process and am immensely proud of my crew’s efforts to
open our galley, support our crew and take this next step toward Delaware
becoming a self-sufficient, sea-going warship,” said Cmdr. Brian P. Hogan,
commanding officer of the pre-commissioning unit.

Delaware is the 18th Virginia-class submarine built as
part of the teaming agreement with General Dynamics Electric Boat. More than
10,000 shipbuilders from Newport News and Electric Boat have participated in
Delaware’s construction since the work began in September 2013; more than 5,000
suppliers across 48 states have provided parts and materials critical to the
submarine’s construction.

Delaware was christened in October 2018 and launched into
the James River for the first time two months later. Following successful sea
trials later this year, Delaware will be the ninth Virginia-class submarine
delivered by Newport News.

The U.S. Navy’s new surface warfare director said the sea service
is still working on what it wants in a proposed large surface combatant and also
what to do with the large unmanned surface vessels that the Navy plans to buy —
or even if they would be fully unmanned.

For the large surface combatant (LSC), “it’s a question of
how much speed do you need? How much can you afford? How much are you willing
to pay for it,” Rear Adm. Gene Black said July 17.

“The things I know, I need a big sensor. I need big
computing power, and I want a big [weapons] magazine. Beyond that, I don’t
know. It’s going to be a fantastically capable ship. … It’s going to be an
expensive ship. We want to make sure we’re coming in with the capability we
need.”

During a Surface Navy Association lunch, Black spoke at
length about his previous job as commander of the Harry S. Truman carrier
strike group, which made an historic voyage north of the Arctic Circle to
support the large NATO exercise Operation Trident Juncture, which included
driving the task force into a Norwegian fjord.

Asked what he thought about the five large unmanned surface vehicles the Navy asked for in the fiscal 2020 defense budget, Black said: “If I had had an USV at my disposal, I would have pushed it out ahead of me, certainly when I was in the high north. It would give me sensors, eyes and connectivity way out in front of the strike group, and awareness of what was going on, so I can decide if I want to go in another direction or do something completely different.”

“We’re just now exploring that space,” he said, noting the
recent establishment of a surface development squadron in California that will explore
possible use of unmanned surface vessels.

“Candidly, we’re going to get some of those things, going to
buy them,” and Black predicted “the young guys and gals in this room” would
find ways to employ them that older officers like himself could not contemplate.

“Certainly not in the next couple years are we going to turn
an unmanned vehicle loose from the West Coast and send it on a mission. There’s
a lot of learning that has to go on. And we have to come to terms if they’ll be
manned, unmanned or optionally manned. We’re working our way through all that,
and we don’t have the answers to all that.”

Asked about the new frigate program, for which a contract is
expected to be awarded soon, Black said only that “the program is going great.”

Black talked at length about the Truman deployment, which
was notable not only for operating in horrendous weather conditions north of
the Arctic Circle but also for its split deployment — in which it operated in
the Mediterranean Sea, returned to Norfolk, and then deployed again.

“The capabilities we’re bringing to sea these days [are] spectacular.
I can’t say much about it other than the investments we’ve made, the
investments we put into surface warfare strike” have produced a “return on
investments, probably 10 times over.”

WASHINGTON
— The Navy has issued its Request for Proposals (RFP) to the defense industry
for the Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MUSV), a vessel planned to be part of
its Future Fleet concept.

The RFP, posted
on the FedBizOps.gov website July 16 by Naval Sea Systems
Command, calls for proposals for the MUSV, which “will be a pier-launched,
self-deploying modular, open architecture, surface vessel capable of autonomous
safe navigation and mission execution.”

The Navy
is expected to field the MUSV along with a Large USV as adjuncts to its Future
Surface fleet that will include the Future Surface Combatant and the new FFG(X)
guided-missile frigate as well as Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers
and the Independence- and Freedom-class littoral combat ships.

The Navy is experimenting
with the San Diego-bases Sea Hunter medium-displacement trimaran USV, built by
Leidos, testing its autonomous navigation capabilities and its effectiveness
with various sensor and other mission systems. A second Sea Hunter is being
built by Leidos for the Navy.

SAN DIEGO
— The U.S. Navy has approved the commissioning date for the future USS
Indianapolis (LCS 17), the commander of Naval Surface Forces announced July 17.

The littoral
combat ship will be commissioned Oct. 26 in Burns Harbor, Indiana. The
commissioning ceremony signifies the acceptance for service and the entrance of
a ship into the active fleet of the U.S. Navy.

Burns
Harbor is on the shores of Lake Michigan in northwest Indiana and is 160 miles
north of Indianapolis.

Jill
Donnelly, the wife of former Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly, is the ship’s sponsor.
As the sponsor, Donnelly leads the time-honored Navy tradition of giving the
order during the ceremony to “man our ship and bring her to life!” At that
moment, the commissioning pennant is hoisted and Indianapolis becomes a ship of
the fleet.

Cmdr.
Colin Kane, a Columbus, Ohio, native, is the ship’s commanding officer.

“The
future USS Indianapolis honors more than a city; it pays tribute to the legacy
of those who served during the final days of World War II on board USS
Indianapolis,” Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer said at the ship’s
christening ceremony. “This ship will continue the proud legacy of service
embodied in the name Indianapolis and is a testament to the true partnership
between the Navy and industry.”

LCS 17 is
the fourth ship to carry the name of Indiana’s capital city. The first
Indianapolis was a steamer built for the U.S. Shipping Board (USSB) and
commissioned directly into the Navy in 1918. After two runs to Europe, the ship
was returned to the USSB following World War I.

The saga
of the second Indianapolis (CA 35), a cruiser, and its crew is well documented
by the Naval History and Heritage Command. The loss of the ship was a tragic
moment following the completion of a secret mission that directly contributed
to the end of World War II.

After a
successful high-speed run to deliver atomic bomb components to Tinian, the
decorated Portland-class cruiser continued to Guam. Indianapolis was en route
from Guam to Leyte when she was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine
I-58 on July 30, 1945. The ship’s wreckage was located on Aug. 19, 2017.
Survivors of the cruiser met with the crew of the future Indianapolis earlier
this year to screen a documentary about the discovery of the lost ship.

The most
recent Indianapolis was a Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine, which was
commissioned Jan. 5, 1980, and served through the end of the Cold War before
being decommissioned in 1998.

The future Indianapolis
will be homeported in Naval Station Mayport, Florida, upon her commissioning.

SAN DIEGO —
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. was awarded a follow-on task order
by the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division, the company
announced July 17.

Valued at $15.1
million, it was issued against a U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) sole-source,
three-year, single-award, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract to
provide training-related products and services in a variety of disciplines to
the Royal Saudi Naval Forces (RSNF).

When combined
with the value of previous awards, the contract funding to date is $95 million
and has a potential value to Kratos of $99.3 million, depending on the number
of task orders issued and anticipated contract modifications under the FMS
agreement.

“This award expands our
ability to continue to support the RSNF’s commitment to the transformational
goals of the Ministry of Defense as it modernizes its growing naval fleet,”
said Jose Diaz, senior vice president of Kratos’ training division.

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s nominee for secretary
of defense said he supports modernization of the nation’s strategic nuclear
deterrent.

“Clearly, modernization of the [strategic nuclear] triad is top priority,” Mark T. Esper said June 16 during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, listing his top modernization priorities.

Nuclear deterrence “has kept the peace
with regard to deterring nuclear war for 70 years now,” Esper said during his
testimony. “The important part is to ensure that we have a modern, effective,
credible, safe and reliable deterrent.”

Each leg of the triad [bombers,
intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles]
“provides certain capabilities to complement one another,” he added. “Continuing
to modernize that triad is important our safety and security.”

Esper said that each leg is in a
different status.

“We need to certainly modernize the GBSD [Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent],” he said. “Obviously, we have plans to recapitalize
the Ohio-class [ballistic-missile] submarines, and there is a program underway to [recapitalize] our long-range stealth bombers.”

recapitalize

Esper said that two parts of deterrence
are “having a capability and the will to use it.”

He stressed that the strategic
deterrent force needed to be cyber-protected.

There was no daylight between the
priorities between Esper and the nominee for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, Army Gen. Mark Milley.

Milley, testifying June 11 in his confirmation
hearing before the same committee, listed the nation’s strategic nuclear
deterrent as his top modernization priority, the others being space
capabilities, artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons.

He supports modernization of all three legs of the
U.S. strategic deterrent triad.

“The triad has worked,” Milley said. “There are many
reasons why there hasn’t been a great power war since 1945. Clearly one of them
is nuclear deterrence and part of that is the capability of the triad. Each leg
of the triad gives you different capability.”

“I think we need to develop the domain
of space as a warfighting domain,” Esper said. “We need to improve our
capabilities and policies with regard to cyberspace. And then of course there
is a wide range of conventional capabilities we need to improve.”

Space
is no longer “a place from which we support combat operations,” he said. “It is
now a warfighting domain. Not because we made it that way, but because the
Russians and Chinese are making it that way. To make sure we are sufficiently
robust in the space warfighting domain is to have unity of command and unity of
effort.”

WASHINGTON
— Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer has become acting defense secretary, as the
Senate has received the packet nominating Mark T. Esper to be the confirmed
secretary of defense.

Eric
Chewning, the chief of staff to the defense secretary, said the transition from
Esper to Spencer went smoothly. “There is only one secretary of defense,
and that person is fully capable of defending the country and protecting the
homeland,” Chewning said.

Esper was
named acting defense secretary when Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick M.
Shanahan stepped down from the position last month. President Trump nominated
Esper for the position — a move that requires Senate confirmation. By law,
Esper cannot continue to serve as acting secretary while he is under
consideration for the permanent job. He reverts to his position as secretary of
the Army.

The principals
involved in this program met to discuss how the transition would happen. This
included Esper, Spencer, David L. Norquist, the undersecretary of defense who
continues to perform the duties of the deputy defense secretary, Marine Corps Gen.
Joe Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Chewning.

When
Spencer became acting secretary, he assumed the full authority and
responsibility of the secretary of defense.

To ensure
continuity, the team supporting the Office of the Secretary of Defense remains
in place.

“We’ve
been working closely with Senate leadership and the Senate Armed Services
Committee, and we thank them for their efforts and commitments to swiftly
consider top DoD leadership,” Chewning said.

DoD does
not assume Esper’s confirmation, and Chewning was quick to point out that it is
the Senate’s prerogative to take as long as it believes is necessary to examine
and confirm the nominee. “Secretary Spencer is prepared to remain in the
role until there is a Senate-confirmed secretary of defense,” he said.

If Esper is confirmed by
the Senate, then Norquist will be formally nominated to be the deputy defense
secretary. In deference to the Senate, he will step out of his role of
performing the duties of the deputy secretary of defense while that nomination
is pending. If this happens, Spencer will then perform the duties of the deputy
secretary.

SEATTLE — The
first Boeing P-8A Poseidon for the United Kingdom Royal Air Force (RAF) took
off from Renton, Washington, at 10 a.m. PT on July 12, marking the first flight
of this inaugural U.K. P-8A.

During the
90-minute flight, key testing took place before the aircraft touched down and
moved to the next phase of preparation before customer delivery, installation
of military systems.

U.K. Ministry
of Defence (MOD) and Royal Air Force personnel, along with Boeing P-8 program
leaders, were on hand to witness the takeoff and landing of the recently
painted aircraft, number ZP801.

“This is a
great milestone in the U.K. P-8A Poseidon’s journey to the U.K., as we are one
step closer to its arrival in Scotland,” said Air Commodore Richard Barrow, the
senior responsible owner for the U.K.’s P-8A program. “The platform will
enhance the UK’s maritime patrol capability with advanced, state-of-the-art
technology.”

The RAF P-8A
Poseidon fleet will support maritime surveillance, anti-submarine warfare and
anti-ship warfare for the United Kingdom and will increase protection of the United
Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent and Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers.

The first of
nine P-8As ordered by the United Kingdom now moves to the P-8 Installation and
Checkout facility in Tukwila, Wash., where mission systems are installed and
further testing happens before final delivery to the customer later this year.
When the aircraft is delivered it will first fly to U.S. Naval Air Station
Jacksonville for additional preparation and training by U.K. personnel before
flying home to the United Kingdom. The RAF will take delivery of ZP801 later
this year and it will move to the United Kingdom in early 2020.

The United Kingdom is one
of six international customers for the P-8A Poseidon. As a direct commercial
sale, India has received eight of the P-8I variant to date with four more in
production. The U.S. Navy is on contract to receive 111 with the potential for
additional quantities based on the fleet’s needs. As a cooperative partner with
the Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Program Office, Australia began
receiving their P-8A aircraft in 2016 with eight delivered and four more in
production; Norway will begin receiving their five P-8As in 2022; both New
Zealand and South Korea have signed agreements with the U.S. Navy to purchase
four and six aircraft, respectively.