WASHINGTON
— Bruce Jette, assistant secretary of the U.S. Army for acquisition, logistics
and technology, on June 20 approved the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV)
program’s transition into full-rate production, the Army Program Executive
Office for Combat Support and Combat Service Support announced in a release.

The
approval follows an Army decision in December to begin fielding the new
platform with the Army’s 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart,
Georgia, in April. The 1-3 ID became the Army’s first unit equipped with JLTVs
in April after receiving more than 300 vehicles.

Fieldings
to the Ordnance School, Fort Lee, Virginia, the 84th Training Command, Fort
McCoy, Wisconsin, the Marine Corps’ School of Infantry-West at Camp Pendleton,
California, as well as the Marine School of Infantry-East, Camp Lejeune, North
Carolina, have also been completed.

“Thanks
to tremendous teamwork across two services on requirements, resources, program
management, testing and other areas, this is a great modernization success story.
JLTV shows how teams focused on stable requirements, mature technologies and
the right incentives can deliver meaningful capability advancements in a
cost-conscious way,” said Jeffrey White, Jette’s principal deputy.

The JLTV
family of vehicles is designed to restore payload and performance that were
traded from light tactical vehicles to add protection in recent conflict,
giving commanders an improved protected mobility solution and the first vehicle
purpose-built for modern battlefield networks.

“Getting
an improved capability into the hands of Soldiers and Marines has been our
team’s driving focus throughout this program,” said Michael Sprang, project
manager, Joint Program Office, Joint Light Tactical Vehicles.

“We
are also grateful for Soldier feedback on new features and enhancements,” Sprang
continued. “The Soldiers of the 1st ABCT, 3rd Infantry Division provided
valuable input on enhancements such as increased situational awareness,
reduction of system noise, a troop seat kit, and a companion JLTV trailer.
Their assessments helped bring us all to a successful Full-Rate Production
decision.”

The JLTV
program remains on schedule and on budget to replace a significant portion of
the Army’s High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle fleet. The JLTV comes in
two variants and four mission package configurations: general purpose, close combat
weapons carrier, heavy guns carrier and a utility vehicle. The U.S. Navy and
Air Force also plan to field JLTVs in much smaller quantities.

“The full-rate production decision is a key
milestone for the JLTV program, closing out the low-rate initial production
(LRIP) phase, which began in 2015, George
Mansfield, vice president and general manager of joint programs for Oshkosh
Defense, said in a June 21 statement. “Important insights from
manufacturing and rigorous developmental and operational test during LRIP
contributed to shaping the vehicle’s current configuration. The program remains
on schedule and on budget and ensures our troops have the protection,
connection and extreme off-road mobility they need today for current and future
battlefields. The JLTV is the only light tactical vehicle being fielded today
that can maneuver within combat formations.”

WASHINGTON —
The Navy’s top officer told a gathering of naval engineers and industry
officials that being technologically ready for war is not something that can be
achieved overnight but is the result of diligent experimentation and keeping
pace with one’s adversary.

“The technological landscape is changing so fast, across all of
technology, really fueled by this information revolution that we’re in the
middle of right now,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John M. Richardson said,
speaking June 20 in Washington at the Technology, Systems and Ships Symposium
of the American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE).

“We really do
need to move apace, but what we rely on — groups like naval engineers and ASNE
— is to make sure that as we do that we move forward not on hope, not on
magazine articles, not on predictions, but move forward based on solid
engineering.

“This is the
challenge. We’ve got to move forward on an evidence-based approach.”

Technological agility was a quality Richardson stressed as necessary to
keep up with evolving threats.

Richardson said that the supremacy of U.S. naval aviation after
the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor crippled the U.S. battleships
was not a rapid development but the result of 20 years of innovation and hard
work by the fleet and such visionaries as Rear Adm. William Moffett and Adm.
Joseph Mason Reeves.

“This was not something we did as a pick-up team on Dec. 8,” Richardson
said. “We had evidence, a lot of experimentation, a lot of engineering going
into that, so that force [naval aviation] was truly ready to take on that new
mission, that new role, and it wasn’t just a pick-up thing overnight.”

“This is the way we have to move forward,” he said. “We have to continue
to get out there, experiment, prototype, get that evidence that these new
technologies are ready to carry on and take on the responsibility for the
security of our nation.

“And we have to do that at pace. We do not want to be the second Navy
armed with these decisive technologies — directed energy, unmanned, machine
learning, artificial intelligence, etc. … This is a human challenge at the end
of the day.”

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy RQ-4A Block 10 Global Hawk
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) shot down June 19 by Iranian forces was destroyed
by a surface-to-air missile of indigenous Iranian design and manufacture.

The Global Hawk was downed by a missile system the
Iranians call the Third of Khordad, which was
first unveiled in Iran in 2014. The system’s missile has a range of 75
kilometers and can intercept targets at an altitude of up to 81,000 feet,
higher than the 60,000-foot ceiling of the Global Hawk.

One
former Navy electronic countermeasures officer described the Third of Khordad
as a knock-off of the Russian-designed BUK-M1 (NATO code name SA-11 Gadfly) missile
system.

In a June 20 release, U.S. Central Command spokesman
Cmdr. Bill Urban said the RQ-4A was shot down “while operating in international airspace over the Strait of
Hormuz at approximately 11:35 p.m. GMT on June 19, 2019. Iranian reports that
the aircraft was over Iran are false. This was an unprovoked attack on a U.S.
surveillance asset in international airspace.”

Iran claimed the UAV had violated Iranian airspace.

The incident occurred a few days after Iranian forces
fired a missile at a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper UAV near the Strait of Hormuz and damaged
two oil tankers with limpet mines. Last month, four tankers were damaged by
explosives believed to be limpet mines.

The Northrop Grumman RQ-4A Block 10 Global Hawk
high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) UAV also is known as the BAMS-D (Broad-Area
Maritime Surveillance-Demonstration) system. Urban said the RQ-4A “provides
real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions over vast
ocean and coastal regions.”

The Navy has deployed the RQ-4A to Southwest Asia since 2009 as a
component of the Broad-Area Maritime Surveillance-Demonstration (BAMS-D)
program. Five RQ-4As were acquired from the U.S. Air Force and were based at
Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, and operated by a detachment of
Patrol Reconnaissance Wing 11. The detachment keeps at least one RQ-4A in the
rotation to a base in the Persian Gulf region. One was lost in a mishap in
Maryland in June 2012.

The Navy and Northrop Grumman have been developing a
Global Hawk derivative, the MQ-4C Triton, to meet the Navy’s HALE requirements.
Unmanned Patrol Squadron 19 is scheduled to send a two-aircraft detachment to
Guam this year for the Triton’s Early Operational Capability deployment. The
deployment had been delayed a year following the gear-up landing of one of the
squadron’s MQ-4Cs in September 2018.

According to news reports, one MQ-4C recently had been
deployed to Southwest Asia as part of the U.S. buildup of forces in response to
Iranian hostile acts. The deployment initially led to some erroneous reports
that the downed UAV was an MQ-4C.

NORFOLK, Va. — The U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard
panelists that participated in the Sea Service Update panel June 20 at the Navy
League National Convention prepared remarks focused on a multitude of recent
document releases such as the National Defense Strategy, the National Military
Strategy and the Coast Guard Arctic Strategic Outlook.

Remarks also focused on readiness; the importance of
remaining forward-deployed; and many other probable talking points, but it was
a host of questions fielded by longtime local defense reporter Mike Gooding
that elicited perhaps the most interesting insights into how the services are
preparing for the future.

Gooding touched on the government shutdown early this year,
which saw the unprecedented scenario of the Coast Guard working without pay. He
also asked panelists their thoughts on the Budget Control Act of 2011 that many
expected would be short-lived but instead has brought with it sequestration
threats for nearly a decade. Gooding wondered how the services were preparing
to weather the upcoming storm of another likely continuing resolution in
September — a process where the services would remain funded at their current
levels regardless of shifting program needs.

Coast Guard Adm. Scott Buschman, the Atlantic Area commander,
conveyed how many organizations, including the Navy League, stepped up to
ensure the Coast Guard had extra support during the shutdown, but panelists
made clear how untenable that situation would be in the future.

“I hope that doesn’t happen again because it was a very
stressful time for our women and men,” Buschman said, a sentiment echoed by Navy
Vice Adm. Bruce Lindsey, deputy commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command. “We
should never, ever do that again,” Lindsey added.

As for dealing with continuing resolutions, Lindsey said he wanted
to see more flexibility.

U.S. Fleet Forces manages a $12 billion annual budget. “It
would be really nice if [Fleet Forces Commander] Adm. Grady had the authority
to move less than 5% of the total operating budget without having to approach
Congress,” he said. That would amount to $480 million — a substantial amount to
make a difference. Grady “needs that authority,” Lindsey said.

Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Mark Brilakis, commander of Forces
Command, said stability in resources is critical to managing programs in the
pipeline.

“A budget’s a budget. Congress appropriates money and … you
have a problem trying to push dollars around. I’ve had to cancel exercises this
year because we don’t have the funds to complete the schedule,” Brilakis said.

He predicted there would be a continuing resolution this
fall based on his years of experience.

“The sequester was a bad law, and everyone thought it’d get
fixed,” Brilakis said.

Gooding also brought up a recent Government Accountability
Office report that came out this week, identifying that 46 of 79 Defense Department
installations are at risk to a rise in sea levels.

Brilakis said there’s a reason so much DoD land is under
threat — the Pentagon bought marginal land on purpose because it was
inexpensive. When Hurricane Florence hit Camp Lejeune, North Carolina last
summer, it dumped 36 inches of rain, and many buildings there still have tarps
on them and no air conditioning.

“We’re not going to replace buildings where we had them
before,” he said.

Brilakis also said that Parris Island, South Carolina, is
“no longer tenable” — despite the generations that have trained there. “We have
to start making historic decisions.”

Buschman’s forces are on the front lines of climate issues,
with two historic hurricane seasons in recent memory. He said the Coast Guard must
make tough decisions recapitalizing ships and instead use that money to repair critical
infrastructure issues after storms. When the Coast Guard is rebuilding, the
service is factoring in resilience so when the next big one hits, infrastructure
can take the punch.

Lindsey concurred with the infrastructure challenges climate
change could bring, stating he didn’t want the United States to have to face
scenarios like the recent widespread power
outages in South America, which could affect banking and other critical
services.

“A lot of people think this is an issue with global warming.
It’s a critical infrastructure issue,” he said.

SAN JUAN,
Puerto Rico — The Coast Guard Cutter Donald Horsley (WPC-1117) repatriated 11
Dominican migrants to a Dominican navy patrol vessel June 19 in waters just off
Samana, Dominican Republic, following the interdiction of an illegal migrant
voyage in the Mona Passage, the Coast Guard 7th District said in a release.

The
interdiction is the result of ongoing efforts in support of Operation Unified
Resolve, Operation Caribbean Guard and the Caribbean Border Interagency Group
(CBIG). Since October 2018, the Coast Guard and CBIG partner federal and state
agencies have interdicted over 1,523 migrants at sea near Puerto Rico and the
U.S. Islands.

During a
routine patrol June 17, the crew of patrolling Coast Guard HC-144 Ocean Sentry
maritime patrol aircraft detected a 20-foot fiberglass migrant boat transiting
towards Puerto Rico, about 20 nautical miles north northeast of Punta Cana,
Dominican Republic.

Coast Guard
watchstanders in Sector San Juan diverted the cutter Donald Horsley to interdict
the suspect vessel. Upon arriving on scene, the Donald Horsley crew stopped the
blue and white makeshift boat with 11 migrants onboard, nine men and two women,
who claimed Dominican nationality. Horsley crew members proceeded to embark all
the migrants from the makeshift boat that was taking on water and in danger of
sinking.

“I am proud
of my crew for saving 11 people from a small, grossly overloaded boat traveling
in very dangerous sea conditions,” said Lt. Christopher Martin, commanding
officer of the Donald Horsley. “Crossing the Mona Passage is an extremely
dangerous journey, especially in the case of illegal voyages, in which migrants
risk their lives by trusting smugglers who transport them in inhumane
conditions on boats that are not safe to navigate and do not have any safety
equipment on board.”

Once aboard a
Coast Guard cutter, all migrants receive food, water, shelter and basic medical
attention.

The cutter
Donald Horsley is a 154-foot fast-response cutter homeported in San Juan,
Puerto Rico.

WASHINGTON —
The admiral in charge of building the Navy’s surface ships said the
construction programs are tracking well and that the service is gearing up for
some new platforms, including unmanned surface ships.

“We are in an era of stable design,” said Rear Adm. William Galinis, program executive officer for ships, speaking June 18 in Washington at the Technology, Systems and Ships Symposium of the American Society of Naval Engineers. “As we look forward, on the surface side, some new opportunities are on the horizon.”

Galinis was referring to stable designs such as the Arleigh Burke DDG 51 Flight IIA and III programs, the San Antonio-class LPD 17 program, the Tripoli LHA 7 — which will have full capability for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — and the Virginia-class attack submarine.

Ship programs
on the horizon he mentioned are the new FFG(X) guided-missile frigate, the
Large Surface Combatant, and unmanned surface vessels.

Galinis said
the Large Surface Combatant is likely to benefit from lessons learned through
the DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer program.

“We’re
learning a ton off of that platform,” he said, noting the integrated power
system and low-observable signature of the ship, among other aspects, and that
signature requirements “really does drive up cost.”

He said that
use of mature technology will keep cost down on the Large Surface Combatant.

“Not to predispose anything, but I think in the end, you know, it’s
probably going to look a lot more like DDG 1000 than DDG 51 if I had to say
so,” Galinis said, noting that a lot of work remained to be done.

He also praised the use in shipbuilding of land-based
test sites, which, he said, “buy us a lot once we get into construction.”

Also speaking
with Galinis was Rear Adm. Lorin Selby, the chief engineer and deputy chief of
staff for ship design, integration and naval engineering at Naval Sea Systems
Command.

Selby sees
the new classes of ships coming in the next era of shipbuilding as an
“opportunity for us to reset on the way we do business at NAVSEA.”

He stressed
that the Navy needs to build up its talent base in ship design and engineering
as development proceeds on new classes of ships and submarines and needs to
space the workload so that the work force can be sustained as ship design work
comes and goes.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The U.S Navy will christen its newest Arleigh Burke-class guided missile
destroyer, the future USS Daniel Inouye (DDG 118), during a 10 a.m. ceremony June
22, in Bath, Maine, the Defense Department announced.

The future
USS Daniel Inouye is named in honor of Daniel Inouye, who served as a United
States senator for Hawaii from 1963 until his death in 2012.

Inouye
received the Medal of Honor June 21, 2000, for his extraordinary heroism in
action while serving with the 442nd Infantry Regiment Combat Team in Italy
during World War II. During an assault on April 21, 1945, an exploding grenade
shattered his right arm; despite the intense pain, he refused evacuation. He
remained at the head of his platoon until they broke the enemy resistance and
his men deployed in defensive positions, continuing to fight until the
regiment’s position was secured.

U.S. Sen.
Mazie Hirono of Hawaii will deliver the christening ceremony’s principal
address. Irene Hirano Inouye, the late senator’s wife, will serve as the ship’s
sponsor. In a time-honored Navy tradition, Irene Inouye will christen the ship
by breaking a bottle of sparkling wine across her bow.

“The
future USS Daniel Inouye will serve for decades as a reminder of Senator
Inouye’s service to our nation and his unwavering support of a strong Navy and
Marine Corps team,” Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer said. “This
ship honors not only his service but the service of our shipbuilders who help
make ours the greatest Navy and Marine Corps team in the world.”

The future
USS Daniel Inouye will be the 68th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and is one of
21 ships under contract for the DDG 51 program. The ship is configured as a
Flight IIA destroyer, which enables power projection and delivers quick
reaction time, high firepower, and increased electronic countermeasures
capability for anti-air warfare. The USS Daniel Inouye will be 509.5 feet long
and 59 feet wide, with a displacement of 9,496 tons. She will be homeported in
Pearl Harbor.

Congress this year is less willing to boost shipbuilding
funding above the Trump administration’s request than in recent years and has
shown some skepticism over the U.S. Navy’s push for rapid adoption of unmanned
systems, the two top congressional analysts on naval issues said June 19.

While still generally supportive of shipbuilding and
unmanned systems, Congress appears to be shifting some money to improved
readiness and isn’t willing to sacrifice conventional capabilities, such as the
aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, to accelerate the move to unmanned
vessels, analysts Eric Labs and Ronald O’Rourke told an American Society of
Naval Engineers forum.

At the same forum, a panel of senior civilian Navy officials
said the emphasis in designing the future combat fleet was on greater
commonality of systems to improve flexibility, interoperability and lethality
and on acquiring combat systems that could be updated quicker and cheaper. Both
of those priorities would help reduce the sustainment cost of the future fleet,
the officials said.

Labs, the senior naval forces analyst at the Congressional
Budget office, described a “leveling off” of support in Congress for funding
shipbuilding above the requested levels and a willingness to “substitute their
own priorities” for the Navy’s push for new technologies including unmanned
systems. He noted shipbuilding funding in preliminary congressional actions of
about $1 billion less than requested, compared to an average $2 billion
increase in recent years.

O’Rourke, the naval affairs analyst at the Congressional
Research Service, saw similar reduction in shipbuilding funding by the panels
that have acted on the fiscal 2020 budget and a reluctance to fund the third
Virginia class attack submarine. He also cited congressional concern over fleet
readiness following the two fatal at-sea collisions and over the delayed
maintenance of attack submarines.

Responding to questions, the analysts cited congressional
support for funding to bolster the shipbuilding industrial base, opposition to
the Navy’s plan to retire the Truman at midlife to add funds for unmanned
surface vessels and said the effort by the House Armed Services Committee to
prohibit the Navy from accepting the USS John F. Kennedy, the second in the Gerald
R. Ford class of carriers, until it is able to operate the F-35C could add to
the cost of the ship.

The panel of four officials on the Navy staff also expressed
concerns about fleet readiness and rising sustainment costs. That led to the
stress on requiring the maximum possible commonality in future ships and
systems, which can reduce the cost of procuring and sustaining the fleet and
the cost of training sailors to operate them. A key goal was a common combat
system that could be scaled to equip the future frigate, which is close to contract
award, and a future large surface combatant, which still is under review. But
commonality should extend to the hull, mechanical and electrical components of
future ships, they said.

PORTSMOUTH,
Va. — Norfolk Naval Shipyard dedicated its new submarine maintenance facility
on June 14.

The
dedication marked the next crucial step in the NNSY’s realization of a shipyard
infrastructure optimization plan that will enhance the ability of the four
public shipyards to meet the mission of delivering ships back to the fleet on
time and within budget.

The new
facility consolidates submarine maintenance, production and support shops into
a single facility adjacent to NNSY’s submarine drydocks. This two-story
structure features shops, storage and support spaces on the ground level, with
office spaces and conference rooms on the second floor.

“NAVSEA Cmdr.
Vice Adm. Tom Moore has challenged us to build an environment that promotes
increased levels of innovation, collaboration and knowledge sharing,” the shipyard’s
commander, Capt. Kai Torkelson, said at the dedication.

“This will
give our people the space and tools they need to forge high-performing teams
and complete our mission of returning submarines to the fleet with superior
quality and reliable delivery.”

More than
three years in the making, the $10 million project is designed to withstand the
impact of a 500-year flood, and the 24,000-square-foot building should also
hold up against a Category 4 hurricane. The building also follows antiterrorism
protection requirements, featuring blast-proof windows and 18-inch thick
concrete walls. It also features amenities such as a kitchen, break room,
nursing mothers room and showers.

NNSY’s
current submarine projects include conversions of USS La Jolla and USS San
Francisco into moored training ships and the refueling and upgrading of USS
Wyoming for return to the nation’s active submarine fleet.

NNSY submarine
program manager Pat Ensley said the building supports work on Los Angeles-class
submarines and will support work on the future Virginia and Columbia classes of
subs.

“It
improves our abilities by having a permanent facility and place to perform
production work as close to the boat as possible,” he said. Adding that the
building is segmented by mechanical, electrical, nuclear and nonnuclear work
areas, he said: “We’re going to have capability for every shop, with
ergonomically designed work areas as well as giving individuals all the
amenities they would want from starting to ending their work days.”

PARIS — Raytheon
won a four-year $234 million contract from the U.S. Navy to outfit all of its
nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships with 23 Joint
Precision Approach and Landing Systems (JPALS), the company announced in a release.

JPALS is a
GPS-based precision landing system that guides aircraft to precision landings
in all weather and surface conditions.

“The U.S.
Navy understands how JPALS contributes to their mission success and safety of
its people,” said Matt Gilligan, vice president of Raytheon’s intelligence, information
and services business. “Other military services could also benefit from the
system’s ability to safely land both fixed and rotary-wing aircraft in almost
any low-visibility environment.”

Since 2018,
U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II fighter pilots have used JPALS to guide
them onto the USS Wasp amphibious assault ship during deployed operations in
what Navy Capt. B. Joseph Hornbuckle III, program manager, Naval Air Traffic
Management Systems Program Office, called “the most difficult conditions on
Earth.”

Earlier this
year, F-35B pilots participated in two demonstrations of a new expeditionary
version of the JPALS system that brings the same precision capability from sea
to shore. The proof-of-concept events showed how the GPS-based system could be
reconfigured into a mobile version to support landings in a traditional airport
setting.

Expeditionary
JPALS fits in five transit cases and could be repackaged for a variety of small
transit vehicles transportable by C-130. Once on the ground, the system can be
fully operational in under 90 minutes.