NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Longtime unmanned aircraft provider
AeroVironment and Kratos Defense and Security Systems announced on March 7 that
they have formed a new partnership to jointly develop and demonstrate unmanned aircraft
systems that could launch from another UAS to tackle near-peer denied
environments — an increasingly important domain in light of the “Great Power
Competition” era, defined by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John M. Richardson.

This collaboration aims at demonstrating the ability to launch,
communicate with and control a small, tube-launched loitering aircraft that
jettisons from a larger, runway-independent UAS. The goal of the is to
coordinate the effects of smaller AeroVironment systems and relay information
back to the mother UAS, developed by Kratos.

The systems-of-systems would communicate back their findings
to a ground-control station or be able to act upon the information they gather
to modify their mission tasks. Kratos has demonstrated the mothership, its Mako
Tactical UAS, which it developed and demonstrated in 2015, and AeroVironment
has made its tube-launched Switchblade since 2012.

“Together, we are developing and will demonstrate the
integration of tube-launched UAS and tactical missile systems into long-range,
high-speed and low-cost unmanned systems for their transport and delivery into
near-peer, denied environments,” said Trace Stevenson, vice president and
deputy general manager of AeroVironment’s UAS business.

“With sufficient onboard autonomy, sensors, payloads and an
integrated system design, we aim to demonstrate the deployment of large
quantities of smart systems that overwhelm and disable enemy systems, while
bending the cost curve to make it financially prohibitive for unfriendly
nations to challenge our armed forces.”

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Coast Guard has a four-step process for setting and making requirements on missions to prevent and mitigate mission gaps.

“We look at a problem and find the best way to solve it,” Capt. Michael MacMillan, chief of the office of requirements and analysis, said during a floor presentation here at Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space 2019.

The service accomplishes this by publishing four different
types of documents. The first is a capability and analysis report. The second,
which marks the beginning stages of the acquisition process, is drawing up a
mission needs statement. From there the service will put together a concept of
operations document, the primary purpose of which is coming up with ideas for
filling in capability. The final document produced is the operational
requirements document, which outlines specific requirements, such as how fast a
ship needs to go or how long an aircraft needs to stay airborne.

“We don’t get to make our own missions, but we make
requirements on the ones we have,” MacMillan said.

The Department of Homeland Security agency has 13 core
missions, with a bulk of those coming from search-and-rescue missions and drug
interdiction.

The
captain said that its important industry representatives understand the process
to help themselves and the Coast Guard.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Coast Guard rescue swimmer
program was born after a deadly ship sinking in 1983 off the coast of Virginia
that claimed the lives of 31 people.

During a stormy February night, the 605-foot SS Marine
Electric, a bulk carrying ship, capsized about 30 miles off the coast of
Chincoteague, Virginia.

The service sent a helicopter to assist in the rescue
mission. At that time the Coast Guard did not have any rescue swimmers, and
when they would respond to a distress call, they’d lower the basket and the
person in the water would have to swim toward it to then be raised up inside
the helicopter.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t always work the best,” Aviation
Survival Technician Chief Petty Officer Eric Biehn said during a floor
presentation.

The service spent two hours trying to recuse the 34 people
in the water after the ship capsized, but with the weather conditions, and
freezing water, was unable to lift anyone up. The Navy came, as they had
rescues swimmers at the time, and was able to save three lives with their
rescue swimmer.

The following year, the Coast Guard put funding in start a
rescue swimmer program in the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 1984.

“That maritime disaster was enough to wake up Congress and
the United States,” Biehn said.

By 1985, the first team of rescue swimmers was deployed to a
base in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and by 1991 the program was fully
deployed in 23 bases.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.
– Future naval aviation will benefit from the fifth-generation F-35s,
manned-unmanned teaming and the possibility of greatly enhanced rotary wing
aircraft being developed under the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program, a panel
of Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard officials said.

The naval
services also are focusing on improving the readiness of their existing
aircraft, and some types of aircraft are coming close to meeting the 80% readiness
goal set by former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, the officials told a forum on
the future of naval aviation at the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space
exposition May 6.

Lt. Gen. Steven
Rudder, deputy Marine Corps commandant for aviation, said the Corps’ legacy
FA-18 Hornets hit the 80% readiness mark last week and were maintaining
availabilities in the high 70% rate. And the Corps’ new F-35Bs were operating
in the 70% range during their recent deployments in the western Pacific, Rudder
said.

Angie
Knappenberger, deputy director for naval warfare, said the Navy conducted a
study to determine what would be needed to improve readiness and found that “we
wouldn’t get there unless we changed our processes.” They have had to improve
their support infrastructure, which had suffered from the years of reduced
funding under sequestration and on the spare parts supply system, she said.

Looking to the
future, Rudder, Knappenberger and Vice Adm. Daniel Abel, the Coast Guard deputy
commandant for operations and a veteran helicopter pilot, all cited unmanned
systems they were looking to add.

“Autonomy is
really hard, but there are some things you can do,” and they are seeing a lot
of focus on manned-unmanned teaming, Knappenberger said. She cited the Navy’s
teaming of the MQ-8 Fire Scout UAS and MH-60s helicopters in a squadron and
will do the same thing with the MQ-4C Triton long-range UAS and the P-8A patrol
aircraft.

Rudder said the
Marines were narrowing their focus on requirements for their primary unmanned
aircraft program, the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Unmanned Expeditionary
system, commonly called MUX, which is to be a large Group 5 rotary-wing UAS
that can operate from amphibious ships. After initially looking at a wide range
of capabilities, including strike, the Marines currently are leaning toward an
early warning platform that could provide over-the-horizon surveillance and
network communications for the expeditionary task forces.

Rudder said the
Marines also are closely monitoring the Army-led FVL program, which is intended
to produce a rotary-wing manned aircraft with much higher speed and range than
current helicopters. Although the two prototypes being produced for the FVL
program are a composite helicopter and a tilt-rotor, Rudder said the Marines’
preference is a tilt-rotor because they know their tilt-rotor MV-22 Ospreys are
fast and they want something that can keep up with them.

Abel said the Coast Guard has been testing
contractor-operated Scan Eagle UAS on their national security cutters and are
looking at other unmanned systems.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The combination of a two-ship purchase and investments in new technologies and facilities at the Newport News shipyard will enable the U.S. Navy to obtain future aircraft carriers with increased survivability and lethality at much lower cost, the carrier program manager said on May 6.

The future Gerald
R. Ford class of nuclear-powered carriers will provide the increased
capabilities needed in the era of “Great Power Competition” — and the two-ship
contract will save an estimated $4 billion, program manager Capt. Philip Malone
told a Naval Sea Systems Command briefing at the Navy League’s annual
Sea-Air-Space exposition here.

Malone is
responsible for the next three of the Ford-class ships, CVN-79, the future John
F. Kennedy, which is under construction, and CVNs 80 and 81, which will be
produced under the dual-ship contract signed in January.

In addition to
the $4 billion estimated savings from that contract, Malone said those two
ships will benefit from the use of an integrated digital shipbuilding system
Newport News is adopting and shipyard improvements that will allow major
reductions in the man hours required.

CVNs 80 and 81
also will be built with greater survivability and lethality from an advanced
radar, greater electrical power generation, integration of the fifth-generation
F-35C Lighting II joint strike fighters and increased aircraft sortie rate over
the legacy Nimitz class carriers, he said.

Malone said the
Navy will acquire the Kennedy under a unique two-phase delivery, with the first
phase providing a carrier that can test its aircraft launch and recovery
systems and basic ship functions followed by a second phase that will install
the advanced air surveillance radar and other combat systems. The unusual
delivery process was necessary to have Kennedy operational in time to replace
the Nimitz, which will hit its 50-year service life later this decade, he
explained.

Malone cited
Newport News’ investments in the digital or 3D computerized shipbuilding
process and in new facilities that will enable more ship components to be
produced out of the weather. Those improvements were made with monetary
incentives from the Navy and will sharply reduce the hours required to build
the ships, he said.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Navy’s Unmanned Maritime Systems program office is juggling the development of a lot of unmanned surface and underwater vehicles right now, and they expect numerous big developments for several programs in the next year or two.

Capt. Pete Small, Unmanned Maritime Systems program manager, told attendees at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space symposium May 6 that a new draft request for proposals was recently released for a medium unmanned surface vehicle (USV), and the Navy was “aggressively” moving forward with that program.

The Navy is also accelerating a large USV program, and an analysis of alternatives for that effort will wrap up by the end of this year, Small added. The program hopes for a fiscal 2020 start for that platform, and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson personally wants to see the project bear fruit “ASAP,” the captain said.

On the unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) side of the house, the extra-large UUV Orca recently finished the design phase. It will feature a modular payload and the Navy hopes to take delivery at the end of calendar year 2020, with buys continuing through 2022, Small said.

The Snakehead large-displacement UUV is expected to complete its critical design review this quarter, and the Navy hopes to have it in the water by fiscal 2021.

And the Razorback, slated for the fiscal 2020 timeframe, would be hosted on a submarine and the Navy is developing a torpedo tube-launched version. The Navy recently issued a request for information on that project and received some responses from industry.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Construction on a version of the Littoral Combat Ship for the government of Saudi Arabia is on track to start by the end of this calendar year, according to a Navy official.

Ghadeer Halim, deputy program manager for International Small Combatants (PMS 525), said after a presentation from her program office at Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space symposium May 6 that the current plan calls for the construction of four LCSs for the Saudi government with the option for four more for a possible total of eight ships.

Lockheed Martin was awarded a $282 million contract for design and materials for the construction of the four Multi-Mission Surface Combatant ships back in November.

The ships will differ from the U.S. Navy LCS in that the module will be permanent and fixed rather than replaceable with a different module.

The United States and Saudi Arabia came to an agreement on an $11.2 billion deal back in 2015 that included a modified version of the LCS.

The ship would be based on Lockheed’s Freedom-class LCS, one of two different LCS types. (Austal USA builds the Independence-class.)

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — As the nation grapples with striking a balance between competing with great power challenges and preparing for the possibility of conflict, the Indo-Pacific region poses perhaps the most significant challenge, Dr. Mara Karlin believes.

Karlin, director
of strategic studies at the Johns Hopkins School of International Studies, made
that observation as she introduced a panel of four military and civilian
government experts, each of whom plays a key role in formulating related
policies in the region. 

It stands to
reason that each panelist recognized the increasing threats posed by China and
Russia. Still, they noted that the matrix is considerably more complicated.
Eyes cannot be focused on the two large superpowers at the expense of other
friendly nations in the region. Also, while China and Russia loom as potential
adversaries, it is imperative that the U.S. and its partners work as closely
together with them on areas of common interest. 

Representing the
Coast Guard and Marine Corps, Vice Adm. Linda Fagan and Gayle Von Eckartsburg discussed
how each respective service shares a forward-deployed mission that makes their
presence essential in the Pacific. Both Fagan and Von Eckartsburg emphasized
that neither service is a “garrison force.”

“The Coast Guard
has never been more relevant,” said Fagan, the service’s Pacific Area
commander. “The demand for the signal we bring into the region has never been
higher.”

Besides watching
Chinese and Russian activities and fostering goodwill among allies, Fagan
placed equal importance in “modeling legitimate behavior,” so that “China can
see what a responsible Coast Guard looks like.” 

If the Chinese can
learn from the U.S. Coast Guard how to conduct, for example, more effective
search-and-rescue operations, so be it. 

Von Eckartsburg,
director of the Marine Corps Pacific Division office of Plans, Policy and
Operations, described a “persistent forward force.” Of the roughly 40,000
Marines now deployed around the world, the vast majority is west of the
International Dateline, she said. 

“We’re in a constant state of motion, leveraging presence to maintain readiness
at the same time,” Von Eckartsburg said. 

Joel Szabat the
Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Aviation and International Affairs,
discussed the three most important “pillars” of stability in the region –
economy, governance and security. 

“We need to
remember that this is not about containing or encircling any one country,”
Szabat said. “We want to help people, regardless of who our competitors are.”

Security commitments
with U.S. allies would assure the free flow of commerce, Szabat said. The
nation faces significant related challenges in this arena, he believes. U.S.
sealift is old and needs to be recapitalized, he said. The size of the U.S.
merchant fleet, which handles much of the military’s sealift capability, is
good enough for small-to-medium operations. 

“We don’t have
enough mariners, or U.S.-flagged merchant marine,” Szabat said.  

Walter Douglas,
who heads the State Department Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, cited
an Asian Development Bank statistic that states the region needs an estimated
$1.7 trillion in investment to sustain healthy economic growth. 

“There’s nowhere
near that amount of money available in one state,” Szabat said. 

The emphasis,
then, would be to have “money centers” and corporations step in with
“transparent” investments. The government and private sectors would ensure that
such funding would not be subject to the troubles endemic to secret
deals. 

“That money gets
spent in the wrong places,” Szabat said. “We can’t have that. We need open
governance. We have to see [to it] that investment laws are transparent.”

Equally
imperative, Douglas said, is working to ensure that investments are evenly
distributed. While putting money into traditional stable partners like Japan,
Australia and Singapore would remain important, more could be done to help open
emerging economies. He said that Vietnam, for example, badly wants help
developing its infrastructure – from anywhere but China.  

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Sea services leaders expressed unwavering support during a May 6 panel discussion for the nation’s future ventures in space — no matter whether the effort is split among the nation’s existing military branches or a new United States Space Force is created.

The panelists at Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space 2019 reiterated
the need to increase the nation’s space initiatives as rival nations such as
China, Russia, India and Japan build their push toward the stars.

“Space is no longer an uncontested environment,” said
Rear Adm. Christian Becker, commander, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command.

As other countries stake their spots in space, the U.S.
needs to hold its “ground,” like when the maritime forces were first formed, Becker
explained.

“Space is very much akin to the maritime,” Becker said.
“We first went to sea to trade, and then we went to sea when we realized other
people could stop our trade. … Made sure we can maintain freedom at sea.”

Don’t expect the U.S. Space Force to appear overnight,
however. Services like the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard are still evaluating
the personnel needed to staff an agency dedicated to the Final Frontier.

“We are assessing as part of the [Navy Department]
how we can meet the mission needs of the Space Force,” Becker said. “We’re not
there yet at our level of understanding, but that’s what we have to pursue.”

Finding and retaining the talent necessary to develop a
fully operational Space Force is a significant challenge, said Brig. Gen. Lorna
Mahlock, the Marine Corps’ chief information officer.

“It’s exciting to think about space … but we have to make
sure we develop the skill [to maintain a Space Force] and do it right,” Mahlock
said.

However, she emphasized that, no matter the
obstacles, the Marine Corps “embraces building the Space Force” and will offer its
full support.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The U.S. Navy and Raytheon conducted a joint test of the Excalibur N5 munition with an eye toward firing it from Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Mk 45 guns, according to a Raytheon official.

The Navy has not made a decision on whether to buy the Excalibur N5 for use on ships, but the test — which took place last September at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona — was a key step forward for the program, said John Hobday, head of Coyote & Rapid Development Programs for Raytheon, in a briefing at Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space symposium on May 6.

The Excalibur N5 is based on the M982 Excalibur used by the Army, and it would use the same key parts. It is GPS guided, and Raytheon says it has double the current Mk 45 range (26 nautical miles versus 13).

The N5 reuses the guidance and fusing components from the Block 1B version of the Excalibur.

The Navy is “evaluating where they stand on it,” and Raytheon has provided the Navy with all the necessary information, Hobday said.

The test involved six shots and the accuracy of the rounds and handling were evaluated.

“Excalibur N5 answers the Navy’s need for a sea-launched, precision-guided projectile,” said Sam Deneke, Raytheon Land Warfare Systems vice president, in a statement. “N5 doubles the range of the Navy’s big guns and delivers the same accuracy as the land-based version.”