Release from HII 

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NEWPORT NEWS, Va., May 17, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — HII’s (NYSE: HII) Newport News Shipbuilding division recently signed more than two dozen graduating high school seniors for careers in shipbuilding at the New Horizons Regional Education Centers (NHREC) Good Life Solution Program’s Career Selection Day, at a time the shipyard is executing on orders for mission-critical aircraft carriers and submarines in service of the U.S. Navy and the nation. 

A total of 32 students accepted employment offers from NNS: 20 who will begin full-time trade positions within the shipyard and 12 who will attend The Newport News Shipbuilding Apprentice School. Funded by HII to train and develop the next generation of shipbuilders, The Apprentice School offers four- to eight-year, tuition-free apprenticeships in 19 trades and eight optional advanced programs, to include accredited undergraduate degrees in engineering. 

The Good Life Solution Program is a collection of partnerships between NHREC and local employers looking to improve the way they recruit, hire, train and retain entry-level new hires out of high school. The program has a one-year retention rate of 80%. 

Photos accompanying this release are available at: https://hii.com/news/hii-newport-news-shipbuilding-shipbuilding-careers-nhrec-2023/. 

“Each year, this program grows and is a clear demonstration that there is more than one path to success,” said Xavier Beale, NNS vice president of human resources and trades, who attended the event. “I’m honored to welcome these students into our shipbuilding family as they embark upon a remarkable journey. They will continue to develop their talents and grow their careers with us — all while serving our nation and building freedom.” 

NNS plans to hire approximately 2,500 skilled trade positions this year to meet the shipbuilding needs of the Navy. The shipyard anticipates hiring nearly 19,000 people within the next decade as it fulfills orders for the U.S. Navy. 

To learn more about the Good Life Solution Program, visit nhrec.org/gls. 

Release from Qinetiq 

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16/05/2023 

QinetiQ, is once more assisting in the delivery of Exercise Formidable Shield (FS). Led by the U.S. Sixth Fleet with Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO (STRIKFORNATO) delivery, FS is a live-fire combined integrated air and missile defence exercise taking place at MOD Hebrides in Scotland, and Andoya in Norway. The mission rehearsal exercise will feature the armed forces of 13 NATO allies and partners and includes full multi-domain integration across the participating nations and multiple battlespaces. 

Starting in 2015, the At Sea Demonstration/Formidable Shield training exercises have significantly enhanced the ability of NATO forces and international allies to defend against future threats. Formidable Shield 2023 will build on previous events, offering increased complexity in live weapons scenarios to assist forces to train as they fight. 

The exercise will feature a significant increase in multi-nation participation, with more than 20 ships and 35 aircraft and nearly 4000 Allied military personnel from 13 nations taking part in live weapons and defence rehearsal scenarios. 

The first portion of the exercise was on Andoya in Norway, the focus now moves to MOD Hebrides, which will play host to the majority of the three week event. Managed by QinetiQ as part of the Long Term Partnering Agreement (LTPA) agreement with the Ministry of Defence, MOD Hebrides provides ample space for the allies to test and evaluate their capabilities in a real- world setting. FS23 will occupy 115,000km² of sanitised airspace with unlimited altitude. To further support this endeavour, QinetiQ will be launching a number of targets developed by QinetiQ Target Systems, including the Banshee Jet80+. These and other targets will offer participants the opportunity to run integrated air and missile defence scenarios with ballistic missiles, supersonic sea skimming missiles and aggressor jets. 

QinetiQ’s test and evaluation expertise will support the safe delivery of the Formidable Shield exercise, allowing the participants to gain quality insights from this highly complex event. QinetiQ will be supporting fundamental test and evaluation on radar systems, communications systems and allowing assurance of tactics across NATO led operations. 

Jim Graham, Managing Director, Air, at QinetiQ commented: “MOD Hebrides is one of our key air ranges and a perfect location to facilitate this crucial U.S. Navy Sixth Fleet and STRIKFORNATO led mission rehearsal event. QinetiQ’s Trials, Test, Training & Evaluation work has proved crucial in the delivery of several important training and analysis exercises for allied forces, improving national security. We are also proud to provide logistical and safety planning support for Formidable Shield 2023 and believe it will deliver a wealth of valuable insights for all NATO allies in attendance. 

We believe Formidable Shield 2023 represents another opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of collaboration between allied naval and air forces against emerging threats. We are looking forward to supporting allied forces in testing the capability of both missile attacks, anti-missile defence systems and implementing the insights gained to strengthen NATO defence.” 

Release from III Marine Expeditionary Force 

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17 May 2023 

From Capt. Joshua Hays 

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP COURTNEY, Japan — U.S. Marines from 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, III Marine Expeditionary Force, provided a vertical replenishment (VERTREP) operation for a U.S. Navy ballistic missile submarine in the Philippine Sea, last week. 

Two U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallions from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 462, 1st MAW, carried mission-essential equipment to the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Maine (SSBN 741) during its regularly scheduled patrol. Vertical replenishments enable naval vessels to quickly receive critical resources without disrupting maritime security operations while underway. 
 
“1st MAW’s persistent and forward presence makes it the backbone of the Stand-in-Force’s expeditionary capability,” said U.S. Marine Corps Col. Christopher Murray, commanding officer of Marine Aircraft Group – 36, 1st MAW, in Okinawa, Japan. “The intricacies of seamlessly sustaining the force through naval integration and aviation-delivered logistics is a testament to our adaptability, readiness, and ability to project power within the Indo-Pacific.” 
 
The mission underscores the important role of the U.S. Marine Corps as part of a Stand-in-Force. The Marine Corps employs the SiF concept to persist within the Weapons Engagement Zone, employing maneuver and logistics webs. This strategy enhances sea control and sea denial operations, integrates multi-domain operations, and ultimately strengthens regional security. 
 
“The U.S. Navy’s ballistic missile submarine force has demonstrated yet again that we have the proven capability to work seamlessly alongside III Marine Expeditionary Force to execute our mission, allowing us to remain on station,” said Maine’s Commanding Officer, Cmdr. Travis L. Wood. “Rotary-wing vertical replenishment such as this allow us to quickly resupply so that we can constantly maintain pressure against any adversary who would wish to do harm to the homeland.” 
 
The Pacific Submarine Force maximizes our strengths – knowledge, stealth, agility, firepower, and endurance – and works as part of Joint and Combined Forces to maintain the international rules-based order and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific Region. Submarine-based strategic deterrence is the most survivable leg of the nuclear triad, and the endurance of our submarines means that the Submarine Force maintains a continual presence across the globe, each and every day. 
 
III Marine Expeditionary Force is postured to support naval expeditionary operations within the first island chain as part of a SiF. Close, lethal integration between the U.S. Marine Corps and the Navy enhances regional security and stability alongside our Allies and partners. 

Release from Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia 

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine—Chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower, which oversees the Marine Corps—joined Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and a bipartisan, bicameral group of colleagues in urging Senate Appropriations Committee leadership to continue to invest in the U.S. Marine Corps Force Design initiatives, which is the branch’s restructuring plan to modernize and prepare its forces to counter growing threats from China’s military. 

“As Members of Congress, we ask for a definable, applicable, and deliverable vision from our Armed Forces to get after the pacing threat while maintaining our stewardship of the taxpayer funding we’ve been entrusted with. The Marine Corps has delivered. It is now time for us to deliver and provide the support necessary to accelerate the Marine Corps’ full vision of Force Design. We cannot ask our Marines to stand toe-to-toe with our Nation’s adversaries without first standing behind them,” the members wrote in a letter to appropriators. 

Force Design requires the Marine Corps to engage in a foundational change in its mission focus, shifting from three decades of sustained land operations to a naval expeditionary force. The Marine Corps has already made significant progress in its modernization efforts, such as becoming more adaptable to maritime spaces, increasing flexibility and adaptability, and investing in new technologies.   

The lawmakers also stressed the importance of meeting the required 31-minimum fleet of amphibious ships. They wrote, “Additionally, these capabilities cannot be successfully deployed without the expedited implementation of a 31-minimum fleet of amphibious ships and the Landing Ship Medium.” 

In addition to Kaine and Manchin, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Mike Rounds (R-SD), Angus King (I-ME), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Mark Kelly (D-AZ), as well as U.S. Representatives Jared Golden (D-ME-02), Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08), Seth Moulton (D-MA-06), Michael Turner (R-OH-10), Rob Wittman (R-VA-01) and Trent Kelly (R-MS-1). 

  

Full text of the letter is available here and below. 

  

Dear Chairs and Ranking Members: 

  

We write to you as you consider the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Department of Defense (DoD) authorization and appropriations bills, to urge your support of budgetary items that invest or accelerate Marine Corps Force Design initiatives. 

  

The 2022 Annual Threat Assessment from the Intelligence Community (IC) identifies the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) as working to field a military by 2027 designed to deter U.S. intervention in a Taiwanese cross-Strait crisis. The 2022 National Security Strategy (NSS) echoes this sentiment and is reinforced by both the 2018 and 2022 National Defense Strategies (NDS) that identify the PRC as the only competitor with the intent and capacity to reshape the international order. Furthermore, the PRC’s aggressive actions in the Indo-Pacific and significant growth in defense spending have justified the redirection of our National Security priorities.  Bottom line, Marine Corps Force Design initiatives have been informed and directed by hard threat data across multiple administrations to accelerate modernization to meet the challenges of the 21st Century environment. 

  

The Marine Corps continues to lead the Joint Force in Service-level modernization and redesign.  Last year, we detailed the urgent need to accelerate from sustained land-based operations to maritime campaigns and from non-state actors to peer competitors of China and Russia. This shift imposes a necessity to fully fund Marine Corps force design, talent management, and installations and logistics efforts to keep pace with critical and evolving strategic ends. 

  

Force Design, the Marine Corps’ initiative to deter potential adversaries and effectively fight and win in a future conflict, continues to progress and directly applies the Service’s Title 10 responsibilities within our national security strategy. The Marine Corps is relying on Congress to support this effort, just as we rely on the Marine Corps to be ready when we least expect it and to serve as our Nation’s force in readiness. In prior years, the Commandant of the Marine Corps made difficult investment and divestment decisions that were a departure from institutional and doctrinal norms. Many of these necessary changes were openly challenged. However, we should commend the Marine Corps on its willingness to make difficult decisions for the Nation’s strategic advantage and security. 

  

The Marine Corps’ ongoing implementation of Force Design has prioritized investments towards new technologies, formations, platforms, and capabilities. These prioritized efforts have increased lethality, mobility, and survivability to maintain a competitive advantage over our pacing competitor, China. Force Design, while necessary to compete against current and future adversaries, comes at a cost. A cost the Marine Corps internally managed while balancing their enduring role as the Nation’s global crisis response force. Since its beginnings in early 2020, the Marine Corps has internally allocated funding towards modernized investments with no increase to the Service’s budgetary topline, effectively resulting in more than $15.8 billion in cost savings to the DoD’s topline budget.  

  

The Marine Corps has made significant progress modernizing over the past three and a half years. To remain ahead of our adversaries in an operating environment that evolves at a faster pace than ever before, adaptive and iterative change must be continuous and well-conceived. The Marine Corps’ Campaign of Learning (CoL) guides and informs modernization by providing a disciplined and structured mechanism for evaluation, and the Marine Corps has applied this methodology to ensure its efforts are as efficient and effective as possible. Notable areas of modernization since Force Design began are: 

  

Concepts: The exploration of creative and adaptive concepts that enable Marine, naval, and joint forces. Concepts such as Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations, Stand-in-Forces, and a resilient Global Positioning Network that enable a forward, persistent, and integrated naval defense in depth; enables the fleet and joint force, alongside allies and partners, to win the reconnaissance-counter reconnaissance battle at every point along the competition continuum; and provides a regionally aligned, responsive, and scalable network of material, supplies, resources that enable the deployment, rapid employment, and sustainment of the Fleet Marine Force during competition, crisis response, and armed conflict. 

  

Programs: Investment in relevant and modern programs of record that either provide new capabilities or sustain existing capabilities. The Marine Corps has focused its investments on capabilities that enable littoral movement & maneuver, maritime fires, sensing & information fusing, and command & control. In each of these capability “bins,” the Marine Corps has sought out technologies that will enable the current and future force to succeed. Examples of program investments include the CH-53K King Stallion, Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV), Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), Navy/Marine Corps Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS), Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS), F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, MQ-9A Extended Range (ER), Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar (G/ATOR), Family of Integrated Targeting Cells (FITC), and Network on the Move (NOTM). 

  

Experimentation: In line with the Service’s CoL, the Marine Corps pursued constant innovation through deliberate collaboration with research laboratories, industry, and academia after which FMF, joint force, and combatant command testing activities were leveraged during experimentation and wargaming events. These activities have been collectively assessed every quarter to iteratively inform Force Design and Development. Prominent experimentation conducted are: 

1. Adaptive Threat Force (ATF) – Real world scenario-based training of Marine Corps infantry units to identify adaptability in theoretical future threat scenarios. 

2. Marine Corps Warfighting Lab (MCWL) Wargaming – Provides data-driven wargaming capabilities to the entire joint force with artificial intelligence adversary integration. 

3. Infantry Battalion Experimentation (IBX) – The goal of this effort was to examine the utility of specific changes to the infantry in the context of conducting operations against a peer adversary; experiments were conducted with units from each Marine division. Experimentation began in FY21 and will continue into FY24. 

4. Marine Littoral Regiment (MLR) – Experiments concentrated on developing 3d MLR in Hawaii and in conjunction with regional exercises, such as Balikatan, Kamandag, Keen Sword, and Northern Edge.  Experimentation began in FY22 and will continue into FY24. 

5. Project Convergence (PC) – Experiments focused on joint all domain situational awareness; closing counter air/missile kill webs; joint integrated fires; and generating robust and scalable kill webs to defeat a multi-axis, multi-domain threat in the littorals. PC is a joint force initiative and will continue into FY24. 

  

Force Design in Execution: 

1. III Marine Expeditionary Force (2019-Present) – The Marine Corps’ only forward postured MEF that is uniquely suited to validate new concepts such as EABO and SIF while supporting naval, joint, and allied and partnered forces with agile, capable, and lethal forces able to operate across the competition continuum. 

2. Japan-based F-35 JSF (2019-Present) – The second OCONUS-based Marine F-35 squadron reached full operational capability in May 2022, providing increased numbers of lethal 5th generation sensing and strike platforms to the Indo-Pacific. 

3. Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1 (2020-Present) – VMU-1 currently provides daily support to NAVCENT with MQ-9A ER air vehicles, enhancing Maritime Domain Awareness. 

4. Task Force 61/2 (2022-Present) – A proof of concept that placed Fleet Marine Forces in the Baltic, testing, refining, and validating concepts of employment for maritime domain awareness and closing kill webs, while also conducting real-world, time sensitive reconnaissance-counter reconnaissance that support Sixth Fleet operations. 

5. Third Marine Littoral Regiment (2022-Present) – 3d MLR was specifically optimized to persist in the Indo-Pacific and is integral to how III MEF competes, deters conflict, and defeats adversaries while reassuring allies and partners.   

  

Force Design 2030 is well underway, and we should fully support the Commandant’s efforts to uncouple from tradition and conventionally accepted doctrine and systems. Additionally, these capabilities cannot be successfully deployed without the expedited implementation of a 31-minimum fleet of amphibious ships and the Landing Ship Medium. 

  

As Members of Congress, we ask for a definable, applicable, and deliverable vision from our Armed Forces to get after the pacing threat while maintaining our stewardship of the taxpayer funding we’ve been entrusted with. The Marine Corps has delivered. It is now time for us to deliver and provide the support necessary to accelerate the Marine Corps’ full vision of Force Design. We cannot ask our Marines to stand toe-to-toe with our Nation’s adversaries without first standing behind them. I look forward to joining my colleagues from both sides of the aisle on this urgent matter. 

Release from Naval Sea Systems Command 

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From Team Ships Public Affairs BATH, Maine –The keel for the future USS Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG 126), a Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, was ceremonially laid at Bath Iron Works, May 16, 2023.
 

The ship is named for Marine Corps Commandant, General Louis Hugh Wilson Jr., a World War II and Vietnam War veteran who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism during the Battle of Guam. Following his service in Vietnam, he served as the 26th Commandant of the Marine Corps from 1975 to 1979. 
 
The contemporary keel laying ceremony represents the joining together of a ship’s major modular components at the land level, and is a significant milestone in the production of a ship. The keel is authenticated with the ship sponsors’ initials etched into a ceremonial keel plate that is later incorporated into the ship. Co-sponsors of DDG 126 are Dr. Susan Rabern and Mrs. Janet Wilson Taylor, Gen. Louis H. Wilson’s first daughter. 

The event commemorated the first Flight III ship to be ceremonially laid down at Bath Iron Works. 

“We are proud to reach this important milestone in the production of the future USS Louis H. Wilson Jr,” said Capt. Seth Miller, DDG 51-class program manager, Program Executive Office (PEO) Ships. “This great warship will carry the legacy of General Wilson’s unwavering commitment and service to our country.” 

The DDG 51 Flight III upgrade is centered on the AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar and incorporates upgrades to the electrical power and cooling capacity plus additional associated changes to provide greatly enhanced warfighting capability to the fleet. 

Bath Iron Works is currently under contract to build 10 destroyers, and is currently in various stages of construction on the future John Basilone (DDG 122), Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (DDG 124), Patrick Gallagher (DDG 127), William Charette (DDG 130), and Quentin Walsh (DDG 132). 

As one of the Defense Department’s largest acquisition organizations, PEO Ships is responsible for executing the development and procurement of all destroyers, amphibious ships, sealift ships, support ships, boats and craft. 

For more information on the Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, visit: https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Team-Ships/PEO-Ships/DDG-51/ 

Release from BAE Systems

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MADRID, Spain – May 17, 2023 – BAE Systems and Iveco Defence Vehicles (IDV) celebrated the international debut of the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) at the FEINDEF international defense and security exposition. The ACV family of vehicles, developed and delivered by the strategic partnership between BAE Systems and IDV, supports the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) expeditionary mobility capability and is the only truly amphibious combat vehicle in full-rate production today. The vehicle on display at FEINDEF is the personnel variant (ACV-P), which is the base platform for the family of vehicles.  

“This is the first time the Amphibious Combat Vehicle has been shown outside the United States, and it is a point of pride that it is here in Spain, an important, long-term U.S. and NATO ally,” said Garrett Lacaillade, vice president of Amphibious programs at BAE Systems.  

“Jointly BAE Systems and IDV are proud to present this critical next-generation amphibious capability that meets the mission needs and program requirements of the Infantería de Marina Española,” said Nazario Bianchini, head of sales at IDV. “Together, we are ready to respond to any international customization request to ensure the optimal deployment of the amphibious vehicles within the Spanish and European defense system.”  

The amphibious platform was designed to grow and adapt to mission needs, allowing space for new capabilities as technology evolves such as reconnaissance, electronic warfare, anti-air, and Uncrewed Aircraft Systems integration. With its modular design, the ACV is ready to provide Marines around the world the flexibility to address additional mission roles and integrate future technologies. 

The ACV-P is fully open-ocean capable and can carry 13 combat-loaded Marines, along with a crew of three, from ship to objective and back. The ACV Command and Control variant provides multiple workstations for Marines to maintain and manage situational awareness in the battlespace. The ACV recovery variant provides direct field support, maintenance, and recovery to the ACV family of vehicles. The ACV-30 mounts a stabilized, medium caliber Remote Turret System manufactured by Kongsberg that provides the lethality and protection Marines need while leaving ample room for troop capacity and payload.   

Release from the By Naval Aviation Enterprise Communications Team 

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SAN DIEGO – Commander, Naval Air Forces (CNAF) hosted the second annual Naval Aviation Safety Summit in San Diego, California, May 8-9. The event brought together safety experts, leadership and supervisory Sailors to discuss safety process improvements to protect the U.S. warfighting advantage—namely, people and platforms. 

 
More than 600 attendees involved in safety, maintenance, and aircraft handling across Naval Aviation built upon lessons learned over the past year to enhance the culture of safety throughout the Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAE). Vice Adm. Kenneth Whitesell, CNAF, and often referred to as the Navy’s “Air Boss,” kicked off the Summit by discussing the current state of the safety environment within the Navy and Marine Corps, inviting the audience to learn from the speakers to “get better” on safety. He added that the Safety Summit was critical to achieving a collective warfighting advantage.  
  
According to Whitesell, the purpose of the Safety Summit was to explore safety-related concepts and ideas currently working for other communities and turn those results into outcomes for Naval Aviation to reduce the damage to platforms and to protect Sailors and Marines. 
  
Whitesell reflected on maintaining the operational capability of the “Air Wing of the Future.” He also stressed the importance of gathering leaders, experts and “the flight line” together to discuss what is working, what is not and how initiatives are implemented to strengthen Naval Aviation today and in the future. 
  
“The kids that are joining the Navy now are the same ones that will be the lieutenant commanders, the captains and the next Air Bosses, and they are going to be the next petty officers and chief petty officers who will lead the Navy over the next five, ten and even fifteen years, as they work their way through their careers,” said Whitesell. “This is a critical moment for us to understand our business, to understand where we are from a safety perspective, and where we can combine the safety and the operational sides of the house.”  
  
Safety-related experiences and perspectives were also shared from the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Coast Guard and FedEx commercial aviation.  
  
On the summit’s last day, a flag panel question-and-answer session was held with Whitesell; Rear Adm. John Meier, Commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic; Rear Adm. Christopher Engdahl, commander, Naval Safety Command; and Rear Adm. Rich Brophy, Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA).  
  
“As conditions change, it is incumbent on us to change the controls,” explained Meier. “Those conditions may be the experience of the workforce; it may be the workforce’s capacity; it may be the weather, the non-skid, you name it. My focus is on the controls. We measure success not by the absence of a mishap but by the presence of the controls.”  
  
Guest lecturer and author Dr. Tim Ludwig addressed dysfunctional practices that degrade work culture and what to do about them. Ludwig has over 30 years of experience in research and practice in organizational behavior management. In that role, he has helped assess, design, and implement behavioral safety and quality improvement programs for more than 50 companies worldwide as well as worked with Naval Sea Systems Command and Naval Information Warfare Systems Command. He also discussed how to develop systems to optimize employee performance by building upon the best safety behaviors and analyzing the behavior context. 
  
Dr. Steven Spear, the author of the book High-Velocity Edge, discussed how to execute high-performance evolutions safely during high-risk operations. Troy Mueller, Director Nuclear Technology Division, Naval Reactors, who spoke at the first Safety Summit last year in Norfolk, Virginia, returned to share safety improvement approaches for the NAE to consider and adopt. 
  
Other Naval Aviation experts provided presentations on topics including the year in review, command resiliency programs, and recently initiated safety programs across Naval Aviation. One of those programs involves CNATRA’s overall progress with Bird/Animal Aircraft Strike Hazard commonly called BASH—efforts implemented across all training locations to keep student aviators and instructors safe as they train.  
  
The Naval Aviation Enterprise is a collaborative warfighting partnership where Naval Aviation leaders leverage their assigned authorities to deliberate and resolve interdependent issues across the whole of Naval Aviation to provide combat ready naval air forces to the fleet. 

Release from Kraken Robtics 

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ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND, May 15, 2023 /GLOBE NEWSWIRE/ — Kraken Robotics Inc. (TSX-V: PNG, OTCQB: KRKNF), announces $1.1 million of purchase orders for our AquaPix® synthetic aperture sonar (SAS). These systems will be integrated to Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) for use in minehunting and security applications. Customer names cannot be disclosed. Delivery is expected in 2023. 

Kraken’s AquaPix is an off the shelf, configurable SAS that replaces high end sidescan systems at an affordable price, while delivering higher resolution, range, and area coverage rates (ACR). The increased range, resolution, and therefore higher useable ACR of SAS over traditional Side Scan Sonar systems significantly expand the capabilities of naval, scientific, and commercial applications. Kraken’s AquaPix is capable of 2 cm x 2 cm Ultra High-Definition SAS imaging at long ranges. AquaPix is uniquely positioned within the industry to bring this capability to the increasingly popular small, man-portable vehicle class. AquaPix is modular and has been integrated and deployed on over 20 different underwater vehicle platforms from shallow water to full ocean depth. Kraken’s SAS is modular and versatile, demonstrated by being one of only two companies in the world that has sold and integrated SAS into small, man portable vehicles, towed systems, and deep-water vehicles.  This ability to cross several platforms enables military customers to streamline their Post Mission Analysis by having the same sonar resolution and ATR performance across their entire fleet of vehicles and mission requirements. 

  

Release from the U.S. Department of Defense

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MAY 16, 2023 

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III announced today that the president has made the following nomination: 

Navy Vice Adm. Jeffrey W. Hughes for reappointment to the grade of vice admiral, with assignment as deputy chief of staff for Capability Development, Supreme Allied Command Transformation, Norfolk, Virginia.  Hughes is currently serving as deputy chief of naval operations for Warfighting Development, N7, Chief of Naval Operations, Washington, D.C. 

Release from Airbus 

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Marignane, 15 May 2023 – Airbus Helicopters and the French Armament General Directorate (DGA) tested the unmanned aerial system (UAS) VSR700 for the first time in an operational configuration from a ship at sea. At the beginning of May, the VSR700 performed 80 fully autonomous take-offs and landings from a civil vessel equipped with a helicopter deck, cruising off the coast of Brittany in the west of France. 
 
“This flight test campaign was an important step for the VSR700 programme as it allowed us to validate the excellent performance of the drone in operational conditions, which were representative of its future missions,” said Nicolas Delmas, Head of VSR700 programme at Airbus Helicopters. “The VSR700 prototype opened its flight envelope in winds above 40 knots, accumulated eight hours of testing in 14 flights, and made successful landings in several different sea states,” he added. 
 
In 2022, the autonomous take-off and landing capabilities of the VSR700 were tested from the same vessel using an optionally piloted vehicle (OPV) based on a modified Guimbal Cabri G2 equipped with the autonomous take-off and landing (ATOL) system developed for the VSR700. This time the test campaign took place with the SDAM demonstrator and fully validated the capabilities of the system as part of the SDAM (Système de Drone Aérien pour la Marine) study that was awarded to Airbus Helicopters and Naval Group in 2017. 
 
Autonomous take-off and landing capabilities are a key asset of the VSR700 and are made possible with the use of the Airbus DeckFinder system. This enables autonomous launch and recovery of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) with an accuracy of 10-20cm during challenging operations in harsh environmental conditions, independently of GNSS/GPS and regardless of degraded visual conditions. 
 
This new test campaign follows two series of trials that were conducted with the DGA in late 2022 and early 2023 from the Levant Island test center located in the south of France. During these trials, the SDAM prototype demonstrated its ability to operate in a maritime environment. The handling qualities of the aircraft were tested as well as the capabilities of the sensors (a maritime surveillance radar, an electro optical sensor, and an AIS receiver) alongside the mission system developed by Naval Group. 
 
The next development steps will see the second VSR700 prototype perform its maiden flight ahead of flight testing onboard a French Navy FREMM during the second semester of this year.