Release from Fairbanks Morse Defense

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BELOIT, Wis. – May 18, 2023 – Fairbanks Morse Defense (FMD), an Arcline Investment Management portfolio company, celebrated the grand opening of its newest Training and Service Center Campus in Chesapeake, Va. located at 733 Curtis Saunders Court on May 17th. The state-of-the-art, 45,000-square-foot facility is positioned to offer fully integrated service and technology solutions to the largest concentration of Navy, Military Sealift Command, and Coast Guard fleets in the US.  

Local dignitaries joined FMD CEO George Whittier and other company executives for a ribbon-cutting ceremony, facility tour, and other activities to commemorate the occasion. Dignitaries included Brenda Roberts of Congresswoman Jen Kiggins’s office (Virginia Second District); US Navy Vice Admiral Bill Houston, Commander of the Submarine Forces; Eric Matthies, incoming OPC Program Manager for the US Coast Guard; Jordan Watkins of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership; Ben White with the Chesapeake Economic Development Department; and multiple City of Chesapeake Councilmembers.  

“Fairbanks Morse Defense has made it clear that they are going ‘all-in’ by making a significant investment in this training and service center in Chesapeake,” said Steven Wright, Director of Chesapeake Economic Development. “We’re ready to welcome and support the FMD service team and the numerous technicians who will benefit from advanced training on critical equipment and look forward to supporting FMD’s future growth in our community.”  

The Training and Service Center campus will bring approximately 50 new jobs to Chesapeake. It will also serve as a hub for training current and future engineers that will contribute to the mission success of American maritime defense operations. 

FMD’s Chesapeake Training and Service Center includes the following: 

• 13,000 square feet of training center shop space, including four fully dressed workstations featuring four different FMD engines for students to pull apart and reassemble, in addition to dedicated training available on all FMD products 

• 20,000 square feet of service center space, providing local and responsive full-service capabilities that include equipment overhauls and repairs as well as unit exchange solutions for rapid turnaround.   
• 6,000 square feet for training center offices, classrooms, break rooms, and conference space. 
• 6,000 square feet for service center offices, a tech library, a service center classroom, and break rooms. 

The site can also be significantly expanded, allowing FMD and its family of brands to utilize additional space over time.  

“Fairbanks Morse Defense continues to lean into the US Defense market by locating this training and service facility where Navy, Military Sealift Command, and Coast Guard forces can effectively access its capabilities and participate in hands-on development activities working shoulder to shoulder with their FMD industry partners,” said George Whittier, FMD CEO. “We hope this facility will help fill the pipeline for the defense industrial base with a diverse and enthusiastic group of service technicians who possess the skills to perform jobs that are in demand today, as well as jobs that we’ll need in the future.” 

Release from Naval Sea Systems Command

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May 18, 2023 

By Program Executive Office Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC) Public Affairs 

WASHINGTON — The Navy today exercised a contract option for a fourth Constellation class guided-missile Frigate. FFG 65 will be built by prime contractor Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM). The contract option award was $526,293,001.    

First-in-class Constellation (FFG 62) is in production in Marinette, Wisconsin, and sister ships Congress (FFG 63) and Chesapeake (FFG 64) are under contract. 

The Constellation class will have multi-mission capability to conduct air warfare, anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare, electronic warfare, and information operations. Specifically, the FFG 62 class includes an enterprise air surveillance radar, Baseline Ten AEGIS combat system, a Mk 41 vertical launch system, communications systems, MK 57 gun weapon system countermeasures, and added capability in electronic warfare and information operations with design flexibility for future growth.  

FMM on April 30, 2020, was awarded the contract for the design, construction and delivery of the first ten Constellation Class Frigates. 

PEO USC designs, develops, builds, maintains, and modernizes the Navy’s expanding family of unmanned maritime systems, mine warfare systems and small surface combatants.

Release from HII

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PASCAGOULA, Miss., May 19, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — HII’s (NYSE: HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding division announced today the successful completion of acceptance trials for Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer the future USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125). 

“Collaboration has been the single largest enabler to delivering this new capability to the fleet,” Ingalls Shipbuilding President Kari Wilkinson said. “Our extended network of Navy, Ingalls and supplier partners got this done through open communication, hard work and tenacity.” 

Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125) is the first Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer being built for the U.S. Navy by Ingalls and incorporates a number of design modifications that collectively provide significantly enhanced capability. DDG 125 contains a myriad of offensive and defensive weapons designed to support maritime defense needs well into the 21st century. Flight III configured destroyers include the AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) and the Aegis Baseline 10 Combat System that is required to keep pace with the threats of the future. 

Ingalls has delivered 34 destroyers to the U.S. Navy, with five Flight IIIs currently under construction including DDG 125, Ted Stevens (DDG 128), Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129), George M. Neal (DDG 131) and Sam Nunn (DDG 133). The final Ingalls-built Flight IIA ship, Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123), sailed away from Ingalls in April and was commissioned this month in Key West, Florida. 

Photo accompanying this release are available at: https://hii.com/news/hii-completes-acceptance-trials-jack-h-lucas-ddg-125/. 

Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are highly capable, multi-mission ships and can conduct a variety of operations, from peacetime presence and crisis management to sea control and power projection, all in support of the United States military strategy and the joint force. Guided missile destroyers are the backbone of the U.S. surface fleet and are capable of fighting multiple air, surface and subsurface threats simultaneously. 

Release from Crowley

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(JACKSONVILLE, Fla.; May 17, 2023) – Three Crowley-managed tankers have been selected by the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) to serve in its Tanker Security Program. The program ensures a commercial fleet can readily transport liquid fuel supplies in times of need for the U.S. Department of Defense. 

The selected medium-range tankers are part of a joint venture between Crowley and Stena Bulk USA awarded TSP participation. The vessels — Stena Immaculate, Stena Imperative and Stena Impeccable – will be reflagged as U.S. registered vessels with U.S. crews. The tankers will continue international commercial operations but can be chartered on a short-term basis to serve the U.S. government’s operations. 

“Crowley appreciates the U.S. government and military’s continued trust in our capabilities to serve the nation’s needs. Crowley’s team with Stena Bulk offers government customers a deep, full suite of capabilities to maintain an efficient, dependable supply chain with management that adds value by being able to meet needs quickly and innovatively,” said Gavin Hughes, vice president, Crowley Government Solutions, the company’s business unit for government services. 

A federal law requires the U.S. Department of Transportation, which includes MARAD, work with the Defense Department to establish a fleet of active, commercially viable, militarily useful, and privately-owned product tank vessels to meet national defense and other security requirements. The initial fleet size is 10, and companies receive a stipend for each ship enrolled in support of the nation’s defense forces. 

Crowley and Stena Bulk partnered before to serve the energy needs of the government and military. For example, Crowley won the Military Sealift Command charter contract in 2022 to run the Stena Polaris, an Ice Class tanker serving bulk fuel needs of the U.S. Department of Defense in the Arctic and Antarctic regions as well as transporting fuel in the Mediterranean Sea region. 

About Crowley 
Crowley is a privately held, U.S.-owned and -operated maritime, energy and logistics solutions company serving commercial and government sectors with $3.4 billion in annual revenues, over 170 vessels mostly in the Jones Act fleet and approximately 7,000 employees around the world – employing more U.S. mariners than any other company. The Crowley enterprise has invested more than $3.2 billion in maritime transport, which is the backbone of global trade and the global economy. As a global ship owner-operator and services provider with more than 130 years of innovation and a commitment to sustainability, the company serves customers in 36 nations and island territories through five business units: Crowley Logistics, Crowley Shipping, Crowley Government Solutions, Crowley Wind Services and Crowley Fuels. Additional information about Crowley, its business units and subsidiaries can be found at www.crowley.com.   

Series of ASW and MUM-T Exercises Showcase Advantages of UAS 

Release from General Atomics 

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SAN DIEGO – 18 May 2023 – In support of the U.S. Navy’s (USN) Integrated Battle Problem 2023 (IBP-23) exercise in May, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) conducted a series of Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) exercises cooperatively with the USN Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadrons (HSM) 38, 49, 71, and 75. GA-ASI flew a company-owned MQ-9B SeaGuardian^® Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) under a USN Flight Clearance. The HSM squadrons flew the MH-60R Seahawk helicopter flown out of Naval Air Station North Island off the coast of San Diego, Calif., on April 24-25, 2023. 

The exercise was focused on Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) to conduct Cooperative ASW in the Southern California Offshore ASW range. During the two-day event, MH-60s dropped sonobuoys to detect a mobile training target. Using the combined SeaGuardian and MH-60R teaming concept, correlation and location of the target was expeditiously achieved and tactical reports – known as TACREPs – were then transmitted to Commander, Task Force (CTF) 34 Theater ASW Center at Naval Station Pearl Harbor via the MQ-9B crew. The CTF then directed a coordinated constructive “kill” of the simulated submarine with notional torpedoes dropped from the MH-60s. The ASW payload on the SeaGuardian uses the latest version of General Dynamics Mission Systems’ Sonobuoy Processor. 

“These advanced tactics, techniques, and procedures utilizing MUM-T further reinforce the advantages to unmanned aircraft in combat with less risk to force,” said GA-ASI Vice President of DoD Strategic Development Patrick Shortsleeve. 

The IBP-23 exercise is the third time GA-ASI’s MQ-9B SeaGuardian has supported this annual event. These exercises generate warfighting advantages for the Fleet by providing the operational environment to work through tactics, techniques, procedures, and command and control to refine and enhance warfighting. The Fleet IBP series is led by Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet and executed by Commander, U.S. 3^rd Fleet and will continue throughout May 2023.  

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/