When it comes to evaluating new naval technologies and
concepts in an operational environment, the U.S. 4th Fleet could be called “the
fleet for innovation.”

Christopher Heagney is the science adviser to Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet, detailed from the Office of Naval Research (ONR). In this capacity, Heagney is helping to ensure the Chief of Naval Research-managed $2.1 billion annual science and technology (S&T) budget meets the fleet’s needs.

Check out the digital edition of the February/March Seapower magazine here.

He also leads a team he calls the “innovation cell,”
helping the Navy get new capabilities into the hands of warfighters. Other
members of the cell include Robert
Trost, an econometrician from the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), and Ted
Venable, a retired Navy captain and F/A-18 pilot and the unmanned aircraft system (UAS)
and counter illicit trafficking program manager on the staff. 

“We’re essentially technology scouts,” Heagney said.
“We’re out looking for the latest and greatest technologies being developed by
DoD labs, industry and academia that we can pull forward and bring to the fleet
to solve operational needs.”

Exercises like Unitas bring navies and coast guards
together, but for the U.S. it is also an opportunity for experimentation when a
variety of assets are combined such as Coast Guard cutters, Military Sealift
Command expeditionary fast transports (EPFs) and UAS like ScanEagle, Puma and V-BAT.

A top priority for the fleet commander is persistent
maritime domain awareness. “When I talk to my counterparts at the other fleets,
that’s really the big thing,” Heagney said. “If it’s not No. 1, it’s No. 2 or 3
on their list of priorities. ‘What is out there in the maritime domain that I
don’t know about?’ That’s been a naval objective since the beginning of time,
and it’s something we still struggle today with. We have overhead satellites,
unmanned surface and subsurface and aerial vehicles, and we still can’t get
enough. So, how can we help scratch that itch of the commander? That’s really
what we’re trying to get at.”

Because intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance is
a capability gap for the theater, Venable said, the team needs to get creative.
“We are resource-limited in aircraft and ships, so we have worked together with
industry to provide unmanned maritime aircraft — both land-based and sea-based.
Some are programs-of-record [POR] and then there are non-POR aircraft. We had a
large UAS operate from El Salvador International Airport and Panama’s
International Airport in 2009 and 2010 to help the partner nations in the
counter-narcotics detection and the monitoring role,” Venable said. 

“We’re essentially technology scouts. “We’re out looking for the latest and greatest technologies being developed by DoD labs, industry and academia that we can pull forward and bring to the fleet to solve operational needs.”

Christopher Heagney, science adviser to Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet

The Stark Aerospace’s Heron deployment to Panama was
successful, helping the Panamanians seize more than 12 metric tons of cocaine,
Venable said. The team also experimented with the ship-based AeroVironment Puma
AE (all-environment) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Puma AE is a handheld UAV
and contractor-owned/contractor-operated (COCO). “Most of the operations we do
are COCO, because we can contract for services instead of owning the airplane
and having to worry about the training and maintenance. We contract for a
flight-hour requirement, and the company is responsible for satisfying that.

“One of the technologies we’ve been looking at is very
simple, but will help in the landing of our UAVs,” Venable said. “It’s an
optical landing system by Planck Aerosystems that uses something like a QR code
that is about 3 feet square, and the aircraft scan it, locks on and lands on
it.”

4th Fleet Covers Theater Friendly to
Innovation

Venable said there are three key factors that make the 4th
Fleet area of operations a good place to do the testing. “One, it’s a benign
environment; two, it’s right in our backyard and three, we have assets and air
space available to industry to come down and demonstrate their technology
either as a proof of concept or in an actual operational deployment. It’s
mutually beneficial to the company and the Navy.”

Heagney said the innovation cell also focuses on theater
security and cooperation and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief
(HA/DR). Whether it’s a hurricane, earthquake, flood or a country that becomes
unstable, C4F has had to respond. “As a naval force, we respond rapidly when
we’re called forward. So, we’re interested in what kind of technologies can we
find that will help with that mission, whether its medical, or moving supplies,
or conducting search and rescue. We want to find where people are in the most
need when a disaster hits and make sure our response can get what they need to
them. We focus on medical and HA/DR because we don’t have a major kinetic
priority,” he said. “We have a little more flexibility to focus on things other
than warheads on foreheads.”

Key to the success of the innovation efforts are the
experiment designs, data collection, analysis and reports that capture what
they did and why it’s important. 

Trost was an economics professor for 33 years. He’s
involved in designing the experiments, collecting the data during the
experiments and providing the post-mission analyses.

“I design the data collection analysis plans and pass
them on to Ted and Chris for comments,” Trost said. “After the experiments are
complete, I write up the results and again get their comments.”

In updating data or improving computer models and
simulations, the right data must be collected and it must be in the appropriate
format.

“We might look at 10 things and only two or three of them
turn out successful,” Heagney said. “It’s important for the warfighters to know
what works and what doesn’t.  We can help
find that out. And we have the data to back that up.”

Some of the experiments require little or no supervision
or intervention. “We’ve been working with a SBIR [Small Business Innovation
Research] and RIF [Rapid Innovation Fund] project for a new coating for
aircraft. We’ve taking aluminum panels called coupons that have the new
coating, as well as some with no coating, and we’ve taken them to sea aboard a
leased commercial vessel for at-sea data collection,” Heagney said. “We’re
getting real, no-kidding at-sea data on how do these perform in the environment
that our aircraft operate in. Instead of having an F-18 corrode because we
picked the wrong one, we let these corrode and we pick the perfect one.”

The U.S. 4th Fleet is responsible for 14 million square
miles of water from the Caribbean Sea, Atlantic and Pacific oceans. While it
has a lot of ocean, it doesn’t have a lot of ships. But the 4th Fleet does have
platforms, such as the Military Sealift Command expeditionary fast transport
USNS Spearhead (T-EPF 1), which supports a number of logistics and theater
security cooperation missions, and leased offshore support vessels, which can
be used as platforms for testing. 

With the Navy procuring 24 mine countermeasure (MCM) mission
packages for littoral combat ships (LCS), Heagney and his team are looking at
how they can employ components of those mission packages even if an LCS is not
available.

“If we think of LCS as the truck, and the mission package
as the payload, why can’t we use another vessel of opportunity to accomplish
that mission with an MCM adaptive force package? We’re stepping up and saying,
‘Well, we’ve got an EPF if you want to try it on other ships — what other ships
do we have that could potentially do this? The EPF is a good one.’ ”

Heagney points to a test with Naval Warfare Development
Command using a British Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship, the RFA Mounts Bay, to use
elements of the LCS MCM mission package from a vessel of opportunity, as a good
example. The test used elements of the mission package such as the Common
Unmanned Surface Vessel (CUSV), the Knifefish UUV, Airborne Laser Mine
Detection System (ALMDS), Airborne Mine Neutralization System (AMNS), the Mark
18 Mod 1 Swordfish, and the Mark 18 Mod 2 Kingfish UUVs and involved LCS
Squadron (LCSRON) 2 Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 2 and HSC-28 and Explosive
Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) 2. 

“It’s not necessarily the capability of that one
particular system, because we assume the vehicle does what it’s supposed to do,”
Heagney said. “We want to develop a concept for doing it. It’s proving that we
can get it on the ship, that there is battery storage and the ability to
recharge them, that there are procedures down so we can actually get it to the
crane and be able to safely deploy the vehicle in the water and then be able to
recover it. That’s what we want to demonstrate, because I If you put in the
water and tell it to ‘go find mines’ it will find mines, right? But it’s all
the ability to launch and recover and do that from multiple ships. I think
that’s what really adds to the punch that the Navy can deliver. We’re not just
tied to these couple ships to do this mission.”

“We don’t really have mine equities, but our sister
fleets — 2nd, 5th, 6th and 7th— definitely do. And we can test it
here for their benefit. We can be the theater innovation,” Heagney added. “It’s
really a benefit for the Navy as a whole.”

‘Unparalleled Opportunities’ to Test, Refine
New Capabilities

“Fourth fleet offers unparalleled opportunities to test
and refine new capabilities and tactics in a risk-controlled environment,
versus a well-resourced, determined, creative adversary that also has a high
capture benefit,” said Rear Adm. Don Gabrielson, commander of the 4th Fleet. “This
team values every opportunity to contribute to national security and is
dedicated to partnering with the U.S. Coast Guard and all our partner nations
in bringing every resource to bear. These innovative systems operate in an
unparalleled learning environment with real national security benefits. We
are grateful for their contributions.”

Heagney said, “When we’re going and doing these
innovation events, we bring scientists out with us. We want them to get out of
the lab and see what it’s like to interface with the fleet.”

A lot of the demonstrations and testing sound simple and
straightforward, but the devil is in the details.

“It is amazing the simple things that you think, ‘Oh yeah, that should be no problem,’ ” Heagney said. “But when you get out on the water, on a new or different ship, things just go south really quick. The maritime environment is crazy difficult. When we take a brand-new technology, and it’s the first time an operator has seen it, and you put in the water, you will be shocked by the results you have. And that’s why we do what we do. We learn.”

Edward Lundquist spoke with the U.S. 4th Fleet innovation cell at Mayport, Florida.

The Port of Los Angeles waterfront in San Pedro is home to the Pacific Battleship Center (PBC) and Battleship Iowa (BB 61) Museum. With its 16-inch guns, Tomahawk missiles and other weapons, the 45,000-ton Iowa was once a forceful and imposing instrument of “battleship diplomacy.” Even moored as a museum, Iowa still conveys a powerful message about the importance of the U.S. Navy today and into the future.

Check out the digital edition of the February/March Seapower magazine here.

Located
next to the Port of Long Beach, the Port of Los Angeles is one of the busiest
in the world with 270 berths, 17 marinas with 3,800 boat slips, 20-plus cargo
terminals, and 75 container cranes and a cruise ship terminal that moves more
than a million cruise passengers each year. While the Iowa is a magnet there to
veterans and naval buffs, it also serves a wider audience. The ship educates
the public on why the Navy and maritime commerce are so important.

“We’ve
worked hard to change our audience from those with a natural affinity, such as
veterans and history buffs, into public engagement,” said Jonathan Williams, president
and CEO of Pacific Battleship Center, the nonprofit organization tasked to
operate the Battleship Iowa Museum.

While
history at the museum is important, the relevancy of the surface Navy to the
public is probably the most important component.

“Surface
warriors understand the importance of their own community and their
contribution to the Navy and the nation. But a museum’s purpose is to educate
the public, and we see our role expanding to educate the public on the
importance of the role of the surface Navy,” Williams said.

“A
large percentage of the general public has no idea of the breadth of the surface
Navy’s role and how it affects the average person’s life. In my opinion,
there’s no better place to do that than right here in the largest port in the
United States, because our Navy helps maintain safe and secure sea lanes to
ensure the passage of all that wonderful cargo that we enjoy as American
consumers and the exports and humanitarian assistance that we send overseas and
all of those different things that make our country what it is.”

Despite
the size of the port, most Los Angeles residents have never been inside it. “There
are young people who live 5 miles from here who have never been on a ship or
even seen one up close,” Williams said.

“Earlier
this year, we announced plans to become the National Museum of the Surface Navy
at Battleship Iowa. We’re in the final design process of our capital campaign
package to raise the necessary funds,” Williams added.

“We’ve worked hard to change our audience from those with a natural affinity, such as veterans and history buffs, into public engagement.”

Jonathan Williams, president and CEO, Pacific Battleship Center

“This
transition will have a tremendous impact locally and regionally and,
ultimately, will raise awareness about the relevancy of the surface Navy today.
As we develop the National Museum of the Surface Navy concept, our capital
campaign package discusses each one of the components of the surface Navy and
why they’re important — not only reflecting on the past in the historical
context of ‘look at this artifact,’ or ‘look at this historical story,’ but why
that component is a relevant aspect of maintaining the future of our country
and international relations.”

Williams
said the focus is on the basics.

“We
realized that only ship lovers like us really care to go inside to see the nuts
and bolts of a ship. The majority of the general public is more interested in
the human connection versus technical facts, which drives a broader level of
storytelling. We have worked really hard to change our audience over the past
seven years from the natural affinity audience of veterans and history buffs to
more of a public engaging audience.”

According
to Williams, the National Museum of the Surface Navy will be more than a
museum. “We want to become the place where we can have conversations about
international trade, safe and secure commerce at sea, disaster response, and
important facets of the surface Navy’s impact to society. We have our wardroom
and our CPO [chief petty officer] mess and our fantail available for meetings,
presentations and seminars. The ship itself can serve to stimulate these
discussions.”

Home
to Exhibits — and a Connection to Active-Duty Sailors

Iowa
is not just a Navy museum — it showcases other maritime themes as well. One
5,000-square-foot former berthing compartment is now Robert Ballard’s “Lost at
Sea” exhibit. The formula seems to be working. According to TripAdvisor, the
Battleship Iowa Museum is the fourth most popular museum of 131 and the sixth
most popular of 623 tourist attractions in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

“We announce the arrival of every veteran who walks aboard.”

JONATHAN WILLIAMS

In
fact, the Battleship Iowa Museum already hosts junior naval officers attending the
basic division officer course at Surface Warfare Officers School who come up
from San Diego for instruction in the history and heritage of the surface Navy.
CPO selects come to the ship from Port Hueneme and San Diego each year for
indoctrination. “We do a lot of enlistments, re-enlistments, retirements and promotion
ceremonies. We also have Army, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard coming here,”
Williams said. “It’s not just Navy.”

The
ship has become a home to various organizations. American Legion Post 61
transferred from Sacramento to San Pedro and is based aboard the Iowa. The U.S.
Naval Sea Cadets Battleship Iowa Division holds its meetings on the ship, and
there is a weekly amateur radio club. The new Battleship Iowa Surface Navy
Association Chapter held its first meeting in the wardroom recently, with more
than half of its membership in attendance.  

The
museum offers two STEM programs to encourage students to learn about science,
technology, engineering and math. One is called “Day of Discovery” with Los
Angeles Unified School District — the second largest school district in the
country. The other is called “STEM at Sea” for any other school district in Los
Angeles or Orange County. “We currently focus on 4th through 6th grades,”
Williams said. “We have trained volunteer tour guides that help us deliver the
program.”

The
emphasis on educating the public doesn’t mean veterans are forgotten. The USS
Iowa association holds its reunion on the ship every four years and meets at
other locations around the country on the other three years.

“We
announce the arrival of every veteran who walks aboard,” Williams said.

Rear
Adm. Mike Shatynski, the chairman of the PBC’s board of directors, said veterans
are still an important part of the Iowa family. “The Iowa would be razor blades
now if not for veterans. As a veteran that has found a home aboard Iowa, I can
speak for my shipmates that it fills that hole in our lives that we have had
since we left active duty. Without exaggeration, I can tell you that Iowa has
changed and saved many lives.” 

Serving
aboard Iowa today is serving as a nexus between the military and the civilian
world for transitioning service members.

“One
of the things we didn’t realize is the organic nature of the ship and how being
part of the crew here today has helped vets and civilians alike bridge that gap
and provide a comfortable environment to be part of something greater than
themselves,” Williams said. “Veterans have always found in service to one’s
country something that’s greater than themselves, feeling like they’re part of
something bigger.

“And
today the ship and this organization continues that experience by organically
helping veterans’ transition into the civilian world — we’re integrating both
civilians and vets aboard a ship platform versus walking into a building or a
workforce development center. We’re hosting a lot of seminars and programs to
build on this unique environment, and we are working with partners like Reboot
out of San Diego, LA County Department of Mental Health, the Wounded Warrior
Project as well, and we’ve received some funding from Philadelphia Gear and the
Johnny Carson Foundation to make this happen.”

According
to Dave Way, the museum’s curator, the Pacific Battleship Center employs 16
full-time employees, with 390 part-timers and several contract personnel who
run the concessions. And there are several hundred volunteers, who Way
described as “incredible beyond words.”

In
addition to grants and corporate sponsorships, the PBC receives revenue from
ticket sales, hosting events and receptions, sleepovers by Boy Scouts and other
groups participating in Camp Battleship, which has 210 original berths, and
even filming by Hollywood production companies.

The
ship has both contractor and volunteers to help maintain the ship in a
condition “satisfactory to the Secretary of the Navy.” The original teak decks,
for example, have been a challenge to maintain. Way said it’s difficult to find
enough quality teak and the oakum caulking needed to make the decks watertight,
so new planking is being installed using Douglas Fir and is being bolted to the
deck.

A
significant donation came from the state of Iowa to keep their namesake ship in
good material condition. It’s no surprise that a big ship in a saltwater
environment needs plenty of upkeep, and the Iowa team takes maintenance
seriously. For example, the active anti-corrosion system uses an electrical
current to protect the hull.

Williams
said that raising money for any historic ship is a challenge, but he is
encouraged by the fact that the organization already has a large donor list of
about 36,000 people who have supported the Iowa, many of which have already
shown interest in the National Museum of the Surface Navy transition. Surprisingly,
Williams said the supporters don’t mind being asked again for donations.

“I
tend to find that we will actually turn off a donor if we don’t ask them to
support the programs or maintain the ship condition. Donors like to make an
impact and involving them in the organization allows them to become a part of
something greater than themselves.” 

Other
Historic Navy Ships Find Access Becoming a Challenge

Other
large historic Navy ships open to visitors find similar challenges as well as opportunities.

Norfolk
is well-known as a Navy town, but it’s not as easy to get on base to take a
tour and see the ships as it once was. According to Stephen Kirkland is the
director of Nauticus National Maritime Center and the Battleship Wisconsin at
Waterside in Norfolk, for many people who come to visit Williamsburg and
Virginia Beach, this is as close as they’re going to get.

Kirkland
said he and his staff have two kinds of visitors. There are the aficionados who
are passionate about the Navy and its ships, especially battleships. “They’re
going to come to see us. We get visitors who have been aboard all four of the
Iowa class ships.”

But,
Kirkland said, “The majority of our guests have no conception. It’s our job and
privilege to give them a better understanding.”

It’s
not just about telling the story of the USS Wisconsin, Kirkland said. “How can
we use this ship to tell the story of the U.S. Navy, and why it’s so important
to our nation and the world?”

Kirkland said his team is trying different ways to get people aboard the ship, such as concerts or holiday-themed events such as Halloween, to appeal to a wider audience. He said Wisconsin is the first battleship to offer an “escape room,” where people must solve a series of problems and figure out how to get out of the room.

“We did it to reach those people who might not come aboard for any other reason than that. But once we get them on the ship, they will immediately have an understanding of how impressive it is. And with that comes more eyeballs and more funding. That’s important, because we’ve got to make sure the ship is in good shape for years to come,” he said.

Retired Navy Capt. Wayne Hughes, dean emeritus at the
Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), died on Dec. 3 in Monterey, Calif. He was 89.

Hughes was professor of practice, military operations research,
a fellow of the Military Operations Research Society and perhaps best known for
his influential books on tactics. His most recent book, “Fleet Tactics and
Naval Operations,” Third Edition, written with Rear Adm. Robert Girrier, was
published by the Naval Institute Press in 2018.

Hughes was also author of numerous articles on tactics
and operations research and the importance of understanding calculations such
as weapon type, capacity and range, combined with platform quantity,
maneuverability and employment of both friendly and adversary ships that
ultimately determine the outcome of naval conflicts.

“Wayne shaped the thinking of generations of naval officers from many navies as a writer, a professor and a Sailor.”

Retired Capt. Jeff Kline

He was a 1952 graduate of the U.S. Naval
Academy. Among his numerous assignments afloat and ashore, Hughes commanded
minesweeper USS Hummingbird and destroyer USS Morton and was the Chief of Naval
Education and Training Support, Deputy Director of the Systems Analysis
Division in the Office of the CNO (OP-96), and Executive Assistant to the
Undersecretary of the Navy.

He was a huge proponent of military education and
cautioned sea service leaders from emphasizing policy and strategy at the
expense of tactics to fight and win future
battles at sea.

Hughes
was just recently featured in a six-part series of YouTube videos produced by NPS
as part of the school’s “Seapower Conversations” series, which features
informal conversations with university faculty experts on the trends,
technologies and tactics that shape modern seapower.

“Our community of NPS faculty represents deep expertise in a broad range of topics relevant to naval power and national security … machine learning, cyberwarfare, autonomy and unmanned systems, quantum mechanics and national strategy, for example. Our hope with ‘Seapower Conversations’ is to share some of that expertise,” said NPS’ president, retired Vice Adm. Ann Rondeau. “Wayne Hughes is a national treasure, a man who was dedicated to service, to scholarship, and to educating naval officers and future leaders. Who better to begin this series of conversations on naval power than with our own Wayne Hughes.”

Jeff Cares, chairman of Alidade Inc., was one
of Hughes’ operations research students at NPS, said, “Wayne was and always
will be my teacher. There have been more than a few
‘snatch-the-pebble-from-my-hand’ occasions, in which I thought myself no longer
his student. He would patiently allow me to talk excitedly about my
discovery, genuinely proud, I think, of my work, and then gently refer me to a
page in Fleet Tactics where, if I had been a more thoughtful reader, I would
have found that he already arrived at that conclusion many years
earlier.” 

Hughes was selected to receive the Surface Navy Association’s Special Recognition Award, the association’s highest honor. It will be presented posthumously next month at the SNA’s Annual Symposium in Arlington, Virginia.

“Wayne shaped the thinking of generations of naval officers from many navies as a writer, a professor and a Sailor,” said retired Capt. Jeff Kline, who served on the faculty at NPS with Hughes. “He will be missed by us all.”

About 3,000 servicemembers took part in the Arctic
Expeditionary Capabilities Exercise (AECE), which just concluded in Alaska.

AECE is a manifestation of the joint Navy and Marine
Corps Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment (LOCE) concept, issued in
2017, which calls for the creation of Littoral Combat Forces (LCFs) of various
units to conduct specific missions.

The exercise commander was Rear Adm. Cedric Pringle,
commander of Expeditionary Strike Group Three. The LCF construct provides a
multifunction command and control force that can be ashore or embarked at sea
or both.

For AECE, the LCF headquarters was established at Joint
Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, and the operating forces were divided
into Littoral Combat Groups 1 and 2, with those commanders embarked aboard USS
Somerset (LPD 25), carrying a Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force
(SP-MAGTF), and USS Comstock (LSD 45), respectively.

Speaking to reporters Sept. 23, Pringle said AECE was a
“natural evolution” of the Pacific Blitz exercise, held in March in California,
which exercised the LCF construct. But, he said, AECE was conducted in
“unfamiliar territory,” with wider range of assets than what he usually has
available to him with his expeditionary strike group and more adverse weather
conditions.

Like Pacific Blitz, the Navy-Marine Corps team was fully
integrated. But as the exercise was planned, both U.S. Air Force and Coast
Guard assets were included.

The U.S. Alaskan Command hosted the AECE command element
at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. Operations were taking place
in Seward, about 125 miles away, and Adak, 1,200 miles away, as well as off the
Silver Strand at Coronado, California.

AECE included mine-clearance operations at Seward and an
air assault on the airfield at Adak to establish a site for fueling and
rearming of P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft.  Support at Anchorage was provided by the
Alaska National Guard. The Coast Guard embarked an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter on
USS Somerset, and an HC-130 Hercules from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak
supported AECE with search-and-rescue capability and aerial refueling,
respectively. Coast Guard Cutter Douglas Munro (WHEC-724) supported search-and-rescue
operations and securities and enforcement in Adak. The Air Force C-130 aircraft
was able to fly to Adak with a medical team aboard to quickly evacuate a Sailor
in need of a higher level of care.

The exercise provided an opportunity to use platforms in
nontraditional roles and to bring together forces that do not usually operate
together.

“We had to find a way to have unity of command and
effort,” Pringle said. “This was all new.”

A key element to expeditionary operations is logistics
and what Pringle called the “ability to push fuel to forces ashore.” AECE
included the deployment of the offshore petroleum discharge system (OPDS) and a
forward arming and refueling point (FARP).

“To be able to get here, do expeditionary operations and
test our logistics capabilities made AECE a phenomenal opportunity to exercise
muscles we don’t usually exercise,” Pringle said.

USS Comstock transported the ABLTS system from San Diego
to Seward — the first time an amphibious ship was used to transport the ABLTS —
and demonstrated the capability by pumping water from a barge to a “fuel farm”
consisting of three 20,000-gallon bladders. 
The system can support combat operations or provide humanitarian
assistance as a part of the Navy’s Defense Support to Civil Authorities (DSCA)
mission. 

“If a natural disaster were to take out a coastal town’s
power, gas stations or drinkable water anywhere in the world, we could fill a
barge and send it to the affected region,” Pringle explained. “Systems like
ABLTS and our ability to transfer thousands of gallons of liquids like drinkable
water or fuel are critical during contingencies, crises response or
humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.”

Adak offered challenging and variable wind and sea
conditions. “The winds and seas dictated changes almost faster that we could
execute,” Pringle said. “One day we had winds up to 50 knots, with 15-foot
waves and a ceiling below 1,000 feet, and the next day it was clear and calm,
with 2-foot seas.”

Pringle said the equipment held up well in the harsh
surroundings. “We had one issue with a helicopter, but that actually was a good
thing, because we got to flex our maintenance capability.”

He said the Navy and Marine Corps learned a great deal
from their Air Force and Coast Guard counterparts. “The Air Force and Coast
Guard are always here. They know the environment better than we do.”

“Alaska … is tremendously strategic when it comes to protecting the homeland, and training here is extremely important to the Navy’s Arctic strategy. We need to conduct exercises like AECE to continue pushing our joint force into the future and continue pursuing innovation within the force.”

Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer

Apart from the periodic submerged Ice Exercise (ICEX) submarine transits of the Arctic Ocean, the sea services do not have a significant amount of current experience in extreme latitudes. The Navy and Marine Corps participated in the multinational exercise Trident Juncture last fall in and around Norway, and the Marines work with their Norwegian counterparts on a regular basis. But the last major exercise in Alaska was Kernel Potlach in 1987, and that was the first winter amphibious operation in the Aleutian Islands since the end of World War II.

Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday and Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz all visited Alaska to see AECE firsthand.

“Alaska is one of the best training venues we have,”
Spencer said while in Seward. “The location is tremendously strategic when it
comes to protecting the homeland, and training here is extremely important to
the Navy’s Arctic strategy. We need to conduct exercises like AECE to continue
pushing our joint force into the future and continue pursuing innovation within
the force.”

Vice Adm. John B. Alexander, commander of the U.S. 3rd
Fleet, also came to Alaska to see the exercise. “AECE provided our Navy and
Marine Corps team an opportunity to test our collective ability to plan,
communicate and conduct complex amphibious and expeditionary combat support
operations in a challenging austere environment,” he said. “The training and
experience we gained from AECE will help ensure that we remain a lethal and
capable fighting force and that we are able to conduct defense support of civil
authorities in the event of a crisis or disaster at home.”

While the conditions in and around Alaska were more
challenging that what might be encountered off California, Pringle admits it
could have been worse. “This is September. We understand it’s not this nice here
in winter.”

But, he said, that’s the point.

“We need to find hard venues and prove we can do it.”

Less ice in the Arctic is inviting more human activity. While
the environmental changes in the far north have opened the previously fully
frozen ocean and its coastline to opportunity, the Arctic is naturally a cold
and inhospitable place that is unforgiving for the unprepared.

As the access, interest and presence in the Arctic has grown,
new icebreakers and ice-capable ships are being built, and policies and
strategies have been updated. International research efforts are studying the
changing environment, and military exercise programs are learning and
practicing how to operate there.

Check out the full digital edition of Seapower magazine here.

Speaking at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space exposition in May,
Commandant of the Coast Guard Adm. Karl Schultz announced that the service had just
contracted for its new Polar Security Cutter (PSC), calling it the “first
recapitalization of the heavy icebreaker capability in the nation in more than
40 years.” Simultaneously, and what Schultz said was no coincidence, the Coast
Guard issued its new “Arctic Strategic Outlook.”

The U.S. Navy released “Strategic Outlook for the Arctic” in
January, which outlines the objectives of defending U.S. sovereignty and the
homeland from attack, ensuring that the Arctic remains a stable and
conflict-free region, preserving freedom of the seas, and promoting
partnerships within the U.S. Government and with allies and partners to achieve
these objectives.

According to the Danish “Defence Agreement 2018-2023,”
“Climate change brings not only better accessibility, but also an increased
attention to the extraction of natural resources as well as intensified
commercial and scientific activity. There is also increased military activity
in the area.”

According to the document, the Danish Defence presence and tasks are based on close relationships with the populations and local authorities of both Greenland and the Faroe Islands. “Although climate change and increased activity in the region necessitate increased presence and monitoring, Denmark continues to strengthen surveillance, command, control and communication, and operational efforts in the Arctic.”

All of these documents and action underscore concerns about
presence, sovereignty, safety and security, environmental, economic, and world
power competition in the Arctic. Russia has been open about its massive
military buildup in the Arctic, but Russia has a vested interest in extracting
resources and building access to markets. In fact, Russia gets 20 percent of
its gross domestic product from the north — not the situation in North America.
In 2018, China announced in its official Arctic strategy a $1 trillion program
to develop polar regions economically, declaring itself a “Near-Arctic State.” Russia’s
military expansion and China’s attempts to invest in a ports on Baffin Island
and airports in Greenland have alarmed the West. However, all the nations have
a goal to maintain the Arctic as a low-tension area, stressing cooperation and
collaboration.

Prepared for the High
Latitudes

The Coast Guard conducts annual the Arctic Shield exercise
to familiarize themselves with Arctic operations and evaluate new equipment. In
addition to the Navy’s long-running series of undersea Ice Exercises, the Navy
and Marine Corps also conducted major exercises in the high latitudes like NATO’s
Trident Juncture in and around Norway last fall, and is demonstrating
expeditionary maneuvers up in Alaska during the Arctic Expeditionary
Capabilities Exercise in September.

There are many challenges in conducting military exercises
in the Arctic, but they help warfighters to better understand and deal with the
lack of infrastructure, communications, logistics, medical response capability
and vastness of the region. For starters, they require ships designed and
equipped for high latitudes.

The Royal Danish Navy has operated in the waters off
Greenland for many years, and currently has Thetis-class frigates and Knud
Rasmussen-class arctic offshore patrol vessels that are optimized for the icy
waters.

The Royal Canadian Navy has commissioned the first of six Harry
DeWolf Arctic and offshore patrol vessels, and two more are planned for the
Canadian Coast Guard. The CCG is also modifying three icebreakers procured from
Sweden for use in Canadian waters and is building at least two new icebreakers
as part of the National Shipbuilding Strategy. And the Canadian Armed Forces
continue to exercise and operate in the extreme north, and even conducting
diving operations with partner nations beneath the Arctic Ocean, as part of its
continuing Operation NANOOK series of training exercises.

There has been an increase in traffic in Canada’s Northwest
Passage, including transits by the Crystal Serenity cruise ship in 2016 and
2017. But the ice is unpredictable and prevented ships from getting through
last year. The 27 rural communities in Canada’s Nunavut territory are not
connect by roads, but must be resupplied once a year by ship or barge, and are
dependent on the capability to operate in the Arctic in the summer. Both the Royal
Canadian Navy and Coast Guard hope their new ships will allow them to work
farther north, and upgrading a former mining pier at Nanasivik to be used as a
refueling port will let them stay longer.

Cooperation

Also speaking at Sea-Air-Space, U.S. Coast Guard Deputy
Commandant for Operations Vice Adm. Daniel B. Abel talked about profound
partnerships and native knowledge. He served previously in command of the 17th
Coast Guard District in Juneau, Alaska, where he learned to “Listen to those
who live there, who are impacted by the Arctic.”

The Alaskan coastline is more than 6,600 miles long, Abel
said — more than the entire coastline for the lower 48 states. So cooperation
is an absolute necessity.

“We work closely with our partners in the Arctic, including
our neighbors in Canada, who are the best partners we could ever have,” Abel
said.

But that includes all the players in the Arctic. “The
distance across the Bering Strait is 44 miles, the same distance as Washington
is to Baltimore. That’s how close the United States is to Russia,” Abel said.
“Clearly, we have to cooperate.”

Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard Jeffery Hutchinson,
speaking at the Sea-Air-Space, said the Arctic is “not as frozen as it once
was, but from where we sit, there’s still lots of ice.”

The U.S. and Canada work closely with the other Arctic
nations, as members of the Arctic Coast Guard Forum. “We all understand the
vastness in the Arctic, in the ice, on the seas and on the land. It requires
everyone to pull together,” Hutchinson said. “There isn’t an Arctic nation that
hasn’t had to rely on another Arctic nation, at some point — and I say that
with pride and humility.

One important way nations cooperate in through scientific
research and environmental data collection. This fall the German research
icebreaker Polarstern will get stuck in the Arctic ice on purpose, and drift
for a year as teams of 600 scientists and researchers from 17 countries rotate
on and off the ship to collect data that would otherwise be impractical or
impossible. The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic
Climate (MOSAiC) will study the Arctic climate system and how it relates to
global climate models. The U.S., Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, New
Zealand, Norway and Sweden are participating in the International Cooperative
Engagement Program for Polar Research (ICE-PPR), which shares in the
development and use of polar sensors and remote sensing techniques, data
collection, environmental modeling and prediction, and associated human factors
involved in operating in the extreme latitudes. The Canadian Armed Forces are
leading the multinational Joint Arctic Experiment.

Survival Gets Personal

While the places of the far north — like Alaska, Greenland,
or Nunavut — are enormous, and major the research efforts being conducted there
require many people working together, the bottom line for any military
operation or scientific project there comes down to personal survival.

The real enemy is the Arctic itself. In 2015, two
experienced polar explorers, Marc Cornelissen and Philip de Roo, fell through
the ice while on an expedition to measure sea ice thickness.

Maj. Gary Johnson from the Canadian Army Doctrine and
Training Mobility command runs the Canadian Arctic Training Center in Resolute,
which served as a base for Operation NANOOK-NUNALIVUT 2019 and the Joint Arctic
Experiment. As a logistician, he said any military activity in the far north
must address mobility, sustainability and survivability. “Whatever we do, it
has to be deliberate; it has to be planned. It’s an environment that can take
your life if you don’t respect it.”

Johnson looks at it as a crawl-walk-run situation. “Up here,
crawl means survive. The next phase is to operate, and the end goal is to thrive.

During NANOOK-NUNALIVUT, platoons traveled by snowmobile to
secure a landing zone while other soldiers built ice shelters and igloos. As
part of the Joint Arctic Experiment, researchers monitored the soldiers for
frostbite, which in the -60 degree Celsius temperatures can affect exposed skin
in two minutes.

Eyes, ears and voice
of the North

The vast majority of the people in the Canadian North are
indigenous, which has implications for Canadian Armed Forces operations in the
North. In fact, the face of the Canadian Armed Forces in the north is
indigenous.

Canada has 1,800 Canadian Rangers, a component of the
Reserve, most of whom are indigenous.

The Canadian Armed Forces are represented in every community through
the Ranger program. They are not only Canadian Armed Forces Reservists, but
they’re also selected by their communities. So within their communities,
they’re seen as leaders and examples to the young people, respected by their
peers and the people in their villages. “That level of connection is invaluable,
because they’re the eyes and ears and voice of the North,” said Brig. Gen. Patrick
Carpentier, commander, Joint Task Force North. “They connect to us on a
constant basis. So it’s a sensor that we wouldn’t otherwise have for what is
going on in different communities in the north. Our expectations are
that they will be masters of the terrain around their own communities and they
will be able to spot anything that changes, and pass word back to the 1^st
Canadian Rangers Patrol Group headquarters, and on to Joint Task Force North
headquarters in Yellowknife.

“We are on the land of the Inuit,” said Carpentier. “We look
to them to bring their traditional knowledge to us as we conduct operations in
the North. Nothing we do here would be possible without the Rangers.”

“It’s not a matter of they need our support,” said Hutchinson. “Rather we need their support, their knowledge and understanding.”

Edward Lundquist traveled to Yellowknife and Tukyoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, and Resolute, Nunavut, to report this story.

---

Sporting spectacles such as the Pro Bowl and Boston Marathon
draw big crowds. Now they are also drawing swarms of U.S. Navy recruiters.

Recruiters have always gravitated to where the potential
applicants may be, to talk about Navy opportunities. Navy Recruiting Command
initiated “swarming” in December 2018, to bring extra recruiters and resources
together for high-profile events.

“This concept will give us the ability to support bigger
events with heightened visibility while bolstering prospecting, increasing Navy
awareness and closing leads,” said Rear Adm. Brendan McLane, commander of Navy
Recruiting Command.

“We focus on big events and bring in our top recruiters from
around the country to take advantage of the increased attention which those events
have. We ran a pilot right before Christmas in Miami for two back-to-back Miami
Heat NBA games,” McLane said.

The Miami swarm included 55 recruiting personnel who visited
12 high schools, three community outreach events and attended two Miami Heat-Houston
Rockets basketball games Dec. 17-22.

“It was very successful, and we followed that with the Pro
Bowl in January, which also coincided with a military expo focused on high
school kids in Orlando. We did the Mobile Navy Week in Alabama at the end of
February. And then in March, we were at the Minnesota Ice Hockey State
Championship in Minneapolis and the Boston Marathon in April,” McLane said. “We
bring in our best instructors from the Recruiting Academy, and the recruiters of
the year from the other districts, as a way of recognizing them, and we swarm.
We visit the high schools in much larger groups than we usually do.”

McLane said groups of recruiters visit a number of high
schools to make presentations in the classrooms, particularly about STEM
subjects, to drive recruitment for the nuclear field and other advanced career
fields. “We also invest in local media about 14 days before the event.”

According to Interior Communications Electrician 1st Class
Hilary A. Martin, assigned to Navy Recruiting District, Raleigh, and a
participant in the Miami swarm, the Navy can offer young people an education,
health care and travel, a chance to serve their country and a career.  “I’m a communications electrician, and I work
with some of the most advanced systems and equipment, which not only is
exciting but helps prepare me for other jobs when I eventually get out of the
Navy.”

The swarm includes one of CNRC’s two virtual reality trucks,
which offers young people the chance to put on a 360-degree virtual reality
headset with amazing graphics and become immersed in a tactical scenario. “You
get a dog tag that has your info on it and then you become a special boat
driver who has to go into a hot extraction point to get the SEALs out, and
drive them back down the river,” McLane said. “After your mission, you get your
debrief, and you can see if you performed as well as your friends.”

“The centennial generation have grown up with the internet
and technology, so we appeal to them with things like virtual reality goggles
where they get to see a 360-degree view on a carrier flight deck and more,”
said Capt. Matthew Boren, Navy Recruiting Command’s chief marketing officer.
“They want to see it, and we have the virtual reality truck where they can go
on a virtual mission to extract a SEAL team. We are a technical Navy with some
of the most high-tech combat systems in the world, so we need really
well-trained and smart operators that have the skills to run those systems.”

“We are a technical Navy with some of the most high-tech combat systems in the world, so we need really well-trained and smart operators that have the skills to run those systems.”

Capt. Matthew Boren, Navy Recruiting Command’s chief marketing officer

“All these things combined drive the number of contacts up,
which leads to higher numbers of interviews, which leads to greater numbers of contracts,”
McLane said.  “That leads to recruits
graduating and going on to [initial job training] “A” schools so they can fill;
vital billets in the fleet.”

McLane said the plan is ensure that there are an equal
number of swarms in both the east and west recruiting regions.  “You can count on swarming events occurring
every month throughout the nation.”

Edward Lundquist traveled to Navy Recruiting Command’s headquarters in Millington, Tennessee, to report this story.

According to
Vice Adm. Alexandru Mîrşu, chief of the Romanian naval forces staff, efforts to
improve security and stability in the Black Sea region have taken a step back,
thanks to the aggressive activities of the Russian Federation.

The Black Sea
region includes three NATO allies in Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey along with
Russia, Ukraine and Georgia, with access governed by the Montreux Convention of
1936.

After the
Cold War, Mîrşu said the region enjoyed a relatively calm security environment
until the Russians illegally occupied and annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine
in 2014. There had been some successful post-Cold War initiatives adopted by
the Black Sea nations to maintain common security and stability, including the
Black Sea Naval Force (BLACKSEAFOR), Black Sea Harmony and the Confidence and
Security Building Measures (CSBM).

“We represent a NATO presence. Our activity is not provocative and is conducted in such a way as there could not be any misinterpretation.”

Vice Adm. Alexandru Mîrşu, chief of the Romanian naval forces staff

Until 2014, BLACKSEAFOR
proved to be successful in bringing the Black Sea nations to the table and
having operational successes to improve interoperability among those countries,
Mîrşu said. Black Sea Harmony facilitated information-sharing among the
littoral countries and included coast guards and border police as well as
navies. Today, only Romania and Turkey participate. The CSBM was an agreed upon
document that addressed cooperation in the naval field — contacts and invitations
to naval bases, exchange of naval information and annual naval exercises.
However, CSBM is now only a “theoretical paper,” Mîrşu said at the Navy League’s
Sea-Air-Space exposition in National Harbor, Md.

Since its occupation
and annexation of Crimea, Russia has continued to behave aggressively toward
NATO navies operating in the Black Sea. The Russian Black Sea fleet has grown
its capabilities with new ships and submarines in just the past four years and
has added such new weapons as Kalibr-missile carrying platforms.

Mîrşu said
the 2016 Kerch Strait incident — when the Russian coast guard prevented three
Ukrainian navy vessels from entering the Sea of Azoz and then fired upon and
seized the vessels in international waters — was “an open, aggressive attack
upon the Ukrainian’s navy ships” and “demonstrates that the will of the
Russians is actually to re-establish a new Iron Curtain into the Black Sea. And
not only into the Black Sea but actually in the whole of Europe,” he said.

Last November,
a Russian SU-27 fighter conducted a provocative and unsafe maneuver when it pulled
directly in front of a U.S. Navy EP-3 Aries II plane operating in international
airspace over the Black Sea. The Russian fighter kicked in the afterburner as
it departed, buffeting the U.S. plane.

The Montreux
Convention of 1936 only permits warships from non-Black Sea navies to operate
in the Black Sea for 21 days. NATO’s Standing Maritime Force deploys
periodically to Black Sea, along with allies and partners to demonstrate
cohesion and strength of the alliance and that the Black Sea is an
international sea for the use of all. Several U.S. warships have been in the
Black Sea this year.

“The Romanian
navy joins those ships when they enter the Black Sea to show them that nobody
is alone,” Mîrşu said.

The Romanian navy
has stepped up its game. It has a riverine force patrolling the Danube River,
the longest river in Europe. It is acquiring new corvettes and modernizing its
frigates. Romania has established a quasi-permanent presence at sea to send the
message that they are patrolling the maritime domain so that the sea lines of
communication are open and safe, Mîrşu said.

“We represent
a NATO presence,” Mîrşu said. “Our activity is not provocative and is conducted
in such a way as there could not be any misinterpretation.”

Mîrşu said
the Black Sea remains “the soft underbelly of NATO’s southeastern flank.” The
Russian attitude and posture in the Black Sea remains, and the Russian
Federation has established a “new Iron Curtain” dividing the allies and the
rest.

“Our response
is our permanent presence,” Mîrşu said and that we will remain a reliable
partner to our allies in the Black Sea and on the Danube and wherever we are
needed. The Romanian navy will continue to be credible security provider — not
security consumer — in our area of responsibilities.”

ANTWERP, Belgium — Belgium’s 40-mile long coastline is shorter than most countries, but Belgium is a maritime nation with one of the busiest seaports in the world, Antwerp, and sits astride the approaches to the Dutch port of Rotterdam. Together they are two of the busiest ports in Europe.

Standing off the coast of Belgium are found enough wind turbines to generate more than five percent of the national energy demand, increasing to 20 percent beyond 2020. The presence of offshore wind generation is growing, especially in Europe. Despite its relatively small coastal zone, Belgium is third in Europe behind the United Kingdom and Denmark in wind energy production. Instead of solely complicating navigation, Capt. Jan De Beurme, chief of staff of the Belgian Navy, said the cooperation with the wind farms industry could prove very useful.

“There is private owned infrastructure in place that could be shared with the Navy,” De Beurme said. “Antennas and radars can be mounted on the structures; offshore camera images can be shared to increase the maritime awareness and maritime picture in our coastal waters. In return the Navy can assure the security of these critical infrastructures that the wind farms are to Belgium.”

Antwerp prides itself on being the “crossroads of the global supply chain,” Beurme added.

De Beurme explains the joint Dutch-Belgian mine countermeasures project that will create new capabilities for both navies. The mine countermeasures ships will abandon the legacy minesweeper or mine hunter that must approach and enter the minefield to find or clear mines. Those ships have therefore traditionally been made of wood or composites so they won’t trigger magnetic influence mines. De Beurme said the new ships will remain outside minefields and rely on a “toolbox” of offboard remote and unmanned systems to enter the danger zones while the ship remains at a safe distance. As drone technology matures, the newer capabilities can replace the older systems.

Belgium’s Navy is a blue-water navy and is capable of distant open-ocean operations. While their ships will be interoperable with NATO mine warfare assignments anywhere in the alliance, they will also be optimized to find and neutralize any mines introduced into their own coastal waters.

These offboard systems can be controlled from the ships, or from containerized control stations that can be placed where needed ashore. The unmanned underwater vehicles can carry sensors such as synthetic aperture sonar and side scanning sonar, as well as neutralization charges to destroy mines. The critical part of using underwater vehicles for mine hunting is to be able to communicate with those vehicles and quickly obtain the sensor data for analysis.

The matrix of wind structures can help create an underwater network to communicate with the drones, and even recharge their batteries.

Coastal security is a team effort, De Beurme said, involving the Navy, Federal Police and Customs working together from a single maritime information center. “We want to step up our maritime information center, and add new sensors.”

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been awarded a contract to deepen the Port of Corpus Christi ship channel.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. received a $93 million construction contract on Jan. 4, to deepen and widen the Corpus Christi Ship Channel from the Gulf of Mexico to Harbor Island, as part of the first phase of the port’s $326 million Channel Improvement Project (CIP).

Corpus Christi is the largest crude oil port in the United States and handles both imports and exports. The port exports about 100 million tons annually.

Charles W. Zahn, chairman for the Port of Corpus Christi Commission said the deeper channel “will allow larger vessels access to much needed export facilities, safely and responsibly.”

The dredging will deepen the entire ship channel to 54 feet from 45 feet and widen it to 520 feet from 400. The full project, which will be completed in phases and take about five years, will permit two-way supertanker traffic, including very large crude carriers (VLCCs), which can carry up to 2 million barrels of crude oil. Great Lakes will start this first phase later this year, which will take about a year to complete.

“We commend the Army Corps of Engineers for progressing the highly anticipated Corpus Christi Ship Channel Improvement Project, and the selection of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock to perform on this first contract is an extraordinary step forward in positioning the United States as the largest exporter of energy in the world,” said Sean Strawbridge, CEO for the Port of Corpus Christi.

The CIP will result in the first shore-based VLCC terminal in the U.S. The only other terminal is located offshore.

Based in Oak Grove, Illinois, Great lakes is America’s largest dredging contractor, although much of its work is international.

“We are confident that this will drive the much-anticipated future investment and development in the port,” said Lasse Petterson, CEO of Great Lakes. “It all starts with dredging.”

VICTORIA, British Columbia — The Canadian Armed Forces marked a major military milestone in the retiring of the CH-124 Sea King maritime helicopter, which has served for more than 50 years.

The Sea King will officially retire from service by Dec. 31 as the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) completes its transition to the new CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopter. But the Canadian Armed Forces paid tribute to the aircraft in a parade held Dec. 1 in Victoria.

Although the Sea King operates from ships, and was originally procured in 1963 to conduct anti-submarine warfare at sea, the aircraft were operated by the RCAF, and was that services longest-serving aircraft. The aircraft were assigned to the 12 Wing and based at Shearwater, Nova Scotia, and Patricia Bay, British Columbia.

The helicopter was capable of day and night operations, and had folding rotor blades so they could fit into the hangars aboard surface combatants. It had an amphibious hull and could land on water.

Canada’s CH-124 Sea King fleet has flown in excess of 550,000 hours, and served in NATO and other international maritime operations conducting international peacekeeping, surveillance and counter-piracy as well as anti-submarine warfare. They have deployed all over the world, including the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Yugoslavia, East Timor and Haiti.

Many of the domestic maritime duties in the U.S. that would be conducted by the U.S. Coast Guard, such search and rescue, disaster relief, counter-narcotic operations, and pollution and fisheries patrols, are missions performed in Canada by the Navy and Air Force. And many of those response and enforcement missions were performed by the Sea King. Most recently, a CH-124 Sea King participated in the RCAF’s support to firefighting operations in British Columbia.

“The Royal Canadian Navy has been well served by the Sea King — our longest-range weapon and sensor — for decades. It was an honor to fly with the crew of Black Horse, the helicopter deployed with HMCS St. John’s, during the Sea King’s last operational deployment supporting NATO assurance measures this summer,” said Vice Adm. M. F. Ron Lloyd, commander of the Royal Canadian Navy. “Canada’s Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force continue to forge ahead with an exciting new chapter, marked by the first operational deployment of Avalanche, the Cyclone helicopter currently deployed on NATO operations with HMCS Ville de Quebec.”

According to RCAF Commander Lt. Gen. Al Meinzinger, the retirement of the CH-124 Sea King is truly historic for the RCAF.

“No other fleet has served as long as the Sea King, and its 55 years of service are a monument not only to its durability and capability, but to the men and women who operated, maintained and otherwise supported this incredible helicopter,” he said.