The Office of Naval Research (ONR) observed its 75^th anniversary Sept. 30 with a virtual event that examined “the Future of Warfare.”

The event, called “ONR at 75: Reimagine Naval Power,” featured  the participation of senior naval and congressional leaders and brief remarks from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael M. Gilday. The online event summarized some of ONR’s historical achievements and a video about its past, present and future. Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Lorin Selby moderated a panel with Reps. Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts) and Mike Waltz (R-Florida) of the House Armed Services Committee and Vice Chief of Naval Research Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Benjamin Watson and Dr. Jason Stack, ONR’s director for Ocean, Atmosphere and Space Research.

During World War II, the U.S. government established very successful relationships with academia and industry to help ensure our nation’s scientific and technical dominance over the enemy forces.  After the war, Congress formally established ONR in 1946 to maintain that thriving partnership. Its stated mission was to “plan, foster and encourage scientific research for the sake of future naval power and the preservation of national security.” Today, 75 years later, ONR’s mission has not changed and continues to bring together a wide range of partners in government, the military, industry and academia in a collaborative environment.

For seven and a half decades, the Navy Marine Corps and nation have been profoundly affected by the countless innovations and discoveries nurtured by ONR, a pioneer in the fields as diverse as digital computing, directed energy, navigation, and the world’s understanding of the oceans.

A video prepared for the anniversary observance talked about how ONR has “reshaped the ocean sciences by advancing our understanding of ocean dynamics and the transmission of sound, as well as developing new technologies that help explore the deep, improve the mapping of the ocean floor, and autonomously gathered data for weather prediction. ONR supported expeditions that took humans to the deepest depths of the world ocean and to the highest balloon ascent in the early 1960s. ONR technology helped in the first detection of hydrothermal vents and a new form of life based on chemo-synthesis in the 1970s, as well as the discovery of the wreck of the RMS Titanic in the 1980s. The groundbreaking Project Whirlwind in the 1940s and 1950s created the first digital computer capable of real time computing, making it the direct ancestor of everything from the computers in our cars to the servers that monitor daily shipping traffic and air defense. Investments in directed energy resulted in the invention of the ‘maser,’ which stood for “microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, an early form of directed energy in the 1950s. More than 60 years later, in 2014 ONR deployed the first operational laser weapon on a naval vessel.”

During the panel discussion, Moulton said the U.S. has a strong Navy in large part because the nation has always had a technological edge over its competitors.  But, he said, the U.S. does not have the luxury of a comfortable lead today when it comes to global competition with global peer competitors, citing the need for more basic government-led research and technology development in the private sector.

Waltz said in today warfighting environment, the first shot will be fired in space and the cyber domain by autonomous systems. “The next evolution is when we pair those systems with artificial intelligence.”

Stack talked about how ONR often takes a long-term view and invests in science and technologies for years and sometimes decades, and not just in things, but in people, partnerships and enablers.

Watson, who is not only Selby’s deputy but also the commander of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, talked about reexamining long-held assumptions about maritime superiority, and about the changing nature of warfare, and the need to adapt to gray zone and hybrid threats.

“This virtual celebration presents a great opportunity to commemorate ONR’s legacy of innovation and forward-thinking, while looking ahead to whole new worlds of innovation for the Navy and Marine Corps,” Selby said. “Today, the Office of Naval Research is making possible a safe and secure future for our Navy, Marine Corps and nation.

“We know that the Navy and Marine Corps today look very different than it did back in 1946, when ONR was founded, and we also know that the fleet and force of tomorrow will look very different yet again than it does today,” Selby said.  “The one thing we know for sure, though, is that ONR will continue to lead the way.”

U.S. shipyards are busy building the next generation of Navy ships and Coast Guard cutters. As the current workforce is retiring, and taking their skills and knowledge with them, the next generation of naval architects, naval engineers, tradesmen and technicians are needed.

The Navy is building guided missile destroyers, amphibious ships, attack submarines, littoral combat ships, and replenishment oilers and embarking on a new guided missile frigate, large surface combatant and ballistic missile submarine programs, not to mention a number of new, smaller ships. The Coast Guard is introducing the national security cutter and fast response cutter and starting the offshore patrol cutter, polar security cutter and waterway commerce cutter programs.

Formal apprenticeship and internship programs are delivering long-lasting results. Many graduates of these programs stay with their organizations for a full career and rise to leadership positions.

The Apprentice School, located at Huntington Ingalls Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia, was founded in 1919 and has delivered more than 10,000 graduates since its founding.

“We’re considered as the leadership factory of the company,” said Latitia McCane, The school’s director of education. The program is in high demand. “We have 4,000 applications for 200 slots,” McCane said.

The company has a pre-apprentice program that gives high school students an early start with a job at the shipyard and preparatory courses to get them ready for school. The Apprentice School and its leadership are structured within Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries.

The school’s facilities range from traditional classrooms to waterfront production facilities.

“We have more than 70 craft instructors who are apprentice graduates,” McCane said. 

Retired Rear Adm. Brad Williamson, executive director of the Hampton Roads Maritime Industrial Base Eco­system (MIBE), said senior-level workers are retiring faster than new ones can be hired.

“The senior workers have a wealth of practical experience that they are taking with them into retirement,” he said, adding that shipyards and other marine industry employers are all looking for talent. “When it comes to these challenges, we’re not alone in shipbuilding. It’s all of the trades, in every industry.”

Williamson called for cooperation instead of competition to help everyone obtain the workforce they need.

“It’s better to come together and to think as a team instead of individual companies,” he said.

Craig Savage, director of communications and external affairs at Mobile, Alabama-based Austal USA, said the workforce development programs benefit everyone.

“Apprenticeship programs not only benefit our industry, but they also provide opportunities for our local communities to learn a valuable trade and apply that skill to either our industry of defense and maritime manufacturing, or other industries in our region,” he said. “These programs are a win-win all the way around.”

Austal currently builds the all-aluminum Independence-class variant of the littoral combat ship and expeditionary fast transport for the Navy. As those programs wind down, the company is transitioning to a capability to build steel ships for the Navy.

AIDT Maritime Training Center, a subsidiary of Alabama Industrial Development Training (AIDT), provides company-specific job training in welding, pipe­fitting, design, structural fitter, safety and leadership to support Alabama’s shipbuilding industry. The center is co-located with the Austal USA shipyard and trains workers to Austal’s methods, tools and standards, and will be vital to training the existing and new workers on steel ship fabrication.

Starting Young

Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM) in Wisconsin is building the Freedom-class variant of LCS and multi-mission surface combatant for Saudi Arabia. It has also been selected to build the Navy’s new Constellation-class guided missile frigate, which requires reconfiguring the yard and upgrading facilities to build the larger ships — and hiring more workers.

“We’re working very closely with community partners to help us to find the majority of those positions locally,” said Bethany Skorik, senior manager of public affairs and government relations with FMM. “We’re working with our local school systems, from elementary to middle to high school, on how we can get students interested in shipbuilding. They can start thinking about the really satisfying careers in manufacturing and being able to make something complex like a ship from start to finish.”

Skorik said the shipyard is the largest employer in the region, but occasionally has to remind people the yard is growing and hiring.

“We’re working closely with the area technical colleges. The students come to learn about what we’re doing, tour the shipyard and talk to our employees. We help the schools build curriculum, so that students have a direct path to a job. They can get a two-year degree and an actual job, and we have programs where students can start working towards a tech degree while they’re in high school. And we can hire them right out of high school.”

Skorik said FMM partners with the Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, which built an impressive facility a block away from the shipyard.

“They have welding booths and a ship mock-up to teach electrical work, for example. They not only train people who can come work for us, but we send our employees there to get specific marine electrical training, conduct research or expand their knowledge,” she said.

While some shipyards have grown, a number have also downsized or failed, leaving skilled workers without jobs. In those communities where naval ship construction and repair work has dwindled, public-private partnerships have strived to keep good paying maritime jobs in their regions. When the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and commercial shipyards building ships for the Navy closed, a consortium of educators, the Collegiate Consortium for Workforce and Economic Development (CCWED), came together to help displaced civilian workers retrain, retool and find other jobs. 

Karen Kozachyn, vice president of workforce and economic development at Delaware County Community College in Media, Pennsylvania, and a member of the Business Development Team for CCWED, said the local community colleges have worked together to provide skilled employees.

“If a company asks for training in advanced welding, the consortium team evaluates the need, develops a training plan, locates a training site and then assigns the training to whoever has the capacity,” Kozachyn said. “The curriculum and competencies of the training are established by the employer, so it aligns to the company’s need — it’s never hit or miss.”

Those opportunities exist along a broad spectrum. The Maritime Administration recognizes this and is supporting 27 community colleges, training academies and organizations as Centers of Excellence. 

“We are no longer focused only on mariners who go to sea on big ships, but coastal and inland mariners, as well as the shore jobs and trades related to the maritime industry,” said Shashi Kumar, MARAD national coordinator for maritime education and training.

“These smaller institutions, many of which are near ports or waterways, understand the local need.  They’re more agile, and can create new programs and accomplish things faster,” he said.

Submarine construction is growing at the General Dynamics Electric Boat submarine construction yards at Quonset, Rhode Island, and Groton, Connecticut, as are new state-of-the art facilities to fabricate and assemble them. Electric Boat expects to hire 2,400 engineers, tradesmen and support personnel this year alone, but finding enough trained and qualified workers continues to be elusive.

The Southeastern New England Defense Industry Alliance (SENEDIA) is a next-generation industry partnership supported by workforce development stakeholders. SENEDIA membership include 130 companies, mostly in southeastern new England, but beyond as well supporting submarine construction and undersea technology. It has an $18.6 million DoD contract to develop the Next Generation Submarine Shipbuilding Supply Chain Partnership in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The partnership is comprised of state workforce agencies, academic institutions, training providers, and Manufacturing Extension Partnerships and Procurement Technical Assistance Centers in the region.

According to SENEDIA Executive Director Molly Magee, the partner organizations are teaching basic trade skills to make new shipyard workers immediately productive.

“One of our key goals at SENEDIA is to help engage the next generation workforce so that they see and consider the many high-wage, high-demand, high-growth opportunities, whether STEM or trade/industrial skill related, there are through defense-related career path­ways,” Magee said.

Complex Skillsets

Building complex warships can take place far from the waterfront, for equipment such as sensors, propulsion plants and integrated combat systems. 

James Birge, president of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA), located in North Adams, sees a mutually beneficial relationship between his school and the largest engineering and manufacturing employer in the region, General Dynamics Mission Systems in Pittsfield.

“The company’s business of developing and building complex combat management systems is growing, and there is a need for electrical engineering skill sets — that’s just one discipline — that we could be responsive to. And we want to offer good jobs to our graduates.”

Birge said MCLA is looking at its course offerings as “future-based,” in that “some of the jobs our students will have don’t exist today.”

Ellen Kennedy, president of Berkshire Community College, said her school works with employers and industry sectors in her service area in western Massachusetts to develop a stable and prepared workforce.

“We and MCLA meet with General Dynamics on a regular basis to make sure that our programming aligns with their needs,” she said.

Students from both MCLA and Berkshire, along with other schools, can have internships at General Dynamics.

“Interns are an incredible pipeline to our future workforce,” said Brenda Burdick, director of marketing and public relations for General Dynamics Mission Systems. “We typically see a 65-75% conversion rate from interns to full-time employee.”

General Dynamics Mission Systems invests in its employees and their education and professional development. Employees can be assigned mentors and allow them to participate in rotational assignments that allow them to explore their areas of interest and learn about each facet of the company. It also funds graduate education to develop leaders, business managers and executives, and technical experts.

Government Yards

Like industry, the four government-owned yards have had a large workload coming into shipyard and have been hiring a lot of people. According to John Snell, director for Training and Workforce Development Program Manager for the naval shipyards at Naval Sea Systems Command, there has been a seismic shift in demographics at the yards.

“We used to train our young mechanics said under a few experienced master mechanics, but those senior people have or are now retiring. As these young people have been coming aboard, we’ve needed to get them up to speed quickly.”

Snell said in the not too distant past the Navy was delivering the training in brick-and-mortar schoolhouses, with PowerPoint presentations and a little bit on hands-on training with displays in the back of the classrooms.

“We realized that this was not the path we needed to take to get us into the future,” he said.

That’s why the Navy is updating its training systems to provide more relevant learning that is appropriate for today’s workforce.

“We believe a mechanic needs to touch things — turn a valve, turn a wrench, strike an arc. It’s not the kind of training people can do remotely from home. Most of the online, on-demand training is leadership and supervisory training,” Snell said. “But we are always looking for new simulation capabilities and online tools that can improve and accelerate learning.”

While someone can get a good direct-hire job at one of the naval shipyards, he said the yards’ apprentice programs are a pathway to rewarding, life-long careers.

“The apprenticeship program teaches a lot of things about shipbuilding and repair besides the more-narrow technical skills for a particular trade, and it provides the associate’s degree from one of our community college partners,” he said.

The Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PHNSY & IMF) Apprenticeship Training Program is certified by the U.S. Department of Labor and administered through a contract between Honolulu Community College and PHNSY & IMF. The program offers 7,200 hours or more of on-the-job training, trade theory and academic study, culminating in an applied science degree in applied trades and a journeyman job in the shipyard.

Classes are taught in a Honolulu Community College facility on the yard. Jobs are available in structural, mechanical, electrical/electronic engineering, piping, air conditioning and refrigeration and other trades.  Qualified and motivated apprentice program graduates can pursue a four-year degree through the Apprentice to Engineer program.

Lauryn-Mae Pang was working several jobs when she found out about the PHNSY & IMF apprentice program. She wanted more than assorted jobs: She wanted a career. She applied, was accepted and completed the apprentice program, becoming a diesel mechanic in the shipyard’s crane shop. Pang took advantage of the Apprentice to Engineer program and went on to receive a Bachelor of Science from the University of Hawaii. She is now serving as a nuclear mechanical engineer at the shipyard.

“Some of the people coming into the apprenticeship programs are looking for structure. We give them an educational program with academic standards and teach them a trade with performance standards they have to adhere to,” Snell said. “They grow in that environment. And the next thing you know, they’re leaders in the shipyard.”

The Advanced Naval Technology Exercise – Coastal Trident 2021 Open House is taking place this week at the NavalX Fathomwerx Laboratory at the Port of Hueneme to examine innovative solutions for port and maritime security. Fathomwerx is a partner-run facility with the Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme Division (NSWC PHD), the Port of Hueneme, Economic Development Collaborative and Matter Labs.

According to NSWC PHD’s Brendan Applegate, the director for the exercise, Coastal Trident is an operational research program conducted to advance the state of the art in countering threats to port and maritime security and the global operations of naval forces. “ANTX-Coastal Trident is not just a Navy exercise, but rather a ‘whole of government’ effort to bring together involve non-DoD federal, state and local government partners, as well as academia and industry to respond to maritime security threats and incidents in port and coastal waters,” he said. “Coastal Trident combines scenario-based training, technical demonstration, field experimentation, and exercise activities, and involves the participation of more than 150 public and private sector organizations.”

Hybrid Event

Although teams will be conducting demonstrations throughout the week, the “kick-off” virtual event conducted via Zoom on Sept. 22 provided an overview of the Coastal Trident program and featured presentations by the operational stakeholders.

Participants representing stakeholders from Naval Surface Warfare Center, Naval Facilities Engineering and Research, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Department of Homeland Security and Naval Agility provided perspectives on the science and technology (S&T), research and development (R&D) and warfighter communities to communicate the “pull” from the warfighter, provide guidance and alignment for organizations, companies and academia seeking to develop and transition their technical solutions.

The Sept. 23 sessions in-person “open house” at the Fathomwerx facility focused on engagement between operational and technical stakeholders, with presentations on some of the project demonstrations conducted at the Port of Hueneme and at Fathomwerx. Solution providers also had an opportunity to follow up on the technical needs shared during the first day, and to propose solutions and discuss collaborations for future ANTX-Coastal Trident projects.

Applegate said many of the small companies participating in Coastal Trident do not have an adequate understanding of the Navy and its operational requirements or who would best benefit from their technologies.

“We have an environment where we can get a lot of organizations together to look at the technologies from a number of different perspectives, so there are more paths to success,” he said.” We can introduce our participants to all the different parties, the companies that are developing the technology, people who are going to use it, the program offices that are going to help acquire it, and the people that are going to be part of the logistics and sustainment pipeline. So, the goal is to bring all those people together in some form or another throughout the process.”

Coastal Trident takes advantage of the facilities and capabilities of NSWC PHD and Ventura TechBridge to support high-velocity learning and accelerate development, evaluation and identification of technology implementation to support naval forces with in-service engineering, maintenance and supportability; sensor data fusion, maritime communications and decision support; multi-spectral sensing, augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR) and digital engineering; and unmanned systems (UxS) applications and countermeasures.

This year, the exercise is examining the operational and technical capabilities of port and maritime security organizations to counter asymmetric threats to the U.S. Marine Transportation Systems (MTS) and its associated personnel, operations, and critical infrastructure.

A number of teams have been working on their projects for many months, and may continue to leverage the knowledge and experience gained as a result of working together during ANTX.

“This event is the culmination of a lot of effort, but it’s just a part of the picture. We’ve been conducting experiments since May. We have 55 different projects, with about 850 people from 160 different organizations, that are part of the program this year,” Applegate said.

Team Entangles Target

In one scenario at the Port of Hueneme, for example, a team employed asmall unmanned vessel as a force multiplier to provide an initial response to a threat.

“The goal of our team is to detect and engage a high-speed leisure craft entering a security zone ‘on the plane’ without damage to the vessel or occupants,” said Matthew Searle, chief technology officer Marine Arresting Technologies (MAT) of Tarpon Springs, Florida. Our objective is to determine tactics, techniques and procedures for the use of unmanned platforms to deploy non-kinetic effectors, including launch and recovery procedures, the ability to maneuver and deploy payload, and to investigate if speed and stability of the platform is practical in a port environment.”

Working with MAT is SpotterRF of Provo, Utah, which is using its small radar to track targets and pass information to the command and control (C2) hub provided by Houston-based ION, which is demonstrating effective data fusion and tracking and intercepts of fast-moving targets.

In the actual demonstration at the entrance to the Port of Hueneme, the target — a Navy High-Speed Maneuvering Surface Target (HSMST) boat — was detected by the SpotterRF radar, queuing the ION C2 system, which directed the launch of the Theiss UAV and autonomously sent it to deploy the MAT drogue line ahead of the HSMST, which entangled the boat’s propulsion and slowed it, effectively allowing time for security personnel to respond, and preventing or disrupting the intrusion.

The demonstration took place during intermittent thick fog at the harbor entrance. The radar was not only able to track the boat, but also differentiate between the drone, sea birds, floating objects in the water and pedestrians on the shore, and track them all continuously.

For the demonstration, MAT fitted the UAV with a composite canister with a command-initiated life jacket air flask to inflate an airbag that discharges the arresting line in front of the vessel. The UAV can be recovered and the system reloaded for subsequent missions.

According to Ken Gardner, SpotterRF business development manager, the SpotterRF C550 perimeter surveillance radar has a range of about 1.5 kilometers, weighs 3.5 pounds and is about the size of a laptop computer (although the company has larger and smaller models), and multiple sensors can work together to cover larger areas. It can be set up or taken down in minutes, and is powered by regular 117-volt AC current or a small 24-hour battery.

Dave Gentle from ION said the input from the radar was fed into the C2 system which uses ION’s Marlin platform technology to plan and execute the missions for the UAV to autonomously deploy the arresting line and return.

SpotterRF CEO Frank Cristophersen said the ANTX provided a valuable opportunity to bring together a team to collaborate and demonstrate a creative technology solution, with the Navy providing targets, instrumentation and observers from the warfare centers and other organizations that otherwise would not be available to the individual companies.

The U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is conducting its annual Warfare Innovation Continuum (WIC) scenario this week on a critical naval priority: the future hybrid force. 

Led by the NPS Naval Warfare Studies Institute (NWSI), WIC 2021 is addressing a “design challenge” of “How might emerging technologies, new operational concepts and alternative fleet designs contribute to a more effective naval force across the spectrum from competition to conflict, and how do the alternative fleet designs enhance the effectiveness and resilience of joint, combined and coalition forces across all domains?”

NWSI serves as a hub to facilitate teamwork and collaboration with the NPS innovation ecosystem to optimize NPS’ interdisciplinary educational and research response to naval warfighting needs.

The hybrid event is led by retired Capt. Jeff Kline, the NWSI WIC director, and research associate Lyla Englehorn, the NWSI concepts branch lead, and is taking place both in person on the NPS campus in Monterey and on the “Virtual Campus” via Microsoft Teams this week.

According to NPS spokesman Dave Nystrom, the organizers expect more than 140 participants, including facilitators, panelists, moderators, observers and students, with international participation from Australia, Indonesia, Ecuador, Greece, Romania and the United Kingdom.  “Participation teams” will look at the design challenge from different perspectives, with two working at the classified level.

“WIC leverages classroom projects, theses and research in advancing naval concepts, assessing new technologies and developing tactics while enhancing our students’ educational experience and sharpening their combat skills,” Nystrom said. “It’s a perfect example of how NPS combines student operational experience, defense-focused education and applied research to deliver real solutions and leaders educated to employ them.”

Retired Vice Adm. Ann Rondeau, president of NPS, told the participants that Hybrid Force 2045 theme will examine “how the naval services will operate in an era of robots, drones, crewed and un-crewed systems as part of the CNO’s vision outlined in the NAVPLAN and [Marine Corps] commandant’s vision outlined in Force Design 2030. As you consider this challenge, joint concepts and capabilities must also be accounted for as it is the Joint Force that will allow us to fight and win but will also give our nation’s leaders options in the competition phase or in preparation to employ our kinetic capabilities in conflict.

“This is the tenth year NPS has hosted the warfare innovation workshop, which is fully integrated into our year-long Warfare Innovation Continuum,” said Rondeau. “Following the workshop, the Continuum will carry on your ideas, proposed concepts and assessments of emerging technologies as capstone projects, theses work, prototyping, experimentation, modeling and simulation, and other research threads.  You are the first step in, and now completely part of, that Continuum.”

NWSI Director, retired Vice Adm. Dave Lewis added, “Using participant insights, NWSI will begin to inspire formation of various interdisciplinary research groups to address major topics of concern for our naval service. We anticipate the Hybrid Force 2045 Warfare Innovation Continuum to morph into a NWSI Research Task Force named “Hybrid Force 2045” in early fiscal year ’22. Other NPS Research Task Forces, which the WIC will inform, are the already established Task Force Overmatch and another Task Force planned for FY22 “Maritime Gray Zone.” Research groups will leverage the WIC and follow-on workshops as initiating events and as a construct to begin their own work,” Lewis said. “As some of the very best and brightest from industry, academia, system commands and defense labs, our WIC participants are invited to participate in these efforts.”

In its 70^th year, NPS provides defense-focused graduate education, including classified studies and interdisciplinary research, to advance the operational effectiveness, technological leadership and warfighting advantage of the naval service.

The World War II Foundation held a world premiere for its newest production, “Elvis and the USS Arizona,” and honored the late Sen. John Warner at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. this past week.  

Warner received the foundation’s Senator Bob Dole World War II Leadership Award, presented annually to “an individual of the Greatest Generation or their family who as an individual reflects the values of self-sacrifice, public service and everlasting commitment to our nation’s principles of freedom and democracy.”

The presentation was made to Warner’s wife, Jeanne, by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough, with keynote remarks by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley. CNN’s Jake Tapper served as master of ceremonies.

The film, produced by Tim Gray and narrated by Jim Nantz with Kyle Chandler, will air on public televisions this fall. It recounts the contribution made by the wildly popular performer, Elvis Presley, and his sold-out performance on March 25, 1961, at Bloch Arena on Naval Station Pearl Harbor to raise money to complete the USS Arizona Memorial. Presley was in Hawaii filming his movie, “Blue Hawaii.”

The Elvis Presley benefit raised over $60,000 for the USS Arizona Memorial and brought awareness of the fundraising effort. The memorial was completed and officially dedicated in 1962. Presley would visit the Arizona Memorial every time he performed in Hawaii.

Today, the USS Arizona Memorial is the most visited location in Hawaii, thanks in large part to Elvis Presley.

The mission of the nonprofit World War II Foundation is to tell the personal stories of those who were swept up in the most devastating conflict known to man and make these films accessible for free to students, educators, classrooms and the global public.

“Our documentaries rank in the top five of most requested programs nationally on American Public Television stations,” said Gray.

The 2021 Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Exchange was conducted virtually from Hawaii, with a focus on the global problem of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The event took place Sept. 8-9, and was moderated by retired Navy Capt. Larry Osborn, Navy League Pacific Region vice president, and hosted by the East West center, Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies and the Pacific Forum.

The Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Exchange (IMSE) is produced annually by Navy League of the United States Honolulu Council. The enduring IMSE theme is “building partnerships for security, stability and prosperity. IMSE’s purpose is to provide a forum for senior leaders, subject matter experts and interested members of the general public to engage in dialogue about maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region.

The two-day event concentrated on the problems created by IIU fishing and the solutions available to counter the illegal fishing and the impacts on this vital global food resource.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, IUU fishing is a pervasive, far-reaching security threat.

“IUU fishing has replaced piracy as the leading global maritime security threat. If IUU fishing continues unchecked, we can expect deterioration of fragile coastal states and increased tension among foreign-fishing nations, threatening geo-political stability around the world,” said Commandant of the Coast Guard Adm. Karl Schultz in the service’s IUU Fishing Strategic Outlook, released in September 2020.

The IMSE conference examined new technologies to conduct all-domain sensing and gather information through satellite imagery and acoustic data, as well as methods to share and analyze huge amounts of data to deter illegal fishing.

Vice Adm. Linda Fagan, vice commandant of the Coast Guard, and Rear Adm. Blake Converse, deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, both delivered keynote addresses that emphasized the importance of partnerships, especially between multi-national organizations, nations and agencies with the means to detect and interdict violators and those countries who rely on their fisheries. Rear Adm. Matthew W. Sibley, commander of USCG District 14, shared the Coast Guard’s support to the nations in Oceania, which have limited assets and resources, to help them combat IUU fishing.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, IUU fishing is “a broad term that captures a wide variety of fishing activity. IUU fishing is found in all types and dimensions of fisheries; it occurs both on the high seas and in areas within national jurisdiction. It concerns all aspects and stages of the capture and utilization of fish, and it may sometimes be associated with organized crime.” 

Capt. Holly Harrison, commanding officer USCG Kimball (WMSL 756), detailed the actual operations involved in approaching, boarding, inspecting and taking any necessary action aboard fishing vessels on the high seas.

There is no one solution to the problem that affects both large and small nations in so many ways.  “Combating IUU fishing has to be a whole of government and a whole of society approach,” said retired Rear Adm. Pete Gumataotao, head of the East West Center at the University of Hawaii-Manoa.

Osborn said IUUF is a maritime security threat that has a destabilizing effect on the Indo-Pacific region.

“The war on IUUF is won through trust and international collaboration. Data from commercial SIGINT [signals intelligence], EO [electro-optical imagery] and SAR [synthetic aperture radar] satellite constellations, as well as commercial acoustic arrays attached to unmanned surface vehicles, will make it impossible for ‘dark vessels’ to conceal their locations and identities.”

Osborn said the conference examined the application of artificial intelligence and machine language learning, which have become indispensable tools in creating actionable intelligence from disparate datasets.

“We found academics, NGOs, and small entrepreneurial companies with relevant technologies and solutions,” he said. “I think this made our conference a success.

“The international stakeholders have done a commendable job in illuminating the problem and holding the violators accountable.  The key has been collaboration and transparency,” Osborn said. “Once you have that many of the other problems go away.”

Sailors and Marines worked together with unmanned technologies, never used before to conduct expeditionary mine countermeasures operations, during the recent Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) 2021 exercise in Germany.

Tony Brescia, a systems engineer with the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division at Patuxent River, Maryland, brought new and innovative technologies to BALTOPS 2021 to let warfighters experiment with the systems during a major exercise.

Brescia has been working with Arizona-based Hydronalix on developing its unmanned systems platforms and technologies through investments from the Navy’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. Brescia has worked with the company to successfully transition its Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard (EMILY) USV, which is used for lifesaving, and the sonar-equipped version used for underwater surveys.

That work has evolved into two new platforms — the Amy and Nix USVs and a small unmanned aerial vehicle called Adapt, capable of carrying small payloads such as water bottles, food or medicine.

“It’s scalable. By upscaling the propeller and motor combination, it can carry a bigger payload,” Brescia said of Adapt. “It’s a short-range, one-way disposable UAS. You tell it where to go on your smart device and the autopilot will take it there.”

EMILY, Amy, Nix and Adapt

The Marines took advantage of BALTOPS to evaluate the new technologies and the characteristics of the different systems, such as weight, range, payload and power. 

“End-user feedback goes long way to set priorities,” Brescia said, “and to help us be sure we’re investing in the right technologies.”

According to Master Sgt. Matt Jackson, an explosive ordnance disposal technician with the Camp Pendleton-based USMC 4th Platoon Littoral Explosive Ord­nance Neutralization (LEON) team at BALTOPS, the exercise gave the Marines the chance to use unmanned systems designed for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) to detect explosive hazards in the littorals, but they can also provide commanders with information using unmanned systems.

“There’s a lot of things these sensors collect that can be federated up to higher echelons,” he said.

Jackson said the Marines used EMILY with the side-scan sonar to detect anomalies in very shallow water. But, while EMILY may be too small for Marine Corps EOD, Jackson said the larger Amy has the size and form factor to load up with sensors and acoustic, satellite and radio frequency communications gear to link divers and unmanned systems to the greater mesh network.

“We want to be able to tie that all together, from the undersea node all the way to space and to the command and operations control,” he said.

Jackson envisions using a second Amy to tow a magnetometer in the surf zone to “search the sea bottom to give a heat map of metallic signatures, so I know where to avoid, as well as a side-scan sonar towed under the surface to get bathymetric data such as depth and water temperature. That’s valuable information.”

When it comes to mines, on the beach or in the water approaching the beach, the Marines are a breaching force, not a mine clearance force. “We want to avoid any mines while our small units are trying to get ashore,” Jackson said.

Nix is a relatively small USV that can carry a large volume.

“It has the capability to float an amount of weight. You can autonomously send it somewhere with gear, food, batteries, medical supplies or sensors,” Jackson said. “For LEON, it’s a little bit on the large size, because we have to operate from small boats. But we can tow it behind a boat, and then send it off when we get near its destination.” 

While many navies use USVs for environmental sensing and mine hunting, few navies have general-purpose USVs that can be used for general tasks. EOD is a just one niche in the Marine Corps. According to Jackson, there could be many uses for these vehicles.

“By demonstrating these systems for the Marine Corps, there may be other Marines out there who will say, ‘Amy can work for us, too.’ It could be for signals, recording, jamming or whatever. The same goes for Nix. Marines will find things to put in and move around in something like Nix.”

Brescia described Nix as a “mini-connector” to haul 80 to 100 pounds of critical repair parts, food, water or ammo. “It’s large enough to have a hybrid power supply, not just batteries, so it can stay out there for a long period of time.”

Cheap Sensors Needed

Marines have been brought into a distributed maritime environment where they will be operating under a composite warfare command, with their own connectors and working as a stand-in force within a weap­ons engagement zone. That means below the threshold of conflict, the Marine Corps will be a persistent sensor for the Navy to deter or curb maligned behavior.

“We need to understand the underwater domain, and we need tools to sense things in it,” Jackson said. “We want to support our Marines organically to survey those waters in the littorals, and also feed the Navy with intelligence to paint a better picture for the overall fleet. It’s a capacity problem. To really conduct Distributed Maritime Operations, we need more sensors.” 

That means the need to have effective and affordable systems that can be acquired and deployed in large numbers, which fits systems such as EMILY, Amy, Nix and Adapt.

Hydronalix CEO Tony Mulligan said the company’s unmanned systems are easy to use. Sailors or Marines only require a few minutes of training to be able to send off an Adapt drone using a smart phone app from a ship offshore, for example, to an exact spot on the beach or a person in need.

“There’s no pilot. There’s no ground station. There’s not even a radio. If a Corpsman needs to send plasma or morphine to a unit ashore three miles away, he loads the drone, clicks on where he wants it to land and it flies right to that location. If an area has been devastated by an earthquake or a storm, and there are not safe places for helicopters to land, these drones could be used to deliver water or food to isolated or damaged areas,” Mulligan said.

“You can be helping people before the helicopters get there, or for those victims in smaller numbers that might not be the top priority for the relief teams.”

While they are reusable, and could be recovered, reloaded and sent off again, Mulligan said they are cheap enough so that it doesn’t matter if they don’t come back.

Navy Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener, commander, Naval Surface Force, said readiness, training, manpower and new technology, such as simulators, are sharpening the surface fleet’s competitive edge.

The “SWO Boss” spoke Aug. 26 on the closing day of the Surface Navy Association’s annual Waterfront Symposium at Naval Station San Diego, a hybrid live and virtual event with in-person speakers and attendees as well as virtual participants.

Kitchener cited progress in training and certifying ship crews and individual watchstanders and the value of virtual training capabilities and simulators.

“We continue our integration of the live, virtual and constructive capability, which is integral to the future of training as it emulates threats at the scale we will encounter and injects them into our training scenarios,” he said. 

“Junior officers are becoming highly proficient at shiphandling and navigation thanks to an array of new trainers and simulators,” Kitchener said. “It’s amazing technology, being led by Surface Warfare and bringing increased training capacity and warfare capability to our fleet, worldwide.”

The weapons tactics instructors (WTIs) being developed by the Surface and Mine Warfare Development Center are now joining commands around the fleet in significant numbers, and they’re paying dividends, he said. 

“We will always need talented people developing and introducing warfighting tactics on the waterfront — to do that, we need to certify more WTIs. We will continue to invest in SMWDC and strengthen it as the centerpiece of Surface Force warfighting.”

According to Kitchener, getting WTIs into the fleet seven years ago shifted the conversation back to warfighting.

“Now we need to take it even further. We are validating the required number of WTIs to meet our goals over the next few years, but we know that with the growing size and complexity of our SWATT [surface warfare advanced tactical training] program and our goal to put a WTI on every ship, we need a better path to get these officers certified and out to the fleet.”

The myriad of readiness, training, manpower and technology initiatives together will retain the surface force’s “competitive edge,” he said. “Competitive edge is leading the world in warfighting technology. Competitive edge is denying our adversaries battle space and freedom of maneuver every day in peacetime. Competitive edge is not only knowing we can defeat the enemy, but the enemy knowing it too. It’s about combat readiness, but more importantly, it’s about combat action, and winning that action.”

Retired Vice Adm. Rick Hunt, president of SNA, thanked the speakers representing operations, personnel, training and support leadership, as well as the in-person and virtual audience for attending. He expressed his gratitude to the active duty and reserve attendees, as well as industry partners, for their contributions to the surface force and national defense.

“Where but the Navy, and the surface Navy in particular, do you have the opportunity to learn every day; to continue to grow; address new and challenging opportunities every day; to make a difference, not only to yourself, but to your shipmates every day; and to be able to deliver directly to our national defense?” he said. “What higher purpose can there be than to do be able to do this kind of very personally and professionally satisfying work — and to do it in a most powerful way?”

The Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay in Baltimore, Maryland, is one of two shipyards executing a service life extension program (SLEP) for the U.S. Naval Academy’s (USNA) fleet of yard patrol craft (YPs) used to train midshipmen in navigation and seamanship. Lyon ship yard in Norfolk is also conducting the SLEP.

The USNA has a fleet of 21 YPs, which are used to support pierside familiarization, basic damage control and basic to advanced seamanship and navigation underway. There are two variants. The YP 676 class boats are 108 feet long, while the newer YP 703 class are 119 feet long.

YP 676-class boats have wooden hulls and entered service in the mid-1980s. By comparison, the seven YP 703 boats have steel hulls and entered service at the academy in 2010.

The USNA Waterfront Operations Department provides a crew of four, including a craft master (normally a senior Boatswains Mate or Quartermaster), an Engineman and two deck seamen, augmented by the midshipmen who come aboard for training. The Seamanship and Navigation Department provides an officer to train the midshipmen.

YPs are also used to cruise along the eastern seaboard and can be used as platforms for research. The YPs have been used for summer cruises as far as the Great Lakes, but that hasn’t happened for about 20 years. They have a range of  1,800 nautical miles at 12 knots, and can travel for about five days without refueling. YPs spend about 150 days underway conducting training per crew per year.

“The bridges of the YPs are also being upgraded to bring them up to date with electronic navigation standards and newer radar and charting systems. They’ll now have the same version of VMS [vessel management system] that the fleet has,” said Capt. John Tobin of the Seamanship & Navigation department. 

The SLEP affects the YP 676 class boats and will include hull and deck repair, as well as habitability upgrades and overhaul and modernization of the engines and electric generating equipment. The SLEP is being managed by the Support Ships, Boats, and Craft Program Office (PMS 325) within Program Executive Office Ships. Additional YP availabilities are scheduled to continue through March 2022.

“We have completed five SLEPs of the 676 wooden hulled class,” said Cmdr. David Kowalczyk, the CG Yard’s chief of project management. “Two YP’s — YP-683 and YP-684 — are currently undergoing SLEP, and two more are pending.”

The program will be complete with all 12 YPs by 2022. The program will overhaul only two YPs at a time so that there will be enough craft to perform training.

The Navy specified that the repair facility be within 150-mile radius of the Naval Academy, and the Coast Guard Yard — less than 30 miles by car and easy to reach by water — meets that criterion by a wide margin.

The repairs require the YPs to be drydocked or removed from the water to inspect, evaluate, and perform repairs to wooden hull, as well as removal and overhaul of main engines and generators, replacement of galley equipment and inspection and repair of auxiliary systems.

“YP SLEP gives the CG YARD an opportunity to exercise our strengths in vessel renovations and waterfront industrial trade work, and the Navy benefits from our efficient work practices and experience. Ultimately, these strengths combine to  give our customers a quality product, minimal down-time for the vessel, and excellent value for their money,” said Kowalczyk.

Kowalczyk said some of the wood work is done by the CG Yard’s Structural Group’s wood crafters, with portions subcontracted. “YP SLEP is a great opportunity for our wood crafters to employ their skills, and diversify their workload and experience.”

He said there are some challenges inherent in wooden ship overhauls.

“When you undock a wooden vessel after several months of being on land, the wood dries out and shrinks, which can lead to leaks upon undocking. Teaming with the Navy, we’ve cooperatively developed to slowly refloat the vessel on our electric shiplift, to allow the wood to swell back up in a controlled environment. Our electric shiplift is basically an elevator that allows us to lift ships out of the water. This process minimizes leaks, and if it proved necessary, we could lift the vessel back up expeditiously and complete repairs.”

Upon completing the SLEP program, each of the YPs will be able to remain in service for another 10 years.

General Dynamics Mission Systems recently introduced its new Badger software-defined radio at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Symposium in National Harbor, Maryland.

The Badger is based on the company’s established AN/USC-61(C) Digital Modular Radio (DMR) providing secure communications aboard U.S. Navy surface combatants, aircraft carriers and submarines as well as fixed sites at shore installations. General Dynamics has delivered more than 900 DMR radios to the Navy.

According to Stan Kordana, vice president of Surface Systems at General Dynamics Mission Systems, Badger meets a customer need for a radio offering the same waveforms, security and flexibility of the four-channel DMR, but with a more compact footprint. The two-channel Badger is a quarter of the size of DMR, and provides the same level of Multiple Independent Levels of Security (MILS) for ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore voice and data communications.

“The reduced size, weight and power make it ideal for smaller platforms across multiple domains that only require two channels, and at the same time simplifies logistics and reduces costs,” Kordana said.

According to Kordana, “Badger is the only radio available that provides high frequency, very high frequency, ultra high frequency and SATCOM Mobile User Objective System [MUOS] waveform capability. The integration of MUOS significantly enhances beyond line-of-sight, or satellite voice and data communications.”

Bill Rau, vice president, Surface Ship Warfare System, said Badger has programmable embedded NSA certified Type 1 encryption that secures communications and simplifies the system architecture.

“It has MILS capability which enables it to communicate simultaneously at multiple levels of security on each of the radio’s two channels — and each one can be tuned to a broad range of frequencies. Furthermore, Badger’s software-defined, flexible open architecture enables future next-generation communications including waveforms, encryption algorithms and advanced network connectivity to be easily incorporated as needs evolve.”

The first DMR units were delivered to the Navy in the early 2000s, Rau said, adding, “we’re expecting to hit the 1,000^th delivery in the coming months.”

According to Rau, DMR is the first software-defined radio to become a communications system standard for the U.S. military.

“It’s on every class of surface ship, aircraft carrier, submarine and shore installation. DMR is a compact four-channel radio. With only a few DMRs, ships can essentially replace an entire ‘radio central’ room of legacy radios and equipment on older ships.”

Because these are software defined radios, Rau said, “In many cases, waveforms and features can be updated by adding software, without needing to send the radio back to a depot.”

Badger doesn’t replace DMR. “It’s a newer, smaller version based on the DMR but with two channels instead of four.” Rau said. “Badger takes the goodness of the DMR and puts it into a smaller package with a modern voice-over internet protocol interface to the ship systems so it can be used on even more platforms, including unmanned surface vessels.”

DMR and Badger are produced at the General Dynamics Mission Systems facility in Scottsdale, Arizona.