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ARLINGTON, Va. — Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) is seeking an opportunity to demonstrate its new launch and recovery platform for large-diameter UUVs (LDUUVs) at sea on a U.S. Navy amphibious landing platform dock ship, a company official said. 

Brian Blanchette, vice president for Quality and Engineering at HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding, spoke to reporters in a teleconference at West 2023 on Feb. 14, a trade show and symposium of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association and the U.S. Naval Institute, and said the company would welcome a demonstration of the Pharos launch and recovery system from the well deck of an LPD either underway or in port.  

The Pharos system is a prototype cradle large enough to accommodate an LDUUV than can be streamed behind the well deck of an LPD or a well-deck-equipped amphibious assault ship (LHA/LHD) to launch the LDUUV or recover it. The cradle is tethered to a winch. 

The Pharos concept was developed by HII and underwent additional testing through cooperative agreements with the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City, Florida, and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport, Rhode Island. 

The Pharos was tested dockside in the HII Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi in June 2022 and towed in a river, Blanchette said. The payload for the demonstration was HII’s Proteus LDUUV. 

He said that interface testing was conducted in September 2022 with a surrogate for the Navy’s Snakehead LDUUV, followed in October 2022 with a ballast/de-ballast test with the Snakehead.  

Scalable Concept 

“When we went through the design process for this vehicle [Pharos], we did computations, including dynamic studies, to evaluate where in the wake zone of the LPD would be a favorable location for a launch and recovery vehicle and also did model basin testing at the University of New Orleans in their tow tank to look at a physical scale model and better understand the capabilities of the system at speed simulating a tow. 

“We feel like we understand some of the challenges and have designed the system around those, but we look forward to at-sea testing to further validate the concept,” he said. “We are in talks with the Navy trying to find a target of opportunity to interface with an LPD either pier-side or at sea.”  

HII also plans this year to integrate the Pharos with the REMUS 6000 UUV. 

Blanchette said the Pharos concept is scalable and could be built to accommodate extra-large-diameter UUVs such as the Orca being developed by Boeing for the Navy. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The maritime forces of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and their allied and partner navies have enjoyed considerable success in recent months in intercepting Iranian arms shipments to Houthi rebels in Yemen, the Navy’s regional commander said. 

“In fact, in just the last two months alone, five major interdictions at sea have resulted in U.S. and partner maritime forces seizing more than 5,000 weapons, 1.6 million rounds of ammunition, 7,000 proximity fuses for rockets, over 2,000 kilograms of propellant that are used for rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs, and $60 million worth of illegal drugs,” said Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander, U.S. Fifth Fleet and commander, Naval Forces, U.S. Central Command, speaking Feb. 13 during an off-camera, on-the-record briefing transcript of United States-Gulf Cooperation Council Working Group Meetings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.  

“And these numbers are part of an overall two-year trend. In 202 — or rather, since 2021 we’ve seized over a billion — with a B — dollars in illicit drugs and nearly 15,000 illegal arms,” Cooper said. “The weapons were unlawfully headed to Yemen, as I think is well-documented.” 

Also speaking at the council was Dana Stroul, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of Defense for the Middle East.  

“Let me start out by saying we have seen no change in Iranian willingness or activities to transfer weapons to the Houthis, despite their work with increasing military cooperation with Russia for the war in Ukraine, number one,” Stroul said. “And number two, there has been a decrease in Houthi attacks against Saudi Arabia because of the truce that has been in place. Now, the actual truce has expired, and at this point in time, all sides are not resuming hostilities, though the truce has not been formally extended.” 

Cooper also leads two major maritime coalitions, the 38-member Combined Maritime Force, which he describes as “the largest maritime partnership in the world,” and the 11-member International Maritime Security Construct.  

“Everything we’ve accomplished both in recent months and over the last two years is the direct result of great work our maritime forces are doing, really, in two key areas, strengthening partnerships and accelerating innovation,” he said. 

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ARLINGTON, Va. — The nation’s shipyards have the facilities capacity to handle increased shipbuilding for the U.S. Navy but are limited by skilled workforce shortages, a shipbuilding executive told Congress, also noting the importance of stability in the demand signal from the Navy.  

“The single biggest issue facing the [shipbuilding] industry is people, and that’s going to be the case going forward, and we’ve got to be more creative in our workforce development,” said Matthew Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America, testifying Feb. 8 before the House Armed Services Committee. 

In reply to a question from Rep. Bob Wittman, R-Virginia regarding the Navy saying that the shipbuilders cannot deliver three Arleigh Burke destroyers funded last year, Paxton said the shipbuilding industry, “has under-utilized assets, and assets not utilized at all. There is capacity in the shipyard industrial base across new shipbuilding and ship repair. Whatever the demand signal is from Congress, we’re going to meet it … because we’re going to sequence our yards to be more productive and we’re going to train up the workforce and we’re going to deliver those assets.” 

“I think private industry fundamentally disagrees [that] we don’t have the assets,” he said.    

Paxton thanked the committee for its support for federal investments in the shipbuilding industrial base. He also noted that the private shipbuilding industry “every day of the week is investing in their workforce. They have training facilities, apprenticeship programs, they team with local community colleges, so investments like this from the federal level get bang for the buck for what the private industry is doing as well. While we care deeply about the submarine industrial base, the fact is that some of these monies are going to go across other shipbuilding programs is absolutely critical. It’s also critical for our supply chain.” 

“Shipyards and shipyard repair facilities are highly capital-intensive enterprises, … and a lot of our shipyards employ thousands of employees,” Paxton said. “We get a new shipbuilding plan every year. It sends a confusing message industry. To the extent that we can have stable budgets and a stable demand signal, industry will respond accordingly. They have in the past.” 

Paxton added that, “Acquisition strategies like incremental funding, advance procurement, block-buy contracting are huge for shipyards because that gives them long-lead-time materials that they need to sequence ships, to have that [material] come in, whereas some of the material that they are buying [that used to take] only 18 months to get now [takes] two to three years to get.”  

He said the stability of a 10-year horizon “allows shipyards to make critical investments in [their] facilities and in [their] workforce.” 

Paxton also noted that the shipbuilding industry “has benefited when we split various ship sizes across shipyards. There is goodness in trying to get series construction going, keep hot production lines going, and keep the workforce learning.”  

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ARLINGTON, Va. — Three U.S. Navy ships, a Military Sealift Command ship, and three Coast Guard cutters have sortied from the U.S. East Coast and are participating in the search and recovery effort for the payload of the Chinese balloon that was shot down over U.S. territorial waters off South Carolina. 

The Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ship USS Carter Hall (LSD 50), Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) and Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Oscar Austin (DDG 79) took up station to track the descent of the balloon’s payload as it fell into the water.  

The ships now include the USNS Pathfinder (T-AGS 60), an oceanographic survey ship operated by the Military Sealift Command. 

The Coast Guard also has deployed to the salvage area three cutters — USCGC Venturous (WMEC 625), USCGC Richard Snyder (WPC 1127), and USCGC Nathan Bruckenthal (WPC 1128) — as well as small boats and aircraft to ensure the safety of the salvage area. 

According to the Defense Department, the payload fell into a depth of 47 feet of water, a depth easily accessible to divers. 

Gen. Glen VanHerck, Commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command and United States Northern Command, briefing reporters Feb. 6, said that the recovery effort was being led by Adm. Daryl Caudle, commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command and U.S. Naval Forces, U.S. Northern Command.  

VanHerck said the Navy ships in the vicinity of the splashdown of the balloon are collecting and categorizing debris.  

“The Pathfinder is a ship that conducts survey operations using sonar and other means to map out the debris field,” VanHerck said. “It’s capable of conducting oceanographic, hydrographic, bathymetric surveys of the bottom of the ocean to do that. And they’ll eventually produce us a map — they’re in the process of doing that, and I expect to have much more today — of the full debris field. But we expect the debris field to be of the rough order of magnitude of about 1,500 meters by 1,500 meters, and so, you know, more than 15 football fields by 15 football fields. But we’ll get a further assessment of that today.” 

VanHerck said that “[y]esterday’s sea states did not allow us to conduct some of the operations that we would have liked to have conducted such as underwater surveillance. And so those forces that provide the explosive ordnance disposal to make sure the scene is safe, they’re out today, this morning, and they went out in what’s called a rigid hull inflatable boat this morning, Eastern time approximately 10:00 o’clock, to proceed to the — the area to utilize unmanned underwater vehicles using side scan sonar to further locate sunken debris. And so, we expect them to get on there and to do some additional categorization of potential threats such as explosives that may be on, hazardous materials that could be in batteries, et cetera, so we’re working very hard. 

The Military Sealift Command operates two dedicated salvage ships, but both are based in the Pacific Ocean.  

The balloon, floating at about 60,000 feet above sea level, was launched by China on Jan. 21 and crossed into U.S. airspace over the Aleutian Islands on Jan. 28. It crosses over Canada and into the continental United States over Idaho on Jan. 31. President Joe Biden gave the order to shoot down the balloon on Feb. 1.  

“Military commanders determined that there was undue risk of debris causing harm to civilians while the balloon was over land,” a senior Defense Department official said in a Feb. 5 briefing to reporters. ”As a result, they developed a plan to down the balloon once it was over water in U.S. territorial airspace. That mission has now been successfully completed. At the direction of the president, the U.S. military, at 2:39 p.m. this afternoon, shot down the high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina and within U.S. territorial airspace.”  

According to Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen Patrick Ryder, the Chinese balloon was steerable, and therefore able to be guided over sensitive U.S. defense bases. 

On Feb. 4, the balloon was intercepted by two F-22A Raptor fighters launched from Joint Base Eustis-Langley, Virginia. One of the F-22As fired an AIM-9X air-to-air heat-seeking missile that deflated the balloon and sent the balloon’s solar panels and payload crashing into the ocean off Myrtle Beach. 

“We have multiple U.S. Navy vessels and Coast Guard vessels in the region right now, establishing a security perimeter, conducting search for any debris that may be on the water to ensure the safety of U.S. civilians, any maritime activity that is ongoing out in the water,” a senior military official said in the Feb. 5 briefing. “We will provide, under NORTHCOM [U.S Northern Command] command and control, a salvage vessel, United States Navy, which will be on-scene within a couple of days. The debris is in 47 feet of water, primarily. The recovery, that will make it fairly easy, actually. We planned for much deeper water.”  

The downing of the balloon is the first aerial kill attributed to the F-22A. The two F-22As in the intercept used the callsigns Frank One and Luke One in apparent reference to Frank Luke Jr., the U.S. Army Air Service ace who was credited with downing 14 German observation balloons as well as four airplanes during combat over the Western Front during World War I. Luke died on Sept. 28, 1918, from German machine fire from the ground. 

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ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy is operating and sustaining 10 MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), having place the rest in storage, from which the service can easily restore them to service. The Navy also has retired its fleet of smaller MQ-8B versions of the Fire. 

According to information provided by the Navy’s Program Executive Office for Strike and Unmanned Aviation, the Navy will keep in service 10 MQ-8Cs in service of the 38 procured and keep the remaining MQ-8Cs in Level 2 preservation. 

Last year the Navy moved to keep all MQ-8Cs on the West Coast, operated by Helicopter Sea Combat Squadrons 21 and 23. The decision is congruent with the stationing on the West Coast of the Independence-class littoral combat ships on which the Navy will deploy the Mine Countermeasures Mission Package. The MQ-8C, built by Northrop Grumman, is an integral module of that mission package.  

“As Fire Scout’s mission sets continued to evolve, an MQ-8C Endurance Upgrade Rapid Deployment Capability (RDC) effort was approved in Feb 2012,” the Navy said. “The larger MQ-8C, based on the Bell 407 airframe, incorporates the same control avionics as the MQ-8B but with an increased payload capacity and increased endurance. The air vehicles share a common mission control system, which is integrated with the ship’s combat systems. Additionally, the MQ-8 can be controlled by the Mobile Mission Control Station from land-based and larger ship-based sites and has developed a “portable” MCS (MCS-P) that is host platform agnostic. 

“Designed to operate from the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and Suitably Equipped air-capable Ships, the MQ-8C Fire Scout system is capable of more than eight hours of operations providing coverage out to 150 nautical miles from the host ship,” the Navy said. “A baseline payload that includes electro-optical/infrared sensors and a laser designator enables Fire Scout to find, track and designate tactical targets, accurately provide targeting data to strike platforms and perform battle damage assessment. The system provides a significant improvement to organic surveillance capability.”  

The Navy will add an optical mine countermeasures payload to the MQ-8C in the future. 

The first deployments of the MQ-8C began in 2022 on USS Milwaukee in the 4th Fleet and USS Jackson in the 7th Fleet during 2022.  

The Navy retired its fleet of MQ-8Bs by October 2022 after 13 years of operations, including operations from frigates off Libya and two years of operations inside Afghanistan. The MQ-8B deployed on board an LCS for the first time in 2014. The Navy procured a total of 30 MQ-8Bs from Northrop Grumman. 

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ARLINGTON, Va. — Marine infantry force-wide will be firing at moving robotic targets, not just static paper targets, as the Marine Corps continues integration of the new Advanced Rifle Qualification (ARQ) course to meet the requirements of warfighting in the future, the Corps said. 

“We have in our mind how we’re going to build [Marines] to be cognitive warfighting thinkers for the future,” said Lt. Gen. Kevin M. Iiams, commanding general of Training and Education Command, discussing with reporters Jan. 24 about the upcoming rollout of the Marine Corps’ Training and Education 2030 (TE 2030) concept, launching a series of initiatives in concert with Force Design 2030, the concept initiated three years ago by the Marine Corps commandant, Gen. David H. Berger. These initiatives are designed to lay the foundation for future training and education of Marines and assigned Sailors for warfighting in the future. 

“We’re getting away from where we were previously in the Marine Corps where we were about rote, repetitive training. We want cognitive, problem-solving thinkers for the future,” Iiams said. “It is more offensively minded. It’s combat related. It’s positional shooting. Its teaching how they’re actually going to employ their weapons in combat instead of just marksmanship.” 

In the more challenging and rigorous ARQ, Marine infantry in a combat scenario will start firing at the 500-meter line instead of the 200-meter line. 

Advanced Simulation 

Iiams said the Corps will introduce advanced simulation capability “to be able to train them to higher levels, to be able to use some of the robot targets that we’re putting out there, to give them more realistic training scenarios in the field, not just shooting paper static targets but actually 3-dimensional roaming targets throughout the battlefield, which create a completely different scenario for them and cause them to figure out, are they going to shoot or not shoot as they move through some of these regimes.” 

“One of the systems currently being fielded is the Trackless Mobile Infantry Target (TMIT). TMITs are 3-dimensional, free-roaming, variable speed / variable acceleration moving targets with 360 degrees of untethered mobility that maneuver with teleoperation and semi-autonomous control,” the TE 2030 document said. “They provide a dynamic and realistic representation of human targets in both live-fire and non-live fire training environments.” 

The pilot ARQ course has been completed and the course is being implemented Corps-wide, progressing toward full operational capability. 

The Corps also will be developing and incorporating an automatic scoring range to use training time more efficiently. 

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ARLINGTON, Va. — The Marine Corps is divesting some types of its short-range, short-endurance small unmanned aerial systems (SUAS) in favor of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) SUAS.  

The Corps has retired its fixed-wing RQ-11B Raven and RQ-12A Wasp IV SUAS in favor of VTOL SUAS that are easier to launch and recover and can provide a hover-and-stare surveillance capability. They are being replaced by VTOL SUAS such as the SkyDio X2D (built by SkyDio), and the R80 SkyRaider (built by FLIR Systems). 

“The Marine Corps’ future operating concepts emphasize the need for agile, distributed operations which require small UAS to be organically owned and operated by tactical units for situational awareness, force protection, target engagement, persistent command, control, communications, and electronic warfare,” said Maj. Joshua C. Benson, director of Communication Strategy & Operations for Deputy Commandant, Combat Development and Integration, in response to a query from Seapower. “These systems equip small unit commanders with these capabilities at the lowest tactical echelons, and the transition to Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) capability enables maneuver units to operate in challenging terrain and austere operational environments, as the systems do not rely on traditional launch and recovery space.” 

A Necessary Innovation

Benson said the Corps is procuring the SkyDio X2D as the squad/platoon electro-optical/infrared/full motion video (FMV) sensor. The R80D SkyRaider is being procured to “provide company-level FMV and selectable payload usage for the Ground Combat Element.”

He said the evolution to VTOL SUAS from the successful RQ-11 and RQ-12 is a necessary innovation.

“Rapid technological advancement of uncrewed aerial systems necessitates an
iterative approach to research, development, procurement, implementation, and re-evaluation of system capabilities,” he said. “This adaptive approach enables the service to transition to cutting-edge capabilities as industry and academia advance at the speed of innovation. Divestment of legacy systems and incorporation of new technologies is necessary to ensure our warfighters are equipped with the most capable systems and technology, in order to maintain pace with our peer and near peer adversaries.”

The Corps also operates other VTOL SUAS, including the Skyranger (FLIR Systems/Aeryon Labs); Indago 3 (Lockheed Martin); Instant Eye (Physical Sciences Inc.); PD-100 Black Hornet (FLIR Systems); and Scout (MITRE Corp.).

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ARLINGTON, Va. —The U.S. Navy’s chief of chaplains said the service expects to increase the number of serving chaplains by 90 over the next five years in order to provide chaplains to the guided-missile destroyer (DDG) fleet as those ships deploy. 

Two years ago the commander, Naval Surface Forces, requested that the Navy provide chaplains to DDGs. Previously, sea-going billets for chaplains were typically limited to ships — such as aircraft carriers and amphibious warfare ships — that had large crews. 

Rear Adm. Gregory N. Todd, chief of chaplains, speaking in an online conversation with retired Rear Adm. Frank Thorp IV, President and CEO of the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington as one of the memorial’s SITREP Speaker Series events, said the program to assign chaplains to deploying DDGs is in place and is showing good results. 

“The data that is coming as a result of that is a reduction in a lot of the bad behavior—NJP [non-judicial punishment, low morale issues, retention issues,” Todd said. “It’s apparent that the chaplains on board are change agents. Can we pinpoint exactly how that change happens? Not yet. But we do know that there is some sort of concurrent effect of attending to people’s spirituality or spiritual readiness within that [DDG’s] command, creating a venue where it’s okay and then its resultant impact on some of their negative behaviors.” 

First Increase in Chaplains Since Cold War

Todd overseas a force of about 1,100 chaplains — active and reserve — plus enlisted religion affairs specialists that provide service to 570,000 Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen and their families. 

The increase in the number of chaplains is the first time the force has grown since the end of the Cold War, Todd said. 

“The Navy is hiring, and I’m trying to beat the bushes to the religious organizations of America,” the admiral said. “Send us your best. It’s a great opportunity; it’s a great place to work.  

“If I were to hold up what’s unique about this ministry, it’s the interaction with 18-to-25-year-olds,” he said. “We’re just immersed in a world of leadership. …  It’s operating in the public square, not confined to the church on the corner. Here we are, interacting with the whole Navy trying to impact the institution for the better.”  

Todd said the Coast Guard “has put us on notice that they intend to ask for more [chaplains], and the Marine Corps as well is looking at the question of adding more chaplains. So, right now, there is a realization that spiritual readiness does have an impact on the operational forces. If you attend to individual readiness in the aggregate, you’ll also build the readiness of the unit and the team.” 

Earlier in his career, Todd served as Chaplain of the Coast Guard and Chaplain of the Marine Corps. 

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ARLINGTON, Va. — A new Marine Corps squadron has been activated in Hawaii to enhance mobility of the Corps’ first Marine littoral regiment. Marine Aerial Refueler/Transport Squadron 153 (VMGR-153) was activated at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, in a Jan. 13 ceremony. The squadron is equipped with Lockheed Martin KC-130J Super Hercules tanker/transport aircraft. 

The activation of VMGR-153 is one enactment of Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David H. Berger’s Force Design 2030 concept, which is re-aligning the Corps to conduct expeditionary advance base operations inside an adversary’s weapon engagement zone. The Corps is activating three self-deployable, multi-domain Marine littoral regiments (MLRs) to conduct such operations, the first of which — the 3rd MLR — was activated last March. The 12th MLR will be activated this year in Okinawa, Japan.  

VMGR-153 brings to four the number of active-component VMGR squadrons in the Corps, three of which — including the new squadron — are positioned to support Marine Forces Pacific, the other two being VMGR-152, based at MCAS Iwakuni, Japan, and VMGR-352, based at MCAS Miramar, California. The fourth squadron, VMGR-252, is based at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina. 

Until last month, the Marine Corps Reserve also fielded two KC-130J squadrons. VMGR-452 was de-activated Dec. 2 at Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York. Remaining is VMGR-234 at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas.  

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ARLINGTON, Va. — A U.S. Navy T-6B Texan II training aircraft crashed near Foley, Alabama, Jan. 17. The instructor pilot and student naval aviator ejected successfully. 

The T-6B crashed at approximately 10:50 CST in an unpopulated area near Barin Naval Outlying Field near Foley, the Chief of Naval Air Training Public Affairs Office said in a release. The two flyers were treated for minor injuries. 

The T-6B was assigned to Training Air Wing Five at Naval Air Station Whiting Field, Milton, Florida. The T-6B is flown by three training squadrons at Whiting Field, VT-2, VT-3 and VT-6, to train naval aviators for the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and some foreign militaries. The aircraft also is flown by two training squadrons — VT-27 and VT-28 — assigned to Training Air Wing Four at NAS Corpus Christi, Texas. 

The aircraft loss was the Navy’s first in calendar 2023 and the first loss of a Navy T-6B since October 2020, when another — also assigned to Training Air Wing Five — crashed near Foley.  

The cause of the incident is under investigation.