WASHINGTON — The secretary of the Navy said that the U.S. Air Force, not the Navy, will manage the program for the next generation of the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS). 

The MUOS, built by Lockheed Martin, is a communications satellite equipped with a wideband code division multiple-access payload that enables a 10-fold increase in capability over the previous UHF Follow-On satellite. 

The MUOS provides secure channels for voice and data at high speeds with streaming capability. The five-satellite system includes an in-orbit spare. Four are operational. The fifth — the spare — was launched in 2016 and turned over to Navy control in October 2017. General Dynamics has built MUOS ground stations in Hawaii, Virginia and Australia. In August 2018, the system was approved for expanded use by U.S. Strategic Command.  

The MUOS is unusual in that it is a Navy-developed and owned space satellite system. The Air Force is the primary operator of defense space satellites for the armed services. 

Spencer, speaking Oct. 23 to an audience at the Bookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank, replying to a question about the Navy Department’s involvement in space, said the Navy should subscribe to space services rather than purchase more satellite systems itself. 

“My fundamental position, and I believe the CNO [chief of naval operations] and commandant [of the Marine Corps] agree with me, is we’ve moved to a thought process where I just want the service and/or the resource provided to me,” Spencer said.  

“I just signed a memorandum of agreement with the Air Force,” Spencer said. “They will take over MUOS Next Generation. If that’s your expertise, I want you on it and [the Navy Department] will just buy the service from it.”

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy’s last active-duty patrol squadron to operate the Lockheed P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft has returned from deployment and soon will begin transition to the Boeing P-8A Poseidon.  

Patrol Squadron 40 (VP-40) completed its return to Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island, Washington, on Oct. 10 from its deployment to the U.S. 7th Fleet and U.S. 5th Fleet areas of operations. 

VP-40 is the last of the existing 12 VP fleet squadrons to operate the P-3C. It will join those squadrons in flying the P-8A as it begins its transition with the fleet replacement squadron, VP-30 at NAS Jacksonville, Florida. 

VP-40 had the distinction of retiring the Navy’s last flying boats, the SP-5B Marlins, in 1967 following a deployment to the Philippines and South Vietnam. 

Although it is no longer in the regular fleet deployment cycles, the P-3 will continue for several more years to be operated by several units, including two reserve VP squadrons, VP-62 and VP-69, as well as VP-30, Special Projects Patrol Squadron Two, Scientific Development Squadron One, and Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 30. 

The EP-3E electronic reconnaissance version will continue to deploy from NAS Whidbey Island with detachments of Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One until the MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial vehicle is deployed in sufficient numbers with signals intelligence capability.       

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy’s program for its next-generation ballistic-missile submarine (SSBN), the Columbia class, is on track to start construction on time, but the program has a tight schedule with little margin for delay, the program manager said. 

“Our biggest risk today is the supplier base,” said Capt. Jon Rucker, program manager for the Columbia SSBN, speaking Oct. 8 at the eighth annual TRIAD Conference in the Washington, D.C., area.  

Rucker pointed out that when construction of the current Ohio class began, a supplier base of 17,000 companies contributed to the materiel and systems for the boat. Today, the Columbia program is pressing forward with only 3,000 suppliers. 

The supply of skilled shipyard workers also is a concern to Rucker. He noted that General Dynamics Electric Boat, the prime contractor for the Columbia, is increasing its workforce to 20,000 from 17,000 workers. But the hiring is drawing skilled workers from naval shipyards that routinely maintain subs and carriers. 

Rucker said that robots have been used in building the Common Missile Compartment for the Columbia class and the U.K. Royal Navy’s Dreadnought-class SSBN. Robots used in welding the missile tubes to the bottom of the hull section took 44 minutes and 8 seconds, compared with 4 days for a human worker. 

Electric Boat has invested $1.8 billion in facilities to build the Columbia class and Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding division is spending $800 million to $900 million to support the construction, Rucker said.  

About 10 percent of the construction of the lead boat, Columbia, already has begun but its formal start is scheduled for Oct. 1, 2020. The first Columbia SSBN needs to be on patrol by the beginning of fiscal 2031, on Oct. 1, 2030. The program goal is to build each of the following boats of the class in 84 months.  

“We will deliver at least 12 Columbia-class SSBNs by 2042,” Rucker said, with emphasis on “at least.” 

The Navy operates 14 Ohio-class missile submarines, which are scheduled for an extended service life of 42.5 years. The last Ohio-class boat built, USS Louisiana, recently entered its final refueling period to extend its life. The Ohio class is scheduled to begin retirement in 2027. 

“We can’t extend them anymore,” Rucker said. 

Rucker noted that the Columbia program has a high design maturity, with a design that will be 83% at construction start. By contrast, the Ohio design was only 2% complete at construction start.  

“We make sure we keep stable requirements,” he said. 

“We own this platform cradle to grave,” Rucker said, noting that the program office will be responsible for sustainment in addition to construction. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy’s submarine base in Kings Bay, Georgia, will be the first base to be readied for the Navy’s new Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine (SSBN), a Navy admiral said. 

“Kings Bay will come first, so that [construction] will be in [the] 2023 to 2025 period,” Rear Adm. John W. Korka, commander of Naval Facilities Engineering Command, said in an interview with Seapower. “About a year later, we will see similar efforts at Bangor [Washington].

See More Coverage of the Columbia Class

“In Kings Bay today, the critical SSBN dry dock facility requires upgrades,” Korka said. “In support of that requirement, next year we will award a project to recapitalize the dry dock. That work is part of a $400 million-plus project.” 

The 12 planned Columbia-class SSBNs will replace the 14 Ohio-class SSBNs in service on ballistic-missile patrols beginning in 2031. The program is on a tight timeline to deliver the new SSBNs in time to assume the patrols, and the Naval Facilities Engineering Command has program officials embedded with Program Executive Office-Submarines to coordinate the infrastructure requirements of the Columbia sub program. 

“Each new class brings a new capability, so that translates to unique training and refitting associated with supporting any new platform,” Korka added. 

“I tell people to keep in mind, though, that as we are bringing the Ohio class offline, we still need to maintain the facilities to support that program and that submarine and, at the same time, we are transitioning to bringing on the Columbia class. Training and maintenance spaces are critical in that arena. I will add that there is an opportunity to use the existing spaces, but there is a requirement for a certain amount of expansion.” 

Korka added: “It’s important to note that we are introducing a new platform while there is still an operational requirement for an existing platform. As such, we need to make sure our team has the requirements right and possesses the agility of being able to change direction without losing the pace of construction. That is going to be critical element to our success — being able to adjust to meet the emerging requirements while keeping the timeline on track. That is where agility plays a key role.”   

Korka’s command also has been heavily engaged in upgrading the infrastructure in Philadelphia to support the Columbia construction. 

“What many people may not know is that the Navy produces the propulsor components and propellers at the Naval Foundry and Propeller Center in Philadelphia,” he said.

“The facilities at the Naval Surface Warfare Center portion of the annex that were part of supporting the Columbia class needed power upgrades. They additionally required construction of the power propulsion facilities primarily designed to do all the testing of components associated with the electrical drive system of the Columbia class. We awarded that project in 2015 and will complete it in the coming months. It has a full-tilt testing cell to characterize and certify the acoustic signature performance. The propulsion system then is barged up to Groton [Connecticut] to Electric Boat, where it will be installed into the submarines. This project is active and progressing along. There are other projects in Philadelphia supporting the manufacturing elements and testing labs as well, and work associated with those projects will continue.” 

“There also is a submarine propulsor manufacturing support facility that is tracking to be awarded this year as well as planning and design efforts for the training and refit facilities in support of the Columbia class,” he said.

WASHINGTON — The admiral in charge of Naval Air Systems Command said that aircraft readiness hinges on reliability of the systems and the maintenance that keeps them mission-capable. 

“Reliability is just as critical as lethality,” said NAVAIR’s commander, Vice Adm. Dean Peters, speaking Oct. 1 at a luncheon of the Greater Washington Council of the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association in Washington, noting that the Navy had to take a different view of how to achieve more reliability as it endeavors to improve aircraft readiness. 

Peters said he would like to turn all 10,000 engineers in the Naval Aviation Enterprise into reliability engineers. 

One challenge to achieving high readiness is the lagging provision of things like vital spare parts, technical manuals and ground support equipment. Peters cited the 2003 introduction of the Marine Corps’ UH-1Y Venom helicopter to replace the UH-1N in Afghanistan and Iraq. He said the UH-1Y deployed with inadequate spare parts, manuals and ground support equipment as the Navy continued to buy the aircraft while shorting the necessary support. 

“We are mesmerized by quantities,” Peters said, explaining that Congress often is focused more on the aircraft — the “above-line costs” — rather than the supporting items — the “below-line” costs.   

“This is just not the way to align our fleet,” he said.  

The admiral said the Navy is establishing a new program executive office for common parts, such as radios and other systems used in multiple platforms, with a civilian program executive officer, to raise the procurement of such systems to a higher visibility. 

He pointed out that throwing money and spare parts at the Navy is not going to solve the readiness problem, but that the sea service needed to change its way of fostering reliability and maintenance, balancing sustainment with new capability. 

Peters praised fleet readiness centers for their progress in improving the readiness of Navy and Marine Corps aircraft. The Navy consulted with airlines to see what they did to sustain high aircraft availability. He said that every supporting function had to own the outcome. 

“It’s really about bringing accountability to everyone involved,” the admiral said.  

One factor in improvement was bringing the management, planning, logistics and maintenance all at the same site.  

Peters said the Navy established a reliability control board to identify the factors that degrade aircraft readiness. 

For one example, the Navy found that a component of the E-2D’s APY-9 radar was lasting only 600 hours rather than 6,000 hours. 

In another example, an F/A-18 that had been inducted into a fleet readiness center had not flown a single hour since it emerged from its last induction six years prior. 

Peters said the fleet readiness centers at Naval Air Station (NAS) Lemoore, California, and NAS Oceana, Virginia, delivered 36 F/A-18 strike fighters in fiscal 2019, each of which was completed in 60 days and flown within seven days after delivery. 

The 80% readiness goal for the F/A-18 fleet that then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis set was met and exceeded by the Navy. The goal of 341 of 550 aircraft to be mission-capable was exceeded, reaching 379 aircraft on Oct. 1. 

“People are starting to believe we can do it,” Peters said. “It’s not all about efficiency.”

ARLINGTON, Va. — The commander of U.S. forces in Latin America and the Caribbean Sea said that the U.S. strategy in the region is designed to secure a prosperous hemisphere and to counter threats that would undermine the security of the region, including the issues brought about by the increasing great power competition.   

“The best way to counter threats is partnership,” said Adm. Craig S. Faller, commander of U.S. Southern Command, speaking Sept. 30 at the Gen. Bernard W. Rogers Strategic Issues Forum, an event sponsored by the Association of the United States Army and the Navy League of the United States. 

Strengthening partnerships “wins in life, wins in war,” Faller said. 

Strengthening partnerships is Faller’s top priority as he works with the nations of the region and their militaries. He said that partnership is the best way to achieve his second priority, countering threats to the region. His third priority is to “build our team,” strengthening the forces available to secure the peace in the region. 

Faller pointed out as good news that 27 of the nations in his area of responsibility are democracies. He also noted that some nations, such as Colombia, are now not only providing their own defense but are providing security assistance to other nations in the region. 

The admiral stressed the importance of promoting shared values — professionalism, respect for law, respect for human rights — as a means to address the regional problems of weak democracies and institutional corruption and of countering transnational criminal organizations engaged in activities such as drug running, human trafficking, weapons running and illegal fishing and mining. He said that combatting international terrorism, such as that sponsored by Iran, comes under the purview of U.S. Special Operations Command.  

Faller said he considered Russia and China to be “malign actors” in the region that have “moved in a way that all of us should find alarming.” 

China is working on 60 seaport access deals across the hemisphere, 56 in the Southern Command region, he said.  

Faller said that 67% of the goods that pass through the Panama Canal are U.S. goods, but he noted that China has signed 45 agreements with Panama during the last U.S. administration “and locked up port deals at either end of the canal.” 

“I do consider China a threat to the democracy, to the stability of this neighborhood,” Faller said, noting the support of China and Russia for Venezuela’s Maduro regime. He also said that Maduro’s presidential guard is provided by Cuba.   

He said that the Panama Canal is vulnerable to terrorist and cyber threats. 

Faller praised the partnership between the United States and Brazil during World War II, when the U.S. 4th Fleet was based in Brazil, and the two countries operated together to counter the German submarine threat in the Atlantic. 

“Brazil would say they should be part of NATO, and I don’t disagree with them,” he said. “There is a lot of opportunity there.” 

The admiral also stressed the importance of the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which is the southernmost U.S. facility in the region. The U.S. stages aircraft at Soto Cano in Honduras and has some pier space in Curacao, an island owned by The Netherlands.  

The 4th Fleet has no ships permanently assigned to the Southern Command, but Faller is looking forward to one ship being assigned there. Typically, five Coast Guard cutters are in the region on drug and migrant interdiction missions.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy has ordered nine E-2D Advanced Hawkeye from Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. for the government of Japan.  

According to a Sept. 26 Defense Department contract announcement, Naval Air Systems Command awarded to Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. a $1.36 billion firm fixed-price contract modification for the production and delivery of the nine E-2Ds. The contract was awarded under Foreign Military Sales. 

Earlier, in May 2019, Northrop Grumman delivered the first of four E-2Ds ordered under a 2014 contract.  

The E-2Ds will equip the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force, which currently operates the older E-2C version.  

The E-2D features the Lockheed Martin APY-9 radar with a two-generation leap in capability and upgraded aircraft systems that improve supportability and increase readiness. Another notable upgrade is the glass cockpit. The three 17-inch liquid crystal display panels enable either the pilot or co-pilot to become a fourth tactical operator — when not actively engaged in flying the aircraft — to give the crew more flexibility in performing its diverse missions.

ARLINGTON, Va. — Raytheon has demonstrated the ability to detect and identify a mine-like object and position an unmanned underwater vehicle to be in position to neutralize it, a company official said on Sept. 26. 

The Aug. 29 “detect to engage” demonstration was one event in the Navy’s ANTX (Advanced Naval Technology Exercise) 2019 held at Newport, Rhode Island. 

“We view it as a tremendous success,” Andy Wilde, director of strategy and business development for Raytheon Undersea, said in an interview with Seapower. He said it was a “great example of the great work the Navy and industry can do when we co-invest in critically important projects like this to solve very, very difficult problems.”  

Wilde cited the success as an example of a “high-velocity outcome” of a “best-of-breed” technology being rapidly prototyped and tested and able to be fielded very quickly, a process championed by former Chief of Naval Operations John M. Richardson. 

Raytheon’s AQS-20C towed sonar was pulled through the water by a surplus riverine craft acting as a surrogate for the Textron-built MCM unmanned surface vehicle (MCMUSV) that will be a component of the MCM mission package for the littoral combat ship (LCS). 

Under the concept, an MCMUSV is launched from an LCS and deploys the AQS-20C. Once a possible sea mine is detected by the AQS-20C’s synthetic aperture sonar, a Barracuda expendable semi-autonomous mine neutralization unmanned undersea vehicle is — on the same pass — launched into the water from a A-size sonobuoylauncher on the MCMUSV. 

The Barracuda deploys a float that serves as an RF datalink to the CUSV and an acoustic data link to the Barracuda. The tactical mission plan is downloaded from the LCS to the Barracuda via the CUSV. The Barracuda starts a search track and, once it acquires a mine, it maintains position at the mine. The operator on the LCS confirms the object is a mine and commands the Barracuda to detonate the mine with a charge. The MCMUSV would then continue its mission on its planned track. 

During the demonstration, the towed AQS-20C detected a mine-like object moored in Narragansett Bay. The surface craft launched a Nemo, the prototype of the Barracuda developed with the Office of Naval Research. The Nemo located the mine-like object and hovered with it, keeping station. Having transmitted imagery of the mine-like object to the control station, the Barracuda was commanded to touch the mine-like object to simulate firing a shaped charge, Wilde said. 

Wilde said the Barracuda has station-keeping technology that enables it to remain position to fire the shaped charge at the mine even in currents that cause a moored mine to sift position on its tether. 

In an Aug. 15 interview, Wilde said that unmanned systems will revolutionize mine countermeasures (MCM) that currently take weeks or months to clear minefields and put minesweepers at risk. The Navy is developing an MCM mission package for the littoral combat ship that will rely largely on unmanned systems. 

He also said the MCM mission concept could be expanded to other missions, including by use of a B-size sonobuoy launcher with other payloads. The AQS-20C sonar is now in production. Raytheon is developing the engineering developmentmodels of the Barracuda and recently completed the Navy’s preliminary designreview.  

Wilde said Raytheon is in discussions with the Navy about other missions to which the Barracuda could be applied. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The planned upgrade of the nuclear warhead on some U.S. Navy submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) has been delayed for 18 months by unacceptable reliability of some components.  

Testifying Sept. 25 on Capitol Hill before the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on strategic forces, Charles P. Verdon, deputy administrator for defense programs for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), said that during stress tests to certify some electrical components of the weapons, some capacitors for the Navy’s W88 Alteration 370 warhead for the Trident D5LE SLBM and the Air Force’s B61 Mod 12 nuclear bomb did not meet the stringent reliability requirements. The capacitors were commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components.  

Verdon said a blue-ribbon panel established by NNSA formed to study the matter “advised in June 2019 that the prudent approach was to accept the delay of these programs and replace these components rather than risk component failure in future years.”    

The recommendations were accepted by NNSA at that time, Verdon said, noting that NNSA is developing a specific production schedule and initial operational capability dates are being explored. 

Verdon said the capacitor of insufficient reliability was a $5 part, whereas the replacement capacitor — being built to a new standard that did not exist at the time the original capacitors were procured — cost $75. Although the figures for program delays are not yet final, he said the delay would cost NNSA an additional $120 million to $150 million for the W88 Alt 370 and $600 million to $700 million for the B61 bomb. 

Verdon also said the additional costs could be mitigated by balancing the workload within NNSA’s modernization portfolio. He said that any increase in funding would not be needed until fiscal 2021. 

Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe, the Navy’s director of strategic systems programs, also testifying before the committee, said the upgrades for the W88 Alt 370 begun in 2008 focused on procuring the arming, fuzing and firing units and replacing the warhead’s high explosives. He said the installation of the Alt 370 was delayed to a start of December 2019, “removing any schedule margin for the refurbishment effort.” 

He said the Navy and NNSA are planning for about an 18-month delay to the Alt 370 program and that the Navy is working with the ballistic-missile submarine fleet’s operational commander, U.S Strategic Command, to mitigate the effect of the delays and ensure that the nation’s strategic requirements are met on schedule. 

“We will meet the requirements as we move forward,” Wolfe said. 

Verdon said that “[a]s a root cause, we identified that our methodology for the insertion of COTS components into high-reliability, long-life nuclear warheads needs to be improved” to avoid such future delays. 

He said the NNSA “underestimated the variability between lots” in COTS-procured capacitors.  

A closed classified session was held by the subcommittee following the open hearing. 

QUANTICO, Va. — The return of the Marine Corps to the concept of the Fleet Marine Force means that the Marines must be active in defense of amphibious forces for amphibious missions to be successful, a Marine Corps official said. 

Col. Kurt Schiller, director of Air Combat Element/Maritime Expeditionary Warfare Division, Combat Capabilities Directorate, speaking last week at the Modern Day Marine expo at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, said that “Marines cannot just be passengers” on amphibious or prepositioning ships … “but need to help with fleet defense.” 

“We need better self-defense capability on these L-class [amphibious warfare] ships,” he said. 

Schiller discussed several trends that he has noted in the current and future amphibious platforms, some of which are problems being remedied and some which need addressing in an era of great power competition. 

He sees a rise in force protection risks because of an adversary’s more long-range precision munitions and more ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) capabilities, including unmanned aerial vehicles. 

Second, insufficient platform availability limits the number of amphibious ships that can deploy on short notice. “We just don’t have enough of them and can’t keep them afloat as much as we’d like,” he said.  

Third, he noted insufficient capacity in the digital domain and the ability of adversaries “to take out our command and control systems.”   

Fourth, Schiller noted “insufficient planning and coordination spaces on the ships. There’s not enough space on the ships for all of the things we want to do.”  

Fifth, he said that amphibious warfare ships need the C5I [command, control, communications, computers and combat] systems that enable them to operate independently from an amphibious ready group.  

Sixth, amphibious warfare ships likely will need to handle greater capacity with regards to Marine Corps equipment, like the F-35 strike fighter, MV-22 Osprey aircraft and the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, all of which are heavier than their predecessors.  

“All the Marine [Corps] systems are getting heavier,” Schiller said. 

He also noted a decreased readiness and capacity of old landing craft. The Navy is in the process of procuring new LCAC 100-class ship-to-shore connectors and new utility landing craft.