ARLINGTON,
Va. — The Navy Department’s recent completion of migration of some networks to
a server cloud is seen as an example the kind of procurement agility and
innovation the Navy is looking for in its programs servicewide.

“The Navy
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) “tech refresh” completed Aug. 19,
10 months ahead of the projected completion date — the Navy’s largest system
migration to the cloud,” the Program Executive Office for Enterprise
Information Systems and Naval Supply Systems Command Public Affairs offices
said in a release.

The effort
went “from cold start to contract in 45 days,” said James F. “Hondo” Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development
and acquisition, speaking to reporters Aug. 23 at a media roundtable at the Pentagon.

The effort,
which cost $100 million as part of a larger information technology contract,
was scheduled to take 20 months but instead was accomplished in 10 months,
Geurts said.

“The Navy ERP
tech refresh is a major milestone toward consolidating all Department of the
Navy financial systems into a single general ledger, which is essential to the
department’s ability to produce accurate financial information, obtain a clean
audit opinion and improve our data analytic capability,” said Thomas Harker, assistant
secretary of the Navy for financial management and comptroller, who also briefed
reporters at the roundtable.

Harker said
the effort combined eight general ledger systems into to one. Those legacy
systems were based on COBALT or home-grown software.

He said that
the goal of the effort was toward “being auditable” and “being transparent
using modern business practices.”

“This will
increase our ability to do data analytics and provide much better information
for decision-making,” Harker said.

Geurts said
the ERP may have been the largest cloud migration ever conducted in North
America.

Navy ERP now
is available to about 72,000 users across six Navy commands: Naval Air Systems
Command, Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Information Warfare Systems Command,
Naval Supply Systems Command, Strategic Systems Programs, the Office of Naval
Research.

Navy ERP “is
now entirely cloud-based, operating significantly faster in memory, data
storage and processing,” the release said. “Prior to the migration, Navy ERP
operated on a Systems, Applications, and Products (SAP) server-based Oracle
platform. During the tech refresh, Navy ERP upgraded to the SAP HANA
(high-performance analytic appliance) cloud-based platform.”

Harker said
that one immediate impact of ERP will be an ability to produce reports in 30
minutes that used to take five or six hours. He said the impact will be felt in
improving customer support, getting rid of inefficiencies and enhancing the
ability to make rapid decisions.

He said the
ERP “gives the Navy the capacity to bring on new customers so we are moving the
half of the Navy that isn’t already on the ERP system onto the ERP system over
the next two years.”

The ERP cloud
incorporates rigorous, widely accepted cyber protections, with its coherent
single system reducing the attack surface compared with legacy systems.

The prime
system integrator for the ERP implementation was Advanced Solutions Inc., a
small business.

“The
magnitude of this accomplishment is incredible,” Navy Secretary Richard V.
Spencer said in the release. “The Navy ERP tech refresh is our largest system
cloud migration to date and will enhance the performance of our force.

“I am
proud of the team efforts to accomplish this on an accelerated schedule,
cutting the projected timeline nearly in half,” Spencer said. “The
team managed this through innovative approaches to problem-solving and close
collaboration with integration teams, network engineers and industry partners.”

The Navy ERP program is
managed by Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems’ (PEO
EIS) Navy Enterprise Business Solutions program management office.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy has awarded a contract to begin low-rate initial production (LRIP) for the Knifefish Surface Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV), a key mission module for the littoral combat ship’s Mine Countermeasures Mission Package.

Naval Sea Systems Command awarded on Aug. 26 a $44.6 million contract modification to Knifefish prime contractor General Dynamics Mission Systems for LRIP of the UUV. The contract will fund the initial deliveries of the Knifefish that will be used to provide the “initial systems for the Navy to test and operate,” the Defense Department release said.

Earlier on the date of the contract announcement, the Program Executive Officer for Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC) announced that it had granted Milestone C approval to the Knifefish program, which cleared the way for LRIP.

“The Knifefish system is designed for deployment from the littoral combat ship (LCS), vessels of opportunity or from shore to detect and classify buried, bottom and volume mines in high-clutter environments,” the PEO USC release said. “Knifefish is a critical element of the LCS Mine Countermeasure Mission Package and will reduce risk to Navy personnel and equipment.

The following are excerpts from the PEO USC release:

“The Knifefish system, which consists of two unmanned undersea vehicles along with support systems and equipment, uses cutting-edge low-frequency broadband sonar and automated target recognition software technology developed by the Naval Research Laboratory and successfully transitioned to industry. It acts as an off-board sensor while the host ship stays outside the mine field boundaries.

“Knifefish’s common open systems architecture design and modularity allow for platform flexibility and quick reconfiguration of the mission package to respond to evolving and dynamic mission requirements. Planned block upgrades will improve its sensors and automated target recognition software to keep pace with mine threats.

“Formal
developmental testing and an operational assessment were conducted from January
through May 2019 in multiple locations off the coasts of Massachusetts and
Florida. The Knifefish tests involved end-to-end operational mine-hunting
missions against a deployed, simulated target field.

Operations performed by fleet Sailors during developmental testing and operational assessment included mission planning, launching and recovering the system, monitoring the sorties and processing data. The unmanned undersea vehicles were deployed from a support craft in the vessels of opportunity configuration for all test events to provide a characterization of the performance of the entire Knifefish system, including the launch and recovery subsystem.

“A full-rate production decision is expected in fiscal year 2022 after additional testing of LRIP systems. The Navy plans to procure 30 Knifefish systems in all, 24 in support of LCS Mine Countermeasure Mission Packages and an additional six for deployment from vessels of opportunity.”

WASHINGTON — Fortem
Technologies has developed a counter-UAS (unmanned aerial system) that could be
used to protect ships as well as sites on land from localized drone threats.

Fortem displayed
its DroneHunter UAS in Washington at the Defense. Protection. Security. 2019
exposition sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems
International along with the associated TrueView radar and the Fortem Skydome
concept.

The
DroneHunter is a fully autonomous, maneuverable UAV with six vertical rotors
that allow it to hover. It uses artificial intelligence analytics and is
equipped with GPS navigation day and night and in all weather.

It carries a
small TrueView frequency modulation continuous-wave (FM-CW) lightweight radar
that points in one direction but can scan as the drone maneuvers. A video
system is used to image intruding drones. The drone also is equipped with two
netguns that can be fired at an intruding drone and entangle that drone’s
rotors or propellers with lightweight nets. The nets can be tethered to the
DroneHunter so that it can retrieve the intruder if desired.

The
DroneHunter is limited by its power to retrieval of drones below a certain
weight, but its nets can disable much larger drones. The DroneHunter has an
optional manual override or redirect capability.

The
DroneHunter is an optional component of a Fortem SkyDome, an airspace protected
by fixed-site or mobile TrueView FM-CW radars which detect intruding drones and
vector the DroneHunter to intercept the intruder.

Adam Robertson, the chief technology officer for Fortem Technologies, told Seapower that the DroneHunter could serve as a ship-protection system in port or at sea. Because most shipboard radars are pulse radars, they have difficulty detecting UAVs that are close by between pulse and reception — creating a blind spot immediately around the ship — whereas the CW radars are always “on” and detect any anomaly that intersects their beams. Robertson said the SkyDome system would be ideal for security of a ship in or entering or exiting port, including against UAS or small-boat threats.

WASHINGTON —
Adm. Michael M. Gilday succeeded Adm. John M. Richardson as the chief of naval
operations in ceremonies Aug. 22 at the Washington Navy Yard.

Navy
Secretary Richard V. Spencer, who presided over the ceremonies, praised Gilday.

“As Adm.
Richardson begins his well-deserved retirement, I know he’s leaving feeling
secure and able to sleep at night because Adm. Mike Gilday is assuming the
tiller as 32nd chief of naval operations,” Spencer said.

“Adm. Gilday
has already played a critical role in restoring readiness, and he is
well-positioned to take over our integrated naval force as we march into the
future. Just look at those shoulders, ladies and gentlemen. There is a mantle
for some heavy weight and gravity.”

“From his
distinguished commands at sea to his cooperation with NATO allies to confront
the great power competition to his innovation of Cyber Command, Adm. Gilday has
demonstrated what an outstanding leader and officer he is,” Spencer added. “His
most recent as director of the Joint Staff has given visibility into the
challenges he will now face. It’s a unique transition in that regard. I am confident
he will attack this responsibility with the urgency that I continually beat on
the drum for the United States Navy. We can achieve our next-generation
integrated naval force we need under his command. Of that I am sure.”

Spencer also
praised the service of Richardson.

“I could not
have asked for a better business partner,” Spencer said. “Wearing the Title 10
hat that I do, that is the highest compliment I can pay John Richardson. He has
done more for this Navy to put us in a ready lethal position than many before.
No effort was too great, no detail too small, as he really did help us navigate
the rocks and shoals to deliver the Navy the nation needs. … He has embraced
emerging technologies, he has pushed this Navy forward on its front feet, to be
faster, quicker to deliver what our Sailors and Marines need.”

Richardson
also praised his successor, saying that Gilday “is a
true cutting-edge warfighter, a surface warrior who, by virtue of his
leadership at 10th Fleet, fully appreciates the challenges we face in the cyberwarfare
arena and the increasing pace of competition in new domains. His experience as
the director of the Joint Staff will ensure that the Navy continues to look for
every opportunity to collaborate with other services, allies and partners
around the world. The Navy will be in good hands with Adm. Gilday at the helm.”

Gilday
spoke briefly and praised the direction of the Navy set under Richardson.

“I believe our Navy’s strategic direction is rock solid and that our Navy is in great shape,” he said. “We are recruiting and retaining a high-quality force, we are providing well-trained combat-ready forces forward, around the globe. We are modernizing our Navy at a scope and pace not seen in decades. I can say all that, in large part, due to the leadership of our 31st CNO.”

As the Navy’s most senior officer, Gilday also is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where he “acts as an adviser to the President of the United States, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council and the Secretary of Defense,” an Aug. 22 Navy release said. “Under direction of the secretary of the Navy, the CNO is responsible for the command, utilization of resources, and operating efficiency of naval forces and shore activities assigned by the secretary.”

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The man in charge of the Maritime Administration (MARAD) laid out his
priorities for the agency in a speech that included course corrections for the
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, shoring up the Ready Reserve Force and defending
the Jones Act.

Maritime Administrator Mark Buzby, a retired Navy rear admiral, spoke Aug. 21 in Arlington at a breakfast hosted by the Navy League of the United States and his first priority was getting the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy “back on track.”

He said the
academy had been on a “not good course for the last few years” with some
leadership problems, including sexual harassment issues. He said the new
superintendent, Rear Adm. Jack Buono, and the new academic dean, John R.
Ballard, were a “dynamic duo [that] really turned things around.”

Buzby added
that the “culture has turned around” and that “the midshipmen have taken
ownership of the issue.”

He said his
second priority is to ensure that the Ready Reserve Force (RRF) is “ready to
answer the call.”

The RRF is a
fleet of sealift ships kept in a reduced operating status manned by a skeleton
crew that can be activated for service normally in five days, though some are
activated for use on occasion, including two serving today. No-notice
activations are conducted each year to test the ability to get underway. Buzby
is concerned that some of the RRF ships are so old that many parts are not even
manufactured any more.

“Today, the
RRF is at 76% readiness,” he said.

Buzby said
programs are underway to modernize the RRF, including service-life extensions
for some ships out to 60 years; buying newer used ships and modernizing them;
and building new ships. The first two ships are being procured with $61 million
by 2021.

The MARAD
administrator’s third priority is to make a vigorous defense of the Jones Act,
a 99-year-old law — officially the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 — that in
general requires that cargoes carried between U.S. ports be carried on ships
that are U.S.-built, U.S.-crewed and U.S-owned.

The Jones Act
is “under attack on many, many fronts,” he said.

There are
about 40,000 Jones Act-compliant vessels of all sizes in the United States but
only 99 are large, ocean-going vessels, he said, plus 81 are involved in
international trade. Together, those 180 ships proved the employment pool of
merchant mariners to provide crews for the RRF.

“We’re about
1,800 mariners short,” Buzby said, about 45 ships worth of crew members. “We
need more places for people to work in peacetime.”

“If you took
the Jones Act away, those American jobs would, in all likelihood, go away,” he
said. “You are talking about the majority of the ships that employ
unlimited-tonnage mariners, so it would have a tremendous impact on our
national security and our economic security.”

One challenge with the RRF is that ship engineers with experience with steam plants are increasingly fading away, but 24 of the 46 RRF ships are steam-powered. Buzby also said that MARAD expects to award $293 million early next year in a port infrastructure development program. MARAD typically spends $20 million each year for small shipyard initiatives and $7 million in marine highway grants.

See video of Buzby’s Navy League speech here.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The U.S. Navy is creating a new high-level position in the office of the Navy
secretary to oversee information management policy, including cybersecurity.
The position will be the special assistant for information management and will
be given authorities on the level given to the four assistant secretaries of
the Navy.

A person has
been selected for the position and that person’s name will be announced in
coming weeks, Navy Undersecretary Thomas B. Modly said when he spoke to
reporters Aug. 16 at the Pentagon.

Navy
Secretary Richard V. Spencer commissioned an independent cybersecurity study last
year in the wake of some significant cyberbreaches in the industrial base. Spencer
sought the assessment to see how the Navy was doing in cybersecurity and how it
should be organized to combat such threats.

“No one at a
senior level had responsibility for this,” Modly said, noting that the CIO
office was “more of a compliance shop, less for developing strategy.”

Modly said
the Navy wanted to change the portfolio of one of its ASNs but that Congress
did not like the idea. Like the other military branches, the Navy is limited by
law to four assistant secretaries, three of whom must be an ASN for research, development
and acquisition, an ASN for manpower and reserve affairs and one for financial management
and comptroller. The fourth, an ASN for energy, installations and environment,
is allowed by law but not prescribed.

Given the
limitation to four ASNs, the Navy elected instead to create the special
assistant, who will report directly to Modly and Spencer.

Modly has
been acting as chief information officer for the Navy, a position with has been
vacant for 20 months, to maintain “the elevation of the job.”

He said that
his meetings with the Defense Department’s CIO and the CIOs of the other
services convinced him of the need for the Navy to have an official to set
policy for information management, especially for cybersecurity. The CIO
position exists in the law.

The new
special assistant, who also will be the Navy’s CIO, will not require
confirmation by the Senate. The position will be co-located with the
department’s chief management officer and will be at an echelon just below the
ASNs. Modly said it would be an “E-ring office” in the Pentagon.

The special
assistant will oversee two four directors: chief technology officer, chief data
officer, chief of digital strategy, and chief information security officer. In
addition, two officials, the deputy chief of naval operations for information
warfare and the Marine Corps’ deputy commandant for information, will be
dual-hatted as deputies to the special assistant.

“We are
intending to bring in people from the private sector to help us in this
particular office, so we’re scouring both internally and externally to find the
right types of people to bring in, particularly in the digital strategy area
and the data strategy area,” Modly said. “There’s a lot more expertise outside
this building that inside this building and we need to rely on the lessons
learned in the private sector to do that.”

He said that
a couple of functions of the chief management officer that would migrate to the
special assistant’s portfolio, including chief data officer.

Modly said the new office
would not involve adding a huge staff at the headquarters, just “moving pieces
around the chessboard,” and that he did not anticipate that additional funding
would not be needed.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The Raytheon Co. is ready to demonstrate a single-sortie mine
neutralization concept using systems it developed or is developing. The
technology will be demonstrated at Newport, Rhode Island, during the last week
of August at ANTX (Advanced Naval Technology Exercise) 2019.

The Raytheon plan
is to demonstrate “detect to engage” sea mines using unmanned systems, Andy
Wilde, director of strategy and business development for Raytheon Undersea, said
in an Aug. 15 interview with Seapower.

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 (LCS) that
will rely largely on unmanned systems.

Raytheon will
demonstrate its AQS-20C towed sonar, now in production, pulled through the
water by a 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 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 sonobuoy launcher 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 s mine and commands the Barracuda to detonate the mine
with a charge. The MCMUSV would then continue its mission on its planned track.

Raytheon will
have a time slot during ANTX 2019 in Narragansett Bay to run its MCM system
through several geometric patterns, Wilde said.

He said his
company is looking to take advantage of artificial and machine learning to
optimize the performance of its 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 currently is developing the Engineering Development Models
of the Barracuda and recently completed the Navy’s Preliminary Design Review.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has issued a draft Request for Proposals for its planned Large Unmanned Surface Vessel (LUSV), one of the vessels planned for its future surface fleet.

“The LUSV will be a
high-endurance, reconfigurable ship able to accommodate various payloads for
unmanned missions to augment the Navy’s manned surface force, the Aug. 9
announcement on the FedBizOps website said.

“With a large payload
capacity, the LUSV will be designed to conduct a variety of warfare operations
independently or in conjunction with manned surface combatants. The LUSV will
be capable of semi-autonomous or fully autonomous operation, with operators
in-the-loop (controlling remotely) or on-the-loop (enabled through autonomy).”

Naval Sea Systems
Command (NAVSEA) intends to award multiple contracts for conceptual designs
from the defense industry. A final RFP is to be issued in the fourth quarter
fiscal 2019. 

On July 16, the Navy issued an RFP for the Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MUSV), another vessel planned to be part of its future fleet concept. That RFP calls for “a pier-launched, self-deploying modular, open architecture, surface vessel capable of autonomous safe navigation and mission execution.”

The Navy is expected to field the LUSV and MUSV as adjuncts to its future surface fleet that will include the future surface combatant and the new FFG(X) guided-missile frigate as well as Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers and the Independence- and Freedom-class littoral combat ships.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The vice chief of naval operations has praised the progress made by the
naval aviation F/A-18 Super Hornet strike fighter community in improving its
readiness and is optimistic that a readiness goal of 80% will be reached by Oct.
1.

In a blog
post Aug. 12 on the Navy Live blog, VCNO Adm. Robert Burke wrote of his recent
visit to the commander of Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic and Strike Fighter Squadron
106 (VFA-106) at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia, “to get a firsthand look
at the changes to aviation maintenance practices and to gain insight on the
challenges and priorities of aviators and maintainers,” he said. VFA-106 is the
East Coast fleet replacement squadron for the F/A-18 community.

“It has been
less than a year since the Navy set out to restore strike fighter readiness
rates to 80%, and the one-year deadline of Oct. 1 is approaching,” Burke said. “For
the aviation community, the endeavor to increase the mission-capable rate of
F/A-18E/F Super Hornets posed a challenge that naval aviation leadership
attacked with fervor.”

Burke was
referring to the directive from then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to the U.S. Navy,
Marine Corps and Air Force to increase the readiness rates of its fighter
communities to 80% by Oct. 1. The services had been experiencing readiness
rates lower that 50% that had negatively affected numbers of mission-capable
aircraft, flight hours for pilots and pilot morale and retention.

Burke said
that VFA-106 was the most recent squadron “to initiate reforms under the Naval
Sustainment System (NSS), starting in April of this year. VFA-106 has the
largest inventory of Super Hornets on the flight line, as they are responsible
for training newly winged aviators for the fleet.

“In short,
this squadron is the largest contributor to the strike fighter readiness
recovery,” he said. “Since VFA-106 maintenance performance impacts overall
Super Hornet readiness status more than any other squadron, the recent
implementation of NSS procedures had a significant impact on the overall goal. …
VFA-106 learned from the FRS squadron [VFA-125] at NAS Lemoore who completed
early iterations of NSS changes. This rapid learning and improvement drove
VFA-106 to reduce maintenance turnover timeframes, raise the average mission
capable (MC) aircraft numbers, and return several long-term down aircraft to a
flying status.”

Burke said he
spoke with two junior Sailors who were plane crew chiefs to ask their opinion
of the NSS process.

“With pride,
they both spoke of ownership, of learning the whole aircraft, well outside of
their rating expertise, and of true teamwork,” he said. “This is a great
example of U.S. Navy Sailors being given tremendous responsibility — and
running with it!”

Burke said
that VFA-106 “is reaching the point where lack of MC aircraft is no longer a
limiting factor to pilot production, even when supporting operations in
multiple locations or underway on the aircraft carrier.

“These are powerful results that will ensure we have enough instructors and pilots in the future,” he said. “Success at VFA-106 is one example of how the Naval Aviation Enterprise is working together to achieve our 80% readiness goal,” Burke said.

“Because NSS addresses all elements of aviation maintenance — people, parts and processes — to make permanent changes that increase aviation readiness and lethality, we are seeing improvements that are sustainable for the future. Through collaboration and a whole-of-aviation approach, the Naval Aviation Enterprise is on its way to achieve and sustain its readiness goal.”

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The commander of Naval Air Forces confirmed that the pilot of the F/A-18E
Super Hornet strike fighter that crashed July 31 in Southern California died in
the crash.

“At
approximately 10 a.m. PST on July 31, a F/A-18E Super Hornet assigned to the
‘Vigilantes’ of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 151 based at Naval Air Station
Lemoore, California, crashed approximately 40 miles north of Naval Air Weapons
Station China Lake, California,” CNAF said in a release. The aircraft was on a
routine training mission in the area at the time. The cause of the crash is
currently under investigation.”

The F/A-18E
was on a low-level flight through a feature called Star Wars Canyon in Death
Valley National Park when it crashed near a popular overlook that aviation
photographers and other tourists visit to watch jets streak through the canyon.
The crash caused minor injuries to seven civilian tourists at the overlook with
fire and flying debris.

The Super
Hornet that crashed is only the fourth Navy aircraft to be lost in a crash so
far in fiscal 2019, according to records.

This fiscal year, prior to the F/A-18E loss, aerial mishaps claimed an F/A-18F Super Hornet, an MH-60R Seahawk helicopter and a T-45C Goshawk training jet.

Until the July 31 mishap, no Navy aviators had been killed in a mishap this year.