KEY WEST,
Fla. — The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Thetis (WMEC-910) returned to their
homeport in Key West, Florida, on May 23 after a three-month U.S. Africa
Command patrol, the Coast Guard 7th District said in a release.

The Thetis
crew concluded their patrol, in which they conducted multiple joint law-enforcement
exercises and operations with West African countries with U.S. Africa Command
and U.S. 6th Fleet to maintain and strengthen international partnerships and
maritime security.

“By
conducting joint maritime law-enforcement operations, we were able to establish
best practices providing the West African navies and coast guards with the
tools to enforce their laws and secure their maritime borders,” said Cmdr.
Randall Chong, commanding officer of the Thetis. “The U.S. Coast Guard’s
involvement in the African Maritime Law Enforcement Partnership has had a
positive impact on the region, and I am proud of all the hard work my crew has
put into this mission.”

Thetis crew members
and U.S. Coast Guard Tactical Law Enforcement Team South worked to build,
strengthen and maintain relationships with the African nations of Cabo Verde,
Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, São Tomé and Príncipe, Togo and Benin. Together, they
conducted joint maritime safety, security and law enforcement training and
missions in support of Africa Maritime Law Enforcement Partnership 2019
operations.

While at sea,
the crew conducted joint fisheries and law-enforcement boardings with Nigerian navy
and Cabo Verde coast guard law-enforcement teams. The Thetis crew saved the
lives of two men who were lost at sea for three days and safely transferred
them to the Sierra Leone maritime authority. The crew also rescued two
loggerhead sea turtles that were entangled in fishing nets in the Gulf of
Guinea.

Thetis is the
first U.S. Coast Guard cutter to support U.S. 6th Fleet and deploy to U.S.
Africa Command since 2012.

U.S. 6th
Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts a full spectrum of joint and
naval operations, often in concert with allied and interagency partners, to
advance U.S. national interests, security and stability in Europe and Africa.

The Thetis is a multimission
270-foot medium-endurance cutter whose missions include illegal drug and
migrant interdiction as well as search and rescue. The Thetis patrols
throughout the Caribbean basin, eastern Pacific and Atlantic seaboard.

Huntington
Ingalls Industries hosted a ceremonial first-cut-of-steel event today at its
Newport News Shipbuilding division to mark the start of advance construction
for the Columbia-class submarine program, the company
announced in a press release. The event also marked the first class of
submarines that will be built using fully digital blueprints.

“Today is a
historic day,” said Jason Ward, Newport News’ vice president for Columbia-class construction. “It has been a half century
since Newport News Shipbuilding has constructed a ballistic submarine. Today,
we celebrate the decade-plus effort spent working with Electric Boat on the
design of this new class of submarine as we formally transition from design to
material procurement and now to construction execution.”

The Columbia-class boats will replace the fleet of Ohio-class nuclear ballistic submarines. Newport News is
starting its work three weeks ahead of schedule to support its advance
construction efforts, according to the release.

“The first cut
of steel is a major construction milestone that signifies our shipyard and
submarine industrial base are ready to move forward with production,” Ward
said. “We have worked to engage the submarine industrial base and leveraged
lessons learned from the successful Virginia-class
program to building the Columbia-class
submarines in the most efficient and affordable manner to provide the best
value to the Navy.”

Ceremony
participants included Newport News Shipbuilding President Jennifer Boykin; Rear
Adm. Scott Pappano, Columbia’s program executive officer; Capt. Jon Rucker, Columbia’s
program manager; Will Lennon, vice president of the Columbia-class
submarine program for General Dynamics Electric Boat; and shipbuilders.

Construction
of the 12-boat Columbia class will take place in
Virginia, Rhode Island and Connecticut, with Electric Boat assembling and
delivering all of the submarines. The lead boat is scheduled to be delivered to
the Navy in 2027.

WASHINGTON — Maritime Administrator Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby announced
May 21 that TOTE Services Inc. of Jacksonville, Florida, has been chosen as the
vessel construction manager for the newest class of training ship, the National
Security Multi-Mission Vessel (NSMV).

TOTE Services was selected by MARAD as the construction
manager for selecting a shipyard and ensuring that commercial best practices
are utilized to deliver the NSMV on time and on budget, MARAD said in a May 21
release.

“The U.S. shipbuilding industry is vital to America’s
economic strength and security,” Buzby said. “The selection of TOTE Servicesto work with a U.S. shipyard to deliver this class of vessels is an
investment in our nation’s vital maritime infrastructure and underscores our
mission to foster and promote the U.S. Merchant Marine.”

The 2017 National Defense Authorization Act directed MARAD
to “provide for an entity other than the Maritime Administration to contract
for the construction of the NSMV.” This procurement process has allowed MARAD
to leverage existing marketplace expertise and target companies experienced in
the production of innovative U.S.-built ships.

“The construction of this new NSMV will continue to showcase
our nation’s shipbuilding standard of excellence,” Buzby said. “Ultimately, it
will provide an excellent training platform for future generations of
mariners.”

TOTE Services is a full-service company that will oversee
and manage the detailed design, construction, testing and delivery of the final
NSMV. The NSMV is a new class of purpose-built ships to provide for the
replacement of the current training ships at the State Maritime Academies
(SMA). SMA training ships are primarily used to meet regulatory requirements
for training standards and to offer at-sea training experiences.

Upon award of the contract, TOTE Services will issue a
request for proposal to shipyards. Pursuant to the contract, the company is
expected to select a shipyard within six months of the VCM contract award and
will begin the management oversight of the final vessel design and
construction, with an expected delivery date of fall 2022.

The NSMV will feature numerous instructional spaces and a
full training bridge and have space for up to 600 cadets to train in a maritime
academic environment at sea.

In addition to serving as an educational platform, the NSMV
will also be available to support federal government responses to national and
international disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes. In this role, the
NSMV will be equipped to support major federal relief and response efforts,
providing hospital facilities, a helicopter landing pad and berthing for up to
1,000 first responders and recovery workers. The vessel’s roll-on/roll-off ramp
and crane to facilitate container storage will enable it to provide critical
supplies to damaged port facilities.

FORT WORTH, Texas — The Bell V-280 Valor recently completed flight demonstrations ahead of schedule of its low-speed agility key performance parameter in the U.S. Army-led Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR TD) program, Bell Helicopter announced.

The V-280 Valor, which the U.S. Marine Corps is monitoring for possible use as well, has demonstrated in flight testing that it has the raw control power in pitch, roll and yaw maneuvers to meet the Army’s Level 1 handling qualities requirements, which is the highest performance standard for agility.

This flight testing validates Bell’s engineering models and development processes to design, build and test an aircraft on an aggressive development schedule that meets Army performance requirements.

“This latest flight milestone proves that the V-280 Valor tilt-rotor delivers first-rate handling for pilots during low-speed maneuvers without sacrificing speed, range or payload that the military needs for multidomain operations,” said Ryan Ehinger, the V-280 program manager at Bell.

For pilots, this achievement provides additional proof that the V-280 will have unprecedented agility on the objective (at the “X”) for operational effectiveness, according to the Bell release. The aircraft’s digital flight controls and performance-driven design increases mission effectiveness by providing a high level of agility, reducing pilot workload and enhancing flight safety.

As the JMR TD period of performance winds down, Bell and Team Valor continue to expand the flight envelope and demonstrate new capabilities to prove the V-280 Valor’s key technologies and reduce the risk for future vertical lift programs.

The latest flight statistics for the V-280 include:
• Forward flight over 300 knots true airspeed.
• More than 110 hours of flight and over 225 rotor-turn hours.
• Greater than 50-degree banked turns.
• 4,500-feet-per-minute rate of climb and sustained flight at an altitude of 11,500 feet.
• Single flight ferry of more than 370 miles.
• Demonstrated Level 1 low-speed agility with fly-by-wire controls.
• In-flight transitions between cruise mode and vertical takeoff and landing.

PITTSBURGH — RE2 Robotics, developer of human-like
robotic manipulator arms, has received $3 million from the Office of Naval Research
to develop a dexterous, underwater robotic hand with tactile feedback, the
company said in a release.

The program, called Strong Tactile mARitime hand for
Feeling, Inspecting, Sensing and Handing (STARFISH), will create an advanced
end-effector for mine countermeasures and explosive ordnance disposal for expeditionary
forces.

Using next-generation tactile sensing technology and a
multifinger, electromechanical design, STARFISH will allow operators to locate,
identify and neutralize hidden and visible explosive threats on land and
underwater. STARFISH-enabled manipulators will be deployed on both ground-base
and underwater robotic system to defeat explosive threats.

“The development of STARFISH takes underwater robotic
technology to the next level by providing operators with the ability to ‘feel’
and sense the environment around them while remaining at a safe distance,” said
Jorgen Pedersen, president and CEO of RE2. “The use of advanced tactile sensing
and intelligent grasping will improve operational performance by removing
operators from dangerous areas and allowing them to quickly and accurately
respond to explosive threats.”

RE2 will work with researchers at UCLA and the University
of Washington to develop the hand, which will use state-of-the-art tactile skin
and sensorized fingertips that are capable of sensing normal and shear forces.
Operators will command the hand using information provided by external sensing,
such as cameras, sonar or LIDAR, which will then be processed with
machine-learning algorithms to assist the operator in manipulating the object.

“Tactile sensing at the end effector can provide a wealth
of information about the environment to a robotic system and its operator,”
said Dr. Andrew Mor, RE2’s principal investigator. “Using a rich network of
sensing, machine learning and assisted manipulation, STARFISH will be able to
perceive and then share its interpretation of the environment with the
operator, allowing naval expeditionary forces to manipulate and control the
robot at human speed.”

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The crew of
Coast Guard Cutter Resolute (WMEC-620) returned home on May 19 following a
60-day patrol in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the Coast Guard 7th District said
in a release.

Upon getting underway, Resolute
patrolled south to the Panama Canal, transiting the 51-mile canal and passing
through three separate locks over the course of 10 hours to reach the Gulf of
Panama and the Pacific Ocean. After reaching the Pacific, Resolute transitioned
to conducting law-enforcement operations in support of the Joint Interagency
Task Force South counter-drug mission under the tactical command of the 11th
Coast Guard District.

Resolute embarked an aviation detachment
from the Coast Guard helicopter interdiction tactical squadron to assist with
counter-drug missions. With the aid of the aviation detachment, Resolute
interdicted seven suspected drug-smuggling vessels, seizing or disrupting over
4,000 kilograms of cocaine, worth an estimated $129 million in street value.
Additionally, Resolute detained 23 suspected narcotics traffickers and ensured
they received proper care and proper disposition to various agencies.

Resolute’s cases ranged from high-speed
interdictions of go-fast vessels to fishing vessels concealing contraband in
hidden compartments. Many of these cases lasted more than 20 consecutive hours
and some required detailed operational planning and partnership with additional
assets, including Canadian navy and Central American coast guard assets.

This patrol was one of Resolute’s most
successful counterdrug patrols in recent years. Resolute disrupted transnational
criminal organizations through the interdiction and apprehension of seven
separate vessels, ensuring more than $130 million of illegal narcotics were
seized prior to making it to the United States.

Resolute is a 210-foot Reliance class
cutter and has a crew of 78. The cutter was commissioned in 1966 and has been
homeported in San Francisco, California, Astoria, Oregon, and now St.
Petersburg. Resolute has a decorated past, including patrols in both the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans, participating in the cleanup of the Exxon Valdez
disaster in Alaska, the response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the
search-and-rescue efforts for the El Faro. The ship’s recent patrols have
focused on law-enforcement missions of drug-and-migrant interdiction.

ST. LOUIS —
Boeing has received a one-year contract to continue modernizing the U.S. Navy’s
F/A-18 fleet under the Service Life Modification (SLM) program, the company
said in a May 17 release.

The $164
million contract for fiscal 2019, which also includes a one-year option for
2020, funds the standup of a second SLM line in San Antonio, Texas, complementary
to the line established last year in St. Louis.

“The Service
Life Modification program is making great strides as we’ve already inducted
seven Super Hornets into the program and will deliver the first jet back to the
Navy later this year,” said Dave Sallenbach, the program’s director. “This
program is crucial in helping the Navy with its readiness challenges and will
continue to grow each year with the number of jets we induct.”

The San
Antonio SLM line is scheduled to receive its first Super Hornet in June and a
total of 23 Super Hornets over the course of this contract. The U.S. Navy fleet
consists of more than 550 Super Hornets.

The SLM
program extends the life of existing Super Hornets from 6,000 to 10,000 flight
hours.

In the early
2020s, Boeing is scheduled to begin installing initial updates to the aircraft
that will convert existing Block II Super Hornets to a new Block III
configuration.

The Block III
conversion will include enhanced network capability, longer range with
conformal fuel tanks, an advanced cockpit system, signature improvements and an
enhanced communications system. The updates are expected to keep the F/A-18 in
active service for decades to come.

WASHINGTON — Naval
Air Systems Command has awarded a $1.3 billion contract to Sikorsky for 12 U.S.
Marine Corps CH-53K King Stallion helicopters, the command said in a release.

“The
Marine Corps is very appreciative of the efforts by the Navy and our industry
partners to be able to award the LRIP 2/3 contract,” said Lt. Gen. Steven
Rudder, deputy commandant for aviation. “This is a win for the Marine Corps and
will secure the heavy-lift capability we need to meet future operational
requirements and support the National Defense Strategy. I’m very confident in
the success of the CH-53K program and look forward to fielding this critical
capability.”

The Pentagon’s
most powerful helicopter, the King Stallion is a new-build helicopter that will
expand the fleet’s ability to move more material more rapidly throughout the
area of responsibility using proven and mature technologies. The CH-53K is the
only aircraft able to provide the Marines with the heavy-lift capability it needs
to meet future operational requirements for the vertical-lift mission.

“This
contract award reflects close cooperation and risk sharing between the government
and industry teams to deliver critical capabilities to the Marine Corps,”
said James Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development
and acquisition. “Working with our industry partners, the team ensured
that solutions for technical challenges are incorporated into these production
aircraft.”

The CH-53K carries
triple the baseline CH-53E capability, having demonstrated the ability to lift nearly
14 tons at a mission radius of 110 nautical miles. The CH-53K has proven the
ability to lift up to 36,000 pounds via an external cargo hook.

Sikorsky is a Lockheed
Martin company based in Stratford, Connecticut.

WASHINGTON
— The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and the Navy’s premier science and
technology research squadron, Scientific Development Squadron ONE (VXS-1),
unveiled on May 11 the UV-18 “Twin Otter” as the newest addition to the
squadron’s fleet of aircraft research platforms.

The
UV-18 is the military equivalent of the DeHavilland DHC-6 — a high-wing, unpressurized
twin engine turbine powered aircraft with fixed tricycle landing gear.

“The
Twin Otter is a safe, highly maneuverable and extremely versatile aircraft,”
said Cmdr. Erik Thomas, commanding officer of VXS-1. “The fact that it is
unpressurized simplifies modifications and will accelerate our ability to get
projects airborne for the Naval Research Enterprise.”

The
aircraft compliments the VXS-1 “Warlocks” fleet by providing an affordable and
stable research platform with slow flight capabilities and an operational
payload of up to 3,000 pounds.

The
performance capabilities of the UV-18 aircraft offer customers a slow flight
speed of 85 mph, a maximum cruise speed of 190 mph, a nominal service ceiling
of 13,000 feet (higher with supplemental oxygen) and a six-hour flight duration,
depending on payload and flight configuration.

In
addition to the UV-18, VXS-1 operates a varying range of aircraft that include
three NP-3C and P-3C Orions, an RC-12 King Air and 12 TigerShark unmanned aircraft
systems.

The
fleet of squadron aircraft are operated and maintained by the men and women of
VXS-1 and contain an S&T framework to provide power, Ethernet and GPS feeds
as required for temporary project installations and to quickly conduct airborne
research. The squadron has a self-contained configuration and project shop to
assist prospective customers with rack designs, gear installations and flight
clearances.

“Using
our squadron’s aircraft, scientists and engineers can install and test the
latest technology they are developing in an operational environment anywhere in
the world. We truly turn their ideas into reality,” Thomas said.

Providing
proof of concept for the latest technology, VXS-1 enables operational fleet
commands to receive time pertinent technological advances to better execute
their missions and fill critical capability gaps in their theater.

Historically,
the squadron has supported a broad spectrum of research projects, which include
magnetic variation mapping, hydro-acoustic research, bathymetry, electronic
countermeasures, gravity mapping, electro-optical and radar research and remote
measuring of water contained in snow for NASA.

MCLEAN,
Va. — Alion Science and Technology has opened a system sustainment center
supporting the Crane Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), the
company announced in a release.

By
combining its current facilities footprint in Odon, Indiana, Alion has created
a 57,000-square-foot campus that provides research, development, production and
sustainment of advanced weapons systems, soldier-carried systems, electronic warfare
(EW) and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.

Alion’s
WestGate facilities recently obtained ISO:9001 and AS9100 certifications and
house a series of laboratories for design and integration of hardware, firmware
and software for secure radar, EW, communications and processing systems.

Alion
recently added a complete prototyping/fabrication capability and an on-site
light electronics and cable assembly laboratory to reduce schedule dependencies.
The company also is adapting new technology — like artificial intelligence — to
solve challenging problems including cyber-resilient mission processors and
autonomous system payloads.

“We are
proud to offer this innovative one-stop system sustainment center to support
NSWC-Crane,” said Dino Cencetti, vice president of ISR systems and sensors operations
for Alion.

“This
provides our fighting forces with a competitive edge by bringing all these
capabilities together to create a center that can rapidly respond to today’s
needs and invest in the future of NSWC-Crane. Alion has been supporting NSWC
for over 10 years providing new equipment design, redesign for obsolescence and
technology insertion bringing new technology to the warfighter.”