WASHINGTON
— Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer named a future Arleigh Burke-class
guided-missile destroyer, DDG 133, in honor of former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, who
represented Georgia from 1972 to 1997, the secretary’s public affairs office
said in a release.

“Senator
Nunn’s impact on the Navy and Marine Corps team cannot be overstated,” Spencer
said. “His leadership in the Senate, specifically as the long-serving chairman
of the Senate Armed Services Committee, helped streamline the military chain of
command and strengthen our Navy and Marine Corps team. I am pleased that
Senator Nunn’s legacy of service to our nation will continue in the future USS
Sam Nunn.”

Nunn
served in the U.S. Coast Guard 1959 to 1960 and remained in the Coast Guard
Reserve until 1968. A Democrat, he was elected to the Georgia House of
Representatives in 1968 and in 1972 was first elected to the U.S. Senate.
During his tenure as a senator, Nunn served as chairman of the Senate Committee
on Armed Services and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He helped
draft the Department of Defense Reorganization Act and the Nunn-Lugar
Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which helped Russia and the former Soviet
republics to secure and destroy their excess nuclear, biological and chemical
weapons.

Arleigh
Burke-class destroyers conduct a variety of operations, from peacetime presence
and crisis response to sea control and power projection. USS Sam Nunn will be
capable of fighting air, surface and subsurface battles simultaneously, with
offensive and defensive weapons systems designed to support maritime warfare,
including integrated air and missile defense and vertical launch capabilities.

USS Sam
Nunn will be constructed by Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula,
Mississippi. The ship will be 509 feet long, have a beam of 59 feet and be
capable of traveling in excess of 30 knots.

MANILA,
Philippines — The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf (WMSL 750) and vessels from
the Philippine coast guard conducted joint search-and-rescue exercises May 14 in
the South China Sea west of Manila, the Coast Guard Pacific Area said in a
release.

The Bertholf,
a 418-foot national security cutter based in Alameda, California, worked
together with the Philippine coast guard vessels Batangas and Kalanggaman on
small-boat search-and-rescue tactics to conduct the mock rescue of a person in
the water. The Bertholf is in the midst of a Western Pacific deployment under
the tactical control of the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet.

In training
with and learning alongside partners in the Philippines on search and rescue,
maritime law enforcement and small-boat tactics, Bertholf’s crew enjoys the
benefits of the strong, often personal ties between the countries, the release
said.

The work also
strengthens one of the most enduring partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region,
between the United States and the Republic of the Philippines and supports both
countries’ commitment to a free and open Pacific, governed by international
maritime law that promotes peace, security and prosperity of all nations.

“Bertholf
completed an at-sea search-and-rescue exercise today with our counterparts from
the Philippine coast guard. This engagement proved an excellent opportunity to
compare techniques, maintain proficiency and build a friendly relationship
amongst professional mariners and coast guards,” said Capt. John J. Driscoll,
Bertholf’s commanding officer.

The crew of
Bertholf also will participate in other joint events with members of the
Philippine coast guard during the ship’s Manila port call. The events include a
series of engagements on operational subjects such as damage control and search
and rescue as well as sporting and social events. The activities are designed
to improve interoperability and strengthen the ties between the two countries.

“The U.S.
Coast Guard is proud to operate with our Pacific counterparts, and together we
are dedicated to enhancing our capabilities and strengthening maritime
governance and security while promoting individual sovereignty,” said Vice Adm.
Linda Fagan, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Pacific Area. “Today’s exercise
is a great opportunity to share our experiences and learn from our partners in
the Philippine coast guard.”

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — The keel for the
future USNS John Lewis (T-AO 205), the Navy’s first John Lewis-class fleet
replenishment oiler, was ceremonially laid at General Dynamics-National Steel
and Shipbuilding Co. on May 13, Naval Sea Systems Command said in a release.

A keel laying is the ceremonial
recognition of the start of a ship’s construction. It is the joining together
of a ship’s modular components and the authentication or etching of an
honoree’s initials into a ceremonial keel plate. The ship’s namesake, Rep. John
Lewis (D-Ga.), and the ship’s sponsor, actress Alfre Woodard, etched their
initials into the keel plate.

“We’re honored to have
Representative Lewis and Ms. Woodard with us today as we lay the foundation for
recapitalizing our nation’s critical fuel-replenishment-at-sea
capabilities,” said Mike Kosar, Support Ships, Boats and Craft program manager,
Program Executive Office-Ships. “These ships are steadfast, reliable and
allow our warships to defend our freedoms for which Representative Lewis has
dedicated his life to protecting.”

The John Lewis-class ships are based
on commercial design standards and will recapitalize the current T-AO 187-class
fleet replenishment oilers to provide underway replenishment of fuel to U.S.
Navy ships at sea. These ships are part of the Navy’s Combat Logistics Force.

John Lewis will be operated by the
Navy’s Military Sealift Command and is the first ship named after the civil
rights leader and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. Construction of John
Lewis began in September 2018, with delivery planned in late 2020.

ANDOVER,
Mass. — Mercury Systems Inc. received a $2.1 million order from a leading
defense prime contractor for custom-engineered radio frequency (RF) amplifiers required
for an advanced naval electronic support program, the company said in a release.

The order
was booked in the company’s fiscal 2019 third quarter and is expected to be
shipped over the next several quarters.

Mercury
Systems offers a broad range of RF and microwave product offerings designed and
manufactured in its scalable Advanced Microelectronics Centers (AMC) located
throughout the United States.

“With
co-located engineering and manufacturing resources, our AMC facilities are the
ideal solution to deliver highly differentiated custom RF microelectronics with
affordable, long-term supply continuity,” said Kevin Beals, vice president and
general manager of Mercury’s RF and Microwave group.

“Receiving this order from
our valued defense prime contractor customer further validates the power of
Mercury’s next-generation business model to support our military forces with
sophisticated microelectronics that are second to none.”

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Navy T-45C Goshawk
aircraft crashed at Naval Air Station Kingsville at 2:38 p.m. Friday, May 10,
the Chief of Naval Air Training Public Affairs reported in a release.

The two pilots, an instructor and a student,
suffered minor injuries and were transported to a local medical treatment
facility for care.

The pilots safely ejected from the aircraft before
it crashed just short of the runway inside the airfield perimeter fence.

Emergency services immediately responded to the crash site. The incident
is under investigation.

NASHUA, New Hampshire — BAE Systems worked
closely with Lockheed Martin to deliver Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASM)
to the U.S. Air Force, achieving Early Operational Capability (EOC) for the B-1B
bomber ahead of schedule, BAE said in a May 6 release. The Air Force accepted
delivery of production LRASM units following successful simulation,
integration, and flight tests that demonstrated the missile’s mission
readiness.

“We’re quickly delivering critical capabilities to
warfighters to meet their urgent operational needs,” said Bruce Konigsberg,
Radio Frequency (RF) Sensors product area director at BAE Systems. “Our sensor
systems provide U.S. warfighters with a strike capability that lets them engage
protected, high-value maritime targets from safe distances. The missile
provides a critical advantage to U.S. warfighters.”

BAE Systems’ long-range sensor and targeting technology
enables LRASM to detect and engage protected ships in all weather conditions,
day or night, without relying on external intelligence and navigation data.

BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin are working closely together
to further mature the LRASM technology. The companies recently signed a
contract for the production of more than 50 additional sensors and are working
to achieve EOC on the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in 2019.

The advanced LRASM sensor technology builds on BAE Systems’ knowledge in electronic warfare (EW), signal processing and targeting technologies, and demonstrates the company’s ability to apply its world-class EW technology to small platforms. The successful LRASM sensor program demonstrates the company’s ability to quickly deliver advanced EW technology to warfighters.

As part of the company’s electronic warfare capacity expansion initiatives, it locates key programs where they will be optimally staffed to quickly transition from design to production, accelerate deliveries, and improve product affordability. The company’s work on the LRASM program is conducted at state-of-the-art facilities in Wayne, New Jersey and Nashua, New Hampshire.

NORFOLK, Virginia
— A new class of towing and salvage vessels will join the U.S. Navy’s Military
Sealift Command (MSC) in fiscal year 2021. 

“The new
Navajo class replaces the Powhatan class T-ATF fleet tugs, which provide
towing, diving and standby submarine rescue services for the U.S. Navy, and the
Safeguard class T-ARS rescue and salvage vessels, whose mission includes,
salvage, diving, towing and heavy-lift operations,” said Tim Schauwecker, MSC towing
and salvage project officer.

“MSC and
the fleet commanders will benefit by having new, state-of-the-art and highly
capable platforms that can perform a wide range of missions ranging from towing
and salvage, diving operations and submarine rescue,” he said.

The
primary mission of the fleet tug is towing and submarine rescue with the
secondary mission of salvage. Rescue and salvage ships conduct salvage with a
secondary mission of towing. The Navajo class will combine the capabilities of
both classes into a single class for greater efficiency, Schauwecker said.

“The major
improvements include a significant bollard pull increase that will enable the
ship to tow virtually any ship currently in the [Navy] inventory. The new ships
include additional deck space to account for the requirements of the submarine
rescue diving and recompression system, including transfer under pressure, a
40-ton heave compensating crane to assist with underwater salvage operations
such as lifting aircraft wreckage out of the water, dynamic positioning, which
provides the ability to automatically maintain position and heading in the
water by using its propellers and thrusters despite the environmental
conditions, and berthing for an additional 42 personnel [other than crew] in two-
to six-person staterooms. The ship will also have modern automation and
engineering systems that include environmentally friendly main propulsion
diesel engines,” he said.  

MSC search-and-rescue
vessels have contributed to a variety of missions around the world, including
recovery efforts for John F. Kennedy Jr.’s plane crash, the USS Guardian
grounding, TWA flight 800, Hurricane Katrina and the SS El Faro sinking.

MSC took
delivery of the Powhatan class of fleet ocean tugs between 1978 and 1981. These
ships were designed and built based on commercial offshore towing vessels and were
manned by civilian mariners. Salvor and Grasp were commissioned in 1985 and
1986 and were sailed as USS ships by U.S. Navy Sailors. The Navy decommissioned
the Safeguard class of salvage ships in 2006 and 2007 and transferred them to
MSC, where they were redesignated as T-ARS and manned by civilian mariners.

According
to the Congressional Budget Office’s 2019 shipbuilding analysis, the
procurement of the new Navajo class aligns with the Navy’s plan to expand the
fleet to 355 ships.

“This new
ship class will bring a significant capability increase to the U.S. Navy and
Military Sealift Command and eventually restore the towing and salvage fleet to
an end strength of eight hulls,” Schauwecker said.

Secretary
of the Navy Richard V. Spencer announced in March the new class of ships will
be named Navajo, in honor of the major contributions the Navajo people have
made to the armed forces.

The lead ship will start
construction in May, with delivery of the first five ships in fiscal 2021 and
2022, followed by one ship per year through 2025.

NEWPORT
NEWS, Va. — Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding division
has been named a recipient of a 2019 CIO 100 Award for adopting
business-aligned IT strategies during its integration of modern technologies
into shipbuilding. The ongoing initiative, known as Integrated Digital
Shipbuilding (iDS), is transforming the way ships are being designed and built.

The annual
awards program, sponsored by IDG’s CIO magazine and the CIO Executive Council,
celebrates organizations that are using IT in innovative ways to deliver
business value, optimize business processes, enable growth or improve
relationships with customers.

Newport
News is being recognized for its use of technology business management
strategies to bolster IT cost transparency and build trust, which helped the
company to embrace a digital-first mindset in adopting leading-edge
technologies.

Since the
company’s digital transformation began two years ago, Newport News has
introduced laser scanning, augmented reality, modeling and simulation, and
additive manufacturing into processes to increase efficiency, safety and
affordability. The digital shipbuilding efforts also include transitioning from
traditional two-dimensional paper-based instructions — the company’s primary
method for conveying design data for more than a century — to digital formats.
The company currently is developing digital work packages for the aircraft
carrier Enterprise (CVN 80), which will be the first ship built completely
paperless, and preparing to go digital with the new class of ballistic
submarines, the Columbia class.

“Digital
shipbuilding is the largest transformative initiative, digital or otherwise,
that Newport News has embarked upon since switching from diesel to
nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in the 1960s,” said Bharat Amin, Newport
News’ vice president and chief information officer. “I feel proud of my team
for helping to drive change and empowering shipbuilders with the tools to build
today’s warships with tomorrow’s technology. It’s an exciting time to work in
IT and at HII.”

The
company will be recognized at the CIO 100 Symposium and Awards Ceremony on Aug.
21 in Colorado.

VIENNA,
Austria — Norway’s Andøya Test Center selected Schiebel’s market-leading Camcopter
S-100 vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned air system (UAS) for
extensive search-and-rescue trials as part of the Arctic 2030 project, the
company said in a May 2 release.

In a typical
configuration, the Camcopter S-100 operates six hours continuously and is able
to simultaneously carry multiple payloads, offering significant payload
flexibility to the user. Therefore, the S-100’s missions deliver aerial views
that reach considerably farther than manned helicopters.

The S-100
also offers a number of key advantages for naval operations in the Arctic. As a
VTOL platform, the Camcopter does not require any additional start or recovery
equipment and its minimal footprint is perfect for offshore patrol vessels with
small deck sizes. The S-100 also distinguishes itself through its ability to
perform in the harshest weather conditions, flying at temperatures down to
-40°C. This has been proven in a series of intensive trials, such as the
Canadian icebreaker operations. In this particular case, the Camcopter S-100
was deployed 60 nautical miles north of Fogo Island, offshore Canada, providing
a wide-view image of the ice structure as well as identifying the boundaries
between flat and rough ice.

The goal of
the Andøy Municipality project is a demonstration of VTOL UAS use in the Arctic
region in an effort to increase maritime safety. For this purpose, the Camcopter
S-100 will be equipped with an electro-optical/infrared camera gimbal, an
Overwatch Imaging PT-8 Oceanwatch payload, an automatic identification system
receiver and a maritime broadband radio by Radionor. Such a combination of
payloads is intended to strengthen emergency preparedness in the region and
provide search and rescue mission support.

Tests are
scheduled to commence in the fall of 2019 with the UAS being deployed from
Norwegian Coast Guard vessels in Andfjorden, Northern Norway. More operations
are planned in Spitsbergen in the spring of 2020.

“This is
clearly an important milestone in the project,” said Gunnar Jan Olsen, general manager
of the Andøya Test Center. “We have already gained some experience with the
Schiebel Camcopter S-100 UAS during an impressive demonstration in 2017. We
believe that these current, more extensive S-100 trials will demonstrate that
maritime safety in the Arctic can effectively be increased with the help of
VTOL UAS.”

SAN DIEGO —
The Coast Guard commissioned the newest California-based 154-foot Fast Response
Cutter in San Diego, May 1, the Coast Guard 11^th District said in a
release of the same date.

The Benjamin
Bottoms is the fourth Sentinel-Class Fast Response Cutter (FRC) to be
homeported at Base Los Angeles-Long Beach.

While these
ships will be based in San Pedro, they will operate throughout the 11th Coast
Guard District, which includes all of California and international waters off
of Mexico and Central America. 

“Radioman
First Class Benjamin Bottoms is a Coast Guard hero,” said Adm. Charles
Ray, the Coast Guard vice commandant. “He was the embodiment of honor,
commitment and sacrifice — the motto of this new cutter.”

FRC’s are
154-foot multimission ships designed to conduct drug and migrant interdictions;
ports, waterways and coastal security operations; fisheries and environmental
protection patrols; national defense missions; and search and rescue.

To date, the
Coast Guard has accepted delivery of more than 30 FRCs. Each ship is designed
for a crew of 24, has a range of 2,500 miles and is equipped for patrols up to
five days. The FRCs are part of the Coast Guard’s overall fleet modernization
initiative.

FRCs feature
advanced command, control, communications, computers, intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance equipment as well as over-the-horizon response
boat deployment capability and improved habitability for the crew. The ships
can reach speeds of 28 knots and are equipped to coordinate operations with
partner agencies and long-range Coast Guard assets such as the Coast Guard’s
National Security Cutters.

FRCs are
named in honor of Coast Guard enlisted leaders, trailblazers and heroes. The
four California-based FRCs are:

Forrest Rednour (WPC-1129): Rednour aided in the rescue of 133
people during the sinking of the U.S.A.T. Dorchester, Feb. 3, 1943. He was
awarded the Purple Heart and Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his actions.
Rednour lost his life in the sinking of the Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba in June
1943.

Robert Ward (WPC-1130): Ward operated beach-landing boats
during the Normandy invasion. He landed his craft on the Cotentin Peninsula and
rescued two stranded boat crews in the face of a heavily fortified enemy
assault.

Terrell Horne III (WPC-1131): Horne was murdered by suspected drug
smugglers who intentionally rammed the boat he and fellow Coast Guardsmen were
aboard during law enforcement operations near Santa Cruz Island off the
Southern California coast in December 2012. Horne pushed one of his shipmates
out of the way of the oncoming vessel attack and sustained fatal injuries.

Benjamin Bottoms (WPC-1132): Bottoms was part the Coast Guard
aircrew that rescued an Army aircrew from a downed B-17 off the east coast of Greenland
in 1942. Bottoms and the pilot conducted the first landing of a cutter plane on
an icecap and commenced a two-day rescue over a rugged arctic terrain that
required multiple flights. During the second day of rescue operations, radio
contact with Bottoms’ plane was lost and he was declared missing in
action.