LEMOORE,
Calif. — Two Navy Super Hornet squadrons at Naval Air Station (NAS) Lemoore,
California, have reduced maintenance turnaround times and are boosting aircraft
readiness as part of naval aviation’s maintenance reform initiatives under the
Naval Sustainment System (NSS).

The NSS
initiative leverages best practices from commercial industry to help reform
aspects of naval aviation’s fleet readiness centers, organizational-level
(O-level) maintenance, supply chain, engineering, and maintenance organizations
and governance processes. Initially, the NSS is concentrating on getting the
Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet fleet healthy before rolling out the approach to every
Navy and Marine Corps aircraft.

Strike
Fighter Squadrons (VFA) 22 and 122 were the first to implement O-level
maintenance reforms following visits from commercial aviation consultants in
December and January.

Reforms
include assigning crew leads to manage the maintenance on each aircraft and
reorganizing hangar spaces, parts cages and tools.

Squadrons Empower Petty Officers

The most
significant change has been the delegation of ownership over each aircraft in
for repairs from the squadrons’ maintenance material control officers, or
MMCOs, to individual crew leads comprised mostly of first-class petty officers.

Traditionally,
MMCOs must keep track of the status of each aircraft in for maintenance as well
as the Sailors working on them, and that’s in addition to deciding what
maintenance actions are required for each jet and which aircraft are safe to
release for flight. Assigning junior-level crew leads to each jet removes some
of that burden from the MMCOs and has led to improved communication and
increased accountability.

“The crew
leads are not making the maintenance decisions; that’s still done by the
maintenance controllers, but what it allows for is it sheds those maintenance
control chiefs of having to know every status of every jet, of every person,
all day long,” said Lt. Cmdr. Brandon Michaelis, O-level reform champion for
Commander, Naval Air Forces (CNAF). “So they can focus on releasing safe
aircraft by empowering those first-class petty officers, who can now own that
process and know where the people are, know the status of the parts, and brief
that up the line.”

For the
petty officers accustomed to doing their job a certain way, reform did not come
easy. But the benefits have been evident, said Aviation Electronics Technician
1st class Victor Perez, the leading petty officer for VFA-122’s avionics shop
and one of the squadron’s selected crew leads.

“At first
the changes didn’t feel productive, because we didn’t really understand it, but
now that we’ve had some time with it, it’s definitely helped improve our
processes and communication,” Perez said.

Used to
focusing exclusively on avionics, Perez said serving as a crew lead has forced
him to approach the maintenance of his assigned aircraft more holistically. The
increased responsibility of bringing an entire jet back online ultimately leads
to a greater sense of accomplishment, he said.

“You get
kind of personal with an aircraft,” he added. “Some aircraft are easy, and some
are a struggle to get through. Rather than working on a jet for a couple hours
to complete the one thing assigned to your shop and then moving on to the next
jet, this way you take more ownership toward completing the whole thing.”

In some
cases, exceptional second-class petty officers have also been considered for
crew lead, including Aviation Electrician’s Mate 2nd Class Michaela Zadra, a
member of VFA-22’s quality assurance division. Having crew leads that can focus
on individual jets — and communicate with the various maintenance shops —
relieves maintenance control from having to keep near-constant track of as many
as a dozen aircraft at a time, Zadra said.

“Crew
leads have cut down on empty communication, so now I, as a maintainer who is
not stuck behind a maintenance control desk, can walk around to each shop and
talk to them personally,” she said. “There’s a lot more communication
one-on-one, instead of one-to-one-to-one and then to maintenance control. It’s
definitely helped with communication and productivity with the jets.”

In tandem
with the crew lead concept has been the utilization of a whiteboard alongside
each aircraft that informs anyone passing by as to the jet’s status.
Information on the boards includes the names of the crew chief and additional
personnel assigned to the aircraft, what maintenance is needed, and the
expected completion date.

“If you
physically walk through one of our hangars today, you can tell which ones have
been reformed and which ones haven’t,” said Vice Adm. DeWolfe H. Miller III,
CNAF. “You know the exact status of that airplane, you know who’s working on
that airplane and when they expect that airplane to be up. There’s going to be
a crew lead who has that ownership.”

In
addition, the two squadrons have begun treating the spaces around each Super
Hornet in their hangars as dedicated workspaces, with all necessary tools and
parts kept beside the aircraft rather than back in one of the various
maintenance shops.

“We’re now
treating the airplane a little more, as an analogy, like a patient getting
surgery,” Miller said. “I am the doctor as the maintainer, and I said,
‘scalpel,’ and my tool is right there. What we’re seeing with that sort of
approach, having our tools next to the airplane, having our status board next
to the airplane, everything is going to the point of action being around that
airframe, and we’re seeing a really significant improvement in our mission
capable rates.”

Both
squadrons have also begun keeping larger parts in a centralized “parts cage” in
the hangar, dramatically reducing the amount of time Sailors spend traversing
the hangar in search of equipment rather than with their hands on an aircraft.

“It may be
five minutes here or five minutes there, but over the course of a day across
all those technicians, that’s a lot of time saved by having those parts close
to where the job is being done,” Michaelis said.

The 84-Day Corrosion Inspection

Together,
the changes have helped the squadrons achieve one of the first goals of O-level
reform — reducing the turnaround time for routine 84-day corrosion inspections
down from 10-14 days to three days.

The 84-day
inspection, so called because Super Hornets receive one every 84 days, is one
of the most common checks conducted on the jet and is officially supposed to
take three days.

“Our
average is about 10 to 14 days,” Miller said. “It’s really important for us to
put some discipline into achieving these checks on a predictable three-day
pattern.”

After
meeting with consultants, VFA-22 was the first squadron to pilot reforms aimed
at reducing the 84-day inspection time.

“They were
able to do it in two-and-a-half shifts, and as we’ve been going through the
process with other squadrons, we realize that yes, three days in itself is
sufficient, once we weed out the inefficiencies,” said Lt. Hasely Clarke,
assistant maintenance officer for Strike Fighter Wing Pacific.

Clarke
said many of those inefficiencies arose from work centers waiting on one
another to be finished with an aircraft before beginning their own tasks.
“There was a lot of waiting time in between,” he said.

Time
management, communication and multitasking between shops have all improved
following the O-level reform, Zadra said, noting shops were encouraged to
identify which of their tasks could be performed alongside another’s
simultaneously. For instance, Zadra said she can check the lights in the
cockpit from the side of the jet while someone from the avionics shop inspects
instrumentation inside the cockpit.

“It cuts
down a lot on worker hours, so we can minimize the time on the inspection,” she
said.

Initial Skepticism

A former
MMCO, Michaelis said he was skeptical of the O-level reforms when they were
initially proposed, but has come around after seeing how VFA-22 and VFA-122
have put the reforms into practice.

“It’s been
a tough pill to swallow, to see how inefficient even when I was in that
position, even though I thought we were on point every single time,” he said.
“To now look back and go, ‘Wow, there were a lot of places where I could have
improved.’ So, that’s what’s made me a believer, is being able to look in
hindsight and realize there’s tons of this stuff that I wish I had when I was
an MMCO.”

Michaelis
said the plan is to take the reforms to VFA squadrons at NAS Oceana, Virginia,
before rolling them out across the Super Hornet community and, ultimately, to
other platforms.

“As we
migrate this and expand it across all type-model-series, I’m excited about what
this is going to do for our future,” Miller said.

Further
evidence of the reform’s efficacy will come when squadrons can keep their
Sailors on normal work schedules while preparing for deployments, Michaelis
said.

“Before we go on detachments or on deployment, we often work Sailors 12 [hours] on, 12 off, sometimes seven days a week,” he said. “The proof is when, on a Thursday, we can let our people out for a three-day weekend because our jets are up and ready to go, and we saw that recently in one of our transformed squadrons.”

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. 

PASCAGOULA, Mississippi — Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding division delivered the National Security Cutter Midgett (WMSL 757) to the U.S. Coast Guard on May 1, the company said in a release. Midgett is scheduled to sail away in June and will be commissioned later this year.

“We have a mission statement in the NSC program that says
during the construction of each NSC we will provide the men and women of the
United States Coast Guard with the finest ship in their fleet,” said Derek
Murphy, NSC program manager. “This excellence will be provided by our
shipbuilders through working safely, attention to detail and ownership of work.
Since the beginning of construction on NSC 8, we’ve seen an amazing
transformation, made possible by the thousands of people who poured their heart
and soul into this ship.”

“From a homeland security and defense perspective, this ship provides unmatched command and control.”

Cmdr. Brian Smicklas, Midgett’s executive officer, acting commanding officer

Ingalls has now delivered eight Legend-class NSCs and has one more under construction and two more under contract. Stone (WMSL 758) is scheduled for delivery in 2020. In December of 2018, Ingalls received two fixed-price incentive contracts with a combined value of $931 million to build NSCs 10 and 11.

“From a homeland security and defense perspective, this ship provides unmatched command and control,” said Cmdr. Brian Smicklas, Midgett’s executive officer and acting commanding officer.

“We’ve reached a number of accomplishments and milestones up to this point. However, there’s more work to do on the water. We have record drug flows in the eastern Pacific, and there are traditional Western Hemisphere missions that our Coast Guard brothers and sisters are conducting on the water every day. We also see a large increase in demand for the geographic combatant commanders for this specific National Security Cutter capability, and we’re excited to fill that and be a part of the national fleet.”

NSC 8 is named to honor the hundreds of members of the Midgett family who have served in the U.S. Coast Guard and its predecessor services. At least 10 members of the family earned high honors from the Coast Guard for their heroic lifesaving deeds. Seven Midgett family members were awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal, the Coast Guard’s highest award for saving a life, and three were awarded the Silver Lifesaving Medal.

PASCAGOULA, Mississippi — Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls
Shipbuilding division has been awarded a cost-plus-award-fee contract with a
potential total value of $931.7 million for planning yard services in support
of in-service littoral combat ships (LCS), the company said in a May 1 release.
The contract, which includes options over a six-year period, also provides work
packages for HII’s Technical Solutions division.

“Ingalls Shipbuilding will build on 35 years of planning
yard experience to join our Technical Solutions division in fully supporting
this life-cycle work on the LCS program,” Ingalls Shipbuilding President Brian
Cuccias said. “Our talented shipbuilding team has the resources and program
management experience necessary to ensure the post-delivery work on the LCS
program meets the requirements and missions of our U.S. Navy customers.”

“Our talented shipbuilding team has the resources and program management experience necessary to ensure the post-delivery work on the LCS program meets the requirements and missions of our U.S. Navy customers.”

Ingalls Shipbuilding President Brian Cuccias

The planning yard design services contract will provide
the LCS program with post-delivery life-cycle support, which includes fleet
modernization program planning, design engineering and modeling, logistics
support, long-lead-time material support, and preventative and planned
maintenance system item development and scheduling. Unique to this planning
yard effort is the requirement to manage the scheduling of all planned,
continuous and emergent maintenance and associated availabilities.

Most
of the work will be accomplished in Pascagoula and Hampton, Virginia, by
designers, engineers, logisticians, planners, program managers and a variety of
additional subject matter experts. Ingalls and Technical Solutions will also
provide waterfront support in the LCS homeports.

The director of the nation’s premier government innovation
organization is excited about the U.S. Navy’s aggressive use of an unmanned
surface vessel to experiment with the military applications of advanced
automation and artificial intelligence.

“The most exciting thing I’m really happy with the Navy right now
is what they’re doing with the Sea Hunter, which is an autonomous 132-foot
surface ship that DARPA demonstrated a couple years ago,” Steven H. Walker,
director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, told a Defense
Writers breakfast on May 1.  “The Navy
has really taken that and is using it and experimenting with it.”

Walker cited Sea Hunter’s voyage last fall from San Diego to
Hawaii and back with no humans on board to control it, “which I think
demonstrates the autonomous capability we put into that program.”

“They’re really interested in how that helps them with their
distributed lethality program,” and using Sea Hunter as “the basis for their
medium-size and large-size unmanned surface vessels. I’m really excited about
where they’re taking that system.”

The Navy is projecting unmanned vessels as a key element of its
future combat fleet and has proposed buying 10 “large” unmanned ships over the
next five years. It has not defined the size and capabilities of those vessels.

Although the Navy has not indicated whether it plans to test
weapons on Sea Hunter, the likelihood that some of its future unmanned vessels
will be armed raises the controversial issue of what control humans will have
over weapon employment by autonomous platforms.

DARPA, which is pursuing advances in artificial intelligence (AI),
studies the ethical issue of weaponized unmanned systems.

“I think it’s still important to have that lethal decision rest
with the human,” Walker said. But, he noted, “Sea Hunter has a lot of potential
uses that don’t involve weaponizing it,” such as mine countermeasures and as a
sensor.

“The key to autonomy, particularly in the ocean, is getting out
and experimenting, testing how these things work,” which was why he was so
pleased with the Navy’s use of Sea Hunter.

Much of Walker’s discussion with defense reporters focused on
DARPA’s work on AI, which it has been doing for 50 years.

“Sea Hunter has a lot of potential uses that don’t involve weaponizing it.”

DARPA director Steven H. Walker

“We’re pretty excited, not only by the latest advances in machine
learning, but moving into what we call the third wave [of AI] — how humans and
machines become partners. Not just using machines as tools but as partners,” he
said. “If we actually can build this team, you can think about all sorts of
things that warfighters could do more effectively in a time of war.”

Walker also discussed DARPA’s work developing more powerful lasers
in smaller packages and in moving hypersonic technology into useable weapon
systems.

Having demonstrated solid state lasers, which while fairly
powerful were “still pretty big,” DARPA is focusing now on fiber lasers, which
have the promise of even greater power in much smaller packages. Walker said he
expected to fully demonstrate a high-powered fiber laser by the end of the
year.

He said the first military application for those more powerful
lasers “comes in ships and ground vehicles, where weight and size are not as
big an issue. I think we’re still a ways away from putting these things on
airplanes.”

One of DARPA’s highest priorities is advancing hypersonic
technology, which Walker said the United States led the world, but which “some
of our adversaries” have turned into capabilities. Hypersonic generally is described
as Mach 5 or faster. China and Russia have demonstrated different forms of
hypersonic aircraft.

DARPA is working on two applications of hypersonic — a boost-glide
missile, which is rocket-propelled to a high altitude then glides at hypersonic
speeds to a target, and a propelled system that may use a rocket to get to
hypersonic velocity then maintains that speed with some form of air-breathing
engine, such as a scramjet.

He expected to fly each of those systems late this year or early
in 2020.

“The advantage of
hypersonics is not only the speed but the range and maneuverability,” Walker
said.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The builder of the F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter has designed a
new weapons rack to enable the aircraft to carry two more missiles internally.

The new rack,
called Sidekick, enables each of the two weapons bays of the Air Force F-35A
and Navy carrier-capable F-35C to carry three AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range
Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) instead of the current two, for a total of six internally
carried AMRAAMs.

Speaking May
1 to reporters at a Lockheed Martin media briefing, a company F-35 test pilot,
Tony ‘Brick’ Wilson, said the rack was developed entirely with company internal
research and development funds.

“The extra missiles add a little weight but are not adding extra drag.”

Tony ‘Brick’ Wilson, F-35 TEST PILOT

The rack is
not compatible with the vertical lift Marine Corps F-35B version, which has
smaller weapons bay.

The F-35 can
carry more AMRAAMs on external pylons, but Wilson pointed out that carrying two
more internally preserves the stealth characteristics of the F-35. 

“The extra
missiles add a little weight but are not adding extra drag,” Wilson said.

Wilson also said the F-35 has the external structural capacity for hypersonic weapons should that be required in the future.

He also said
the company, working with the Air Force Research Lab, has developed and installed
on the F-35A — six years ahead of schedule — the Auto Ground Collision
Avoidance System (AGCAS).

The AGCAS has
“saved eight pilots’ lives,” Wilson said.

He
said the AGCAS will be installed later on the F-35B and on the F-35C in 2021.

U.S. Navy leaders will meet with industry officials in May
to examine how they can improve the increasingly challenged submarine
production program and try adding more space in the tight schedule to build the
first of the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines, Navy Secretary
Richard V. Spencer said April 30.

The Navy would like to increase the production of its
Virginia-class attack submarines from two a year to three to stop the decline
in the already inadequate number of attack boats. But that pace is hampered by
the fact that the two shipyards building those boats also are responsible for
getting the Columbia class into service by 2031, when the Navy’s Ohio-class
boomers will be unable to continue their crucial strategic deterrence patrols,
Spencer said.

“We do have concerns,” Spencer told the House Appropriations
Defense Subcommittee. To address those issues, the Navy will sit down with
industry leaders May 16 to assess the sub construction yards and the supply
chain and seek to “build in margin where we can” for the Columbia-class
schedule.

“If we do not, it will run off the rails,” Spencer said in
response to questions from the panel responsible for providing the money the
Navy Department will need for all its programs.

In addition to the questions the appropriators had about the
Columbia class, the Navy’s self-declared No. 1 procurement priority, the
subcommittee’s chairman, Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Indiana), hounded the Navy
leaders on the chronic problems in submarine maintenance and acceptance of new
warships with multiple material problems.

Visclosky pointed out that three of the older Los Angeles
class attack submarines — Boise, Columbus and Hartford — are no longer
certified to submerge because they have not received maintenance that is
overdue. He emphasized that Boise was scheduled to go into the repair yard in
2013 but still is waiting for an opening.

And Visclosky was particularly troubled by the Navy failing
to request funds to repair the three inoperable submarines in its regular
fiscal 2020 budget request but added them to the unfunded requirements list.

Spencer and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John M.
Richardson conceded they were having trouble getting submarines into required
maintenance, which was aggravating the inability to meet combatant commanders’
requests for the attack boats, with some reports putting the shortfall as high
as 50 percent.

The two Navy leaders argued that the submarine maintenance
problem stemmed from the sharp reduction in funding during the years when the
Budget Control Act forced sequestration.

But Visclosky replied that “sequestration happened some time
ago” and Congress “provided a lot of money” the last two years.

Spencer said the shipyards cut their skilled work force
during the lean years and are now working to replace those workers and improve
their aged facilities. He and Richardson emphasized the Navy’s program to
modernize the government-owned shipyards and to incentivize the private yards
to also update and expand.

Visclosky also demanded the Navy provide details on the
problem highlighted in a recent Government Accountability Office report showing
a long list of new ships the Navy has accepted from the builders with a range
of deficiencies. He stressed the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), the
first in its class of aircraft carriers, is not expected to be operational
until 2023, nearly five years later than expected because of numerous
construction deficiencies.

The chairman wanted to know how the cost of correcting those
flaws was divided between the Navy and its contractors, noting that GAO
indicated the government has been paying 96 percent. Spencer promised to
provide the data.

CANBERRA, Australia —The Australian government has agreed to purchase a second MQ-4C Triton, Northrop Grumman Corp., manufacturer of the aircraft, said in a release.

Australia’s 2016 Defence White Paper identified the requirement for seven high-altitude, long-endurance Triton unmanned aircraft. Northrop Grumman will deliver the Triton through a cooperative program with the U.S. Navy.

“Northrop Grumman is excited to develop this unrivaled capability for the Royal Australian Air Force,” said Doug Shaffer, vice president and program manager for the Triton at the company. “Triton will provide the Australian Defence Force a high-altitude, long-endurance system for intelligence, reconnaissance and broad-area surveillance missions to enhance the security of Australia’s borders.”

Defence Minister Christopher Pyne identified “people smuggling and the exploitation of our natural resources” as threats that Triton’s capabilities can help to address.

Minister for Defence Industry Linda Reynolds identified the opportunities this program will create for Australian industry and said that “there will be significant opportunity for Australian industry to share in billions of dollars of system maintenance and network management functions.”

Northrop Grumman is committed to developing a sovereign defense capability for Australia through industrial partnership and participation, direct investment and technology transfer, the company said.

SASEBO, Japan — The Navy announced that the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) and landing platform dock USS New Orleans (LPD 18) will become part of the U.S. 7th Fleet forward-deployed forces in Sasebo, Japan, the commander, Naval Forces Japan Public Affairs, said in a release.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem (DDG 63) will shift its homeport to San Diego for its midlife modernization and the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1) will shift its homeport to Norfolk, Virginia, to undergo scheduled maintenance.

America is capable of supporting the F-35B Lightning II, the Marine Corps vertical-lift variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, as part of an embarked U.S. Marine Corps Air Combat Element.

The United States values Japan’s contributions to the peace, security and stability of the Indo-Pacific and its long-term commitment and hospitality in hosting U.S. forces forward deployed there. These forces, along with their counterparts in the Japan Self-Defense Forces, make up the core capabilities needed by the alliance to meet our common strategic objectives.

The security environment in the Indo-Pacific requires that the Navy station the most capable ships forward. This posture allows the most rapid response times possible for maritime and joint forces and brings our most capable ships with the greatest amount of striking power and operational capability to bear in the timeliest manner.

Maintaining a forward-deployed force capability supports the U.S. commitment to the defense of Japan and the security and stability of the vital Indo-Pacific region.

America will provide the Marine Corps with a means of combat operations utilizing the F-35B fighter. New Orleans is capable of ship-to-shore movement by tilt-rotor and helicopter. In addition to combat operations, both ships can conduct humanitarian-assistance operations.