ARLINGTON, Va. — Despite mitigating actions that have prevented any widespread outbreaks since March, the novel coronavirus COVID-19, continues to vex the U.S. sea services, with the destroyer USS Michael Murphy the latest vessel to report personnel testing positive for the disease.

Navy officials confirmed that an outbreak was reported on the  Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer in the Pacific Fleet Nov. 4. Under Defense Department policy, officials do not reveal specific COVID-19 numbers on individual ships or bases. However, no Sailors from the Michael Murphy were admitted to the hospital, according to a Navy spokesperson.

“Personnel who tested positive for COVID-19 were placed in isolation. Out of an abundance of caution, all close contacts and non-essential crew members are undergoing a two-week self-isolation period in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guidelines,” Cmdr. Nicole Schwegman, a spokesperson for Naval Surface Forces Pacific, said in a statement to Seapower Nov. 20.

She said most of the crew that had been in self isolation “will be coming out over the weekend and will be back to work next week.”

The ship, currently in its basic phase training cycle, was cleaned in accordance with strict protocols, Schwegman said. She declined to discuss future operations of the ship due to operational security requirements.

The test positive cases on the Michael Murphy were the latest small outbreak on Navy vessels, most of them dockside, including the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, where “a small number of Sailors” tested positive for the novel coronavirus in October. None of those outbreaks have come close to the ordeal of the Roosevelt, the first U.S. warship to battle a COVID-19 outbreak at sea in March. The carrier  was sidelined in Guam for months as scores of Sailors became ill and more than a thousand tested positive. The ensuing controversy over how the incident was handled cost the ship’s captain and the acting Secretary of the Navy their jobs.

The latest figures released by the Navy on Nov. 18 showed 14,947 uniformed personnel have tested positive for COVID-19. Of that number, 12,715 have recovered. Only 11 cases currently require hospitalization, and only Sailor, from the Roosevelt, has died since the pandemic began last winter.

A multidisciplinary team of U.S. Navy Medicine personnel published a comprehensive analysis of the Roosevelt’s COVID-19 outbreak in the New England Journal of Medicine on Nov. 11. The paper provided an epidemiological description of the outbreak that includes all 4,779 crew members.  

Over the course of the outbreak, 1,271 sailors (27% of the crew) tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). More than 1,000 infections were identified within five weeks after the first laboratory-confirmed infection. An additional 60 crew members had suspected Covid-19.

The paper’s authors found that COVID spread quickly among the predominately young crew (mean age 27). Transmission was facilitated by close-quarters conditions and by asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic infected crew members. Nearly half of those who tested positive for the virus never had symptoms. Additionally, a history of using a medication to control high blood pressure (an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor), respiratory disease and obese body mass index were associated with an increased risk of infection, according to the paper.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The official in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in charge of coordinating interoperability of the combat systems between the Navy’s ships, submarines, aircraft and their sensors said the service needs to “resist the urge to drive up complexity.”   

Kelly McCool, acting director, Digital Warfare Office (DWO), in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, speaking Nov. 19 in the Virtual Combat Systems Symposium sponsored by the American Society of Naval Engineers, was addressing the Navy’s Fully Integrated Combat Force concept. 

“We’re not focused on a single integrated combat system on a single platform. We need a force that’s fully integrated and distributed,” McCool said.  

“The first challenge I see is that we don’t write requirements to buy a fully integrated force,” she said. “We write requirements and develop systems [with] interoperability as a second thought, as an after-thought, as a fall-out. We’re learning some of those lessons with our unmanned systems where we did not pay enough attention to the networking, and now we’re doing the corrective actions to make sure the network can support our unmanned systems.  

“We’re going to fight on the network, so we have got to value and resource and set requirements that are associated with the networks and the data that is needed to make the timely decisions and the tools that are needed to make those timely decisions,” she said. 

She said that with the surface, subsurface, aviation and expeditionary resource sponsors, the information warfare/intelligence sponsor, and all of their stakeholders “there’s the potential to drive up the complexity.”  

McCool said “the second challenge we all are faced with here is we really need to resist the urge to drive up the complexity in this problem so that we are not faced with another ForceNet or some effort that just becomes too complex, [with] too many stakeholders. In my experience, when you have a lot of stakeholders, we sometimes don’t make those hard decisions about what is the most important. We add everybody’s voice in and then you have some competing requirements. This drives complexity. It drives to the frustration that the acquisition timelines become long.” 

McCool, who spent most of her career so far on the acquisition side but now works on the resourcing side, said that she has strong interest in wanting to make sure we approach the requirements in a way that allows us to grow and evolve with the technology, and not be so complex and so prescriptive that we lock ourselves in too early and force some major acquisition development program. That said, there definitely is this space a need for the government to set some parameters.”  

She said that she was “really doubling down on the networks, getting the requirements right for our Naval Tactical Grid, getting the requirements right for the data, the decision support tools and the architectures we’re going to need across the board and doing that in parallel with the Integrated Combat System development so that we’re loosely coupled but we’re not creating this development upon development that becomes a snowball that’s unachievable. 

“So, there’s some black art there and we’re going to have to work through that,” she added.      

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Navy recently achieved several important milestones for the DDG 51 Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer Flight III upgrade, representing significant progress toward delivering critical Integrated Air and Missile Defense capability to the fleet, Program Executive Office Ships Public Affairs said in a Nov. 20 release. 

The DDG 51 Flight III upgrade is centered on the AMDR/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) system that provides improved capability over earlier DDG 51 class ships by enabling Flight III ships to simultaneously perform anti-air warfare and ballistic missile defense.  To support this upgrade the Navy is testing and integrating ship systems at existing land-based facilities. 

“This has been an extremely exciting few weeks for the DDG 51 Aegis shipbuilding program,” said Capt. Seth Miller, DDG 51 program manager. “The program remains on track to deliver this tremendous capability to the fleet. Completion of these most recent milestones is a significant accomplishment and is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the Flight III team.” 

At the Land-Based Engineering Site (LBES) at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania efforts are focused on testing the Hull, Mechanical and Electrical (HM&E) equipment required to facilitate the increased power and cooling requirements for the radar.  The Navy recently achieved “light-off” of the Flight III electrical plant at LBES, representing completion of the Flight III HM&E equipment installation and marking the beginning of land-based HM&E system integration testing of the Flight III power system.   

Concurrent to these efforts the Navy also recently accepted and installed a new AMDR array for land-based testing of the Flight III combat system at the Combat Systems Engineering Development Site in Moorestown, New Jersey.  This array, along with the rest of the power distribution equipment, will be used for integration testing with the Aegis Combat System. 

With Flight III ships under construction at shipbuilders Huntington Ingalls – Ingalls Shipbuilding Division in Pascagoula, Mississippi and General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, completing the test programs at both engineering sites is critical to successfully integrating these complex systems. This is particularly true for the future USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), the first Flight III under construction, as it moves towards its own activation and test programs. Just last week, the second of four AMDR radar arrays was installed by HII-Ingalls in the deckhouse of the Jack H. Lucas, a significant construction event.   

Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are the backbone of the U.S. Navy’s surface fleet, with 68 ships delivered to the Fleet. These highly capable, multi-mission ships conduct a variety of operations, from peacetime presence to national security. 

PENSACOLA, Fla. — The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Diligence returned to homeport in Pensacola Friday after a 47-day Caribbean Sea patrol, the Coast Guard 8th District said in a Nov. 20 release.  

Diligence performed counter-drug operations in support of the U.S. Government’s Joint Interagency Task Force–South, which conducts detection and monitoring operations in the Caribbean to facilitate the interdiction of illicit trafficking in support of national and partner nation security.  

The U.S. Coast Guard works alongside interagency and international partners to prevent and respond to dangerous and illegal maritime smuggling from Central and South America. Diligence supported these efforts by patrolling the Southwestern Caribbean Sea in an effort to detect and deter maritime smuggling in the region.  

During the patrol, Diligence intercepted a vessel with approximately 150 gallons of suspected liquefied cocaine and detained four suspected smugglers. Additionally, Diligence received from other U.S. law enforcement agencies more than 7,700 pounds of narcotics and six additional smugglers apprehended and orchestrated the successful transfer of the cases to U.S. authorities for prosecution. The 47-day patrol was also critical in allowing Diligence’s crew to work on shipboard training, qualifications and proficiency to maintain operational readiness. 

“This patrol presented several unique and dynamic challenges,” said Diligence Commanding Officer Cmdr. Luke Slivinski. “Characteristic of a seagoing service, we never know what adventures lay ahead. I am immensely proud of and impressed by Diligence’s crew for their steadfast ability to adapt to the task at hand and carry out the mission with professionalism and proficiency.” 

The cutter Diligence is a 210-foot medium-endurance cutter homeported in Pensacola with a crew of 75. The cutter’s primary missions are counter drug operations, migrant interdiction, enforcing federal fishery laws, and search and rescue in support of Coast Guard operations throughout the Western Hemisphere. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The recent successful intercept of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) target by a ship-launched SM-3 IIA missile proved the missile could compensate for track error built up over time, the Missile Defense Agency director said.  

An SM-3 Block IIA missile, launched on Nov. 16 from the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John Finn (DDG 113) positioned northeast of Hawaii, intercepted and destroyed an ICBM-representative missile launched from the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, located on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. 

Vice Adm. Jon Hill, director, Missile Defense Agency, speaking Nov. 19 at the Virtual Combat Systems Symposium of the American Society of Naval Engineers, said the Flight Test Aegis Weapon System-44 (FTM-44) was particularly challenging because of the distance involved and the scant sensor coverage of the target missile’s flight path, which induces some drift in the fire-control solution that requires the SM-3 IIA missile to correct its course during flight. 

The destroyer used engage-on-remote capabilities to intercept the ICBM target, with the ships own sensors not used for targeting. Target track data was passed to the ship through the Command-and-Control Battle Management Communications (C2BMC) network. 

After launch, when the SM-3 IIA missile “opens it eyes, it’s going to be dealing with a lot of error it the track” Hill said. “It’s got to divert — our terminology for maneuvering — so it’s got to maneuver to collide, because we do kinetic-energy intercepts.” 

The missile’s nose section is equipped with four small rockets firing sideways to alter the missile’s terminal course to make the intercept. 

Hill explained that kinetic-energy intercepts are necessary because, with a potential weapon of mass destruction, “the best way to take it all out is with imparting kinetic energy — a direct hit.” 

The missile’s own video data link to the ship, as well as a space-based sensor, confirmed the destruction of the target. 

Hill said the factors involved — “precision guidance from the Aegis Combat System [on the destroyer]; a missile that has the ability to seek and divert to run right into the ICBM. That was a big challenge coming into FTM-44.”     

“FTM-44 was the sixth flight test of an Aegis BMD-equipped vessel using the SM-3 Block IIA guided missile. FTM-44, originally scheduled for May 2020, was delayed due to restrictions in personnel and equipment movement intended to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” the Navy said in a release. 

An animation of the test, test video, photos, and additional information about all elements of the U.S. Missile Defense System can be found at https://www.mda.mil. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — Secretary of the Navy Kenneth J. Braithwaite announced Nov. 17 that two future Virginia-class attack submarines will be named USS Tang and USS Wahoo. 

USS Tang (SSN 805) and USS Wahoo (SSN 806) will carry the names of two storied World War II submarines. 

“The success in battle both previous namesakes endured will undoubtedly bring great pride to the future crews of USS Tang and USS Wahoo,” said Braithwaite. “Along with the previously named USS Barb (SSN 804), these boats will honor the strong traditions and heritage of the silent service.” 

This will be the third time that the name Tang and Wahoo will be used for U.S. Navy submarines. 

USS Tang (SS-306) was a Balao-class submarine and the first U.S. Navy ship to bear the name Tang, a surgeon fish popular in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. She was built and launched in 1943, and under the command of Lt. Cmdr. Richard H. O’Kane, she was credited with sinking five enemy ships during the boat’s first war patrol. In her five patrols, Tang is credited with sinking 31 ships, totaling 227,800 tons and damaging two for 4,100 tons. Tang received four battle stars and two Presidential Unit Citations for her service during World War II, and O’Kane received the Medal of Honor for Tang’s final, heroic actions. 

A second USS Tang (SS-563), the first ship in the Navy’s Tang-class of Diesel submarines, was commissioned in October 1951. She was among the first post-WWII submarines designed under the Greater Underwater Propulsion Power Program (GUPPY). She went on to complete multiple patrols supporting the Vietnam War, and later became a training vessel in Groton, Connecticut, before decommissioning in February 1980. Tang earned four battle stars for service in Vietnamese waters. 

USS Wahoo (SS-238) was a Gato-class submarine and the first U.S. Navy ship to be named for the wahoo fish, a scombrid fish found worldwide in tropical and subtropical seas. Construction on the submarine started before the U.S. entered World War II, and commissioned after the U.S. entered the war. On October 11, 1943, Wahoo, under the command of the renowned Lt. Cmdr. Dudley Walker “Mush” Morton, was sunk with all 79 hands onboard by air and surface attack as she was attempting to exit the Sea of Japan via La Perouse Strait. At the time of her loss, Wahoo was the most storied boat in the fleet. In her seven war patrols, she earned six battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation. The boat would be credited with sinking 20 Japanese ships, 19 of them during her last five war patrols. Morton was later awarded the Navy Cross and the destroyer USS Morton (DD-948) was named in his honor. 

The second USS Wahoo (SS-565), a Tang-class submarine, was commissioned on Memorial Day in 1952. After training exercises in the waters off the Hawaiian Islands, Wahoo embarked on tours of duty in the western Pacific as part of Seventh Fleet. She then completed two tours of duty in support of the Vietnam War and was decommissioned in June 1980. Wahoo was also recognized for her actions in Vietnamese waters. 

Rules for giving certain types of names to certain types of Navy ships have evolved over time. Attack submarines, for example, were once named for fish, then later for cities and states. However, Braithwaite supports naming future submarines after past vessels with historic naval legacies. 

“Naming Virginia class submarines is a unique opportunity to reclaim submarine names that carry inspirational records of achievement,” Braithwaite added. 

Attack submarines are designed to seek and destroy enemy submarines and surface ships; project power ashore with Tomahawk cruise missiles and Special Operation Forces; carry out Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance missions; support battle group operations; and engage in mine warfare. For more information about attack submarines, visit https://www.navy.mil/Resources/Fact-Files/Display-FactFiles/Article/2169558/attack-submarines-ssn/ 

SEATTLE — Boeing is continuing to expand the Indian navy’s long-range maritime reconnaissance anti-submarine warfare capabilities with today’s delivery of the country’s ninth P-8I, Boeing said in a Nov. 18 release. The patrol aircraft is an integral part of the Indian navy’s fleet and has surpassed 25,000 flight hours since it was inducted in 2013. 

The ninth P-8I is the first aircraft to be delivered under an option contract for four additional aircraft that the Indian Ministry of Defence placed in 2016. The Indian navy was the first and is the largest international customer for the P-8 and recently completed seven years of operating the fleet. In addition to maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare capabilities, P-8I have been deployed to assist during disaster relief and humanitarian missions. 

“Our focus has been, and will be, on delivering the world’s best maritime patrol aircraft to the Indian navy,” said Surendra Ahuja, managing director of Boeing Defence India. “The P-8I, with its exceptional maritime surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, versatility and operational readiness, has proven to be an important asset to the Indian navy. We remain committed to supporting the modernization and mission readiness of India’s defense forces.” 

Boeing supports India’s growing P-8I fleet by providing training of Indian Navy flight crews, spares, ground support equipment and field service representative support. Boeing’s integrated logistics support has enabled the highest state of fleet readiness at the lowest possible cost. 

Boeing is currently completing construction of the Training Support & Data Handling Centre at INS Rajali, Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu, and a secondary center at the Naval Institute of Aeronautical Technology, Kochi, as part of a training and support package contract signed in 2019. The indigenous, ground-based training will allow the Indian navy crew to increase mission proficiency in a shorter time while reducing the on-aircraft training time resulting in increased aircraft availability for mission tasking. 

Boeing’s advanced aircraft and services focus play an important role in mission-readiness for the Indian Air Force and Indian navy. Boeing is focused on delivering value to Indian customers with advanced technologies and is committed to creating sustainable value in the Indian aerospace sector – developing local suppliers, and shaping academic and research collaborations with Indian institutions. 

ALAMEDA, Calif — The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL-752) returned to its homeport Wednesday at Coast Guard Island in Alameda after 11 crew members tested positive for COVID-19 during the deployment, the Coast Guard Pacific Area said in a Nov. 18 release.   

The affected crew members reported mild symptoms and are receiving medical care.  

The cutter was met by Coast Guard medical staff, who conducted testing of the entire crew. Following testing, the crew went into quarantine. The cutter will continue to meet all in-port watchstanding requirements while at homeport.  

“The crew’s health and safety is my highest priority,” said Capt. Bob Little, Stratton’s commanding officer. “Stratton has a highly resilient crew, always dedicated to the mission. Our mission today is to get healthy so we can continue our service to the nation.”   

The Stratton departed Alameda Oct. 28 to begin a counter-narcotics patrol in the Eastern Pacific. Prior to getting underway, the crew underwent a restriction-of-movement period where members were required to self-quarantine and pass two COVID tests.   

On Nov. 11 and Nov. 12, several crew members began to develop COVID symptoms and were administered rapid testing kits. All affected personnel and close contacts were identified and quarantined.   

“The safety of our people and the public remain my top priority,” said Vice Adm. Linda Fagan, U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area commander. “We continue to perform all statutory missions while taking the necessary precautions to protect our members and the public. We are committed to maintaining our operational readiness and will continue to perform critical missions that protect our national interests, promote economic prosperity and ensure public safety.” 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy has developed and demonstrated a submarine-launched unmanned aerial system (SLUAS) for beyond line-of-sight targeting solutions and deployed it to the fleet in September 2020, the Navy’s submarine procurement admiral said. 

Rear Adm. Dave Goggins, program executive officer for Submarines, speaking Nov. 18 in a webinar for the annual symposium of the Naval Submarine League, said the SLUAS was “a pretty awesome capability to provide to the fleet.” 

Goggins said in a PowerPoint briefing that mid-tier acquisition authorities approved in March 2019 were used to begin the project in May 2019. Three demonstrations were conducted in 2019 and 2020. Initial operational capability was achieved in September.  

Only eight months after the project was started, the Navy conducted an at-sea demonstration of the SLUAS from the Los Angeles-class SSN USS Annapolis, launching them “from periscope depth, control them out to tactically significant ranges — well beyond the line of sight,” Goggins said. “By doing so she was able to target and conduct a rapid simulated torpedo attack against a participating surface ship, in case the USS Charleston, pretty much at near-maximum effective range of that torpedo, by flying that UAV to obtain a fire-point solution after gaining that initial sonar gain.” 

Another demonstration was conducted against a surface ship and a land site. So far, 21 SLUAS UAVs have been employed in demonstrations. The Defense Innovation Unit, which partnered with non-traditional industry companies to reduce cost and enhance capability, completed final flyoffs in July. 

“I have five SLUAS shipsets in the fleet today and we will continue to deliver this capability,” Goggins said. “We’re really working on the evolution of that capability going forward.”    

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy has announced features for the Block VI version of the Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarine (SSN), which will be the steppingstone to the next-generation SSN (SSNX). 

“Block VI continues that trend of delivering increasingly capable and lethal platforms block to block,” said Rear Adm. Dave Goggins, program executive officer for Submarines, speaking Nov. 18 in a webinar for the annual symposium of the Naval Submarine League. 

“Block VI will focus on building upon the acoustic superiority advancements of 790 [USS South Dakota, SSN 790],” Goggins said. “The key thing here is to really enable that organic subsea, seabed warfare capability for the first time.” 

Goggins said the Navy is looking at improved stealth to operate in contested environments; enhanced sonar performance resulting in greater tactical advantage [found] in a bow conformal array; the ability to sense and interact with more of the water column and seafloor. 

Other improvements being considered are additional payloads and an improved propulsor. 

He said the “key thing is the capabilities chosen for Block VI also have to dual purpose of improving the VCS [Virginia-class submarine] performance and also proving out technologies that will serve as the backbone for our future SSNX design. 

“We will spend the next year evaluating the maturity [and] feasibility of these capabilities followed by a down-select next year. That allows us to mature the technology and develop the required line of paperwork in support the Block VI contract.”    

The Navy plans to procure the Block VI boats in fiscal 2024-2028.