NORFOLK, Virginia — BAE Systems has received a $76.3 million contract from the U.S. Navy to drydock and perform maintenance and modernization work aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Stout (DDG 55), the company said in a Nov. 18 release. The docking selected restricted availability (DSRA) contract for the Norfolk-based destroyer includes options that, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value to $100.5 million. 

BAE Systems’ Norfolk shipyard will begin working aboard the 510-foot-long ship in January 2021. Under the awarded DSRA contract, BAE Systems will drydock the ship; perform hull, tank and mechanical work; install upgraded electronic and electrical systems; and make other shipboard improvements.  

“Our team of employees, subcontractors and Navy personnel are working hard to sustain the workhorse of the fleet – the Arleigh Burke class destroyer,” said Mark Whitney, deputy general manager of BAE Systems Ship Repair and general manager of Norfolk Ship Repair. “We look forward to applying our vast experience to modernize the USS Stout, so that its crew members can do their jobs in defense of our nation for many years to come.” 

The USS Stout is named in honor of U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Herald F. Stout (1903-1987). During World War II, then-Commander Stout commanded a destroyer that was assigned to the Little Beaver squadron under then-Commodore Arleigh Burke. He earned two Navy Cross medals for command of the ship. The Stout became the fifth ship of the Arleigh Burke class of guided-missile destroyers, which now numbers 68 ships. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy is pushing hard to field more and different types of operational unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs) but needs a steady-growth approach to match technology with testing and training.  

The UUV progress is “very promising and we just need to hold the course but not go so fast that we’re buying systems that aren’t ready and aren’t tested,” said Rear Adm. William Houston, director of Undersea Warfare in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV), speaking Nov. 18 in a webinar for the annual symposium of the Naval Submarine League. 

Houston said the Navy has progressed from a UUV detachment to full UUV squadron that is fully manned, with “four times the manning of a typical submarine squadron” with detachments on each coast.  

“We have at Port Hueneme [California] a test facility so we are fully moving forward on the testing and innovation,” Houston said. “One thing we’re working with industry is we want to get the prototypes tested and let those smart Sailors say what works and what doesn’t work and move on from there. Our concern right now is we are going so fast that we want to go into production right away. We have to …  get the requirements right. If you put on too many requirements, we will delay the testing [by] Sailors. We’re working through that. We’ve got great support from OPNAV.” 

Addressing UUV operations with submarines, Houston said that working with smaller UUVs has had “great success. [Submarine Force Pacific] is really leading the way with the UUV [squadron] out there. They’ve done a lot of significant testing based on where they’re at and we’ve had some very promising results, both with ROVs [Remotely Operated Vehicles] and UUVs. We’re at the point now where we’ve gone over some of the launch and recovery issues on the smaller-size [UUVs]. 

Houston said he also is “a big fan of ROVs. … So, we are putting additional emphasis on ROV while supporting the UUV portfolio that we have.” 

He said the development of UUV technology and operations is going in “fits and starts, and it’s tough technology, but we are partnered with the best in industry and we’re leveraging every source that we can.”   

ARLINGTON, Va. — The next generation of executive transport helicopter for the president of the United States is planned for Initial Operational Capability (IOC) in July 2021, a Navy spokeswoman said, but the decision of when to place the aircraft in service will be determined by the White House.  

The VH-92A, built by Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., a Lockheed Martin company, was selected in 2014 to replace the VH-3D and VH-60N helicopter fleet used to transport the president and other government executives. Six VH-92As were ordered in 2019. Followed by six more in February 2020. Total inventory will be 23 VH-92A aircraft, comprised of 21 operational fleet aircraft and two test aircraft. 

The presidential helicopter fleet is operated by Marine Helicopter Squadron One, based at Marine Corps Air Station Quantico, Va., with a detachment at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington. 

“Government testing to validate system performance and prepare for Initial Operational Test and Evaluation is progressing on schedule and will support an Initial Operational Capability (IOC) planned for July 2021,” the Navy spokeswoman said.  “The VH-92A will enter service post IOC at the determination of the White House Military Office.”

Thomaston, Conn. — In support of the U. S. Navy’s fiscal 2018-2023 contract awarded to Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Ward Leonard will be providing the motors that will open and close the missile and exhaust hatches on all newly built Mark 41 Vertical Launch Systems. 

The Mark 41 Vertical Launch System is part of the Aegis Combat System and has been in service since 1986. This missile launch system is used in Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Ticonderoga-class cruisers in the U.S. Navy, as well as in 16 allied navies and ashore locations. 

Ward Leonard’s custom engineering department designed a modified version of the previous Tech Systems motor used in the early stages of the Mark 41 program. This new upgraded motor complies with updated requirements by the U. S. Navy and meets current MIL-Specs.  

“It is an honor to provide a critical component to the Mark 41 Vertical Launch System which helps protect our country,” said Chris Spafford, vice president of Sales and Marketing of Ward Leonard. 

Ward Leonard has supplied the U.S. Navy for more than 120 years, and today specializes in the provision of state-of-the-art motor, control, component and systems integration solutions for surface, subsurface, and land-based applications.  

“We are proud of our long-standing history supporting the U.S. Navy and look forward to continuing the partnership to provide the military with mission-critical motors, controllers, and electrical components,” said William Berger, business development manager for Ward Leonard. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The hull form of the U.S. Navy’s Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine (SSBN) has characteristics that may lend themselves to be ideal for a future guided-missile submarine (SSGN), the Columbia’s program executive officer said.  

“The light we learned from the Ohio SSGNs — certainly having the larger-diameter hull is a perfect fit for a follow-on SSGN design,” said Rear Adm. Scott Pappano, program executive officer for the Columbia SSBN, speaking Nov. 17 in a webinar for the annual symposium of the Naval Submarine League. 

The Navy converted the four oldest Ohio-class SSBNs — Ohio, Florida, Michigan and Georgia — to SSGNs which returned to service between 2006 and 2008. They are armed with up to 154 Tomahawk missiles and can carry special operations forces for covert insertion and extraction in hostile territory. Each SSGN has Blue and Gold crews that typically swap out while the submarine is deployed for yearlong periods. Florida became the first of its class to participate in combat operations when it launched more than 90 Tomahawk missiles against targets in Libya during Operation Odyssey Dawn in March 2011.  

“Without making any decisions for the Navy right now, certainly the Columbia hull form would make a very good model to build upon for a future SSGN.” Pappano said. “My guess is that if we determine that is a need in the future, the Columbia would be the frame that we would go build that ship on.”  

“Nothing will happen before the end of the Columbia SSBN program,” he emphasized. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy plans to deploy its conventional hypersonic weapon, known as the Conventional Prompt Strike (CSP) capability, on submarines by 2025, the admiral in charge of strategic weapons said.  

The CSP will be deployed by the U.S. Army first in 2023, but the first Navy deployment is scheduled for 2025 on the Ohio-class guided-missile submarines (SSGNs), said Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe, director of Strategic Systems Programs, speaking Nov. 17 in a webinar for the annual symposium of the Naval Submarine League. The Navy has four SSGNs in the fleet. 

The CSP will them be deployed in 2028 on the Block V Virginia-class attack submarines (SSNs) with the Virginia Payload Module  

In a PowerPoint slide, Wolfe showed the Initial Unit Training without the All-Up Round will begin in 2021. A canister hot-launch operational demonstration is planned for 2022. Delivery of the Army’s prototype truck-hauled delivery system is scheduled for 2023. The delivery of the All-Up Round — including the hypersonic glide body — is planned for 2024.  

Limited operational capability is scheduled for the SSGNs in 2025, and Initial Operational Capability on the Virginia-class SSNs in 2028. 

“Hypersonics in the DoD [Department of Defense] is very much a priority within the Navy,” Wolfe said. “In Conventional Prompt Strike we are focused on how do we  … take all of the successes that we’ve had in the research development and flight testing and start production and transition that into a military capability that we can give to the Army at about the 2023 time frame and continue to push that forward so that we get to a Navy capability on SSGN in the 2025 time frame.” 

Wolfe said the CSP effort “is a very rapid program but we are having a lot of success. Right at the beginning of the COVID [pandemic] we flew our second Navy flight test of this hypersonic glide body.”  

He said the test flight was “extremely successful,” and met and exceeded every single test requirement.  

“That was the springboard for us to now start that transition out of our national team into industry for a capability that we can produce,” Wolf said. “We are in this year finishing up the development of the booster that that glide body will go on — [a] common booster and common glide body between the Army and the Navy — as we get into static fires. Eventually we’ll do flight testing from land and then ultimately get to that first SSGN.”

Wolfe said the CSP program was on a very compressed timeline, but we have stayed on schedule. … For a conventional capability, this really is a game changer.” 

ARLINGTON, Va. — U.S. Navy Secretary Kenneth J. Braithwaite says he plans to establish a new numbered fleet as a “formidable deterrence” to China, basing it closer to allies and partner nations “at the crossroads between the Indian and Pacific oceans.”

“If we’re really going to have an Indo-Pacom (U.S. Indo-Pacific Command) footprint, we can’t just rely on the 7^th Fleet in Japan,” Braithwaite announced Nov. 17 to webinar participants at the annual symposium of the Naval Submarine League.

“We have to look to our other allies and partners like Singapore, like India and actually put a numbered fleet where it would be extremely relevant if, God forbid, we were to get in any kind of a dust-up,” Braithwaite said. His announcement came just after describing his recent visit with Pacific and Asian partners concerned about China’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea and elsewhere.

Braithwaite said he was alarmed by China’s “aggressiveness around the Globe,” from the Arctic to the Far East. “Not since the War of 1812 has the United States and our sovereignty been under the kind of pressures that we see today,” he said, adding the planned 1^st Fleet, “can provide a formidable deterrence.”

Braithwaite said he had not yet discussed his plan with new acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, “but I’ve crossed all the T’s and dotted all the other I’s.”

He said the new 1^st Fleet might be based in Singapore, where he recently met with officials to discuss enhanced Naval presence.  If not in Singapore, “we’re going to look to make it more expeditionary oriented and move it across the Pacific until it is where our allies and partners see that it could best assist them as well as assist us,” said Braithwaite.

He added that he wanted to ensure in the time he has left as Navy Secretary “that I opened the door to these nations, recognizing the challenges they have and to offer them the kind of support that we can provide.” Braithwaite also said he was seeking their partnership and alliance with us, because the United States alone will never be able to stand up against the PRC (People’s Republic of China) without having our allies and partners close to us. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — Submarine forces operating in the Arctic will become “more and more important,”  as the polar ice melts, opening up more navigable blue water to commercial and naval vessels, a top U.S. Navy leader says.

The U.S. Submarine Force has traveled under the Arctic ice for decades, and continues to add to the Navy’s understanding of the environment by testing operating systems, conducting valuable scientific research and partnering with allies in exercises like Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2020,  Vice Adm. Phillip Sawyer told webinar participants Nov. 16 at the annual symposium of the Naval Submarine League.

The increasing decline of sea ice in the Arctic has opened potential sea lanes in the summer months, sparking territorial disputes. Russia, Norway, Canada and the United States all have boosted their military presence in the Arctic at a rate not seen for decades. China, calling itself a near-Arctic nation, is eager to use a trans-Arctic route to move its exports and is building its own ice breakers. Russia is placing cruise missiles on its new heavy ice breakers.

“As the polar ice recedes and more of the Arctic becomes a blue Arctic, this will present opportunities and challenges,” said Sawyer, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Operations, Plans and Strategy. Noting submarines are the Navy’s primary anti-submarine warfare (ASW) platforms, Sawyer added, “the submarine forces working the Arctic will become more and more important.”

ICEX is a biennial submarine exercise to promote interoperability between allies and partners to maintain operational readiness and regional stability in the Arctic. In March, two U.S. attack submarines, the USS Connecticut and the USS Toledo, joined forces from the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway and Japan in the Arctic Sea for ICEX 2020. 

“While the submarine force can go where other naval units can’t, ICEX is but one of several High North exercises the Navy executes with allies and partners.” Sawyer said. In May, the U.S. 6th Fleet conducted a bilateral ASW exercise with the Royal Navy above the Arctic Circle. Four ships, including a U.S. submarine, and a U.S. P-8A maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft worked together in the Norwegian Sea.

PORT HUENEME, Calif.  — Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group (EODGRU) 1 enhanced its ability to operate within the Navy Expeditionary Combat Force (NECF), fleet and Joint Forces by completing a Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) Integrated Exercise (NIEX) at Naval Base Ventura County-Port Hueneme, Calif., Nov. 13, EODGRU-1 Public Affairs said in a Nov. 17 release. 

The one-week exercise simulated EODGRU-1 commanding a deployed task unit designed to support NECF and Joint Forces conducting security, supply and combat operations.  

“EODGRU-1 is always focused on capability development, which includes war-gaming and assessment. Participating in a NIEX is an example of how we accomplish a Navy EOD strategic objective while building towards our vision of a nation undeterred by explosive threats,” said Capt. Oscar Rojas, EODGRU-1’s commodore.  

NIEX 21-1 tested the staff’s ability to command and control a distributed force in an austere, expeditionary environment, while also challenging them to analyze and solve evolving problem sets under tight time constraints. 

“Navy EOD plays a critical role within the NECF by eliminating explosive threats so the fleet and nation can win whenever, wherever and however it chooses,” said Rojas, who emphasized that the NECF is greater than the sum of its parts. “NIEX 21-1 made us prove our ability to also integrate and command components of Navy EOD, Mobile Diving and Salvage, and the Naval Construction and Maritime Expeditionary Security Forces — a capability that is essential to achieving superiority in a contested maritime environment.” 

A NIEX is designed to ensure NECC major commands, such as EODGRU-1, can integrate with the NECF to support theater commanders in executing the National Defense Strategy. It also serves as the culminating event before a numbered fleet can certify them for major combat operations, which includes deploying as a task force staff. NIEXes are assessed by Expeditionary Warfare Development Center (EXWDC), who train the NECF to plan and execute distributed operations to increase lethality and survivability. 

“EXWDC’s role was to strain EODGRU-1’s capabilities so they can maximize their ability to train subordinate forces to deploy,” said Gregory Gates, a member of NECC’s assessments and certification department. “We wanted to see them properly communicate within their staff, and to subordinate commands and higher headquarters to solve problems and complete mission taskings.” 

“To accomplish this, they needed to come together as a staff and focus on clear, secure, build and protect,” said Gates, referring to the NECF’s specialized skills that enable distributed maritime operations by maintaining open and secure logistic routes, providing the capability to construct and repair critical infrastructure, and the ability to defend critical assets. 

Operating from Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, Calif., EODGRU-1 oversees the manning training and equipping of EOD Mobile Units 1, 3, 5 and 11; Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 1; EOD Expeditionary Support Unit 1; and EOD Training and Evaluation Unit 1. EODGRU-1 is also capable of deploying as a battalion-level staff to command task forces in theater. 

TUCSON, Ariz. — As part of a historic Missile Defense Agency demonstration and for the first time ever, an intercontinental ballistic missile target was intercepted and destroyed outside Earth’s atmosphere by an advanced SM-3 Block IIA ballistic missile defense interceptor made by Raytheon Missiles & Defense, a Raytheon Technologies business, the company said in a Nov. 17 release. The interceptor was co-developed with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. 

“This first-of-its-kind test shows that our nation has a viable option for a new layer of defense against long-range threats,” said Bryan Rosselli, vice president of Strategic Missile Defense at Raytheon Missiles & Defense.  

The SM-3 family of ballistic missile defense interceptors has executed more exo-atmospheric intercepts than all other missiles combined and is the only weapon of its kind employed from both ships and land.  

Raytheon Intelligence & Space sensors were also part of the historic test from low-earth orbit. The sensors detected and tracked the target and relayed the data to decision makers in a demonstration of space-based early warning.