PASCAGOULA, Miss. — Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding division successfully completed acceptance sea trials for the U.S. Coast Guard’s newest national security cutter, Stone (WMSL 758), the company said in an Oct. 2 release. During seal trials, the ship spent two days in the Gulf of Mexico proving its systems. 

“I am very proud of the Ingalls team that conducted another outstanding acceptance trial on our ninth national security cutter Stone. This ship, like all of the national security cutters we have delivered, will be capable of undertaking the most challenging Coast Guard missions with great capability and endurance,” Ingalls Shipbuilding President Brian Cuccias said. “We are proud of our shipbuilders and the state-of-the-art design and construction of Stone, and we look forward to the ship’s upcoming delivery.” 

Ingalls has delivered eight Legend-class NSCs with two more under construction and one additional under contract. Stone is scheduled to deliver later this year and will be homeported in Charleston, South Carolina.  

NSC 9 was named to honor Coast Guard officer Commander Elmer “Archie” Fowler Stone, Coast Guard aviator number one, who made history in 1919 for being one of two Coast Guard pilots in the four man air crew who completed the first transatlantic flight in a Navy seaplane. 

The Legend-class NSC is the most technologically advanced ship in the Coast Guard’s fleet, which enables it to meet the high demands required for maritime and homeland security, law enforcement, marine safety, environmental protection and national defense missions. NSCs are 418 feet long with a top speed of 28 knots, a range of 12,000 miles, an endurance of 60 days and a crew of 120. 

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The crew aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf (WMSL 750) returned home to Alameda, California, Oct. 3 following a three-month, 15,000-mile, multi-mission patrol, the Coast Guard Pacific Area said in a release. 
 
Bertholf’s crew spent more than 50 days patrolling the Eastern Pacific Ocean conducting a counter-narcotics mission, resulting in the apprehension of 6,700 pounds of cocaine with an estimated wholesale value of more than $115 million. 
 
The crew also patrolled over 3,000 square nautical miles of Ecuadorian and international waters conducting a joint patrol with the Ecuadorian navy to detect and deter potential Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing in the vicinity of the Galapagos Islands. Bertholf and the Ecuadorian naval vessel LAE Isla San Cristobal (LG-30), provided persistent presence and surveillance of fishing activity throughout the region during the week-long mission. 
 
The joint operation highlights a significant Coast Guard partnership with a South American country to detect, deter and ensure adherence to international maritime norms for fishing. 
 
“It was a unique opportunity to sail together with the Ecuadorian navy, and we were impressed by their professionalism and dedication to the fight against illegal fishing,” said Capt. Brian Anderson, Bertholf’s commanding officer. “This joint operation demonstrates the effectiveness and importance of our international partnerships.” 
 
Following the two month multi-mission Eastern Pacific patrol, Bertholf offloaded more than 26,000 pounds of cocaine Sept. 10 in San Diego; an accumulation from multiple U.S. ships conducting counter narcotic operations in the Eastern Pacific. 
 
Bertholf’s crew entered a three-week long Tailored Ship Training Assessment (TSTA) in San Diego following their patrol. TSTA is a comprehensive evaluation on the crew’s capabilities to respond to a wide-range of scenarios from rescuing a man overboard to battling a fire on the ship. 
 
“I’m extremely proud of the hard work and dedication displayed by the men and women of the Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf, especially in this current environment,” said Anderson. “The crew adapted and implemented new protocols in response to the added risk of COVID-19 exposure in the course of operations. They remained focused on what they needed to do to keep each other safe and effectively accomplish the mission of keeping these drugs off our streets, which will save countless lives.” 
 
To ensure the safety of Bertholf’s crew deploying during the COVID-19 global pandemic, the crew conducted pre-deployment COVID-19 testing, followed by a 14-day quarantine and a second round of testing. The crew maintained social distancing until the results of the second test came back negative. Throughout their patrol, Bertholf’s crew maintained strict health precautions during all interactions with the public and during boardings, including wearing N95 respirators and undergoing intensive decontamination procedures following the completion of each boarding. 
 
Commissioned in 2008, Bertholf was the Coast Guard’s first 418-foot Legend-class national security cutters built, and one of four homeported in Alameda. National security cutters have a crew of more than 150 and are among the largest and most technologically sophisticated vessels in the Coast Guard’s fleet. The cutters can operate globally in the most demanding open ocean environments, from the North Pacific’s hazardous fishing grounds to the Eastern Pacific’s vast approaches, where its crews battle transnational organized crime networks. 

BALTIMORE — Northrop Grumman Corp. was awarded a follow-on production contract for AN/SLQ-32(V)7 Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block 3 electronic warfare systems by the U.S. Navy on Sept. 30, the company said in an Oct. 2 release. The system is employed on surface combatants to defeat legacy and emerging anti-ship threats using non-kinetic/electronic attack methodologies.  

Northrop Grumman’s approach to this system is centered on a “software defined, hardware enabled” open architecture that quickly integrates with other combat systems while adopting the latest electronic attack capabilities to ensure the system remains ahead of the threat and supports the U.S. Navy’s Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO) concepts of operations. 

The $100.7 million base contract is for the first follow on production lot of AN/SLQ-32(V)7 SEWIP Block 3 systems. The contract has a maximum value of $1.16 billion. The system will be installed initially on Arleigh-Burke class destroyers and is scalable to other ship classes. 

SEWIP Block 3 is the third in a series of incremental upgrades that adds an electronic attack capability to the AN/SLQ-32 electronic warfare (EW) system to defend ships against anti-ship missiles. The program is managed by the U.S. Navy Program Executive Office – Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS). 

“With this follow-on production award, Northrop Grumman will continue to provide game-changing maritime EW capability that will underpin future Fleet Electromagnetic Maneuver Warfare operations” said Ingrid Vaughan, vice president and general manager, maritime/land systems and sensors, Northrop Grumman. “We are writing a new chapter in the evolution of the AN/SLQ-32 that will fundamentally change how the Fleet will win the fight for years to come.” 

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Heriberto Hernandez (WPC-1114) offloaded approximately 1,981 kilograms of cocaine, 28 kilograms of amphetamines and six suspected smugglers at Sector San Juan Oct. 2, following two separate interdictions in the Caribbean Sea, the Coast Guard 7th District said in an Oct. 3 release. 

The seized illegal narcotics have a wholesale value of more than $48 million. 

The interdictions are the result of multi-agency and international partnership efforts in support of U.S. Southern Command’s enhanced counter-narcotics operations in the Western Hemisphere, the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program and the Caribbean Corridor Strike Force (CCSF). The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico is leading the prosecution for the two cases. 

“The Coast Guard is uniquely equipped to support the U.S. Navy and partner nation navies and coast guards in the interdiction of illicit drugs,” said Rear Adm. Eric C. Jones, Seventh Coast Guard District commander. “Our relationships with nations across the Caribbean basin, along with our law enforcement authorities, enable us to provide essential support to the mission against international criminal networks attempting to smuggle people and drugs into the U.S.  We strive to continue building these relationships, further enabling our essential missions that safeguard the American people and our nation’s vital maritime commerce.” 

“We continue to work with federal and state law enforcement agencies, along with our partners from the Royal Netherlands and United Kingdom navies, against drug traffickers in our area,” said W. Stephen Muldrow, U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico. “These seizures mark two more successful operations in our fight against criminal organizations attempting to use our territories as a hub for their illegal operations.” 

The most recent interdiction occurred Monday, Sept. 28.  During a routine patrol of the RFA Argus, a Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship from the United Kingdom, the ship’s helicopter crew observed a suspect go-fast vessel with multiple packages and barrels of fuel onboard. The HNLMS Groningen, a Holland-class offshore patrol vessel from the Royal Netherlands Navy that was operating nearby with a Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment onboard, responded and interdicted the go-fast with the assistance of the ship’s surface asset. 

The crew of the HNLMS Groningen embarked three smugglers; a Colombian, a Venezuelan and a Dominican Republic national from the go-fast.  They also located and recovered aboard the go-fast 49 bales that weighed 1,721 kilograms and tested positive for cocaine, and one package that weighed 28 kilograms and tested positive for amphetamines.  

The second interdiction occurred Sept. 24, after the aircrew of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection maritime patrol aircraft detected a suspicious 35-foot go-fast vessel transiting without the use of navigational lights. Coast Guard watchstanders in Sector San Juan directed the launch of a Coast Guard Air Station Miami HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft that relieved the first aircraft and maintained aerial coverage of the go-fast. 

The cutter Heriberto Hernandez responded to the sighting and interdicted the go-fast with the assistance of the cutter’s small boat and the Coast Guard aircrew. The Coast Guard boarding team embarked the three men, who claimed to be Dominican Republic nationals, along with 13 bales of suspected contraband that were located under a blue tarp aboard the go-fast. The seized contraband tested positive for cocaine and weighed 260 kilograms. 

The cutter Heriberto Hernandez transported the seized contraband and suspected smugglers from both cases to Sector San Juan, where awaiting federal law enforcement agencies received custody. 

Cutter Heriberto Hernandez is a 154-foot fast response cutter homeported in San Juan, Puerto Rico. 

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate’s (S&T) Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP) has awarded $157,801 in Phase 1 funding to Kenautics, Inc., of Encinitas, California, to provide a more reliable system for marking objects in water, under SVIP’s Maritime Object Tracking Technology (MOTT) solicitation, the department said in an October release. 

The MOTT solicitation supports U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) missions by seeking more reliable tracking systems for accurately marking and monitoring objects in the water for recovery. The solution is intended to be used during operational missions to bolster waterway security, drug interdiction, search and rescue, and disaster response. 

Kenautics proposes to adapt their handheld Diver Navigation and Imaging System ― meant for waypoint navigation; subsea imaging; situational awareness; and information, surveillance, and reconnaissance ― by repackaging the system into a ruggedized buoy deployable from land, air, and sea under adverse conditions. The Kenautics GPS-AIS Navigation and Tracking Buoy will be usable in both overt and covert operations and will be designed to provide tracking and position data, geo-referenced forensic data sets, localization capabilities, and interactive functions. 

“Working together with DHS S&T and SVIP allows the Coast Guard to pursue innovative solutions through start-ups and small companies that are developing advanced technology, and we are looking forward to Kenautics’ Phase 1 effort,” said Wendy Chaves, chief of Coast Guard Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, and Innovation.   

“This marks the first award made under our partnership with USCG,” said Melissa Oh, SVIP Managing Director. “With experience designing for Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal, special operators, and first responders, we are optimistic that this project with Kenautics will enhance the USCG’s ability to carry out their missions.” 

The MOTT solicitation is open through 12:00 p.m. PST on February 20, 2021. Applications will be accepted on a continuous, rolling basis, and SVIP will evaluate applications three times on a quarterly basis. The next application deadlines are Oct. 20, 2020, and Feb. 20, 2021. 

NAVAL SUPPORT ACTIVITY SOUDA BAY, Greece – The Expeditionary Sea Base USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB 4), shifted its homeport from Norfolk, Va., to Souda Bay, Greece, effective Oct. 1, 2020, the U.S. Sixth Fleet Public Affairs said in an Oct. 2 release. 

Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams conducts U.S. Africa Command missions in the Mediterranean, and the waters around East, South and West Africa, to include the Gulf of Guinea operating with regional partners. 

“Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams provides a new capability in the theater, which enhances our interoperability with our partners across the spectrum of maritime operations,” said Vice Adm. Gene Black, commander, U.S. Sixth Fleet. “The unique design of the ship fosters inter-service operations with our U.S. Marine Corps and Special Operations communities, which improves our ability to ensure maritime security and stability.”     

Due to the ship’s extended overseas assignment, Military Sealift Command (MSC) will conduct her routine maintenance in existing facilities at NSA Souda Bay and other overseas ports. 

“The ship truly demonstrates the U.S. Navy’s incomparable maritime flexibility and professionalism,” said Capt. David Gray, Hershel “Woody” Williams’ commanding officer, blue crew. “We operate with a crew of Sailors and civilians who, since our arrival in Sixth Fleet have supported U.S. Marine Corps and Special Operations training, as well as partner nation missions from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Gulf of Guinea.”  

The ship’s two-fold mission provides the U.S. a forward deployed naval presence in Africa, as well as increased naval power through Navy and Marine Corps integrated operations, including Marine aviation and support to amphibious operations. Other operations and training capabilities the ship performs include support to special operations, command and control, and staging of equipment. 

NSA Souda Bay serves as a naval logistics hub for U.S. 6th Fleet, providing support to U.S. warships and logistics ships in the region. 

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

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has announced plans to activate the force structure to operate its future MQ-25A Stingray aerial refueling unmanned aerial vehicle late next year. 

In an internal notice, the chief of naval operations directed the establishment of Unmanned Carrier-Launched Multi-Role Squadron 10 (VUQ-10) on Oct. 1, 2021. 

The squadron, to be based at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, part of Naval Base Ventura, California, will assign detachments to carrier air wings to provide aerial refueling services to the wing’s first aircraft. 

VUQ-10 will operate under the administrative control of commander, Airborne Command & Control Logistics Wing, also based at Point Mugu.  

The Navy plans to procure 72 Stingrays. A Boeing-owned prototype is being test-flown by the company, which is scheduled to deliver four Engineering and Manufacturing examples of the MQ-25A beginning in 2021. 

The MQ-25A is scheduled to achieve Initial Operational Capability in 2024. The Navy also has said it plans to use the Stingray in the surveillance role, hence the multi-role term in the squadron’s designation. 

POTTSTOWN, Pa. – Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) maker VideoRay has begun shipping its new Defender underwater robot to the U.S. Navy, the company said Oct. 1.

The shipments are done under an existing $49 million contract to deliver the Navy’s Next Generation ROV. The systems are being delivered with integrated sensors, tooling and software from Greensea, Blueprint Subsea, Nortek and Eddyfi, the company said.

The systems are being assembled at VideoRay’s Pottstown, Pennsylvania facility and will be used by the Navy for operations including littoral mine countermeasures, port security missions, and hull and pier inspection. Defender ROV shipments will be completed under the contract by the end of the year.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The Coast Guard Cutter Northland (WMEC-904) returned to its homeport in Portsmouth after a 47-day patrol conducting counter-drug and migrant interdiction operations in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, Sept. 30, the Coast Guard 5th District said in an Oct. 1 release. 

The Northland deployed in August and offered pre-storm information and assistance to locals off the coast of Haiti.  

Prior to the arrival of Tropical Storm Laura off the island of Hispaniola, Northland crewmembers located a disoriented fisherman who had drifted approximately 17 miles offshore. The crew provided him with food and water as the ship escorted him back to land well ahead of the storm’s passage. 

The Northland also hosted a civilian Haitian-Creole interpreter for the majority of the patrol to assist with translations. 

“Before this mission I did not know anything about the Coast Guard,” said Rishi Jolivian, a Haitian-Creole interpreter aboard the Northland. “But, now I have so much gratitude and appreciation for what the Coast Guard does. I have tremendous respect for the Northland and it’s truly an awesome place to be.” 

The Northland crewmembers provided Coast Guard presence along the north coast of Haiti by conducting 20 transits through the Canal de Tortue. The crew also maintained a robust training schedule earning more than 160 qualifications in addition to running over 60 shipboard drills and over 30 hours of small boat training. A highlight for the crew was the live-fire gunnery exercise of the 76mm Mk75 Gun Weapon System. 

“I am truly humbled to command a crew that diligently works to get the job done,” stated Cmdr. Patricia Bennett, commanding officer of of the Northland. “Their remarkable ability to overcome the inherent challenges of serving aboard an aging 36-year old asset downrange during a global pandemic cannot be overstated. The crew maintained a high level of morale and camaraderie that, in my opinion, is really only encountered by those of us who serve aboard Coast Guard cutters. This crew truly demonstrates the spirit of why I go to sea.” 

Upon the Northland’s return to homeport, the crew will conduct critical maintenance and repairs to extend the ship’s service life and will undergo a rigorous training assessment to ensure emergency readiness for future deployments. 

The Northland is a 270-foot medium-endurance cutter homeported in Portsmouth, Virginia and routinely deploys in support of counter-drug, migrant interdiction, fisheries, and search and rescue and homeland security missions. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — Unmanned aircraft maker AeroVironment has developed a bigger, badder version of Switchblade, its man-portable, tube-launched, loitering small aerial missile system.

The Switchblade 600 has greater capabilities for engaging larger, hardened targets with multi-purpose anti-armor ammunition at longer distances than the original Switchblade, now called Switchblade 300, AeroVironment officials said Oct. 1.

Both versions of small loitering missile, or loitering munition, are unmanned aerial vehicles designed to engage fixed and moving ground targets beyond line-of-sight with an explosive warhead. While launched from a tube like a mortar shell, they can “loiter” in the air for an extended period of time before striking, giving the operator time to decide when and what to attack.

Switchblade 600 comes with a patented “wave-off” feature that allows operators to abort the mission at any time if non-combatants are spotted too close to the target. If the situation changes, the feature allows operators to re-engage either the same target or others, avoiding collateral damage.

Larger than the back-packable 5.5-lb. (2.5 kg) Switchblade 300, the 600 model, weighing 50 lbs. (22.7 kg) is still considered to be portable and takes about eight minutes longer to set up than the two minutes for the smaller version. Both platforms are deployed via the launch tube in which they are transported. The new version has greater endurance, 40 minutes of flight time versus 15 minutes for the 300. It also comes with a high performance electro-optical/infrared gimbaled sensor suits, precision flight control and a touchscreen, tablet-based fire control system with the option to pilot the loitering missile manually or autonomously.

The $76 million contract awarded recently for Switchblade 300 procurement and support as part of the U.S. Army’s Lethal Miniature Aerial Missile System (LMAMS) program “is a testament to its battle-proven track record,” said Wahid Nawabi, AeroVironment’s president and CEO. Since 2012, Switchblades have been fielded by the Army, Marine Corps and Special Operations Command.

AeroVironment has been developing the Switchblade 600 with several Defense Department customers, said Brett Hush, senior general manager of Product Line Management for AeroVironment’s Tactical Missile Systems. “But the only one that we can talk about publicly at this point in time is the U.S. Marine Corps,” where AeroVironment is one of the competitors in a program that will hold a fly off in January to down select to a single supplier.