BREMERTON, Wash. — The Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson departed Bremerton, Washington, on Aug. 23 to start sea trials as the final phase in completing a 17-month docking planned incremental availability (DPIA) at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, Lt. Cmdr. Miranda Williams of USS Carl Vinson public affairs said in a release. 

Upon the conclusion of the DPIA, which began Feb. 28, 2019, Vinson returned to the fleet to begin her operational training cycle. 

The DPIA included a complete restoration and system retrofit to accommodate F-35C Lightning II strike fighter mission capabilities as well as upgrades to combat systems, electrical systems and crew living spaces and maintenance on the ship’s hull, rudders and shafts. Vinson has the speed, agility and maneuverability to travel more than 5,000 nautical miles in less than seven days and arrive on station ready to fight.  

“I am proud of all of the hard work and dedication shown by the entire crew throughout the DPIA — and particularly with the added challenges we faced during this pandemic,” said Capt. Matthew Paradise, Vinson’s commanding officer and a native of Tacoma, Washington. “Also, a huge thank you to our family and friends, because our success was, in large part, due to their unwavering support. We just couldn’t have done this without them.” 

Prior to departing Bremerton, Vinson conducted extensive COVID-19 prevention measures to ensure the health and safety of the crew while at sea, and to prevent potential spread to their families and the community upon their return to port. Those measures included: restriction of movement for all personnel for 14 days prior to embarking the ship, mandatory face coverings, continued cleaning and disinfecting throughout common areas, routine COVID-19 testing, and social distancing. 

Upon completion of sea trials and underway training, Vinson will shift its homeport from Bremerton to San Diego.

NORWEGIAN SEA — The Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine USS Seawolf is operating in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations and conducted a brief stop for personnel in the vicinity of Tromso, Norway, on Aug. 21, the fleet’s public affairs office said in a release. 

The Pacific-based submarine is operating in 6th Fleet under the command and control of commander, Submarine Group 8, and commander, Task Force 69, to compliment the undersea warfare capabilities of U.S. Naval Forces Europe.  

“USS Seawolf’s deployment from Bangor, Washington, to the U.S. 6th Fleet demonstrates the submarine force’s global reach and commitment to provide persistent and clandestine undersea forces worldwide to execute our unique missions with unrivaled readiness,” said Vice Adm. Daryl Caudle, submarine forces commander. “Our undersea warriors are the best in the world in submarine warfare and are equipped with unmatched capabilities designed to enhance our Navy and multiply the joint force’s effectiveness in competition and conflict.” 

These subs are exceptionally quiet, fast, well-armed, and equipped with advanced sensors. Though this class of submarines lacks vertical launch systems, it is armed with eight torpedo tubes and can hold up to 50 weapons in its torpedo room. 

“The arrival of Seawolf compliments our already robust undersea warfare capabilities and demonstrates our continued commitment to providing maritime security and deterrence throughout the region,” said Rear Adm. Anthony Carullo, commander, Submarine Group 8. 

Seawolf was commissioned in 1997 and is the lead submarine of its class. The USS Connecticut and USS Jimmy Carter make up the rest of the class. 

Seawolf, which is based out of Naval Base Kitsap in Washington, is conducting maritime operations in the 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe and Africa.

MARINETTE, Wis. — Littoral Combat Ship 21, the future USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul, has completed acceptance trials in Lake Michigan, Lockheed Martin said in an Aug. 24 release. 

Trials included a full-power run, maneuverability testing, and surface and air detect-to-engage demonstrations of the ship’s combat system. Major systems and features were demonstrated, including aviation support, small boat launch handling and recovery and machinery control and automation. 

Now that trials are complete, the ship will undergo final outfitting and fine-tuning before delivery to the U.S. Navy. LCS 21 is the 11th Freedom-variant LCS designed and built by the Lockheed-led industry team and is slated for delivery to the Navy early next year. 

“LCS 21 joins a fleet of sister ships delivering unique flexibility and capability to the U.S. Navy,” said Joe DePietro, Lockheed Martin vice president and general manager of small combatants and ship systems. “Freedom-variant LCS are inherently capable to serve freedom of navigation, drug interdiction and humanitarian missions, and with additional capabilities onboarded, they can serve further focused missions. On LCS 21’s acceptance trials, we successfully tested the ship’s maneuverability, automation and core combat capability.” 

The Freedom-variant has completed four successful deployments, including the USS Detroit’s deployment this summer. The Detroit deployed to the U.S. Southern Command supporting the Martillo campaign — a multinational effort targeting illicit trafficking routes in Central American coastal waters. 

Regarding LCS’ capabilities, U.S. Southern Commander Adm. Craig Faller recently stated, “LCS has proven to be an effective and adaptable platform capable of multiple missions in our area of responsibility. It has become an end-game enabler for U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement authorities who disrupt transnational criminal organizations and the smuggling of deadly narcotics. Adding the LCS to our enhanced counter-narcotics operation is helping save lives.” 

Unique among combat ships, the focused-mission LCS is designed to support mine countermeasures, anti-submarine and surface warfare missions and is easily adapted to serve future and evolving missions. 

“I am pleased to see another successful acceptance trials on Lake Michigan,” said Jan Allman, chief executive officer of Fincantieri Marinette Marine. “Together with our partners, Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Navy, our proud shipbuilding team puts in long hours to deliver a proven warship for the fleet.”

SEATTLE — The U.S. Coast Guard decommissioned the cutter Mellon during an Aug. 21 ceremony at Coast Guard Base Seattle that was presided over by Rear Adm. Peter Gautier, the deputy commander of the Coast Guard Pacific Area. 

Mellon was one of the Coast Guard’s two remaining 378-foot Hamilton-class high-endurance cutters. The fleet of high-endurance cutters is being replaced by 418-foot Legend-class national security cutters, which serve as the Coast Guard’s primary long-range asset.  

Commissioned in 1968, the Mellon was the third of 12 high-endurance cutters built for long-range missions, including maritime security roles, drug interdiction, illegal immigrant interception and fisheries patrols. 

“While Mellon’s service to the U.S. Coast Guard now ends, the ship will continue its legacy of good maritime governance after transfer to the Kingdom of Bahrain’s Royal Naval Force,” Gautier said. “I am incredibly confident in the Coast Guard’s future, because in … Mellon’s crew and proud history, I see the attributes that have made our Coast Guard ‘Always Ready’ for more than two centuries.” 

Mellon’s keel was laid on July 25, 1966, at Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans. Mellon was launched Feb. 11, 1967, and commissioned on Jan. 9, 1968. The cutter was named after Andrew W. Mellon, the 49th U.S. Treasury secretary, who served from 1921 to 1932. 

Over the past 52 years of service, Mellon’s crews conducted a wide range of operations in all parts of the world. From 1969 through 1972, Mellon’s crews participated in the Vietnam War, performing several naval gunfire support missions and patrolling Southeast Asian waters to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Vietnam. Mellon’s participation in the Vietnam War earned the ship the Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation.  

In the late-1970s and 1980s, the Mellon responded to numerous major search-and-rescue operations, including their assistance in the rescue of 510 passengers and crew members from the burning luxury liner Prinsendam in 1980.  

In 1985, the Mellon entered the Fleet Renovation and Modernization program, a dry-dock program designed to prolong the high-endurance cutters’ service lives. Mellon was recommissioned on March 3, 1989. 

Living up to the Mellon’s motto “Primus Inter Pares,” meaning first among equals, the cutter established several Coast Guard firsts, including the first of five Hamilton-class cutters to have a Harpoon anti-ship missile system installed. Mellon was also the first — and only — Coast Guard cutter to test fire a Harpoon missile. 

During Bering Sea patrols, Mellon conducted search-and-rescue operations and enforced laws and regulations that preserved vital Alaskan fisheries. In the eastern Pacific, the Mellon’s boarding teams interdicted illegal narcotics trafficked over the high seas.  

During the cutter’s last year of service, 20 officers and 160 enlisted crew members patrolled the Bering Sea and the northern Pacific near Japan for more than a combined 230 days, collectively conducting 100 safety and fisheries boardings of U.S.-, Chinese-, Korean-, Japanese- and Russian-flagged fishing vessels and participating in five search-and-rescue cases.  

“It has truly been an honor to serve as the final commanding officer for Coast Guard Cutter Mellon,” said Capt. Jonathan Musman. “The officers, chiefs and crew for this final year have been truly remarkable and can hold their heads high as they operated Mellon with distinction across the North Pacific on three deployments serving our nation.

“The reliability of the cutter is a product of years and years of properly taking care of this beloved cutter. The legacy of Mellon has been those fantastic memories that have been made and the knowledge that has passed from one shipmate to another. The future generations of cuttermen were here this last deployment learning, teaching and making their shipboard memories, and they are ready to carry on and continue the Coast Guard’s seagoing heritage.”

ARLINGTON, Va. — A subsidiary of Elbit Systems of America has been selected by a Defense Department team of medical professionals and engineers, to support the development and industrialization of ventilator designs — including one by the U.S. Navy — to help combat COVID-19 affliction.

Merrimack, New Hampshire-based KMC Systems Inc. is assessing five designs for low-cost, ready- for-production ventilators, picked by the department’s “Hack-a-Vent Challenge” in June. KMC is assessing the five for simplicity of manufacture and availability of components. KMC was selected for the task by the Defense Health Agency, U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office and the Wright Brothers Institute, due to its experience designing and manufacturing in a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-regulated environment, the company said in an Aug. 20 statement.

“KMC has specialized in design and manufacturing for some of the leading medical devices and life-sciences companies for the last four decades,” said Raanan Horowitz, president and CEO of Elbit Systems of America, itself a subsidiary of Israeli defense contractor, Elbit Systems Ltd.

Leveraging the U.S. Special Operations Command digital platform, Vulcan, the “Hack-a-Vent Challenge” solicited crowdsourced proposals to build domestically sourced ventilators that would be portable, smaller than a traditional ventilator, and operational for under $500, providing a solution to rural communities and foreign partners. Five were selected out of 172 submissions.

The five prototypes include the CorVent by Coridea, BLU3 Vent by BLU3, iBreather by L3 Harris, FieldVent by Northrop Grumman, and the NAVSEA PRE-Vent by the Navy. The NAVSEA team — made up of U.S. Navy engineering, diving and life support, and biomedical research experts — kept their functional solution’s cost at $300.

The Navy team managed to provide many of the features of an intensive care unit ventilator without the reliance on the established medical supply chain by using sensors from the diving industry and the microcontroller enthusiast community.

The NAVSEA team also used 3-D printing to bridge compatibility gaps between those sensors and all standard aerosol, CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) and BiPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure) hoses. They also included an uninterruptable power supply with battery backup.

ARLINGTON, Va. — COVID-19-related delays will not slow the planned March 2021 start of full-rate production for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II strike fighter, the Defense Department’s top acquisition official says.

“I am confident we are going to meet the March date,” Ellen M. Lord, deputy secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, told a Pentagon press briefing on Aug. 20. “We have the entire government/industry team focused on that. I look forward to continued progress.”

Lord told reporters that she and Robert Behler, the Pentagon’s director of operational test and evaluation, plan to visit the Joint Simulation Environment (JSE) that tests the F-35’s capabilities  against dense surface and air threats, at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, in southern Maryland. That evaluation must be completed before full-rate production of the F-35 can be approved.

“There have been setbacks within the JSE from COVID-19. It is a close working environment,” Lord acknowledged. However, the JSF team moved quickly to follow all Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to ensure a safe working environment, she said. “We have operations there at least six days a week, if not seven days a week, almost 24 hours,” she added.

While the challenge from the pandemic has been “significant,” Lord said the F-35 team also has been working through the “technical maturation of simulating these threats. It’s an iterative process.” She and Behler were going to Pax River “to understand exactly where we are” in that process and to “make sure they have all the resources they need.”

Under low-rate production, more than 500 F-35s of all three variants — for the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force and eight partner nations — have been fielded so far. The Air Force F-35A and the Marine vertical takeoff and landing F-35B have flown in combat. The F-35C is the Navy carrier-landing variant.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy will decommission three of its Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships over the next few days, commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet (CNSFP) said in an August 20 release.  

The USS Champion, the USS Scout and the USS Ardent officially will be decommissioned at Naval Base San Diego on Aug. 25, Aug. 26 and Aug. 27, respectively. Their retirements will leave eight MCMs remaining in service, forward deployed to Sasebo, Japan, and Manama, Bahrain. Ceremonies marking their retirements were held this week. 

“Due to public health safety and restrictions of large public events related to the novel coronavirus … pandemic, the ceremonies were virtually celebrated with ship plank owners and former crew members,” according to CNSFP. 

The 14 Avenger-class MCMS were part of the naval build-up of the 1980s. The MCMs were “designed as mine sweepers/hunter-killers capable of finding, classifying, and destroying moored and bottom mines,” the CNSFP release said. 

“These ships use sonar and video systems, cable cutters, and a mine-detonating device that can be released and detonated by remote control. They are also capable of conventional sweeping measures. The ships are fiberglass sheathed, wooden hull construction.” 

Three MCMs preceded their sister ships into retirement: The Avenger was decommissioned on Sept. 30, 2014, followed by the Defender on Oct. 1, 2014; the Guardian left service in 2013 after being grounded near the Philippines. 

“Champion, Scout and Ardent Sailors, past and present, are a special breed,” said Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener, commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, said at the Scout’s ceremonies. 

“These Sailors served with distinct pride and dedicated tremendous energy in representing the U.S. Navy’s mine-sweeping community over the lifespan of these unique ships. As this chapter comes to a close, we look back proudly on the efforts of these Iron Sailors, their families and these tested and proven wooden ships as they all played an important role in the defense of our nation and maritime freedom around the globe.” 

The following brief histories of the ships were provided by CNSFP: 

The Champion was built in Marinette, Wisconsin, by Marinette Marine Corp. and commissioned on Feb. 8, 1991. Originally assigned to active Naval Reserve, Mine Countermeasures Squadron 2, the Champion spent most of its years homeported in either Ingleside, Texas, or San Diego. Since 2000, the Champion has operated exclusively in the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Coast. Its stateside presence allowed for continuous improvement of mine-warfare technologies and crew training for forward-deployed naval forces in Bahrain and Japan. 

The fourth ship to bear the name, the Scout was laid down on June 8, 1987, at Peterson Builders in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. It was launched on May 20, 1989, and commissioned on Dec. 15, 1990. Among the Scout’s achievements were helping to evacuate refugees from Kosovo in 1999, supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, and joining Hurricane Katrina relief operations in 2005. 

USS Ardent was commissioned on Feb. 8, 1994. In 1998, in the North Arabian Gulf, the Ardent received emergent tasking to assist USNS Catawba in locating and recovering a downed F/A-18C. Later that year, it conducted operations inside Iraqi territorial waters in Mine Danger Area (MDA) 10 in support of Operation Desert Fox. The Ardent departed on an emergency sortie from Mina Salman Port, with all other ships, in the wake of USS Cole bombing in Port of Aden, Yemen, in October 2000. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), a Department of Defense organization that accelerates commercial technology for national defense, announced the availability of five U.S.-manufactured drone configurations to provide trusted, secure small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) options to the U.S. government, the Pentagon said in an Aug. 20 release.  

The announcement is the culmination of an 18-month effort with DIU’s initial work supporting the U.S. Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) program of record for sUAS. The SRR program is developing an inexpensive, rucksack-portable, vertical take-off and landing small unmanned aircraft that provides the small unit with a rapidly deployed situational awareness tool. 

Small drones have been widely available in consumer markets since the early 2010s and have notably been adopted by foreign military forces and non-state actors alike as inexpensive tools to gain a bird’s-eye view of the battlefield. 

However, until now, the DoD has not had the opportunity to adopt these systems safely. Recognizing the demand signal across the federal government for trusted and secure sUAS, DIU took the lead in developing systems that are broadly applicable to an array of users and mission sets. 

Coined Blue sUAS, this spinoff effort builds upon the Army’s initial success and offers sUAS that mirror the air vehicle and software architecture of SRR, but provides alternative ground controller and radio configurations to accommodate a variety of users across the federal government.  

“Blue sUAS represents a tremendous first step toward building a robust and trusted UAS domestic industrial base that ensures sustained delivery of highly-capable, secure UAS to the warfighters that depend on it,” said Michael Kratsios, acting undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. 

He added, “Blue sUAS showcases how we can both work with small, nontraditional companies and our allies and partners to quickly pilot cutting-edge technologies that support our mutual defense.”  

Both SRR and Blue sUAS comply with Section 848 of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2020 that prohibits operating or procuring unmanned aircraft systems manufactured in China. The five companies whose products will be made available for purchase on the GSA schedule by September include Altavian, Parrot, Skydio, Teal, and Vantage Robotics. 

To this aim, the drones will be made available on the GSA schedule starting in September to ensure ease of procurement and to ensure availability government-wide. DoD entities can also pursue a production contract via Other Transaction Authority, leveraging the scaling option of DIU’s Commercial Solution Opening. 

Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, added: “Blue sUAS is a great example of DoD acquisition reform by lowering the barrier to entry for non-traditional companies to rapidly iterate shoulder to shoulder with warfighters to deliver highly-capable sUAS tailored to mission needs.” 

DIU seeks to build upon the success of the Blue sUAS effort by leveraging best in class commercial innovation on a regular cadence that ensures sustained technological dominance against our nation’s adversaries.  

“We need an alternative to Chinese-made small drones and Blue sUAS is a first step in achieving that objective.” said Mike Brown, director of the Defense Innovation Unit.  “Working across DoD and the U.S. government aggregates the business opportunity for these five vendors and enhances the long-term viability of this capability for the U.S. and our allies.” 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MUSV) being designed and built by L3Harris Technologies will be a purpose-built commercially derived vehicle, the company said in an Aug. 19 release. 

Although the Navy’s selection of Camden, New Jersey-based L3Harris was announced by the Defense Department on July 13, the company’s own Aug. 19 announcement provided a few additional program details. 

“L3Harris will integrate the company’s ASView autonomy technology into a purpose-built 195-foot commercially derived vehicle from a facility along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana,” the announcement said. “The MUSV will provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to the fleet while maneuvering autonomously and complying with international collision regulations, even in operational environments.” 

As prime contractor, L3Harris will be the lead systems integrator for the MUSV program and will provide the mission autonomy and perception technology for the vessel. Gibbs & Cox and Incat Crowther will design the vessel, which will be constructed by Swiftships in Morgan City, Louisiana. 

Naval Sea Systems Command awarded to L3Harris a $35 million fixed-price-incentive-firm-target contract for the design and fabrication of a prototype MUSV. 

This contract includes “options for up to eight additional MUSVs, logistics packages, engineering support, technical data, and other direct costs, which, if exercised, will bring the cumulative value of this contract to $281 [million],” the Pentagon announcement in July said. 

The prototype MUSV is expected to be completed by December 2022. 

“The MUSV program award reinforces our investments in the unmanned market and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to bring mission-critical capabilities to our warfighters,” Sean Stackley, president of integrated mission systems for L3Harris, said in the Aug. 19 release. “L3Harris is continuing to develop a full range of highly reliable and affordable autonomous maritime capabilities to enable distributed maritime operations in support of the National Defense Strategy.”

WASHINGTON — The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is investigating the feasibility of using the Navy’s Aegis Combat System and Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA as segment of a layered defense of the U.S. homeland. 

“We are investigating the possibility of deploying layered homeland defense for additional opportunities to engage long-range missile threats,” said Vice Adm. Jon A. Hill, director of MDA, speaking in an Aug. 18 webinar sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank. 

“This means we are investigating the potential of existing proven weapon systems such as Aegis ballistic-missile defense using Standard Missile-3 [SM-3] Block IIA and if that weapon can contribute to homeland defense.” 

Hill said that later this year the MDA will conduct the first Aegis test with SM-3 Block IIA interceptor against an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). He said that the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the preparations but that the test will go ahead. 

“We were ready and postured to go to the Pacific to execute Flight Test Maritime 44 (FTM-44), the first Aegis weapon system engagement against an intercontinental ballistic missile — a long-range ballistic threat being engaged by a ship that’s maneuvering with the SM-3 Block IIA missile,” he said. “Our plan right now is to get that test under our belt before the end of the calendar year. We’re on track to do that.”  

Hill said the FTM-44 test is to be conducted in a “defense of Hawaii” scenario, with a ship and the SM-3 Block IIA. 

“We’re going to really stress the SM-3 Block IIA way outside of its design space,” he said. “It was designed for medium- and intermediate range. Now we’re going against a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile. The analysis says we’ll be successful. But nothing is real to any of us until we actually get the empirical data from being out on the flight range.”  

Hill said that a successful test will not be the end of the work.  

“There will be upgrades required to the missile based on threats,” he said. “We will have to certify the combat system, and we’ve got to work very closely with the Navy about where these ships would deploy and how fast we can increase the production line on the Block IIAs to get those out to sea and where we need them to add that complement to the Ground-Based System. If we succeed with Aegis … [U.S. Northern Command] can decide where they want these assets placed to provide that sort of layered defense.” 

The FTM-44 test will be against an ICBM without countermeasures.  

“It allows us to take a missile that wasn’t designed for that space and just go after that target,” Hill said. “It’s going to be very stressing because of the very long range that it flies, the error that it builds up, so we’ll see how we do.”  

The admiral said that a successful test will allow the MDA “to start to think through that architecture and start working more closely with the warfighters and where they would position a ship. Then we want to march up to another test where would test against a very complex ICBM, one that has a lot of separation debris, one that has a lot of countermeasures. We want to make sure the system in total — from the space assets to the radar to the engage-on-remote capability that passes that information to the ship — and the ship can actually sift through all of that and say, ‘that’s the RV [re-entry vehicle] and that’s where the missile is going to go.’” 

Hill said another challenge is coordinating the engagement coordination between the different layers [of defense.] The systems ‘talk’ with each other already today but the challenge is to get them talking as being different layered defenders.