ARLINGTON, Va. — Even though the Seapower staff was on liberty ashore over the holidays, the world kept turning and things kept happening. Below is a summary of significant events since Dec. 19: 

• Acting Navy Secretary Thomas B. Modly announced on Dec. 23 the names selected for the first two Block V Virginia-class attack submarines. The boats, SSN 602 and SSN 603, were named USS Oklahoma and USS Arizona, respectively. The submarines’ names will memorialize two battleships sunk in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, by Japanese aircraft on Dec. 7, 1941. Unlike the other battleships sunk or damaged during the attack, the Oklahoma and Arizona never served again. The Arizona is a submerged memorial at the site where it was sunk in the harbor. The Oklahoma was raised but later sank in the eastern Pacific Ocean while under tow for planned repairs. 
• The U.S. 2nd Fleet has reached full operational capability (FOC), the fleet commander announced Dec. 31. “The achievement of FOC signifies 2nd Fleet has reached sufficient capacity to sustain command and control over assigned forces using the operational functions and processes of the Maritime Operations Center and Maritime Headquarters, in accordance with Navy Doctrine. [The fleet] will primarily focus on forward operations and the employment of combat ready naval forces in the Atlantic and Arctic, and to a smaller extent, on force generation and the final training and certification of forces preparing for operations around the globe,” the release said.
• Huntington Ingalls Industries announced Dec. 20 that its Ingalls Shipbuilding division has been awarded a contract with a potential total value of $453.4 million for planning yard services in support of in-service Ticonderoga–class cruisers and Spruance-class destroyers. The contract includes options over a five-year period. 
• Raytheon Missile Systems has been awarded $1 billion multiyear (2019-2023) contract for full-rate production requirements, spares and round design agent for the Standard Missile-6 (SM-6). This contract provides all up rounds, flight test rounds, spares and round design agent.  
• The first CMV-22B version of the Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft made its first flight on Dec. 19, according to a Facebook post by a photographer outside the Bell facility. The CMV-22B will replace the C-2A Greyhound as the Navy’s carrier-onboard-delivery aircraft.   
• Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. has been awarded a $251.6 contract modification for three Low-Rate Initial Production Lot 4 MQ-4C Triton high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned surveillance aircraft plus ground stations, trade studies, tooling and associated support equipment.
• Raytheon announced on Dec. 20 that the Navy awarded a $250 million contract for additional SPY-6 radars, bringing the total ordered to nine. The SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radars will be installed on Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers. 
• The Naval Sea Systems Command awarded Lockheed Martin a $1.6 billion Foreign Military Sales contract to build four Multi-Mission Surface Combatants for the navy of Saudi Arabia. The frigate design is based on the company’s Freedom-class littoral combat ship. The ships will be built at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Marinette, Wisconsin, and will be equipped with the Mk41 Vertical launch system for the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile, RGM-84 Harpoon Block II+ missiles and a 4D air-search radar.  
• Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc. was awarded a $27.2 million contract modification to exercise the Year One option for one Mk11 Shallow-Water Combat Submersibles.   
• BAE Systems’ AGR-20A Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System has been used to down an aerial target. The laser-guided air-ground rocket was used in a demonstration by a U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter as an inexpensive way to shoot down aircraft and cruise missiles. 
• Metal Shark is engaged in the Operational Test and Evaluation of its 40-foot Defiant patrol boat that is designed under the PB-X program to replace the Navy’s 160 coastal patrol boats.
• The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf (WMSL-750) completed an 82-day patrol in the eastern Pacific and offloaded more than 18,000 pounds of cocaine in San Diego on Dec. 23. The cocaine, worth an estimated $312 million, was seized by five cutters in seven separate actions between mid-October and early December.  
• About 100 Marines were deployed on Dec. 31 to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, to strengthen the embassy’s defenses against crowds of protesters who destroyed the embassy’s gatehouse. The agitation began after U. S. Air Force F-15E aircraft struck Iranian-backed militia sites in retaliation for the death in a rocket attack of an American contractor and wounding of four U.S. soldiers. 

The U.S. defense secretary and its top military officer
rejected the premise of the recently published “Afghanistan Papers” in The
Washington Post — that defense leaders engaged in a deliberate effort to
deceive the public on the lack of progress in the 18-year-long war. And Joint
Chiefs Chairman Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, who repeatedly led forces there,
emotionally insisted that none of the troops killed in Afghanistan died in
vain.

In a Dec. 20 media briefing at the Pentagon, Defense
Secretary Mark T. Esper and Milley also defended the prolonged military
engagements in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria as necessary to protect the nation
from terrorists and said U.S. forces would be there until that mission was
completed.

But Esper, citing the new National Defense Strategy’s
recognition of “great power competition” with Russia and China, said his aim is
to determine “how can we reduce our presence in other parts of the world to
either return troops home to retrain and equip for those bigger missions or to
allocate to the Indo-Pacific.” Esper has said he is considering removing about 5,000
of the 13,000 U.S. troops now in Afghanistan.

And Milley, speaking for the military, said “none of us want
forever wars. It has to do with the national interests.”

The two leaders were asked several times about the week-long
series of stories in The Washington Post that extensively quoted senior
military and diplomatic officials as privately expressing strong doubts about
the way the Afghanistan conflict was going, while giving more positive views in
public.

“I know there is an assertion out there of some sort of
coordinated lie over the course of 18 years,” but that was “more than a stretch.
I find that a mischaracterization,” Milley said. With hundreds of general
officers, State Department officials and other involved, “I just don’t think you
can get that level of coordination on a lie.” He said the assessments he and
others gave were “based on facts that we knew at the time, and those were
honest assessments and were never intended to deceive either the Congress or
the American people.”

Milley contrasted the Post’s expose on Afghanistan with the
1970s “Pentagon Papers,” which revealed secret documents on the government’s consistently
gloom views on Vietnam. He said those were “contemporary papers written in
advance of decision making. These, the Afghan papers, were an attempt by SIGAR
in about 2,000 pages to do post-facto interviews, looking back, to determine
lessons learned,” he said, referring to the reports of the special investigator
general for Afghanistan.

“For years, we were clear there
is not a reasonable chance of a military victory against the Taliban or the
insurgency… and that remains true today.” Milley said. “There is only one way
this is going to end, in a negotiated solution.” Milley conceded that
Afghanistan has been “a strategic stalemate,” where the Taliban cannot win as
long as the Unites States provides some degree of military support, but cannot
defeat the Taliban “so long as they have sanctuary in Pakistan and some degree
of popularity with the people.”

And, with evident emotion, Milley
said: “Our soldiers, sailors, airman and Marines who have given their lives in
Afghanistan did not give their lives in vain.”

Esper pointed out that some of the reporters in
the audience had been to Afghanistan as had many members of Congress and the SIGAR
investigators. “This has been very transparent. It’s not like this war was
hiding somewhere. For all the folks who have been in this conflict over the
years, some insinuation there’s been some kind of conspiracy, is ridiculous.”

The commander of U.S. and allied naval forces in Europe and
Africa said he is dealing with increased activities by both Russia and China in
his vast area of responsibility — which stretches from the Arctic to the
southern tip of Africa — despite a shortage of resources.

“We do the best we can with what we have,” Adm. James G. Foggo III, commander, U.S. Forces Europe and Africa, and commander, Allied Joint Forces Command Naples, said Dec. 18.

“It’s an extremely large tactical area” and “setting
priorities is the biggest challenge — where do you go,” Foggo said. He must
look at the entire theater, which covers all of Europe, the Mediterranean and
Black seas, the Baltics, the Arctic and Eastern Atlantic, down to the Cape of
Good Hope.

“When there are tensions, you try to go where the tensions
are” or respond to something that might threaten allies. “You have to be
flexible, agile.”

A career submariner, Foggo said the Russians are operating
some very capable submarines in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, including
new Kilo-class diesel-electric boats, which are very quiet. “It’s important we
know where they are because they have Kalibr (cruise) missiles that can reach
anywhere in Europe.” He said Russia also is building anti-access, area-denial
capabilities in Crimea, installing anti-ship cruise missiles and S-300 and
S-400 advanced air- and missile-defense weapons.

Although he seldom gets a carrier strike group in his
theater, due to the focus on the Persian Gulf and the Pacific, Foggo praised
the Virginia-class fast attack subs he gets, which “move very fast” so he can
put them where he needs them.

“We’re very, very busy in the undersea domain, busiest I’ve
ever seen,” he said. “We are challenged by resources,” although the nation has
been “very generous” in defense funding. “But we’re in a great power
competition,” he added, citing Russia and China. “We still maintain the
competitive edge and need to do so.”

Although Russia is operating frequently all around his AOR,
China is mainly active in Africa, buying access and support with loans and
construction projects that frequently come with demands for long-term access to
ports, such as in Djibouti, where it has a large military facility next door to
the U.S. base.

China also is increasingly active in the Arctic, where
Russia is trying to create dominance as the polar ice cap shrinks, Foggo said.
“We’ve seen much more Chinese activity up there than before,” and Russia and
China “are collaborating in the Arctic.”

Foggo noted the value of the allied and partner nations that
contribute to security in his command area, the increased defense spending by
NATO nations and the recent re-establishment of the U.S. 2nd Fleet in Norfolk
and the Joint Forces command in Naples in response to the Russian threat.

While noting the lack of unprofessional or unsafe activities
by Russian forces for several months, Foggo cited the “unsafe” activities of a
Russian spy vessel currently operating close to the U.S. Atlantic coast and
refusing to respond to radio contact and sailing without running lights at
night.

OSHKOSH, Wis. — U.S. Army Contracting Command-Warren has placed an $803.9 million order to Oshkosh Defense for 2,721 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs). 

Additional orders from the U.S. Army Contracting Command are anticipated within this fiscal year. 

This order includes JLTVs for the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy. It also includes vehicles for the country of Montenegro via foreign military sale. The distribution of JLTVs ensures that multiple branches of the U.S. military have the light tactical vehicle they need to perform missions that support the National Defense Strategy.  

“As the threats on today’s modern battlefield continue to evolve, our warfighters need a highly capable light tactical vehicle that is uniquely suited for mission adaptability,” said George Mansfield, vice president and general manager of joint programs for Oshkosh Defense. “The JLTV can accommodate over 100 different mission package configurations without sacrificing mobility or transportability.” 

MARINETTE, Wis. — The future USS St. Louis has completed acceptance trials in Lake Michigan, Lockheed Martin said in a release. 

Now that trials are complete, the ship will undergo final outfitting and fine-tuning before delivery. LCS 19 is the tenth Freedom-variant LCS designed and built by the Lockheed Martin-led industry team and is slated for delivery to the U.S. Navy early next year. 

“The LCS fleet is growing in numbers and capability, and LCS 19’s completion of acceptance trials means the Navy will shortly have 10 Freedom-variant fast, focused-mission ships in the fleet,” said Joe DePietro, Lockheed’s vice president and general manager of small combatants and ship systems. 

“As each Freedom-variant hull deploys, we seek out and incorporate fleet feedback and lessons learned to roll in capabilities for new hulls. As a result, LCS 19 includes a solid-state radar, upgraded communications suite, increased self-defense capabilities and topside optimization, among other updates.” 

More than 500,000 nautical miles are under the keel of Freedom-variant LCS. The Freedom variant has completed three successful deployments with a fourth ongoing. In October, LCS 7 (USS Detroit) deployed to the U.S. Southern Command supporting the Martillo campaign, a multinational effort targeting illicit trafficking routes in Central American coastal waters. 

LCS is designed to deliver speed to capability and to grow as the missions it serves evolve. Today, the Freedom-variant LCS delivers advanced capability in anti-submarine, surface and mine countermeasure missions. The Freedom-variant LCS is targeted for warfighting upgrades to enhance situational awareness and evolve the ship’s self-defense capabilities. These upgrades are already underway; LCS computing infrastructures are receiving cyber upgrades and over-the-horizon missiles are being installed in support of upcoming deployments. 

MOBILE, Ala. — The U.S. Navy accepted delivery of its 11th Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF), the future USNS Puerto Rico, from Austal USA on Dec. 10. 

Delivery marks the official transfer of the ship from the shipbuilder to the Navy.  EPF 11 will be owned and operated by Military Sealift Command. 

“We are excited to accept delivery of another versatile ship, further expanding the advantage of our civilian mariners at sea,” said Capt. Scot Searles, strategic and theater sealift program manager, Program Executive Office-Ships. “Delivery of our 11th ship is a testament to the inherent flexibility of the EPF class.” 

EPFs are shallow-draft, all-aluminum, commercial-based catamarans that are capable of intra-theater personnel and cargo transport, which provide combatant commanders high-speed sealift mobility. EPFs enable rapid projection, agile maneuver and transport of personnel, equipment and supplies over operational distances with access to austere and degraded offload points. 

As versatile, noncombatant vessels, EPFs provide increased operational flexibility for a wide range of activities including maneuver and sustainment, relief operations and flexible logistics support. 

These vessels are capable of interfacing with roll-on/roll-off discharge facilities, and on/off-loading a combat-loaded Abrams Main Battle Tank. EPFs include a flight deck to support day and night aircraft launch and recovery operations and airline-style seating for 312 embarked forces, with fixed berthing for 104. 

Austal USA is also in production on the future USNS Newport (EPF 12) and USNS Apalachicola (EPF 13) and is under contract to build the future USNS Cody (EPF 14). 

PHILADELPHIA — Boeing and Bell Textron Inc. have delivered the first modified MV-22 Osprey to the U.S. Marine Corps for improved readiness and reliability of the tilt-rotor fleet, Boeing said in a release. 

The Marines have multiple configurations of the MV-22 aircraft in service. Under the Common Configuration-Readiness and Modernization (CC-RAM) program, Bell Boeing is reducing the number of configurations by upgrading block “B” aircraft to the current block “C” configuration. 

“Our first CC-RAM aircraft returning to Marine Corps Air Station New River was a key program benchmark,” said U.S. Marine Corps Col. Matthew Kelly, program manager, V-22 Joint Program Office (PMA-275). “We are excited to see the capability, commonality and readiness improvements these CC-RAM aircraft bring to the fleet as part of the Marine Corps’ V-22 readiness program.” 

As a block “B” configuration, this MV-22 was originally delivered to the fleet in 2005. In 2018, the aircraft flew from Marine Corps Air Station New River to the Boeing Philadelphia facility for modernization. 

“This milestone marks the beginning of an Osprey evolution,” said Kristin Houston, vice president of Boeing tilt-rotor programs and director of Bell Boeing’s V-22 program. “Through a shared focus on safety and quality, the Bell Boeing team is delivering modernized MV-22 aircraft that are ready to serve our dedicated servicemen and women who rely on this essential aviation resource.” 

The next CC-RAM delivery is expected in early 2020. 

“We look forward to having the remaining MV-22 block “B” aircraft rejoin the fleet in a block “C” configuration,” Kelly said. 

In November 2019, the U.S. Navy awarded Bell Boeing $146 million to upgrade nine additional MV-22 aircraft under the CC-RAM program, with work expected to be completed in March 2022. 

NATO and U.S. forces in Europe are seeing increased Russian
naval activities in all the seas around Europe. But following a meeting with
Russia’s military chief they have seen no unprofessional or unsafe incidents at
sea or in the air in at least 90 days, the top allied and U.S. commander in
Europe said Dec. 10.

“I see Russian activity in the Arctic, see it in the Baltic, see it in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean,” Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters, NATO’s supreme allied commander and commander of U.S. European Command, told a Defense Writers’ breakfast.

“I see Russia doing everything they can to expand their
coverage, to see as much of the space as they possibly can, and it’s something
we will continue to dialogue about so that our sailors and their sailors are
appropriately deconflicted, and we don’t have any future incidents of
unprofessional actions at sea and in the sky.”

In recent years, allied commanders have complained
repeatedly about dangerously close maneuvers by Russia aircraft near alliance
planes or ships and aggressive conduct, including near collisions, by Russian
warships, particularly in the Black Sea.

“Since my last face-to-face with Gen. Gerasimov we have seen
zero unprofessional incidents at sea, zero in the sky,” Wolters said, referring
to Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s chief of staff, who he met in the fall.

Asked what the alliance is doing in response to the growing
presence of Russian submarines, Wolters said, “we’re always looking at
exercises and investments to improve our view of the maritime environment.
We’re heavily engaged in the Arctic, we’re heavily engaged in the central
Atlantic, in the western Med, the eastern Med. Every single day we’re looking
to see what we can possibly do to improve our ability to see the maritime
environment, to command and control the maritime and we do so comprehensively,
360 degrees, all around the European continent.”

Wolters said the Standing NATO Maritime Force is “focused on
both” anti-submarine and counter-surface capabilities. NATO has two surface standing
groups and two mine countermeasure groups, made up of rotating ships from
alliance members.

Asked about his biggest technology needs, Wolters cited
resources that allow commanders to act faster, that allow them “to see the
entire battlespace, so they could better defend” resources to command and
control. He noted NATO’s decision to buy Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk
long-endurance “remotely piloted aircraft,” as the Air Force calls UAVs, with
five in the initial order.

Wolters spoke extensively about the upcoming Defender Europe
20 exercise, which will involve moving 20,000 U.S. troops from the United
States to join with more than 8.000 American and a similar number of allied
troops forces in Europe. It would be the largest movement of U.S. forces from
the states to Europe since the Cold War Reforger Exercises.

“It would be a huge benefit to show we can deploy from
anywhere on earth” to deter a potential adversary, he said. Asked about the
challenge of moving forces and supplies across the Atlantic in the face of the
growing Russian submarine threat, Wolters said: “I’m always concerned about
that. And the reason we’re doing Defender is to improve our ability to shift
and maneuver those forces over long distances. When we’re done, we’ll critique
it and get better in the future.”

ARLINGTON, Va. — As the U.S. Coast Guard commissions more Sentinel-class fast-response cutters (FRCs) it can expand its presence in the Pacific and will increase its capabilities in the Persian Gulf. 

“We commissioned the 35th [FRC] in October,” Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl L. Schultz said Dec. 10 to an audience at the Navy League’s “Special Topic Breakfast” here, noting that the FRC program is greatly increasing the Coast Guard’s reach and capabilities. 

The Coast Guard plans to procure a total of 58 FRCs built by Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, Louisiana. He said the last dozen or so were delivered with zero discrepancies. About four FRCs are delivered each year. 

Schultz said the Coast Guard will station three FRCs in Guam and four in Bahrain. Two are slated to join the service’s Patrol Force Southwest Asia in Bahrain in early 2021 and the other two will follow later. He said he plans to add two more for a total of six. They will replace six Island-class patrol boats in the Persian Gulf. 

FRCs recently were added to Hawaii. One of them made a 2,700-nautical-mile voyage to American Samoa on its own fuel, accompanied by a buoy tender as a support ship for refueling at its destination, demonstrating the reach and seakeeping qualities of FRCs. 

Schultz noted that the reach of the FRCs in Guam will enable to Coast Guard to counter the growing Chinese economic presence — including illegal fishing — in the Pacific island nations in Micronesia, many of which depend of fishing as a major economic benefit.  

“We can help them with fisheries,” Schultz said. “With these island nations, it’s a big part of their existence.”

Retired Navy Capt. Wayne Hughes, dean emeritus at the
Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), died on Dec. 3 in Monterey, Calif. He was 89.

Hughes was professor of practice, military operations research,
a fellow of the Military Operations Research Society and perhaps best known for
his influential books on tactics. His most recent book, “Fleet Tactics and
Naval Operations,” Third Edition, written with Rear Adm. Robert Girrier, was
published by the Naval Institute Press in 2018.

Hughes was also author of numerous articles on tactics
and operations research and the importance of understanding calculations such
as weapon type, capacity and range, combined with platform quantity,
maneuverability and employment of both friendly and adversary ships that
ultimately determine the outcome of naval conflicts.

He was a 1952 graduate of the U.S. Naval
Academy. Among his numerous assignments afloat and ashore, Hughes commanded
minesweeper USS Hummingbird and destroyer USS Morton and was the Chief of Naval
Education and Training Support, Deputy Director of the Systems Analysis
Division in the Office of the CNO (OP-96), and Executive Assistant to the
Undersecretary of the Navy.

He was a huge proponent of military education and
cautioned sea service leaders from emphasizing policy and strategy at the
expense of tactics to fight and win future
battles at sea.

Hughes
was just recently featured in a six-part series of YouTube videos produced by NPS
as part of the school’s “Seapower Conversations” series, which features
informal conversations with university faculty experts on the trends,
technologies and tactics that shape modern seapower.

“Our community of NPS faculty represents deep expertise in a broad range of topics relevant to naval power and national security … machine learning, cyberwarfare, autonomy and unmanned systems, quantum mechanics and national strategy, for example. Our hope with ‘Seapower Conversations’ is to share some of that expertise,” said NPS’ president, retired Vice Adm. Ann Rondeau. “Wayne Hughes is a national treasure, a man who was dedicated to service, to scholarship, and to educating naval officers and future leaders. Who better to begin this series of conversations on naval power than with our own Wayne Hughes.”

Jeff Cares, chairman of Alidade Inc., was one
of Hughes’ operations research students at NPS, said, “Wayne was and always
will be my teacher. There have been more than a few
‘snatch-the-pebble-from-my-hand’ occasions, in which I thought myself no longer
his student. He would patiently allow me to talk excitedly about my
discovery, genuinely proud, I think, of my work, and then gently refer me to a
page in Fleet Tactics where, if I had been a more thoughtful reader, I would
have found that he already arrived at that conclusion many years
earlier.” 

Hughes was selected to receive the Surface Navy Association’s Special Recognition Award, the association’s highest honor. It will be presented posthumously next month at the SNA’s Annual Symposium in Arlington, Virginia.

“Wayne shaped the thinking of generations of naval officers from many navies as a writer, a professor and a Sailor,” said retired Capt. Jeff Kline, who served on the faculty at NPS with Hughes. “He will be missed by us all.”