SAN DIEGO
— The U.S. Navy has approved the commissioning date for the future USS
Indianapolis (LCS 17), the commander of Naval Surface Forces announced July 17.

The littoral
combat ship will be commissioned Oct. 26 in Burns Harbor, Indiana. The
commissioning ceremony signifies the acceptance for service and the entrance of
a ship into the active fleet of the U.S. Navy.

Burns
Harbor is on the shores of Lake Michigan in northwest Indiana and is 160 miles
north of Indianapolis.

Jill
Donnelly, the wife of former Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly, is the ship’s sponsor.
As the sponsor, Donnelly leads the time-honored Navy tradition of giving the
order during the ceremony to “man our ship and bring her to life!” At that
moment, the commissioning pennant is hoisted and Indianapolis becomes a ship of
the fleet.

Cmdr.
Colin Kane, a Columbus, Ohio, native, is the ship’s commanding officer.

“The
future USS Indianapolis honors more than a city; it pays tribute to the legacy
of those who served during the final days of World War II on board USS
Indianapolis,” Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer said at the ship’s
christening ceremony. “This ship will continue the proud legacy of service
embodied in the name Indianapolis and is a testament to the true partnership
between the Navy and industry.”

LCS 17 is
the fourth ship to carry the name of Indiana’s capital city. The first
Indianapolis was a steamer built for the U.S. Shipping Board (USSB) and
commissioned directly into the Navy in 1918. After two runs to Europe, the ship
was returned to the USSB following World War I.

The saga
of the second Indianapolis (CA 35), a cruiser, and its crew is well documented
by the Naval History and Heritage Command. The loss of the ship was a tragic
moment following the completion of a secret mission that directly contributed
to the end of World War II.

After a
successful high-speed run to deliver atomic bomb components to Tinian, the
decorated Portland-class cruiser continued to Guam. Indianapolis was en route
from Guam to Leyte when she was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine
I-58 on July 30, 1945. The ship’s wreckage was located on Aug. 19, 2017.
Survivors of the cruiser met with the crew of the future Indianapolis earlier
this year to screen a documentary about the discovery of the lost ship.

The most
recent Indianapolis was a Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine, which was
commissioned Jan. 5, 1980, and served through the end of the Cold War before
being decommissioned in 1998.

The future Indianapolis
will be homeported in Naval Station Mayport, Florida, upon her commissioning.

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s nominee for secretary
of defense said he supports modernization of the nation’s strategic nuclear
deterrent.

“Clearly, modernization of the [strategic nuclear] triad is top priority,” Mark T. Esper said June 16 during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, listing his top modernization priorities.

Nuclear deterrence “has kept the peace
with regard to deterring nuclear war for 70 years now,” Esper said during his
testimony. “The important part is to ensure that we have a modern, effective,
credible, safe and reliable deterrent.”

Each leg of the triad [bombers,
intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles]
“provides certain capabilities to complement one another,” he added. “Continuing
to modernize that triad is important our safety and security.”

Esper said that each leg is in a
different status.

“We need to certainly modernize the GBSD [Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent],” he said. “Obviously, we have plans to recapitalize
the Ohio-class [ballistic-missile] submarines, and there is a program underway to [recapitalize] our long-range stealth bombers.”

recapitalize

Esper said that two parts of deterrence
are “having a capability and the will to use it.”

He stressed that the strategic
deterrent force needed to be cyber-protected.

There was no daylight between the
priorities between Esper and the nominee for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, Army Gen. Mark Milley.

Milley, testifying June 11 in his confirmation
hearing before the same committee, listed the nation’s strategic nuclear
deterrent as his top modernization priority, the others being space
capabilities, artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons.

He supports modernization of all three legs of the
U.S. strategic deterrent triad.

“The triad has worked,” Milley said. “There are many
reasons why there hasn’t been a great power war since 1945. Clearly one of them
is nuclear deterrence and part of that is the capability of the triad. Each leg
of the triad gives you different capability.”

“I think we need to develop the domain
of space as a warfighting domain,” Esper said. “We need to improve our
capabilities and policies with regard to cyberspace. And then of course there
is a wide range of conventional capabilities we need to improve.”

Space
is no longer “a place from which we support combat operations,” he said. “It is
now a warfighting domain. Not because we made it that way, but because the
Russians and Chinese are making it that way. To make sure we are sufficiently
robust in the space warfighting domain is to have unity of command and unity of
effort.”

WASHINGTON
— Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer has become acting defense secretary, as the
Senate has received the packet nominating Mark T. Esper to be the confirmed
secretary of defense.

Eric
Chewning, the chief of staff to the defense secretary, said the transition from
Esper to Spencer went smoothly. “There is only one secretary of defense,
and that person is fully capable of defending the country and protecting the
homeland,” Chewning said.

Esper was
named acting defense secretary when Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick M.
Shanahan stepped down from the position last month. President Trump nominated
Esper for the position — a move that requires Senate confirmation. By law,
Esper cannot continue to serve as acting secretary while he is under
consideration for the permanent job. He reverts to his position as secretary of
the Army.

The principals
involved in this program met to discuss how the transition would happen. This
included Esper, Spencer, David L. Norquist, the undersecretary of defense who
continues to perform the duties of the deputy defense secretary, Marine Corps Gen.
Joe Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Chewning.

When
Spencer became acting secretary, he assumed the full authority and
responsibility of the secretary of defense.

To ensure
continuity, the team supporting the Office of the Secretary of Defense remains
in place.

“We’ve
been working closely with Senate leadership and the Senate Armed Services
Committee, and we thank them for their efforts and commitments to swiftly
consider top DoD leadership,” Chewning said.

DoD does
not assume Esper’s confirmation, and Chewning was quick to point out that it is
the Senate’s prerogative to take as long as it believes is necessary to examine
and confirm the nominee. “Secretary Spencer is prepared to remain in the
role until there is a Senate-confirmed secretary of defense,” he said.

If Esper is confirmed by
the Senate, then Norquist will be formally nominated to be the deputy defense
secretary. In deference to the Senate, he will step out of his role of
performing the duties of the deputy secretary of defense while that nomination
is pending. If this happens, Spencer will then perform the duties of the deputy
secretary.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The U.S. State Department has approved the possible sale of MH-60R
helicopters to the Hellenic navy at the request of the Greek government, the
Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a July 12 release. The sale,
if ultimately approved, would be made through the Foreign Military Sales
program and could total $600 million.

“The government
of Greece has requested to buy up to seven MH-60Rs Multi-Mission Helicopters,”
the release said.

The sale also
would include aircraft systems and spares, including T700 GE-401 C Engines; APS-l
53(V) radars; Airborne Low Frequency Sonar systems; AAS-44C(V) Multi-Spectral
Targeting Systems; and Embedded Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation
Systems with Selective Availability/Anti-Spoofing Module.

Also included
in the possible sale are ARC-210 APX-1990A(C) radios; AVS-9 Night Vision
Devices; and APX-123 Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) transponders.

The deal also
would include “spare engine containers; facilities study, design, and
construction; spare and repair parts; support and test equipment; communication
equipment; ferry support; publications and technical documentation; personnel
training and training equipment; U.S. government and contractor engineering,
technical and logistics support services; and other related elements of
logistical and program support,” the release said.

Along with
the helicopters, the sale would include 1,000 SSQ-36/53/62 sonobuoys; two
AGM-114 M36-E9 Captive Air Training Missiles; four AGM-114Q Hellfire Training
Missiles; 100 Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System (APKWS) rockets; 30 Mk54
Torpedoes; 12 M-240 crew-served guns; and 12 GAU-21 crew-served guns. 

“This
proposed sale will support U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives
by helping to improve the security of a NATO ally, which is an important
partner for political stability and economic progress in Europe,” the release
said. “The MH-60R helicopters will bolster the Hellenic navy’s ability to support
NATO and remain interoperable with the U.S. and the NATO alliance.”

In addition to the U.S.
Navy, the MH-60R, built by Lockheed Martin, is operated by the Royal Australian
Navy, the Royal Danish Navy and the Royal Saudi Naval Forces. In April, the
State Department approved the possible sale of 24 MH-60Rs to the Indian navy.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The Coast Guard
Cutter Richard Dixon (WPC-1113) repatriated 14 Dominican migrants to a
Dominican navy patrol vessel Saturday near Samaná, Dominican Republic,
following the interdiction of an illegal migrant voyage June 11 off the coast
of Añasco, Puerto Rico. 

Two
other Dominican men traveling in the group remain in federal custody facing
possible prosecution by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto
Rico on potential charges of attempted illegal re-entry into a U.S. territory.

The
interdiction is the result of ongoing efforts in support of Operation Unified
Resolve, Operation Caribbean Guard and the Caribbean Border Interagency Group
(CBIG). Since October 2018, the Coast Guard and CBIG partner federal and state
agencies have interdicted over 1,550 migrants at sea near Puerto Rico.

Coast
Guard Sector San Juan Command Center watchstanders were contacted on the
morning of June 11 by Puerto Rico Police, who notified that a Joint Forces of
Rapid Action (FURA) marine unit had just interdicted a 20-foot migrant boat
half a mile off the coast of Añasco.

Coast
Guard watchstanders diverted the Coast Guard Cutter Heriberto Hernandez
(WPC-1114) to the scene. Once there, Heriberto Hernandez crew members
safely embarked all 14 men and two women from the makeshift vessel.

“We
commend our Puerto Rico Police partners who prevented this illegal voyage from
making landfall as well as their close collaboration with the Hernandez crew in
safely removing all the migrants from a dangerous situation,” said Lt. Andrew
Russo, commanding officer of Heriberto Hernandez. “These illegal migrant
voyages are very dangerous, often aboard unsafe and unseaworthy vessels, which
present a life-threatening situation to everyone aboard.” 

Once
aboard a Coast Guard cutter, all migrants receive food, water, shelter and
basic medical attention.

The
cutter Heriberto Hernandez later transferred the migrants to the cutter Richard
Dixon for their repatriation to the Dominican Republic. The two migrants facing
prosecution are in custody of Ramey Sector Border Patrol agents in Puerto Rico.

The
Heriberto Hernandez and Richard Dixon are 154-foot fast-response cutters
homeported in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

SAN DIEGO
— Vice President Mike Pence attended a U.S. Coast Guard drug offload July 11 in
San Diego, the Coast Guard Pacific Area said in a release.

The crew of
the Coast Guard Cutter Munro offloaded more than 39,000 pounds of cocaine and
933 pounds of marijuana worth a combined $569 million, which was seized in
international waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The drugs
represent 14 separate suspected drug smuggling vessel interdictions and
disruptions off the coasts of Mexico and Central and South America by three
Coast Guard cutters between May and July. This was the Munro’s first deployment
to the region.

Pence,
James W. Carroll, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, DEA
acting administrator Uttam Dhillon, and Vice Adm. Linda Fagan, commander of
Coast Guard Pacific Area, spent time aboard Munro and talked to the crew and
media.

“Let me
commend you especially for your new deployment to the Eastern Pacific
corridor,” Pence said. “Even though this is a new area of deployment for this
cutter, you’ve already proven yourselves more than up to the task … 14
operations went into this offload, and one of them was of a self-propelled,
semi-submersible vessel (SPPS), which resulted in the largest Coast Guard
removal in four years. The Coast Guard is seizing illegal drugs at a faster
rate than ever before. And you all have been at the tip of the spear, making
that happen.”

Munro
interdicted the SPPS on June 18, in international waters west of South America.
It was carrying more than 17,000 pounds of cocaine. In fiscal year 2019 to date,
the U.S. Coast Guard has interdicted more than 143 metric tons of cocaine,
worth more than $4.2 billion.

These
drugs are smuggled by international cartels, said Fagan, whose actions “which
left unchecked, fuels violence and instability that corrodes our hemisphere’s
social and economic fabric, and directly contributes to historically high
drug-related deaths in neighborhoods across North America.”

While the
Munro, a national security cutter, was commissioned in 2017, 70% of the Coast
Guard’s offshore presence is the service’s aging fleet of medium-endurance
cutters, many of which are more than 50 years old.

“Our Coast
Guard deserves better,” Pence said. “And that’s why we are committed to fully
funding our Coast Guard, including replacing old ships with new ones, just like
the Cutter Munro.”

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The final piece of the John F. Kennedy’s (CVN-79) flight deck, the upper bow section, was installed July 10 on the future aircraft carrier, Huntington Ingalls Industries announced in a release.

The
addition of the upper bow section at the company’s Newport News Shipbuilding
division is one of the last steel structural units, known as a superlift, to be
placed on Kennedy. It was built using digital technology, such as visual work
instructions to install piping in the upper bow on the final assembly platen
instead of on the ship.

“We are
very pleased with the progress being made on Kennedy as we inch closer to
christening the ship later this year,” said Mike Butler, Newport News Shipbuilding’s
program director for the JFK.

“The upper
bow is the last superlift that completes the ship’s primary hull. This
milestone is testament to the significant build strategy changes we have made —
and to the men and women of Newport News Shipbuilding who do what no one else
in the world can do.”

Weighing
780 tons, the superlift took 18 months to build.

Kennedy is
being built with an improved build strategy that includes the increased use of
digital tools to build superlifts that are much larger and more complete at
ship erect than on prior carriers. Kennedy is on track to be built with
considerably fewer man-hours than the first ship in its class, USS Gerald R.
Ford.

More than 3,200
shipbuilders and 2,000 suppliers from across the country are supporting the
construction of aircraft carrier Kennedy. The ship is in the early stages of
its testing program and is on schedule to launch during the fourth quarter. Christening
is planned for late 2019.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated as of July 18, 2019, to reflect Gilday’s formal nomination.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — For the first time since the 1970s, a three-star admiral is the nominee for
chief of naval operations.

Vice Adm. Michael Gilday, who earlier this year became director of the Joint Staff, has been nominated by President Trump for promotion to admiral and to become CNO, according to a July 18 announcement from Acting Defense Secretary Richard. V. Spencer.

Gilday was selected to succeed Adm. John M.
Richardson after Adm. Bill Moran’s announcement that he would retire amid
questions about his ongoing professional relationship with a disgraced former
aide, sources confirmed.

Richardson had been scheduled to leave Aug. 1 and
retire in September but will stay on until the U.S. Senate confirmation process
for Gilday is complete.

The
nominee for the Navy’s next chief typically comes from a small pool of
four-star commanders. Gilday is the first three-star admiral to be chosen since
Vice Adm. Elmo Zumwalt was nominated by President Nixon in April 1970.

In a statement, Moran said he made the decision to retire “based on an open investigation into the nature of some of my personal email correspondence over the past couple of years and for continuing to maintain a professional relationship with a former staff officer, now retired, who had while in uniform been investigated and held accountable over allegations of inappropriate behavior.”

Press
reports identified the staff officer as Chris Servello, former public affairs
officer for Richardson.

Moran
added that he did not condone the staff officer’s conduct, but said he
understands how “toxic it can be to any team when inappropriate behavior goes
unrecognized and unchecked.”

“Every Sailor is entitled to serve in an environment free of harassment or intimidation,” Moran said. “As painful as it is to submit my request to retire, I will not be an impediment whatsoever to the important service that you and your families continue to render the nation every day.”

Spencer
said he admired Moran’s Navy service, but his decision to maintain the
relationship with the staff officer “has caused me to call his judgment into
question.”

Moran
called his 38 years of Navy service a “high honor and privilege” and said he
deeply regrets “any inconvenience” his decision causes Trump and Spencer. 

Gilday, a
native of Lowell, Massachusetts, is the son of a Navy Sailor, according to his
official biography. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and holds master’s
degrees from the Harvard Kennedy School and the National War College.

As a
surface warfare officer, Gilday deployed on two cruisers and a destroyer before
rising to command two more destroyers. Subsequently, he commanded Destroyer
Squadron 7, serving as sea combat commander for the Ronald Reagan Carrier
Strike Group.

As a flag
officer, he served as commander, Carrier Strike Group 8, embarked aboard USS
Dwight D. Eisenhower, and as commander, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command and U.S 10th
Fleet. Ashore, as a flag officer, he served in joint positions as director of
operations for NATO’s Joint Force Command Lisbon; as chief of staff for Naval
Striking and Support Forces NATO; director of operations for U.S. Cyber
Command; and as director of operations for the Joint Staff. 

His earlier staff assignments include the Bureau of Naval Personnel, the staff of the chief of naval operations, and the staff of the vice chief of naval operations. Joint assignments include executive assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and naval aide to the president.

Additional reporting by Megan Scully.

Gen. David H. Berger relieved Gen. Robert B. Neller on July
11 to become the 38th commandant of the Marine Corps in a ceremony at Marine
Corps Barracks, Washington.

Acting Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said of Berger: “In
this era of ‘Great Power Competition,’ I can think of no better leader to
assume the post of commandant.”

Berger “understands well the challenges we face in today’s
complex strategic environment. His work to shape the way we train and equip the
Marines for future battles makes him the perfect fit for this position,” Esper
said, referring the Berger’s previous job as deputy commandant for combat development
and integration.

“He is a visionary who is committed to marching the Marine
Corps down the path of modernizing,” Esper added. “He has demonstrated
throughout his career, he possesses the intellect, the stamina and courage to
lead in this demanding position.”

In his initial statement to the Marines he now will lead,
Berger said: “I consider it a privilege just to wear the uniform, just to stand
in their ranks. Whether commandant or corporal, just the privilege of wearing
this uniform, of calling yourself a Marine. It’s an honor.”

“I know we need to modernize the Marine Corps. I know we
need to train better. We need to recruit the very best people we can and keep
them in our ranks,” Berger added.

He also repeated a promise from Marine Gen. Joseph F.
Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was in the audience: “We
will never send our force, we will never send our Marines, into a fair fight. I
know what we need to do.”

In his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services
Committee, Berger said among the most significant challenges he will face as
commandant “will be to sustain readiness at high levels for our operating
forces while concurrently modernizing the force.”

He predicted “a deliberate redesign of the force to meet the
needs of the future operating environment,” which would include divesting
legacy equipment and programs and “consider potential end-strength reductions
in order to invest in equipment modernization and necessary training upgrades.”

With the rising concerns over China, Berger brings highly
relevant experience to his new post, having commanded the California-based I
Marine Expeditionary Force, then Marine Forces Pacific. He also commanded the
Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California, where the
Marines test new equipment and operating concepts and have begun training for
high-intensity combat against a peer competitor.

Esper gave extended praise to Neller, who will retire next
month with 45 years and six months of service as a Marine officer, calling him
“a proven combat veteran” who has commanded at every level and “always took
care of his Marines. As commandant, he led the Marine Corps through a critical
inflection point,” from two decades of counter-insurgency operations “to a renewed
focus on high-intensity conflict against Great Power Competitors.”

In his farewell to the Marine Corps, Neller said among his
regrets was that the Corps “has been so slow to make changes” and that
“sometimes we may not always have met the mark of the Marine Corps. But that
was just a few of us. … If there has been any failing in our Corps, that
resides with me and any success belongs to the Marines.”

“At the end of the day, it’s not about me. It’s
not about Dave Berger, it’s about our Corps,” about the active duty and Marine
Reserves “who do the nation’s business. … It’s been a great ride, but its time.
I’ve had my time, but it’s done. I’m going home.”

BOSTON —
The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba returned to Boston on July 11 following
a three-month patrol conducting drug and migrant interdiction operations in the
Caribbean Sea, the Coast Guard 1st District said in a release.

Throughout
the patrol, Escanaba’s crew focused their efforts on law enforcement, completed
a three-week training assessment of mission capabilities in Portsmouth,
Virginia, and held a change-of-command ceremony.

Escanaba’s
crew partnered with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol within the Mona Passage for
migrant interdiction operations. Crews terminated three illegal migrant
ventures and repatriated more than 100 migrants.

The crew’s
counter-narcotics efforts resulted in the disruption of more than 5,500 pounds
of cocaine illegally trafficked by transnational criminal organizations.

During
Escanaba’s change-of-command ceremony, Cmdr. Michael Nalli relieved Capt.
Michael Turdo as the cutter’s commanding officer.

“It is an
honor and privilege to serve as the commanding officer of such a capable ship,”
Nalli said. “The crew is well-trained, and we are excited to get underway to
conduct the missions of the Coast Guard.”

Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba
— known as “The Pride of Boston” — is a 270-foot medium-endurance cutter with a
crew complement of 100.