WASHINGTON
— Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer has announced the newest towing, salvage
and rescue ship will be named Cherokee Nation in honor of the service and
contributions the Cherokee people have made to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps,
the secretary’s public affairs office said in a June 21 release.

“It is my
privilege to announce that the many Cherokee Nation citizens who’ve served
throughout the years will be remembered with the highest honor a secretary of
the Navy can bestow, the naming of a ship,” Spencer said.

This is
the fifth U.S. ship to be named in honor of the Cherokee people.

“The Cherokee Nation is extremely honored that the U.S. Navy is recognizing our tribal nation and the generations of Cherokee men and women who have bravely and humbly sacrificed for our freedom today,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker said.

“Our
Cherokee people have contributed in every major battle and war ever fought in
this country and continue to serve in the armed forces in some of the highest
rates per ethnicity. Cherokees are a strong, resilient people, and we are
privileged to have a U.S. ship at sea that reflects both our country and
tribe’s history and values.”

Gulf
Island Shipyards was awarded a $64.8 million contract option for the detail
design and construction of the new Ship, which will be based on existing
commercial towing offshore vessel designs and will replace the current T-ATF
166 and T-ARS 50 class ships in service with the U.S. Military Sealift Command.
The Cherokee Nation is the second ship in the new class of towing, salvage and rescue
ships and will be designated T-ATS 7.

The contract
includes options for potentially six additional vessels, and each additional
ship will be named in honor of prominent Native Americans or Native American
tribes.

The T-ATS
will serve as open ocean towing vessels and will additionally support salvage operations and submarine rescue missions. The ship will be
built at the company’s shipyard in Houma, Louisiana, and is expected to be
completed in July 2021.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The U.S. Marine Corps has awarded BAE Systems a contract to develop two
variants of the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) and manufacture one of them.

Marine Corps
Systems Command has awarded “a not-to-exceed [$67 million] modification for
firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the development of
engineering drawings, manufacture and test support for three [ACV] command-and-control
Mission Role Variants (MRVs) and the development of engineering drawings for
the ACV medium-caliber-cannon MRV,” according to a Defense Department release.

BAE Systems
is building the ACV for the Marine Corps as an amphibious troop carrier to
replace the four-decade-old Assault Amphibious Vehicle. The AAV7 is fielded in
several variants, and the Corps plans to field the ACV in variants as well.

The
command-and-control (C2) MRV will be the first variant of the ACV. The C2
variant will be designed for a commander and staff and equipped with computer
displays and communications systems to enable the commander to maintain
situational awareness of the battlefield.

A variant
with a medium-caliber gun atop the ACV will follow.

Work is
expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2022.

WASHINGTON
— Bruce Jette, assistant secretary of the U.S. Army for acquisition, logistics
and technology, on June 20 approved the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV)
program’s transition into full-rate production, the Army Program Executive
Office for Combat Support and Combat Service Support announced in a release.

The
approval follows an Army decision in December to begin fielding the new
platform with the Army’s 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart,
Georgia, in April. The 1-3 ID became the Army’s first unit equipped with JLTVs
in April after receiving more than 300 vehicles.

Fieldings
to the Ordnance School, Fort Lee, Virginia, the 84th Training Command, Fort
McCoy, Wisconsin, the Marine Corps’ School of Infantry-West at Camp Pendleton,
California, as well as the Marine School of Infantry-East, Camp Lejeune, North
Carolina, have also been completed.

“Thanks
to tremendous teamwork across two services on requirements, resources, program
management, testing and other areas, this is a great modernization success story.
JLTV shows how teams focused on stable requirements, mature technologies and
the right incentives can deliver meaningful capability advancements in a
cost-conscious way,” said Jeffrey White, Jette’s principal deputy.

The JLTV
family of vehicles is designed to restore payload and performance that were
traded from light tactical vehicles to add protection in recent conflict,
giving commanders an improved protected mobility solution and the first vehicle
purpose-built for modern battlefield networks.

“Getting
an improved capability into the hands of Soldiers and Marines has been our
team’s driving focus throughout this program,” said Michael Sprang, project
manager, Joint Program Office, Joint Light Tactical Vehicles.

“We
are also grateful for Soldier feedback on new features and enhancements,” Sprang
continued. “The Soldiers of the 1st ABCT, 3rd Infantry Division provided
valuable input on enhancements such as increased situational awareness,
reduction of system noise, a troop seat kit, and a companion JLTV trailer.
Their assessments helped bring us all to a successful Full-Rate Production
decision.”

The JLTV
program remains on schedule and on budget to replace a significant portion of
the Army’s High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle fleet. The JLTV comes in
two variants and four mission package configurations: general purpose, close combat
weapons carrier, heavy guns carrier and a utility vehicle. The U.S. Navy and
Air Force also plan to field JLTVs in much smaller quantities.

“The full-rate production decision is a key
milestone for the JLTV program, closing out the low-rate initial production
(LRIP) phase, which began in 2015, George
Mansfield, vice president and general manager of joint programs for Oshkosh
Defense, said in a June 21 statement. “Important insights from
manufacturing and rigorous developmental and operational test during LRIP
contributed to shaping the vehicle’s current configuration. The program remains
on schedule and on budget and ensures our troops have the protection,
connection and extreme off-road mobility they need today for current and future
battlefields. The JLTV is the only light tactical vehicle being fielded today
that can maneuver within combat formations.”

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy RQ-4A Block 10 Global Hawk
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) shot down June 19 by Iranian forces was destroyed
by a surface-to-air missile of indigenous Iranian design and manufacture.

The Global Hawk was downed by a missile system the
Iranians call the Third of Khordad, which was
first unveiled in Iran in 2014. The system’s missile has a range of 75
kilometers and can intercept targets at an altitude of up to 81,000 feet,
higher than the 60,000-foot ceiling of the Global Hawk.

One
former Navy electronic countermeasures officer described the Third of Khordad
as a knock-off of the Russian-designed BUK-M1 (NATO code name SA-11 Gadfly) missile
system.

In a June 20 release, U.S. Central Command spokesman
Cmdr. Bill Urban said the RQ-4A was shot down “while operating in international airspace over the Strait of
Hormuz at approximately 11:35 p.m. GMT on June 19, 2019. Iranian reports that
the aircraft was over Iran are false. This was an unprovoked attack on a U.S.
surveillance asset in international airspace.”

Iran claimed the UAV had violated Iranian airspace.

The incident occurred a few days after Iranian forces
fired a missile at a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper UAV near the Strait of Hormuz and damaged
two oil tankers with limpet mines. Last month, four tankers were damaged by
explosives believed to be limpet mines.

The Northrop Grumman RQ-4A Block 10 Global Hawk
high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) UAV also is known as the BAMS-D (Broad-Area
Maritime Surveillance-Demonstration) system. Urban said the RQ-4A “provides
real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions over vast
ocean and coastal regions.”

The Navy has deployed the RQ-4A to Southwest Asia since 2009 as a
component of the Broad-Area Maritime Surveillance-Demonstration (BAMS-D)
program. Five RQ-4As were acquired from the U.S. Air Force and were based at
Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, and operated by a detachment of
Patrol Reconnaissance Wing 11. The detachment keeps at least one RQ-4A in the
rotation to a base in the Persian Gulf region. One was lost in a mishap in
Maryland in June 2012.

The Navy and Northrop Grumman have been developing a
Global Hawk derivative, the MQ-4C Triton, to meet the Navy’s HALE requirements.
Unmanned Patrol Squadron 19 is scheduled to send a two-aircraft detachment to
Guam this year for the Triton’s Early Operational Capability deployment. The
deployment had been delayed a year following the gear-up landing of one of the
squadron’s MQ-4Cs in September 2018.

According to news reports, one MQ-4C recently had been
deployed to Southwest Asia as part of the U.S. buildup of forces in response to
Iranian hostile acts. The deployment initially led to some erroneous reports
that the downed UAV was an MQ-4C.

NORFOLK, Va. — The U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard
panelists that participated in the Sea Service Update panel June 20 at the Navy
League National Convention prepared remarks focused on a multitude of recent
document releases such as the National Defense Strategy, the National Military
Strategy and the Coast Guard Arctic Strategic Outlook.

Remarks also focused on readiness; the importance of
remaining forward-deployed; and many other probable talking points, but it was
a host of questions fielded by longtime local defense reporter Mike Gooding
that elicited perhaps the most interesting insights into how the services are
preparing for the future.

Gooding touched on the government shutdown early this year,
which saw the unprecedented scenario of the Coast Guard working without pay. He
also asked panelists their thoughts on the Budget Control Act of 2011 that many
expected would be short-lived but instead has brought with it sequestration
threats for nearly a decade. Gooding wondered how the services were preparing
to weather the upcoming storm of another likely continuing resolution in
September — a process where the services would remain funded at their current
levels regardless of shifting program needs.

Coast Guard Adm. Scott Buschman, the Atlantic Area commander,
conveyed how many organizations, including the Navy League, stepped up to
ensure the Coast Guard had extra support during the shutdown, but panelists
made clear how untenable that situation would be in the future.

“I hope that doesn’t happen again because it was a very
stressful time for our women and men,” Buschman said, a sentiment echoed by Navy
Vice Adm. Bruce Lindsey, deputy commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command. “We
should never, ever do that again,” Lindsey added.

As for dealing with continuing resolutions, Lindsey said he wanted
to see more flexibility.

U.S. Fleet Forces manages a $12 billion annual budget. “It
would be really nice if [Fleet Forces Commander] Adm. Grady had the authority
to move less than 5% of the total operating budget without having to approach
Congress,” he said. That would amount to $480 million — a substantial amount to
make a difference. Grady “needs that authority,” Lindsey said.

Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Mark Brilakis, commander of Forces
Command, said stability in resources is critical to managing programs in the
pipeline.

“A budget’s a budget. Congress appropriates money and … you
have a problem trying to push dollars around. I’ve had to cancel exercises this
year because we don’t have the funds to complete the schedule,” Brilakis said.

He predicted there would be a continuing resolution this
fall based on his years of experience.

“The sequester was a bad law, and everyone thought it’d get
fixed,” Brilakis said.

Gooding also brought up a recent Government Accountability
Office report that came out this week, identifying that 46 of 79 Defense Department
installations are at risk to a rise in sea levels.

Brilakis said there’s a reason so much DoD land is under
threat — the Pentagon bought marginal land on purpose because it was
inexpensive. When Hurricane Florence hit Camp Lejeune, North Carolina last
summer, it dumped 36 inches of rain, and many buildings there still have tarps
on them and no air conditioning.

“We’re not going to replace buildings where we had them
before,” he said.

Brilakis also said that Parris Island, South Carolina, is
“no longer tenable” — despite the generations that have trained there. “We have
to start making historic decisions.”

Buschman’s forces are on the front lines of climate issues,
with two historic hurricane seasons in recent memory. He said the Coast Guard must
make tough decisions recapitalizing ships and instead use that money to repair critical
infrastructure issues after storms. When the Coast Guard is rebuilding, the
service is factoring in resilience so when the next big one hits, infrastructure
can take the punch.

Lindsey concurred with the infrastructure challenges climate
change could bring, stating he didn’t want the United States to have to face
scenarios like the recent widespread power
outages in South America, which could affect banking and other critical
services.

“A lot of people think this is an issue with global warming.
It’s a critical infrastructure issue,” he said.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The U.S Navy will christen its newest Arleigh Burke-class guided missile
destroyer, the future USS Daniel Inouye (DDG 118), during a 10 a.m. ceremony June
22, in Bath, Maine, the Defense Department announced.

The future
USS Daniel Inouye is named in honor of Daniel Inouye, who served as a United
States senator for Hawaii from 1963 until his death in 2012.

Inouye
received the Medal of Honor June 21, 2000, for his extraordinary heroism in
action while serving with the 442nd Infantry Regiment Combat Team in Italy
during World War II. During an assault on April 21, 1945, an exploding grenade
shattered his right arm; despite the intense pain, he refused evacuation. He
remained at the head of his platoon until they broke the enemy resistance and
his men deployed in defensive positions, continuing to fight until the
regiment’s position was secured.

U.S. Sen.
Mazie Hirono of Hawaii will deliver the christening ceremony’s principal
address. Irene Hirano Inouye, the late senator’s wife, will serve as the ship’s
sponsor. In a time-honored Navy tradition, Irene Inouye will christen the ship
by breaking a bottle of sparkling wine across her bow.

“The
future USS Daniel Inouye will serve for decades as a reminder of Senator
Inouye’s service to our nation and his unwavering support of a strong Navy and
Marine Corps team,” Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer said. “This
ship honors not only his service but the service of our shipbuilders who help
make ours the greatest Navy and Marine Corps team in the world.”

The future
USS Daniel Inouye will be the 68th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and is one of
21 ships under contract for the DDG 51 program. The ship is configured as a
Flight IIA destroyer, which enables power projection and delivers quick
reaction time, high firepower, and increased electronic countermeasures
capability for anti-air warfare. The USS Daniel Inouye will be 509.5 feet long
and 59 feet wide, with a displacement of 9,496 tons. She will be homeported in
Pearl Harbor.

PARIS — The
U.S. Navy successfully completed a series of guided flight tests for Raytheon
Co.’s Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) Block 2A short-range, surface-to-air
missile, the company said in a release.

Testing
occurred at Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, California, and from the
Navy’s self-defense test ship off the coast of Southern California.

RAM is the world’s
most modern ship self-defense weapon and protects ships of all sizes. It is
deployed on more than 165 ships in 11 countries, ranging from 500-ton fast
attack craft to 95,000-ton aircraft carriers. The latest software upgrade
enhances guidance and the missile’s capability to defeat threats.

Raytheon
expects to deliver the RAM Block 2A missile to the Navy by the end of the year.

RAM is an international
cooperative program between the United States and Germany. Raytheon and the
German company RAMSYS share development, production and maintenance costs.

MARINETTE,
Wis. — The Lockheed Martin-led shipbuilding team launched Littoral Combat Ship 21,
the future USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul, into the Menominee River at the
Fincantieri Marinette Marine Shipyard on June 15.

Ship sponsor
Jodi J. Greene, deputy U.S. Navy undersecretary for policy, christened LCS 21
just prior to launch, according to a Lockheed press release. “LCS 21 is going
to bring the name ‘Minneapolis-Saint Paul’ all around the globe,” said Greene, who
is native of the Twin Cities.

“LCS is the
second largest ship class in the U.S. Navy, and Lockheed Martin is proud to
deliver capability and added force projection with each additional hull,” said
Joe DePietro, vice president and general manager of small combatants and ship systems
for Lockheed.

Littoral
combat ships are designed to complete close-to-shore missions and are a growing
part of the Navy’s fleet. With 40 percent of its hull easily reconfigurable, an
LCS can be modified to integrate capabilities such as over-the-horizon
missiles, advanced electronic warfare systems and decoys and, in the future,
vertical launching systems or laser weapon systems.

An LCS is fast,
as it is capable of speeds in excess of 40 knots. The ships are lethal as well,
as all are equipped with Rolling Airframe Missiles (RAM) and a Mark 110 gun, which
is capable of firing 220 rounds per minute.

Lockheed
Martin is in full-rate production and has delivered eight LCS to the U.S. Navy.
There are eight others in various stages of production and testing. This year,
Lockheed and Fincantieri Marinette Marine will begin construction on two ships,
deliver two ships, complete sea trials for two ships and see three ships
commissioned (LCS 13, 15 and 17).

TODENDORF, Germany — German, Norwegian, Danish and U.S. Navy Sailors from the Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) exercise Mine Warfare Task Group came together to clear three World War II-era air-laid mines in the Baltic Sea on June 14, the Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center said in a release.

During complex mine warfare training to increase combined
force integration and maritime capability among 11 nations, the task group
identified three historical mines on the sea floor. The team detonated the
mines after receiving approval from German authorities to increase safety and
reduce risk to mariners operating in German territorial waters.

“This is an excellent example of the valuable training we
gain from exercises like BALTOPS,” said U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Scott Robertson,
commander of the BALTOPS 2019 Mine Warfare Task Group and commander of Naval
Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center.

“Working together with our professional partners from
Denmark and Norway to clear these undetonated, historical mines provides
hands-on training and increases safety to mariners in the region by clearing
hazardous material from the Baltic Sea. There is a good chance we will find
more of these mines as the exercise continues, and it’s reassuring to know our
international task group has the training and expertise necessary to safely
dispose of them,” Robertson emphasized.

A team of mine warfare professionals aboard the Norwegian
Alta-class MS HMNoS Otra (M351) detected and classified two mines, which were
reacquired and identified by a team of Danish divers. Members of a Norwegian
dive team discovered the third mine in another Mine Warfare Task Group’s
training area off the coast of the Bundeswehr Military Training Area in
Todendorf, Germany.

“German authorities willingly support the reduction of
threat to navigation and shipping,” said Bundeswehr Personnel Exchange Program
Officer Fregattenkapitaen Stefan Oeggl, who is assigned to the U.S. Navy’s Mine
Countermeasures Division 31 and serves as a liaison for the Mine Warfare Task Group
and Germany.

“Even after 75 years, explosives like these are dangerous,
and we are happy to have the mines cleared as part of the exercise.”

Each of the cleared mines were World War II-era British
air-laid, bottom mines (A Mk I–VI), each roughly 1,000 pounds.

“This has been a tremendous opportunity to continue to work
with partner and allied forces that we frequently engage with throughout the
region,” said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Jeff Demarco, commanding officer of Explosive
Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 8 based in Rota, Spain, which serves as the
Undersea Mine Countermeasures Commander within the BALTOPS Mine Warfare Task
Group.

“Working with the Norwegian, Danish and Belgium clearance
diving and AUV teams during training exercises is critical to our ability to maintain
sea control in a complex theater.”

Nations participating in the BALTOPS 2019 Mine Warfare Task
Group include Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, the
Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, France and the United States.

Nations participating in BALTOPS 2019 include Belgium,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands,
Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom
and the United States.

BALTOPS is an opportunity to promote partnerships, presence,
and professionalism through an unambiguous display of strength in the Baltic
region.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Coast Guard announced that Seattle will be the home of the service’s new polar security cutters.

“The Pacific Northwest has
been the home of our icebreaking fleet since 1976, and I am confident that the
Seattle area will continue to provide the support we need to carry out our
critical operations in the polar regions,” Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl L.
Schultz said.

The Coast Guard is the
nation’s lead agency responsible for providing assured surface access in the
polar regions. The addition of the polar security cutters in Seattle will
support the United States’ ability to conduct national missions, respond to
critical events and project American presence in the high latitudes.

The Coast Guard conducted a
detailed analysis to identify locations that could accommodate the polar security
cutter. Based on operational and logistical needs, Seattle was determined to be
the appropriate homeport for the first three PSCs.

In April 2019, VT Halter
Marine Inc. of Pascagoula, Mississippi, was awarded a contract for the detail
design and construction of the PSC class.