MANILA,
Philippines — The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf (WMSL 750) and vessels from
the Philippine coast guard conducted joint search-and-rescue exercises May 14 in
the South China Sea west of Manila, the Coast Guard Pacific Area said in a
release.

The Bertholf,
a 418-foot national security cutter based in Alameda, California, worked
together with the Philippine coast guard vessels Batangas and Kalanggaman on
small-boat search-and-rescue tactics to conduct the mock rescue of a person in
the water. The Bertholf is in the midst of a Western Pacific deployment under
the tactical control of the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet.

In training
with and learning alongside partners in the Philippines on search and rescue,
maritime law enforcement and small-boat tactics, Bertholf’s crew enjoys the
benefits of the strong, often personal ties between the countries, the release
said.

The work also
strengthens one of the most enduring partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region,
between the United States and the Republic of the Philippines and supports both
countries’ commitment to a free and open Pacific, governed by international
maritime law that promotes peace, security and prosperity of all nations.

“Bertholf
completed an at-sea search-and-rescue exercise today with our counterparts from
the Philippine coast guard. This engagement proved an excellent opportunity to
compare techniques, maintain proficiency and build a friendly relationship
amongst professional mariners and coast guards,” said Capt. John J. Driscoll,
Bertholf’s commanding officer.

The crew of
Bertholf also will participate in other joint events with members of the
Philippine coast guard during the ship’s Manila port call. The events include a
series of engagements on operational subjects such as damage control and search
and rescue as well as sporting and social events. The activities are designed
to improve interoperability and strengthen the ties between the two countries.

“The U.S.
Coast Guard is proud to operate with our Pacific counterparts, and together we
are dedicated to enhancing our capabilities and strengthening maritime
governance and security while promoting individual sovereignty,” said Vice Adm.
Linda Fagan, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Pacific Area. “Today’s exercise
is a great opportunity to share our experiences and learn from our partners in
the Philippine coast guard.”

ARLINGTON,
Va.— Raytheon Missile Co. will build a new block upgrade of the Tomahawk cruise
missile for the U.S. Navy even as the company takes older missiles into a recertification
program to return them to service.

“Tomahawk has
returned to production [after a one-year gap],” said Chris Daily, Raytheon’s
Tomahawk program manager, speaking to reporters May 7 at the Sea-Air-Space Expo
in National Harbor, Md. “All production beginning in fiscal ’20 will be Block 5.”

He said the
fiscal 2020-2021 production — 90 missiles per year — will emerge as Block 5
versions.

The Block 5
version is an upgrade of the Block 4 Tomahawk, with upgrades such as navigation
and communications improvements.

A subversion,
Block 5A, will be the Maritime Strike Tomahawk (MST), equipped with a multimode
seeker that retains a land-attack capability.

“The MST is
going to be a great addition to the fleet,” Daily said.

Another, the
Block 5B, will be a Block V armed with the Joint Multiple Effects Warhead and
will be fielded in 2024-2025.

Daily said
the Block 4 Tomahawks being recertified after 15 years in service also will
emerge as Block 5 versions. The first deliveries will occur in 2020.

“Tomahawk will be in the
fleet until the 2050s,” Daily said.

NATIONAL HARBOR,
Md. — The Navy Department is showing progress in its drive to increase
readiness and prepare its forces to “fight tonight and win,” Navy Secretary
Richard V. Spencer said May 8. But in a luncheon speech at the Navy League’s
annual Sea-Air-Space exposition, Spencer spoke directly to the defense industry
representatives in the audience, telling them: “We cannot do this alone.”

“We need the
support. We welcome the support of industry if we are going to increase readiness
and meet the operational demands of today and tomorrow,” he said. “Our goal is
true partnership,” based on the concept that “shared risk produces shared
rewards.” He offered industry “a clear line of sight to our needs and resources,
and industry understands that our security, stability and prosperity rely on
ready and combat-capable forces that are capable of projecting naval power. …
We must work together to provide solutions to our challenges.”

The secretary
noted the message he has presented in congressional hearings that the
department‘s budget “we truly believe is prioritized on a strategy-driven,
balanced approach, building on prior investments, while sustaining the
industrial base and maintaining our competitive advantage as we transition to a
more cost-imposing, survivable and affordable future force.”

The process is
showing results, he said, noting that when he took office the readiness rate of
the Navy and Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornets was “abysmal. “Today, the Navy is
tipping at 70% mission-capable rates, and the Marine Corps is in the high 70s,”
he said. He also mentioned a major program that has been accelerated two years
ahead of its original schedule, but he did not name the program.

“Our vision is for a more agile, sustainable and superior force.”

Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer

“We are getting
after these issues and readiness is increasing daily,” he said. The goal now is
“to increase our velocity.”

As part of its
reform of the acquisition processes, Spencer said, “we’re migrating from a
culture of risk eradication to understanding and managing risk,” while
conceding that completely eliminating risk is “unaffordable.” And referring to
the results of the investigations into the two fatal at-sea collisions of Navy
destroyers last year, he said the fleet was moving from a culture of
“normalization of deviation” from standards to increased focus on performance
and safety.

At the end,
Spencer said, “Our vision is for a more agile, sustainable and superior force. …
We want to be able to dominate future conflicts from the seafloor to space, in
blue waters, littorals, mountains and desert, and also throughout the
information domain.”

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Artificial intelligence in all its forms, from machine learning algorithms to unmanned systems, is a sure thing for the sea services and its partners, but there is still much to determine in terms of the technological and operational challenges it presents for warfighting.

In a panel discussion on May 8 at Sea-Air-Space, U.S. Coast
Guard Rear Adm. David Dermanelian, assistant commandant for C4IT and commander
of Coast Guard Cyber Command, framed the conversation as a relevant, real-world
issue for the sea services.

“This is not the art of the future. It’s happening today,” Dermanelian
said.

U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Christian Wortman, vice chief
of naval research, said the Corps has an expansive approach to AI and is
seeking to embed it into everything the service does, including machine
learning to make war more efficient and help make more informed decisions. But
he stressed that users “can’t look at this in isolation,” and the Marines also
need enhanced network capabilities and to use the cloud so algorithms can take
advantage of the data that is harvested.

U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Casey Morton, who was on day three of
his job as program executive officer of Unmanned and Small Combatants, said his
service is “firmly” moving in the direction of adding more unmanned elements to
its assets, from unmanned surface vehicles to unmanned underwater vehicles and
beyond.

“They are going to be a part of our team,” Morton said. “It’s not a matter of if; it’s a matter of when and how fast and how can we get there.”

Right now, he believes the Navy is not yet at human-machine
teaming but is working toward that future where Sailors and machines work
closely together. He cautioned that there are still a lot of unanswered
questions about AI, like what infrastructure it will need, where it will be
based in the fleet, how it will be supported, if it will be forward-deployed
and other policy issues.

“We are at the early stages of this still,” Morton said. “There
are a lot of questions here that are still unanswered.”

The U.S. Maritime Administration’s Christopher Walher, who
focuses on the education programs of MARAD’s six state maritime academies, sees
AI as a pedagogical challenge, since sometimes subject matter experts are too
advanced to be excellent teachers, often skipping over critical points that, to
them, appear obvious.

He prefers a “crawl, walk, run” approach to the training
pipeline, where MARAD leverages a training process so AI can manage what it
excels at and humans can focus on their strengths, much like the current relationship
between smartphones and users.

Key for MARAD going forward will be working with other organizations, including a meeting the agency has next month with AI experts so they can share information, versus starting from ground zero on research and development.

“As we talk about crawl, walk, run in the Maritime
Administration, we are the little ship that could,” he said. “We don’t have a
lot of money for R&D.”

Steven Escaravage, senior vice president for the Strategic
Innovation Group at Booz Allen Hamilton, briefly went over his company’s 60
current programs that involve machine learning and robotics, including areas
like sensor data processing, electronic warfare, predictive maintenance and
optimized planning.

Escaravage said the field of AI in the last six to 12 months
has focused on taking what has been written about and researched in the lab and
tried to operationalize those concepts so they can be used in real-world
environments. He said while AI has suffered from being overhyped, there are
some rich capabilities for it today.

“Although today’s capabilities are probably over-extended
and somewhat brittle, what’s going to happen in a matter of months is going to
be real capability that changes pretty much everything we do.”

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — In its second annual Maritime Gala the night of May 7, the Navy League honored awardees from the highest levels of the sea services, but also dedicated the night to the often unsung work of sea service spouses.

The night’s keynote speaker, retired Chief of Naval
Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert, pointed out that numerous military support
organizations were founded by spouses, like Operation Gratitude and the Semper
Fi fund, and he urged audience members to remember these organizations’
important work in their annual giving.

“Our sea services and our families would be hard-pressed to
function without sea service spouses … and they do it time after time,” Greenert
said.

He focused his speech on the importance of retaining the
public’s trust in the institution of homeland security and the military. Greenert
noted that many other pillars of American life are losing ground in Americans’
confidence, like the government or clergy, but the military is earning its spot
as an exception to that rule.

“The American public needs and deserves an institution that
we trust.”

He also acknowledged the service of Navy League National President Alan Kaplan, who is in the last few months of his term leading the organization in support of the sea services.

“The national president of the Navy League, the title, is
really the ultimate volunteer position,” Greenert said. “It’s a gift to those
of us in the sea services.”

The show featured an awards program, bestowing the Adm.
Arleigh Burke Leadership Award to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John M. Richardson,
where he was given the award by his wife, Dana Richardson, who gave the award
to her “high school sweetheart and best friend.”

Richardson played an important role in another organization
awarded the evening of May 7. The Navy League gave its first-ever Sea Service
Spouse Organization Award to Naval Services FamilyLine, where Dana Richardson
serves as an ambassador.

The award, which was given by Ellyn Dunford, a long-time advocate for military spouses and wife of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, was accepted by FamilyLine chair Leanna McCollum, who acknowledged her organization’s long history of volunteers that have kept it strong.

“It wouldn’t be possible to be here tonight without the
support of the countless number of volunteers both now and since 1965,” McCollum
said.

In a surprise announcement, Navy League Executive Director Mike Stevens, retired Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, gave Naval Services FamilyLine a check for $10,000.

Head of corporate citizenship for First Data, Dr. Vivian Greentree, also a military spouse, gave out the night’s second award, the Theodore Roosevelt Award, to Bruce Mosler, chairman of global brokerage at Cushman & Wakefield. He is an advocate for the veteran and military spouse community, focusing his efforts on the 100,000 Jobs Coalition, now the Veteran Jobs Mission.

The night included performances by the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon and closed with a trio of country music stars, including Chuck Wicks, the Navy League’s first goodwill ambassador; Mark Wills; and Lonestar’s Richie McDonald.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Navy and industry must do a better job at collaborating and monitoring progress throughout the entire acquisition process if the service hopes to improve how acquisition is done, a panel said at Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space symposium May 7.

Vice Adm. Nicholas Hine, 2nd Sea Lord with the Royal British Navy, said there is a need to monitor industry partners throughout the acquisition process, as “too often” the government just hands money to them and doesn’t check up, opting to deal with problems late in the acquisition process when major changes might need to be made.

Rear Adm. Michael Johnston, Coast Guard deputy commandant for mission support, said that both sides need to focus on the end mission goal.

“We always vet a team on the contractor side and really are with them every day,” he said. “We’re part of the risk meetings. That’s how we get at where we are in a program at every given time, and monitor the program early and often so we make minor adjustments.”

Vice Adm. Michael Moran, the Navy’s principal military deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, said that the Navy needs to focus on real-time decision-making. He said that’s what happened in the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile program — a program that would normally take eight to nine years to field that only took four years as a result.

“Robust engagement between industry and government teams, sharing the models, enabling real-time decision-making — that’s a must for us,” Moran said. “That’s just a must.”

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The U.S. Coast Guard’s maritime security response teams (MSRT) continue to evolve, as the service looks to make them more effective and expand their capabilities.

The mission of the teams — one is based in San Diego, California,
and another is in Chesapeake, Virginia — is tactical, as MSRT is a ready
assault force, whose members are trained in maritime security, law enforcement
boarding procedures, force protection and environmental hazards response within
a tactical law enforcement operation. The teams also combat chemical,
biological, radiological and nuclear threats posed to the United States.

Lt. Jake Tronaas, Direct Action 6 team leader, Maritime Security
Response Team West, said his team is working on a more robust working
relationship with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and other Department of Defense
agencies.

“In the last few years, our mission set has changed,” Tronaas
said.

Once focused primarily on issues related to San Diego, his team
now focuses on vast counter-terrorism responses and is responsible for an area
from Alaska to Australia.

Tronaas said his unit recently completed three weeks of training
in Alaska, in preparation for response potential incidents in the Arctic.

“We definitely need to work on being prepared to cover our
operational area,” he said during the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space exposition.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security agency team stays consistent
in terms of operations throughout the year, but sees a slight uptick in the
summer months, as more events, such as United Nations meetings along with presidential
and Coast Guard commandant missions, occur.

The team also recently transitioned to a maritime security
response team from the maritime safety and security team, allowing them to
focus on additional legacy anti-terrorism missions that predate the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks. 

“This
is a consolidation and will make us and the Coast Guard more efficient,”
Tronaas said.

NATIONAL HARBOR,
Md. — The meeting of Navy leaders with submarine shipbuilding industry
officials, planned for this month, will focus on integrating the production of
the Columbia-class ballistic missile sub and the future Virginia-class attack
boats, the Navy’s top acquisition executive said May 7.

The biggest issue is removing any conflict in the production of the two classes of submarines, which will be built by the same two shipyards — Newport News and Electric Boat, James Geurts, the assistant Navy secretary for research, development and acquisition, told reporters after his luncheon speech at the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space exposition. The concern is the impact on Columbia if Virginia production “gets out the box,” Geurts said. That issue could become acute in five years when both submarines are in serial production.

The planned
meeting was announced by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, who
said it would seek to add back some of the schedule margin for Columbia that
has been eroded by production problems. Maintaining the schedule for Columbia
is crucial, because the first boat must be ready for its strategic deterrence
patrol in 2031 when the first of the Ohio-class ballistic missile subs is
forced to retire.

If any conflict in production emerges, Geurts said, the priority will be Columbia.

One another
current acquisition issue, Geurts minimized the impact from President Donald
Trump’s decision to reverse the Navy’s budget proposal to retire the aircraft
carrier Harry S. Truman rather than put it through the planned mid-life nuclear
refueling and overhaul, which would give it 25 years of additional service
life. Geurts said the change affected very little money in the fiscal 2020
budget, which is being processed in Congress. The cost of keeping Truman in service
and paying for the refueling and overhaul will be worked into the fiscal 2021
budget, and “we’ll do what needs to be done,” he said.

In his speech at
the Navy League luncheon, Geurts urged the industry and Navy officials in the
audience not to focus on sequestration and other budget problems but look at
what the Navy has accomplished in the last 18 months. “I’ve been incredibly
impressed with how fast this organization has changed,” he said.

He said the Navy
has saved about $30 billion through acquisition reform and has accelerated some
production systems by six to eight months, and industry is saving money through
innovation. He noted that the Navy would deliver 12 ships this year, more than
it has produced in decades. “We are getting tools out to the fleet,” he said.

NATIONAL
HARBOR, Md. — The first seven of Block II F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike
fighters have been inducted into the service-life modernization (SLM) at
Boeing’s St. Louis, Missouri, facility, while next month the company’s San
Antonino facility will induct its first Super Hornet.

Bob Kornegay,
Boeing’s capture team lead for F/A-18, briefing
reporters May 7 at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Expo in National Harbor,
Maryland, said the inducted jets will emerge as Block III Super Hornets with
their 6,000-hour life extended to 10,000 flight hours.

Boeing plans to process 40 Super Hornets
per year through the SLM sites, with production running through 2033.

Kornegay
described the Block III Super Hornet as having conformal over-wing fuel tanks,
freeing up two wing pylons for more weapons. The new version also will be
equipped with the Distributed Targeting Processor-Networked
(DTP-N), which incorporates the Tactical Targeting Network Technology
and produces a common operating picture. The Block II Infrared Search and Track
sensor will be installed in a centerline pod. With some additional coating
applied, the Block III will have a smaller radar cross-section and will feature
the Advanced Cockpit System.

This year the Navy issued a contract for
the fourth multiyear procurement for the Super Hornet, ordering 78 new Block
III Super Hornets over fiscal years 2019, 2020 and 2021. Production is planned
to continue through 2023, with 12 Super Hornets per year for three years.  

The two Super Hornets selected by Boeing
to be the test jets for the Block III program have been inducted into the
factory and will be ready to turn over the Navy at the end of the year, said Jennifer Tebo, director of Development
for the F/A-18 and EA-18G. This event had been accelerated by one year.

The conformal
fuel tanks were flown in February and March.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The new generation of Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen who are entering the force and in the early stages of their careers is, well, different. Such is the consensus among the three senior enlisted leaders who spoke at Sea-Air-Space 2019 on May 7.

On one hand, these
young people come into military service with an unprecedented technological
savvy. On the other, they have a greater need to know why they are given the
tasks they must complete. And they must be placed in the right jobs — with the
understanding that they should know how to perform other tasks necessary to
support the warfighting mission. 

“From my
perspective, as I’m looking at the Sailor standing in front of me, is there are
too many choices and options in time management,” said Master Chief Petty
Officer of the Navy Russell Smith. 

Young Sailors
understandably are attracted to service by incentives like tuition assistance
and the ability to take college courses while deployed on ships. Still, Smith
said, those Sailors must know how to do their jobs. 

“What you’re
expected to do under high stress in the middle of the night, with things
exploding around you or the ship sinking,” is critical, Smith said. So too is
the “ability to continue the fight.” 

Leaders, Smith
said, need to convince their younger charges that goals like the achievement of
associate degrees are worthwhile.

“Stay with us. We’ll
help you get there — but focus on your job,” Smith said. 

Smith said he
spent too much time in the accession pipeline to believe that the next
generation of Navy leaders is not up to the task. 

“By any measure,
we have more capable Sailors today than any time in our nation’s history,”
Smith said, mentioning that performance and retention went up due to recent
efforts to bolster physical standards and boot camp requirements. 

Sgt. Maj. Robin Fortner
of the Quantico, Virginia-based Marine Corps Systems Command, discussed the
need to show new recruits what the service can offer them. 

“We have to make
sure we have the right incentives for those with the right skills to stay,”
said Fortner, who was standing in on the panel for Sergeant Major of the Marine
Corps Ronald Green. 

Master Chief of
the Coast Guard Jason Vanderhaden emphasized the need to allow the service’s
young men and women to specialize in fields that are compatible with individual
skill sets. 

“They want to get
really good at their jobs,” Vanderhaden said. 

But like his
fellow panelists, Vanderhaden stressed that these Coastguardsmen also must be
able to perform missions like damage control, law enforcement or helicopter
landings that may be outside of their ratings. As the smallest armed service,
the Coast Guard needs everyone possible to fulfill mission requirements, he
said. Moreover, as the service gains from technological advances associated
with the largest recapitalization in service history, young members’ skill sets
must grow accordingly to keep pace.