NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The combination of a two-ship purchase and investments in new technologies and facilities at the Newport News shipyard will enable the U.S. Navy to obtain future aircraft carriers with increased survivability and lethality at much lower cost, the carrier program manager said on May 6.

The future Gerald
R. Ford class of nuclear-powered carriers will provide the increased
capabilities needed in the era of “Great Power Competition” — and the two-ship
contract will save an estimated $4 billion, program manager Capt. Philip Malone
told a Naval Sea Systems Command briefing at the Navy League’s annual
Sea-Air-Space exposition here.

Malone is
responsible for the next three of the Ford-class ships, CVN-79, the future John
F. Kennedy, which is under construction, and CVNs 80 and 81, which will be
produced under the dual-ship contract signed in January.

In addition to
the $4 billion estimated savings from that contract, Malone said those two
ships will benefit from the use of an integrated digital shipbuilding system
Newport News is adopting and shipyard improvements that will allow major
reductions in the man hours required.

CVNs 80 and 81
also will be built with greater survivability and lethality from an advanced
radar, greater electrical power generation, integration of the fifth-generation
F-35C Lighting II joint strike fighters and increased aircraft sortie rate over
the legacy Nimitz class carriers, he said.

Malone said the
Navy will acquire the Kennedy under a unique two-phase delivery, with the first
phase providing a carrier that can test its aircraft launch and recovery
systems and basic ship functions followed by a second phase that will install
the advanced air surveillance radar and other combat systems. The unusual
delivery process was necessary to have Kennedy operational in time to replace
the Nimitz, which will hit its 50-year service life later this decade, he
explained.

Malone cited
Newport News’ investments in the digital or 3D computerized shipbuilding
process and in new facilities that will enable more ship components to be
produced out of the weather. Those improvements were made with monetary
incentives from the Navy and will sharply reduce the hours required to build
the ships, he said.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Navy’s Unmanned Maritime Systems program office is juggling the development of a lot of unmanned surface and underwater vehicles right now, and they expect numerous big developments for several programs in the next year or two.

Capt. Pete Small, Unmanned Maritime Systems program manager, told attendees at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space symposium May 6 that a new draft request for proposals was recently released for a medium unmanned surface vehicle (USV), and the Navy was “aggressively” moving forward with that program.

The Navy is also accelerating a large USV program, and an analysis of alternatives for that effort will wrap up by the end of this year, Small added. The program hopes for a fiscal 2020 start for that platform, and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson personally wants to see the project bear fruit “ASAP,” the captain said.

On the unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) side of the house, the extra-large UUV Orca recently finished the design phase. It will feature a modular payload and the Navy hopes to take delivery at the end of calendar year 2020, with buys continuing through 2022, Small said.

The Snakehead large-displacement UUV is expected to complete its critical design review this quarter, and the Navy hopes to have it in the water by fiscal 2021.

And the Razorback, slated for the fiscal 2020 timeframe, would be hosted on a submarine and the Navy is developing a torpedo tube-launched version. The Navy recently issued a request for information on that project and received some responses from industry.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Construction on a version of the Littoral Combat Ship for the government of Saudi Arabia is on track to start by the end of this calendar year, according to a Navy official.

Ghadeer Halim, deputy program manager for International Small Combatants (PMS 525), said after a presentation from her program office at Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space symposium May 6 that the current plan calls for the construction of four LCSs for the Saudi government with the option for four more for a possible total of eight ships.

Lockheed Martin was awarded a $282 million contract for design and materials for the construction of the four Multi-Mission Surface Combatant ships back in November.

The ships will differ from the U.S. Navy LCS in that the module will be permanent and fixed rather than replaceable with a different module.

The United States and Saudi Arabia came to an agreement on an $11.2 billion deal back in 2015 that included a modified version of the LCS.

The ship would be based on Lockheed’s Freedom-class LCS, one of two different LCS types. (Austal USA builds the Independence-class.)

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — As the nation grapples with striking a balance between competing with great power challenges and preparing for the possibility of conflict, the Indo-Pacific region poses perhaps the most significant challenge, Dr. Mara Karlin believes.

Karlin, director
of strategic studies at the Johns Hopkins School of International Studies, made
that observation as she introduced a panel of four military and civilian
government experts, each of whom plays a key role in formulating related
policies in the region. 

It stands to
reason that each panelist recognized the increasing threats posed by China and
Russia. Still, they noted that the matrix is considerably more complicated.
Eyes cannot be focused on the two large superpowers at the expense of other
friendly nations in the region. Also, while China and Russia loom as potential
adversaries, it is imperative that the U.S. and its partners work as closely
together with them on areas of common interest. 

Representing the
Coast Guard and Marine Corps, Vice Adm. Linda Fagan and Gayle Von Eckartsburg discussed
how each respective service shares a forward-deployed mission that makes their
presence essential in the Pacific. Both Fagan and Von Eckartsburg emphasized
that neither service is a “garrison force.”

“The Coast Guard
has never been more relevant,” said Fagan, the service’s Pacific Area
commander. “The demand for the signal we bring into the region has never been
higher.”

Besides watching
Chinese and Russian activities and fostering goodwill among allies, Fagan
placed equal importance in “modeling legitimate behavior,” so that “China can
see what a responsible Coast Guard looks like.” 

If the Chinese can
learn from the U.S. Coast Guard how to conduct, for example, more effective
search-and-rescue operations, so be it. 

Von Eckartsburg,
director of the Marine Corps Pacific Division office of Plans, Policy and
Operations, described a “persistent forward force.” Of the roughly 40,000
Marines now deployed around the world, the vast majority is west of the
International Dateline, she said. 

“We’re in a constant state of motion, leveraging presence to maintain readiness
at the same time,” Von Eckartsburg said. 

Joel Szabat the
Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Aviation and International Affairs,
discussed the three most important “pillars” of stability in the region –
economy, governance and security. 

“We need to
remember that this is not about containing or encircling any one country,”
Szabat said. “We want to help people, regardless of who our competitors are.”

Security commitments
with U.S. allies would assure the free flow of commerce, Szabat said. The
nation faces significant related challenges in this arena, he believes. U.S.
sealift is old and needs to be recapitalized, he said. The size of the U.S.
merchant fleet, which handles much of the military’s sealift capability, is
good enough for small-to-medium operations. 

“We don’t have
enough mariners, or U.S.-flagged merchant marine,” Szabat said.  

Walter Douglas,
who heads the State Department Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, cited
an Asian Development Bank statistic that states the region needs an estimated
$1.7 trillion in investment to sustain healthy economic growth. 

“There’s nowhere
near that amount of money available in one state,” Szabat said. 

The emphasis,
then, would be to have “money centers” and corporations step in with
“transparent” investments. The government and private sectors would ensure that
such funding would not be subject to the troubles endemic to secret
deals. 

“That money gets
spent in the wrong places,” Szabat said. “We can’t have that. We need open
governance. We have to see [to it] that investment laws are transparent.”

Equally
imperative, Douglas said, is working to ensure that investments are evenly
distributed. While putting money into traditional stable partners like Japan,
Australia and Singapore would remain important, more could be done to help open
emerging economies. He said that Vietnam, for example, badly wants help
developing its infrastructure – from anywhere but China.  

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Sea services leaders expressed unwavering support during a May 6 panel discussion for the nation’s future ventures in space — no matter whether the effort is split among the nation’s existing military branches or a new United States Space Force is created.

The panelists at Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space 2019 reiterated
the need to increase the nation’s space initiatives as rival nations such as
China, Russia, India and Japan build their push toward the stars.

“Space is no longer an uncontested environment,” said
Rear Adm. Christian Becker, commander, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command.

As other countries stake their spots in space, the U.S.
needs to hold its “ground,” like when the maritime forces were first formed, Becker
explained.

“Space is very much akin to the maritime,” Becker said.
“We first went to sea to trade, and then we went to sea when we realized other
people could stop our trade. … Made sure we can maintain freedom at sea.”

Don’t expect the U.S. Space Force to appear overnight,
however. Services like the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard are still evaluating
the personnel needed to staff an agency dedicated to the Final Frontier.

“We are assessing as part of the [Navy Department]
how we can meet the mission needs of the Space Force,” Becker said. “We’re not
there yet at our level of understanding, but that’s what we have to pursue.”

Finding and retaining the talent necessary to develop a
fully operational Space Force is a significant challenge, said Brig. Gen. Lorna
Mahlock, the Marine Corps’ chief information officer.

“It’s exciting to think about space … but we have to make
sure we develop the skill [to maintain a Space Force] and do it right,” Mahlock
said.

However, she emphasized that, no matter the
obstacles, the Marine Corps “embraces building the Space Force” and will offer its
full support.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The U.S. Navy and Raytheon conducted a joint test of the Excalibur N5 munition with an eye toward firing it from Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Mk 45 guns, according to a Raytheon official.

The Navy has not made a decision on whether to buy the Excalibur N5 for use on ships, but the test — which took place last September at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona — was a key step forward for the program, said John Hobday, head of Coyote & Rapid Development Programs for Raytheon, in a briefing at Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space symposium on May 6.

The Excalibur N5 is based on the M982 Excalibur used by the Army, and it would use the same key parts. It is GPS guided, and Raytheon says it has double the current Mk 45 range (26 nautical miles versus 13).

The N5 reuses the guidance and fusing components from the Block 1B version of the Excalibur.

The Navy is “evaluating where they stand on it,” and Raytheon has provided the Navy with all the necessary information, Hobday said.

The test involved six shots and the accuracy of the rounds and handling were evaluated.

“Excalibur N5 answers the Navy’s need for a sea-launched, precision-guided projectile,” said Sam Deneke, Raytheon Land Warfare Systems vice president, in a statement. “N5 doubles the range of the Navy’s big guns and delivers the same accuracy as the land-based version.”

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Coast Guard’s foreign military sales program is fostering good relations with partner nations, increasing maritime governance and saving money, according to the program’s director, Tod Reinert.

Speaking before a show floor audience on May 6 during Sea-Air-Space 2019 at National Harbor, Maryland, Reinert also described how foreign sales of aging Coast Guard vessels is keeping U.S. vendors busy with replenishment and refurbishment contracts — all necessary to ensure that the new owners have hale platforms with which to pursue their missions.

The foreign
military sales program is “extending production lines, sharing overhead costs
and [sustaining] a robust vendor base,” Reinert said. 

The Coast Guard
has delivered more than 540 “assets,” worth more than $1 billion, to 75 partner
nations during the past 20 years. The list of benefactors is long. Bangladesh,
Vietnam, Yemen and Saudi Arabia got response boats. The Philippines received
riverine boats, and Tunisia got near-shore patrol boats. U.S. Central Command
stands to take possession of retired medium-response boats as well.

Recipient nations
stand to take ownership of decommissioned high-endurance cutters, Island-class
patrol boats, medium-endurance cutters and patrol boats — in a time frame
generally beginning sometime next year and spanning into 2024, Reinert
said. 

These countries
must rely upon their acquisitions to conduct search-and-rescue, maritime
safety, law enforcement and national defense missions akin to those the Coast
Guard performs every day — the cornerstones of its mission to protect the
nation’s 95,000 nautical miles of coastline, Reinert said.

NATIONAL
HARBOR, Md. — The Navy expects to reach a Milestone C decision in late May for
the VH-92A presidential transport helicopter. Such a decision would mark
approval for the helicopter to enter low-rate initial production.

Speaking to
an audience at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Expo in National Harbor,
Maryland, Marine Maj. Gen Greg Masiello, the Navy’s program executive officer
for Air, ASW, Assault and Special Mission PEO (A), said the program team has
three VH-92As, two of which it is running through Developmental Test, with the
two alternating flights every other day.

Program
officials have a meeting scheduled May 30 with James F. Geurts, assistant
secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, who has the milestone
decisional authority.

The Navy is
developing the Lockheed Martin/Sikorsky VH-92A as a replacement for the VH-3D
and VH-60N helicopters flown in support of the president and other high-level
government officials by Marine Helicopter Squadron One.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Like every other entity that relies upon technology to do its job, the Navy has to constantly contend with systems that fail or become outdated. When such systems are situated on ships that could be situated anywhere in the world, the challenge potentially becomes even more acute.

Andover, Massachusetts-based Mercury Systems thinks they have the answer to the conundrum. Building on the company’s years of experience working with numerous Navy programs, most notably the Aegis Combat System, they believe that a modular approach offers the best method of ensuring seamless functionality. With that, Mercury Systems introduced its second-generation Intel Xeon scalable processors at Sea-Air-Space 2019.

“Commercial
products go obsolete, and technology changes too fast,” said Rick Studley,
chief of technologies for Mercury Systems Trusted Missions Solutions in
Chantilly, Virginia, during a Monday interview.

Mercury Systems
provides hardware on nearly every surface combatant big-deck ship and submarine
in the Navy. With its modular approach, the company’s products allow for
switching out old or broken components for new ones in complex systems without
changing shock isolation, power or cooling already in place. 

“We can abstract
applications from underlining hardware, making the technology insertion much
easier,” Studley said. 

Moreover, with the
presence of multiple virtual machines, systems can run on smaller sets of
hardware — saving valuable shipboard space. This is done by running “virtual
twin” systems in parallel with existing ones, for example, on a system like
Aegis. The “twin” systems can take passive taps from the actual system — data
from sensors, with the weapon system’s actual code. In simplistic terms, the
“twin” can integrate with the actual server. Over time, tactical servers, which
are bare-metal and redundant, would evolve into fully virtualized systems,
Studley said. 

“The goal is to move away from redundancy and toward resiliency, so that no single element in the system is so important that you can’t afford to lose it [and still function],” he said.

[and still function]

“It’s totally
modularized and virtualized. You accept that failures are going to happen, but
your machine keeps working,” Studley said. “The system heals itself around
these failures.” 

The process allows
for greater sharing of technology across platforms, applications and systems,
Studley said. The Navy would save money by having an infrastructure that is
easily upgraded, managed and deployed, he added. 

NATIONAL
HARBOR, Md. — The Navy will retire is last HH-60H Seahawk special operations
support helicopters this year, an official said.

Speaking to
an audience at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space expo in National Harbor,
Maryland, Marine Maj. Gen Greg Masiello, the Navy’s program executive officer
for Air, ASW, Assault and Special Mission PEO (A), said the last seven of the
HH-60Hs in the inventory would be retired and replaced by the next-generation
Seahawk, the MH-60S.

The HH-60H is
flown by reserve Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 85 and deploys in support of
Navy special warfare forces and other forces.

MH-60S
helicopters for the squadron will be modified with the 7.62 mm GAU-17 six-barrel
rotary machine gun used for fire suppression.

The HH-60H is
the last of three Seahawk versions from the H-60’s initial naval service: the
SH-60B, SH-60F, and HH-60H. The MH-60R and MH-60S are the latest versions in
the Navy.