ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy will decommission three of its Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships over the next few days, commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet (CNSFP) said in an August 20 release.  

The USS Champion, the USS Scout and the USS Ardent officially will be decommissioned at Naval Base San Diego on Aug. 25, Aug. 26 and Aug. 27, respectively. Their retirements will leave eight MCMs remaining in service, forward deployed to Sasebo, Japan, and Manama, Bahrain. Ceremonies marking their retirements were held this week. 

“Due to public health safety and restrictions of large public events related to the novel coronavirus … pandemic, the ceremonies were virtually celebrated with ship plank owners and former crew members,” according to CNSFP. 

The 14 Avenger-class MCMS were part of the naval build-up of the 1980s. The MCMs were “designed as mine sweepers/hunter-killers capable of finding, classifying, and destroying moored and bottom mines,” the CNSFP release said. 

“These ships use sonar and video systems, cable cutters, and a mine-detonating device that can be released and detonated by remote control. They are also capable of conventional sweeping measures. The ships are fiberglass sheathed, wooden hull construction.” 

Three MCMs preceded their sister ships into retirement: The Avenger was decommissioned on Sept. 30, 2014, followed by the Defender on Oct. 1, 2014; the Guardian left service in 2013 after being grounded near the Philippines. 

“Champion, Scout and Ardent Sailors, past and present, are a special breed,” said Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener, commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, said at the Scout’s ceremonies. 

“These Sailors served with distinct pride and dedicated tremendous energy in representing the U.S. Navy’s mine-sweeping community over the lifespan of these unique ships. As this chapter comes to a close, we look back proudly on the efforts of these Iron Sailors, their families and these tested and proven wooden ships as they all played an important role in the defense of our nation and maritime freedom around the globe.” 

The following brief histories of the ships were provided by CNSFP: 

The Champion was built in Marinette, Wisconsin, by Marinette Marine Corp. and commissioned on Feb. 8, 1991. Originally assigned to active Naval Reserve, Mine Countermeasures Squadron 2, the Champion spent most of its years homeported in either Ingleside, Texas, or San Diego. Since 2000, the Champion has operated exclusively in the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Coast. Its stateside presence allowed for continuous improvement of mine-warfare technologies and crew training for forward-deployed naval forces in Bahrain and Japan. 

The fourth ship to bear the name, the Scout was laid down on June 8, 1987, at Peterson Builders in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. It was launched on May 20, 1989, and commissioned on Dec. 15, 1990. Among the Scout’s achievements were helping to evacuate refugees from Kosovo in 1999, supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, and joining Hurricane Katrina relief operations in 2005. 

USS Ardent was commissioned on Feb. 8, 1994. In 1998, in the North Arabian Gulf, the Ardent received emergent tasking to assist USNS Catawba in locating and recovering a downed F/A-18C. Later that year, it conducted operations inside Iraqi territorial waters in Mine Danger Area (MDA) 10 in support of Operation Desert Fox. The Ardent departed on an emergency sortie from Mina Salman Port, with all other ships, in the wake of USS Cole bombing in Port of Aden, Yemen, in October 2000. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), a Department of Defense organization that accelerates commercial technology for national defense, announced the availability of five U.S.-manufactured drone configurations to provide trusted, secure small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) options to the U.S. government, the Pentagon said in an Aug. 20 release.  

The announcement is the culmination of an 18-month effort with DIU’s initial work supporting the U.S. Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) program of record for sUAS. The SRR program is developing an inexpensive, rucksack-portable, vertical take-off and landing small unmanned aircraft that provides the small unit with a rapidly deployed situational awareness tool. 

Small drones have been widely available in consumer markets since the early 2010s and have notably been adopted by foreign military forces and non-state actors alike as inexpensive tools to gain a bird’s-eye view of the battlefield. 

However, until now, the DoD has not had the opportunity to adopt these systems safely. Recognizing the demand signal across the federal government for trusted and secure sUAS, DIU took the lead in developing systems that are broadly applicable to an array of users and mission sets. 

Coined Blue sUAS, this spinoff effort builds upon the Army’s initial success and offers sUAS that mirror the air vehicle and software architecture of SRR, but provides alternative ground controller and radio configurations to accommodate a variety of users across the federal government.  

“Blue sUAS represents a tremendous first step toward building a robust and trusted UAS domestic industrial base that ensures sustained delivery of highly-capable, secure UAS to the warfighters that depend on it,” said Michael Kratsios, acting undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. 

He added, “Blue sUAS showcases how we can both work with small, nontraditional companies and our allies and partners to quickly pilot cutting-edge technologies that support our mutual defense.”  

Both SRR and Blue sUAS comply with Section 848 of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2020 that prohibits operating or procuring unmanned aircraft systems manufactured in China. The five companies whose products will be made available for purchase on the GSA schedule by September include Altavian, Parrot, Skydio, Teal, and Vantage Robotics. 

To this aim, the drones will be made available on the GSA schedule starting in September to ensure ease of procurement and to ensure availability government-wide. DoD entities can also pursue a production contract via Other Transaction Authority, leveraging the scaling option of DIU’s Commercial Solution Opening. 

Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, added: “Blue sUAS is a great example of DoD acquisition reform by lowering the barrier to entry for non-traditional companies to rapidly iterate shoulder to shoulder with warfighters to deliver highly-capable sUAS tailored to mission needs.” 

DIU seeks to build upon the success of the Blue sUAS effort by leveraging best in class commercial innovation on a regular cadence that ensures sustained technological dominance against our nation’s adversaries.  

“We need an alternative to Chinese-made small drones and Blue sUAS is a first step in achieving that objective.” said Mike Brown, director of the Defense Innovation Unit.  “Working across DoD and the U.S. government aggregates the business opportunity for these five vendors and enhances the long-term viability of this capability for the U.S. and our allies.” 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has acknowledged that it has stood up a program office for the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program and is maturing the acquisition approach for the carrier-based power projection concept. 

The Navy has taken a go-slow approach to acknowledging the existence of the NGAD program office, given its highly classified nature. Seapower sent a query on June 10 to the Program Executive Office for Tactical Aircraft Programs (PEO(T)), but the Navy did not make a statement until two months later. 

During an Aug. 12 teleconference with reporters with James F. Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, responding to a question from Seapower, confirmed that the program office has been established. Guerts said the program was in its early stages and that the Navy and U.S. Air Force are working to avoid duplicating each other’s efforts. 

On Aug. 17, PEO(T) responded to Seapower’s original query with a statement: “As part of the Navy’s commitment to building a more lethal force, the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) Program Office (PMA-230) has been established under the Program Executive Office for Tactical Aircraft Programs (PEO(T)). 

“PMA-230 was established on May 7, 2020, by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition per SECNAV’s [secretary of the Navy’s] and CNO’s [chief of naval operations’] direction to develop the next generation air dominance capabilities that will provide advanced carrier-based power projection capabilities that operate in advanced anti-access/area denial threat environments,” the statement said. “The capabilities being pursued are informed by the Navy’s NGAD Analysis of Alternatives.” 

PEO(T) added on Aug. 19 that, “We are currently maturing the NGAD acquisition approach to support the NGAD Program Office activities. 

Capt. Albert Mousseau Jr. is the program manager for PMA-230.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MUSV) being designed and built by L3Harris Technologies will be a purpose-built commercially derived vehicle, the company said in an Aug. 19 release. 

Although the Navy’s selection of Camden, New Jersey-based L3Harris was announced by the Defense Department on July 13, the company’s own Aug. 19 announcement provided a few additional program details. 

“L3Harris will integrate the company’s ASView autonomy technology into a purpose-built 195-foot commercially derived vehicle from a facility along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana,” the announcement said. “The MUSV will provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to the fleet while maneuvering autonomously and complying with international collision regulations, even in operational environments.” 

As prime contractor, L3Harris will be the lead systems integrator for the MUSV program and will provide the mission autonomy and perception technology for the vessel. Gibbs & Cox and Incat Crowther will design the vessel, which will be constructed by Swiftships in Morgan City, Louisiana. 

Naval Sea Systems Command awarded to L3Harris a $35 million fixed-price-incentive-firm-target contract for the design and fabrication of a prototype MUSV. 

This contract includes “options for up to eight additional MUSVs, logistics packages, engineering support, technical data, and other direct costs, which, if exercised, will bring the cumulative value of this contract to $281 [million],” the Pentagon announcement in July said. 

The prototype MUSV is expected to be completed by December 2022. 

“The MUSV program award reinforces our investments in the unmanned market and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to bring mission-critical capabilities to our warfighters,” Sean Stackley, president of integrated mission systems for L3Harris, said in the Aug. 19 release. “L3Harris is continuing to develop a full range of highly reliable and affordable autonomous maritime capabilities to enable distributed maritime operations in support of the National Defense Strategy.”

WASHINGTON — The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is investigating the feasibility of using the Navy’s Aegis Combat System and Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA as segment of a layered defense of the U.S. homeland. 

“We are investigating the possibility of deploying layered homeland defense for additional opportunities to engage long-range missile threats,” said Vice Adm. Jon A. Hill, director of MDA, speaking in an Aug. 18 webinar sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank. 

“This means we are investigating the potential of existing proven weapon systems such as Aegis ballistic-missile defense using Standard Missile-3 [SM-3] Block IIA and if that weapon can contribute to homeland defense.” 

Hill said that later this year the MDA will conduct the first Aegis test with SM-3 Block IIA interceptor against an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). He said that the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the preparations but that the test will go ahead. 

“We were ready and postured to go to the Pacific to execute Flight Test Maritime 44 (FTM-44), the first Aegis weapon system engagement against an intercontinental ballistic missile — a long-range ballistic threat being engaged by a ship that’s maneuvering with the SM-3 Block IIA missile,” he said. “Our plan right now is to get that test under our belt before the end of the calendar year. We’re on track to do that.”  

Hill said the FTM-44 test is to be conducted in a “defense of Hawaii” scenario, with a ship and the SM-3 Block IIA. 

“We’re going to really stress the SM-3 Block IIA way outside of its design space,” he said. “It was designed for medium- and intermediate range. Now we’re going against a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile. The analysis says we’ll be successful. But nothing is real to any of us until we actually get the empirical data from being out on the flight range.”  

Hill said that a successful test will not be the end of the work.  

“There will be upgrades required to the missile based on threats,” he said. “We will have to certify the combat system, and we’ve got to work very closely with the Navy about where these ships would deploy and how fast we can increase the production line on the Block IIAs to get those out to sea and where we need them to add that complement to the Ground-Based System. If we succeed with Aegis … [U.S. Northern Command] can decide where they want these assets placed to provide that sort of layered defense.” 

The FTM-44 test will be against an ICBM without countermeasures.  

“It allows us to take a missile that wasn’t designed for that space and just go after that target,” Hill said. “It’s going to be very stressing because of the very long range that it flies, the error that it builds up, so we’ll see how we do.”  

The admiral said that a successful test will allow the MDA “to start to think through that architecture and start working more closely with the warfighters and where they would position a ship. Then we want to march up to another test where would test against a very complex ICBM, one that has a lot of separation debris, one that has a lot of countermeasures. We want to make sure the system in total — from the space assets to the radar to the engage-on-remote capability that passes that information to the ship — and the ship can actually sift through all of that and say, ‘that’s the RV [re-entry vehicle] and that’s where the missile is going to go.’” 

Hill said another challenge is coordinating the engagement coordination between the different layers [of defense.] The systems ‘talk’ with each other already today but the challenge is to get them talking as being different layered defenders.

SAN DIEGO — BAE Systems has received a $103.5 million contract from the U.S. Navy for the maintenance and modernization of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Preble, the company said in an Aug. 18 release. The value of the competitively awarded contract could reach $117.7 million if all options are exercised. 

Under the depot maintenance period availability contract awarded, BAE will dry-dock the ship, perform underwater hull preservation work, upgrade the ship’s Aegis combat system and its command-and-control equipment, and refurbish the living spaces for the ship’s 280 crew members. The work is expected to begin in October and be completed in February 2022.  

“The depot maintenance availability BAE Systems will perform aboard USS Preble is complex and critical,” said David M. Thomas Jr., vice president and general manager of BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair. “Our team of employees, subcontractors and Navy personnel have a great deal of experience with the DDG class and look forward to ushering the USS Preble into its next phase of fleet readiness.” 

BAE Systems’ San Diego shipyard is completing similar work aboard the guided missile destroyer USS Shoup. 

The Preble is the 38th ship in the Arleigh Burke class and was commissioned in 2002. The ship is named in honor of Commodore Edward Preble, an early 19th-century Navy hero. Five previous U.S. naval combatants were named after the commodore.

MIAMI — The U.S. Coast Guard, along with U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations (CBP AMO), halted a migrant smuggling operation on Aug. 13 about 14 miles east of Haulover Inlet, Florida, the Coast Guard 7th District said in a release. 

A CBP AMO aircraft crew spotted a 25-foot pleasure craft traveling about 14 miles east of Haulover Inlet and vectored two CBP surface asset crews to the scene. The CBP crews embarked the 11 Haitian males, four Haitian females, one Bahamian male, one Bahamian female and transferred them to the Coast Guard Cutter Manatee crew. 

The smuggler was transferred ashore to CBP custody and the interdicted migrants were repatriated to Freeport, Bahamas. 

“People should never trust these criminal organizations with their lives,” said Lt. Cmdr. Juan Carlos Avila, Coast Guard Sector Miami chief of enforcement. “Attempting to smuggle yourself into the country via the maritime environment is both extremely dangerous and illegal. With the consistent danger these smuggling ventures present, our crews and partner agencies remain persistently vigilant to protect lives and enforce federal laws.” 

The Coast Guard has interdicted about 400 Haitian migrants who have attempted to illegally enter the U.S via the maritime environment in fiscal year 2020, which began Oct. 1, 2019, compared to 885 Haitian migrants in fiscal year 2019. These numbers represent the total number of at-sea interdictions, landings and disruptions in the Florida Straits, the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean. 

Once aboard a Coast Guard cutter, all migrants receive food, water, shelter and basic medical attention. Throughout the interdiction Coast Guard crew members were equipped with personal protective equipment to minimize potential exposure to any possible case of COVID-19.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has been selected to lead the Defense Department’s new Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF), the Pentagon said in an Aug. 14 release.   

“On Aug. 4, 2020, Deputy Secretary of Defense David L. Norquist approved the establishment of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force,” the release said. “The Department of the Navy, under the cognizance of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, will lead the UAPTF.”  

DoD “established the UAPTF to improve its understanding of, and gain insight into, the nature and origins of UAPs,” the release said. “The mission of the task force is to detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security. 

“As DoD has stated previously, the safety of our personnel and the security of our operations are of paramount concern,” the release said. “The Department of Defense and the military departments take any incursions by unauthorized aircraft into our training ranges or designated airspace very seriously and examine each report. This includes examinations of incursions that are initially reported as UAP when the observer cannot immediately identify what he or she is observing.” 

Earlier this year DoD released infrared imagery of a UAP taken by Navy F/A-18 strike fighters over the western United States.

ST. LOUIS — Boeing has inducted its 20th F/A-18 Super Hornet into service life modification (SLM), supporting U.S. Navy readiness needs for mission-capable aircraft, the company said in an Aug. 17 release. Two SLM jets already have been returned to the Navy. 

Initially, SLM will extend the life of Super Hornets from 6,000 to 7,500 flight hours. Future modification plans in 2022 will enable the jets to fly 10,000 hours and incorporate Block III capabilities. 

“The Super Hornet is the workhorse fighter for the U.S. Navy,” said Steve Wade, vice president of F/A-18 and EA-18G programs. “SLM is critical because it gives the Super Hornet a new life and next-generation Block III capabilities. The combination of Block III Super Hornets coming out of SLM and new builds off the production line will enable the Navy to maintain the force structure necessary to meet its mission needs.” 

The Block III conversion will include enhanced network capability, conformal fuel tanks, an advanced cockpit system, signature improvements and an enhanced communication system. The updates are expected to keep the F/A-18 in active service for decades to come. 

Boeing is on contract for the modernization of 24 aircraft. An additional contract award covering inductions through 2022 is expected later this year. SLM consists of two production lines in St. Louis and San Antonio, Texas.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy has awarded $430 million contract to a Maryland-based company to operate and maintain one of the service’s most sophisticated test ranges. 

The Naval Undersea Warfare Center Newport Division awarded the contract to Amentum Services Inc. of Germantown, Maryland, to operate and maintain the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC), the Defense Department announced in an Aug. 12 release. 

“AUTEC is the Navy’s large-area, deep-water, undersea test and evaluation range.  Underwater research, testing and evaluation of anti-submarine weapons, sonar tracking and communications are the predominant activities conducted at AUTEC,” the release said. “The contractor performs AUTEC range operations support services and maintenance of facilities and range systems. In addition, the contractor is responsible for operating a self-sufficient one-square-mile Navy outpost.” 

The AUTEC range is located at Andros Island in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. It is frequented by Navy maritime patrol aircraft, anti-submarine helicopters, and attack submarines for events such as tracking exercises, exercise torpedo launches and recoveries, and other uses. 

Under the contract, Amentum is expected to run AUTEC through August 2025. With all options exercised, work would continue through August 2030.