ARLINGTON, Va. — Draper is leveraging its work on the U.S. Navy’s unmanned underwater vehicles toward building systems for the service’s future family of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), a company official said. The company’s experience in navigation, autonomy, sensors and control systems will enable it to provide a strong proposal for some systems for the USVs. 

Draper is one of 40 companies the Navy chose to develop technology for the various systems in six functional areas for the Navy’s USVs under a five-year, $982 million, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multi-award contract. Each company has chosen to develop certain systems within the program. Draper is working on development of payloads, non-payload sensors, and autonomy and vehicle control systems.   

Draper will provide capabilities for Navy platforms that include the existing Sea Hunter USV, the medium and large USVs, and the mine countermeasures USV, Draper said in a release. “The company will deliver sensor and actuator technologies, computing technologies, design methods and tools and modeling and simulation technologies, among others.”  

Bill Borgia, director of mission systems for Draper — formally known as the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts — told Seapower that his company has been supporting the Navy for more than 60 years in guidance and control systems, most notably those in the service’s submarine-launched ballistic-missile systems since the days of the Polaris program.   

Borgia said that Draper is an independent, not-for-profit, developer of technology that focuses on developing “first-of-their-kind systems and putting them in the field, ready for production.” 

He said Draper developed the guidance system for the Apollo spacecraft, the first fly-by-wire aircraft, the first swim-by-wire submarine — the Navy’s Seawolf-class attack submarine. His division focuses on precision navigation and timing systems and guidance, navigation and control systems. 

Borgia said that Draper has deployed on vehicles of various sizes the Maritime Open Architecture Autonomy (MOAA), a “Navy standard autonomy package that can be applied to unmanned systems — surface or subsurface.”  

Under the new contract, Draper will deliver the hardware and software for the autonomy controller for inclusion on USVs. 

Draper has been delivering alternatives to GPS navigation over many years such as celestial, vision-aided, magnetic and other navigation techniques to provide assured navigation to the Navy. Draper is under a separate contract to provide ship-board celestial navigation systems to the Navy. 

Borgia said the “holy grail” of autonomy is to be able to “task an unmanned system to similarly to how you would task a Sailor, a human subordinate,” with sensors and actuators. 

“What is more challenging is, tell me exactly what those sensors are seeing,” he said. “Instead of seeing a radar blip, tell me what that radar blip is. As you go to higher and higher levels of control, you’re trying to understand the world more like a human would understand it.”     

ANACORTES, Wash. — The U.S. Navy’s first Yard Tug (YT) 808-class vessel was successfully launched at Dakota Creek Industries (DCI) shipyard on May 16, the Program Executive Office-Ships (PEO-Ships) said in a release. 

The YT 808 vessels are designed after the Navy’s existing YT 802 Valiant-class tugs and built to commercial ABS standards. The 90-foot by 38-foot tugs will have a top speed of about 11.7 knots and a bollard pull of approximately 40 metric tons, allowing them to effectively perform towing and ship-handling duties for carriers, surface ships, submarines and barges. 

The tugs are outfitted with a hydraulic hawser winch and staple on the forward deck for towing, and an “H” bitt installed on the aft deck with an adjacent hydraulic capstan for tightening lines. Similar to the previous 802 Class, the new YT 808-class tugs will have an articulating hydraulic brow installed aft of the deckhouse to allow personnel transfers to and from alongside ships or submarines. 

“This is an exciting milestone for this program as the YT 808 class tugs will replace the tugs built in 1964 through 1975,” said Mike Kosar, program manager of Support Ships, Boats and Craft Program Office with PEO-Ships. “With five more in the pipeline, we’re excited to get these tugs underway and operational.” 

The Navy and DCI plan to conduct acceptance trials for YT 808 in July with delivery planned for August. DCI will deliver the remaining five tugs between this fall and early 2022.

Note: This post was updated May 19, 2020 at 6 p.m.

ARLINGTON, Va. — Despite 14 crewmembers testing positive for COVID-19 a second time, the virus-stricken aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is running a pier-side simulation to prepare for eventual return to sea after months sidelined at Naval Base Guam.

The first deployed Navy warship to suffer a COVID-19 outbreak, the TR has been docked in Guam since March 27, undergoing a bow-to-stern intensive cleaning while most of the nearly 5,000 crewmembers were disembarked and quarantined or isolated on Guam. After 14 days under observation ashore and twice testing negative for the virus, crewmembers began returning to the ship by the hundreds in late April.

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The returning crew are conducting a simulation called “Fast Cruise,” that recreates normal underway conditions, while still moored in Guam.

“Fast Cruise is the culmination of all systems being online and operationally checked as the crew executes major at sea evolutions while being pier side. The crew will simulate normal underway conditions and test the critical systems required to sustain the ship away from the pier,” Pacific Fleet spokesperson Cmdr. J, Myers Vasquez said in a statement March 19. “As TR prepares to return the ship to sea their way forward is conditions-based and is dependent on the recovery of the crew,” the statements added. It was not clear whether the most recent re-infections would slow the carrier’s return to its mission. “Due to operational security concerns, the U.S. Navy does not address future ship movements or operations,” Vasquez’s statement noted.

Nine more Sailors have joined five others who tested positive for COVID-19 last week, a Navy official said May 18. All were among more than 1,100 crew members who were diagnosed with the virus and taken off the ship and isolated or quarantined for 14 days. To return to the carrier after two weeks of observation, Sailors had to test negative two straight times. The initial five who were re-infected were among hundreds of crewmembers who have returned to the Roosevelt since late April.

“Fast cruise is a major milestone for the ship and for the crew,” said Capt. Carlos Sardiello, commanding officer of the Teddy Roosevelt. “Our Sailors have tested all of the ship’s systems individually, but this is our opportunity to integrate all of that together and show that Theodore Roosevelt is ready and able to go back to sea.”

Following a successful fast cruise, the ship will commence underway training and carrier qualifications to support the air wing’s return to operational readiness.

Sardiello, who previously commanded the ship, took over again in early April when his replacement, Capt. Brett Crozier, was relieved of his command. A fleetwide investigation is looking into how the COVID-19 outbreak on the Theodore Roosevelt was handled by the chain of command and whether Crozier should be restored as the carrier’s commander.

During the ship’s infection surveillance, a single active case of tuberculosis also was identified and diagnosed. The diagnosed individual was removed from the ship, isolated and will remain under the direct care of the Navy’s health system until cleared by doctors, according to a March 14 statement from the Navy. A thorough contact investigation has been conducted, and those Sailors have been medically evaluated and cleared. There are no other active cases pending.

ARLINGTON, Va. — Information gleaned from the iPhones of a Saudi gunman who killed three Sailors and wounded eight others at a Florida naval base last December links him to an al-Qaida affiliate, FBI and Justice Department officials disclosed on May 18.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced that the FBI had recently succeeded in unlocking the phones of 2nd Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani of the Royal Saudi Air Force, who was killed by security officers during the Dec. 6, 2019, rampage at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, where he was an aviation cadet.

‘’The phones contained important, previously unknown information that definitively established Alshamrani’s significant ties to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula [AQAP], not only before the attack, but before he even arrived in the United States,” said Barr, adding “the FBI now has a clearer understanding of Alshamrani’s associations and activities in the years, months and days leading up to the attack.”

Investigators received court authorization to search the contents of Alshamrani’s iPhones the day after the 2019 attack. But they were unable to unlock the phones’ security features and approached Apple Inc., manufacturer of the iPhone, for assistance in early January. However, the technology company declined to assist, officials said, and it took FBI technicians months to access the phones’ contents, which ended up showing that Alshamrani and his AQAP associates communicated using apps that featured end-to-end encryption to evade law enforcement.

Additional information stored in the phones revealed Alshamrani had been radicalized by 2015, had connected and associated with AQAP operatives and joined the Royal Saudi Air Force to carry out a “special operation.” In the months before the attack, Alshamrani had specific conversations with overseas AQAP associates about plans and tactics. The FBI maintained he was communicating with AQAP right before the attack and conferred with his associates up until the night before the December shootings.

Ensign Joshua Watson, Airman Mohammed Haitham and Airman Cameron Walters were killed in the attack and eight others were severely wounded. Alshamrani was armed with a locally obtained 9 mm Glock handgun.

The incident prompted the Pentagon to order a stop to all International Military Student (IMS) training at U.S. installations and directed a review of all vetting and security procedures. Defense Secretary Mark Esper later approved an extensive list of recommendations and directed immediate implementation across all the military services.

The added background checks and new physical security procedures included restrictions on IMS possession and use of firearms and ammunition. New control measures also limited IMS access to military installations and U.S. government facilities and set new standards for training and education on detecting and reporting insider threats.

Barr said Saudi Arabia “gave complete and total support for our counter-terrorism investigation and ordered all Saudi trainees to fully cooperate. There was no evidence of assistance or pre-knowledge of the attack by other members of the Saudi military training in the United States, officials said.

SAN DIEGO — Naval Air Systems Command has awarded General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems a contract for engineering and logistics sustainment of Gerald R. Ford-class Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch Systems (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) systems, the company announced May 18. 

General Atomics will provide engineering, technical, configuration management and program support for EMALS and AAG systems installed aboard Ford-class aircraft carriers. 

“We are proud to continue our working relationship with the Navy and extend our support for these critical technologies as the program advances into a new phase,” said Scott Forney, president of General Atomics. 

“This contract signals the program is now moving from the design and development phase and into concurrent production and sustainment phase, providing sustaining engineering, material and maintenance support for all Ford-class aircraft carriers. Our in-depth knowledge, expertise and commitment to providing a full range of lifecycle support services will ensure these systems meet or exceed mission requirements for as long as these first-of-kind launch and recovery systems remain in service to the fleet.” 

At-sea test periods are ongoing for the first carrier of the class, the USS Gerald R. Ford. In February, EMALS and AAG were cleared for shipboard launch and recovery of all currently deployed naval aircraft types aboard the Ford. 

More than 2,300 successful day and night aircraft launches and recoveries using EMALS and AAG onboard have been completed. In addition, the Ford has finished flight-deck certification, aircraft compatibility testing and fleet replacement squadron training exercises for pilots to earn their qualifications on specific aircraft. EMALS and AAG continue to perform and execute according to specifications with the objective of reaching the sortie generation rates required for combat readiness. 

General Atomics is delivering EMALS and AAG for the future USS John F. Kennedy and USS Enterprise. Significant cost savings are being realized through multiple ship production contracts, which minimize gaps in production while maximizing planning, scheduling and delivery to support all three Ford-class carriers.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S Navy has issued request for information (RFI) to the defense industry, looking at options for a new training jet that could possibly complement or replace the current Boeing T-45C Goshawk starting in 2028. 

The RFI, posted May 14, is exploring options for a version of an existing design that would be land-based but also capable of field carrier landing practice and touch-and-go landings on an aircraft carrier but not arrested landings or catapult launches. 

The T-45 is fully carrier capable and has been in service since the mid-1990s. All existing Goshawks are T-45C configurations. A new trainer to supplement the T-45C could reduce the number of landings for the T-45C, extending its remaining service life. However, the RFI says the T-45 system “is anticipated to be re-capitalized by replacement, during the 2028 timeframe” or sooner.  

The Navy’s requirements include a two-pilot cockpit with ejection seats; a helmet-mounted or heads-up display; an angle-of-attack indexer; two weapon pylons for Mk76 practice bombs and pods of 2.75-inch rockets; and a precision-landing system; and an automatic ground collision avoidance system. 

The new aircraft must be able to simulate mission systems including radar, electro-optical/infrared sensors, electronic attack sensors, radar warning receivers and weapons employment in the air-to-air or air-to-ground modes.  

The Navy wants the new aircraft to have a service life of 14,000 flight hours and 43,200 landings. Each aircraft would be required to fly 400 hours per year and conduct 1,200 FCLPs and 45 carrier touch-and-goes per year.  

The new aircraft must be capable of flying in all types of weather, day or night. 

Ground-based training systems, including simulators, also are part of the RFI provisions. Reponses to the RFI are due to the Navy by July 13. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Roosevelt has arrived at its new homeport, Naval Station Rota, Spain, the U.S. 6th Fleet said in a May 18 release. 

The destroyer arrived May 16 after participating in a regional patrol in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations. The ship departed its previous homeport, Naval Station Mayport, Florida, on March 21. 

“The Roosevelt is replacing USS Carney in the first of several scheduled homeport shifts to occur in support of the U.S. Navy’s long-range plan to gradually rotate the four Rota-based destroyers,” the release said. 

The Roosevelt will join USS Ross, a Flight I destroyer, USS Donald Cook, and USS Porter, a Flight II DDG, as part of the Forward-Deployed Naval Force-Europe in the 6th Fleet. The four ships perform ballistic-missile defense patrols in the Mediterranean among other missions for the fleet. 

The Roosevelt is a Flight IIA DDG that brings the Aegis Baseline 9/Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) 5.1 Advanced Capability Build upgrade to the Aegis Combat System. 

The system “integrates its weapons and sensors to include Cooperative Engagement Capability; Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile; Mk15 Close-In Weapons System Block 1B; and the Mk41 Vertical Launching System, capable of supporting Standard Missile (SM) 3 and newer variants. These capabilities vastly increase the sea-based BMD force structure and contribute to NATO’s robust integrated air and missile defense (IAMD) architecture,” the release said. 

Another arrival with the Roosevelt were two embarked MH-60R Seahawk helicopters from Detachment 7 of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 48.   

“Having the MH-60R on board provides Roosevelt with an organic asset that enhances situational awareness in the areas of [anti-submarine warfare] and [surface warfare],” Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin T. Harris, air operations officer of HSM-48 Detachment 7, said in the release. “Additionally, the MH-60R provides the ship an [organic] asset capable of performing [search and rescue], logistics support and a variety of other missions without having to rely on outside entities.” 

“Roosevelt and her crew add increased lethality with the Navy’s most advanced sensors, weapons, and communication systems, to include our embarked MH-60R [helicopter] teams,” said Cmdr. Matthew Molmer, commanding officer of the Roosevelt. “Our ability to integrate with 6th Fleet, joint players in Europe, and the nation’s allies and partners adds capabilities that we are just beginning to leverage.” 

The Navy plans to station a full MH-60R squadron in Rota by the time the three remaining Flight I/II DDGs are replaced. 

“Roosevelt has already proven she is a great asset to 6th Fleet, enhancing the capabilities of our Forward Deployed Naval Forces-Europe Aegis destroyers in Rota, Spain,” said Vice Adm. Lisa Franchetti, commander of the 6th Fleet. “Her arrival, hosted by our long-standing ally, Spain, enhances our combined commitment to a stable and secure Europe and further reinforces our ironclad commitment to our allies and partners.”

SUWANEE, Ga. — Meggitt Training Systems has been awarded a $2.6 million contract for additional BlueFire wireless virtual weapons to be used by the U.S. Marine Corps on its Indoor Simulated Marksmanship Trainer (ISMT), also delivered by the company as a program of record, the company said in a May 14 release. 

BlueFire M9 pistols, M4 rifles and M27 infantry automatic rifles will be used at several Marine Corps bases throughout the U.S. Deliveries to Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany will begin within the next 90 days and should be completed by December. 

“This order for additional BlueFire weapons demonstrates the value they and ISMT deliver in terms of virtual firearms training for Marines who must be ready to deploy anywhere at any time,” said Andrea Czop, Meggitt’s vice president of strategy, sales and marketing. 

Meggitt was originally awarded the $32 million, five-year contract in 2014, delivering and installing 490 systems at locations worldwide. As a certified program of record, ISMT trains new and experienced Marines in marksmanship, collective scenarios and judgmental video scenarios. Each mode provides critical training based on the skill level of the individual or unit. 

BlueFire weapons use commercial wireless technology to communicate with ISMT and other FATS-based virtual training systems, giving the same control as tethered weapons, but with full range of movement. 

These patented weapon simulators can be used in conjunction with other tethered weapon simulators without modification. For enhanced, more realistic visuals, Meggitt’s BlueFire weapon simulators feature a 3-D marksmanship training environment. The after-action review allows engagement and shot assessment in a 3-D virtual environment, while providing detailed trainee diagnostics for skill reinforcement or correction.

ARLINGTON, Va. — A major factor in the power of special operations forces (SOF) — stealth — is becoming increasingly threatened by advances in sensors and other capabilities of adversaries and needs to be protected by additional measures, SOF leaders said.   

Speaking May 13 in a component commanders roundtable at the Virtual Special Operations Forces Industrial Conference, Rear Adm. Collin Green, commander, Navy Special Warfare Command, and Maj. Gen. Daniel Yoo, commander, Marine Corps Special Operations Command — the Raiders, said that ways need to be found to reduce the signature of their SEALs and Raiders while they are operating in the field. 

The capabilities of adversaries, including terrorists and insurgents, is becoming increasingly sophisticated as they adopt the increasingly smaller but highly capable technologies once the province of major militaries. 

For example, some adversaries have been using small unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with optical and infrared sensors to make it increasingly difficult for SEALs and Raiders to remain covert during clandestine operations.  

Green said that his command has a resource strategy with lines of effort to strengthen the SEALs and special boat units as they focus on sustaining a competitive advantage in the maritime domain: “signature reduction, lethality and survivability of our maritime combatant craft” as well as “developing and expanding our undersea capability” now underway with the new Mk11 SEAL Delivery Vehicle and Dry Combat Submersible. 

Yoo noted the emerging technology on low observables, digital material and uniforms, but said that “true full-spectrum signature reduction” is needed “in the information environment that we’re going to fight in. 

“Being able to stay in the shadows and having freedom of movement for our people on the ground or platforms in the air … or using cyber tools to move around freely, to be able to have full-spectrum signature management, that’s an area that everybody is shooting around the target but haven’t developed where you have some kind of assurance that you are going to be able to do that.”

NORFOLK, Va. — The “Greyhawks” of Airborne Command & Control Squadron (VAW) 120 successfully conducted on May 11 the first fleet aerial refueling dry-plug certification between an E-2D Advanced Hawkeye and an F/A-18F Super Hornet, according to a release from commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic public affairs. 

“With contact between probe and basket, VAW-120 Greyhawks achieved the latest in a litany of significant milestones as Greyhawk 642 became the first Fleet E-2D Advanced Hawkeye to complete F/A-18 aerial refueling,” said Capt. Matthew Duffy, commander of the airborne command and control and logistics wing. 

Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 211 aircraft from Carrier Air Wing One (CVW-1) embarked aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) participated in this refueling evolution, three years in the making. 

“This ground-breaking achievement represented the culmination of more than three years of test and evaluation to include over 500 hours of evaluation flight time developing the Advanced Hawkeye airborne refueling capability,” Duffy said. 

VAW-120, part of Airborne Command & Control and Logistics Wing, has been tasked with initial qualification of aerial refueling for the E-2D fleet and is currently developing the techniques and procedures to train pilots in the new skill set. 

“This milestone was the result of detailed coordination between an embarked Carrier Strike Group and a shore-based training command that truly exemplifies the ethos of teamwork that permeates across Naval Aviation,” said Cmdr. Aaron Rybar, commanding officer of Airborne Command and Control Squadron 120. 

In September 2019, VAW-120 took delivery of the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye with an aerial refueling capability that allowed for the achievement of this initial operational capability. VAW-120 marked a second milestone in the E-2D legacy in April 2020, by achieving its 1,000th Aerial Refueling contact for the squadron. 

Lt. Michael Harrigan and Lt. David Carroll represent the first two fully qualified E-2D fleet replacement squadron (FRS) instructors qualified in aerial refueling. They completed 39 refueling evolutions with both VFA-211 and VFA-81. 

“This latest modification of the Advanced Hawkeye will allow for vastly improved on-station time and significantly increase the mission reach and influence of the world’s premier Command and Control platform,” said Duffy, who added that this month’s tested capability serves to increase the lethality for America’s Navy. 

The aerial refueling-modified E-2D Advanced Hawkeye is another key component to the carrier air wing of the future. Currently, the squadron’s E-2D AR instructor pilot cadre are increasing proficiency and experience in preparation for training and transitioning the first fleet squadron later this summer.