ARLINGTON, Va. – As the National Defense Strategy shifts toward the “Great Power Competition” with Russia and China, there is still a key role for Special Operations Forces to play, countering both terrorists and peer competitors, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) said.

In fact, Army Gen. Richard Clarke said, the main reason U.S. special operations forces like the Army’s Green Berets and Navy SEALs were created – to battle violent extremist organizations (VEOs) like al-Qaida and ISIS – is, in a way, “equal” to Great Power Competition.

“Going after the VEOs is not mutually exclusive to competing with great powers,” Clarke said in a live-streamed address to the National Defense Industry Association’s virtual Special Operations Forces Industry Conference (SOFIC) May 12. The capabilities required of Special Operations Forces fighting violent extremists in places like Asia and the Pacific serve a dual purpose. “By being there, we are also countering great nation states,” he added.

This dual role has implications for the defense industry, Clarke said. “No longer can we just build counter-VEO capabilities that serve a single purpose. As we look at the precision, lethality and mobility requirements as examples, we absolutely have to develop them so they can compete and win with Russia and China, but they could also work in a counter VEO fight,” he added.

SOCOM’s top priority is next generation intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability, Clarke said. That means sustainable ISR technology that “can provide the capability in both Great Power Competition and working for our SOF teams in remote, austere, short take-off-and land battlefields,” he said. Another priority is next-generation mobility and next-generation effects like the Hyper-Enabled Operator concept, which grew out of the TALOS (Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit) program, nicknamed the “Iron Man Suit.”

The six-year TALOS project focused on high-tech body armor that could also monitor a wearer’s stress and increase strength and speed through an exoskeleton. “Today’s technology doesn’t allow for the Iron Man suit, but the idea is there,” Clarke said. The command is looking to equip the Hyper-Enabled Operator with a collection of useable data from lightweight, body mounted computers, cameras and other sensors to better navigate the future battlespace, which Clarke said would be increasingly “complex, dynamic and lethal.”

Clarke spoke from Tampa, Florida, where SOCOM headquarters is based and where the annual SOFIC gathering, conducted virtually this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, is held.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy secretariat has doubled the number of Naval-X “Tech Bridge” sites on its network of collaborative alliances, the Navy’s top acquisition and research official announced.  

James F. Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, said in a May 12 video conference with reporters that the six tech bridge sites established last year have been beneficial to the Navy and Marine Corps, and he is doubling the number of tech bridges that will foster the collaboration of the Navy Department with industry, academia, scientific laboratories, and other organizations and individuals in developing technical solutions.  

“There are a lot of great activities going across the Navy and Marine Corps team, but we wanted an easy way to connect everybody up so we could accelerate our learning, better connect folks with ideas to solutions and folks with solutions to the folks that could put those into use,” Geurts said. “Our focus continues to be how do we support Sailors and Marines down-range, how do we increase our speed, how do we learn from each other and [reach] network-type speed as opposed to individual speed.” 

Geurts said the Navy Department did its best year ever in fiscal 2019 of “putting dollars on contract,” including the largest total small business awards, $16 billion, or 18% of the awards, and is engaging with small businesses to get five times the speed and 10 times the number of performers.   

“Think of this Naval-X Tech Bridge as this underlying network, which facilitates all that,” he said. “It’s not an activity unto itself as much as connecting everybody together so that we can speed discovery all the way through deployment and focus on all phases of support, not just early R&D [research and development] but all the way through sustainment.” 

“What we have seen in the last nine months is $45 million obligated through programs that were identified through the tech bridges through existing programs, largely through SBIR [Small Business Innovation Research program] as well as a lot of rapid prototyping authorities used through ONR [Office of Naval Research],” said Cmdr. Sam Gray, Tech Bridge director, also speaking at the teleconference.  

“Additionally, we were able to leverage the tech bridge network [in the current pandemic] in just a month focused on COVID efforts,” Gray said. “Tech Bridge has met on a daily and then weekly basis to connect all the teams together to find out how people were using their manufacturing capability, how were they able to get things on contract, how they were able to work with FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] representatives to get things approved for medical use.”  

The six new tech bridges are: 

• Central Coast, centered at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), Monterey, California. Its focus is to connect faculty and students to provide a variety of potential partners across all applied warfighting domains, with particular focus on cyber, space and oceanographic capabilities. The NPS has cleared airspace for unmanned aerial systems testing. 
• Inland Empire, centered on Naval Surface Warfare Center Corona, California. Its focus is on data analytics and visualization; networks and data environments, including live virtual constructive training environment; and measurement technology.    
• Ventura, with the Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme Division, Naval Air Station Point Mugu, and San Nicholas Island, all in Ventura County, California. It focuses on unmanned system development, additive manufacturing, advanced material characterization and testing, and soon to include a mixed-reality environment. 
• Southern Maryland, centered on Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, along with the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Indianhead, Maryland. It focuses on unmanned aviation, autonomous systems, modeling and simulation, and live virtual constructive environments.  
• Mid-Atlantic, centered on commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet, in Norfolk, Virginia, with the Naval Information Warfare Center Hampton Roads and two Naval Surface Warfare Center detachments. Its focus is on tying the fleet to the larger Tech Bridge network, with emphasis on cyber, unmanned systems, robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced communications and command and control, additive manufacturing. 
• National Capital Region, centered on Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division, Maryland, teamed with Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren, Virginia and Indian EOD Technology Division, and the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, Quantico, Virginia. Their focus is on data-driven decision making.    

PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — The U.S. Navy, with support from Northrop Grumman Corp., started flight testing of the MQ-8C Fire Scout equipped with the Leonardo AN/ZPY-8 radar, the company announced in a release.  

“The AN/ZPY-8 radar significantly increases Fire Scout’s detection and tracking of targets. The ability to simultaneously employ multiple modes supports U.S. Navy intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance requirements,” said Melissa Packwood, program manager of tactical autonomous systems for Northrop Grumman. “This increased capability enables Fire Scout to extend ranges to meet emerging requirements.” 

Operating out of Webster Outlying Field near Patuxent River, the MQ-8C’s first flight with the radar occurred on Feb. 27. Testing began with several weeks of ground test prior to the first flight and continues to progress as the Navy and Northrop Grumman consider mission expansion opportunities for the platform.  

To date, Northrop Grumman has delivered 32 of 38 MQ-8Cs to the Navy, all of which will be retrofit with the AN/ZPY-8 radar. The MQ-8C achieved initial operational capability last June and is set for its first deployment next year.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy’s top officer has self-quarantined himself after coming in contact with a family member who tested positive for COVID-19, the Defense Department announced.  

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday “had contact with a COVID-positive family member and, although testing negative, will be quarantining this week,” U.S. Army Lt. Col. Chris Mitchell, a Defense Department spokesman, said on May 11. 

Gilday is personally following guidance he issued to the Navy as a whole on May 6: “Each of us must continue to practice and follow all public health measures necessary to minimize risk to our force and our families. Take responsibility. Show courage in speaking up if you see shipmates falling short. We have obligations for operational readiness and stringent requirements for health protection measures.” 

Below are more excerpts from the CNO’s May 6 message to the fleet: 

“As we continue to learn about this virus and how to mitigate its risk, the widespread public health measures you are actively practicing — physical distancing, face coverings, minimizing group events, frequent hand-washing, sound sanitation practices, a questioning attitude on how we are feeling — must be our new normal. We must harden our Navy by continuing to focus on the health and safety of our forces and our families. The health and safety of our Sailors and their families is, and must continue to be, our No. 1 priority. Fleet operations depend on it. 

“As the forward deployed force of our country, we have a duty to ensure we are ready to respond. We cannot simply take a knee or keep everyone in port until this enemy is defeated. We are America’s away team. The uncertainty caused by COVID-19 makes our mission of protecting America at sea more important than ever. That is why the U.S. Navy continues to operate forward every day.” 

“When we entered this pandemic, we quickly closed down services to minimize interactions and the spread of the disease. We will need to take a measured approach to opening up these services to prevent a recurrence of the disease. 

“I expect local commanders to understand area conditions and to communicate prudent expectations and guidance up and down the chain of command. I trust our Sailors to follow these guidelines.” 

Special Correspondent John M. Doyle contributed to this report.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The attack submarine USS Boise has arrived at Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding division in Newport News, Virginia, to prepare for its long-delayed overhaul, Naval Sea Systems Command said in a May 8 release. 

The Boise was shifted from Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, “to begin pre-maintenance ‘smart start’ activities in preparation for the submarine’s engineered overhaul (EOH),” Bill Couch, a NAVSEA spokesman, said in the release.  

“An EOH is a major multiyear overhaul near the midpoint of a submarine’s service life to perform necessary repairs, maintenance and modernization, to certify the submarine for unrestricted operations and to ensure the submarine is operating at full technical capacity and mission capability,” Couch said. 

The Los Angeles-class attack submarine had been scheduled for an overhaul in 2013, but the work was delayed because of the work backlog at the Navy’s four shipyards that are certified to overhaul nuclear-powered vessels, the Government Accountability Office said in a November 2018 report.   

The Boise completed its most recent deployment in 2015 and had been tied up at Naval Station Norfolk since. It was no longer able to conduct operations by mid-2016 and lost its dive certification in February 2017. The backlog led the Navy to award, in October 2017, a contract to Newport News Shipbuilding, one of two U.S. submarine builders, to overhaul nuclear-powered submarines in addition to its normal work of building submarines. 

The delays in depot-level maintenance cause not only backlogs in the work itself but result in loss of hundreds or even thousands of days in service and reduced availability of attack subs for deployments in support of the requirements of combatant commanders.

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC) is working toward the next phase of replacing the legacy Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) with a modern Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV), the command said in a release. 

Armored reconnaissance was the subject of a capability-based assessment, the results of which were summarized in a 2019 Joint Requirements Oversight Council-validated initial capabilities document produced by the Marine Corps’ Combat Development and Integration (CD&I). The assessment pitted light armored reconnaissance (LAR) battalions against a peer threat and identified shortfalls and gaps in capability. 

CD&I emphasized the need for a modern, purpose-built ARV. As the core-manned, next-generation system, ARV must possess transformational capabilities to enable LAR battalions to gain contact with and collect on peer-threat forces. It must accomplish this goal without becoming decisively engaged, while also successfully waging the counter-reconnaissance fight. 

After the analysis and various other supporting activities, the ARV concept emerged as a transformational required capability. The characteristics differentiating the ARV from current systems include a battle management system, enhanced vision technologies for increased situational awareness and target tracking and engagement capabilities. 

The program manager for light armored vehicles (PM LAV) is pursuing this capability to support LAR battalions, provide them with additional capabilities and set the conditions to transform the way they fight. 

“Any ARV path forward will continue to be informed by the ongoing [Office of Naval Research] technology demonstrator effort, the ARV Analysis of Alternatives, Phase III Force Design outputs, additional government [requests for information], senior leadership direction and industry feedback,” said John “Steve” Myers, program manager for MCSC’s LAV portfolio. 

A collaborative effort 

In the early planning stages, the U.S. Marine Corps envisioned the ARV as a replacement combat vehicle for the LAV. Over time, officials began to view the ARV as a vehicle platform equipped with a suite of advanced reconnaissance capabilities, with an open-system architecture that can sense, shoot, move, communicate and remain transportable as part of the Naval expeditionary force. PM LAV is leading the acquisition planning effort to help realize this next-generation reconnaissance vehicle. 

The portfolio is collaborating with the ONR and the Capabilities Development Directorate of Headquarters Marine Corps, CD&I. 

Capitalizing on their Detroit arsenal location, PM LAV is working with Combat Capabilities Development Command Ground Vehicle Systems Center to update the ARV concept as a tool to analyze impacts of capability changes. 

Recognizing commonalities exist among the ARV and the optionally manned fighting vehicle, the U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps are working together to ensure collaboration for those capability gaps. 

ONR is conducting research on advanced technologies to inform requirements, technology readiness assessments and competitive prototyping efforts for the ARV. In 2019, ONR selected two vendors to design, fabricate and test full-scale technology demonstration platforms. 

Both platforms are expected to be ready for government evaluation in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020. Through ONR’s efforts, the Ground Combat Element Division of CDD has been refining a set of requirements for the ARV to meet the future reconnaissance mission of the Marine Corps. PM LAV will leverage this information in a performance specification to be released to industry partners to build the ARV. 

The collaboration between PM LAV, ONR and CD&I is crucial to the success of the ARV. 

“Effective collaboration between the materiel developer, technologist and combat developer is essential to achieving the next-generation capabilities required to transform legacy armored reconnaissance into a modern, combat credible force,” said Kurt Koch, Ground Combat Equipment Division, CDD. 

Koch noted how the strong partnerships forged over the last three years set the conditions to develop the core of a next-generation, combat vehicle system  —mobile on land and water  —to serve as a manned hub coordinating the actions of unmanned ground and aerial robotic sensor, and weapon systems. 

The path forward 

PM LAV has taken several steps to ensure the success of the ARV. In 2019, PM LAV released a Request for Information to industry comprising a set of attributes for a transformational vehicle. Based on responses to the RFI, the program office met with several vendors interested in becoming a prime vendor for ARV. PM LAV originally planned to hold an industry day in May 2020 for the competitive prototyping phase. However, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused the event to be rescheduled to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020. 

“We still want to hold an industry day so we can have an open discussion with industry, provide more clarification and answer any questions from our industry partners,” said Maryann Lawson, MCSC’s project lead for ARV. 

In addition to industry engagements, the evaluation of science and technology efforts as well as ongoing [capabilities design document] and performance specification refinement should yield the information necessary to move into the competitive prototyping phase. 

“PM LAV will focus efforts targeted on industry RFIs and strategic small group engagements,” Myers said. 

The Marine Corps plans to use the ground vehicle systems other transaction agreement with the National Advanced Mobility Consortium (NAMC) to release a draft request for prototype proposal (RPP) for the ARV base variant in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020. The government is interested in industry feedback and collaboration to shape the requirement and statement of work for the final RPP release in spring 2021. Industry partners are encouraged to periodically check Beta.SAM.gov and engage with the NAMC for future RFIs and program updates.

WASHINGTON — The nominee to become the next Navy secretary spoke at his confirmation hearing on May 7 of the Arctic’s importance to national defense and international commerce and of rising Chinese efforts to influence the region. He also committed his advocacy to increasing U.S. Navy presence in the region to counter both “Great Power Competitors” China and Russia.  

“The Chinese and the Russians are everywhere, especially the Chinese,” Kenneth J. Braithwaite, the current U.S. ambassador to Norway and nominee to become the 77th Navy secretary, said during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

See: Braithwaite Cites Theodore Roosevelt Crisis in Call for Reform of Navy Culture

“You would be alarmed at the amount of Chinese activity off the coast of Norway in the high north. We need to be vigilant to that to understand why.”  

As a former Navy P-3 patrol plane commander who operated from the Aleutian Islands and as ambassador to Norway, NATO’s gatekeeper to the North Atlantic, Braithwaite is no novice to the region and its growing importance.  

“Russia’s hope is to be relevant again on the world stage, where we all come to understand that China wants to be dominant on that same world stage,” Braithwaite said. “They have really pressed hard on Norway to be part of that calculus.” 

He pointed out that the cost of commerce from China to European markets would be cut by half if goods were transported by the Northern Sea Route across the top of Russia to Kirkenes, the northernmost Norwegian port. 

“China has launched a charm campaign to try to win Norway over,” Braithwaite said. “After in 2010 trying to force them to withdraw the Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident, Liu Xiaobo, the Norwegians stood up to the Chinese and [the Norwegians] suffered for that economically. But China now recognizes the importance of Kirkenes [and] securing a terminus on the Northern Sea Route, and they are up there trying to win over the people of northern Norway.”  

Braithwaite said the U.S. Navy is at the vanguard countering Chinese hegemony in the Arctic, saying the Navy “provides some of the only capabilities to be able to do power projection in that part of the world.” 

He noted the current presence of three Navy destroyers operating the Barents Sea along with ships of the U.K. Royal Navy and the Royal Norwegian Navy.  

Braithwaite also told Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) that he would be a strong advocate for a strategic Arctic port large enough to handle destroyers and icebreakers. The nearest such port is Anchorage, Alaska, which is 1,500 miles from the Arctic Circle, Sullivan added.   

“The great news is the United States Navy has been up there for many, many years,” Braithwaite said. “You may not see them, but they’re up there. As it begins to become more navigable on the surface, we also need to make sure that our presence is noted.”  

“We continue to need to be vigilant,” he added. “We continue to need to be present. That requires an adequate-size Navy to be there.” 

“It will be a priority of mine.”

WASHINGTON — The nominee to be the next Navy secretary said the sea service needs a course correction to restore the culture of leadership and accountability that has suffered in recent controversies, saying that “culture trumps everything.” 

“It saddens me to say: the Department of the Navy is in troubled waters due to many factors, primarily the failure of leadership,” Kenneth J. Braithwaite, the U.S. ambassador to Norway and the president’s nominee to be the 77th Navy secretary, said during testimony May 7 at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.  

Braithwaite said failings over the past few years — such as the “Fat Leonard” scandal, the fatal at-sea collisions in 2017, recent judicial missteps and the COVID-19 crisis aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt — were “indicative of a breakdown in the trust of those leading the service.” 

Lessons he said he took from his earlier experience as a naval aviator that the Navy Department is “resilient” and that “it all starts with culture.” 

“Successful organizations have a strong culture, which always starts with leadership,” he said. “Culture is one thing that creates for an organization a sense of belonging, a sense of good order and discipline.”  

“It is my No. 1 priority, if I’m confirmed, to restore the appropriate culture in the United States Navy,” Braithwaite said. “A culture exists; I won’t say it’s been broken; I think it’s been tarnished.” 

He stressed the importance of empowering people up and done the chain of command and that he would not intervene in the chain of command.

PASCAGOULA, Miss. — Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding division has received a $187.46 million advance procurement contract from the U.S. Navy to provide long-lead-time material and advance procurement activities for amphibious assault ship LHA 9, the company said in a release. 

“This contract allows us to maintain the health of our critical nationwide shipbuilding supplier base while continuing our serial production of large-deck amphibs,” Ingalls Shipbuilding President Brian Cuccias said. “We will work closely with our Navy-Marine Corps partners and our suppliers across the U.S. to build another highly capable, versatile and survivable warship.” 

Ingalls is the sole builder of large-deck amphibious ships for the Navy. The shipyard delivered its first amphibious assault ship, the Iwo Jima-class USS Tripoli (LPH 10), in 1966. Ingalls has since built five Tarawa-class (LHA 1) ships, eight Wasp-class (LHD 1) ships and the first in a new class of amphibious assault ships, America (LHA 6), in 2014. The second ship in that class, Tripoli (LHA 7), was delivered to the Navy earlier this year. Bougainville (LHA 8) is under construction.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The U.S. Navy’s future unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) family of systems will set a new standard for navigating in hazardous environments, operating with minimal human control and executing missions further from port than previously imagined, a company spokesman for Draper said in a release. 

Draper has supported the Navy for more than 60 years. The company was awarded a Navy contract to develop technology to support the family of USVs. 

Overall, the Navy has picked 40 companies to participate in a five-year, $982 million multi-award contract (MAC) to support the research, development and delivery of USVs. In 2018, Draper won a similar award for the Navy’s unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV). 

The indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity MAC identifies task orders in six functional areas. Draper will provide support in payloads, non-payload sensors and autonomy and vehicle control systems. 

Key to Draper’s support of the Navy’s USV program is a simulation framework that enables engineers to design, develop, validate and execute real-time hardware-in-the-loop simulations and rapid assessment, integration and test of complex systems. The Draper simulation framework is available to military and scientific organizations. More than 30 entities have requested access to it and several prime contractors have used it. 

“Under this award, Draper is prepared to meet the new standard for assured autonomy for autonomous surface vehicles and support the Navy’s requirement for greater flexibility — in mission design, operations and resource deployment,” said Joel Parry, Draper’s maritime warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) lead. 

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

“Our capabilities in unmanned surface vehicles will continue Draper’s support of the U.S. Navy and its mission to remain unsurpassed in its global flexibility, agility and reach,” said Bill Borgia, director of mission systems at Draper.