NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding division delivered the newest fast-attack submarine to the U.S. Navy on Oct. 25, the company said in an Oct. 28 release. 

Delaware (SSN 791), which successfully completed sea trials earlier this month, is the ninth Virginia-class submarine to be delivered by Newport News and the 18th built as part of the teaming agreement with General Dynamics Electric Boat. 

“Like the last two submarines we delivered to the Navy, Delaware has received some of the highest quality scores since the Virginia-class program began,” said Dave Bolcar, Newport News’ vice president of submarine construction. “Our team of shipbuilders continues to perform at a high level, and nothing makes us prouder than delivering one of the most mission-ready submarines to the fleet.” 

The submarine is the second ship to be named for the country’s first state, the first being the dreadnought battleship USS Delaware (BB 28), which was delivered by Newport News in 1910. 

More than 10,000 shipbuilders from Newport News and Electric Boat have participated in Delaware’s construction since the work began in September 2013. The submarine was christened by Jill Biden, the ship’s sponsor and wife of the former vice president, during a ceremony in last October. 

The future USS Delaware (SSN 791) will be commissioned in 2020.

ASTORIA, Ore. — The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Alert returned to their homeport on Oct. 25 following a 10,700-nautical-mile, 65-day, multimission patrol that resulted in the interdiction of nearly 4,000 pounds of cocaine worth about $54 million, the Coast Guard said in a release. 

Alert’s crew conducted counterdrug operations in international waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean, where boarding teams interdicted two go-fast vessels, seizing the cocaine and detaining six suspected drug smugglers. 

Three Mexican naval officers joined Alert for the patrol to share lessons learned and to build cohesion between the sea services. 

“I am extremely proud of this crew for doing their part to keep these dangerous drugs off the streets,” said Cmdr. Tyson Scofield, Alert’s commanding officer. “The eastern Pacific … is a challenging environment, especially on a ship that is in her 50th year of service, yet this crew persevered to disrupt the illegal flow of narcotics that fuels instability in Central and South America. The counterdrug mission is as important now as it has ever been, and these brave men and women can return home after a 65-day patrol knowing they made a difference.” 

The Coast Guard’s medium-endurance cutters represent 70% of the service’s counterdrug interdiction fleet, but many are nearing the end of their service life. Replacing the aging fleet of medium endurance cutters with the offshore patrol cutter is one of the Coast Guard’s top priorities. 

As cartels become more advanced in their trafficking methods at sea, the Coast Guard is recapitalizing the fleet with modern assets equipped to detect, interdict and disrupt the growing flow of illegal drugs, weapons and people in the eastern Pacific. 

Alert’s crew offloaded more than $92 million worth of cocaine Oct. 16 in San Diego before returning home. The cocaine offloaded represents a total of four suspected drug smuggling vessel interdictions by the crews of the Alert and the Coast Guard Cutters Robert Ward and Seneca, who patrolled the same international waters between late July and early October. 

Alert’s crew also patrolled off the coast of California, providing an increased off-shore deterrence to illicit narcotics trafficking and human smuggling. The amount of recreational and commercial fishing traffic provided Alert’s law enforcement teams with opportunities to board vessels not normally inspected at sea. 

Alert’s engineers also provided mechanical assistance to a disabled vessel, helping the distressed crew return to port prior to the arrival of gale force weather conditions. 

Alert’s embarked helicopter and aircrew from Air Station Humboldt Bay also assisted two U.S. Navy ships by flying their severely injured crew members ashore to receive advanced medical treatment. 

Alert began its patrol by participating in the 2019 Los Angeles Fleet Week celebration, a public event that celebrated the U.S. armed forces and the Port of Los Angeles. During that week, Alert’s crew provided shipboard tours to 880 people and worked jointly with the Coast Guard Cutter Forrest Rednour to increase the public’s awareness to the Coast Guard and its missions. The crew also volunteered in a Habitat for Humanity community service event where they aided a local food bank with boxing meals for families in need.

NASHUA, New Hampshire — BAE Systems has been awarded a $36.7 million contract from the U.S. Navy to develop and demonstrate a next-generation, dual band fiber-optic towed decoy (FOTD) to protect aircraft and pilots from advanced threats, the company said in a release. 

BAE Systems’ FOTDs are radio-frequency countermeasure systems that provide robust self-protection capabilities for any aircraft, including fighters, bombers and transports. The company’s dual band decoy development work is intended to expand the capabilities of its combat-proven AN/ALE-55 FOTD. 

“Our towed decoys enable pilots to execute missions in highly contested airspace,” said Tom McCarthy, dual band decoy program director at BAE Systems. “ALE-55 FOTD is a reliable, high-powered jamming system with years of mission success on the F/A-18E/F [Super Hornet] and extensive flight-testing on a variety of aircraft. Under this new Dual Band Decoy contract, our focus will be building upon the ALE-55’s proven performance in order to defeat the threats of tomorrow.” 

The primary role of the decoy is to protect the warfighter by luring threat missiles away from the aircraft. The decoy also combines techniques that disrupt adversaries’ radar, preventing missile launch from occurring. Much like the ALE-55 FOTD, the dual band decoy will interface with onboard electronic warfare equipment, but it can also operate independently, enhancing its effectiveness against current and future threats.

The size of the current fleet, the high cost of new ships
and the likely lack of growth in future budgets will make it difficult for the
Navy to reach the current goal of a 355-ship battle fleet, the Navy’s number
two civilian leader said.

And that problem would be made even more difficult by the
continuing resolution, which prevents starting new programs that could reduce
costs, such as the proposed frigate, Navy Undersecretary Thomas Modly said Oct.
25, addressing a conference hosted by military reporters and editors.

Modly also expressed concern about the impact on “the
warriors and families” of nearly 19 years of constant war and the fact that the
U.S. has allowed its potential adversaries — particularly China and Russia — to
erode the military advantage and gain global influence.

“We have to operationalize what does it means to be in great
power competition,” Modly said. And the U.S. will “have to take a page from our
adversaries’ play book” by learning how to conduct asymmetric operations,
similar to Russia’s seizure of Crimea without actual conflict, he said.

Modly went through the top 10 issues that keep him up at
night, three of which dealt with the problem of buying and sustaining enough
ships to get the size fleet the U.S. Navy will need for the possible future
conflicts. The effort to get from the current 290-ship force to the 355 goal
faces “a math problem,” he said, because future defense budgets are not likely
to grow enough to buy all those ships.

Modly conceded that Navy leaders were not sure that “355 is
the right number” and would have a better view of that when the new force
structure assessment is finished sometime next year. He also noted the high
cost of overhauling ships, which frequently have more problems than expected.

Obtaining the needed fleet is made more difficult by the
rising costs of ships and other programs, he said. “We have to figure out a way
to drive down cost.” But he continued, “it’s going to be difficult to do that,
particularly when the Navy is throwing so much of its assets into expensive
platforms,” citing the $13 billion price tag on the new Gerald R. Ford aircraft
carrier.

That is why the sea service is putting so much effort into lower-cost vessels, such as the littoral combat ships and the proposed guided missile frigate. But he said, the plan to award a contract on the frigate program could be “handicapped” because the continuing budget resolution prevents new starts. The CR “will have significant impact and not in a good way. I hope Congress will realize that it’s their job,” Modly said, to fund the government and will do it.

Modly was questioned about the strong criticism Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer leveled this week on Huntington Ingalls for the problems with the Ford carrier. He said the Navy has no tactic of attacking industry, but “we’re asking you guys to understand the frustration we have. We, the department, have a lot of responsibility for what went wrong with the Ford. What the secretary said was there has to be shared responsibility.”

WASHINGTON — Fincantieri Marine Systems North America has been awarded a $9.6 million contract to perform maintenance and repairs to the U.S. Coast Guard’s fleet of inland buoy tenders, the company announced Oct. 24 in a release. 

The multiyear contract was awarded by the Coast Guard’s Surface Force Logistics Center in Virginia. The focus of the contract is the maintenance, repair and overhaul of the Isotta Fraschini Motori (IFM) V1312 main diesel engines onboard the 75-foot WLIC and 65-foot WLR-class cutters. 

“This award with the U.S. Coast Guard builds on our proven expertise in the modification, repair and overhaul of the main diesel engines for the inland buoy tender fleet,” said Rick Dinsmore, FMSNA’s general manager and vice president.

“Since our original contract to repower the buoy tenders, FMSNA has provided continuous mission critical support to the U.S. government by assuring the highest levels of fleet readiness.” 

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford got underway Oct. 25 for sea trials from Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding division following a 15-month pierside maintenance period. 

“I am proud of the crew’s efforts to get USS Gerald R. Ford back out to sea,” Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer said. “The Navy has diligently tackled issues associated with this first-in-class ship and will continue to do so. All are eager to demonstrate Ford’s capacity to deliver combat power. There is more work to do, but this is a great milestone.” 

Prior to getting underway, the Ford conducted a multiday, pierside “fast cruise,” where the crew worked through simulated at-sea operating scenarios. Gerald R. Ford then departed NNS and headed into the Atlantic Ocean for sea trials, putting into practice lessons learned from the fast cruise and starting a critical phase of underway testing. 

While at sea off the Virginia coast, the crew, in cooperation with NNS engineers and shipyard employees, will run through a comprehensive sequence of evolutions to test and validate systems maintained or modified during the extended maintenance period, known as a post-shakedown availability (PSA).  

The PSA included combat systems installations, throttle control system improvements, propulsion train component repairs and corrections to discrepancies identified during prior testing and completion of 304 berthing spaces. The Huntington Ingalls NNS team also completed construction of four advanced weapon elevators (AWE), upgraded advanced arresting gear (AAG) water twisters and fully outfitted all galley spaces.  

“After a challenging post-shakedown availability at Newport News Shipbuilding, the crew is excited to turn their hardhats in and get Warship 78 back out to sea,” said Capt. J.J. Cummings, Ford’s commanding officer. 

“I am extremely proud of our Sailors and the remarkable work ethic they have demonstrated over the last 15 months. It is their energy, enthusiasm and grit that has gotten our ship to this point, and it will be their motivation and resiliency that will fuel our success during post-delivery test and trial.” 

Sea trials are the culminating event prior the Ford returning to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. The carrier will then enter a post-delivery test and trials period to certify fuel systems, conduct aircraft compatibility testing, certify the flight deck and test the combat systems installed aboard the ship. 

As a first-in-class ship, the Navy is actively incorporating lessons learned from the Ford to improve the design and construction processes of future ships in the class. 

WASHINGTON — The secretary of the U.S. Navy said the sea service is looking ahead to determine what the follow-on aircraft carrier design will look like, even as work continues to get the new USS Gerald R. Ford out to regular operations at sea. 

“With the [recent] two-carrier buy, what will the next carrier look like? We’re having discussions on that as we speak, and we will see what happens,” Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer said, speaking Oct. 23 at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. “I think we actually whiteboard this thing. What will it look like in 10 to 15 years? Is it a floating platform for electrically charged unmanned aircraft? I don’t know.”  

Spencer said the Navy is looking at the “lightning carrier” concept, deploying 20 F-35B Lightning II strike fighters on an amphibious assault ship. Recently the USS America operated in the eastern Pacific Ocean with 13 F-35Bs of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 122, the Corps’ most recently equipped F-35B squadron. Earlier this year, USS Wasp operated for a short period with 10 F-35Bs of VMFA-121 on board.  

“My cost performance there is tremendous,” Spencer said. “Does it have the same punch? No, it doesn’t. But it has a very interesting sting to it.” 

Such lightning carriers would lack airborne early warning aircraft unless the Navy developed a capability for these smaller decks. The sea service is developing an aerial refueling tanker capability to be installed in the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft to refuel the F-35Bs. 

During the opening phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan operated as a “Harrier carrier,” equipped with two full squadrons of AV-8B Harrier II attack aircraft, which the F-35B is replacing, rather than the usual six aircraft. 

The concept might get a serious workout in a couple of years.   

“In 2021, you will see a Marine Corps F-35B squadron on the Queen Elizabeth, which we are very excited about,” Spencer said, speaking of the plan to operate a Marine Corps F-35B squadron alongside a British F-35B squadron on the new Royal Navy aircraft carrier.

PUERTO PRINCESA, Philippines — The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton pulled into Puerto Princesa on Oct. 14 for Maritime Training Activity (MTA) Sama Sama following operations in the Yellow Sea where the crew supported United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) enforcement against illicit ship-to-ship transfers that violate sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the Coast Guard Pacific Area said in a release. 

The operations are a part of the United States’ ongoing contribution to international efforts in combatting DPRK’s maritime sanctions evasion activity. Ship-to-ship transfers of fuel and goods, like coal, going to and from DPRK are prohibited under the UNSCR. 

Stratton personnel captured imagery of suspected illicit ship-to-ship transfers and conducted routine activities to detect, deter and disrupt activities in violation of UNSCR. 

MTA Sama Sama is a maritime exercise designed to promote regional security cooperation, maintain and strengthen maritime partnerships and enhance maritime interoperability. This is the first year the Japanese Maritime Defense Force will participate alongside U.S. and Philippine navy counterparts. 

The exercise will consist of both shore-based and at-sea activities designed to allow participating navies to advance the complex maritime training utilizing diverse naval platforms and operating areas. 

The Coast Guard has an enduring role in the Indo-Pacific, going back over 150 years. The service’s ongoing deployment of resources to the region directly supports U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives in the Indo-Pacific Strategy and the National Security Strategy. 

“All of Stratton’s operations are designed in accordance with international law and demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” said Capt. Bob Little, Stratton’s commanding officer. “That is as true in the South and East China Seas, as in other places around the globe. Our efforts in support of enforcing U.N. Security Council Resolutions in the Yellow Sea demonstrate that commitment.” 

LONDON — Global incidents of piracy and armed robbery at sea have decreased across the first nine months of 2019 when compared to the same period in 2018, according to the London-based International Maritime Bureau (IMB). 

In its 2019 third-quarter report, the IMB said 119 incidents had been reported to its Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) compared to 156 in 2018.  

According to the report, the 119 incidents included: four vessels hijacked; 95 vessels boarded; 10 attempted attacks; and 10 vessels fired upon.  

The IMB noted also a decline in seafarers being seized (119 in 2019, against 151 in 2018). 

Despite reduced attack numbers, the report indicated that incidents involving weapons remain constant, with 23 knife-related and 35 gun-related incidents reported compared to 25 and 37 in 2018. 

“These statistics confirm IMB’s concerns over continued threats to the safety and security of seafarers,” the IMB said in a statement. 

The report highlighted the Gulf of Guinea as an enduring hot spot, even though attack numbers there declined. According to the IMB, 86 percent of overall crew hostage-taking (where seafarers are held on ship) and 82 percent of crew kidnappings (where seafarers are taken ashore) occurred there.  

“Although incidents are down, the Gulf of Guinea continues to be a concern for piracy and armed robbery-related activities with kidnappings of crew members increasing in both scale and frequency,” IMB Director Pottengal Mukundan said. 

Of the attacks, 29 took place off Nigeria, including: two hijackings; 17 successful boardings; one unsuccessful boarding; and nine ships fired upon. Eleven incidents also occurred at Nigeria’s Lagos port, the highest number for any port. Incidents at Lagos included opportunistic attacks and cargo-theft attempts, an IMB spokesperson told Seapower.  

Within the global total of four hijackings, the two other incidents also took place in the Gulf of Guinea, off Togo and Equatorial Guinea. 

Other areas of recent shipping security concern include Southeast Asia and Somalia.  

For Southeast Asia, the report noted a decline in incidents around Indonesia, reflecting what the IMB said has been a gradual five-year reduction in attacks there. The report counted 20 incidents, compared to 86 for the same period in 2015. “The reduction in incidents off Indonesia is mainly due to increased patrolling,” the IMB spokesperson said. Indonesia and other regional countries have been co-operating in conducting patrols. 

Off Malaysia, 10 attacks occurred (slightly up from nine in 2018). 

For Somalia, the report said “no piracy-related incidents [were] recorded for the first nine months of 2019.” However, the IMB said that “Somali pirates continue to possess the capacity to carry out attacks in the Somali basin and wider Indian Ocean.” 

“The IMB PRC advises ship owners to remain cautious when transiting these waters,” the statement continued. 

Another recent hot spot has been Venezuela, where 11 attacks took place in the first nine months of 2017. However, for the same period in 2019, six occurred. 

The IMB reiterated the role of reporting in enabling more effective incident response. “It is important that shipmasters and owners continue to report all actual, attempted and suspected incidents to ensure that an accurate picture of these attacks emerges and action is taken against these criminals before the incidents further escalate,” Mukundan said.  

Cooperation also remains critical to reducing risk and tackling incidents. In the Gulf of Guinea, for example, the IMB PRC has relayed incident reports to the Nigerian navy, which has then deployed vessels to assist ships under attack, the IMB spokesperson told Seapower.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Despite the commandant’s stark warning
about the vulnerability of current amphibious warships, the Marines are not
moving away from amphibious operations. But to operate in the future highly
contested littoral waters, the amphibious force must be more numerous, adding a
lot of smaller, cheaper and “risk worthy” vessels and unmanned systems, senior
Marine and Navy officers and civilian analysts said Oct. 23.

Those officers and experts and other groups of uniformed and
civilian officials also argued that providing logistical support for amphibious
operations in waters threatened by the modern deadly weapons employed by peer
competitors, such as China and Russia, will require starkly different systems
and tactics.

And in an extensive series of panel presentations during the
second day of the National Defense Industrial Association’s conference on
expeditionary warfare in the era of great power competition, the speakers
appealed to industry representatives in the audience to help provide the new
technologies and platforms the naval forces will need to fight and win in any
future conflict.

Much of the discussion was shaped by the Commandant’s
Planning Guidance issued this summer by the new Marine leader, Gen. David
Berger, which highlighted the threat to traditional large, complex and
relatively expensive amphibious ships, if they have to operate within the reach
of the long-range precision weapons and submarines fielded by China and, to a
lesser extent, Russia and Iran.

“We are not walking away from amphibious operations,” said
Brig. Gen. Benjamin Watson, commanding general of the Marine Corps Warfighting
Laboratory. He noted that the new operational concepts proposed by Berger –
Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations and Littoral Operations in a Contested
Environment — require amphibious operations. “The commandant is not calling for
a smaller amphibious fleet, but a larger one” with “smaller, less expensive and
more risk-worthy ships” to complement the larger ships, Watson said.

Maj. Gen. Tracey King, director of expeditionary warfare,
said he “hears a lot of talk inside [the Pentagon] that we’ll never do another
amphibious landing. We don’t want to do another Iwo Jima … but we will do
amphibious operations again.”

The new amphibious missions will involve “distributed
operations,” a Navy-promoted concept that provides “the advantage of mass with
distributed forces,” King said. That will require larger numbers of smaller
units with “risk worthy platforms and connectors,” because “we’re absolutely
going to take some body blows.”

Asked by an audience member how they measure “risk worthy,”
Watson conceded “we don’t know” whether it is defined by lives or by the cost
of the platforms, noting that the current amphibs “are these expensive platforms
that we, as a nation, cannot afford to replace.”

Two panels addressed the challenges of providing logistical support to naval operations in the contested waters, with Lt. Gen. Charles Chiarotti, deputy commandant for installations and logistics, admitting that “Marine Corps logistics is not postured to sustain the future fight.” They will require “hybrid logistics,” that blends the legacy assets with what new systems they can acquire to provide Integrated, maneuverable logistics “in concert with the Navy.”

Other speakers from logistical support organizations and program managers cited the need for very different logistical platforms, including a variety of unmanned surface, subsurface and aerial systems, some of the existing smaller, cheaper vessels, such as the Expeditionary Fast Transport, Expeditionary Mobile Base and Littoral Combat Ships, and even Military Sealift Command and commercial cargo vessels.