THOUSAND
OAKS, Calif. — Teledyne Technologies Inc.’ s subsidiary, Teledyne Instruments
Inc., has been awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract by
the U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center to supply autonomous underwater vehicles
(AUVs) and related monitoring and communications acoustic systems, the company
said in a Aug. 19 release.

The initial
2019 value of the contract is about $5.4 million. The award has a maximum value
of $22.2 million through December 2024, if all contract options are exercised.

Autonomous underwater vehicles can carrying out complex survey missions for commercial, scientific and defense applications. Teledyne AUVs’ modular architecture enables sensors to be easily integrated and battery packs to be exchanged in the field. In addition to powered, self-propelled AUVs, Teledyne provides a wide range of autonomous profiling floats, variable-buoyancy autonomous gliding vehicles, unmanned surface vehicles and inspection-class remotely operating vehicles.

“For more than a decade, Teledyne has been the leading provider of autonomous underwater gliding vehicles to the U.S. government,” said Al Pichelli, president and CEO. “We are exceptionally pleased now to have received our first significant order from the U.S. Navy for Teledyne’s self-propelled autonomous underwater vehicles.”

EDGEWOOD, N.Y. — CPI Aerostructures Inc.’s Welding
Metallurgy Inc. subsidiary (WMI) has been awarded $1.23 million in new requirements
for aerial refueling probe assemblies from Northrop Grumman for new E-2D
Advanced Hawkeye aircraft, CPI said in an Aug. 26 release.

The probe assembly is a long, welded tube assembly that
enables a Navy or U.S. Air Force tanker to provide fuel to the E-2D while in
flight. WMI manufactured several probe assemblies during the system test phase,
and the refuellable version of the E-2D flew for the first time in December
2016 with a probe assembly manufactured by WMI.  

“The E-2D’s refueling capability is transformational, allowing the aircraft to effectively double the time it can stay in the air conducting surveillance and performing its battle management command and control mission,” said Douglas McCrosson, president and CEO of CPI Aero.

“We are pleased to have the opportunity to continue manufacturing this critical component of the E-2D inflight refueling system and bringing WMI’s superior technical and unique production capabilities to bear in support of Northrop Grumman’s commitment to providing the E-2D with increased operational capability.”

SAN DIEGO —
General Dynamics NASSCO, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, was awarded a
contract by the U.S. Navy worth up to $1.6 billion for the construction of the
sixth and seventh ships of the Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB) program as well as
an option for ESB 8, the company said in a release.

“We are
pleased to be building ESB 6 and 7 for our Navy,” said Kevin Graney, president
of General Dynamics NASSCO. “ESBs have proven to be affordable and flexible,
and as the fleet has gained experience with the platform, we have worked with
the Navy and Marines to develop even more capabilities and mission sets.”

The
contract, announced by the Defense Department on Aug. 23, provides $1.08
billion as a fixed-price-incentive modification to a previous contract for the
design and construction of the two ships, with an option for the third that, if
exercised, would bring the total cumulative value to $1.63 billion.

Named
after famous names or places of historical significance to U.S. Marines, ESBs
serve as a flexible platform and a key element in the Navy’s airborne mine
countermeasures mission, with accommodations for up to 250 personnel and a
large helicopter flight deck. The ship’s configuration supports special warfare
and Marine Corps task-organized units.

Work on the two new ships of the ESB program is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2020 and will continue to the second quarter of 2023, providing the opportunity to sustain and grow the workforce along San Diego’s working waterfront. NASSCO’s location along the historic San Diego Bay provides shipbuilders and skilled tradespeople with access to the nation’s leading maritime support businesses, and highly trained employees allow NASSCO to build and repair ships in the most efficient manner possible.

In 2011, the Navy awarded NASSCO with a contract to design and build the first two ships in the newly created MLP program, the USNS Montford Point and USNS John Glenn. The program expanded with three more vessels, the USS Lewis B. Puller, USNS Hershel “Woody” Williams and the Miguel Keith, configured as ESBs. Following the delivery of the first four ships to the U.S. Navy, the fifth ship, the Miguel Keith, is scheduled for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2019.

HONOLULU —
The U.S Coast Guard’s two newest national security cutters were commissioned
Aug. 24 during a ceremony presided over by Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz, the
Coast Guard Pacific area said in a release. 

The Coast
Guard Cutter Kimball (WMSL 756) and the Coast Guard Cutter Midgett (WMSL 757)
were “brought to life” at the rare dual-commissioning ceremony in Honolulu,
where the two cutters homeport. Three fast-response cutters also homeport
there. Kimball and Midgett are the seventh and eighth Legend-class national
security cutters in the fleet.

“These
national security cutters will continue our 150 years of partnership and
commitment to the Pacific region — since September 1849, when Revenue Cutter
Lawrence sailed into Honolulu Harbor escorted by Native Hawaiians in outrigger
canoes,” Schultz said. “In today’s complex geostrategic environment with rising
great power competition, the importance and demand for a strong Coast Guard
presence in the Pacific has never been greater.”

Advanced
command-and-control capabilities and a combination of range, speed and ability
to operate in extreme weather enable these ships to confront national security
threats, strengthen maritime governance, support economic prosperity and
promote individual sovereignty.

From the
Bering Sea and the Arctic to patrolling known drug trafficking zones off
Central and South America to working to strengthen the capabilities of our
partners across the Indo-Pacific, national security cutters deploy globally to
conduct essential Coast Guard missions.

Known as the
Legend-class, national security cutters can execute the most challenging
national security missions, including support to U.S. combatant commanders.
They are 418 feet in length, 54 feet in beam and 4,600 long tons in
displacement. They have a top speed of more than 28 knots, a range of 12,000
nautical miles, an endurance of up to 90 days and can hold a crew of up to 150.
These new cutters are replacing the high-endurance Hamilton-class cutters (378
feet) that have been in service since the 1960s.

The Midgett’s
transit to Hawaii was punctuated by two interdictions of suspected low-profile
go-fast vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the first July 25 and a second
July 31. The boardings resulted in a combined seizure of more than 6,700 pounds
of cocaine, estimated to be worth over $89 million.

National
security cutters are responsible for 40% of the 460,000 pounds of cocaine
interdicted by the Coast Guard in the fiscal year 2018. NSC crews have
interdicted more than 92,000 pounds of cocaine to date in the fiscal year 2019.

Midgett is
named to honor all members of the Midgett family who served in the Coast Guard
and its predecessor services. At least 10 members of the family earned high
honors for their heroic lifesaving efforts. Among them, the Coast Guard awarded
various family members seven gold lifesaving medals, the service’s highest
award for saving a life, and three silver lifesaving medals.

The Kimball is the third ship to bear that name, in honor of Sumner Kimball, who served as superintendent of the Revenue Marine and as general superintendent of the Life-Saving Service from 1878 until the two organizations merged in 1915 to become the modern-day U.S. Coast Guard.

“As you take to the seas, you will write the next chapters of the Kimball and Midgett legacies,” Schultz said, addressing the commands and crews of the two cutters on Aug. 24. “I charge you with carrying out the operations of these ships in such a manner as to be worthy of the traditions of self-sacrifice, inspirational leadership and unwavering dedication to duty — traits exemplified by these cutters’ distinguished and storied namesakes.”

WASHINGTON — Fortem
Technologies has developed a counter-UAS (unmanned aerial system) that could be
used to protect ships as well as sites on land from localized drone threats.

Fortem displayed
its DroneHunter UAS in Washington at the Defense. Protection. Security. 2019
exposition sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems
International along with the associated TrueView radar and the Fortem Skydome
concept.

The
DroneHunter is a fully autonomous, maneuverable UAV with six vertical rotors
that allow it to hover. It uses artificial intelligence analytics and is
equipped with GPS navigation day and night and in all weather.

It carries a
small TrueView frequency modulation continuous-wave (FM-CW) lightweight radar
that points in one direction but can scan as the drone maneuvers. A video
system is used to image intruding drones. The drone also is equipped with two
netguns that can be fired at an intruding drone and entangle that drone’s
rotors or propellers with lightweight nets. The nets can be tethered to the
DroneHunter so that it can retrieve the intruder if desired.

The
DroneHunter is limited by its power to retrieval of drones below a certain
weight, but its nets can disable much larger drones. The DroneHunter has an
optional manual override or redirect capability.

The
DroneHunter is an optional component of a Fortem SkyDome, an airspace protected
by fixed-site or mobile TrueView FM-CW radars which detect intruding drones and
vector the DroneHunter to intercept the intruder.

Adam Robertson, the chief technology officer for Fortem Technologies, told Seapower that the DroneHunter could serve as a ship-protection system in port or at sea. Because most shipboard radars are pulse radars, they have difficulty detecting UAVs that are close by between pulse and reception — creating a blind spot immediately around the ship — whereas the CW radars are always “on” and detect any anomaly that intersects their beams. Robertson said the SkyDome system would be ideal for security of a ship in or entering or exiting port, including against UAS or small-boat threats.

WASHINGTON —
Adm. Michael M. Gilday succeeded Adm. John M. Richardson as the chief of naval
operations in ceremonies Aug. 22 at the Washington Navy Yard.

Navy
Secretary Richard V. Spencer, who presided over the ceremonies, praised Gilday.

“As Adm.
Richardson begins his well-deserved retirement, I know he’s leaving feeling
secure and able to sleep at night because Adm. Mike Gilday is assuming the
tiller as 32nd chief of naval operations,” Spencer said.

“Adm. Gilday
has already played a critical role in restoring readiness, and he is
well-positioned to take over our integrated naval force as we march into the
future. Just look at those shoulders, ladies and gentlemen. There is a mantle
for some heavy weight and gravity.”

“From his
distinguished commands at sea to his cooperation with NATO allies to confront
the great power competition to his innovation of Cyber Command, Adm. Gilday has
demonstrated what an outstanding leader and officer he is,” Spencer added. “His
most recent as director of the Joint Staff has given visibility into the
challenges he will now face. It’s a unique transition in that regard. I am confident
he will attack this responsibility with the urgency that I continually beat on
the drum for the United States Navy. We can achieve our next-generation
integrated naval force we need under his command. Of that I am sure.”

Spencer also
praised the service of Richardson.

“I could not
have asked for a better business partner,” Spencer said. “Wearing the Title 10
hat that I do, that is the highest compliment I can pay John Richardson. He has
done more for this Navy to put us in a ready lethal position than many before.
No effort was too great, no detail too small, as he really did help us navigate
the rocks and shoals to deliver the Navy the nation needs. … He has embraced
emerging technologies, he has pushed this Navy forward on its front feet, to be
faster, quicker to deliver what our Sailors and Marines need.”

Richardson
also praised his successor, saying that Gilday “is a
true cutting-edge warfighter, a surface warrior who, by virtue of his
leadership at 10th Fleet, fully appreciates the challenges we face in the cyberwarfare
arena and the increasing pace of competition in new domains. His experience as
the director of the Joint Staff will ensure that the Navy continues to look for
every opportunity to collaborate with other services, allies and partners
around the world. The Navy will be in good hands with Adm. Gilday at the helm.”

Gilday
spoke briefly and praised the direction of the Navy set under Richardson.

“I believe our Navy’s strategic direction is rock solid and that our Navy is in great shape,” he said. “We are recruiting and retaining a high-quality force, we are providing well-trained combat-ready forces forward, around the globe. We are modernizing our Navy at a scope and pace not seen in decades. I can say all that, in large part, due to the leadership of our 31st CNO.”

As the Navy’s most senior officer, Gilday also is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where he “acts as an adviser to the President of the United States, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council and the Secretary of Defense,” an Aug. 22 Navy release said. “Under direction of the secretary of the Navy, the CNO is responsible for the command, utilization of resources, and operating efficiency of naval forces and shore activities assigned by the secretary.”

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The man in charge of the Maritime Administration (MARAD) laid out his
priorities for the agency in a speech that included course corrections for the
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, shoring up the Ready Reserve Force and defending
the Jones Act.

Maritime Administrator Mark Buzby, a retired Navy rear admiral, spoke Aug. 21 in Arlington at a breakfast hosted by the Navy League of the United States and his first priority was getting the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy “back on track.”

He said the
academy had been on a “not good course for the last few years” with some
leadership problems, including sexual harassment issues. He said the new
superintendent, Rear Adm. Jack Buono, and the new academic dean, John R.
Ballard, were a “dynamic duo [that] really turned things around.”

Buzby added
that the “culture has turned around” and that “the midshipmen have taken
ownership of the issue.”

He said his
second priority is to ensure that the Ready Reserve Force (RRF) is “ready to
answer the call.”

The RRF is a
fleet of sealift ships kept in a reduced operating status manned by a skeleton
crew that can be activated for service normally in five days, though some are
activated for use on occasion, including two serving today. No-notice
activations are conducted each year to test the ability to get underway. Buzby
is concerned that some of the RRF ships are so old that many parts are not even
manufactured any more.

“Today, the
RRF is at 76% readiness,” he said.

Buzby said
programs are underway to modernize the RRF, including service-life extensions
for some ships out to 60 years; buying newer used ships and modernizing them;
and building new ships. The first two ships are being procured with $61 million
by 2021.

The MARAD
administrator’s third priority is to make a vigorous defense of the Jones Act,
a 99-year-old law — officially the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 — that in
general requires that cargoes carried between U.S. ports be carried on ships
that are U.S.-built, U.S.-crewed and U.S-owned.

The Jones Act
is “under attack on many, many fronts,” he said.

There are
about 40,000 Jones Act-compliant vessels of all sizes in the United States but
only 99 are large, ocean-going vessels, he said, plus 81 are involved in
international trade. Together, those 180 ships proved the employment pool of
merchant mariners to provide crews for the RRF.

“We’re about
1,800 mariners short,” Buzby said, about 45 ships worth of crew members. “We
need more places for people to work in peacetime.”

“If you took
the Jones Act away, those American jobs would, in all likelihood, go away,” he
said. “You are talking about the majority of the ships that employ
unlimited-tonnage mariners, so it would have a tremendous impact on our
national security and our economic security.”

One challenge with the RRF is that ship engineers with experience with steam plants are increasingly fading away, but 24 of the 46 RRF ships are steam-powered. Buzby also said that MARAD expects to award $293 million early next year in a port infrastructure development program. MARAD typically spends $20 million each year for small shipyard initiatives and $7 million in marine highway grants.

See video of Buzby’s Navy League speech here.

NASHUA, New Hampshire — BAE Systems has received a Block 4 modernization
contract award from Lockheed Martin to enhance the offensive and defensive
electronic warfare capabilities of the F-35 Lightning II fighter, BAE said in a
release.

Under the contract, BAE Systems will modernize its AN/ASQ-239 Electronic Warfare/Countermeasures (EW/CM) system to address emerging threats.

“The F-35 will be in service for decades, and we’re
committed to providing our pilots with an AN/ASQ-239 capability that affords a
decisive and sustained EW operational advantage,” said Deborah
Norton, vice president of F-35 Solutions at BAE Systems. “Our robust, modular
architecture enables us to efficiently insert new capabilities, supporting the
next wave of technical innovation while proactively addressing total product
lifecycle sustainability.”

BAE Systems has been the EW supplier for the F-35 program for the past 14 years, designing and developing the Block 1, Block 2 and Block 3 configurations, and delivering production units for each of the Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) Lots 1-11. The Block 4 program is a multiyear, multicontract design and development effort that will add 11 new capabilities to the EW system.

BAE Systems has delivered more than 500 F-35 AN/ASQ-239 EW/CM shipsets to date and is matching aircraft production with continual on-time delivery as the program ramps to full-rate production.

The Marine Corps’ top combat development officer told an
unmanned systems forum that the Corps is looking for families of unmanned systems
that will allow small units to persist and survive inside an enemy’s
weapons-engagement zone, such as those China is creating in the Western
Pacific.

One of the key systems the Marines want is an unmanned
long-range surface vessel that could link up with amphibious or support ships
far from the threat zone and move personnel or supplies to Marines conducting
Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO), Lt. Gen. Eric M. Smith said Aug.
20. The service also is still pursuing a large Group Five unmanned aircraft
under the Marine Air Ground Task Force UAS Expeditionary (MUX) program.

“The goal is for us to be able to persist inside that
weapons engagement zone of any adversary, to create problems and challenges, to
make that adversary change his behavior or change the course of actions they
are intending to pursue,” said Smith, who is commander of the Marine Corps
Combat Development Command.

Smith told the AUVSI Unmanned Systems forum that the Marines
were interested in all types of unmanned platforms — surface, subsurface,
aviation and ground. But they are looking for relatively inexpensive families
of systems that can be fielded in significant numbers, “because there is a
quality in quantity.”

Smith, who recently took the MCCDC post after commanding the
Okinawa-based III Marine Expeditionary Force, said everything they buy “has to
have range to get us out in the Pacific … because the ranges are stunning. … It
is stunningly difficult to maneuver and to get around in the Pacific.”

The general urged the industry representatives in the
audience to read the planning guidance released last month by Marine Corps
Commandant Gen. David H. Berger because it sets the path the Corps is to
follow. That future will include conducting EABO missions, which he likened to
“a raid. We’re going to go in, grab a piece of terrain, to do some refueling,
perhaps launch a few long-range precision missiles, and then we’re coming out.
When I say coming out, we’re not leaving the engagement zone, we’re just moving.
… I need systems that allow me to get in, get out. Whether it’s moving people
or things.”

“If we can persist … inside that weapons engagement zone at
a company, platoon level,” they could “be more than a nuisance. We can be a
lethal force, that causes an enemy to divert their course of action.”

Smith said he recently observed a simulation of the long-range surface vessel that the Corps is considering. In response to a Seapower question, he said evaluators were using an 11-meter rigid inflatable boat with unmanned controls to test the concept. “What we’re looking for is a long-range vessel that has the ability to do resupply, to move personnel, or cargo, that can move over long distances” in the kind of sea states prevalent in the Western Pacific.

“We need things that will link up with ships to offload things that we bring” and move them independently in and out of the EABO site. Asked about the MUX, which has gone through several changes in required capabilities, Smith said he was making a trip to the West Coast with Maj. Gen. Steven Rudder, the deputy commandant for aviation, to review the latest ideas for it.

WALLOPS
ISLAND TEST FACILITY, Va. — Raytheon Co. and the U.S. Navy completed the first
system-level tests of SPY-6(V)2, the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR),
at the Surface Combat System Center at Wallops Island, Virginia, Raytheon said
in a statement.

In the
first test the radar searched for, detected, identified and tracked numerous
targets — including commercial aircraft. In a second exercise, the maturity of
EASR integration enabled the radar to track multiple targets continuously for
several hours during a test involving another system.

EASR, the
newest sensor in the Navy’s SPY-6 family of radars, provides simultaneous
anti-air and anti-surface warfare, electronic protection and air traffic
control for aircraft carriers and amphibious warfare ships.

“Moving
quickly from radar installation at Wallops Island to ‘tracks on glass’ in less
than three months is a major accomplishment,” said Navy Capt. Jason Hall, program
manager for above water sensors, Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare
Systems. “The EASR program is progressing extremely well. We are now one step
closer to production and delivering the radar’s unmatched capability to the
surface fleet.”

Two
variants of EASR are being built: a single-face rotating array designated
AN/SPY-6(V)2 for amphibious assault ships and Nimitz-class carriers and a three
fixed-face array designated AN/SPY-6(V)3 for Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft
carriers and the future FFG(X) guided missile frigates.

Both versions of EASR are built on scalable Radar Modular Assembly, or RMA, technology as well as a software baseline that has been matured through development and test successes of AN/SPY-6(V)1, the Navy’s program of record for the DDG 51 Flight III destroyers. These individual radars can integrate to form arrays of various sizes to address any mission on any ship. EASR also adds air traffic control and weather capabilities to the mature SPY-6 software baseline.

Upon completion of system-level testing in the fourth quarter of 2019, EASR will shift from the engineering and manufacturing development phase to the production phase. The first delivery of AN/SPY-6(V)2 will be to LHA 8, the third America-class amphibious assault ship.