BREMERTON, Wash. — The Los
Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Pittsburgh (SSN-720) arrived on May 28 at
Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton, Washington, to start the inactivation and
decommissioning process, commander, Submarine Group 9 said in a release.

Under the command of Cmdr.
Jason Deichler, a Pittsburgh native, the submarine departed Naval Submarine
Base New London in Groton, Connecticut, and made its first arctic transit for
its final homeport change.

“We are the first second
flight 688 to complete an arctic transit from Groton to Bremerton for an
inactivation,” Deichler said. “It was an amazing transit, one that it unique to
submarines. There aren’t too many people in the history of the world, let alone
the submarine force, let alone the Navy, that have done that transit under the
ice.”

Pittsburgh completed its
most recent deployment Feb. 25, 2019. During the deployment, the boat and her
crew steamed more than 39,000 nautical miles and conducted three foreign port
visits.

“All I heard from the crew
during the transit was ‘this is the last,’” Deichler said. “This is the last
meal; this is the last time we are going to eat Pittsburgh steak on Pittsburgh;
this is the last turn; this is the last shut down. So, the pride that they have
in the ship is amazing, the best I have ever seen on any ship I have ever
served.”

The submarine’s ability to
support a multitude of missions, including anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface
ship warfare, strike warfare, surveillance and reconnaissance, made Pittsburgh
one of the most capable submarines in the world.

“It is a bittersweet
feeling to be the last operational commanding officer of Pittsburgh,” Deichler
said. “I am a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, so the boat has a special
meaning to me. It is bittersweet to see Pittsburgh come for a final mooring
here in Bremerton, but I know it will help the Navy in her future mission as we
bring more Virginia-class submarines out online and we get our technology
upgraded.”

During the inactivation
process, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility will
defuel the submarine, with the hull retained in safe storage until decommissioning.

“The 35 years of USS
Pittsburgh has been an amazing 35 years,” Deichler said. “We have been involved
in two Tomahawk strike exercises and a multitude of missions vital to national
security. What I really hope that the public remembers of our ship and our crew
is the hard working men and women that helped build the submarine, utilizing
materials from Pittsburgh, companies from Pittsburgh, and the support I got
from the citizens of Pittsburgh; and then the crew itself, as they supported
the ship and conducted operations over these 35 years.”

Commissioned Nov. 23, 1985,
Pittsburgh is the fourth U.S. Navy vessel to be named for the city of
Pittsburgh. The boat’s mission is to seek out and destroy enemy ships and
submarines and to protect U.S. national interests. At 360-feet-long and 6,900
tons, Pittsburgh can be armed with sophisticated Mk48 advanced-capability
torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles.

NORFOLK,
Va. — The U.S. 2nd Fleet declared the command has achieved initial operational
capability (IOC) May 29, less than one year after being established by senior
military leaders, U.S. 2nd Fleet Public Affairs said in a May 29 release.

Vice Adm.
Andrew “Woody” Lewis, commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet, made the announcement onboard
Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, the waterfront homeport of many 2nd Fleet
maritime assets.

“The North
Atlantic has some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and with the opening
of waterways in the Arctic, this traffic will only grow,” Lewis said. “This is
a fact acknowledged by both our allies and competitors, and as such, it is
critically important U.S. 2nd Fleet reinvigorates the way our forces are
employed in this influential theater.”

In
achieving IOC, the command has reached the capability to command and control
forces assigned, as is expected of a numbered fleet, utilizing the functions
and processes of the Maritime Operations Center and Maritime Headquarters.

“The North Atlantic has some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and with the opening of waterways in the Arctic, this traffic will only grow,” Lewis said. “This is a fact acknowledged by both our allies and competitors, and as such, it is critically important U.S. 2nd Fleet reinvigorates the way our forces are employed in this influential theater.”

Vice Adm. Andrew “Woody” Lewis

By
focusing on the high-end training and employment of assigned assets, the new
2nd Fleet will be postured to support the employment of forces, whether that is
on the Western side of the Atlantic, the Eastern side of the Atlantic, or up
into the Arctic.

A few days
after achieving IOC, the new fleet will lead Exercise Baltic Operations
(BALTOPS), marking the first time the fleet will operate in the European
theater, and leveraging increased lethality, interoperability and integrated
warfighting capability with allies and partners in the region.

“BALTOPS
2019 is our collective opportunity to promote peace and security through
cooperation, collaboration, interoperability, and an unambiguous display of
strength in the Baltic region,” Lewis said. “As an alliance, increasing our
capabilities across all-domains as well as building a command-wide network will
give us the ability to deter aggression and project stability.”

U.S. 2nd
Fleet exercises operational and administrative authorities over assigned ships,
aircraft and landing forces on the East Coast and the North Atlantic.
Additionally, it plans and conducts maritime, joint and combined operations as
well as trains and recommends certification of combat ready naval forces for
maritime employment and operations around the globe.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy has allocated
funds for long-lead components for the next production lot of the MQ-4C Triton
high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles, including one for Royal
Australian Air Force (RAAF), according to a May 30 Defense Department contract
announcement.

The Naval Air Systems Command has awarded
to Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. a not-to-exceed $65 million advance
acquisition contract toward the Lot 5 low-rate initial production of three
Tritons, two for the U.S. Navy and one for the RAAF. The contract also provides
for three ground stations, two for the U.S. Navy and one for the RAAF.

As of last month, Northrop Grumman had
delivered three production MQ-4Cs to the U.S. Navy.

The Australian government has identified a
requirement for seven Tritons for the maritime surveillance role. Two have been
ordered to date.

The U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Patrol Squadron 19,
the first Triton squadron, is on track to deploy the Triton for an Early
Operational Capability deployment to Guam later this year. It will take two
MQ-4Cs to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam to support the U.S. 7th Fleet.

Rear Adm. Brian Corey, program executive
officer for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons, speaking May 6 at the Navy
League’s Sea-Air-Space expo in National Harbor, Maryland, said the two Tritons
making the first deployment will be in the aircraft’s baseline configuration.

The baseline configuration, Integrated
Functional Capability 3 (IFC 3) includes the Northrop Grumman AN/ZPY-3
Multi-Function Active Sensor (MFAS) maritime radar, Raytheon MTS-B electro-optical/infrared
sensor turret, Automatic Identification System receiver and an electronic
support measures system.

Corey said the current priority of the
Triton program is to “put forward the IFC 4 [Integrated Functional Capability
4] capability [in the Triton] to do much of the EP-3E mission.”

The MQ-4C is scheduled to replace the EP-3E
electronic reconnaissance aircraft when the UAV’s IFC 4 multi-intelligence
capability is installed and certified for operations.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Digital technology marked the exact location where Huntington Ingalls Industries landed the island onto the flight deck of the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) during a ceremony May 29 at the company’s shipbuilding division, the company said in a release. The event coincided with the birthday of the carrier’s namesake, President John F. Kennedy.

“Landing
the island is a key milestone in preparing the ship for launch in the fall,”
said Jennifer Boykin, president of Newport News Shipbuilding. “Reaching this
milestone on schedule demonstrates the significant lessons learned we are
applying to this ship’s construction as well as the strides we’ve made to use
new technologies to gain efficiencies.”

The 588-ton island, which will serve as the command-and-control center for flight deck operations, is one of the last steel structures, known as a superlift, to be placed onto the ship, signifying that the Kennedy is a step closer to being launched.

The
ship is being built in sections with more outfitted equipment — valves, pipe,
electrical panels, mounting studs, lighting, ventilation and other components —
than any other aircraft carrier built at Newport News. The use of new
technologies, including digital work instructions that provide shipbuilders
digital 3D data versus traditional paper drawings, has increased efficiency and
productivity.

With the island, the Kennedy is more than 90% structurally complete. The island stands 72 feet above the flight deck and is 56 feet long and 33 feet wide.

In
keeping with the Navy tradition, Capt. Todd Marzano, the ship’s commanding
officer, placed his aviator wings underneath the island during the ceremony.
This custom, known as mast-stepping, recognizes an ancient maritime custom of
placing a coin at the base of a mast of a ship under construction to bring good
fortune.

“It’s an absolute honor and privilege to be selected as the first commanding officer of the new aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy, and I’m truly humbled to be joining such an impressive team of highly talented shipbuilders who have worked so hard to make this historic event possible,” Marzano said.

“Landing the island on the flight deck is a significant construction milestone, bringing John F. Kennedy one very important step closer to being commissioned into the fleet, where its value to our nation cannot be overstated.”

Caroline
Kennedy, President Kennedy’s daughter, serves as the ship’s sponsor. She could
not participate in the May 29 event but shared a 1964 silver Kennedy half
dollar that Marzano placed under the island house.

“The
island landing is an important milestone in the life of this ship,” Caroline Kennedy
wrote in a letter. “I know how proud my father would be of the ship that will
bear his name and the patriotism and dedication of all who sail in her.”

Boykin
placed a Newport News Shipbuilding president’s coin, which was designed to
recognize dedication, service and leadership — three qualities that the ship
and its crew will demonstrate when they set sail in our nation’s defense, she
explained.

The
other ceremony participants — James Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for
research, development and acquisition; Rear Adm. Roy J. Kelley, commander,
Naval Air Force Atlantic; and Rear Adm. Brian Antonio, program executive officer
for aircraft carriers — also placed coins.

A
time capsule containing all the items placed under the island will be welded
into the ship at a later time.

The Kennedy is scheduled to move from the dry dock to an outfitting berth in the fourth quarter of 2019, three months ahead of schedule. The ship’s christening is planned for later this year.

More than 4,500 shipbuilders and 2,000 suppliers from across the country are supporting the construction of the new aircraft carrier.

After years
and years of waiting, the last variant of the Joint Strike Fighter — the F-35C Lightning
II — is officially operational. But it’s still a couple of years away from
making an impact on the high seas — and some questions about the plane remain.

The U.S. Navy
on Feb. 28 declared that the F-35C, the aircraft carrier-capable variant of the
fifth-generation stealth fighter, had reached initial operational capability
(IOC). The Marine Corps vertical-lift F-35B and the Air Force conventional F-35A
variants already have been declared operational.

The first
F-35C squadron, Strike Fighter Squadron 147, completed carrier qualifications
aboard the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) as a precursor to IOC. All that remains is
a couple of years of preparations until the first squadron deploys aboard the
Carl Vinson.

However,
issues still surround the aircraft, which was plagued by development and
production delays over its history.

A report
issued in March by nonprofit watchdog Project on Government Oversight declared
that the F-35 was “far from ready to face current or future threats,” citing
data that allegedly shows “unacceptably low” mission-capable rates. The
watchdog group also stated that the F-35 was initially promised at $38 million
per plane but that they now average $158.4 million apiece.

Despite all
the questions that surrounded the program for years, the plane is here. And the
Navy is preparing to introduce its variant into the fleet.

The IOC was a
joint declaration between the Navy and Marine Corps, because the aircraft will
be flown by both services. In the six months before that, the “last couple of
pieces” began coming together for the program — training, crews and the like,
Brian Neunaber, one of two national deputies for the Navy’s F-35 program, said in
an interview with Seapower.

“So we have
airplanes,” Neunaber said. “VFA-147 immediately reported to Carrier Air Wing
Two. It’s involved with unit-level training, and they will commence air-wing
workups, probably in the middle of next year.”

That said,
the F-35C is still a couple years away from actual deployment. Their first ship
— the Carl Vinson — is in drydock at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for repairs and
modernization after concluding a busy deployment cycle.

“She’ll come
out of the shipyard in the middle of 2020, and shortly thereafter the entire
air wing will start working up with Carl Vinson, and sometime in the middle of
2021,” the first deployment is expected, Neunaber said, noting that the
deployment after that would probably take place six months later, and
eventually all carriers would be flying the F-35C.

The Vinson’s F-35C
squadron will consist of 10 planes. Every air wing in the fleet eventually each
will have a squadron of 10 aircraft before the Navy goes to two squadrons per
carrier, he said. The program of record stands at 340 F-35Cs, Neunaber added.

Doubts, Praise for F-35C

Of the three JSF
variants, the F-35C is the one that is “not in a particularly good place,” said
Richard Aboulafia, Teal Group’s vice president of analysis.

Aboulafia said
he believes that, though the Navy is going ahead with purchasing the aircraft,
the sea service isn’t enthusiastic about the F-35C. He noted that the Navy
wants to keep buying the F-35C’s predecessor, the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and
that appetite hasn’t seemed to diminish as the F-35C finally reaches IOC.

The Navy has
a lot of reasons to hedge its bets, he argued.

“Why pay the
up-front price at all — rather than wait for someone else to drive down the
cost?” he said, also noting that the Navy “is less convinced themselves that [the
F-35C] has much value at sea. There’s also an institutional preference for
twin-engine fighters.”

Aboulafia also
claimed the F-35C could diminish the Navy’s case for large-deck carriers. “If
the [F35B] works, and Marines deploy Bs and Cs together and the difference isn’t
all that great, then you have a situation where the case for large carriers is
a little undercut,” he said.

In a worst-case
scenario — at least for a sea service that wants to keep operating a fleet of
large aircraft carriers — the Navy could lose support for even a carrier fleet
of 10 ships and see an argument for smaller carriers supplemented by amphibious
ships gain a lot of steam, Aboulafia argued.

Though many
have expressed doubts about the Navy’s enthusiasm about the F-35C, the service
has continued to publicly and emphatically support the fighter. The Navy argues
that the F-35C offers the latest in technology and is perfectly suited to fight
a modern war.

“The F-35C is
ready for operations, ready for combat and ready to win,” the commander of Naval
Air Forces, Vice Adm. DeWolfe Miller, said in a statement following the
declaration of the fighter’s IOC. “We are adding an incredible weapon system
into the arsenal of our carrier strike groups that significantly enhances the
capability of the joint force.”

Capt. Max
McCoy, commodore of the Navy’s Joint Strike Fighter Wing, predicted that the
F-35C would make us “more combat effective than ever before.”

“We will
continue to learn and improve ways to maintain and sustain F-35C as we prepare
for first deployment,” McCoy added in a statement. “The addition of
F-35C to existing carrier air wing capability ensures that we can fight and win
in contested battlespace now and well into the future.”

Some 10,000 Marines and Sailors stretched their
logistical muscles to support and supply sea-based operations during a major
exercise to prepare naval expeditionary forces for enemy threats and a
potential future fight across an island-dotted battlespace.

During Pacific Blitz 2019, they built expeditionary
bases, cleared and repaired an airfield and seaport, resupplied units on land
and warships at sea, and created medical care, refueling and rearming
positions. The exercise, held March 12 through March 31 in Southern California,
combined two regular training events — maritime prepositioning exercise Pacific
Horizon and amphibious integration exercise Dawn Blitz.

The force-level training event for I Marine Expeditionary
Force and the Navy’s 3rd Fleet, supported by Naval Expeditionary Combatant
Command (NECC), focused on distributed maritime operations with emphasis on
expeditionary logistics and sea control. That includes operational capabilities
to refuel, resupply, repair, and rearm expeditionary forces dispersed at sea
and ashore — and likely against capable, peer-like enemy forces. Those missions
are critical to the Marine Corps and Navy concepts of Distributed Maritime
Operations (DMO), Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment (LOCE) and
Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO).

The campaign-level exercise required fleet and force
battle staffs to integrate and “action officers work through the pains of: how
do you actually do this, how do you coordinate, do our systems talk well to
each other and how do we get better at those pieces,” said Lt. Cmdr. John
Ruggiero, a lead planner at NECC headquarters in Virginia Beach, Virginia,
exercise liaison to 3rd Fleet and I MEF. Both sides want “to ensure that we
continue to build on what we’ve learned, to make sure we document what we’ve
learned and keep that going.” Lessons learned will wrap into follow-on
exercises such as Large-Scale Exercise 2020, Ruggiero said.

NECC provided something of a bridge supporting fleet and
force missions in the battlespace, where expeditionary advanced bases, advanced
naval bases, sea bases, airfields and ports provided logistical hubs to support
and sustain operational forces.

“We are constantly looking for opportunities like Pacific
Blitz where we can demonstrate this capability,” said Cmdr. Brian Cummings,
NECC explosive ordnance disposal planner and exercise liaison to 3rd Fleet and
I MEF. “When people think Navy, they think airplanes, they think carriers, they
think DDGs and they think submarines — but they’re not necessarily thinking
expeditionary teams of four to 10 people that are thinking of putting missiles
back on DDGs in disassociated locations.”

Sailors worked with 1st Marine Logistics Group to
construct advanced naval bases and facilities at simulated “islands” in the
scenario-based exercise. In a first, they removed and unpacked an Expeditionary
Medical Facility from the roll-on/roll-off cargo ship USNS Sgt. William R.
Button (T-AK-3012), set it up at an expeditionary base at Camp Pendleton,
California, and later broke it down, packed it up and reloaded it onto Button.

Navy Seabees at five sites built several berthing areas,
did concrete slab and masonry work, repaired a damaged airfield, repaired and
rebuilt a 3.5-mile gravel road and, in a proof-of-concept, built a
90,000-square-foot heavy equipment storage area with a 24-foot wide, 8-foot
tall berm.

“The best part of this exercise was all these projects were
real-world projects, with the exception of the berm … being utilized by their
customers,” said Builder 1st Class Jacob Kusay of Naval Mobile Construction
Battalion 5.

But it wasn’t just about construction. The road and berm
projects were part of the realistic battle scenarios, Kusay said, so “we set up
our own 360-degree security, maintained their own security watch 24/7 until the
project was completed.”

More than 100 Marines with Marine Aviation Logistics
Squadron 16 packed their mobile facilities onto aviation logistics ship SS
Curtiss (T-AVB-4) at Port Hueneme, California, and got underway to do aircraft
maintenance at sea, a new experience for maintainers accustomed to working in
hangars and airfields.

“That’s kind of why we do this, to operate outside our
comfort zone to expand our capabilities,” said Capt. Mark Stone, supply officer
with 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing’s aviation logistics department. Stone helped
coordinate movements by boats and MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotors and CH-53E Super
Stallion heavy-lift helicopters to and from the Curtiss.

The Marine Corps relies on Curtiss and SS Wright (T-AVB-3)
on the East Coast to provide at-sea intermediate-level maintenance of rotary
and fixed-wing aircraft. Marines repaired, tested or maintained aircraft parts
brought to the ship. Those they couldn’t fix were sent to the depot for
overhaul. Marines “repaired a significant amount of components for us to get
back to MALS-16 to support the flight line,” Stone said. By the end of the
exercise, Marines on the ship had fixed or repaired 134 components, Maj. James
Moore, MALS-16 operations officer, said in an email.

Pacific Blitz provided a rare, hands-on training in an
expeditionary ordnance reload operation typically handled by Navy Munitions
Command teams. It was the first time Navy Cargo Handling Battalion 1 did the
rapid resupply mission, a new capability the Navy is weighing expanding since
the future distributed battlespace may require other units to rapidly resupply
and reload warships.

Sailors used a forklift and crane to load an SM-2 missile
into a vertical launch system tube on guided-missile destroyer USS Michael
Murphy (DDG-112) March 13 at Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, California.

“It gave us a great overview, start to finish, of how
would we do this down range as far as transportation, getting equipment
supplies and ordnance from point A to point B,” said Chief Aviation Ordnanceman
Raymond Gibree, senior adviser with the reload team.

“We garnered a tremendous amount of experience with the reps
and sets we got, under the oversight of NMC,” Gibree said. “We are expected to
do this mission in many different locations, under many different circumstances
and under permissive, hostile and uncertain areas.”

The scenario
included transporting the team on two Navy ships and utility landing craft to
reach Michael Murphy. It helped “make sure we can provide that capability to
the fleet in more locations, more responsive to their requirements,” Ruggiero
said, “wherever they happen to be.”

NORFOLK,
Va. — Military Sealift Command’s last champion class T-5 petroleum tanker, USNS
Lawrence H. Gianella (T-AOT 1125), completed its final underway mission for the
U.S. Navy by sailing down the Elisabeth River to downtown Norfolk, Virginia, in
support of National Maritime Day on May 23.

Christened
April 19, 1986, Gianella’s primary role has been to perform point-to-point
delivery of petroleum products to Department of Defense storage and
distribution facilities worldwide.

“USNS
Lawrence H. Gianella is the last and longest serving U.S. government-owned
champion class T-5 tanker,” said Matthew Sweeney, Military Sealift Command
tanker project officer. “As the longest serving T-5 tanker she moved more
petroleum for the U.S. military than any other vessel in U.S. military
history.”

Gianella “was
the last of five T-5 tankers built,” said Capt. Robert J. Mills III, USNS
Lawrence H. Gianella’s ship master since 1998. “The Gianella is a liaison
between commercial petroleum terminals and Department of Defense fuel
facilities around the world.”

The other
T-5 tankers in the U.S. Navy’s inventory were the MV Gus. W. Darnell
(ATO-1121), USNS Paul Buck (T-AOT 1122), USNS Richard G. Matthiesen (T-AOT
1124) and the USNS Samuel L. Cobb (T-AOT 1123).

“Military
Sealift Command operated its T-5 tankers in each of its five area commands, MSC
Atlantic, MSC Pacific, MCS Central, MSC Far East and MSC Europe and Africa,” Mills
added.

USNS Gianella
is the last noncombat logistics force petroleum tanker in MSC service capable
of providing underway replenishment-at-sea services with combatants using the
modular fuel distribution system (MFDS), according to Sweeney.

“Fuel is
the lifeblood of the U.S. Navy’s combatant fleet,” Mills said. “USNS Lawrence
H. Gianella is able to restock MSC’s fleet oilers and Navy combatant ships
while at sea using its two refueling stations. We would pull into port and
bring fuel to our fleet oilers so that they could remain at sea.”

Over the
course of USNS Lawrence H. Gianella’s service, the ship has provided direct
support to the warfighters in multiple wars.

“During
the Iran-Iraq War in 1988, USNS Gianella supported U.S. fleet and convoy
operations in the Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf by providing fuel consolidation
(CONSOL) support to MSC fleet oilers,” Sweeney said. “The ship also provided
CONSOL and petroleum logistics support for Operation Desert Shield, Operation
Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.”

As an ice-class
oil tanker USNS Lawrence H. Gianella has performed numerous Arctic and
Antarctic resupply missions since the mid-1980s.

JACKSONVILLE,
Fla. — The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Valiant returned home May 27 to Naval
Station Mayport following a nine-week counter-drug patrol in the eastern Pacific,
the Coast Guard 7th District said in a release.

The Valiant
crew patrolled more than 14,000 nautical miles in the eastern Pacific in
support of Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-S).

While on
patrol, the crew interdicted two go-fast smuggling vessels, seized 2,718 pounds
of cocaine worth over $41 million and apprehended three suspected drug
smugglers. The crew ensured the safe and efficient transfer of all suspected
smugglers, evidence and narcotics to the United States for future prosecution.

“The
noteworthy results of Valiant’s patrol underscore what a well-trained crew can
accomplish with a still highly-capable 51-year-old Coast Guard cutter,” said
Cmdr. Matthew Waldron, Valiant’s commanding officer.

While on a
port of call in Chiapas, Mexico, a contingent of the Valiant crew dedicated a
day to a local surf mission, cleaning beaches and playing soccer and volleyball
with local children. Its navigation through the Panama Canal earned the crew
the “Order of the Ditch” nautical certificate.

The Valiant
is a multimission 210-foot medium-endurance cutter. Missions include search and
rescue, maritime law enforcement, marine environmental protection, homeland
security and national defense operations.

ARLINGTON, Va. — Ceremonies and a flyaway May 23 at Eglin Air
Force Base, Florida, marked the deactivation of the Navy’s first F-35C fleet
replacement squadron and its consolidation with the second F-35C FRS as the
service moves to conduct all F-35C flight training at one base.

Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 101, the “Grim Reapers,” officially
will be deactivated on July 1, but the deactivation ceremonies were held May
23. The squadron flew out its last F-35Cs on that date to Naval Air Station Lemoore,
California, the home of VFA-125, the FRS that is training future F-35C pilots
and conducting transition training of VFA squadrons to the F-35C.

Reactivated in 2012 at Eglin AFB, VFA-101 has been training
instructor and test pilots to fly the F-35C Lightning II strike fighter. The
Navy decided to reactivate VFA-125 at NAS Lemoore to become an F-35C FRS.
VF-125 conducted the transition of the first fleet F-35C squadron, VFA-147,
which took the F-35C to Initial Operational Capability in February. VFA-147 is
scheduled to deploy on board USS Carl Vinson in 2021.

Although it is not of the lineage of World War II’s Fighter
Squadron 10 (VF-10), VFA-101 adopted the Grim Reaper traditions of the famous
squadron. VF-10 flew the F4F Wildcat and later F6F-3 Hellcat off USS Enterprise
(CV-6) in the Pacific during WWII. The squadron later deployed twice into
combat on board USS Intrepid (CV-11) in 1945, first with F4U-1D and later F4U-4
Corsair fighters. VF-10 was deactivated in 1945.

VF-101 was activated in 1952 at NAS Cecil Field, Florida, and took
on the nickname and traditions of VF-10 “Grim Reapers.” VF-101 flew F4U-4 Corsairs
in the Korean War and went on to operate the F2H Banshee, F4D Skyray, F3H
Demon, F-4 Phantom II and the F-14 Tomcat. VF-101 was deactivated in September
2005.

The squadron was reactivated in May 2012 as the F-35C FRS.
According to a May 23 release from the Joint Strike Fighter Wing, VFA-101 trained
more than 75 Navy and Marine Corps F-35C pilots, accepted more than 30
aircraft, trained more than 1,200 F-35C maintainers and flew nearly 11,000
flight hours.

“The contributions that VFA-101 has made to the F-35C community
will not diminish as this program grows,” VFA-101’s commanding officer, Cmdr.
Adan Covarrubias, said in the release. “The original cadre of maintainers and
pilots have left a legacy that is evidenced in all aspects of this community. Their
influence will continue long after the squadron’s doors are closed.”

KEY WEST,
Fla.— The Coast Guard interdicted 10 Cuban migrants and two suspected smugglers
on May 21 about 12 miles off Villa Clara Province, Cuba, the Coast Guard 7th
District said in a release.

Coast Guard
7th District watchstanders received notification of an illegal departure of a
30-foot go-fast vessel with 12 people aboard in the vicinity of Villa Clara
Province.

A Coast Guard
Air Station Miami HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft crew located the vessel and
vectored the Coast Guard Cutter Raymond Evans (WPC-1110) crew to the location,
where the crew embarked 10 males and two females. The Evans crew repatriated
the 10 Cuban migrants back to their home. The two suspected smugglers were
transferred into Homeland Security Investigations custody.

“The
Coast Guard maintains a focused and coordinated effort with multiple agency
assets to interdict any attempt to unlawfully immigrate by sea to the United
States,” said Rear Adm. Peter J. Brown, commander of Coast Guard 7th District.

The 7th
District, based in Miami, Florida, oversees all Coast Guard operations in South
Carolina, Georgia and Florida as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin
Islands.

Brown is also
the director of Homeland Security Task Force Southeast, a standing multiagency
team that unifies the whole of government effort to monitor, identify, mitigate
and respond to large-scale migration events.

About 290
Cuban migrants have tried to illegally enter the U.S. by sea in fiscal year
2019 compared to 384 in fiscal 2018. These numbers represent the total number
of at-sea interdictions, landings and disruptions in the Florida Straits, the
Caribbean and Atlantic.

Once aboard a
Coast Guard cutter, all migrants receive food, water, shelter and basic medical
attention.