NATIONAL HARBOR,
Md. — The meeting of Navy leaders with submarine shipbuilding industry
officials, planned for this month, will focus on integrating the production of
the Columbia-class ballistic missile sub and the future Virginia-class attack
boats, the Navy’s top acquisition executive said May 7.

The biggest issue is removing any conflict in the production of the two classes of submarines, which will be built by the same two shipyards — Newport News and Electric Boat, James Geurts, the assistant Navy secretary for research, development and acquisition, told reporters after his luncheon speech at the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space exposition. The concern is the impact on Columbia if Virginia production “gets out the box,” Geurts said. That issue could become acute in five years when both submarines are in serial production.

The planned
meeting was announced by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, who
said it would seek to add back some of the schedule margin for Columbia that
has been eroded by production problems. Maintaining the schedule for Columbia
is crucial, because the first boat must be ready for its strategic deterrence
patrol in 2031 when the first of the Ohio-class ballistic missile subs is
forced to retire.

If any conflict in production emerges, Geurts said, the priority will be Columbia.

One another
current acquisition issue, Geurts minimized the impact from President Donald
Trump’s decision to reverse the Navy’s budget proposal to retire the aircraft
carrier Harry S. Truman rather than put it through the planned mid-life nuclear
refueling and overhaul, which would give it 25 years of additional service
life. Geurts said the change affected very little money in the fiscal 2020
budget, which is being processed in Congress. The cost of keeping Truman in service
and paying for the refueling and overhaul will be worked into the fiscal 2021
budget, and “we’ll do what needs to be done,” he said.

In his speech at
the Navy League luncheon, Geurts urged the industry and Navy officials in the
audience not to focus on sequestration and other budget problems but look at
what the Navy has accomplished in the last 18 months. “I’ve been incredibly
impressed with how fast this organization has changed,” he said.

He said the Navy
has saved about $30 billion through acquisition reform and has accelerated some
production systems by six to eight months, and industry is saving money through
innovation. He noted that the Navy would deliver 12 ships this year, more than
it has produced in decades. “We are getting tools out to the fleet,” he said.

NATIONAL
HARBOR, Md. — The first seven of Block II F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike
fighters have been inducted into the service-life modernization (SLM) at
Boeing’s St. Louis, Missouri, facility, while next month the company’s San
Antonino facility will induct its first Super Hornet.

Bob Kornegay,
Boeing’s capture team lead for F/A-18, briefing
reporters May 7 at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Expo in National Harbor,
Maryland, said the inducted jets will emerge as Block III Super Hornets with
their 6,000-hour life extended to 10,000 flight hours.

Boeing plans to process 40 Super Hornets
per year through the SLM sites, with production running through 2033.

Kornegay
described the Block III Super Hornet as having conformal over-wing fuel tanks,
freeing up two wing pylons for more weapons. The new version also will be
equipped with the Distributed Targeting Processor-Networked
(DTP-N), which incorporates the Tactical Targeting Network Technology
and produces a common operating picture. The Block II Infrared Search and Track
sensor will be installed in a centerline pod. With some additional coating
applied, the Block III will have a smaller radar cross-section and will feature
the Advanced Cockpit System.

This year the Navy issued a contract for
the fourth multiyear procurement for the Super Hornet, ordering 78 new Block
III Super Hornets over fiscal years 2019, 2020 and 2021. Production is planned
to continue through 2023, with 12 Super Hornets per year for three years.  

The two Super Hornets selected by Boeing
to be the test jets for the Block III program have been inducted into the
factory and will be ready to turn over the Navy at the end of the year, said Jennifer Tebo, director of Development
for the F/A-18 and EA-18G. This event had been accelerated by one year.

The conformal
fuel tanks were flown in February and March.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The new generation of Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen who are entering the force and in the early stages of their careers is, well, different. Such is the consensus among the three senior enlisted leaders who spoke at Sea-Air-Space 2019 on May 7.

On one hand, these
young people come into military service with an unprecedented technological
savvy. On the other, they have a greater need to know why they are given the
tasks they must complete. And they must be placed in the right jobs — with the
understanding that they should know how to perform other tasks necessary to
support the warfighting mission. 

“From my
perspective, as I’m looking at the Sailor standing in front of me, is there are
too many choices and options in time management,” said Master Chief Petty
Officer of the Navy Russell Smith. 

Young Sailors
understandably are attracted to service by incentives like tuition assistance
and the ability to take college courses while deployed on ships. Still, Smith
said, those Sailors must know how to do their jobs. 

“What you’re
expected to do under high stress in the middle of the night, with things
exploding around you or the ship sinking,” is critical, Smith said. So too is
the “ability to continue the fight.” 

Leaders, Smith
said, need to convince their younger charges that goals like the achievement of
associate degrees are worthwhile.

“Stay with us. We’ll
help you get there — but focus on your job,” Smith said. 

Smith said he
spent too much time in the accession pipeline to believe that the next
generation of Navy leaders is not up to the task. 

“By any measure,
we have more capable Sailors today than any time in our nation’s history,”
Smith said, mentioning that performance and retention went up due to recent
efforts to bolster physical standards and boot camp requirements. 

Sgt. Maj. Robin Fortner
of the Quantico, Virginia-based Marine Corps Systems Command, discussed the
need to show new recruits what the service can offer them. 

“We have to make
sure we have the right incentives for those with the right skills to stay,”
said Fortner, who was standing in on the panel for Sergeant Major of the Marine
Corps Ronald Green. 

Master Chief of
the Coast Guard Jason Vanderhaden emphasized the need to allow the service’s
young men and women to specialize in fields that are compatible with individual
skill sets. 

“They want to get
really good at their jobs,” Vanderhaden said. 

But like his
fellow panelists, Vanderhaden stressed that these Coastguardsmen also must be
able to perform missions like damage control, law enforcement or helicopter
landings that may be outside of their ratings. As the smallest armed service,
the Coast Guard needs everyone possible to fulfill mission requirements, he
said. Moreover, as the service gains from technological advances associated
with the largest recapitalization in service history, young members’ skill sets
must grow accordingly to keep pace. 

NATIONAL HARBOR,
Md. — The Navy is investing $21 billion in a multiphase program to improve the
efficiency of its government shipyards, which have struggled to get ships and
submarines back into service on time. The program is called the Shipyard
Industrial Optimization Plan, said Steve Lagana, program manager for the plan
in the Naval Sea Systems Command Industrial Division.

Speaking at a NAVSEA
briefing at the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space exposition May 7, Lagana
said the plan was developed in response to criticism from Congress, which has
complained about ships and submarines languishing in the yards or unable to get
in for required maintenance. A prime example of the problem is the three Los
Angeles-class attack boats that have lost their certification to sail due to
the overdue maintenance. The USS Boise has been waiting 18 months for its
required yard period.

The plan was
developed by a team of 40 engineers, Lagana said. The first two phases of the
plan were surveys of the yards and detailed analysis of the problems. Those
studies showed enormous inefficiencies created by the physical layout of the
yards, which had facilities providing parts or services to the dry docks in
some cases more than a mile apart.

Lagana showed
diagrams of the existing arrangements at the major yards and the planned
realignments, which would produce more compact and efficient facilities. At the
Puget Sound and Norfolk yards, the facilities serving submarines and
nuclear-power carriers would be separated and combined with their supporting
components.

“This is a whole
new way of thinking about the problem,” Lagana said. Ships in the yards do not
produce a lethal Navy, he said.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The Coast Guard plans to release its
fifth request for information (RFI) to industry in the coming months, as they
continue to gather information on how best to recapitalize their dated
waterways commerce cutter (WCC) fleet.

“This aging fleet, it is extremely important to our nation’s
economy,” Aileen Sedmak, manager of the WCC program, said during a floor
presentation at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space exposition May 7.

The 35-ship fleet consists of three cutter types, an inland
construction tender, a river buoy tender and an inland buoy tender. They
primarily operate along the Mississippi River and Great Lakes region. The ships
average 50 years of age and are responsible to making sure $4.6 trillion for
the nation’s economy per year is able to move freely in the inland waters.

In February, the service released an RFI asking for industry
to gather information about the state of the market and current industrial
capabilities to support pile-driving systems for the WCC program.

Sedmark said the recapitalization program is currently in
the analyze-select phase, which includes collaborating with the Navy’s Naval
Sea Systems Command to analyze needs and requirements.

“We are doing our due diligence,” she said.

The acquisition program will cost over $1 billion, and the
exact number of cutters needed remains uncertain. Sedmark said they would like
to have initial operational capability in fiscal 2024 and full operational
capability by fiscal 2030.

“This is a very critical mission right now,” she said.

Issues with the cutters currently include additional
maintenance requirements and lost operational time because of it.

Industry representatives at the presentation asked a series
of questions on production timelines, how many cutters may be in the fleet and
additional requirements that may needed on the cutters. 

Sedmark said she was uncertain when a request for proposal
would be issued or how many exact ships would be requested.

NATIONAL HARBOR,
Md. — The Navy is on track to award a contract for its new training helicopter by
the end of this calendar year, and Leonardo Helicopters believes it is in a
great position to win that competition, Andrew Gappy, director of the firm’s
Navy and Marine Corps programs, said May 7.

Leonardo is
offering the TH-119, a modified version of its widely used commercial
helicopter, which is serving as a trainer for the Portuguese Air Force and
Israel, Gappy said. A former Marine helicopter pilot, Gappy said the 119 has
the advantage of being the only one of the three competitors that is made in America,
at Leonardo’s full-service plant in Philadelphia. It also has a rugged, nearly
all metal airframe that can take the rough handling commonly endured by
training aircraft and has a single engine, which will reduce the long-term
maintenance and operating cost, he said.

Also competing to
replace the Navy’s current TH-57, which is used to train helicopter pilots for
the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, are Airbus, with its twin-engine
H-235P3, and Bell Helicopters, with the 407 GXi, an updated version of the Bell
206, which was the basis for the TH-57.

Gappy said all
three firms have submitted their proposals, which are being evaluated by the
Navy. The contract required an in-service helicopter, a ground training system
and a long-term sustainment proposal with projected cost. The winner will
produce 130 aircraft in five years, with the first five due by the end of the
fiscal 2020.

Gappy said the
TH-119 proposal was crafted with input from a team of former military
helicopter pilots. It is the highest power-rated single-engine helo in the
U.S., meets all of the Navy’s requirement and offers a low sustainment cost.
“It’s not just what the airplane can do; it’s the affordability of the
airplane,” he said.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Zumwalt-class of destroyers is experiencing a series of milestones as its program continues to refine its role in the fleet, according to a May 7 briefing at Sea-Air-Space 2019. The third and final DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer was just christened in the last couple of weeks, setting it up for a 2020 delivery. The DDG-1002 was christened on April 27, Capt. Kevin Smith, DDG-1000 program manager, said. The program also conducted the first live missile firings using the Zumwalt Combat System on April 26.

The program is looking into implementing a maritime strike version of the Tomahawk missile, and they are also looking at the SM-6 Block 1A, the captain said.

The Navy expects the DDG-1000 to take on a different role in the fleet compared to how it was originally envisioned. It was slated as a ship that could operate in the littorals, but now the Navy is shifting it to a more blue-water focus, Smith said.

“We are now an offensive surface strike platform — more blue water,” he said. “The Navy made a decision to go that way.”

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – As international incidents increase,
and the U.S. military begins an uptick in training exercises on global
positioning service (GPS) jamming, military leaders are looking more toward
industry for answers on how to combat the growing issue.

Paul Zweers, vice president of the global Aerospace, Defense
and Government business units for Orolia, said a few recent occurances are
putting a spotlight on the issue — including an incident last February, where
Finland and Norway suspected and accused Russia of GPS signal jamming during a
NATO-led drill.

“Operating in [a] Global Navigation Satellite System-denied
environment and GPS jamming and spoofing are the buzzwords everybody is talking
about,” he said.

GPS jamming occurs when radio frequency transmitters are
used to intentionally block or interfere with communication devices, such as a
GPS, cell phones and Wi-Fi networks. GPS spoofing involves the practice of
using fake GPS signals to trick equipment and send false location signals. 

“We have more proof, beside incidental jamming, that there’s
active spoofing and jamming going on in certain parts of the world. Everybody
is painfully aware this exists, and they are asking how we can we overcome this
and what are the solutions,” Zweers said during an interview on the show floor of
the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space exposition.

Orolia currently provides support for cybersecurity and
interoperability for the Department of Defense, and it is working on expanding its
SecureSync platform, which combines multi-GNSS signal synchronization options
BroadShield GPS anti-jamming/spoofing protection and superior low phase noise
capability for military systems.

“We have quite a broad portfolio, and in the coming years we
will be looking to expand our PNT [position navigation time] mission set,” he
said.

NATIONAL
HARBOR, Md. — The Marine Corps and the Army are running an analysis of
alternatives (AOA) to see whether the two services can meet the same requirements
for Milestone A or B start in fiscal 2021, a Marine helicopter acquisition
official said. The AOA is expected to be complete in the “next couple of
months.”

Speaking May
6 to an audience at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Expo in National Harbor,
Maryland, Marine Col. David C. Walsh, program manager for Marine light attack
helicopters, said the Marine Corps has begun studies for its Attack Utility
Replacement Aircraft to succeed the UH-1Y Venom and AH-1Z Viper helicopters.

The Corps
hopes to field the Future Vertical Lift Capabilities Set 3 by the late 2020s or
early 2030s, Walsh said.

A key
requirement for the Marine Corps is an aircraft that can keep up with or even
exceed the speed of an MV-22B Osprey, 310 knots.

Bell
Helicopter delivered the last of 160 UH-1Ys in April 2018 and has delivered 111
of 189 AH-1Zs to date. The last AH-1Z deliveries are scheduled for 2022.
Bahrain and Pakistan also have purchased AH-1Zs, while Turkey and Taiwan have
procured the older AH-1W.

Walsh said
that there is considerable foreign military sales potential for the UH-1Y and
AH-1Z. He listed potential for 88 AH-1Zs and 29 UH-1Ys in Europe, 129 AH-1Zs in
the Asia-Pacific region, and 44 AH-1Zs and 24 UH-1Ys in the Middle East and
North Africa.

Walsh also
said his office is working on capability upgrades to the Corps’ H-1 fleet,
including Link 16, full-motion video, the Joint Air-Ground Missile, and the
AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile, as well as some navigational upgrades.

NATIONAL HARBOR,
Md. — The nation’s strategic sealift has languished for too many years, a panel
of experts told an audience May 7 at Sea-Air-Space 2019. And the panel,
representing the military and civilian sea services, told the morning program attendees
that the time for revitalizing sealift is now. 

Countering the
somewhat bleak picture they drew, they all expressed optimism with the fact
that the issue is finally garnering the attention it deserves. 

“We are facing one
of the greatest maritime challenges in U.S. history,” said Kevin Toharsky, the
associate administrator of the U.S. Maritime Administration, who moderated the
panel. “The good news is the sea power we need … is back on the radar screen.”

Toharsky outlined
the significant decline in the number of U.S.-flagged merchant ships, which
meant the loss of jobs for mariners. The commercial fleet is essential to the
nation’s commerce and national security, he said. Commercial cargo of fuel and
goods rely on it, as does the military. In contrast, potential adversaries like
China are bolstering their maritime industries — and their world presence in
the process, he said. 

“I’m encouraged by
the greater awareness … and the conversation about the problem,” said Coast
Guard Rear Adm. John Nadeau, who is assistant commandant for prevention policy. 

Resolution,
however, “won’t be easy,” Nadeau said. “The material condition [of the merchant
fleet] didn’t happen overnight and won’t be corrected overnight.”

Ensuring that the
parties involved — including military and commercial stakeholders — are
striking the right partnerships, engaging in transparency and carrying out open
and frank dialogues, will set the nation on the right track, Nadeau said. 

“We need industry
support,” said Erica Plath, the Navy’s director of strategic mobility, as she
described the Navy’s plans to modernize its fleet of deep-sea transports through
the acquisition of both new and refurbished older vessels.

Chris Thayer, director
of ship management at Military Sealift Command, alluded to a downward trend in
available sealift capacity during the past two years. 

The command is
implementing a “robust effort” to restore readiness that would require a
holistic approach to address aging ships and construction and refurbishment
efforts as well as crew-training requirements. 

Capt. Christian Spain, vice president of government relations for the American Maritime Officers Union, said revitalization is essential if the nation intends to address the current shortage of 1,800 merchant seamen.

“It doesn’t affect
sealift at the initial [point],” Spain said. “But at four to six months, it
does.” 

Similar to submarines, merchant ships require two crews that rotate sea tours, Spain said. The crew shortage figure has been steady since 2013, he said, but would increase to 2,000 within the next two to three years if not addressed.

“The time is now,” Spain said.