NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — The U.S. Marine Corps’ newest Intrepid Tiger II (IT II) Electronic Warfare (EW) capability flew for the first time on an MV-22B Osprey June 15, the Naval Air Systems Command said in a June 24 release.   

“The significance of this developmental test flight was two-fold,” said U.S. Navy Capt. Michael Orr, Airborne Electronic Attack (AEA) Systems (PMA-234) program manager. “Not only was this the first time we’ve integrated the Intrepid Tiger II capability onto an Osprey but also the first time the capability has been incorporated internal to a platform.” 

PMA-234 Marine Air-Ground Task Force EW Team Lead Bill Mellen said the typical, externally mounted pod was not an option because the MV-22 tilt rotor aircraft does not have traditional wing stations from which to mount podded payloads. The AN/ALQ-231(V)4 IT II system’s upgraded design consists of a roll-on/roll-off rack-mounted payload, controlled from a laptop in the aircraft cabin. 

The IT II is a precision, on-demand, EW weapon system designed to provide Marine Corps fixed and rotary wing aircraft with an organic, distributed, and networked EW payload that can be controlled from the cockpit or by a ground operator. 

The (V)4 system design will include state-of-the art upgrades, utilizing government and commercial-off-the-shelf technologies and jammer techniques that will allow the Marine Corps to keep pace with the ever-evolving threats on the battlefield, and provide the needed adaptability to allow for future iterations of expanded frequency coverage and advanced capabilities, said Mellen.  

“As the 21st Century Battlespace becomes more complex and more contested, military assets must support themselves across the entire spectrum of threats,” said U.S. Marine Corps Col. Brian Taylor, V-22 Joint Program Office program manager. “The fielding of this upgrade provides a significant and incremental improvement in the V-22’s organic electronic warfare capability, providing commanders more options to support our Marine Corps ground forces. This improves both operational safety to our aircrews and operational success to the commander, our ultimate goals in everything we do.” 

Following successful integration on the MV-22B, the IT II team will further expand the V4 design to include a counter-radar capability on the KC-130J aircraft, hoping to leverage much of the MV-22B technology, including the in-cabin rack-mounted payload design, Mellen said. 

The IT II (V)4 is scheduled to begin fleet deliveries for the MV-22B in fiscal 2023 to achieve initial operating capability by the end of fiscal 2024 with an inventory objective of 42 total systems. 

The IT II (V)1 is flown on the AV-8B Harrier, F/A-18 A++/C/D Hornets, and KC-130J aircraft, while the IT II (V)3 is flown on the UH-1Y Huey helicopter. 

NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — A contract to build nine CH-53K King Stallion helicopters with an additional contract option for nine more aircraft was awarded to Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, on June 25, Naval Air Systems Command said in a release. 

The low-rate initial production (LRIP) fiscal 2021 Lot 5 contract will deliver nine aircraft in 2024 as part of a 200-aircraft program of record for the U.S. Marine Corps. The Lot 5 contract contains an option for Lot 6, for an additional nine aircraft with a contract award in FY22. 

“This contract award is a testament to the hard work and dedication from the team to execute this critical program in support of the U.S. Marine Corps’ heavy lift requirement,” said Col. Jack Perrin, heavy lift helicopter program manager. 

The Lot 5 contract is for $878.7 million, bringing the Sikorsky element of the aircraft cost of those nine aircraft to $97.6 million each. The Lot 6 aircraft cost reduces to $94.7 million each, for a Lot 6 total contract cost of $852.5 million. These costs do not include engine and other government furnished equipment. 

The fiscal 2021 Lot 5 and 2022 Lot 6 contracts represent an average unit airframe cost reduction of $7.4 million from fiscal 2020 Lot 4 to FY22 Lot 6. 

The program will start initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) in July 2021 and is poised to support the Marine Corps’ declaration of initial operational capability. In preparation for commencement of IOT&E, three System Demonstration Test Article aircraft are currently being operated by the Marine Corps’ Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron One, VMX-1, at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina. 

“As the long-range logistic support backbone for the U.S. Marine Corps, it is essential that we get this critical capability to the fleet as quickly and as affordably as possible,” said Perrin. 

The Lot 5 award brings the program total aircraft, either delivered or on contract, to 33. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Marine Corps’ top officer told Congress that the Corps requires three key capabilities to bring to pass the expeditionary force needed to counter threats of the future and support the naval and joint force. Those capabilities and modernizations and others can be paid for with internal budget reallocations, he said. 

“First is long-range precision fires for sea denial and sea control,” said Gen. David Berger, commandant of the Marine Corps, testifying 24 June before the Defense subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. “For several years we’ve proven that our existing HIMARS [High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System] vehicles can hold naval vessels at risk with ground-based anti-ship missiles. Through aggressive experimentation, we have further enhanced that capability. 

“This year, we have successfully launched the [RGM-184] Naval Strike Missile from a modified Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, hitting a target at sea underway,” Berger said. “This system, which we call the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System — or NMESIS — is exactly the capability the combatant commanders are calling for to enhance their deterrence posture.” 

Unmanned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) is the second of the key capabilities. 

“In 2020, we began a transition to a mixed capability of long-range ship and ground-based unmanned aerial systems to include the MQ-9 Reaper,” Berger said. “The Reaper is a proven capability that will significantly expand our organic ISR and enable us to better support fleet and joint operations, including anti-submarine operations. 

“We’ve also initiated a partnership with industry to develop a future, autonomous, long-range unmanned surface vessel,” he said. “That is going to significantly improve the reconnaissance capability of our Marine expeditionary units, or MEUs.” 

The Corps also is investing in loitering munitions.  

“These swarming aerial munitions, which employ automatic target recognition, have proven exceptionally lethal in recent global conflicts, most recently in Europe,” Berger said. “Our own tests have also demonstrated this technology to be effective, with five of five successful shots during testing. We plan to equip our infantry and reconnaissance Marines with this loitering capability, mounting those munitions on both ground vehicles and long-range unmanned surface vessels. We will make a final decision on vendors this year.” 

Berger added that in the current budget climate, the Corps will pay for its Force Design 2030 initiatives by retiring some legacy systems and shifting the savings to new programs. 

“We will self-fund our modernization,” he said. “To ensure the success of this approach, I will ask for your support in reducing the total procurement of some platforms commensurate with the recent reductions in our end-strength.  

“The fact is, our Marine Corps is significantly smaller than it was a decade ago, about 24,000 Marines smaller,” he said. “That means we won’t need as many ground vehicles; we won’t need as many aircraft as we thought we did when initial procurement decisions were made decades ago. With the reductions outlined in our Force Design report, I believe we will have sufficient resources to create the modern capabilities required for competition, deterrence and crisis response without a further reduction in our end-strength. 

“That approach, however, relies 100 percent on this committee’s confidence on allowing the Marine Corps to retain and reallocate the internal resources we generate through end-strength reductions, cutting legacy platforms and right-sizing programs of record for new capabilities like the F-35 [strike fighter], the CH-53K [heavy-lift helicopter] and the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle,” he said.  

LONDON — The United Kingdom’s Carrier Strike Group has joined the fight against Daesh, also known as ISIS, with F-35B Lightning II jets carrying out their very first combat missions from HMS Queen Elizabeth, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said in a June 22 release. 

Lightning IIs of the renowned 617 Squadron RAF (The Dambusters) carried out operational sorties for the first time from HMS Queen Elizabeth in support of Operation Shader and U.S. Operation Inherent Resolve. 

“The ability to operate from the sea with the most advanced fighter jets ever created is a significant moment in our history, offering reassurance to our allies and demonstrating the U.K.’s formidable air power to our adversaries,” Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said. “The Carrier Strike Group is a physical embodiment of global Britain and a show of international military strength that will deter anyone who seeks to undermine global security.” 

For the task group, which has spent previous weeks in the Mediterranean working with NATO allies and partners, it marks a change of emphasis. From exercises and international engagements, the Carrier Strike Group is now delivering its full might of naval and air power, putting the “strike” into Carrier Strike Group and contributing to the U.K.’s fight against Daesh — Operation Shader, which forms part of the global coalition against Daesh. 

“HMS Queen Elizabeth’s first missions against Daesh will be remembered as a significant moment in the 50-year lifespan of this ship,” said Commodore Steve Moorhouse, commander, United Kingdom Carrier Strike Group. “It also marks a new phase of our current deployment. To date we have delivered diplomatic influence on behalf of the U.K. through a series of exercises and engagements with our partners. Now we are ready to deliver the hard punch of maritime-based air power against a shared enemy. 

“The involvement of HMS Queen Elizabeth and her Air Wing in this campaign also sends a wider message,” Moorhouse said. “It demonstrates the speed and agility with which a U.K.-led Carrier Strike Group can inject fifth-generation combat power into any operation, anywhere in the world, thereby offering the British government, and our allies, true military and political choice.” 

CSG21, led by HMS Queen Elizabeth, is the largest concentration of maritime and air power to leave the United Kingdom in a generation and this is its first operational deployment, which is joint between the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. 

“In an era of persistent competition, the carrier is already proving its worth. As the recent Integrated Review and Defence Command Paper underlined, our adversaries pose a growing threat to the international order and the values that underpin our security and prosperity,” the release said. 

There are 18 U.K. and U.S. F-35B jets on board HMS Queen Elizabeth, the largest number to ever sail the seas. The aircraft are next generation multi-role combat aircraft equipped with advanced sensors, mission systems and stealth technology. 

“The Lightning Force is once again in action against Daesh, this time flying from an aircraft carrier at sea, which marks the Royal Navy’s return to maritime strike operations for the first time since the Libya campaign a decade ago,” said Capt. James Blackmore, commander of the Carrier Air Wing. “With its fifth-generation capabilities, including outstanding situational awareness, the F-35B is the ideal aircraft to deliver precision strikes, which is exactly the kind of mission that 617 Squadron has been training for day after day, night after night, for these past few months. 

“This is also notable as the first combat mission flown by U.S. aircraft from a foreign carrier since HMS Victorious in the South Pacific in 1943,” Blackmore said. “The level of integration between Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps is truly seamless, and testament to how close we’ve become since we first embarked together last October.” 

STERLING, Va. — The U.S. Marine Corps Program Manager for Training Systems has awarded Saab the Force-on-Force Training Systems – Next (FoFTS-Next) Single Award Task Order Contract (SATOC), the company said in a June 17 release. The contract has a potential value of $127.9 million. 

The FoFTS-Next SATOC will include U.S. Marine Corps Training Instrumentation Systems (MCTIS) equipment, logistics, and training exercise support. 

Through this framework agreement with future task orders exercised, Saab will provide a full turnkey live training capability to include equipment deliveries for individual Marine weapons and vehicles, as well as logistics and maintenance support and training exercise support at all major U.S. Marine Corps installations worldwide. 

“Ensuring the readiness of our Armed Forces is the foundation of all Saab training systems. The Saab Live MCTIS Training System is a proven solution that will provide interoperability training to prepare our U.S. Marines for combat effectiveness across multi-domain operations,” said Erik Smith, president and CEO of Saab in the U.S. 

The Saab next-generation Live MCTIS Training System will replace the U.S. Marine Corps’ current Instrumentation and Tactical Engagement Simulation System (ITESS) equipment. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The top commanders of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps say increased deployment of unmanned air and maritime systems will help extend the reach and intelligence capabilities of the fleet and the force, while sowing uncertainty among peer competitors.

“We intend to use our fleet in a distributed manner, so unmanned obviously will give us volume, more ships, and will allow us to come at, let’s say China or Russia, at many vectors across many domains,”  Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday told a recent House Armed Services Committee hearing. In effect, forcing adversaries to spread their resources and be on guard everywhere, all the time.

The Navy and Marine Corps released their Unmanned Campaign Plan in March, but some in Congress have said it was short on details. At the June 14 HASC hearing on the Navy Department’s fiscal 2022 budget request, Chairman Rep. Adam Smith (D-Washington) asked Gilday and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger to explain how unmanned systems will help their mission.  

For unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), “the vision you’re talking about probably has four different parts,” Berger said. They include intelligence collection; logistics, lethality and command and control, “the ability to fuse and move information laterally and back to the joint force.

“Beginning last year, we started our transition to a mixed capability of long range ship and ground-based unmanned aerial systems including the MQ-9 Reaper,” Berger said. “This will significantly expand our ISR capabilities and will enable us to better support the fleet and the joint force operational commander, including anti-submarine warfare.”

The Marines have initiated a partnership with industry to develop a future autonomous, long range, unmanned surface vessel. “That will extend the reach of our MEUs [Marine Expeditionary Units]. That vessel will give us a new tool for maritime gray zone competition. It will help thicken what we call the C5ISR network. It will add to our conventional naval deterrent using loitering munitions,” Berger said.

Gilday said the two biggest challenges unmanned systems presented the Navy are reliability on vessels that would have to operate for months at a time, and command, and control. “We feel like we’re on a good path on both, but we don’t have any intentions of scaling any of these efforts until we get to a place where we’re comfortable with both of those aspects.”

He noted the Navy recently completed its largest unmanned exercise on the West Coast with unmanned undersea, surface and air systems operating with manned surface ships; had the first successful refueling of an F/A-18 Super Hornet from an MQ-25 drone; and had the third unmanned surface vessel make a transit of more than 4,000 miles from the Gulf Coast, through the Panama Canal to California, operating autonomously 98% of the time.

“We are making strides,” Gilday said, but widespread use of unmanned craft is “a big step though. I think it’s going to be phased with respect to minimal manning before we ever get to a point where we use an unmanned completely unattended.”

ARLINGTON, Va. — Raytheon Intelligence & Space, a Raytheon Technologies business, will provide logistics and repair services for all U.S. Marine Corps ground equipment under a five-year, $495 million contract, the company announced in a June 8 release. 

The company will deliver more than 10,000 repaired parts per year to sustain the Marines’ combat and tactical ground equipment, ranging from armored vehicles to ground radars and communications systems. 

“We provide logistics support for deployed systems around the globe,” said Bob Williams, vice president of Global Training & Logistics for Raytheon Intelligence & Space. “Our job is to ensure no mission is ever delayed because of a needed repair or missing part.” 

This contract is an expansion of work the company has supported for 17 years, nearly doubling the anticipated amount of equipment being managed and expanding the company’s support to every major Marine Corps installation in the world. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Marine Corps is trying to solve the challenge of providing air defense for its future anti-ship cruise-missile forces that will be helping the U.S. Navy to maintain sea control in a contested expeditionary environment. 

“Those forces that are distributed to launch anti-ship missiles, to sense what is going on, to pass data, have to be protected from air threats,” said Lt. Gen. Eric Smith, deputy commandant For Combat Development and Integration, testifying June 8 before the Seapower subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee on the proposed fiscal 2022 budget, noting that the Marine forces “haven’t had a real air threat since World War II. 

“Our challenge is: we have to be highly mobile,” Smith said. “If we’re not internally, organically transportable, by our C-130s, our CH-53s, our [MV-22] Ospreys, our L-class Navy ships, and the future Light Amphibious Warship, then we lose value to the combatant commander. So, the balance for us is the range of [an anti-air] missile system and the size. When you start getting into a missile system that is, let’s just say, beyond 13 feet, that’s a challenge.” 

Smith said the Corps currently is “spending money on our MADIS [Marine Air Defense Integrated System] and on GBAD — Ground-Based Air Defense, trying to find the sweet spot, sir, between range, lethality and mobility. That is a wicked problem for us to solve and we have not yet solved it.” 

The four major GBAD programs being developed or deployed by the Corps are: 

MRIC – Medium-Range Interceptor Capability 
MADIS – Marine Air Defense Integrated System  
L-MADIS – Light Marine Air Defense Integrated System  
Advanced MANPADS/Stinger  

The MRIC is likely to be a vehicle-mounted missile system with a 360-degree fire-control radar to handle aircraft and cruise missiles at medium ranges.   

“MADIS is the only system that has brought something down against a hostile threat,” Smith said. “We acknowledged that it had good effect against Iranian drones. That system is highly capable, but we need longer ranges in the expanse of the Pacific. There comes a point when the system size limits what you can carry and obviously the size of the missile system you can carry limits the range.” 

The MADIS is mounted on a pair of Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, one with a turret launcher for four Stinger missiles and a 30mm cannon, as well as an optical sensor and shoulder-fired Stingers. The second vehicle is equipped with an RPS-42 360-degree radar, a 7.62mm M134 minigun, and electro-optic/infrared sensors, as well as shoulder-fired Stingers. On both vehicles is the Modi II dismounted electronic countermeasures system, which can be used to disrupt enemy drones, communications, and radio-controlled improvised explosive devices.  

The L-MADIS is a counter-UAS electronic attack system mounted on a Polaris MRZR all-terrain vehicle. It features a 360-degree radar, a direct-fire capability, radio frequency jammers and electro-optic/infrared sensors. The L-MADIS is credited with downing an Iranian drone that flew in the close vicinity of the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer in July 2019.  

Smith said he recently met with a couple of industry partners on how to extend that range or put a different missile system onto the Stinger-equipped MADIS. 

“So, we are struggling through that conundrum right now with our Navy partners and with our industry partners,” Smith said. “But we are committed to protecting those forces and then being able to do something in a more offensive manner for that combatant commander to break air formations.” 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Marine Corps’ new Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) is on track, both for performance and cost, with the first two platoons of replacements for the aging Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV) prioritized for duty with forward-deployed Marine Expeditionary Units, a top general told a congressional panel.

In its fiscal 2022 budget request, the Marine Corps is seeking to procure the second full-rate production lot of 92 ACVs, 20 more than in fiscal 2021. The ACV is an advanced eight-wheeled armored ship-to-shore connector craft, providing improved lethality against dismounted enemy troops and increased force protection and survivability from blasts, fragmentation and kinetic energy threats, according to budget documents.

“We’re on track for the production numbers that we anticipated seeing,” Lt. Gen. Eric M. Smith, head of Marine Corps Combat Development Command told the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces June 7. “We’ve produced the first two platoons of those vehicles,” said Smith, who is also deputy commandant of the Corps for Combat Development and Integration, adding that each platoon can carry a company of Marines. The first two of those platoons are at the Marines’ desert training base at Twenty-Nine Palms, Calif, Smith said, adding, “Their readiness is good.”

Changing from the tracked AAVs to wheeled vehicles “required a little bit of adjustment for our drivers,” Smith said, but they made the change and met their objectives for the initial operating testing capabilities. “So, we did declare initial operating capability.”

Calling last year’s Amphibious Assault Vehicle mishap that drowned eight Marines and a Sailor “100% preventable and 100% inexcusable,” Smith said the remaining AAVs won’t go in the water for training without water-tight seal inspections and accompanying safety boats.

A Marine Corps investigation into the sinking of an AAV off the coast of California on July 30, 2020, concluded in “a confluence of human and mechanical failure caused the sinking of the mishap AAV and contributed to a delayed rescue effort …”

“There’s a pretty robust checklist for everything from training to the actual seals on the vehicles to make sure that those vehicles that do enter the water — with safety boats for training — are completely viable and safe,” Smith told the House panel. 

He added that the ACV “has a completely different hull form that has fewer penetration points so that water cannot get in and accumulate,” as it did in the July 2020 AAV mishap.

PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — The U.S. Marine Corps has successfully demonstrated in flight testing a two-way connection between the AH-1Z Viper helicopter and a ground station using new Link-16 hardware and software, Bell Textron Inc. said in a June 7 release.

The company manufactures the AH-1Z Viper and Northrop Grumman Corp. has developed the Link-16 system. Link-16 is part of a defined road map of planned improvements designed to ensure the H-1 platform maintains its technological edge and combat capability throughout its service life.   

“Bell is excited to help bring this capability to the USMC H-1 community,” said Mike Deslatte, Bell H-1 vice president and program director. “The ability to participate in the modern and connected battlefield makes the aircraft more lethal and better-equipped to support Marines on the ground.”  

Link-16 enables the AH-1Z — unlike any other helicopter in the world with its fully integrated anti-air capability and AIM-9 Sidewinder — to quickly obtain and share information from its sensors with other weapons systems using its onboard digital architecture. This is accomplished through Northrop Grumman’s Link-16 package, which includes a new digital moving map, a new security architecture, and the Link-16 and Advanced Networking Wideband Waveform (ANW2) datalinks. 

“Northrop Grumman’s Link-16 system will help U.S. Marines today, and well into the future, with critical technology that facilitates coordination, collaboration, and interoperability. By enabling the display and integration of Link-16 data with the H-1 system, pilots of the AH-1Z have greater situational awareness and enhanced survivability,” said James Conroy, vice president, navigation, targeting and survivability at Northrop Grumman. “This milestone also highlights our focus on “speed to fleet,” due to the unprecedented time between demonstrating the concept and getting to first flight. Flexibility and adaptability, using next generation agile development practices, are the only ways to innovate and keep pace with changing mission needs.” 

In a collaboration between the Marine Corps’ H-1 Light/Attack Helicopter program (PMA-276), Bell, and Northrop Grumman, the team leveraged commercial best practices of Agile Development methodologies. This strategy provided an under-glass solution from concept requirements to vehicle design testing in 12 months.

Northrop Grumman’s Lead Technology Integration group rapidly architected and integrated a mission package for Link-16, including a modern digital mapping solution, for the H-1 platform while Bell’s H-1 program team provided all of the necessary vehicle analysis and modifications to incorporate the mission equipment throughout the existing integrated systems of the AH-1Z. Together, the teams are redefining what it means to rapidly field integrated solutions on existing fielded platforms to increase warfighter capabilities. 

“The H-1 has decades of battlefield experience, it has evolved to fight in numerous environments,” said Col. Vasilios Pappas, PMA-276 program manager. “The integration of Link-16 aligns with this platforms’ ability to adapt to the ever-changing threat and meet the needs of current and future warfighters.”  

The Marine Corps has flight tests planned for the AH-1Z throughout the summer, which will be followed by flight testing of Link-16 on the UH-1Y Venom. The service anticipates AH-1Z initial fleet integration with Link 16 in 2022.