The U.S. Navy’s unique 355-foot Floating Instrument Platform, or FLIP, used by researchers to gather persistent oceanic and atmospheric observations and conduct acoustic research for more than 50 years, is now inactive.

There isn’t enough funded research to put FLIP through another refit so she has been removed from service. Rob Sparrock, the program officer overseeing ONR’s research vessel program, thinks FLIP deserves to retire with dignity, and wants to find a fitting forever home where her accomplishments can be remembered and appreciated.

The U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR) built the 355-foot to conduct acoustic research. The unpowered FLIP looked like a baseball bat. It was towed to a location in the ocean where it was going to work, and the 300-foot tank section was filled with seawater so that part sank, leaving the remaining 55-foot section to stand upright. It could be anchored to the bottom, but more often it was left to drift with the wind and currents.

When at sea, she carried a crew of five when at sea along with a research party of up to 11 scientists. FLIP could make its own electricity and water and carry supplies for about 35 days. Once a research mission was complete, high-pressure air stored in bottles in the ballast tanks was released into the tanks to force the seawater out return FLIP to the horizontal, and she would be towed back to port. 

FLIP was designed by the naval architecture firm Glosten Associates; built by Gunderson Bros. Engineering Corporation; and entered service in 1962 under the auspices of the Marine Physical Laboratory of Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego.

Over its illustrious career, FLIP permitted researchers to study sound waves at various depths in the ocean without the interference of ambient noise from a ship’s propulsion system, but it also provided a platform to study wave height and air-sea interaction; water temperature and density; marine mammals; and gather meteorological data. FLIP has been used to examine ocean circulation, storm wave formation, and how thermal energy is transferred between the ocean and the atmosphere. 

While FLIP’s unique qualities made it the idea platform for many science missions, some of the research that used to require a platform like FLIP can now be conducted using other means, such as unmanned systems like floats and unmanned vehicles. As funding and therefor demand for FLIP from some of FLIPs regular customers was reduced, the business case for maintaining and upgrading FLIP changed.

“It would cost about $8 million to make FLIP useable for another five or 10 years, but that funding could be better used elsewhere,” said Sparrock. “We came up with lots of creative ideas, but there wasn’t enough inertia or funding to keep it going.”

While funding has fallen, nobody wants FLIP to just fade away. 

“I’d like to see a naval base or maritime museum adopt FLIP, and install the 55-foot section in the upright position so people can see it and actually go on it,” Sparrock said. “The other 300 feet can be sunk as a reef for divers.”

So, Sparrock continues his efforts to find FLIP a fitting location for her forever home. “FLIP is so historic; it just doesn’t seem right to scrap her.”

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has nominated a retired Navy officer to become the next secretary of the Navy. 

The nominee, Carlos Del Toro, was the first commanding officer of the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Bulkeley. If confirmed by the Senate, he would assume office as the nation’s 78th secretary of the Navy. 

Below is the June 11 White House release of the nomination: 

“Carlos Del Toro is a retired Commander in the U.S. Navy with nearly 40 years’ experience in national security and naval operations, budgeting, and acquisition. Over the course of a 22-year career in the U.S. Navy, Del Toro held a series of critical appointments — including Senior Executive Assistant to the Director for Program Analysis and Evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense; First Commanding Officer of the guided missile destroyer USS Bulkeley; and Special Assistant to the Director and Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget — before founding SBG Technology Solutions Inc. He has served as CEO and President of SBG Technology Solutions for the last 17 years. As CEO and President of SBG Technology Solutions, Del Toro has supported defense programs across a host of immediate and long-term Navy issue areas, including shipbuilding, AI, cybersecurity, acquisition programs, space systems, health, and training. Having earned a Masters in National Security Studies from the Naval War College and a Masters in Legislative Affairs from George Washington University, Del Toro has also supported military programs addressing policy and strategic studies. 
 
“Born in Havana, Cuba, Carlos Del Toro immigrated to the U.S. with his family as refugees in 1962. Raised in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City, he attended public schools and received an appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering. He was the first Hispanic President of the White House Fellows Foundation and Alumni association and serves on the Board of Directors of the Stimson Center. He was recently appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association’s Special Commission on Culture, Diversity, and Inclusion. Del Toro is married to Betty Del Toro, with whom they have four children and a granddaughter.” 

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Washington, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, praised the nomination in a June 11 statement: 

“Mr. Del Toro is a proven leader who is well equipped to lead our Navy. His story is uniquely American, as is his service to our nation, which include multiple deployments during the Cold War and Operation Desert Shield and Storm and culminated in his selection for the rank of Captain and Major Command at Sea. After retiring from the Navy, Del Toro continued to lead in the private sector as the CEO and President of an engineering and IT services company. As recently as 2020 the company was recognized by the Small Business Administration as an SBA success story — another testament to Del Toro’s leadership.  
   
“With decades of experience, both in and out of uniform, Del Toro is an excellent pick to lead the Navy and I look forward to working with him once confirmed by the Senate.” 

NORFOLK, Va. — Continuing the Navy’s strategic realignment of ships, USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) has arrived at Naval Station Norfolk, making Norfolk its new homeport June 10, 2021, the Navy said in a release. 

Due to excess port loading in Mayport, Florida, the ship, its crew and families moved from there to support their upcoming Selected Restricted Availability in a Norfolk-area shipyard. Its departure marks the first time in more than 50 years that a cruiser will not be homeported there. 

“Philippine Sea has been part of Mayport’s proud tradition of maritime professionalism and warfighting excellence for over three decades,” said Capt. Kevin Hoffman, Philippine Sea commanding officer. “On behalf of all the ‘War Dog’ crews and families, past and present, I would like to extend my personal thanks to the entire Naval Station Mayport and City of Jacksonville communities for the amazing support over the years. It has truly been an honor to call Mayport home. “We take an incredible spirit of teamwork and sense of family with us as we look forward to making our new home in Virginia and joining the Norfolk waterfront.” 
 
Homeport shifts are part of the Navy’s continued commitment to the strategic dispersal of ships. This move contributes to the vitality of two East Coast homeports for surface ships and the preservation of the Mayport region’s ship repair facilities. This plan will support extended maintenance availabilities at local shipyards in both fleet concentration areas and rebalance port loading. 
 
The move comes just a couple months after returning from a nearly 10-month independent deployment. The Philippine Sea crew participated in numerous exercises, traveled nearly 6,000 nautical miles and successfully completed 18 transits of the Strait of Hormuz, many while escorting partner military vessels and commercial shipping. 
 
Named for the WW II battle of the same name, remembered as the “Marianas Turkey Shoot,” or the “Greatest Carrier Battle of the War,” as more than 80% of the engaged enemy there were eliminated. 

WASHINGTON — The Naval Sea Systems Command has issued the following statement regarding a cost increase regarding the Ship-to-Shore Connector Program, designed to replace the Navy’s legacy fleet of Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC). Textron Systems is the designer and builder of the new craft: 

“On March 26, the U.S. Navy notified Congress of an increase in the Program Acquisition Unit Cost and the Average Procurement Unit Cost for the Ship to Shore Connector (SSC) program that exceeds the current baseline estimate, breaching the significant Nunn-McCurdy cost threshold. The breach is attributed to first in class challenges that led to increased construction costs resulting from labor and material cost growth and schedule related issues on early craft. This is not a critical Nunn-McCurdy breach that would require recertification of the program and USD A&S has been notified. The SSC program production is now stable as the first in class challenges have been resolved.  

“Textron has delivered three craft and follow-on craft are in serial production. The delivery of LCACs 100 and 101 have allowed the Navy to move forward with the initial operator training pipeline and move into post-delivery test and trials at Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division.  

“LCAC 102 was delivered on June 3, 2021, and transited to Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division, arriving June 9. 

“LCACs 103-115 currently in production, show reduced overall man hours and expedited outfitting in earlier stages of construction for improved cost and schedule performance.  

‘The updated acquisition program baseline is based on procuring 72 operational craft and actual serial production cost experience of the shipbuilder and its vendors.”   

PHILADELPHIA — The first operational TH-73A helicopter was presented to the U.S. Navy June 10 during a ceremony at the AgustaWestland Philadelphia Corp. (Leonardo) plant in Philadelphia, the Naval Air Systems Command announced in a release. 

“The TH-73A will be instrumental in providing higher fidelity training to our future rotary-wing and tilt-rotor aviators for the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard,” said Vice Adm. Kenneth Whitesell, commander, Naval Air Forces. “The cutting-edge technology and advanced avionics within the Advanced Helicopter Training System (AHTS) will enable a more seamless transition from the training aircraft to fleet aircraft, this in turn allows more focus on high end warfighting development and training.” 

Eventually, the Navy will have 130 TH-73A helicopters total, with deliveries continuing through 2024. The new helicopters will meet the capability and capacity gaps of the aging TH-57 Sea Ranger training platform. 

The TH-73As are fully Federal Aviation Administration certified prior to delivery, thus bringing a ready-made solution that will transition the TH-57 platforms out of service by 2025. The TH-57 is scheduled to begin sundown in fiscal year 2022. 

“This delivery signifies a new era for Naval Aviation training,” said Rear Adm. Robert Westendorff, chief of Naval Aviation Training. “By using current cockpit technologies and a new training curriculum, the TH-73A will improve pilot training and skills and ensure rotary wing aviators are produced more efficiently at a higher quality and are ready to meet the fleet’s challenges.” 

In addition to new helicopters, the full AHTS includes aircrew training services that provide availability on new simulators, a modernized curriculum and a new contractor logistics support contract for the maintenance and flight line support requirements of the new helicopter. 

Using the first TH-73A, the team will train the cadre of instructor pilots and validate the modernized curriculum efforts, a requirement prior to training Student Naval Aviators with the new curriculum in the new system. The helicopters will ensure the Navy has capacity to train several hundred aviation students per year for Chief of Naval Aviation Training at Naval Air Station (NAS) Whiting Field in Milton, Florida. 

The AHTS accounts for the training needs of all of the Fleet Replacement Squadrons, thus students will be highly trained and fully capable of succeeding, regardless of which platform they select. 

“The combined government and contractor team set new standards to meet much needed requirements in the fleet,” said Capt. Holly Shoger, Undergraduate Flight Training Systems Program (PMA-273) program manager. “We are proud to develop and provide these new capabilities that will improve pilot training for many years to come.” 

The aircraft is scheduled to arrive at Naval Air Station Whiting Field, Florida, following final DoD inspections. A total of 32 TH-73As are scheduled for delivery to the U.S. Navy this calendar year and 130 total over the contract period. The new TH-73As will be housed in a temporary hangar at NAS Whiting Field, Florida, with construction to begin in 2023 on a new helicopter maintenance hangar. 

The PMA-273 at Naval Air Systems Patuxent River, Maryland, oversees the AHTS and TH-73A. 

BALTIMORE — Northrop Grumman Corp. has delivered the AN/SLQ-32(V)7 Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block 3 Engineering and Development Model (EDM) to the U.S. Navy for land-based testing, the company said in a June 11 release. The official transfer was marked at an event with company and Navy program officials at Northrop Grumman’s systems integration facility in Baltimore, Maryland. 

“The AN/SLQ-32(V)7 EDM delivery to the U.S. Navy for continued government land-based testing following formal qualification testing is a significant achievement for the SEWIP Block 3 program,” said Capt. Jason Hall, the Navy’s Major Program Manager of Above Water Sensors and Lasers. “SEWIP Block 3 provides a critical electronic warfare capability to the Fleet to pace the evolving anti-ship missile threat.” 

Northrop Grumman successfully completed SEWIP Block 3 system integration and formal qualification testing as part of the engineering, manufacturing and development contract. This milestone indicates that the system is ready to transition to the U.S. Navy for formal land-based testing at the Naval Sea Systems Command Surface Combat Systems Center in Wallops Island, Virginia. 

“This delivery represents the next step in a multi-year effort to take SEWIP from the laboratory to the hands of the warfighter,” said Mike Meaney, vice president, land and maritime sensors, Northrop Grumman. “Providing the comprehensive hardware-defined, software-enabled system to the Navy proves out the final design and signifies the end of the engineering, manufacturing and development phase.” 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The admiral in charge of developing and sustaining the U.S. Navy’s strategic weapons said the service needs to have the new Trident D5LE2 ballistic missile ready to deploy in fiscal 2039 on the ninth hull of the Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine. 

“It is imperative that we start the work on a future missile and corresponding weapon system now, said Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe, director, Strategic Systems Programs (SSP), testifying June 10 before the Strategic Forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee. “This next generation of the current D5LE missile — a missile in service in 1989 and boasting a remarkable history of 182 successful flight tests —called the D5LE2, will yield multiple benefits in missile performance to include extending its service life. D5LE2 is required to completely outload out Columbia SSBNs and ensure that Trident remains credible in the face of a dynamic threat environment. A D5LE2 missile must be developed, tested and produced with the lead time sufficient to deploy on Columbia class hull 9 in FY39 and be backfitted for the first eight hulls of the class.” 

The D5LE2 effort is one of four SSP lines of effort (LOEs) in the coming years.  

“First, we must maintain the current D5LE missile inventory and provide the necessary operational support to sustain Ohio-class submarines through their service lives,” Wolfe said. “This is being accomplished through an update to all of our subsystems. All of our life-extension efforts remain on track and our current program will support the deployment of all existing warheads. We must also recapitalize all of our strategic weapons facilities to continue to support and sustain SSBN operations that enable our continuous at-sea presence.” 

Wolfe said the second LOE is to continue to work Program Executive Office-Columbia “to ensure that the transition between Ohio-class and Columbia-class submarines stays on schedule. For SSP, this requires a seamless transition of the current D5LE weapon system and missile inventory onto the new Columbia class. During this time of transition, we will ensure that the Navy’s portion of the nuclear triad remains credible by introducing the W93 [warhead]/Mark 7 [re-entry body] to rebalance the stockpile of W76 and W88 [warheads] and meet [U.S. Strategic Command] requirements.” 

The admiral said that his fourth LOE is, as the U.S. project officer for the Polaris Sales Agreement, to “continue to support the U.K. sovereign deterrent for today’s Vanguard-class submarines and their successor, the Dreadnought class.  

“For decades, U.S. policy has recognized that the independent nuclear deterrent adds to global stability,” Wolfe said. “Under the 1958 mutual defense agreement and 1962 Polaris Sales Agreement, the United States has provided assistance and material consistent with international law to the U.K. deterrent program. Without this assistance, the cost and schedule risk to maintain the U.K.’s independent deterrent would rise significantly, thus creating additional challenges for the U.K. in sustaining its nuclear contribution to NATO alongside the U.S.”   

ARLINGON, Va. — The vice chief of naval operations (VCNO) told Congress that the Navy’s experiment with an alternate ship availability maintenance concept based on the Forward Deployed Naval Force model is worth pursuing. 

The concept, called Task Force Greyhound, was conceived by Rear Adm. Brad Cooper, then-commander, Naval Surface Force Atlantic, as a way to provide fleet commanders “a predictable and sustainable model to maximize warships ready for operational tasking,” according to a March 5 Navy release.  

VCNO Adm. William K. Lescher, testifying June 9 before the Readiness subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee and responding to a question from Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Virginia, about the model, Task Force Greyhound, said the concept is about responding “to an operational need for readiness in our cruiser-destroyer ships in Norfolk [Virginia] and Mayport [Florida] with a small pilot [program].” 

The pilot is a departure from the Optimized Fleet Response Plan (OFRP) by providing more frequent but smaller, incremental availability periods for ship maintenance and upgrades. The model is similar to the maintenance plans for Navy ships forward deployed to Japan and Spain, for example.  

“We will move forward to do this tailored maintenance, this excursion from OFRP, both to generate some increased operational availability in [cruisers and destroyers] and then to learn,” Lescher said. “It is not a complete no-brainer. There is some learning to be involved in terms of what it means to the executability of the maintenance.  

“But we think it’s a strong approach and it reflects, to your point, much of the conversation we had about other excursions off the OFRP baseline,” he told Luria.  

Lescher said “from a budget perspective, it [the Task Force Greyhound concept] is essentially budget neutral.”  

Luria, a former naval surface warfare officer, said she was encouraged by the Task Force Greyhound idea. 

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Representative Mike Rogers (R-Alabama) and U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), the ranking members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, have expressed deep concern following reports that the acting secretary of the Navy plans to cancel a Nuclear Sea-Launched Cruise Missile (SLCM-N).  

The lawmakers noted the decision comes “after submission of the fiscal 2022 budget and before the completion of a Nuclear Posture Review (NPR).” 

Their statement reads: 
   
“Reports that an Acting Secretary of the Navy would cancel a new Nuclear Sea Launched Cruise Missile after submission of the FY22 budget, and before a Nuclear Posture Review has been started — much less completed — is bewildering and short-sighted. The Biden administration has decided to project weakness ahead of a summit with Vladimir Putin – another gift to our adversaries. We have serious questions for senior Pentagon leaders on this reported decision and how it was reached.”   

Rogers, speaking March 22 during a webinar of the Defense Writers Group, was asked by Seapower about the future of the planned SLCM-N called for in the Defense Department’s 2018 NPR.  

The NPR said “SLCM will not require or rely on host nation support to provide deterrent effect. They will provide additional diversity in platforms, range, and survivability, and a valuable hedge against future nuclear ‘break out’ scenarios.”  

The review said the “SLCM will provide a needed non-strategic regional presence, an assured response capability. It also will provide an arms-control-compliant response to Russia’s noncompliance with the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, its nonstrategic nuclear arsenal, and its other destabilizing behaviors.”  

The HASC chairman, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Washington, has stated his opposition to the low-yield warhead and SLCM as being destabilizing to the nuclear balance. 

Marion, Va. – General Dynamics Mission Systems was awarded a multi-million-dollar firm fixed-price contract from Northrop Grumman to provide Reduced Weight Basic Operating Assembly (RWBOA) containers for U.S. Navy littoral combat ships (LCS), the company said in a release. The containers, developed specifically for the Navy, will be produced at General Dynamics’ Marion, Virginia facility, with first delivery expected in December. 

RWBOA containers are lighter than standard 20-foot shipping containers but offer the same strength and durability. The containers will be used aboard LCS to house modular mission packages that equip the ship with specific mission capabilities needed to perform mine countermeasures, surface warfare or anti-submarine operations. 

“The new Reduced Weight Basic Operating Assembly containers are a great example of how we have been able to leverage our expertise designing tactical shelters for the Army and tailor a solution that meets the specific needs of the Navy,” said John Schulz, director of Structures at General Dynamics Mission Systems.

“The new containers are extremely lightweight and will provide the Navy with enhanced corrosion protection in comparison to conventional steel container designs. The use of Reduced Weight Basic Operating Assembly containers provides the Navy with the essential flexibility and mobility they need to quickly transport and deploy the capabilities to support their missions while at sea.”