BETHESDA, Md. — Sailors will soon spend more time focused on the mission and less on aircraft and ship repairs with a new information system driven by artificial intelligence and predictive analytics, Lockheed Martin said in a Dec. 9 release. 

Digitally re-engineering more than 20 standalone applications into one integrated system, this new tool enables Sailors and Marine Corps maintainers, to anticipate and resolve potential maintenance issues or part failures on aircraft, ships and other systems. 

The U.S. Navy is digitally transforming its legacy maintenance systems with a fully modernized, responsive logistics information systems solution developed by Lockheed Martin. 

Lockheed Martin partnered with the Navy to rapidly develop and test the integrated logistics information systems solution, emphasizing simplified user interfaces, streamlined workflows, and time-saving features such as auto-population and smart searching. 

“Lockheed Martin’s solution is both intuitive and streamlined to maximize end user efficiency,” said Capt. Allan Walters, former program manager of the Navy’s Command and Control Systems Program Office. “The ability to execute rapid and flexible changes to the software is impressive and designed to improve Navy readiness both ashore and afloat through reduced failure rates and improved repair times.” 

The solution’s advanced software capabilities use the latest Department of Defense-approved DevSecOps tools, so software updates can happen in days or weeks instead of months and years, enabling the Navy’s vision of “Compile to Combat in 24 Hours.” 

Navy maintainers can create, view and complete maintenance work orders from a mobile device. Instead of referencing a paper or digital manual, sailors can view 3-D models of objects and see where they’re located in the context of an entire ship or aircraft. 

“Our logistics solution provides a digital twin capability, integrating 3-D model visualization with material data, maintenance history and the entire operational environment,” said Reeves Valentine, vice president of Lockheed Martin Enterprise Sustainment Solutions. “Sailors can simulate a maintenance action and see its results before doing it on the real thing. Having this capability will result in a greater ability to predict part failure, resulting in optimized maintenance actions to improve asset readiness.” 

Smart searching and auto-population functionality help identify proper parts and common issues when creating work orders, which eliminates work and reducing errors. 

Lockheed Martin partnered with non-traditional vendors IFS – an enterprise software developer – and Beast Code, a Florida software start-up, to create the logistics information systems solution, which will be initially fielded at 10 Navy sites with about 10,000 users. The delivered solution is part of the U.S. Navy Naval Operational Business Logistics Enterprise (NOBLE) family of systems providing enhanced situational awareness, planning, execution, and management of maintenance and supply logistics and business functions for more than 200,000 sailors. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy will have to significantly increase the size of the fleet in coming decades to deter China from a risky escalation of the great power competition, the Defense Department’s top uniformed officer says.

“We’re  maritime nation,” the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Mark Milley, told the U.S. Naval Institute’s Dec. 3 Defense Forum Washington webcast. “And the defense of the United States depends on air power and sea power, primarily.”

Milley said the international rule-based order that arose after World War II, and for seven decades was maintained by the U.S. Navy “perhaps more than any other element,” is under stress, from climate change and the economic distress caused by the coronavirus pandemic to the diffusion of power, from two Cold War super powers, to regional powers like Russia, Iran and North Korea.  If that order falls apart, Milley warned, the great power competition could “turn into great power war.”

The transformation of China into the world’s second-largest economy, with an equally robust military, both in size and capability, poses a “longer term, almost existential challenge,” Milley said. “I’m not saying you’re going to have a war with China. I’m saying we want to prevent a war with China.”

However, it will take large investment in U.S. forces to prevent that from happening, he said.

“We’re going to have to have a much larger fleet than we have today, if we’re serious about great power competition and deterring great power war, and if we’re serious about dominant capability over something like China or some other power that has significant capability,” Milley said.

However, he expects funding to be tight.

“We need, roughly speaking, a consistent, predictable and timely budget that gives about 3 to 5 percent real growth,” Milley said. But with the demand to address the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the  damage it’s done to the U.S. economy, “I don’t see that as a realistic thing in the coming year.”

Acquiring a 500-plus-ship Navy in the next 25 years, as recommended in the Pentagon’s Battle Force 2045 plan, is “an aim point, an aspiration” Miley said, but to stay ahead of China and other competitors may require at least 500 ships in the future. As many as 140 to 250 vessels will be unmanned, he noted.

“Sailorless ships, robots on the water and under the water. That’s as big a change as going from sail to coal,” Milley said.

The U.S. Navy will also need between 70 and 90 more submarines, he added.

In the changing battle environment,  air, land and sea forces will need to be small, widely distributed and difficult to detect while remaining movable and highly lethal using long range precision, directed fires, Milley said.  Unlike the conflicts in the Middle East and Afghanistan, the environment in a great power battle will be contested, and “all forces are going to have to assume they are going to be cut off. So tactical data is essential,” Milley added.

NORTH ARABIAN SEA — The guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson (DDG 114), deployed to U.S. Fifth Fleet and operating in support of the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), interdicted a shipment of more than 2,000 pounds (900 kilograms) of suspected narcotics from a stateless dhow in the international waters of the Arabian Sea, Dec. 4, CMF Public Affairs said in a Dec. 7 release.  

This seizure, conducted in direct support of CMF’s Combined Task Force (CTF) 150, marks the fourth CMF drugs seizure since October. The narcotics are currently in U.S. custody awaiting analysis. To mitigate the risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19, the boarding team undertook carefully executed precautionary measures during and after the boarding, to include decontamination of all seized contraband. 

Ralph Johnson initially identified a dhow loitering without power in international waters. When the ship approached to determine if the dhow required assistance, they failed to produce flag registration documentation.  A subsequent search discovered the narcotics. 

CMF is a multinational maritime partnership to counter illicit non-state actors in international waters, promoting security, stability and prosperity in the Arabian Gulf, the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman. CTF 150 conducts maritime security operations outside the Arabian Gulf to disrupt criminal and terrorist organizations, ensuring legitimate commercial shipping can transit the region, free from non-state threats. CTF 150 is currently led by the Royal Saudi Naval Force, the second time the country’s navy has led the task force. 

MAYPORT, Florida – The Freedom-variant littoral combat ship USS Sioux City (LCS 11) returned to Mayport, Florida, Dec. 4, following its deployment to the U.S. 4th Fleet area of operations, the Fleet said in a release. 

Sioux City, along with the “Sea Knights” of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 22, Detachment 6, deployed on August 30, 2020, to conduct U.S. Southern Command and Joint Interagency Task Force South’s enhanced counter-narcotics operations missions in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean. 

During their deployment. Sioux City participated in a multi-lateral passing exercise (PASSEX) with the British River-class Corvette HMS Medway, and the Jamaican Coast Guard Cutter HMJS Nanny of the Maroons, a successful exercise displaying the capabilities of interoperability in the 4th Fleet area of operations. 
 
Along with their embarked U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) 104, Sioux City disrupted approximately 2,120 kilograms of cocaine, which has an estimated street value of 148 million dollars. In addition, Sioux City conducted a medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) for a tanker in distress and completed multiple days of hurricane assistance and disaster relief in Honduras, collecting and delivering over 36,000 pounds of supplies in support of U.S. Southern Command’s Hurricane Iota relief efforts in Central America. 
 
While completing its mission, Sioux City traveled approximately 14, 000 nautical miles, visited six ports, and launched and recovered her embarked aircraft 304 times. 
 
“The success of this deployment is a direct reflection of the hard work that the Sioux City Sailors have put in over the past nine months,” said Cmdr. Dan Reiher, the commanding officer of Sioux City. “This deployment gives a new meaning to our motto of ‘Forging a New Frontier,’ because we have begun to define the capabilities of Sioux City and littoral combat ships as a whole.” 

ARLINGTON, Va. — Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller has announced that President Donald Trump has nominated Adm. John C. Aquilino for reappointment to the rank of admiral, and assignment as commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, according to a Dec. 3 Defense Department release.   

Aquilino is currently serving as commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, whose headquarters also is located at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. If confirmed by the Senate, he would succeed Adm. Phil Davidson as commander of the nation’s largest regional combatant command. 

Below is Aquilino’s official biography from the Navy website: 

Adm. John Aquilino is a native to Huntington, New York. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1984, earning a Bachelor of Science in Physics. He subsequently entered flight training and earned his wings in August 1986. 
 
Operationally, he has served in numerous fighter squadrons flying the F-14A/B Tomcat and the F/A-18 C/E/F Hornet. His fleet assignments include the Ghost Riders of Fighter Squadron (VF) 142 and the Black Aces of VF-41. He commanded the World Famous Red Rippers of VF-11, Carrier Air Wing 2 and Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 2. He has made several extended deployments in support of Operation Deny Flight, Deliberate Force, Southern Watch, Noble Eagle, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. 
 
Ashore, Aquilino’s assignments include duties as an adversary instructor pilot flying the A-4, F-5 and F-16N aircraft for the Challengers of VF-43; operations officer of Strike Weapons and Tactics School, Atlantic; flag aide to the vice chief of naval operations; special assistant for Weapons Systems and Advanced Development in the Office of the Legislative Affairs for the Secretary of Defense; director of Air Wing Readiness and Training, for Commander, Naval Air Forces, Atlantic Fleet; and executive assistant to the commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command. 
 
His flag assignments include director of Strategy and Policy (J5), U.S. Joint Forces Command; deputy director, Joint Force Coordinator (J31), the Joint Staff; commander, CSG-2, director of Maritime Operations, U.S. Pacific Fleet (N04); deputy chief of naval operations for Operations, Plans and Strategy (N3/N5) and most recently, as commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet, Combined Maritime Forces. 

Aquilino graduated from the Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN), the Joint Forces Staff College and completed Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Education Program in National and International Security. 
 
Aquilino assumed duties as commander, U.S.Pacific Fleet, May 17, 2018.  He is the 36th commander since the fleet’s Pearl Harbor headquarters was established in February 1941. 
 
He is entitled to wear the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, Air Medal, as well as several other personal unit and campaign awards. He has accumulated more than 5,100 mishap free flight hours and over 1,150 carrier-arrested landings. 

ARLINGTON, Va.— With the Navy and Marine Corps aircraft readiness in much better shape than recently of note, the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) is changing focus to improving the warfighting capabilities of its aircraft for a high-end fight.  

“We’re shifting that to lethality,” said Vice Adm. Dean Peters, speaking Dec. 3 in a Defense Forum 2020 webinar sponsored by the U.S. Naval Institute. “We want to build on that. We want to make sure getting after all of those mission systems that are critical to the high-end fight. That’s a deliberate focus of the Air Boss [Vice Adm. Kenneth Whitesell, commander, Naval Air Forces] and of DCA [Deputy Commandant for Aviation Lt. Gen. Mark R. Wise]: lethality, survivability, all of those things we need for the high-end fight.” 

Peters said that NAVAIR has been restructured to a mission-aligned organization from a functionally aligned organization. 

“A lot of things that you do in a functionally aligned organization are institutional, and you are very focused on maintaining the sanctity of your technical responsibilities,” he said, “But that doesn’t necessarily translate into being able to maneuver quickly to attack problems. 

“We’ve had a very significant and a very deliberate pivot towards readiness,” he said. We lost focus as resources did become constrained and we had to re-cultivate this sense of health of naval aviation. We’ve done that over the last couple of years and we’re not where we need to be by any measure. We do have some challenges but, starting at the beginning of the fiscal year ’19 and ending at the end of fiscal year ’20, we really increased the mission capability of our platforms dramatically.”   

The Navy and Marine Corps have 300 more aircraft that are mission-capable today than they did at the start of fiscal 2018, after then-Defense Secretary James Mattis ordered the services to bring their strike fighter fleet to an 80% mission-capable rate. 

Peters said the Naval Aviation Enterprise is “maturing those cutting-edge technologies at our warfare centers. All of this enabled by the structural changes that we made, but it’s more than that. It’s our work force, really dedicated and talented.” 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy’s experience with fielding new warships in the last two decades has shown that an evolutionary approach to ship design is more likely to succeed than a revolutionary approach, the commander of Naval Sea Systems Command design said.   

“As we go forward and look at future platforms, [consider an] evolutionary approach versus a revolutionary approach,” said Vice Adm. William Galinis, speaking Dec. 3 in a Defense Forum 2020 webinar sponsored by the U.S. Naval Institute. “Where we have done that [evolutionary approach], frankly we’ve been pretty successful.” 

Galinis pointed to the evolution from the Spruance-class destroyer to the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser to the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer (DDG 51) as an example of evolutionary design success. 

“The design margin, the robustness of the DDG 51 design continues to prove [itself] even today even as the first three Flight III ships [are] under construction, which right now are state-of-the-art capability going to the fleet,” he said.  

“Where we’ve taken that more revolutionary approach, we have in fact struggled,” he said. “With DDG 1000 [USS Zumwalt], just the number of new elements of that design that came into play — everything from the hull form to the propulsion plant to the deckhouse to the sensor suite to the network—as we did that, quite frankly, the mission requirements changed for that platform and we’re coming through that. In the end, the Navy and the country are going to get a good ship but it’s going to come at a cost.” 

Galinis said that taking the evolutionary approach instead of a revolutionary approach is a key element to bring on a good, reliable platform once you get through the design and construction phase. 

Because of the capital-intensive character of ship design and construction, prototyping is difficult, but Galinis said the Navy is doing more prototyping of ship to reduce risk. He pointed to the land-based prototypes of the Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine’s power plant and drive train and of the SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radar on the DDG Flight III with the ship’s electrical system. Prototyping also is proceeding with the Navy’s unmanned surface and underwater vehicles.       

ARLINGTON, Va. — More submarines and hypersonic weapons for the Navy, and more personnel and training for the Marine Corps, top the wish list, say the U.S. sea services’ commanders, if Congress added an imaginary $5 billion to their budgets.

The last question posed to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger at a Dec. 3 live-streamed panel discussion on transforming the fleet’s architecture was what would they buy if, hypothetically, Congress gave them each an extra $5 billion.

Gilday told participants at the U.S. Naval Institute’s Defense Forum Washington webcast that some of the money would go to shipbuilding, “most notably submarines.” In terms “of things I need to close down on now, I’d go faster with respect to the fielding of hypersonics.” The CNO added that he would go “way faster” on laser technology. “I need to be able to knock down missiles.”

Gilday said he would also put money in Project Overmatch, the plan to create a massive data network linking weapons and sensors across all domains. “We have to get that right, and that remains a priority for me,” Gilday said. If he had any money left over, he would put it in live, virtual constructive training and “ready learning” to use technology to train Sailors faster.

“Hypersonics, the network and lasers would be the top three on my list,” he said.

Berger said he would put all his money in manpower, personnel, training and education, noting the maxim “Don’t buy anything you can’t maintain.” Instead of a thing, he would invest in people and their training. “To elevate and modernize a force, you have to pour the resources into those areas,” Berger said, adding that he was shrinking the size of the Marine Corps, “based on my assumption that we’re not going to have a higher topline, more money,” in coming defense budgets.

If someone did write him a check for $5 billion, Berger said his second question would be “Is this a onetime deposit in my bank account or is this a sustained effort? Because we’re not going to have a hollow force.”

ARLINGTON, Va. — The secretary of the Navy has announced that the U.S Fleet Forces Command would be re-designated the U.S. Atlantic Fleet in acknowledgement of the realities of great power competition, particularly with Russia.  

Navy Secretary Kenneth J. Braithwaite, testifying Dec. 2 before the Readiness and Management Support subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee, took the opportunity to announce the forthcoming change, noting that the changing world requires that the Navy must evolve to meet the threat.  

“Our existing structure operates on the premise that we still live in a post-9-11 state, where NATO’s flanks are secure, the Russian Fleet is tied to the pier, and terrorism is our biggest problem,” Braithwaite said. “That is not the world of today. As the world changes, we must be bold, evolved, and change with it. Instead of perpetuating a structure designed to support Joint Forces Command, we are aligning to today’s threat. 

“To meet the maritime challenges of the Atlantic Theater, we will rename Fleet Forces Command as the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and will refocus our naval forces in this important region on their original mission, to controlling the maritime approaches to the United States and those of our allies,” he said. “The Atlantic Fleet will confront the reassertive Russian Navy, which has been deploying closer and closer to our East Coast with a tailored maritime presence, capability and lethality.” 

The U.S. Atlantic Fleet commander will have two numbered fleets assigned, U.S. Second Fleet, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, and U.S. Fourth Fleet, headquartered in Mayport, Florida. The U.S Second Fleet was reestablished in August 2018 to confront the increasing Russian activity.   

The original commander, U.S. Atlantic Fleet staff, has a long pedigree that began in 1906, when the North Atlantic Squadron and South Atlantic Squadron were combined. The fleet existed in various forms until 2006, when the chief of naval operations renamed Commander, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, to Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, which assumed the duties of the former fleet plus the mission of the former Commander, Fleet Forces Command, which was “to serve as the primary advocate for fleet personnel, training, requirements, maintenance and operations issues,” according to the Fleet Forces Command website. 

For a detailed history of the commander, U.S. Atlantic Fleet and Fleet Forces command staff, see https://www.usff.navy.mil/About-Us/History/ .

ARLINGTON, Va. — The secretary of the Navy has announced the name he selected for the second Constellation-class guided-missile frigate. 

Navy Secretary Kenneth J. Braithwaite, testifying Dec. 2 before the Readiness and Management Support subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee, took the opportunity to announce that the second frigate would be named USS Congress. 

The new frigate would be the seventh U.S. naval ship named Congress. 

The first USS Congress was a row of the Continental Navy that fought on Lake Champlain during the American Revolutionary War. Built in 1776, the ship fought in the Battle of Valcour Island. The ship was severely damaged in the battle, which killed more than 20 of its crew. The ship was run aground and burned after only a week of naval service. 

The second USS Congress was a 28-gun frigate built in New York for the Continental Navy. Before it completed fitting out to fight in the Revolutionary War against Great Britain, it was burned in October 1777 in order to prevent its capture. 

The third USS Congress was one of the six frigates authorized by the Naval Act of 1794 and designed by Joshua Humphreys. The 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate was launched in 1789 and participated in the Quasi War with France, the First Barbary War, and the War of 1812. The frigate captured or assisted in the capture of 20 British merchant ships. The ship was laid up in 1913 for lack of repair funds but returned to service in the Second Barbary War in 1915. The frigate participated in anti-piracy operations in the Caribbean and later became the first U.S. Navy ship to visit China. The ship served as a receiving ship (a training barge) from 1824 to 1834. 

The fourth USS Congress was a 52-gun sailing frigate commissioned in 1841. It served in the Mediterranean Sea and the South Atlantic Ocean, participating in a blockade of Uruguay. Decommissioned in 1845 but recommissioned later in the same year, the frigate operated in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. During the Mexican War, its crew fought in two land battles and the occupation of Los Angeles. The ship also attacked enemy fortifications in western Mexico. Returning to the Atlantic in 1848, the ship was placed in reserve. In 1850, the ship was assigned to the South Atlantic to counter the slave trade before being decommissioned in 1853. Recommissioned in 1855, the frigate operated in the Mediterranean before again being decommissioned in 1858. Recommissioned in 1859, the ship served in the Brazil Squadron until 1861, when it joined in the blockade of the Confederacy. The frigate was sunk in Hampton Roads, Virginia, by the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia on March 8, 1862, with the loss of 120 Sailors in its crew.   

The fifth USS Congress was a screw sloop commissioned in 1870. It served in the South Atlantic Ocean, Arctic, Caribbean Sea, and Mediterranean Sea before being decommissioned in 1876. 

The sixth USS Congress (ID-3698) was a privately owned fishing vessel that was acquired in 1918 and commissioned as a patrol vessel, serving along the U.S. East Coast until 1919.