LONDON — BAE Systems has been awarded a contract worth up to £87 million by the U.S. Department of Defense to manufacture and deliver Archerfish mine neutralizers for the U.S. Navy. 

This is the fourth consecutive Archerfish contract awarded to BAE Systems since 2003 and will see the company deliver to the U.S. Navy over the next seven years. 

Archerfish is a remote-controlled, underwater mine neutralizer which can be launched and operated from a surface ship, helicopter or an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV). Its fiber-optic data link relays real-time, high resolution, low-light video and high-frequency sonar pictures of targets of interest from its on-board sensors. The design reduces the time it takes to identify and neutralize targets, meaning clearance missions can be completed more quickly. Archerfish also protects personnel by eliminating the need to put divers into the water. 

Archerfish is used by the U.S. Navy’s MH-60S Helicopter squadrons (AN/ASQ-235) as part of the Airborne Mine Neutralization capability, deployed from the Littoral Combat Ship. 

Under the new contract, Archerfish will continue to support the U.S. Navy in live mine clearance operations and also provide capability to conduct training exercises between now and 2027. 

The contract also includes the supply of fiber optic spool kits, support equipment, surveys, repairs and program management and support, which will be provided by the Archerfish project team based in Portsmouth, U.K.  

Dr Brooke Hoskins, Director of Products and Training Services for BAE Systems’ Maritime Services business, said, “This contract builds on our strong partnership with the U.S. Navy which has seen BAE Systems supporting its minesweeping operations for almost two decades. Archerfish not only helps to keep sailors safer, it also reduces the number and cost of mine clearance missions. Its world-leading capability and outstanding service with the U.S. Navy makes Archerfish a highly attractive proposition to other major naval forces around the world.”  

Developed by BAE Systems under its own investment, Archerfish draws on the company’s extensive expertise in underwater effectors. Archerfish uses a flexible, open architecture command and control system that can be operated on its own or integrated into a higher-level command management structure. Wireless communications mean it can be deployed remotely. 

Investments continue to be made to enhance Archerfish to meet future mine countermeasure challenges and reduce the through-life cost of the system. Innovative fusing will allow it to be recovered and reused and an automatic target recognition function is being developed that will allow concurrent multi-shot Archerfish operations, enabling mines to be neutralized in waves.  

Archerfish is manufactured in the United Kingdom at BAE Systems’ Broad Oak facility in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and Hillend facility in Dunfermline, Fife. The contract with the U.S. Department of Defense secures 30 highly skilled jobs in BAE Systems in Portsmouth and Fife and further jobs in the U.K. supply chain. 

NORFOLK, Va. — Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 22 received its first MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter on Sept. 15 aboard Naval Station Norfolk, the squadron announced.

HSC-22 marks the first East Coast squadron to operate the MH-60S Knighthawk, MQ-8B Fire Scout and MQ-8C Fire Scout. The new added capability of the MQ-8C combines the capabilities of the MQ-8B with the MH-60S Knighthawk to improve the Navy’s ability to investigate and target hostile surface contacts, the squadron said. Both Fire Scouts are built by Northrop Grumman.

“Incorporating the MQ-8C will represent a significant improvement in our unmanned air vehicle mission capability,” said Cmdr. Matthew Wright, HSC-22’s commanding officer. “The ‘Charlie’ is bigger, faster, can carry more mission equipment, and remain airborne over twice as long as our already-proven MQ-8Bs.”

MQ-8B and C Fire Scout variants can be operated from ships or land, extending the ability to support distributed maritime operations. Most of the software is similar across both systems, but the crew must adapt to the C’s new capabilities and obtain additional qualifications to operate it.

“The MQ-8C Firescout is the latest step toward increasing the duration that UAS has on the battlefield as well as the impact,” said Lt. Ryan Jaenke, an MH-60s and MQ-8B/C pilot. “It advances the reliability of UAS as well as leaves a larger impact on the battlefield in missions that are not new to today’s warfighter.”

HSC-22’s mission is to provide manned and unmanned maritime attack and combat support capabilities to the fleet. HSC-22’s inherent versatility provides full-spectrum warfighting support across multiple mission sets and diverse and distributed platforms.

LITTLE CREEK, Va. — Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) announced the official name change for all Coastal Riverine Forces to Maritime Expeditionary Security Forces (MESF) Sept. 16. 

While history and tradition are important to the U.S. Navy there are times when a name does not capture the role and mission of a force.  The new name captures the MESF growing blue-water fleet integration and contributions to the high-end fight in an era of Great Power Competition, which are more robust than the legacy riverine roles. 

“As we maintain a connection to our legacy we must honor those warriors that come before us and learn from their heroism,” said Rear Adm. Joseph DiGuardo, commander of NECC, “we must continuously evolve to meet the needs of the Navy and the Nation for Great Power Competition, crisis, and conflict.  The change to Maritime Expeditionary Security Force clearly articulates the mission of our sailors to reinforce lethality in the blue water and dominate in the littorals.” 

“Navy Expeditionary Combat Force Sailors assigned to the MESF reinforce lethality and support the Navy-Marine Corps team in naval power projection ashore,” said Capt. David Rowland, commodore, Maritime Expeditionary Security Group (MESG) 2, “as well as in the littorals and open ocean, through missions such as port security/high-value asset escort and embarked security teams. Our mission is important and our name needs to match the mission we do today, in a time of Great Power Competition.” 

The Maritime Expeditionary Security Force provides a core Navy capability with littoral operations in contested environments through port and harbor security, high value asset security, and maritime security operations in the coastal and inland waterways. 

“Our crafts are very advanced and specialized to provide all facets of maritime security operations,” said Senior Chief Raymond Hoke. “The force protection we provide supports and enables the fleet to project power around the world.  The name change reflects the nesting of the force’s capabilities within the Navy Strategy and in support of national-level objectives.” 

Hoke is a boat captain for the Mark VI and second in charge of the Mark VI Team for Maritime Expeditionary Security Squadron 3, which falls under MESG 1 in San Diego. 

When asked about the training that boat crews go through Hoke as he explained that all Sailors receive the same small arms and crew-served weapons training.  The Sailors qualify as basic and advanced weapon operators and go through extensive communication equipment training, navigation training and medical training.  

“We train as one unit in realistic scenarios that better prepare us for mission tasking, said Hoke, “because of our extensive training and expertise of our seasoned operators, Sailors here, no matter what their rate is, will learn and possess specialized skills that enables the fleet to be a more resilient force.”  

The MESF consists of two groups; one in San Diego and one in Virginia Beach. With deployed units around the globe that include both active duty and reserve Sailors. This includes two expeditionary security detachments in Guam and Bahrain; seven Maritime Expeditionary Security Squadrons, and thirty-one Maritime Expeditionary Security Companies. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The admiral in charge of developing the U.S. Navy’s unmanned surface vessels (USVs) and unmanned underwater vessels (UUVs) said the maintenance strategy for the vessels may require different approaches to maintenance, particularly at the operational level (O-level).    

Speaking Sept. 17 at a webinar panel of the Virtual Fleet Maintenance & Modernization Symposium of the American Society of Naval Engineers. Rear Adm. Casey Moton, program executive officer for Unmanned and Small Combatants, said that “for USVs, [that] probably puts a whole different take on O-level maintenance.”  

Moton said that “We are just in our initial prototype stage, so we haven’t actually picked what the maintenance strategy is going to be but looking at the maintenance strategy is part of our prototyping effort. So [Surface Development Squadron One] in San Diego is including looking at maintenance and helping us look at all that. The same is happening on the UUV side with [UUV Squadron One] up in Keyport [Washington].”  

For small USVs and UUVs, Moton said that a likely outcome for O-level maintenance would be like that performed by an aircraft squadron.” 

As for the Intermediate- and Depot-levels, “We still have to sort that out,” he said. “My personal thoughts are that it goes from a range of making sure that a LUSV, MUSV in particular, are maybe not much different from other surface ship classes in terms of the [Regional Maintenance Centers] doing their role.”  

Moton pointed out that the Navy also has “craft-level [UUVs and USVs] that are treated like a craft and [the question] is, “how are we going to maintain and modernize those?” 

The admiral noted that “the prototypes are going to make that really interesting and we will figure that out in the next couple of years. … We’ll try to make sure unmanned is not singled out as an aberration. I also don’t want to close the door to innovation. It’s more of a range of solutions.” 

He also said that lots of companies that are working the USV efforts, and that many “smaller and mid-sized yards able to participate. I’m really excited about that.” 

WASHINGTON —The admiral in command of the nation’s strategic deterrent forces defended the new W76-2 low-yield nuclear warhead before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) in a hearing on Capitol Hill and praised the agile process that rapidly deployed the weapon.  

The requirement for a submarine-launched low-yield warhead became a requirement noted in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review. The result was the W76-2 warhead, which was deployed in 2019 on the tips of some Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles carried by Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines.   

“I think it’s an example that shows that we can move fast,” said Adm. Charles A. Richard, commander, U.S. Strategic Command, testifying Sept. 17 before the SASC. “We still know how to do this. That is an example of where the threat changed, new capability was needed, we provided on an operationally responsive timeline [and] closed a potential hole in our deterrence strategy. We should be able to do that more.” 

Richard said the rapid development and deployment of the W76-2 was “a type of hedging strategy that enables you to react inside what somebody is attempting to do. That enhances a nation’s deterrence by a nation’s ability to do that.” 

Richard stressed that the strategic climate was changing as China and Russia began surging on their way to becoming peer competitors “that have to be deterred differently.”   

Artificial intelligence, machine learning and unmanned systems are enabling surface and undersea activities even while COVID-19 hampers the ability to put humans on ships, maritime leaders said during a webinar on Sept. 17.

Retired Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet, deputy administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the former Oceanographer of the Navy, said COVID has put ship deployments on hold for months, but the agency has leveraged autonomous systems to keep the work going.

For instance, NOAA sent Sail Drones to Alaska to perform a critical fishery survey and for coastal mapping.

“We were able to map in pretty shallow areas that would have been hazardous for ships,” Gallaudet said in the webinar, hosted by the Marine Technology Society’s Washington section and the company Oceaneering.

NOAA was also able to use underwater gliders to measure water temperatures, which helped accurately predict the track of Hurricane Laura. This was done with the deployment of just a few operators on small boats in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.

The agency is leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning, autonomous systems, data management and other advances and “applying those technologies in everything we do,” he said, including setting up a NOAA AI center.

The U.S. Navy is also leaning into these technologies, said Adm. Bill Houston, director of the Undersea Warfare Division in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (N97).

His unmanned underwater vehicle portfolio alone is worth $2.8 billion, he said, including the MK18 and the Knifefish, as well as the larger Orca, Razorback and Snakehead UUVs that are being developed. AI and machine learning are going to be key in using these systems and maintaining U.S. overmatch against adversaries, he said.

“We’re not going to be a leader in AI, industry is, [and] we need to go ahead to be able to leverage that with academia,” he said.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The on-time delivery of ships, submarines and systems from the Navy’s repair yards and the private shipyards as well as on-time delivery of new construction ships remains the Naval Sea Systems Command’s (NAVSEA’s) top priority, the NAVSEA commander said.  

“It all starts with advance planning,” said Vice Adm. William Galinis, the NAVSEA commander, speaking Sept. 16 in a webinar of the Virtual Fleet Maintenance & Modernization Symposium of the American Society of Naval Engineers. “We’re going to be relentless to get the planning right.” 

Advance planning is critical in determining what work a ship will need so that materials can be ordered and delivered in time and the necessary work force assigned and mustered to perform the maintenance before the work starts. Each day matters, he said. 

Galinis noted that the duration and complexity of ship maintenance and modernization availabilities is increasing.   

“We need to be absolutely relentless in execution,” he said.  

One of the planning actions that has proved beneficial is sending assessment teams to do ship checks, inspecting a ship in advance of the availability to determine the condition and needs of the ship to develop the work package as completely as possible.  

Galinis said that one of the biggest challenges is unplanned work that emerges. Managing that change is critical to minimizing its impact on the schedule. 

He also said, “We are challenged in some areas by capacity. We need to build additional capacity.” 

The admiral said that currently 47 CNO [chief of naval operations] availabilities are being executed in private shipyards (including three nuclear-powered attack submarines at Newport News Shipbuilding). Of those, he said, approximately half are “tracking to the schedule,” he said, with the other half being challenges. In addition, 13 nuclear-powered ships — 11 submarines and two aircraft carriers — are in availabilities in the Navy’s shipyards. 

Galinis stressed the importance of teamwork between the Navy, the ship repair industry and the supply chain in meeting the challenges of on-time delivery. 

Achieving a predictable and stable workload in ship repair yards benefits both the Navy and industry, enabling the yards to hire and retain a skilled, right-sized work force, a feature that also enables suppliers to get backlogs of orders. It benefits the populations and economies of the communities located by the yards and suppliers as well. 

MELBOURNE, Fla.—The U.S. Navy has awarded L3Harris Technologies a $104 million follow-on contract to supply the next production lot of the electronic warfare (EW) system that protects F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet aircraft against electronic threats. The announcement was made on Sept. 10 in conjunction with vHook’20 being held virtually, September 10-12. 

L3Harris will manufacture and deliver Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures (IDECM) jammer systems for the F/A-18C/D/E/F variants, with deliveries under the new contract expected to be completed by May 2024. The L3Harris ALQ-214A(V)4/5 is the key Onboard Jammer for the IDECM program, protecting the aircraft from electronic threats, including sophisticated integrated air defense systems. The company has received more than $2 billion in awards to date from the Naval Air Systems Command for AN/ALQ-214 development and production. 

“Our commitment to continually modernize F/A-18 EW systems has helped to keep naval aviators ahead of emerging threats and out of harm’s way for more than two decades,” said Ed Zoiss, President, L3Harris Space and Airborne Systems. “This longterm collaboration with the Navy and continued development of advanced EW technology uniquely positions L3Harris to provide the jammer solution for the F/A-18 throughout the service-life of the aircraft.” 

L3Harris has delivered EW solutions for a wide variety of airborne platforms for more than 60 years, including strategic bombers, tactical fighters and rotary aircraft.   

L3Harris’ Space and Airborne Systems segment provides space payloads, sensors and full-mission solutions; classified intelligence and cyber defense; avionics; and electronic warfare solutions. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The number of ship days delayed by maintenance has been reduced by 80% in fiscal 2020, a senior Navy engineering duty officer said, even with the COVID-19 pandemic affecting operations.  

“The needle is really moving, and moving in a good direction,” said Rear Adm. Eric Ver Hage, commander, Regional Maintenance Center, speaking Sept. 15 in a webinar of the Virtual Fleet Maintenance & Modernization Symposium of the American Society of Naval Engineers. “Even with the challenges of COVID, we’ve achieved an 80% reduction in the days of maintenance delay in [fiscal] ‘20 as compared to [fiscal] ’19.” 

Ver Hage said, “It’s not just about on time, it’s also getting the required work complete. In our 2020 DDG [guided-missile destroyer] availabilities, we are tracking to complete 99% of all of our mandatory technical requirements, the things required to keep a ship operating to its full expected life cycle. That also is an improvement over last year.” 

The admiral said that fiscal 2020 has been a super-busy year, with 50 CNO [chief of naval operations] availabilities and another 100 in planning; almost 700 emergent availabilities; 20,000 intermediate-level tasks; and 25,000 technical assists.  

He said that also conducted were 157 ship readiness assessments, which help “our ships prepare for deployment and really importantly, on preparing for the next CNO avail.” 

Ver Hage said the accomplishments were the result of “a great team effort,” while noting that “there has been steadily improving collaboration between industry and the government.” 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The first of a new class of berthing barges is soon to be delivered to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, followed early next year by a delivery to the East Coast, a Navy official said. 

The first one, APL 67, is nearing completion [and] is going to Pac Fleet,” said Rear Adm. William Greene, fleet maintenance officer, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, speaking Sept. 15 in a webinar of the Virtual Fleet Maintenance & Modernization Symposium of the American Society of Naval Engineers. 

Greene said the second barge of the class, APL 68, will be delivered to the East Coast in February 2021. The subsequent deliveries will alternate between the West and East Coasts.  

He said the 27 legacy berthing barges on the East Coast “are reaching the end of their service lives.” 

Officially designated non-self-propelled auxiliary personnel lighters (small) (APL(S)), the barges provide living space and berthing for the crew — particularly the duty section — of a ship that is going through extensive maintenance. Often the maintenance on a ship requires that berthing, climate control, food service, and water supply, and other services be shut down during renovation.  

The new APL(S)-67-class barges will have a length of 269 feet, a beam of 69 feet, and a draft of seven feet. They will have berthing for 74 officers and 537 enlisted personnel. The messing facilities will be able to accommodate 56 officers and 228 enlisted personnel at a time. The barges also feature washrooms, classrooms, lounges, laundry facilities, offices, a barber shop, a fitness center and a medical facility. 

The barges are not self-propelled but can be towed to the port or harbor area where the maintenance is to be performed.  

VT Halter Marine was awarded a $78 million Navy contract in September 2018 for two berthing barges with options for four more which, if exercised, would raise the contract value to $244 million.