WASHINGTON
— Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer has announced that the newest towing, salvage
and rescue ship (T-ATS 8) will be named Saginaw Ojibwe Anishinabek in honor of
the history, service and contributions of the Saginaw Chippewa tribe of
Michigan, Spencer’s public affairs office said July 26.

The
Saginaw Chippewa people are made up of Saginaw, Black River and Swan Creek
bands. Ojibwe is also referred to as Chippewa and Anishinabek means “original
people.”

“I am
deeply honored to announce that the history of the Saginaw Chippewa people will
once again be part of Navy and Marine Corps history,” Spencer said. “The future
USNS Saginaw Ojibwe Anishinabek honors the original people of modern-day
Michigan, with their original name, and will carry the proud Ojibwe legacy for
decades to come.”

This is
the first ship to bear the name Saginaw Ojibwe Anishinabek, and the fifth U.S.
ship to be named in honor of the Saginaw Chippewa people.

“It’s a
great honor to have the name and language of our people on a Navy ship,” said Ronald
Ekdahl, chief of the Saginaw Chippewa tribe of Michigan. “We hold our veterans
in high regard, and we have a proud tradition of having many of our men and
women provide service to our country. ‘Chi Miigwetch’ (thank you) to the U.S.
Navy for recognizing the culture in such a distinct way.”

Gulf
Island Shipyards was awarded a $64.8 million contract option for the detail
design and construction of the new ship, which will be based on existing
commercial towing offshore vessel designs and will replace the current T-ATF
166 and T-ARS 50 class ships in service with the U.S. Military Sealift Command.
The future USNS Cherokee Nation is the second ship in the new class of towing, salvage
and rescue Ships and will be designated T-ATS 7.

The
contract includes options for potentially six additional vessels, and each
additional ship will be named in honor of prominent Native Americans or Native
American tribes.

The T-ATS will serve as
open ocean towing vessels and will support salvage operations and submarine
rescue missions. The ship will be built at the company’s shipyard in Houma,
Louisiana, and is expected to be completed in July 2021.

LOUISVILLE,
Ky. — BAE Systems has received a follow-on contract to produce 28 more payload
tubes for the U.S. Navy’s Block V Virginia-class attack submarines, the company
said in a July 25 release.

Under the
contract with General Dynamics Electric Boat, a builder of the Virginia class,
BAE Systems will deliver seven sets of four tubes each for the Virginia Payload
Modules (VPM).

The Navy
is adding significant capability to the latest Virginia-class boats by
increasing the firepower and payload capacity of the Block V submarines. The
VPM extends the length of Block V subs over previous versions of the Virginia
class by adding a midbody section to create more payload space. Each
large-diameter payload tube can store and launch up to seven Tomahawk and
future guided cruise missiles.

“The VPM
is critical to the Virginia class because it offers not only additional strike
capacity, but the flexibility to integrate future payload types, such as
unmanned systems and next-generation weapons, as threats evolve,” said Joe
Senftle, vice president and general manager of weapon systems at BAE Systems.

“We’ve
invested heavily in the people, processes and tools required to successfully
deliver these payload tubes to Electric Boat and to help ensure the Navy’s
undersea fleet remains a dominant global force.”

BAE
Systems is also providing nine payload tubes under previously awarded VPM
contracts. As the leading provider of propulsors and other submarine systems,
the company has a long history of supporting the Navy’s submarine fleet. In
addition to payload tubes, BAE Systems is also providing propulsors, spare
hardware and tailcones for Block IV Virginia-class vessels and is prepared to
do the same for Block V.

Work under this contract
will be performed at the company’s facility in Louisville, Kentucky, with
deliveries scheduled to begin in 2021.

CINCINNATI
— The U.S. Navy has approved the commissioning date for the future littoral
combat ship USS Cincinnati (LCS 20), the commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S.
Pacific Fleet, said in a July 25 release.

The Navy
will commission Cincinnati on Oct. 5 in Gulfport, Mississippi. The
commissioning ceremony signifies the acceptance for service and the entrance of
a ship into the active fleet of the U. S. Navy.

Former
U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker is the ship’s sponsor. As the sponsor,
Pritzker leads the time-honored Navy tradition of giving the order during the
ceremony to “man our ship and bring her to life!” At that moment, the
commissioning pennant is hoisted, and Cincinnati becomes a ship of the fleet.

An Indianapolis
native, Cmdr. Kurt Braeckel, is the commanding officer of Cincinnati.

Former Navy
Secretary Ray Mabus announced LCS 20 would be named for Cincinnati at the
Cincinnati Reds baseball game on July 19, 2015.

LCS 20
will be the fifth ship in naval history to be named Cincinnati. The first
played an integral part in the Civil War; the second enforced neutrality laws
during the Cuban Revolution and saw service during the Spanish-American War;
the third acted as a patrol and flagship during World War II; and the fourth, a
Los Angeles-class submarine, was commissioned in 1978 and served during the
Cold War.

LCS is a highly maneuverable, lethal and adaptable ship designed to support focused mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare and surface warfare missions. The LCS class consists of two variants, the Freedom variant and the Independence variant. Cincinnati is a Freedom variant.

The future Cincinnati will be homeported at Naval Base San Diego.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy will
commission its newest Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, the future
USS Paul Ignatius (DDG 117), during a 10 a.m. EDT ceremony on July 27 at Port
Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, according to a Defense Department release.

The ship is named in honor of Paul
Robert Ignatius, who served in the Navy during World War II and later
during the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson as assistant secretary
of defense for installations and logistics from 1964 to 1967 and secretary of
the Navy from 1967 to 1969. 

Current Navy Secretary Richard V.
Spencer, who is also performing the duties of deputy secretary of defense, will
deliver the commissioning ceremony’s principal address. Ignatius’ wife, Nancy,
who passed away earlier this year, is the ship’s sponsor. Elisa Ignatius,
granddaughter of Nancy Ignatius, will serve as the ship sponsor’s
representative. Elisa Ignatius will honor naval tradition when she gives the
first order to “man our ship and bring her to life!”

“The future USS Paul Ignatius
stands as proof of what the teamwork of all our people — civilian, contractor
and military — can accomplish together,” Spencer said. “From the
start of the acquisition process, to the keel laying and christening, to
today’s commissioning and the many missions she will fulfill going forward,
this destroyer enhances our capabilities for air, undersea, surface, strike and
ballistic missile defense.”

The future USS Paul Ignatius will be the 67th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and is one of 21 ships under contract for the DDG 51 program. Arleigh Burke-class destroyers conduct a variety of missions from peacetime presence and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief to sea control and power projection.

Built in the Flight IIA configuration, the ship delivers rapid reaction time, high firepower and improved electronic warfare capabilities. The ceremony, using hashtag #USSPaulIgnatius, can be viewed on the Navy Live blog here.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The Sailors file into the room, their weapons ready and their adrenaline
flowing. They operate as a team in a seamless manner. Their mission: to secure
an active-shooter situation and apprehend the holographic perpetrator. Commands
are given to the shooter, within the augmented-reality (AR) headset. The
shooter surrenders, and the Sailors’ mission is accomplished.

The Office
of Naval Research (ONR) Global TechSolutions program has teamed with Naval
Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren, U.S. Army Combat Capabilities
Development Command and two industry partners, Magic Leap Horizons and Haptech
Inc., to develop an AR training environment.

The Tactically
Reconfigurable Artificial Combat Enhanced Reality (TRACER) project was recently
tested at the Center for Security Forces (CENSECFOR) Detachment Chesapeake, on
Naval Support Activity Northwest Annex, in Currituck County, North Carolina.

TechSolutions
is ONR Global’s rapid-response science and technology initiative that develops
prototype technologies, to address problems voiced by Sailors and Marines,
within about 12 months.

The TRACER
system consists of a Magic Leap One AR headset, a backpack processor and a
Haptech instrumented weapon, designed to deliver realistic recoil. TRACER uses
software developed by Magic Leap Horizons as part of the U.S. Army’s Augmented
Reality Dismounted Soldier Training (ARDST) project, providing advanced weapons
tracking and allowing trainers to create multiple and adaptable simulation
scenarios for security personnel to experience.

“Our
training system is built mostly from commercial-off-the-shelf products, so we
are using widely available gaming gear,” said Patrick Mead, TRACER project
lead from the Human Systems Research and Development branch at NSWC Dahlgren.

“All
of these technologies combine … to give us extremely accurate weapon and
movement tracking capabilities as well as highly immersive simulation visual,
auditory and haptic (relating to the sense of touch) feedback. Ultimately,
TRACER provides Sailors with dynamic, engaging and less predictable training
scenarios that would otherwise be too costly or time consuming to create in the
real world.”

The
mission at CENSECFOR is to train Sailors from divergent career fields in U.S.
Navy security force fundamentals, code of conduct, anti-terrorism and expeditionary
warfare training to achieve maritime-interdiction and irregular-warfare
superiority.

“We
can integrate this AR, virtual training environment into our existing curriculum,
and it allows us to be very reconfigurable,” said Cmdr. Kim Littel,
CENSECFOR’s director of training innovation. “We can go in and we can change
the scenarios, or we can change the opposition forces and the threat that they
pose.”

For
Sailors who often must train and remain proficient while at sea, flexibility is
crucial.

According to Littel, the necessary space required to conduct training operations on a ship is limited and the opportunity to conduct training without impeding on regular operations is scarce. TRACER will help mitigate those issues and help increase proficiency and currency in more expansive training scenarios.

“In an environment where we’re taking students from the fleet, from their primary jobs, to train them, we need to maximize the limited time we have to make them as proficient as possible,” Little said.

“This technology provides a huge advantage by being quickly adaptable to different scenarios, geographic locations and opposition forces. Using this technology, we can conduct training almost anywhere, anytime.”

WASHINGTON
— The future USS Oakland (LCS 24) was launched July 21 at Austal USA’s ship
manufacturing facility in Mobile, Alabama, according to the Naval Sea System
Command’s Program Executive Office-Ships Unmanned and Small Combatants. This marked
the first time the ship floated in water as it is prepared for delivery next year.

The future
USS Oakland is the 12th of 19 Independence-variant littoral combat ships that
will join the fleet. Ship sponsor Kate Brandt, Google’s sustainability officer,
christened the vessel in Mobile on June 29. She previously welded her initials
onto a steel plate included in Oakland’s hull during a keel-laying ceremony last
July. Brandt is a recipient of the Distinguished Public Service Award, the
highest award the U.S. Navy can give to a civilian.

Four
additional LCSs are under various stages of construction at Austal’s Alabama
shipyard. The future USS Kansas City (LCS 22) is preparing for sea trials. The
future USS Mobile (LCS 26), Savannah (LCS 28) and Canberra (LCS 30) are under
construction, and Austal has four more LCSs under contract.

The future USS Oakland
honors the long-standing history its namesake city has with the Navy. It will
be the third naval ship to bear the city’s name. The first, commissioned in
1918, was largely used to transport cargo. The second USS Oakland was
commissioned in 1942 during the height of World War II. While in service for
just seven years, it was key in many anti-aircraft missions in places such as
Pearl Harbor, Marshall Islands, Pagan, Guam, Iwo Jima, Rota, Peleliu and
Okinawa. After the war, Oakland performed two duty patrols off the coast of
China before being decommissioned.

PASCAGOULA,
Miss. — The Navy’s newest America-class amphibious assault ship, the future USS
Tripoli (LHA 7), successfully completed builder’s trials on July 19. The ship
returned to the Huntington Ingalls Industries shipbuilding division’s shipyard
following four days underway in the Gulf of Mexico.

Builder’s trials
are the Navy’s first opportunity to assess the operational readiness of a ship.
During the trials, the multipurpose amphibious assault ship underwent dock
trials followed by more than 200 at-sea test events.

“The
Navy and industry team did a commendable job this week,” said Tom Rivers,
amphibious warfare program manager for Naval Sea System Command’s Program
Executive Office-Ships.

“America-class
ships bring tremendous capability to our Sailors and Marines, and Tripoli will
be the first large deck amphib to reach the fleet fully ready to integrate the
Marine Corps air combat element to include Joint Strike Fighters.” 

Tripoli is
the second ship of the America (LHA 6) class, built to facilitate forward
presence and power projection. LHA 7 is the last Flight 0 ship planned for
construction and features an enlarged hangar deck, realignment and expansion of
the aviation maintenance facilities, an increase in available stowage for parts
and support equipment and increased aviation fuel capacity.

LHA 8 will
be the first Flight I ship, reincorporating a well deck to enhance
expeditionary warfighting capabilities while maintaining the principal aviation
characteristics of the Flight 0 ships.

LHA 7
incorporates gas turbine propulsion plant, zonal electrical distribution and
fuel-efficient electric auxiliary propulsion systems first installed on USS
Makin Island (LHD 8). LHA 7 will be 844 feet in length, will have a
displacement of about 45,000 long tons and will be capable of operating at
speeds of more than 20 knots.

HII’s Pascagoula shipyard
is also in production on Bougainville (LHA 8), the guided missile destroyers
Delbert D. Black (DDG 119), Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123), Jack H. Lucas
(DDG 125), and amphibious transport dock ships, Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28) and
Richard M. McCool Jr. (LPD 29).

Arlington,
Va. — The U.S. Navy’s increasing focus on anti-submarine warfare is reflected
in a recent mega-contract award for its primary air-dropped sensor, the sonobuoy.

Naval Air
Systems Command has awarded to ERAPSCO, a joint venture of Sparton and USSI
based in Columbia City, Indiana, a $1 billion contract to manufacture and deliver
a maximum of 37,500 SSQ-36B sonobuoys as well as 685,000 SSQ-53Gs, 120,000
SSQ-62Fs and 90,000 SSQ-101Bs for fiscal years 2019 through 2023.

“Sonobuoys
are air-launched expendable, electro-mechanical anti-submarine warfare acoustic
sensors designed to relay underwater sounds associated with ships and
submarines,” according to a July 18 Defense Department release.

On a typical
ASW mission, a P-3 Orion or P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft can launch a
few dozen sonobuoys while tracking submarines. Sonobuoys also are dropped by MH-60R
helicopters.

In a new era of “Great Power
Competition,” anti-submarine warfare has taken on increasing importance as the Navy
and those of allied nations ramp up efforts to track and, should it become
necessary, counter the submarine forces of Russia, China, Iran or North Korea.

MIAMI, Fla. —
A U.S. Navy EP-3E Aries II aircraft, flying a mission in approved international
airspace on July 19, was approached in an unprofessional manner by a SU-30 Flanker
Venezuelan fighter aircraft, according to the U.S. Southern Command.

“After
reviewing video documentation, we have determined the Russian-made fighter
aggressively shadowed the EP-3 at an unsafe distance in international airspace
for a prolonged period of time, endangering the safety of the crew and
jeopardizing the EP-3 mission,” according to a July 21 release from Southern
Command.

“The U.S.
routinely conducts regionally supported, multinationally recognized and
approved detection and monitoring missions in the region to ensure the safety
and security of our citizens and those of our partners. The EP-3 aircraft was
adhering to international standards and rules.”

“The Maduro regime
continues to undermine internationally recognized laws and demonstrate its
contempt for international agreements authorizing the U.S. and other nations to
safely conduct flights in international airspace,” according to the release.

DULUTH, Minn. — Deputy Undersecretary of the Navy Jodi Greene announced Duluth as the commissioning location for the future USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul in a joint press conference July 18 with Duluth Mayor Emily Larson.

Greene is LCS
21’s sponsor and is in Duluth for Duluth Navy Week, an outreach effort in which
Sailors and naval personnel from different commands across the country are in
the city meeting with people from all walks of life to talk about the Navy and
why it is important.

Greene
expressed excitement during at the announcement, underlining the importance of
the Navy maintaining ties to cities in America’s heartland.

“We are
eager to announce that Duluth has been chosen as the city in which we will hold
the commissioning for the USS Minneapolis/Saint Paul,” said Greene. “The city
of Duluth is an important port on Lake Superior and your Navy is looking
forward to continuing a strong partnership with Mayor Larson and the people of
Duluth as well as the people in Minneapolis and St. Paul.”

Larson
mirrored Greene’s enthusiasm, highlighting Duluth’s historic connection to the
Navy.

“Duluth is
a city full of people linked to the Navy,” Larson said. “We have both active
servicemembers and veterans who call Duluth their home, and we proudly display
the anchor from the decommissioned USS Duluth where everyone can see it. I am
grateful to be able to continue honoring our Navy.”

The Navy recently
held a christening and launching ceremony for the future USS Minneapolis-Saint
Paul in Marinette, Wisconsin, where it is being built.

The ship
is being built by an industry team led by Lockheed Martin at Fincantieri
Marinette Marine Corp. in Marinette. The future USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul will
be about 388 feet in length and have a beam of nearly 58 feet.

LCS is a modular,
reconfigurable ship designed to meet validated fleet requirements for surface
warfare, anti-submarine warfare and mine countermeasures missions in the
littoral region. An interchangeable mission package is embarked on each LCS and
provides the primary mission systems in one of these warfare areas. Using an
open architecture design, modular weapons, sensor systems and a variety of
manned and unmanned vehicles to gain, sustain and exploit littoral maritime
supremacy, LCS provides U.S. joint forces access to critical theaters.