WASHINGTON NAVY YARD — Naval History and Heritage Command held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to showcase its newest conservation and preservation site Aug. 8 at the Washington Navy Yard.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday spoke at the event for the new Naval History and Research Center (NHRC). Gilday had attended the new center’s ground-breaking ceremony two years ago.

“History shows that the Navy that adapted better, learned faster and improved faster gained warfighting advantages over the long haul,” said Gilday. “Stories of the past help us heed the warnings of history while helping us to reflect on and sustain our legacy as the world’s premier maritime force.

“This building and the stories and artifacts within will preserve the experiences and lessons of the past; use the Navy’s legacy of valor and sacrifice to inspire current and future generations of Sailors; and let those who serve today know that their sacrifice will always be remembered, honored, and valued,” Gilday said.

The new site, made up of two former ordnance factories and warehouses, has now been refurbished into a single state-of-the-art, two-floor structure that maintains the building’s national historic district status.

“The Washington Navy Yard is significant to the early history of the U.S. Navy, the development of Washington, D.C., and the nation for its role in the manufacturing of ship equipment, advances in ordnance, and naval administration,” said NHHC Director Sam Cox. “Not only will this building continue to be a historic site, but it will be dedicated to preserving all our future naval artifacts.”

NHHC and Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Washington began collaborations in 2018 to convert the two adjoining buildings. The NHRC will now house NHHC’s Navy Art Collection and Underwater Archeology Branch of the Collection Management Division and Histories and Archives Division, including the Navy Library and Archives Branch.

These divisions have long served researchers and the public in their research and inquiries about naval history.

Since the early 1800s, the Washington Navy Yard has been a collection point for naval artifacts and trophies. In this effort, the two buildings were converted from munitions storage facilities where they will house artifacts for years to come.

NHHC, located at the Washington Navy Yard, is responsible for preserving, analyzing, and disseminating U.S. naval history and heritage. It provides the knowledge foundation for the Navy by maintaining historically relevant resources and products that reflect the Navy’s unique and enduring contributions through our nation’s history and supports the fleet by assisting with and delivering professional research, analysis, and interpretive services.

NHHC comprises many activities, including the Navy Department Library, the Navy Operational Archives, the Navy art and artifact collections, underwater archeology, Navy histories, 10 museums, the USS Constitution repair facility and the historic ship Nautilus. 

POTTSTOWN, Pa. — VideoRay, a global leader in underwater remotely operated vehicle technology, has established a Defense and Government business unit to further develop the company’s successful defense and government program, the company said Aug. 4.

Mark Fleming will lead the unit as vice president, defense and government, responsible for all strategic business development and customer support.  

Fleming, who served in the U.S. Navy specializing in explosive ordnance disposal and attained the rank of chief warrant officer five (CW5), joined VideoRay 10 years ago to increase government sales. Building on the company’s relationship with the U.S. Coast Guard, Fleming established new connections that led to contracts with the U.S. Navy, foreign navies and other governmental entities. He has built these relationships through his deep understanding of the challenges that defense personnel face in underwater missions and his strong customer service ethic. 

VideoRay has been experiencing substantial growth over the past two years, due in part to multimillion-dollar contracts with the U.S. Navy for Mission Specialist Defender ROV systems.  

“Defense and government sales of our Mission Specialist systems have grown because our capabilities are proven to be extremely valuable and unique for underwater explosive ordnance disposal. Mark is the driving force behind this success,” said Chris Gibson, vice president, sales and marketing.  

Fleming added, “I’m looking forward to advancing VideoRay’s defense and government outreach and developing new ROV technology to support safe underwater missions around the world.” 

Under Fleming’s direction, VideoRay will conduct a search for a new salesperson for the business unit.  

The Mission Specialist Defender ROV system is designed for precise control of the vehicle position and orientation, heavier payloads and demanding intervention applications. With seven thrusters, the Defender ROV system can move in any direction and maintain active pitch to face the vehicle in an upward or downward orientation, making it ideal for dangerous or heavy-duty missions. In addition, these submersible ROV systems use interchangeable modular components that reside on a single platform, which enables operators to integrate tooling, sensors and payloads quickly and easily in the field to meet mission objectives and maximize uptime.  

MAYPORT, Fla. — U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet is hosting the Combined Force Maritime Component Command Staff participating in exercise PANAMAX 2022, in Mayport, Florida, Aug. 1-12. 

Exercise PANAMAX 2022 is a U.S. Southern Command-sponsored exercise that provides important training opportunities for nations to work together and build upon the capability to plan and conduct complex multinational operations. The exercise scenario involves security and stability operations to ensure free flow of commerce through the Panama Canal. 
 
U.S. forces participating in this year’s exercise include staff elements from Southern Command, U.S. Army South, U.S. Marine Forces South, Special Operations Command South, 12th Air Force (Air Forces Southern), and U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet, along with participants from 23 partner nations. 
 
Approximately 300 Sailors, Marines and public security forces will serve on the CFMCC staff under the leadership of Argentine Rear Adm. Marcelo Fernandez, who serves as Commander, Atlantic Naval Area for the Argentine Navy. 
 
“PANAMAX demonstrates our ability to ensure regional security and stability through multi-national maritime operations in support of the Panama Canal,” said Fernandez. “I look forward to the opportunity to work together with the U.S. and our other partner nations during this important exercise.” 
 
Under the exercise scenario, a multinational force has formed to execute a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for defense of the Panama Canal. The force includes air, land and special-forces components, in addition to the maritime component, which will plan and conduct simulated operations in and around the canal and its surrounding waters in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. 
 
There are no live forces in this year’s PANAMAX. Instead, component staffs will work through a computer-aided scenario in support of the Multinational Forces South Commander, Maj. Gen. William Thigpen, Commanding General, U.S. Army South. 
 
Forces will participate in the training at various U.S. locations including Joint Staff Exercise Directorate at Suffolk, Virginia; U.S. Southern Command, Doral, Florida; Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas; Homestead Air Reserve Base, Homestead, Florida; Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona; and Naval Station Mayport, Florida.
 
For the fifth straight PANAMAX, the air, land and maritime component commanders for the exercise are partner nation flag or general officers. 

PACIFIC OCEAN — Royal Australian Navy landing helicopter dock ship HMAS Canberra (L02) embarked two MV-22B Osprey military aircraft onboard and successfully moved the Osprey off the flight deck into the hangar for the first time at sea during Rim of the Pacific 2022, Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet public affairs said in a release.

The MV-22Bs operated from Canberra for the duration of RIMPAC in another first for the ship. The aircraft are onboard for the duration of the tactical phase and are one in many types of helicopters to land and take off from Canberra’s flight deck during the exercise.

A team of staff from the Aircraft Maintenance and Flight Trials Unit (AMAFTU) have embarked for RIMPAC and, in a first for Canberra, the aircraft have been moved and stowed onboard.

Australian Army Maj. David Ellson said what the unit is achieving has taken some work by AMAFTU to get to this point but is important for future capability and a great achievement to see.

“This is the first time at sea we have taken a MV-22B down from the flight deck onto the elevator lift and into the hangar,” Ellson said. “It all forms part of the trials for AMAFTU to enable coalition aircraft to routinely embark on our ships. The evolution to move and stow the MV-22B involved approximately 10 crew and provided an opportunity for AMAFTU and the MV-22B crew to observe which is what this phase of RIMPAC is about, the interchangeability between Australia and coalition nations such as the United States.”

Canberra has not only embarked the two aircraft but their pilots, ground crew and maintainers. The 25 members are living onboard and integrating into life with fellow Aussies. 

“Moving and stowing the Osprey was done at a careful slower pace with our Canberra crew working alongside the Osprey crew as it’s a big aircraft and the crews have not done this at sea, we needed to ensure the aircraft could be stowed inside the ship and achieved safely,” Ellson said.

SAN PEDRO, Calif. — The National Museum of the Surface Navy at the Battleship Iowa, the museum for America’s Surface Navy located aboard the historic Battleship USS Iowa Museum, announced Aug. 1 the selection of Applied Minds LLC as designer for the first phase of the innovative museum.

Scheduled to open in 2025, the National Museum of the Surface Navy will be designed to raise awareness of the America’s Surface Navy and its past, present, and future roles in maintaining freedom of the seas. 

Led by Bran Ferren, formerly of Disney Imagineering, the team from Applied Minds will incorporate the historic Battleship USS Iowa as the platform for a unique, immersive experience. The team will be responsible for designing exhibits and experiences that educate visitors of the Surface Navy’s role in maintaining safe and open sea lanes to ensure that our nation remains strong economically. 

“The activation of the Iowa as the nation’s first and only national museum dedicated to the men and women of the Surface Navy poses challenges from the standpoints of both creativity and technology,” said retired Navy Rear Adm. Mike Shatynski, chairman of the board of the National Museum of the Surface Navy. “Retaining Applied Minds gives us a highly experienced team of creative and innovative professionals that is uniquely qualified and credentialed to design the world-class experience that our visitors will demand, and that the former, current and future Sailors of the Surface Navy deserve.” 

“The vision for the nation’s first museum dedicated to America’s Surface Navy is both exciting and forward-thinking, and we’re thrilled to have been selected as the team to bring those ideas, concepts, and dreams to life,” said Steven Hubrechts, chief of staff at Applied Minds. “Bringing together the extensive and proven experience in creativity and technology design at Applied Minds with the museum’s visionary team will undoubtedly result in the development of a world-class museum that will become the standard for the next evolution in museums.” 

In addition to the phase one design project to be undertaken by Applied Minds, space preparation and infrastructure improvements for the museum are already underway aboard Battleship USS Iowa Museum thanks to the generous donations of seed donors.  

For additional information about the National Museum of the Surface Navy and to become a Plank Owner, visit the website at https://surfacenavymuseum.org.  

PORTSMOUTH, UK — The Royal Navy welcomed the experimental vessel XV Patrick Blackett (X01) on July 29 in a ceremony at Portsmouth, United Kingdom.

The Royal Navy refers to the new ship, which has the hull number X01, as an “autonomy and lethality accelerator” and a “maritime sandbox,” dedicated to exploring and demonstrating new, innovative technology at sea.

The ship, designed as an offshore support vessel, was acquired from the Dutch shipbuilder Damen and optimized for Royal Navy use. Its inherent modularity allows various systems and capabilities to be installed in the Royal Navy’s PODS (Persistently Operationally Deployed Systems), or secured on deck, and plugged in to the ship’s network to be evaluated.

The 135-foot ship will have a top speed of about 20 knots and have a crew of five. It is not expected to be operated autonomously without a crew.

The ship’s namesake, physicist Patrick Blackett, served in the Royal Navy in WW I and later made groundbreaking contributions during WW II in the field of operational research. He won a Nobel Prize for his work in 1948.

The vessel will be operated as part of the Royal Navy’s “NavyX” organization, which, according to its website, “rapidly develops, tests and trials cutting-edge equipment, with the aim of getting new technology off the drawing board and into the hands of our people on operations at a pace. Operating across all maritime environments — over water, on water, underwater and the littoral. By empowering a team with diverse experience, NavyX will exponentially accelerate our speed of learning and our capacity to procure and integrate these best-in-class technologies.” 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Defense Department will deploy a hospital ship to the U.S. Southern Command region during the fall of 2022, the department said.  

“The Department of Defense plans to deploy the United States Naval Ship Comfort, a Mercy-class hospital ship, to conduct medical assistance in support of regional partners in the fall of 2022,” the release said. “During each port visit, the USNS Comfort typically provides medical assistance to about 3,500-8,000 people.” 

The initiative is one of several the department announced in the wake of the XV Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas (CDMA), which convened on July 25-29, 2022, in Brasilia, Brazil. 

“CDMA is the premier hemispheric defense ministerial for strategic-level engagement with the top defense officials of the Americas, and convenes every two years,” the release said.  

The USNS Comfort, one of two hospital ships operated by the Military Sealift Command, last visited the region in 2019, prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It provided medical care in 12 nations in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.  

“The Department of Defense is committed to its role as the most trusted defense ally and partner for its neighbors to the north and south, building on its longstanding cooperation across a range of areas to foster mutual security throughout the Western Hemisphere,” the department said.  

The Comfort’s sister ship, USNS Mercy, currently is deployed to the Western Pacific region as a participant in the Pacific Partnership humanitarian assistance effort. 

The U.S. Navy is procuring medical versions of the Austal-built expeditionary fast transport ship to provide medical care for military operations and humanitarian care and disaster relief. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Four prototype unmanned surface vessels are participating in the Rim of the Pacific 2022 exercise, known as RIMPAC, delivering warfighting capabilities and extending the reach of the manned U.S. fleet with fewer risks to the warfighter, Program Executive Office Unmanned and Small Combatants Public Affairs said July 22.

Though unmanned systems have participated in exercises before, the involvement of four different vehicles, operating both autonomously and by manned teams, is a major milestone.

The vessels — Seahawk, Sea Hunter, Nomad and Ranger — will execute a range of missions. The prototypes will work side-by-side with exercise participants, carrying payloads, providing intelligence, and most significantly, gathering data in a real-world environment to determine how they will function in the larger fleet.

The significance of the occasion is not lost on Navy Capt. Scot Searles, program manager of the Unmanned Maritime Systems (PMS 406) program office.

“The integration of autonomous USVs with manned combatants will give fleet commanders much-needed enhancements to maritime domain awareness, thereby increasing decision speed and lethality in surface warfare.” Searles said.

PMS 406, the office responsible for the participating RIMPAC prototypes, is a program office within the Program Executive Office, Unmanned and Small Combatants.

“While our prototyping efforts have grown and matured significantly in the last four years, their performance in the RIMPAC exercise marks another significant milestone in manned-unmanned teams.” Searles said.

The manned-unmanned team, in the case of RIMPAC, will include service members and civilians supporting the mission from various organizations all over the country.

The PMS 406 assets participating in RIMPAC are the Overlord unmanned surface vehicles, Nomad and Ranger, and the medium unmanned surface vehicles, Sea Hunter and Seahawk. Though primarily operated and maintained under the control of PMS 406, personnel from Unmanned Surface Vessel Division One within Surface Development Squadron One control much of the practical execution.

RIMPAC is the largest joint maritime exercise in the world. Lasting over five weeks and spanning massive areas in the Pacific Ocean, the exercise will include hundreds of ships, submarines and aircraft, along with over 25,000 personnel.

Brian Fitzpatrick, PMS 406 principal assistant program manager for unmanned surface vessels, said, “RIMPAC is an incredible opportunity to not only show that we can develop these vessels, but we’re also showing the Navy’s commitment to unmanned and manned teams.”

LOS ANGELES — Northrop Grumman Corp. successfully completed the third live fire test of its AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile Extended Range (AARGM-ER), the company said July 21.

The U.S. Navy launched the missile from an F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft recently at the Point Mugu Sea Range off the coast of California. Utilizing its advanced emitter acquisition system, the missile detected a land-based threat and engaged the threat system. 

“The Navy requirement for AARGM-ER is now,” said Captain A.C. Dutko, Navy program manager for Direct and Time Sensitive Strike (PMA-242). “AARGM-ER performed as expected and detected, identified, located and engaged a land-based air defense radar system. The continued success of our developmental testing moves the program closer to fielding and providing the aircrews with the protection they need to remain ahead of adversary threats.” 

Since achieving a Milestone C Decision in September 2021, AARGM-ER prime contractor Northrop Grumman has continued to lead its industry team in timely development of critically needed warfighting capability. LRIP Lot 1 AARGM-ER missiles are currently in-production to support initial operational capability fielding. LRIP Lot 2 missiles, under contract, will further augment the inventory in the fleet. 

AARGM-ER is being integrated on the Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler aircraft as well as the F-35 aircraft. 

WASHINGTON — The State Department has approved a possible Foreign Military Sale to the government of Australia of Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles – Extended Range (JASSM ER) and related equipment for an estimated cost of $235 million, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said July 21.  

Australia has requested 80 JASSM ERs (AGM-158B with telemetry kits and/or AGM-158B-2 configurations).   

“Also included are missile containers and support equipment; JASSM training missiles; weapon system support; spare parts, consumables, accessories, and repair/return support; integration and test support and equipment; personnel training; software delivery and support; classified and unclassified publications and technical documentation; transportation; U.S. government and contractor engineering, technical and logistics support services, studies and surveys; and other related elements of logistical and program support,” the release said.   

“The proposed sale will improve Australia’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing advanced, long-range strike systems for employment from Royal Australian Air Force air platforms including, but not limited to, the F/A-18F Super Hornet and F-35A Lightning II,” the announcement said.   

The principal contractor will be Lockheed Martin, Orlando, Florida.