Significant Sea Service Events Mark End of 2019, Start of 2020

The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville conducts a replenishment-at-sea with the oiler USNS Big Horn. The Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding division has received a contract for planning yard services in support of Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Spruance-class destroyers. U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jeremy Graham

ARLINGTON, Va. — Even though the Seapower staff was on liberty ashore over the holidays, the world kept turning and things kept happening. Below is a summary of significant events since Dec. 19:

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas B. Modly announced on Dec. 23 the names selected for the first two Block V Virginia-class attack submarines. The boats, SSN 602 and SSN 603, were named USS Oklahoma and USS Arizona, respectively. The submarines’ names will memorialize two battleships sunk in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, by Japanese aircraft on Dec. 7, 1941. Unlike the other battleships sunk or damaged during the attack, the Oklahoma and Arizona never served again. The Arizona is a submerged memorial at the site where it was sunk in the harbor. The Oklahoma was raised but later sank in the eastern Pacific Ocean while under tow for planned repairs.
The U.S. 2nd Fleet has reached full operational capability (FOC), the fleet commander announced Dec. 31. “The achievement of FOC signifies 2nd Fleet has reached sufficient capacity to sustain command and control over assigned forces using the operational functions and processes of the Maritime Operations Center and Maritime Headquarters, in accordance with Navy Doctrine. [The fleet] will primarily focus on forward operations and the employment of combat ready naval forces in the Atlantic and Arctic, and to a smaller extent, on force generation and the final training and certification of forces preparing for operations around the globe,” the release said.
Huntington Ingalls Industries announced Dec. 20 that its Ingalls Shipbuilding division has been awarded a contract with a potential total value of $453.4 million for planning yard services in support of in-service Ticonderoga–class cruisers and Spruance-class destroyers. The contract includes options over a five-year period.
Raytheon Missile Systems has been awarded $1 billion multiyear (2019-2023) contract for full-rate production requirements, spares and round design agent for the Standard Missile-6 (SM-6). This contract provides all up rounds, flight test rounds, spares and round design agent.
The first CMV-22B version of the Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft made its first flight on Dec. 19, according to a Facebook post by a photographer outside the Bell facility. The CMV-22B will replace the C-2A Greyhound as the Navy’s carrier-onboard-delivery aircraft.
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. has been awarded a $251.6 contract modification for three Low-Rate Initial Production Lot 4 MQ-4C Triton high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned surveillance aircraft plus ground stations, trade studies, tooling and associated support equipment.
Raytheon announced on Dec. 20 that the Navy awarded a $250 million contract for additional SPY-6 radars, bringing the total ordered to nine. The SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radars will be installed on Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers.
The Naval Sea Systems Command awarded Lockheed Martin a $1.6 billion Foreign Military Sales contract to build four Multi-Mission Surface Combatants for the navy of Saudi Arabia. The frigate design is based on the company’s Freedom-class littoral combat ship. The ships will be built at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Marinette, Wisconsin, and will be equipped with the Mk41 Vertical launch system for the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile, RGM-84 Harpoon Block II+ missiles and a 4D air-search radar.
Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc. was awarded a $27.2 million contract modification to exercise the Year One option for one Mk11 Shallow-Water Combat Submersibles.
BAE Systems’ AGR-20A Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System has been used to down an aerial target. The laser-guided air-ground rocket was used in a demonstration by a U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter as an inexpensive way to shoot down aircraft and cruise missiles.
Metal Shark is engaged in the Operational Test and Evaluation of its 40-foot Defiant patrol boat that is designed under the PB-X program to replace the Navy’s 160 coastal patrol boats.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf (WMSL-750) completed an 82-day patrol in the eastern Pacific and offloaded more than 18,000 pounds of cocaine in San Diego on Dec. 23. The cocaine, worth an estimated $312 million, was seized by five cutters in seven separate actions between mid-October and early December.
About 100 Marines were deployed on Dec. 31 to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, to strengthen the embassy’s defenses against crowds of protesters who destroyed the embassy’s gatehouse. The agitation began after U. S. Air Force F-15E aircraft struck Iranian-backed militia sites in retaliation for the death in a rocket attack of an American contractor and wounding of four U.S. soldiers.