ARLINGTON, Va. — Marine Corps Amphibious Combat Vehicles are set to return to unrestricted waterborne operations following the development of a new tow rope solution designed to address previous issues with the vehicle’s towing mechanism, the Marine Corps said Jan. 6. 

In September 2021, the Marine Corps suspended ACV operations in unprotected waters while it worked to resolve the towing issues that were identified in several after action reports from the field.  

“Amphibious operations, including the use of amphibious ship-to-shore connectors, is a foundational aspect of Marine Corps operations and is critical to the future force and its ability to remain the Nation’s premier expeditionary force in readiness,” said Lt. Gen. David Furness, deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations. 

Once equipped with and trained to employ the new tow rope solution, units are authorized to use the ACV to conduct unrestricted amphibious operations, including self-recovery operations in the open ocean and through the surf zone. 

Prior to the receipt and installation of the new replacement tow ropes, ACV operation remains restricted to land mobility, gunnery operations, and amphibious operations in protected waters.  

In addition to the new equipment and training requirements are the 18 tasks that units must complete, validate and certify prior to the resumption of waterborne operations. These tasks stem from the comprehensive investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding the July 2020 AAV tragedy. 

The tasks cover a variety of requirements, including ensuring training and qualifications for crew and embarked personnel are properly equipped, vehicles have passed required inspections and operations are conducted with safety boats, sea state assessments and positive communication. 

Mark Vandroff, a retired Navy captain and engineering duty officer, was installed last summer as CEO of Fincantieri Marinette Marine, shipbuilder of the U.S. Navy’s Freedom-class littoral combat ship and now the Constellation-class frigate. A former ship program manager, he brings extensive customer experience to his company.

Vandroff was interviewed by Senior Editor Richard R. Burgess. Excerpts follow.

With some experience now as a shipyard official, what has surprised or impressed you about being on this side of the shipbuilding equation?

VANDROFF: Surprised would be a strong word, but I’m impressed by the dedication and hard work of the men and women who build ships. And by “building ships” I mean a very wide range of activity.

One of my mentors, teachers and former bosses, Sean Stackley — the former LPD 17 program manager, former ASN RDA [assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition] and now senior executive with L3Harris — used to tell us when he was coaching shipbuilding program managers that if you can build a ship, you can do anything because nothing is harder or more complicated than building a ship, the most complex of all human undertakings. What the government program managers deal with is certainly a complicated process on the government side, but now, with a few months as the head of the yard here in Marinette, it’s an even renewed appreciation for just how complicated and just how many things have to go right to get a ship built, everything from the industrial trades, welding, cable pulling, painting to all of the planning and industrial methods, to the engineering design to the purchasing to the contracting, a myriad of legal compliance for us, and all the finance and economics of a business of that size.

It’s not just running a complicated business, but it’s running a complicated business with a very complicated product and a series of complicated relations both with customers and with sub-suppliers.

What insight has your experience as a Navy ship pro­curement official given you that can help improve the shipbuilding industrial base?

VANDROFF: When you take someone with program management leadership on the government side and put them into industry you certainly bring an intimate knowledge and understanding of what the customer wants.

Early on in my tenure, some of the folks on my leadership team seemed puzzled during a meeting by something that our primary government partner on the frigate program had asked us to do. Everyone was scratching their heads and were like ‘Why would they want us to do that?’ I said, back in my days in the DDG 51 program, if I were the government PM, I would want us to do exactly what Capt. Smith had just said even though it didn’t necessarily make sense to someone who didn’t have the background of the kind of dynamics that play in at NAVSEA [Naval Sea Systems Command] and within the OPNAV [Office of the Chief of Naval Operations] and Pentagon staff. I immediately understood what the government customer was looking for and I could translate that to my industry colleagues.

This will sound odd as the head of the Mariette Marine shipyard: One of the things about our current shipbuilding industrial base is that it’s very highly specialized. My yard is highly specialized, given the fact that I’m constrained by the St. Lawrence seaway into the size of ships that I can build. Huntington Ingalls Newport News Shipyard really wouldn’t ever build something small because given the overhead of maintaining facilities to build aircraft carriers. The economics constrain them to build big and for other yards each have their niche. While niches are very efficient and people can get very good at doing their special thing, I worry that the future will require a great deal more flexibility of yards that can do lots of things because the future is always uncertain. This is one of the reasons Fincantieri Marine Group is creating a system of yards across our Wisconsin sites, to continue supporting our customers’ future requirements and missions.

What kind of supply-chain issues currently are of concern to Marinette Marine?

VANDROFF: Supply chain is a hot topic across the shipbuilding industry. Certainly, COVID had a major impact on a lot of our sub-suppliers, mostly in their ability to hold schedule. We’ve seen that across both commodities and finished products especially electronics and anything that has a microchip as a component, but we’ve also seen it in things like switch gear and transformers. Most shipbuilders today rely on a just-in-time delivery system because you want to avoid the warehousing costs of keeping large amounts of material warehoused. One of my top concerns right now is the supply chain impacts we’re seeing.

What capital improvements are in work to get ready for the frigate program?

VANDROFF: We’re making four extensive capital improvement investments in Marinette Marine in order to be able to build the frigate.

Investment No. 1 is in a shiplift. Currently, we build the LCS on land and then introduce it to the water via the time-honored system of a side-launch. We’re not going to be able to stern-launch or side-launch a frigate. It’s too big and we would have to install certain equipment — vertical launch systems, for example — after we side-launched it because of alignment issues. That’s not a very economically efficient way to build a ship.

I would urge you and your readers to Google ‘shiplift’ and look at YouTube, there’s some great videos from around the world. It’s really cutting-edge shipbuilding technology. There’s a transfer platform held in place by, in our case, a set of 58 winches that run attached, 29 on each side, to the platform. You can translate the ship from the land onto the platform, and the winches take tension as the ship rolls onto the platform in order to keep the platform level. And then when you’re ready to put the ship into the water, the winches lower the platform until you get to the point where the ship is then floating from its own buoyancy.

For someone who’s building a ship on the Great Lakes here in the Menominee River floating out into Lake Michigan, the ability to do that with a shiplift is very attractive. The shiplift construction is ongoing and we expect it to complete by the end of 2022.

Right now, we build the littoral combat ships and multi-mission surface combatants in a two-bay erection facility. We can assemble an entire LCS indoors. Building indoors is very important in the Wisconsin winters. That erection bay is not big enough for a frigate. The frigate-size erection bay, Building 34, is nearing completion for May. It will have two bays, each big enough to hold an entire erected Constellation-class frigate.

A new state-of-the-art panel line will be done in a few weeks. This will take steel, cut it into panels, stiffen it up, and then weld it together into modules and sub-assemblies all in one covered area.

We do also have plans sometime early in the frigate process to add to our blast-and-paint capability. When we go to two frigates a year, we will need more blast-and-paint capability and we have a plan to repurpose an old building.

Do you have any plans to increase the size of your force?

VANDROFF: My No. 1 area of effort is the workforce. I will need to increase the workforce in order to fully man the Navy’s plan for the frigate program. Between now and the end of 2023, we’ll need another 400 workers: about 300 in the trades — welders, painters, shipfitters, electricians — and another 100 engineers and other white-collar workers.

We have a unique concern in the Marinette Menominee area: a missing middle in housing. We pay a nice living wage to our workforce such that they’re thankfully making too much to qualify for low-cost government-subsidized housing and yet there’s high-end housing, especially along the lake and the river and other places where you would see nice homes. What we really could use is more middle-class apartments in the area of Menominee and Marinette. We’ve talked to both states about that and they’re thinking of creative ways of helping the natural market forces respond to that. Right now, we’ve got a lot of folks who commute a fairly long way to get to the yard. What I would really like is the available housing to keep the workforce close to the shipyard so that it’s convenient for the workers to get to the yard. If we provide a convenient place to work, we will be able to attract the workforce we need.

We still have not received formal requirements from the federal government that would cause us to have to mandate that our workforce be vaccinated against COVID-19. We’ve taken steps to provide vaccinations very conveniently and at no expense or time to the employee. We’ve had a reasonably good turnout, but I fear that there is some percentage as yet unknown of my workforce that would just not feel comfortable being told to take a COVID vaccine. We’ll do everything we can to continue to make it convenient for employees to get vaccinated. But if the government lays that mandate upon me, I am very concerned that would have a negative impact on my ability to maintain a sufficiently sized workforce to execute all the work that the yard currently has under contract.

Some shipyards — like Huntington Ingalls for example — have an apprentice training program. Do you have anything similar?

VANDROFF: We do have an equivalent that I’m very excited about that will serve us well in the future and can easily be expanded via the Northeast Wisconsin Technical College [NWTC], a system of technical community colleges in northeast Wisconsin. We have a fabulous relationship with them, and they have gone so far as to hire retired Marinette employees to their faculty. The provide technical training in a variety of shipyard-related skills at their campus, which is within walking distance of the shipyard. They’re teaching welding with our welding procedures, using our welding equipment, so a graduate of NWTC, whether it’s in welding or ship-fitting or electrical work, cable-pulling or journeyman electrician or entry-level electrician, comes out of NWTC work-ready and we can hire them. As we recruit, those students know that they’ve got a guaranteed path to a job with us and a career in shipbuilding. We’ve also reached out to local high schools and their shop programs to encourage the kind of skills set that is useful to us in the shipbuilding industry.

At the white-collar level, the University of Wisconsin Green Bay has reached out to my head of engineering for discussions. They’ve allowed us to shape their engineering curriculum. Someone coming out with a mechanical engineering degree has got an academic background and a skillset that is well-matched to our needs for entry-level engineers.

What is the status of the Constellation-class frigate?

VANDROFF: We’re in the detail design phase. The next big milestone of that phase is the critical design review scheduled for February 2022. I have great teammates on the Constellation team: L3Harris, Gibbs & Cox and Trident Maritime Systems. The Navy has been great. I could not ask for a better partner than the current leadership in PMS-515, and so, that’s a big milestone for us. It’s not the end of detail design but it basically marks the completion of the functional design and shows that we have established the right technical baseline to move forward.

After that, we’ll have a production readiness review in March as we continue to achieve a level of production maturity so that we can confidently start building the ship in April of 2022. That review will show that we have the level of design maturity such that we can start building the ship with the right expectation of ‘measure twice, cut once.’ We don’t want to build a ship to an immature state and then have a significant level of rework because it’s not good enough for either us or the Navy. We’re driving for a very high level of maturity so that we have an efficient start of production in April.

From that point on, we’ll go through all the normal milestones that a ship would have after it starts production — the laid keel, eventual float off, trials — and we’re looking forward to a delivery to the Navy of the first ship in 2026.

Are there challenges to using a foreign-designed hull?

VANDROFF: When you take a design that is not U.S. and translate it to the United States to build, you do run into the U.S. Navy technical standards of performance, which are different than a lot of our partner navies, especially in the area of damage control. That induces modifications to the design. The U.S. Navy’s philosophy and standards are more steel and more frequent water-tight bulkheads for different compartmentation.

We now have the Buy American Act and whenever you take perhaps a piece of equipment that would be sourced from a European supplier and sourced out to a U.S. supplier, there will be design changes with that and that’s, again, something that we’ve accounted for and are executing.

What can the Navy and Congress do to make it easier for you to deliver ships on time and on cost?

VANDROFF: Shipbuilding is really hard. There’s nothing that the Navy or Congress can do to make it less hard. I will say the Navy always helps when they really under­stand their requirements and that they have stability in those requirements.

I am fortunate in Marinette in my relationship with my Navy supervisor of shipbuilding partner — the organization that does oversight — has been entirely reasonable. They have been very responsible partners. They’re clearly representing the Navy’s interest, but they’re not doing it in a way that is at all punitive or looking to impact my progress. They’re just looking to make sure that the Navy is getting the quality product that they want. For that, I’m very grateful.

If you look at big trends broadly — cost and schedule, but especially cost — a good chunk of our overhead goes to paying the employee healthcare costs. That is getting worse, not better. And that overhead cost gets passed right on to the customer in terms of cost on a contract.

The government has shown some flexibility in the ability for us to have a favorable cash flow. Certainly, COVID helped that, but it helps our financing costs from a business standpoint to have a quicker flow of cash to have a higher percentage of the ultimate cost of a vessel in available progress payments which were done in order to keep the defense industrial base healthy during COVID. Some of those should probably be made permanent, and for a company like mine you would see lower financing costs. Because financing costs make their way into overhead rates, that would then allow us to deliver product more effectively and more cost-effectively to the ultimate customer.

LOCKPORT, La. — Bollinger Shipyards LLC has delivered the USCGC Clarence Sutphin to the U.S. Coast Guard in Key West, Florida, the company said Jan. 6. This is the 170th vessel Bollinger has delivered to the U.S. Coast Guard over a 35-year period and the 47th Fast Response Cutter delivered under the current program.  

The Clarence Sutphin is the final of six FRCs to be home-ported in Manama, Bahrain, which will replace the aging 110-foot Island-class patrol boats, built by Bollinger Shipyards 30 years ago, supporting the Patrol Forces Southwest Asia, the U.S. Coast Guard’s largest overseas presence outside the United States. 

“Ensuring that the brave men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard have the most state-of-the-art, advanced vessels as they work to build and maintain the necessary regional alliances to ensure maritime security in the region is a top priority,” said Bollinger President and CEO Ben Bordelon. “Bollinger is proud to continue enhancing and supporting the U.S. Coast Guard’s operational presence in the Middle East and ensuring it remains the preferred partner around the world.” 

Earlier this year at the commissioning ceremony of the USCGC Charles Moulthrope, U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz lauded the “enhanced seakeeping” capabilities of the PATFORSWA-bound FRCs, saying “these ships are truly going to be game changing in their new theater of operations” and “offer increased opportunities for integrated joint operations with our Navy and Marine Corps colleagues” as the Coast Guard seeks to be part of the whole-of-government solution set in the region. 

PATFORSWA is composed of six cutters, shoreside support personnel, and the Maritime Engagement Team. The unit’s mission is to train, organize, equip, support and deploy combat-ready Coast Guard Forces in support of U.S. Central Command and national security objectives. PATFORSWA works with Naval Forces Central Command in furthering their goals to conduct persistent maritime operations to forward U.S. interests, deter and counter disruptive countries, defeat violent extremism and strengthen partner nations’ maritime capabilities in order to promote a secure maritime environment. 

Each FRC is named for an enlisted Coast Guard hero who distinguished themselves in the line of duty. Clarence Sutphin, Boatswain Mate First Class, USCG, was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his courageous actions during the invasion of Saipan Island in 1944. His citation reads: “For heroic achievement in action against enemy Japanese forces during the invasion of Saipan, Marianas Islands, on June 15 and 16, 1944.  Swimming with a line through heavy surf to a tank lighter stranded on a reef, SUTPHIN remained aboard under mortar and artillery fire until the boat was salvaged. Returning to the beach, he aided in salvaging another tank lighter under enemy fire and, when a mortar shell struck a group of eight Marines, promptly treated the wounded and moved them to a first aid station. His courage and grave concern for the safety of others reflects the highest credit upon SUTPHIN and the United States naval service.” 

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday traveled to Courtland and Huntsville, Alabama, Jan. 6, to visit Dynetics and Lockheed Martin facilities with Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks, the CNO’s public affairs officer said in a release. 

Gilday toured facilities and received updates about hypersonic weapon technology development, advancements, and capabilities. 

“In order to maintain a warfighting advantage against the increasingly aggressive modernization efforts of our primary challengers, it is imperative to accelerate the development and fielding of hypersonic capabilities,” Gilday said. “Our partnerships with the Army and industry are paramount as we transition hypersonics from developmental to operational systems at speed and scale that will meet the needs of our Sailors, Soldiers and the nation.”   

Hypersonic weapons, capable of flying at speeds greater than five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5, are highly maneuverable and operate at varying altitudes. The U.S. Navy and Army are working together to expand hypersonic capabilities through the use of a common glide body, common missile design and joint test opportunities to field hypersonic weapon systems in the mid- to late-2020s. 

“Hypersonic systems provide a combination of speed, maneuverability and altitude that enables highly survivable, long-range, rapid defeat of time-critical, heavily-defended and high value targets,” Gilday said. “Delivering hypersonic weapons continues to be one of the Navy’s highest priorities, which the Navigation Plan makes clear.” 

“I appreciate Adm. Mike Gilday for taking the time to visit Courtland and Huntsville as part of the Navy and Army’s collaboration with industry, government national laboratories, and academia to field hypersonic warfighting capability,” said Brooks. 

“As the co-chair of the newly formed House Hypersonics Caucus, I’m doing all I can to help my congressional colleagues understand that hypersonic systems are absolutely vital to America’s missile defenses and should be an urgent priority.”  Brooks said. “China and Russia are diligently strengthening their hypersonics capabilities and America must keep pace.” 

The Navy and Army have been working in collaboration with industry, government national laboratories, and academia to field hypersonic warfighting capability. 

This visit marked CNO’s first trip to Huntsville and Courtland.  

NORFOLK, Va. — BAE Systems has received a $1.9 million contract from the U.S. Navy for the maintenance and modernization of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mitscher (DDG 57). The value of the competitively awarded contract could reach $101.2 million if all options are exercised. 

Under the docking selected restricted availability contract awarded, BAE Systems will dry-dock the ship, perform underwater hull preservation work, support the Navy’s efforts to upgrade the ship’s Aegis combat system and its command-and-control equipment and refurbish the living spaces for the ship’s 285 crewmembers. The work is expected to begin in March 2022 and to be completed in April 2023.  

“Our team looks forward to the preservation and upgrade work aboard USS Mitscher,” said Mike Bruneau, vice president and general manager of BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair. “With our subcontractor teammates and Navy personnel alongside, we will apply our experience with the DDG class to ensure this ship returns to the fleet mission-ready and fully capable to support our national security.”    

BAE Systems’ Norfolk shipyard is performing similar work aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Stout (DDG 55).  

USS Mitscher is the second U.S. Navy ship named in honor of Adm. Marc Mitscher (1887-1947), who served as commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force 58 in the Pacific, the Navy’s main striking force during the latter half of World War II. The current ship was commissioned in December 1994.  

ARLINGTON, Va. — Leonardo DRS Inc. has named Cari Ossenfort as the senior vice president and general manager of the company’s Naval Electronics business unit, responsible for the business by leading operations, programs, business strategy and future growth opportunities, the company announced Jan. 6.  

Ossenfort brings more than 20 years of experience in engineering, operations and leadership in the defense and commercial industries, including working on a range of programs for U.S. military and government agencies.  

Most recently, she was the Leonardo DRS corporate vice president of operational excellence and quality, responsible for the creation, evolution, growth and strategy for that program. In her time in the role, Ossenfort successfully developed and executed company-wide performance improvement initiatives across eight business units and the corporate office by addressing operational inefficiencies and driving standardization throughout the more than 6,500-person employee base. 

“We are excited to have someone of Cari’s caliber lead our Naval Electronics business,” said Bill Lynn, CEO of Leonardo DRS. “Her experience, foresight and leadership qualities will help chart a clear path forward to grow the business and support our important U.S. Navy customer in existing and future programs.”   

Before her role leading the Leonardo DRS operational excellence program, she was the vice president and general manager for the L3 Infrared Products group leading the infrared focal plane business in Dallas, Texas.   

Ossenfort is a trained engineer and has held multiple senior engineering, operations, and management roles in previous positions at Leonardo DRS, Raytheon, Texas Instruments and Avery Dennison. She received her engineering degree and master’s in business administration from Auburn University. 

The Leonardo DRS Naval Electronic business is a leader in naval computing infrastructure, network and data distribution and middleware enterprise services, as well as world-class advanced manufacturing and support capabilities of critical importance to the U.S. Navy and other military branches.   

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Aegis Combat System is going through substantial digital transformation as its processing speed is increased and more sensors and weapons are integrated with it, a Lockheed Martin official said. 

The Aegis Combat System’s “relevance to the fleet has never been greater,” said Jon Rambeau, Lockheed Martin’s vice president and general manager for Integrated Warfare Systems and Sensors, in an interview with Seapower. 

Rambeau, who formerly worked with the company’s Acoustic Rapid Capability Insertion programs to periodically and rapidly upgrade U.S. Navy submarine sensor capabilities through software refreshes, is now continuing the same concept with Aegis.   

The company is implementing automated test capabilities for Aegis. Rambeau cited the implementation of those on Baseline 10 version as “the most comprehensive evolution of Aegis we’ve ever undertaken. … So, we we’ve automated about 20,000 of our software test procedures as part of our Baseline 10 efforts to try to improve our efficiency and speed of capability to the fleet.” 

He said the company is “working to implement model-based engineering processes across the board with the goal of getting the same quality product we’ve always delivered but getting that to the fleet much more rapidly. So, we’re focused on speed of capability to make sure we’re keeping the fleet relevant.” 

In a broader perspective, Rambeau said the company is working to focus its culture on creating an environment where government, small business and academia can integrate efforts with the company to work seamlessly across the Aegis enterprise. He credited the work of the Forge, a Navy software development “ecosystem” activity designed to field advanced capability more rapidly, and said the company is working to be positioned to receive the capabilities developed by the Forge “and make sure we’re bring the systems engineering rigor and the collaboration to support the responsible integration of those capabilities into the Aegis baseline.”

Rambeau also said the company is working to keep Aegis relevant by integrating future hard-kill and soft-kill capabilities, including that of reducing the cost per kill of systems to defeat ballistic and hypersonic missiles. He cited the company’s HELIOS laser weapon system, which is the first laser weapon system integrated with Aegis and is going through its first installation on the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Preble.   

DAHLGREN, Va. — Under the directed energy umbrella, there are two significant areas of interest: high-energy laser and high-power microwave weapon systems, or HPM. At Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, the growing demand from the operational community for novel directed energy weapon systems resulted in a corresponding growth in NSWCDD’s technical capability in this area, the center said Jan. 5.  

During a recent reorganization of the Integrated Engagement Systems Department, leadership looked at the two directed energy areas historically maintained in a single division and made the strategic decision to split them into respective divisions, recognizing the need for continued growth and development in both areas that have similar technical roots. 

“HPM and lasers work in parallel in a lot of areas,” said NSWCDD HPM Weapon Systems Division Head Kevin Cogley, who spent several years working with high energy lasers before making the move to lead the new division. 

“One thing that is unique in the HPM arena is that we can have graduated effects. In HPM, we can have a range of effects on target — from basically jamming a device to physically destroying electrical systems,” he explained. “HPM is very different than many other weapon systems because in many cases you may not see any outward physical effects during an engagement but will see nearly-instant results on the target’s operational performance. Using HPM, we can give our Sailors a capability that could be a desirable alternative to firing a kinetic weapon.” 

Both high energy lasers and HPM projects require significant development costs, but “the cost per shot is pennies” instead of million-dollar weapons, according to Cogley. “When you look at a historically kinetic weapon system, DE brings a wealth of benefits in terms of magazine depth. We can keep shooting as long as there is power.” 

The added “magazine depth” that directed energy can provide creates a strong argument for its use, compared to kinetic technologies. 

“The Navy has strategic objectives to provide effective and affordable ship defense solutions that address growing threats to our ability to project power and protect freedom of the seas,” explained Navy Senior Technologist for DE Dr. Frank Peterkin. “The Dahlgren mission to deliver warfare systems to the fleet includes bringing forward new technical solutions like DE in general and HPM specifically, offering great promise to meet these goals.” 

Over the last five or six years, DE has been a high-level thrust for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, with funding approximately doubling for research and development efforts. 

The technical split of directed energy within the department, separating high-energy laser systems and HPMs, sets NSWCDD ahead of the curve for HPM testing. According to NSWCDD Deputy Director of the Research Institute for DE Matt McQuage, Dahlgren is one of two places in the country with a specific HPM division, acting alongside the Air Force Research Lab in New Mexico. 

The two centers collaborate on the largest HPM projects in the country, offense applications, counter unmanned aerial systems and integrated air defense topics. The talents and expertise of the members of the Dahlgren HPM Weapon Systems Division results in the development of game-changing weapon system technologies that provides the warfighter with a unique capability to execute their mission. 

NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — The Israeli air force signed a letter of acceptance with the United States government on Dec. 30 to purchase the CH-53K King Stallion heavy lift helicopter, Naval Air Systems Command said Jan. 4. 

“We’re happy the IAF recognizes the unrivaled capabilities and performance of the K and have chosen to move forward with us,” said Col. Jack Perrin, program manager, heavy lift helicopter program office (PMA-261). “Welcome to the CH-53K family.” 

The CH-53K is the most powerful helicopter ever built by the U.S. government and will replace the IAF’s current fleet of modified CH-53D Yasur helicopters, which have been flying for over 50 years.   

The signed agreement states first deliveries of the aircraft are planned for 2025. In addition to the aircraft, the agreement includes T408-GE-400 engines; facilities study, design and construction; spare and repair parts; support and test equipment; publications and technical documentation; aircrew and maintenance training; U.S. government and contractor engineering, technical and logistics support services; and other related elements of logistics and program support. 

As the long-range logistic support backbone for the U.S. Marine Corps, the CH-53K will support Israeli special operations programs first, as well as provide the Israeli defense forces with a platform that has the speed, safety and gross weight capability to support all of its missions, including troop and cargo transport, and search and rescue. 

The decision wraps up a multi-year negotiation process. In the end, the King Stallion offered more capabilities and the latest technology compared to the competition. During this period, PMA-261 hosted multiple visits by IAF leadership as they compared aircraft, including orientation flights and flight evaluations with IAF pilots and acquisitions professionals. 

The CH-53K King Stallion program is in the initial operational test and evaluation stage and is on track to achieve initial operational capability in early 2022, with first fleet deployment planned for fiscal 2024. 

BELOIT, Wis. — Fairbanks Morse Defense, a portfolio company of Arcline Investment Management, has acquired Federal Equipment Co., Fairbanks said Jan. 5. 

The acquisition significantly expands FMD’s product capabilities and services for shipyard, defense, and industrial customers, with emphasis on its support for and offerings to the U.S. nuclear navy. 

The transaction includes FEC Military, a global leader in designing and manufacturing mission-critical components and systems for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard, including its advanced cargo elevators, engineered doors and specialized material handling equipment. The transaction also includes FEC’s commercial business, which delivers handling solutions to manufacturing customers outside the defense market. 

“Fairbanks Morse Defense is committed to the values that define us as a leading defense contractor. The capabilities, experience, and quality reputation that we’re acquiring with FEC reinforce this commitment and solidify our position as a proven, single-source provider to our naval customers,” said FMD CEO George Whittier. “Both FEC and Fairbanks Morse Defense have highly experienced teams who understand the critical role that our customers play in protecting the nation, and they are all dedicated to delivering the highest quality service in support of that mission. Combining our knowledge and capabilities makes us a powerful asset for the defense industry.”  

The FEC acquisition adds extensive capabilities to FMD, solidifying Fairbanks Morse Defense’s position as an integrated defense contractor and turnkey solutions provider to the Navy and Coast Guard. In recent years, FMD has completed multiple acquisitions to better serve defense customers, including its acquisitions of Hunt Valve Company, Ward Leonard, and Welin Lambie.   

Founded in Ohio in 1982, FEC has approximately 145 employees. The company is headquartered on its campus near Cincinnati, Ohio, which includes two facilities totaling 100,000 square feet. In addition, FEC has begun construction on a 50,000 square foot facility, which will further increase its manufacturing capacity and capabilities. This building is expected to open in mid-2022.