ARLINGTON, Va.—The last deployment of the F/A-18C Hornet on an aircraft carrier ended last week with the return of the “Death Rattlers” of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 323 (VMFA-323) from a deployment with Carrier Air Wing 17 on board USS Nimitz (CVN 68). 

The Death Rattlers returned to their home base, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California on Feb. 25, the day before Nimitz arrived at San Diego to offload CVW-17 personnel before heading to is homeport of Bremerton, Washington. 

Rear Adm. James Kirk, commander, Carrier Strike Group 11 and the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, told reporters in a Feb. 26 teleconference that VMFA-323, despite flying the oldest jets deployed on a carrier, “performed fantastic yeoman work. Obviously with older aircraft, they do have challenges, but they rose to those challenges. Those maintainers did a great job, and those Marine pilots executed those missions, whether it was in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, Operation Octave Quartz, or Operation Resolute Support, or the just-presence missions we did or the operations we did during dual-carrier ops in the South China Sea with the Ronald Reagan Strike Group of the TR [Theodore Roosevelt] Strike Group. 

“That Marine squadron met the mark, hit the mission,” Kirk said. 

The deployment of Marine Corps F/A-18A and F/A-18C squadrons on carriers over the last two decades was a manifestation of the TACAIR Integration Plan, originally designed to provide one Marine VMFA squadron for each of 10 carrier air wings. Because of heavy commitments to wars in Afghanistan and then Iraq, the plan never fielded more than four VMFAs in the carrier air wings. With the transition of some VMFA squadrons to the F-35B and F-35C Lightning II strike fighters, the number of VMFAs on carriers dwindled to just one, VMFA-323. 

The program is alive, however, with VMFA-314 — the Corps’ first F-35C squadron — preparing to deploy with a carrier air wing in 2022. The Corps is procuring 67 F-35Cs, a number that will allow it eventually to field four VMFAs equipped with the type in carrier air wings.  

VMFA-323 will continue to operate the F/A-18C and will from a fleet replacement detachment to assume the role of training pilots and maintainers for Marine Corps F/A-18C/D squadrons after the fleet replacement squadron, VMFAT-101, is deactivated during fiscal 2023, as the Hornet training load decreases as the type is retired in 2030. According to the Marine Corps’ latest training plan, promulgated in 2019, VMFA-323 will be the Corp’s last active-duty Hornet squadron and will upgrade to the F-35B. 

The Death Rattlers were activated in 1943 with F4U Corsair fighters and flew combat missions against Japanese forces during World War II. They flew Corsairs again in the Korean War and F-4B Phantom II fighters in the Vietnam War. They flew Phantoms from carriers after the Vietnam war and were one of the Corps’ first Hornet squadrons. Together with VMFA-314, they made the Corps’ first carrier deployment in the type, flying in combat from USS Coral Sea (CV 43) in 1986 against Libyan targets during Operations Prairie Fire and El Dorado Canyon.    

The last F/A-18C carrier deployment of a Navy squadron ended in April 2018 with the return of Strike Fighter Squadron 34 (VFA-34) with Carrier Air Wing Two from USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70). VFA-34 was the Navy’s last active-duty deploying squadron to operate the legacy Hornet and has since upgraded to the F/A-18E Super Hornet. 

The Navy is divesting itself of the legacy Hornets as fast as procurement of the F/A-18E/F and F-35C permit. The Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron recently completed the transition to the Super Hornet and soon the Navy’s sole reserve VFA squadron will make the transition.   

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has awarded Austal USA a contract to build the 15th Spear-head-class expeditionary fast transport (EPF).  

The Naval Sea Systems Command awarded Austal a $235 million “undefinitized” contract action modification on Feb. 26, 2021, for the detailed design and construction of EPF 15, the company said in a release. 

The EPF, designated T-EPF in service to the Military Sealift Command, originally was designated a joint high-speed vessel, but has proven versatile in performing a number of roles in support of regional combatant commanders. Those roles have included humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, maritime security, surveillance, command and control, and counter narcotics, among others.  

“With a draft of only 13 feet and waterjet propulsion, the EPF is able to access austere and degraded ports with minimal external assistance providing flexibility to fleet and combatant commanders,” the Austal release said. “With its maneuverability, large open mission bay and ability to achieve speeds greater-than 35-knots, the EPFs have the capability to support additional missions such as special operations and medical support.” 

The Spearhead class originally was intended to be 10 ships: five for the U.S. Army and five for the Navy. The five Army ships later were reallocated to the Navy. The lead ship was delivered in December 2012. As the utility and success of the ships was demonstrated in operations, Congress has approved an increase in the number of hulls authorized, now at 15 ships. Austal has delivered 12 to the Military Sealift Command to date.  

EPF 15, like EPFs 13 and 14, will include an expeditionary medical capability. The EPFs are operated by civilian mariners of the Military Sealift Command.  

“At its core, the EPF is designed to be highly capable, flexible and affordable,” said Rusty Murdaugh, Austal USA’s chief financial officer and interim president. “With this baseline, we’ve been able to deliver multiple ships that are performing different missions for the U.S. military. The award of EPF 15 allows the Navy to leverage a hot production line and highly trained workforce to continue producing ships that are meeting the needs of warfighters today and into the future.” 

PASCAGOULA, Miss. — Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding division has been awarded a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for life-cycle engineering and support services on the U.S. Navy’s San Antonio (LPD 17) class of amphibious transport docks, the company said in a Feb. 26 release. This follow-on contract consists of a base contract valued at $36.9 million with a cumulative value of $213.9 million if all options are exercised. 

“This contract enables Ingalls to continue providing LPD support and services that are critical to the sustainment of the Navy’s amphibious fleet,” said Ingalls Shipbuilding President Brian Cuccias. “Our talented workforce has the knowledge and experience required to perform this important work, and we are committed to ensuring these state-of-the-art warships serve our nation well into the future.” 

Services provided in this contract include engineering change management; systems engineering and integration; supply chain management; training for new LPD 17-class shipboard systems; and the execution of industrial post-delivery availabilities. 

“We appreciate the Navy’s continued investment in our experienced team and their reliance on the support we provide,” said David King, Ingalls’ LPD 17 life-cycle program manager. “This contract builds on our strong partnership with the Navy in the construction and post-delivery management of Navy ships. We look forward to supporting these ships as they evolve to meet the changing threat environment.” 

San Antonio-class ships are 684 feet long and 105 feet wide and displace approximately 25,000 tons. Their principal mission is to deploy the combat and support elements of Marine expeditionary units and brigades. The ships can carry up to 800 troops and have the capability of transporting and debarking landing craft air cushion or conventional landing craft, augmented by helicopters or vertical take-off and landing aircraft such as the MV-22. These ships will support amphibious assault, special operations or expeditionary warfare missions through the first half of the 21st century. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group (CSG) returned to San Diego Feb. 26 after nearly 11 months deployed in the U.S. 5th and 7th Fleet areas of operation (AOR), the Navy said. The strike group was the first to deploy after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

USS Nimitz departed its homeport, Naval Base Kitsap – Bremerton, on April 27, 2020, for integrated training and began its deployment heading west on June 8. The crew began sequestering April 7, resulting in a separation from families of 331 days by the time the strike group returned. 

During the deployment, the strike group supported operations Inherent Resolve, Freedom’s Sentinel and Octave Quartz in the U.S. Fifth Fleet area of operation, said Rear Adm. James Kirk, the strike group commander, in a Feb. 26 teleconference with reporters.  

The strike group includes Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 11, aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68), embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 17, Destroyer Squadron 9, Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton (CG 59) and Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sterett (DDG 104). The USS Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones also operated with the group but remains in the 5th Fleet AOR. 

The strike group made the lengthy deployment with no liberty port calls, a necessity in the COVID era. The Nimitz and Princeton pulled alongside a pier four times and the Sterett two times during the deployment, but only for pier-side logistics. 

During the deployment, the Nimitz CSG conducted dual carrier operations twice with the USS Theodore Roosevelt CSG and thrice with the USS Ronald Reagan CSG. The Nimitz CSG also operated with ships of the Indian navy, Royal Australian Navy and Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force. 

Nimitz disembarked CVW-17 and began its return to its homeport at Naval Base Kitsap – Bremerton. CVW-17 includes Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 137, VFA 94, VFA 22, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 323, Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 139, Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 116, Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 6, Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 73 and Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC) 30. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III announced Feb. 26 that the president has made the following nominations:

Rear Adm. (lower half) William E. Chase III has been nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral. Chase is currently serving as senior military advisor for cyber policy to the under secretary of defense for policy; and the deputy principal cyber advisor to the secretary of defense, Washington, D.C.

Rear Adm. (lower half) Christopher C. French has been nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral. French is currently serving as legal counsel to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Washington, D.C. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) William C. Greene has been nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral. Greene is currently serving as fleet maintenance officer, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, Norfolk, Virginia. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Joseph D. Noble Jr., has been nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral.  Noble is currently serving as commander, Naval Supply Systems Command Weapons Systems Support, Philadelphia.  

Rear Adm. (lower half) John A. Okon has been nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral. Okon is currently serving as commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, Stennis Space Center, Mississippi. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Scott W. Pappano has been nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral.  Pappano is currently serving as program executive office, Columbia, Washington, D.C.  

Rear Adm. (lower half) Dean A. VanderLey has been nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral. VanderLey is currently serving as commander, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Atlantic with additional duties as fleet civil engineer (N01CE), U.S. Atlantic Fleet, Norfolk, Virginia.   

Capt. Kristin Acquavella has been nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral (lower half). Acquavella is currently serving as director, plans and policies, N415, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington, D.C.  

Capt. Maria L. Aguayo has been nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral (lower half).  Aguayo is currently serving as chief of staff, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Washington, D.C.  

Capt. Joseph B. Hornbuckle has been nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral (lower half). Hornbuckle is currently serving as chief of staff, Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland.   

Capt. Ronald J. Piret has been nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral (lower half). Piret is currently serving as chief of staff, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, John C. Stennis Space Center, Hancock County, Mississippi.  

Capt. Anthony E. Rossi has been nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral (lower half). Rossi is currently serving as major program manager, Mission Integration and Special Programs Office, PMA 298, Patuxent River, Maryland. 

Capt. Stuart C. Satterwhite has been nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral (lower half). Satterwhite is currently serving as deputy director, enterprise support, Office of the Chief of Naval Personnel, Washington, D.C. 

Capt. Ralph R. Smith III has been nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral (lower half). Smith is currently serving as director, Maritime Operations Center, U.S. Tenth Fleet/U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, Fort Meade, Maryland.  

PACIFIC OCEAN – The “Titans” of Fleet Logistics Multi-Mission Squadron (VRM) 30 and members of Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2 successfully delivered an F-35C power module aboard USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) in the U. S. Navy’s first, at-sea replenishment for this component, the ship reported in a Feb. 26 release.  

This success follows a November 2020 milestone, during which VRM-30, CVW-2 and Vinson conducted the Navy’s first landings, take-offs, and refueling of a Navy CMV-22B Osprey from an aircraft carrier. 

The at-sea power module replenishment evolution consisted of loading, transporting and unloading the F135 power module from a shore-based location to the carrier by way of a CMV-22B. The power module is an engine component used by all three F-35 Lightning II variants.  

The CMV-22B is the U.S. Navy version of the V-22 Osprey, a multi-engine, dual-piloted, self-deployable, medium lift, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) tilt-rotor aircraft. The CMV-22B can transport cargo and passengers as far as 1,150 nautical miles; provides enhanced survivability and beyond-line-of-sight communications; and has the required cargo capacity and fast cargo loading/unloading. Coupled with its ability to transport the F-35 power module inside its cargo bay, CMV-22B is the ideal choice to provide required carrier on-board delivery capabilities for F-35C operations at sea. The delivery marks a milestone in the integration of CMV-22B to the Carrier Air Wing, validates the F135 modular maintenance concept at sea, and most importantly supports future carrier air wing deployments with next-generation platforms.   

“The CMV-22B is a great addition to the carrier air wing,” said Capt. Matt Thrasher, commander, CVW-2. “The Osprey is a robust logistical platform that not only supports the F-35C but also gives the entire air wing increased range and transport capacity. Its addition to our team ensures that CVW-2 remains ready to perform as-advertised while on deployment.” 

CVW-2 is currently embarked aboard Vinson under the command of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 1. 

CVW-2 is leading the charge in introducing and integrating the next generation of aircraft and capabilities in the Fleet as the U.S. Navy’s first Carrier Air Wing to deploy with the F-35C Lightning II, E-2D Hawkeye and the CMV-22B Osprey. The Navy’s next iteration of the Carrier Air Wing will be more lethal and survivable through the integration of organic fourth-generation kinematics and fifth-generation information and survivability, increased command and control and airborne electronic attack capacity, all sustained with a reliable logistical support platform. 

“With the addition of the newest fifth-generation aircraft, the Navy has delivered the world’s most capable, lethal and ready air wing to our strike group,” said Rear Adm. Timothy J. Kott, commander, CSG-1. “Delivering the right balance of presence and power, including airpower supremacy, strike groups continue to be one of our nation’s primary on-call assets in times of need.  By maintaining a lethal, ready strike group, manned by the world’s most skilled Sailors and outfitted with the best equipment, fifth generation aircraft will help America maintain our advantage at sea and protect our nation for years to come.” 

Capable of embarking both the F-35C and the CMV-22B, Vinson is the first aircraft carrier equipped to support fifth-generation aircraft. With its recent modifications, no other weapons system has the responsiveness, endurance, multi-dimensional might, inherent battlespace awareness or command and control capabilities of the Vinson and CVW-2.    

Upgrades included enhanced jet blast deflectors able to take the increased heat generated by the F-35C and the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), the new computer network that supports the unique maintenance and tactical operations functions of the advanced aircraft.  

“Our crews and staffs have done a fantastic job during integrated operations with the new aircraft and associated upgrades,” said Capt. P. Scott Miller, Vinson’s commanding officer. “We are truly a team. The successful replenishment of the power module is another testament to that team and our Sailors, who are the most dedicated, best trained and well educated in the world. The continued professionalism and warfighter spirit they demonstrate each and every day is the number one key to our success time and time again.” 

Vinson is currently completing a series of “work ups” and certifications in preparation for future operational tasking. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The acting secretary of the Navy and chief of naval operations announced on Feb. 25 the following flag assignments: 

Rear Adm. Jeffrey T. Jablon will be assigned as commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  Jablon is currently serving as director, Military Personnel Plans and Policy Division, N13, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Arlington, Virginia. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) James A. Kirk, selected for promotion to rear admiral, will be assigned as commander, Carrier Strike Group Fifteen, San Diego.  Kirk is currently serving as commander, Carrier Strike Group Eleven, Everett, Washington. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Andrew J. Loiselle, selected for promotion to rear admiral, will be assigned as director, Air Warfare Division, N98, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington, D.C.  Loiselle is currently serving as commander, Carrier Strike Group Four, Norfolk, Virginia. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Brendan R. McLane, selected for promotion to rear admiral, will be assigned as commander, Naval Surface Force, Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia.  McLane is currently serving as special assistant to the commander, U.S. Fleet Forces, Norfolk, Virginia. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) John A. Okon, selected for promotion to rear admiral, will be assigned as director, Warfare Integration Directorate, N2/N6F, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington, D.C.  Okon is currently serving as commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, Stennis Space Center, Mississippi. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) James P. Waters III, selected for promotion to rear admiral, will be assigned as director, Military Personnel Plans and Policy Division, N13, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Arlington, Virginia.  Waters is currently serving as commander, Submarine Group Two, Norfolk, Virginia. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Jeffrey T. Anderson will be assigned as commander, Carrier Strike Group Three, Bremerton, Washington.  Anderson is currently serving as deputy director for political-military affairs (Asia), J5, Joint Staff, Washington, D.C. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Michael W. Baze will be assigned as commander, Expeditionary Strike Group Three, San Diego.  Baze is currently serving as director of Maritime Headquarters, U.S. Naval Forces Europe/Africa/Sixth Fleet, Naples, Italy. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Richard T. Brophy Jr., will be assigned as commander, Carrier Strike Group Four, Norfolk, Virginia.  Brophy is currently serving as commander, Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center, Fallon, Nevada. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Robert B. Chadwick II will be assigned as commander, Carrier Strike Group Nine, San Diego, California.  Chadwick is currently serving as commander, Navy Region Hawaii; and commander, Naval Surface Group, MIDPAC, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Jeffrey J. Czerewko will be assigned as director, fleet integrated readiness and analysis, N02R, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, Norfolk, Virginia.  Czerewko is currently serving as deputy director, global operations, J39, J3, Joint Staff, Washington, D.C. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Brian L. Davies will be assigned as commander, Submarine Group Two, Norfolk, Virginia.  Davies is currently serving as special assistant to the commander, Navy Personnel Command, Millington, Tennessee. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Michael P. Donnelly will be assigned as commander, Task Force Seven Zero; and commander, Carrier Strike Group Five, Yokosuka, Japan.  Donnelly is currently serving as commander, Navy Region Korea; commander, U.S. Naval Forces Korea; and commander, Naval Component, U.S. Forces Korea, United Nations Command, Korea.

Rear Adm. (lower half) Christopher M. Engdahl will be assigned as commander, Expeditionary Strike Group Seven; and commander, Amphibious Force, Seventh Fleet, Okinawa, Japan.  Engdahl is currently serving as president, Board of Inspection and Survey, Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Rear Adm. (lower half) Kenneth W. Epps will be assigned as commander, Naval Supply Systems Command Weapons Systems Support, Philadelphia.  Epps is currently serving as deputy chief of staff for Fleet Ordnance and Supply/Fleet Supply Officer, N41, U.S. Fleet Forces Command Fleet, Norfolk, Virginia. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Robert M. Gaucher will be assigned commander, Submarine Group Nine, Silverdale, Washington.  Gaucher is currently serving as director, Maritime Headquarters (N03), U.S. Pacific Fleet, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Gregory C. Huffman will be assigned as commander, Carrier Strike Group Twelve, Norfolk, Virginia.  Huffman is currently serving as director, operations and plans, N31, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington, D.C. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Kevin P. Lenox is currently assigned as deputy director for operations, J3, U.S. Central Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida.  Lenox previously served as branch head, Joint Intelligence Operations Center, J3, U.S. Central Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Daniel P. Martin will be assigned as commander, Carrier Strike Group One, San Diego.  Martin is currently serving as senior military advisor to the assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, Washington, D.C. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Wesley R. McCall will be assigned as commander, Navy Region Southeast, Jacksonville, Florida.  McCall is currently serving as executive assistant to the assistant secretary of the Navy (energy, installations and environment), Washington, D.C. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) John V. Menoni will be assigned as commander, Expeditionary Strike Group Two, Virginia Beach, Virginia.  Menoni is currently serving as U.S. Indo-Pacific Command representative, Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Palau; commander, U.S. Naval Forces, Marianas; and commander, Joint Region Marianas, Guam. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Curt A. Renshaw will be assigned as commander, Carrier Strike Group Eight, Norfolk, Virginia.  Renshaw is currently serving as deputy commander, U.S. Naval Forces, U.S. Central Command; and deputy commander, Fifth Fleet, Manama, Bahrain. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Philip E. Sobeck will be assigned as commander, Logistics Group, Western Pacific; and commander, Task Force Seven Three, Singapore.  Sobeck is currently serving as commander, Expeditionary Strike Group Three, San Diego. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Paul C. Spedero Jr. will be assigned as commander, Joint Enabling Capabilities Command, U.S. Transportation Command, Norfolk, Virginia.  Spedero is currently serving as director, fleet integrated readiness and analysis, N02R, U.S. Fleet Forces, Norfolk, Virginia. 

Rear Adm. (lower half) Christopher J. Sweeney will be assigned as commander, Carrier Strike Group Eleven, Everett, Washington.  Sweeney is currently serving as deputy director for plans and policy, ECJ-5, U.S. European Command, Stuttgart, Germany. 

PACIFIC OCEAN – Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III flew out to the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz off the coast of California to thank the crew for a record-setting deployment, the Department of Defense said in a Feb. 25 release.  

The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is returning after operations in U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) areas of responsibility. It was the first carrier strike group to deploy under COVID-19 protocols. By the time the carrier strike group reaches home, the Sailors and Marines aboard will have been gone for 321 days. 

The Nimitz, the cruiser USS Princeton, and the destroyers USS Sterett and USS Ralph Johnson made up the group. 

“You’ve just demonstrated incredible professionalism, resilience and focus,” Austin told the crew over the ship-wide public address system. “It’s been very impressive.” 

The group provided carrier support in the Persian Gulf in support of CENTCOM during a particularly tense time with Iran. The group also participated in maritime exercise Malabar 2020 alongside Indian, Australian and Japanese ships. The carrier strike group also participated in dual-carrier operations with the USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike groups. The group also operated in the South China Sea. 

Austin praised the group for these efforts. “You’ve sent a clear message about America’s resolve,” he told the crew. “Any potential adversary out there — in this ocean or any other ocean — has to know when they look at what you accomplished, that the United States takes very seriously our security commitments around the world.” 

He thanked the Sailors for working with key allies and partners across the U.S. combatant commands. 

The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group had the longest deployment since the Vietnam War. It was lengthened by COVID-19 protocols that called for a quarantine before departing and the elimination of port calls during the deployment. The Navy aims for deployments to be roughly six months. The Nimitz group will be away from family and friends almost twice that. 

“I don’t want deployments this long to be the norm,” the secretary said. “And so, we need to take a hard look at that, but you handled it very, very well. You led. You took care of each other in the midst of a pandemic, and you were a team.”  

In a news conference with Pentagon reporters on the hangar deck, Austin thanked families in particular. “Their families have been very, very supportive as well,” he said. “And I want to make sure I give them a shout out again, and provide our thanks for their sacrifices.” 

The Nimitz was on its way home from the CENTCOM area of responsibility when events in the region necessitated its return. Events such as these happen. He noted the year-long deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan that stretched to 18 months, as an example. 

“I understand the stress that, that can place on families,” he said. “So as secretary, what I want to do is make sure that … going forward, we do everything we can to minimize that kind of stress.” 

That means taking care of equipment, sure, but really ensuring that service members and their families are taken care of. “We’re going to continue to learn,” he said. “We’re going to continue to make sure we have the resources. [We’re going to ensure] that we’re doing the right things to pace ourselves going forward. Because I really think this is important.” 

Overall, the carrier strike group steamed more than 87,300 nautical miles during its deployment. The carrier launched 10,185 sorties totaling 23,410 flight hours logged. 

Article by Jim Garamone, DoD News 

Lack of sleep is problem that’s long dogged sailors at sea. Insomnia and general fatigue often are blamed for leading to mistakes, mishaps and collisions at sea, some fatal.

It’s not just anecdotal. Recent research studies have found long workdays and inconsistent sleep schedules driven by varying watchbills, undermanned crews, busy shipboard routines and high-operational tempo created fatigued crews. Limited time for rest and even noise and bright lights cut into getting a good slumber at sea.

The problem became obvious in 2017 when guided-mis- sile destroyers USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) ran into a cargo ship and USS John McCain (DDG 56) collided with a tank- er ship in the predawn hours, the latter which resulted in the deaths of 10 Sailors. Then-Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson told a congressional committee several months later that “both of these accidents were preventable” and he ordered an overhaul of how the fleet trains, mans and operates to prevent future mishaps and bolster safer operations.

Along with recent adoptions across the surface fleet of watchbills providing more consistent periods for sleep and rest, new research projects are using high-tech devices and collecting data to fine-tune those changes and identify ways for skippers and crews to sleep more soundly and perform better, whether at sea, in the air or in the field. Researchers already are finding simple, low-tech solutions to thwart light and sound to ensure a sounder snooze at sea. And the “Crew Endurance” team at Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Cali- fornia, is developing online training tools and videos to help skippers and Sailors become a well-rested, more focused force.

Navy officials “are changing the culture about sleep,” said Nita Shattuck, operations research professor at Naval Postgraduate School, who leads the Crew Endurance team. “It’s been slow in coming, but I absolutely think it’s happening.”

Shattuck has spent more than 30 years studying sleep, fatigue and performance issues in the Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps, and her work has led to the recent changes in watchbills. “There’s still more work to be done,” she said, “but I think they’ve made huge inroads.”

Lack of Sleep

Adults need seven hours of sleep, at a minimum, but the National Sleep Foundation estimates that nearly one- third of adults averaged fewer than six hours. There’s a cost to fatigue — especially at sea.

USS John McCain’s bridge watch team, including the com- manding officer and executive officer, averaged nearly five hours of sleep in the previous 24 hours before the collision due to shifting watch schedules and lack of sleep- ing time, the National Transportation Safety Board found. Moreover, the “bridge watchstanders, particularly the lee helmsman, were acutely fatigued at the time of the accident, which impacted their situation awareness and their ability to respond to the perceived steering emergency.”

The collision happened at 5:24 a.m. in the Singapore Strait, a time which NTSB noted was “considered to be a circadian low (roughly 2 a.m. to 6 a.m.), when the body is normally more fatigued and prone to diminished alertness and degraded performance,” and the ship’s shifting watch schedules changed sleep periods daily, “which compounds fatigue related to lack of sleep and circadian lows.”

Circadian rhythms are the body’s internal clock based on the 24-hour periods of daylight and dark, but according to the National Sleep Foundation, “a disturbed sleep-wake circadian rhythm can give rise to serious sleeping problems.”

Undoubtedly, the 2017 collisions — along with prior collision of the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain (CG 57) with a fishing boat and grounding by USS Antietam (CG 54) — shook the Navy. Just months later, Naval Surface Force leaders ordered changes to give crews sufficient rest and sleep.

“The role exhaustion played in the four incidents in 2017 varies from ship to ship; however, there is no debate about the wisdom of implementing circadian rhythm–based watchbills and shipboard routines on surface force ships to provide predictable, protected periods of sleep for our Sailors and optimize alertness and recuperation,” then-Vice Adm. Thomas S. Rowden, Surface Force commander, wrote in a 2018 paper, “Surface Forces are Refocused,” directing all ships to implement those principles or incorporate circadian-rhythm principles.

Shattuck noted the surface fleet moved quickly as it already was working on improvements driven by ongoing research into fatigue and sleep. But previous years’ mishaps had met with little appetite to institute changes, even after earlier studies found links between sleep and performance.

In 2002, a study found shifting a ship’s crew from day to night air operations disrupted sleep and caused fatigue for “a large number” of Sailors, who slept during day- light hours and worked all night. Participants in the study on USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), deployed supporting combat operations in Afghanistan, wore watch-like ActiGraphs on their wrist that collected sleep and activity data and logged their sleep, work and other activities. The workday ran from about 6 p.m. until 10 a.m. the next day.

After 30 days, Sailors reported less sleep, especially those who spent any time outside. “It is evident that sleep deprivation and fatigue due to the reversed schedule was a major problem for many of the participants in this study, Shattuck and Lt. John Nguyen wrote in the May 2003 paper for the Aerospace Medical Association. They added, “other factors may have contributed to the differences observed in sleep hours and predicted effectiveness, (e.g., working conditions, light exposure levels, type of work performed, health issues and combat stress).”

New Studies

In the two decades since that study, amid higher optempos and combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, military researchers and sleep labs across the services, including NPS, Naval Health Research Center in San Diego and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, have been delving into sleep and operational performance. NPS researchers have more than a half-dozen projects focused on sleep issues and solutions. These include projects on fully manned watches, sleep inertia, leaders and stress inoculation, aviator sleep and video gaming.

In one study of circadian-based watch schedules, an NPS team is collecting sleep data on guided-missile destroyer USS Gonzalez (DDG 66) “to see how are people implementing that,” Shattuck said. The study is looking at the ship’s engineering department, which got additional personnel to round out requirements, “so we are looking to see how does extra manning affect workload and sleep?

“Ships are always undermanned,” she noted, “but we’re looking to see what would happen if they do have the manning that the Navy says that they need.”

Another study focuses on sleep inertia. Someone jolted awake from deep sleep usually feels a disorienting brain fog or grogginess for some time, but that can be a critical decision-making time when out at sea. A study is looking at the problem to find ways to make that transition to full attention and performance quicker, and safer.

“How can we help somebody, like a commanding officer, if something happens in the middle of the night [and] you’ve got to awaken and make decisions?” Shattuck said. “We are monitoring people’s brainwaves with an EEG [electroencephalogram] and monitoring their sleep, so we’ll see when they go into deep sleep, we awaken them.” They then sit up and do a battery of tests and are “either exposed to bright light or to an olfactory stimulus, like a smell like wasabi … that’ll awaken them.”

A study kicked off in early January at Surface Warfare Officers School, where researchers are monitoring prospective COs and XOs “to see how they can help them perform better in case of emergencies, if something happens,” Shattuck said, focusing on leaders and stress inoculation.

The officers will use the wearable titanium Oura ring and armband stress monitors to track heart rate and other data as they go through several trainers and tests. “We’re collecting physiological data in these prospective COs and XOs and basically documenting what they’re doing to them,” she said.

In a study on aviator sleep requested by the Marine Corps, NPS researchers are using bright lights and a flight simulator in the NPS sleep lab to see how they could be used to help adjust aviators’ internal clock by tracking melatonin levels in transitioning between day and night flight schedules. Exposure to high-energy, blue-enhanced white light at their “normal” bedtime will hasten what’s called “Circadian entrainment,” Shattuck said, and presumably help them for that night flight simulating F/A-18 Hornet jet missions of several hours in different light conditions.

“So you’ve been flying days and now we’ve got to transition you to flying nights safely, and how do we do that?” she said. The study also seeks to determine how long it takes to adjust to the new schedule and how flight performance is impacted.

Two new separate studies by NPS will look at the prevalence of video gaming in the Marine Corps and in the Navy. Some recent studies have shown psychological benefits to video gaming but also problems including addiction, insomnia and lower performance.

Shattuck has seen the problem firsthand at sea among Sailors and Marines during her sleep research. “I’ve collected all of this data on ships and we’ve ridden the ships and … here are these folks that are supposed to be sleeping and they’re on the mess decks or they’re in their racks playing video games,” she said. Playing an occasional video game “is totally understandable, it’s just kind of a way to decompress, perhaps. But when you’re doing it to the exclusion of sleeping and having it impact your work and that’s what we’re concerned about.”

Low-Tech Solutions

With noise and bright lights a constant on ship, another study is looking at whether thicker curtains on berthing racks can help Sailors get better sleep. Earlier this year, NPS bought and installed 300 pairs of heavy, flame-retardant canvas rack curtains on the guided-missile destroyer USS Paul Hamilton (DDG 60) and, with the help of wrist activity monitors, researchers are tracking the quality of sleep the crew gets.

The curtains reduce light intrusion and have pockets where Sailors can stash personal items. “Oh yeah, they love them,” Shattuck said. The curtains are made by NavyRackPacks, a small company founded by a Navy spouse and sold online and in some exchanges.

NPS also has distributed to ships’ crews involved in ongoing studies “warfighter sleep kits” that include eye coverings, a sleep mask that is convex so it doesn’t press against the eyes, a set of soft ear plugs and a card with advice about sleep, she said.

“They’re so nice to let us to come out and study the ship and everything, I want to do something nice for the crew,” she added.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy can more effectively counter the growing Chinese capabilities by rebalancing its fleet to one designed more for competition than for intense combat, a naval analyst said.  

“China and Russia are obviously pursuing an approach to achieving their objectives that is different than what we envisioned from the Soviet Union, which was more of an existential threat, that they were going to pursue armed aggression of a conventional kind against their neighbor,” said Bryan Clark, a former U.S. Navy submarine officer and a naval analyst at the Hudson Institute, speaking in a Feb. 24 webinar sponsored by the Center for Security Policy. “China and Russia are pretty much content to use this gray-zone approach to achieve their objectives over a longer period of time. 

“That creates a challenge for the U.S. because we’ve tended to build militaries for World War III and not to fight this protracted series of low-intensity engagements that might ebb and flow in terms of how severe they become because we’ve built a set of high-end platforms and capabilities that are really designed for intense combat but are expensive to operate in peacetime during a competition phase,” Clark said. 

Clark said he sees “the need to rebalance the military, in particular the Navy, to deal with competition more than conflict … because that seems to be where China and Russia are really hanging their hats.” 

The analyst pointed out that “even as the Chinese navy has grown, you can see that the way it has grown it is one that is designed more for competition. The Chinese navy is predominantly smaller platforms with smaller numbers of missiles. They’re designed to keep the pressure on their neighbors than maintain a presence in the region or around the world. They have a lot lower percentage of larger combatants than the U.S. does. So, I think we need to fundamentally rethink how we organize the military to deal with competition.” 

Clark said that “for the [U.S.] Navy that gets us to this idea of rebalancing. How do we increase the number of ships so we can sustain presence overseas, keep up the pressure on our adversaries, not offer them opportunities to take advantage of their neighbors, and also to present them a set of options at various escalations?” 

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and the U.S 7th Fleet have said they need this adaptability and optionality and want to build a strategy around that idea, Clark said. “If they have more optionality, they’ve got more choices at more rungs of the escalation ladder, they can push back on Chinese assertiveness and aggression.” 

“The drives us toward a Navy that’s different from the one we have had, and in our Hudson study we show that you can even build that kind of Navy within the fiscal constraints of PB21 [President’s Budget 2021] plus inflation over the next 30 years. You can rebalance the Navy and build one that’s going to be effective in that competition phase even if it accepts a little risk in its ability to fight the high-end conflict.” 

Clark said the Chinese fleet is “still oriented toward the near-seas defense mission, focused on missions like sea control with a relatively small number of missiles. “It’s not designed to go and project power overseas yet. That is something that is still an aspiration, even with the [Chinese] navy having improved in size and quality over the last decade or so.” 

He said the U.S. Navy could try to improve its ability to push back on the perception of the Chinese that their near seas are secure by continuing to field capable small surface combatants — and large surface combatants to a lesser degree.  

Clark asserts that such a pushback would distract the Chinese attention from developing power-projection platforms “like large aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships that the Chinese have just begun to field.” 

The U.S. Navy’s shift to a larger fleet with more combatants that are smaller than their predecessors of smaller ships reflects this, he said.