NATIONAL HARBOR,
Md. — The nation’s strategic sealift has languished for too many years, a panel
of experts told an audience May 7 at Sea-Air-Space 2019. And the panel,
representing the military and civilian sea services, told the morning program attendees
that the time for revitalizing sealift is now. 

Countering the
somewhat bleak picture they drew, they all expressed optimism with the fact
that the issue is finally garnering the attention it deserves. 

“We are facing one
of the greatest maritime challenges in U.S. history,” said Kevin Toharsky, the
associate administrator of the U.S. Maritime Administration, who moderated the
panel. “The good news is the sea power we need … is back on the radar screen.”

Toharsky outlined
the significant decline in the number of U.S.-flagged merchant ships, which
meant the loss of jobs for mariners. The commercial fleet is essential to the
nation’s commerce and national security, he said. Commercial cargo of fuel and
goods rely on it, as does the military. In contrast, potential adversaries like
China are bolstering their maritime industries — and their world presence in
the process, he said. 

“I’m encouraged by
the greater awareness … and the conversation about the problem,” said Coast
Guard Rear Adm. John Nadeau, who is assistant commandant for prevention policy. 

Resolution,
however, “won’t be easy,” Nadeau said. “The material condition [of the merchant
fleet] didn’t happen overnight and won’t be corrected overnight.”

Ensuring that the
parties involved — including military and commercial stakeholders — are
striking the right partnerships, engaging in transparency and carrying out open
and frank dialogues, will set the nation on the right track, Nadeau said. 

“We need industry
support,” said Erica Plath, the Navy’s director of strategic mobility, as she
described the Navy’s plans to modernize its fleet of deep-sea transports through
the acquisition of both new and refurbished older vessels.

Chris Thayer, director
of ship management at Military Sealift Command, alluded to a downward trend in
available sealift capacity during the past two years. 

The command is
implementing a “robust effort” to restore readiness that would require a
holistic approach to address aging ships and construction and refurbishment
efforts as well as crew-training requirements. 

Capt. Christian Spain, vice president of government relations for the American Maritime Officers Union, said revitalization is essential if the nation intends to address the current shortage of 1,800 merchant seamen.

“It doesn’t affect
sealift at the initial [point],” Spain said. “But at four to six months, it
does.” 

Similar to submarines, merchant ships require two crews that rotate sea tours, Spain said. The crew shortage figure has been steady since 2013, he said, but would increase to 2,000 within the next two to three years if not addressed.

“The time is now,” Spain said.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Undersecretary of the Navy Thomas
Modly used much of his breakfast address here May 7 at Sea-Air-Space 2019 to
reinforce the results of an “Education for Seapower” study and report that
called for a more agile education infrastructure that develops Sailors and leaders
for “this era of uncertainty.”

“We cannot take our eye off the ball in developing people,”
he said, adding that young people come to U.S. Navy service with more
technological acumen and expecting a different experience and lifestyle than
prior generations. “We have to think of the kinds of kids we recruit.”

The undersecretary emphasized the February report’s findings
that called for a top-down review of how Sailors and future Navy leaders are
educated, from ROTC programs to basic training and beyond to continuing
education and leadership training. The interview-laden report also showed that
a naval university system should be created and that a new chief learning officer
(CLO) be appointed.

“We need to get that key leader in place,” Modly told the
audience at the breakfast, which was moderated by Francis Rose, host of “Government
Matters.”

When questioned about the qualifications the new CLO should
possess, Modly mentioned the CLO’s background should include some U.S. military
service and experience in a large university system. He also emphasized that
the Navy’s budget for education is small and must be expanded.

Later when questioned, Modly veered off education and mentioned
the need to distribute “lethality” to even the smallest of U.S. Navy ships,
mentioning the frigate class, and even advocated for armed unmanned vessels. “We
need a lot more distributed lethality,” he said.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — George Washington spoke May 6 at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space exposition — by way of Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John M. Richardson, who used a famous quote by the Founding Father from 1781 to remind the audience of the necessity today — more than ever — of a “decisive” U.S. Navy.

Washington’s quote is, “Without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.”

“The Navy was there at the very beginning. We’re in the
nation’s DNA,” the 31st CNO told the audience, delivering a bit of a history
lesson during a keynote that also touched on Thomas Jefferson’s belief that a potent
Navy was essential to protect trade, commerce and the American economy.

“America depends on the seas,” Richardson said.

Much of the nation’s economy, he reminded the audience, runs through the Far East now. He talks often these days about the resurgent “Great Power Competition” — and the CNO wasted no time doing so again at Sea-Air-Space, reminding the audience of China’s naval expansion and mentioning such events as recent Chinese missile exercises in the Mediterranean and Baltic Sea.

“That’s where your Navy is going to be,” Richardson said,
adding that a third of world trade runs through the South China Sea. “That’s
why the United States Navy is there.”

He also mentioned Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, who believed
the Navy’s role is to deter conflict but still ensure prosperity.

Richardson took part in ceremonies before his keynote address to laud recipients of two Navy League awards — including one that is named after Nimitz and honors an industry leader who has made a major contribution to the nation’s maritime strength.

The Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Award for 2019 went to
James Herdt, CEO of Herdt Consulting and a retired Master Chief Petty Officer
of the Navy. “I know my name is on this award,” Herdt said, but in thanking
Navy League he accepted it on behalf of the people of his consulting firm.

The second honor of the day, the Albert A. Michelson Award,
went to Dr. Bruce G. Danly, director of research at the Naval Research Laboratory
(NRL). He credited the men of women of NRL, “who ensure that our forces have
the best technology, unmatched by none.”

Navy League National President Alan Kaplan and Navy League Executive Director Mike Stevens, also a retired Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, the 13th, helped present the Nimitz and Michelson awards. Richardson also spoke about the Navy’s recruiting and retention in a recovering economy and added that the sea service has met its recruiting goals for more than 12 years in a row. “What is it that attracts people” to the Navy? the CNO asked. “Honorable and glorious, no better organization to join than the Navy to espouse those two ideals.”

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Longtime unmanned aircraft provider
AeroVironment and Kratos Defense and Security Systems announced on March 7 that
they have formed a new partnership to jointly develop and demonstrate unmanned aircraft
systems that could launch from another UAS to tackle near-peer denied
environments — an increasingly important domain in light of the “Great Power
Competition” era, defined by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John M. Richardson.

This collaboration aims at demonstrating the ability to launch,
communicate with and control a small, tube-launched loitering aircraft that
jettisons from a larger, runway-independent UAS. The goal of the is to
coordinate the effects of smaller AeroVironment systems and relay information
back to the mother UAS, developed by Kratos.

The systems-of-systems would communicate back their findings
to a ground-control station or be able to act upon the information they gather
to modify their mission tasks. Kratos has demonstrated the mothership, its Mako
Tactical UAS, which it developed and demonstrated in 2015, and AeroVironment
has made its tube-launched Switchblade since 2012.

“Together, we are developing and will demonstrate the
integration of tube-launched UAS and tactical missile systems into long-range,
high-speed and low-cost unmanned systems for their transport and delivery into
near-peer, denied environments,” said Trace Stevenson, vice president and
deputy general manager of AeroVironment’s UAS business.

“With sufficient onboard autonomy, sensors, payloads and an
integrated system design, we aim to demonstrate the deployment of large
quantities of smart systems that overwhelm and disable enemy systems, while
bending the cost curve to make it financially prohibitive for unfriendly
nations to challenge our armed forces.”

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Coast Guard has a four-step process for setting and making requirements on missions to prevent and mitigate mission gaps.

“We look at a problem and find the best way to solve it,” Capt. Michael MacMillan, chief of the office of requirements and analysis, said during a floor presentation here at Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space 2019.

The service accomplishes this by publishing four different
types of documents. The first is a capability and analysis report. The second,
which marks the beginning stages of the acquisition process, is drawing up a
mission needs statement. From there the service will put together a concept of
operations document, the primary purpose of which is coming up with ideas for
filling in capability. The final document produced is the operational
requirements document, which outlines specific requirements, such as how fast a
ship needs to go or how long an aircraft needs to stay airborne.

“We don’t get to make our own missions, but we make
requirements on the ones we have,” MacMillan said.

The Department of Homeland Security agency has 13 core
missions, with a bulk of those coming from search-and-rescue missions and drug
interdiction.

The
captain said that its important industry representatives understand the process
to help themselves and the Coast Guard.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Coast Guard rescue swimmer
program was born after a deadly ship sinking in 1983 off the coast of Virginia
that claimed the lives of 31 people.

During a stormy February night, the 605-foot SS Marine
Electric, a bulk carrying ship, capsized about 30 miles off the coast of
Chincoteague, Virginia.

The service sent a helicopter to assist in the rescue
mission. At that time the Coast Guard did not have any rescue swimmers, and
when they would respond to a distress call, they’d lower the basket and the
person in the water would have to swim toward it to then be raised up inside
the helicopter.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t always work the best,” Aviation
Survival Technician Chief Petty Officer Eric Biehn said during a floor
presentation.

The service spent two hours trying to recuse the 34 people
in the water after the ship capsized, but with the weather conditions, and
freezing water, was unable to lift anyone up. The Navy came, as they had
rescues swimmers at the time, and was able to save three lives with their
rescue swimmer.

The following year, the Coast Guard put funding in start a
rescue swimmer program in the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 1984.

“That maritime disaster was enough to wake up Congress and
the United States,” Biehn said.

By 1985, the first team of rescue swimmers was deployed to a
base in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and by 1991 the program was fully
deployed in 23 bases.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.
– Future naval aviation will benefit from the fifth-generation F-35s,
manned-unmanned teaming and the possibility of greatly enhanced rotary wing
aircraft being developed under the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program, a panel
of Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard officials said.

The naval
services also are focusing on improving the readiness of their existing
aircraft, and some types of aircraft are coming close to meeting the 80% readiness
goal set by former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, the officials told a forum on
the future of naval aviation at the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space
exposition May 6.

Lt. Gen. Steven
Rudder, deputy Marine Corps commandant for aviation, said the Corps’ legacy
FA-18 Hornets hit the 80% readiness mark last week and were maintaining
availabilities in the high 70% rate. And the Corps’ new F-35Bs were operating
in the 70% range during their recent deployments in the western Pacific, Rudder
said.

Angie
Knappenberger, deputy director for naval warfare, said the Navy conducted a
study to determine what would be needed to improve readiness and found that “we
wouldn’t get there unless we changed our processes.” They have had to improve
their support infrastructure, which had suffered from the years of reduced
funding under sequestration and on the spare parts supply system, she said.

Looking to the
future, Rudder, Knappenberger and Vice Adm. Daniel Abel, the Coast Guard deputy
commandant for operations and a veteran helicopter pilot, all cited unmanned
systems they were looking to add.

“Autonomy is
really hard, but there are some things you can do,” and they are seeing a lot
of focus on manned-unmanned teaming, Knappenberger said. She cited the Navy’s
teaming of the MQ-8 Fire Scout UAS and MH-60s helicopters in a squadron and
will do the same thing with the MQ-4C Triton long-range UAS and the P-8A patrol
aircraft.

Rudder said the
Marines were narrowing their focus on requirements for their primary unmanned
aircraft program, the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Unmanned Expeditionary
system, commonly called MUX, which is to be a large Group 5 rotary-wing UAS
that can operate from amphibious ships. After initially looking at a wide range
of capabilities, including strike, the Marines currently are leaning toward an
early warning platform that could provide over-the-horizon surveillance and
network communications for the expeditionary task forces.

Rudder said the
Marines also are closely monitoring the Army-led FVL program, which is intended
to produce a rotary-wing manned aircraft with much higher speed and range than
current helicopters. Although the two prototypes being produced for the FVL
program are a composite helicopter and a tilt-rotor, Rudder said the Marines’
preference is a tilt-rotor because they know their tilt-rotor MV-22 Ospreys are
fast and they want something that can keep up with them.

Abel said the Coast Guard has been testing
contractor-operated Scan Eagle UAS on their national security cutters and are
looking at other unmanned systems.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The combination of a two-ship purchase and investments in new technologies and facilities at the Newport News shipyard will enable the U.S. Navy to obtain future aircraft carriers with increased survivability and lethality at much lower cost, the carrier program manager said on May 6.

The future Gerald
R. Ford class of nuclear-powered carriers will provide the increased
capabilities needed in the era of “Great Power Competition” — and the two-ship
contract will save an estimated $4 billion, program manager Capt. Philip Malone
told a Naval Sea Systems Command briefing at the Navy League’s annual
Sea-Air-Space exposition here.

Malone is
responsible for the next three of the Ford-class ships, CVN-79, the future John
F. Kennedy, which is under construction, and CVNs 80 and 81, which will be
produced under the dual-ship contract signed in January.

In addition to
the $4 billion estimated savings from that contract, Malone said those two
ships will benefit from the use of an integrated digital shipbuilding system
Newport News is adopting and shipyard improvements that will allow major
reductions in the man hours required.

CVNs 80 and 81
also will be built with greater survivability and lethality from an advanced
radar, greater electrical power generation, integration of the fifth-generation
F-35C Lighting II joint strike fighters and increased aircraft sortie rate over
the legacy Nimitz class carriers, he said.

Malone said the
Navy will acquire the Kennedy under a unique two-phase delivery, with the first
phase providing a carrier that can test its aircraft launch and recovery
systems and basic ship functions followed by a second phase that will install
the advanced air surveillance radar and other combat systems. The unusual
delivery process was necessary to have Kennedy operational in time to replace
the Nimitz, which will hit its 50-year service life later this decade, he
explained.

Malone cited
Newport News’ investments in the digital or 3D computerized shipbuilding
process and in new facilities that will enable more ship components to be
produced out of the weather. Those improvements were made with monetary
incentives from the Navy and will sharply reduce the hours required to build
the ships, he said.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Navy’s Unmanned Maritime Systems program office is juggling the development of a lot of unmanned surface and underwater vehicles right now, and they expect numerous big developments for several programs in the next year or two.

Capt. Pete Small, Unmanned Maritime Systems program manager, told attendees at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space symposium May 6 that a new draft request for proposals was recently released for a medium unmanned surface vehicle (USV), and the Navy was “aggressively” moving forward with that program.

The Navy is also accelerating a large USV program, and an analysis of alternatives for that effort will wrap up by the end of this year, Small added. The program hopes for a fiscal 2020 start for that platform, and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson personally wants to see the project bear fruit “ASAP,” the captain said.

On the unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) side of the house, the extra-large UUV Orca recently finished the design phase. It will feature a modular payload and the Navy hopes to take delivery at the end of calendar year 2020, with buys continuing through 2022, Small said.

The Snakehead large-displacement UUV is expected to complete its critical design review this quarter, and the Navy hopes to have it in the water by fiscal 2021.

And the Razorback, slated for the fiscal 2020 timeframe, would be hosted on a submarine and the Navy is developing a torpedo tube-launched version. The Navy recently issued a request for information on that project and received some responses from industry.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Construction on a version of the Littoral Combat Ship for the government of Saudi Arabia is on track to start by the end of this calendar year, according to a Navy official.

Ghadeer Halim, deputy program manager for International Small Combatants (PMS 525), said after a presentation from her program office at Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space symposium May 6 that the current plan calls for the construction of four LCSs for the Saudi government with the option for four more for a possible total of eight ships.

Lockheed Martin was awarded a $282 million contract for design and materials for the construction of the four Multi-Mission Surface Combatant ships back in November.

The ships will differ from the U.S. Navy LCS in that the module will be permanent and fixed rather than replaceable with a different module.

The United States and Saudi Arabia came to an agreement on an $11.2 billion deal back in 2015 that included a modified version of the LCS.

The ship would be based on Lockheed’s Freedom-class LCS, one of two different LCS types. (Austal USA builds the Independence-class.)