ARLINGTON, Va. — The civilian head of the Department of the Navy said that measures taken over his first year in office have improved the condition of the Navy and Marine Corps forces and enabled future growth of the fleet.

“We’re a more ready and lethal force than we were last year — in both services,” said Navy Secretary (SECNAV) Richard V. Spencer, speaking Aug. 7 to reporters at a media roundtable in the Pentagon.

Spencer said that as he dove into his job last year he “did not have a full appreciation of the readiness hole, how deep it was, how wide it was.”

Having commissioned his Strategic Readiness Review, Spencer set out to change the culture of the Navy and Marine Corps, adopting best practices from corporations that executed successful turnarounds from crises.

A data sheet for the roundtable said that “all of the recommendations of the Readiness and Reform Oversight Council are in progress; 78 will be implemented by the end of the fiscal year (out of 111 under review).”

Spencer cited improvements in aviation readiness, particularly progress in processing aircraft through depot-level maintenance and saving labor time when the aircraft were returned to their squadrons.

Regarding sustainment, Spencer said the historical emphasis on acquisition of new systems lacked focus on sustainment over the life of the systems. He said the Navy is trying to bake that sustainment into the total process.

Surface ship maintenance, which the Navy has struggled to sustain for years, is an area that remains of concern to the secretary.

“We have a capacity issue that we are going to have to deal with,” he said, a challenge that will increase as the fleet grows to the mandated 355-ship battle force.

One measure undertaken by the secretary was to streamline and clarify the chain of accountability, with the type commander being “the belly button that’s responsible for the maintenance of the ships.”

Regarding the Optimized Fleet Response Plan’s record of ships emerging from planned maintenance on time, Spencer said he had seen demonstrable evidence that it’s better.

“I’ve seen little pockets of sunshine here and there. This is getting to the mantra that ‘You’ve got to keep to schedule.’ What will lit take to get us back to a fleet schedule? That is about two years away.”

He also cited a savings of approximately $4 billion with multi-year procurements of the Virginia-class attack submarine, the F/A-18 Super Hornet strike fighter, the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye early warning aircraft and the SM-6 surface-to-air missile.

Talking with defense industry representatives was critical to acquisition success and sustaining readiness, he said. He also pointed out that shared risk results in shared benefits, and that industry needs to make a profit to be able to provide the needed weapons.

The SECNAV also pointed out success in strengthening U.S. partners and allies with new and more weapons, with $25 billion of Foreign Military Sales (FMS).

“FMS now operates at the speed of relevance,” he said.

Spencer also pointed to the new initiative to develop a hypersonic weapon was benefiting from inter-service cooperation, with a tri-service memorandum of agreement in place to synchronize resources and expertise.

The focus on continuous education of the acquisition work force has yielded good results, he said, with 97 percent of the 55,000 workers having earned their respective certifications.

In a wrap-up, Spencer said that “we’re going to get to 355 [ships] — I’m totally convinced.

“We’re going to have to self-fund some of our expansion,” he added later in response to a reporter’s question.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy has announced plans for its next shuffle of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers (CVNs), a quadrennial event governed by the Refueling and Comprehensive Overhaul (RCOH) schedule of the Nimitz-class and, in this case, also including another shift of homeport for maintenance.

In an Aug. 2 release, a spokesman for the commander, Naval Air Forces, announced “that three Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) and USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) will conduct homeport shifts.

“USS Abraham Lincoln, currently located in Norfolk, Virginia, will rejoin the Pacific Fleet, making San Diego [Coronado, California] its homeport,” the release said. “Abraham Lincoln, commissioned in 1989, previously served in the Pacific Fleet from 1990-2011 before moving to Norfolk for midlife refueling.”

USS George Washington (CVN 73) currently is going through its mid-life RCOH at Newport News Shipbuilding, which typically takes up four years and extends the life of a carrier up to 50 years. The RCOH of the Nimitz class is more than halfway completed. The fleet includes 10 Nimitz-class CVNs.

The announcement also said that John C. Stennis [CVN 74], commissioned in 1995 and currently homeported in Bremerton, Washington, will change homeport to Norfolk in advance of its RCOH.

The Navy also announced that USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) will conduct a homeport change from Coronado to Bremerton “in advance of its docking-planned incremental availability at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.”

WASHINGTON — The ranking member of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee said failure to fund extra Virginia-class attack submarines (SSNs) in 2022 and 2023 will aggravate the submarine shortage in the next decade, and a plan to extend the lives of five older Los Angeles-class SSNs has “its own set of issues.”

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., told an audience at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank, July 18, that the option of extending the lives of Los Angeles-class SSNs should be looked at carefully.

The Navy’s SSN force stands at 53 boats today and is on track to decline to 42 in the mid-2020s. One plan to mitigate the decline is to fund three Virginia-class SSNs in both 2022 and 2023, when the submarine contractors Electric Boat and Newport News are building the first Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine.

“If we don’t do that, we’re really going backwards,” Courtney said, referring to the shipbuilding plan, now a matter of law, to build the Navy’s fleet to 355 ships.

The Navy also is looking at extending the service life of up to five Los Angeles SSNs to help mitigate the gap.

“I’m not religiously opposed to that, but [life extension] creates its own set of issues,” said Courtney, whose district includes Electric Boat. “These are old boats, built in the 1980s and ’90s. They don’t have the same capabilities that a Virginia-class [SSN] has. We have to refuel the reactor and you have to check the hull to make sure that it’s okay. They’ve been running hard in the decades they’ve been out there.

“There’s a whole separate issue,” he added. “Technologies change in terms of shipbuilding: where you get the spare parts, where you find the [blueprints]. This thing is not as easy as it sounds. It’s not like putting a quart of oil in your 10-year-old car and hope it runs for the next five years.”

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy’s program executive offer in charge of most shipbuilding said that development of a new munition for the Advanced Gun System (AGS) on the DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class ship continues to be on hold.

Speaking July 11 at a Navy League Special Topic Breakfast, Rear Adm. William J. Galinis, program executive officer, Ships, said a replacement for the Long-Range Land-Attack Projectile (LRLAP) developed for the AGS “is on hold at this point.”

The LRLAP was canceled in part for its high cost given economies of scale when the DDG 1000 program was reduced from 32 planned ships to only three, leaving the AGS without a round available in quantity.

“Last fall, the Navy made the decision that we were going to transition [the Zumwalt] from a primary land-attack mission to more of a surface strike mission set,” Galinis said. “As we brought this platform on line and learned about the capability of the platform, it fits that mission requirement very well. There are some changes we need to make to the ship, but they are not significant.”

Galinis said the Navy has had challenges with getting the desired ranges from rounds fired from the AGS.

“Last summer, we had essentially a fly-off of four or five different rounds,” he said. “We’ve taken the analysis of those test firings. It’s kind of on hold at this point as we transition to surface strike.”

Galinis said that USS Zumwalt is expected to return to sea at the end of next month following installation of its combat systems in San Diego. The second hull, Michael Monsoor, is in Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine for a post-delivery availability. One of its main turbine engines suffered a casualty and will be replaced.

The third hull, Lyndon B. Johnson, is expected to be launched by the end of the year and to begin sea trials by the end of 2019.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy admiral in charge of building most of the Navy’s ships advocates taking a bolder approach to ship design, but one that also leverages existing hulls and technology to incrementally develop new ship classes.

Speaking July 11 to an audience at a Navy League Special Topic Breakfast, Rear Adm. William J. Galinis, program executive officer (PEO), Ships, said the Navy spending “far too much time studying a problem in trying to minimize risk really gets us to an unresponsive [acquisition] system.”

Galinis said that the Navy’s top leadership is encouraging the acquisition community to “take a little bit of risk” given the current sense of urgency in the renewed climate of great power competition.

“Include that in your business practices,” he urged the defense industry representatives at the event.

Galinis said the Navy is taking a more “evolutionary approach to new ship classes [and] introducing new technology, leveraging parent designs.”

He cited the DDG 51 Flight III program, the new guided-missile frigate program and the Flight II of the San Antonio-class amphibious platform dock ship as examples of the evolutionary approach. Another example he mentioned is the evolution of the America-class amphibious assault ships, the most recent of which — Bougainville — will feature restoration of a well deck and be equipped with the new Enterprise Air Search Radar that uses technology in common with the Air and Missile Defense Radar being installed on the DDG 51 Flight III.

Galinis pointed out the success of incrementally modernizing ships in the example of the third Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyer USS Barry (DDG 53), which emerged from a recent modernization availability with the same capability of USS John Finn (DDG 113), a new ship commissioned last year.

He said Navy’s Future Large Surface Combatant design will represent “more of an evolutionary approach as we migrate from the DDG 51 Flight III to the Large Surface Combatant” [and] will be “operationally driven.”

The first two ships of DDG Flight III are under construction by Huntington Ingalls and Bath Iron Works.

“The revolutionary piece certainly plays a part,” Galinis said, referring to new technologies that are being developed for shipboard use. The Navy has been developing laser weapons, electromagnetic rail guns and integrated power systems for newer ships.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy has awarded to Boeing $1.5 billion for 28 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike fighters for the Kuwaiti Air Force.

According to a June 27 Defense Department contract announcement, Boeing will build 22 single-seat F/A-18E and six two-seat F/A-18F versions for Kuwait.

The sale of the Super Hornets was approved by the U.S. Department of State in February.

Deliveries of the strike fighters to Kuwait is expected by January 2021.

Kuwait’s air force previously ordered 32 older F/A-18C and eight F/A-18D Hornets during the 1980s. It will be the second foreign nation to order the Super Hornet, Australia being the first.

ARLINGTON, Va. — President Donald J Trump has nominated Vice Adm.
Andrew L. Lewis to command the new U.S. Second Fleet, to be
headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia.

Lewis, a naval aviator, has served as deputy chief of naval
operations for Operations, Plans and Strategy since August. He began
his career as an A-7 attack pilot and later made the transition to the
F/A-18. He has flown 100 combat missions during numerous operations in
Southwest Asia since 1991. He was the recipient of the Naval Air Forces
Pacific Pilot of the Year award in 1996.

His command tours include Carrier Strike Group 12, deploying with
USS Theodore Roosevelt; Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center; Carrier
Air Wing 3, deploying with USS Harry S. Truman; Strike Fighter Squadron
(VFA) 106; and VFA-15, deploying on USS Enterprise and USS Theodore
Roosevelt.

The chief of naval operations, Adm. John Richardson, announced the
establishment of the fleet during a change of command ceremony for U.S.
Fleet Forces Command (USFF) in Norfolk, May 4, the Navy said in a
release. The new fleet will report to USFF.

“Second Fleet will exercise operational and administrative
authorities over assigned ships, aircraft and landing forces on the
East Coast and northern Atlantic Ocean,” the release said.
“Additionally, it will plan and conduct maritime, joint and combined
operations and will train, certify and provide maritime forces to
respond to global contingencies.

In its former iteration, Second Fleet generated forces to support
operations in the North Atlantic, as well as U.S. Sixth Fleet in the
Mediterranean Sea, the Middle East Force (later U.S. Fifth Fleet) in
the Persian Gulf and, occasionally, U.S. Seventh Fleet during the
Vietnam War. The fleet figured prominently in the Navy’s Maritime
Strategy of the Cold War Era, when the Second Fleet staff would embark
in a flagship for exercises in the North Atlantic and Norwegian Sea as a
bulwark against the Soviet Union. The former Second Fleet was
disestablished in 2011.

As noted by U.S. European Command, the Russian Navy has become more
active in recent years in the Northern Atlantic and the Mediterranean
Sea. U.S. Sixth Fleet in recent years has operated more frequently in
the Baltic and Black Seas.

ARLINGTON, Va. — A Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response (MAGTF-CR) has used a Navy expeditionary mobile base ship (ESB) for a quick-reaction movement in the Persian Gulf, the task force commander said.

Speaking June 8 to the Potomac Institute, Col. Christopher Gideons, commander of SPMAGTF-CR-Central Command from August 2017 to April, said that elements of the task force were called upon to stage to the United Arab Emirates in preparation for a maritime intercept operation (MIO) in the region.

After arrival, the task elements staged to the USS Lewis B. Puller, a newly commissioned ESB assigned to the U.S. Fifth Fleet that supports a variety of forces including mine countermeasures forces, special operations forces, patrol boats and other units.

Gideons said MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor transport aircraft were staged to the flight deck of Puller along with an infantry contingent of about 200 Marines. The MIO of an unspecified nature was planned and rehearsed, he said, but ultimately the force was told to stand down when the MIO was canceled by higher authority.

“The team did a great job,” Gideons said.

He praised the capabilities of the ESB, with its large flight deck, spacious hangar deck and rotorcraft refueling capability.

One challenge of the operation was getting needed gear on the ship and sustaining the force, he noted.

The use of an alternate platform — the ESB — in this case was necessitated by the lack of an amphibious ready group (ARG) with an embarked Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), as pointed out during the presentation by retired Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Alfred M. Gray Jr., who also highlighted the shortage of amphibious warfare ships that necessitates the existence of SPMAGTFs.

There was a 100-day gap in the presence of an ARG/MEU when Gideons’ SPMAGTF was in theater, Gideons said.

The SPMAGTF also operated from the French Navy helicopter carrier FS Tonnere during the deployment.

The SPMAGTFs were created in 2014 in response to the 2012 attack on the U.S. government facilities in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans were killed in a siege with no ARG/MEU available in the Mediterranean Sea to rescue them.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy has eliminated the position of its “drone czar” in its secretariat after only two and a half years, citing goals achieved and integration progress.

In an April 30 directive, James F. Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, directed the disestablishment of the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Unmanned Systems) (DASN(UxS)) effective May 7.

Under then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, the Navy established DASN(UxS) to put appropriate bureaucratic horsepower and centralized leadership behind the development of unmanned systems. Mabus made the announcement on Oct. 27, 2015, that retired Marine Brig. Gen. Frank Kelley would be the first head of the office.

Geurts cited the completion of the Navy Department’s comprehensive Unmanned Systems Roadmap and its submission to Congress as “a logical point to move forward as expressed in our Goals and Roadmap. Both documents state that the integration of manned and unmanned systems into a seamless fighting force is an objective of our unmanned systems strategy and critical to our future naval force.”

Geurts said the DASN(UxS) had satisfied Mabus’ Nov. 13, 2015, directive to “Treat unmanned as unmanned.

“That work continues, but that work, to integrate unmanned systems into all that we do, now belongs to all of us,” Geurts said.

Earlier this year, the Unmanned Warfare Systems Division (N99) in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations was eliminated and its mission merged into the directorate of Warfare Integration. N99 had been established on Sept. 15, 2015, with now-retired Rear Adm. Robert Girrier as director.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy will establish a new type wing as commander over the service’s growing F-35C Lightning II strike fighter community.

According to an internal directive, commander, Joint Strike Fighter Wing, will be established on Aug. 1 at Naval Air Station (NAS) Lemoore, California. The new wing will man, train and equip the three current F-35C strike fighter squadrons (VFAs): the two fleet replacement squadrons, VFA-101 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, and VFA-125 at Lemoore, plus VFA-147, an operational squadron currently in transition from the F/A-18E to the F-35C.

As more fleet squadrons make the transition to the F-35C, they will be reassigned from their current wing, Strike Fighter Wing, U.S. Pacific Fleet — also at Lemoore — or Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic at NAS Oceana, Virginia. Those wings will continue to man, train and equip the Navy’s F/A-18 strike fighter squadrons.