ARLINGTON, Va.— The Unmanned Systems Integrated Battle Problem (UxS IBP) conducted off the coast of California over the last week featured sensor data exchange and remote sensing in all domains from seabed to space, and involved a variety of scenarios, including swarm attacks by drones and launch and recovery of an unmanned underwater vehicle by a submarine. 

Rear Adm. Robert Gaucher, director of the Maritime Headquarters for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and Rear Adm. James Aiken, commander, Carrier Strike Group Three, and commander of the IBP, spoke about the exercise to reporters during an April 26 teleconference.   

“Just yesterday, we successfully teamed air and surface manned and unmanned capability to put [an SM-6 missile] well past over the horizon from [the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS] John Finn on a target and it struck the target very, very successfully,” Aiken said. 

The manned/unmanned chain of events for the missile shoot was totally passive, [without] any active sensor. The target was detected by a combination of manned and unmanned platforms and a space system to locate and identify the target, track it with electronic support measures (ESM) bearings and pass the information to the John Finn, which was able to shoot the SM-6 at range, well beyond line of sight.  

The admiral said the vignettes exercised during the IBP included focused warfighter vignettes, an anti-submarine warfare and surface ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] vignette, and an over-the-horizon strike vignette, the latter being the SM-6 event mentioned above.  

Unmanned surface and air systems were used to prosecute a submarine-like target. This event included an MQ-9 SeaGuardian UAV dropping sonobuoys and up-linking data after a P-8 maritime patrol aircraft departed station. 

In one scenario, a USV obtained an ESM electronic support measures bearing on a surface target, passed the locating data to the information warfare commander, who passed it to the surface warfare commander, who used a swarm drone attack against the target, a surface vessel. 

During one event, a submarine was able to launch and recover an IVER-4 UUV using a torpedo tube. 

“Being able to do that without divers [is] reducing a ton of risk for our divers to have to go recover … was a big win,” Gaucher said. 

He also said the IVER-4 was able to conduct its own surveillance and reconnaissance and intelligence preparation of the battlespace.

“We were also able to deliver some kinetic effects in support of undersea and seabed warfare,” he said.   

Control of unmanned systems during the IBP was conducted variously from a shore site, from ships at sea, or autonomously.   

“I know that unmanned can proved me video from overhead,” Gaucher said. “I know I can put a towed array sensor on a medium-sized unmanned surface vessel, and I can control it from the shore for theater ASW. … I know that I can operate a system in and out of the torpedo tube of a submarine to support seabed warfare.” 

“From a [Pacific Fleet] perspective, we were very pleased about how the Integrated Battle Problem came out, in particular with our ability to integrate unmanned [systems] into that battle problem in a contested environment,” Gaucher said, noting that 29 different unmanned technologies were part of the IBP, with about 50% surface, 30% subsurface, and 20% above the surface. 

Gaucher stressed that goals for the IPB included using unmanned systems to avoid putting personnel in harm’s way and to improve targeting “so we get a better solution when we launch.” 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The commander of the nation’s strategic deterrent forces again defended the low-yield nuclear warhead that the Navy has deployed at sea on Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles on board ballistic-missile submarines (SSBNs). This time he cited analysis to support the deployment. 

Adm. Charles A. Richard, commander, U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), testified April 22 before the Strategic Forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) on the status of the nation’s strategic forces. 

“Within the last year, STRATCOM started formally measuring risk of strategic deterrence failure,” Richard said. “This is a formal risk assessment designed to make sure that we are analytically rigorous in all the things that we do, acknowledging that this is fundamentally trying to measure a subjective process, the decision making of another country. Our assessment is that the deployment of a low-yield [warhead] improved the risk of strategic deterrence, i.e., it lowered it because of the deterrent effect it achieved.”   

The submarine-launched low-yield warhead became a requirement noted in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review. The result was the W76-2 warhead, which was deployed in 2019 on the tips of some Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles carried by Ohio-class SSBNs.    

With the change in presidential administrations and the leadership of the Congress, critics, including HASC Chairman Adam Smith, D-Washington, have been bolder in expressing long-held opposition to the W76-2 low yield warhead as de-stabilizing to the nuclear balance.  

In hearings this week before subcommittees of the Senate and House armed forces committees and in a Pentagon news conference, Richard noted that this era was the first in which the United States was faced with deterring two peer competitors — Russia and China. He termed China as the greatest strategic threat to the United States, but that Russia was the greatest nuclear threat to the United States. 

He said the United States requires the total capacity of the nuclear triad — intercontinental ballistic missiles, bombers and submarine-launched ballistic missiles — to maintain strategic deterrence. 

ARLINGGTON, Va. — The Navy has awarded a contract to Boeing to integrate the AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) into the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol reconnaissance aircraft.  

The Naval Air Systems Command awarded Boeing a $74 million cost-plus-fixed-fee order for “the design, development, and test of software and ancillary hardware necessary for the integration of the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile onto the P-8A aircraft for the Navy,” an April 21 Defense Department contract announcement said.  

The LRASM, a derivative of the Air Force’s AGM-158B Joint Air-to-Surface Strike Missile-Extended Range cruise missile, fills an air-launch capability gap and provides flexible, long-range, advanced anti-surface capability against high-threat maritime targets. The weapon reduces dependency on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms, network links and GPS navigation in electronic warfare environments. Semi-autonomous guidance algorithms will allow it to use less-precise target cueing data to pinpoint specific targets in the contested domain.   

The P-8A currently can be armed with AGM-84 Harpoon cruise missiles and Mk54 antisubmarine torpedoes. The addition of the LRASM will expand its anti-surface capability in terms of range and ability to operate in a GPS-denied environment.   

Work on the order is expected to be completed in October 2024. 

ARLINGTON, VA. — The U.S. Navy’s first large-scale unmanned systems (UxS) integrated battle problem (IBP) will involve manned/unmanned teaming and has a goal of developing a targeting solution for a planned missile shoot, the IBP executive agent said. 

The battle problem, led by the U.S. Pacific Fleet and executed by U.S. 3rd Fleet, began April 19 and is being conducted under the command of Rear Adm. James Aiken, commander, Carrier Strike Group Three. 

“This integrated battle problem provides an operational approach to integrating and adapting unmanned technology with our manned fleet,” Aiken said, speaking April 20 in a teleconference with reporters. “Various manned systems, including littoral combat ships, two classes of destroyers, an amphibious transport dock ship, and fixed and rotary-wing aircraft will test their enhanced capabilities alongside unmanned systems through operationally challenging scenarios and vignettes during this exercise. 
 
“This exercise generates warfighting advantages for our fleet by providing the operational environment to work through tactics, techniques, procedures, command and control, to integrate the fleet and we are ready to execute,” he said. “Our operational integration of these unmanned systems is here in our fleet today above the sea, on the sea and below the sea.   

“We want to move to a capability, to start applying operational concepts,” he said. “Foundationally, when actually planning this exercise, Sailors were part of the planning.

“Our goal for this exercise is to evaluate these unmanned systems and how they can actually team with manned systems,” he said. “As we team all those together, we will be able to evaluate what we can do and what we can’t do in trying to create a warfighting advantage … then we’re going to make sure we get it into the hands of the Sailors. We need to move things from the technical community to the tactical community.” 

Aiken said one of the vignettes of most interest is the most challenging: using “a combination of manned and unmanned assets in order to get after a target and provide a targeting solution. At range we’re going to put a missile on the target.” 

The admiral was not at liberty to name the type of missile to be used. 

Unmanned systems participating in the IBP include two medium-displacement unmanned surface vessels, Sea Hunter and its new sister ship, Seahawk; MQ-8B Fire Scout UAV; MQ-9 Sea Guardian UAV; Vanilla ultra-long-endurance UAV; Office of Naval Research’s Super Swarm Project; and the Ocean Aero Triton-Class Dual-Modality Underwater and Surface Autonomous Vehicle. 

Manned ships participating in the IBP include the Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyer (DDG) USS Michael Monsoor; the Arleigh Burke-class DDGs USS Spruance, USS John Finn, USS Stockdale and USS Fitzgerald; Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton; Freedom-class littoral combat ship (LCS) USS Fort Worth; Independence-class LCS USS Coronado; San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Anchorage; and Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Hampton.  

Manned aircraft participating include the P-8A Poseidon, E-2C Hawkeye, EA-18G Growler, MH-60R Seahawk and MH-60S Seahawk. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The chairman of the industrial coalition of suppliers for the Navy’s aircraft carriers said the coalition supports continuing to build large aircraft carriers instead of light ones and predicts there will be another dual-carrier procurement in the future. 

“We’re strong supporters of the large platform,” said Rick Giannini, chairman of the Aircraft Carrier Industrial Base Coalition (ACIBC), who also is president and chief executive officer of Milwaukee Valve Co. in New Berlin, Wisconsin, in an interview with Seapower. 

Giannini said the size of the Navy’s carrier aircraft demand a large flight deck to sustain a high sortie rate and that a large aircraft carrier is the most survivable airfield. 

The Navy will be conducting an analysis of the concept of light aircraft carriers. 

“I believe the L-class ships [amphibious assault ships] operating with the F-35B would fit that bill,” said Rear Adm. Gregory Harris, the Navy’s director for Air Warfare, speaking last month at a Navy League Special Topic Breakfast webinar, sponsored by General Dynamics. “Others would disagree.”   

Harris said he is “confident that over the long run we’ll find that there’s not a compelling return on investment to make a smaller carrier just [because of] speed, station-keeping, the air wing that you would put on top of that carrier, and the ability to have the fuel for the air wing and for the carrier to have for the surface combatants.”   

The ACIBC members meet on Capitol Hill every year to lobby Congress. This year’s virtual session included more than 260 companies holding more than 123 scheduled meetings with members of Congress to impress upon them the importance of aircraft carriers to the national defense. 

“We’re doing everything we can to get that message out,” Gianni said.  

The ACIBC represents the more than 2,000 supplier companies in 46 states, supporting 92,000-plus jobs. These companies inject over $8.8 billion into our nation’s economy. 

He was critical of proposed initiatives to retire the USS Harry S. Truman instead of refueling it for another quarter century of service, noting the Navy risks falling below the legally mandated number of 11 aircraft carriers. 

That leads right back to the industrial base, because for us it’s all about stability and predictability of where those funds ae coming from,” Giannini said, noting that the Navy’s two-ship buy of CVN 80 and 81 brought a lot of stability to the suppliers. 

“We’re always concerned when a new administration comes in every time these things are starting over for the next ship in the class,” he said. “We’re fortunate right now; we have two [CVNs] in the pipeline — orders in [fiscal 2019] for eight years of work. We’re still confident that the reasons carriers have been required for the last 50 years aren’t going to be any different than the requirements for the next 50 to 100 years. 

“We remain confident there will be another block buy for [CVNs] 82 and 83, because it is the best way to spend the nation’s money, which is to ensure that the supply base has this steady and predictable stream of work, so we can lower the cost,” he said. 

Giannini pointed to the example of a class of valves supplied by his company that, because of the last dual-carrier buy, were produced at 20-25% lower cost. Not only is the cost being reduced because the orders for both ships come at once, but additional cost savings come by being able to order materials at today’s prices rather than at future prices. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The admiral in charge of developing the Navy’s unmanned aerial vehicles said the MQ-4C Triton UAV is doing well a more than a year into its first operational deployment to Guam, as the Navy looks to prove operations at other locations. 

Unmanned Patrol Squadron 19, the Navy’s first Triton squadron, deployed two MQ-4Cs to Guam in January 2020 to establish Early Operational Capability, providing surveillance for the U.S. 7th Fleet and also exercising the logistics train that will support future deployments. 

“Triton is doing very, very well,” said Rear Adm. Brian Corey, program executive officer for Unmanned and Strike Weapons, speaking April 14 at the Unmanned Systems-Defense webinar of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. “In fact, it’s doing better than we expected in Guam.  

“We just finished a two-hour review with the Navy’s Air Boss, Vice Adm. [Kenneth] Whitesell, on how Triton is doing,” Corey said. “First off, anyone that has operated an air force knows that airplanes work and then they break. We have an air force of two [Tritons] and we put Triton out there [Guam] with Early Operational Capability, knowing that we didn’t have a fully fleshed-out set of depot-level maintenance and that sort of thing.   

“So, we have had some amazing success here over these last several months,” he said. “We got over there, we were able to fly, we were able to interact in the airspace until we could fly in the entire Pacific region, until we got cooperation from our partners.  

“We are delivering the products that Triton is intended to deliver to the 7th Fleet and to the [Pacific] Fleet commander, he said. “We’re able to do that in the number of missions a month that they are looking for.” 

Corey said the next operational step for the Triton is “to prove that we can operate somewhere other than Guam and we’ll be working on that through the fall while we finish up IFC 4 [Integrated Functional Capability 4], the follow-on capability for Triton.”

ARLINGTON, Va. — Three months after leaving office, the former secretary of the Navy is continuing to advocate for the re-establishment of a U.S 1st Fleet in the Southwestern Pacific and Indian Ocean and recommends the new fleet be expeditionary and sea-based. 

Kenneth J. Braithwaite, the 77^th secretary of the Navy and a retired admiral in the Navy Reserve, discussed the concept with Brent Sadler of the Heritage Foundation in an April 14 webinar, hoping the idea “will continue to extraction.” 

While Navy Secretary, Braithwaite said he concluded that the expanse of the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans was too great for a single numbered fleet, the Japan-based U.S. 7th Fleet.  

“One numbered fleet can’t double down on all of the emerging challenges in that part of the world,” he said, noting a “real void” in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. 

He took note of the increased tensions with China in the South China Sea and the increased U.S. cooperation with India as demanding a more focused attention. 

“We needed more emphasis in places where we are being challenged the most,” Braithwaite said. “I thought about the structure of the Navy and what had worked historically for the Navy may not work in the future.”  

The actual intersections of the areas of responsibility (AORs) of the U.S. 3^rd and 7^th Fleets and the proposed U.S. 1st Fleet would be determined in the process, but Braithwaite said that “in the past most of our numbered fleets were at sea [and] operated aboard a flagship. I think that’s a concept we need to embrace again, especially as we enter this new period of great power competition. I think it need to be expeditionary and I think it needs to be sea-based.” 

Braithwaite pointed out that his announcement of the concept of the 1st Fleet came on the eve of a trip to the Western Pacific. 

“The idea seems to be one that many others, if they hadn’t been thinking specifically about the structure and the resurrection of the 1st Fleet, it was one that did meet with positive perspective once I had the opportunity to have those conversations with the [defense ministers] of those nations that would be impacted by it. That would include India, Singapore and Japan. All embraced the idea.” 

Braithwaite said the 1st Fleet could be equipped with guided-missile destroyers, guided-missile frigates, littoral combat ships and expeditionary fast transports, operating as a squadron based in Singapore. He also said Coast Guard cutters could add capability to the proposed fleet. 

“We do need a bigger Navy,” he said. “Ninety percent of trade moves across the sea lanes of the world, and as such, we need to make sure, as the predominant naval force, that they remain free.” 

The status of the 1st Fleet concept within the new presidential is not yet known. President Joseph Biden has yet to nominate a new secretary of the Navy. 

“One thing the Navy doesn’t do well is embrace change,” he said. I had to build up support from within, get people to think again about what might be possible. … It is a concept that has found some support.” 

“I hope that my successor embraces [the 1st Fleet concept] as well once he is announced and confirmed,” he said.    

ARLINGTON, VA. — The Navy plans to use extensive land-site testing for components and systems of the Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV) in order to wring out risk in developing and integrating systems, the admiral in charge of developing unmanned vessels said. 

The Navy is committed to addressing the congressional concerns about, for example, the reliability of machinery of USVs, “to make sure that we go in this measured way of rigorous systems engineering approach,” said Rear Adm. Casey Moton, program executive officer, Unmanned and Small Combatants, speaking April 13 in an Unmanned Systems Defense webinar of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.  

“Along with our prototypes that are out testing now, we’ve been maturing our execution plans,” Moton said, noting that the program engineers are “working on hybrid reliability and hull, mechanical and electrical [HM&E] equipment. 

“We are now going to do our testing at sea, but we are going to do land-based testing of our HM&E equipment for a Medium USV and we’re getting plans ready for Large USV and all of those aspects,” he said. 

Moton said a second pillar of the programs is for C4I [command, control, communications, computers and intelligence], “making sure that we carefully test the C4I system that is going to allow our unmanned vessels to be a part of this hybrid fleet. A lot of that is about [Project] Overmatch, but also be a principal component of Overmatch.” 

A third pillar of the unmanned systems focus is combat systems, adapting them for use on autonomous vessels. Weapons firing will always be performed by a human in the loop, he said. 

A fourth pillar, a common control system, is maturing and is to be something that can be designed once and then scaled up for fleet use. 

“Our initial prototypes were systems that we bought from industry,” Moton said. “We are all the time maturing that into a common system that is going to go in our program of record.” 

The fifth pillar is perception. “We have a very rigorous plan we’re already executing with our prototypes, testing out the perception systems … and the autonomy we need to do.” he said.    

The sixth pillar is prototyping.  

“We’re getting after the sea-based testing and land-based testing, that particularly has been a concern of Congress, and as we go forward, we’re going to articulate that more clearly, but, in each one of these, we’re going very carefully, doing the building blocks, in a good systems engineering manner,” he said.  

“We’re solving it [any given technological challenge] once. We’re going to scale it up like the framework [Unmanned Campaign Plan] talks about, [so that] we’re not having to learn the same lessons over and over again. Even though we have a set number of prototypes, we are developing systems that are going to apply across the fleet.”      

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has ordered 12 MH-60R Seahawk helicopters from Lockheed Martin for the South Korean navy through Foreign Military Sales program. 

The Naval Air Systems Command awarded Lockheed Martin a $447.2 million firm fixed-price order for the production and delivery of 12 MH-60R aircraft for the government of the Republic of Korea, an April 12 Defense Department announcement said.  

The sale of MH-60Rs to South Korea was approved by the U.S. State Department in August 2020. The sale “will improve the Republic of Korea Navy’s capability to perform anti-surface and antisubmarine warfare missions, along with the ability to perform secondary missions including vertical replenishment, search and rescue, and communications relay,” the release said. “The Republic of Korea will use the enhanced capability as a deterrent to regional threats and to strengthen its homeland defense. The Republic of Korea will have no difficulty absorbing these helicopters and support into its armed forces.” 

In addition to the U.S. Navy, the MH-60R has been operated or ordered by six other nations: Australia (24), Denmark (9), Saudi Arabia (10), India (24), Greece (4) and South Korea (12). 

ARLINGTON, Va. — Saildrone Inc., an operator of ocean-going unmanned surface vessels (USVs), has been selected by Google to collect oceanographic data on the Gulf Stream. 

“Saildrone has been selected to receive a grant of over €$1 million ($1.2 million USD) from the Google.org Impact Challenge on Climate to collect data in the Gulf Stream that has the potential to transform weather forecasting and our ability to create more accurate global carbon budgets,” Saildrone spokeswoman Susan Ryan said in a statement to Seapower. 

“The Gulf Stream region has a significant impact on weather and climate in Europe and around the globe but is undersampled due to the violent seas and harsh weather in the region,” Ryan said. “These treacherous conditions make it too dangerous to send research ships and crew into the area for extended periods, especially in winter. It is shocking that 70% of the world is covered by oceans, yet only 2% of the ocean has been sampled for critical ocean data.” 

“Saildrone is a company building and operating unmanned surface vehicles that are powered primarily by solar energy, with wind being the primary propellent for the craft,” said Ron Tremain, Saildrone’s vice president for Maritime Domain Awareness during an earlier interview with Seapower. 

The Gulf Stream expedition will be conducted by several of Saildrone Explorers, which are 23 feet long and typically proceed at four knots by sail.  

The carbon-fiber sail on each is more like a wing than a sail, but it is a sail that can be controlled mechanically and with the wind. Depending on which direction we want it to sail, the operator can make adjustments to increase the speed, decrease the speed, change course direction as needed, Tremain said. 

The Explorer, the smallest of Saildrone’s USVs, are fitted with an advanced sensor suite of atmospheric and oceanographic sensors, combined with radar, the Automatic Information System, and a set of electro-optical cameras. 

Saildrone will launch six Explorer USVs to spend up to a year continuously collecting critical data in the Gulf Stream while creating no environmental footprint, Ryan said. This mission will collect critical data at a resolution that has not been possible previously, yielding new insights into the transport of heat and carbon around our oceans.