ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Central Command has published a
timeline of the June 13 attacks on two commercial tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

The two motor tankers, the Norway-flagged M/TAltair and the Japan-flagged M/T Kokuka Courageous, were
apparently damaged by limpet mines placed on their hulls. Ships and P-8
aircraft of the U.S. 5th Fleet responded to the incidents to render assistance
and to investigate who launched the attacks.

Secretary of State Michael
Pompeo later blamed Iran for the attacks, according to a June 13 report in
Politico. “These attacks are a threat to international peace and security,
a blatant assault on the freedom of navigation and an unacceptable escalation
of tension by Iran,” he is quoted as saying by the Politico report.

Pompeo said his assessment
was based “on intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to
execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping and the fact
that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to
act with such a high degree of sophistication,” Politico reported.

The incidents followed covert attacks on May
12 on four tankers in the waters of the United Arab Emirates, apparently also
with limpet mines.

The following is a timeline of the June 13 attacks
provided by Capt. Bill Urban of U.S. Central Command public affairs:

• U.S. Naval forces in the region received two separate distress
  calls at 6:12 a.m. local time from the Altair and a second one at 7 a.m. from Kokuka
  Courageous.
• Both vessels were in international waters in the Gulf of Oman about
  10 nautical miles apart at the time of the distress calls. USS Bainbridge was about
  40 nautical miles away from Altair at the time of the attack and immediately
  began closing the distance.
• At 8:09 a.m., a U.S. aircraft observed an Iranian Islamic
  Revolutionary Guard Corps Hendijan-class patrol boat and multiple IRGC fast attack
  craft/fast inshore attack craft (FAC/FIAC) in the vicinity of Altair.
• At 9:12 a.m., a U.S. aircraft observed the FAC/FIAC pull a raft
  from the Altair from the water.
• At 9:26 a.m., the Iranians requested that the motor vessel Hyundai
  Dubai, which had rescued the sailors from the Altair, turn the crew over to the
  Iranian FIACs. The Hyundai Dubai complied with the request and transferred the
  crew of the Altair to the Iranian FIACs.
• At 11:05 a.m. local time, USS Bainbridge approached the Dutch tug
  Coastal Ace, which had rescued the crew of 21 sailors from the Kokuka
  Courageous who had abandoned their ship after discovering a probable unexploded
  limpet mine on their hull following an initial explosion.
• While the Iranian Hendijan patrol boat appeared to attempt to get
  to the tug Coastal Ace before Bainbridge, the mariners were rescued by Bainbridge
  at the request of the master of the Kokuka Courageous. The rescued sailors are
  currently aboard Bainbridge.
• At 4:10 p.m., an IRGC Gashti-class patrol boat approached the Kokuka
  Courageous and was observed and recorded removing the unexploded limpet mine
  from the Kokuka Courageous.

“The U.S. and our partners in the region will
take all necessary measures to defend ourselves and our interests,” Urban said.
“Today’s attacks are a clear threat to international freedom of navigation and
freedom of commerce. The U.S. and the international community stand ready to
defend our interests, including the freedom of navigation. The United States
has no interest in engaging in a new conflict in the Middle East. However, we
will defend our interests.”

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The merger of the Raytheon Co. and United Technologies Corp. (UTC),
announced June 9, will result in a defense company with a broad portfolio in
weapons, sensors, mission systems, avionics and propulsion.

In a joint
announcement, Raytheon and UTC said they entered into an agreement to merge, naming
the merged company Raytheon Technologies Corp.

“The transaction will create a premier systems provider with
advanced technologies to address rapidly growing segments within aerospace and
defense,” the announcement said. “The merger of Raytheon, a leading defense
company, and United Technologies, a leading aerospace company, comprised of Collins
Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney, will offer a complementary portfolio of
platform-agnostic aerospace and defense technologies.”

Raytheon
is known for missiles and other aerial weapons, radars, undersea weapons,
command-and-control systems and mission systems among other systems. UTC is the
manufacturer of the F135 engine used on the F-35. Collins is known for cockpit
avionics and other aircraft systems.

“Areas of joint advancement include, but are not limited to:
hypersonics and future missile systems; directed energy weapons; intelligence,
surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) in contested environments; cyber
protection for connected aircraft; next generation connected airspace; and
advanced analytics and artificial intelligence for commercial aviation,” the
companies’ announcement said.

Raytheon’s four business sectors will be consolidated into
two sectors, Intelligence, Space and Airborne Systems and Integrated Defense and
Missile Systems. The UTC sectors Collins Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney will
form the third and fourth sectors of Raytheon Technologies.

Tom Kennedy, the current chairman and chief executive
officer of Raytheon, will be appointed executive chairman of Raytheon Technologies
and Greg Hayes will be named CEO. Two years following the close of the
transaction, Hayes will assume the role of chairman and CEO. The company will
remain headquartered in the Boston area.

UTC’s
Carrier and Otis sectors are expected to be spun off into separate companies in
2020.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has awarded to Lockheed Martin
Aeronautics Co. a contract to continue development of Block 4 capabilities for
the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.

Naval Air Systems Command awarded a $1.8 billion “cost-plus-incentive-fee,
cost-plus-award-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for continued design
maturation and development of Block 4 capabilities in support of the F-35
Lightning II Phase 2.3 Pre-Modernization for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps
and non-U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) participants,” according to a Defense
Department announcement.

Details of the Block 4 capabilities have not been released by the
F-35 Joint Program Office, but they are mainly incremental software and sensor
upgrades intended to add to the aircraft’s agility, lethality and situational
awareness to enable the aircraft to keep ahead of the threats anticipated in
the future.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Marine Corps has awarded a
contract to Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. in Baltimore for full-rate
production of the TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR).

According to a June 7 Department of Defense release, the
Marine Corps Systems Command awarded to Northrop Grumman a $958 million contract
for the purchase of 30 full-rate production G/ATORs plus spare parts and
retrofit kits.

The Marine Corps plans to procure a total of 45 G/ATOR
units.

The TPS-80 is a three-dimensional,
expeditionary, short/medium-range, multirole radar capable of detecting
low-observable, low-radar-cross-section targets such as rockets, artillery,
mortars, cruise missiles and unmanned aerial systems.

G/ATOR is being developed and
fielded in three blocks and will be used by Marine Air-Ground Task Force across
a range of its capabilities. The capability blocks will cover air combat element
and ground combat element missions, replacing three in-service legacy radars
and the functionality of two systems already retired.

The Program Executive Officer Land Systems in Quantico,
Virginia, is the portfolio manager of the G/ATOR program.

CHERBOURG, France — Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer named a future Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, DDG 132, in honor of Coast Guard Capt. Quentin Walsh, who was awarded the Navy Cross for his service during World War II, the secretary’s public affairs office announced in a June 6 release.

“Capt.
Walsh was a hero whose efforts during World War II continue to inspire, and his
leadership in securing the French port of Cherbourg had a profound effect on
the success of the amphibious operations associated with Operation Overlord,”
Spencer said.

“For over
two centuries, the Navy and Marine Corps team and the Coast Guard have sailed
side by side, in peacetime and war, fair weather or foul. I am honored the
future USS Quentin Walsh will carry Capt. Walsh’s legacy of strength and
service throughout the world, and I am proud that for decades to come, this
ship will remind friends and adversaries alike of the proud history of our
services and the skill and professionalism of all those who stand the watch
today.”

Spencer
made the announcement alongside Adm. Karl Schultz, the commandant of the U.S.
Coast Guard, in a ceremony aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle in
Cherbourg, France.

“We
are grateful to the U.S. Navy and Sec. Spencer for honoring one of our Coast
Guard heroes, Capt. Quentin Walsh,” Schultz said. “Naming a future
Navy destroyer after Capt. Walsh, the first Arleigh Burke-class ship to be
named after a Coast Guard legend, highlights not only his courageous actions
but the bravery of all U.S. service members involved in the D-Day Invasion of
Normandy.

“The
U.S. Navy and Coast Guard legacies are interwoven as reflected in the heroic
actions of Capt. Walsh and the Navy Sailors under his command during the
liberation of Cherbourg,” the commandant continued. “We will remain
always ready to stand with our brothers and sisters in the U.S. Navy and Marine
Corps.”

During
World War II, while serving on the staff of the commander, U.S. Naval Forces,
Europe, then Cmdr. Walsh was given command of a 53-man special task force
assigned to capture the vital port of Cherbourg. Despite heavy casualties, his
small force seized the port facilities and took control of the harbor the day
after they entered the city.

After he
discovered that the remaining German garrison at Fort du Homet held 52 U.S.
Army paratroopers as prisoners, Walsh, under a flag of truce, exaggerated the
strength of the forces under his command and persuaded the commanding officer
of the remnants of the German garrison to surrender. These actions earned him
the Navy Cross and, all told, he accepted the surrender of over 700 German
soldiers. Walsh died May 18, 2000.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The U.S. Navy has reduced the number of F/A-18C Hornet strike fighters it
is modernizing to the F/A-18C+ configuration from 25 to 19, only enough to field
one squadron for the U.S. Marine Corps, according to Michael Land, a spokesman
for the Naval Air Systems Command.

As an upgrade
to the F/A-18C, the F/A-18C+ is equipped with an upgraded APG-73 radar, Link
16, color cockpit displays, a moving-map display, ALE-47 infrared
countermeasures, the Naval Aircrew Common Ejection Seat and the Joint
Helmet-Mounted Cueing System. The service life of the airframes is being
extended from 6,000 flight hours to 8,000 hours.

Originally
the C+ program was to include 30 aircraft, enough to field two squadrons. The
number later was reduced to 25.

The aircraft
are being upgraded by Boeing at its facility at Cecil Field in Jacksonville,
Florida.

As of early May, three of the C+ versions had been completed. Two had been delivered to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 115 (VMFA-115), one of which had been lost in a mishap. The third has been delivered to reserve squadron VMFA-112 at Naval Air Station Fort Worth in Texas in May. That squadron is scheduled to receive most of the C+ Hornets.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The U.S. Navy has awarded a contract for 34 ScanEagle unmanned aerial
vehicles for four partner nations adjacent to the South China Sea.

The Naval Air
Systems Command awarded a $47.9 million contract on May 31 to Boeing’s Insitu
in Bingen, Washington, for the UAVs as well as “spare payloads, spare and
repair parts, support equipment, tools, training, technical services and field
service representatives,” according to a Defense Department announcement.

The UAVs will
be built for the governments of Malaysia (12 UAVs), Indonesia (8), the
Philippines (8) and Vietnam (6).

The ScanEagle
is a small Group 2 UAV that can be launched from a pneumatic rail launcher
ashore or from ship and recovered by a line that intercepts a hook on the wing
of the UAV. It can carry sensor payloads such as electro-optical imaging,
infrared imaging and millimeter wave radar. The UAV can stay aloft for 18
hours.

Deliveries are expected to
be completed by March 2022.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy has awarded a contract to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) services though use of Group 5 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

According to a May 30 Defense Department
contract announcement, Naval Air Systems Command awarded GA-ASI a $36.5 million
contract modification to provide ISR services with
contractor-owned/contractor-operated MQ-9 Reaper UAVs, the same UAV used by the
U.S. Air Force.

The Marine Corps extensively has used contractor
ISR services in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, with the smaller Insitu ScanEagle,
and has employed its new service-owned Boeing Insitu RQ-21A Blackjack UAV in
the same roles. The use of the larger Reaper is filling a gap in ISR coverage
for the Marine Corps.

The Corps has developed a requirement for
its own Reapers and has requested two in the fiscal 2020 defense budget.

The current contract modification is for nine
months of Reaper services, scheduled to run through February 2020 at overseas
locations and at Yuma, Arizona.

NORFOLK,
Va. — The U.S. 2nd Fleet declared the command has achieved initial operational
capability (IOC) May 29, less than one year after being established by senior
military leaders, U.S. 2nd Fleet Public Affairs said in a May 29 release.

Vice Adm.
Andrew “Woody” Lewis, commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet, made the announcement onboard
Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, the waterfront homeport of many 2nd Fleet
maritime assets.

“The North
Atlantic has some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and with the opening
of waterways in the Arctic, this traffic will only grow,” Lewis said. “This is
a fact acknowledged by both our allies and competitors, and as such, it is
critically important U.S. 2nd Fleet reinvigorates the way our forces are
employed in this influential theater.”

In
achieving IOC, the command has reached the capability to command and control
forces assigned, as is expected of a numbered fleet, utilizing the functions
and processes of the Maritime Operations Center and Maritime Headquarters.

“The North Atlantic has some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and with the opening of waterways in the Arctic, this traffic will only grow,” Lewis said. “This is a fact acknowledged by both our allies and competitors, and as such, it is critically important U.S. 2nd Fleet reinvigorates the way our forces are employed in this influential theater.”

Vice Adm. Andrew “Woody” Lewis

By
focusing on the high-end training and employment of assigned assets, the new
2nd Fleet will be postured to support the employment of forces, whether that is
on the Western side of the Atlantic, the Eastern side of the Atlantic, or up
into the Arctic.

A few days
after achieving IOC, the new fleet will lead Exercise Baltic Operations
(BALTOPS), marking the first time the fleet will operate in the European
theater, and leveraging increased lethality, interoperability and integrated
warfighting capability with allies and partners in the region.

“BALTOPS
2019 is our collective opportunity to promote peace and security through
cooperation, collaboration, interoperability, and an unambiguous display of
strength in the Baltic region,” Lewis said. “As an alliance, increasing our
capabilities across all-domains as well as building a command-wide network will
give us the ability to deter aggression and project stability.”

U.S. 2nd
Fleet exercises operational and administrative authorities over assigned ships,
aircraft and landing forces on the East Coast and the North Atlantic.
Additionally, it plans and conducts maritime, joint and combined operations as
well as trains and recommends certification of combat ready naval forces for
maritime employment and operations around the globe.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy has allocated
funds for long-lead components for the next production lot of the MQ-4C Triton
high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles, including one for Royal
Australian Air Force (RAAF), according to a May 30 Defense Department contract
announcement.

The Naval Air Systems Command has awarded
to Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. a not-to-exceed $65 million advance
acquisition contract toward the Lot 5 low-rate initial production of three
Tritons, two for the U.S. Navy and one for the RAAF. The contract also provides
for three ground stations, two for the U.S. Navy and one for the RAAF.

As of last month, Northrop Grumman had
delivered three production MQ-4Cs to the U.S. Navy.

The Australian government has identified a
requirement for seven Tritons for the maritime surveillance role. Two have been
ordered to date.

The U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Patrol Squadron 19,
the first Triton squadron, is on track to deploy the Triton for an Early
Operational Capability deployment to Guam later this year. It will take two
MQ-4Cs to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam to support the U.S. 7th Fleet.

Rear Adm. Brian Corey, program executive
officer for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons, speaking May 6 at the Navy
League’s Sea-Air-Space expo in National Harbor, Maryland, said the two Tritons
making the first deployment will be in the aircraft’s baseline configuration.

The baseline configuration, Integrated
Functional Capability 3 (IFC 3) includes the Northrop Grumman AN/ZPY-3
Multi-Function Active Sensor (MFAS) maritime radar, Raytheon MTS-B electro-optical/infrared
sensor turret, Automatic Identification System receiver and an electronic
support measures system.

Corey said the current priority of the
Triton program is to “put forward the IFC 4 [Integrated Functional Capability
4] capability [in the Triton] to do much of the EP-3E mission.”

The MQ-4C is scheduled to replace the EP-3E
electronic reconnaissance aircraft when the UAV’s IFC 4 multi-intelligence
capability is installed and certified for operations.