ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy is moving to equip all of its submarines with additive manufacturing capability, also known as 3D printing, as part of an initiative to increase at-sea repair capability for the submarine force.

“[We’re] actively experimenting with additive manufacturing and working expediently to provide this capability to all my ships,” Vice Adm. Chas Richard, commander, Submarine Forces, said Nov. 7 at the Naval Submarine League’s symposium. “All my boats will get 3D printers in the near term.”

Richard said that the crew of the attack submarine USS Virginia “went and got their own 3D printer and, using that, built themselves apart at sea to help keep their boat on deployment. It is that type of problem-solving that happens daily across the force.”

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy is on track to deliver an operational unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) for routine submarine deployment but also plans to develop the capability to launch it from a submarine’s torpedo tubes.

The Razorback is a submarine-launched version of the Hydroid-built Littoral Battlespace Sensing Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, a version of the REMUS 600 UUV that entered full-rate production for the Navy in 2013. Details of the Razorback’s payloads and capabilities are classified, but it is planned for launch and recovery from a Dry Deck Shelter, a compartment than can be carried on top of the hull of certain submarines.

“We’re currently fielding those vehicles for integration with the Dry Deck Shelter and we have plans to develop a torpedo tube-launched version of that in the near future,” said Capt. Peter Small, the Navy’s program manager for UUVs and unmanned surface vehicles, Nov. 7 at the Naval Submarine League’s symposium.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy plans to keep the production line of the Columbia-class nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine (SSBN) ready for new submarine production, the Navy’s director for submarine warfare said.

“What we are going to do is we’re going to keep the Columbia line hot,” Rear Adm. John Tammen, said Nov. 8 at the Naval Submarine League’s annual symposium. “That gives us the option, if STRATCOM [U.S. Strategic Command] says we need more than 12, well then we can produce more than 12.”

Keeping the line open also may aid in a smoother transition to the Navy’s next submarines, possibly large mother ships for unmanned underwater vehicles and other types mission systems.

“If STRATCOM doesn’t need more than 12, then we’re looking at what we call the Large-Volume Host Platform, where we’ll take that center section — we haven’t nailed down the concept — but there will be the ability to host vehicles on board inside that center section,” Tammen said.

Also speaking at the symposium, Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe, director of Strategic Systems Programs, noted that the Defense Department’s Nuclear Posture Review calls for a minimum of 12 Columbia-class SSBNs, not a hard limitation of 12 boats.

The design of the lead boat of the new class, Columbia, is 83 percent complete. Construction is scheduled to begin next year. The boat is scheduled for its first patrol in 2031.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy’s next-generation submarine-launched missile (SLBM) will not be a completely new design but will incorporate some of the current Trident D5 Life-Extension (D5LE) version systems.

The follow-on missile is currently known as the Trident D5LE2, according to Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe, director of Strategic Systems Programs (SSP).

“What Ohio [-class SSBN] has today [D5LE] is what Columbia will initially have until we get the Life-Extension 2,” Wolfe said Nov. 8 at the Naval Submarine League’s annual symposium.

To lower technical and schedule risk in the Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine program, the Navy decided to arm the boats initially with the existing Trident D5LE missile rather than develop an entirely new missile concurrent with the development of the submarine. At some point in the service life of the Columbia class, the boats will receive the D5LE2.

Wolfe said the SSP will begin trade studies in 2020 to “define an SLBM that can deploy throughout the life of Columbia,” which is slated to serve to 2084. The studies will determine which D5LE components can be continued in the next missile and which will need to be modernized or replaced for D5LE2.

The D5LE2 “won’t look like the D5 that we’ve got today, it won’t be completely new, it will be somewhere in the middle,” he said.

“If you look at the decisions that we made on Columbia, as we went down to 16 [launch] tubes [from 24 on the Ohio class], part of that decision was made because there was an assumption that the reliability of this weapon system way out in the 2070s and 2080s will be just as reliable and supportable as it is today with the current Trident,” he said.

Wolfe pointed out that the Trident missile inventory will decline to a point where new production will be needed. Part of the challenge is to sustain the industrial base to build, for example, rocket motors, so that the expertise is not lost during procurement troughs and would not have to be reconstituted.

“Our challenge is that whatever we do next has, at a minimum, the reliability, accuracy and supportability that we’ve got today,” he said.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Marine Corps’ last squadron flying the EA-6B Prowler electronic attack aircraft is scheduled to return home in early November, marking the last operational deployment for the aircraft.

Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron Two (VMAQ-2) is returning from its final deployment to its home base, Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, from a base in the Central Command area of responsibility, the Marine Corps said in an Oct. 31 release.

VMAQ-2 is scheduled to be deactivated in March, the last of four VMAQ squadrons to operate the Prowler. The other three squadrons — VMAQ-1, VMAQ-3 and VMAQ-4, two of which were formed from detachments of VMAQ-2 and one of which became a fleet replacement training squadron (VMAQT-1) until it was no longer needed — have been deactivated — one each year — over the past three years.

The VMAQ squadrons have deployed their EA-6Bs to numerous bases and aircraft carriers over their service, providing electronic jamming and attack in support of joint forces, including participation in combat operations in Libya, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo and Afghanistan.

The Marine Corps is not fielding a direct replacement for the EA-6B, instead relying on other platforms like the F-35B and the Navy’s electronic attack squadrons.

The Navy retired its last EA-6B squadron in 2015. The service now flies the EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft from aircraft carriers and in expeditionary roles from land bases to support joint forces.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy has awarded a contract to NASSCO for long-lead materials and other support to build the fourth Lewis B. Puller-class expeditionary mobile base ship (T-ESB 6).

Naval Sea Systems Command awarded to NASSCO — a General Dynamics company — a $136.8 million contract “for the procurement of long lead time material, pre-production and engineering support for the Expeditionary Sea Base 6. This action allows the procurement of ship sets of the purchase specifications supporting integrated propulsion, main diesel generator engines, propeller and shafting, integrated bridge electronics, centrifugal pumps, fuel and lube oil purifiers and steering gear components,” the Oct. 16 Defense Department contract announcement said.

The work is expected to be completed by May.

The Lewis B. Puller class T-ESB is a modification of the Montford Point class of expeditionary transfer dock ships, of which two were built. The T-ESBs are configured with a 52,000-square-foot flight deck, fuel and equipment storage, repair spaces, magazines, mission planning spaces and accommodations for up to 250 personnel. The ships are capable of supporting multiple missions including airborne mine countermeasures, counterpiracy operations, maritime security operations, humanitarian-aid and disaster-relief missions and U.S. Marine Corps crisis response. They also support MH-53 and MH-60 helicopters.

Two T-ESBs are in service: USS Lewis B. Puller and USNS Hershel “Woody” Williams. Under construction is T-ESB 5, USNS Miguel Keith.

WASHINGTON — The Navy’s Strategic Systems Program (SSP) office is planning two more test flights to demonstrate conventional prompt strike (CPS) capability, a program official said, to capitalize on the first test conducted a year ago.

“Hypersonics is coming to a theater near you,” Capt. Doug Williams, the SSP’s technical director, said at the third annual Triad conference.

“As part of a program of record within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, we [SSP] have been working a hypersonic glide technology demonstration,” Williams said. “We called it Flight Experiment No. 1. FE-1 flew about a year ago, Oct. 31. We took an old A3 [Polaris] rocket motor built in the late ’80s, made it a stack, and launched it off of Hawaii, flew it a couple thousand miles. It landed at Kwaj [Kwajalein Atoll].

“It was brilliant. The whole time we had telemetry pumping down. We saw everything in a virtual model, real time, and it was one of those things that makes your hair on the back of your neck stand up. And you stand up as you see the body do what the body did and the body land exactly where it was supposed to land. It was awesome,” he said.

Williams said that hypersonics is the No. 1 priority of Michael D. Griffin, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering.

“We’re leaning forward,” Williams said. “We have two more experiments to fly. We are working with the Office of the Secretary of Defense and with ASNRD&A [assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition] staff to understand conventional prompt strike. For the Navy it is going to be indeed a program.”

Williams noted that even with the potential of conventional prompt strike, the primary mission of SSP is to provide a nuclear deterrence capability with the Strategic Weapon System. He cautioned that “if we don’t do that right, no one is going to care about CPS. We are on a path to ensure that we firewall this conventional capability. That, no doubt, will be a heavy lift. We cannot have CPS drain Trident [the Navy’s submarine-launched ballistic missile program].”

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Coast Guard has released a 10-year vision for enabling maritime commerce, which “emphasizes the critical need for a ready, relevant, responsive Coast Guard,” the service said in an Oct. 11 message.

The Coast Guard “Maritime Commerce Strategic Outlook” will guide the service’s efforts in securing the strategically critical maritime environment while enabling its impact on the nation’s economic prosperity.

A message to the service signed by Vice Adm. Daniel B. Abel, deputy commandant for Operations, noted that “America is a maritime nation. It is a nation shaped by seafarers who recognized the tremendous economic potential derived from unrestricted access to the oceans, internal waterways, deep-water ports, and protected straits and bays. Our American prosperity remains inextricably linked to the fate of the maritime environment.

“Our waterways, a wealth of natural resources and marine transportation networks, remain critical to our prosperity, our security and our identity as a nation. Americans have come to expect goods to be shipped safely and efficiently, and the Coast Guard has a vision for how our nation’s waterways can meet the increased demand.”

In the “Maritime Commerce Strategic Outlook”, the Coast Guard outlined three lines of effort (LOEs) that are critical to the success of the strategy.

■ LOE 1, “Facilitating Lawful Trade and Travel on Secure Waterways. The ease of moving people and cargo on America’s waterways is a competitive advantage and wellspring for economic prosperity and national security. The Coast Guard will manage risks to critical infrastructure, ensure efficient delivery of Coast Guard services, support vessel and facility standards, and promote resiliency and unity of effort among Marine Transportation System stakeholders.”

■ LOE 2, “Modernizing Aids to Navigation and Mariner Information Systems. Through technological advancements such as artificial intelligence, mobile and cloud-based computing, and data analytics, the Coast Guard will keep the service in step with emerging trends in the maritime industry. The Coast Guard must modernize information technology networks and applications that enable the Coast Guard to assess, monitor, and manage risk. The service will optimize maritime planning in order to address competing uses and growing demands for commerce, energy, food, resources, and recreation in U.S. waters. The service must also balance traditional navigation systems while building next generation waterway management systems, modernizing inland and coastal aids-to-navigation cutters, and applying emerging technologies. Regulatory frameworks, applications, and standards will be adapted to accurately incorporate the implementation of emerging technologies that will transform maritime operations, such as autonomous systems.”

■ LOE 3, “Transforming Workforce Capacity and Partnerships. The Coast Guard needs to develop an adaptive force that is proficient operating in a highly complex environment amid rapid acceleration of technology. The service needs to strengthen the workforce with the digital competencies to respond to changes in commercial markets and the maritime industry. The Coast Guard will leverage robust auditing capabilities of third-party organizations to improve vessel plans, surveys, and certain required certificates to ensure the highest standards of compliance oversight. It is imperative to transform the workforce and roles of other enabling organizations to have the capability, experience, and expertise to address the broad spectrum of threats to our national interests.”

ARLINGTON, Va.— The Navy has upgraded the TACAMO strategic communications community’s weapons tactics detachment to a full command.

According to an internal Navy directive, the Detachment Weapons Tactics Unit of commander, Strategic Communications Wing One, at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, was disestablished on Oct. 1. In its place, on the same day, TACAMO Weapons School was established with a commanding officer instead of an officer in charge.

TACAMO, an acronym for “Take Charge and Move Out,” is a system of survivable communications designed to maintain communications between the national command authority with the elements of the U.S. strategic deterrent triad: Air Force bombers and intercontinental ballistic missile bases and Navy ballistic-missile submarines.

The Navy’s two operational TACAMO squadrons, Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadrons Three and Four, also based at Tinker, fly 15 Boeing E-6B Mercury aircraft in support of U.S. Strategic Command.

WASHINGTON — The Marine Corps met its recruiting goal in fiscal 2018, said the service’s commandant, Gen. Robert B. Neller, despite a more challenging recruiting environment.

“We’ve made our recruiting goal every year,” Neller told reporters Oc. 10 at a Defense Writers Group breakfast.

The Marine Corps met 100 percent of its goal in 2018, while the Army failed to meet its goal for the first time since 2005.

The improving U.S. economy, with the lowest unemployment rate since 1969, is adding to the stress of military recruiters.

Neller said the Corps achieved its goal without lowering standards.

“If anything, we’ve raised our standards,” he said.

Neller pointed out that today less than 30 percent of the nation’s youth are qualified — physically and otherwise — for military service.

“That should scare you,” he said.

He said that in the Marine Corps, 62 percent of the force — about 120,000 of 186,000 Marines — is 25 years old or less. The average age of Marines is the youngest of the U.S. armed forces.

“We’re getting good folks,” he said.

As a manpower-intensive service, the Marine Corps spends 65 percent of its budget on personnel costs.