GOLDSBORO, N.C. — The Coast Guard continues to coordinate with federal, state and local agencies to respond to flooding from Hurricane Florence in North Carolina, the Coast Guard Hurricane Response Media Operations Centers said in a Sept. 18 release.

The service provided the following update of its activities, which include:
■ The Coast Guard has rescued 426 people and 234 pets since Hurricane Florence began.
■ There are 26 shallow-water response boat teams deployed to North Carolina comprising 116 people.
■ There are 191 Coast Guard members assigned to the North Carolina Incident Command Post in Goldsboro, North Carolina.
■ There are four buoy tenders en route to Wanchese, Oak Island, and Atlantic City Beach to assess waterway and port conditions.

“Search and rescue remains the highest priority in the neighborhoods impacted by Hurricane Florence,” said Capt. Bion Stewart, leader of the Coast Guard’s response to Hurricane Florence in North Carolina. “We are also focusing on reopening the ports and waterways to support relief aid and resume commercial operations vital to North Carolina economy and national interesting, working alongside the North Carolina State Port Authority, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Army Corps of Engineers to open the Cape Fear River and Morehead City waterways with safety-focused restrictions this afternoon.”

NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — The Tactical Airlift Program Office (PMA-207) Commercial Modifications and Range Support (CMARS) Team accepted delivery of its newest commercial-derivative aircraft platform on July 30, Naval Air Systems Command said in a Sept. 6 release.

The Gulfstream G550, with structural modifications, was further modified to house specialized telemetry equipment, unique to the Navy’s application. The G550 is slated to serve as the replacement for one of the aging P-3 range support aircraft operated out of Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in Point Mugu, California. The aircraft’s structural modifications allow room for installation of a telemetry system and additional equipment to support future missions.

During a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Gulfstream executives and PMA-207 leadership, Program Manager Capt. Steven Nassau spoke to the complexity of this acquisition.

“Just getting to this point has been a process,” Nassau said. “The team had to coordinate with AIR-5.0 Test and Evaluation leadership, AIR-2.0 Contracts, AIR-5.2 Ranges and AIR-5.1 test squadrons for mission equipment and airframe expertise, as well as AIR-6.0 Logistics for sustainment to keep this acquisition on schedule. Delivering the aircraft under cost and on schedule is a major milestone for such a complicated project.”

PMA-207 CMARS Integrated Program Team Lead Chris Mullaney said credit should not only be given to those currently working on this project, but to those who have in the past as well.

“One of the original leads for this project was Jaimie Grubb. She, along with her Range Support Aircraft Team, had impressive foresight and solid planning at the beginning of this endeavor that paved the way for the successes we are seeing here today — delivery of a high-quality product on cost and on schedule,” said Mullaney.

From here, the Phase II Integrator, Raytheon, will receive the G550 aircraft as government-furnished property and will develop, procure and integrate systems that will give the aircraft a multirole capability in telemetry data collection, range safety and surveillance and communications relay. This modern, phased-array telemetry system will have the capability to support major programs in complex, robust and dynamic test environments for many years.

The aircraft is projected to be delivered for initial operating capability by August 2021.

INDIANAPOLIS — Rolls-Royce engines have been selected by Boeing to power the U.S. Navy’s new MQ-25 Stingray unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which will provide unmanned, carrier-based air-to-air refueling, Rolls-Royce announced in a Sept. 6 release.

The U.S. Navy has awarded the MQ-25A engineering and manufacturing contract to Boeing to provide four aircraft. The MQ-25 is designed to provide the Navy with a much-needed refueling capability and extend the range of combat aircraft from carriers.

Each MQ-25 aircraft will be powered by a single Rolls-Royce AE 3007N engine, manufactured in Indianapolis. The AE 3007N, the latest variant of the Rolls-Royce AE family of engines, will provide more than 10,000 pounds of thrust and additional electrical power to the aircraft.

“Congratulations to Boeing for being selected to develop this historic aircraft in support of the U.S. Navy,” said Jarrett Jones, Rolls-Royce executive vice president, Customer Business, Government Relations and Sales. “For Rolls-Royce, it will expand our UAV expertise with unmanned aircraft in the U.S. Navy fleet, which includes the Triton and Fire Scout aircraft.”

The proven Rolls-Royce AE family of engines includes turbofan, turboprop and turboshaft variants, and the total AE engine fleet has accumulated more than 74 million engine flight hours. AE engines power aircraft for the US Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, and a variety of military and civilian aircraft in service around the world. Rolls-Royce has delivered nearly 7,000 AE engines from the company’s advanced manufacturing facility in Indianapolis.

The AE 3007H turbofan engine powers the Navy’s Triton and the Air Force Global Hawk, as well as commercial and business aviation aircraft. The AE 2100 turboprop powers the Lockheed Martin C-130J and LM-100J, as well as the C-27J and Saab 2000; and the AE 1107C turboshaft powers the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey operated by the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force. The MT7, a marinized variant of the AE 1107, will power the Navy’s Ship-to-Shore Connector hovercraft.

ARLINTON, Va. — Following a comprehensive review of potential candidates, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. John Richardson selected Fleet Master Chief Russell Smith to be the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) Aug. 29, the Navy’s Office of Information said in a release of the same date.

“After a thorough and deliberate review process, I am confident that Fleet Master Chief Smith is the right leader to be our Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy,” said Richardson. “I look forward to working with him to advocate for our Sailors and their families selflessly serving around the world.”

As the Navy’s 15th MCPON, Smith will serve as the senior-ranking enlisted leader and adviser to the CNO.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Napier repatriated five of 12 migrants to the Dominican Republic Aug. 23 after Caribbean Border Interagency Group law enforcement authorities interdicted a boat just off the coast of Desecheo Island, Puerto Rico, the 7th Coast Guard District said in a release.

Six of the interdicted migrants, five Dominican and one of Mexican nationality, were brought ashore to Puerto Rico where they face potential federal criminal immigration charges for attempted illegal re-entry into the United States. One other Dominican migrant, also brought ashore, is undergoing further immigration processing.

“The coordination and swift response by the Caribbean Border Interagency Group law enforcement authorities involved in this case led to a rapid interdiction and safe removal of all 12 migrants,” said Cmdr. Christopher Douglas, Sector San Juan chief of response. “Migrants should not take to the sea, they not only risk going to jail, but also endanger their lives by entrusting smugglers to bring them across the dangerous waters of the Mona Passage aboard grossly overloaded makeshift boats with little or no lifesaving equipment onboard.”

During a routine patrol in the Mona Passage Aug. 21, the crew of a Customs and Border Protection maritime patrol aircraft detected a 20-foot migrant boat just off Desecheo Island traveling without navigational lights toward the west coast of Puerto Rico. Coast Guard Sector San Juan watchstanders diverted Joseph Napier to interdict the vessel and alerted Puerto Rico Police Joint Forces of Rapid Action of the situation. An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Air Station Borinquen also responded to support the interdiction and provide any needed rescue assistance.

Shortly thereafter, the Puerto Rico Police marine unit came alongside and stopped the migrant vessel as Joseph Napier arrived on scene. The crew of Joseph Napier safely embarked all 12 migrants, 10 men and a woman of Dominican nationality and another man who was a Mexican national.

Once aboard a Coast Guard cutter, all migrants receive food, water, shelter and basic medical attention. Ramey Sector Border Patrol Agents in Puerto Rico took custody of the migrants facing prosecution, while the Joseph Napier transported the remaining migrants to Dominican Republic waters, where they embarked a Dominican Republic Navy patrol boat.

Joseph Napier is 154-foot fast response cutter homeported in San Juan.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced in an Aug. 22 release leadership changes to the submarine construction programs at its Newport News Shipbuilding division.

Jason Ward has been promoted to vice president of Columbia-class submarine construction. Dave Bolcar, who served as vice president of all submarine construction, encompassing both the Virginia- and Columbia-class submarine programs, has assumed the role of vice president of Virginia-class submarine construction.

“These changes reflect the significant growth and opportunities our submarine programs bring to the business,” said Newport News Shipbuilding President Jennifer Boykin. “The Virginia-class program is one of our largest programs, and the Columbia-class program has significantly increased in design, planning, material procurement, cost estimating, facility design and early manufacturing. The increased scope of responsibility for these critical programs now requires full and dedicated leadership attention.”

Ward, who joined Newport News in 2014, previously served as director of Columbia-class submarine construction, where he has responsibility for the design, engineering, program management, planning and construction of the Navy’s next ballistic-missile submarine. He has held several leadership positions, including director of integrated digital shipbuilding and program manager of AP1000 shield building fabrication at Newport News Industrial. Ward earned an MBA from the College of William and Mary and a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

Bolcar joined Newport News in 1988 as an engineer in the Los Angeles-class submarine engineering division. Since then, he has held several positions of increasing responsibility, including director of the Columbia-class program, manager in Ford-class component engineering and Columbia-class propulsion engineering, and director of submarine engineering. Bolcar earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

Both will report to Ken Mahler, Newport News’ vice president of Navy programs.

PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — One year ago, the Navy’s newest aircraft launch and recovery systems successfully conducted historic first sorties aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford . Today, the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) progress through comprehensive test programs, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) said in a July 27 release.

“Data from shipboard testing indicates that both EMALS and AAG have demonstrated improved reliability projections over the solely land-based testing,” said Capt. Steve Tedford, former Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment (PMA 251) program manager.

Reliability is a key performance parameter for any new aircraft system, ensuring operational readiness for the fleet. EMALS and AAG are being put through the rigors to ensure they meet developmental milestones. Single-day shipboard operations show that both systems are capable of meeting operational requirements.

The EMALS and AAG teams, along with industry partner General Atomics, have developed numerous engineering changes to support the systems’ continued maturity and reliability growth, Tedford said.

Program management for both systems is multifaceted, and beyond the complex developmental engineering and test programs, the EMALS and AAG teams have remained focused on several critical support areas. In-depth logistics efforts have been underway to ensure adequate spares planning for the completion of the testing and full life cycle of these critical systems; to create the maintenance requirement cards and tools Sailors will use to operate and maintain the new systems; and to provide those Sailors with interim and permanent training solutions.

To date, Sailors from CVN 78 have been trained on EMALS and AAG. Development of a curriculum and instruction of system-specific courses has been conducted by the General Atomics and Navy team.

“We are extremely pleased to see how well General Atomics’ EMALS and AAG operations and maintenance training program has served CVN 78 Sailors at both our Shipset Controls laboratory in San Diego and at NAVAIR’s land-based test sites,” said Scott Forney, president of General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems Group.

“The dedicated EMALS and AAG teams have excelled in overcoming numerous challenges and will continue charging ahead, completing these concurrent test programs, continually increasing confidence in these technologies and getting both systems mission ready,” said Tedford.

SEATTLE — The Coast Guard Cutter Healy is scheduled to depart July 24 for a four-month deployment to the Arctic Ocean to carry out multiple scientific research missions, the 13th Coast Guard District announced in a release.

Healy will provide presence and access to the Arctic while conducting three major science research missions. In partnership with the National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Office of Naval Research, scientists will conduct physical and biological oceanographic research in the Arctic Ocean.

Healy’s first mission is a NOAA-sponsored mission to increase understanding of biological processes along Alaska’s Continental Shelf. This mission comprises three mission subsets: Distributed Biological Observatory, Northern Chukchi Integrated Study, and the Ecosystems and Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations.

The second mission of Healy’s Arctic deployment is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and is focused on understanding how upper-level ocean stratification and sea ice in the Beaufort Sea is responding to inflow and surface forcing changes. The Stratified Ocean Dynamics of the Arctic project aims to increase understanding by deploying subsurface moorings and specialized on-ice instruments to observe the fluctuations across an annual cycle.

Healy’s final mission is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and will examine the effects of the Pacific water inflow into the Arctic and its associated boundary current on the ecosystem. This study is part of a multiyear endeavor that combines shipboard measurements taken in the spring and fall, with measurements from a subsea mooring deployed in the center of the boundary current.

Currently under the command of Capt. Greg Tlapa, Healy is the nation’s premiere high-latitude research vessel and is one of the only U.S. military surface vessels that deploys to and is capable of operating in the ice-covered waters of the Arctic. In addition to science operations, Healy and the crew are capable of conducting a range of Coast Guard operations such as search and rescue, ship escorts, environmental protection and the enforcement of laws and treaties in the Polar Regions.

Healy provides access and presence throughout the Arctic region to protect U.S. maritime borders and to safeguard the maritime economy. Homeported in Seattle, Healy is the largest ship in the U.S. Coast Guard at 420 feet long with a displacement of over 16,000 tons and a permanent crew of 87.

WASHINGTON — The Navy’s Program Executive Office Unmanned and Small Combatants announced July 16 the successful completion of two littoral combat ship (LCS) Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Mission Package testing milestones.

The first was a 10-day Dockside-1 test event on the Dual-mode Array Transmitter (DART) Mission System Towed Body and associated launch-and-recovery assembly components in Fort Pierce, Florida. The second was a full-power, in-water test of the active array at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Seneca Lake Detachment’s test facility in Dresden, New York.

“The Seneca Lake test was a huge step forward for the DART System and the ASW Mission Package as a whole,” said Capt. Ted Zobel, LCS Mission Module program manager. “This revolutionary technology is critical to countering the rising submarine threats worldwide.”

The array previously was tested at Raytheon’s shallow-water facilities in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. This test on Seneca Lake was the first opportunity for the new technology to be demonstrated in an open-water test environment, which allows better understanding of how the system will perform when deployed on an LCS. The successful completion of this test event provided Navy officials and industry partners valuable information on performance specifications and options for future modifications.

DART development includes incremental testing of the individual system components followed by progressively more inclusive integration and testing until the full ASW Mission Package has been tested.

The Dockside-1 test a week prior to the Seneca Lake event had LCS Sailors overseeing and actively engaging in the operation of the DART Mission System at the Florida Atlantic University Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute’s waterside product integration, assembly and test complex.

Dockside-2 testing, planned for the fall, will expand the scope of DART system integration to add three additional Raytheon mission modules to complete the system. The Navy will take delivery of the DART Mission System from Raytheon later this year and plans to take the system to the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center early next year for additional testing.

WASHINGTON — Naval Reactors, a joint program of the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of the Navy (DON), has selected Fluor Marine Propulsion LLC (FMP) as the new DOE and DON contractor for the Naval Nuclear Laboratory (NNL), Naval Reactors Public Affairs said in July 13 release. FMP, a limited liability company, is a wholly owned, special-purpose subsidiary of Fluor Corp.

Naval Reactors conducted a full and open competition for the new NNL contracts. The estimated combined award value of these contracts is approximately $30 billion over ten years if all options are exercised.

The current DOE and DON contracts for the NNL with Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corp. expire on Sept. 30. An approximate three-month transition period commenced on July 12, which will provide stability for the workforce employed under the Bechtel NNL contracts and ensure essential continuity of operations for vital Naval Reactors work. The contracts awarded to FMP represent the best value to the government and will provide 10 years of stability for the NNL.

The NNL comprises the DOE-owned locations and personnel responsible for developing advanced naval nuclear propulsion technology, providing technical support to ensure the safety and reliability of our nation’s naval nuclear reactors, and training the Sailors who operate those reactors in the U.S. Navy’s submarines and aircraft carriers. The NNL includes the Bettis and Knolls Atomic Power Laboratories, the Kenneth A. Kesselring Site and the Naval Reactors Facility, which have supported the nation since 1946.