SAN DIEGO —
The guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem (DDG 63) arrives at its new homeport,
Naval Base San Diego, July 18, following 14 years of forward-deployed service
in the Indo-Pacific region operating from Japan, the commander, Naval Surface
Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, said in a July 17 release.

As part of
the U.S. 7th Fleet’s Forward Deployed Naval Forces in Japan, Stethem worked
alongside allies and partners to provide security and stability throughout a
free and open Indo-Pacific. Stethem arrived in Yokosuka, Japan, in June of
2005. While serving in 7th Fleet, Stethem conducted a wide range of operations,
exercises and port visits, including disaster relief as well as search-and-rescue
missions. In 2011, the ship supported Operation Tomodachi to provide relief to
Japanese citizens affected by the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami, and this
year, joined Japan-led search operations for a missing Japan Air Self-Defense
Force F-35.

While in San
Diego, Stethem will undergo a planned maintenance and modernization period.
Stethem will be fitted with the latest combat system suite, which includes
state-of-the-art air defense, ballistic-missile defense, surface warfare and
undersea warfare capabilities.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The new commandant of the Marine Corps has made force design as his top
priority as he moves to shape the Marine Corps for the future.

The “Commandant’s Planning Guidance” (CPG), issued by Gen. David H. Berger July 16, lists his five top priority focus areas: force design, warfighting, education and training, core values, and command and leadership.

Berger said
that changes will be based on “where we want the Marine Corps to be in the next
5-15 years. … We cannot afford to retain outdated policies, doctrine,
organizations or force development strategies.”

The CPG
affirms that the Corps is preparing for operations in the event of a high-end
fight.

“The Marine
Corps will be trained and equipped as a naval expeditionary force-in-readiness
and prepared to operate inside actively contested maritime spaces in support of
fleet operations,” the CPG said. “In crisis prevention and crisis response, the
Fleet Marine Force — acting as an extension of the fleet — will be first on the
scene, first to help, first to contain a brewing crisis and first to fight if
required to do so.”

Berger said
the Corps “should take pride in our force and recent operational successes, but
the current force is not organized, trained or equipped to support the naval
force — operating in contested maritime spaces, facilitating sea control or
executing distributed maritime operations. We must change. We must divest of
legacy capabilities that do not meet our future requirements, regardless of
their past operational efficacy.”

He said that
there is “no piece of equipment or major defense acquisition program that
defines us. … Likewise, we are not defined by any particular organizing
construct — the Marine Air-Ground Task Force cannot be our only solution for
all crises. Instead, we are defined by our collective character as Marines and
by fulfilling our service roles and functions prescribed by Congress.”

Berger said
he has “already initiated, and am personally leading, a future force design
effort. Going forward, CD&I [Capabilities Development and Integration] will be the only organization authorized to publish force
development guidance on my behalf. We will divest of legacy defense programs
and force structure that support legacy capabilities. If provided the
opportunity to secure additional modernization dollars in exchange for force
structure, I am prepared to do so.”

The
commandant emphasized the need to improve integration with the Navy. He pointed
out that the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act removed the preponderance of the FMF
[Fleet Marine Force] from fleet operational control and disrupted the
long-standing Navy-Marine Corps relationship by creating separate Navy and Marine
Corps components within joint forces. Furthermore, Navy and Marine Corps
officers developed a tendency to view their operational responsibilities as
separate and distinct, rather than intertwined. With the rise of both land- and
sea-based threats to the global commons, there is a need to reestablish a more
integrated approach to operations in the maritime domain. Reinvigorating the
FMF can be accomplished by assigning more Marine Corps forces to the fleet;
putting Marine Corps experts in the fleet Maritime Operations Centers; and also
by shifting emphasis in our training, education and supporting establishment
activities.”

He said that the
Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) will remain the Corps’ principal warfighting
organization but that the three MEFs need not be identical.

“III MEF will
become our main focus-of-effort, designed to provide U.S. Indo-Pacific Command
(U.S. INDOPACOM) and the commander, 7th Fleet with a fight-tonight, standing
force capability to persist inside an adversary’s weapon systems threat range,
create a mutually contested space and facilitate the larger naval campaign,”
the CPG said. “When modernized in a manner consistent with the vision above,
III MEF will be a credible deterrent to adversary aggression in the Pacific.”

“I MEF will
also be focused on supporting the commander, USINDOPACOM and the commander, 3rd
Fleet,” Berger said. “I MEF will continue to provide forces to USINDOPACOM to
build partner capacity and reinforce deterrence efforts and must be prepared to
impose costs on a potential adversary, globally. We will increasingly accept
risk with I MEF’s habitual relationship with CENTCOM [U.S. Central Command];
however, 7th Marines is at present purpose-built to support CENTCOM
requirements; thus, I MEF will continue to support CENTCOM requirements within
the capacity of 7th Marines.

“II MEF will
undergo substantial changes to better align with the needs of commanders of 2nd
and 6th Fleets,” he said. “During a major contingency operation or sustained
campaign ashore, necessary combat power will be provided to the committed MEF
through global sourcing by the total force.

Berger said
the Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) is “no longer has the same relevance as it
once had to the fleet; however, this will change. We will consider employment
models of the Amphibious Ready Group (ARG)/MEU other than the traditional
three-ship model. We will accept and prepare for fleet commander employment of
LHA/Ds [amphibious assault ships] as part of three-ship ESGs [Expeditionary
Strike Groups] as desired. I see potential in the “Lightning Carrier” concept,
based on an LHA / LHD; however, do not support a new-build CVL [light aircraft
carrier]. Partnering a big-deck amphib with surface combatants is the right
warfighting capability for many of the challenges confronting the joint force,
and provides substantial naval and Joint operational flexibility, lethality and
survivability.”

The U.S. Navy’s new surface warfare director said the sea service
is still working on what it wants in a proposed large surface combatant and also
what to do with the large unmanned surface vessels that the Navy plans to buy —
or even if they would be fully unmanned.

For the large surface combatant (LSC), “it’s a question of
how much speed do you need? How much can you afford? How much are you willing
to pay for it,” Rear Adm. Gene Black said July 17.

“The things I know, I need a big sensor. I need big
computing power, and I want a big [weapons] magazine. Beyond that, I don’t
know. It’s going to be a fantastically capable ship. … It’s going to be an
expensive ship. We want to make sure we’re coming in with the capability we
need.”

During a Surface Navy Association lunch, Black spoke at
length about his previous job as commander of the Harry S. Truman carrier
strike group, which made an historic voyage north of the Arctic Circle to
support the large NATO exercise Operation Trident Juncture, which included
driving the task force into a Norwegian fjord.

Asked what he thought about the five large unmanned surface vehicles the Navy asked for in the fiscal 2020 defense budget, Black said: “If I had had an USV at my disposal, I would have pushed it out ahead of me, certainly when I was in the high north. It would give me sensors, eyes and connectivity way out in front of the strike group, and awareness of what was going on, so I can decide if I want to go in another direction or do something completely different.”

“We’re just now exploring that space,” he said, noting the
recent establishment of a surface development squadron in California that will explore
possible use of unmanned surface vessels.

“Candidly, we’re going to get some of those things, going to
buy them,” and Black predicted “the young guys and gals in this room” would
find ways to employ them that older officers like himself could not contemplate.

“Certainly not in the next couple years are we going to turn
an unmanned vehicle loose from the West Coast and send it on a mission. There’s
a lot of learning that has to go on. And we have to come to terms if they’ll be
manned, unmanned or optionally manned. We’re working our way through all that,
and we don’t have the answers to all that.”

Asked about the new frigate program, for which a contract is
expected to be awarded soon, Black said only that “the program is going great.”

Black talked at length about the Truman deployment, which
was notable not only for operating in horrendous weather conditions north of
the Arctic Circle but also for its split deployment — in which it operated in
the Mediterranean Sea, returned to Norfolk, and then deployed again.

“The capabilities we’re bringing to sea these days [are] spectacular.
I can’t say much about it other than the investments we’ve made, the
investments we put into surface warfare strike” have produced a “return on
investments, probably 10 times over.”

WASHINGTON
— The Navy has issued its Request for Proposals (RFP) to the defense industry
for the Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MUSV), a vessel planned to be part of
its Future Fleet concept.

The RFP, posted
on the FedBizOps.gov website July 16 by Naval Sea Systems
Command, calls for proposals for the MUSV, which “will be a pier-launched,
self-deploying modular, open architecture, surface vessel capable of autonomous
safe navigation and mission execution.”

The Navy
is expected to field the MUSV along with a Large USV as adjuncts to its Future
Surface fleet that will include the Future Surface Combatant and the new FFG(X)
guided-missile frigate as well as Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers
and the Independence- and Freedom-class littoral combat ships.

The Navy is experimenting
with the San Diego-bases Sea Hunter medium-displacement trimaran USV, built by
Leidos, testing its autonomous navigation capabilities and its effectiveness
with various sensor and other mission systems. A second Sea Hunter is being
built by Leidos for the Navy.

SAN DIEGO
— The U.S. Navy has approved the commissioning date for the future USS
Indianapolis (LCS 17), the commander of Naval Surface Forces announced July 17.

The littoral
combat ship will be commissioned Oct. 26 in Burns Harbor, Indiana. The
commissioning ceremony signifies the acceptance for service and the entrance of
a ship into the active fleet of the U.S. Navy.

Burns
Harbor is on the shores of Lake Michigan in northwest Indiana and is 160 miles
north of Indianapolis.

Jill
Donnelly, the wife of former Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly, is the ship’s sponsor.
As the sponsor, Donnelly leads the time-honored Navy tradition of giving the
order during the ceremony to “man our ship and bring her to life!” At that
moment, the commissioning pennant is hoisted and Indianapolis becomes a ship of
the fleet.

Cmdr.
Colin Kane, a Columbus, Ohio, native, is the ship’s commanding officer.

“The
future USS Indianapolis honors more than a city; it pays tribute to the legacy
of those who served during the final days of World War II on board USS
Indianapolis,” Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer said at the ship’s
christening ceremony. “This ship will continue the proud legacy of service
embodied in the name Indianapolis and is a testament to the true partnership
between the Navy and industry.”

LCS 17 is
the fourth ship to carry the name of Indiana’s capital city. The first
Indianapolis was a steamer built for the U.S. Shipping Board (USSB) and
commissioned directly into the Navy in 1918. After two runs to Europe, the ship
was returned to the USSB following World War I.

The saga
of the second Indianapolis (CA 35), a cruiser, and its crew is well documented
by the Naval History and Heritage Command. The loss of the ship was a tragic
moment following the completion of a secret mission that directly contributed
to the end of World War II.

After a
successful high-speed run to deliver atomic bomb components to Tinian, the
decorated Portland-class cruiser continued to Guam. Indianapolis was en route
from Guam to Leyte when she was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine
I-58 on July 30, 1945. The ship’s wreckage was located on Aug. 19, 2017.
Survivors of the cruiser met with the crew of the future Indianapolis earlier
this year to screen a documentary about the discovery of the lost ship.

The most
recent Indianapolis was a Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine, which was
commissioned Jan. 5, 1980, and served through the end of the Cold War before
being decommissioned in 1998.

The future Indianapolis
will be homeported in Naval Station Mayport, Florida, upon her commissioning.

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s nominee for secretary
of defense said he supports modernization of the nation’s strategic nuclear
deterrent.

“Clearly, modernization of the [strategic nuclear] triad is top priority,” Mark T. Esper said June 16 during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, listing his top modernization priorities.

Nuclear deterrence “has kept the peace
with regard to deterring nuclear war for 70 years now,” Esper said during his
testimony. “The important part is to ensure that we have a modern, effective,
credible, safe and reliable deterrent.”

Each leg of the triad [bombers,
intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles]
“provides certain capabilities to complement one another,” he added. “Continuing
to modernize that triad is important our safety and security.”

Esper said that each leg is in a
different status.

“We need to certainly modernize the GBSD [Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent],” he said. “Obviously, we have plans to recapitalize
the Ohio-class [ballistic-missile] submarines, and there is a program underway to [recapitalize] our long-range stealth bombers.”

recapitalize

Esper said that two parts of deterrence
are “having a capability and the will to use it.”

He stressed that the strategic
deterrent force needed to be cyber-protected.

There was no daylight between the
priorities between Esper and the nominee for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, Army Gen. Mark Milley.

Milley, testifying June 11 in his confirmation
hearing before the same committee, listed the nation’s strategic nuclear
deterrent as his top modernization priority, the others being space
capabilities, artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons.

He supports modernization of all three legs of the
U.S. strategic deterrent triad.

“The triad has worked,” Milley said. “There are many
reasons why there hasn’t been a great power war since 1945. Clearly one of them
is nuclear deterrence and part of that is the capability of the triad. Each leg
of the triad gives you different capability.”

“I think we need to develop the domain
of space as a warfighting domain,” Esper said. “We need to improve our
capabilities and policies with regard to cyberspace. And then of course there
is a wide range of conventional capabilities we need to improve.”

Space
is no longer “a place from which we support combat operations,” he said. “It is
now a warfighting domain. Not because we made it that way, but because the
Russians and Chinese are making it that way. To make sure we are sufficiently
robust in the space warfighting domain is to have unity of command and unity of
effort.”

WASHINGTON
— Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer has become acting defense secretary, as the
Senate has received the packet nominating Mark T. Esper to be the confirmed
secretary of defense.

Eric
Chewning, the chief of staff to the defense secretary, said the transition from
Esper to Spencer went smoothly. “There is only one secretary of defense,
and that person is fully capable of defending the country and protecting the
homeland,” Chewning said.

Esper was
named acting defense secretary when Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick M.
Shanahan stepped down from the position last month. President Trump nominated
Esper for the position — a move that requires Senate confirmation. By law,
Esper cannot continue to serve as acting secretary while he is under
consideration for the permanent job. He reverts to his position as secretary of
the Army.

The principals
involved in this program met to discuss how the transition would happen. This
included Esper, Spencer, David L. Norquist, the undersecretary of defense who
continues to perform the duties of the deputy defense secretary, Marine Corps Gen.
Joe Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Chewning.

When
Spencer became acting secretary, he assumed the full authority and
responsibility of the secretary of defense.

To ensure
continuity, the team supporting the Office of the Secretary of Defense remains
in place.

“We’ve
been working closely with Senate leadership and the Senate Armed Services
Committee, and we thank them for their efforts and commitments to swiftly
consider top DoD leadership,” Chewning said.

DoD does
not assume Esper’s confirmation, and Chewning was quick to point out that it is
the Senate’s prerogative to take as long as it believes is necessary to examine
and confirm the nominee. “Secretary Spencer is prepared to remain in the
role until there is a Senate-confirmed secretary of defense,” he said.

If Esper is confirmed by
the Senate, then Norquist will be formally nominated to be the deputy defense
secretary. In deference to the Senate, he will step out of his role of
performing the duties of the deputy secretary of defense while that nomination
is pending. If this happens, Spencer will then perform the duties of the deputy
secretary.

ARLINGTON,
Va. — The U.S. State Department has approved the possible sale of MH-60R
helicopters to the Hellenic navy at the request of the Greek government, the
Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a July 12 release. The sale,
if ultimately approved, would be made through the Foreign Military Sales
program and could total $600 million.

“The government
of Greece has requested to buy up to seven MH-60Rs Multi-Mission Helicopters,”
the release said.

The sale also
would include aircraft systems and spares, including T700 GE-401 C Engines; APS-l
53(V) radars; Airborne Low Frequency Sonar systems; AAS-44C(V) Multi-Spectral
Targeting Systems; and Embedded Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation
Systems with Selective Availability/Anti-Spoofing Module.

Also included
in the possible sale are ARC-210 APX-1990A(C) radios; AVS-9 Night Vision
Devices; and APX-123 Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) transponders.

The deal also
would include “spare engine containers; facilities study, design, and
construction; spare and repair parts; support and test equipment; communication
equipment; ferry support; publications and technical documentation; personnel
training and training equipment; U.S. government and contractor engineering,
technical and logistics support services; and other related elements of
logistical and program support,” the release said.

Along with
the helicopters, the sale would include 1,000 SSQ-36/53/62 sonobuoys; two
AGM-114 M36-E9 Captive Air Training Missiles; four AGM-114Q Hellfire Training
Missiles; 100 Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System (APKWS) rockets; 30 Mk54
Torpedoes; 12 M-240 crew-served guns; and 12 GAU-21 crew-served guns. 

“This
proposed sale will support U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives
by helping to improve the security of a NATO ally, which is an important
partner for political stability and economic progress in Europe,” the release
said. “The MH-60R helicopters will bolster the Hellenic navy’s ability to support
NATO and remain interoperable with the U.S. and the NATO alliance.”

In addition to the U.S.
Navy, the MH-60R, built by Lockheed Martin, is operated by the Royal Australian
Navy, the Royal Danish Navy and the Royal Saudi Naval Forces. In April, the
State Department approved the possible sale of 24 MH-60Rs to the Indian navy.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The Coast Guard
Cutter Richard Dixon (WPC-1113) repatriated 14 Dominican migrants to a
Dominican navy patrol vessel Saturday near Samaná, Dominican Republic,
following the interdiction of an illegal migrant voyage June 11 off the coast
of Añasco, Puerto Rico. 

Two
other Dominican men traveling in the group remain in federal custody facing
possible prosecution by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto
Rico on potential charges of attempted illegal re-entry into a U.S. territory.

The
interdiction is the result of ongoing efforts in support of Operation Unified
Resolve, Operation Caribbean Guard and the Caribbean Border Interagency Group
(CBIG). Since October 2018, the Coast Guard and CBIG partner federal and state
agencies have interdicted over 1,550 migrants at sea near Puerto Rico.

Coast
Guard Sector San Juan Command Center watchstanders were contacted on the
morning of June 11 by Puerto Rico Police, who notified that a Joint Forces of
Rapid Action (FURA) marine unit had just interdicted a 20-foot migrant boat
half a mile off the coast of Añasco.

Coast
Guard watchstanders diverted the Coast Guard Cutter Heriberto Hernandez
(WPC-1114) to the scene. Once there, Heriberto Hernandez crew members
safely embarked all 14 men and two women from the makeshift vessel.

“We
commend our Puerto Rico Police partners who prevented this illegal voyage from
making landfall as well as their close collaboration with the Hernandez crew in
safely removing all the migrants from a dangerous situation,” said Lt. Andrew
Russo, commanding officer of Heriberto Hernandez. “These illegal migrant
voyages are very dangerous, often aboard unsafe and unseaworthy vessels, which
present a life-threatening situation to everyone aboard.” 

Once
aboard a Coast Guard cutter, all migrants receive food, water, shelter and
basic medical attention.

The
cutter Heriberto Hernandez later transferred the migrants to the cutter Richard
Dixon for their repatriation to the Dominican Republic. The two migrants facing
prosecution are in custody of Ramey Sector Border Patrol agents in Puerto Rico.

The
Heriberto Hernandez and Richard Dixon are 154-foot fast-response cutters
homeported in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

SAN DIEGO
— Vice President Mike Pence attended a U.S. Coast Guard drug offload July 11 in
San Diego, the Coast Guard Pacific Area said in a release.

The crew of
the Coast Guard Cutter Munro offloaded more than 39,000 pounds of cocaine and
933 pounds of marijuana worth a combined $569 million, which was seized in
international waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The drugs
represent 14 separate suspected drug smuggling vessel interdictions and
disruptions off the coasts of Mexico and Central and South America by three
Coast Guard cutters between May and July. This was the Munro’s first deployment
to the region.

Pence,
James W. Carroll, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, DEA
acting administrator Uttam Dhillon, and Vice Adm. Linda Fagan, commander of
Coast Guard Pacific Area, spent time aboard Munro and talked to the crew and
media.

“Let me
commend you especially for your new deployment to the Eastern Pacific
corridor,” Pence said. “Even though this is a new area of deployment for this
cutter, you’ve already proven yourselves more than up to the task … 14
operations went into this offload, and one of them was of a self-propelled,
semi-submersible vessel (SPPS), which resulted in the largest Coast Guard
removal in four years. The Coast Guard is seizing illegal drugs at a faster
rate than ever before. And you all have been at the tip of the spear, making
that happen.”

Munro
interdicted the SPPS on June 18, in international waters west of South America.
It was carrying more than 17,000 pounds of cocaine. In fiscal year 2019 to date,
the U.S. Coast Guard has interdicted more than 143 metric tons of cocaine,
worth more than $4.2 billion.

These
drugs are smuggled by international cartels, said Fagan, whose actions “which
left unchecked, fuels violence and instability that corrodes our hemisphere’s
social and economic fabric, and directly contributes to historically high
drug-related deaths in neighborhoods across North America.”

While the
Munro, a national security cutter, was commissioned in 2017, 70% of the Coast
Guard’s offshore presence is the service’s aging fleet of medium-endurance
cutters, many of which are more than 50 years old.

“Our Coast
Guard deserves better,” Pence said. “And that’s why we are committed to fully
funding our Coast Guard, including replacing old ships with new ones, just like
the Cutter Munro.”