ADELAIDE,
Australia — Flinders University has partnered with the Naval Shipbuilding
College, which is also in Adelaide, to ensure graduates are ready to seize
future cutting-edge jobs in the National Naval Shipbuilding Enterprise, the
Lead, a south Australian newspaper, said in an Aug. 1 article.

This week
the University of Adelaide announced that its rejuvenated master’s of marine engineering
program had grown in popularity more than five-fold since 2015, thanks in part
to a partnership with Australian submarine company ASC.

Flinders
University is the first Australian university to be endorsed for delivering a
course aligned with the future employment needs of the naval shipbuilding
industry. Its bachelor’s of engineering (mechanical) (honours) has been
endorsed by the Naval Shipbuilding College with five other engineering programs
expected to follow.

The
Australian government is investing $90 billion into the continuous shipbuilding
program, which is expected to create 5,200 shipbuilding jobs within 10 years,
to build Australia’s new fleet of 12 offshore patrol vessels, nine Hunter-class
anti-submarine frigates, 12 submarines and 21 Pacific patrol boats.

Based in
Osborne, South Australia, the Naval Shipbuilding College is a hub that links prospective
workers with suitable and accredited training at universities, TAFEs and
training institutions in all states and territories.

It is
operated by the Naval Shipbuilding Institute, an Australian joint venture
between Kellogg Brown & Root and America’s largest military shipbuilding
company Huntington Ingalls Industries.

A TAFE SA
welding course became the first training program endorsed by the college last September,
but the Flinders program is the first university course to be approved. Five
courses at Tasmania’s Australian Maritime College were also endorsed the last
week of July, a few days after the Flinders University announcement.

Flinders
Learning and Teaching Innovation Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah West
said the university was committed to the partnership with the Naval
Shipbuilding College, which would provide high-quality education pathways into
shipbuilding careers for students.

“The
endorsement of our degrees will ensure our graduates are well positioned for
the large number of job opportunities that are being created as a result of the
growth in the shipbuilding industry,” she said.

Naval
Shipbuilding College sits alongside the Osborne Naval Shipyard near Port
Adelaide. The shipyard has been at the heart of Australia’s defence shipbuilding
program since the late 1980s and has delivered six Collins-class submarines and
three Hobart-class air warfare destroyers. It is also expected to play a key
ongoing role in the $90 billion continuous build program.

The
University of Adelaide’s rejuvenated master’s of marine engineering program is
backed by the expertise and resources of ASC.

This year
49 students are undertaking master’s degrees by course work in submarine design
(naval architecture and maritime engineering), sustainment, supply chain,
project management and related subjects, within the University’s School of
Mechanical Engineering.

The
program, offered every two years, has grown from 27 students in 2017 and nine
students in 2015. It is among only a few postgraduate courses available in
Australia in marine engineering and is the only one in submarine design.

The
students are drawn from industry, defense and recent graduates as well as
French exchange students from the prestigious French Grande Ecole d’Ingénieurs
ENSTA Bretagne, which last year signed a collaboration agreement with the
University of Adelaide.

In the
program each student completes an individual project developing a submarine
concept design using professional tools. Enrolled students are being offered
free membership with the prestigious Royal Institution of Naval Architects and
the best projects are presented to the Submarine Institute of Australia
Technical Conference, SubsTec.

Newly
appointed course director Associate Professor Eric Fusil said the ramp-up in
enrolments for the course reflected the place Adelaide will occupy at the center
of submarine and major warship design and construction in coming decades.

“We are at
the start of a historical and challenging build-up in the submarine sector in
Australia,” said Associate Professor Fusil, a former submarine designer with
both Naval Group of France and ASC in Adelaide.

“The
students are drawing on an incredible wealth of real-life experience in terms
of submarine engineering at ASC — Australia’s only established submarine
company.”

Naval
Shipbuilding College program director Bill Docalovich said the unprecedented
upgrade of the Royal Australian Navy’s fleet was taking a national approach.

“Through
collaboration with education and training providers in every state and
territory we are strengthening student pathways into rewarding, long-term,
sustainable shipbuilding careers,” he said.

“It
demonstrates our commitment to ensuring our students are skilled and capable of
meeting the changing needs of the workforce and future industries in
Australia.”

The
Australian government established the Naval Shipbuilding College in 2018 to
help secure a sovereign workforce to implement its $90 billion continuous naval
shipbuilding program.

A national naval
shipbuilding workforce register has been established for students and workers
interested in working on some of the world’s most technologically advanced
projects.

PHILADELPHIA
— Boeing, the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy celebrated the
transformation of a 350,000-square-foot facility outside Philadelphia into a
modern factory where company employees will build fuselages for the V-22 tilt-rotor
aircraft and modernize the MV-22 fleet for the Marines.

“Boeing’s
$115 million investment supports U.S. and international demand for the
unrivaled capabilities of the V-22,” said David Koopersmith, vice president and
general manager of Boeing Vertical Lift. “We started this project two years ago
in a mothballed building. Now, it is a state-of-the-art manufacturing center
for the only in-service tilt-rotor aircraft in the world.”

The new
factory will improve safety and productivity, lower operating costs and reduce
Boeing’s environmental impact. It will be home to the Common Configuration-Readiness
and Modernization (CC-RAM) program that standardizes the Marine Corps Osprey
fleet by upgrading previously built aircraft to the new Block C configuration.
The factory will also house fuselage production for Navy, Air Force, Marines,
and international Osprey customers.

“The V-22
readiness program is our No. 1 priority,” said Marine Corps Col. Matthew Kelly,
the V-22 joint program manager. “The CC-RAM program is key in meeting our
readiness goals and returning capable and reliable aircraft to Marine units
around the world.”

Boeing employs about 4,600 people
in Pennsylvania and supports 16,000 direct and indirect jobs in the
commonwealth.

MIAMI — The U.S.
Coast Guard interdicted the 37-foot pleasure craft, Bada Bing, with three
Brazilian migrants, one Jamaican migrant and two suspected smugglers on July 30
about 30 miles east of Hollywood, Florida, the Coast Guard 7th District said in
a release.

The Coast
Guard Cutter Paul Clark (WPC-1101) crew located the pleasure craft with six
people aboard during a patrol and safely embarked two Brazilian adult males,
one Brazilian adult female, one Jamaican adult male and two potential
smugglers.

All six
people were transferred to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“People should never
trust these criminal organizations with their lives,” said Petty Officer
1st Class Nicolas Rodriguez, Coast Guard 7th District operations branch.
“Attempting to smuggle yourself into the country via the maritime
environment is both extremely dangerous and illegal. With the consistent danger
these smuggling ventures present, our crews and partner agencies remain
persistently vigilant to protect lives and enforce federal laws.”

PACIFIC
OCEAN — The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Michael Murphy aided
the U.S. Coast Guard in the interdiction of a drug-smuggling craft, the U.S.
4th Fleet said in a release.

While
conducting routine operations in the U.S. 4th Fleet area of operations, an
MH-60R Sea Hawk, assigned to the “Easyriders” of Helicopter Maritime
Strike Squadron 37, embarked aboard the Michael Murphy, sighted a low-profile
vessel on July 25.

As the
helicopter approached the craft, a hatch opened on the top of the vessel and
three passengers were seen jettisoning objects from the boat. Assisted by
vectoring from helicopter, Michael Murphy’s interceptor boat collected the
jettisoned items and approached alongside the low-profile vessel.

Michael
Murphy was able to communicate with the vessel, informing them to remain in sight,
and remained alongside the suspicious vessel until Coast Guard Cutter Midgett arrived.

The Coast Guard boarding team determined the jettisoned material was cocaine. About 2,100 pounds of the drug — some that was jettisoned and retrieved by Michael Murphy’s crew and some found aboard by the Coast Guard — was seized. The Coast Guard took the three suspected smugglers into custody.

“From our air detachment and interceptor boat team to the men and women aboard the ship, everything came together to conduct the identification, interception and approach,” said Cmdr. Christopher Forch, commanding officer aboard USS Michael Murphy. “The handoff to USCGC Midgett was smooth and successful — a true team effort by two agencies.”

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy will commission its newest Freedom-variant littoral combat ship, the future USS Billings (LCS 15), during an Aug. 3 ceremony in Key West, Florida, the Navy’s information office said in a release.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, ranking member of
the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, will deliver the commissioning
ceremony’s principal address. Tester’s wife, Sharla, is the ship’s sponsor. The
ceremony will be highlighted by a time-honored Navy tradition when she gives
the first order to “man our ship and bring her to life!”

“The future USS Billings and her crew
will play an important role in the defense of our nation and maritime freedom,”
said Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer, who is also performing the duties of deputy
secretary of defense. “She stands as proof of what teamwork — from civilian to
contractor to military — can accomplish. This fast, agile platform will deliver
her motto, ‘Big Sky Over Troubled Waters’ worldwide thanks to their efforts.”

The ship is named in honor of Billings,
the largest city in Montana, as well as the people and military veterans of the
state. The future USS Billings will be the first ship of its name in naval
service.

Montana has a heritage of naval
service, with 30 ships named over the years in honor of state places and
people, including the Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Helena (SSN
725) and the Virginia-class fast attack submarine USS Montana (SSN 794), which
is under construction. The state of Montana also has one of the highest per
capita populations of veterans, according to the U.S. Veterans Administration.

The future USS Billings is a platform
designed for operation in near-shore environments yet capable of open-ocean
operation. It is designed to defeat asymmetric “anti-access” threats
such as mines, quiet diesel submarines and fast surface craft. The ship will be
homeported in Mayport, Florida.

The LCS class consists of two variants, the Freedom variant and the Independence variant, designed and built by two industry teams. The Freedom-variant team is led by Lockheed Martin of Marinette, Wisconsin (the odd-numbered hulls) while the Independence-variant team is led by Austal USA of Mobile, Alabama (for LCS 6 and the subsequent even-numbered hulls).

The ceremony, using hashtag #USSBillings, can be viewed here on the Navy live blog starting at 10 a.m. on Aug. 3.

WASHINGTON —
The nominee for the next chief of naval operations said the U.S. Navy is
ultimately to blame for the ongoing problems with the weapons elevators on the
aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford.

“Ultimately,
sir, that’s a Navy responsibility,” Vice Adm. Michael M. Gilday said,
testifying July 31 at his confirmation before the Senate Armed Services Committee
in response to a question from Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), about which entity made
the decision not to test the weapons elevator ashore.

“We own the
risk and the risk-mitigation strategy to keep that ship on time. So ultimately
I would consider that a failure of the Navy.”

“Of the 23
new technologies that we introduced to Ford, [the staff of the secretary of the
Navy] did not consider the [weapons] elevator system to be high-risk, and so it
wasn’t prototyped ashore,” Gilday said.

“I think
money was a factor … but I don’t think it was the overriding factor,” he added.
“I think that as the engineers took a look at the existing design, that they
saw the risk as lower, they saw the risk as acceptable.”

Gilday said
that three of the major new systems introduced on the new carrier — the
Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), the Advanced Arresting Gear and
the Dual-Band Radar — are demonstrating “significant improvements in the reliability
of the systems” and that the remining major issue with the ship’s systems is
the continuing problem with the weapons elevators.

He said the
reliability of the Dual-Band Radar is now close to 99 percent.

Regarding the
EMALS, “We’ve had almost 800 launches, and for [each of] three successive days,
it’s right at the level we see in the existing Nimitz class,” Gilday said. “We
think we are on a good path with respect to the reliability in sortie-generation
rate.”

However, Senate Armed Services Chairman Sen. James Inhofe (R-Neb.) cited a report from the Operational Test and Evaluation Force saying that about every 75 launch cycles there was a critical failure, noting that the Navy’s own requirement on the EMALS is for a failure of once for every 4,000 launches and for the AAG of once every 10,000 recoveries.

“I want to make sure that we [do not] continue to operate where we have the failures, the premature deployment [of immature systems],” Inhofe said. “I want to make sure that the record is going to reflect beyond just the elevator, and those problems having to do with the arresting gear, having to do with the catapult, and the radar.”

WASHINGTON —
The newest nominee for chief of naval operations listed his top three
technology priorities to the Senate Armed Services Committee during his July 31
confirmation hearing, with artificial intelligence coming in as No. 1.

“On the top
of the list I would put artificial intelligence,” Vice Adm. Michael M. Gilday said
in response to a question from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).

MORE FROM THE CNO NOMINEE: Gilday says weapons elevator problems aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford are a “Navy failure.”

“I think that
that there are capabilities resident in industry that we can harness to our
advantage. What I am particularly interested in is how we use data in a more
innovative way to give us a quicker flash to bang, from decision-making to
action. There is a lot of information at our fingertips every single day; it’s
getting the right information to the right people at the right time so you can
make the right decisions faster than your opponent.”

“I think
there is great promise there,” Gilday added. “We are doing some experimenting
now that I’m very excited about.”

Gilday said
that hypersonics — his second technology priority — “is a must that we have to
get after quickly. Industry is our best partner as we work through this.”

His third
technology priority is unmanned systems.

“That is the future,” he said. “We have to look more deeply at how we would operate with unmanned vessels, whether they are on the sea, or under the sea, or in the air.”

Gilday said he “would take a look at wargaming, concept development and with experimentation. We’ve almost doubled the number of exercises we’re doing in the next year from 97 to 171. We’re going to look at these new technologies. If they’re going to fail, they can fail fast. If it’s something we want to invest in, then we put heat on it and field it quickly.”

ASTORIA, Ore.
— The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Steadfast (WMEC-632) returned home July 30
following a 56-day counternarcotic patrol to the eastern Pacific Ocean, the
Coast Guard Pacific Area said in a release.

The crew
interdicted five suspected smuggling vessels, including three pangas, a fishing
vessel and a sailboat, and the crew recovered floating bales of contraband
yielding more than 23,000 pounds of cocaine.

The Steadfast
crew offloaded more than 26,000 pounds of seized cocaine in San Diego on July
26, which was a result of the cutter’s five interdictions, bale recovery and an
interdiction case by the Coast Guard Cutter Robert Ward (WPC-1130).

The cocaine,
worth an estimated $350 million, was seized by the crews while the cutters were
patrolling international waters off the coasts of Mexico and Central and South
America from late June to mid-July.

“This was
26,000 pounds of cocaine that will not make it to the main streets of the USA,
and it also gives us the opportunity to make sure we can continue to combat
transnational criminal organizations who transport this cocaine deep in the
Pacific every single day,” said Rear Adm. Peter Gautier, the 11th Coast Guard
District’s commander. “Because we know that with a supply chain of illegal
narcotics, at every single step there’s violence, instability and despair.”

Steadfast’s
seizure of more than 23,000 pounds of cocaine marks the largest amount of
cocaine seized by crews aboard a 210-foot Reliance-class medium-endurance
cutter during a single counternarcotic deployment in Coast Guard history.

Many of the
medium-endurance cutters in service today are more than 50 years old. The Coast
Guard’s medium-endurance cutters represent 70% of the service’s counter-drug
interdiction fleet. These cutters are approaching the end of their service life.
Replacing this aging fleet with the offshore patrol cutter is one of the Coast
Guard’s top priorities. Even though medium-endurance cutters are still highly
effective, as shown by the narcotics interdictions, the ships can be difficult
and expensive to maintain and operate.

As these
cartels become more advanced in their methods at sea, the Coast Guard is
recapitalizing the fleet with modern assets equipped to detect, interdict and
disrupt the growing flow of illegal drugs, weapons and people in the eastern
Pacific.

The offshore patrol cutter will provide a critical capability bridge between national security cutters like the Coast Guard Cutter Munro (WMSL-755), which offloaded 39,000 pounds of cocaine earlier this month, and fast response cutters like the Robert Ward, which seized more than 3,000 pounds of the cocaine offloaded July 26. The Robert Ward’s interdiction was the first cocaine seizure made by a fast response cutter in the Eastern Pacific.

“There are few closer relationships than those among the members of a ship’s crew performing a dangerous, important mission,” said Cmdr. Dan Ursino, the Steadfast’s commanding officer. “Steadfast’s crew has worked as a remarkable, dedicated team with a strong common goal — protecting their nation from the deadly, destructive effects of illegal drugs.”

WASHINGTON
— The State Department has approved a possible Foreign Military Sale (FMS) to
Egypt of technical support for various Egyptian navy ships for an estimated
cost of $554 million, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a release.

Egypt’s government
has requested a possible sale of technical support that provides for material
and labor services in support of Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates (FFG 7
class ships), fast missile craft, mine hunter coastal ships, coastal mine hunter
ships and 25-meter and 28-meter fast patrol craft.

Egypt
intends to use this technical maintenance and service support to ensure that its
navy is operationally capable of providing coastal defense and security. The
proposed sale will increase the Egyptian navy’s material and operational
readiness.

The prime contractor for engineering
services support will be VSE Corp., and U.S. Government activities will provide
the technical support to Egypt. 

ARLINGTON,
Va. — Falconwood Inc. recently won a contract from the U.S Navy to support the
commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command’s Fleet Enterprise Support Team (FEST),
the company announced in a release.

The FEST
performs all analytical, technical and customer service functions in support of
USFF commands with about 60,000 seats and more than 100,000 users in the Navy
Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) Enterprise Network. The contract is valued at $19
million and consists of one base year contract with four one-year option
periods. The contract effective date is Sept. 30.

“Falconwood
has a long-standing commitment to the Department of Defense to provide superior
support, with integrity and agility, to the warfighter,” said Allie Lawaetz, president
of Falconwood. “We are pleased to continue our efforts with the Fleet
Enterprise Support Team.” 

Falconwood
is also the prime contract holder for the $175 million contract supporting the Navy
Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems (PEO-EIS) and its
associated Program Management Offices (PMOs) This contract provides
professional and technical Engineering and Logistics support services. Through
this contract, Falconwood is providing support in areas such as logistics,
asset management, training, cyber, information assurance, engineering and
acquisition.

In
addition, the Falconwood Cloud Integrated Product Team (IPT) provides DoD
customers with a support model consistent with today’s cloud service providers,
allowing the customers with plug and pay access to Cleared Subject Matter
Expertise across IaaS, PaaS and SaaS service models in government, hybrid and commercial
cloud environments. This model helps streamline resources required to support
agile design, deploy, accreditation and support with the right skill as needed
without over staffing.