ANDOVER, Mass. — Mercury Systems Inc. announced that it received an additional $5.5 million in follow-on orders against its previously announced $152 million five-year sole-source basic ordering agreement to deliver advanced Digital RF Memory (DRFM) jammers to the U.S. Navy.

The orders were received in the second and third quarters of the company’s fiscal 2019 are expected to be delivered over the next several quarters.

“These orders reflect the U.S. Navy’s continuing commitment to the advancement of our electronic warfare test and training capabilities,” said Mark Bruington, vice president and general manager of Mercury’s electronic warfare and mission solutions group.

“Recent electronic attacks by known adversaries have sparked a renewed commitment to maintaining U.S. superiority in electronic warfare. Our ongoing efforts to design, develop and produce innovative DRFM jammers directly supports the growing need to effectively train U.S. warfighters and keep U.S. electronic protection technology at the leading edge.”

NASHUA, N.H. — BAE Systems reached a critical program milestone with the successful insertion of new technology into its electronic warfare (EW) systems for the global fleet of Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft, the company announced in a Feb. 28 release. Upgrades to the AN/ASQ-239 system position it to meet future capability requirements and improve warfighters’ ability to conduct critical missions in contested airspace.

The improved EW system delivers the world-class functionality of the previous system in a smaller footprint, reducing volume and power requirements – creating space for Block IV modernization upgrades. The system update also resolves issues with manufacturing obsolescence that would have otherwise required costly redesign work.

The company’s capacity expansion strategy — including a $100 million investment in 80,000 square feet of state-of-the-art manufacturing space, process automation and the growth of its highly skilled electronic warfare workforce by more than 23 percent — enabled BAE Systems to become the first F-35 supplier to insert updated technology into its systems at full production speeds, delivering 11 systems monthly and ramping production to match aircraft production.

The Digital Channelized Receiver/Techniques Generator and Tuner Insertion Program (DTIP) technology was introduced into BAE’s manufacturing process in 2018, with the first deliveries starting in July. The team is consistently providing 11 shipsets per month, enabling the company to continue on-time delivery to its customer.

“We’ve delivered almost 400 EW systems to date, and now we’ve updated the architecture and are manufacturing it at a high rate of production. This technology insertion gives the EW system room to grow and will help the F-35 maintain its dominance of the electromagnetic spectrum,” said Deborah Norton, vice president of F-35 Solutions at BAE Systems. “The successful insertion of DTIP was the result of the outstanding focus, dedication and teamwork of our engineering and production teams working in close coordination with our customer.”

The advanced F-35 EW system is a proven digital electronic warfare/countermeasures suite that provides pilots with real-time battlespace situational awareness and rapid-response capabilities. The ASQ-239 system provides fully integrated radar warning, targeting support and self-protection capabilities to engage, counter, jam or evade threats to improve survivability and mission effectiveness. The system builds on BAE Systems 60-plus years of EW experience and legacy of providing 13,500 tactical systems for more than 80 different platforms, including F-22, F-16, F-15, B-1, B-2 and classified platforms.

The Marine Corps is beginning to field its new Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and, after improved training and some physical adjustments, the Corps believes JLTVs are “operationally suitable and effective,” the program’s manager said Feb. 27.

That conclusion is quite different than the findings released last week by the Defense Department’s Operational Test and Evaluation office (DOT&E), which said all four variants of the JLTV were “not operationally suitable because of deficiencies in reliability, maintainability, training, manuals, crew situational awareness and safety” and that the close combat weapons carrier was “not operationally effective for use in combat and tactical missions.”

The DOT&E findings were “directly lifted from data” collected during joint Army and Marine Corps operational testing done a year ago and “does not take into account the effort and work that’s been done since then,” said Andrew Rodgers, program manager for Light Tactical Vehicles at Marine Corps Systems Command.

“As we are fielding, we have shown that they are operationally suitable and effective. As we push forward with our training, we will be able to validate that,” Rodgers said.

His responses to the DOT&E report came during a telephone conference call with reporters to announce the fielding of the first JLTVs to the Marines’ School of Infantry, West, at Camp Pendleton, Calif., the next day.

The JLTV is intended to replace most of the 1980s-era High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, or Humvee, to provide greater crew protection, tactical mobility and high-tech communications. Oshkosh Defense will produce 49,099 of the vehicles for the Army, 9,091 for the Marine Corps and 80 for the Air Force.

Rodgers said the problems cited in the DOT&E report had been identified by the Army and the Marines during their testing and most of them reflected decisions made early in the program’s development to delay creation of training programs and manuals until the production contract was awarded to Oshkosh Defense in 2015.

“We were very aware that our training material was not mature enough,” he said.

After rushing to make up for the late start, the Marine Corps produced a 40-hour maintenance training package but quickly realized that “we were not imparting enough information to the maintainers.” There is now an 80-hour training program

for maintainers and a 56-hour package for vehicle operators. Operator training and electronic technical manuals also have been completed.

That has “gone a long way to help beef up the training,” which should improve reliability, Rodgers said.

He said the problems in operating the anti-tank TOW missiles on the close combat weapons carrier “can be solved with improvement in tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs).

Once the Corps has the vehicle and begins working with it, Marines will modify their TTPs to account for the physical changes to the JLTV from the Humvee.”

Rodgers said the Army is testing larger rear windows and a front-mounted camera to address the problems with poor visibility and situational awareness cited in the DOT&E report, and problems with getting in and out of the JLTV can be corrected with adjustments to the doors.

Marines also are provided a secondary emergency exit in the new JLTV, he said.

The Feb. 28 delivery to Camp Pendleton is the beginning of fielding 55 JLTVs to supporting units by mid-May, followed by the first deliveries to operational units in July, starting with II Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Rodgers said he expects to have fielded 250 to 300 JLTVs by end of this fiscal year and to deliver about 1,000 in fiscal 2020.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Vigilant returned home Feb. 26 to Cape Canaveral after a two-month Caribbean patrol.

Vigilant’s crew returned to their homeport of Cape Canaveral, concluding a patrol in which the crew enforced U.S. federal laws by conducting numerous boardings throughout the Caribbean while working with other government agencies and international partners to increase national security.

While at sea, the crew disrupted the illegal and perilous voyages of 100 Haitian migrants and ensured their safe return to their home country. Vigilant’s crew also saved the lives of three men who had been lost at sea for four days without food and water and returned the survivors to their home country after providing necessary medical attention.

“Maintaining and operating a 54-year-old ship requires great effort and a lot of dedication from everyone onboard,” said Cmdr. Jerome Dubay, Vigilant’s commanding officer. “This crew continuously meets the challenge, making mission success possible. I am proud of the compassion and professionalism our crewmembers displayed during every boarding and while assisting the migrants back to their country.”

The Vigilant is a multimission 210-foot Medium Endurance Cutter whose missions include illegal drug and migrant interdiction as well as search and rescue. The Vigilant patrols throughout the Caribbean basin and Atlantic seaboard to ensure safety of life at sea and enforce international and domestic laws.

MCLEAN, Va. — The Navy has chosen BAE Systems to compete for future cyber-engineering task orders awarded under a seven-and-a-half-year, indefinite-delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract, according to a BAE release.

The contract is intended to be used by naval, joint and national agencies seeking lifecycle service support for command, control, communications, computers and combat systems. Additional task orders may be awarded to improve the capabilities and security of various signals intelligence, imagery intelligence, electronic warfare, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.

“This award creates new opportunities for us to showcase our expertise in cyber-threat exploitation and analysis, computer network defense and security-focused systems engineering,” said Kris Busch, who is vice president of BAE Systems’ Integrated Defense Solutions business.

“We are also introducing new advanced analytics, artificial intelligence and machine-learning solutions that will further improve our nation’s ability to defend against future land, sea, air, space, cyber and electromagnetic warfare threats.”

The award also may be used to develop, test, produce and field next-generation autonomous and unmanned missions systems, according to BAE Systems, which is one of 10 companies chosen to compete for task orders awarded under the IDIQ, managed by Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic. The maximum value for all future task orders awarded under the contract is $898 million.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Dependable returned home to Virginia Beach, Va., on Feb. 25 after a 59-day patrol in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the Coast Guard 5th District said in a Feb. 26 release.

While deployed, Dependable’s crew aided Joint Interagency Task Force South in conducting counter-drug and alien migrant interdiction operations.

During their patrol, Dependable’s boarding team intercepted a go-fast vessel off the coast of Mexico that was specially fitted to smuggle contraband. Once on scene, the boarding team confirmed that the vessel was carrying narcotics along with three suspected drug smugglers. The interdiction resulted in the seizure of about 1,235 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated street value of $18 million.

Dependable’s crew also worked alongside four partner assets to patrol an operational area roughly the size of the U.S. The cutter’s crew worked with the U.S. Navy and Customs and Border Protection Maritime Patrol Aircraft to conduct aerial surveillance alongside other Coast Guard cutters patrolling the region. As a result of these collaborations, Dependable’s crew was able to assist Coast Guard Cutter Alert’s crew with a transfer of drugs and suspected smugglers apprehended in previous interdictions.

The Dependable crew also leveraged the cutter’s embarked Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON), the members of which launched in an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter and disrupted a drug-smuggling operation. The squadron seized an estimated 1,653 pounds of cocaine worth about $25 million and intended for delivery to Mexico.

The Dependable crew sailed 12,904 miles and traveled nearly as far south as the Galapagos Islands and as far west as Acapulco, Mexico. In addition to the cutter’s permanent crewmembers, teams from Tactical Law Enforcement Team South, based in Miami, and HITRON, based in Jacksonville, Fla., were aboard for the patrol. Each team provided expertise regarding maritime law enforcement and aerial use of force.

The Virginia Beach-based Cutter Dependable is a 210-foot Reliance-class medium-endurance cutter with a permanent crew of 77. They conduct homeland security missions in the offshore waters of the Western Hemisphere, from New England to the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific.

Having surpassed its 50th year of service to America last November, Dependable and the other 26 medium-endurance cutters are slated for replacement by new Offshore Patrol Cutters beginning in 2021.

WASHINGTON – The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) successfully completed the First Production Unit (FPU) of the W76-2 warhead on Feb. 22 at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, according to a NNSA release on Feb. 25.

The W76-2 FPU represents NNSA’s ability to achieve a significant program milestone in support of a national security initiative requested by the president in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review.

“NNSA is fully committed to meeting the requirements of our partners at the Department of Defense,” said Dr. Charles P. Verdon, NNSA’s deputy administrator for defense programs. “The W76-2 will allow for tailored deterrence in the face of evolving threats.”

The W76-2 program is a modification of the W76-1 warhead to provide a low-yield, sea-launched ballistic-missile warhead capability.

NNSA is on track to complete the W76-2 Initial Operational Capability warhead quantity and deliver the units to the Navy by the end of fiscal 2019.

WASHINGTON — The Navy’s director for undersea warfare said the nation’s nuclear submarine-based strategic deterrent is more important than ever and that the 12 planned Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarines (SSBNs) are needed to sustain a credible strategic triad for the future.

Speaking Feb. 2 at a discussion of the Columbia SSBN event at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank, Rear Adm. John W. Tammen pointed out that, with the new era of great power competition, “the need for deterrence has never been greater. That’s based on the destructive [power] of modern-day weapons and the competitive landscape that we are seeing with [Russia’s and China’s attempts] to make their place in the global domain.

“We have to own the top rungs of the escalation ladder,” Tammen said. “Our competitors must understand that we cannot be out-escalated in our part of the [strategic] triad and we must have the will and the credible capability to respond as necessary to their aggression and the cost that they would take would be greatly outweighed by any perceived gains.”

Tammen said that all three legs of the U.S. strategic deterrent triad — bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and submarine-launched ballistic missiles — are important, as are the command, control and communications systems associated with those weapons.

Tammen said the most survivable leg — the SSBN — “gives the president time to make a decision. He does not have to worry that he is going to have an attack that will decimate his ability to respond.”

The requirement for at least 12 Columbia-class SSBNs is predicated on having 10 available for deterrence patrols while two are in deep maintenance. The 12 new subs, which replace 14 Ohio-class SSBNs, will have 42-year service lives because their reactors will never need refueling.

Tammen said that, with the Columbia class, the nation will get an ultra-quiet platform that will benefit from the success of the Virginia-class attack submarine program, that will leverage more than 50 years of SSBN experience, and that will deploy a weapon — the Trident D5LE missile — that has had 11 successful test launches.

WASHINGTON — The Navy’s efforts to improve training and the readiness of its surface warfare officers (SWOs) now include longer initial sea duty tours and a series of checkpoints that must be passed before an officer can command a ship.

The new standards result from the Navy’s reassessment of surface warfare training in the wake of the fatal collisions of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers USS Fitzgerald and USS John McCain in mid-2017.

Testifying Feb. 26 before a joint hearing of the Readiness and the Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittees of the House Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill, Adm. Christopher W. Grady, commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command and U.S. Naval Forces Northern Command, and Adm. John C. Aquilino, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, also told Congress that ships will not deploy without having met the training standards.

Grady said the Navy is working to develop a culture where “we view standards as the absolute minimum.”

“If ships of the Pacific Fleet aren’t ready, they don’t get underway,” Aquilino said. Noting that manning challenges are being relieved by an additional 6,200 sailors earmarked fleetwide for ships, he said, “No [ship] deploys without the full complement of people that they will have.”

Aquilino, who is briefed on the status of his ships three times per week and talks to his commanders weekly, said that since he took command of the Pacific Fleet, he has terminated the deployments of two ships that were not ready. He also said he has granted no waivers.

“We adhere to those [standards] rigorously,” he said.

Grady said that commanding officers are required to submit letters to their type commander 90 days after assuming command on the readiness of their ships.

He said SWO training has lengthened, from 14 weeks to 23 weeks, with much more time in simulators. A few years ago, SWO school was only four weeks long and then was shut down altogether for a few years while officers learned via compact discs (“SWOs in a Box”).

“The total duration at sea for a young division officer is now going to be four years,” he said.

“We have recognized that it is all about the appropriate experience,” Grady said.

Ten milestone checkpoints in a career have been established to track the progress of a SWO from ensign to captain toward command of a ship. Three of these checkpoints are go/no-go decision points.

“If you fail one of those three checkpoints, we’re not going to let you command a ship,” Grady said.

“This is the culture of excellence that we’re [inculcating] and, to this point, 5 percent of those folks have been asked to leave the command pipeline [because] they were not ready.”

Aquilino said he was impressed with the effectiveness of the simulators for the littoral combat ships.

“That model is going to be transitioned into the destroyer [force] as well,” he said. “The way we train is getting better. That will allow us to more quickly get those up to speed who haven’t had it.”

The fleets also are focusing on the training of enlisted operations specialists and quartermasters — the two ratings most involved in the navigation of a ship.

Grady also said “the complexity of a modern warship” demands that the Navy maintain its generalist approach that SWOs be both operations and engineering officers, unlike the Royal Navy, which splits SWOs into separate operations and engineering tracks.

Grady cited the example of the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Princeton that struck a mine during the Persian Gulf War.

“The two officers that were on watch and responded to that were the weapons officer and the engineering officer, both of whom so well understood the complexity of the integration of the combat systems and the engineering plant [and] how to maneuver the ship that they were able to keep fighting for 72 hours by pointing the deckhouse up-threat into Iraq,” he said. “That’s why you need officers who are both engineers and topside ship drivers.”

EDGEWOOD, N.Y. — CPI Aerostructures Inc. has received a contract with a maximum value of $8.1 million from Northrop Grumman Corp. for outer wing panel kits used in the manufacture of complete wings for the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, CPI Aero announced in a Feb. 25 release. CPI Aero has produced outer wing panel kits since 2008 for the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, the U.S. Navy’s carrier-based airborne early warning and control aircraft.

“Exceptional program execution, superior product quality and the ability to provide value to our customers lies at the heart of our ongoing ability to secure multiyear defense contracts with leading defense technology companies,” said Douglas McCrosson, president and chief executive officer of CPI Aero. “We are pleased to have the opportunity to extend our long-standing partnership with Northrop Grumman for an additional six years as a key member of ‘Team Hawkeye.’”