By Lt. Mckensey Cobb, June 27, 2024 

STRAIT OF GIBRALTAR  –  The amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1), flagship of the Wasp Amphibious Ready Group (WSP ARG) and embarked 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) Special Operations Capable (SOC) transited the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea, June 26. 
 
Upon arrival in the Mediterranean Sea, Wasp will reunite with the Harpers Ferry-class amphibious landing dock ship USS Oak Hill (LSD 51), one of two other ships in the WSP ARG. Oak Hill conducted a Strait of Gibraltar transit, June 18, after participating in D-Day 80 commemoration celebrations in Cherbourg, France. 
 
“There is an inherent flexibility to the type of missions an ARG-MEU can support,” said Capt. Nakia Cooper, commodore of Amphibious Squadron 4, embarked aboard Wasp. “Our ability to operate effectively as distributed force gives the ARG-MEU that flexibility. Each of our ships is capable of conducting amphibious operations, crisis response, and limited contingency operations on their own, but there is no substitute for the type of combat power we bring to the fight when we constitute as an Amphibious Ready Group.” 
 
While in the NAVEUR-NAVAF area of operations, Wasp will work alongside allied and partner maritime forces, focusing on theater security cooperation efforts to further regional stability and demonstrate the strong maritime partnership between the U.S. and allies and partners. 
 
This marks the first time that Wasp has operated in the Mediterranean region since its homeport shift from Sasebo, Japan to Norfolk, Virginia in 2019, after which the crew completed an extensive maintenance availability followed by a robust pre-deployment training program culminating in Composite Training Unit Exercise, which certified the ship, and all embarked commands, to deploy. 
 
“Wasp is truly the number one ship in the fleet,” said Capt. Chris “Chewie” Purcell, Wasp’s commanding officer. “We’ve all worked tirelessly to reach this point. I am grateful for the energy our Sailors and Marines bring to the fight each day and confident they will meet every challenge head on over the coming months.” 
 
Wasp has been underway conducting operations in the Atlantic Ocean since early April and recently departed the Baltic Sea after participating in Baltic Operations 2024 (BALTOPS 24). 
 
The Wasp Amphibious Readiness Group consists of the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1), San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS New York (LPD 21), Harpers Ferry class dock landing ship USS Oak Hill (LSD 51), and embarked 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). 
 
The 24th MEU (SOC) is a Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) providing strategic speed and agility, ensuring our Marines are prepared to respond and protect U.S. national security interests around the globe. The MEU can respond rapidly from longer ranges with greater capabilities across the spectrum of military conflict. 
 
You can follow USS Wasp’s adventures on Facebook and Instagram (@usswasp_lhd1). 
 
To learn more about WSP ARG and 24th MEU (SOC) “Team of Teams,” visit their DVIDS feature page at https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/wasparg24thmeu. 

From U.S. Central Command 

TAMPA, Fla. – In the past 24 hours, U.S. Central Command forces successfully destroyed one Houthi radar site in a Houthi controlled area of Yemen. 

It was determined the radar site presented an imminent threat to U.S., coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region. This action was taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international water safer and more secure for U.S., coalition, and merchant vessels. 

By Team Ships Strategic Operations, June 21, 2024 

SAN DIEGO – The keel for the future USNS Sojourner Truth (T-AO 210), a John Lewis-class fleet replenishment oiler, was authenticated at General Dynamics (GD) NASSCO, June 21. 

The ship is named for human rights pioneer Sojourner Truth, an abolitionist and women’s rights activist. 

A keel laying ceremony represents the joining together of the ship’s modular components at the land level. During the ceremony, the keel is authenticated when a welder etches the initials of the ship sponsor into the ceremonial keel plate, which will sail with the ship throughout its service life. The ship sponsor is Marian Wright Edelman, civil rights trailblazer and Founder and President Emerita of the Children’s Defense Fund.  

“The future USNS Sojourner Truth will aid in expanding refueling capability at sea,” said John Lighthammer, program manager, Auxiliary and Special Mission Ships, Program Executive Office (PEO) Ships. “This ship honors the legacy of a woman of great character and determination and the ship will bring the critical capacity needed to the fleet in often rapidly changing environments.” 

The John Lewis-class of ships is operated by the Military Sealift Command and the oilers feature substantial volume for oil, a significant dry cargo capacity and aviation capability. T-AOs provide additional capacity to the Navy’s Combat Logistical Force and become the cornerstone of the fuel delivery system. 

PEO Ships, one of the Department of Defense’s largest acquisition organization, is responsible for executing the development and procurement of all destroyers, amphibious ships and craft, auxiliary ships, special mission ships, sealift ships and support ships. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — An information technology company expects its business with the U.S Department of the Navy to increase as task orders come under a government contract from the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) for document scanning and conversion services. 

In late April, the GPO awarded Iron Mountain a contract “to provide off-site document conversion and scanning services for the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)” the GPO announcement said. “The contract covers a range of services including document preparation, scanning, optical character recognition (OCR), indexing, and output to various media. The estimated value of the contract is not specified, but it indicates 15-25 orders per year, with 5-10 being multi-year efforts, and scanning requirements ranging from 1,000 to 9,000,000 images per order. The contract term is from April 26, 2024, through February 28, 2025, with up to four 12-month option periods.” 

“Currently, with the Navy, we are kind of in our infancy in joining and partnering with them,” said Melissa Carson, general manager of Iron Mountain’s Government Solutions Group. “The thing we have with them is the traditional Iron Mountain business, records information management. We have a BPA [blanket purchase agreement] with them, a master agreement with them [the Navy’s records office], to help them with all their record storage needs across the whole naval installation. 

Iron Mountain provides records management and storage services to federal, state, and local governments as well as public education institutions. The company, with corporate headquarters in Nashua, New Hampshire, maintains 1,400 sites across the world in 110 countries. The company’s Government Solutions Group is based in Herndon, Virginia. 

Carson said the company also has partnered with some of the system integrators and has acquired some other companies. 

“We actually have made a couple of acquisitions here in the last couple of years and really have a robust solution that takes all this e-waste within that ecosystem and not only just takes it off their hands securely,” she said. “We’ve got proprietary software that does the data erasure that meets DoD standards off of hard drives, but also with the recent acquisition of Regency, we actually now have a goal of recycling components. We take it down to bare metals and are able to actually only put 8% in the landfill.” 

Iron Mountain digitized all of the Veterans Administration’s personnel files, part of which involved digitization of a million boxes of records. 

Iron Mountain expects task orders from the Navy similar to its work for the Veterans Administration. 

“Iron Mountain can do intelligent document processing with Insight AI [artificial intelligence], with one touch, create the image, classify it for records storage and retention, along with the metadata off of it,” Carson said, noting that her company can pass the data and images back to the agency—the usual scenario–or provide off-site storage. 

“We now with this Insight tool, have used the power of AI and machine learning models with natural language models behind it,” she said. “We’re now able to do millions of documents a month with 30% less labor, equipment, and facilities. We’ve been able to absolutely increase that capability and throughput so that one is lower priced — because it was also [prohibitively] expensive for many of these agencies to even start with that — so it’s not only saved that but it’s also eight times faster. So that’s why we’re able to digitize millions [of records] in a month.” 

Carson pointed to one example: “For a large financial agency in the government we were able to do a billion images in less than a year at 96% accuracy of pulling data off of these records. The old-fashioned way would have taken 30 years by 800 people. 

“Many agencies are finally getting policy changes so that once it is digitized, they do not have to hold on to that paper record,” she said. “Iron Mountain is full-life cycle: “We take it and shred it and we put all of that paper back into the paper industry. We are one of their biggest suppliers to be able to trade with recycled paper.” 
 

The tedious task of scanning documents has led to improvements in scanning technology. 

“We’ve been very influential with the scanning equipment suppliers,” Carson said. “We’ve forced them to innovate, too, so there is a particular machine that we’re actually using for the IRS [Internal Revenue Service]. We are actually taking their paper tax returns — so about nine million people still file with paper — and they come in crumpled, with coffee stains and all that. With this new scanning technology, we don’t need to do all of that repair anymore. Literally, it is sensitive enough that you scan it through even with a tear, even with coffee stains, even rumpled, and it looks like a perfectly good piece of paper.”  

Iron Mountain even has infrared scanners for fragile old onion-skin paper that never touches the paper.  

The company is working to make data storage technology more robust, and “future-proof,” to avoid obsolescence overtaking the technology and ensuring that digital records are accessible and readable. The company also maintains an inventory of obsolete technology in order to read older analog and digital records. 

From SECNAV Public Affairs, 21 June 2024 

MADRID – Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro announced that a future Constellation-class Guided Missile Frigate, FFG 67, will be named USS Galvez, June 21. 

Secretary Del Toro made the announcement while joining U.S. Ambassador to Spain Julissa Reynoso Pantaleón and Chief of Staff of the Spanish Navy, Admiral Antonio Pineiro, in Madrid, Spain, for the U.S. Embassy’s Fourth of July Celebration. 

The future USS Galvez honors Conde Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid and his service during the American Revolutionary War.  This will be the first U.S. Navy vessel named for Gálvez. 

“Gálvez wasn’t just a supporter from afar—his actions directly influenced the course of the war and helped secure American Independence,” said Secretary Del Toro. “That is why, in his homeland, I am incredibly pleased to announce that our next Constellation-class frigate, FFG 67, will be named the USS Gálvez.” 

During the American Revolution, Gálvez provided supplies, intelligence, and military support to the American colonists and led military victories for Spain against Great Britain.  As governor of Spain’s territory in Louisiana, he covertly worked with American agent Oliver Pollock in 1777 to transfer money, gunpowder, and vital supplies to colonial forces.  

In his direct service to Spain, Gálvez recruited an army of 7,500 men made up of Spanish, French, African American, Mexican, Cuban, and Anglo-American forces.  In 1779–1780, his forces defeated the British at Battles in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Natchez, Mississippi; and Mobile, Alabama.  In 1781, he successfully seized Pensacola, Florida, and was wounded during the fighting.  His contributions were recognized by George Washington as a decisive factor in the outcome of the Revolutionary War.  

After the Revolutionary War, Gálvez led an effort to chart the Gulf of Mexico, including Galveston Bay, and served as the viceroy of New Spain.  In 2014, the United States Congress passed Public Law No. 113-229, granting him honorary citizenship of the United States—making him one of only eight honorary citizens in U.S. history. 

The future USS Galvez, the sixth of the new Constellation-class frigates, was appropriated in 2024. The other ships in the class are USS Constellation (FFG 62), USS Congress (FFG 63), USS Chesapeake (FFG 64), USS Lafayette (FFG 65), and USS Hamilton (FFG 66). Secretary Del Toro named the future USS Lafayette (FFG 65) in 2023 and the future USS Hamilton (FFG 66) in May 2024. 

Along with the ship’s name, Secretary Del Toro announced the sponsors for the USS Galvez will be Ambassador Reynoso Pantaleón and Spanish Ambassador to the U.S. Ángeles Moreno Bau. They, in their role as sponsors, will represent a lifelong relationship with the ship and crew. 

“Honoring Bernardo de Gálvez in this way at our Independence celebration marks not only the close, enduring, and historic partnership between the United States and Spain, it also recognizes his and Spain’s critical role in the war for America’s Independence almost 250 years ago,” said Ambassador Reynoso. 

The Constellation-class guided-missile frigate represents the Navy’s next generation small surface combatant. This ship class will be an agile, multi-mission warship, capable of operations in both blue-water and littoral environments, providing increased combat-credible forward presence that provides a military advantage at sea. 

The Constellation-class will have multi-mission capability to conduct air warfare, anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare, electronic warfare, and information operations. 

MOBILE, Ala. – Austal USA has started construction on the future USNS James D. Fairbanks (T-ATS 13), the third of five steel U.S. Navy Navajo Class Towing, Salvage, and Rescue Ships Austal USA has under contract with the Navy. Construction is well underway on both the future USNS Billy Frank Jr. (T-ATS 11) and USNS Solomon Atkinson (T-ATS 12).   

“It’s exciting to see another ship begin traveling down the steel production line which has been busy since we opened it just a little over two years ago,” Austal USA Vice President of New Construction Dave Growden said. “I’m proud of how well our workforce is handling the diversity of work we have taken on since the steel line became active.” 

The ship’s namesake, James D. Fairbanks, was a Camp Pendleton Marine who also served in the Navy, where he became a prominent figure in the Seabees. Fairbanks grew up on the White Earth Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota and went on to compile an impressive service record. He first served with Second Battalion Eleventh Marines (2/11) at Camp Pendleton and then did two tours in the Navy. The first included service during Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he was awarded the Bronze Star. Fairbanks also was hailed for his service in the Seabees, the Navy’s storied construction battalion. 

T-ATS will provide ocean-going tug, salvage, and rescue capabilities to support U.S. Navy fleet operations and will be a multi mission common hull platform capable of towing heavy ships. These ships will also support several missions, including oil spill response, humanitarian assistance, and wide area search and surveillance.  

From U.S. Central Command 

June 20, 2024

TAMPA, Fla. – In the past 24 hours, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) forces successfully destroyed four Iranian-backed Houthi uncrewed surface vessels (USV) in the Red Sea, and two uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) over the Red Sea. 

There were no injuries or damage reported by U.S., coalition, or merchant vessels.  

It was determined these systems presented an imminent threat to U.S. forces, coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region. These actions were taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S., coalition, and merchant vessels. 

From SECNAV Public Affairs 

ARLINGTON, Va.– In February 2024, Secretary Del Toro traveled to Korea and Japan to meet with key shipbuilding executives. While in Korea, he toured Hanwha and HD Hyundai shipyards and met with company leaders. In his meetings with Hanwha Vice Chairman Dong Kwon Kim and his tour of their Geoje Island shipyard, he witnessed the Hanwha Group’s expertise, cutting-edge technology, and best practices, which will energize the American shipbuilding landscape. They bring world-class leadership, fostering renewed competition through innovation and industrial capacity.  

Del Toro released the following statement: 

“Hanwha’s acquisition of Philly Shipyard is a game-changing milestone in our new Maritime Statecraft. This will bring good paying union jobs to Philadelphia, a city with a 250-year relationship with the U.S. Navy.  Knowing how they will change the competitive U.S. shipbuilding landscape, I could not be more excited to welcome Hanwha as the first Korean shipbuilder to come to American shores—and I am certain they will not be the last.”  

Secretary Del Toro has made Maritime Statecraft and restoring the comprehensive maritime power of the United States a key component of his tenure as Secretary of the Navy. This acquisition aligns with both the Maritime Statecraft initiative and the Department of Defense’s National Defense Industrial Strategy. The Department of the Navy looks forward to collaborating with Hanwha Group in the future to ensure the continued strength of the American maritime industry. 

By Naval Sea Systems Command Office of Corporate Communications SUPSALV 

June 12, 2024 

BALTIMORE — The U.S. Navy’s Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV) led critical efforts in support of the Unified Command in clearing the Port of Baltimore’s Fort McHenry Federal Channel, following the M/V Dali’s collision into the Francis Scott Key Bridge. 
 
“In the aftermath of the tragic accident and profound sadness experienced by the City of Baltimore and indeed the nation, I am proud of the extraordinary work and professionalism displayed by our Sailors and civilians, under the supervision of Capt. Sal Suarez, in support of the Key Bridge Response Unified Command,” said Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro. “Our Navy and Marine Corps Team remains critical to defending our economic security, including the crucial efforts of our Navy’s diving and salvage experts to keep our waterways open.” 
 
SUPSALV arrived within hours after tasking by the U.S, Army Corps of Engineers to support the Unified Command by leading the clearing of the Baltimore Harbor waterway. The team, along with several private maritime salvage companies, mobilized resources to the site and worked to remove debris, support truss cuts, rigging and bridge sections. Their efforts also included controlled explosions that allowed the Dali to be refloated and moved back to port. 
 
“SUPSALV expertise is recognized throughout the U.S. Navy, Department of Defense and other federal agencies,” said Capt. Sal Suarez, commander, Supervisor of Salvage and Diving. SUPSALV provides technical, operational, and emergency support in marine salvage, towing, pollution control and abatement, diving and diving system safety and certification, diving and salvage equipment procurement, and underwater ship husbandry. Its expertise in marine salvage has been leveraged globally removing a sunken dredge barge in Alexandroupoli, Greece, in 2019, and recently clearing Louisiana waterways impacted by Hurricane Ida in 2021. 
 
“SUPSALV supports other federal agencies and the country with its national response capability, including active duty and contractor salvage experts,” said Paul Hankins, director, Salvage Operations at SUPSALV. “We have resources and support agreements in place so we can immediately respond with our expertise and resources when called upon.” 
 
Throughout the entirety of the process SUPSALV was responsible for managing all on-scene assets tasked with debris removal and channel clearing effort. Each day began at 06:30 a.m. to coordinate assets, align on objectives and finished daily at 5:30 p.m. to share what was accomplished that day and what they plan to accomplish next. 
 
SUPSALV provides technical, operational, and emergency support in marine salvage, towing, pollution control and abatement, diving and diving system safety and certification, diving and salvage equipment procurement, and underwater ship husbandry. 

From U.S. Central Command 

June 19,2024

TAMPA, Fla. – In the past 24 hours, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) forces successfully destroyed two Iranian-backed Houthi uncrewed surface vessels (USV) in the Red Sea. 

Separately, USCENTCOM forces successfully destroyed one ground control station and one command and control node in a Houthi controlled area of Yemen. 

It was determined these systems presented an imminent threat to U.S. forces, coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region. These actions were taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S., coalition, and merchant vessels. 

June 18, 2024

TAMPA, Fla. – In the past 24 hours, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) forces successfully destroyed eight Iranian-backed Houthi uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) in a Houthi controlled area of Yemen. 

Additionally, partner forces successfully destroyed one Houthi uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) over the Gulf of Aden. There were no injuries or damage reported by U.S., coalition, or merchant vessels.  

It was determined these systems presented an imminent threat to U.S., coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region. These actions were taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S., coalition, and merchant vessels.