N AV Y / MARINE CORPS / COAST GUARD / MERCHANT MARINE

SPECIAL REPORT

2012 U.S.
DEFENSE
BUDGET
PROPOSAL

April 2011 $5.00

NAVY LEAGUE OF THE
UNITED STATES
www.navyleague.org

S P E C I A L O P S T R A I N I N G I N A F R I C A / I N T E R V I E W: S E A N J . S TA C K L E Y
SEAPOWER
Volume 54, Number 4, April 2011
THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE NAVY LEAGUE OF THE UNITED STATES
www.navyleague.org

DEPARTMENTS FEATURES

3 President’s Message 3 ‘Ensuring Freedom of the Seas’

BY DANIEL B. BRANCH JR.
4 Editor’s Note 12 MARSOC, SEALs Aid Special Operations Training in Africa
BY DAVID PUGLIESE
7 Intercepts
18 U.S. Defense Officials Keep Close Eye on Chinese Capabilities
82 Program Snapshot BY OTTO KREISHER

84 Seapower International 36 Coast Guard Technologies Boost Port Security

BY JOHN C. MARCARIO
88 Historical Perspective
42 Pirates Become More Brazen, Expand Their Reach
89 Ship’s Library BY JOHN C. MARCARIO

92 Navy League News 46 Incremental Upgrades Will Keep Aegis System Current
BY RICHARD R. BURGESS
94 Council Digest 52 Navy Improves Shipboard Electronic Warfare Capabilities
BY RICHARD R. BURGESS

56 After Setbacks, EMALS Launches First Super Hornet

6 Washington Report: BY DANIEL P. TAYLOR
Amos takes role 58 BAMS Program Gears Up for Major Milestones
of ‘player-coach’ for BY DANIEL P. TAYLOR
struggling F-35B program
62 Marine One Presidential Helicopter Fleet Keeps Flying
BY DANIEL P. TAYLOR

66 INTERVIEW: Sean J. Stackley

Assistant Secretary of the Navy
For Research, Development and Acquisition
BY RICHARD R. BURGESS

72 ONR Program Speeds Technical Solutions to the Fleet

BY NED LUNDQUIST

78 Navy Recruiters Hone Message To Reach More Diverse Population

BY JOHN C. MARCARIO

80 Surface Cutter Rescue Swimmers Provide Added Safety Net

BY JOHN C. MARCARIO

102 In My Own Words

BY BILL COSBY
HONORARY CHIEF PETTY OFFICER

SPECIAL REPORT:
2012 U.S. DEFENSE BUDGET PROPOSAL
24 Navy Budget Proposal Would Bring Shipbuilding Gains
BY RICHARD R. BURGESS

28 Marine Request Reflects Anticipation of Tighter Budgets Ahead

BY OTTO KREISHER

102 32 Coast Guard Budget Plan Adds Funds for Recapitalization

BY JOHN C. MARCARIO

PHOTO OF HOSPITALMAN RASHAD COLLINS, ASSIGNED TO 1ST PLATOON, KILO COMPANY, 3RD BATTALION, 5TH MARINE REGIMENT, REGIMENTAL COMBAT TEAM 2, CONDUCTING
A SECURITY PATROL IN SANGIN, AFGHANISTAN, JAN. 13 BY U.S. MARINE CORPS LANCE CPL. JORGE A. ORTIZ. COVER DESIGN BY AMY BILLINGHAM, PENSARÉ DESIGN GROUP LTD.

‘Ensuring Freedom of the Seas’
By DANIEL B. BRANCH JR., Navy League National President
he Navy League has long held
T that as a maritime nation, the
strength of the United States’ mar-
itime forces is critical to national
security and economic prosperity.
Our economy will be at risk if we
cannot ensure freedom of naviga-
tion across the oceans. Failure to
maintain maritime superiority will
put us in jeopardy in the war
against terrorism and in conflict
anywhere in the world.
The Navy League’s annual
Maritime Policy Statement repre-
sents the organization’s commit-
ment to ensuring that continued
high priority is given to maintain-
ing a strong national maritime force. The 2011-2012
statement, titled “Internationally Engaged —
Ensuring Freedom of the Seas,” underscores the
importance of international cooperation and identifies
critical programs and policies influencing the opera-
tional and materiel readiness of today’s U.S. Navy,
Marine Corps, Coast Guard and U.S.-flag Merchant
Marine. The document also prescribes force-structure
levels necessary for the intermediate and long-term
readiness of each service in the execution of the
nation’s Maritime Strategy.
The document, to be officially rolled out at the 2011
Sea-Air-Space Exposition, also outlines the need to
revitalize our maritime industrial base and strengthen
the overburdened Marine Transportation System,
which consists of the waterways, ports and their inter-
modal connections, vessels and vehicles that are criti-
cal to the U.S. economy.
“Global engagement is critical to the U.S. economy,
world trade and the protection of democratic freedoms
that so many take for granted,” the statement says.
“The guarantors of these vital elements are hulls in the
water, boots on the ground and aircraft overhead.”
It notes that “preventing war is the cornerstone to a
healthy global economy, on which the United States
depends. It is imperative that we maintain a strong
force that convinces potential adversaries that the
United States can win any future war. For that, we
need hulls in the water, globally deployed and ready to
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
act. In addition, the Navy, Marine
Corps, Coast Guard and Merchant
Marine are being asked to partici-
pate in humanitarian assistance,
disaster response and counterter-
rorism operations to a greater
extent than ever before.”
The document lays out in detail
the Navy League’s recommendations
for maintaining the sea services’ pri-
mary strength — “presence with the
capability to engage.” The Maritime
Policy Statement is produced by our
Maritime Policy and Resolutions
Committee, and the analyses and
recommendations therein are de-
rived from many sources, including
the expertise and decades of experience of our members,
open-source materials, and conversations with sea serv-
ice leaders and industry executives.
Many of the topics addressed in the Maritime Policy
Statement will be discussed at the Navy League’s 2011
Sea-Air-Space Exposition, to be held April 11-13 at the
Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center at
National Harbor, Md. The exposition will focus on the
same theme and showcase more than 150 leading
defense companies exhibiting weapons and sea power
technologies for the 21st century. A series of profes-
sional seminars with military leaders and defense cor-
porate partners will provide fresh insights into the
needs, challenges and requirements of the sea services
in support of the war against terrorists and other
national security demands.
The Maritime Policy Statement is a critical tool in the
Navy League’s efforts to educate lawmakers and the gen-
eral public about the importance of committing the
resources necessary to reset our maritime forces. I
encourage you to pick up a copy of the Policy Statement
at Sea-Air-Space, or visit www.navyleague.org to down-
load your copy today.
3
EDITOR’S NOTE

Impacting Readiness
By AMY L. WITTMAN, Editor in Chief SEAPOWER
THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE
NAVY LEAGUE OF THE UNITED STATES
Volume 54, Number 4, April 2011

ongress began To illustrate, he

C hearings on the
fiscal 2012 defense
budget request short-
ly after it was submit-
ted Feb. 14, even
while the federal gov-
ernment was operat-
ing at fiscal 2010
funding levels be-
cause a 2011 appro-
priations bill had yet
to be passed. At press time March 15,
an extended continuing resolution
(CR) was keeping the government
running until March 18, with talk of
yet another extension beyond that.
When the House Armed Services
subcommittee on readiness asked
the military services’ operational
chiefs what operating under a poten-
tial yearlong CR would mean in
terms of readiness, the response was
unanimous — detrimental now and
for years to come.
The subcommittee hearing in
Washington March 10 was the sec-
ond in a series “that is investigat-
ing the readiness of our military to
noted that the aver-
age age of the surface
PUBLISHER
Daniel B. Branch Jr.
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Dale A. Lumme
fleet is 19 years, 34
years for the strategic EDITOR IN CHIEF
Amy L. Wittman
bomber fleet, 23 awittman@navyleague.org
years for the C-130H
DEPUTY EDITOR
aircraft fleet, more Peter E. Atkinson
than 46 years for the patkinson@navyleague.org
Air Force tanker fleet MANAGING EDITOR
and 38 years for the Richard R. Burgess
rburgess@navyleague.org
Marine Corps am-
phibious assault vehicle fleet. ASSISTANT EDITOR
John C. Marcario
Appearing before the panel were jmarcario@navyleague.org
Army Lt. Gen. Daniel P. Bolger, de-
DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING SALES
puty chief of staff; Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles A. Hull
Herbert J. Carlisle, deputy chief of charlesahullbus@msn.com
staff for operations, plans and recruit- DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS
ment; Vice Adm. Bruce W. Clingan, Kerri Carpenter
kcarpenter@navyleague.org
deputy chief of naval operations; and
Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Richard T. SEAPOWER CORRESPONDENTS
Patricia Kime
Tryon, deputy commandant for Megan Scully
plans, policies and operations.
PHOTOGRAPHER
All four officers agreed that while Lisa Nipp
the services will continue to meet the PROOFREADER
challenges set before them, operations Jean B. Reynolds
and maintenance accounts will be hit DESIGN AND PRODUCTION
particularly hard should the current Rob Black and Amy Billingham
funding situation be prolonged. Pensaré Design Group

respond, in the context of the fiscal
year 2012 budget submission, to
the full spectrum of threats that are
known and threats that are un-
known,” said Rep. Madeleine Z.
Bordallo, D-Guam, ranking mem-
ber of the subcommittee.
Yet the lack of a 2011 spending
bill puts even more stress on a mili-
tary already stretched thin in terms
of stress on assets and personnel.
Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-Va., panel
chairman, noted that committee
members were told during the first
hearing in that series that “our
nation’s armed forces are ap-
proaching a geriatric state.”
Congress must pass a defense
budget now that enables our forces
to begin resetting — in terms of
assets and people — and continue
with programs dependent on
economies of scale that will be lost
under current funding levels.
Seapower’s coverage of the 2012
budget request begins on page 24.
For daily sea service news updates,
visit our new website — www.
seapowermagazine.org.
SEAPOWER
2300 Wilson Blvd., Suite 200
Arlington, VA 22201-5424
TEL: 703-528-1775 — editorial
703-528-2075 — advertising
FAX: 703-243-8251
E-MAIL: seapowermail@navyleague.org
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COMMUNICATIONS BOARD
CHAIRMAN: Brandon R. “Randy” Belote III
NATIONAL OFFICER: Daniel B. Branch Jr.
MEMBERS: Merritt Allen, Maureen Cragin,
Daniel Dayton, Robert Hamilton, Margaret
B. Holtz, Guy Shields
EX-OFFICIO: Karen Crawford, Dale A.
Lumme, Tom Van Leunen, Amy L. Wittman

4 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
WASHINGTON
REPORT
Amos Takes Role of ‘Player-Coach’
For Struggling F-35B Program
en. James F. Amos, Marine Corps commandant,
G has embarked on a public relations campaign in
support of the service’s troubled version of the F-35
Lightning II, or Joint Strike Fighter, seeking to assuage
concerns within Congress and skepticism within the
press about the program’s prospects.
Frustrated with the short-takeoff/vertical-landing
(STOVL) variant of the fifth-generation fighter, De-
fense Secretary Robert M. Gates has put the F-35B on
a two-year probation, during which defense officials
will weigh whether to continue the program or ax it.
“If we cannot fix this variant during this time frame
and get it back on track in terms of performance, cost and
schedule, then I believe it should be canceled,” Gates said
Jan. 6, when he first announced the aircraft’s probation.
The Marines’ F-35, which will replace older fighters

U.S. MARINE CORPS

in the service’s fleet, has experienced significant testing
problems that could force a redesign of the aircraft’s
structure and propulsion, which could, in turn, add
more weight and increase costs.
On Feb. 18, Amos told reporters that he has taken
on the role of “player-coach” to make sure that the pro- Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James F. Amos is aiming
gram gets back on track. to get the F-35B program back on track after the service’s
short-takeoff/vertical-landing variant was placed on a two-
“My goal is, there will be no surprises,” said Amos,
year probation period to iron out a series of concerns. Here,
who added that he meets regularly with senior program he prepares to testify before the Senate Armed Services
officials as well as executives at Lockheed Martin, Committee March 1 on the service’s fiscal 2012 budget
which builds the plane. submission and the posture of the Marine Corps.

Amos told the Senate Armed
Services Committee March 8 that
he is “optimistic” about the state of
the program and is even working
with defense officials to fast-track
the F-35B’s probation.
“It is my intent to, sometime
this spring, offer to the secretary of
defense a set of metrics that he
might consider as the threshold for
getting the airplane off of proba-
tion and getting it back into the
regular mindset of production,”
Amos told the panel.
As player-coach, Amos said he
reviews any weight issues for the air-
craft, as well as how many test flights
have been flown and how those air-
craft have fared during the tests.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus
struck a similarly positive chord,
saying the probation “gives us an
opportunity to focus on it and to
make sure that the issues associated
with it can be fixed within weight
limits and cost limits.”
Mabus touted the number of
flight tests this year, saying the F-
35B already has surpassed goals by
40 percent. The aircraft also has
achieved more vertical and takeoff
landings by early March than it did
all last year.
The entire F-35 program —
which includes variants for the Air
Force and Navy — has faced cost

6 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1

and schedule problems that last year
prompted Gates to fire the program
manager and withhold some pay-
ments to Lockheed Martin. But
Gates now is satisfied with the
progress on the other variants.
Indeed, the Navy’s aircraft carrier-
based F-35C broke the sound barri-
er for the first time March 4 during
flight testing at the Naval Air Station
Patuxent River, Md.
“It’s great to be part of bringing
stealth capability to the big-deck
carriers,” said Marine Corps Lt. Col.
Matt Taylor, who was at the controls
of the aircraft. “It was a privilege for
me to take the F-35C over that
milestone for the first time.”
Both Navy and Marine pilots are
expected to fly the carrier version of
the fighter. The Marine Corps
announced March 14 that it will buy
80 of the F-35Cs, in addition to 340
F-35Bs. The Navy plans to buy 260
F-35Cs.
“When we sent the requirement
in for STOVL aircraft, our hope was
we would be able to some day fly
those versions off of … naval aircraft
carriers. That’s yet to be seen,
whether that would be possible. So,
in the meantime, it would seem pru-
dent that we would buy some num-
ber of C variants, even early on, so
that we can begin to transition our
force,” Amos said.
He insisted, however, that the
STOVL still is the Marine Corps’
“primary focus.”
Supporters of the F-35B say it is
crucial to maintaining the Marine
Corps’ expeditionary capabilities.
The variant gives the Corps the
ability to land on improvised
airstrips and take off from large-
deck amphibious assault ships
“We get out, we get dirty, we fly
in places where there are unap-
proved scripts,” Amos said.
If the Marine Corps’ F-35 gets on
track and the military successfully
fields the F-35C, the United States
would have, for the first time, 11 air-
craft carriers and 11 large-deck
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
WASHINGTON REPORT
INTERCEPTS
“The formal advice from the regulatory bodies concerned with
shipping was not to take armed guards onboard. But very
many companies now have changed this and some insurance
companies are giving an insurance break if guards — armed or
unarmed — are carried onboard.”
Duncan McKelvie
The Dubai marine representative for the shipping company NYK Line
On how the attitude toward merchant shipping self-defense has changed because
of continued acts of piracy, especially along the East Coast of Africa.
The UAE National, Feb. 18
“The EFV [Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle] is a poster child for a
program that wasn’t working. It started in ’88. The world is
very different now. The Marine Corps simply couldn’t afford it.
If you want to hollow out the Marine Corps, buy the EFV.”
Ray Mabus
Secretary of the Navy
On the rationale behind the decision to cancel the EFV program.
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 24
amphibious ships equipped with Oct. 1. However, the base budget
fifth-generation capabilities. But (not including war funding) would
without the F-35B, there is no plan grow slightly from $160.6 billion
to put new fixed-wing aircraft on requested for this year to $161.4
large-deck amphibs. billion proposed for fiscal 2012.
“Our nation’s capability to project The federal government at press
power and influence situations will time March 15 was operating under
be cut immeasurably,” Amos warned. an extended continuing resolution
“And there is no plan B for that. … So that keeps agencies operating at fiscal
the F-35B is a requirement. I’m opti- 2010 levels. The fiscal 2012 budget
mistic. What I’m seeing now is very request would mark a slight increase
encouraging.” from the $173.4 million the Depart-
ment of the Navy would receive this
2012 Budget Debate year if Congress fails to pass a 2011
Begins on Capitol Hill defense spending bill and instead
The fiscal 2012 budget request sub- funds the department through a year-
mitted to Congress Feb. 14 includes long continuing resolution.
$670.8 billion for the Department of The budget requests $31.7 billion
Defense, which includes $117.8 bil- for the Marine Corps, which includes
lion for Overseas Contingency $5.8 billion in OCO funding to sup-
Operations (OCO). The Department port the continuing engagement of
of the Navy’s portion of that request is more than 22,000 Marines in
$176.4 billion, including $15 billion Afghanistan. The request cancels the
in Navy and Marine Corps war costs. Corps’ $15 billion Expeditionary
The total Navy figure is down Fighting Vehicle because the service
from the $179.1 billion requested realized its high costs ultimately
— but not yet appropriated — for would require sacrifices to other pri-
the current fiscal year, which began orities in the acquisition budget.
7
WASHINGTON REPORT

in the operations budget is $93.1

INTERCEPTS million for the USMMA, up $19 mil-
lion from fiscal 2010.
“It doesn’t matter whether they believe in being green or Big-ticket items in the USMMA
whether they believe in climate change, but they do under- capital improvements request in-
stand the strategic issues around fuel and our dependence clude $11.5 million to start renova-
on imported fuel. The operational people in both the Navy tion of the Cleveland Hall barracks,
and the Marines are off the charts with some of the stuff $9 million to complete renovation of
they’re doing in actual wartime operations.” the Delano Mess Hall and $2.5 mil-
lion to begin architectural and engi-
Jackalyne Pfannenstiel
neering studies for the remaining bar-
Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations and Environment
racks and academic buildings.
On how Sailors and Marines are adapting to Navy Department energy efficiency
The MARAD budget also includes
initiatives.
a $174 million request for the
OnEarth Magazine, Feb. 23
Maritime Security Program, the same
amount requested in fiscal 2009 and
“Although the future degree and magnitude of climate
2010. The program enrolls a fleet of
change on regional scales is uncertain, it’s clear that the
60 active, militarily useful, privately
potential for environmental disasters is on the rise. Naval
owned vessels to meet national
forces must be prepared to provide more aid and disaster
defense and security requirements,
relief in the decades ahead.”
and maintain a U.S. presence in inter-
Antonio J. Busalacchi national commercial shipping.
Director of the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center at the University of The Department of Transporta-
Maryland tion, which oversees MARAD, re-
On some of the findings of a National Research Council committee study on climate quested a total of $128 billion for
change that was requested by the Navy. Busalacchi was co-chairman of the committee. fiscal 2012. That is a sharp increase
Associated Press, March 10 from their fiscal 2010 budget of
$73.3 billion. The increase is due
in large part to the administration’s
proposed six-year, $556 billion
Meanwhile, the Navy wants to billion for critical acquisition, con- surface transportation and reau-
buy 41 more F/A-18E/F Super struction and other recapitalization thorization plan.
Hornet fighter jets over the next projects. That investment includes
several years to make up for delays $642 million for new vessels and Lawmakers Unveil
in the F-35 program. $289 million for air assets. [Coverage Guantanamo Bills
The request includes $14.1 bil- of the 2012 budget request begins Republicans in the House and
lion to procure 10 ships — two on page 24.] Senate wasted no time unveiling
more than had been planned for legislative proposals in response to
next year. The ships include two USMMA Shortfalls President Barack Obama’s March 7
Virginia-class submarines, one Addressed in Budget executive order that lifted a two-
DDG-51 Arleigh Burke class de- The Maritime Administration’s year ban on military tribunal pro-
stroyer, four Littoral Combat Ships, (MARAD’s) fiscal 2012 budget ceedings at the Guantanamo Bay,
one Mobile Landing Platform and request is down slightly from previ- Cuba, detention facility.
one Joint High-Speed Vessel. ous years but provides badly need- The bills, though different, deal
The Navy’s budget proposal also ed funding for improvements at the largely with the prosecution and
includes $1.1 billion, the most yet, in U.S. Merchant Marine Academy detention of terrorist suspects,
research and development funding (USMMA) in King’s Point, N.Y. both now and in the future. The
for the replacement for the Ohio- The overall MARAD request of bills include language that would
class ballistic-missile submarine. $357.8 million is $5.8 million less keep the controversial Cuba facili-
The Coast Guard’s budget request than the agency’s fiscal 2011 request. ty open. In addition, the measures
— part of the Department of Within the budget proposal, $162 put new restrictions on transfer-
Homeland Security’s $57 billion million is allotted for operations and ring Guantanamo detainees to
spending proposal — for next year training. This is up $12 million from countries where former detainees
totals $10.3 billion, including $1.4 fiscal 2010 baseline levels. Included have returned to the battlefield.

8 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
WASHINGTON REPORT
Sponsors of the legislation in
both chambers say they see more
similarities than differences in the
proposals, and expect to work
together to find a common solution.
However, they will undoubtedly
have to reach across the aisle — and
negotiate with the White House —
to come up with language that can
pass the House and Senate, and gain
the president’s signature.
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn.,
the only non-Republican to sign on
to the measures, told reporters March
10 he is hopeful Democrats will sign
on to the legislation.
“I think the prospects of the Sen-
ate passing this legislation or some-
thing close to it are pretty good,”
Lieberman said. “I think they’re actu-
ally very good.”
The most likely legislative vehicle
for any new language on the prose-
cution and detention of terrorist sus-
pects appears to be the fiscal 2012
defense authorization bill, which the
House and Senate are both expected
to consider this spring or summer.
Marines Declare
AH-1Z Operational
The Marine Corps’ AH-1Z Viper,
an upgrade of the service’s AH-1W
Super Cobra attack helicopter, has
achieved initial operational capa-
bility (IOC) and will be deployed
later this year.
Renee Hatcher, a spokeswoman
at the Naval Air Systems Command
at Naval Air Station Patuxent River,
Md., said in a March 9 release that
the IOC was achieved in February,
“ahead of schedule.”
In November, the Department of
Defense authorized full-rate pro-
duction of the “Zulu,” built by Bell
Helicopter Textron.
“Getting the AH-1Z to IOC has
been a huge achievement for the en-
tire team,” said Col. Harry Hewson,
program manager for U.S. Marine
Corps Light and Attack Helicopters.
“Now we get to put the Zulu in the
hands of the Marines and prove that
10
U.S. MARINE CORPS
Pilots with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Training Squadron 303, Marine Aircraft
Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, maneuver an AH-1Z Viper during training at
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., Dec. 19, 2008. The squadron was the
first to train pilots with the Viper, which will be deployed for the first time this year.
it is indeed the most capable mari- Navy Sets Up Airspace,
nized attack helicopter in the world.” Air Traffic Agency
The Marine Corps will procure The Office of the Chief of Naval
189 AH-1Zs, including 58 new- Operations has established an
build helicopters and 131 remanu- agency to serve as the Navy’s lead
factured from older AH-1Ws. for airspace and air traffic control
“Full operational capability, matters.
defined as when all AH-1Z mainte- In a directive approved on Feb.
nance and repair support, test equip- 23 by Vice Adm. John T. Blake,
ment and spares are in place to sup- deputy chief of naval operations
port active component force primary for operations, integration of capa-
aircraft authorization, is expected to bilities and resources, the Navy
be achieved in 2020,” Hatcher said. established the Naval Air Space
“The first deployment of the and Air traffic control Standards
AH-1Z is scheduled for later this and Evaluation Agency.
year with a Marine Expeditionary The new agency, upgraded from
Unit,” she said. “This will be the an office, is tasked with assessing,
first opportunity for the AH-1Z and integrating and synchronizing
UH-1Y to deploy together. The UH- Navy airspace and air traffic con-
1Y is already on its third rotation to trol “across the doctrine, organiza-
Operation Enduring Freedom [in tion, training, material, leadership,
Afghanistan].” personnel and facilities spectrum,”
“The expeditionary agility that according to the establishing
the Yankee/Zulu package brings to directive.
the Marine Air/Ground Task Force Capt. Brett Easler serves as the
is exactly what the Marine Corps director of the agency, said Lt.
needs as we continue to fight two Courtney Hillson, a Navy spokes-
wars and conduct numerous other woman. ■
engagements in every clime and
place,” Hewson said. Reporting by Seapower Correspondent
The UH-1Y Venom is an upgrade Megan Scully. Managing Editor Richard
service’s UH-1N Huey, also built by R. Burgess and Assistant Editor John C.
Bell Helicopter Textron. Marcario contributed to this report.
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E L AT I O N S

The Africa Experience

MARSOC, SEALs instrumental in special forces training at Flintlock 11

By DAVID PUGLIESE, Special Correspondent

Sands, who was taking part in his

Forging Links second Flintlock exercise. “It’s about
understanding the nuances of the
Flintlock is a joint multinational exercise to improve information
region, about how the people are and
sharing at the operational and tactical levels across the Saharan
about learning from the people here.”
region while fostering increased collaboration and coordination.
He said MARSOC has been
■ Many of the African special forces units receiving training dur- maintaining its links with forces in
ing the exercise are either battling an al-Qaida “branch” operation, the region and its personnel are
or combating drug or gun smugglers. steadily building up their language
skills to better operate in the area.
■ U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command per-
Exercise Flintlock 11 was spon-
sonnel and Navy SEALs capitalized on relationships built during
sored by U.S. Africa Command and
previous engagements in Africa.
conducted by Special Operations
■ The African special forces units participating in the training Command Africa (SOC Africa).
were preselected following U.S. State Department guidelines. The tactical portion of the exer-
cise took place in Thies, Senegal,
while a conference bringing togeth-
er Western and African military
small group of special forces operators from officers, security specialists and academics from the

A the U.S. Marine Corps and Navy brought

their skills to Africa in February and March to
train units there engaged in fighting al-Qaida or deal-
ing with the regional instability caused by drug cartels units. The exercise was designed to provide military
and other transnational criminal organizations.
Personnel from the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Spe-
cial Operations Command (MARSOC) as well as U.S.
Navy SEAL operators took part in Flintlock 11, a
multination exercise that ran from Feb. 21 to March 11
in Senegal. During the exercise, Seapower spoke with
several participants in Senegal from MARSOC, which
allowed only last names to be used for this report, and
SEALs, who are not named.
In total, about 800 personnel were involved in Flint- key role in training African forces, noted Schmitt, oper-
lock, with special forces operators coming from the
United States, Canada, Spain, France, the Netherlands
and Germany. African special forces units and person-
nel came from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania,
Nigeria and Senegal.
“We are continuing to gain experience in Africa
through training such as this,” said MARSOC’s Capt.
region was conducted in the capital city of Dakar.
The tactical portion consisted of small-unit com-
bined training involving various counterterrorism
training and foster relations among the Trans-Saharan
nations through the U.S. government’s Trans-Sahara
Counterterrorism Partnership Program.
U.S. Army special forces Lt. Col. Chris Schmitt said
each of the Western special operations forces (SOF)
units brought a different way of doing things to the
Flintlock exercise but the focus for all personnel was to
“build capacity” among the African units being trained.
Both MARSOC and U.S. Navy SEALs have played a
ations officer for Joint Special Operations Task Force
Trans-Sahara, a command under SOC Africa.
“They bring their own experience from not only the
real-world missions they have taken part in, but from
their past interactions with forces in Africa,” he said.
Many of the African special forces units receiving
training from their Western counterparts during

12 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1

U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC) Corpsman “Doc” Lovvorne assesses the medical condition
of villagers in Senegal as part of Flintlock 11. The special forces exercise involved MARSOC and U.S. Navy SEALs
teaming up with other Western special forces units to train African troops.
Flintlock 11 either are engaged in battling al-Qaida in
the Islamic Maghreb, an al-Qaida “branch” operation
also known as AQIM, or combating drug or gun smug-
glers, who pose a transnational threat in the area.
Drug cartels have used the Sahara region as a route to
transport cocaine and other illegal drugs into Europe.
They also have reportedly provided money and weapons
to AQIM, which traces its roots back to the 1990s to
Islamic insurgents fighting the Algerian government.
Those insurgents have since become associated with al-
Qaida and branched out to conduct attacks in other coun-
tries in the region, as well as kidnapping Westerners.
In February, the Mauritanian military announced it had
killed three members of AQIM who had planned to attack
the French Embassy in that country. But AQIM released a
statement claiming that the team had a mission to assassi-
nate Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
In early January, the French government blamed AQIM
for the deaths of two Frenchmen who had been kidnapped
by gunmen in Niamey, Niger. Troops from Niger and
France had launched a rescue mission into Mali where the
men were being held, but that operation did not succeed.
Both MARSOC and the SEALs have had previous
engagements in Africa. MARSOC helped train forces
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E L AT I O N S
DAVID PUGLIESE
from Mali during Flintlock 10. SEALs also have pro-
vided training in Mali to special forces units there.
Schmitt said that for this Flintlock, MARSOC worked
with a special forces unit from Mauritania, known as CSI,
or Compagnie Speciale d’Intervention, while SEALs
assigned to SOC Africa helped advise special forces from
Chad and Nigeria. The Chadian unit is called PSI, while
Nigeria sent a special forces team called Counter Force.
“It’s more about assisting with their training,”
explained one U.S. Navy SEAL involved in Flintlock
11. “It’s a ‘train the trainer’ situation so they can sus-
tain training when they get home.”
The African special forces units brought varied lev-
els of experience to the exercise. Senegal was selected
as the host nation, with its special forces leading much
of the training, since its noncommissioned officer
corps is long established and well experienced.
The SEALs said the Nigerians were highly motivat-
ed and disciplined.
“As for the Chadians, they are by far a more combat
experienced, real-world organization,” said one Navy
SEAL assigned to SOC Africa. “They have trained with
SOF in the past. We’re here to reassess how far they’ve
come along.”
13
 I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E L AT I O N S
DAVID PUGLIESE
Marine Master Sgt. Peter Hart, right, confers with African military officers in the Multi-National Tactical Operations
Center at a Senegalese military base in Thies during Flintlock 11.
Part of the attraction of Flintlock, said various special
forces operators taking part in the exercise, was the abili-
ty to interact with African and Western special opera-
tions units.
”The Dutch have been with us in Chad,” said anoth-
er SEAL. “So you get to see what other groups bring to
the table. You exchange experiences.”
The SEALs will continue their training with the
Chadians and Nigerians in Chad in May.
Each African special forces unit taking part in
Flintlock 11 could select from a round-robin of various
skills to learn. Those ranged from urban raid to rural
attack to vehicle checkpoint procedures.
Each of the African units also held a Medical Civic
Action Program, or MEDCAP, where they conducted
key leader engagements — liaising with local village
representatives — and provided medical aid to local
populations. The idea behind the MEDCAPs is to get
African forces used to interacting and helping civilians,
who, in turn, could provide information on unusual
activities in their area.
“In essence, what you’re trying to do is get in with
the people, to build situational awareness,” said one
Navy SEAL.
The Mauritanians, along with their MARSOC advis-
ers, conducted their MEDCAP in the village of Tiba,
about 70 kilometers northeast of Thies.
A MARSOC medical specialist, working through an
interpreter, conducted an initial assessment of the
health needs for villagers, recommending various
treatments or prescriptions for their ailments.
Treatment was focused on ailments that could be dealt
14
with more immediately as opposed to those needing
long-term health care.
The African special forces units that received the
training had been preselected following U.S. State
Department guidelines. The key factor in the approval
process was that the units had to be involved in coun-
terterrorism operations or dealing with transnational
crimes such as countering drug smuggling.
For their part, MARSOC operators were able to train
with the Mauritanians for several weeks before the
Flintlock exercise got under way.
“It was a good way to build up trust and confidence
and get to know them,” added Sands, who is temporar-
ily assigned to SOC Africa.
MARSOC operators will continue to train with the CSI
to build on the skills learned at Flintlock 11, he added.
Sands said CSI is an experienced unit, and U.S. spe-
cial forces officers note that it led a successful attack on
AQIM last year.
“They’re doing well,” said Sands, referring to the
Flintlock 11 training. “They have a lot of experience.
They show a lot of enthusiasm, so it’s a pleasure to
train a force that shows that much enthusiasm.”
Working out the issues of interoperability among
various forces for Flintlock 11 fell to U.S. Marine
Corps Master Sgt. Peter Hart, who helped oversee the
exercise’s Multi-National Tactical Operations Center
(MTOC) at a Senegalese military base in Thies.
The 37-year-old from Camp Lejeune, N.C., said he
took his experience working in the Marine Corps’
combat operations center and adapted that for the
multinational units of Flintlock.
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E L AT I O N S
“It’s a challenge, at times, working together,” he ac-
knowledged. “Each nation has its own way of doing
things. It’s taking all their opinions and advising on
how they should proceed and come to some kind of
compromise.”
Hart said battle drills were designed for various
eventualities, such as medevacing an injured soldier or
searching for any troops who might get lost in the
inhospitable terrain of the Thies training area.
At first, the use of different communications equip-
ment among each of the nations participating also was
a large challenge, but personnel from various countries
quickly learned how to use each other’s communica-
tions assets, said Hart.
Participants in the MTOC also had a chance to get
comfortable using various types of computer equipment
during Flintlock 11, but for jobs such as monitoring the
movement of units on the battlefield or ammunition and
supply levels, manual methods involving writing such
information on display boards were used, Hart said.
The other challenge was to come up with one
Flintlock standard operating procedure, or SOP. Hart
16
said each unit brought with them good ideas on the
topic, none of which were wrong. From there he had
to negotiate a solution.
“It’s to come up not with a U.S., Malian or Canadian
SOP, but with a Flintlock SOP,” he said.
Schmitt said the contributions by the Marines and
U.S. Navy helped Flintlock 11 significantly. He noted
that Sands was in Mauritania for six months and had
participated in last year’s Flintlock.
“The fact that MARSOC is deploying one of their
rock stars for us for six months shows the importance
MARSOC places on SOC Africa’s mission,” Schmitt said.
He also praised the training the SEALs have been
providing to Nigerian and Chadian special forces.
“The great leaps in capability in both the Counter
Force and PSI can completely be traced to that train-
ing,” Schmitt added. ■
David Pugliese, a journalist with the Ottawa Citizen newspaper
and freelance writer who has been writing about military affairs
and the Canadian Armed Forces since 1982, covered Flintlock
11 from Senegal.
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E L AT I O N S
The China Threat
Defense officials weigh reports of emerging
weapon systems against improving U.S. capabilities
By OTTO KREISHER, Special Correspondent
Intriguing Developments
U.S. Navy officials are keeping a close eye on Beijing’s efforts to
develop high-technology military capabilities.
■ China may have achieved initial operational capability with its
DF-21D “carrier-killing” ballistic missile.
■ Vice Adm. David Dorsett says China’s J-20 stealth fighter is
“more of a paper airplane at this point than a real one.”
■ China is expected to begin sea trials with a “used, very old
Russian carrier” later this year, and to have indigenous carriers
become operational over the next decade.
ecent disclosures of emerging Chinese high-
R technology military capabilities have raised
concerns about the ability of U.S. forces —
particularly the Navy — to exert influence or to project
military power in Northeast Asia.
The alarm bells were sounded first in response to
the Dec. 28 statement by Adm. Robert F. Willard, com-
mander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, that China may have
achieved initial operational capability (IOC) with its
long-range anti-ship ballistic missiles.
The concerns were heightened in January with
Internet dissemination of photos of what was
described as a Chinese fifth-generation, stealthy fighter
similar to the U.S. Air Force’s F-22.
China also reportedly is close to beginning opera-
tions of its first aircraft carrier, while planning to build
more in the next decade.
The disclosures of weapons that potentially could
nullify America’s dominant naval and air power
reinforced earlier warnings that China’s development
of anti-access, area-denial, or A2/AD, capabilities
threatened the United States’ ability to protect its
vital interests or allies in China’s expanding zone of
influence.
18
The Center for Strategic and
Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), a
Washington think tank, highlight-
ed the concerns with a comprehen-
sive May 18 report warning that
China’s emerging A2/AD capabili-
ties “are threatening to make U.S.
power projection increasingly
risky and, in some cases and con-
texts, prohibitively costly.
“If this occurs, the United States
will find itself effectively locked
out” of a strategically vital area and
it would “leave longstanding U.S.
allies and partners vulnerable to
aggression,” the CSBA report said.
But Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has noted
that despite the $100 billion in internal “efficiencies”
and program terminations he announced Jan. 6, the
U.S. military is funding a number of programs that
would counter China’s A2/AD efforts.
And Vice Adm. David J. Dorsett, chief of naval intel-
ligence, has downplayed the threat from China’s
emerging weapon systems. He questioned the opera-
tional effectiveness of the DF-21D “carrier-killing” bal-
listic missile and pointed out that it would be a decade
or more before the supposedly stealthy J-20 fighter and
a Chinese carrier could be operational.
The dire predictions of Chinese military dominance
of a vast area of the Western Pacific also seem to over-
look existing and improving U.S. capabilities.
Gates reacted to the widely distributed photos of the
J-20 fighter during a flight to China in January, telling
reporters the fighter and the DF-21 missile “clearly
have the potential to put some of our capabilities at
risk, and we have to pay attention to them. We have to
respond appropriately with our own programs.”
The response included, Gates said, development of
a new Air Force long-range stealthy bomber and a new
generation of airborne electronic jammers that would
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1

An aircraft that is reported to be China’s J-20 stealth fighter is seen in
Chengdu, Sichuan province, Jan. 7 in a photo released by the Kyodo news
agency. China staged a first test flight of the jet Jan. 11 while U.S. Defense
Secretary Robert M. Gates was in Beijing.
improve the Navy’s ability to “fight and survive” in
contested waters. He had authorized both in his Jan. 6
fiscal 2012 budget preview.
The secretary also cited his continued support for
the multiservice F-35, which would bring a new gen-
eration of radar-evading stealth and greater range than
current fighters. And he noted that many aviation
experts questioned just how stealthy the new Chinese
fighter would be.
In his Jan. 6 Pentagon briefing, Gates also cited
increased funding for the Navy to develop what he la-
beled “a new generation of seaborne strike and surveil-
lance aircraft.” That program, which the Navy calls the
Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and
Strike System (UCLASS), would benefit from the ongo-
ing work on the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System
Demonstration (UCAS-D) program.
The Northrop Grumman-developed X-47B, which
looks like a small B-2, had its first test flight Feb. 4, a key
step toward planned carrier tests in 2013. A carrier-
based, stealthy, unmanned strike aircraft with a range
more than double that of the piloted F-35 could allow
the Navy to threaten an adversary despite the most
advanced defenses, defense officials said.
While Gates was stressing Pentagon responses to
any new Chinese capability, Dorsett was putting the
recent developments in perspective.
In a Jan. 5 session with defense writers in
Washington, Dorsett said that, as an intelligence pro-
fessional, he was “not alarmed” by China’s new sys-
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E L AT I O N S
tems, but conceded U.S. intelli-
gence consistently has underesti-
mated Beijing’s speed in develop-
ing new capabilities.
“I am intrigued by the develop-
ments. I am quite interested in the
quantities and different types of
technology that have been devel-
oped that we either didn’t expect
or we underestimated,” Dorsett
said. “I see a clear relationship be-
tween their economic capabilities
and their military buildup.
“So is it a surprise? No. Do we
need to refine our assessments bet-
ter? I think so.”
In questioning how soon the J-
REUTERS
20 might become operational,
Dorsett said “developing a stealth
capability with the prototype and
then integrating that into a combat
environment is going to take some
time. The stealth fighter is not
something that is a near-term issue
as far as the Navy is concerned. It’s more of a paper air-
plane at this point than a real one.”
Dorsett accepted Willard’s assessment that the DF-
21D had achieved IOC, as China tested it “over land a
sufficient number of times [proving] that the missile
system itself is truly competent and capable.”
The Chinese also had intelligence sensors that could
feed targeting data to the missile, so they probably
could start to employ it operationally, he said.
But Dorsett said the entire missile system had never
been tested over water, which raised “some questions
of how proficient they would be to fully employ that at
this point.”
Still, the intelligence chief acknowledged that the
technology demonstrated in the DF-21 system “has
increased their probability of being able to employ a
salvo of missiles to be able to hit a maneuvering tar-
get,” such as an aircraft carrier.
“How proficient they are, what that level of proba-
bility is, we don’t know. Frankly, I’m guessing that they
don’t know,” he said.
Although China has been rapidly expanding and mod-
ernizing its military capabilities, including its navy, Dorsett
questioned its ability “to become operationally proficient
in a joint warfighting, sophisticated combat environment.
… I don’t see China with those capabilities right now.”
But, he said, one of the things he is focusing on is “how
good are they at developing their operational proficiency
to manage across the spectrum of warfare? And that’s one
where I don’t want to get the assessment wrong.”
19
 I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E L AT I O N S
NORTHROP GRUMMAN

The Northrop Grumman-developed X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration aircraft makes its first test
flight Feb. 4 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. A carrier-based, stealthy, unmanned strike aircraft could allow the Navy
to threaten an adversary despite the most advanced defenses, according to U.S. defense officials.

And while Dorsett admitted he was “concerned”
about China’s possible anti-ship missile and stealth
fighter capabilities, “the technology that I’m most con-
cerned about is China’s focus and attention on trying
to develop capabilities to dominate in the electromag-
netic spectrum, to conduct counterspace capabilities
and clearly to conduct cyber activities.
“That’s a greater concern for me than some of the
other hardware-driven or kinetic associated capabili-
ties that they’re delivering,” said Dorsett, who is dual-
hatted as deputy chief of naval operations for informa-
tion dominance.
Dorsett declined to talk in detail about how the military
should respond to China’s emerging capabilities, but said,
“Like any advanced technology that’s developed for mili-
tary use around the globe, the U.S. Navy needs to develop
counters. We need to be innovative in that approach.”
And, he suggested, with the creation of the informa-
tion dominance office, Navy Cyber Command and
Tenth Fleet, “we’ve been able to look at a variety of
kinetic and non-kinetic solution sets to counter
advancing capabilities. And relative to advanced mis-
sile systems, we’re doing that as well.”
News sources have reported that the People’s Liberation
Army Navy (PLAN) appears to be close to putting to sea
its first aircraft carrier, the 50,000-ton, oil-burning ship
previously named Varyag, which it bought as a partly built
shell from Ukraine after the Soviet Union collapsed.
PLAN officials have said they plan to use the ship to
develop carrier operational capabilities while they
build additional carriers similar to Varyag, and then
more modern, 60,000-ton nuclear-powered flattops.
Meanwhile, Chinese pilots flying Russian-made Su-
33 fighters are training at a landing field constructed to
simulate a carrier deck.
Dorsett said he expected the Chinese to begin con-
ducting sea trials with the “used, very old Russian car-
rier” later this year and for the indigenous carriers to
become operational over the next decade.
“But by 2020, their aircraft carrier proficiency and
capability will be very limited,” because integrating new
aircraft into flight deck operations and then into battle

20 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E L AT I O N S
group operations “takes a fair amount of time,” he said.
And, he noted, the U.S. Navy has had more than 80
years of carrier experience.
The 11 operational U.S. carriers are all bigger,
nuclear powered and operate an integrated air wing of
strike, surveillance, anti-submarine warfare and sur-
face attack aircraft.
The concerns over China’s A2/AD capabilities pre-
date the DF-21 and J-20 developments as China has
turned its previously small, outdated, coastal-defense
navy into a sizable, modern fleet that is beginning to
show some extended “blue-water” capabilities. That
fleet includes at least 62 submarines, the Office of
Naval Intelligence reported recently.
China also has considerable capability to employ
sea mines, at least 1,000 short-range ballistic missiles
and is in the process of increasing their range, payload
and accuracy. Those capabilities can make naval oper-
ations close to the Chinese mainland challenging.
But Dorsett observed that China has yet to demon-
strate effective “out-of-area” operations by any sizable
naval force.
22
The U.S. Navy’s proven and expanding Aegis-based
missile defense capabilities and its advanced electronic
warfare systems also can help offset China’s growing
cruise and ballistic missile threat. Those capabilities
would be enhanced by the Next Generation Jammer,
the system Gates said in his Jan. 6 announcements he
would accelerate.
Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Raytheon and a
Boeing-ITT team are competing for the contract to pro-
duce the advanced jammer, which would go on the
Navy’s expanding force of EA-18G Growlers.
Another future Navy capability that could offset
A2/AD assets is the planned Long-Range Anti-Ship
Missile (LRASM), which could allow Navy ships and
aircraft to direct precision strikes against hostile ships
at ranges far beyond current missiles.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
has awarded Lockheed Martin a $218 million contract
to develop and test the LRASM, which will use a sen-
sor system from BAE Systems to find and hit targets
autonomously. The Navy hopes to field the missile
by 2013. ■
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
S P E C I A L R E P O R T / 2 0 1 2 U. S . D E F E N S E B U D G E T P R O P O S A L
Shipbuilding Gains
The Navy’s 2012 budget proposes
five additional ships over the next five years
By RICHARD R. BURGESS, Managing Editor
More for Less
The Navy expects efficiencies to enable procurement of more
capability.
■ Warship and aircraft procurement show near-term gains.
■ Savings are expected through several multiyear procurements.
■ The budget plan may mean a boom for maritime unmanned
aerial systems.
he Department of the Navy’s proposed fiscal
T 2012 budget, including current war funding,
seeks less than the 2011 request, but the service
stands to gain in ships and — at least in the short term
— aircraft in the Future Years Defense Plan (FYDP).
Navy officials said these gains were made possible,
despite the smaller budget request, in part because of
the service’s reductions — made under the guidance of
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates — of staff and other
overhead expenses. Nevertheless, the Navy is planning
some additional force structure cuts.
“We have been able to churn through our $35 bil-
lion in efficiencies and find the things we need and do
our part to be able to maintain the Department of
Defense’s part [in] … savings for the country,“ Rear
Adm. Joseph P. Mulloy, deputy assistant secretary of
the Navy for budget, said when briefing reporters at
the Pentagon Feb. 14 on the 2012 budget request.
The department has requested $161.4 billion for fiscal oilers operated by Military Sealift Command.
2012, plus another $15 billion in Overseas Contingency
Operations (OCO) funding, for a total of $176.4 billion.
This compares with $179.1 billion requested for 2011,
including $160.6 billion in the base budget and $18.5
billion in OCO funding.
The Navy is requesting $14.1 billion for 10 ships in
the 2012 ship construction budget, up from eight in ear-
lier planning: two Virginia-class attack submarines, one
24
Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile
destroyer (DDG), two Freedom-
and two Independence-class Littoral
Combat Ships, one San Antonio-
class amphibious transport dock
ship, one Mobile Landing Platform
(MLP) ship and one Fortitude-class
Joint High-Speed Vessel (JHSV).
This total does not include the addi-
tional JHSV requested for the Army
and an oceanographic survey ship
for the Navy that are funded in other
accounts.
The FYDP, which looks five years ahead, plans for
55 ships during the 2011-2016 period, up from 50
planned when the 2011 budget originally was pro-
posed. The actual execution of the 2011 budget, which
has not been approved by Congress, is stalled while the
U.S. government operates under a continuing resolu-
tion with funding maintained at fiscal 2010 levels.
The Navy plans to place DDGs under a multiyear
contract in 2013.
The FYDP calls for building 13, 11, 12 and nine
ships in the years 2013-2016, respectively. One MLP
was moved up from 2015 so three could be funded
sequentially, one per year, in 2011-2013. One T-AGOS
ocean surveillance ship will be added in 2013, one
DDG added in 2014 and the start of the T-AO(X)
tanker procurement would be accelerated to begin, at
one ship per year, in 2014. The T-AO(X) is the double-
hulled replacement for the Henry J. Kaiser-class fleet
The MLP was structured as “one ship every other year
— [fiscal] ’11, ’13 and ’15 — which is not an ideal con-
struction pattern,” Sean J. Stackley, assistant secretary of
the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, told
Seapower. “For the sake of efficiency and affordability of
procuring those ships, we tucked those up [into one per
year]. We simply did not have the room inside of our
topline to bring that future fleet oiler [inside] the FYDP.
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
U.S. NAVY
In its fiscal 2012 budget request, the Navy is seeking $14.1 billion for 10 ships in the ship construction budget, up from eight
in earlier planning, including two Virginia-class attack submarines. Here, the Virginia-class sub USS Hawaii enters Apra Harbor,
Guam, for a scheduled port visit Sept. 24. It was the first deployment of a Virginia-class boat to the western Pacific region.
[After deliberations] we were able to bring that in as a new
start on 2014 at a one-ship-per-year rate as well.
“These are both cases of meeting an existing require-
ment [and] looking for a more affordable construction
pattern. They happen to fit a sector of our auxiliary ship-
building industrial base that is in a bit of valley,” he said.
Mulloy said the Navy’s procurement accounts for
2012, at $45.8 billion, are $800 million less than those
requested for 2011 partially as a result of the service’s
efficiency efforts and the rest from changes in the F-35
Lightning II program.
In January, Gates put the Marine Corps’ F-35B pro-
gram on probation, giving it two years to solve the devel-
opment problems in the short-takeoff/vertical-landing
version of the strike fighter. In 2012, the Navy budget
requested six instead of 14 F-35Bs and only 50 over the
FYDP instead of the 115 previously planned.
For the Navy’s carrier-capable F-35C, 12 instead of
13 are requested for 2012, and over the FYDP the total
request drops from 74 to 72.
The F-35’s slowdown is a boon to Boeing’s F/A-
18E/F Super Hornet strike fighter program, which is
being increased as a hedge against delays in the F-35
program. The Navy is requesting 41 additional Super
Hornets, increasing from one in 2012 to 28, from 25 to
28 the next year and finally 11 in 2014. This ramped-
up production would be accommodated by Boeing
deferring half of the planned 2012 production of 24
EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft to 2013.
The E-2D Advanced Hawkeye program receives a
boost of one aircraft funded in the OCO budget, for a
total of six in 2012.
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
“With the permission of Congress, we’re going to
have a multiyear [E-2D contract] starting out in ’13 —
as we ramp into production of that important electron-
ic aircraft,” Mulloy said.
Following approval of low-rate production of the P-
8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft in August, the
Navy is increasing the number to purchase in 2012 by
two to 11, with the buy over the FYDP increasing by
seven to 92 aircraft by 2016.
The Navy still plans for five C-40A Clipper trans-
ports over the FYDP, but moved up the purchase of
three from 2015 to 2014. The budget request also plans
for the start of KC-130J production for the Navy’s logis-
tics squadrons one year earlier, in 2014, for a total of
three over the FYDP. Continued KC-130J production
for the Marine Corps will slow, with one in 2012 and a
total of nine over the FYDP, down from 15.
The Navy’s helicopter procurement remains strong as
it modernizes its force with MH-60R and MH-60S
Seahawks, with 24 and 18, respectively, slated for 2012.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were boosted sig-
nificantly with the increase of MQ-8B Fire Scout
unmanned helicopters from three to 18 in 2012, and a
total increase over the FYDP from 31 to 57. The MQ-4C
Global Hawk UAV — the Broad-Area Maritime Sur-
veillance system — begins procurement in 2013, with a
total of 15 planned by 2016.
The MQ-21 Integrator — the newly selected Small
Tactical UAS (unmanned aerial system) — will be pro-
cured in quantities of eight in 2012, with a total of 20
over the FYDP. The Medium-Range Maritime Unmanned
Aerial System, planned to operate from any air-capable
25
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ship, is scheduled to start in 2012 to
progress toward a 2019 initial oper-
ating capability.
Procurement of the Navy’s only
training aircraft in production, the
Hawker Beechcraft T-6B Texan II, is
being scaled back from 43 to 36 in
2012, and from 35 to 24 in 2013,
when production for the Navy is
scheduled to end.
Missile and torpedo procurement
shows a significant rise in 2012, to
3,356 instead of the previously
planned 2,704, but all of the increase
is in short-range air-to-ground mis- An E-2D Advanced Hawkeye assigned to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 20
siles such as the Hellfire, Viper Strike, makes its first carrier takeoff aboard USS Harry S. Truman in the Atlantic Feb.
Griffin and Advanced Precision-Kill 2. The Navy’s fiscal 2012 budget request includes funding for six of the aircraft.
Weapon System. Procurement of all
other types of missiles — except Tactical Tomahawk,
Trident and Evolved Sea Sparrow — and torpedoes will
decline in 2012 from the previous plan.
Production of Raytheon’s Standard SM-2 surface-to-
air missile was zeroed for 2012, and that of the new SM-
6 version was reduced. However, the move reflected a
shift in priorities that will enhance development of the
SM-6, one of the pillars of the Naval Integrated Fire
Control-Counter-Air concept of operations. Full-rate
production of the SM-6 is scheduled to begin in 2012.
“SM-2 was terminated as an efficiency; we had what
we needed there,” Mulloy said. “We wanted to focus
on the SM-6. There was a rephasing due to completing
where we stood in contracting, also as reviewed by
Defense Acquisition Board and validated. We’re now
on a ramp to complete the SM-6.”
The Navy Department’s $18 billion funding request for
research and development (R&D) in 2012 is up slightly,
from $17.8 billion for 2011. Significant planned expendi-
tures include $1.3 billion for the F-35 and $1.1 billion for
the next-generation ballistic-missile submarine (SSBNX).
R&D funding reflects a focus on the Unmanned
Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike
(UCLASS) System, with $121 million to start develop-
ment in 2012. Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval oper-
ations, is pressing for the fielding of the UCLASS by 2018.
Gates’ emphasis on next-generation electronic war-
fare systems is reflected in R&D funding increases in
the Next-Generation Jammer program (up $69 million
from the previous year, to $190 million) and Surface
Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (up $79
million from the 2011 request, to $158 million).
Some force-structure changes and reductions also are
planned in the 2012 budget. One of the most significant
is the plan to place one of the three maritime preposition-
ing squadrons into a reduced operating status. The
26
U.S. NAVY
squadrons, based in Guam, Diego Garcia and the
Mediterranean, will be restructured and one brought back
to the United States for its stand-down to a reduced oper-
ating status. Three Bob Hope-class large, medium-speed,
roll-on/roll-off ships will be modified at a total cost of $65
million to augment the prepositioning squadrons.
“We have made modifications over time to them and
use them for some theater security cooperation, but we’d
never actually studied a true business case of what sup-
ports our combatant commanders and what could actu-
ally go forward in supporting war,” Mulloy said.
“That [reduced operating status] squadron will be
ready to be broken out for exercises or for wartime
needs. So we have demonstrated, working with [U.S.
Transportation Command] and the Joint Staff, that we
can get all the equipment forward in the time neces-
sary for all the time-phased deployments but we can
still save over $300 million over the FYDP … by our
streamlining organizations and operations,” he said.
The Navy Air Reserve, which operates most of the
service’s organic logistics aircraft, stands to lose three
of its 15 fleet logistics squadrons and 17 transport air-
craft, including 10 C-9Bs, two C-20Gs and five UC-
12Bs, the latter of which are base flight aircraft at
reserve air stations. According to the 2012 budget doc-
ument, the “Navy can mitigate this risk until all C-40A
aircraft are operational.”
The Navy’s military personnel strength stood at
328,129 as of Feb. 11. The 2012 budget aims to reduce
the number to an end strength of 325,700 by 2012. Ap-
proximately 6,000 Sailors will be transferred from
shore billets to the operating forces. The Navy Reserve
is scheduled for a reduction from 66,200 to 63,300 per-
sonnel by 2014. The service plans to spend $46.6 bil-
lion on personnel in 2012, up from $45.1 billion
requested in 2011. ■
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‘Frugal Roots’
Marine Corps request reflects anticipation of tighter future defense budgets

By OTTO KREISHER, Special Correspondent

Gen. James F. Amos, the Marine

Needs Take Precedent Corps commandant, said the pro-
posed 2012 budget would allow
The fiscal 2012 budget request submitted to Congress Feb. 14
the Corps to remain an expedi-
seeks a total of $31.7 billion for the Marine Corps, which includes
tionary “middleweight force” able
$5.8 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations.
to respond quickly to crises or con-
■ Gen. James F. Amos, the Marine Corps commandant, said tingencies around the world, buy-
the budget would allow the Corps to remain an expeditionary ing time for U.S. officials to decide
“middleweight force.” on longer-term responses.
But the budget carries out Defense
■ As expected, the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle program would
Secretary Robert M. Gates’ decision
be terminated.
— supported by Amos — to termi-
■ The Corps’ top aviation program — the short-takeoff/vertical- nate the Expeditionary Fighting
landing F-35B Lightning II — would be slowed and a two-year Vehicle (EFV), which has been the
“probation” period imposed. Marines’ top ground system require-
ment for a decade, and to slow down
and impose a two-year “probation”
— with a threat of cancellation — on
he Marine Corps’ fiscal 2012 budget proposal the Corps’ top aviation program, the short-takeoff/vertical-

T is intended to fully support the troops in the

fight in Afghanistan, sustain the combat readi-
ness of the total force and take care of Marines and
landing (STOVL) F-35B Lightning II.
That and other program cancellations are part of
what Amos called a move to “get back to our frugal
their families, while making major changes in its two roots” in anticipation of leaner future defense budgets.
biggest procurement programs. In his budget presentation to Congress March 1,
The budget submitted Feb. 14 requests a total of Amos said the Corps “is not oblivious to the fiscal reali-
$31.7 billion for the Corps, which includes $5.8 billion ties confronting our nation,” and promised that it would
in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding “only ask for what it needs … not what it might want.”
to support the continuing engagement of more than The General Dynamics-built EFV, which was
22,000 Marines in Afghanistan. That total is up slightly intended to race across the sea at 30 knots to allow
from the $31 billion, including $5 billion for OCO, amphibious operations to be launched from a safe dis-
that was requested for the current year. tance off hostile shores, had fallen years behind sched-
That amount does not include billions of dollars in ule and soared to more than double the expected price,
Navy funds going into major aviation programs and making it too expensive to continue, Amos conceded.
other “blue support for green” funding. EFV development costs had reached $3 billion and
Congress, at press time March 15, had failed to it would have cost an estimated $12 billion more to
approve any appropriations bills for the current fiscal field the fleet of about 550 EFVs. The first EFV had
year and the government is running on a continuing res- been planned to be deployed in 2015.
olution that maintains fiscal 2010 funding levels. The On Feb. 18, the Marines issued a request for informa-
Marine Corps received a baseline total of $26.3 billion, tion from industry for an EFV replacement, which is
and $6.9 billion for OCO, in 2010. being called the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV),

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U.S. NAVY/LOCKHEED MARTIN
The Marine Corps’ 2012 budget request cuts the planned
procurement of the short-takeoff/vertical-landing F-35B
Lightning II in fiscal 2012 from 14 to six, and the five-year
total from 115 to 50, as the program restructures. Here,
an F-35B test aircraft completes its 100th flight with
Lockheed Martin test pilot David “Doc” Nelson at the con-
trols at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., Feb 26.
and proposals to further upgrade and extend the life of
the current tracked landing vehicles (amtracs), the
1970s vintage AAV-7s.
The Corps also will begin development of a new
ground combat vehicle, the Marine Personnel Carrier,
that will be managed in an integrated “tactical vehicle”
effort with the two amphibious vehicle programs.
The requested fiscal 2011 funds were expected to be
used for a limited continuation of the EFV program in an
effort to apply some of that technology to the ACV and
avoid the termination penalties. The fiscal 2012 budget
could provide some funds to begin preliminary develop-
ment of the new amtrac and for the AAV-7 life extension.
Budget officials estimated the ACV could be opera-
tional by 2024. But Amos insisted the Corps could not
wait that long and suggested that the new amtrac could
repeat the rapid procurement process used for the
Mine Resistant Armor Protected vehicles and be ready
much sooner.
The extension to 2016 of testing and development of
the STOVL version of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 was part
of a restructuring of the entire program due to continu-
ing technical challenges and delays in flight testing,
which were most severe for the F-35B. The budget
request cuts the planned procurement of F-35Bs in fiscal
2012 from 14 to six, with a total of 65 removed from the
five-year plan of 115.
The Marine Corps announced March 14 that it will
buy 80 of the carrier-based F-35C variants.
In other aviation programs, the 2012 budget would
buy 30 more MV-22 tiltrotor aircraft, 15 new UH-1Y
30
and 16 new or remanufactured AH-1Z helicopters, one
KC-130J air refueling transport and eight of the new
Small Tactical Unmanned Air System drones. It also
would provide $629 million for the CH-53K heavy-lift
helicopter program, with the first ground test and
engineering development models to be delivered in fis-
cal 2012 and first flight expected in fiscal 2013.
For ground programs, the budget would fund 45 new
Light Armored Vehicles, including five with OCO funds,
plus 57 survivability upgrades and four command-and-
control upgrades; additional Blue Force Tracker systems;
the Tactical Communications Modernization effort; and
M1A1 Abrams tank modification kits. It also would
support continued development of the Ground/Air Task
Oriented Radar, the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, the
follow-on to the Shoulder Mounted Assault Weapon, a
family of route clearance vehicles and associated equip-
ment, a family of expeditionary fuel systems and a family
of materiel-handling equipment.
Military construction and family housing would receive
$1.4 billion, which would pay for enlisted quarters at
Quantico, Va., and Camp Lejeune, N.C, and a fitness cen-
ter and child development center at Marine Corps Air-
Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif. That
account is down sharply from the fiscal 2010 budget of
$2.5 billion and the 2011 request of $2.8 billion, marking
the end of the “grow-the-force” construction.
Otherwise, the budget would support the current
authorized personnel levels of 202,100 in the active force
and 39,600 in the Marine Corps Reserves. But it envisions
a reduction of at least 15,000 active Marines after 2015, if
U.S. forces are being withdrawn from Afghanistan.
While the active force remained the same size, Amos
said he planned to add more personnel and resources to
Marine Corps Special Operations Command and Marine
Forces Cyber Command.
The budget also would continue the Navy
Department-wide program to reduce dependence on
fossil fuels by investing in solar, geothermal and wind
power technology; enhance efforts to better educate
Marines to succeed in future operations; “keep faith
with Marines and their families;” maintain the family
readiness program on a wartime footing; and continue
support for wounded warriors and their families,
Marine Corps headquarters said.
The total fiscal 2012 defense budget request of $671 bil-
lion and the total Navy-Marine share of $176.4 billion are
down from the current year’s request — $708 billion and
$179.1 billion, respectively — largely because of $41.5 bil-
lion less in OCO spending due to the nearly completed
withdrawal from Iraq. But even that lower amount is in
question as a demand for a sharp reduction in the overall
federal budget, particularly in the Republican-controlled
House, could include defense spending. ■
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Changing Course
Coast Guard budget plan provides ‘real substance’
arguments regarding replacing aging assets

By: JOHN C. MARCARIO, Assistant Editor

mission capable in the future; and it

Funding Recapitalization sustains frontline operations while
making targeted enhancements to
The Coast Guard’s fiscal 2012 budget request calls for increased
our nation’s maritime crisis preven-
funding for surface assets and personnel, an about-face from the
tion and response capacity and com-
spending plan proposed for fiscal 2011.
petencies.”
■ The budget request calls for building six Fast Response Cutters. In the acquisition budget request,
$642 million would be spent on sur-
■ Funds for the fifth National Security Cutter would be secured.
face assets, in particular building the
■ Four Maritime Safety and Security Teams would be saved fifth National Security Cutter (NSC)
from the budget ax. and increasing production of the
Fast Response Cutter (FRC).
The NSCs will replace the aging
Hamilton class of High Endurance
he Coast Guard’s fiscal 2012 budget request Cutters, while the FRCs will replace the 110-foot Island-

T calls for a 1.3 percent jump in overall funding

from the 2011 proposal, with $642 million
aimed at addressing an aging surface fleet where a
class Patrol Boat.
Under the original Deepwater Integrated Coast
Guard Systems recapitalization plan, unveiled in 2002,
majority of assets are more than 40 years old. the service intended to build eight NSCs.
The plan also would keep four Maritime Safety and Lockport, La.-based Bollinger Shipyards will build
Security Teams (MSSTs) off the chopping block. up to 34 FRCs under a contract that could be worth
The overall budget request for the Department of $1.5 billion if all options are exercised.
Homeland Security (DHS), under which the Coast Included in the $642 million surface asset request is
Guard falls, is $57 billion, including appropriations. funding for design work on the Offshore Patrol Cutter
This is up from the $56.3 billion fiscal 2011 request. and construction of 40 Response Boat-Mediums.
Funding for the Coast Guard within the DHS spend- The acquisition budget would provide $289.9 million
ing plan totals $10.34 billion. That represents a modest for air assets, including replacing one MH-60T Jayhawk
$133 million jump from the current continuing resolu- medium-range recovery helicopter that crashed in 2010
tion funding that is in place. Congress had not passed and building two HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft. The
a fiscal 2011 budget by press time March 15. plan also includes funds for service life extension work
The bulk of the Coast Guard budget request, $6.8 and component upgrades for eight HH-60 Jayhawks,
billion, will go toward operating expenses. Within along with sustainment and upgrades to the HH-65
that, a record $1.4 billion is being requested for acqui- Dolphin helicopter and HC-130H Hercules aircraft.
sition, construction, and infrastructure and equipment Part of the $115.5 million requested for maritime
improvements. safety and response would save the New Orleans, New
“The fiscal 2012 budget reflects the Coast Guard’s York, San Francisco and Kings Bay, Ga., MSSTs from
highest priority needs,” Cmdr. Jon Hickey, deputy chief being decommissioned. The service’s fiscal 2011 bud-
in the Coast Guard’s Office of Budget and Programs, told get request sought to save money by cutting those four
Seapower. “It advances our most critical recapitalization teams along with one in Anchorage, Alaska. That plan
programs to stem declining readiness and ensure we are was met with widespread criticism.

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Year of the Coast Guard Family,” and

that was reflected in the budget, with
$29 million requested to address
critical housing shortfalls and
improve access to affordable, quality
childcare.
“We are committed to providing
our Coast Guard families with the
best support possible,” Papp said
during his address.
The budget also reflects $92 mil-
U.S. COAST GUARD

lion in planned administration sav-

ings that are consistent with over-
arching DHS efforts to maximize
organizational efficiency.
“In fiscal 2012, the Coast Guard
Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr., left, and Master Chief
will leverage technology and re-
Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Michael P. Leavitt testify before the House
Transportation & Infrastructure subcommittee on Coast Guard and maritime
duce printing and publications, the
transportation about the service’s fiscal 2012 budget proposal March 1 at the shipment of goods, professional
Rayburn House Office Building in Washington. services contracts and nonopera-
tional travel,” Hickey said.
To support keeping the MSSTs and manning new cut- Unlike its fiscal 2011 budget request, the service made
ters, boats and aircraft that will be delivered in 2012, the no drastic cost-cutting decisions for 2012. Despite this,
budget is requesting an additional 774 active-duty billets. members of the House Transportation & Infrastructure
The request represents an about-face from the fiscal subcommittee on Coast Guard and maritime transporta-
2011 proposal, in which the service requested that tion argued during a March 1 budget hearing that the
1,112 active-duty billets be cut. spending plan was not aggressive enough to increase
“This budget is pretty good news for the Coast shipbuilding and job creation.
Guard in the current budget environment,” said Todd “The practical impacts of this budget request is that
Harrison, a Budget Studies fellow at the Washington- maritime will do less with less: less shipbuilding, slow-
based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. er recapitalization of Coast Guard assets and less
“If you look at other entities in the DoD [Department investment into the critical maritime infrastructure
of Defense] and federal government, an increased bud- that keeps our economy moving,” said Rep. Rick R.
get is not the trend. In fact, most of them are getting Larsen, D-Wash.
squeezed,” Harrison said. Other committee members questioned if the Coast
He said the service’s assistance during the BP Deep- Guard was building assets quickly enough.
water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last summer “The service continues to push off investments in the
could have played a large part in getting a slight budget acquisition of assets. The five-year Capital Improvement
bump. Given the record amount proposed for Coast Plan proposes a fantastic 66 percent increase in funding
Guard acquisition, “it sounds like their arguments are over the next three fiscal years,” said subcommittee
being heard and people feel there is real substance to Chairman Frank A. LoBiondo, R-N.J. “The service needs
them,” Harrison said. to stop burying its head in the sand and propose a fiscally
The polar icebreaker program also was addressed, sustainable, long-term capital acquisition plan.”
through a $39 million budget authority request. Funds Papp countered by saying, “I am continually remind-
would be used to support the operation and mainte- ing people I am dedicated to building these ships and I
nance of the advanced polar icebreaker Healy and con- am constantly reminded of how desperately we need
tinue operational reactivation of the heavy icebreaker these ships.”
Polar Star. The service plans to decommission Polar In an interview with Seapower March 4, Papp added,
Sea this fiscal year and have Polar Star operational by “If I put more money into the acquisition side, it comes
fiscal 2013. This will leave the service without a heavy- at the [expense of the] side of operation, so I am play-
duty icebreaker for nearly two years. ing a very delicate balancing act as we go forward to
During his “State of the Coast Guard” address at make sure we are getting optimal use out of the top-
Bolling Air Force Base in Washington Feb. 10, Com- line budget by sustaining our operations while build-
mandant Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr., declared 2011 “The ing things as quickly as we can.” ■

34 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
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Easing Fears
Coast Guard technologies continue to enhance port security capabilities

BY JOHN C. MARCARIO, Assistant Editor

deployed, for testing purposes,

Continued Development across the Coast Guard to help the
service better understand its full
The Coast Guard Research and Development Center is working
capability and mission execution.
on port technology projects that will assist in thwarting terrorism
The system, which uses commer-
as well as threats to the environment.
cially available components, pro-
■ The center is testing an underwater imaging system using high- vides an adaptation of high-
frequency sonar to create high-resolution images of piers, ports frequency sonar to create high-
and channel bottoms. It is expected to be sent to headquarters resolution images of piers, ports
for possible acquisition review this fiscal year. and channel bottoms, and aids in
detecting changes in the areas that
■ Another project is looking into how to improve point defense
might signal a security threat.
technology, protecting a specific location or building rather than
“The philosophy is trying to assess
an entire port, can be improved.
its performance in geographical loca-
■ The center also is evaluating emerging technology to support tions that represent northeast, south-
greater tracking reliability in dense port environments. east, the gulf, southwest and north-
west so that we can understand the
different types of geography on the
ocean floor, the port, water condi-
ommercial ships are getting larger, vessel traf- tions, clarity and impact of tidal flow,” McCready said.

C fic is increasing, the threat of terrorist activity

is ever present and budgets are shrinking, but
port security technology continues to advance as
mariners, the Coast Guard and law enforcement part-
ners strive to keep pace with change.
The Coast Guard Research and Development Center in
New London, Conn., is at the forefront of developing and
testing port technologies for the fleet. The center said it is globs of oil that had sunk to the ocean floor.
committed to not doing niche port security work, but
striving to get technology utilized to its full potential.
“Each project has a significant impact, but for differ-
ent reasons, and it’s hard to quantify any one as more
important based on the breadth of Coast Guard mis-
sions,” said Jack McCready, chief of the command,
control, communications, computers, intelligence, sur-
veillance and reconnaissance research branch at the
center. The service has been the lead federal agency for
port security since 9/11.
The underwater imaging system is the Research and
Development Center’s most mature project. It has been
As a result of the testing, an additional use for the
system was discovered while assisting in the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill cleanup in the Gulf of
Mexico last year. Originally deployed to help identify
and track oil along the ocean floor, the system was
found to be able to find oil particles that are too small
for the naked eye to see. It also was able to notice large
“In the broad sense of the port security, this device
is starting to find multiple uses,” McCready said.
The center will continue collecting data on the sys-
tem until the end of this fiscal year to precisely quan-
tify how well it works. Once testing is finished, the
center will transition the project to Coast Guard
Headquarters in Washington to make a final determi-
nation of how to proceed.
Another project, the sensor management system, is
in the early stages of testing and is very software and
algorithm dependent. The project is an adaptation of
command-and-control technologies with information

36 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
MARITIME SECURITY
management systems to expand the use and integra-
tion of different sensor types to produce a coherent
port picture.
Testing began on the information management side
and has since moved to the sensor management portion.
McCready said a number of interested parties — from
government to academia to industry — are watching this
project closely. It is scheduled to be completed by 2012.
A third project, the automated scene understanding
(ASU), uses an advanced algorithm to aid in the pre-
diction of anomalistic behavior of vessels in a dense
port environment. Testing has shown that the ASU can
track and understand what a vessel is doing once it
enters the port, but the software has trouble reading
other variables such as tide movement, weather and
port restrictions.
The ASU is intended to generate composite tracks of
vessels using sensing technologies. It also would gen-
erate alerts to the port watchstander based on analysis-
defined vessel activity. It provides an application pro-
gram interface that alerts the watchstander of the prob-
ability of what a vessel can do.
“Testing will continue until we can provide a realistic
and defensible expectation of what this system can do,”
McCready said, adding that he expects to provide head-
quarters with an updated report by the end of this year.
Expansion of blue force tracking is another port
security project that the center has been working on
for more than a year. Its goal is to evaluate emerging
technology to support greater reliability of tracking in
dense port environments with respect to geoposition-
ing and timely reporting. Blue force is a military term
to describe “good guys,” such as the Coast Guard, and
red is used to describe the enemy or threat.
The center currently is ranking how effective blue
force technologies are, based on requirements given by
the Coast Guard. The ranking system will determine
what is tested in the field.
The center is working on a handful of other port secu-
rity projects that are in the early stages of testing and not
expected to make an impact in the fleet for at least a year.
Recently, it was asked to study issues associated with
point defense — a term used to described a specific loca-
tion or building rather than the entire port.
It also is updating a study that was conducted in
2005 to examine the types of port infrastructure that
would be needed along the North Slope in Alaska, as
well as enhanced detection and location technology for
tracking distress calls.
Port Security Concerns
As budget belts tighten, ports are facing longer waits to
get the latest advances to address their specific traffic
and security concerns.
38
U.S. COAST GUARD
Coast Guard crews work with vessel of opportunity oper-
ators from Dauphin Island and Bayou La Batre, La., to
conduct sub-surface oil surveillance testing in the south-
western corner of Mobile Bay, Ala., Aug. 26 as part of the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill response. The Coast Guard
Research and Development Center deployed its underwa-
ter imaging system in the Gulf of Mexico during the spill
cleanup to help identify and track oil along the ocean floor.
Capt. James Whitehead, deputy sector commander
of Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston, Texas,
thought he would have the WatchKeeper system next
year. That has been pushed back at his port, possibly to
2016, because of lack of funds for the project.
WatchKeeper is a Web-based application developed by
the Coast Guard to layer and synthesize operational intel-
ligence to improve collaboration, information dissemina-
tion and case execution. The Coast Guard has been
upgrading sectors with WatchKeeper for more than a year.
Whitehead said his primary concern is the chemical
and petrol facilities in his ports. The area he is responsible
for has 27 percent of the refining capabilities in the U.S.
“The implications of something happening could be
huge,” Whitehead said.
Around 588 ships transit the port per day, and that
number could rise once the Panama Canal extension is
completed in 2014.
The Port of Miami is trying to capitalize on the
extension by dredging about 50 feet deeper so larger
ships can enter. The $150 million project secured
enough state and local funding in March to proceed
and the dredging is expected to be finished when the
extension is completed.
A deeper port would allow a container ship with
8,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) aboard to
enter the port compared with the maximum of about
4,000 TEU now. Miami already is the eighth busiest port
in the country, with a large volume of container ship traf-
fic and around 8 million passengers — a majority of
those from the active cruise ship industry — passing
through per year.
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U.S. COAST GUARD
The Royal Caribbean cruise ship Oasis of the Seas enters Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., under the escort of
Coast Guard Station Fort Lauderdale boat crews Nov. 13, 2009. Crowded ports, the mix of cruise ship and commercial
ship traffic, and the difficulty in monitoring container vessel cargo have heightened port security and safety concerns.
“Cruise ships are an attractive target for any type of
vulnerability that we look at from a port security safety
perspective,” said Capt. Christopher P. Scraba, Coast
Guard Sector Miami commander.
The port currently is ranked the safest in Florida due
in large part to the Computer Based Assessment Tool
(CBAT) it uses. CBAT, according to the Department of
Homeland Security website, is a multiplatform software
tool that blends a 360-degree geospherical video with
geospatial and hypermedia data of facilities, surround-
ing areas, travel routes and other areas of interest to cre-
ate an interactive video guide of a selected location.
“In the post-9/11 environment, it’s no longer safety
of the ports. Its safety, security and protection of the
ports,” Scraba said.
A main concern for mariners continues to be main-
taining the flow of commerce and traffic while ensur-
ing safety, security and protection, both for ports and
vessels, said Rick Naccara, president of Los Angeles-
based Patriot Maritime Compliance LLC, which pro-
vides security requirement consulting services for ship
and facility owners.
He said port fears have relaxed since extensive reg-
ulatory requirements, such as increased credentialing
and more port security personnel, went into place
after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but the biggest threat
40
remains container traffic because it is the most diffi-
cult to monitor.
“We are in better shape than most countries, but at
the same time there’s an awful lot of containers that
come in every day and an awful lot of ships that come
in every week that we are relying on our intelligence
services and shippers on the other side of the ocean
[attesting] that they are taking the proper steps to
ensure the safety of the cargo,” Naccara said.
Another homeland security expert believes there is
only so much help advanced port technology can provide.
“The best way to make a port secure is to make the mar-
itime space as secure as possible. You can do reasonable
security things at the ports, but that’s about it,” said James
Carafano of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation.
“Situational awareness is always good. Credentialing
things are fine. Other than that, you spend a lot of money
on technologies that I think have limited utility.”
He believes an attack on a foreign port that is a
major shipper to the United States would do more
harm than an attack on a U.S. port.
“Maritime is a thing where a system is only as strong
as its weakest link and I think a lot of the time, if we
are actually going to invest in security and capacity
building, we would be better off thinking about foreign
parts than our own ports,” Carafano said. ■
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
MARITIME SECURITY
Expanding Their Reach
Pirates become more brazen in attacks on marine traffic
By JOHN C. MARCARIO, Assistant Editor
Crime Pays
Success off the coast of Somalia has emboldened pirates to ply
their criminal trade further from shore into the Indian Ocean, with
increasingly deadly results.
■ As of March 14, there were 28 vessels and 587 crew members
being held hostage by pirates.
■ Four hostages have been killed so far this year.
■ The average ransom paid to pirates is $5.4 million.
.S. military and maritime experts agree that
U the use of security teams on ships could
become a game changer as pirates demand
higher ransoms and grow more aggressive.
Oil tankers, yachts, fishing vessels and commercial
ships have been targeted in recent months as pirates
expand their reach in the Indian Ocean using various
types of mother ships.
As pirate activity in that region increases, attacks in billion per year when factoring in ransom payments,
the Gulf of Aden have dropped by about 50 percent since
the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, Fifth Fleet and
Combined Maritime Forces stood up a multinational
anti-piracy effort known as Combined Task Force 151
more than two years ago. NATO and European Union
commands also have joined the effort, committing more
than 40 ships to counterpiracy activities.
The area threatened by pirates now encompasses
nearly 2 million square miles in the Indian Ocean and
Red Sea, where naval patrols are not as present.
“Unfortunately, because of the vast area which they
are threatening, it is becoming increasingly more diffi-
cult for the naval assets to be available at every given
place at any given moment in time. This is giving more
advantages to the pirates, who have the flexibility to
attack anywhere,” said Cyrus Mody, manager of the
London-based International Maritime Bureau (IMB).
42
As of March 14, there were 28
vessels and 587 crew members
being held hostage by pirates.
During the last 14 months, pirate
attacks, ransoms and the amount of
time hostages are held captive have
soared. According to the IMB annual
piracy report, released in January,
there were a record 445 pirate
attacks in 2010, an increase of 8 per-
cent from the previous year. Ransom
demands, which averaged $150,000
in 2005, soared to $5.4 million last
year. Hostage negotiations that once
took a few weeks now take an average of six months.
“The level of stress a seafarer goes through when
traveling through this area — and if they are captured
— is extreme,” Mody said.
A report released in December by the Boulder,
Colo.-based nonprofit nongovernmental organization
One Earth Future, “The Economic Cost of Maritime
Piracy,” estimated that piracy is costing upwards of $12
insurance premiums, the rerouting of ships, ship secu-
rity, use of naval forces, prosecutions, piracy-deterrent
organizations and impact on regional economies.
Impoverished and relatively lawless Somalia contin-
ues to be the primary home base for pirates. It is esti-
mated that 43 percent of the country lives in poverty.
The average Somali earns around $500 per year,
whereas the average Somalia pirate can make thousands
from one hijacking, according Coast Guard Rear Adm.
Paul Zukunft, assistant commandant for Maritime Safety,
Security and Stewardship.
During a piracy briefing at The National Press Club
in Washington March 8, Zukunft said tracing exactly
where the money goes, and how much each pirate
makes, is difficult because ransoms are paid in cash.
He estimates there are 1,200 active pirates in the
world.
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
 MARITIME SECURITY
U.S. NAVY

A rigid hull inflatable boat from the guided-missile destroyer USS Bulkeley approaches the Japanese-owned oil tanker
M/V Guanabara, at left, March 6 off the coast of Oman after Bulkeley responded to the reported pirating of Guanabara
and detained four suspected pirates. Guanabara had 24 crew members aboard. The Turkish Navy frigate TCG Giresun,
assigned to NATO counterpiracy Task Force 508, is in the background.

“This is currently a business for the Somali pirate,
and going out and [capturing a ship or hostages] is
about money,” Mody said.
Maritime experts are paying close attention to how
effective the pirates can be as they move further off the
coast of Somalia.
“The pirates are becoming victims of their own suc-
cess in that they are moving away from the narrowly
confined areas of the Gulf of Aden and they are going
deep into the Indian Ocean,” said, Stephen Caldwell,
Government Accountability Office director of maritime
security and Coast Guard issues. “This is also making it
harder for the navies involved because, as with any
navy, they are more effective in a narrow area but they
become less effective when the search area gets bigger.”
He noted that widening the area poses difficulties
for the pirates as well, because it is not as easy to find
ships to attack in the open sea.
There has been widespread public outcry to commit
more resources to the area, but that becomes difficult
because no one is tracking exact numbers on the cost
of operations.
“They don’t know, and until someone tries to get
some idea of what it costs, it’s hard to determine how
much money could be added to help the relief efforts,”
Caldwell said.
He said there is little to deter the pirates today.
Pirates rarely faced serious punishment if captured,
but that is starting to change.
In February, Abduwali Abukhadir Muse, a Somali
pirate involved in the 2009 hijacking of the MV Maersk
Alabama in which three other suspects were killed by
Navy snipers during the rescue of the ship’s captain
Richard Phillips, was sentenced to 34 years in prison
by a U.S. federal court judge.
On March 9, the 13 Somalis and one Yemeni detained
after the killing of four Americans aboard the private
yacht Quest in February off the coast of Oman were
indicted by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk. The suspected
pirates appeared at the federal courthouse in Norfolk
before a U.S. magistrate to hear the charges, according to
a Reuters report. They were charged with piracy, con-
spiracy to commit kidnapping and the use of firearms
during a crime, according to the indictment.
Reacting to that threat, pirates have declared pub-
licly they will kill hostages before being captured by
U.S. forces and sent to trial.
In response to an interview request from Seapower,
Norfolk, Va.-based Maersk Line Ltd. (MLL) issued the
following statement: “The safety and security of our
mariners remains our top priority. We recognize that pira-
cy is a persistent and evolving threat with no single solu-
tion. MLL continues to work with the Coast Guard, Navy,

S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1 43
MARITIME SECURITY

State Department, Department of

Homeland Security, the U.K.
Maritime Trade Operations, the
Maritime Security Centre-Horn of
Africa, international and U.S. mar-
itime industry groups to develop,
share and implement best manage-
ment practices to keep our mariners
safe. MLL continuously evaluates
and invests in the latest technologies
and physical [vessel] hardening to
establish layered defenses to thwart
piracy attempts.”
For U.S. seafarers, a reassess-

U.S. NAVY
ment is taking place on how to
thwart a pirate attack, with more
consideration being given to the use
of lethal force. Sailors assigned to the visit, board, search and seizure team and Coast Guardsmen
assigned to the Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment Team embarked
“We are looking at a more aggres-
aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain conduct a counterpiracy
sive approach to defending the ship operations brief Jan. 1 in the Arabian Sea. Lake Champlain is deployed with Com-
against piracy,” said George Quick, bined Task Force 151, supporting maritime security operations and theater securi-
vice president of the International ty cooperation efforts in the U.S. Fifth Fleet area of responsibility.
Organization of Masters, Mates and
Pilots (IOMMP). “The rules of engagement these ships “Ship owners see very little else they can do to pro-
have been using are not working and there is a greater tect their vessel because of the inability of the navies,
emphasis to putting armed security forces on ships and due to a lack of resources, and sometimes rules of
actively defending them.” engagement, to take the punitive actions which are
The Linthicum Heights, Md.-based IOMMP works required for it to have the true deterrent effect,” said
to secure and protect the rights and working condi- Pottengal Mukundan, director of the IMB Commercial
tions of its members and those who work in the seago- Crime Services.
ing maritime industry. Ransom demands are rising because when a vessel is
Ships with security teams onboard have yet to be taken, ship owners have very little direct support from
hijacked, according to Coast Guard Commandant governments or the military to rescue the vessel and its
Adm. Robert J. Papp, Jr. crew from Somalia. They also have no help from the
“The pirates pretty much back down once they are Somali authorities.
confronted with people with weapons onboard the “There is no way to counter this trend easily. So in
ships. We believe security teams are beneficial to the these circumstances, the options to them are very lim-
security procedures over there,” Papp told Seapower. ited and the upward trend of the ransoms is going to
The U.S. Navy has led the international counterpiracy continue,” Mukundan said.
response, but the Coast Guard has provided assistance “Seafarers do not go to sea to constantly be placed
with law enforcement personnel and attorneys. The serv- under such circumstances,” he said.
ice has people trained in processing a crime scene and Mukundan offered two possible solutions to the
prosecuting suspected pirates who are captured. The problem.
Coast Guard also is responsible for the safety of U.S.-flag “What needs to be done is, on the one hand, deal
shipping in the area and is tasked with establishing rules with the pirates at sea very robustly, employing the
and safety protocols for those shippers. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1950 [that
Papp said security teams have a track record of suc- authorizes states to intervene in acts of piracy by Somali
cess, but their presence could increase the risk of pirates pirates] to its fullest extent, taking action against those
arming themselves with more than small arms. He also boats and persons suspected of being involved in piracy,
said speeding up a vessel, using evasive maneuvering and and at the same time to be seen to be taking action
putting barbed wire on ships has helped prevent attacks. ashore in Somalia to provide some help in building
“You are never going to be able to provide enough Navy infrastructure so that the people in this area do not have
forces to cover that entire area, so the shipping companies to go out to sea to commit these horrendous crimes [to
themselves have to take on best practices,” Papp said. make a living],” he said. ■

44 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
MISSILE DEFENSE

Aegis Advances
Planned incremental upgrades keep the shipboard combat system current

By RICHARD R. BURGESS, Managing Editor

had been implemented as needed

Building Capability on the Aegis system along its pro-
gram life. The ACB approach is for
The Advanced Capability Build 12 upgrade will blend open archi-
a planned set of upgrades every
tecture with a fully integrated ballistic-missile defense capability
two years in ships that are pro-
on Aegis ships.
grammed for modernization.
■ Newer destroyers will feature integrated S- and X-band radars. While the ACB primarily involves
software upgrades, a technology
■ Twenty-eight Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and nine
insertion (TI) of underlying hard-
Ticonderoga-class cruisers ultimately will have the ability to shoot
ware infrastructure is planned for
down ballistic missiles.
every four years.
■ Aegis shore sites in Europe will be based on ACB12. ACB08, along with TI08, intro-
duced open-architecture Aegis sys-
tems into cruisers, with hardware
separated from software and using
he Navy is putting the next version of the ship- commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) processors. The

T board Aegis Combat System rapidly through

its three design reviews this year, with plans to
install the modernization, known as Advanced
Capability Build 12 (ACB12), beginning in fiscal 2012.
ACB12 will fully integrate air defense with ballistic-
missile defense in the Aegis system and lay the ground-
work to ultimately equip 28 Arleigh Burke-class
destroyers and nine Ticonderoga-class cruisers with
the ability to shoot down ballistic missiles.
The Aegis Combat System integrates the sensors,
weapons, fire-control systems, displays and tactical
data links of a ship into one highly responsive system
with many automated features.
ACB12 succeeds ACB08, an Aegis upgrade intro-
duced in 2008 that is proving itself on its first shipboard
deployment. ACB12 also will be the configuration of the
ballistic-missile defense (BMD) sites being built in
Europe under a program called Aegis Ashore.
Further ACBs and a new generation of air and mis-
sile defense radars are in the works to keep Aegis apace
with evolving threats.
The Navy is in the midst of executing ACB08, the
first ACB incremental upgrade to the Aegis system.
Upgrades known as baselines, up through Baseline 7,
cruiser USS Bunker Hill is the first ship to deploy with
ACB08. USS Mobile Bay and USS Philippine Sea also
have been so modified, with four more cruisers
planned for the ACB08 modernization.
“Feedback from all ships has been very positive,”
Capt. Jon Hill, integrated combat systems program
manager in the Navy’s program executive office for
integrated warfare systems, said in a written response
to Seapower. “As a matter of fact, after the first day of
underway demos on the USS Philippine Sea back in
December, Commodore [Perry] Bingham said, ‘Day 1
has gone better than I anticipated; demos have gone
well with no big issues. [Aegis] performed perfectly;
the system is a dream to operate.’”
Beginning in 2012, ACB12 will be installed on 14
cruisers and the first 28 Arleigh Burke destroyers.
ACB12 will provide “a refresh to the ACB 08 comput-
ing suite to address COTS availability as well as inte-
grating the Common Processing System and Common
Display System, increasing battle-space visibility and
engagement opportunities by introducing SM-6 [mis-
siles] and [Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air],
and, on the Aegis destroyers, significantly enhance[d]
signal processing through the new Multi-Mission

46 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
MISSILE DEFENSE

“The approximate development

cost of ACB12 is $1.4 billion, which
does not include procurement of
equipment or installation,” Hill said.
The first ships to receive ACB12
will be the cruiser USS Chancellors-
ville and destroyer USS John Paul
Jones. ACB12 also will serve as the
foundational program for the restart
of construction of the Arleigh Burke
class, beginning with the 63rd ship,
DDG 113.
“When we bring John Paul Jones
in for the combat system moderniza-
tion availability in 2012, all of the
old Mil[itary]-standard equipment
will be pulled off the ship and be
replaced with COTS-based system as
well as the new Multi-Mission Signal
Processor,” Sheridan said. “On top of
that, infrastructure will ride the

U.S. NAVY
ACB-12 computer program. Within
that computer program will be the
BMD 5.0 capability.”
The guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill departs Naval Station San Diego for a
scheduled deployment Nov. 30. The ship is the first to deploy with the Advanced
The BMD 5.0 capability is the
Capability Build (ACB) 08 upgrade to the Aegis Combat System. The Navy plans open-architecture follow-on software
to begin installing the next Aegis modernization, ACB12, beginning in fiscal 2012. to the BMD 4.01 program, the sec-
ond generation of Aegis BMD soft-
Signal Processor for the radar and integrated air and ware currently installed on the cruiser USS Lake Erie.
ballistic-missile defense capability,” Hill said. BMD 4.01 “introduced the ballistic-missile defense
The Multi-Mission Signal Processor will not initially signal processor, which is the precursor to the Multi-
be installed on the 14 cruisers receiving ACB12. Nine Mission Signal Processor” of BMD 5.0, said Steve
— CGs 65 through 73 — eventually will receive the Bucci, director of BMD programs for Lockheed Martin.
processor with its BMD capability beginning in 2014 The periodic ACB updates make it easier for Aegis
with ACB14, Hill said. to be modified to keep up with potential threats.
“Ultimately, the Navy plans to upgrade all Aegis “From an Aegis BMD perspective, because of the
destroyers and nine Aegis cruisers to have a BMD capa- proliferation and upgrades going on in the ballistic
bility,” he said. missile world, we have a process in place to [update
“ACB12 [also] initiates a common computer pro- the capability] on a periodic basis, depending on how
gram library for Aegis and brings in the first third-party complex the changes required,” Bucci said. “We work
developed software element — Track Manager/Track with the Missile Defense Agency and the Navy on
Server” — according to the Navy Program Guide 2011. where they would like us to go from a capability per-
“Future ACBs will continue to bring new capabilities to spective, and we keep a forward-looking approach so
existing ships in a single package [as opposed to] the that we’re pacing ahead of the threat.”
legacy method of installing capability improvements ACB12 also will be the basis for the first shore-based
through multiple, individualized deliveries.” operational Aegis sites, to be built under the order of
“ACB12 is a very significant program,” said Jim Sheri- President Barack Obama to establish BMD sites in
dan, director of U.S. Navy Aegis programs for Lockheed Europe, called the Phased Adaptive Approach, or Aegis
Martin Mission Systems and Sensors. “It’s the first time Ashore. Two sites will be built, one in Romania and the
we’re going to be introducing an integrated air- and mis- other in Poland.
sile-defense capability onboard the Aegis fleet. Aegis, obvi- Aegis Ashore will have the same BMD capability as
ously, has BMD capability as well as an [anti-air warfare] DDG 113, Hill said, and will have a communications
capability, but ACB12 balances those capabilities and max- capability, including tactical data links, similar to those
imizes the radar resources available to those ships.” of an Aegis ship.

48 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
MISSILE DEFENSE
“There will be some modifications that we make to
the ACB-12 core to adapt it for the land-based applica-
tion for Aegis Ashore,” Bucci said.
He added that the Aegis Ashore installations could
be redeployed to other locations if necessary.
“If something got hot in another area, one of the
tenets within Aegis Ashore is that it can be relocated
within a certain amount of time, the idea being that if
the threat changes in the future, perhaps one of the
sites in Europe could be relocated to another area of
the world or another country within Europe as the
threat evolves,” Bucci said.
The shore sites, scheduled to reach initial opera-
tional capability in 2015, will control Standard SM-3
Blocks IB, IIA and IIB missiles. The watch stations will
be manned by U.S. Navy personnel.
The Navy and three industry teams led by Lockheed
Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are in the
technology demonstration phase of developing the
follow-on to the S-band SPY-1 radar, the primary sensor
system of Aegis. The Air and Missile Defense Radar
(AMDR) program is working on a new S-band radar to
replace the SPY-1 and a radar suite controller to integrate
an X-band radar that will be selected at a later date.
Each contractor will produce a small-scale S-band
radar prototype. The AMDR will be integrated into the
50
Aegis systems of Flight III Arleigh Burke destroyers,
Hill said.
Sheridan noted that that would begin with DDG
122, giving the destroyers both an S-band and X-band
capability. S-band radars are optimized for volume
search; X-band radars provide more precise track infor-
mation for targeting.
Aegis has been designed, built and modified by
Lockheed Martin since the program began in De-
cember 1969, with the first deployment onboard the
cruiser USS Ticonderoga in 1983.
However, when addressing an audience at the
Surface Navy Association in Arlington, Va., Jan. 11,
Rear Adm. Frank C. Pandolfe, director of surface war-
fare in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, said
that Aegis is one of the programs being considered for
opening to competition in order to achieve the highest
quality and efficiencies. That would mean Lockheed
Martin would have to compete to remain the Aegis
prime contractor.
When asked to comment on the potential competi-
tion, Hill said, “The Aegis PSEA [Platform System
Engineering Agent] competition is purposely geared
toward identifying highest quality, cost savings, effi-
ciencies and process improvements in order to provide
the best value to the Navy.” ■
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
THE FLEET

A Leap Forward
Navy upgrades surface ship electronic defense against future threats

By RICHARD R. BURGESS, Managing Editor

The original SLQ-32, designed

Tipping Point by Raytheon Co., was introduced
in the 1980s as a warning system
The Navy is fielding a new generation of shipboard electronic
primarily against incoming anti-
warfare capabilities.
ship cruise missiles. Some versions
■ Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program Block 2 also have a jamming capability.
upgrades will be tested in 2012. In 1996, the Advanced Inte-
grated Electronic Warfare System
■ Future blocks will upgrade jamming capabilities.
program was begun to replace the
■ Defeating missiles with tri-mode seekers will be a focus of later SLQ-32, but was canceled in 2002
upgrades. because of delays and cost. The
SEWIP program was created to
introduce a series of upgrades to
the SLQ-32. General Dynamics was
s part of its renewed focus on electronic war- selected as the contractor for SEWIP Block 1, which

A fare capabilities, the Navy is planning further

upgrades in its primary surface ship electron-
ic surveillance and jamming systems, the SLQ-32.
was introduced in phases.
Block 1A dealt with obsolescence issues, particular-
ly since some processors were no longer in produc-
As it prepares for the introduction of Block 2 of its tion. Block 1B1 involved upgrades to meet evolving
Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program threats. Block 1B2 added a Specific Emitter Identifi-
(SEWIP), a phased approach to upgrade the SLQ-32, cation capability, enabling the operator to identify the
the Navy is developing the concepts for Blocks 3 and 4 type of threat.
of the SEWIP upgrades. Blocks 1A, 1B1 and 1B2 reached full-rate produc-
“The Navy has had a resurgence in the [electronic tion and are being fielded, Cmdr. Theodore Zobel, the
warfare] mission area, specifically,” said Rear Adm. Sean principal assistant program manager for electronic
R. Filipowski, director of cyber, sensors and electronic warfare for the program executive officer for integrat-
warfare in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. ed warfare systems, said in a written response to ques-
“We’ve begun to recapitalize our capabilities fleet-wide. tions. As of early March, approximately 65 Block 1A,
Technology today is exploding all around us and there 40 Block 1B1 and 10 Block 1B2 systems had been
are huge leaps in technological capabilities that could be fielded.
turned into weapons systems. Block 1B3, for which Lockheed Martin is a major
“SLQ-32 has been around a long time and it served subcontractor, adds High Gain/High Sensitivity to the
us well,” Filipowski said. “Much like the ALQ-99 SLQ-32 and is in contractor testing. It is scheduled to
[jamming system on the EA-6B aircraft], it’s reached a enter low-rate initial production in October.
tipping point where our ability to upgrade it has been SEWIP Block 2, for which Lockheed Martin is prime
surpassed by technology leaps as well as potential contractor, represents “a technological leap forward, and
threats. The transition to the [SEWIP] — a block positions the Navy to continue to stay ahead of the
approach designed to take advantage of rapid technol- threats as they’re coming down the pike,” said Joe
ogy increases in our capability — has proven to be Ottaviano, SEWIP program director for Lockheed Martin
very effective.” Mission Systems and Sensors in Syracuse, N.Y.

52 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
 THE FLEET

Block 2 — for which many

details are classified — includes a
new antenna and receiver group. It
takes the SLQ-32 to the next level,
Ottaviano said.
“The SEWIP sensor, itself, is the
first sensor to be built around the
Navy’s new product line architec-
ture, which really puts all the data
available to anybody on the ship
who wants to use it. As the combat
systems upgrades happen, they’ll
be able to take advantage of this
new data. They will be integrated
and the integration will continue
to improve,” he said.
Block 2 will integrate the SLQ-
32 with the Aegis Combat System
and the Ship Self-Defense System
in the Navy’s warships.
The Navy conducted a critical de-
sign review for SEWIP 2 on Feb. 24,
which was judged successful.
Lockheed Martin will build two
engineering and manufacturing de-
velopment models for the Navy in

LOCKHEED MARTIN PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

fall 2012. The Navy will test them at
its Wallops Island facility in Virginia.
The ship selected to test the
Block 2 will be an Arleigh Burke-
class guided-missile destroyer,
Ottaviano said.
Low-rate initial production is
scheduled to begin in late 2012 or
early 2013, with delivery of the
first three production units in
2014. These three units are sched-
Under the Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program, the SLQ-32 surface
uled for installation on the first
ship electronic surveillance and jamming system is receiving a phased series of up-
two Zumwalt-class guided-missile grades to match both technology advances and increasingly sophisticated threats.
destroyers and the aircraft carrier Soon to be introduced, the program’s Block 2 will integrate the SLQ-32 with the
Gerald R. Ford. Aegis Combat System and the Ship Self-Defense System in the Navy’s warships.
The initial operational capabili-
ty date of Block 2 is classified, Zobel said, but he noted Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, speaking to re-
that “system installations are planned for 2013/2014.” porters on Jan. 6, announced the department’s plans to
Block 2 will be installed on the Navy’s older war- re-invest funds saved from reducing overhead costs
ships as they go through upkeep periods. toward developing next-generation electronic warfare
Lockheed was awarded a $9.9 million contract in capabilities. When he rolled out the department’s
2009 for the design phase of the SEWIP Block 2 pro- 2012 budget request on Feb. 14, he allocated $158
gram. Following a preliminary design review last June, million for SEWIP, an increase of $79 million over the
the company was awarded a $51.2 million develop- 2011 request.
ment contract through the critical design review and The Lockheed Martin SEWIP Block 2 team includes
the production of two engineering models. Combined Cobham Sensor Systems, Lansdale, Pa.; Mercury
with production options, the total since the prelimi- Computers, Chelmsford, Mass.; and Linear Photonics,
nary design review may reach $167 million. Hamilton, N.J.

S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1 53
THE FLEET
As Block 2 — which is a passive sensor upgrade —
matures, the Navy is planning for the next two SEWIP
upgrades to the SLQ-32.
“SEWIP Block 3 is envisioned to provide electronic
attack [jamming] upgrades to SLQ-32 systems, with de-
velopment beginning in approximately 2012,” Zobel said.
“SEWIP Block 4 is a placeholder for additional SLQ-32 up-
grades, for example in [electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR)].”
“Block 4 [involves] electro-optical/infrared distractions,
a countermeasures approach,” Ottaviano said. “There are
54
EO/IR countermeasures out there, but this one will take
it to the next level in distraction and deception type
capabilities.”
One of the goals of Block 4 will be to defeat missiles
with tri-mode seeker heads, which can switch back
and forth between modes — electro-optical, infrared
and millimeter microwave — to avoid jamming and
lock on the targeted ship.
“This is about fighting and winning the electromag-
netic spectrum, ultimately,” Filipowski said. “We want
to have systems that are upgrade-
able from a technology perspective
— tech refresh — and capabilities
that allow us to provide for tech
insertion should an urgent capabil-
ity be needed, something that we
can do very quickly, not just grad-
ually over time. We have to have
the ability to change our capabili-
ties on the fly to meet the mission
demands that are placed upon us.
“Integration is certainly a very
big obstacle we have to overcome
as we integrate new technology
with older technology and ensure
that it’s compliant and can be
worked in both worlds,” he said.
“Even beyond that, the growth, the
explosion of the technology, has
meant that we are quickly outpac-
ing ourselves with technology at a
very iterative rate.”
“The tough part will be keeping
up with the technology explosion,
because as technology continues to
mature and advance, potential
threats will similarly advance in all
the same ways. For us to be able to
pace that, keeping up with the
technology is going to be essential
to our overall success,” he said.
“We need to be able to operate
at a time and place of our choos-
ing, but not necessarily under the
circumstances of our choosing,”
Filipowski added. “If we have
ships or airplanes that have to be
able to move very quickly from one
theater to the next, we also need to
be able to change the parameters
by which they operate on the fly so
they could be just as successful in
one environment, in one theater, as
they were in the other.” ■
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Launcher of the Future
Next-generation carrier catapult EMALS
pushes past setbacks, launches first Super Hornet
By DANIEL P. TAYLOR, Special Correspondent
An Evolution in Operations
The Electromagnetic Launch and Recovery System (EMALS)
launched an F/A-18E using advanced computer control, system
monitoring and automation.
■ Dead-load testing will continue while aircraft launch data is
analyzed.
■ Follow-on launch testing will include T-45 and C-2 aircraft later
this year.
■ The Navy expects to save many millions of dollars per carrier
due to EMALS design.
ost overruns, schedule delays and even a
C mechanical mishap had been the story for
many months for the Electromagnetic
Launch and Recovery System (EMALS) meant to re-
place steam aircraft catapults on next-generation carri-
ers. But the program lately took a major step forward
with the first launch of an F/A-18E Super Hornet.
The woes of the EMALS system — built by General
Atomics — prompted former Rep. Gene Taylor, D-
Miss., then-head of a powerful House Armed Services
subcommittee, to express concern last year that it
would not be ready in time for the launch of a new
class of Gerald Ford-class supercarriers later this
decade, making the massive ships capable only of
deploying helicopters. And in January 2010, the sys-
tem suffered a mishap when the shuttle was command-
ed to move forward about 10 meters but instead went
backwards and slammed into the catapult’s deck ten-
sioner, causing some damage.
Eager to get beyond those events, program officials
see the Dec. 18 launch at Naval Air Engineering Station [Goshawk jet trainer] and C-2 [Greyhound cargo] air-
Lakehurst, N.J., as a major milestone.
Capt. James Donnelly, Navy aircraft launch and
recovery equipment (ALRE) program manager, said in
56
an e-mail to Seapower that the
team conducted four successful
launches of the Super Hornet, call-
ing it a “tremendous achievement
not just for the ALRE team, but for
the entire Navy.
“The launch demonstrated an
evolution in carrier flight deck
operations using advanced com-
puter control, system monitoring
and automation for tomorrow’s
carrier air wings,” he added.
The program is in the midst of
analyzing the data those launches
produced, and will continue to per-
form dead-load and component test-
ing, he said. The program for months before the launch
had been conducting hundreds of dead-load tests, which
is when the system launches a load equivalent to that of
an aircraft without actually putting an aircraft into the sky.
“The purpose of dead-load launching is to test the equi-
valent weights, energy and speed required for the launch
of these Navy aircraft,” Donnelly said. “The weights range
from 7,000 to 100,000 pounds and approximately 3,600
dead-load launches are planned during the system devel-
opment and demonstration (SDD) phase of the program.
“The dead-load testing will provide the necessary
data to conduct testing on every aircraft in the inven-
tory during aircraft compatibility testing,” he added.
“Four hundred aircraft launches are planned during
the SDD phase.”
The program will go back to dead-load testing for
the time being before it starts getting into even more
aircraft launches featuring platforms other than the
Super Hornet later this year.
“Follow-on launch testing will include T-45
craft later this year, when the necessary data for safety
of flight allows,” Donnelly said. “There are 63 to 65
launches planned for each type of aircraft.”
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
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This will be the company’s “big-

gest year of deliveries to the carrier,”
he said.
The Navy chose General
Atomics as prime contractor for
the program in 2000. Last summer,
the company signed a $676.2 mil-
lion fixed-price contract with the
Navy to produce EMALS, putting it
on the hook for any cost overruns

U.S. NAVY
or schedule delays.
Although EMALS will be
launching a variety of different
An F/A-18E Super Hornet prepares to launch during a test of the Electro-
magnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) at Naval Air Engineering Station, platforms, Forney said the fact that
Lakehurst, N.J., Dec. 18. EMALS was a carrier-based launch system designed the system has been developing the
for Gerald R. Ford-class carriers. envelope for all of the aircraft
means that it will not matter which
EMALS will replace legacy steam-powered catapults aircraft is being launched.
in use aboard carriers today. While the mission and func- “We have done dead-loads for airplanes that don’t
tion of EMALS remains the same, Donnelly said, the exist today,” he said. “[EMALS is] designed for opera-
EMALS uses entirely different technology: stored kinetic tions 50 years into the future.”
energy and solid-state electrical power conversion. EMALS would account for different aircraft auto-
“This technology permits a high degree of computer matically. Operators would only need to enter the size
control, monitoring and automation,” he said. “In addi- of the plane, the weight and the speed they want to
tion, EMALS uses feedback control to provide accurate have the system account for all those factors.
end-speed control and compensate for any errors in air- “We don’t have to make any mechanical adjust-
craft launch weight or loss of aircraft thrust.” ments,” Forney said. “It’s all done in a computer.”
An electromagnetic field propels the catapult shuttle A major benefit of EMALS is cost reduction due to
attached to a metal plate on rollers down the track at the lower manning and maintenance required. Forney said
necessary speed for takeoff. It is a modular system sup- the Navy expects to save many millions of dollars per
ported by four independent power trains, which means carrier due to the design.
that if a power train fails, the three remaining can provide Addressing the early problems the company faced
enough energy to complete the catapult launch cycle, with the system, Forney said EMALS had a unique and
improving the system’s reliability over steam catapults. ambitious schedule, and there were some growing
An installed ship set will have four catapult launch- pains as a result.
ing systems. “This is a significant new system,” he said. “I don’t
“The Navy expects the system to take up only half of think that anybody thought this was going to be easy
the space of a steam catapult and also offer a reduction in getting through the test phase.”
total ownership costs by requiring only about half the He said the mechanical malfunction last year looked
maintenance of the legacy system,” according to Donnelly. worse than it actually was, noting that “since then,
“The system provides better control of the launch we’ve actually had very good success.”
forces, as well as wear and tear on carrier-based aircraft,” As far as lessons learned, Forney said it would have
he said. “It will provide the capability for launching all been nice if EMALS had gotten into the test program
current and future carrier wing platforms — lightweight earlier so there was not so much concurrency with the
unmanned to heavy strike fighters.” ship production schedule.
Scott Forney, San Diego-based General Atomics’ elec- “We were just challenged because of the new hard-
tromagnetic systems division vice president, said the com- ware,” he said. “The bottom line is we had to make
pany is working on updating software and preparing to get production decisions before we fully tested the system.
back into testing. The company also will deliver a “signif- … Most programs wouldn’t be this far along and
icant amount” of EMALS hardware to Gerald R. Ford, the already be building production hardware.
first carrier that will use the system around 2015. “We were just challenged early on,” he added. “A lot
“The challenge, of course, has been building hardware of folks focus on the visible test program, [but] the pro-
while qualifying the system,” Forney said. “But there duction program has been going on very well the last
have been very few modifications to the hardware.” few years. There is nothing behind schedule.” ■

S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1 57
THE FLEET

Eye in the Sky

BAMS program gears up for some major milestones this year

By DANIEL P. TAYLOR, Special Correspondent

“As far as significant achieve-

Surveillance Advances ments with hardware, we did have
a first fuselage that started in the
The Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) drone will make up
September timeframe and is now
one part of the Navy’s sea-based airborne surveillance triad,
complete and shipped to Palmdale,
along with the P-8A and the future replacement for the EP-3.
[Calif.,] on March 11,” Dishman
■ The program has been operating two BAMS-D demonstrator said, noting that was about four
aircraft — modified Block 10 RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned aer- days ahead of schedule.
ial vehicles from the Air Force — in the Middle East since 2009. The drone will fly for the first
time this summer.
■ Lessons learned from flying BAMS-D have been integrated
One of the major benefits of
into the program.
BAMS is the 360-degree radar it
■ The program schedule calls for fielding BAMS in 2015. will bring to the fleet.
“We radiated the multifunction
active sensor, the highest risk of
the program, for the first time [in
s the P-8A Poseidon, the next generation in February],” he said. “That system continues on track.

A manned airborne maritime surveillance for

the Navy, continues its flight testing, the air-
craft’s essential partner — an unmanned aerial system
known as the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance
(BAMS) drone — has quietly passed a major milestone
that saw its first fuselage being built.
Navy officials have said in recent months that they
are moving away from land-based drones in favor of
unmanned aerial systems (UAS) that can be deployed
from ships, with one exception: the Northrop
Grumman-built BAMS. What the aircraft lacks in expe-
ditionary ability it more than makes up for in its range,
endurance and persistent surveillance of the oceans
using a 360-degree radar. BAMS-D can fly for more
than 30 hours with a range of 10,500 nautical miles.
BAMS will make up one part of the sea-based air-
borne surveillance triad, along with the P-8A and the
future replacement for the EP-3 electronic reconnais-
sance aircraft in service today.
The program currently is “on cost and on schedule”
for a 2015 fielding after passing a critical design review said. “They are getting the P-8. … They have expressed
in February, according to Capt. Bob Dishman, BAMS
program manager.
We put it on a surrogate airplane, a Gulfstream 2, in
the fall and did flight test events … to further help
characterize the radar performance.”
The program has its share of interest from internation-
al partners. BAMS officials, including Dishman, were in
Australia in early March talking with officials about that
country’s plans to replace the P-3C Orion aircraft with P-
8s, and how BAMS might fit in with the Royal Australian
Navy’s maritime UAS program.
“Australia is highly involved with the BAMS program
during source selection,” Dishman said. “We gave them
unprecedented access during source selection.”
There are obvious benefits of BAMS “for an island
nation like Australia interested in quite a bit of ocean,”
he said.
Indian officials also have expressed interest in the
capability, as that nation also has a wide amount of
ocean to cover and is buying P-8s.
“Northrop did meet with them in India just prior to
the Australian Air Show [in early March],” Dishman
interest in an unmanned system and responded favor-
ably, [although there is] not anything formalized.”

58 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
THE FLEET
NORTHROP GRUMMAN
As it waits for the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS)
drone to take shape, the Navy has been testing two modified
Block 10 RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles from
the Air Force as demonstrator aircraft. The BAMS program
currently is “on cost and on schedule” for a 2015 fielding.
The program has been operating two demonstrator
aircraft (BAMS-D) — modified Block 10 RQ-4A Global
Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles from the Air Force —
in shifts for U.S. Central Command in the Middle East
since 2009. With their side-looking directional radar
that a crew only can point at a specific area, the BAMS-
D aircraft have narrower range than the final product
will. However, the Navy has found the aircraft to be
enormously helpful, Dishman said.
“[BAMS-D] provides over 50 percent of maritime
ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance],
frees up maritime assets such as the P-3 to do land
activities and continues to be very successful opera-
tionally,” Dishman said.
“I think the BAMS demonstrator has shown the
Navy what a very long endurance high-altitude system
can do for them,” he said. “If they love the BAMS
demonstrator, they’re really going to love the BAMS air-
craft,” Steve Enewold, Northrop vice president for the
BAMS program, told Seapower.
60
The Navy awarded Northrop an 89-month, $1.16
billion contract for system development and demon-
stration of BAMS in April 2008.
Dishman said the lessons learned from flying BAMS-D
have been integrated into the program. It has been so
successful, he said he is looking to augment the two
existing demonstrators with as many as seven more
Global Hawks.
“We’re continuing to discuss that with the Air Force,”
he said.
The partnership with the Air Force does not end
there. Last year, the Navy and Air Force signed a mem-
orandum of agreement to develop the BAMS and
Global Hawk programs side by side.
“We offered to leverage the investment the Navy has
made in our ground station to meet their needs,”
Dishman said. “We are certainly working closely with
the Air Force.”
Enewold said that applies to operating both aircraft
in the field as well.
“I think any time you can share infrastructure and
not redo things it saves money, which is good for
everybody,” he said.
Ever since the Navy announced the cancelation of
the EPX replacement program last year, many have
speculated that the spy plane need would be filled by
an existing capability modified to have a signals intel-
ligence (SIGINT) payload. Dishman did not rule out
the BAMS aircraft as a possibility.
“We are continuing to work that,” he said. “The Navy’s
overarching SIGINT plan as far as the capability on the
current manned EP-3 — how the Navy’s going to work
that in the future, how much is retained on a future
manned capability — a lot of that is to be determined yet.
“That was the initial proposal for Northrop: a capa-
bility for SIGINT carried in pods,” he added, noting
though that the requirement had not yet been set in
stone and “we’re focused on Increment 1 [of BAMS].”
Enewold said Northrop has “thought about” pitch-
ing BAMS for the EPX capability.
“I think the Navy is going to figure out exactly what
set of signals they want to use,” he said. “The signals
that you want to go after determines what hardware
solution you might get. But the BAMS airplane has
wing hard points on it that could conceivably put some
kind of podded SIGINT payload in, or an internally
mounted capability that the Air Force is using, so
there’s a whole multitude of solutions.”
For now, however, the program is focused on the
next big milestone, which is a test readiness review in
the late summer, Enewold said.
“That’s really the milestone where we get everybody
together and make sure we’re ready to go into full inte-
gration system testing,” he said. ■
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
THE FLEET

Reporting for Duty

As the Navy wrangles over VXX, Marine One keeps on flying

By DANIEL P. TAYLOR, Special Correspondent

sustaining the Marine One fleet in

Care and Upkeep fiscal 2012, and about $50 million
each year until fiscal 2016, and then
With no replacement aircraft on the horizon, the Department of
another $152.8 million beyond
Defense must keep the current Marine One fleet of presidential
that, according to the proposal.
helicopters in the air.
The DoD may need more than
■ Naval Air Systems Command is working closely with Marine that. The Marines had hoped to
Helicopter Squadron One and industry partners to sustain these field Lockheed Martin’s VH-71
aircraft beyond 2020. Kestrel later this decade, but cost
overruns and delays created major
■ The service life assessment program involves evaluating the
headaches for the Navy, and the
airframe and its components, which informs the service life exten-
program did not endear itself to
sion program.
the current president. In February
■ The special progressive aircraft rework process addresses the 2009, President Barack Obama said
refinishing and refurbishing of the aircraft at specific flight hour the VH-71 was a prime example of
intervals. a military program “gone amok,”
and directed Defense Secretary
Robert M. Gates to conduct a thor-
ough review.
or nearly 30 years, the Marine Corps’ fleet of Obama said the legacy fleet of VH-3D and VH-60N

F 19 VH-3 and VH-60 platforms has been trans-

porting the president of the United States to
wherever he needed to go. With plans to replace these
aircraft now uncertain, the VH-3 and VH-60 will have
to stay on the job perhaps a decade or longer.
The helicopters have built up a long and storied his-
tory. VH-3Ds, based on the Sikorsky-built SH-3 Sea
King, were first delivered to Marine One in 1974, the
year then-President Richard Nixon resigned, as a
replacement to the VH-3A airframes that preceded it.
The VH-60N Whitehawk, a variant of Sikorsky’s H-60
Hawk series, started replacing Bell Helicopter’s VH-
1Ns in 1989, as Ronald Reagan left office and George
H.W. Bush entered the White House.
The Defense Department (DoD) released its proposal
for the fiscal 2012 budget in February, and in it the Navy mail response to questions. “While these aircraft continue
has said that it will cost about $400 million for an air- to provide seamless vertical lift for the president and vice
craft life-management plan to keep the presidential hel-
icopters flying until the service figures out a replace-
ment. The Navy plans to spend about $58 million on
helicopters seemed “perfectly adequate” to him. The
Navy killed the program just a few months later and
used the funds on the legacy presidential helicopter
fleet. Now, the follow-on program has been simply
dubbed VXX, but the service has a ways to go before it
even defines a platform to fill that role, let alone set a
date for it to enter the fleet.
Fortunately for the Navy, the legacy program has
continued to do its job in providing short-range presi-
dential transport without incident. Despite the age of
the aircraft, it has been business as usual for Marine
One, said Dave Wooten, presidential helicopter pro-
gram manager.
“VH-3D and VH-60N are safely performing the presi-
dential helicopter lift mission worldwide,” he said in an e-
president of the United States, heads of state and other offi-
cial parties, acquisition professionals at [Naval Air Systems
Command (NAVAIR)] are working closely with HMX-1

62 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
THE FLEET

[Marine Helicopter Squadron One]

and industry partners to sustain
these aircraft beyond 2020.”
Upcoming milestones for the
program include a comprehensive
service life assessment that will help
develop the requirements to keep
the airframes aloft until the Marines
figure out the VXX question, and
when that follow-on platform will
achieve full operational capability
(FOC). The service life assessment
program, or SLAP, involves evaluat-
ing the airframe and its components
to see what it will take to get extra
life out of the aircraft. The SLAP

U.S. NAVY
then informs the service life exten-
sion program, or SLEP, which is
when the program actually seeks to
take measures to extend the air- A U.S. Marine waits for the family of former President George W. Bush to
board a Marine Corps VH-3 helicopter from the presidential helicopter fleet for
craft’s service life.
their departure at the U.S. Capitol east front in Washington Jan. 20, 2009, fol-
The program will be able to lowing the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Marine Helicopter
keep the helicopters flying for so Squadron One maintains a fleet of 19 VH-3 and VH-60 platforms to transport
long because they have been “me- the president and vice president, heads of state and other official parties.
ticulously maintained and contin-
uously upgraded via the special progressive aircraft VH-60N [will not] continue to execute the mission
rework (SPAR) process over their entire service lives,” safely until the replacement presidential helicopter
Wooten said. fleet achieves FOC.”
“The SPAR process addresses the refinishing and Sikorsky was unable to respond to a request for
refurbishing of the aircraft at specific flight hour inter- comment by press time March 15.
vals,” he said. “This work ensures aircraft structural Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at the
integrity and repairs, as well as overhauls of major Teal Group who specializes in commercial and military
components, incorporates NAVAIR-approved technical aircraft, said it is perfectly reasonable to expect that the
directives, and applies paint and interior upholstery program can keep the aircraft flying safely and meeting
items that comply with White House Military Office mission requirements.
appearance standards.” “You have to do more frequent checks of systems
He said this “detailed, extensive attention,” along with and the airplane,” he said. “It’s not a question of
the SLAP, will enable the helicopters to stick around until impossible, it’s a question of sustainment.”
the replacement presidential helicopter arrives. However, he said that lost in the discussion of VXX
About two or three VH-3D and VH-60N aircraft from and complaints about VH-71 is how much it will cost
the fleet of 19 go through the SPAR process every year. to keep the legacy presidential helicopter fleet flying.
“All aircraft are inducted at a not-to-exceed specific “No one was at all focused on the mounting costs of
flight hour interval, which is balanced by the presiden- sustaining a legacy system,” he said. “There are a cou-
tial requirements as well as other factors,” Wooten said. ple of issues. One deals with an aging system. Then
Sikorsky received a $17.7 million contract in October there is the parts manufacturing base, which is inher-
for the VH-3D and VH-60N aircraft rework effort. ently very expensive producing legacy parts for a plat-
“Sikorsky is currently performing the VH-3D/VH- form with a very small user group. Then, of course,
60N SLAP study,” Wooten said. “At this time, we you have to have a very secure supply chain, so that’s
expect contract award for the VH-3D/VH-60N service expensive, too.”
life extension program at the end of [fiscal 2011].” Not knowing when a follow-on platform will mate-
As to whether it is a major problem for the program rialize does not help the cost issue, Aboulafia added.
to not know when VXX will arrive, and thus not know “We don’t have a firm sunset,” he said. “When you
how long the current fleet will have to be extended, don’t have a firm sunset, you have to keep things going
Wooten said there is “no concern that the VH-3D and and going.” ■

64 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
 INTERVIEW

A Watchful Eye
The Navy Department’s acquisition chief squeezes ships out of savings

As assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and

acquisition, Sean J. Stackley oversees the procurement of ships, air-
craft, vehicles, and other platforms and warfare systems for the Navy
and Marine Corps, supported by a work force of more than 100,000
people and funded by a budget of more than $50 billion annually.

Stackley’s career path has well prepared him for his current responsi-
bilities of equipping the Navy and Marine Corps with what they need to
carry out their roles in national defense and foreign policy. After service
aboard a destroyer as a surface warfare officer, he became an engi-
neering duty officer and served in a series of industrial, fleet, program
office and headquarters assignments in ship design and construction,
maintenance, logistics and acquisition policy. These assignments includ-
ed production officer for the destroyer USS Arleigh Burke and naval
architect for the Canadian patrol frigate HMCS Halifax, both first-of-
LISA NIPP

class projects, which led to his role as program manager for the San
Antonio-class dock landing ships from 2001-2005.

Prior to his current assignment, Stackley served as a professional

staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he oversaw Navy and Marine Corps pro-
grams for what is now the seapower and projection forces subcommittee.

Since assuming office in July 2008, Stackley has grappled with daunting acquisition issues made all the
more challenging by a constrained fiscal environment. He discussed these issues with Managing Editor
Richard R. Burgess. Excerpts follow:

What concerns do you have about the health
of the U.S. shipbuilding industry?
STACKLEY: We have to keep a mindful eye on our
shipbuilding industrial base constantly. Our ship-
builders are a unique and strategic national asset,
[with] unique capacities, unique capabilities, a unique
skilled work force both in terms of design and produc-
tion. The same holds true for many of the vendors who
support shipbuilding in terms of combat systems and
hull, mechanical and electrical systems.
The reality is that for the last 20 years, our rate of
ship construction has been below an efficient level for
our industrial base. As a result, we have been encum-
bered with added costs, and elements of our shipbuild-
ing industrial base have been in jeopardy of financial
survival or viability. That has been a factor as we build
our shipbuilding plan, to keep an eye on the industrial
base and watch for critical signs where we’re at risk or
at jeopardy of losing critical elements.
As you look at [Program Objective Memorandum
(POM) 12], we have increased our shipbuilding rates
on the nuclear side. We’re at one to two submarines
per year. Our carrier plan is very stable. For major
[surface] combatants, it gets more challenging.
As we restart the DDG 51 program, for example, we’ve
added a DDG 51 in the FYDP [Future Years Defense

66 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1

Plan], which provides a specific benefit to our surface
combatant builders. And we’ve developed the auxiliaries
with the Mobile Landing Platform [MLP] and the T-
AO(X) [new fleet oiler] as examples of where our ability
to invest in those ship classes has an additional benefit to
a critical part of our industrial base.
So it’s a constant effort to balance our workload with
our requirements with our budget and keep our indus-
trial base healthy to meet our near-term and long-term
requirements.
What can the shipbuilding industry do to help
the Navy with its procurement issues?
STACKLEY : One of our objectives in structuring a ship-
building program is to provide stability to the industry.
We recognize that the volume industry would like is not
the volume they’re seeing in the shipbuilding program.
Step one is to understand that our shipbuilding plan
is our shipbuilding plan and we collectively need to
ensure that we’re sized and shaped — we being the
industrial base with the Navy — appropriately so that
those ships and that plan can be built most efficiently.
We’re spending a lot of time studying the causes for
cost growth in shipbuilding. Much of that derives from
the fact that we are in a relatively low-rate production
environment compared to a couple of decades ago
when our major shipyards were sized.
What we had to work [out] together is how to man-
age through such considerations as [the] overhead,
capital investments and indirect labor that supports
the production labor in order to reduce unnecessary
costs. The other key aspect is the supply chain. The
shipyards manage a very expensive supply chain in the
production of our ships. As we look at controlling
costs, half that cost comes through material and mate-
rial management. So it’s not a simple matter of just
improving production and performance, but looking at
all costs and determining how we can attack the costs
across the board so that we can build more ships.
What concerns does the department have with
Northrop Grumman spinning off its shipbuilding
sector?
STACKLEY : We are very closely engaged with
Northrop Grumman evaluating their proposed spinout
of their shipbuilding sector. There is not a future Navy
that does not involve those shipyards, so it’s extremely
important to us that, if they get spun out, they are in a
strong financial position to be able to execute our cur-
rent contracts as well as our future shipbuilding con-
tracts, both in terms of the nuclear work that is
uniquely performed at Newport News [Va.,] and the
surface combatant and amphibious shipbuilding pro-
grams on the Gulf Coast.
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
INTERVIEW
What was the rationale of accelerating the pur-
chase of the T-AO(X) and the MLP in the 2012
budget proposal and FYDP?
STACKLEY : First, shipbuilding is a priority within our
budget. When all the puts and takes were taking place
throughout the budget process, we kept it foremost in
terms of where we wanted to invest. Whereas there is
a lot of discussion about budget cuts, we were able to
identify opportunities through efficiency initiatives to
increase our investments in shipbuilding.
We took a look at where we needed to increase our
investments. First, the MLP was structured in [2011]
as one ship every other year — ’11, ’13 and ’15 —
which is not an ideal construction pattern. For the
sake of efficiency, we tucked those up into one ship in
’11, ’12 and ’13, so we can improve our leverage align-
ing on the program and also improve the business
base, in this case, for [General Dynamics NASSCO, San
Diego,] where that ship is contracted.
In the case of T-AO(X), we need to modernize our fleet
oilers and get the double-hulled ships. We discussed this
in our budget process last year that we simply did not have
the room inside of our top line to bring that future fleet
oiler consigned to FYDP and carry it forward as a priority
in POM 12 deliberations. We were able to bring that in as
a new start in 2014 at a one-ship-per-year rate as well.
These are both cases of meeting an existing require-
ment [and] looking for a more affordable construction
pattern. They happen to fit a sector of our auxiliary
shipbuilding industrial base that is in a bit of valley.
What are the issues governing the next-generation
ballistic-missile submarine (SSBNX)? Why only 12
boats to replace 14?
STACKLEY: [With] the SSBNX, we have to be uncom-
promising in terms of the boat’s performance and the
boat’s schedule. The Ohio-class [SSBN] commences
retirement in the late 2020s, so the first of the Ohio
replacement program ships needs to be on patrol in
2029. That drives a very tight and hard timeline for
development, design, production and testing.
The bottom line is that we have pressure on the per-
formance side, pressure on the schedule side and then
we have cost considerations. So [we have to be] uncom-
promising on schedule, uncompromising on perform-
ance [and] uncompromising in terms of cost. Otherwise,
that program will dominate our ship construction budget
for 10 to 12 years while it’s under construction. We’ve
brought cost in as a requirement to leverage it against the
other requirements associated with the platform.
Twelve boats meet our requirements. We’ve done a lot
of analysis to determine the force structure for recapital-
izing the Ohio class. It turns out that when you consider
the fact that the [SSBNX] will be designed with a “life of
67
INTERVIEW

hull” [nuclear reactor] core, which will not need to be

refueled during a midlife upgrade or midlife overhaul,
and you look [at what the class’] operational availability
and requirements are for ships underway and ships avail-
able to respond, 12 boats meets the requirement.

The decision to lock in a purchase of 20 Lit-

toral Combat Ships (LCSs), split 10 apiece
between Lockheed Martin and Austal USA,
was hailed as a “no-brainer.” Why?
STACKLEY: The path that we were on was a down-select
and the award of 10 ships to a winner based on a best value
criteria in the summer and evaluating the proposals of the
two contractors. What drove us to the down-select path,
frankly, was affordability. We saw not only the ability to
down-select to a more affordable program, but also to pro-
ceed with two awards to meet the same objectives. The
dual award was a simple matter of increasing the savings
that we’ve achieved through the aggressive competition
that we had established between the two industry teams.

What concerns, if any, are there about sustain-

ing two LCS logistics trains?
STACKLEY: We recognized that that’s an additional con-
sideration we’ve got to manage throughout the life of the

program. The reality is inside of the 55-ship [LCS pro-
gram] you have are two fairly large-size classes [with] a
fair amount of commonality. You still have the basic con-
cept of modularity and the mission packages are common
across LCS 1 and LCS 2. We’re looking to drive common-
ality at the component level, and we’re starting to look
ahead toward things like C4I [command, control, com-
munications, computers and intelligence] and combat
systems to see where we can drive further commonality.
The Navy has been pushing open architecture
as a requirement in combat systems. Is indus-
try onboard with the Navy on that?
STACKLEY: These are efforts not simply to break down
barriers when it comes to competition, but they serve to
reduce the cost of sustaining the systems that we install
on our ships. There’s a win-win to the extent that we
can drive open systems and we’re finding that, across
the board, industry has been receptive and supportive.
You have recently talked about moving toward
capabilities-based acquisition, rather than
platform-based.
STACKLEY : The capabilities we are developing to meet
the future threat are increasingly complex and have
evolved such that they’re no longer system-centric or
platform-centric, they rely on system-of-systems type of
capability. We have to have multiple programs that
come together to deliver a single capability and that
LISA NIPP
requires a higher-order degree of program management
than what we’ve exercised in the past.
In certain cases, it’s across programs. In certain
cases, it’s across systems commands. In certain cases,
it’s across services and across agencies. There’s a gener-
al rule of thumb that you will fight the way you’re
organized, and if we leave seams and gaps across pro-
grams that add up to a capability, then we leave seams
and gaps in the capability itself.
A good example is sea-based ballistic-missile
defense. Each of the systems commands — plus the
Missile Defense Agency — working across multiple
[program executive offices (PEOs)] all need to come
together to provide sea-based missile defense. When
you think about managing across those PEOs, you
have to approach it differently than managing the
development and delivery of a single platform.
The 2012 budget proposal includes several
multiyear procurements. Is Congress more
favorably disposed to them?
STACKLEY : The objective of the multiyear is to bring
home savings, so Congress has tightened up its expec-
tations as has the department in terms of the savings
that we’re going to be able to achieve through the mul-
tiyear. Before we propose to Congress that a program

68 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1

be entered in a multiyear, we have to have established
that stable programs are on hand and we have to be
able to certify the 10 percent savings target we project,
as opposed to simply estimating the savings.
That’s imposing greater discipline on the system and
establishing a threshold that, in the past, we had not
achieved. We’re providing a return on investment and
the commitment associated with the multiyear that
justifies the commitment by both the department and
Congress. And, we’re establishing savings that, in this
environment, are ever more critical so those can then
be reinvested back into the program.
How will the F-35B “probation” and the slow
down of F-35 procurement affect the initial opera-
ting capabilities (IOC) timelines for the aircraft?
STACKLEY: I need to defer that question to the service
chiefs; they own the IOC. What we’re doing today is pro-
viding them the information they need to establish the
IOCs for both the F-35B and F-35C. We’re doing this
through the results of the Tactical Baseline Review that
was briefed out this past fall. We’re marching basically
through the balance of the program — software, baseline,
scheduling, training considerations — the other factors
that add up to being able to define and meet their IOC.
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
INTERVIEW
Does the Navy’s proposal to extend the lives
of 150 older F/A-18s make more sense than to
buy new Super Hornets?
STACKLEY: We’re taking a very balanced approach
toward managing our TacAir [tactical air] inventory. First,
it’s keeping the [F-35] program whole so all options ulti-
mately go through the [F-35] program. We’ve added 41
F/A-18 aircraft [in the 2012 budget] which have a signif-
icant positive impact of mitigating any potential TacAir
shortfall toward the back end of the decade. The other
element is managing the legacy F/A-18s — the A through
Ds and the Es and Fs that are currently on hand.
We’ve had a three-phased approach. First, service
life management: managing tail by tail to minimize the
wear and tear on the aircraft as they continue through
their service life.
Second, the service life assessment program: to see
what we need to do in order to extend their service life
without going into major upgrades or modifications to
the airframe and systems. Through the service life assess-
ment program we’ve been able to increase the [life]
expectancy from 6,000 flight hours up to 8,000 and then,
through high flying hours inspections, now we project
that the A through Ds will last for 8,600 hours prior to
going into a service life extension [program].
69
 INTERVIEW
LISA NIPP
Third, the intention of the service life extension
[increases the life] from the 8,600 to 10,000 hours.
That’s critical because when we look at the life
expectancy for the A through Ds, and we look at the
TacAir inventory, by getting up to 10,000 hours for this
150 aircraft, we are able to mitigate the shortfall during
the timeframe of peak shortfall.
Service life extension versus buying new? Right
now, we’ve lain in $15 million [per] aircraft, which
extends the service life and gives us about an extra
four to five years at the timeframe in which we’re at
risk of a shortfall. Buying new is $75 [million] to $80
million [per] aircraft and, in order to have the same
impact that the service life extension, we’d be having
to invest multiples in terms of the dollars to offset the
potential TacAir shortfall. So a $2 [billion] to $3 bil-
lion dollar investment quickly becomes an $8 [bil-
lion] to $10 billion investment to have the same
impact at that point in time.
What is the strategy for fielding an alternative
to the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV)?
STACKLEY: First and foremost, the requirement for a
new amphibious vehicle is not in question. Every state-
70
ment by the commandant [of the Marine Corps] and the
secretary [of the Navy] has been that we have to move
away from the EFV simply because of affordability, but
we have to move forward with a new amphibious vehi-
cle. The approach we’re taking is multipronged.
First, we want to leverage the investment that we’ve
made inside the EFV program. This year, we’re working
with the program office and the contractor to do exactly
that. Rather than simply terminate the program, we’re
identifying those [EFV] developments that would have
value for a new amphibious vehicle program.
Second, we’re at the front end of defining the require-
ments for the new amphibious vehicle and, without
question, if we do not change the requirements, we’re
going to end up in a similar position where we’ve got a
vehicle that is simply not affordable. So we’re unlocking
the requirements that were established in EFV and cre-
ating trade space, where we’re adding cost as a require-
ment … to ensure that the new amphibious vehicle is
itself affordable.
We’re going forward with an Amphibious Assault
Vehicle [AAV] upgrade program that will ensure the
AAV remains a viable platform [as] we ramp up for the
new amphibious vehicle. We want to be sure is that,
[with] any upgrades we bring to the AAV, those invest-
ments could also apply to a new amphibious vehicle.
With the move to using fewer contractors and
shifting the acquisition work force inside the
government, do you see positive results so far?
STACKLEY: We’re looking at increasing the size of our
acquisition work force by about 5,000 professionals
over the course of five years. We’re probably half the
way in terms of that increase. It’s not just a numbers
game. We’re going after specific skills, specific levels of
experience, at specific commands.
For example, at the very front end of the effort, we
targeted increasing the work force at our Supervisors of
Shipbuilding — our commands on site at our major
shipyards that oversee the construction of our ships.
We had reduced their size to the extent that they could
not adequately perform their functions. We boosted
their numbers and have greatly improved our eyes and
ears on the waterfront.
Likewise, we’re going after core functions at our
warfare centers in terms of systems engineering, and at
our headquarters commands in terms of, not just engi-
neering, but contracts, cost estimating, program man-
agement, core competencies that are also inherently
governmental that we had let slip loose over the last 10
to 15 years. The immediate results have been positive
and, now, it’s a matter of sustaining those results in
terms of completing the growth of the work force
retaining the folks that we bring onboard. ■
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
THE FLEET

TechSolutions Priority
ONR initiative seeks to solve problems with ‘speed to the fleet’

By EDWARD LUNDQUIST, Special Correspondent

The solution may be a just

One-Stop Shop mouse-click away. A Sailor or
Marine contacts TechSolutions via
The Office of Naval Research’s (ONR’s) TechSolutions program
the web or e-mail and explains the
provides a venue for Sailors and Marines to get short-turnaround
problem or idea or situation.
solutions from the science and technology community.
When evaluating requests, Ste-
■ ONR research creates new knowledge to develop new tech- phanie Everett, the TechSolutions
nologies and deliver working prototypes. program manager, said the team
looks at several factors, including the
■ Through TechSolutions, ONR brings its expertise, knowledge
scope of the solution, severity of the
and capability quickly to bear upon a fleet problem.
problem (impact), the level of sci-
■ “We respond to requirements pull, not technology push,” said ence and technology (S&T) re-
Charles Ziervogel, the command master chief at ONR and fleet quired, the scope of the benefit and
liaison for TechSolutions. potential cost savings, as well as the
transition potential.
The TechSolutions team takes
that idea or problem and circulates
hen a Sailor thinks about a better way to do it among the experts at ONR, who cover all of the S&T

W something, who should he or she call? That’s

the $64,000 question. With an effort dubbed
TechSolutions, led by a team at the Office of Naval
disciplines. The ONR scientists and engineers are well
connected with the Navy laboratories and warfare cen-
ters and enterprises, academia, as well as the systems
Research (ONR), that question may have an answer. commands and the acquisition system.
“TechSolutions allows individual warfighters to submit “We cross all the boundaries,” Ziervogel said. “We
a request and get short-turnaround solutions from the sci- respond to requirements pull, not technology push.
ence and technology community,” said Master Chief Typically, we invest an average of $750,000 for each
Electronics Technician Charles Ziervogel, the command project we take on.”
master chief at ONR and fleet liaison for TechSolutions. The goal is to find a practical solution and deliver it
Some issues can be resolved with relative ease; oth- directly to the Sailor or Marine who first notified
ers take more time and resources. But ONR under- TechSolutions. Because ONR manages S&T research
stands that Sailors and Marines in the fleet have the programs and not acquisition programs, TechSolutions
best awareness of what is really needed. So ONR not delivers working “prototypes” in response to warfight-
only helps find potential solutions, it invests in the er requirements that may one day become an acquisi-
development and testing of them. tion program of record or contribute a component
“Our goal is to deliver speed to the fleet in the best technology to one. If the prototype is successful so that
possible sense,” said Rear Adm. Nevin P. Carr Jr., the other commands should receive it, the acquisition
chief of naval research. “We use it to take direct input community takes over and delivers the product or sys-
from the fleet, find technologies that are readily avail- tem to the fleet.
able or near maturity that we can turn around in a one- “Our goal is to get prototype demo within 15 to 18
to two-year time horizon, and get directly back to the months of the request, delivered to original requestor,
hands of the warfighter.” when possible,” Ziervogel said.

72 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
 THE FLEET

equipment. With the barcode scan-

ners, inventory and custody could
now be maintained in an accurate
and timely manner, and supervi-
sors know where every item is at
all times.
“Now tools can be managed,
they know when to order replace-
ments, and they can find every
item,” he said.
In the case of the tool room soft-
ware, it made sense to offer it to
other squadrons and commands
with tool and gear issue centers.
“This really changed the quality
of life for the Sailors in that
squadron, so we want to see others
have the benefit of this project,”
Ziervogel said.

U.S. NAVY
Landings Logged
The Landing Signal Officer (LSO)
School trains aviators at NAS
Office of Naval Research (ONR) Command Master Chief Charles Ziervogel demon-
Oceana, Va., to serve as LSOs on air-
strates the capabilities of the ONR- Atlas Power Ascender in the atrium of the Hyatt
Hotel in Arlington, Va., Nov. 8 during the 2010 Naval Science and Technology
craft carriers. Each LSO in the fleet
Partnership Conference. The power ascender is a multipurpose device that can keeps log books of all the landings
haul combat rescue loads, extend warfighter stamina and reduce mission exposure. they observe, with data on the con-
ditions of each, such as day or night,
“Because we are an S&T sponsoring organization, weather, aircraft status and the pilot’s score. This is briefed
we’re always out there looking for ideas. We hope more to the pilots after each mission, and then forwarded to the
Sailors and Marines will call us,” said ONR Director of school house where the data is transferred to a Microsoft
Innovation Larry Schuette. “We want low-cost Access database to help the staff train new LSOs.
answers, with a high return on investment. We want to Working with the Naval Postgraduate School in
solve problems, not symptoms.” Monterey, Calif., TechSolutions is creating a personal dig-
Some of the problems TechSolutions has attempted ital assistant that not only could record the same informa-
to solve include: tion previously written into the pages of the log book, but
then transmit that data online to the LSO School where it
Finding the Right Tool is automatically captured by the database.
A petty officer with a helicopter squadron at Naval Air “We wanted to reduce potential errors, incomplete
Station (NAS) North Island in San Diego had observed data and workload,” said Ziervogel.
inefficiencies in the way the squadron managed its tool In response to this TechSolutions inquiry, the Navy
room. The paper records and log books were hard to main- made an investment of about $1 million. The result is
tain and it was difficult to ensure custody and accountabil- a management tool that permits comparisons of indi-
ity of the tools. Shift changes were difficult and time con- vidual pilots for an entire carrier during a deployment,
suming. So the Sailor contacted TechSolutions to see if between squadrons, between carriers, or from one
there was a better way to manage the inventory and locate deployment to the next, and is easier to use and more
tools that had been checked out but not returned. accurate than paper log books.
“Working with that Sailor and the Naval Air
Systems Command science adviser, TechSolutions paid New Lights, Solid Improvement
to develop a solution and developed and evaluated a Bunk lights for shipboard berthing spaces have fluores-
software solution/system,” Ziervogel said. cent bulbs that make an annoying buzzing hum.
The solution — resulting from an investment of less Replacing them with very quiet solid-state Light
than $50,000 — was an automated barcode tool room Emitting Diode (LED) bunk lights is a quality-of-life
software package and tracking system for all tools and improvement that most Sailors can identify with.

S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1 73
THE FLEET

Even though solid-state LED

lighting costs more up front — a $1
incandescent bulb lasts 1,200 hours,
whereas an equivalent LED bulb
costs $16 but lasts 60,000 hours,
according to LED Starlight Inc., a
San Jose, Calif., lighting products
company — it hardly ever needs
changing and ships do not need to
keep large supplies of replacement
bulbs onboard. And that single LED
light uses much less energy — 360
kilowatt hours (KWh) of power to
be illuminated for those 60,000
hours, where it takes 50 60-watt
incandescent bulbs to provide the

U.S. NAVY
same 60,000 hours, and together
they require 3,600 KWh.
“The replacement lights fit stan- Shooters aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman test a catapult capac-
dard fixtures, so it’s plug-and- ity selector valve (CSV) calculator provided by the Office of Naval Research dur-
replace,” said Ziervogel. ing flight operations Jan. 27 in the Atlantic Ocean. The CSV calculator is a per-
sonal digital assistant that would replace paper lookup tables and allow flight deck
Conventional navigational
personnel to compute the proper settings for an aircraft carrier steam catapult.
lights and high bay lighting in The device is being provided through the TechSolutions program, a rapid-
hangar decks are critical for safe response technology development program that funds government laboratories
operations, but replacing them to produce prototype solutions for problems identified by Sailors and Marines.
while underway, especially in bad
weather or heavy seas, is difficult and dangerous. So borne in a few seconds. But there is careful thinking
the LED navigational lights and bay lighting are a big and planning going on in the seconds before launch, as
improvement on many levels. the catapult operator determines the proper settings of
Thanks to TechSolutions, form-fit-function LED the catapult capacity selector valve (CSV) for that par-
replacements for the 8WT5 fluorescent fixtures used ticular aircraft in its present configuration.
throughout the Navy. They also have replaced all the If they set the CSV wrong, and the steam pressure is
8WT5 fluorescent fixtures in the forward section (habit- too high or too low, the aircraft either can get pulled
ability module) aboard the Virginia-class attack sub- apart by excessive force or not generate enough speed
marines USS New Hampshire and are in the process of to get off the deck and roll into the ocean.
being installed on USS New Mexico. Thick launch bulletin binders — containing tables,
Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) also has charts, graphs and lists of every permutation of every
ordered approximately 2,000 LED fixtures for installa- configuration, from type of aircraft to relative wind
tion on the dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbor, and the speed to weapons load to fuel state to barometric pres-
guided-missile destroyers USS Preble and USS Lassen. sure — are consulted. To ensure accuracy, two binders
These fixtures are a mix of 8WT5 replacements (berth are maintained, and separate individuals check each
lights and general lights), plus LED globe lighting. book at the same time to make sure they agree on the
“The submarine community is pushing to adopt proper CSV selection for launch.
LEDs because fluorescents contain mercury,” said An officer at NAS Whidbey Island, Wash., made a
Edward Markey, NAVSEA Philadelphia Electrical request to TechSolutions to replace those paper tables
Powergroup and TechSolutions technical point of con- with a better solution.
tact on the solid state lighting project. “Hazardous “We’re developing a ruggedized hand-held unit that
materials require special disposal procedures, costing contains the variable data and accurately computes the
the Navy time, money and space.” proper setting. We’re interested in accuracy. It can be
updated much faster and more accurately than pen-and-
Solution Selected ink changes in the binders. It saves time, and you can be
Launching an aircraft from a catapult is a complex and sure everyone has the latest changes,” Ziervogel said.
carefully calibrated action. High pressure steam accel- This Tech Solution effort will now be used on all air-
erates a large combat aircraft from a standstill to air- craft carriers.

74 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
THE FLEET
Rising Demand
Surface warriors conduct a lot of inspections on
deployment. Climbing up rope ladders with all of their
gear to board potentially hostile ships is tiring, time-
consuming and dangerous.
“A slow manual ascent in vertical assault leaves
warfighters fatigued and tactically exposed to enemy
forces,” Ziervogel said.
Working with Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama
City, Fla., and U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific’s Experi-
mentation Center, TechSolutions developed a powered
rope ascending device suitable for visit, board, search and
seizure teams; remote casualty evacuation; helicopter
extraction operations; and mountain warfare assault
teams. Using a waterproof battery-powered motor, the
device can lift 500 pounds at 5 feet per second.
“The Powered Rope Ascender will reduce fatigue and
increase efficiency in mission execution,” Ziervogel said.
Better Forecasts
Quartermasters must go out onto the weather decks to
take observations during every watch. The data comes
76
from instruments and personal estimates, such as wave
height. The data must be logged and then formatted into a
message that is transmitted to the Fleet Numerical Mete-
orological and Oceanographic Center in Monterey, Calif.
These synoptic weather messages form the basis of
vital meteorological and oceanographic forecasts for the
Navy, and also validate sophisticated models and con-
tribute to global environmental predictions shared with
the entire world. The TechSolutions team undertook the
challenge of accurately collecting and transmitting that
data automatically, without guesswork, around the clock.
Using some commercially available equipment, a new
system has been developed and is being tested that virtu-
ally removes guesswork about sea state, wave height and
cloud cover; does not require a Sailor to go out on deck in
heavy weather; and eliminates the tedious and error-prone
task of writing and transmitting the message on time.
It’s called the Automated Shipboard Weather
Observation System, and it can be installed on any
ship. It takes the observations, records the data and
senses when there is available bandwidth to transmit
the data, all without human intervention. ■
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
THE FLEET

Recruiting Evolves
Navy works to hone its message to a more diverse population

By JOHN C. MARCARIO, Assistant Editor

working at Millington. Holt said

Changing Tides that with the division someone is
available to answer a possible
Navy recruiters are using social media tools and crafting their
recruit’s question 24 hours a day.
message to target a more diverse demographic in an effort to
“Sailors sit there, chat with poten-
reach a greater number of potential recruits.
tial recruits, look over resumés sent
■ A CyberSpace division was created about eight years ago to to them and do things of that nature.
expedite the application process for potential recruits and keep We have a population that we are
pace with the Navy’s tech-savvy target audience. recruiting to that has instantaneous
information and we have to always
■ Incentives such as career advancement and quality of life
have someone available to answer
measures may also help attract potential recruits, according to
their questions,” Holt said.
one recruiting expert.
The division also updates the re-
■ Tighter budgets and Pentagon cost-cutting moves may pose a cruiting command’s traditional so-
challenge in the years ahead. cial media outlets, such as Face-
book, Myspace and Twitter, along
with texting potential recruits who
ask questions.
ver the last decade, the U.S. Navy has created A decade from now, Holt said the CyberSpace divi-

O a CyberSpace division, accepted more college-

educated recruits and worked to hone its mes-
sage in an effort to reach a more diverse population of
potential candidates to the service.
“We’ve had a lot of initiatives to continue recruiting less physical footprints, but we will be able to reach the
highly educated, experienced people into the Navy,”
said Master Chief Jimmie Holt, national chief recruiter
for Navy recruiting command in Millington, Tenn.
Since 2001, Holt said the Navy has seen a significant
increase in the number of recruits who either had a
college degree or had taken college courses. In 2010,
the Navy accepted a record number of recruits who
had a master’s degree, 64, or bachelor’s degree, 1,425.
The CyberSpace division was created in Millington
about eight years ago in an effort to reach a larger audi-
ence, expedite the application process and use less paper. a significant impact on recruiting goals, according to
“We are evolving and trying to keep pace with the
social media and Internet era because that’s our market
audience,” Holt said.
The CyberSpace division, which consists of roughly
50 recruiters, usually first- or second-term Sailors,
sion could expand, allowing the Navy to close some
recruiting stations. At present, the Navy has about
4,500 recruiters around the world.
“There will probably be a time where there will be
same amount of people, just in a different way,” he said.
After averaging around 39,500 new recruits per
year during the height of the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the last two years have seen the fewest
number of recruits added, or accessions, since 1980
— 34,180 accessions in fiscal 2010 and 35,527 in fis-
cal 2009, according to Defense Department statistics,
though the totals met 100 percent of each year’s
recruiting goal.
Retention rates and end-strength requirements have
Holt, who said that despite the recent trends, he has
been seeing interest in the Navy rise.
“The thing that’s probably changed the most with
people is the Navy has become first choice rather than
second choice,” Holt said.

78 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1

U.S. NAVY
Vice Adm. Mark E. Ferguson III, left, chief of naval per-
sonnel, is briefed Oct. 8 at Navy Recruiting Command
Headquarters in Millington, Tenn., by Cmdr. Brent Phillips,
director of marketing and advertising, on creating new
products that are pertinent to current events and support
the Navy’s recruiting mission.
One big challenge ahead is likely to be diminished
funds for recruiting as the Department of Defense
(DoD) continues its initiative to cut $78 billion from
Pentagon accounts over the next five years. For fiscal
2010, the command has a budget of $229.6 million, its
smallest in six years. The command had a budget of
$241.7 million in fiscal 2009.
“We are not exempt or immune to total DoD or
Navy budget cuts. We don’t know how it will affect us,
but we will have to figure out better efficiencies and
possibly a way to do things to make the mission attain-
able if things are potentially taken out,” Holt said.
He would not speculate on whether further cuts
were imminent because a fiscal 2011 budget has not
been passed.
Holt said he was not sure how the recent repeal of
the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy might
affect recruiting.
“It could open the door for people who were a little hes-
itant or felt restricted before … but we get the word out
that we want all, regardless of their background,” he said.
Along with adjusting to new policy changes, the Navy
must look at changes in the civilian workplace and adapt
its message and the means by which it is delivered
accordingly, said Vice Adm. Mark E. Ferguson III, chief
of naval personnel and deputy chief of naval operations
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
THE FLEET
for Manpower, Personnel, Training & Education.
“Today, women and minorities account for 70 per-
cent of the new people entering the work force and we
have to be ready for that,” he said Jan. 12 at the Surface
Navy Association Symposium in Arlington, Va.
“If we want to retain this diverse population for the
future then we have to look at things other than just
financial incentives for them,” Ferguson said.
He suggested changes could include advertisements
— mostly on social media versus traditional media
outlets — showing an ability to advance and the offer-
ing of sabbatical programs.
“This is a tremendously powerful sign of things to
come for the future of the Navy,” Ferguson said.
Beth Asch, a military recruiting expert for the Santa
Monica, Calif.-based Rand Corp., said the Navy needs
to come up with recruiting practices that are more in
tune with the changing demographics around the
world, which could mean more minority recruiters.
“Research shows that recruiters who are of a similar
race are more popular with connecting with people.
People look up to a recruiter as a role model,” Asch said.
She believes the Navy faces two major challenges
ahead: dealing with a waning interest in the military
and young people not being qualified for service.
“[Interest levels] for the military among American
youth have been steadily dropping since the 1990s and
that just means the military has to work harder to sell
and meet their recruiting quotas,” Asch said.
“What this also means is that there are less people
who have a military family, and military families are tra-
ditionally a strong source of getting new people to join.”
Along with that, the report, “Shut Out of the Military,”
released in December by The Education Trust, showed
23 percent of recent high school graduates do not get the
minimum score needed on the enlistment test to join any
branch of the military.
Asch supported the idea that incentives aside from
money, such as the ability for career advancement,
increased interest in joining the Navy.
She also lauded the outreach efforts of cyber
recruiters, saying their work saves the Navy time and
allows good recruiters to be used around the world
instead of in just one area.
However, Asch did have reservations about how
much of an impact cyber recruiters might have in the
coming years.
“I haven’t seen any research results that show that
that approach is as effective as, or more effective than,
the traditional approach. You can’t make up for that
face-to-face recruiting, especially in the military when
you are having someone make a life-changing decision.
It will continue to be the case where a lot of recruiting
will be done on the ground,” Asch said. ■
79
U. S. C O A S T G U A R D

Safety Net
Coast Guard surface cutter rescue swimmers
can jump into action if lifesaving situations arise

By JOHN C. MARCARIO, Assistant Editor

Laurie Alena wreckage, according

Multitasking to the Coast Guard.
The service mandates that all
Coast Guard surface cutter rescue swimmers are cutter person-
flight-deck-capable cutters, which
nel who receive special lifesaving and water-safety training.
can accommodate Coast Guard
■ The cutter rescue program was begun in 1984 in conjunction rotary-wing aircraft, of more than
with the Coast Guard’s aviation survival technician/rescue swim- 180 feet have at least two cutter
mer program. surface swimmers onboard. Cutters
that are not flight-deck capable
■ The service mandates that all cutters over 180 feet have at
must have one.
least one cutter rescue swimmer onboard.
There currently are around 272
■ Cutter rescue swimmers received the same training and certi- cutter surface swimmers — the
fication, whether they are on a cutter that patrols near Alaska or Coast Guard has 46 flight-deck
in the Caribbean Sea. cutters and 180 non-flight-deck
cutters — in the program. The cut-
ter rescue program was begun in
1984 in conjunction with the
he Coast Guard High Endurance Cutter Coast Guard’s rescue swimmer program after the Feb.

T Midgett intercepted the 35-foot vessel Laurie

Alena that was suspected of being involved in
drug trafficking in December in the Eastern Pacific off
the coast of Guatemala. As the cutter approached, the
vessel started to sink.
Three crew members were aboard Laurie Alena. Two
were able to swim to the life rings near the cutter, but
one remained in the water clinging to wreckage, unable
to swim. Though the water temperature was around 75
degrees, the seas were choppy with 6-foot swells and
debris was floating around the crew member.
Seaman Lance Abbott, a member of the Coast Guard
cutter surface swimmer program, was deployed into
the water to rescue the man. Minutes later, he and
Abbott were safely aboard the cutter.
Abbott relished the opportunity to save his first life
as a member of the Coast Guard.
“It was really a thrilling moment. We do much
training and just to be able to utilize that and save a life school in Elizabeth City, N.C., that in some years has had
was amazing,” Abbott told Seapower.
Four approximately kilogram-sized packages, test-
ing positive for cocaine, also were recovered from
12, 1983, sinking of the merchant ship SS Marine
Electric off the coast of Virginia that killed 31 mariners
sparked a number of maritime safety reforms.
The surface cutter swimmer program is funded
through the Coast Guard standard operating funds. It
is not associated with the service’s other rescue swim-
mers, who are based on aircraft and primarily focus on
life-saving missions.
A majority of the surface cutter rescue swimmers
are petty officers third class who perform other duties
aboard ship until their swimming services are needed.
“Members of the surface cutter program do this
along with their primary jobs,” said Norfolk, Va.-based
Boatswain Mate 1st Class Sean Barrett, Coast Guard
subject matter expert for seamanship, navigational
drills and equipment.
Rescue swimmers must complete an 18-week Coast
Guard aviation survival technician/rescue swimmer
an attrition rate as high as 80 percent, according to service
statistics. Surface cutter swimmers must pass a basic qual-
ification package to join the program.

80 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1

Seaman Rob Russ and Petty Officer 2nd Class Peter Lenzo conduct a simulated water rescue in order to qualify as
cutter rescue swimmers for Coast Guard Cutter Eagle in August 2009 in the Atlantic Ocean. To qualify as cutter rescue
swimmers, both had to complete various tests in a pool and then simulate a rescue from the ship.
Qualification involves a standard physical and writ-
ten test and being able to swim 500 yards in less than
12 minutes. Swimmers also are tested semi-annually,
Barrett said. Each swimmer goes through the same
training and certification process whether they are on a
cutter that patrols near Alaska or in the Caribbean Sea.
A certified line tender also is assigned to each swimmer
to assist them during life-saving missions, Barrett said.
The nomination process for someone to join the
surface cutter rescue swimmer program depends on
how many qualified swimmers there are on the cutter.
“Some have a lot of qualified people whereas others
may only have one,” Barrett said.
Once someone is selected and qualified as a member
of the program, they serve a minimum of three years
on the same cutter.
Cutter rescue swimmers typically take part in
migrant interdiction missions during which they stand
by in case any migrants fall into the water
They do not get involved with drug interdiction
operations unless search and rescue is involved. The
decision to deploy a swimmer rests with the com-
manding officer or the officer in charge.
Rescue cases are infrequent.
“[Occasionally] there will be an 80- or 90-foot sail-
boat with 150 people onboard. As the Coast Guard cut-
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
U. S. C O A S T G U A R D
U.S. COAST GUARD
ter approaches the vessel, everyone will move to one
side and the vessel will capsize,” said Barrett.
Cutter surface swimmers will then be dispatched to
pull people from the water.
The swimmers are equipped with hypothermia pro-
tective clothing, a swimmer mask, rescue fins, life vest,
knife, tending line and reel, one signal whistle and a
chemical light or strobe light.
The policy manual “Commandant Instruction
16134.2c” outlines the requirements and regulations a
surface cutter rescue swimmer must follow.
The manual is updated every five years — standard
for Coast Guard policy — and its last revision was done
in August 2007. The original policy was signed in 1984.
Master Chief Petty Officer Scott Pugh, deck and cut-
ter board subject matter expert for the office of Cutter
Forces at Coast Guard headquarters, is in charge of
making revisions for the fifth edition.
“This next revision, we will make the changes that we
know need to be made and then send it out to subject
matter experts around the country and various other
offices that have an interest in the manual,” Pugh said.
Previous changes have involved using a different set
of hand signals and newer equipment. Swimmers are
not tested on the manual, but they are expected to
know its contents. ■
81
PROGRAM SNAPSHOT

Nano Hummingbird Pushes

The Biomimicry Envelope

BACKGROUND
The Nano Hummingbird is a Nano
Air Vehicle (NAV) developed by
Monrovia, Calif.-based AeroViron-
ment (AV) Inc. under a Defense Ad-
vanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) contract. Shaped to have
the appearance of a real humming-
bird, the prototype aircraft has a
wingspan of 6.5 inches and a total
flying weight that includes all the
systems required for flight, as well as
communications systems and a
video camera, of less than an ounce.
The NAV can climb and descend ver-
tically, fly sideways left and right, fly

ASSOCIATED PRESS
forward and backward, and rotate via
remote control and while carrying a
video camera payload. It can fly at
speeds up to 11 mph.

SCOPE
On Feb. 17, AV announced that the
Nano Hummingbird had accom-
plished a first-time technical mile-
stone: controlled precision hovering
and fast-forward flight of a two-
wing, flapping-wing aircraft that car-
ries its own energy source, and uses
only its wings for propulsion and
control. The NAV was designed, in
part, to provide reconnaissance ca-
pabilities in urban environments.
TIMELINE
AV began work on the NAV project
in 2006 and received an extension of
the Phase II contract to complete the
prototype from DARPA in June 2009.
The total value of the NAV project
work for AV was $4 million.
WHO’S WHO
Matt Keennon is AV program man-
ager and principal investigator on
the NAV project.
Matt Keennon, program manager at AeroVironment Inc., demonstrates the Nano
Hummingbird, during a briefing at the company’s facility in Simi Valley, Calif., Feb. 25.
The logo for the original DARPA MAV [Micro Air Vehicle] program
was a hummingbird. ... It’s kind of iconic: maneuverable, small,
stealthy, if you’re not looking for it it kind of blurs into the background.
So that’s always been an iconic goal.
We worked on the MAV program with the Black Widow, which was a
little flying wing with a propeller on the front. That was back in 1996. But
when the Nano Air Vehicle program came around, with DARPA again,
they wanted to do biomimicry, they wanted to push the envelope. They
didn’t want a conventional airplane or a conventional helicopter.
They wanted around a 3-inch wingspan, so a dragonfly, small insects were
the basis. But as we got into it, we could generate lift at the size, but we could-
n’t put together a working system that would fly free-flight, so the size had to
grow. To pull it all together and make it free flying and useful and demonstra-
tion endurable, and have a video camera that had useable video, the size had
to grow to about a 5-1/2-inch wingspan. At the very end, to make it look bird-
like, we shaped the wings a little different and it grew another half inch.
What we were going for was something that was somewhat covert,
looked like a natural organism. … The hummingbird was always some-
thing we were looking at. It was the icon of the original program; it was still
in peoples’ minds now with the Nano [Air Vehicle]; and the flight qualities
that we started refining with the propulsion control, it looked very much
like a hummingbird. It could spin on its own axis, move sideways and

82 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1

backwards. The speed with which it flew and changed
direction was mostly like a hummingbird.
It’s extremely challenging, because we have all of
the basic systems that you’d expect to find on a larger
UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle]. You’ve got the battery,
the main motor, the propulsion system, the avionics,
the central processor, all the flight-critical sensors, all
the power conditioning, power stabilization, the con-
trol actuators. … Then we also have the basic payload
of the video camera, transmitter, everything has to be
optimized for the lowest power consumption and the
lightest weight.
Integrating that into something that will fly is hard
enough, but then factor in the flapping wings and inte-
grating that into something that has the shape of a
bird, that was extremely difficult and quite time con-
suming. It was all very daunting and not really practi-
cal for the current state of technology, but that’s
DARPA’s thing.
They want you to do the best you can. Don’t just
take something that’s already there and evolve it a lit-
tle bit, they want it to be revolutionary. So we were
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
PROGRAM SNAPSHOT
inspired to do the best that we could, demonstrate the
outdoor flight, indoor flight, fly through a doorway.
A lot of things make it very difficult to put this thing
into production. There’s a huge amount of work that
still needs to be done. But what we did do is show that
it is feasible to get a propulsion system and control sys-
tem that work well enough and integrate it all into a
self-contained, self-propelled, internally stabilized air-
craft, which is significant. We’ve come a huge way. We
had about 11 fundamentally different prototype mod-
els, and each time we made huge improvements. So
we’re very satisfied that it turned out well.
Right now, we’re catching our breath. It’s been four and
a half years of heads down, grinding hard work. The work
is complete, we’re doing the things that we do as we wrap
up the contract and we’re marketing a follow-on effort to
any agencies in the U.S. government, DARPA, any agency
that might be interested in either continuing with the
development of the aircraft as a whole or supporting
development of the pieces of technology. There’s all kinds
of budget issues with the government and the mili-
tary, so we’ll wait and see.
83
S E A P O W E R I N T E R N AT I O N A L

Chile Revamps Method

For Funding Its Armed Forces
By AMI INTERNATIONAL INC.

hilean President Sebastian ■ A multiyear budget. class landing helicopter dock

C Pinera has announced a new
financing system for the Chilean
■ Parliament’s ability to approve
full budget legislation for the CAF.
(LHD) ships expected to be com-
missioned in 2014 and 2016.
Armed Forces (CAF) that will The LCM 2000 watercraft pro-
include full financing of the CAF Australia Scraps gram also will be canceled. The
through the Ministry of Defense Manoora Rehab Plan program was scheduled to deliver
(MoD) annual budget. The defense Australian Minister for Defence six landing craft for use in Manoora
budget will be based on a new 12- Stephen Smith has announced that and HMAS Kanimbla (formerly
year planning cycle in order to bet- the Royal Australian Navy‘s tank USS Saginaw), if they had re-
ter plan and finance large defense landing ship HMAS Manoora (ex- mained in service. Kanimbla is ex-
procurement programs over the USS Fairfax County) will be de- pected to remain in service until
long term. It also will lead to better commissioned. Originally sched- the first LHD, HMAS Canberra,
accountability as the defense budget uled for a $20.2 million overhaul enters service in 2014.
is under the purview of Parliament. that would last through 2012, the The only other amphibious ves-
This is a big change from the his- Ministry of Defence decided to sel in Royal Australian Navy serv-
torical method of financing in forego the project and begin mov- ice, the heavy-lift ship HMAS
which the CAF received personnel ing forward with the transition to Tobruk, currently is in a 48-hour
and operating funds through the the future amphibious force that readiness posture and is due to be
MoD, with all procurement funding will consist of two new Canberra- decommissioned in 2012.
originating through the state-
owned copper company Corpora-
ción Nacional del Cobre de Chile
(CODELCO). Under the arrange-
ment, the CAF receives 10 percent
of CODELCO‘s annual profits
through direct channels rather than
through the MoD or any other min-
istry. This method has led to two
problems, the first being uneven
funding due to the rise and fall of
copper prices and the second being
that there was no direct oversight
of the copper funds once in the
hands of the CAF.
CODELCO will now be respon-
sible to the Ministry of Finance
and administered with the assis-
tance of the central bank. The new
law will take effect in May, when
U.S. NAVY

the bills are presented to Parlia-

ment.
The new financing mechanism
for the CAF will be based on three The Royal Australian Navy has decided to decommission the tank landing ship
concepts: HMAS Manoora instead of overhauling it as originally planned. The former U.S. Navy
■ A long-term planning cycle of vessel was purchased by Australia in 1994. It is shown here in July 2006 departing
from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to participate in the annual Rim of the Pacific exercise.
12 years.

84 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
S E A P O W E R I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Indonesia Launches
New Fast-Attack Craft
The Indonesian Navy has launched
its first KCR-40-class fast-attack
craft (FAC). The 43-meter FAC was
launched with just its basic equip-
ment, such as radar and navigation
systems, installed from Indonesia‘s
PT Palindo Marine Shipyard.
The fire-control system, surface-
to-surface missiles, medium-caliber
gun and small-caliber guns will be
installed when the system require-
ments are finalized.
The new FAC will be powered
by three MAN V12 diesel engines
for a maximum speed of 27 knots.
The first unit will probably be
completed by the end of the year.
The Indonesian Navy is plan-
ning for a substantial number of
the 200-ton FACs. If the sea service
intends to replace its aging FAC
force of eight Sibaru- and four
Dagger-class vessels, the minimum
86
requirement will be for at least 12
units. The actual number, however,
will be determined by budgetary
constraints.
Indian Army
Seeks New LCUs
The Indian Army has released a re-
quest for information (RFI) concern-
ing the procurement of up to 10 new
utility landing craft (LCUs).
The RFIs were released to global
shipbuilders in order to evaluate
the market for landing craft in the
23-meter range. Like most other
Indian programs, this one is ex-
pected to be a split build with the
selected foreign designer/builder of
the craft partnering with a domes-
tic shipyard.
The Indian Army is looking for
a craft that will be able to carry one
T-72/T-90 main battle tank, two in-
fantry combat vehicles, two 2.5-ton
trucks or four light vehicles to the
beach. In lieu of vehicles, it could
carry assault troops, equipment
and materiel in an amphibious-
assault, search-and-rescue or
humanitarian-relief operation. It
will be propelled by two diesel
engines with a cruising speed of 15
knots. Armament will include two
heavy machines guns encased in a
protective steel plate.
The LCU could operate from the
ex-U.S. Navy amphibious transport
dock ship INS Jalashwa or from
shore bases in the region. In the
future, the LCUs also could be used
when the Indian Navy procures its
new amphibious assault ships.
The Indian Army is expected to
begin evaluating its LCU options
by the end of the year. ■
AMI International Inc., Bremerton, Wash.,
is an international consulting and naval
intelligence services company located on
the Web at www.amiinter.com.
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
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HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

The Tumultuous Origins of

A ‘Cornerstone’ U.S. Navy Ally
By DAVID F. WINKLER

or more than six decades, the Back in Bahrain, however, civil

F U.S. Navy has had a presence
on the island of Bahrain. In the wake
war broke out between elements of
the Al Khalifa, which resulted in
of recent protests challenging the death of Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa
Bahrain’s ruling family, the cordial Al Khalifa. The British returned in
relationship between the Al Khalifa November 1869.
and the American flag officers who According to a Bahraini treatise
U.S. NAVY

served in such positions as com- of the period, Andrew Wheatcroft’s

mander, Middle East Force, and, Bahrain in Original Photographs:
more recently, commander, U.S. 1860-1961 the slain shaikh’s son,
Navy divers assigned to Mobile
Fifth Fleet, has attracted media 22-year-old Isa bin Ali Al Khalifa,
Diving and Salvage Unit 2 transit the
interest. bay at Mina Salman, Bahrain, in a was popular yet powerless, in light
King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa rigid hull inflatable boat during a dive of the occupation of the island’s
inherited his position as head of training exercise Jan. 10. forts by his enemies. The narrative
state following the passing of his describes how a small naval flotilla
father, Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, in 1999. The arrived and a landing party captured the fortress of Abu
Crown Prince, Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Mahur. Other forts succumbed to artillery fire with little
his first-born son, is in line to assume the throne. loss of life and “Shaikh Isa bin Ali was, according to the
The custom of passing down rule through the first- record, installed as ruler without interference of the
born is an anomaly in the Arab world, where family elders British resident, amid every sign of popular rejoicing.”
usually determine leadership following the loss of a ruler. The installation of Shaikh Isa would be pivotal in Bah-
In the case of Bahrain, a European model was adopted raini history as he would rule until 1923. During his ten-
after more than a half-century of internal strife and exter- ure, he forged close ties with Great Britain and eventually
nal conflict following the conquest of Bahrain from Persia Bahrain became a “protected state” with the British re-
by the Arabian Al Khalifa in 1783 — the same year that sponsible for the archipelago’s defense and foreign affairs.
the Treaty of Paris affirmed American independence. That status changed in 1971 after the British decided
The tumultuous situation climaxed in the late 1860s to withdraw their forces east of the Suez Canal. At the
with a war between the Al Khalifa and the neighboring British naval base at Juffair, there had been a small U.S.
Al Thani family, who had settled on the east coast of the naval contingent to support the commander, Middle
Qatar peninsula. In October 1867, following an Al East Force, who flew his flag from one of three convert-
Thani attempt to seize Al Khalifa settlements on the ed airplane tenders that rotated into the Persian Gulf.
west coast of Qatar across from Bahrain, the Al Khalifa With Bahrain gaining full independence, Middle
conducted naval raids on Al Thani-dominated ports of East Force Commander Rear Adm. Marmaduke G.
Doha and Al Wakrah. Bayne would negotiate an agreement to maintain a
Seeking revenge, the Al Thani put a fleet to sea to footprint that would greatly expand following
attack Bahrain in June 1868. The Al Khalifa-led Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
Bahraini navy was up to the challenge. During the bat- Adm. William Crowe would later write, “Bahrain
tle, the two sides reportedly lost a combined total of 60 was to prove the cornerstone for all our subsequent
ships and more than 1,000 sailors. naval operations in the Persian Gulf. Pound for pound,
Although the Al Khalifa beat back the Al Thani fleet, Bahrain has been about the best ally we have had in
the dominant naval power in the region, Great Britain, was recent times.” ■
displeased with the ongoing strife and moved decisively to
disarm the Bahrainis. Arriving at Manama on Sept. 6, Dr. David F. Winkler is a historian with the Naval Historical
1868, the British destroyed a fort and then burned the Foundation and author of Amirs, Admirals, and Desert
Bahraini fleet. The British then steamed to Doha to impose Sailors: Bahrain, The U.S. Navy, and the Arabian Gulf
a settlement that would restore peace to the region. (Naval Institute Press, 2007).

88 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1

Books Feature Torpedoes, UCAS,
Tet Offensive, Japanese Cruisers
By RICHARD R. BURGESS, Managing Editor
SHIP KILLERS: A History of
the American Torpedo
By Thomas Wildenberg and Norman
Polmar. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute
Press, 2010. 288 pp. $52.95
ISBN: 978-1-59114-688-9
The authors have produced the
definitive account of the develop-
ment and operational use of the torpedo by the United
States. The development is traced from its beginnings
during the American Revolution, through the Civil War
and into the 20th century when the torpedo reached reli-
able and lethal effectiveness as an anti-ship weapon. The
deficiencies of the Mk14 torpedo that plagued the sub-
marine force in the first two years of World War II are
authoritatively explained. The torpedo eventually took a
greater toll of Japanese shipping than any other weapon.
Post-World War II, the Navy has used torpedoes only
once in combat, as far as is known, launching them from
aircraft to punch holes in a North Korean dam, but they
remain one of the most effective naval weapons today.
IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY
HEAVY CRUISERS 1941-1945
By Mark Stille. Oxford, U.K.: Osprey
Publishing, 2011. 48 pp. $17.95.
ISBN: 978-1-84908-148-1
The Japanese Navy fielded 18 heavy
cruisers of six classes during World
War II. The fast ships were heavily
armed and superior in many ways to
their Allied counterparts. They slugged it out with U.S.
cruisers and destroyers with great effectiveness in the
Dutch East Indies and the Solomons campaign, scoring
many successes, and were heavily engaged in the battles
around Leyte Gulf. Unlike their U.S. counterparts,
Japanese heavy cruisers were armed with torpedoes,
which gave them an advantage in combat, but this virtue
on occasion contributed to their demise when torpedo
warheads exploded when struck by hostile fire. Their lack
of radar until 1943 hindered the cruisers’ effectiveness,
and they suffered heavy losses to air attack (10 ships),
submarine attack (four ships) and surface engagements
(two ships). Only two cruisers survived the war. This
monograph is enhanced with original art as well as pho-
tos obtained from Japanese archives.
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
S H I P ’ S L I B R A RY
UNMANNED COMBAT AIR
SYSTEMS: A New Kind of
Carrier Aviation
By Norman Friedman. Annapolis,
Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2010.
280 pp. $52.95.
ISBN: 978-1-59114-285-0
The X-47B unmanned combat air
system (UCAS), which first flew in February and will be
demonstrated in carrier operations in 2013, is the center-
piece of this in-depth look at the state of unmanned mil-
itary aviation today, a story that exceeds the expectations
of its long-time advocates. The author makes the case for
the UCAS and how it will impact naval aviation. Most of
the book, however, is an appendix describing, country by
country, the wide variety of military unmanned aerial
vehicles in service or under development, a list that is
likely to expand for a long time.
THIS TIME WE WIN: Revisiting
the Tet Offensive
By James S. Robbins. New York:
Encounter Books, 2010. 364 pp.
$25.95
ISBN: 978-1-59403-229-5
Four decades after the 1968 North
Vietnamese and Viet Cong Tet offen-
sive that marked a turning point in
the Vietnam War, author Robbins chronicles how the
crushing defeat of Communist forces was distorted into a
debilitating political assault on the U.S. will to win. The
history of the offensive, and the U.S. and South Vietna-
mese response, are presented in a highly readable manner.
Prominent in the book are the heroic Marine Corps
actions in the defense of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, the
battle of Hue City — a case study in urban combat — and
the siege of Khe Sanh. Robbins describes how press cover-
age of the U.S. Army’s massacre of villagers at My Lai over-
shadowed the systematic Communist execution at Hue
City of 2,800 South Vietnamese civil servants, medical
workers and ordinary citizens. He also shows how the Tet
mythology persists in the aspirations of the enemies of the
United States, such as al-Qaida, in their efforts to subdue
Western civilization. ■
Seapower does not review works of fiction or self-published books.
89
NAVY LEAGUE
BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING
JUNE 23 – 25, 2011
Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center
National Harbor, MD

We are excited to have PROGRAM

you join us at our annual
THURSDAY, JUNE 23
Board of Directors’ Meeting 7:30 AM – 5:00 PM Registration
on June 23 – 25 at 8:30 AM – 11:30 AM Region Presidents’ Meeting
Gaylord National Resort 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Maritime Policy Committee Meeting
& Convention Center, 12:30 PM – 3:30 PM Nominating Committee Meeting
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM International Affairs Committee Meeting
National Harbor, MD.
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Navy League Foundation
It promises to be a productive 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM Strategic Planning Committee Meeting
meeting so make your travel 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM Area Presidents’ Meeting
plans and register now! 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM Welcome Aboard Reception
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HOTEL INFORMATION
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N AV Y L E A G U E N E W S

Maritime Symposium Aims to Broaden

Student Perspectives on Global Affairs
By PETER ATKINSON, Deputy Editor

Ithenarelate July 2012, Iran and Israel

at the brink of war. Earlier in
year, the Israel Air Force
bombed Iranian nuclear facilities.
The situation has now escalated
after an Israeli corvette was sunk in
the Mediterranean Sea following an
underwater explosion as it inter-
cepted a three-ship relief convoy
headed for Gaza that was arranged
by Hamas, which now governs the
Palestinian territory.
Israel blames Iran for the sink-
ing. Meanwhile, Turkey, which had
condemned the Israeli air strike
and formed a mutual defense pact

TOM RUDDEN
with Iran, has sent naval units to
the scene of the sinking, where the
convoy remains stopped under
Israeli guns in the open ocean.
A team of students confers on a map of the Middle East before proposing a strat-
Further complicating matters is the
egy for settling a hypothetical crisis scenario involving Iran and Israel during the
fact that a British politician is 22nd Annual New England College Maritime Symposium Feb. 26 at the Boston
aboard the relief convoy, which University College of Communication. Students from 12 Boston area colleges and
originated in London. universities were divided into eight teams during the day-long exercise.
Iran is vowing to seal off the Strait
of Hormuz. Oil prices have soared to more than $120 a “The goal is to broaden their outlook into things
barrel. Gas prices in the United States are at $4.32 per gal- heretofore in school that they’ve never even encoun-
lon and with the crisis threatening to move well beyond a tered,” added council member Harold Learson, a for-
regional conflict, President Barack Obama is looking for mer Navy League national vice president for youth. “To
answers as to how the United States should respond. get them thinking, ‘What can you do?’ Up to that point,
In an exercise that proved especially timely, given most kids think we can do anything we want, and some
the tumult that has rocked North Africa and the Middle things are just not going to happen. The rest of the
East since the beginning of the year, students from a world just is not going to buy it.”
dozen New England colleges and universities worked Twelve schools participated in this year’s sympo-
to hammer out suggested responses to the developing sium, among them the University of New Hampshire,
crisis scenario at the 22nd Annual New England Daniel Webster College, Worcester Polytechnic
College Maritime Symposium. The day-long geopoliti- Institute, College of the Holy Cross, Boston College,
cal symposium, held Feb. 26 at the Boston University Harvard University, Northeastern University, the
College of Communication, was conducted and coordi- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of
nated by the Navy League’s Massachusetts Bay Council. Lowell and Boston University. Students from the
“It is our objective to broaden their perspective,” onboard college on USS Constitution also participated.
said council member George Ripsom, one of the sym- The students were divided into eight teams and
posium organizers and a Navy League national director asked to address the crisis scenario, which is modeled
emeritus. “We try to give them a perspective of what after those developed by the Naval War College in
global interactions and challenges are going to be and Newport, R.I. The hypothetical scenarios — be it their
try to reinforce that.” locales or the situation to be addressed — change each

92 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
 N AV Y L E A G U E N E W S

year. Since planning for the next

year’s symposium begins in the
fall, there is no guarantee the
event will be as “ripped from the
headlines” as this year’s was. One
year, however, Ripsom noted,
organizers were asked to substi-
tute a planned exercise on Taiwan
because that region “heated up” as
the symposium neared.
Participants are assigned to
teams led by an experienced mod-
erator and explore the various real-
istic political, diplomatic, econom-
ic and military options that may be
available. Throughout the day, sen-
ior observers evaluate the method-
ology and proposals of each group.

TOM RUDDEN
After a round of individual
group-to-group presentations, one
team is selected to present and
defend its final plan for critique and
Of the teams taking part in the New England College Maritime Symposium, one
comment by the remaining partici- is chosen to present and defend its final plan for critique and comment by the
pants who are assembled as the U.N. remaining participants who are assembled as the U.N. General Assembly
General Assembly under the guid- under the guidance of the “Secretary General.”
ance of the “Secretary General.”
“Their sole purpose is to look for the team that gels Although symposium organizers try to downplay the
well together and presents things together,” said military aspect of the exercise when contacting to
Learson of the observers, who typically are Navy schools to invite them to take part — and ask that par-
League members, along with service and education ticipants attend in civilian attire — the bulk of the stu-
representatives. “We avoid the term ‘winner.’ It’s not a dents who attend are from Reserve Officers Training
winner, it’s somebody who has logic behind what they Corps (ROTC) programs.
say and defends themselves well [when giving the final “We even encourage leaders and retired people not
presentation], because they are going to be questioned to come in uniform as well,” John Learson said. “We’re
by other people in front of the whole group.” running it as a civilian thing. We would like to have
“You really need to appreciate the hours that the more non-ROTC students. But in some of the other dis-
kids put in,” said John Learson, another symposium ciplines, their professors just don’t have the interest.”
organizer. “They take a Saturday, no one forces them to As the symposium, with its 22-year track record,
show up, they have to be registered by 8 in the morn- provides not only an excellent educational opportuni-
ing. Some of these schools have more than an hour’s ty, but the chance to involve area youth, the local com-
drive to get here. We try to end it by 4:30, but it never munity and service officials in a Navy League activity,
does because when we get into the U.N. part of it, Massachusetts Bay Council organizers have been hop-
everyone really gets into it and people are bombing ing to drum up interest in the program with other
teams with questions. councils, but thus far have had no takers. But if any
“They have a real long day, a 12-hour day for some, councils are interested, they would be happy to help.
so these kids come motivated, they want to learn “Once we run the game, we have done 90 percent of
something. They are into it,” he said. the work that any council would have to do,” Harold
“We have had a pleasant number of persons who Learson said. “We could furnish all of the paperwork
have come back from another year,” added Ripson, from that year’s game to anyone who would like try
who noted one student participated in five sessions. and run it.” ■
Participants over the years have run the gamut from
members of the senior officer school from Submarine For information on the College Maritime Symposium, contact
Group 2 at Naval Submarine Base New London, Conn., George Ripsom at gripsom@comcast.net or Harold Learson at
to, on two occasions, groups of high school students. learson@att.net.

S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1 93
 N AV Y L E A G U E N E W S / C O U N C I L D I G E S T
Tampa Council Supports
First Navy Week of 2011
By PETER ATKINSON, Deputy Editor
he Tampa, Fla., Council helped
T contribute to the success of the
first Navy Week of the year, Jan. 22-
29 in Tampa. The council worked
with U.S. Navy Outreach on the
event, raising $6,000 to help coordi-
nate and fund events through its
Community Affiliates, according to
Skip Witunski, Central Florida Area
president.
Held during the city’s annual
Gasparilla Pirate Festival that typical-
ly draws nearly a half-million people,
the Tampa Navy Week gave area res-
idents an opportunity to meet Sailors
and learn about the Navy’s critical
missions and broad-ranging capabili-
ties. Participants included the three-
masted frigate USS Constitution, the
Navy’s oldest commissioned warship;
the Navy Band Southeast; medical
professionals from around the service
who met with local health-care
providers, civic groups and commu-
U.S. NAVY
Chief Petty Officer Kevin Moore, right, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Christian
Sapp, both Navy divers, explain the features of the MK V hat during a Girl
Scout Career Expo event as part of Tampa Bay Navy Week Jan. 24.
94
nity leaders to discuss the current
state of Navy medicine; Rear Adm.
Troy M. Shoemaker, assistant com-
mander, Navy Personnel Command
for Career Management, who spoke
with University of South Florida stu-
dents during a graduate research
seminar in Industrial and Manage-
ment Systems Engineering; Vice
Adm. Carol M. Pottenger, deputy
chief of staff for Capability and
Development at NATO headquarters
and supreme allied commander,
Transformation, who spoke at the
Greater Tampa Women of Influence
Series Luncheon; and divers from
Trident Refit Facility, Naval Sub-
marine Base Kings Bay, Ga., who gave
demonstrations in the dive tank at
the Florida Aquarium.
The Tampa Council hosted its
Navy League Installation Dinner
Jan. 25 at the Wyndham Tampa
Westshore. Artist Dean Mosher
shared the historical events of John
Paul Jones, gave autographed prints
to a local military school and was
speaker at the dinner. Also attending
were the crew of Constitution, the
Leap Frog Navy Parachute Team,
the Navy Dive Team, Navy recruiters
and the Navy Outreach command,
along with 90 guests.
As part of Navy Week, the Tampa
Council bought a table for the Sailors
and Marines to attend the “Salute to
the Coast Guard,” the 20th annual
dinner Jan. 27 co-sponsored by the
council and the Tampa Propeller
Club. It was a first for the Sailors and
Marines to attend, Witunski said.
Area Sea Cadets provided the Parade
Honor Guard as well as performing
the Salute to the Coast Guard during
the event.
More than 20 Navy Weeks will
be held across the country through
the end of October.
Green Bay Sailors
Take the Trophy
At Fifth Geography Bowl
The crew of the amphibious trans-
port dock ship USS Green Bay once
again claimed the Vince Lombardi
“trophy” as champions of the fifth
annual Geography Bowl, outduel-
ing a team of Lombardi Middle
School Spartans in Green Bay, Wis.,
Jan. 28, a few days before the
Green Bay Packers took home the
genuine Vince Lombardi Trophy as
Super Bowl champions.
The “Jeopardy”-style quiz game,
with Rose Mary Magnus, sponsor
of Green Bay and wife of retired
Gen. Robert Magnus, 30th assis-
tant commandant of the Marine
Corps, serving as host, went down
to the wire.
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1

NANCY CROY
Members of the Lombardi Middle
School Spartans Geography Bowl
team get ready to take on a team of
Sailors from the amphibious trans-
port dock ship USS Green Bay in the
fifth annual Geography Bowl Jan. 28
at the Student Center at Northwest
Wisconsin Technical College.
NANCY CROY
The Green Bay Geography Bowl
team is shown on a video teleconfer-
ence screen from San Diego, where
the ship is homeported, with host
Rose May Magnus, the ship’s spon-
sor, in the foreground.
With the Green Bay Sailors up
by just 100 points, both teams got
the “Final Jeopardy”question —
“Lake Athabasca is located on the
border of Alberta and which other
Canadian Province?” — correct.
Than answer: “Saskatchewan.”
But the Green Bay team risked
more points on the question and
won by a final score of 12,900-
11,400, according to Lombardi
Middle School principal Nancy
Croy, a member of the Fox Valley,
Wis., Council’s board of directors.
This was the fourth time in five
tries Green Bay has claimed the tro-
phy, an 18-inch bobble head figure
of former Packers coach Vince
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
N AV Y L E A G U E N E W S / C O U N C I L D I G E S T
Lombardi that was donated by the
Fox Valley Council. It displays
brass plates inscribed with the year
and winning team.
Five Lombardi Middle School
students and one alternate squared
off via video teleconference in the
Student Center at Northwest Wis-
consin Technical College against a
team of Green Bay Sailors in the
ship’s homeport of San Diego.
Magnus hosted from San Diego.
The Lombardi students earned the
privilege of competing by being the
top scorers in the school-wide
National Geographic Geography Bee.
The Green Bay team members hailed
from Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota,
with Ensign Tim Mahoney, a 2005
Green Bay Preble High School gradu-
ate, representing his hometown.
During the past five years, the
event has grown from a “school-
ship” partnership activity to a
“community-ship” event, said Croy.
The Student Center was packed
with more than 300 people, includ-
ing more than 200 Lombardi stu-
dents, she said. Cheering sections
were rounded out by local Navy
Club members, Navy League mem-
bers, local officials, Sea Cadets from
Green Bay’s Flatley Division, and
Sailors and Marines from Green Bay’s
Naval Operational Support Center.
This year’s Geography Bowl was
moved up to late January because
Green Bay began its maiden deploy-
ment in February. The 2009
Geography Bowl was held aboard
ship when more than 50 Lombardi
students, staff and chaperones trav-
eled to Long Beach, Calif., for Green
Bay’s Jan. 24, 2009, commissioning.
Mayport Council
Salutes Members
For Service
Along with electing and installing a
new slate of officers, the Mayport,
Fla., Council presented several
awards to council members during
its January dinner meeting at The
Plantation at Ponte Vedra, Fla.
The Navy League Letter of Ap-
preciation was presented to Jim
Mabry and Kerry Clark. Mabry
served as the council chaplain for
many years, during which time he
always was available to provide
comforting and spiritual support to
council members in times of need,
according to Pat Pumphrey, the
council’s public relations chairman.
Clark served as the Jacksonville
Salutes the Sea Services (JSTSS) event
planner and was the glue that held
the JSTSS committee together, Pum-
phrey said. She was the main point of
contact between the city and the
council for all coordination efforts for
the static and vendor displays, ship
visits and support services that were
needed to make the event, which was
held in conjunction with the Navy
League National Convention in
November, successful. Her herculean
efforts were singularly responsible for
bringing all the moving parts togeth-
er, Pumphrey said.
The Navy League Scroll of Honor
was presented to Francis Floyd for
his work as the council’s vice presi-
dent of Youth Programs and as the
face of the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet
Corps program. Under Floyd’s lead-
PAT PUMPHREY
John Vargo, president of the Mayport,
Fla., Council, left, presents Francis
Floyd with the Navy League Scroll of
Honor for his work as the council’s vice
president of Youth Programs and with
the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps.
95
N AV Y L E A G U E N E W S / C O U N C I L D I G E S T
ership, the Mayport Sea Cadet mem-
bership has grown more than 250
percent, finances have increased by
more than 50 percent and the adult
leadership staff has tripled.
The awards were presented by
Council President John Vargo.
San Diego Council
Honors Military Spouses
The San Diego Council presented
its “2010 Sea Services Spouse of the
Year” awards in December to recog-
nize military spouses from the
three sea services. Julie Kehley,
ombudsman at the Naval Medical
Center San Diego; Jennifer Smit, I
Marine Expeditionary Force
Family Readiness volunteer; and
Amy Goodpaster Strebe, ombuds-
man with U.S. Coast Guard Sector
San Diego; were the 2010 honorees.
In addition to flowers and a gift
basket, prepared by Navy League
members Michelle Langmaid and
Patty Manako, each winner received
a check for $1,000 from the Navy
League that was presented Dec. 23 in
front of more than 45,000 people at
the 2010 Poinsettia Bowl in San Die-
go’s Qualcomm Stadium. BAE Sys-
tems was the title sponsor and repre-
sentatives of BAE Systems’ San Diego
operations presented the checks.
The Sea Service Spouse of the Year
awards saluted military spouses for
their efforts on the homefront while
their “other half” performs their
assigned duties away from home,
ensuring family development and
helping others in the community.
San Diego County has the largest
military community in the world,
with more than 124,000 active-duty
men and women.
“We owe a great deal to the
efforts of all of the military spouses
around the globe,” said Council
President Dave Grundies at the
recognition event. “Their spouses
might be deployed for many
months at a time but they manage
their family with patience, com-
mitment and fortitude.”
96
JAY LOTT
From the left, San Diego Council President Dave Grundies; Todd Eden, West
Coast manager, Readiness and Sustainment, U.S. Combat Systems; Jennifer
Smit, Marine Corps Spouse of the Year; Julie Kehley, Navy Spouse of the Year;
Bob Kilpatrick, president and general manager of San Diego Ship Repair; Amy
Goodpaster Strebe, Coast Guard Spouse of the Year; and Jordan Becker dur-
ing “2010 Sea Services Spouse of the Year” presentations at the Poinsettia
Bowl in San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium.
Nominations for the awards were mentee (IA) honors program that
submitted by local flag officers and was inaugurated by the St. Augus-
selected by an evaluation commit- tine Council in 2008 and first held
tee that took into consideration the at NAS Jacksonville. The IA pro-
applicant’s personal achievements, gram, which has been embraced by
education, career pursuits, volun- the Northeast Florida councils, has
teerism, community involvement welcomed home 691 service per-
and an assortment of other charac- sonnel from combat assignments
teristics. Each applicant also was abroad and 291 spouses at appreci-
required to write an essay as part of ation luncheons and other events.
their application. Maclay continues to include the
St. Augustine Council in the NAS
St. Augustine Presents Jacksonville salute to fallen heroes.
Scroll of Honor The program accords full-base, curb-
To NAS Jacksonville CO side honors when the remains of
The St. Augustine, Fla., Council deceased combat members are flown
presented Capt. Jeffrey D. Maclay, to the base for transfer to their final
commanding officer of Naval Air resting place. Maclay also has facili-
Station (NAS) Jacksonville, with tated the council’s recruiting program
the Navy League Scroll of Honor with distinctive events at the base.
during an awards ceremony at the Among those attending the cere-
Marsh Creek Country Club Dec. mony were Capt. Joseph Baker,
16. The scroll is the highest award commanding officer of U.S. Coast
bestowed by a Navy League coun- Guard Helicopter Interdiction Tacti-
cil and the second highest Navy cal Squadron and Fleet Logistics
League award at any level. Support Squadron Five Eight; Master
Maclay received his honor from Chief Don Carr, who was honored at
outgoing Council President Bill Maclay’s most recent IA celebration at
Korach. William E. Dudley, the NAS Jacksonville; Marine 1st Sgt.
Navy League’s Florida regional Dan Jonas, Blount Island Support
president, assisted. Facility; Command Master Chief
Maclay was recognized for his Matt Boyd, Coast Guard Helicopter
expansion of the Individual Aug- Interdiction Tactical Squadron Jack-
S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
 N AV Y L E A G U E N E W S / C O U N C I L D I G E S T

sonville; and Command Master
Chief Ken Morris, U.S. Coast Guard
Sector Jacksonville, Mayport.
The council also installed its new
slate of officers during the event.
Kevin Gregory is the new presi-
dent. A retired Navy senior chief
who served as a rescue swimmer in
the carrier-based helicopter warfare
community, he received his presi-
dent’s pin from his wife, Lynn.
Honolulu Council
Recognizes Supporters
The Honolulu Council kicked off the
new year with its Annual Member-
ship Dinner at the Waialae Country
Club during which it recognized sev-
eral individuals for their work and
efforts in support of the Navy League.
Awardees included Hawaii Army
National Guard Maj. Gen. Robert
G.F. Lee, former adjutant general,
State of Hawaii, who received the
Hawaii Area President’s Award, pre-
sented by Jim Hickerson; Bruce
Smith, received the Chief Harold Es-
tes award as Navy Leaguer of the
Year; Ken DeHoff, Agnes Tauyan
and Kerry Gerschanek were given
Certificates of Appreciation; Jane
Ferreira and Louie Pinho were
given the Carole Hickerson Volun-
teer of the Year Award; and Navy
Rear Adm. Dixon Smith, Dave
Livingston, Carl Devoe, Tim
Guard, Science Applications Inter-
national Corp. and Outrigger Enter-
prises received Mildred Courtney
Special Recognition Awards.
Highlighting the award ceremo-
ny was the presentation of the Coast
Guard Distinguished Public Service
Award by Nora Ruebrook, Pacific
Region President, to retired Adm.
Richard Macke, a former Navy
League national vice president.
The evening’s keynote speaker,
Rear Adm. Timothy M. Giardina,
deputy commander and chief of staff,
U.S. Pacific Fleet, offered a presenta-
tion and comments concerning
Pacific Fleet’s area of responsibility
and its ongoing challenges.
The event’s business segment
included the nomination and elec-
tion of Melvin H.W. Ing for a sec-
ond term as council president.
Palm Beach Division
Sponsors SWCC Training
For Female Cadets
The U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps’
(NSCC) Palm Beach, Fla. Division
sponsored a winter Special Warfare
Combat Craft (SWCC) Training pro-
gram for female cadets Dec. 26-Jan. 2
at U.S. Coast Guard Station Lake
Worth Inlet in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Ten cadets from Florida, Texas,
Colorado and Georgia took part in
the first-time training that was coor-
dinated by Lt. Cmdr. Dave Boucher,
NSCC, commanding officer of the
Palm Beach Division, which is spon-
sored by the Palm Beach Council.
Assisted by Palm Beach Division
staff, the cadets gained experience in
all facets of SWCC training, from
morning physical training; class-
room sessions on basic seamanship,

From the left, Susie Macke; retired

Adm. Richard Macke, a former Navy
League national vice president; Melvin
Ing, president of the Honolulu Council;
and Nora Ruebrook, president, Navy
League Pacific Region, after Macke
was presented with the Coast Guard
Distinguished Public Service Award at
the Honolulu Council’s Annual Mem-
bership Dinner.

S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1 97
N AV Y L E A G U E N E W S / C O U N C I L D I G E S T

first aid and safety; assembly and
transport of Combat Rubber Raiding
Craft; a boating safety course; and
plenty of time aboard various water-
craft often contending with rough
seas and colder-than-normal tem-
peratures, according to Capt.
Deirdre Krause, NSCC, the coun-
cil’s vice president of programs.
The boating safety class was
conducted with the assistance of
the Coast Guard Auxiliary and
each cadet earned a licensed boat
handling certificate. The group
tested its navigation skills with a
Plan of Intended Movement exer-
cise on New Year’s Eve that culmi-
nated with them seeing the West
Palm Beach fireworks display.
A day later, the cadets took part in
the river component of the SWCC
training, traveling through the locks
on the St. Lucie River to Lake
Okeechobee. The program conclud-
ed with a graduation ceremony dur-
ing with the cadets received Certi-
ficates of Completion and Plank
Owners Certificates as the first
female Sea Cadets to experience
SWCC training, according to Krause.
Short Bursts
■ The Colorado Springs, Colo.,
Council membership was treated to
an after-dinner presentation Jan. 20
by author David Philipps on the
topic of post-traumatic stress disor-
der and the returning soldier. His
book, “Lethal Warriors: When The
New Band of Brothers Came Home,”
addresses the struggles with the
physical and mental traumas of

MEMBERSHIP REPORT Craig Chapman

David Whitson
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Palm Springs, CA
4
4
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Lynn Drucker Fort Lauderdale, FL 6 Sheila McNeill Camden-Kings Bay, GA 3
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Michael Hewlett Portland, OR 3
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Dick Messbarger Kingsville, TX 14 Richmond, VA 7
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Richard Devlin Oak Harbor, WA 7 Tampa, FL 7
Suzy Williams Corpus Christi, TX 7 Vieques, PR 7
John Graham Palma de Mallorca 7 Greater Chattanooga, TN 6
Lynn Drucker Fort Lauderdale, FL 6 Seattle, WA 6
Bonnie Potter Placer County, CA 6 Saint Augustine, FL 6
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Frederick Orton Coronado, CA 6 WELCOME ABOARD TO THE FOLLOWING NEW COMMUNITY
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Keith Post Camden-Kings Bay, GA 5 Gloria R. James PLLC Lake Washington, WA
Thomas Jaffa Seattle, WA 5 Kitsap Sun Bremerton-Olympic Peninsula, WA
Robert Morrison Golden Isles, GA 5 S3 Services Inc. Colorado Springs, CO
Eileen Doyle Detroit Women, MI 5

98 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
 N AV Y L E A G U E N E W S / C O U N C I L D I G E S T

NAVY
2010-2011 NATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

J. Michael McGrath
CHAIRMAN
Albert J. Baciocco Jr.

LEAGUE Evan S. Baker

Bernard Bennett
Calvin H. Cobb Jr.
Joanne S. Crown
of the United States John H. Dalton
FOUNDED 1902 Richard J. Danzig
2300 Wilson Boulevard Fred Davidson III
Arlington, VA 22201-5424
Timothy O. Fanning
Morgan L. Fitch Jr.
NATIONAL PRESIDENT
Albert H. Friedrich
Daniel B. Branch Jr.
James S. Gracey
Alfred M. Gray Jr.
NATIONAL VICE PRESIDENTS
Colorado Springs President Dick Pamela K. Ammerman
Thomas B. Hayward
Albert J. Herberger
Cooper, left, presents a Navy League YOUTH PROGRAMS
James L. Holloway III
Challenge Coin to author David Karen Crawford Paul R. Ignatius
PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND PUBLIC EDUCATION
Philipps in appreciation for his address Hansford T. Johnson
Patricia Du Mont Paul X. Kelley
to the council at its Jan. 20 dinner. LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS William C. Kelley Jr.
Philip L. Dunmire Jack M. Kennedy
CORPORATE AFFAIRS, DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING Robert E. Kramek
combat faced by members of the Thomas E. Jaffa Charles R. Larson
U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division, as MEMBERSHIP AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Sanford W. McDonnell
Sheila M. McNeill
William R. Keller
they returned to Fort Carson, Colo., REGION, AREA AND COUNCIL PRESIDENTS’ LIAISON J. William Middendorf II
Carl E. Mundy Jr.
from tours in Iraq during the height Richard H. Kennedy
John A. Panneton
FINANCE
of the war. Philipps, a reporter with William A. Kopper
John M. Rau
J. Paul Reason
the Colorado Springs Gazette, was a INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AND RETENTION
Leighton W. Smith Jr.
Robert Sutton
Pulitzer Prize finalist in the local SEA SERVICES LIAISON
John J. Spittler
James D. Watkins
reporting category in 2010 for his David N. Todd R. James Woolsey
STRATEGIC PLANNING
stories chronicling the surge in
NATIONAL TREASURER
crime and violence that followed the Alan L. Kaplan
STATEMENT OF POLICY

■We of the Navy League of the United

soldiers’ return from the battlefield.
■ The French Riviera-Monaco
Council hosted members of the
crew of the Arleigh Burke-class
guided-missile destroyer USS
Winston S. Churchill when it made a
surprise stop in Cannes, France, in
early December on its way home to
Norfolk, Va., following a deploy-
ment to the Mediterranean and
Arabian Seas. The council hosted a
lunch at the restaurant Caveau for
11 officers and chiefs following the
States stand for a strong America — a nation
NATIONAL ASSISTANT TREASURERS
morally, economically, and internally strong.
William G. Braund
■ We believe that the security of our nation
Michael Hottel
and of the people of the world demands a
Stewart E. Reuter well-balanced, integrated, mobile American
defense team, of which a strong Navy, Marine
NATIONAL JUDGE ADVOCATE Corps, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine are
Rockwell O’Sheill indispensable parts.
■ We support all Armed Services to the end
NATIONAL DEPUTY JUDGE ADVOCATES
that each may make its appropriate contribu-
Robert B. Haemer tion to the national security.
Rand R. Pixa
■ We know that in a free nation an informed
NATIONAL CORPORATE SECRETARY
public is indispensable to national security
and, therefore, we will strive to keep the
Al Bernard nation alert to dangers which threaten — both
CHAIRMAN U.S. NAVAL SEA CADET CORPS
from without and within.
We favor appropriations for each of the
Randy W. Hollstein
■
Armed Services, adequate for national securi-
PRESIDENT’S PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVES
ty, economically administered.

protocol ceremony at the City Hall. Cecil L. Blackwell ■We oppose any usurpation of the
Congress’s constitutional authority over the
EUROPEAN UNION
Thanks to the Cmdr. Juan Orozco, Eva García
Armed Services.

the ship’s commanding officer, the SPAIN ■ We urge that our country maintain world lead-
ership in scientific research and development.
T.B. McClelland
Navy League received a special UNITED ARAB EMIRATES ■ We support industrial preparedness, plan-
invitation to visit the ship following NATIONAL CHAPLAIN
ning, production.

the lunch, according to Council Rabbi William Kloner

■We support efforts of our government to
achieve worldwide peace through international
President Cornelis Van Vliet. NATIONAL HISTORIAN
cooperation.

The following day, a tour of the James M. Semerad ■We advocate a foreign policy which will
avoid wars — if possible; if not, win them!
vineyards near La Motte was NATIONAL PARLIAMENTARIAN

organized with several members James H. Waller

volunteering their time and vehi-

cles. The highlight of the day was a
lunch at Domaine de la Maurett,
which was received with great
enthusiasm by the crew. ■

S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1 99
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 IN MY OWN WORDS

Bill Cosby
Honorary Chief Petty Officer

ctor/comedian/educator and
A former Navy hospital corps-
man William H. “Bill” Cosby Jr. was
recognized as an Honorary Chief
Petty Officer during a Feb. 17 cere-
mony at the U.S. Navy Memorial
and Naval Heritage Center in
Washington. Navy Secretary Ray
Mabus, himself an honorary chief,
and Master Chief Petty Officer of the
Navy Rick D. West were on hand to
“pin” Cosby, present him with his
chief’s uniform and, as Mabus
noted, “welcome you to the ranks of
the people who run the Navy, who
make the ships sail on time, the air-
craft fly, the hospitals work.”

Cosby joined the Navy in 1956,
after quitting high school and
working a series of odd jobs in Bill Cosby is “pinned” as an Honorary Chief Petty Officer Feb. 17 by Master Chief
North Philadelphia. He trained as a Petty Officer of the Navy Rick D. West, left, and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus.
hospital corpsman and served at
the U.S. Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Va.; Bethesda
Naval Hospital, Md.; aboard the dock landing ship USS
Fort Mandan; and at Philadelphia Naval Hospital. He
also played a number of sports and earned his high
school diploma during his service.
Cosby received his honorary discharge in 1961 and
accepted a scholarship to Temple University in
Philadelphia, where his show-business career got start-
ed. Prior to and following the ceremony, Cosby — who
was given the Lone Sailor Award in 2010 — offered the
following observations on his Navy service.
I wasn’t a bad boy, I was sort of left to wander around.
That didn’t happen in the Navy.
I knew I had to get off my block. That’s what I told
LISA NIPP
the recruiter as I signed up. He said, “Ah, you join the
Navy and you’ll see the world.” See the world? I’d been
as far as Baltimore. But walking around knowing that I
had to leave that house and that I had no credentials to
enter college, I tried to figure out what I wanted to join.
It’s quite interesting, because I based it on how I want-
ed to die. I said “Well, I don’t want to go in the Army
because I’ll die in a foxhole in the dirt and you have to
eat out of cans. … And I don’t want to be in the Air Force
because you’re up in the air and these people are shoot-
ing at you … you blow up in the middle of the sky.
“And I don’t want to be in the Marine Corps be-
cause you die before you even get out of there. I want
to be in the Navy, because when you die, no matter
how you die, you’re in the middle of the ocean and it

“This 19-year-old, who had not graduated from high school and had no GED

— because of the rules and regulations of the Navy — began to see things

offered, began to accept things and that changed my life because I began

to feel better.”

102 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1
 IN MY OWN WORDS

will wash out your underpants. That’ll make my

mother very happy.”

One of the greatest moments in my life was graduation

[from boot camp]. To take that saber and walk past the
observation stand.
I had been called up [earlier] to the [company com-
mander’s] office in response to my mother’s letter to
him, in boot camp. I didn’t like the language that was
being used, I didn’t like the yelling, I didn’t like the
threats. I just didn’t know how to adjust to hearing this
man yell at someone that they were 200 pounds of cater-
pillar pus. So I wrote my mother to say how horrible this
was, and for her to see if she could get me out.
[The company commander] showed me a letter and
asked me if that was my mother’s handwriting. And I
said yes and I was very happy.
And he said “would you please read this?”
And I said “OK.”
And my mother had written and told him what I
said and my mother asked the company commander to
please continue to do these things.
That day [boot camp graduation], for her, it was the

LISA NIPP
first time she had seen me graduate from something,
other than junior high school.

$42 every two weeks. And I was eating for free. And,
as they say, “a place to lay your head.” It was wonder-
ful. Lights out, lights on. Urinate in one urinal and
continue to do so in the same one. Discipline.
Obedience is very, very important. The fact that at
age 73, receiving a sentence in boot camp which said
“I am not your mother” and still remembering that. …
It’s very important that my life, as a 19-year-old, very
quickly began to change because there were no games.
And I think that is the thing that also pushed me to
realize the mistakes I had made guiding my life and
what I could do with myself.
Also, this Navy allowed, at the time, young men and
women, because of the testing they were given in a
short amount of time, to achieve medic and in another
six or seven weeks to go to physical medicine school,
which I graduated from, and be a physical therapist. So
this 19-year-old, who had not graduated from high
school and had no GED — because of the rules and
regulations of the Navy — began to see things offered,
began to accept things and that changed my life
because I began to feel better.
I had imagined that I would commit suicide if I ever
lost movement in my legs or arms. This is before the
Navy, a sort of throwaway kind of thinking — “if I ever
became this, I think I would just die.” When I became a
physical therapist, I met people who had one leg ampu-
tated, paralyzed from the neck down, trauma, nerve
damage, strokes, arthritis, and I found that those people
were very depressed for about two, maybe three weeks,
and then that human spirit kicked in and they were sent
to us and we began to work with them. And even when
the [prognosis read that the chance] for recovery is zero,
we still worked, the patient and I.
And I remember at the end of a work day, as a physical
therapist, being very, very tired. But I also learned that
there is a good exhaustion and a bad one. The good one
is when you’re winning, you’re doing well, you’re serving.
Whether I’m a celebrity, an educator with a doctorate, I
think it’s important that this gives me a chance to go back
in my life to my Navy days and pretend that I stayed in. …
I don’t know where this man is today, I don’t remem-
ber his name, but I think I was at Quantico and I was
within 18 months of getting out after four years. And
money was very, very important because I had none.
And word came that if you re-upped you’d get another
$200, which was a lot of money.
After thinking it over, I went in and talked to a Navy
man and the man listened when I said “I’d like to re-
up.” I made sense. It wasn’t, “Hey, man, give me $200
I’ll sign my life away.” But I remember him saying, “I
think you need to think about it.You go away and you
think about it.”
That fellow will forever be a friend of mine. It was
like divine intervention, maybe. ■

S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 1 103
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