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The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) relieves USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) in the Arabian Gulf.
George H.W. Bush will soon depart the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility for its homeport at Norfolk, Va., and Carl Vinson will take over support of maritime security operations, strike operations in Iraq and Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve as directed, and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility.
In our visit to Fallon Naval Air Station, earlier this month, CDR (S) Jayson “Plato” Eurick, current Air Wing Training Officer, at Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, Fallon Naval Air Station, described the combat learning cycle between training for the deployment at sea and a carrier wing deployed.
What we learned from Plato was that the Bush CAG is in daily contact with Fallon to both provide input with regard to operations and their impact on preparing the next air wing out as well as to get help when needed with regard to altering tactics and training WHILE on deployment.
Training is about getting ready for deployment and supporting deployment, which is certainly a broad concept of training.
We ensure that they (the air wing) get up to speed on all of the information that is currently taking place in theater.
We don’t train Air Wing Fallon for a specific theater or country, we give them a broad brushed training, but we ensure that they get the information that is coming directly back from the guys overseas, in this case, the USS Bush.
And then we train them.
Question: You have described the CAG talking regularly with Fallon. Is this largely a one-way transmission?
Plato: It is highly interactive. It is daily. And we provide inputs when asked to improve tactics and training for ongoing operations.
What Plato highlighted was that his team worked at the end of the workup cycle where the various elements of the air wing come together and prepare to execute the complex ballet at sea which is what a carrier air wing has to do to be successful.
After a four week training period, the wing then goes to its at sea pre deployment and then on deployment.
So Plato and his team are at the end of the preparatory cycle, so the ability to input the latest operational information is central to mission success.
10/20/2014: Marines with Marine Aircraft Group 16, 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade, conduct a long range raid to Yuma, Az., from Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif., during Large Scale Exercise 2014, Aug. 11, 2014.
LSE-14 is a bilateral training exercise being conducted by 1st MEB to build U.S. and Canadian forces’ joint capabilities through live, simulated, and constructive military training activities.
Credit:1st MEB:8/11/14
According to an article published on August 12, 2014 by Cpl Corey Dabney on the exercise:
An Expeditionary Strike Group combines the surface, submarine, and patrol capabilities of a Naval Amphibious Ready Group with the combat power of a Marine Air Ground Task Force scalable to a particular contingency.
LSE-14 is a bilateral training exercise being conducted by 1st MEB to build MAGTF and Canadian forces’ joint capabilities through live, simulated, and constructive military training activities.
The exercise also promotes interoperability and cooperation between joint, international, and U.S. Marine Forces, providing the opportunity to exchange knowledge and learn from each other, establish personal and professional relationships and hone individual and small-unit skills through challenging, complex and realistic live scenarios with special focus on building combat power ashore.
And another article prior to the exercise identified the approach:
I MEB’s forces during LSE-14, composited from 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Logistics Group, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, will consist of 3,700 military members that will conduct long range raids, casualty evacuations, live-fire events, defensive operations, and close air support in response to exercise scenarios.
The 5th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, U.S. Agency for International Development, Marine Corps Special Forces Command, and Marine Forces Cyber, will also work to develop processes and procedures as a unified team alongside I MEB forces.
A notable highlight during this exercise is the heavy integration of constructive and simulated training activities tied in with live fire events that offer the warfighter a diverse range of experiences during a short period of time.
From AV-8B Harrier pilots simulating air strikes in response to actual troops on the ground to the use of an automated battlefield picture that offers command and control staff the ability to test current and emerging warfighting tactics without expending funds for ammunition and fuel.
10/18/2014: USNS William McClean T-AKE13 pulls alongside amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) to conduct replenishment at sea.
Iwo Jima at the time was underway executing a PHIBRON/MEU integration exercise.
Credit:USS Iwo Jima:8/11/13
In the second photo, Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Devon J. Seitz (left) and Gunner’s Mate Seaman Shane Conroy looks toward the USNS William McClean T-AKE13 aboard amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7).
The third photo was shot 10/26/12 and shows the Military Sealift Command dry cargo and ammunition ship USNS William McClean (T-AKE 12) departing Naval Station Norfolk ahead of Hurricane Sandy. Adm.
10/12/2014: F-35 Lightning II with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 121 performing at the 2014 Miramar Air Show aboard Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif., Oct. 4.
The show was noteworthy for marking both the end of an era and a beginning.
The CH-46 flew at the air show at the time when the last CH-46 squadron was being redesignated as an Osprey squadron and the F-35 B made an appearance at the air show.
According to an article by Gretel C. Kovach in the UTS San Diego paper:
Spectators at the Miramar Air Show witnessed the end of an era in Marine aviation and a beginning, when a helicopter that served in the Vietnam War flew its last active duty performance and a stealthy, supersonic F-35B fighter jet flew its San Diego debut.
The CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter is being retired from Marine Corps service and replaced by the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor, which can fly faster and farther carrying more weight. The Marine Corps’ last operational squadron of the 1960s-era helicopter will be re-designated this month, making Camp Pendleton-based Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 364 an Osprey squadron.
One of the snub-nosed, tandem rotor CH-46s, also affectionately called the “Battle Phrog,” was painted in Vietnam-era glossy green. As it flew ahead of three others in standard gunmetal gray, the Marine announcer said the historic aircraft was a tribute to veterans from that long-ago war, eliciting whoops and applause Saturday.
The F-35B Lightning II, the Marine variant of the Joint Strike Fighter under development by lead contractor Lockheed Martin for three services, later demonstrated its ability to hover and land at speeds of just 60 mph on a relatively short strip of runway.
F-35B flying at the Miramar Air Show: Credit: UTS San Diego
The Corps created the Pentagon’s first operational squadron of F-35 planes in 2012. Yuma-based Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 has since flown more than 1,000 sorties totaling about 1,700 flight hours.
The Marine Corps said its plan to become the first service to declare initial operational capability for the jet, in July 2015, is on track despite the temporary grounding of the entire F-35 fleet this summer because of an engine malfunction in the Air Force version.
“This is the most advanced and newest fighter aircraft in the world. … the future of Marine aviation,” Col. John Farnam, commanding officer of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, said in opening remarks…..
It’s not the full capability … but we will have weapons integrated, we will have combat capability. And the Marine Corps is raising its hand, saying ‘combatant commanders and Mr. President, … it’s available,” said Gillette, 42, of Lincoln, Neb.
In Yuma and Twentynine Palms the “Green Knights” have been flying in large scale combat exercises, dropping simulated ordnance and making vertical landings.
They currently are restricted to flying at 450 knots. With 2B software the speed limit rises to 550 knots, they can drop live ordnance, and the flight envelope opens to a greater angle of attack and G-loads.
Under full capability, the F-35B will sustain 7 Gs, compared to 9 for the Air Force version.
Gillette said the jet is easy to fly, requiring only six simulator or other training events for a pilot to learn to hover, versus nearly 30 in a Harrier. Even former F/A-18 Hornet pilots like himself with no experience in hover find it relatively simple, he said.
“Just in the infancy of the F-35 the state-of-the-art sensors and the software that drives those sensors is amazing to see from the cockpit perspective.”
It has involved cultural change, concepts of operations changes, significant change in maintenance approaches and operations, just to mention a few of the gut wrenching changes required of the USMC.
But now the USMC is the only tiltorotar enabled assault force in the world and able to reshape amphibious assault, establish new entities such as the Special Purpose MAGTF, and to shape innovative 21st century operations.
In a piece written by Robbin Laird and published in Breaking Defense, the challenges of transition was highlighted:
When I first saw Ospreys at New River several years ago, there were only five. Now a newly appointed Air Combat Element or ACE commander for the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Lt. Col. Schoolfield, showed me the air group being assembled on the tarmac. It was an impressive array of aircraft, including the newly configured AH-1Z Cobras and UH-1Y “Yankees.”
The Ospreys were lined up almost as if they knew that they were the enabler now of the afloat Marines, and not an experiment. But to get to this point has required significant cultural change within the Corps itself. To deal with this requires leadership, and not just inside the Beltway. Commanders in the field and with the forces are crucial to such change.
One such leader is the retiring (in only one sense of the word) Col. Seymour, who is the CO of Marine Aircraft Group 26. During our interview, Seymour described the cultural changes necessary to deal with process of change. Leadership had to move forward in spite of resistance. As he reminded his Marines: “You are not stakeholders; you are Marines. Get on with it.”
The F-35B Transformation
We recently visited the first operational squadron of F-35Bs, the squadron which flew the F-35Bs seen at Miramar.
In an interview with the Executive Officer of the Squadron, the Lt. Col. designate to be the CO of an F-35 squadron at Beaufort underscored the nature of the transformation:
Question: How would you describe the current role of the squadron?
Major Summa:
The Marines focus on a process of giving the airplane to the operators and let the operators figure out how best to operate and then use the aircraft.
Our leadership has prepared the way for the coming of the F-35 to the USMC and has worked hard to ensure that the infrastructure is in place to allow us to train and use the aircraft.
For example, when Lt. General Trautman was Deputy Commandant of Aviation he focused on preparing Yuma to be the home for the first F-35 squadron.
Clearly, being here with MAWTS-1 gives us a good advantage to get a good start on operating, training and shaping the tactics of the new aircraft for the MAGTF.
After creating the infrastructure, the next step was to get the airplane in the hands of Marines to work with the aircraft and to work with the aircraft within the limits of what it is cleared to do, because we do not have clearance for the full flight envelope we will have by the time the aircraft attains Initial Operational Capability.
Question: Putting the plane in the hands of the operators is a key part of developing the aircraft as well isn’t it?
Major Summa:
It is. Every time we fly, we are learning something.
While trained Test Pilots are operating instrumented aircraft on a detailed test plan, in Yuma you have operational pilots flying the jet everyday gaining data points that may not have been discovered by Developmental Test.
By data points I do not mean safety of flight related items, I am referring to operational data points.
More along the lines of how to optimize and use the multiple sensors to accomplish a task or execute a mission set.
Since we have such a good working relationship with the Developmental Test entities, the Joint Operational Test community, and the individuals from industry who are SMEs on the systems, we can get immediate feedback when questions arise and then promulgate that back out to the community.
For example, last week we spent several hours in the vault with pilot training officers and with pilots who have been either MAWTS or Top Gun graduates or instructors.
We compared our operational experience with what has been developed so far with regard to our joint tactics manual which was written more than year ago, based on expectations developed from flying in the simulator.
Now we are seeing things in the operational airplane.
So how do we change?
How do we improve, update and morph the manual to where we see the plane operationally performing?
Where do we think we are going with the next drop of software in the plane?
On the end of the CH-46 era and the redesignation of the last CH-46 squadron see the following:
10/15/2014: Aircraft from Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 365 (Reinforced), 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, and the U.S. Navy’s Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 28 conduct operations aboard the USS Iwo Jima off the coast of North Carolina, Aug. 9, 2014.
The 24th MEU is seen taking part in Amphibious Squadron/Marine Expeditionary Unit Integration, or PMINT, the 24th MEU’s second major pre-deployment training exercise.
PMINT is designed to bring Marines and Sailors from the 24th MEU and Amphibious Squadron 8 together for the first time aboard the ships of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group.
Credit:24th MEU:8/9/14
In the second photo, an AH-1W Cobra from Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 365 (Reinforced), 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, takes off from the USS Iwo Jima off the coast of North Carolina, August 9, 2014.
In the third photo, a UH-1Y Huey from Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 365 (Reinforced), 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, takes off from the USS Iwo Jima off the coast of North Carolina, August 9, 2014.
In the fourth photo, Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s Maritime Raid Force ride in an MH-60S Seahawk from the U.S. Navy’s Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 28, after launching from the USS Iwo Jima, Aug. 9, 2014, off the coast of North Carolina.
In photos, 5-7, a CH-53E Super Stallion is featured.
10/14/2014: Overflight footage of the natural gas drill platform Baker in Cook Inlet near Kenai, Alaska, filmed by a Coast Guard C-130 Hercules airplane crew from Air Station Kodiak, Oct. 3, 2014.
Multiple Coast Guard assets, along with personnel from Hilcorp, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Nikiski Fire Department, CISPRI and Offshore Marine Services responded to the fire on the platform which began Oct. 2.
According to the Alaska Dispatch in a story by Zaz Hollander published October 2, 2014:
A stubborn fire on a Cook Inlet natural gas platform near Nikiski on Thursday morning triggered the evacuation of four workers but caused no injuries, authorities say.
Firefighting vessels continued spraying water at the Hilcorp Alaska LLC platform into early afternoon, and responders through the day watched for signs of pollution, though none were evident as of late Thursday afternoon.
“We’re encouraged by what we’re seeing at this point,” Hilcorp spokeswoman Lori Nelson said in late afternoon from a command center established in Nikiski. “No spill, no sheen, minimal debris.”
The fire started at about 7:30 a.m. in the area of the platform crew’s living quarters, according to an update from the Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Council that started off with the words “THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”
A Nikiski-based Hilcorp helicopter evacuated the four employees just before 8 a.m., Nelson said. The U.S. Coast Guard said it received the first reports of the fire around 8:30 a.m.
The fire destroyed the quarters but doesn’t appear to have involved any gas-processing equipment, she said. The flow of gas was shut down remotely after the alarm sounded.
By midday, flames and black smoke that shocked witnesses earlier in the morning gave way to smoldering embers and gray smoke. The fire was initially reported out by 1:20 p.m., Coast Guard spokesman Shawn Eggert said, though firefighting and response vessels stayed at the platform through the day.
Responders reported full containment of the fire in an update issued just after 6:30 p.m. Thursday from the command center. Officials said they planned to monitor the fire through the night.
A full investigation to determine the cause of the fire is underway, according to an update from Hilcorp, the Coast Guard and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. Investigators will board the platform once it’s secured.
The platform, in the North Middle Ground Shoal Field 7 to 8 miles from shore near Nikiski, is one of 16 in Cook Inlet. Hilcorp owns 12 of them.
Louise Nutter, who lives in Nikiski between three waterfront heliports, spotted flames and smoke rising from the Baker platform just after she took her first-grader to school.
“You certainly don’t ever want to see the view of smoke coming off an oil platform like that,” Nutter said.
“I know what it looks like when there’s a flare, when they burn off the pressure, but I have never seen black smoke billowing off the platform before.”
She spent the next few minutes texting furiously with a friend who works as a crane operator on the Baker platform and was relieved to hear that he was on his two weeks off and in Louisiana.
“He told me everybody got off safe, and that’s what I wanted to hear,” Nutter said.
The Coast Guard, DEC and Hilcorp set up a unified command at Nikiski.
Officials established a 5-mile-radius no-fly zone at 5,000 feet and a 2-mile maritime safety zone around the platform.
10/13/2014: Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 364, Purple Foxes, redesignated to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 364 during a change of command and redesignation ceremony aboard Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, Calif., Oct. 9.
The unit transformed platforms from the CH-46 Sea Knight to the MV-22 Osprey.
This was the last CH-46 squadron in the Marine Corps. Lt. Col. John Field relinquished command of the squadron to Lt. Col. Paul Kopacz.
In a story by Cpl. Raquel Barraza published on October 9, 2014, the shift in eras was the focus of attention.
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (HMM) 364 “Purple Foxes” held a change of command and redesignation ceremony aboard Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, Calif., Oct. 9.
During the ceremony, Lt. Col. John Field, outgoing commanding officer of HMM-364, relinquished command to Lt. Col. Paul B. Kopacz, oncoming commanding officer.
“It has been my esteemed honor and privilege for the past 19 months to lead the finest assault squadron in the Marine Corps,” said Field.
Lt. Col. Paul B. Kopacz, left, oncoming commanding officer of now Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 364, unravels the new guidon VMM-364 during a change of command and redesignation ceremony aboard Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, Calif., Oct. 9. This signified the activation of a new squadron. Credit: USMC
The outgoing commanding officer had some words of encouragement for the Marines of HMM-364 after he relinquished command.
“It is not one man or one Marine that is responsible; it is a team effort and it’s that team effort that is going to carry forward as we enter the next chapter of 364 and the MV-22,” said Field.
The ceremony also signified the squadron’s transition to a Marine medium tiltrotor squadron; the CH-46E Sea Knight, also known as the “Phrog,” will be replaced by the MV-22B Osprey. HMM-364 is the last Marine medium helicopter fleet squadron to make the transition to the Osprey.
It is not the end of the great legacy of this squadron although the Purple Foxes were saying goodbye to the CH-46.
“I have no doubt the Purple Foxes will continue to excel with [the Osprey],” said Field. “The reason there is no doubt is because it’s not about a machine. It doesn’t matter if it’s a CH-46 or an Osprey, what’s important is the Marines that maintain and fly those airplanes.”
As the oncoming commanding officer unraveled the new guidon of now Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 364, Marines finally bid farewell to their Phrog and began a new era.
