Australian Amphibious Ships Face Propulsion Challenge

Posted on | by Caroline Teames
05/21/2017

05/21/2017: According to several sources, Australia’s largest warships have experienced a propulsion system problem at sea and the Navy and its contractors are working to fix the problem.

Australian naval engineers are investigating the problems in the propulsion systems of two Spanish-built warships.

The Royal Australian Navy’s US$1.5 billion worth HMAS Adelaide and HMAS Canberra are facing an issue with its propulsion systems. “Oils have leaked into parts of the vessels’ propulsion system where they shouldn’t be,” naval chiefs said in a briefing on Friday, The Straits Times report.

Rear Admiral Adam Grunsell, the head of maritime systems in defence force’s capability acquisition and sustainment group, said the problem could be a design issue, though it is too early to speculate.

Both Landing Helicopter Docks (LHDs) were built by Spanish firm Navantia using propulsion pods from German company Siemens and fitted with combat and communications systems by British company BAE Systems.

The three companies are working with the navy to help identify the problems.

http://www.defenseworld.net/news/19348/Australian_Navy_Confirms_Propulsion_Problems_On_Board_Its_Spanish_Built_Warships#.WSAZ01KZNBw

The photos show HMAS Canberra returning to sea on 18 May to conduct sea trials off Sydney. These trials are engineering focused to test the interim repairs made to the propulsions pods and verify the state of the system.  

The sea trials are being conducted in conjunction with industry partners including original equipment manufacturers. The photos in the slideshow are credited to the Australian Department of Defence

According to ABC News Australia:

The Navy has now confirmed HMAS Adelaide will no longer participate in next month’s planned Talisman Sabre exercises with the United States, and says it is too early to say whether HMAS Canberra will also be able to take part.

It had been hoped both LHDs would show off the Royal Australian Navy’s new amphibious capability during war games with American forces off the Queensland coast…..

Vice Admiral Barrett said once the problems were identified all three manufacturers were immediately contacted.

“We’ve highlighted with the CEOs of each of those companies the significance of these ships to our capability and the need to work together to be able to solve it,” he said.
He has also revealed it is not the first time the Navy has had to dock an LHD for repair work.

“We had an issue with high voltage, which again in a ship that’s driven by electric engines,” he said.

“Again, we at the time had the equipment manufacturer come in and there were changes we needed to make.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-19/navy-cant-rule-out-design-faults-as-cause-of-ships-problems/8542382

New Australian Naval Shipbuilding Program

Posted on | by Caroline Teames

05/21/2017: According to text and a video released by the Australian Department of Defence:

Prime Minister of Australia, the Honourable Malcolm Turnbull, Minister for Defence, Senator the Honourable Marise Payne and Minister for Defence Industry, the Honourable Christopher Pyne MP, announced the release of the Naval Shipbuilding Plan at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in Adelaide on 16 May 2017.

The Naval Shipbuilding Plan provides the strategic direction for a significant national endeavour to secure Australia’s naval shipbuilding and sustainment industry.

It outlines the Government’s vision, significant investment and expectations of long-term partnerships and collaboration with key stakeholders to achieve this nation-building project.

5/16/17

Australian Department of Defence

Sec Def Mattis Meets Swedish Defense Minister at the Pentagon

Posted on | by Caroline Teames

05/21/2017: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met with Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist at the Pentagon to discuss their countries’ alliance, May 18, 2017.

5/18/17

DoD News

With the deployment of F-35s to the UK and then to Estonia and Bulgaria, the Trump Administration is focused clearly on NATO security and defense.

And Northern Europe is a key part of the effort, notably with Denmark, Norway and Sweden focusing on enhanced cooperation and capabilities.

Recent articles on the Swedish Ministry of Defence website provide insights into the changing Swedish perspectives on the priority on defense in Northern Europe.

Total defence receives SEK 500 million in additional funding

In the spring budget, the Government has proposed extra funding to strengthen total defence this year. The Government is allocating an additional SEK 500 million to the Swedish Armed Forces and Sweden’s total defence capability in 2017.

 In the spring amending budget, the Government has proposed additional funding of SEK 405 million to the Swedish Armed Forces.

This additional funding will be used to: 

  • Increase the preparedness and availability of military units;
  • Strengthen the Battlegroup of Gotland with anti-aircraft capability;
  • Carry out exercises and increase the numbers involved in exercises that are already planned;
  • Improve cyber security; and
  • Purchase spare parts and vehicles for units. 

In addition, the Government has proposed SEK 60 million to strengthen municipalities’ and county councils’ work in the area of civilian defence, SEK 15 million for the county administrative boards for total defence planning, SEK 10 million for the National Defence Radio Establishment to strengthen society’s resilience to cyberattacks against vital public services and SEK 10 million for the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency for efforts to counter cyber-attacks.

http://www.government.se/articles/2017/04/total-defence-receives-sek-500-million-in-additional-funding/

Sweden re-activates conscription

The Swedish government has decided to re-activate conscription from January 1 2018. 

The security environment in Europe and in Sweden’s vicinity has deteriorated and the all-volunteer recruitment hasn’t provided the Armed Forces with enough trained personnel. The re-activating of the conscription is needed for military readiness. 

Trained personnel are fundamental for building military capability. In 2016 the Armed Forces lacked 1 000 active squad leaders, soldiers and sailors as well as 7 000 reservists. 

Recruitment to the Armed Forces will be both voluntary and conscription. Individual motivation, interest and will should to be considered as much as possible. 

The Armed Forces is planning for 4 000 recruits annually in basic military training in 2018 and 2019. 

The modern conscription is gender neutral and will include both women and men. 

http://www.government.se/articles/2017/03/re-activation-of-enrolment-and-the-conscription/

 

 

Marines Participate with Brits and French in Tinian Exercise

Posted on | by Caroline Teames

05/21/2017: U.S., Japan, France and Great Britain train together on the island of Tinian during Exercise Jeanne D’Arc 17 mid-May 2017.

The Brits are operating off of a French warship in the region.

Tinian Exercise from SldInfo.com on Vimeo.

GUAM

05.18.2017

Defense Media Activity – Guam

2017-03-05  According to a story published March 3, 2017, the UK has sent troops and equipment to operate off of the French amphibious ship the Mistral, in a five month deployment.

Around 70 Royal Navy and Royal Marine personnel have joined a French task group aboard the French assault ship FS Mistral for the five-month mission.

It includes port calls in Singapore, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Japan, Guam and Australia.

Two Royal Navy Merlin Mk3 helicopters have joined the deployment, which will include amphibious exercises and defence engagement.

The UK contribution to France’s annual Jeanne d’Arc naval deployment demonstrates the strength and depth of UK-France ties and our shared commitment to protecting international maritime security.

Royal Navy and Royal Marine personnel and two Royal Navy Merlin Mk3 helicopters have joined the French task group. Picture: Marine Nationale.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said:

“France is one of our closest allies and our world class maritime forces are combining to show we can operate together effectively.

“Whether deployed together at sea, striking Daesh from the air, or contributing to NATO deployments in the Baltics, Britain and France will continue to work hard for our shared security.”

This deployment further shows the UK’s ability to operate alongside French forces, in line with our development of the Combined Joint Expeditionary Force, a rapidly deployable joint UK-French force that can respond to crises.

Our navies already work together to counter piracy and maritime crime around the coasts of Africa and people smugglers in the Mediterranean, and Royal Navy ships have supported the Charles de Gaulle Aircraft Carrier in its operations against Daesh in Iraq and Syria.

British and French forces also operate together as members of NATO, with France contributing to the UK-led enhanced Forward Presence deployment to Estonia this year.

The UK and France share a history of cooperation on defence and security, from fighting alongside each other since the First World War to supporting a rules-based international system on the UN Security Council into the 21st Century.

Even closer bilateral defence and security ties are being developed through the 2010 Lancaster House Treaties.

 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-maritime-forces-join-major-french-deployment

According to Naval Today:

The five-month amphibious deployment will take the force – which includes the frigate Courbet – as far east as Japan and Guam, as far south as the northern coast of Australia, with visits to Vietnam, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Djibouti on the 24,000-mile round-trip.

A flight from 845 Naval Air Squadron will be a permanent presence aboard the French assault ship FS Mistral as she leads the deployment.

 https://navaltoday.com/2017/03/01/two-royal-navy-merlins-join-french-navys-jeanne-darc-deployment/

The deployment began from the French Navy’s Mediterranean home port of Toulon.

USN-Marine Corps Team Tests New Technologies for the Amphibious Strike Force

Posted on | by Caroline Teames
05/11/2017

05/11/2017: The Navy (All Hands Magazine) and U.S. Marine Corps team officially wrapped up the Ship-to-Shore Maneuver Exploration and Experimentation Advanced Naval Technology Exercise 2017 this month at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California.

Marines and sailors field-tested more than 50 new technologies, everything from swarming unmanned surface vessels to self-driving amphibious assault vehicles.

The resulting force of these technological capabilities will integrate operations across all domains to include information and cyberspace.

CAMP PENDLETON, CA, UNITED STATES

05.04.2017

I Marine Expeditionary Force

According to a press release from Office of Naval Research dated May 4, 2017:

By Warren Duffie Jr., Office of Naval Research

ARLINGTON, Va.—Autonomous vehicles, augmented reality systems and advanced wireless networks were among over 50 new technologies showcased during the Ship-to-Shore Maneuver Exploration and Experimentation Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (S2ME2 ANTX) 2017—a series of amphibious beach landings held recently at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California.

S2ME2 ANTX brought together industry, academia and the Naval Research and Development Establishment—which includes the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and various research laboratories associated with the Department of the Navy—to demonstrate emerging technology innovations. The exercise involved hundreds of Sailors, Marines and Department of Defense civilian employees and contractors.

By using direct feedback and technical evaluations from participating warfighters and senior leadership in attendance, S2ME2 ANTX also may change the way the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps look at prototyping and rapidly acquiring technology.

”The large scope of this exercise allows the Navy and Marine Corps to make informed decisions about future generations of technology for use by the warfighter,” said Dr. David E. Walker, ONR’s director of technology. “This pairing of Sailors and Marines with scientists and technologists will help move innovation at a faster pace.”  

S2ME2 ANTX focused on five capability areas of amphibious operations: ship-to-shore maneuver; weapons fire support and effects; clearing assault lanes; command and control; and information warfare. Demonstrated technologies included unmanned and autonomous vehicles equipped with sensors to gather intelligence in the air, on land and underwater.

During each amphibious beach demonstration, unmanned surface and underwater vehicles approached the shore first, collecting intelligence about battlespace conditions—including threats and obstacles—providing an accurate picture of what warfighters would face when leaving their vessels and vehicles.
  
Several ONR- and Naval Research Laboratory-sponsored systems were demonstrated at S2ME2 ANTX, including:

BEMR Lab: BEMR stands for Battlespace Exploitation of Mixed Reality. This cutting-edge technology merges virtual reality (complete immersion in a simulated/virtual world) and augmented reality (where virtual objects are imposed onto real-world vision), through the use of Oculus Rift goggles.

Mine Warfare Rapid Assessment Capability (MIW RAC): A small quadcopter is outfitted with an ultra-sensitive magnetometer and sensors to detect mines and provide real-time data to a handheld Android device.

Coalition Tactical Awareness and Response (CTAR): This system uses satellite imagery to conduct surveillance of large areas of open ocean. CTAR processes image data to generate detailed reports about maritime activity in these ocean areas, and can share this information with partners and allies.

Technologies that performed well at S2ME2 ANTX potentially could be featured at Bold Alligator 2017, a multinational series of amphibious exercises led by U.S. Fleet Forces Command and U.S. Marine Corps Forces Command, scheduled for the fall.

Warren Duffie Jr. is a contractor for ONR Corporate Strategic Communications.

Additionally, Gidget Fuentes published a piece May 1, 2017 on USNI that highlighted the exercise as well and highlighted the following:

Since this sea-to-shore iteration of ANTX is about experimentation, most of the technologies demonstrated on the water or ground or displayed in tents and in the urban-training village huts aren’t programs of record. Some concepts remain untested and unproven. But the Marine Corps and the Navy are intent on meshing technology and ideas together and evaluating them much more quickly than traditionally done.

“I think this is the model,” Alford said. “More importantly than the model…, we’ve got to produce. We’ve got to drive four or five or six of these technologies into Bold Alligator. Next year’s Dawn Blitz has to get some. We’ve got to show industry this is worth doing, that we are good partners. We haven’t been great partners in the past.”

So drones that can swarm in the air or at sea and autonomously-driven vehicles were among dozens of unmanned technologies the Marine Corps and Navy are looking at to counter anti-access threats in sea-to-shore operations and close potential shortfalls in warfighting capabilities.

“The littoral battlespace is where the Marine Corps and the Navy operate. We have to be able to operate freely there, and the adversary will try to keep us out,” saud Lt. Gen. Robert Walsh[cqgf], deputy commandant for combat development and integration and head of Marine Corps Combat Development Command at Quantico, Va. “We want to have a lot of these capabilities out in front sensing – making sense of the environment – so we can act….

The acceleration and the proliferation of technology also represents incredible challenges to moving forces ashore,” Lt. Col. Dan Schmitt with the warfighting lab’s Futures Directorate told the crowd watching the mock beach assault.

In the demo, reconnaissance Marines zipped ashore on jet boats after unmanned underwater systems had searched and cleared the beach and surf zone of mines. Several unmanned rigid inflatable boats and unmanned surface vehicles with sensors and jammers patrolled the offshore waters.

A wave of combat-loaded Amphibious Assault Vehicles and Light Armored Vehicles reached dry sand, with two AAVs arriving empty. Those amtracs – outfitted with existing, off-the-shelf, remote control – landed autonomously to demonstrate that an unmanned, driver-less technology would minimize or remove the human from initial entry when needed. Infantry Marines exited the amtracs, and some guided unmanned ground vehicles, including one equipped with a machinegun, to help reconnoiter the area. Others launched a Switchblade, a small unmanned air vehicle, from a tube to conduct area recon and surveillance.

All throughout, drones in the air provided cover, their small sensors — with low signature emissions — providing commanders real-time imagery and information, which the landing force Marines also got on their small Android tablets and devices, officials said. Sky-high and out of view, one officer pointed out, a satellite-aided command and control. Above the beach, the Navy-developed Vapor 55 provided aerial command and control, linking Marines with other drones and systems on ship and ashore. A helicopter-looking unmanned air system One UAS called V-Bat hovered overhead with smaller quadcopters, providing a data link. Another quad-copter carried and then dropped a mock explosive device (a pair of meals-ready-to-eat packages) onto an enemy target

 

MV-22 Trans Pacific Flight to Australia

Posted on | by Caroline Teames
05/09/2017

05/09/2017: ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE BASE, Darwin – Four MV-22 Ospreys with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 268, Marine Rotational Force Darwin 17.2, land in Australia, April 28, 2017.

This was the first trans-Pacific flight for the Osprey in history. (Marine Corps video by Sgt. Emmanuel Ramos)

DARWIN, NT, AUSTRALIA:05.04.2017

Marine Rotational Force Darwin

According to a story by William Cole published in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on May 1, 2017:

Four Hawaii-based MV-22 Ospreys arrived at Royal Australian Air Force Base Darwin today after flying nearly 6,000 miles and hopscotching across the Pacific, the Marine Corps said.

The tilt-rotor aircraft are with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 268 (VMM-268) out of Kaneohe Bay. It’s the first trans-Pacific flight the Ospreys have conducted from Hawaii to Australia, the Marines said.

“The movement demonstrates that the range of our MV-22s combined with our refueling capabilities can allow us to reach across the entire Pacific Ocean,” Marine Rotational Force Darwin said in a release.

Some 1,250 Marines mostly from the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, out of California — but also Hawaii aircraft and personnel — are taking part in the annual deployment to Darwin in the Northern Territory.

The Corps sent its largest aircraft contingent to date — four MV-22 Ospreys, five AH-1W Super Cobra and four UH-1Y Venom helicopters, all out of Kaneohe Bay — to this year’s $25 million, six-month Marine Rotational Force Darwin iteration, which is intended to forge closer bonds with Australia while also giving the U.S. military another leaping-off point in the vast Pacific.

It’s the first deployment for VMM-268 out of Hawaii since the unit arrived from California last summer. By November the squadron had its full complement of 12 Ospreys, which take off and land like a helicopter and tilt the 38-foot rotors forward in level flight, converting the MV-22 into a high-speed turboprop airplane.

The squadron reached what’s known as “full operational capability” in Hawaii in January. Another 12 Ospreys are due in Hawaii in the 2018 fiscal year.

The MV-22 with a crew of three and 24 troops can cruise at 322 mph and has a range of 990 miles without refueling, according to the Navy. By comparison, the big CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter can carry 37 passengers in its normal configuration and up to 55 with centerline seats at 172 mph with a range of 621 miles.

The aircraft were expected to fly to Australia through Wake Island and Guam using KC-130 refuelers, Stars and Stripes previously reported.