American and Canadian personnel participate in a simulated aerial assault as part of Arctic Warrior 21.
A detachment from the Royal Canadian Air Force’s 450th Tactical Helicopter Squadron, based out of Petawawa, Ontario, joins elements of 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, and 1st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, both from Fort Wainwright, for the flight.
FORT WAINWRIGHT, AK
02.17.2021
Video by Eve Baker
Fort Wainwright Public Affairs Office
ATLANTIC OCEAN – Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) successfully completed Combat Systems Ship’s Qualification Trials (CSSQT) April 17, representing a major milestone in validating the ship’s capability to defend itself and the crew.
The trials, which commenced in February, consisted of five phases. The completion of the final phase, 2C, and CSSQT overall, is the culmination of years of planning, training, ingenuity and thousands of working hours for the ship’s current and previous crews.
“I could not be more proud of our Sailors and their historic accomplishment,” said Capt. Paul Lanzilotta, Ford’s commanding officer. “CSSQT was a live-fire, hands-on opportunity to prove the self-defense capability of this fine warship. We always intend to use our embarked air wing to influence our adversaries at great ranges from the ship, but if they’re able to get a shot at us, this event has shown our crew the formidable nature of our organic weapons.”
According to ship’s CSSQT project officer, Larry Daugherty, phase 2C was the “prove it” phase for the ship, which had already completed multiple detect-to-engage scenarios with live aircraft. In 2C, Ford faced off against rocket propelled drones capable of speeds in excess of 600 miles per hour; towed drone units (TDU) that simulate rockets; and remote controlled, high-speed maneuvering surface targets (HSMST).
The crew countered, relying on their skills and training to operate Ford’s advanced defense systems. They used the rolling airframe missile (RAM) launchers, firing off RIM-116 missiles; the NATO launchers to fire the evolved sea sparrow missiles (ESSM); and the Mk-15 Phalanx Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) to fire armor-piercing tungsten bullets at 4,500 rounds per minute.
“The crew crushed it, firing off four missiles [two RIM-116 and two ESSM], and all of them were conducted with precision control by combat direction center (CDC) watch teams, they executed perfectly,” said Daugherty. “All command and control decisions were made correctly, and the [systems] were engaged when they were supposed to be engaged and everything went out on time.”
The ship’s defense missiles engaged the drones and CIWS took out the TDUs and HSMSTs. All three TDUs were destroyed, and two of those TDUs were ripped to shreds, according to Daugherty. All three HSMSTs were destroyed as well.
“Those Sailors not only took out the first two HSMSTs, they punched holes in them, set them on fire, and they both sank,” said Daugherty. “On the third one, the CIWS operator was so good that he actually hit the target further out than the weapon system’s maximum effective range and put it [dead in the water] DIW.”
As the first crew to fire Ford’s missiles and complete this mission, it is a huge accomplishment, according to Chief Warrant Officer 2 Todd Williamson, Ford’s fire control officer, and it began with the on-load of the missiles.
“Getting missiles transported and loaded onto a ship is a big movement that requires national coordination between multiple entities,” said Williamson. “The ship’s Fire Controlmen and Weapons Department were the backbone of the handling evolution, while Ford’s Aviation Intermediate Maintenance Department provided material handling equipment readiness support. Our [In-Service Engineering Agents] ISEA were also on-hand to provide oversight.”
The first few days of the nearly week-long exercises for 2C were some of the most challenging, according to Williamson. “For Weapons Department and Combat Systems Department, it was two 18-hour back-to-back days just to get set-up and complete telemetry checks,” he said.
The telemetry checks provide the capability to record the flight performance characteristics and fusing of RAM and ESSM missiles to ensure they are capable of hitting their intended targets, according to Daugherty.
There were other system checks, system and equipment tuning, ordnance uploads, preventative maintenance checks and casualty repairs, which collectively made for an extremely complex series of exercises. According to Fire Controlman 2nd Class Douglas Huyge, who has been aboard Ford for two years, his team was up for the challenge.
“I am 100 percent impressed with the way the division worked together to achieve this goal,” said Huyge. “People who are in leadership positions dream of dream-teams like this, we worked hard to get here and we executed the mission.”
CSSQT is the culminating combat systems test of Ford’s 18-month post-delivery test and trials (PDT&T) phase of operations. Following PDT&T this month, Ford will commence preparations for Full Ship Shock Trials, scheduled to occur during the summer, to validate the ability of new construction ships to carry out assigned missions and evaluate operational survivability after exposure to an underwater shock.
“[CSSQT] was probably the single-handed greatest feeling I’ve felt on this ship so far,” said Huyge, describing how he felt watching the live-fire evolution in CDC, after many years of hard work. “I would say what I felt was fulfillment. It was a high level of fulfillment.”
USS Gerald R. Ford is a first-in-class aircraft carrier, and the first new aircraft carrier designed in more than 40 years. The ship is underway for Independent Steaming Event 18 (ISE 18), as part of her PDT&T phase of operations.
Special thanks to LCDR Desiree Frame, PAO, USS Gerald R. Ford for sending up this article which was published by the U.S. Navy on April 24, 2021.
For our report last year on the USS Gerald R. Ford, see below:
By Bernard Barbier, Jean-Louis Gergorin and Admiral Edourd Guillaud
“Cyber-coercion” calls for putting together intelligence, protection, international action and retaliation capabilities, three former senior national security officials point out.
Op-ed. At the beginning of the year 2020, in a world that was yet to imagine how much it would be disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, we warned about a series of cyber threats and called for reflection and action against what we called “cyber-coercion”: any computer exploit aimed at intimidating State or corporate leaders, in order to gain political and strategic benefits from the former or a financial ransom from the latter.
The open letter published by the Club informatique des grandes entreprises françaises (Cigref – IT club of French major corporations) on November 18 2020, addressing Prime Minister Jean Castex, was a warning cry. The number of successful cyberattacks, including those using ransomware which block an organisation’s IT system until a ransom is paid, increased fourfold in a year’s time. Attacks are more and more sophisticated, and they’re aimed at companies and public utilities. Almost all of them originate in a criminal ecosystem blooming in those countries which have not ratified the 2001 Budapest Convention on cybercrime.
Free from any form of prosecution, powerful groups may engage in direct cyberextortion as well as in the sale of those tools making such actions possible to any criminal customer: « ransomware as a service ». Self-serving tolerance by official services in those States harbouring them and the magnitude of earnings have turned cyberpiracy into the most profitable, and least risky criminal activity in human history, which accounts for its exponential growth.
News, published in December 2020, that a thousand private and public organisations including all major federal executive departments, the NSA, Microsoft and the very effective cybersecurity company FireEye were compromised by cyber intrusion, represent a real departure from the previous state of strategic affairs. It all happened with an undetected modification of a network management software update.
The addition into software updates unrolled between March and May of a Trojan called “Sunburst” prepositioned at the heart of the most critical IT systems an implant which, to this day, seems to have been used only for espionage purposes. It could very much as well have been used for sabotage.
Until Sunburst was discovered and precisely identified, only recently, the State which created it – i.e. Russia, as almost every US official except Donald Trump believes – enjoyed “digital first strike capability” against civilian and military infrastructure in the US. Sunburst was only found when its perpetrators stole FireEye’s offensive technical tools. It is probable that this capacity to include an undetectable Trojan in a software update has already been used elsewhere. The threat is therefore critical.
In this context, cyber-coercion, of criminal as well as of governmental origin, must be fought with a national, integrated and comprehensive, anti-coercion strategy. It would include four tightly connected parts: intelligence, protection, international action, and retaliation capability. Intelligence services must identify who is responsible for the attacks, and the technical signature of these attacks. In order to achieve this aim, cooperation between official intelligence services, cybersecurity agencies and reliable cyberthreat intelligence companies is paramount.
Protection is a necessary, yet not sufficient condition for security. Incidentally, the Sunburst attack is a major warning about the necessity to no longer rely on the initial certifications of software products only. Software update screening technologies must be found. Finally, it’s abnormal that France, as an exporter of digital brains, cannot stimulate the creation and development of cybersecurity software companies more efficiently, and put an end to the US-Israeli duopoly in the European market.
International action must not only aim at regulating cyberspace, following president Macron’s call on November 12th , 2018 in Paris [speech for the inauguration of the Internet GovernanceForum, at the Unesco], but also use all bilateral and multilateral means available to push those governments perpetrating or protecting cyberattacks to amend their ways. But individual sanctions are only one type of tools, the effectiveness of which is rather limited ; conversely, the commercial weight of the EU offers important perspectives.
“Ambitious and achievable goals must be set. It’s an illusion to believe that cybercrime can be wiped off; it’s within our grasp to curb it.”
Finally, the French cyberdefence doctrine must include the capability to engage in retaliations which would be proportionate to any attack against civilian as well as military infrastructure deemed essential. Following the impetus of Thierry Breton [EU commissioner for internal market], the European Commission has significantly announced a new cybersecurity strategy.
In order to fight at the appropriate level, ambitious and achievable goals must be set. It’s an illusion to believe that cybercrime can be wiped off; it’s within our grasp to curb it.
The fight for cyber could draw an inspiration from the Atalante operation against piracy, implemented in the Indian Ocean since 2008, in which the European Union relied on a first contributing country (France), to bring together speed and effectiveness. Retaliation against cyber-coercion could be piloted by the ComCyber [joint military cyber command, which was formed in 2017] or the direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (DGSE – Foreign Intelligence agency), or by an integrated common team, as is the case in Great Britain, at the national level or in cooperation with allies.
Without any change in the doctrine already mentioned regarding the comprehensive nature of cyber-defence, there will be no deterring effect whatsoever, and nothing will prevent events such as the massive cyberattack against the Rouen university hospital in November 2019 to multiply and become more and more serious.
Faced with milestones represented by the exponential growth of ransomware and the Sunburst operation, our country must very quickly start to engage in a strategic reassessment and abandon the incremental logic which has been guiding our cyber=defence until now, and which is no longer suited to the current context. More than ever, it seems indispensable to us that the President of the Republic should rely on a national cyber coordinator [coordonnateur national cyber (CNC)], comparable with the national intelligence and anti terrorism coordinator [coordinateur national du renseignement et de la lutte contre le terrorisme (CNRLT)], who has already demonstrated his effectiveness.
Bernard Barbier, former technical director at DGSE. A former director of the Information Technologies and Electronics laboratory [Laboratoire d’électronique et de technologies de l’information (LETI)], he is a member of the Académie des technologies.
Jean-Louis Gergorin, senior lecturer at Sciences Po. Former head of policy planning at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he is a co-author of «Cyber. La guerre permanente » (Les éditions du cerf, 2018).
Admiral Edouard Guillaud, former Chief of the General Staff of the French armies.
OP-ED. Published in French on Le Monde, dated 5th of January, 2021.
According to a story published by the Japanese Ministry of Defence:
On January 13, 2021 Major Howlett of the Australian Army was appointed as liaison officer at the HQ Ground Component Command. It is the first time for the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) to accept a liaison officer from a country other than our ally, the United States.
Australia is a special strategic partner with which Japan shares strategic interests and universal values including respect for freedom, human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. As such, Japan’s relationship with Australia is now more important than ever before.
The Defense White Paper published in February 2016 stated that, among its foreign relations, Australia will continue to place the highest priority on its alliance with the U.S. while aiming to nurture and deepen practical relations with partners in the Indo-Pacific region, which includes Japan. Australia actively contributes to the peace and stability of the international community through the deployment of Australian troops overseas to achieve the strategic defense objective of providing military contributions to joint operations that serve its national interest in an international order based on the rule of law.
Japan and Australia share various values on the Indo-Pacific region. It is certain that Japan and Australia can contribute to peace and stability in the region with direct cooperation in order to achieve a security environment that is desirable for both countries.
The pathway for the U.S. Navy to integrate unmanned surface vessels into its fleet operations is for these vehicles to be able to effectively and efficiently support real-world tasks that fit into maritime concepts of operations, rather than being disruptive technology to mission operations and undercutting combat capability.
in an interview with Jack Rowley, the Chief Technology Officer and Senior Naval Architect and Ocean Engineer with Maritime Tactical Systems (MARTAC), he argued that the U.S. Navy has the opportunity to do so now.
According to Rowley: “The Navy has, in the past year, shown excellent initiative on the need for both USVs and UUVs within the Maritime Environment.
“To the point that they have set up a UUVRON-1 in Keyport, WA and the SURFDEVRON-1 in San Diego to start using them with fleet assets, not only in scheduled exercises, but to also begin looking at using them to visualize what they can do as a key player with manned fleet units.”
In other words, the U.S. Navy is moving closer to the opportunity to incorporate unmanned maritime surface vessels as part of its modular task force approach to operating the force as a kill web.
Currently, the experiment, test and verify process is underway in what Pac Fleet is calling “Unmanned Integrated Battle Problem 21.”
In an April 15, 2021 3rd Fleet story, the opening of the exercise was highlighted.
The Navy begins its inaugural multi-domain manned and unmanned capabilities exercise Apr 19. The exercise will feature unmanned capabilities “Above the Sea, On the Sea and Below the Sea.”
Led by U.S. Pacific Fleet and executed by U.S. 3rd Fleet, Unmanned Integrated Battle Problem 21 will generate warfighting advantages by integrating multi-domain manned and unmanned capabilities into the most challenging operational scenarios.
The exercise will feature operational, unmanned systems such as the MQ-9 Sea Guardian Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, the Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vessels Sea Hunter and Sea Hawk, and small and medium Unmanned Undersea Vehicles with modular payloads.
“Building off advances achieved over the past decade in unmanned aviation, Pacific Fleet is answering the Chief of Naval Operations’ drive to put the Navy’s Unmanned Campaign Plan into action,” says Rear Adm. Robert M. Gaucher, director of maritime headquarters at U.S. Pacific Fleet. “Furthermore, by exercising our full range of unmanned capabilities in a Pacific warfighting scenario, UxS IBP21 directly supports U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s warfighting imperative of driving lethality through experimentation.”
Unmanned systems alongside the traditional, manned naval force will give the U.S. Navy the advantage needed to fight, win and deter potential aggressors. This exercise will directly inform warfighters, warfare centers and developers to further incorporate unmanned capabilities in day-to-day Fleet operations and battle plans.
“The overall goal is to integrate our unmanned capabilities across all domains to demonstrate how they solve CNO and Fleet Commander Key Operational Problems,” says Gaucher. “To get after these problems, UxS IBP21 will include maneuvering in contested space across all domains; targeting and fires; and intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance.”
A Distinguished Visitor Day, hosted aboard Naval Base San Diego, April 16, will enable Navy officials and Fleet commanders to view the unmanned capabilities prior to their operational use in the exercise.
U.S. 3rd Fleet leads naval forces in the Indo-Pacific and provides the realistic, relevant training necessary to flawlessly execute our Navy’s timeless roles of sea control and power projection. U.S. 3rd Fleet works in close coordination with other numbered Fleets to provide commanders with capable, ready assets to deploy forward and win in day-to-day competition, in crisis, and in conflict.
Gidget Fuentes in an article published by USNI News on April 20, 2021 provided an overview on the exercise:
Off the southern California coast this week, the Navy has amassed a small fleet to help figure how its operational forces can use aerial drones, autonomous surface and subsurface vehicles in an integrated fight at sea and in the air to support the manned fleet.
That’s the overarching goal of “Unmanned Integrated Battle Problem 21,” a U.S. Pacific Fleet-led exercise to “exercise unmanned command and control, wring out tactics, techniques and procedures, and give our operators experience with unmanned systems at sea in a combat environment,” according to 3rd Fleet, which is overseeing the exercise that runs April 19 to 26.
“Our goal for this exercise is to evaluate these unmanned systems and how they can actually team with manned systems,” Rear Adm. Jim Aiken, technical manager for the exercise and Carrier Strike Group 3 commander, said during a Tuesday media call. “We’ll be able to evaluate what we can do and what we can’t do in trying to create an advantage – a warfighting advantage. Sometimes, that would be in reconnaissance, sometimes that would be surveillance, sometimes that will be we’ll be able to move data faster, command and control.”
Then “we’re going to make sure it gets into the hands of the sailors,” Aiken said, adding: “We need to move things from the technical community to the tactical community.”
“We need to move things into the hands of sailors and then let sailors use their ingenuity,” he said. Junior sailors and junior officers “just don’t sit quietly. They’re able to contribute, they’re able to apply these types of systems into capabilities in order to make warfighting” TTPs….
And in an Office of Naval Research piece published on April 22, 2021, the exercise was highlighted as follows:
Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Lorin Selby today declared “the state of our Naval unmanned capabilities is truly unmatched,” and vowed continued support for the nation’s ongoing transition to a hybrid manned-unmanned force in the future.
Speaking during a visit to San Diego for the U.S. Pacific Fleet-led Unmanned Integrated Battle Problem 21 (IBP21), Selby said the exercise, which puts into operation different unmanned vehicles “Above the sea, On the sea and Below the sea,” demonstrates that America’s growing focus on autonomous capabilities is showing impressive results.
“We are not yet where we want to be,” said Selby, “but we are getting closer. As our potential adversaries go all-in on unmanned platforms, we must and will maintain a dominant force that can meet and defeat any challenge.”
During the exercise, a large number of multi-domain unmanned platforms—including unmanned aerial, surface and underwater vehicles (UAVs, USVs and UUVs, respectively)—are being put into real-world, “blue-water” environments, working in sync with manned platforms in actual combat drills designed to support Pacific Fleet objectives in the Indo-Pacific region.
Many of the platforms in IBP21 are supported by the Naval Research Enterprise (NRE), which Selby commands. Comprising the Office of Naval Research (ONR); the Naval Research Laboratory; and the Office of Naval Research Global (ONR Global), the NRE is tasked with providing the capabilities and long-term vision ensuring U.S. naval dominance today and into the future.
While many platforms in IBP21 are classified, officials are highlighting the Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vehicles (MDUSV) Sea Hunter and its new sister craft, Sea Hawk, as well as a long-endurance UAS—all of which can be used for surveillance, anti-submarine warfare and other missions.
Sea Hunter is already a proven player in the Navy’s unmanned portfolio. In 2019, the vessel completed an autonomous trip from San Diego to Pearl Harbor, a distance of over 2,000 nautical miles, and returned, demonstrating credible and relevant naval capability.
Both MDUSVs can host multiple payloads and perform multiple missions to support Sailor and Marine objectives—and both are seen as game-changers.
Indeed, the performance of many new unmanned technologies are leading the Navy and Marine Corps to rethink concepts of operations, as noted in the widely publicized naval document “Unmanned Campaign Framework,” which was recently released by the Department of the Navy.
The Unmanned Campaign Framework notes autonomy will complement, not replace, manned assets, and will provide warfighters far more options in combat.
Dr. Marcus Tepaske, who leads ONR Global’s Experimentation and Analysis program and is coordinating many platforms in use during IBP21, confirmed naval unmanned capabilities are accelerating. He said these kinds of large-scale exercises are essential to ensure what works in theory will work in the fleet.
“The best test you can put a technology through is one where the warfighters get to work with it,” Tepaske said. “Real-world applications are messier, dirtier, wetter and absolutely more beneficial than anything we can test in a lab.”
“Getting the warfighters’ feedback on using these unmanned systems will be one real measure of success for IBP21.”
Coordinating multi-domain manned and unmanned teaming efforts with so many different systems is in itself a daunting challenge. That job is being led by Pacific Fleet crews aboard USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001), one of three Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyers with unique advanced capabilities for command and control.
Ultimately, experts say, autonomous systems are here to stay.
Dr. Jason Stack, ONR’s technical director and autonomy lead, is encouraged by the forward thinking and real-world forward movement represented by IBP21. Intelligent autonomous systems, he said, will be an essential part of the Navy and Marine Corps in the near-term.
“When you read the Unmanned Campaign Framework, the serious challenge we face from well-funded, highly-motivated, competitive naval forces around the world—all accelerating their autonomous capabilities—is clear,” he said.
Stack noted that the U.S. and allied partners have a more robust commitment to the ethical use of unmanned systems and artificial intelligence when compared to some other nations.
“Our goal is to operationally integrate and continuously improve the types of intelligent and autonomous technologies that Pacific Fleet is testing right now,” he said. “We will do this ethically and responsibly by always ensuring our Sailors and Marines can exercise the appropriate levels of human judgement over our machines. This will be our enduring competitive advantage.”
The IBP21 exercise is the initial step in the Navy’s commitment to operational experimentation with autonomous systems in the fleet. Following its completion, the Navy and Marine Corps will assess what worked, what didn’t, and how to accelerate unmanned capabilities for the fleet and force.
Featured Video: (April 16, 2021) Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas W. Harker discusses unmanned vessels at Pier 12 on Naval Base San Diego during Unmanned Integrated Battle Problem 21 (UxS IBP 21) Distinguished Visitor Day, April 16. U.S. Pacific Fleet’s UxS IBP 21, April 19-26, integrates manned and unmanned capabilities into the most challenging operational scenarios to generate warfighting advantages. (U.S. Navy video by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Matthew F. Jackson)
By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake
During out visit to Norfolk in March 2021, we learned that Second Fleet was working a direct relationship with the Navy’s Mid-Atlantic Tech Bridge. The Mid-Atlantic Tech Bridge is described as follows: “The Mid-Atlantic Tech Bridge (MATB) is the first of what we believe will be many Tech Bridges to formally tie the Operational Navy to the Science and Technology capabilities for the Navy and Marine Corps.
“Commander 2nd Fleet, in partnership with the Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic Hampton Roads Detachment, Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division Damneck Activity and Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division Norfolk Detachment, will connect warfighters with those who can provide agile technology solutions.
“Leveraging a connection to a robust ecosystem spanning well beyond the Commonwealth of Virginia, MATB will facilitate innovative technology solutions of interest to the region and the DoN. In the coming months, MATB will establish an off-base facility space for collaborative events; this will allow a low-barrier connection with Dept of the Navy people.”
Clearly, modernization of a military force can be carried out for three reasons;
Linking a Tech Bridge operating philosophy with an operational fleet has tremendous potential for increasing the value of any technology modernization initiative by looking at the final output which is the condition of the operational inventory at a given point in time. This is a very significant change in how innovative technology initiatives can be validated much quicker by the operators who will use it in fleet operations.
While visiting with CDR Bobby Hanvey, Mid-Atlantic Tech Bridge Director, we had the chance to tour where they were planning to establish their new headquarters. The building was being designed to house a number of small technology companies looking to drive innovation in the region and beyond. And we met as well with their regional partner for the Mid-Atlantic Tech Bridge, namely, 757 Accelerate. 757 Accelerate a firm with a small innovation hub in the new building will share office space with Mid-Tech Bridge, as well as coordinate regional Tech Bridge outreach, scouting, and SBIR education events.
There is a partnership in place between the two organizations. Their relationship can shape new ways to innovate with the Tech Bridge able to be in a better position to support Second Fleet innovation,
And it Is at this level of driving ecosystem innovation where 757 Accelerate can be found. According to their website: “757 Accelerate is a selective startup accelerator program providing
founders with capital, connections, and customers.”
Their 2019 impact report can be read at the end of this article, but two opening comments in that report provide a good insight into the effort.
According to Monique Adams, 757 Accelerate Board Chair:
“757 Accelerate is part of a community of interconnected, inclusive, and impactful entrepreneurial resources serving founders, investors, and the regional economy. With eleven companies accelerated, over 680 hours of mentorship, and nearly 50 jobs created, 757 Accelerate has made an incredible impact in just two short years. 757 Accelerate was born out of a collaboration between six cities, four universities, and the leadership of TowneBank. Ferguson Ventures has since joined the coalition, underscoring the belief that we are better together.
“We continue to focus on building an inclusive ecosystem that supports the growth of all founders, including women, people of color, and military vets. We are proud that well over half of 757 Accelerate’s companies have underrepresented founders on their management teams, further illustrating that we drive greater impacts when we leverage the power of the collective.”
According to Evans McMillon, executive director of 757 Accelerate:
“The last two years has been an amazing voyage filled with collaboration and community creation. 757 Accelerate alumni have helped us exceed national averages for accelerators and they are poised to continue their growth. We feel incredibly lucky to have played a part in their entrepreneurial journey. By remaining true to our commitment to put entrepreneurs first and give before we get, we have attracted committed mentors, active investors, and strong community partners to drive real impact for our founders and the regional economy.”
We met with Evans McMillon during our tour of the new building within which the organization has office space and then followed that up with a telephone interview after we had returned to Northern Virginia. According to the 757 Accelerate website: “Evans is passionate about solving problems through innovation and collaboration. As an attorney, she helped growing businesses rethink their options and knock down the hurdles in their path towards growth. Most of Evans’ opportunities materialized because she was willing to say “yes” and then get to work. Prior to joining 757 Accelerate, Evans worked as an attorney counseling big and small companies at all stages of growth from entity formation through IPO. She has practiced in law firms in Seattle and Virginia Beach, as well as serving as corporate counsel to ADS, Inc. Evans attended Dartmouth College and Duke University School of Law.”
In our discussion with McMillon, she emphasized that 757 Accelerate works with startups at all stages but the sweet spot is those who have an early but operational product or prototype and need help validating product-market fit, gaining traction, and raising the capital needed to scale. Their three-month program “wraps founders in key resources” and mentor founders to help them accelerate their growth and attract investors.
757 Accelerate is only three years old, but their focus on being founder-focused, providing rigorous and impactful programming, and connecting startups to mentors, investors, and customers helps them reach critical mass, enter the market, attract private capital and scale, enhancing their chances for success.
As McMillon put it: “We are building an ecosystem that founders would want to be part of.”
About the U.S. Navy, they have struggle with how to talk to companies at this stage of evolution, and many of these companies are at the cutting edge of generating new technologies. This means the Navy Tech Bridge leadership would like to be able to enter this space; 757 Accelerate makes a good partner to facilitate the process of translating Navy needs into early entrepreneurial language.
The challenge can be put this way: How does one shape an ecosystem on the Navy side to find early innovative technology and apply it to the fleet? What is the relationship between cutting edge technologies and the problems which the Navy needs to solve?
If indeed the Tech Bridge approach can embrace working with an innovative ecosystem shaping group like 757 Accelerate, they are well on their way to answering these questions.
The challenge is to source problems and find a way to get beyond engineering thinking and rely on design thinking.
As McMillon put it: “Connecting to design thinking is a major challenge for the Navy. For example, the design thinking behind the I-Pad was the need to make computing more mobile. And when you open the design aperture to examining all the various ways in which one might make computing more mobile, the tablet emerged as a leading answer. Apple did not initially set out to build a tablet; it was around how to design mobile computing, and the iPad was the best solution produced. It is about problem sourcing, rather than engineering driven design of an already envisaged product.”
This is a very good example of the ecosystem in which the Navy will need to find new solutions, beyond the build process for major weapon systems. For example, we have seen with regard to C2F that VADM Lewis has focused central attention on how to do distributed C2 for an integratable fleet. He has had his team leverage what is already available to provide for such capabilities.
But if one were to follow McMillon’s notion of design thinking versus engineering thinking, the question is: How might be able to achieve more effective distributed C2? What are all the possible ways? And what are the solutions which might be within reach in the commercial, security or military space?
In short, as the Navy pursues Tech Bridges, the challenge will be to break the engineering design/acquisition models and to incorporate a design thinking approach. And clearly, an organization like 757 Accelerate can help in shaping a new approach and connecting the Navy to new ecosystem paradigms.
757Accelerate-ImpactReport2019-R12Snow stirred up by rotor wash clouds the scene as American and Canadian personnel participate in a simulated aerial assault as part of Arctic Warrior 21.
A detachment from the Royal Canadian Air Force’s 450th Tactical Helicopter Squadron, based out of Petawawa, Ontario, joins elements of 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, and 1st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, both from Fort Wainwright, for the flight.
FORT WAINWRIGHT, AK
02.17.2021
Video by Eve Baker
Fort Wainwright Public Affairs Office
The USS Carl Vinson will go to sea this year with the first operational F-35Cs and CMV-22Bs onboard.
Next up will be the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Currently, Abraham Lincoln is underway conducting routine operations in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations.
These photos provide highlights of the flight operations onboard the ship.
PACIFIC OCEAN
04.15.2021
Photo by Seaman Madison Cassidy
