Putting Harry’s and Meghan’s Interview in Context: The Dukes of Sussex

Posted on | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment on Putting Harry’s and Meghan’s Interview in Context: The Dukes of Sussex
03/09/2021

By Kenneth Maxwell

On Friday 19th February Buckingham Palace announced that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, would not be returning as working members of the Royal family: “The Queen has confirmed that in stepping away from the work of the royal family it is not possible to continue with the responsibility and duties that come with a life of public service. The honorary military appointments and Royal patronages held by the duke and duchess will therefore be returned to Her Majesty before being redistributed among working members of the Royal family.”

This means that Prince Harry will lose his role as the Captain General of the Royal Marines, a ceremonial position in the Queen’s gift, which was held by his grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, from 1953 until 2017.

The Sussex’s (that is Harry and Meghan) had in any case already signed lucrative contracts with Netflix and Spotify, and Megan (and Harry) are scheduled for an “intimate” interview with Oprah Winfrey to be broadcast on CBS on March 7th 2021.

Oprah Winfrey at Harry and Meghan Wedding: Credit: Creative Commons

They were in any case already ensconced in a comfortable mansion in Montecito in Southern California, neighbours to Oprah’s 70 acre estate, living in the favorite retreat of the denizens of Tinseltown. None of this of course is very good timing with the 99 year old Duke of Edinburgh in hospital in London.

The English tabloid press are bound to have a field day. They are already smarting in any case from the libel judgment won by Megan Markle against the “DailyMail on Sunday” for having published parts of her private letter to her father.

Queen Elizabeth ll certainly (and most probably inadvertently) made an inspired choice when she bestowed on Captain Harry Wales (aka Henry Albert David Mountbatten-Windsor) the title of Duke of Sussex on the eve of his marriage to the American actress, Megan Markle, at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on May 19 2018.

It was a title first held by Prince Augustus Frederick (1773-1843), the ninth child of King George lll. That is the King who lost America.

Duke of Sussex: Credit: Portugal e o Reino Unido A Aliança Revisitada, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1995

If nothing else the Royal Marriage of Harry and Megan achieved one thing: It joined one dysfunctional family to another.

It was the divorced Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cornwall, who walked Megan Markle down the aisle.

His second wife, Camila Parker Bowles, now the Duchess of Cornwall, sat close to the Queen. Megan’s father, Thomas Markle, the 76 year old American retired television lighting director and director of photography had remained at his home in Mexico.

Thomas Markle had been divorced from his first wife, Roslyn Loveless, in 1973. He had married his second wife, Doria Ragland, in 1979, and was divorced again in 1987.

Doria Ragland, however, did attend the wedding of their daughter to Prince Harry in St. George’s Chapel.

Prince Harry’s mother, Diana, the divorced Princess of Wales, had died at the age of 36 in a horrendous car-crash in 1997, in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris with her boyfriend, the Egyptian film producer, Dodi Fayad (who like Harry Wales had attended the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst).

Dodi was the son of the billionaire, Mohamed Al-Fayad, then the owner of the Ritz Hotel in Paris (where the two were staying), and of Harrod’s in London, as well as of Fulham Football Club.

After the death of Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor in 1986, Al-Fayad had also taken over the lease of the “Villa Windsor” in Paris, which had been the home of the former King Edward VIII, who after his abdication in 1936 was known as the Duke of Windsor.

The Queen’s father only became George VI because of this abdication.

His eldest daughter, Elizabeth, only became the Queen as a result of these Windsor family contretemps.

Which of course involved a love affair with an American divorcee Wallis Simpson, much like Prince Harry’s infatuation and marriage Megan Markle, another strong willed American divorcee.

Tony Blair, the British prime minister at the time of Princess Diana’s death, had memorably called Diana “The People’s Princess”.

It was an inspired sobriquet.

It prompted the Queen to belatedly acknowledge Diana’s death in a public address from Buckingham Palace.

Diana was immensely popular. Unlike her husband Prince Charles who greatly resented Diana as a result.

Mohamed Al-Fayed established a memorial shrine at Harrods to Diana and Dodi in 1998 with photos of the two behind a pyramid shaped display which held the wine glass still smudged with lipstick from Diana’s last dinner at the Ritz Hotel.

In 2005 he unveiled a bronze statue he had commissioned named the “innocent victims” which portrayed Diana and Dodi dancing on a beach beneath the wings of an albatross. It remained at the bottom of the main staircase at Harrods until Al-Fayed sold the luxury department store to the Qatari Royal Family in 2010 after which the statue was removed.

Photographs of Statues at Harrods: Creative Commons

To the surprise of many Harry and Megan choose the name ”Archie” for their first born son. In 2020 they were already established in Southern California after “Megxit.”

That is what the Rupert Murdoch owed English tabloid newspaper the “Sun” dubbed Megan and Harry’s exit from Royal duties in January 2020. Murdoch is no great fan of British royalty.

And the sons of Princess Diana are no big fans of the British tabloid press. “Megxit” is a clever play on Brexit.

The Sussex couple named their new enterprise “Archiewell Inc”. Curiously neither Harry nor Megan seem to have realized that many “old folk” in Britain will have remembered another “Archie”, Peter Brough’s ventriloquist dummy “Archie Andrews”.

The dummy “Archie” which in the 1950s had 15 million fans was eventually sold at auction in Taunton, Somerset, in 2005 for £35.000. (Peter Brough died in 1999). “Archie Andrews” who was no beauty was the object of many a British child’s nightmares.

Archie Andrews. Credit: Wikimedia

Growing up in Somerset during the 1950s l never found “Archie Andrews” entirely convincing since Peter Brough’s mouth could be seen moving when the “Archie Andrews” show transferred from the radio to television. Archie had originally been a Music Hall stunt where the audience was some distance away. On the radio it did not matter at all if Peter Brough’s mouth moved or not. Television was another matter. The American ventriloquist version was Edgar Bergen’s dummy “Charlie McCarthy” (Edgar Bergen was more famous later-on as the father of Candice Bergen).

I am not sure if “Charlie McCarthy” induced nightmares in sleeping American children. Probably not since “Charlie McCarthy” was very well dressed and behaved.

And after all  “he” was an “All-American” dummy.

The irony is that the original Duke of Sussex, Prince Augustus Frederick, born in London on 27th of January 1773, was tall and good looking, and he was highly intelligent, unlike Harry Wales, the current Duke of Sussex, who is by all accounts not the brightest spark.

Prince Harry had taken two A-levels at Eton, receiving a B in Art and a D in geography. He was, however, apparently “a top tier athlete” in Polo and Rugby Union. He also “received help”(it is alleged) on the A-level “expressive” project which he needed to secure his place at the Sandhurst.

He went on to a ten year military career which included two deployments in Afghanistan, the first British Royal, to have been in a combat zone since the Falkland War where his uncle Prince Andrew had served.

The biographer Clive Irving recently observed (when discussing the unsuitability of Prince Charles ever becoming Charles lll), that Prince Andrew’s “libido and brain separated long ago.”

He remains, however, the Queen’s favorite son. Prince Harry has also had his misadventures in the past. From partying in a Nazi uniform, to his escapades in Las Vegas when he was photographed naked and drunk at a party clutching an equally naked young lady.

The photographs were published needless to say in Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid the “Sun” in Britain (but not in the rest of the British press out of deference, though the photographs were published elsewhere outside Britain.

This was much as the British press had avoided any mention of King Edward VIII’s affair with Wallis Simpson despite the fact that it was headline news elsewhere across the world.

But Prince Harry’s behaviour was nothing compared with an antics of his uncle, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, and his lingering friendship with the convicted child sex trafficker the late Jeffrey Epstein.

Megan Markle seems to have curbed Prince Harry’s tendencies in that direction. Prince Harry’s ten years of military years, and two deployments in Afghanistan were admirable and led him to establish the “Invictus Games” for wounded service personnel, which is a very worthy endeavour, and which he will continue from his Southern California bolthole.

One his great regrets in leaving the royal family was having to step down as Captain General of the Royal Marines. Prince Harry wore his full dress uniform at the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the end of WW2 and of the 80th anniversary of the formation of the British commandos at the Royal Albert Hall on March 7th 2020, during one of his last appearances with the Megan, the Duchess of Sussex, as a “working Royal.”

Harry and Meghan at Royal Albert Hall: Credit: BBC News

He received a warm standing ovation.

Prince Augustus Frederick (1759-1840) like his successor as the Duke of Sussex was a rebel.

He too did not marry in a manner that the British establishment approved. He had studied at the German university of Gottingen in Hanover. He had travelled throughout France and Italy and settled in Rome in where he met and fell in love with Lady Augusta Murray, the daughter of the Count of Dunmore, a Scotsman and a Catholic, who he married in secret in Rome in April 1793 at the Hotel Sarmiento in a Church of England ceremony

. In September 1793 Prince Augustus Frederick returned to London followed by his wife and the marriage ceremony was repeated in December 1793. Lady Augusta was already pregnant with their first child. The Royal Marriage Act of 1772, prohibited marriages of princes without the royal approval. In 1794 Augustus Frederick was forced to leave England settling in Italy and afterwards in 1798 in Berlin. The marriage was annulled in 1794 but Lady Augusta left England in secret and in August 1799 and joined her husband in Berlin.

While in Berlin, on 20 December 1798, Prince Augustus Frederick was initiated into the Berlin Masonic Lodge “Royal York zur Freundschaft.” His initiation into freemasonry was to have a profound influence on his later life. During May 1800 Prince Augustus Frederick returned to England and after separation from Lady Augusta (although she had a second child by him, Augusta Ema, born in August 1801), he was granted the title of Duke of Sussex, a seat in the House of Lords, and an annual income of £12,000, later increased to £18,000 and finally to £20,000.

The new Duke of Sussex then left for Lisbon without Lady Augusta, where he established his residence in the Palácio das Necessidades (which is today the elegant seat of the Portuguese foreign ministry.).

Palácio das necessidades: Credit: Portugal e o Reino Unido A Aliança Revistada, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian 1995

He collected a small court around him of young aristocrats, intellectuals, and military officers, many of them freemasons. In 1802 he was visited in Lisbon by the Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, (1767-1820), then the governor of Gibraltar, who was the father of the future Queen Victoria.

The Duke of Kent went to North America and from Canada visited New York, the first British Royal to do so. In Portugal the Duke of Sussex sponsored the consolidation and recognition of Portuguese freemasonry and the birth of the Grand Lusitania Orient (1802) and its recognition by English freemasonry.

These Masonic connections in Portugal were to play a very important role in his own future and that of Brazil.

In 1796 D. Rodrigo de Souza Coutinho who was the godson of the Marques de Pombal (1699-1782), the de-facto prime minister of Portugal between 1750 and 1777, and the radical reformer of the University of Coimbra, had been recalled to Lisbon from Turin where he was the Portuguese ambassador, and had joined the government in Lisbon as the Minister of the Navy and the Overseas Dominions. D. José, the heir apparent had died of smallpox at the age of 27 in 1788.

The Portuguese monarch, Queen Maria l, had been showing increasing signs of old mental instability and was officially constrained in February 1792. In 1799 D. João assumed the title of Prince Regent. In Britain between 1788-1789 King George lll had suffered his first spell of madness.

And in 1811 in the face of George lll’s continuing ravings, his son was eventually declared by parliament to be the Prince Regent. Both Britain and Portugal each therefore had mad rulers, both the King of England  and the Queen of Portugal safely  tucked away from public view. In Lisbon D. Rodrigo found a major subliminal conflict for influence between the pro-English and pro-French factions at court, reflecting the broader European conflict between the two nations, and the balance of influence between the two factions in Lisbon was always fluid and precarious.

Rodrigo’s main focus was on reforming the colonial system. He employed many of the young graduates of the reformed university of Coimbra, including the 24 year old  Brazilian born graduate, Hipólito José da Costa Pereira Furtado de Mendonça, who he sent on an official mission to the United States to examine the new agricultural and manufacturing techniques being developed there, especially in tobacco and cânhamo, a plant from which a coarse fibre is obtained used to make ropes, bags, sails as well as cannabis (hashish or marijuana), and to also visit Mexico to obtain cochineal beetles with the objective of developing the cochineal industry in Brazil.

Hipólito da Costa had been born in 1774 in Colônia do Sacramento, at the time a fortified Portuguese outpost on the northern bank of the Rio da la Plata opposite Buenos Aires.

Hipólito da Costa: Credit: Wikidata

Hypolito da Costa arrived in Philadelphia in late December 1798, which was then the capital of the United States. He found the county in the midst of a crisis over the Alien and Sedition Acts introduced by President John Adams. Resolutions passed in 1798 and 1799 by the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures opposed the Acts. Thomas Jefferson held that the federal government had no right to exercise powers not delegated to it by the Constitution.

The Sedition Act passed on July 14th 1798, declared any “treasonable activity”, including the publication of “any false, scandalous and malicious writing” was a high misdemeanour, punishable by fine and imprisonments. Twenty-five men most of them editors of Republican newspapers were arrested and their newspapers forced to shut down.

One of those arrested charged with libelling President Adams was Benjamin Franklin Bache, editor of the Philadelphia Democrat-Republican “Aurora.”

The young Bach had accompanied his grandfather Benjamin Franklin to Paris at the age of seven has been educated in France and was a fervent Francophile. He had returned to Philadelphia in 1785. He was a critic of George Washington and supporter of the Jeffersonian-Republican faction and had run the “Aurora” from the time of his grandfather’s death in 1790 until his own death in 1798 from yellow fever.

After Thomas Jefferson’s election to the presidency in 1800 once in office Jefferson pardoned all those convicted under the Sedition Act and Congress restored all fines paid with interest.

Hypolito da Costa remained in the US until 1800 reporting to D. Rodrigo and keeping in a dairy of his activities. In Philadelphia he joined the Masonic lodge.

He met President John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, attended the House of Representatives and the Senate and the Supreme Court. He subscribed to the “Aurora” which published detailed  political and economic intelligence and diplomatic cables as well as economic, political and social news.  He visited the churches and meeting houses of the various religious denominations, and the synagogue, and he observed the Quakers. In 1799 he travelled through the northern states, attending the commencement exercises at Columbia College in New York City, and visiting the Niagara Falls and Canada. Then he went south to Virginia and the Carolinas.

He eventually gained a passport from the Spanish minister to go to Mexico. The delay was Hipólito observed because “he supposed l was a kind of political spy.” Which indeed to some degree he was. His visit to Mexico was brief. But he did collect cochineal beetles which unfortunately died on their arrival in Philadelphia.

On his return to Lisbon in 1801 he was appointed as the literary director of the  Royal Press and in 1801 and made an official visit to England. But on his return he was imprisoned for three years by the inquisition accused of disseminating Masonic materials. Escaping he fled Portugal via Spain and Gibraltar and from there took ships to London where he was protected the Duke of Sussex and become his private Secretary.

In 1808 began began the publication in Portuguese in London of the “Correio Brasiliense” which was to be the first Brazilian newspaper very much in the model of Philadelphia “Aurora.” And he published a stinging account of his imprisonment by the Portuguese inquisition.

The first edition of the monthly “Correio Braziliense” was published on June 1st 1808 and it continued without interruption until 1st of December in 1822. Hypolito Costa attacked his old patron, D. Rodrigo de Souza, now the count of Linhares, who was then the chief minister of the Portuguese government which had been established in Rio de Janeiro where it had fled to escape Napoleon’s invading army in 1807. The “Correio Brasiliense” was sent clandestinely to Brazil and espoused liberal ideals, supported the idea of a constitutional monarchy, covered the Pernambuco revolution of 1817, and supported the independence of Brazil.

The “Correio” advocated the liberty of the press, security of property, trial  by jury, public accountability of public accounts, access to all to public offices, the abolition of the inquisition, the moving of the capital to the interior, and the gradual abolition of slavery, and the encouragement of immigration to Brazil from Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Holland and Italy. Hypolito da Costa was appointed to be the Brazilian Representative in London after the declaration of Brazilian Independence in 1822. But he was to die at the age of 49 in Kensington on September 11, 1823, soon after he had received the news of his nomination.

Prince Augustus Frederick, the first Duke of Sussex, after his return to England in 1804 had taken up his seat in House of Lords and for many years stood in opposition to Tory governments, defending religious emancipation of catholics, non-conformists,  and Jews, and fighting for the abolition of slavery.

In 1812 he became the assistant Grand Master and in 1813 the Grand Master of the Great Lodge of England, a faction known as the Moderns. In December 1813 the Duke of Sussex united the two factions of the freemasons, the moderns and the ancients, and was elected as Grand Master of the United English Lodge. He was elected president of the Royal society in 1835.

The only public visit of the current Duke and Duchess of Sussex to the country of Sussex took place in 2018 when they visited Chichester and at Edes House, were shown a rare copy of America’s Declaration of Independence.

Duke and Duchess of Sussex in Sussex: Credit: AFP

Discovered by two Harvard University researchers in 2017 the parchment manuscript copy was folded away in the West Sussex Record Office in Chichester, and belonged to the Third Duke of Richmond, known as “Radical Dick” who supported the American colonists.

The only other copy is in the National Archives in Washington. DC.

Unlike his father George lll who opposed American independence, his son the first Duke of Sussex, and his private Secretary, Hypolito da Costa, supported the independence of Brazil.

After the death of Lady Augusta in 1830, the Prince Augusto Frederick, Duke of Sussex, remarried Lady Cecilia Underwood, once again violating the Royal Marriage Act. But this was accepted by the Court and by pubic opinion, and unlike the (now) old Queen Elizabeth ll, the (then) young Queen Victoria, much appreciated and accommodated her uncle.

Grave of the Duke of Sussex: Kendal Green Cemetery

The first Duke of Sussex died in 1843 a rebel to the end.

He was not buried at Windsor Castle in St. George’s Chaple, but was laid to rest instead in the public cemetery at Kensal Green, where his modest tomb remains to this day (next to that of Lady Cecilia), though, like the first Duke of Sussex, his grave is largely forgotten.

Evolving Maritime Unmanned Surface Vehicle Capabilities: The Importance of Exercises and Real-World Tasking

Posted on | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment on Evolving Maritime Unmanned Surface Vehicle Capabilities: The Importance of Exercises and Real-World Tasking
03/08/2021

By Robbin Laird

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.

A key path to do so is for industry to work with the maritime forces in order to demonstrate their performance, and in the process also evolve their platforms and tailor them to more effectively deliver desired combat capability.

In my first interview with Jack Rowley, the Chief Technology Officer and Senior Naval Architect and Ocean Engineer with Maritime Tactical Systems (MARTAC), we discussed how the U.S. Navy was addressing the challenge of operating maritime autonomous systems.

We discussed the key importance of getting USVs into the workflow in order to shape a way ahead for maritime remotes to operate within a combat force.

Maritime unmanned systems are simply that until they fit into the mission and warfare workflow and become a key part of the evolving concepts of operations of the fleet.

In Rowley’s view, 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.

And these USVs can be fitted to do a variety of mission tasks going forward.

In this interview, we focused on the interaction between exercises with the users and how MARTAC is shaping the kind of capability which industry can then offer to the end user.

Or put in other words, exercises drive development; development provides new capabilities which then can be inserted into a new exercise regime, taking the U.S. Navy closer to being able to acquire the kind of operational capability which will fit into the fighting force, rather than disrupting it.

As Rowley described the process, the various exercises MARTAC has engaged in since he came to the company in 2015, have led to the shaping of a scalable fleet of ships ranging in size from a six foot to a fifty-foot USV, which allows the operation of a variety of payloads, with high performance speed and extended range of operation for the fleet of maritime autonomous systems.

In Rowley’s view, the exercises they have involved in have been part of the process whereby the U.S. Navy is looking more seriously at what, and how, USVs can contribute to the fleet.

ISR-Focused Exercises

The first exercise we discussed was the S2ME2 ANTX Exercise held by the USMC at Camp Pendleton in California in September 2016.

At this exercise, there was a focus on the potential operational impact of using USVs for an amphibious ship-to-shore mission. MARTAC brought an eight-foot version of its MANTAS USV to perform two missions: (1) Sail into the Del Mar Boat Basin and from that location relay video to the amphibious force command center and (2) just outside of the immediate surf zone, the T8 scanned and provided ISR data on an obstacle location, beach gradient, water conditions and a visual of the shoreline. In other words, the T-8 performed an ISR mission to support the assault force.

Effectively, the function of the 8-footer was to go in and survey the beach prior to an assault.

As Rowley highlighted: “It was strictly a nightime ISR mission. The T8  sailed in autonomously, looked around, got some video and then brought it back out again without being detected.”

The next exercise we discussed was one with which I have gone to in the past, namely, Bold Alligator.

This BA exercise was BA-17 held in October 2017. They operated from Camp Lejeune and the task was again an ISR tasking.  Rowley highlighted the USV mission in this exercise as follows: “Camp Lejeune was to be basically a long range USV environment with a reconnaissance mission to go up the inter-coastal waterway and be able to scan both sides of the waterway looking for anything that’s out of the ordinary. Also, there was an additional ISR task to look at the bottom of the waterway with a small sonar for detection of any anomalies.”

The operators at Naval Station, Norfolk, Va., controlled a T6 (6-foot MANTAS) and a T12 (12-foot MANTAS) USV. They operated the vehicles in the inter-coastal waterway at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, using and EO/IR camera to stream live, hi-res video and sonar images to the command center. In addition, the craft also operating offshore and used a single beam sonar to perform bottom imaging to determine landing craft hazards and examination of shoreline defense structures.

Both of these exercises supported ISR missions for an amphibious assault force.

The focus was upon expanding the scope of ISR that could be available to the command element either prior to the assault or following the assault.  They used 6-foot, 8-foot and 12-foot variants of the modular MANTAS configuration.

Scalability was being demonstrated as well as payload flexibility in terms of what each of the different sized USVs could be integrated with during the exercise. In other words, what was demonstrated was that a common operating system on these three different sizes of USVs with variant payloads could deliver a desired combat capability.

The Bold Alligator Exercise highlighted the importance of an exercise for evolving capabilities as well.

As Rowley put it: “The exercise underscored the shortfall of the smaller sensors that could be placed onboard the 6-foot variant. The T6 only had a small omnidirectional camera on itresulting in its inability to see the shore very well in its constant motion scenario. Whereas the 12-footer had a SeaFLIR 230 high-resolution gyro-stabilized EO/IR camera

“Another aspect highlighted during the exercise is the key significance of reliability for USVs. Reliability and functional performance are required for any success for USVs because, unlike a Navy ship that’s manned or a small boat that’s manned, if something goes wrong, sailors can be sent to repair it. On the USV, if something goes wrong you better be able to bring it home because you can’t fix it during its operation at sea.”

Rowley underscored the importance of the scalability and modularity aspect of a USV.

“It is important to be able to change out the sensors without having to build a new boat. USVs have generally been built to support a particular mission and both the boat and payload are designed and built as a “single solution” to a mission.

“Our focus is different. We want to deliver mission flexibility into a scalable fleet so that the operational and logistics support capabilities mean that you can carry our USVs on a larger vessel and have a wide variety of modifiable payload options for the use of that USV during the complete operational cycle of the larger naval vessel operating within a variable task force concept of operations.”

Logistical Support Exercises

We next discussed a very different type of exercise, one which highlights a key area where USVs can play a key role in supporting maritime logistics support.

Valiant Shield 2018 was held at Guam. It was a major Navy-Marine Corps exercise, and at that exercise, one focus was upon how USVs could help conduct a combat resupply mission.

The INDOPACOM Joint Exercise was conducted on the Marianas Island Range complex in Guam. MARTAC provided two MANTAS T12 craft deployed from the MSC ship, USNS Curtiss (T-AVB4) to support rapid ship-to-short logistics sustainment via USVs. The T-12 provided proof of concept of the ability to provide resupply via a USV from ship to shore.

The size of the T12 limited the payload to only 120 pounds of cargo, but the proof of concept has paved the way for MARTAC to develop and test a new ”Expeditionary Class” T38 (38ft) USV to perform this combat resupply mission by carrying up to 4500 pounds in a single load. The potential impact of such a capability is significant for this logistics mission.

According to Rowley, the T38 in its anticipated mission profile could, with a four USV craft fleet be able to deliver a buildup of over 400,000 pounds of material in a single day, and to do so by using an all-maritime autonomous force.

This figure is based on two assumptions: a four craft fleet of T38s supporting an amphibious ship stand off at 20 nautical miles.  The USV craft would travel at a cruise speed of 25kts to the beach with a full load of 18,000 pounds per sortie.  Return speed to the MSC ship, without load would be at 70kts.  In this manner,  the four-craft USV fleet could deliver 18,000 pounds of material to the beach each hour.

The T38 can fit into a standard 11-meter rib slot on an MSC or Naval ship. For example, there would only need to be minor modifications on the Curtiss to be able to hold six to eight of the T38s, thereby providing this very necessary ship to shore logistics support capability.

The advantages of such a capability are clear.

And Rowley underscored just how significant such a capability could be in terms of work flow as well. “Using either the T38 or T50, one can move material with one or two supervisory controllers on the mother ship. This frees up significant manpower to do other tasks on either the support ships or ashore.”

Another key advantage is that such a logistics support mission using a USV which can fit into a standard 11-meter RIB means it can operate across the fleet to provide a connectivity mission set. In effect, one can use Ships-of-Opportunity to provide the linkage function rather than a specialized support ship.

As Rowley highlighted: “It doesn’t have to be a MSC ship that’s fully opted in for the MSC purpose and that’s controlled by the government. It can be any type of a cargo ship that has cranes. Such a ship can be configured to be able to handle multiple unmanned surface vessels so they can get the equipment in the theater. And then be able to launch it and send material to shore.”

In other words, one can enhance significantly the distributed logistics function to a maritime distributed fleet.

Counter-Mine Exercise

The final exercise we discussed was Trident Warrior 2020 which was held in San Diego and which I briefly attended prior to visiting the Navy Air Boss.

I described that exercise in some detail in an earlier article, but the focus of this effort was to use the T38 which is now part of the new MARTAC “Expeditionary Class – DEVIL RAY” to work with Teledyne Brown engineering to deliver a new payload, namely, a counter-mine payload. What was demonstrated was that the craft is one which is very flexible in terms of payloads which it can carry.

The payload in this case was a high-speed multi-sensor, single-sortie detect-to-engage mine-counter-mine capability.  The graphic below, summarizes what was demonstrated in Trident Warrior 2020.

Through these exercises, not only are the maritime services learning what USVs can do, but also, industry is getting closer to having operational capabilities to support the fleet.

With the next major exercise coming up in April in which MARTAC will participate, Rowley estimates that the craft they are bringing will be close to being 90% fully operational.

Through routine exercise, test, and then redesign/rework, the craft continue to learn from each exercise and the Navy gets closer to having operational USVs that support operations rather than disrupting them.

That’s what true disruptive technology is all about – supporting a more lethal and survivable force, rather than making it more vulnerable.

Always remember the lessons from how useful having radar in the force was at Pearl Harbor on December 7 or December 8th (dependent on what side of the time line you were on) 1941.

The featured photo: T12 at sea operating from the MSC ship delivering cargo to the port in Guam during Valiant Shield

For an e-book version of a background paper for this interview, see the following:

The ITS Cavour on the U.S. East Coast

Posted on | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment on The ITS Cavour on the U.S. East Coast
03/07/2021

The Italian aircraft carrier the ITS Cavour is operating off of the Virginia Coast in order to integrate with the F-35Bs which it will operate for the next several years.

The coming of the ITS Cavour is an interesting case study in terms of Italian policies, USMC-US Navy integration, the reshaping of North Atlantic defense and a host of other issues.

We will deal with the ITS Cavour as a case study in a separate piece.

What we will highlight here are the stories released by the U.S. Navy to date with the coming of the ITS Cavour first to Norfolk and then operating off of the waters of the East Coast.

We learned from a January 27, 2021, photo release that the ITS F-35B team was already at Pax River to prepare for the arrival of their ship coming the next month to Norfolk. 

Test Pilot Marine Maj. Dylan “Bilbo” Nicholas, with the Air Test and Evaluation Squadron TWO THREE (VX-23), conducts day-into-night training in an F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) variant aircraft from the F-35 Patuxent River Integrated Test Force (ITF) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., Wednesday, Jan. 27.

These workup testing and training flights are integral to preparing pilots for the ITF test team’s detachment to the Italian Navy aircraft carrier Cavour scheduled between February and March.

During carrier-based flight test, also known as sea trials, ITF members with the engineering and test pilot expertise and experience will gather data that will verify compatibility between the 5th generation fighter aircraft and the Italian naval fleet’s flagship.

This information will contribute to certifying the ship for the Italian Navy’s operation of its own F-35Bs, adding a key weapon system to the carrier and increasing its expeditionary capability.

Test 982 / Flight 520

In a February 13, 2021 story we learn that the ITS Cavour arrived at Naval Station Norfolk.

While in the Western Atlantic, Cavour will be embarked by an F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) test team to conduct sea trials, a series of tests and functional activities to create a safe flight operating envelope for the short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the 5th generation aircraft aboard the recently upgraded ship.

This carrier-based flight test and other actions with U.S. 2nd Fleet ships and aircraft improve interoperability and strengthen the relationship between two NATO Allies.

“Operating in the Western Atlantic with our NATO allies presents a mutually beneficial opportunity to enhance both of our Navies’ capabilities,” said Vice Adm. Andrew Lewis, Commander of U.S. 2nd Fleet. “Supporting our Italian allies in certification of their aircraft carrier increases our collective experience in safety and combat abilities. We are stronger together.”

While crossing the Atlantic from Italy, ITS Cavour was met by the Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS Stout (DDG 55) and conducted a three-day interoperability exercise with support from Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7 and Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing (CPRW) 11. Specific events included integrated ship maneuvering, low-slow-flyer detect-to-engage, anti-surface warfare serials with P-8 participation, air defense/air intercept control event with F/A-18 participation, and C5I interoperability events in the Western Atlantic 10-12 Feb.

In a February 21, 2021 story, we learn that the F-35 team working with ITS Cavour will be able to test the logistics enterprise.

A container marked “PAX Flight Deck Gear CAVOUR DET 2021,” tri-wall boxes for the work centers, shipping containers with massive aircraft air & power units, engine trailers, and other aircraft support equipment (SE) were craned aboard, forklifted through the hangar, and positioned aboard Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour moored here over the last week of February.

The Italian navy flagship arrived here Feb. 13, 2021 as part of the Italian navy’s Ready for Operations (RFO) campaign to certify the recently upgraded ship’s compatibility with F-35 Lighting II aircraft and prepare to operate the 5th generation fighter as its key weapons system.

Before the arrival of the specially instrumented U.S. test jets that will be used to develop and expand a flight envelope, the special tools, parts (those required plus those possibly needed), and support equipment must be aboard and in its place. This undertaking is all in a (couple of) days’ work for F-35 Patuxent River Integrated Test Force (PAX ITF) logistics lead and his team, as well as the many who support the mission.

That effort comprises ensuring that “part of PAX” gets aboard the ship before two F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) test jets ferry from the southern Maryland naval air station to the aircraft carrier after it sets sail, said the PAX ITF logistics team supervisor.

“I love the challenge,” said F-35 PAX ITF logistics supervisor Pat DeLeon, in between a worker asking how to get a pair of leather gloves and another querying where to find the wire cutters. A day earlier he was driving a forklift on the flight deck, and tomorrow, … well, he’ll be wherever he’s needed.

For the moment, in the relative quiet before “Lightning II strikes,” there is a hum of languages, foreign and familiar, in the hangar. A look around makes it clear this is a coalition mission: “For Entry Contact … ” and “NO SMOKING” on containers and boxes are backdropped by the ship’s “In Caso Di Necessita’” and In Questo Locale Vietato Fumare signage. This is a partnership, one Pat says has gone well so far.

“(The Cavour ship’s company) have been bending over backwards to help,” DeLeon says. “They’ve been great,” about some adjustments to the load plan, he said. Flexibility is a necessary characteristic of the relationship, he added, because there will be changes until the ship sets sail.

“’When we work together, it’s going to get better,’” DeLeon said his counterpart told him. “If we keep them happy, we’re happy.”

Mission achieved: The Cavour “hangar boss” is well pleased.

“At first glance, seeing so many people and so much material to get on this ship seemed an arduous and complex undertaking,” said Italian Navy Master Chief Petty Officer Silvio Cusano. “As the days went by and everyone collaborated, what seemed extremely complicated has materialized into an organizational success that made everyone aware of being able to overcome the most difficult obstacles.

“We are looking to the final goal with more confidence.”

DeLeon, a seasoned logistics supervisor who has detached to two U.S. ships, twice to the United Kingdom’s HMS Queen Elizabeth, and numerous land-based sites, praised his team of four currently embarked, which includes a night-shift supervisor and three material handlers, as well as the many organizations and teams behind what’s happening in the berthed ship.

“Without my team at PAX, none of this happens,” DeLeon said. “There’s no way I can do this by myself.” He said he coordinates with a lot of people to get this done: the PAX team, Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth transportation, Norfolk Naval Station’s crane operators, and [ALGS] for aircraft parts.

The logistics team is part of a more robust embarked PAX ITF flight test team of almost 200 people. They will conduct sea trials for up to four weeks to collect data that will ultimately lead to the certification for Cavour’s company to safely conduct carrier operations with Italy’s own F-35Bs. 

In a March 1, 2021 story, we learn that the F-35Bs began sea trials aboard the ITS Cavour.

Two F-35B Lighting II jets landed aboard Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550) this afternoon. Test pilots flew the specially instrumented U.S. F-35Bs from Naval Air Station Patuxent River (NAS Pax River), Maryland, to the Italian Navy flagship, which got underway Sunday, February 28. The F-35B is the short take-off and vertical landing variant of the F-35. 

The pilots and aircraft join a test team of approximately 180 personnel from the NAS Pax River-based F-35 Integrated Test Force (ITF) embarked for up to four weeks of sea trials. 

“Our team has trained extensively to prepare for this day, and I was honored to land one of the first two jets aboard Cavour,” said F-35B test pilot U.S. Marine Maj. Brad Leeman, the ITF test team project officer.

Maj. Leeman and two other pilots attached to the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Two Three (VX-23) at NAS Pax River, will fly the ITF jets during the flight test.

“The ITF plays a key role in the ship achieving carrier qualification in the near future,” Leeman said. “All of our hard work planning and training will ensure a successful sea trial and ultimately lead to Italy achieving the milestone of initial operating capability.”

Today’s milestone, or pietra miliare, was the landing of the F-35Bs aboard Cavour. 

“It is a remarkable achievement for all of us, today, to see the fifth-generation fighter aircraft on our flight deck,” said ITS Cavour Commanding Officer Italian Navy Capt. Giancarlo Ciappina. “This represents, indeed, an outstanding success but, at the same time, a new challenge for the future of Italian Naval Aviation.”

“Each and every officer and the whole crew are very proud to work closely with the F-35 Joint Program Office test team during these sea trials, and we are very well prepared to do the hard work to equip ITS Cavour and the Italian Navy with the Joint Strike Fighter’s fifth-generation air combat capability,” Ciappina said.

With the pilots and jets on board, the test team will now collect data that will ultimately lead to the ship’s officers’ and crew’s ability to safely conduct carrier operations with Italy’s own F-35s.

“We are excited to be underway with the crew of Cavour and honored to contribute to the aircraft carrier achieving the Italian Navy’s strategic goal of it being ‘Ready for Operations,’” said Andrew Maack, F-35 Pax River ITF chief test engineer and site director. Maack is embarked with the team, whose members have the engineering and test pilot expertise and experience to conduct F-35B envelope expansion flight test. “We look forward to a phenomenally successful shipboard detachment,” he said.

In a March 3, 2021 photo release, we learn that the Marines are using the ski jump onboard the Cavour to launch their aircraft. 

F-35 test pilot U.S. Marine Maj. Brad Leeman performs a ski-jump launch aboard Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550).

Leeman is performing carrier qualifications on the Italian navy flagship, which is currently conducting sea trials with the F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

In addition to the U.S. Navy stories, the Italians have released information as well.

“With her departure on the morning of February 28th from the base of the US Navy’s Second Fleet in Norfolk, the aircraft carrier ITS Cavour began the “hot” phase of the “Ready for Operations” campaign. The first landing of an F-35B aircraft on the deck of the Italian Navy’s aircraft carrier Cavour represents an important milestone in the integration phase with the fifth generation aircraft.

The purpose of the Sea Trials, which will continue in the Atlantic Ocean for a further four weeks, is to achieve the certification of the operational envelope of Cavour’s flight deck. Following this, it will be time to verify the impact of the fifth generation aircraft on the ship in various conditions of wind and sea when taking off and landing in order to achieve the “Ready for Operation” certification.”

After demonstrating safe launch and recovery of the aircraft, ITS Cavour will be declared ‘Ready for Operations’, which will allow her to start tests with the F-35B that will lead to the achievement of the Initial Operational Capability by 2024.

“The completion of the “Sea Trials” phase of sea trials, which will last in the Atlantic Ocean for about four weeks, will allow the flagship of the Naval Team to test the flight deck and verify the impacts with the fifth-generation aircraft in key take-off and landing moments in different trim conditions and in relation to various factors such as winds and the state of the sea, to arrive at the final certification of “Ready for Operations”.

According to Cavour Aircraft Carrier Commander, Captain Giancarlo Ciappina: “It is a remarkable achievement for all of us today to see the US Marine’s fifth generation fighter on our flight deck. This represents, in fact, an exceptional success but, at the same time, a new challenge for the future of the Italian Naval Aviation and the Navy. The whole crew is very proud to work closely with the ITF, the team of testing the F-35 Joint Program Office during these sea trials, and we are very well prepared to do the hard work to equip the Cavour aircraft carrier and the Navy with the fifth generation Joint Strike Fighter weapon system”.

During the stop in Norfolk before the sea trials, the 580 crew members of the aircraft carrier were joined by the Italian personnel trained in the Marine base in Beaufort to operate on the aircraft, as well as the US personnel of the Integrated Test Force (ITF) team, essential in the integration phase.

“Our team trained extensively to prepare for this day, and I was honored to land the first jet aboard ship Cavour. The ITF plays a key role in achieving certification. All of our hard planning and training work will ensure the success of the sea trials,” said Leeman. After verifying the compatibility between the F-35B and the Cavour aircraft carrier, it will be declared “Ready for Operations”, to start the activities that will lead to the achievement, by 2024, of the “Initial Operational Capability” (IOC). The process will be complete with the acquisition of the “Final Operational Capability” after the delivery of the last aircraft provided for in the programme.

Italian Navy flagship, the aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550), arrives at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., Feb 13. The Cavour's visit is part of a series of operations alongside U.S. military assets to attain the Italian Navy's "Ready for Operations" certification to safely land and launch F-35B aircraft. (U.S. Navy photo by Capt. Cassidy Norman)
Marine Corps Maj. Brad “HJOP” Leeman, Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, holds an Italian flag while flying one of two F-35B’s from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland to the Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550), March 1, 2021. Leeman and Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Barry “Baz” Pilkington, VX-23, conducted the fly-on of the two F-35B variants used by the F-35 Pax River Integrated Test Force and Italian Navy personnel for the F-35B Sea Trials aboard the carrier. Flight test of the F‐35B Lightning II aboard ITS Cavour is a key milestone toward Italy’s carrier qualifications with its own F‐35Bs, and ultimately achieving Italy’s strategic goal of being Ready for Operations.
Marine Corps Maj. Brad “HJOP” Leeman, Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, conducts a vertical landing in an F-35B aboard the Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour. The landing marked the first time that an F-35 has landed aboard the carrier. Leeman and Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Barry “Baz” Pilkington, VX-23, conducted the fly-on of the two F-35B variants from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland to the Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550) March 1, 2021. The aircraft will be used by the F-35 Integrated Test Force (ITF) and Italian Navy personnel for the F-35B Sea Trials aboard the carrier.
Marine Corps Maj. Brad “HJOP” Leeman, Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, conducts a vertical landing in an F-35B aboard the Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour. The landing marked the first time that an F-35 has landed aboard the carrier. Leeman and Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Barry “Baz” Pilkington, VX-23, conducted the fly-on of the two F-35B variants from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland to the Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550) March 1, 2021. The aircraft will be used by the F-35 Integrated Test Force (ITF) and Italian Navy personnel for the F-35B Sea Trials aboard the carrier.
Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Barry “Baz” Pilkington hovers in an F-35B alongside the Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550) as he prepares to cross over and vertically land aboard the carrier on March 1, 2021 following the successful landing by Marine Corps Maj. Brad “HJOP” Leeman. The vertical landings conducted by the two Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 pilots mark the first landing of an F-35 aboard ITS Cavour (CVH 550). The F-35 Pax River Integrated Test Force is underway in the Atlantic to conduct F-35B Sea Trials aboard ITS Cavour over a multi-week testing period.
Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Barry “Baz” Pilkington, Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, flies in an F-35B over the Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550) following the successful first landing of fellow test pilot Marine Corps Maj. Brad “HJOP” Leeman, VX-23, on March 1, 2021. Two F-35B test aircraft from the F-35 Pax River Integrated Test Force are being used by the F-35 test team and Italian Navy personnel for the F-35B Sea Trials aboard the carrier; a key milestone toward Italy’s carrier qualifications with its own F‐35Bs.
Test pilots from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, Marine Corps Maj. Brad “HJOP” Leeman and Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Barry “Baz” Pilkington, fly two F-35B variants from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland on March 1 to the Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550) off the US coast. The vertical landings conducted by the two pilots marked the first landing of an F-35 aboard ITS Cavour. Italian Navy personnel and the F-35 Pax River Integrated Test Force test team are underway in the Atlantic to conduct F-35B sea trials aboard ITS Cavour over a multi-week testing period. The sea trials are a key milestone toward Italy’s carrier qualifications with its own F‐35Bs.
Test pilots from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, Marine Corps Maj. Brad “HJOP” Leeman and Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Barry “Baz” Pilkington, fly two F-35B variants from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland on March 1 to the Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550) off the US coast. The vertical landings conducted by the two pilots marked the first landing of an F-35 aboard ITS Cavour. Italian Navy personnel and the F-35 Pax River Integrated Test Force test team are underway in the Atlantic to conduct F-35B sea trials aboard ITS Cavour over a multi-week testing period. The sea trials are a key milestone toward Italy’s carrier qualifications with its own F‐35Bs.
Test pilots from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, Marine Corps Maj. Brad “HJOP” Leeman and Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Barry “Baz” Pilkington, fly two F-35B variants from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland on March 1 to the Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550) off the US coast. The vertical landings conducted by the two pilots marked the first landing of an F-35 aboard ITS Cavour. Italian Navy personnel and the F-35 Pax River Integrated Test Force test team are underway in the Atlantic to conduct F-35B sea trials aboard ITS Cavour over a multi-week testing period. The sea trials are a key milestone toward Italy’s carrier qualifications with its own F‐35Bs.
Test pilots from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, Marine Corps Maj. Brad “HJOP” Leeman and Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Barry “Baz” Pilkington, fly two F-35B variants from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland on March 1 to the Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550) off the US coast. The vertical landings conducted by the two pilots marked the first landing of an F-35 aboard ITS Cavour. Italian Navy personnel and the F-35 Pax River Integrated Test Force test team are underway in the Atlantic to conduct F-35B sea trials aboard ITS Cavour over a multi-week testing period. The sea trials are a key milestone toward Italy’s carrier qualifications with its own F‐35Bs.
Test pilots from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, Marine Corps Maj. Brad “HJOP” Leeman and Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Barry “Baz” Pilkington, fly two F-35B variants from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland on March 1 to the Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550) off the US coast. The vertical landings conducted by the two pilots marked the first landing of an F-35 aboard ITS Cavour. Italian Navy personnel and the F-35 Pax River Integrated Test Force test team are underway in the Atlantic to conduct F-35B sea trials aboard ITS Cavour over a multi-week testing period. The sea trials are a key milestone toward Italy’s carrier qualifications with its own F‐35Bs.
WESTERN ATLANTIC OCEAN (March 3, 2021) F-35 test pilot U.S. Marine Maj. Brad Leeman performs a ski-jump launch aboard Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550). Leeman is performing carrier qualifications on the Italian navy flagship, which is currently conducting sea trials with the F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the fifth-generation fighter aircraft. U.S. Navy photo by Darin Russell
WESTERN ATLANTIC OCEAN (March 3, 2021) F-35 test pilot U.S. Marine Maj. Brad Leeman performs a vertical landing (VL) aboard Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550). Leeman is performing carrier qualifications on the Italian navy flagship, which is currently conducting sea trials with the F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the fifth-generation fighter aircraft. U.S. Navy photo by Darin Russell
WESTERN ATLANTIC OCEAN (March 3, 2021) F-35 test pilot U.S. Marine Maj. Brad Leeman performs a vertical landing (VL) aboard Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550). Leeman is performing carrier qualifications on the Italian navy flagship, which is currently conducting sea trials with the F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the fifth-generation fighter aircraft. U.S. Navy photo by Darin Russell

CMV-22B and On-Board Delivery: A Sec Def, an Engine, and Ship-to-Ship Logs Options

Posted on | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment on CMV-22B and On-Board Delivery: A Sec Def, an Engine, and Ship-to-Ship Logs Options

The CMV-22B is replacing the C-2 as the carrier on-board delivery system for the large deck carriers.

But that is no all of which can be subsumed under the new concept of on-board delivery.

First, the Secretary of Defense visited the USS Nimitz on February 25, 2021 via CMV-22B “delivery,”

This is seen in the featured photo.

Second, there is a core reason the CMV-22B is replacing the C-2, and that is because it can deliver the largest module of the F-35 engine, a new and important capability for the carrier fleet, which, is of course, already operating from allied and USMC fleets.

That on-board delivery first occurred at sea on February 11, 2021.

As reported by the U.S. Navy on February 26, 2021:

The “Titans” of Fleet Logistics Multi-Mission Squadron (VRM) 30 and members of Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2 successfully delivered an F-35C power module aboard USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) in the U. S. Navy’s first, at-sea replenishment for this component. 

This success follows a November 2020 milestone, during which VRM-30, CVW-2 and Vinson conducted the Navy’s first landings, take-offs, and refueling of a Navy CMV-22B Osprey from an aircraft carrier.

The at-sea power module replenishment evolution consisted of loading, transporting and unloading the F135 power module from a shore-based location to the carrier by way of a CMV-22B.  The power module is an engine component used by all three F-35 Lightning II variants. 

The CMV-22B is the U.S. Navy version of the V-22 Osprey, a multi-engine, dual-piloted, self-deployable, medium lift, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) tilt-rotor aircraft.  The CMV-22B can transport cargo and passengers as far as 1,150 nautical miles; provides enhanced survivability and beyond-line-of-sight communications; and has the required cargo capacity and fast cargo loading/unloading.  Coupled with its ability to transport the F-35 power module inside its cargo bay, CMV-22B is the ideal choice to provide required carrier on-board delivery capabilities for F-35C operations at sea. The delivery marks a milestone in the integration of CMV-22B to the Carrier Air Wing, validates the F135 modular maintenance concept at sea, and most importantly supports future carrier air wing deployments with next-generation platforms.  

“The CMV-22B is a great addition to the carrier air wing,” said Capt. Matt Thrasher, commander, CVW-2. “The Osprey is a robust logistical platform that not only supports the F-35C but also gives the entire air wing increased range and transport capacity. Its addition to our team ensures that CVW-2 remains ready to perform as-advertised while on deployment.”

CVW-2 is currently embarked aboard Vinson under the command of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 1.

CVW-2 is leading the charge in introducing and integrating the next generation of aircraft and capabilities in the Fleet as the U.S. Navy’s first Carrier Air Wing to deploy with the F-35C Lightning II, E-2D Hawkeye and the CMV-22B Osprey. The Navy’s next iteration of the Carrier Air Wing will be more lethal and survivable through the integration of organic fourth-generation kinematics and fifth-generation information and survivability, increased command and control and airborne electronic attack capacity, all sustained with a reliable logistical support platform.

(Feb. 11, 2021) Sailors with the “Argonauts” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 147 load an F-35C Lightning II engine module onto a CMV-22B Osprey with the “Titans” Fleet Logistics Multi-Mission Squadron (VRM) 30 on the flight deck of Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70). Vinson is currently underway conducting routine maritime operations.

“With the addition of the newest fifth-generation aircraft, the Navy has delivered the world’s most capable, lethal and ready air wing to our strike group,” said Rear Adm. Timothy J. Kott, commander, CSG-1. “Delivering the right balance of presence and power, including airpower supremacy, strike groups continue to be one of our nation’s primary on-call assets in times of need.  By maintaining a lethal, ready strike group, manned by the world’s most skilled Sailors and outfitted with the best equipment, fifth generation aircraft will help America maintain our advantage at sea and protect our nation for years to come.”

Capable of embarking both the F-35C and the CMV-22B, Vinson is the first aircraft carrier equipped to support fifth-generation aircraft.  With its recent modifications, no other weapons system has the responsiveness, endurance, multi-dimensional might, inherent battlespace awareness or command and control capabilities of the Vinson and CVW-2.   

Upgrades included enhanced jet blast deflectors able to take the increased heat generated by the F-35C and the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), the new computer network that supports the unique maintenance and tactical operations functions of the advanced aircraft.

“Our crews and staffs have done a fantastic job during integrated operations with the new aircraft and associated upgrades,” said Capt. P. Scott Miller, Vinson’s commanding officer.  “We are truly a team.  The successful replenishment of the power module is another testament to that team and our Sailors, who are the most dedicated, best trained and well educated in the world.  The continued professionalism and warfighter spirit they demonstrate each and every day is the number one key to our success time and time again.”

Vinson is currently completing a series of “work ups” and certifications in preparation for future operational tasking.

Third, the CMV-22B is coming to the large deck carrier at a time when the U.S. Navy is reworking blue water maneuver operations.

In such operations, logistics resupply is crucial.

And as the Military Sealift Command works through how to do so with limited ship numbers, clearly the CMV-22B can play a role in ship-to-ship resupply as demonstrated in the “Blackjacks” testing landings on LPD-class landings last year.

According to a U.S. Navy article published on October 16, 2020:

A team of pilots and engineers from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (HX) 21 recently joined colleagues from other Navy and Marine Corps commands to conduct MV-22 Osprey landing and ship compatibility tests aboard the amphibious transport dock USS New York (LPD 21). The testing also included the first shipboard landings for the Navy’s new CMV-22B Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD) variant of the Osprey.

Over the course of the 10-day detachment in July, the test team flew 180 shipboard approaches and landings, totaling just under 45 hours of flight testing, to develop a better understanding of how pilots can successfully avoid the effects of a phenomenon called “recirculation” when flying to and from ships. Recirculation occurs when the downwash from the aircraft’s rotors is reflected off a ship’s deck back into the rotors’ rotation arc, causing the aircraft to suddenly lose lift.

The team performed low-power-margin testing, and developed procedures for day and night approaches that would minimize the effects of recirculation. The outcome of this testing was to identify better control limits for the aircraft, and develop guidance and procedures that will improve safety for the MV-22 fleet. The testing clearly demonstrated the value of developmental testing.

“We hit 100% of the high priority test points,” said Marine Corps Maj. Nathaniel Ross, HX-21’s operations officer. “And even with a whole lot of smart people working on our test plan to help us understand the interactions between the ship and the aircraft, when we actually got out to the ship and began flying the test points, we still found things (Issues) that we weren’t necessarily looking for, or expecting to find. But, we were able to adjust our test plan quickly, to account for them, which allowed us to make recommendations to the class desk for envelope adjustments.”

Teamwork was crucial to the success of the mission, Ross said. Most of the people on the test team, which numbered 50 pilots and engineers at its peak, had served together on a previous detachment, so they had already learned to work together. The test program involved members of Marine Helicopter Squadron (HMX) 1 based at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 464 based at Marine Corps Air Station New River, Jacksonville, N.C., and Expeditionary Strike Group 2 based in Norfolk, Va.

Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Handling) 3rd Class Lorenzo Moreno, assigned to the transport dock ship USS New York (LPD 21), signals to a CMV-22B Osprey attached to the Blackjacks of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (HX) 21 on the New York’s flight deck on July 18, 2020. (U.S. Navy photo)

Ross identified the leadership and crew of the New York for particular praise. “From the captain all the way down to the people pulling the chocks and chains, everyone understood the importance of this test and how the lessons learned from it will save lives,” Ross said. “The whole crew understood and embraced that. It was pretty amazing to watch.”

During the detachment HX-21’s CMV-22B COD aircraft made two delivery trips to the New York, ferrying maintainers and their supplies. Normally a test team and their equipment would be loaded aboard a ship pierside; but because the New York was underway at the outset, everything for the tests had to be flown to and from the ship.

“The CMV-22B is a great choice for that mission,” said Navy Lt. Gavin Kurey, a test pilot and project officer at HX-21 who flew the first of the two COD trips to the New York with the squadron’s then-commanding officer, Lt. Col. John Ennis, and crew chief Brian Neseth. “As we were planning the test detachment on-load missions, we realized that the Navy aircraft was going to be a viable resource for helping our team to accomplish its goals. And the aircraft just plugged right into its intended role perfectly.”

Kurey said that although the ferry flight was strictly business, everyone on board was aware that they were making history. “The crew was certainly excited, and so were all the passengers, who knew that they were the first people to be ferried out to a ship at sea in the new COD Osprey,” Kurey recalled. “Everyone was buzzing with positive energy the whole flight and the crew of the New York was excited that their ship was going to be the first to have a Navy Osprey land on it.”

The CMV-22B is designed to carry up to 6,000 pounds of cargo and/or personnel and operate up to a range of 1,150 nautical miles. The aircraft will replace the venerable C-2A Greyhound, which has been fulfilling the COD role since 1966.

Ross said that in addition to providing valuable data to engineers and designers about the performance envelope of the Osprey family of tilt-rotor aircraft when operating aboard LPD-class ships, the detachment also provided valuable lessons in teamwork for the squadron that will benefit future test activities. “Everyone was at the right place at the right time to make the mission a success, and that was due to the professionalism of everyone involved,” Ross said.

Nicknamed the “Blackjacks,” HX-21 provides developmental flight test and evaluation of rotary-wing and tilt-rotor aircraft and their associated airborne systems in support of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps training, combat, and combat support missions. The squadron can trace its roots at NAS Patuxent River back to 1949, when the then-Naval Air Test Center first established a rotary-wing test division. Today, HX-21 teams are engaged in testing six families of aircraft, including the CH-53K King Stallion, the MV-22 and CMV-22B Osprey, and the Presidential helicopter fleet.

Dassault and the Future Combat Air System: March 2021 Update

Posted on | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment on Dassault and the Future Combat Air System: March 2021 Update

By Pierre Tran

Paris – Dassault Aviation has agreed to accepting a third of work share on the planned future combat system and its next-generation fighter jet, but there is dissent on working without a prime contractor on key systems such as flight control, executive chairman Eric Trappier said March 5.

There is need to resolve differences over the planned work packages as contracts need to be signed for phase 1B and 2 of the FCAS, a project seen as critical for French ambitions to maintain a military capability spurred by European sovereignty.

There is difficulty in accepting there would be joint work packages — without a prime contractor — on “sensitive, strategic” systems such as flight control, he said in a virtual news conference on the company’s 2020 financial results.

“If there is no prime, it is not possible,” he said. “It cannot work. A leader is needed.”

Airbus agreed that Dassault should have a prime contractor role in those key work packages, and it is up to the three partner nations to agree, he said.

“We are still in talks,” he said.

France is the lead nation on the FCAS, with Germany and Spain as partner nations. Dassault will be prime contractor on the new fighter, which is due to replace the Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon jets in 2040.

Work packages on the FCAS and the fighter will be shared out in thirds, as there are three partner nations, he said. Airbus is the lead company in Germany and Spain, so that company will get two thirds of the work packages, leaving one third for Dassault.

“That is the first difficulty, but it is a difficulty that Dassault has accepted,” he said.

Then there is the principle of joint work packages, proposed by Airbus, in which the partner companies work together and there is not a lead company, he said. About half the work packages are on that joint principle, with the other half shared out in a “fair way,” he said.

Dassault has also agreed to that, he said. It is the lack of a prime on the strategic systems which has placed a spanner in the contract works.

Agreement on the work packages is needed to allow contracts to be signed for the phase 1B and 2, needed for a fighter jet technology demonstrator to fly in 2026.

Getting the work packages right is seen as key, as they could set out the industrial structure of a European arms program estimated to be worth €100 billion ($120 billion).

An agreement could be reached, he said, but a company chief needed to have a plan B in case plan A failed, while working hard to get plan A.

What price cooperation?

What price for the three nations if the program were pursued just for the sake of cooperation, Trappier said. France has the industrial capability with Dassault, Safran, Thales and MBDA to build and arm its own fighter.

President Emmanuel Macron and the outgoing German president, Angela Merkel, launched in 2017 the project for a European fighter jet. That fighter is part of the FCAS, which includes a communications network dubbed combat cloud, and remote carrier or drones.

On intellectual property rights, Dassault had no problem with sharing its future technology with Airbus on the FCAS, he said. Dassault would not pursue a US-style sealed black box approach on its work, as that was technology in the “foreground.”

But the “background” knowledge of Dassault’s more than 70 years of aeronautics would not be handed over, he said.

There would not an IPR problem as governments could look inside the black box on the European project, he said. The problem was the governments recognizing Dassault’s claim for prime contractor status in some of the work packages.

On exports of the fighter, there may be “a difference in perception” in France and Germany, but there would not be a governmental problem as there is an extension of the Debré-Schmidt agreement on foreign arms sales, he said, with Spain joining the partnership.

France and Germany signed a cooperation treaty on Jan. 22 last year, which included an arms export agreement, allowing either country to veto a prospective deal if its national content exceeded 20 percent of value. That pact extended the Debré-Schmidt agreement reached in the 1970s.

Asked about the outlook for sale of the Rafale to Switzerland, Finland, India and Croatia, Trappier said talks were going on and he had prospects of a deal this year.

Dassault reported a 51 percent fall in 2020 adjusted net profit to €396 million from €814 million in the previous year, on sales down to €5.5 billion from €7.3 billion. That drop in sales was expected, due to lower deliveries of the Rafale and the Falcon business jet, the company said. The outlook was for delivery of 25 Rafale and 25 Falcon this year, with a rise in net sales.

The adjusted net profit margin fell to 7.2 percent of sales from 11.1 percent.

Orders fell to €3.5 billion from €5.7 billion, while cash holdings fell to €3.4 billion from €4.6 billion.

Featured Photo: Éric Trappier, Chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation. Credit: Dassault Aviation

First Brexit: Now the Exeter “Bombing”

Posted on | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment on First Brexit: Now the Exeter “Bombing”
03/05/2021

By Kenneth Maxwell

Exeter was among the beautiful English cites chosen for attack on Hitler’s orders in retaliation for the RAF bombing of the mediaeval city of Lubeck in March 1942. The German aim was to target small English historic cities and damage historical buildings and cultural sites in revenge and to spread fear. They were called the “Baedeke Raids” after a popular German guide book to Britain. The targets had no particular strategic or military value.

The cathedral city of Exeter in the country of Devon in the southwest of England was a prime target in this Luftwaffe German blitz. On the night of 23/24 April 1942, 49 German bombers attacked Exeter, and on the 24/25 April, two waves of 20 bombers, most flying two sorties at night, attacked again.

The Germans returned on May 3/4 when 30 Luftwaffe bombers in 46 minutes dropped 166 high explosive bombs, 3 parachute mines, and 5000 incendiary bombs, and devastated 30 acres of the center of Exeter. The Cathedral was hit by a high explosive bomb, and the city library with its thousands of historical documents, was destroyed. 54 tons of bombs were dropped on Exeter. A fire storm resulted and over 156 citizens were killed and 583 seriously injured.

Late last month construction workers clearing private land adjacent to the campus of the University of Exeter uncovered a huge German WW2 bomb. It was German SC 1000 unexploded “Spregbombe” or “Hermann bomb” (as it was known during WW ll.) It was 2.55m in length and 1,000 kg in weight.

The local authorities called in Royal Navy and Army bomb disposal teams and they established a cordon and brought in 400 tons of sand to create an enclosing “box” around the unexploded bomb. 1400 University of Exeter students were evacuated from 12 halls of residence, as well as 2,600 households in the immediate area.

A  “controlled” explosion was then detonated on Saturday (27th of February).

I know the area well. It is on my bus route into Exeter. Miraculously, the two houses where my ancestors lived when they were mayors of Exeter during the reign of Queen Elizabeth l survived the 1942 Blitz. They still stand on the Main Street near Exeter’s medieval Guild Hall, where they once presided over the city’s business, and which also miraculously survived the 1942 German Blitz.

The “controlled” explosion on February 27th, 2021,  however, has severely damaged many houses in the vicinity. The local residents (and the students) have still not been allowed to return to their homes or residence halls. Many buildings suffered severe structural damage from the impact of the explosion and several huge piece of metal landed on roofs and in gardens.

The evacuees have been told to contact their insurance agents for compensation. Good luck with that. They would be better off contacting the (legacy) German authorities for compensation for the damages caused by their long lost and (until recently unexploded) 1942 monster “Hermann” bomb, which was also after all, an unwelcome “Baedeker” gift to the City of Exeter.

Exeter City Center after the German blitz in 1942.
The remaining facades of 25-36 Southernhay in Exeter after the blitz in 1942,
The bomb itself before detonation.
The area of the bomb blast.
Looking towards Exeter cathedral with signs for the stores destroyed in the Exeter blitz.
Towards Exeter cathedral after the blitz.
The two houses of Professor Maxwell's ancestors who were mayors of Exeter during the reign of Elizabeth l.

An Update on the Future Combat Air System: March 2021

Posted on | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment on An Update on the Future Combat Air System: March 2021

By Pierre Tran

Paris – Thales will have a major role in the upcoming phase 1B in development of a technology demonstrator for the European future combat air system, including work on sensors and the combat cloud network, executive chairman Patrice Caine said March 4.

“We are one of the big partners in this initiative,” he said at a virtual press conference on the company’s 2020 financial results. “We are very much involved in at least two pillars – the sensors pillar and the pillar for the system of systems – or combat cloud.”

France has designated Thales as the “national champion” for studies on sensors and combat cloud, so much of the French spending in these two areas will flow to the electronics company, he said, declining to give any figures.

There are seven areas of work, dubbed pillars, on research and technology on the FCAS demonstrator, namely: a next-generation fighter; engine; remote carrier, or drone; command and communications network, or combat cloud; simulation; sensors; and stealth.

The Direction Générale de l’Armement signed a contract with Indra, with the Spanish company leading a three-nation consortium on the phase 1 study on sensors, Thales said in a Nov. 23 joint statement with its industrial partners.

Thales is the French partner in that consortium, along with the German FCMS group, comprising Diehl Defence, ESG, Hensoldt, and Rohde and Schwarz.

That phase 1A concept study for sensors ran for 12 months, with a possible extension of six more months, the statement said. The French procurement office signed on behalf of France, Germany and Spain.

The companies will work on the design of concepts for “a connected and distributed architecture of sensors,” including design of future sensor architectures and maturing of associated sensor technologies, the statement said.

Airbus, working out of Germany, is the lead company on study of the combat cloud, with Thales and Indra as partner companies.

The partner nations and companies are due to move on to phase 1B of the R&T work, perceived to be vital to building a demonstrator to fly in 2025/26.

France and Germany are each expected to pledge respectively some €1 billion ($1.2 billion) for phase 1B, with Spain due to commit a similar amount, a defense analyst said. Such a commitment has raised doubt on whether Madrid would be able to find funds to join a project for a European unmanned aerial vehicle.

There has been much public debate on contracts for work in phase 1B, with Dassault Aviation reported to be seeking to protect intellectual property rights on work on the next-generation fighter, while Airbus seeks full access to sensitive information.

A Jan. 2 research note from the SWP German Institute for International and Security Affairs pointed up the need to resolve the issue of IPR.

“A crucial question that arises at this point concerns the protection of emerging or existing intellectual property: to what extent should companies disclose their pro­cesses and know-how, to what extent will technical specifications be made available to the other partners later?

Resolving dispute over IPR is seen as vital for progress on the FCAS project and has an impact on other issues, said the note, titled Future Combat Air System: Too Big to Fail.

A related issue was whether maintenance and repairs would be reserved to the lead manufacturer, or would there be access to documents which allowed the armed forces to service the kit, backed up by industrial partners?

“If only the manufacturer can and is permitted to carry out certain parts of the maintenance, this might also affect operational readiness,” the note said.

A Feb. 16 research note from the Institut des Relations Internationales et Stratégique, a think tank, said a compromise was needed to allow a signing of the phase 1B agreement, as not a single European nation could afford such a complex program on its own.

“A destructive competition between our companies would lead to the loss of our industrial capability in military aeronautics,” the note said, adding that the stakes at risk on FCAS were not just European but of worldwide importance.

Climate Change Versus Defense: The Swedish Case

Posted on | by Robbin Laird | Leave a Comment on Climate Change Versus Defense: The Swedish Case
03/04/2021

Although the militaries of the industrial West certainly are interested in and in some cases actively pursuing new forms of energy sources to operate their forces, clearly defense needs to operate with fossil fuels for the foreseeable future.

But a EURACTIV story highlights a warning from the Swedish military that Sweden’s climate change goals may actually undercut their ability to defend Sweden.

“Sweden’s ambitious plans to stop using fossil fuels may endanger and limit the military’s ability to carry out its tasks, while biofuels will fail to power most vehicles and could also be unsuitable for Scandinavia’s cold surroundings, the country’s military has warned the government.

“War remains an unlikely scenario, but the military may be needed when natural disasters or other crisis situations occur.

“Moreover, Sweden’s Armed Forces have pointed out that the country may hinder itself with its climate targets and have called for a military exemption to be considered, reported Sweden’s financial newspaper Dagens Indudstri and Russia’s Sputnik News.”

And one might point out that the Nordic defense reset is underway because one can not assume war notably war the way the Russians play it is unlikely.

Being an energy rich country, Russia can fuel an ambitious military enabled foreign and security policy.

Certainly, no Russian military officer is shooting off a memo to Putin with a similar message tot that of the Swedish military.