Month: July 2022

Source: United States Navy

Port visits such as these strengthen defense partnerships and capabilities between the United States and key regional allies and partners. Additionally, they help Sailors gain a better understanding of the countries they sail and fly alongside while operating in the region.

During their visit, Truman and embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 1, Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 28, and Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 8 Sailors will give back to the local community by painting and beautifying the Fundacion Asnimo, a center that provides education and care for
children with Down Syndrome.

“Community relations (COMRELs) are an opportunity for our Sailors to give back to others in cooperation with local organizations that make communities around the globe better places to live. Our Sailors always inspire me with their dedication to these events and the organizations we serve with inspire us all to do more to serve others,” said Lt. Cmdr. Steven Hervey, Truman’s leading chaplain. “I consider it a great blessing to serve at sea in partnership with the Spanish Navy and ashore in friendship with the Spanish people. We are excited to partner with great people and assist with the great work taking place at Fundacion Asnimo while in Palma.”

This port visit also provides Sailors a chance to experience the food, history, and culture of Spain. For many, this will help reinforce international relationships on a more personal level.

“Our crew recognizes the extraordinary opportunity they have been afforded this deployment to explore the countries of the partners with whom they have worked in this region,” said Capt. Gavin Duff, Truman’s commanding officer. “Many of our Sailors have been looking forward to this port visit for some time and I know they will leave Palma with long-lasting memories of Palma’s kindness, generosity, and cuisine.”

Since deploying to the U.S. Naval Forces Europe (NAVEUR) area of operations in late 2021, Truman and other ships in the Harry S. Truman carrier strike group (HSTCSG) have operated alongside ships and personnel of the Spanish Navy on multiple occasions, including sailing with the Spanish multi-purpose amphibious assault ship ESPS Juan Carlos I (L-61) in late May in support of the NATO-led activity Neptune Shield. Strike group ships have also completed multiple port visits in Spanish cities during their deployment, including Barcelona and Rota.
The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group (HSTCSG) is on a scheduled deployment in the U.S. Naval Forces Europe area of operations, employed by U.S. Sixth Fleet to defend U.S., allied and partner interests.

Truman is the flagship of the HSTCSG; additional elements include the nine squadrons of CVW 1, commanded by Capt. Patrick Hourigan; the staff and guided-missile destroyers of DESRON 28 commanded by Capt. Blair Guy, which have included: USS Bainbridge (DDG 96), USS Cole (DDG 67), USS Gonzalez (DDG 66), USS Gravely (DDG 107) and USS Jason Dunham (DDG 109); and the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS San Jacinto (CG 56), commanded by Capt. Christopher Marvin.

For over 80 years, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-U.S. Naval Forces Africa (NAVEUR-NAVAF) has forged strategic relationships with allies and partners, leveraging a foundation of shared values to preserve security and stability.

Headquartered in Naples, Italy, NAVEUR-NAVAF operates U.S. naval forces in the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) areas of responsibility. U.S. Sixth Fleet is permanently assigned to NAVEUR-NAVAF, and employs maritime forces through the full spectrum of joint and naval operations.

For more news from Truman, visit www.airlant.usff.navy.mil/cvn75/, www.facebook.com/cvn75, www.twitter.com/ussharrystruman, or http://instagram.com/uss_harrys.truman

Source: United States Navy

The partner nation teams are using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to assist explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) dive teams by searching for manmade objects that could represent mines.

Officer in Charge of Deployable Geospatial Survey Team 2 (DGST 2) Royal Australian Navy Lt. Josh Callahan said the Australian team’s mission is to integrate with New Zealand counterparts and collect observations, insights and lessons learned about using the AUV and its capability.

“In DGST 2, we use AUVs to extrapolate depth and conduct feature detection which allows us to view wrecks or platforms that need maintenance,” Callahan said. “During RIMPAC, we are using them for mine countermeasure (MCM). This is significant because it pushes our training boundaries and will improve how we use the capability, and informs further integration with the Mine Warfare community.”

Royal New Zealand Navy Able Hydrographic System Operator Mackenzie Perry, assigned to HMNZS Matataua, is an AUV handler deployed for RIMPAC 2022 in Southern California.

“My job is to conduct pre-mission checks on the fish to ensure a tasking goes smoothly,” Perry said. “We monitor the AUV during the mission, recover it once it has completed the path and then download the site-scan data it has recorded.”

The data the AUV collects greatly reduces the workload on EOD divers and speeds up threat identification.

“Objects that are manmade will light up on the visual capture and we pass that data to the United States Marine Corps and Royal New Zealand Navy dive teams for further investigation.”

Perry said it has been interesting to observe how partner nations work.

“We learned how to lower the REMUS-100 from a United States Navy helicopter, and we want to take the information back to our home nations to improve deployability.”

RIMPAC 2022 is Perry’s first overseas deployment.

“I’m here to soak it all in,” Perry said. “It’s exciting to work with other nations and learn from them. I hope we continue working together after RIMPAC.”

Source: United States Navy

Participating U.S. and Bulgarian personnel will work alongside allies and partners Albania, Belgium, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Turkey, and the United Kingdom in a variety of maritime warfare scenarios, all designed to enhance interoperability and demonstrate solidarity among participating nations.

Breeze is an annual exercise hosted by the Bulgarian Navy and typically takes place in the Black Sea region around Bulgaria every July. The exercise dates back to 1996, and this year marks the 26th iteration of the exercise. The exercise highlights allies and partners’ commitment to improving their combined capability and capacity in the Black Sea region.

“Exercising with our NATO allies and partners is essential to ensuring security in the Black Sea region,” said Rear Adm. Oliver Lewis, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. Sixth Fleet’s Director of Maritime Operations (DMO). “The ironclad commitment of the U.S. to NATO extends to every domain and in particular to the global maritime commons that the world relies upon for the safe transportation of food, energy, and commerce.”

Breeze 2022, which takes places in and around Burgas and Varna, Bulgaria over the next two weeks, will emphasize anti-submarine warfare, mine countermeasure, search and rescue, force protection/anti-terrorism operations, maritime interdiction operations, and anti-piracy mission areas, among other mission sets and warfare areas. The U.S. contingent is well-equipped to support allies and partners in each of these mission areas.

P-8A Poseidon aircraft from U.S. Sixth Fleet’s Task Force 67 will provide maritime domain awareness in the region and will participate in multiple exercise serials. The P-8A is the U.S. Navy’s multi-mission maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft. The aircraft and its crew efficiently conduct anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and humanitarian response

Expeditionary units from Task Force 68, including Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) 12, are also scheduled to train alongside their counterparts in a variety of exercise events. These include mine response, remote-operated vehicle searching techniques, limpet response and handheld SONAR search, underwater searching techniques, and underwater ordnance reconnaissance.

“I am excited for the opportunity to improve our readiness and interoperability during Exercise Breeze,” said Capt. Cameron Chen, Commander, Task Force 68. “Bulgaria has an incredibly professional military and we look forward to the knowledge and experience we will gain from working alongside the Bulgarians and our NATO partners in the Black Sea.”

For over 80 years, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-U.S. Naval Forces Africa (NAVEUR-NAVAF) has forged strategic relationships with allies and partners, leveraging a foundation of shared values to preserve security and stability.

Headquartered in Naples, Italy, NAVEUR-NAVAF operates U.S. naval forces in the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) areas of responsibility. U.S. Sixth Fleet is permanently assigned to NAVEUR-NAVAF, and employs maritime forces through the full spectrum of joint and naval operations.

Source: United States Navy

OSBP’s mission is to create a culture of small business inclusiveness across the Navy, to not only best support its mission, Sailors, and Marines, but to ensure fiscal responsibility with taxpayer dollars. OSBP supports President Biden’s economic strategy for “small business owners to help lower the cost and level the playing field for families and small businesses.”

“Through forums like this, the buyers, purchasers, and contractors collaborate to remove barriers and bring advances through small business opportunities,” said Del Toro. “The Department has the opportunity and obligation to impact and leverage small businesses on a federal level. We have to remember that this is both transformative for the business, their communities, and our Navy and Marine Corps.”

The federal government’s Small Business Administration (SBA) works with federal agencies to award at least 23% of all prime government contracting dollars each year to small businesses that are certified with the SBA’s contracting programs. Some of these programs include Service Disabled Veteran-Owned small businesses (SDVOSB), Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) small businesses, Small Disadvantaged businesses (SDB) and Women-Owned small businesses (WOSB).

Historically, during World War II and the Korean War, Congress identified thousands of small business concerns due to war-induced shortages of materials and the inability to break into major defense contracts. President Eisenhower signed the Small Business Act into law, which created the SBA. The priority of this law was to ‘preserve free competitive enterprise’ and fairly award federal contracts among small and large businesses.