Month: April 2024

Source: United States Navy

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii – Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Lisa Franchetti visited Hawaii to preside over the U.S. Pacific Fleet (PACFLT) Change of Command, and stress the importance of the Indo-Pacific region to U.S. national security, April 3-4.

While in Hawaii, Franchetti toured and received updates on the Navy’s largest infrastructure construction project to-date, Dry Dock 5 at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PHNSY & IMF), and held bi-lateral engagements with her Head of Navy counterparts in the region.

“Our nation is counting on us to operate forward to preserve the peace, to respond in crisis and to win decisively in war if called to do so. I could not be more proud of this Fleet. I could not be more proud of our Navy team,” Franchetti said. “No other Navy in the world can train, deploy and sustain such a lethal, combat credible force at the scope and scale and tempo that we do.”

Presiding over the PACFLT change of command, where Adm. Stephen Koehler relieved Adm. Samuel J. Paparo Jr., CNO reflected on the significance of this transition. She highlighted the importance of appointing the right leaders to the right positions at the right time to accelerate warfighting advantages and strengthen relationships with Allies and partners.

“You pushed us to think, act and operate differently, and double down on our three priority focus areas. First, we focus on Warfighting – delivering decisive combat power alongside our joint allied, and partner teammates. Second, we focus on our warfighters – that’s the Pacific Fleet, that’s the joint force – by strengthening our Navy Team. And third, we focus on the foundations that support both of them by investing in our bases and our infrastructure, and by investing in our relationships, right here in Hawaii, and all around the world,” Franchetti said to Paparo before presenting him with his award.

She then told Kohler, “You know this theater, and you are a warfighter’s warfighter, who knows how to build strong teams to get after our critical mission here in the Indo-Pacific at this critical time in our nation’s history. There is no one more ready to lead this Fleet. I am absolutely confident that you are the right person at the right time to lead our sailors in the Indo-Pacific.”

Franchetti saw the progress made on Dry Dock 5, the first dry dock built in Pearl Harbor since 1943. It’s designed for a projected service life of 150 years and to accommodate the maintenance needs of Virginia-class submarines.

Franchetti emphasized the strategic importance of Dry Dock 5, highlighting her focus on the foundation that supports the Navy, investment in maritime infrastructure and its role in sustaining the readiness of naval forces, which ensures the Navy remains equipped to face challenges in the Indo-Pacific.

“Dry Dock 5 is a critical capability for our nation, and it’s great that you are working together to make sure it delivers on time to support our asymmetric capability – the Virginia-class submarine,” Franchetti said. “It’s good to see the construction work progress that has occurred since I last visited; I hope you’re all proud of the work you’re getting started on, and I appreciate your sense of urgency to make sure we have it done on time.”

The U.S. Navy operates four public shipyards; PHNSY & IMF is located in the heart of the Pacific and is the only U.S. owned dry dock located outside the continental United States. The upgrades at PHNSY & IMF are in line with upgrades happening across all four public shipyards as part of the Navy’s Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Plan.

Underscoring the Navy’s commitment to deepening our security relationships with regional allies and partners, and collaborating on issues of mutual interest and concern based on our shared values and goals to safeguard the international rules-based order, Franchetti held office calls with Adm. Ryō Sakai, Chief of Staff Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force; Vice Adm. Toribio Adaci, Flag Officer-in-Command, Philippine Navy; and Rear Adm. Sean Wat, Chief of Navy, Republic of Singapore.

“Our Navy is the world’s premier all-domain warfighting force, made even more effective through our strong relationships with allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region,” said Franchetti. “This region remains America’s foremost priority, and that is why no matter what is happening around the world, the United States Navy continues to deploy and operate forward here in the Indo-Pacific.”

Source: United States Navy

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti met with Flag Officer-in-Command, Philippine Navy Vice Adm. Toribio Adaci at Pearl Harbor today while in town for the U.S. Pacific Fleet Change of Command.

Franchetti underscored the U.S. Navy’s commitment to the security and stability of the Indo-Pacific region.

During her discussion with Adaci, Franchetti noted the ironclad alliance between the U.S. and the Philippines and reaffirmed U.S. commitment to the Philippines following the PRC Coast Guard and maritime militia’s dangerous obstruction of a lawful Philippine resupply mission.

Franchetti also applauded the significant advances in interoperability between the two navies and reiterated her commitment to advance Navy-to-Navy relations and a number of bilateral initiatives with purpose and urgency.

The U.S. and Philippine navies regularly operate and train together, recently completing the third iteration of the Maritime Cooperative Activity in the South China Sea.

The two leaders last met at in September 2023 at the International Seapower Symposium, in Newport, R.I.

Source: United States Navy

Assessing surf zone conditions has never been an exact science for the Department of the Navy. That’s about to change thanks to a recent request to TechSolutions, which has resulted in new surf observation (SUROB) technology to make operational forecasts more precise.

Determining whether or not conditions are right for sending troops ashore is crucial to mission planning, but SUROB protocols currently in place use fairly rudimentary tools to do so. Warfighters rely mostly on their eyesight observations to estimate wave height and a ruler to measure water depth, and sometimes a tennis ball to determine current speed.

“We were confident there was sensing technology to provide a better solution for Sailors and Marines to improve the accuracy of their surf observations,” said Jason Payne, director, TechSolutions – the rapid response program at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Global that addresses warfighter needs by quickly developing science and technology-driven solutions. ONR Global is the international arm of ONR.

“We already had some of the tools – satellite imagery, meteorological information, etc. What the warfighters needed was a way to collect all that data, pair it with in-situ sensing and fuse it into a user-friendly format,” he said.

For the past six months, a team of scientists and engineers from the Naval Research Lab (NRL) and the U.S. Army’s Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC) have been developing the technological tools needed to create a more precise surf observation report. In order to gain greater insight into how the surf observation tool may improve warfighter operations, NavalX recently organized a workshop that brought together the science and engineering developers with the Sailors and Marines who would use it.
“I think for this workshop we had 10 or 12 different unique communities of people in the room,” said David Newborn, director, Centers for Adaptive Warfighting, NavalX.

“Anytime that happens, there are pretty big ah-ha moments that shake out from that. And I think that happened in a couple of different ways with this workshop. One, I think it happened from a user interface and user experience,” he said. “I also think there were some major insights into how these pieces of information – the modeling, simulation and data fusion – how those may impact what the operators actually see.”

Newborn added that the workshop really helped define what the final end product should look and feel like to the user, especially the operators who are at the wheel of an amphibious vehicle or the tiller of a rubber raiding craft.

“Having sort of these go/no-go, or red light, green light decision support tools is more important than the gigabytes of really fine-grain current and wave data,” Newborn said. “I think the development team came to some really important insights like we don’t need to tell them everything about the current, but we do need to tell them, is the current good or is it bad?”

Lt. Col. Joseph Murphy, head of the Ground Combat Element branch, who is guiding the project for the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab (MCWL) said “The workshop allowed us to get the whole community of interest in the same room – the right people with the right quality, the right expertise and really refine what that output should be for the project.”

Having spent a lot of time at sea, Murphy said he is very familiar with the challenges of operating in the surf zone. The new SUROB interface is designed to better inform a commander’s risk assessment by utilizing all available sensing technologies.

“The data that’s generated from the video feeds or the camera images can paint the picture or show what the surf conditions are – that’s your wave height, your breaker height, where your breakers are and their direction, the depth bathymetry, nearshore currents like your rip tides,” he said.

But the biggest innovation for SUROB – what Murphy called “the ultimate point of this program” is the app that can be downloaded by a Sailor or Marine on their laptop or tablet. The app ingests all of the data from all sources, then generates a surf observation report that is much more accurate than what the current protocol delivers.

Murphy said, “The intent is that it’ll output the MSI [Modified Surf Index], but it’ll also give the go/no-go, or red, green, yellow criteria by vessel type. So the user will choose the vessel and based on what the conditions are, it’ll say whether it’s favorable, at the margins, or unfavorable for that vessel type.

Murphy added that not only will the surf observation tool inform risk factors for different vehicles, it can adjust more quickly to changes in the surf condition.

“I’ve performed plenty of operations at sea where you had the satellite imagery and the beach surveys that were done ahead of time, but then the water depth was greater than they showed,” he said. “So, having the ability on the spot to use some sensor technology and have a tool like this is absolutely a great aid given the reality that the surface is constantly changing – and you never know when you need more accurate reports on the deck to facilitate your operations.” Murphy said.

TechSolutions received the request less than a year ago for a technology-driven solution for surf observation from Maj. Zachary Taylor, a technology officer with the Marines’ Warfighting Lab. Within weeks, Payne said, TechSolutions began working with the development team at NRL and ERDC, as well as Taylor and Murphy, to come up with a prototype.

“We knew almost immediately this would be an invaluable tool for our Sailors and Marines,” Payne said. “Surf observation should be precise. It should be able to adjust in real time as the conditions change above and below the water. But we needed Maj. Taylor to tell us what was wrong with the current process and ask us to help them make it better,” Payne said. “That’s what TechSolutions is all about.”

To submit a technology request, Sailors and Marines may contact TechSolutions directly at ONR_TechSolutions@navy.mil. More information about the program may be found on their website: https://www.onr.navy.mil/Techsolutions/.

Source: United States Navy

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti met with Chief of Staff of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) Adm. Ryo Sakai at Pearl Harbor today while in town for the U.S. Pacific Fleet Change of Command.

Franchetti underscored the U.S Navy’s commitment to strengthening the U.S. – Japan alliance amid historic shared momentum toward peace, stability, and deterrence in a free and open Indo-Pacific.

During their meeting, the two Heads of Navy discussed how operations and integration between the JMSDF and U.S. Navy support and reinforce the rules-based international order, the recent strategic dialogue between the two leaders’ staffs, and the Tomahawk missile training provided to JMSDF.

Franchetti thanked Sakai for his leadership and the JMSDF’s contributions to the peace and stability in the region.

The U.S. Navy and JMSDF regularly operate together around the globe. Recently, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John Finn (DDG 113) conducted a bilateral exercise with JMSDF destroyers JS Shimakaze (DDG 172) and JS Suzunami (DD 114) in the South China Sea.

Franchetti and Sakai last met in November 2023 at Camp Ichigaya, Tokyo, Japan.

Source: United States Navy

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti met with the Republic of Singapore’s Chief of Navy, Rear Adm. Sean Wat at Pearl Harbor today following the U.S. Pacific Fleet Change of Command.

Franchetti emphasized the U.S. Navy’s commitment to the security and stability of the Indo-Pacific region and expressed gratitude to Singapore Navy’s for contributing personnel to Operation Prosperity Guardian.

During their discussion, Franchetti thanked Wat for hosting Fleet Logistics Center (FLC) Singapore, and providing exceptional and comprehensive shore support services to the Fleet, Sailors and their families. FLC Site Singapore manages the Navy’s supply system throughout South and Southeast Asia, providing logistical support to surface ships, submarines, aircraft, and expeditionary forces operating in the region.

The U.S. and Singapore navies frequently operate and train together, completing exercises like Pacific Griffin and Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training. Franchetti shared that she looks forward to increased cooperation in the future.

The two leaders last met in September 2023 at the International Seapower Symposium, in Newport, R.I.