Month: May 2024

Source: United States Navy

The christening ceremony’s principal address will be delivered by Vice Admiral Francis Morley, Principal Military Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition. Remarks will also be provided by the Honorable John Thune, U.S. Senator, South Dakota; the Honorable Steve Harding, Mayor of Pierre, South Dakota; Rear Admiral Thomas Anderson, Program Executive Officer, Ships; Ms. Michelle Kruger, President, Austal USA; and Mr. Stan Kordana, Vice President of Program Execution, General Dynamics Mission Systems. The ship’s sponsor is Larissa Thune Hargens.

Pierre is the 19th Independence-variant LCS and is the second ship named after Pierre, South Dakota.

The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is a fast, agile, mission-focused platform designed to operate in near-shore environments, winning against 21st-century coastal threats. The LCS is capable of supporting forward presence, maritime security, sea control, and deterrence.

The LCS class consists of two variants, Freedom and Independence, designed and built by two separate industry teams. The Independence-variant team is led by Austal USA (for the even-numbered hulls, e.g. LCS 2).

Media may direct queries to the Navy Office of Information at (703) 697-5342. More information on the littoral combat ship program can be found at: https://www.navy.mil/Resources/Fact-Files/Display-FactFiles/Article/2171607/littoral-combat-ship-class-lcs

Source: United States Navy

Leyte Gulf departed Norfolk, Jan. 28, 2024, to conduct maritime interdiction and theater security operations in the U.S. 4th Fleet area of operations.

“The crew of Leyte Gulf is a model for maritime teamwork,” said Vice Adm. Doug Perry, Commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet. “They partnered with Navy air assets and Coast Guard interdiction teams, showcasing 2nd Fleet’s ability to extend our presence and maintain homeland defense in other fleets. This is a profound final chapter for one of the Navy’s finest ships, and their crew should be proud of all they accomplished.”

During their final deployment, Leyte Gulf embarked the “Valkyries” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 50 and partnered with U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) 404.

The Leyte Gulf team performed maritime interdiction operations and disrupted 4,100 kilograms of cocaine. They detected and seized a self-propelled semi-submersible containing 2,370 kilograms of illicit drugs, which was later destroyed during a sinking exercise. The LEDET boarded and took positive control of three vessels during interdiction operations and removed 15 narcotics traffickers from the narcotics trade.

“I admire the resiliency of the crew aboard Leyte Gulf,” said Perry. “Their commitment to the mission in the South Atlantic enhances maritime security through sustained naval presence.”

Leyte Gulf operated with regional partners in the 4th Fleet area and conducted theater security cooperation visits. These combined efforts aimed to strengthen maritime partnerships, enhance U.S. maritime posture, and deter threats of illicit drug trafficking.

Named after one of World War II’s largest naval battles, “The Battle of Leyte Gulf” was fought in 1944 in the Philippine Sea. It was a decisive battle that pushed back Japanese naval forces. The ship, which would be forever known as Leyte Gulf, was constructed in 1985 and commissioned in 1987.

“This ship is full of history. Each period brings its own far-off journeys, along with generations of Sailors who have manned the helm,” said Capt. Nathan Diaz, the commanding officer of Leyte Gulf. “Our last deployment was full of Sailors who made their own mark on the story of this great warship. Though our namesake comes from a battle long ago, the U.S. is still performing with a level of combat expertise and professionalism that we’ve always had as we protect the homeland.”

U.S. 2nd Fleet, reestablished in 2018 in response to the changing global security environment, develops and employs maritime forces ready to fight across multiple domains in the Atlantic and Arctic in order to ensure access, deter aggression and defend U.S., allied, and partner interests.

Source: United States Navy

A total of 38 students representing nine teams from Monterey, Pacific Grove and Salinas participated in the 2024 Design Challenge, focusing their efforts on the use of autonomous platforms to monitor water quality, oceans, and the environment. On May 14, these student-faculty teams were honored by NPS during a ceremony at the Moss Landing Marine Labs.

Senior leaders from NPS joined representatives from Design Challenge collaborators and partners in recognizing the winning student-faculty teams, representing Salinas’ Alisal High School, Pacific Grove High School and Monterey’s Santa Catalina School. The teams were competing for a chance to win prizes up to $2,000, sponsored by the Naval Postgraduate School Foundation.

“We started three years ago with a program to try and encourage hands-on STEM learning through an iterative process whereby you guys are allowed to try things that don’t have a solution to them,” said Dr. Mara Orescanin, director of NPS’ Consortium for Unmanned Systems Education and Research (CRUSER) and one of the organizers of the Design Challenge. “So you had to dabble with a real-world problem – you have to think outside the box, you have to learn how to fail and how to learn from that failure to iterate on the next design. And this is what real scientists and engineers do.”

Retired Vice Adm. Ann Rondeau, President of NPS, joined Dr. Alan Van Nevel, NPS Associate Provost for Research, and NPS Foundation Vice President Todd Lyons in presenting student team members with letters of recognition for their efforts.

Following the ceremony, teachers and students had an opportunity to tour the historic fishing vessel Western Flyer, made famous by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts during their 1940 voyage to the Gulf of California, and which now has new life as a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and research platform run by the Western Flyer Foundation.

“You students give me a good feeling, a lot of hope about the future, because you have shown that you’re willing to take a problem that you don’t know anything about, look at it, fail – hopefully, not too many times – and then try new ideas, keep an open mind, and come up with a solution,” said Van Nevel. “And those qualities will serve you well for a long time to come.”

Earlier this year, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro released the 2024 Naval Science and Technology (S&T) Strategy, which called for a greater focus on STEM education and outreach opportunities across the nation.

The Rapid Innovation Design Challenge, led by Orescanin and Dr. David Ortiz-Suslow, aligns with this new strategy and other commitments by NPS and the Department of the Navy to increase educational equity in STEM – as well as to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, technologists and more.

“NPS is proud to support the STEM Rapid Innovation Design Challenge with the Office of Naval Research to invest in the next generation of innovators and leaders for our Navy and our nation,” said Rondeau. “While the celebratory energy in the award ceremony was great to see, I noticed something else after the event that is the real reward of such efforts. I watched as one of the young high school ladies showed and demonstrated her model to a group of students as they crowded around her and asked questions. She was beaming with pride, and that is the payoff of this work – building the desire for discovery engendered in inquiring minds.”

This year’s Design Challenge, which ran from Feb. 1 to April 16, was developed in collaboration with industry and technology experts. It featured a focus on autonomous technology and its use in creating two types of platforms – one for making ocean and atmospheric measurement during storm events, the other for monitoring coastal water quality. According to Orescanin, these elements were inspired by the flooding of watersheds throughout Monterey County last winter, as well as a desire to understand extreme weather events of all types.

The “CRUSER Grand Championship,” emblematic of the competition’s top honor, and the $2,000 grand prize were presented to a team from Pacific Grove High for its efforts to understand the Design Challenge’s iterative process, identify an area to be improved in data collection, and create a solid prototype for how to implement their solution with an autonomous platform.

Their result was the “StormChaser Sentry,” which tackled the challenge of atmospheric and ocean measurement in extreme weather events. Teacher Sally Richmond’s team took a platform that was designed for wave monitoring and augmented it with sensors for determining location, wind speed, air temperature and humidity, barometric pressure, and wave period and height.

In addition to the grand prize, Pacific Grove High took home honors in one of the three runner-up categories, each of which awarded a $500 prize. The school’s second winning entry came courtesy of student Antony Gabrik, who captured the “Persuasive Pitch” award for his video presentation on improving data collection to make a connection between actions on land and their biological and environmental impacts offshore. 

“This is our third year competing – we’ve had a great time each year, and we’ve managed to win an award each time,” said Richmond. “We look forward to doing it again next year.”

Another runner-up category, “Best Storm Tracker Solution,” went to Santa Catalina School’s “Team Wanandi,” which generated the most unique solution for gathering data during storms. The team created an autonomous open-water platform whose spherical design allowed for more stability and durability in varying wave and storm states.

The final runner-up category, “Best Water Quality Monitoring Solution,” was won by Alisal High and its “Small Organic Remeasuring Tool,” or SORT, for representing the most unique solution for monitoring water quality. In addition to using a colorimeter that can be programmed for multiple water quality measurements such as pH, ammonia or chloride levels, SORT has a compartment for a whiteleg shrimp, which can serve as an indicator of high pesticide levels in the water.

“You have played a critical role in designing real potential solutions for these problems,” Orescanin said. “These are actual problems scientists face – and we have the scientists with us today who study these problems at NPS. It is great to see such creative, innovative thinking in our high schools. We’re here to recognize that – that all of you are amazing by contributing to this process, and hope that you enjoyed yourself along the way.

The Rapid Innovation Design Challenge program is designed to build excitement about STEM, mitigate barriers to experiential learning opportunities for all students, introduce students to emerging technologies, and strengthen community capacity to offer impactful education opportunities. It includes scaffolded curricula that match critical skills for higher education and a modern workforce to school standards. 

Each challenge integrates critical thinking, analytic reasoning, problem solving and written communication skills as teams explore applications of science, technology, engineering and math to create meaningful solutions with global impact. 

“The Rapid Innovation Design Challenge is an opportunity for the Naval Postgraduate School to share its unique expertise in STEM with the local community,” Lyons said. “The Naval Postgraduate School Foundation & Alumni Association is dedicated to supporting NPS and has supported the Design Challenge since its inception. We look forward to supporting future Rapid Innovation Design Challenges and building even closer connections between NPS and the local community.”

NPS is already planning for the 2025 Rapid Innovation Design Challenge, with launch scheduled for the fall of 2024. As part of a growing initiative at NPS to foster graduate student mentorship in the community, the upcoming iteration of the Design Challenge will include the opportunity for pairing participating classes with NPS students as mentors and to provide insight into career pathways in STEM. More information about the Design Challenge program is available at https://nps.edu/design-challenge.

The collaboration conducted under the auspices of the Rapid Innovation Design Challenge does not constitute endorsement of non-federal organizations or their products and services by the Naval Postgraduate School, the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense.

Source: United States Navy

Exercise Bull Shark tested joint teams on maritime security and personnel recovery operations. Teams had to locate and rescue a casualty, then escalate them to a higher echelon of care under hostile conditions.

“Adding MSRON 10’s support in training exercises like Bull Shark help keep a strong cohesion between the nations and keep response time to a simulated crisis quick and concise,” said Lt. Cmdr. Bill DeFries, MSRON 10 training officer.

MSRON 10 Sailors trained with the Djiboutian Navy and Coast Guard for the past three months on maritime navigation, boat operations, vetting, boarding, search and seizure and rescue and casualty care tactics.

“Effective communication is one of the keys to a successful military exercise between partner and ally nations,” said DeFries. “Training with our Djiboutian partners helps us build that stronger relationship, adding valuable skills and support in defending their coastline.”

The relationships that MSRON 10 has built with Djiboutian service members underscore the United States’ and Djibouti’s longstanding partnership to ensure regional stability and security.

“MSRON helps protect our allies and U.S. vessels so they can safely use the Port of Djibouti and its surrounding waters,” said DeFries.

MSRON units deployed to CLDJ partner with the Djiboutian Coast Guard and Navy to protect the Port of Djibouti, exchange knowledge and offer new perspectives, experiences and assets for missions across the region.

Camp Lemonnier is an operational installation that enables U.S., allied, and partner nation forces to be where they are needed to ensure security and protect U.S. interests. The installation provides world-class support for service members, transient U.S. assets and 38 local tenant commands.

Source: United States Navy

A new event promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics education took flight Friday as part of the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point Air Show festivities.

Approximately 1,000 Craven County sixth graders attended the MCAS Cherry Point Air Show STEM Day, organized by the Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) STEM Outreach Team in support of MCAS Cherry Point and Marine Corps Community Services Cherry Point. Students had the opportunity to interact with members of the Blue Angels maintenance team and visit more than 30 interactive stations featuring activities including constructing wooden planes and foam gliders, digging for fossils, and demonstrating robots and drones. Ongoing practice sessions by air show performers, and aircraft and military vehicle displays added to the “wow” factor.

The 2024 MCAS Cherry Point Air Show STEM Day marks the first of what organizers hope will become a recurring event alongside the air show. It was a natural fit with the team’s mission of engaging, inspiring and educating students from eastern North Carolina while highlighting the wide range of career opportunities available at the depot, said FRCE STEM Outreach Team Lead Randall Lewis. 

“Having a STEM education event connected to the air show provided such great energy, because the kids are already so pumped about all things aviation-related at this point – the timing couldn’t be more perfect,” he said. “This event was a huge success in terms of turnout and student engagement, and our team is hopeful that STEM Day will become a regular part of the air show schedule. We don’t get many better opportunities to reach out to this number of local students all at once.

“We’ll take any opportunity we can to get kids excited about STEM, and I’m optimistic that every one of these students left here today with newfound knowledge that the possibilities for STEM-related careers are nearly endless,” Lewis continued. “STEM Day allowed us to introduce them to the wide range of STEM-related careers both at FRC East and beyond. In just one day, these children were able to see how STEM skills can apply to career fields ranging from aviation to robotics to healthcare, and even archaeology and marine biology. Today’s activities really drove home the idea that STEM is for everyone.”

Planning for STEM Day began earlier this year, when MCAS Cherry Point leadership approached FRCE about the possibility of collaborating for the event. FRCE Commanding Officer Capt. James M. Belmont said there was never any doubt in his mind that expanding the continued partnership between FRCE and Cherry Point would benefit both commands and the community.

“Taking part in the Air Show STEM Day is really a win-win-win for everybody involved,” Belmont said. “This event allowed us to help inspire local students to consider future careers in STEM fields. We were able to be good neighbors and provide support to Cherry Point and their amazing Air Show. And best of all, nearly 1,000 kids got to take part in some really cool activities and unique experiences that they might not otherwise have a chance to.

“It gives me great confidence we’re building tomorrow’s workforce today, right here in eastern North Carolina,” Belmont continued. “Many of these students will one day be supporting our nation’s warfighters through work at FRC East and Cherry Point.”

MCAS Cherry Point Commanding Officer Col. Brendan Burks agreed there is a need to prepare future STEM professionals for careers in the eastern North Carolina region.

“With the current and future advanced aviation technologies and jobs coming to MCAS Cherry Point and advancements in our local communities, it is important that we build the opportunities and interests in STEM to support and develop our current and future job forces and leaders in the area, both civilian and military, to meet the future demands and challenges,” he said.

Activities like the Air Show STEM Day are part of cross-organizational, multi-faceted plan to increase STEM exposure for area students, Burks noted.

“This layered approach with the community is one of the bids for success to ensure this area can develop and hire the future job force needed to support the growth and expansion of not only the MCAS Cherry Point mission, but also the local communities,” he said. “This is a team sport, so we all have to work together to achieve success.”

Tina Vande Slunt, a sixth-grade teacher at Tucker Creek Middle School, said she was impressed by the variety and quality of the activities offered during the event. She said more events like the Air Show STEM Day are important to help prepare students for the future.

“I’m really excited about opportunities like this because we need more STEM,” she said. “These kids who are here today are going to be the ones who are going to go to the moon, they’re going to be colonizing Mars – they’re going to be our future astronauts, engineers and scientists. If they don’t understand what opportunities are out there for them for careers, we’re going to have a shortage of individuals with those skills.

“It’s really important for them to be here today,” Vande Slunt continued. “And they seem so excited about all the different activities, and we can use this to our advantage. I know I’m going back into the classroom to ask the students what they liked and what they didn’t, and use that information to help them investigate different career choices.”

In the end, the most important outcomes from events like the Air Show STEM Day are hard to measure, Belmont said – but they are apparent.

“We now have teammates working at FRC East who attended STEM-based summer camps supported by the command when outreach efforts first got started almost 20 years ago,” he said. “We now have families in eastern North Carolina who know they can make a good life right here at home in technical careers, and they never have to leave the area if they don’t want to; that applies to our skilled trades and engineering jobs, along with other career paths available at the depot. Outreach efforts like the Air Show STEM Day allow us to increase quality of life for our local communities and support our warfighters, and that really is the best possible result of these efforts.”

FRCE is North Carolina’s largest maintenance, repair, overhaul and technical services provider, with more than 4,000 civilian, military and contract workers. Its annual revenue exceeds $1 billion. The depot provides service to the fleet while functioning as an integral part of the greater U.S. Navy; Naval Air Systems Command; and Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers.