Category: Defense

Source: United States Navy

Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center Sigonella’s (NAVSUP FLCSI’s) Global Multiple Award Husbanding Contract (GMAC) enables the command’s contracting specialists to partner with European husbanding service providers (HSPs) to support requirements for U.S. maritime forces participating in various bilateral and joint exercises across Africa and Europe, including the High North.

As the U.S. Sixth Fleet-led exercise Northern Viking 22 (VK22) drew to an end in mid-April, NAVSUP FLCSI’s contracting team leveraged the GMAC to procure husbanding services for one of the exercise participants, USS Arlington (LPD 24), during a scheduled port visit April 14, 2022 in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Some of the husbanding goods and services procured for the port visit included pilot and tug services, mobile crane and manlift services, mobile crane equipment, potable water, ship brow, x-ray scanner with trained operators, cell phones and transportation vehicles.

“The GMAC proved to be the ideal contracting vehicle for the port visit as it allowed for a number of administrative efficiencies resulting in minimizing the risks of increased costs and poor service,” said Robert DeAngelis, NAVSUP FLCSI contract specialist.

As part of his role, DeAngelis was boots-on-the ground in Reykjavik during the port visit.

“I met with local port authorities to inquire on the services and local support, assessed the competency and perceived effectiveness of port security,” said DeAngelis. “Furthermore, I was able to dynamically authorize needed service changes, with the U.S. Sixth Fleet contracting officer’s representative, the ship’s supply officer and HSP vendor. This fluid support allowed us to take advantage of cost saving initiatives and expand support for the ship in real time.”

Besides contracting support, one of FLCSI’s logistics support officers hand-delivered critical parts to the ARG’s embarked 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU).

“Our ability to support port visits at strategically significant High North locations, such as Reykjavik, is a concrete example of NAVSUP’s expanding capabilities delivering operational readiness to the Fleet where and when our Warfighters need it,” said Capt. Douglas S. MacKenzie, NAVSUP FLCSI commanding officer. “This successful port visit also demonstrates how our logisticians and contracting professionals make a crucial contribution to enhancing logistics interoperability and engagement with our Allies in the region. In this case, the Icelandic Coast Guard and the Icelandic commercial husbanding service provider industry.”

Assigned to the USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), Arlington joined six NATO Allied Nations during VK22 to strengthen interoperability and force readiness, enabling multi-domain command and control of joint and coalition forces in the defense of Iceland and Sea Lines of Communication in the Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom (GIUK) gap.

After the port visit, the 22nd MEU participated in a bilateral training event with the Kingdom of Norway’s Armed Forces to strengthen U.S. and Norway interoperability ensuring collective capabilities and steadfast partnerships among NATO allies and partners.

The Kearsarge ARG and embarked the 22nd MEU are under the command and control of Task Force 61/2. Arlington’s presence in the High North is a demonstration of the U.S. Navy’s continued commitment to collective defense of the European region and reinforces the strong bond between the U.S. and Iceland.

NAVSUP serves as the Department of the Navy’s lead for all husbanding services contracts. FLCSI is one of NAVSUP’s eight globally-positioned commands that provides for the full range of solutions for logistics, business and support services to the U.S. Naval, Joint, NATO and Allied Forces across 14 enduring and forward operating sites; forward contingency and cooperative security locations in 13 countries in Europe and Africa.

U.S. Naval Forces Europe, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa.

Source: United States Navy

Held at the Havelock Tourist and Event Center, the event focused on problem-solving, networking and STEM pipeline development. The Industry Day/Technology Scan marked the first working event held by the ENC Tech Bridge, which was launched Jan. 27.

As part of an Office of Naval Agility (NavalX) network, 17 Tech Bridges aim to bridge the gap between the Navy and emerging entities like startups, small businesses, academia, nonprofits and private capital that aren’t traditionally part of the Navy’s development and acquisition process. The ENC Tech Bridge operates in conjunction with a partnership between Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) and Craven County.

FRCE Commanding Officer Capt. James M. Belmont said he was excited to see participants from a wide variety of backgrounds taking part in the event, and was hopeful the ENC Tech Bridge would continue to build on the energy it has generated since the organization’s launch three months ago.

“The ENC Tech Bridge is still young, but we are enthusiastic about the opportunities it brings,” Belmont said. “It serves as a conduit that allows for us to share ideas, identify possible solutions and deliver capabilities to the warfighters, ideally faster than we could through traditional methods, and allows us to enlist these nontraditional partners in solving some of the Navy and Marine Corps’ most pressing issues. We are excited and committed to this initiative.”

In the Technology Scan aspect of the event, three companies presented briefings or demonstrations of technologies they offer that could help solve issues facing naval aviation and military maintenance, repair and overhaul operations: digital inventory tracking of small tools, and the on-aircraft measurement of a bearing liner’s remaining thickness. In order to participate, the companies first submitted white papers regarding their technologies. FRCE technical experts reviewed submitted white papers, assessed the technologies’ potential usefulness in a military depot or fleet environment, and issued invitations based on those criteria.

One participant, Anurag Kulshrestha, said he was excited about the opportunity to demonstrate his company’s tracking technology during the Technology Scan. The president and chief executive officer of Anantics said the company has done similar work for other American and international clients, and has been searching for an opportunity to do the same with the U.S. federal government. Kulshrestha said he saw the call for submissions on SAM.gov, the federal government’s website for contracting and award management initiatives, and recognized an opportunity to provide a live demonstration of the technology as a sort of proof of concept.

“I’m happy to be here and, hopefully, we have the technology solution the Navy needs,” he said.

In addition to the Technology Scan, the day’s events also featured a brief introduction to the Tech Bridge Program, an overview of the FRCE Advanced Technology and Innovation Team, an explanation of the Department of Defense’s Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs, and a discussion about expanding outreach and awareness for STEM programs to build a sustainable STEM education and training pipeline for the production efforts of the U.S. Navy and beyond.

With such a wide range of topics covered, the event offered something for everyone who attended, said ENC Tech Bridge Director Jeff Nelson. All participants benefitted from at least one of the in-depth briefings that opened the event, and the expo provided an excellent opportunity for networking.

“I saw a lot of the attendees having very in-depth conversations with the exhibitors and with each other during the expo, and I believe that speaks to the success of today’s event,” Nelson said. “We’ve been able to strike a chord with information that was pertinent to our participants, and also facilitated them making connections with the ENC Tech Bridge, with FRCE and with each other, and that’s an important part of what we’re trying to accomplish here.”

The ENC Tech Bridge works to build an ecosystem of innovation to support the Navy and Marine Corps with a focus on several areas of consideration, including manufacturing and repair technologies; advanced manufacturing; big data, data analytics and visualization; technical insertion; augmented and mixed reality; automation and robotics; and soft and wicked problem solving.

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.

Source: United States Navy

Another part of the training mandate is to establish the standards from which to judge whether Sailors or Navy civilian personnel are to be considered ready to meet the demands necessary for the position which each fills; and the document for each rating, rate or rank that proscribes these traits is the Personnel Qualification Standard or PQS.

“The PQS Program ensures personnel demonstrate required competencies prior to performing specific duties,” said Sam Kelley, information warfare enterprise training requirements manager, CIWT. “The PQS delineates the minimum knowledge, skills, and abilities that an individual must demonstrate before standing watches or performing other specific duties. These watches or duties are necessary for the safe, secure, and proper operation of a ship, aircraft, or support system.”

Kelley continued, the PQS is an integral part of the development and qualification of the Navy’s workforce. The tasks, knowledge and skills delineated in the PQS dictate the qualification process for officers, enlisted personnel, government civilians, and contract civilian personnel   when certification to a minimum level of competency is required prior to qualifying to perform specific duties. CIWT owns roughly 18 percent of the Navy’s PQS inventory, with requirements increasing as technology, information and cyber demands grow.

The inherent issue with having established written standards for required capabilities is that the list of requirements for each position shifts and evolves as technology advances and the personnel in the positions are asked to continue to adapt to meet new challenges. This is why CIWT is constantly in the process of updating PQS documents to reflect these changes.

“Based on fleet and enterprise needs, typically we perform between 18 and 24 PQS updates annually,” said Kelley. “We maintain 68 PQS documents in the inventory, with more than 20 in support of the Enlisted Information Warfare Specialist (EIWS) platform-centric qualification PQS, and six to 10 for cyber joint qualification review transition efforts. These updates require CIWT PQS Teams to coordinate with the respective requirements sponsors on planning actions that meet the emergent fleet needs.  CIWT coordinates with Naval Information Forces Command, Navy systems commands and specialized warfare communities to complete.”

Kelley explained that CIWT updates the PQS documents as part of the three-year periodic review process, but also works with the fleet’s type commanders and system commands to determine which updates are most pressing at any given time. If there is an urgent need for an update it creates an “adhoc” update requirement which can shift the cue.

“An adhoc requirement impacts our existing schedule of events, but that’s normal,” said Kelley. “We just move items based on priorities to accommodate any emergent fleet or SPECWAR (special warfare command) tasking. Normally, this ADHOC event supports a new or classified source document that needs to be developed quickly in support of fleet systems modernization, SPECWAR or an emergent fleet resource to enable immediate workforce qualifications to be developed.”

To conduct these updates, CIWT relies on Laurie Luke and Al Stout, CIWT PQS program analysts, with new analyst Trish Kingston coming on staff in May. The analysts bring together teams of subject matter experts (SMEs) to look at the documents and determine what parts are current and remain relevant, and what needs to be added or changed to meet current operational demands. Each PQS is reviewed at a separate workshop initiative requiring SME selection coordination, logistics, classification requirements, travel, systems, and clearance determinations.

“CIWT Staff are not considered SMEs if they have been onsite longer than six months,” said Kelley. “Mostly we use Sailors in the fleet, or associated enterprises we are supporting (Air, Submarine, Surface, Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, etc.). CIWT funds up to four SMEs to attend onsite per workshop, and at times if the source effort is a large event, we will increase the number of SMEs to eight.”

There are currently 10 PQS update workshops scheduled between now and August of this year, with up to three additional requirements to be completed during August and September. Some of the upcoming workshops include PQS documents for Intelligence support to SPECWAR, Information Professional Officer – Basic and Intermediate, Cyber Warfare Engineer and Information Operations Warfare Officer.

The PQS standards focus on mission effectiveness, combat readiness, and survivability, as well as introducing an overall understanding of how an individual unit’s mission fits into and supports naval doctrine and Navy objectives.

“Warfare-qualified Sailors are an essential element of our Navy’s competitive edge,” said Capt. Marc Ratkus, commanding officer, CIWT. “The objective of the PQS is to provide our personnel with an introduction to the processes and topics necessary to support the warfighting requirements of our Navy. We have to ensure our PQS documents stay current and relevant to best posture our force to overcome the next challenge whatever that might be.”

The Center for Information Warfare Training delivers trained information warfare professionals to the Navy and joint services, enabling optimal performance of information warfare across the full spectrum of military operations.

Source: United States Navy

During his first visit to Bahrain since assuming command of CENTCOM on April 1, U.S. Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla met with Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT), U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces. Kurilla was also briefed by staff from NAVCENT’s Task Force 59 on various advanced unmanned surface vessels, aerial platforms, and artificial intelligence systems.

NAVCENT established Task Force 59 in September 2021. Since its launch, it has introduced a suite of new unmanned systems based at operational hubs in Bahrain and Aqaba, Jordan. The task force partners with industry and international forces for operational evaluation and employment.

Task Force 59 recently conducted the largest unmanned maritime training event in the world. More than 80 unmanned systems from 10 nations participated in International Maritime Exercise 2022 in February.

The Middle East region’s unique geography, climate, and strategic importance offer an ideal environment for unmanned innovation. The area hosts the world’s largest standing maritime partnership and includes the Arabian Gulf, Red Sea, Gulf of Oman and parts of the Indian Ocean.

Source: United States Navy

This collaboration will bring together two of the nation’s major centers for innovation and development in a cooperative research effort that aims to tackle several highly complex issues associated with rapidly integrating and adopting new technologies in support of warfighting and national security. It also provides the potential to revolutionize how the services organize, train, equip, fight, and win by combining the best of industry, academia, and the government.

“Today, so much innovation and technological research and development is powered by America’s robust corporate base. The Department of the Navy has been trying to find ways where our organizations can emulate and evolve with the nimble agility of these organizations, and with success,” said Aaron Weis, the Department of the Navy’s Chief Information Officer (DON CIO). “This agreement between NPS and Microsoft takes that initiative to the next level, creating a defined cooperative research collaboration between a global tech giant and the capabilities it brings to bear, with the Navy’s leading science and technological university, where operationalizing innovation is core to their mission.”

Microsoft became the latest industry member to team with NPS following the signing of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between the two organizations. CRADAs allow U.S. government research facilities to engage in collaborative efforts with non-government entities. These types of cooperative efforts benefit the Department of Defense (DOD) and industry leaders by providing opportunities to conduct joint research and learn from each other.

Under the CRADA, NPS will collaborate with Microsoft on select research efforts. The goal is to leverage the latest in commercial technologies and expertise to advance Navy and Marine Corps operations, while sharing any insights gained with the broader public.  

NPS will utilize the Microsoft Cloud services, including Azure, Office 365 and Teams, to accelerate their digital transformation journey and deploy advanced cloud capabilities to tackle critical mission priorities.

The first areas of shared research under the newly established Cooperative Research Initiative (CRI) will include operational uses for cloud-enhanced networks and edge computing, methods for extending delivery of NPS coursework from the school’s classrooms and labs throughout the fleet and force, and ways in which the Navy and Marine Corps can leverage gaming, exercising, modeling, and simulation (GEMS) to help operational commanders make faster and better decisions.

“For over four decades, we’ve worked with the U.S. Department of Defense on a longstanding and reliable basis in support of its mission to ensure our national security,” said Jason Zander, executive vice president of Microsoft. “This Cooperative Research Initiative with the Naval Postgraduate School will provide a remarkable opportunity for us to work shoulder to shoulder with our nation’s brightest leaders and servicemembers and help them solve the complex challenges they face. And through this collaboration, we look forward to sharing our latest research and furthering our joint efforts to empower our military to make our nation safer.”

The Cooperative Research Initiative will also involve collaboration at an innovation lab on the NPS campus in Monterey, where integrated teams of NPS and Microsoft personnel will work side-by-side exploring several critical topics.

One of the major research areas will explore recent technical breakthroughs in intelligent edge computing solutions and cloud-enhanced networks, as well as how the DOD can leverage these developments for operational purposes.

NPS will also team up with Microsoft to conduct research into how gaming, exercising, modeling and simulation can improve military capability development and the decision-making of Navy and Marine Corps commanders.

Finally, NPS will investigate how it can harness recent advances in digital teaching – including the school’s own distance-learning efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic – to create an NPS “smart campus” capable of delivering critical knowledge and skills to Sailors and Marines worldwide.  

Together, these collaborative research and discovery efforts by NPS and Microsoft will bring together the incredible potential and expertise of both organizations, as well as unique NPS facilities such as the Sea Land Air Military Research (SLAMR) laboratory, to accelerate shared understanding of Navy and Marine Corps challenges and accelerate solutions for how emerging technologies can be employed to tackle the most important operational challenges currently faced by the fleet and force.

“The type of cutting-edge research which will be enabled by this partnership is something that can only happen at NPS,” said the president of NPS, retired Vice Adm. Ann E. Rondeau. “We are, and have always been, a center for excellence and innovation – a catalyst for transformative capabilities and the education of our future Navy and Marine Corps leaders. With this agreement, we look forward to working with our colleagues at Microsoft in an effort to find solutions to all of the challenges facing our fleet and force, now and in the future.”

Further details on the collaboration between NPS and Microsoft will be provided in the coming weeks and months.

The Naval Postgraduate School provides defense-focused graduate education, including classified studies and interdisciplinary research, to advance the operational effectiveness, technological leadership and warfighting advantage of the Naval service. For additional information, visit NPS online at http://www.nps.edu.

 The Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) does not constitute endorsement of Microsoft or its products and services by the Naval Postgraduate School, the Department of the Navy, or the Department of Defense.