Category: Defense

Source: United States Navy

Forrest Sherman operated with NATO Allies and partners in the Eastern Atlantic, North Sea and Baltic Sea over the past three months.

The crew conducted over 200 hours of flight operations, 11 drills with NATO Allies and partners, six strait transits and six replenishments-at-sea. The drills required close coordination of maneuvering operations, cross-deck flight operations, and flashing light and flag-hoist drills with navies from Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland and Sweden.

During the deployment, Forrest Sherman completed port visits to Stockholm, Sweden, and Gdansk, Poland, strengthening the U.S. commitment to security in the region. While in port Stockholm, the crew hosted Ambassador Erik Ramanathan, the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden; Rear Adm. Ewa Skoog Haslum, chief of the Swedish Navy and commander maritime component command (MCC); and several Swedish flag officers. In port Gdansk, members of the crew volunteered in a community relations event where they assisted in the packing, loading, sorting and distribution of donations to Ukrainian refugees in the Gdansk region.

“The Forrest Sherman crew displayed their ‘Relentless Fighting Spirit’ during this deployment,” said Cmdr. Greg Page, commanding officer of USS Forrest Sherman (DDG 98). “Their dedication to executing the mission is evident in their hard work. They are deeply committed to each other and this ship, which was evident when they were tasked to prepare for this deployment under a condensed certification timeline. The crew was excited to showcase our ship’s capabilities while operating with NATO Allies and European partners in theater.”

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

The February demonstration marked the first time the U.S. Navy used an all-electric, high-energy laser weapon to defeat a target representing a subsonic cruise missile in flight.

Known as the Layered Laser Defense (LLD), the weapon was designed and built by Lockheed Martin to serve as a multi-domain, multi-platform demonstration system. It can counter unmanned aerial systems and fast-attack boats with a high-power laser—and also use its high-resolution telescope to track in-bound air threats, support combat identification and conduct battle damage assessment of engaged targets.

The drone shoot-down by the LLD was part of a recent test sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) at the U.S. Army’s High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The demonstration was a partnership between ONR, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Research and Engineering) and Lockheed Martin.

“Innovative laser systems like the LLD have the potential to redefine the future of naval combat operations,” said Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Lorin C. Selby. “They present transformational capabilities to the fleet, address diverse threats, and provide precision engagements with a deep magazine to complement existing defensive systems and enhance sustained lethality in high-intensity conflict.”

The LLD testing supports a broader effort by the naval research and development community, partnered closely with the fleet, to mature technologies and field a family of laser weapons that can address multiple threats using a range of escalating options. These capabilities range from non-lethal measures, such as optical “dazzling” and disabling of sensors, to destruction of a target.

Laser weapons provide new precision and speed of engagement for naval warfighters. They also offer simplified logistics that are safer for ships and their crews, as lasers are not dependent on the traditional propellants or gunpowder-based ordnance found on ships.

Instead, modern high-power lasers run on electricity, making them inherently safer and able to provide weapon capability as long as a ship has power. This also means the cost per engagement for a laser weapon can be very low, since the only consumable item expended is fuel to run the system.

For years, the Department of Defense (DoD) and all the Services have recognized the promise of directed-energy weapons such as lasers, and continue to prioritize research. Recently, the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, the Hon. Heidi Shyu, re-affirmed that directed energy is one of the DoD’s critical technology areas.

ONR plays an important role in developing technologies for laser weapons and has fielded demonstration systems for operational experimentation. Notably, in 2014 ONR saw the Laser Weapon System tested successfully aboard the USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf. More recently, ONR fielded the Laser Weapon System Demonstrator aboard the USS Portland in 2021.

Although there’s no plan to field the LLD, it offers a glimpse into the future of laser weapons. It is compact and powerful, yet more efficient than previous systems. It has specialized optics to observe a target and focus laser beams to maximum effect, while also incorporating artificial intelligence to improve tracking and targeting.

“LLD is an example of what a very advanced laser system can do to defeat significant threats to naval forces,” said David Kiel, a former Navy captain who is a program officer in ONR’s Aviation, Force Projection and Integrated Defense Department, which managed the testing. “And we have ongoing efforts, both at ONR and in other Navy programs, to keep building on these results in the near future.”

During the recent test at White Sands, the LLD tracked or shot down an array of targets—including unmanned fixed-wing aerial vehicles, quadcopters and high-speed drones representative of subsonic cruise missiles.

“We’re proud to say that the Layered Laser Defense system defeated a surrogate cruise missile threat in partnership with the Navy, White Sands Missile Range and Army High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility teams. Lockheed Martin drew best-in-class laser weapon subsystems from across the corporation, including key industry partner Rolls Royce, to support the entire threat engagement timeline from target detection to defeat,” said Rick Cordaro, vice president, Lockheed Martin Advanced Product Solutions. “We leveraged more than 40 years of directed energy experience to create new capabilities that support the 21st century warfighter.”

Dr. Frank Peterkin, ONR’s directed energy portfolio manager, said, “The Navy performed similar tests during the 1980s but with chemical-based laser technologies that presented significant logistics barriers for fielding in an operational environment. And, ultimately, those types of lasers did not transition to the fleet or any other Service.

“Today, ONR coordinates closely with the Navy’s resourcing and acquisition communities to make sure we develop laser weapon technologies that make sense for the Navy’s requirements to defend the fleet and for operations in the rough maritime environment at sea,” Peterkin continued. “It’s a challenging problem, but Navy leadership at all levels see potential for laser weapons to really make a difference. The next few years are going to be very exciting as we work with the Navy and joint partners to make the capability we just saw demonstrated by the LLD a reality for the naval warfighter.”

Source: United States Navy

The team of researchers detailed their research findings funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) in an article published Dec. 8 in Science Translational Medicine.

Anthrax is a severe infectious disease caused by gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria known as Bacillus anthracis. According to the authors, it is also considered one of the most dangerous bioweapon agents.

While there are vaccine and antibiotic therapies available for anthrax, the rise of multidrug-resistant strains of the disease is a growing concern.

Looking to the past to inspire innovative ideas, the researchers focused on a method first pioneered in the 1930s to use enzymes to treat infections. In particular, the team developed an engineered enzyme to target the anti-phagocytic capsule of Bacillus anthracis. While vaccine strains of B. anthracis (e.g., Sterne Strain) are unencapsulated and can be removed by the human immune system, strains like the lethal Ames strain have a capsule.

Leading the project for NRL is Patricia Legler, Ph.D., senior scientist in chemical and biodefense at the Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering.

“The capsule is like a “cloak of invisibility” so your immune system doesn’t see the encapsulated bacteria,” Legler said. “In the blood it can grow and cause lethal septicemia.”

Co-author Arthur M. Friedlander, M.D., senior scientist at USAMRIID, postulated that the enzyme CapD had the potential to be used as a therapeutic.

Legler served as the team’s enzymologist to develop a highly active form of the CapD enzyme. To accomplish this, she used a method called PEGylation. In PEGylation, the biological molecules are modified by covalent conjugation with polyethylene glycol (PEG), a non-toxic, non-immunogenic polymer.

“The PEG molecule wraps around the enzyme much like an octopus binding its prey,” Legler said.

Using kinetic and biophysical methods, Legler was able to create a stable and active PEGylated enzyme in high yield that could unencapsulate the anthrax bacteria and allow the innate immune system to clear the bacteria.  Adding the PEG to the wrong location on the enzyme can block the active site and end all enzyme activity.

PEGylation accomplished both raising the temperature tolerance and the sustainability of the enzyme in vivo.

“When proteins are heated, they tend to unfold and aggregate irreversibly,” Legler said.  “With the PEG, I was able to elevate the melting temperature of the enzyme by about 7 degrees. This enabled the enzyme to withstand the 37 degrees Celsius body temperature for long periods.”

Legler’s PEGylated enzyme allowed the team to evaluate the success of the enzyme treatment in a mouse model using the lethal Ames strain of the bacteria.

Based on the results of the rodent testing, protection levels were achieved solely with enzyme treatment without the addition of vaccines or antibiotics.

“Engineered threats or naturally developed threats are of concern,” Legler said. “Most people aren’t vaccinated for B. anthracis, and inhalation anthrax is highly lethal. By developing enzyme therapies, we can potentially treat these types of threats and eliminate them.” 

Besides the demonstrated efficacy of the treatment, it is also noteworthy that the research is one of the first to successfully produce and test enzyme therapies in vivo for bacterial infections.

Looking forward, the team will investigate applying their therapeutic enzyme approach to other bacterial pathogens.

“Now, with the wealth of molecular biology tools, we can engineer a variety of different enzyme therapeutics,” Legler said. “These ‘biologics’ are novel and have not been tested in vivo. Adding these novel therapies to our arsenal is valuable because they differ from antibiotics.”

About the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory

NRL is a scientific and engineering command dedicated to research that drives innovative advances for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps from the seafloor to space and in the information domain. NRL is located in Washington, D.C. with major field sites in Stennis Space Center, Mississippi; Key West, Florida; Monterey, California, and employs approximately 3,000 civilian scientists, engineers and support personnel.
 
For more information, contact NRL Corporate Communications at (202) 480-3746 or nrlpao@nrl.navy.mil. 

Source: United States Navy

Cmdr. Douglas Robb relieved Cmdr. Micah Sybor during a ceremony in front of Spruance’s 335-person crew while on a regularly-scheduled deployment in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations.

Sybor, a Baltimore native and 2002 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, served as commanding officer since December 2020. During his command, he led the ship through the basic, integrated, and advanced phases of training in preparation for the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) Carrier Strike Group’s 2022 deployment to the western Pacific. Under his leadership, SPRUANCE earned near-perfect scores during all Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) functional demonstrations and produced the highest score in the past five years of any Pacific Fleet destroyer during the Type Commander’s material inspection. His crew’s performance was recognized by earning the 2020 Chief of Naval Operations Safety Award, multiple Retention Excellence Awards, and the Navy Surgeon Blue ‘H’ Award.

Sybor’s next duty assignment is Current Action Branch Chief (J33) at EUCOM, Stuggart, Germany, where he will play an integral role in planning and executing operations throughout the European Theater.

Sybor addressed the crew for the final time as commanding officer during the ceremony, saying, “I know that if you continue to do the work that good things will happen. There is nothing more that I look forward to than news of your safe return to San Diego. Until then, stay frosty, and carry the day.”

Robb is a native of West Lafayette, Indiana graduating in 2005 from the United States Naval Academy with distinction. Prior to assuming command, he served as Spruance’s executive officer from October 2020 to December 2022.

After the formal transfer of command, Robb addressed the crew as captain for the first time. “Every Spruance Sailor is a leader of some sort, and leaders earn their luck through effort, expertise, and ethos—traits that combine into a single characteristic that has become synonymous with this ship, her crew, and our namesake: Excellence,” Robb said in his speech during the ceremony. “It is in the pursuit of excellence that we will serve as stewards of this ship, mindful of the honor it is to have our names spoken in the same sentence as the hero of the Battle of Midway.”

At sea, Robb’s past assignments include communications officer and navigator aboard USS Halsey (DDG 97), operations officer aboard USS Kidd (DDG 100), and operations officer for Commander, Destroyer Squadron 7. His staff assignments include liaison to the U.S. House of Representatives in the Navy’s Office of Legislative affairs, in the Navy Staff’s Surface Warfare Division (OPNAV N96), and as speechwriter for the Chief of Naval Operations.

Spruance is on a regularly-scheduled deployment in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations to enhance interoperability through alliances and partnerships while serving as a ready-response force in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region with Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group.

Source: United States Navy

“Winter Pioneer 22” is a tactical level exercise with the goal of demonstrating an integrated US. Marine Corps Engineer and Naval Construction Force (NCF) team in a semi-permissive environment with the objective of establishing and sustaining an advance naval base and expeditionary advanced bases which contribute to maritime domain awareness.

The group was tasked with two standard Southwest Asia Huts (SWAHUT) and a bunker as well as a water purification mission. These projects were a great opportunity for the each branch to develop interoperability and exchange skillsets.

In addition to standard construction, the group was tasked with developing and executing a concealed refueling station and a hardened hide site. The refueling station was based on the footprint and look of a standard SWAHUT, but was just a shell that would house fuel bladders and a pump station. The result was a structure that would blended in with other structures of a camp from an aerial view. Crew leader, Builder 2nd Class William Mechtly, had this to say about the mission “It was a great opportunity to think outside of the box to complete the mission. We were constrained by time and materials but had a job to do. Working together we were able to come up with a design that met the objectives and produced a product that accomplished the mission.”

A separate crew was tasked with a hardened hide site that would be camouflaged from the air. Working under a time constraint, the crew was able to assemble and conceal the structure in a matter of hours. “I am really proud of how our crew came together to accomplish this task. It really came down to the pre-planning and origination before we got on site. Having our plan in place beforehand allowed us all to focus on execution within the 12-hour timeline,” says Crew Leader, Builder 2nd Class Bailey Mehus. “It was great to hear that it was not able to be found with their UAS.”