Category: United States of America

Source: United States Navy

The vessel embarked on its voyage from its home base in San Francisco and made stops to load cargo and personnel in Tacoma, Wash.; Honolulu; and Japan before arriving at Banyuwangi.

 

Super Garuda Shield, one of the largest multinational exercises in the Indo-Pacific region, continues to solidify the U.S.-Indonesia Major Defense Partnership Defense Cooperation Agreement and advances cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

“This is not a typical commercial route,” said contracted mariner Benjamin Day, ship’s master, MV Cape Hudson. “We originated from the West Coast of the United States, then Hawaii and Japan, to bring equipment and a mission set all the way to Banyuwangi, Indonesia, to support (exercise Super Garuda Shield).”

Oversight of the offload in Indonesia was conducted by a detachment of the U.S. Army’s 835th Transportation Battalion, 599th Transportation Brigade, Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC), out of Okinawa, Japan.

Within two days, the ship unloaded approximately 313 pieces of equipment and containers. Once the items were discharged off the ship, they were staged at the marshalling area for onward movement to the respective training area.

 
Between the expertise of MSC, SDDC and Banyuwangi port officials, all gear was off loaded as scheduled.

Cape Hudson is a 750-foot-long roll-on, roll-off container vessel with four decks of cargo space. The ship can accommodate 186,000 sq. ft. of cargo, which equates to about 4.3 acres of space that can equal roughly 38,000 tons of cargo. It is part of the Cape H-class of ships that include MVs Cape Horn and Cape Henry.

Despite its massive presence, the ship’s characteristically low draft allows for this tonnage while still getting into smaller ports. This ship has a significant cargo capacity and is multimodal, making Cape Hudson ideal for the charter.

 
According to Day, his experience on commercial container ships differs from these types of ships and missions.

“These ships are a lot different then what I’m used to,” said Day, who has more than six years of experience with the Cape H-class ships. “Doing this type of mission is fun because the cargo is different, you’re lashing it differently; it takes a broader skill set.”

Cape Hudson is part of the Ready Reserve Force fleet of vessels. The RRF is a subset of vessels within the Maritime Administration’s (MARAD) National Defense Reserve Fleet ready to support the rapid worldwide deployment of U.S. military forces.

As part of the crew of Cape Hudson, MSC also assigned a tactical advisor (TACAD), whose job is to deploy on commercial chartered vessels and act as a liaison between military higher headquarters and the ship’s crew.

The Navy Reserve is MSC’s manpower solution for surge mission sets, and TACADs are typically Strategic Sealift Officers (SSOs), who are warfare qualified Navy Reserve Officers with civilian Merchant Mariner credentials and military training to support the activation, operation, and sustainment of the Sealift fleet.

“I make sure the vessel gets from point A to point B safely and that we are in contact with higher headquarters,” said Lt. j. g. Alexa Lumpkin, TACAD on Cape Hudson. “This involves establishing secure communications between the ship and military operations center. I also provide contested-maritime-environment training with the crew.”

Lumpkin is serving on her fourth TACAD mission. She stated she enjoys serving as the TACAD. In her civilian job, she is a merchant marine and sailing on her third mate’s license as a merchant mariner can be stressful.

“As a mate, I don’t feel like I have a lot of time when we get to port,” said Lumpkin. “But as a TACAD, it’s a whole different experience. I get to work with lot of people; I get to be involved in missions such as this. I just like being a part of it.”

Additionally, to support the discharge of equipment, MSC deployed a three-member Reserve-component team from various Reserve Expeditionary Port Units (EPU) in the U.S. to assist with port operations.

“We’re here to help MSC and SDDC with the offload of Cape Hudson. Our role is to act as a liaison between SDDC, the ship, and port authorities, and to make sure that the port is suitable for the ship in Banyuwangi,” said Quartermaster Chief Joshua Vest, senior enlisted leader, EPU 112, from Little Rock, Ark. “We’re also making sure everyone involved is adhering to safety procedures. I think we’ve been maintaining a good schedule, and everybody has learned something valuable toward the expeditionary side of port operations.”

 
According to Vest, it makes a lot of sense to bring out EPUs to support these specialized missions.

“EPUs play a crucial role that is sometimes overlooked,” said Vest. “Their contributions are not tethered to certain tasks or responsibilities but on providing expertise in varying situations.”

According to the MARAD website, RFF provides nearly 50 percent of government-owned surge sealift capability.

MSC Far East supports the U.S. 7th Fleet and ensures approximately 50 ships in the Indo-Pacific Region are manned, trained, and equipped to deliver essential supplies, fuel, cargo, and equipment to warfighters, both at sea and on shore. U.S. 7th Fleet is the U.S. Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

Celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2024, MSC exists to support the joint warfighter across the full spectrum of military operations, with a workforce that includes approximately 6,000 Civil Service Mariners and 1,100 contract mariners, supported by 1,500 shore staff and 1,400 active duty and Reserve military personnel.

Source: United States Navy

Copenhagen, DENMARK – Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro visited A.P. Moller-Maersk during a trip to the Kingdom of Denmark last week.  

During the visit, he met with A.P. Moller-Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc, and stated that the U.S. Navy would continue to protect commercial ships and mariners against unprovoked Houthi attacks on civilian shipping in the Red Sea.  As during each of his previous Maritime Statecraft engagements with global maritime industry leaders, Secretary Del Toro encouraged investment in American shipbuilding.  Discussions were productive and centered on attracting demand and investment in constructing commercial sealift vessels in the United States.

The visit reflects ongoing efforts to renew the foundations of American seapower, since Secretary Del Toro announced his new maritime statecraft initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School on Sept. 26, 2023. 

“With some of the world’s most technologically advanced shipbuilders already heeding our call to invest in integrated commercial and naval shipbuilding facilities in the United States, the next step in our maritime statecraft strategy is to attract the world’s foremost commercial shipping firms to signal their demand for new ships built in American shipyards,” Secretary Del Toro said.

In a more recent speech to the Naval War College on Aug. 8, Secretary Del Toro explained that “long-term solutions to many of the Navy’s challenges require we renew the health of our nation’s broader seapower ecosystem.”  He added “Making naval shipbuilding more cost effective requires we restore the competitiveness of U.S. commercial shipping and shipbuilding.”

Secretary Del Toro’s visit follows months of collaboration with interagency partners – such as the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration – and Congress to find innovative ways to leverage existing authorities and craft new incentives to build and flag commercial ships in the United States.  For example, the Department of Energy’s Title 17 Clean Energy Financing program now permits the U.S. Government to offer low-interest loans for U.S.-built dual-fuel commercial ships.  “Our calculus is that bringing a larger portion of the newbuild orderbooks of the world’s biggest shipping firms to American shores in the coming years will offer significant returns to Navy shipbuilding and sealift.”

Managed by the U.S. Maritime Administration, the Maritime Security Program (MSP) maintains a fleet of commercially viable, militarily useful U.S.-flagged merchant ships in international trade to support military sealift requirements during times of conflict or in other national emergencies.

Secretary Del Toro said he and his team were looking forward to continuing discussions with the leadership of A.P. Moller-Maersk on their next visit to the United States in the coming weeks.

Source: United States Navy

MONTEREY, Calif. – Students and faculty from the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) conducted expeditionary advanced manufacturing research during the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) and Trident Warrior 2024 exercises demonstrating new technology applications at sea and ashore.

Ten NPS students from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Army, along with representatives from the school’s Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing and Research (CAMRE) and FLEETWERX, spent time at installations and aboard ships during the exercises to experiment with cutting-edge additive manufacturing equipment producing repair parts for a variety of use cases with real-world impact.

The CAMRE team aboard the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Somerset (LPD 25) included NPS students, Marines from the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Innovation Unit, and Soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division. Ashore at Marine Corps Base (MCB) Hawaii, a Joint Advanced Manufacturing Cell (JAMC), led by retired Marine Corps Col. Patrick Tucker, was assembled to focus on readiness challenges where advanced manufacturing could provide a solution.

Applying learned techniques during real scenarios in training environments like RIMPAC, which concluded early this month, allows students and operators in the fleet to better understand the importance and practical impact of their applied research in solving readiness problems.

“At NPS, our primary focus is graduate education,” said Emre Gunduz, Ph.D., an associate professor in NPS’ mechanical and aerospace engineering department and the technical director at CAMRE, who was the principal investigator, along with CAMRE program manager Chris Curran. “For Trident Warrior, the students applied their NPS education in a real operational environment, while at the same time advancing the capabilities of the Navy. This allowed NPS students to see the relevance of their studies and research to real-world Navy challenges, which could greatly enhance learning outcomes here. At the same time, we are targeting the current gaps in the rapid deployment of these emerging technologies.”

NPS Cooperative Research and Development Agreements with industry partners enabled cutting-edge equipment to be explored and included an expeditionary cold spray printer from XSPEE3D, which was co-located with the JAMC on MCB Hawaii, and a hybrid wire directed energy deposition machine from Snowbird Technologies. The Snowbird machine was installed in a 10-foot container and embarked on Somerset for an additive and subtractive capability afloat, joining a pair of Advanced Manufacturing Operational System polymer printers designed by Spencer Koroly, an engineer from Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific.

“Ship and submarine repair is one of our crucial focus areas,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Zachary Vrtis, an engineering duty officer currently pursuing a doctorate in mechanical engineering with a dissertation focused on metal additive manufacturing. “We are working to implement advanced metal manufacturing to better supplement traditional fabrication methods, repair fleet assets quicker, and assist in revitalizing the submarine industrial base to meet production goals.”

Advanced manufacturing machines and tools available to NPS use computer-controlled processes to create objects layer by layer from digital designs. This method allows for precise and complex shapes, reduced waste, shortened production times, and customized production from materials like aluminum and steel. These new techniques are tested and refined at the NPS Advanced Manufacturing Center, a new interdisciplinary facility for 3D metal printing and related technologies to explore defense applications.

“It was important to make the leap from ‘thinking differently’ to ‘executing differently’ and show how the Department of Defense (DOD) can pair excess capacity of existing machines with top-tier service members to deliver real metal parts in days, not months,” said Marine Corps Lt. Col. Michael Radigan of the Marine Innovation Unit, who also serves as the government lead on the CAMRE team. “I am truly impressed with what got accomplished and how it was accomplished.”

One significant accomplishment by the NPS team aboard Somerset was using the embarked additive manufacturing technology to repair a reverse osmosis pump, which kept Somerset from terminating its participation in the exercise early.

“It was great to see how resourceful the entire team was on the Somerset in a time of need,” said Marine Corps Maj. Daniel Szurick, a master’s student at NPS. “That’s exactly the naval culture that will allow us to succeed in conflict.”

From an operational perspective, having the right machines and talent on Somerset ensured shipboard equipment could be repaired without impacting operational mission requirements, ultimately reducing the reliance on distant logistics and increasing resiliency. From an experimentation perspective, this research validated the concept of how to employ advanced manufacturing in a contested logistics environment.

“Exercises give us a chance to sharpen our skills, learn from one another, and get real-world experience,” said Vice Adm. John Wade, commander, U.S. Third Fleet. “A lot of hard work went into making sure the equipment worked and that we were trained and certified … to conduct these operations. There is no doubt that we achieved the main objectives of the exercise.”

Navy asset readiness is at risk when the industrial base is limited by agility and depth. Shipboard systems often rely on original equipment manufacturer components, which can have unacceptably long acquisition lead times for legacy systems.

The DOD’s Additive Manufacturing Strategy, released in 2021, is focused on operationalizing 3D printing capabilities. Advanced manufacturing, which includes additive manufacturing, is poised to be a crucial component of solutions offering unprecedented supply chain agility, ensuring the Navy can provide continuous security and stability – anywhere at any time.

“This innovative technology is becoming an increasingly game-changing capability that is improving operational readiness and afloat self-sufficiency,” said Navy Capt. Jeremy Gray, who serves as surface warfare chair at NPS. “The partnership between Commander Naval Surface Forces and NPS is accelerating fleet experimentation and Sailor experience with advanced manufacturing techniques and processes.”

In his capacity as surface warfare chair, Gray works with the fleet and NPS to include research for advanced manufacturing capabilities to get technologies and talent aboard ships for testing. These efforts, combined with those of the NPS CAMRE team and partners, contribute to the operationalization of advanced manufacturing at sea.

“CAMRE offers hands-on education to NPS students and fosters talent and technologies through applied research with operational forces,” said CAMRE Director Garth V. Hobson, Ph.D. “We are dedicated to advancing additive manufacturing education for defense applications and seamlessly integrating these technologies across the Navy, Marine Corps, and joint forces.”

In addition to the NPS CAMRE team, this applied research was supported by U.S. 3rd Fleet, Program Executive Office for Strategic Submarines, the Marine Innovation Unit, and NPS’ Naval Innovation Exchange Additive Manufacturing program.

NPS, located in Monterey, California, 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. Established in 1909, NPS offers master’s and doctorate programs to Department of Defense military and civilians, along with international partners, to deliver transformative solutions and innovative leaders through advanced education and research

Source: United States Navy

“This award is only possible because of the amazing Sailors who continue to advance operational logistics and supply chain support for all our naval forces and assets in the 5th Fleet,” said Capt. Marcus Jones, Assistant Chief of Staff for Logistics at NAVCENT.

The Admiral Stan Arthur Award for Logistics Excellence recognizes both military and civilian logisticians who epitomize excellence in the realm of logistics and sustainment planning, representing the top individuals for global naval logistics. The awardees exemplify the importance of logistics to achieving the Navy’s mission and advancing a competitive edge over adversaries.

“This award is distinctly a humbling acknowledgement of the value that the U.S. Navy places on logistics and the profound impact of the work the NAVCENT N4 team has done in support of combat operations in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility,” said Cmdr. Colin Engels, NAVCENT Logistics Readiness Center Chief. “I have a tremendous amount of pride in our team.”

The NAVCENT team demonstrated exceptional leadership, unparalleled flexibility and tremendous logistics proficiency synchronizing logistics requirements for 15 task forces, 10 subordinate units, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, and USS Bataan Amphibious Readiness Group by rapidly developing a full transportation plan and establishing crucial supply nodes across the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.

“The work we put in over the last year had immediate real-world impacts in a combat environment and the team repeatedly demonstrated their ability to quickly think outside the box to solve a myriad of complex logistics challenges,” said Lt. Cmdr. Joseph Murphy, NAVCENT Force Fuels Officer. “Receiving the Stan Arthur award reinforces the camaraderie of our group and affirms that we are logisticians of the highest caliber.”

The U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations encompasses approximately 2.5 million square miles of water space and includes the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea, parts of the Indian Ocean and three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, Suez Canal and Strait of Bab al-Mandeb.

Source: United States Navy

On August 13, 2024, U.S. Army combat medics assigned to 4th Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, and U.S. Navy corpsmen assigned to 3rd Medical Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, engaged in a rigorous cross-training exercise during Pacific Fortitude. They focused on refining their expertise in care under fire, tactical field care, and evacuation procedures.

“Today’s objective was to evaluate our teamwork and gain insight into how we would operate together in future combat situations,” said Sgt. Rachael Dickson, a combat medic.

The exercise began with a simulated scenario where a tactical vehicle struck a landmine, causing a fire and multiple casualties. Medics quickly responded providing care under fire while simulated small arms fire intensified. Soldiers returned fire to secure the area allowing medics to move the injured to safety and transition to tactical field care.

During this phase, medics conducted thorough assessments, including blood sweeps and identifying injured areas, while monitoring airway, respiratory, and circulatory issues, and applying care.

“We thoroughly reviewed all treatments administered by the line medics,” said Spc. Joshua McAlister, combat medic. “We rechecked every intervention, continued any incomplete procedures or medications and ensured all documentation was current, providing the patient with the best possible care.”

Once stabilized, medics called in a 9-line medevac request for air evacuation. The crew then transported the litter to the helipad and loaded the patients onto the helicopter for evacuation.

Throughout the exercise, combat medics and corpsmen worked closely together, assuming diverse roles such as note taking and documentation, transporting casualties, retrieving tools and equipment, and performing essential procedures like applying tourniquets, inserting intravenous catheters, and simulating chest tube placements, all while maintaining clear and professional communication.

“My team will take away valuable lessons from today, including the camaraderie built, the opportunity to make new connections, and the experience of working with medics from outside the Army,” said Dickson. “This exercise was a great chance to see how well we function as a joint force.”

Teams were continuously evaluated by a primary care physician, emergency room doctor, and multiple physician assistants who provided feedback and oversight, facilitating detailed treatments and improvements in care.

At the end of the day, evaluators and leaders offered comprehensive feedback, helping teams identify areas for improvement. To conclude their cross-training, the teams enjoyed morale flights on the helicopters taking in the stunning vistas of Korea.

“This was an excellent opportunity for our different branches to come together, learn from one another, and advance our medical expertise,” said Lt. Cmdr. Meghann Wilson. “We gained valuable insights from our Army counterparts and look forward to continuing our joint practice and working seamlessly as a unified force.”

Story originally posted on DVIDS: Strengthening the joint medical force: U.S. Army combat medics and Navy corpsmen conduct dynamic cross-training during Pacific Fortitude