Naval Expeditionary Combat Command News

The Navy is known for its big ships. It has a lot of smaller boats and craft, too—3,200 of them.The three primary stakeholders for these craft are the Surface Fleet, Commander Navy Installations Command and Navy Expeditionary Combat Command. Other stakeholders include Submarine Forces; Air Forces (which own the aircraft carriers); Naval Special Warfare; the Coast Guard; Naval Facilities Command and the Naval Warfare Centers.Boats and craft are procured and managed by Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Program Executive Office for Ships (PEO Ships)…

The U.S. Navy uses unmanned and robotic underwater vehicles for a multitude of functions, including environmental sensing, mine hunting, and salvage. The Navy plans to evolve an unmanned systems operating concept that is platform agnostic and capable of operating in highly complex contested environments with minimal operator interaction.The most recent edition of the Navy’s Unmanned Systems (UxS) Roadmap was issued in 2018, and a new version is expected in the near future. The 2018 document states that UxS will operate in every domain…

The U.S. Navy's second joint high-speed vessel, USNS Choctaw County has arrived in Baltimore's Inner Harbor with SECNAV Ray Mabus to join  with other Navy ships to celebrate the Star-Spangled Spectacular, the 200th anniversary of the poem penned by Francis Scott Key that later became the national anthem. "The fact that Choctaw County is going to be one of the representatives of the Navy, showing the people of Baltimore and the people of America the new capabilities, showing them just how good our ships and our MSC mariners and our Sailors and Marines are, I think it's going to be wonderful," said Mabus. The ship's 20,000-square foot mission bay holds a Riverine Patrol Boat…

Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) announced the establishment of the Acquisition and Commonality directorate April 14. The new directorate, led by Rear Adm. Thomas Kearney, focuses on lowering acquisition costs and reducing the number of unique components such as valves in the Navy's ships and systems. It also increases the sea service's ability to incorporate and update new capabilities when considered as part of an item's lifecycle strategy. "This directorate brings together billets and personnel dedicated to moving forward commonality of people, parts and processes through promoting and enabling exchange within government and between government and industry," said Kearney.

SAFE Boats International (SBI) recently delivered a 65-foot Coastal Command Boat (CCB) to the U.S. Navy’s Coastal Riverine Group 1 in Coronado, California. The CCB is the first vessel of if its kind and represents the next generation of the Naval Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC)’s fleet of patrol boats and combatant craft. Its unique combination of size and agility enable it to patrol shallow littoral areas as well as deeper, open-water regions. The 65-foot CCB is an early variant of the soon to be delivered, 85-foot MKVI Patrol Boat.

A Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE:NOC)-led team has successfully demonstrated the integration of the AN/SPQ-9B radar and Naval Expeditionary Overwatch (NEO) system sensor data into the Integrated Combat Management System (ICMS) at the Navy's Center for Surface Combat Systems (CSCS) at Dam Neck, Va. The team included Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren and Harris Corporation. NEO is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The demonstration illustrated the open architecture capabilities of ICMS to rapidly and affordably integrate both shipboard and off-board sensor data into a combat system network to support enhanced Fleet combat operations.

By Lt. Cmdr. The “Heavy Lifters” of Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit (MDSU) 1 responded to a request Jan. 19 from the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) to provide assistance to the Chinese-flagged motor vessel (M/V) Tong Cheng when it reported hull damage and progressive flooding. According to Tong Cheng's initial report, the ship had sustained hull damage, and that the condition had progressed to a point where the ship and her 26 crew were in jeopardy. The Tong Cheng also reported that she was carrying a load of over 140,000 gallons of petroleum products that if released had the potential to cause damage to Hawaiian waters. Navy Divers from MDSU 1, with the help of translators, completed an open ocean, underwater hull survey.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Mullen submitted his long-range shipbuilding plan to Congress Feb. 7, designed to grow the fleet to about 313 ships – up from 281 today. “We need a fleet for the future which is balanced in many capabilities,” Mullen told reporters at the Pentagon. His plan will meet the requirements of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and reverse the recent trend of shrinking the fleet. “We’re at 281 ships today and it’s my view we need to turn that around with the embedded capabilities that we’ve looked at,” he said. The Navy’s 30-year shipbuilding plan is required by law and accompanied the Navy’s FY'07 Budget submission to Congress. It supports the new emphasis on expeditionary and conventional warfighting missions expressed in the QDR.

Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), Adm. Mike Mullen, addressed members of the Surface Navy Association (SNA) Jan. 10 at their 18th Annual National Symposium held at the Hyatt Regency in Arlington, Va. Addressing the SNA for the first time since taking the helm as CNO, Mullen said the Navy’s view of sea power needed to expand, incorporating both traditional and nontraditional missions. "I believe sea power as a notion has become way too narrowly defined," Mullen said. Mullen called for a balanced fleet with the capability to win the big and small wars. "I have probably talked to upwards of 15,000 Sailors in the course of more than a half-dozen trips at sea and ashore. And the vast majority were involved in operations I would consider green or brown water in nature," he explained.