Welcome to the CavasShips Podcast with Christopher P. Cavas and Chris Servello…a weekly podcast looking at naval and maritime events and issues of the day – in the US, across the seas and around the world. This week…A growing fleet of more than 100 unmanned surface vessels is expected to be fielded by mid-2023 in the US Central Command operating area, according to the head of the Bahrain-based US Fleet Fleet. We’ll hear from Vice Admiral Brad Cooper on his plans to greatly expand the use of unmanned and manned vessels and integrate their data using artificial intelligence. Plus a look at what naval forces can gain from some of the new weaponry and technology on display this past week at the US Army’s huge trade show in Washington. But first, a look at some naval news this week.
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This Week’s Naval Round Up:
The US 7th Fleet’s Japan-based carrier USS RONALD REAGAN arrived at Manila in mid-October for exercises with Philippine forces, and 7th fleet amphibious ships RUSHMORE and NEW ORLEANS are at Subic Bay for amphibious exercises with Filipino marines. Forces from Australia, Japan, France and Britain also are taking part in the exercises, which range from warfighting and interoperability operations to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief training.
A large NATO exercise dubbed Vigilance Activity Neptune Strike, or NEST, began in the European theater on October 14, with the largest naval force taking part being the USS GEORGE H W BUSH Carrier Strike Group. Operational control of the strike group will be transferred from the US Sixth Fleet to Strike Force NATO for the duration of the activity, which includes 18 other NATO nations in addition to the United States.
The KEARSARGE Amphibious Ready Group and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit returned to their US East Coast bases beginning Oct. 11. The group left the US in March and unusually spent much of the deployment operating in and around the Baltic Sea conducting multiple port visits to NATO members in the region. The concentration in the Baltic was seen as a demonstration of US resolve should Russia widen its war against Ukraine into the Baltic States or against new NATO members Finland and Sweden.
In the Persian Gulf, the US and United Kingdom carried out a one-day exercise called Phantom Scope on October 7 to integrated manned and unmanned vessels with shore operators to create a maritime operations picture enhanced by artificial intelligence. Three Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vessels operated with the US destroyer DELBERT D BLACK, US Coast Guard cutter ROBERT GOLDMAN and British mine countermeasures ships CHIDDINGFOLD and BANGOR during the exercise. We’ll hear more about similar operations in just a moment from the head of the US Fifth Fleet in the region.
The British aircraft carrier HMS PRINCE OF WALES entered drydock October 13 at BAE Systems in Rosyth, Scotland for propeller shaft repairs, while sistership HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH returned to Portsmouth the same day after filling in for the PRINCE OF WALES on a cruise to Norfolk and New York City.
Cavas Squawk:
This week’s squawk is more of a lamentation. I recently found out the wildly successful team that searched for and found an astounding number of the world’s long-lost shipwrecks – including the US aircraft carriers LEXINGTON, WASP and HORNET, the cruiser INDIANAPOLIS, the Japanese battleship MUSASHI and many more – is no more. I’m talking of course about the incredibly talented folks aboard the research vessel PETREL, an operation created by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
Aside from an uncanny ability to find several dozen shipwrecks, the team employed some of the world’s highest-quality video technology to document their finds, returning incredibly clear videos that took underwater wreck imaging to hitherto unimagined levels. The project was entirely self-funded by Allen – who as one of the world’s richest people spared little expense to give his team the best that money could buy.
A couple years ago I had the opportunity to write an in-depth magazine article on the operation, and got to talk at some length with Rob Kraft, PETREL’s expedition director, and lead researcher Paul Mayer. Each man’s personal journey to the top of the shipwreck hunting pyramid was unique – Kraft was an Army combat medic turned commercial diver turned remotely operated submersible operator. Kraft was a commercial diver who got into ROVs and became an expert on piloting and maintenance undersea craft. The two of them brought a unique methodology to the art of wreck hunting. They paid no attention to previous attempts to search for ships, rather returned to any original documentation they could find – log books, orders, weather reports, oceanography, anything – and built up a picture from there.
The operation started as a pet project of Allen, who loved World War II ships and in particular had a fascination with the Japanese battleships YAMATO and MUSASHI – the largest battleships ever built and both sunk in the last year of World War II. The location of the YAMATO was well known, but the MUSASHI had eluded all searchers. In early 2015 the team led by Mayer and Kraft found the ship and, excited about their success, Allen and the group continued searching for shipwrecks and the effort turned out an unprecedented string of successful finds.
The project contributed mightily to bringing these long-dead ships and their crews back alive for new generations. Video of the wrecks lent a human quality to them – a flight jacket stuffed into a hatchway on the HORNET, for example, as people tried to get out with the ship burning. Just last week while at sea aboard the carrier GERALD R FORD I noticed an F/A-18 Super Hornet from Strike Fighter Squadron 31 – the Tomcatters. The aircraft sported the insignia of Felix the Cat holding a black bomb with the fuze lit. It’s the same insignia that showed up crystal clear in 2018 in images the PETREL crew produced from the wreck of the US carrier LEXINGTON, sunk in May 1942. There was the same Felix on the side of an F4F Wildcat fighter, completely recognizable. That legacy I just saw aboard the FORD is still out there, 10,000 feet down and more than 500 miles from the nearest land.
The PETREL crew sought no profit and was not particularly active at seeking recognition, either. But one of the deals they made with the US Navy, in exchange for access to historical information about the ships, was that they made ALL their material available to the Navy. No copyright, no restrictions, it’s all been donated. Navy historians and experts also were able routinely to accompany the PETREL crew on their expeditions – an experience that was far beyond what many of them ever expected to have.
Sadly Paul Allen died of cancer in October 2018, and for a time the PETREL operation carried on as a legacy to Allen’s interests. Activities were curtailed somewhat during the pandemic, and now Allen’s estate, I’m told, is being liquidated. Among those assets was the PETREL herself – purchased by the US Navy in September for the rock-bottom price of $12 million. Kraft told me the ship had been newly upgraded and all the gear was included in the sale. Although we’ve asked, the Navy has not said for what specific purpose they’ll use the ship and her equipment.
A few other groups have picked up the pace for deep-water shipwreck searching, and many of those efforts approach the skill and quality of the PETREL team. But Rob Kraft and Paul Mayer and the others on their team, backed by the deep pockets of Paul Allen, have made contributions to naval history that few will ever match. Thanks folks – it certainly was fun while it lasted.
