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…one of the most widely-used unmanned underwater vehicles in the US Navy is the REMUS family of UUVs, now produced by Huntington Ingalls Industries. HII has just introduced its new REMUS 620 UUV with longer range and better payload capabilities. We’ll talk with HII about what its new underwater drone can do.
Please send us feedback by DM’ing @CavasShips or @CSSProvision or you can email chriscavas@gmail.com or cservello@defaeroreport.com.
This Week’s Naval Round Up:
Japan is hosting this year’s Malabar naval exercises, which kicked off on November 8 in the Philippine Sea with ships from Japan, Australia, India and the United States. US carrier RONALD REAGAN and Japan’s helicopter carrier HYUGA are the largest ships taking part. The maneuvers feature high-end tactical training events, submarine integration, anti-submarine and air defense exercises, joint warfighting planning scenarios, live-fire events and maritime interdiction operations.
All the warship in the exercises took part in Japan’s International Fleet Review on November 6 marking the 70th anniversary of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force. US Navy chief of naval operations Admiral Mike Gilday was also in attendance along with a large number of other heads of foreign navies. Between trips to the western Pacific and to Europe and at the Pentagon, Gilday in recent weeks has met face-to-face with at least 19 heads-of-Navy.
The amphibious assault ship MAKIN ISLAND left San Diego November 9 to deploy to the Indo-Pacific region with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. The MAKIN ISLAND’s three-ship Amphibious Ready Group includes the landing dock ships Anchorage and John P Murtha.
Also at San Diego on November 10, the destroyer ZUMWALT returned to homeport after her first-ever western Pacific deployment. The ZUMWALT deployed without fanfare in early August. Although Navy officials declined to provide details of the cruise, the ship was at Yokosuka, Japan in late September where her presence was very publicly signaled. ZUMWALT is scheduled to enter HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding yard in late 2023 to have both her advanced gun systems removed and replaced by missile tubes able to launch the newly-developed Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic weapons.
The aircraft carrier USS GERALD R FORD was the centerpiece of Exercise Silent Warrior in the Eastern Atlantic this week. The FORD’s multi-national NATO strike group includes ships from Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Spain. By November 11 the ship was nearing the French coast and is to visit Portsmouth, England beginning around November 15.
The British carrier HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH left Portsmouth November 10 for an Operation Achillean deployment with a strike group to northern European waters. Embarked aboard QUEEN LIZ are F-35B Joint Strike Fighters of 617 Squadron. The deployment is a significant expression, according to the British Ministry of Defence, of the country’s commitment to safeguarding European Security. Another British Royal Navy task group, the Littoral Response Group, already is deployed to the Mediterranean.
In shipbuilding news, Louisiana-based Bollinger Shipyards announced November 7 it is buying VT Halter Marine and ST Engineering Halter Marine Offshore. The acquisition by privately-owned Bollinger marks the second straight year it purchased a competing yard along the Gulf of Mexico, having acquired Gulf Island Shipyards in 2021. Both Halter yards were US-based subsidiaries of foreign-owned Singapore Technologies. The acquisition means Bollinger will take over the US Coast Guard’s Polar Security Cutter icebreaker project from VT Halter Marine. The new yards will be known as Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding and Bollinger Mississippi Repair.
And in Boston on November 10, the US Coast Guard commissioned the new cutter WILLIAM CHADWICK. The 50th Fast Response Cutter – all built by Bollinger Shipyards — is the first of six FRCs that will be based at Coast Guard Station Boston.
Servello Squawk:
If the Navy flew planes or drove ships the way they currently communicate the entire force would be grounded or tied to the pier. So why is it that we accept such a lackluster effort when it comes to communication?
Chris the Navy needs a communication stand down. A dedicated period of time to refine its message, hone its tactics and better link engagements to goals.
I don’t blame the CNO or the Secretary for wanting to put a lid on the current effort. It’s only human to want to hide in plain sight when things aren’t going the way you’d like. But instead of enforcing a gag-rule or dodging engagements, I’d love to see them lead the service towards a new and more effective approach.
Our last discussion is just the latest example of why such a change is needed.
The default way of doing outreach, primarily by warfare community, isn’t doing the Navy any favors. In fact it often leads to disjointed messaging, misunderstandings and ass-chewings from farther up the chain of command. Simply put, It holds the Navy back in the building, on the Hill and with the public writ large.
Most engagements result in Flag officers getting over their skis on issues they aren’t empowered to discuss or the sharing of boring canned pablum they obviously don’t believe in or care about. Just go to any community sponsored event like Surface Navy or Sub League and this is what you are likely to hear—community talking points or cries for more money not linked to the need for a Navy or national seapower.
A new approach is desperately needed.
Central in a stand down that results in a new strategy and set of tactics would be the refinement of messaging, the retraining on how and why to engage and the creation of a process that rewards the combining of alignment and candor…and punishes lack luster performance and miscommunication. As my friend Bryan McGrath has argued for years…effective communication becomes part of the job.
Leaders from the Secnav on down need to force the service to do better…to be smarter…and to be more effective.
I’d love to see a holistic change of how and where the Navy communicates. There are hundreds of talented public affairs professionals that can help facilitate this change…the leadership simply needs to recognize the problem and then empower people to make the needed adjustments…rewarding and holding them accountable along the way.
