NAVY NEWS WEEK 5-1 Royal Navy Ships Prepare for Carrier Strike
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NAVY NEWS WEEK 5-1 29 January 2017 NORFOLK (Jan. 21, 2017) The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) departs from Naval Station Norfolk. George H.W. Bush and its Carrier Strike Group deployed in support of maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet areas of operation. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Christopher Gaines/Released) Royal Navy ships prepare for carrier strike group operations Royal Navy warships have been preparing for carrier strike group operations that will begin once the UK‘s first Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier arrives this year. The Commander UK Carrier Strike Group (COMUKCSG) battle staff has been conducting transatlantic exercises ahead of the arrival in Portsmouth later this year of HMS Queen Elizabeth. RN personnel have been taking part in Fleet Synthetic Training exercises used to put US Navy carrier strike groups through their paces. Working from the Maritime Composite Training System site at HMS Collingwood, US carrier strike groups, including the USS Harry S Truman, have worked with ops room personnel from HMS Dragon and HMS Richmond, both of which played the protection role for the carrier. Regular and reserve personnel from across the naval service, as well as colleagues from the RAF and defence experts from the US have also been involved in the role-playing. The latest exercise saw COMUKCSG tested in warfighting techniques involving HMS Queen Elizabeth and 36 F-35B strike fighter jets. Leading Writer Natalie Brady, of CSG, said: ―The exercise allowed me to experience at firsthand how impressive carrier strike will be with all the cutting-edge technology in the ships and aircraft.” Previous exercises have seen command and warfare teams from HMS St Albans, Richmond and Diamond take on the role of principal anti-submarine, anti-surface and air missile defence commanders working for CSG‘s Information Warfare Commander Lieutenant Colonel Oli Coryton and Strike Warfare Commander Lieutenant Colonel Phil Kelly, both of whom were based in HMS Queen Elizabeth alongside Commodore Andrew Betton, Commander CSG. ―Training in this way offers enormous benefit, not only in being more efficient and less expensive than live training, but also in allowing a highly-tailored training package, delivered in a short space of time, focused on the specific training needs of the team,‖ said Commodore Betton. The next major step for CSG will be exercise Saxon Warrior this summer when Royal Navy battle staff will embark in the USS George HW Bush for a multinational exercise around Britain. Source: http://cimsec.org US Navy sticks with AAG as recovery system of choice for USS John F. Kennedy Computer-generated design of a complete one-wire Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) system schematic. Photo: U.S. Navy Despite considering revert to the legacy recovery system, Mk-7, a U.S. Navy review board decided to continue AAG as the aircraft recovery system of choice for the future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79). The Advanced Arresting Gear‘s test program marked the completion of the 350th trap of an F/A-18E Super Hornet in December, 2016. To remind, the costs have more than doubled the troubled AAG system which fell years behind other next generation components developed for the Ford-class. The determination to continue with AAG was the outcome of a review by an AAG resource requirements review board (R3B) in November 2016. ―AAG works,‖ said Capt. Steve Tedford, Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment (PMA 251) program manager, whose team manages the recovery system program. ―The progress of AAG testing this past year has been significant and has demonstrated the system’s ability to meet Navy requirements. The team overcame many challenges to get the system to this point and ensure its readiness to support CVN 78 and future Ford-class ships.‖ ―It has been a difficult challenge, but getting the system into test to verify its readiness to meet Navy requirements has been the team’s focus this past year,‖ said Rear Adm. Mike Moran, Program Executive Officer for Tactical Aircraft Programs (PEO(T)), who oversees PMA-251 program office. AAG has been the focus of much scrutiny in recent years, after encountering delays in developmental testing and subsequent redesign efforts of the water twister, one of the system‘s major components. With the upgraded hardware in place, the program has forged forward with a land-based test program. According to the U.S. Navy, more than 1,400 dead-load arrestments and 351 test arrestments of the Super Hornet, the first aircraft type/model/series to undergo test on the system, have been completed as of December 2016. Upon completion of AAG performance testing with the Super Hornet, the team began generating the first Aircraft Recovery Bulletin (ARB) to support pending Aircraft Compatibility Testing on board CVN 78, where a number of aircraft launch and recovery equipment systems, including the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), will be used. The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command said the AAG team continues multisite test operations with the next type/model/series, the E-2/C-2 platform, and PMA-251 proceeds with the necessary acquisition activities to ready the system for installation aboard CVN 79 and the future USS Enterprise (CVN 80). Source: Naval Today ATLANTIC OCEAN (Jan. 20, 2017) U.S. Navy Sailors aboard the amphibious dock landing ship USS Carter Hall (LSD 50) send a shot line to USNS Joshua Humphreys (T- AO 188) during a replenishment-at-sea. Carter Hall is underway with the Bataan Amphibious Readiness Group participating in Composite Training Unit Exercise. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Darren M. Moore/Released) SANDF member arrested for ammunition possession Written by defenceWeb, Monday, 23 January 2017 The South African Police Service (SAPS) has arrested a member of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) for having in his possession 600 rounds of ammunition. The SAPS said that on 14 January police in Phalaborwa together with the National intervention Unit (NIU) arrested a 44 year old man, who is an unemployed Senegalese national and his partner, a 40 year old South African man who is a soldier in the SANDF, for illegal possession of ammunition. The soldier was seen carrying a bag on Spekboom Street in Phalaborwa on 14 January at around 17:30. Police officers asked to search him and during the search found 663 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition. His partner was nabbed on the same date at around 19:00 at his place of residence, where 17 rounds of ammunition for a 9 mm pistol was found in his possession. The soldier, Santos Leon Congo, was granted bail of R1 000 and his case remanded to 10 March while his accomplice Sambo Boye was remanded in custody until 23 January for bail application. The SAPS said in a statement last week that investigations into the matter are continuing. SANDF weapons and ammunition regularly goes missing – for example, the SANDF had just on 33 000 rounds of ammunition lost or stolen in the financial years 2013/14 and 2014/15 and 18 firearms (ten 9 mm pistols, a pair of .303 hunting rifles and six R4 assault rifles) went missing in the same period. This was revealed by Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula in answer to a question posed by FF+ defence and security spokesman Pieter Groenewald in late 2015. 32 400 rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition was allegedly stolen from the Lenz military base south of Johannesburg in April 2013. One of the most recent and serious incidents occurred in July 2016 when ammunition, weapons and explosives was stolen out of the armoury at Naval Base Simon‘s Town. Reports have it that four Uzi submachineguns, four R1 assault rifles, an M1, 16 ship‘s cannon munitions, 72 hand grenades and two mine detonators were taken. However, the stolen items were later recovered on a smallholding outside Eersterivier in the Western Cape and three suspects arrested. All three had family members serving in the South African Navy. Lost and stolen weapons and ammunition are a concern as they are often used in cash-in-transit robberies, shopping mall hold-ups and in farm attacks. Source: www.defenceweb.co.za Trump White House Vows to Stop China Taking South China Sea Islands January 23, 2017 by Reuters An aerial photo taken through a glass window of a Philippine military plane shows the alleged on-going land reclamation by China on mischief reef in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, west of Palawan, Philippines, in this May 11, 2015 file photo. REUTERS/Ritchie B. Tongo/Pool/Files By David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON, Jan 23 (Reuters) – The new U.S. administration of President Donald Trump vowed on Monday that the United States would prevent China from taking over territory in international waters in the South China Sea, something Chinese state media has warned would require Washington to ―wage war.‖ The comments at a briefing from White House spokesman Sean Spicer signaled a sharp departure from years of cautious U.S. handling of China‘s assertive pursuit of territory claims in Asia, just days after Trump took office on Friday. ―The U.S. is going to make sure that we protect our interests there,‖ Spicer said when asked if Trump agreed with comments by his Secretary of State nominee, Rex Tillerson, on Jan. 11 that China should not be allowed access to islands it has built in the contested South China Sea. ―It’s a question of if those islands are in fact in international waters and not part of China proper, then yeah, we’re going to make sure that we defend international territories from being taken over by one country,” he said.