North Korean Hackers Exploit Facebook Messenger in Targeted Malware Campaign

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  May 7, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land

  Sea-Air-Space Exposition 2019 Day One

  By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Brittney Kinsey, Defense Media Activity Public Affairs NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. (NNS) -- Sea service chiefs and civilian defense leadership discussed myriad opportunities and challenges commanders face while operating on land, sea and air during the first day of the 54th annual Sea-Air-Space Exposition (SAS), May 6, 2019. Derived from the Chief of Naval Operations' (CNO) Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority 2.0 (Design 2.0), this year's exposition theme is “Sustainability, Agility, Superiority.” CNO Adm. John. M. Richardson, Commandant of the Marine Corps General Robert B. Neller, Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Karl Schultz and Administrator of the U.S. Maritime Administration retired Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby each addressed during the sea service chiefs panel the specific obstacles their services contend with in the current maritime environment. Richardson explained that rapid changes in technology and maritime security requires a level of trust and confidence in leaders tasked with commanding maritime forces. “It's very important that our leaders are people of character and integrity so that when we put them in front of our Sailors to lead them, not only do they know their business in warfighting but also that we would be proud for our sons and daughters to follow them,” he said. “Whether at sea or near the sea, responding to any man-made or natural crisis, [they] are so much more than a maritime warrior, [they] are also diplomats and are securing our prosperity.” Richardson also stressed the importance of improving the logistical capabilities, stating that services will only maintain an upper hand in the maritime environment by becoming more agile. ‘'We have got to get capabilities into the hands of our soldiers, Sailors, airmen and Marines – more and faster,” he said. “It's important that as the pace quickens, as new technology enters the fray, as the security environment manifests itself in a really fast-changing world that we don't forget those fundamentals in terms of providing sustainable forces. ” During a panel on the Arctic, speakers explained why partnering with other services is also crucial to maintaining superiority, particularly in places like the Arctic Circle where there hasn't been a large naval presence. “When it comes to maritime readiness in the Arctic, we cannot and should not go alone,” said Rear Adm. John A. Okon, commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command. “Collaboration is key. Resources and access points are limited, so we must work with our maritime partners to be successful.” Richardson echoed Okon's comments during his keynote remarks at the Sea Services Luncheon. “The Arctic is a very dynamic situation,” he said. “There are seaways that are open that were not open before, continental shelves that are being exposed that weren't exposed before, so I think that merits a response from our maritime forces and there's tremendous value in partnering with our fellow services such as the Coast Guard.” Keeping the waters open for Indo-Pacific trade routes, which bolster global economic prosperity, also remains a top priority for the Navy. “A third of the world's trade flows through the South China Sea, 90% of the world's trade flows by the sea, tens of trillions of U.S. dollars flow through that body of water,” said Richardson. “It's extremely important that those lines of communication and sea lanes remain open, and that's why the United States Navy is there and that's why we're going to stay there.” Other scheduled keynote speakers and panelists include Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer, Undersecretary of the Navy Thomas Modly, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition James “Hondo” Geurts and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Russell Smith. Founded in 1965 and the largest maritime exposition in the United States, SAS brings together the U.S. defense industrial base, private sector U.S. companies and key military decision makers for an annual event to share the most current policies, programs, information and technology relevant to maritime service. SAS takes place May 6-8 and will include speaker and professional development sessions and dynamic maritime and defense exhibits on the latest technology and military equipment. https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=109502

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  December 13, 2023 | International, Land, C4ISR

  USS Mason takes down drone for at least the second time this month

  The attack drone was headed toward the Mason and was shot down in self defense, but officials said they were not sure if the U.S. warship was the target.

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  January 2, 2020 | International, Naval

  The US military ran the largest stress test of its sealift fleet in years. It’s in big trouble.

  By: David B. Larter WASHINGTON — The U.S. military in September ordered the largest stress test of its wartime sealift fleet in the command's history, with 33 out of 61 government-owned ships being activated simultaneously. The results were bad, according to a new report. In an unclassified U.S. Transportation Command report posted to its website, the so-called turbo activation revealed that less than half of the sealift fleet would be fully prepared to get underway for a major sealift operation in a crisis. “The relatively low ... Qualitative Mission Success Rate indicates the Organic Surge Fleet is challenged to be immediately available for a large-scale inter-theater force deployment without delays/impacts to force closure due to degraded readiness,” the report read. The Dec. 16 report confirms what senior military and transportation officials have been saying for years now: that the sealift fleet is in urgent need of recapitalization if it is to be relied upon to support a large-scale operation overseas. In a crisis, nearly 90 percent of all Army and Marine Corps equipment would be carried by ship. The Navy is on the hook to pay for recapitalization, but it has so far failed to land on a strategy to do so. Overall, 40.7 percent of the 61 ships operated by Military Sealift Command and the Maritime Administration were fully ready to support a major sealift operation. Sal Mercogliano, a merchant marine and current professor at Campbell University who closely follows these issues, said the major equipment casualties are the driving factor that is dragging down readiness. “You had 22 out of the 61 ships in either C-5 or C-4 condition,” Mercogliano said. “C-5 means that you can't even leave the dock; C-4 means you can leave the dock but you are not in any condition to sail any real distance. In my ballpark, that's non-mission capable. So right off the bat you lose 22 of the 61 ships. Then of the 33 that they activated, nine of them had issues. Three of them were C-4 level. “So when you add together the ones that had issues with the ones that couldn't be activated, they're saying you can only really count on about 40 percent of the fleet to active when they are aiming for 85 percent.” Ultimately, the degraded status of the sealift fleet means that combatant commanders won't be able to count on its capacity for logistics support, Mercogliano said. “If you are Indo-Pacific Command, or you are Central Command, and you are counting on a certain amount of square footage available to you, that's going to have huge ramifications,” he added. In recent testimony, INDOPACOM Commander Adm. Phil Davidson said as much, saying his operational plans depend on logistics support. “Clearly recapitalization of our sealift system is going to be critically important, as it's aging out and really has propulsion plants that [are] expiring in capability and our ability to maintain them,” Davidson said. “It's [a] risk to our troops and all of our people that are forward in the region if there is any delay in our ability to deliver the logistics in accordance with the [operation] plans.” Manning concerns In a November interview prior to the compilation of the final report, Maritime Administrator retired Rear Adm. Mark Buzby told Defense News that the test validated the data they had on ship readiness and the Maritime Administration's ability to crew the vessels, which he has long maintained is enough for initial activation but would suffer during a prolonged effort. “I think given the scale of the test, as we've been saying, we are OK for doing initial manning for our ships when they are activated,” Buzby said. “Something that we couldn't test in this fairly short-term activation was the follow-on aspect. “We believe we have plenty of manning to man up the ships initially, get them past the sea buoy and get them on the mission. But the problem is going to manifest itself four to six months down the line when some of them want to rotate. Who is going to be standing on the pier ready to take their place? That's where we have a problem. You just couldn't show that in this activation.” One of the primary issues has been, as Davidson intimated, that many of the plants in the Ready Reserve Force are steam-operated plants, which are all but nonexistent in the commercial world, so it is increasingly difficult to find qualified engineers. Finding steam engineers went well for the turbo activation, Buzby said, but it proved difficult and will only become more so as fewer opportunities to retain updated certifications become available. In a 2018 interview with Defense News, Buzby described a shortage of personnel that would affect the sealift fleet's ability to operate for an extended period of time. The Maritime Administration, part of the Department of Transportation, estimates it has 11,768 qualified mariners with unlimited credentials available to crew the Ready Reserve Force, a number that just exceeds the needed total of 11,678 to operate both the reserve and commercial fleets at the same time. But that comes with a catch: This service is entirely voluntary. “Maritime Workforce Working Group estimates that there are sufficient mariners working in the industry to activate the surge fleet if the entire pool of qualified United States citizen mariners identified by MWWG are available and willing to sail when required,” the report read. “This assumption is of paramount importance given the voluntary nature of mariner service.” Furthermore, that number is just what it would take to activate the ships and temporarily operate them. If the nation needed to sustain a large-scale effort, it would soon begin to falter. “We are about 1,800 mariners short for any kind of long-term sustainment effort,” Buzby said. “We believe we have enough today to activate all the ships we would need to activate. ... But anything less than an all-of-nation effort ... where everyone who went out to sea, stayed at sea, we start to run short of people as we rotate.” https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2019/12/31/the-us-military-ran-the-largest-stress-test-of-its-sealift-fleet-in-years-its-in-big-trouble/