Navy

ANDØYA, Norway – Hiking close to 2,000 feet above sea level through snow and ice in northern Norway, a team from Task Force 61/2’s Commander, Task Group (CTG) 61/2.4 (MRC), loaded down with five days of man-packed mission-essential gear and provisions, took their positions.

The team was charged with conducting surveillance and providing targeting data for U.S. High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and Norwegian National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) units, as they worked together to counter a simulated threat at sea. They were employed as a cueing asset for targeting, providing tracks and locations of vessels to adjacent reconnaissance forces and Task Force 61/2 of potential offshore targets.

As they watched on, their fellow Marines brought Force Design concepts to life with the simultaneous engagement of an offshore target with two HIMARS during exercise Formidable Shield 2023.

“We’ve proven the concept of how efficiently, and for the first time, we can employ a man-portable radar team, coming up here filling in that kill-chain for maritime domain awareness,” said Sgt. Kyle Rolain, a platoon sergeant with MRC.

During Formidable Shield, Task Force 61/2 assumed tactical control of numerous units beyond their organic CTG 61/2.4 (Mobile Reconnaissance Company) and CTG 61/2.5 (Force Reconnaissance Company), incorporating elements from Marine Air Control Squadron 2, 2d Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, and 8th Communications Battalion. The Task Force integrated Allied units into their operations, as well.

“Task Force 61/2 directed and unified the efforts of the U.S. Marines, a U.S. Destroyer, a Dutch Frigate, and Norwegian NASAMS to engage both surface and airborne threats targeting the NATO task group,” said Task Force 61/2 Air Officer, Maj. Christopher Herlihy. This collaboration, “ensured elements could rapidly pass tracking and targeting data and defend fleet assets in a joint environment.”

Along with enabling strikes against surface targets, Formidable Shield 2023 also enhanced Task Force 61/2’s ability to direct Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) systems. Inside the Tactical Air Operations Center (TAOC), all the coordination of multi-domain awareness is routed, to include fires and surveillance.

1st Lt. Caleb Johnson, an air defense control officer and Company XO, Air Defense Company A, underscored the capacity and capability this integration and training provided to the Task Force 61/2 team.

“As a weapons director in the TAOC during Formidable Shield 2023, we provide a picture and a sensor capability that we can cue shooters in the battlespace to take out targets.”

Johnson, deployed in the area of operations with his unit out of Cherry Point, shares “we’ve had a unique experience in bringing our AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) system up here in the High North, providing sensors capabilities to Norwegian air defense units, probably one of the first times we have done this.”

Launching from U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Oscar Austin (DDG 79), initial reconnaissance forces from Force Reconnaissance Company visually acquired the offshore target. Working in the TAOC, Herlihy observed that, “recon forces were the first to provide the CTG visual identification and the coordinates of a target barge using their organic small UAS systems.” This information was passed from the TAOC back to Oscar Austin and out to the Spanish Frigate Blas de Lezo, initiating confirmation and joint pursuit of targets.

Meanwhile, back on land, U.S. HIMARS and Norwegian NASAMS received firing guidance from the TAOC, with information collected from the various multi-domain sensing force capabilities, allowing them to prosecute targets from the ground with HIMARS long-range precision fires and Norwegian NASAMS air-denial fires.

1st Lt. Joe Goff, a platoon commander with H Battery, 2/10, stood ready to complete the kill-chain with a HIMARS engagement. He knew his team was ready and in prime position for a successful engagement.

“Emplacing the platoon in an advantageous area that allows the communication within the platoon, local security team, higher forces at the TAOC and adjacent Norwegian Army NASAMs is crucial,” said Goff. This position enabled his platoon to “execute fire missions without being sensed or picked up on radars from an adversary force.”

These kinds of high-end, multinational live-fire engagements are the cornerstone of the Formidable Shield series. As nations and militaries continue to train through complex live-fire scenarios under the exercise, they improve not only their own individual tactics, techniques, and procedures, but those of their joint and combined units as well.

“The integration with the Norwegians has showed how we as a Marine Corps have progressed ourselves in support of operations with more nations and assets…providing more effectiveness against our adversaries,” said Goff.

Formidable Shield 2023 provided Task Force 61/2 the perfect opportunity to prove and improve capabilities in a dynamic environment such as the High North, as well, a region that the Norwegian Armed Forces knows well. Learning from those who have experience operating in harsh conditions pays dividends not only during exercises, but in steady-state operations alongside like-minded nations.

“My favorite part about this exercise is to test what we have been training for all year, to have the live fire exercise, and see how everything works from start to finish”, said Norwegian Army Sgt. Erling Anthonessen, NASAMS crew chief, Norwegian Air Defense Battery, “Working with our NATO partners is always exciting for our units here in the ground and allows us to check our integrated systems and better prepare for anything and together be stronger.”

Herlihy echoed the importance of integration like this among Allies and partners, as Formidable Shield 2023 participants look forward to the next iteration in this series.

“Integration with our NATO partners was a great success,” said Herlihy. He heartily stated that, “this sets the bar for future joint naval integration exercises with U.S. Marine forces.”

TF 61/2 aligns deployed forces under the Naval Amphibious Force commander; deployed amphibious ready groups (ARG), Marine Expeditionary Units (MEU), Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team, Europe (FASTEUR), and multi-domain sensing forces. TF 61/2 is deployed in NAVEUR’s area of responsibility, employed by U.S. Sixth Fleet to support U.S., allied, and partner interests.

Formidable Shield is a biennial, integrated air and missile defense (IAMD) exercise involving a series of live-fire events against subsonic and supersonic targets, incorporating multiple Allied ships, ground forces, and aviation forces working across battlespaces to deliver effects. Formidable Shield demonstrates Alliance cohesion, cutting-edge capacity and capability, and NATO Allies’ combined commitment to the deterrence and defense of NATO territory.

Task Force 61/2 Communication Strategy and Operations will post imagery on TF 61/2’s Defense Visual Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS) page, accessible using the link below.

For imagery and video of the event, please visit

DVIDS: https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/TaskForce61

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NavalAmphibiousForcesEurope

Twitter: https://twitter.com/taskforce61_2

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taskforce61_2

MONTEREY, Calif. (NPS) – For the first time in four years, acquisition professionals from the government, academic and private sectors gathered in Monterey as the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) hosted its 20th annual Acquisition Research Symposium, May 10-11. This year’s event marked a return to in-person sessions after three years of virtual gatherings, offering nearly 800 registered attendees the chance to engage with senior officials from the DOD and Department of the Navy.

Co-hosted by NPS’ Acquisition Research Program (ARP) and the Naval Warfare Studies Institute (NWSI), the symposium provided an invaluable opportunity for NPS faculty and students, as well as other attendees from academia and industry, to experience a wide range of perspectives from leaders in the defense acquisition domain.

“I’ve come to this event as a researching practitioner, writing papers and giving presentations to both improve the business of acquisition, but also to stretch the things that I want to investigate and see different,” said Nickolas Guertin, the Department of Defense’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) and one of the event’s keynote speakers. “This time I came because I wanted to give back to a venue that has been of great value to me.”

Guertin, who has attended and presented at the Acquisition Research Symposium for more than a decade, was joined this year by a number of DOD and DON senior leaders, including U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Francis Morley, Principal Military Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition (RD&A), and U.S. Army Lt. Gen. David Bassett, director of the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA).

Remote participation was also offered as an option for attendees and speakers, including William LaPlante, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, who delivered the symposium’s kickoff address. During his remarks, LaPlante brought up a major theme of the symposium – the continued importance of research and analytics to inform decision-making and fuel innovation in the defense acquisitions process.

“What are the production rates? Are the production rates truly going up? How are we fixing the supply chain? Data-driven analytics on all those things is sorely needed,” said LaPlante. For him and others, this data is important to help DOD better understand and optimize its relationship with industry partners that provide many of the United States’ warfighting capabilities.

Speaking from his perspective in the testing and evaluation realm, Guertin echoed LaPlante’s sentiments, encouraging members of the acquisition community to use their skills and the tools at their disposal to tackle the big issues – not just those facing the T&E world, but in other research and development areas within DOD.

“We want to be a part of it – that changing dynamic landscape. We want to be customers of acquisition research,” said Guertin. “And we must engage these changing practices from the position of informed research – which you can help us with – that can show our progress.”

As with previous events, this year’s Acquisition Research Symposium featured presentations of research papers and briefings, with a focus on recently completed and ongoing projects sponsored by the DOD and DON and conducted by researchers at a variety of institutions.

Panel topics included the use of emerging technologies such as additive manufacturing (AM), artificial intelligence (AI), and digital engineering in the acquisition process; strategies for acquisition in the space domain; the current state of investment in the United States’ defense industrial base; and the future of acquisition for the U.S. Navy and Army.

NPS students also had an opportunity to present and discuss their research with attendees during a student poster show on May 10. Senior defense acquisition officials and other researchers, many of whom served as panelists or keynote speakers during the two days of the symposium, offered their comments and critiques on the students’ research projects and priorities.

“When you hear these research projects, please ask questions, challenge assumptions, challenge the work and the analysis,” said retired Vice Adm. Ann Rondeau, president of NPS, during her opening remarks. “If we’re not doing that, this is the opportunity to do it.”

NPS established the Acquisition Research Program in 2003 to deliver research that informs and improves acquisition policy and practice for the warfighter. A year later, the Acquisition Research Symposium made its debut, expanding on the ARP’s mission by providing an open forum for the presentation of scholarly research on acquisition.

Ever since, the symposium has helped to foster dialogue among scholars, policymakers and acquisition practitioners on important procurement and logistics issues. ARP uses these connections to enhance research from graduate students in NPS’ Department of Defense Management, providing research topics and other resources that help students deliver professional final research projects with operational relevance.

Morley explained how NPS students benefit from the opportunity to present their research at the symposium.

“I would put it in one word – perspective,” said Morley. “So the best definition I think I’ve ever read on strategic thinking, strategic leadership, is having perspective of being able to see a problem from multiple different angles and truly understanding it. And that is the only hope of coming up with a mostly right answer and direction to go.

“So this type of forum, this type of event provides them with perspective, learning from current practitioners, learning from thought leaders, learning from multiple different organizations, military, civilian, other countries. And interacting gives extreme perspective which will benefit them as they go forward and solve the problems that we leave them.”

The Naval Postgraduate School provides defense-focused graduate education, including classified studies and interdisciplinary research, to advance the operational effectiveness, technological leadership and warfighting advantage of the Naval service. For additional information, visit NPS online at http://www.nps.edu.

U.S. 5th Fleet awarded four Sailors, May 10, to honor them for providing assistance to four victims of a car accident in Oman last month.

Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces, presented awards to three Navy divers and a medical corpsman during a ceremony at the U.S. Embassy in Muscat, Oman.

Chief Navy Diver Davin Jameson was traveling on a highway in Oman with three other Sailors, April 23, when they spotted four victims of a car accident who needed medical assistance. Without hesitation, Jameson along with Navy Diver 2nd Class Nicolas Arpaia, Navy Diver 2nd Class Benjamin Ching and Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Alec White, stopped to help.

“Being of service that afternoon was a humbling experience,” said Jameson. “The corpsman on our team is trained for a lot of different scenarios, but it was the first time the rest of us were responding to an emergency situation like this.”

While waiting for Omani medical services to arrive, the team provided first aid to the victims suffering from shock, heat stress and traumatic injuries. Although one of the accident victims died due to the severity of his injuries, the Navy dive team’s life-saving efforts were crucial to the survival of the other three.

“It made me appreciate the training we do because it made responding to the crash much easier,” said Jameson.

The Sailors are members of U.S. 5th Fleet’s task force for expeditionary combat forces that operate across the Middle East. Expeditionary combat forces specialize in explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), naval coastal warfare, naval construction, expeditionary intelligence and expeditionary logistics support.

The U.S. 5th Fleet operating area includes 21 countries, the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea, parts of the Indian Ocean and three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, Bab al-Mandeb and Suez Canal.