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Feature - Cold War Tin Cans : Wrap Up

Join us for the campaign wrap up of Cold War Tin Cans Around the World.
Feature




American Fleet Tug Museum

Today’s website is the American Fleet Tug Museum. The AMERICAN FLEET TUG MUSEUM in San Rafael, CA, was founded to provide an educational forum as well as to increase public awareness regarding the historic significance of our nation's fleet of ocean going rescue/salvage vessels and all those who proudly served aboard them. Enjoy.
Website




This Day in U.S. Naval History

1776 - The first amphibious landing operation takes place. A Continental naval squadron, under Commodore Esek Hopkins, lands Sailors and Marines, commanded by Capt. Samuel Nicholas, on New Providence Island in the Bahamas. They capture urgently-needed ordnance and gunpowder.
1871 - The Navy Medical Corps is established.
1883 - Congress authorizes four modern ships of steel, "A, B, C, D Ships"; three cruisers, Atlanta, Boston and Chicago, and dispatch boat Dolphin.
1915 - The Office of Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) is established.
1915 - Congress creates the Federal Naval Reserve. Under it, the Naval Reserve Force is built up.
1960 - USS Sargo (SSN 583) returns to Hawaii from an Arctic cruise of 11,000 miles - 6,003 miles under the polar ice.


NFL Players Missing off Florida Coast
Source: FOX Sports

CLEARWATER, Fla. - At sundown on Sunday, Marquis Cooper's silver Chevrolet truck with a trailer attached remained parked at the Seminole Boat Ramp. A cold wind whipped in off pitch-black Clearwater Pass.
A handwritten note, tucked under the driver's side wiper blade, flapped against the windshield.
"Please contact the Coast Guard,'' the note read, giving a number. "Someone was worried about your welfare. Thank you. I know nothing more.
"Off. Schmidt Clwr PD''
The unanswered note made a chilling statement.

As the Coast Guard continued to scour the Gulf of Mexico in what it called an active search, hope was running out for Cooper and his fellow missing fishermen: former NFL teammate Corey Smith, William Bleakley and Nick Schuyler. The terror of being lost at sea was becoming a reality.

Officer John Schmidt of the City of Clearwater Police Department left the note in response to a call the Coast Guard received at about 1:30 a.m. Cooper, Smith, Bleakley and Schuyler had not returned as scheduled from a fishing trip into the Gulf. They had launched from the public facility at about 6:30 a.m. Saturday.

Fishing and football brought these four large men, all in their 20s, together.
Cooper and Smith became friends when teammates with the Tampa Bay Bucs in 2004. Cooper spent last season as a reserve linebacker with Oakland. Smith played defensive end with winless Detroit and was prepared to explore free agency.

Bleakley and Schuyler never reached that level. Both were walk-ons at the University of South Florida. Bleakley became a letterman at tight end. Schuyler, a defensive lineman, never played.
They all liked salt-water fishing. Cooper had applied a decal of the tarpon, a local game fish prized for its fighting ability, on the blacked-out back window of his truck.

The weather was good when they set out: warm temperatures with two- to four-feet waves. Later in the day, waves increased to three to five feet as a cold front approached.

The men were in a 21-foot center-console single-engine boat. A few local veteran fishermen call it a "party boat.'' Friends looking to relax and maybe catch a few fish take it on the intercoastal waterway or few miles out into the Gulf but not much beyond that. Waves of more than three feet can cause problems for the mid-size boat.
For some reason, the foursome went well out in the Gulf. The Coast Guard said it was focusing its search on a 750-square mile area about 50 miles off the coast.

The Coast Guard said it based the starting point on information received from the families about previous outings. Taking a 21-foot boat that far out is asking for trouble, the local fishermen said. They wondered if the engine had failed, or if having about 1,000 pounds of passengers had caused a balance problem.

Conditions deteriorated as Saturday turned into Sunday. The National Weather Service issued a small-craft warning as high winds created choppy conditions with waves of more than seven feet. Seven-plus foot waves can capsize a 21-foot boat.

At 2 a.m., the Coast Guard started the search by sending out a 47-foot motor life boat. A Jayhawk helicopter, a C-130 Hercules fixed-wing airplane and the cutter Crocodile quickly followed. In the evening, another Coast Guard helicopter, two Air Force helicopters and the cutter Nantucket joined the operation.
In an afternoon news conference, Coast Guard Capt. Timothy Close said the searchers were following a computer program that takes into account wind, wave and weather data to predict where a disabled boat might drift. The program suggested a drift to the northeast.

With waves reaching 14 feet, the seas were so rough that the motor life boat was forced to return to its station by mid-morning. Close would not say how long the search will continue. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will begin searching inland waters on Monday, when the bad weather is expected to continue.
Veterans of the Gulf said the time for rescue may have passed. They feared hypothermia. The Gulf water temperature on Sunday was 60 degrees.


"Stick your arm in 60-degree water for about 10 minutes, and see how it feels,'' one of the fishermen said. "It'll be numb in no time. Just imagine what that would do to you if you were in it for a while.''
After a sleepless night, Schuyler's father and step-mother, Stuart and Jackie, came to the Seminole Boat Ramp. They walked around Cooper's truck before breaking down in tears and embracing.

Stuart Schuyler later told the FOX television affiliate in Tampa that he appreciated the efforts of the Coast Guard and had not given up hope for his son's party.
"Who knows what the circumstances are out there?'' he said.
As midnight neared, that mystery remained. Like a devoted sentry, Cooper's truck remained in a deserted parking lot. Usually, there would be signs of activity in the area as night anglers headed out, but this was no night for fishing.


Energy Storage for Naval Applications: Saft and DCNS Formalise Their Alliance In Innovative Technologies
Source: DCNS

John Searle, Chairman of the Management Board of Saft, and Jacques Mouysset, Strategy and Development Director of DCNS, have signed a framework agreement that strengthens the alliance over the long term. The two companies will operate as a national center for innovative technologies covering electrical energy storage for all military naval products including frigates, submarines, torpedoes, autonomous underwater or surface vehicles (AUV-ASV), etc.

This framework collaboration agreement is designed in the best technical, industrial and commercial interests of Saft and DCNS. Following many years of cooperation in ad hoc agreements in the field of energy storage, the companies will now work together on a long term basis.

The underlying logic for this agreement is to increase synergies between both groups. Saft focuses on innovative energy storage technologies (batteries and accumulators) for industrial applications. DCNS designs and builds military vessels fitted with platform management systems, propulsion systems and weapons systems that meet a high level of technical requirements. The optimisation of electrical energy storage is a key component of the technical performance of these warships systems.

The objectives for strengthening cooperation between Saft and DCNS include technological and investment decisions at a very early stage based on market developments. This framework collaboration agreement applies with immediate effect, to adapting innovative Li-ion technologies to conventional submarine propulsion and torpedoes, while extending cooperation on AgO-Al batteries for torpedoes.

The industrial cooperation created by Saft and DCNS will increase both companies’ competitive advantages in their respective naval military, national and export markets.

The DCNS Group is one of Europe’s leading players on the world market for naval defence systems. To meet customer demands for more comprehensive and integrated systems, DCNS acts as prime contractor for naval shipbuilding, integration and support by combining its own development, marketing and production capabilities with those of selected partners. The DCNS Group employs 13,000 people and generates annual revenues of around EUR 2.8 billion.

Saft is a world specialist in the design and manufacture of high-tech batteries for industry. Saft batteries are used in high performance applications, such as industrial infrastructure and processes, transportation, space and defence. With approximately 4,000 employees worldwide, Saft is present in 18 countries. Its 15 manufacturing sites and extensive sales network enable the group to serve its customers worldwide.




AIR 7000 Phase 1B
Source: Australian Department of Defense

The Minister for Defence, the Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon MP, today announced that the Government has decided not to proceed on to the next partnership phase of the United States Navy in the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program.

Under Project AIR 7000 Phase 1B, Defence aims to acquire an uninhabited aerial surveillance system based on the Global Hawk aircraft built by Northrop Grumman.

The delivery schedule for the United States Navy’s BAMS program has slipped and resulted in the earliest possible in-service date for the BAMS aircraft moving out to 2015.

“Introducing such an advanced new aircraft at this time would have caused incredible workforce pressures on the Australian Defence Force, particularly given the requirement to transition the Air Force’s AP-3C Orion fleet to a new manned surveillance aircraft in the same time period,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.

“The Australian Government has taken swift action to alleviate these transitional issues by declining the option to continue on with further collaboration with the United States Navy’s developmental program at this time.”

Defence will continue to closely monitor the progression of BAMS and other similar unmanned aircraft programs. These broader intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities will be fully covered in the White Paper.

“The Australian Government has every confidence that the United States Navy BAMS program will deliver a very capable uninhabited aircraft. However, at this stage in the development of this project, it is in Australia’s best interests to not knowingly risk incurring the unmanageable workforce chaos that would result.

“Blindly pushing on with the program would have placed a huge and unnecessary strain on our personnel in trying to potentially manage three separate airframes at the one time and I was not prepared to place this unnecessary burden on our men and women in uniform,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.

Northrop Grumman Remains Confident that Global Hawk is Ideal for Australia
Northrop Grumman

CANBERRA, Australian Capital Territory –-- Northrop Grumman Corporation expressed its disappointment today that Australia will not be joining the system design and development phase of the U.S. Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System (BAMS UAS) program.

Australia was the only international participant in the BAMS UAS selection process that saw Northrop Grumman’s high altitude, long endurance Global Hawk chosen as the basis of the U.S. Navy’s unmanned maritime surveillance capability.

John Brooks, president of Northrop Grumman International, said that Northrop Grumman remained confident the Global Hawk UAS is ideal for Australia’s demanding military and civilian surveillance requirements saying that Northrop Grumman hoped to work with the U.S. and Australian government officials to make Global Hawk available to Australia.

“We are not yet aware of the details of the Australian decision, although we understand that financial pressures on the Australian defence budget were a major factor,” Brooks said. “We also appreciate that the Australian government remains committed to utilizing unmanned surveillance to complement its manned surveillance assets.”

Brooks said that Northrop Grumman was keen to discuss alternative acquisition arrangements with Australia’s Department of Defence.

“Global Hawk is ideal for Australia. It’s a transformational capability that has the speed and endurance to watch over Australia’s vast land and maritime jurisdictions. Global Hawk would also make an ideal national security asset, performing a wide array of civilian roles, such response to natural disasters, bushfires, environmental monitoring, and drug interdiction in addition to its very considerable military tasking.”

Brooks noted the considerable contribution that a Global Hawk made in response to recent Californian bush fires. “A Global Hawk assisted fire fighters to track the movement of fire fronts and to monitor the evacuation of residents under threat.”

“We hope to talk with U.S. and Australian government officials in the near future to agree on a solution that delivers this capability to Australia within its resourcing constraints” said Brooks.

Global Hawk is a high altitude (up to 65,000 feet - 19.8 km), long endurance (more than 30 hours), unmanned aerial reconnaissance system designed to provide commanders with high-resolution, near-real-time imagery of large geographic areas.

As part of the stand-up of the first of several planned forward-operating locations across the globe, U.S. Air Force Global Hawks will be permanently deployed into the Western Pacific region where bed-down preparations are already under way. In the future, the U.S. Navy BAMS UAS aircraft (which are based upon the Global Hawk), with their focus on maritime surveillance, will patrol not just the Western Pacific region but also worldwide. They are currently under development for the U.S. Navy.

Australia has been working closely with the U.S. to develop Global Hawk unmanned surveillance technology since 1999. As part of a cooperative agreement between the United States and Australian governments, a Global Hawk made a record-breaking autonomous voyage from Edwards Air Force Base to RAAF Edinburgh in early 2001. The UAS has gone on to prove itself an invaluable asset in Middle East operations.

Australia’s Global Hawks would:
--Provide persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities;
--Enhance military interoperability and support regional cooperation on ISR;
--Be able to quickly survey huge areas to inform military and civilian decision-making;
--Contribute to a wide variety of military and civilian operations;
--Greatly enhance Australia’s ability to monitor and protect its land and maritime territories and economic exclusion zone;
--Help facilitate a whole-of-government approach to national security; and
--Remove ADF personnel from hazardous situations.


Photo of the Day



The guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) fires its MK-45 five-inch gun system during a gunnery exercise.

Gator