Welcome to MSW’s Scuttlebutt! Here’s the news for the day.



Feature - German submarine U-4 (1935)
MSW crew-mate Pasi Kiiski (Pasigo) sends in his first submission, German submarine U-4 (1935), in this MSW "On Display" feature! Enjoy.




Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquei Signs a Contract with the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Navy for an ASW Suite Jointly Supplied with Thales
Source: Thales UK

LIVORNO, Italy / PARIS, France --- Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquei (WASS) and Thales are pleased to announce the signature of a contract with the UAE GHQ Armed Forces for the supply of an Anti-Submarine-Warfare (ASW) suite to the UAE Navy.

Under the terms of the contract, the WASS / Thales / Eurotorp team will provide a comprehensive ASW system composed of a sonar suite with its underwater communication telephone, torpedo decoy launching systems and light weight torpedo launching system. All the systems will be provided to the UAE Navy and installed on the “Abu Dhabi” class corvette by Fincantieri.

“The UAE Navy will benefit from a state-of-the-art ASW capability. The increasing success of our anti torpedo countermeasure system proves the need of acquiring a highly performing self defence capability against the new generation of torpedoes in the market today. Moreover, due to its modularity, such an ASW System will significantly enhance the ASW capabilities of different Navies with similar needs”, commented Filippo D’Antoni, WASS Commercial Director.

Thales, as a subcontractor to WASS, will provide the sonar suite including the hull mounted Kingklip sonar and its low frequency active variable depth sonar, the Captas Nano.

“At Thales we are particularly proud of this contract award. Drawing on the many successes of the well-known CAPTAS product family, this CAPTAS NANO contract highlights the relevance of our approach to move towards compact sonar systems that are perfectly suited for mid-size platforms”, said Marc Darmon, Senior Vice President of Thales and Head of Naval Division.

BACKGROUND NOTES:
Surface ship based Anti-Submarine Warfare against conventional submarines presents numerous challenges, particularly in littoral waters. The CAPTAS Nano is the result of Thales’s over 20 years experience in Low Frequency Active Sonars (LFAS).

It is a sophisticated, highly-capable product, yet light-weight & compact without compromising performance. The CAPTAS Nano’s unique design is based on a horizontal transmit array and a linear receive array, all in single tow, recoverable onto a simple, single-drum winch. Highly cost-effective, the sonar can be installed on a wide range of ship classes including corvettes and OPVs.


Global Cooperation Grows Among Navies, Nations
Source: US Department of Defense

WASHINGTON --- Cooperation is growing between navies and commercial shipping interests in many nations, a Navy official said yesterday.

“Industries, navies and nations are in agreement that we need to have this understanding not only just for security reasons, but also for safety to avoid collisions at sea and to ensure legitimate practices,” Navy Rear Adm. M. Stewart O'Bryan, director of Navy’s maritime domain awareness, said during a “DoDLive” bloggers roundtable.

O’Bryan spoke with bloggers from Rhode Island, where he was attending the 19th Annual Seapower Symposium hosted by the chief of naval operations and the U.S. Naval War College. More than 100 nations were represented at the conference, he said.

The motivation to work together was strong, O’Bryan said, due to the complexity of maritime issues and budget limitations.

“While these organizations perform their assigned missions well, no organization has enough resources, whether money, people or equipment, to do it all by themselves,” he said.

O’Bryan pointed out that there is much to be gained when nations share maritime data, including improved situation awareness, increased trust and cooperation, and expedited commerce. In the long run, he said, multinational collaboration between navies and coast guards will lead to enhanced security that will contribute to global prosperity.

Another benefit, he added, is that best practices and lessons learned can be shared. Recent dialogue between navies already has paid off in several cases.

“Piracy levels have decreased in the Straits of Malacca [in Indonesia] because of this kind of sharing of information and security that provides the ships’ safe and free navigation across choke points, [and also] we’ve seen recent improvements in the Gulf of Aden.”

O’Bryan said U.S. efforts to boost the maritime domain awareness strategy include recent work to consolidate U.S. maritime operations centers and to link them together. Today, the network of eight centers located around the world operates on a combined network and work continues to integrate their capabilities and grant them access to the same data sources. Another project will integrate naval installation regional operations centers with maritime operations centers.

The maritime domain awareness effort also is engaged in dialogue with the U.S. Coast Guard to facilitate its homeland defense mission, he said.




Nimitz Celebrates Its 100,000th Catapult Shot
Source: US Navy

USS NIMITZ, At Sea --- The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) reached a milestone in history when an EA-6B Prowler, assigned to Tactical Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 135, became the 100,000th aircraft to launch off Catapult Number 1 Oct. 7.

The successful launch was flown by Cmdr. Vincent Johnson, the executive officer of VAQ-135.

"It's obviously a really cool achievement," said Johnson. "It's a little piece of history that I can always take with me."

A ceremony was held Oct. 9 to celebrate this achievement.

"It has been 34 years with 22 sets of work ups, and it's all possible because of the people that work on this to make it happen," said Nimitz Commanding Officer Capt. Paul Monger, during the ceremony. "The fact is this has been kept up for years, and it's tremendous. It's impressive to watch these guys work every day."

Nimitz Air Boss Cmdr. Eric Wright kick started the celebration with admiration for Air Department's V-2 Division that helped to make the launch successful.

"We have about 30 people on that catapult for 10-12 hours a day and around 25 people on nights to make this happen," said Wright. "When you add it all up, it is years of peoples' lives invested, and it's invested for a worthy cause."

Also helping to make the mission possible was the team of people from Air Department's V-4 Division consisting of maintainers, catapult and panel operators and crew members on the flight deck.

"I was the deck edge operator, and I was the one who controlled the catapult for the launch," said Aviation Boatswains Mate Equipment (AW/SW) 2nd Class Alanso ChaconGalindo. "I have been here since 2005, and this is the only catapult out of four that's reached 100,000 launches."

"All of my guys are important out here to make all of this happen," said Chief Aviation Boatswains Mate Equipment (AW) Soji Thomas. "This could not happen without team work."

By accomplishing this milestone, the crew members of Nimitz showed once again why Nimitz's motto is 'Teamwork… a tradition.'

Nimitz is the first Nimitz-class, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and was commissioned in 1975. The ship is named after World War II Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz.

Nimitz Carrier Strike Group (CSG), commanded by Rear Adm. John W. Miller, is comprised of Nimitz, embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11, embarked Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 23, and the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Chosin (CG 65). Ships assigned to DESRON 23 include the destroyers USS Pinckney (DDG 91), USS Sampson (DDG 102) and the frigate USS Rentz (FFG 46).

Squadrons from CVW 11 include the "Black Aces" of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 41, the "Tophatters" of VFA 14, the "Warhawks" of VFA 97, the "Sidewinders" of VFA 86, the "Indians" of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 6, the "Black Ravens" of Electronic Attack Squadron 135, the "Providers" of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 30 and the "Wallbangers" of Carrier Airborne Command and Control Squadron 117.

Helicopter detachments include the "Easy Riders" of Helicopter Anti-submarine Squadron Light (HSL) 37, the "Battle Cats" of HSL 43, the "Wolfpack" of HSL 45, the "Scorpions" of HSL 49 and the "Wildcards" of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23. Also accompanying the Nimitz CSG are Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 11 and the USNS Bridge (T-AOE 10).




Royal Naval vessels in Plymouth Sound in World War II

Today’s website is Royal Naval vessels in Plymouth Sound in World War II. Enjoy.


This Day in U.S. Naval History

1921 - In first successful test, a compressed-air, turntable catapult, launches a N-9 seaplane.
1922 - Lt. Cmdr. Godfrey de Chevalier makes fhe first landing aboard a carrier, USS Langley (CV 1), while underway off Cape Henry, Va.
1942 - USS Hornet (CV 8 ) was lost and USS Enterprise (CV 6) was badly damaged during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Island.
1944 - Battle of Leyte Gulf ends with Navy carrier and U.S. Army Air Forces aircraft attacks on the retreating Japanese ships. U.S. forces sink many Japanese ships, including four carriers, three battleships, 10 cruisers and nine destroyers, for a total of 26 capital ships.
1944 - Special Task Air Group 1 makes last attack in month-long demonstration of TDR drone missile against Japanese shipping and islands in the Pacific. Of 46 missiles fired, 29 reached their target areas.
1950 - U.S. Amphibious Force 7th Fleet lands 1st Marine Division at Wonsan, Korea.
1963 - USS Andrew Jackson (SSBN 619) launches first Polaris A-3 missile from a submerged submarine, off Cape Canaveral, Fla.


Photo of the Day



The guided-missile cruiser USS Chosin (CG 65) transits in the Indian Ocean.

Gator