Marine and Air Force collaboration, cooperation, integration and
resource investments,” according to
a Defense Department statement.
Five Navy Squadrons
Slated To Be Cut in 2012
The Navy has decided to deactivate
three fleet logistics support (VR)
squadrons in 2012, according to an
Oct. 11 directive from the Office of
the Chief of Naval Operations. It
also has determined the specific
fleet air reconnaissance (VQ)
squadron and the special projects
patrol (VPU) squadron that will be
deactivated and consolidated with
sister squadrons.
The three VR squadrons, scheduled for deactivation on Sept. 30,
represent one-fifth of the 15 VR
squadrons operated for the fleet by
the Navy Reserve. Two of the
squadrons, VR- 46, based at Naval
Air Station (NAS) Joint Reserve
Base Fort Worth, Texas, and VR- 52,
stationed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., operate the C-
9B Skytrain II transport. VR- 48,
based at Joint Base Andrews-Naval
Air Facility Washington, Md., flies
two C-20G Gulfstream IV transports. The aircraft from all three
squadrons will be retired, leaving
only one Navy squadron, VR- 61 at
NAS Whidbey Island, Wash., operating the C-9B.
VQ- 2 is slated to be deactivated
in fiscal 2012 and merge with VQ-
1, according to Lt. Nathanael
Curtis, a Navy spokesman. Both
units are based at Whidbey Island.
VPU- 1 at NAS Jacksonville, Fla.,
will be deactivated and merged
with VPU- 2 at Marine Corps Air
Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. Dates
for the VQ and VPU deactivations
have not yet been announced.
The Navy also has withdrawn its
remaining UC-12B Huron light
transport aircraft from its stateside
air stations, although newer versions will continue to serve at overseas bases.
“The financial demands of the
Navy can no longer justify the
need for these small aircraft within
the United States with the availability of commercial transportation,” a Navy spokeswoman said.
The one-of-a-kind NC-12B version, used by the Naval Air Warfare
Center to test sonobuoys, has been
retired and superseded in its role by
S-3B Viking range-control aircraft
based at NAS Point Mugu, Calif.
The reductions are being made in
accordance with the budget efficiencies identified by the Navy in its
planning for the fiscal 2013 budget.
Navy Strengthens
Undersea Surveillance
The U.S. Navy is taking measures
to strengthen its Integrated Undersea Surveillance (IUSS) forces
— the ships and acoustic arrays
that conduct passive surveillance
of potentially hostile submarine
forces.
The IUSS forces include five ocean
surveillance (T-AGOS) ships —
which tow acoustic arrays in the
ocean and collect locating data on
submarines of interest — as well as
two Naval Oceanographic Processing
Facilities (NOPFs) ashore.
Rear Adm. Frank Caldwell Jr.,
commander, Submarine Force,
U.S. Pacific Fleet, told an audience
at the Naval Submarine League
symposium Oct. 19 in McLean,
Va., the Navy has adapted a dual
crew concept to keep its T-AGOS
ships deployed for longer periods.
“Since November 2010, the IUSS
commands have deployed 15 crews
aboard five T-AGOS ships for a total
of over 1,300 days at sea,” Caldwell
said. “These Sailors, along with the
ones at the Naval Oceanographic
Processing Facilities [NOPFs], are
critical to our day-to-day undersea
dominance.”
Caldwell said the Navy also has
opened a detachment of the Sub-
marine Learning Center at one of the
NOPFs, commissioned some shore-
based training simulators to improve
the training of IUSS personnel and
completed its first-ever tactical readi-
ness evaluations of its NOPFs.
Report: Maritime Act
Remains Valuable
The Jones Act provides vital
national security needs, and without it the United States would face
the danger of a rapid decline in its
Merchant Marine fleet, according
to a report released in October by
the Washington-based Lexington
Institute.
“It would then be required to
provide massive subsidies to that
industry, pay exorbitant prices for
naval vessels and rely on foreign-
owned or -flagged vessels to carry
critical military cargoes or to build
and maintain at great expense a
unique, government-owned fleet of
cargo vessels,” said the report,
titled, “The Contribution of The
Jones Act to U.S. Security.”
The Jones Act, signed into law
in 1920, mandates the use of ves-
sels that are American crewed,
built and owned to move cargo
between two U.S. ports.
The report, penned by Daniel
Gouré, Lexington Institute vice
president, said the future of the
U.S. Navy and its commercial maritime industries is intimately
linked. It also said the relevance of
the act to U.S. national security
now and in the future must be
judged in light of the continuing
threats America faces overseas and
the nation’s requirements for naval
power and sealift. ;
Reporting by Seapower Correspondent
Megan Scully. Managing Editor Richard
R. Burgess, Assistant Editor John C.
Marcario and Special Correspondent
Otto Kreisher contributed to this report.
