John Currin
15 years in Royal New Zealand Navy
US Navy unmanned surface vessels arrive in Sydney
27 OCTOBER 2023 By: Robert Dougherty
The unmanned surface vessel Sea Hunter transits underneath the Sydney Harbor bridge as part of a scheduled port visit. Photo: US Navy/Ensign Pierson Hawkins.
Several unmanned surface vessels – Ranger, Mariner, Seahawk, and Sea Hunter – made their way to Sydney ahead of bilateral exercises with the Royal Australian Navy.
USVs Ranger, Mariner, Seahawk, and Sea Hunter from Unmanned Surface Vessel Division One (USVDIV-1) arrived in Australia and travelled underneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge for a scheduled port visit on 24 October.
It’s understood an ongoing Pacific Fleet exercise will test, develop, and evaluate the integration of unmanned platforms into fleet operations to create warfighting advantages.
During the exercises, USVDIV-1 will collaborate with the RAN on testing unmanned systems in concert with industry partners to advance a shared understanding of these capabilities to meet strategic requirements.
“I look forward to furthering the strong relationship our navies have worked hard to create,” according to US Navy Commander Jeremiah Daley, commanding officer of USVDIV-1.
“Our shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific relies upon developing these advanced capabilities that will create the asymmetric warfighting advantages to deter aggression in contested environments.”
The Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Oakland has also arrived in Sydney alongside the USVs and all five US Navy vessels are being employed in the ongoing US Pacific Fleet exercise Integrated Battle Problem 23.2.
It’s hoped the exercise will develop concepts of operations for future unmanned programs of record and further integrated USVs into routine operations alongside manned surface combatants.
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“In order to develop a program as different and disruptive as small, medium, and large USVs, integrating with allies and partners early and consistently in its development is key to our success,” said CDR Daley.
“Through exercises like IBP 23.2 and Autonomous Warrior, we continue to learn from experience in an operational theatre and deepen our interoperable strength.”
USVDIV-1’s mission is to test, evaluate, and operate in support of integrating USVs into fleet operations and provide recommendations to Navy leadership on the development of unmanned systems.
It’s understood the USV vessels are manned while conducting harbour operations, however, they are 100 per cent autonomous with no crew aboard at sea under normal operation.
The US 7th Fleet is the US Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific to preserve a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
The Australian Defence Force has previously partnered with defence industry companies in the development of autonomous vehicles, including autonomous underwater vehicles for the Royal Australian Navy.
USS Saint Paul (CA-73), a Baltimore-class cruiser, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Saint Paul, Minnesota.
iUSS Sant Paul (CA-73)
The U.S. Navy heavy cruiser USS Saint Paul (CA-73) off Wonsan, Korea, with guns ready for bombardment, 20 April 1951.
Her keel was laid down as Rochester on 3 February 1943 by the Bethlehem Steel Company in Quincy, Massachusetts. She was launched on 16 September 1944 sponsored by Mrs. Marie Gordon McDonough,[1] wife of John J. McDonough, then mayor of Saint Paul; and commissioned on 17 February 1945, Captain Ernest H. von Heimburg in command. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 31 July 1978, and was sold for scrapping in January 1980.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Saint_Paul_(CA-73)
How significant were the Coastwatchers during WWII?
Oct 26, 2023
4 minute read
After Imperial Japan formally kicked off World War II in the Pacific by attacking the U.S. Navy fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in December 1941, Japanese forces made lightning-fast advances in the South Pacific. By early 1942, Japan had occupied all of southeast Asia, threatening India in the west, Australia in the south, and Hawaii in the east.
Surging from former Imperial German island colonies in the central Pacific that Japan had acquired at the end of World War I, they quickly overran island archipelagos, such as the Admiralties and the Solomons in the far South Pacific, close to Australia. These remote islands often had plantations owned by individuals and corporations and administered by Australian, New Zealand, and British nationals.
While the Japanese conquest was rapid, it had been long anticipated by Australian, New Zealand and British military intelligence agencies. As far back as the 1920s and 1930s, plantation owners and managers on these remote islands were actively recruited, trained, and supplied with radios and other equipment by Australian military intelligence. When the war broke out, these civilian volunteers became the Coastwatchers. The force grew to over six hundred personnel serving behind the Japanese lines.
Formally known by names such as the Coast Watch Organisation, Combined Field Intelligence Service or Section C, Allied Intelligence Bureau, they began to observe and report enemy movements and rescue nationals from Allied nations stranded by the Japanese onslaught. The work was dangerous, and in addition to working behind Japanese lines with extremely limited resources and supplies, they had to contend with life-threatening tropical diseases. Many civilian Coastwatchers were rugged, independent types who had good relations with and the trust of local Indigenous island peoples. Some of the islands had Indigenous police, constabulary, and paramilitary organizations in place before the war. When the Imperial Japanese demonstrated their typical contempt for conquered peoples and implemented heavy-handed control over the Indigenous populations, the Coastwatchers soon had many ready recruits.
With radar in its infancy, and given the vast distances involved, the Coastwatchers and their Indigenous allies became indispensable in providing early warning of Imperial Japanese aircraft and ships headed out to attack the Allies in various island campaigns, such as Guadalcanal. U.S. Admiral William Halsey Jr., the acerbic commander of Naval forces during the Solomon Islands campaign, gave high praise to the Coastwatchers: “The Coastwatchers saved Guadalcanal, and Guadalcanal saved the South Pacific.”
Many downed Allied fliers and shipwrecked sailors were also rescued by Indigenous people working with coastwatcher organizations, who sometimes had to barter for these airmen with neutral tribes who had not yet encountered the Japanese. When future U.S. president John F. Kennedy’s patrol boat, PT 109, was destroyed in action against the Japanese Navy in the waters around Guadalcanal, Kennedy, and the surviving members of his crew were rescued through the efforts of an Australian coastwatcher. In July 2022, Australian Coastwatchers James Burrowes and Ronald George Lee were still living and were honored in a wreath-laying ceremony by U.S. Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President Kennedy, at the Australian War Memorial in the capital city of Canberra.
“The event was a very special and personal acknowledgment by Ambassador Kennedy and the US government of the role we had as Aussie Coastwatchers eight decades ago. I am proud at 98 to meet Her Excellency and share Coastwatcher stories. The time I spent in the Solomons and other locations as a Coastwatcher is as vivid today as it was then. It has been an honor to participate in this memorial event,” Australian World War II veteran Mr. Ronald (Dixie) George Lee said.
As the war in the South Pacific progressed, the traditional role of coast watching organizations to observe, and report expanded to the even more dangerous work of reconnoitering potential landing beaches as the Allies began their strategic island-hopping campaign towards the home islands of Japan. Forehand knowledge of the reefs, tides, and shore conditions of remote, Japanese-held islands was critical to successful amphibious assaults. Although many Coastwatchers were formally commissioned as officers in the Australian Naval Reserves, for their protection in case of capture, this was disregarded by the Japanese. In 1942, 17 New Zealand Coastwatchers were captured in the Gilbert Islands and were executed by the Japanese in October 1942 following an American air raid, part of the preparation for the attack on Tarawa by the U.S. Marines.
Although they rarely engaged in open combat, the Coast Watchers performed missions, such as beach reconnaissance and organizing local forces in occupied territory, that would later come under unconventional warfare units such as the U.S. Navy SEALS, the British Special Air Service, and U.S. Special Forces.
HMS Curacoa was a C-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. She was one of the five ships of the Ceres sub-class and spent much of her career as a flagship.
The ship was assigned to the Harwich Force during the war, but saw little action as she was completed less than a year before the war ended. Briefly assigned to the Atlantic Fleet in early 1919, Curacoa was deployed to the Baltic in May to support anti-Bolshevik forces during the British campaign in the Baltic during the Russian Civil War. Shortly thereafter the ship struck a naval mine and had to return home for repairs.
After spending the rest of 1919 and 1920 in reserve, she rejoined the Atlantic Fleet until 1928, aside from a temporary transfer to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1922–1923 to support British interests in Turkey during the Chanak Crisis. Curacoa was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1929.
In 1933, Curacoa became a training ship and in July 1939, two months before the start of the Second World War, she was converted into an anti-aircraft cruiser. She returned to service in January 1940 and, while providing escort in the Norwegian Campaign that April, was damaged by German aircraft. After repairs were completed that year, she escorted convoys in and around the British Isles for two years. In late 1942, during escort duty, she was accidentally sliced in half and sunk by the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary, with the loss of 337 men.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Curacoa_(D41)
USS Makin Island (LHD 8) conducts flight operations.
INDIAN OCEAN (Dec. 22, 2020) A U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 164 (Reinforced), 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, lands on the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (LHD 8). The Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group and the 15th MEU are conducting operations in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jacob D. Bergh) 201222-N-LR905-1307
USS Rafael Peralta (DDG-115), JS Akenono (DD-108) and HMAS Brisbane (DDG41) and frigates HMCS Ottawa (FFH-341) and HMNZS Te Mana (F111) on Oct. 24, 2023. JMSDF Photo
U.S. Drills with Allies in the South China Sea, Ghost Fleet Ships Operate off Australia
By: Dzirhan Mahadzir
October 25, 2023 2:47 PM
Warships from the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand conducted drills in the South China Sea on Monday while the U.S. Navy’s Ghost Fleet arrived in Sydney, Australia, on Tuesday to conduct drills with the Royal Australian Navy. Meanwhile, Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu was dismissed from his post on Tuesday, according to China state media.
Destroyers USS Rafael Peralta (DDG-115), JS Akenono (DD-108) and HMAS Brisbane (DDG41) and frigates HMCS Ottawa (FFH-341) and HMNZS Te Mana (F111) conducted exercise Noble Caribou on Monday in the South China Sea, according to a Tuesday release by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF).
“The participating countries in the exercise are maritime nations with long coastlines in the Pacific Ocean, and are like-minded nations that seek to maintain an international order based on the rule of law in order to realize a Free and Open Indo-Pacific,” said Akebono’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Hisato Togawa, in the release.
The exercise consisted of tactical, maneuvering and communication drills. The release also stated that Akebono had been docked into Changi Naval Base, Singapore, from Friday to Monday for refueling and rest. Akebono’s crew toured littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10), which was also docked in Changi. The two ships together with destroyer USS Dewey (DDG-105) carried out drills in the South China Sea from Oct.16–18.
Also on a regional presence deployment is a Russian Navy surface action group (SAG) comprised of destroyers RFS Admiral Tributs (546) and RFS Admiral Panteleev (548) and fleet oiler Pechenga, which docked into the port city of Surabaya in Java, Indonesia, on Sunday for a port visit according to an Indonesian Navy release. The Russian Ministry of Defense previously stated that the deployment was part of the Russian Pacific Fleet’s training plan and was intended to demonstrate Russian naval presence and to develop and strengthen friendly relations with foreign countries.
In Australia, the Unmanned Surface Vessel Division One’s (USVDIV-1) unmanned surface vessels (USVs) Ranger, Mariner, Seahawk and Sea Hunter arrived in Sydney, Australia, for a scheduled port visit on Tuesday ahead of their participation in bilateral exercises with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), announced a Wednesday Navy release.
During the exercise, USVDIV-1 will collaborate with the RAN on testing unmanned systems in concert with industry partners to advance understanding of these capabilities and their ability to meet strategic requirements. “I look forward to furthering the strong relationship our navies have worked hard to create,” Cmdr. Jeremiah Daley, commanding officer of USVDIV-1, said in the release.
Littoral combat ship USS Oakland (LCS-24) also arrived in Sydney on Tuesday. Oakland, together with the 4 USVs, is participating in the ongoing U.S. Pacific Fleet exercise Integrated Battle Problem (IBP) 23.2 to develop concepts of operations for future unmanned programs and further integrate USVs into routine operations alongside manned surface combatants. “In order to develop a program as different and disruptive as small, medium, and large USVs, integrating with allies and partners early and consistently in its development is key to our success,” said Daley in the release.
In Guam on Sunday, the U.S. Navy and the Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN) wrapped up the biennial combined theater antisubmarine warfare (TASW) exercise Silent Shark, stated a Navy release. Submarines USS Topeka (SSN-754) and ROKS Jung Ji (SS-073), along with P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft from Patrol Squadron (VP) 8 and P-3K MPAs of ROKN Squadron 611, participated in the exercise to increase interoperability between the navies. “We significantly increased our ability to carry out joint operations for TASW through fierce, realistic training,” Cmdr. Kim Il-bae, commanding officer of Jung Ji, said in the release “We will deter enemy aggression and are ready to firmly defend our seas.”
In China, state media reported China’s Defense Minister Li Shangfu had been dismissed during the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress on Tuesday in Beijing, with President Xi Jinping having signed the presidential orders to put the decision into effect. At the meeting, Li was also removed by vote from his post as a member of the Central Military Commission. No announcement was made on Li’s successor and the Chinese Ministry of National Defense has not yet issued any statement on Li’s removal. Li disappeared from public view in August, with the former Chinese defense minister said to be under investigation for corruption. Li’s dismissal is likely to lead to formal charges against him.