Contract: Lockheed, $19.6M

Lockheed Martin Corp., Mission Systems and Training, Moorestown, N.J., is being awarded a $19,569,891 modification to previously awarded contract N00024-15-C-5151 to exercise an option for ship integration and test of the Aegis Weapon System (AWS) for AWS Baselines through Advanced Capability Build (ACB) 16. Work will be performed in Moorestown (76 percent); Norfolk, Va. (15 percent); Washington, D.C. (5 percent); Bath, Maine (2 percent); and Pascagoula, Miss. (2 percent), and is expected to be completed by August 2017. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 08/31/16)

Contract: Austal, $8.6M

Austal, Mobile, Ala., is being awarded a $8,629,606 cost-plus-award-fee order against a previously awarded basic ordering agreement (N00024-15-G-2304) to provide engineering and management services for advance planning and design in support of the post shakedown availability for the littoral combat ship USS Jackson (LCS-6). Work will be performed in Mobile (75 percent); and San Diego, Calif. (25 percent), and is expected to be completed by September 2017. The Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion, and Repair Gulf Coast, Pascagoula, Miss., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 08/31/16)

Fourth LCS breaks down

It has been a bad year for the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship program. USS Coronado (LCS-4) has reportedly suffered diesel engine propulsion woes about 800 nautical miles west of Hawaii and has turned back toward Pearl Harbor from its western Pacific deployment. The problem with the Independence variant follows a series of issues with the Freedom class of LCS. Coronado left Pearl Harbor on Aug. 25 where it was to operate for at least 16 months, and based out of Singapore. The extent of repairs or operational impact is unknown. An assessment is to be completed and "additional details will be made available when possible," according to a U.S. Third Fleet statement. Coronado is the fourth LCS to suffer a major incident since December. The other three ships with problems were Freedom variants. The problems with the ships have been a combination of design and engineering issues and personnel errors. (Source: Defense News, 08/30/16) Gulf Coast note: Coronado was built by Austal-USA in Mobile, Ala.

Contract: HII, $13.7M

Huntington Ingalls Industries' Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., was awarded a $13.7 million contract to perform contract design effort for the Navy's amphibious warfare ship replacement, known as LX(R). On June 30, Ingalls was selected to perform the majority of the contract design work for LX(R). LX(R) is to replace the Harpers Ferry- and Whidbey Island-class dock landing ships using the same hull design as the San Antonio (LPD 17) class. Ingalls has delivered 10 LPD 17s, and is building the 11th, Portland (LPD 27); and has received more than $258 million in advance procurement funds for the 12th, Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28). (Sources: DoD, Huntington Ingalls 08/29/16)

LCS 4 continues deployment

PEARL HARBOR - Littoral combat ship USS Coronado (LCS 4) departed Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Aug. 26 to continue its deployment to the Western Pacific. The ship's departure follows participation in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2016 international training exercise in which the ship successfully completed a Harpoon missile launch. The firing represented the first time an over-the-horizon (OTH) missile technology has been introduced to the Independence class of LCS. Coronado and its crew began their deployment June 22 after departing its Naval Base San Diego home port. Gulf Coast Note: The Independence class of LCS is built at Austal-USA shipyard in Mobile, Ala. (Source: USS Coronado 08/29/16)

LNG helps plug levee breach

Two days after water began pouring through a 70-foot-wide levee near Alliance, La., in Plaquemines Parish, local officials began working with the Louisiana National Guard to successfully plugged the breach with 247 “super sack” sandbags Aug. 28. The breach never threatened local residences or La. Highway 23, said Plaquemines spokesman Michael Powell. The breach was detected Aug. 26 on land owned by the Phillips 66 oil refinery in Alliance. Over two days, LNG Blackhawk helicopters had dropped 247 sandbags on the marsh side of the breach, stopping the water, authorities said. (Source: Times-Picayune 09/29/16)

Searching Lake Pontchartrain

The search for a missing pilot and passenger aboard a small plane that crashed into Lake Pontchartrain Aug. 27 near Lakefront Airport continued Aug. 29, say New Orleans Fire Department and Coast Guard officials. A private salvage company was to begin efforts to remove the wreckage from the lake Aug. 29. A woman, who was a second passenger in the Cessna aircraft, was rescued from the lake by a private yacht after the crash. Her condition was not known. Petty Officer Lexie Preston said a Coast Guard helicopter was searching the lake Monday morning, and an auxiliary flight searched Sunday night. A CG boat was expected to be on the water Monday with a search and rescue crew. (Source: Times-Picayune 08/29/16)

NSWC collaborating with Germany

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Mine warfare experts from Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City are preparing for the first major milestone of the Allied Munitions Detection Underwater (ALMOND) joint project with German partner Bundeswehr Technical Center for Ships and Naval Weapons in September. The Navy experts will be taking technology to the Baltic Sea to operate alongside German systems with the goal of advancing technologies and techniques for the detection, classification, and mapping of bottom and buried munitions. The collaboration will allow for increased capability for mapping underwater munitions, and give war-fighters an increased capability for hunting submerged and silent sea mines in intricate environments, said Dr. Jesse Angle, NSWC physicist. Additionally, the goal is to develop and deliver a mature system concept design for the Navy’s fleet. (Source: NSWC Panama City 08/11/16)

NGI extends coop with EPA

STARKVILLE, Miss. - A Gulf of Mexico coastal-based research cooperative, led by Mississippi State University, is extending its memorandum of understanding by five years with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Northern Gulf Institute provides the Gulf region with diverse, science-based services to help protect the ecosystem. NGI’s additional partners include the universities of Alabama-Huntsville, Southern Mississippi, Florida State and Louisiana State, and the Dauphin Island (Ala.) Sea Laboratory. (Source: MSU 08/25/16)

Ex-HII official sentenced

GULFPORT, Miss. – The former director of manufacturing services at Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula has been fined $4,000 and given two years’ probation for lying to military officers about unauthorized pay for divers. Randy Mitchell Wilson of Grand Bay, Ala., was sentenced Aug. 23 by Chief U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr., according to court records. Wilson was sentenced for making false statements to NCIS and misleading the Coast Guard about the mismanagement of government funds. (Source: Sun Herald 08/24/16)

BP spill ops officer WH Fellow

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Five service members were among the 17 men and women appointed to the 2016-17 class of White House Fellows on Aug. 22. Among the selectees was Coast Guard Lt. Linden Dahlkemper, who most recently served as an instructor at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. Previously, she served as operations officer on the West Coast-based Coast Guard Cutter Aspen that conducted oil-skimming operations in the Gulf of Mexico for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill. During the 5.5 month deployment, Aspen transited more than 13,000 nautical miles, navigating through the Panama Canal twice, and recovered more than 138,000 gallons of spilled oil. (Source: The White House 08/22/16)

La. firm to share in $240M pact

CB&I Federal Services LLC of Baton Rouge, La., and six other firms, will share a contract for $240,000,000 to provide environmental remediation services’ support for work assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers, including but not limited to the Defense Department’s Environmental Restoration Program; support to the Environmental Protection Agency for Superfund and Brownfield programs; and environmental cleanup for various military and interagency and international support customers; environmental stewardship, and other environmental related regulatory programs. Work is to be completed by Aug. 21, 2019. (Source: DOD 08/22/16)

Weeks Marine dredging contract

Weeks Marine of Covington, La., was awarded a $15,692,500 Army Corps of Engineers contract for maintenance, pipeline dredging, and deep draft for the Houston ship channel, Redfish to Morgan’s Point, Chambers County, Texas. Work will be performed in Woodville, Texas, with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2017. (Source: DoD, 08/19/16)

USNS Yuma christening in Mobile

MOBILE, Ala. -- The Navy will christen its newest Expeditionary Fast Transport, USNS Yuma (EPF 8), at 9 a.m. Aug. 20 during a ceremony at Austal USA's shipyard. The EPF is a shallow draft, all aluminum, commercial-based catamaran capable of intra-theater personnel and cargo lift providing combatant commanders high-speed sealift mobility with cargo handling capability. It's designed to transport 600 short tons of cargo 1,200 nautical miles. (Source: DoD, 08/19/16)

CG continues La. rescues

NEW ORLEANS – The Coast Guard has rescued another 12 people, and assisted other agencies in rescuing 34 more in distress Aug. 15 due to the continued flooding in the Baton Rouge, La., area. On Monday night, an MH-65 helicopter crew from the Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Ala., was diverted to rescue a family of three, including a five-day-old infant trapped in their car by water in Livingston Parish. They were hoisted to North Oaks Medical Center in Hammond for medical care. CG crews have rescued more than 207 people, assisted a total of 2,936 people in distress and rescued 28 pets. (Source: Coast Guard 08/16/16)

CG pilots share rescue accounts

NEW ORLEANS – Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans pilots Lt. Mike Hennebery and Lt.j.g. Simon Gottenberg share personal accounts from flooding rescues conducted in the Baton Rouge area. CG aircrews continue to assist local authorities. Coast Guard aircrews have rescued more than 118 people and assisted more than 766 people in distress. (Source: Coast Guard 08/15/16)

LCS replica undergoes fire

The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program completed tests to assess the ship’s ability to withstand blasts and fire caused by would-be weapons, the Navy said Aug. 11. Those tests, which occurred at the Army’s Aberdeen (Md.) Test Center ended June 30, and involved placing charges in several compartments of the Multi-Compartment Surrogate (MCS) module, an Independence-class replica built by Austal USA of Mobile, Ala. Testers also set controlled fires in the module to see how flames would affect the aluminum structure. The announcement came less than a month after the USS Jackson (LCS-6), also an Independence-class ship built by Austal, underwent its final underwater blast tests in the Gulf of Mexico, off Florida’s coast. The analysis, along with the successful completion of the underwater trials with LCS-6, “will serve to support future survivability assessments of the Independence variant," said LCS program manager Tom Anderson. (Source: Defense Daily 08/11/16)

Contract: Industrial Marine, $35M

Industrial Marine and Industrial Applicators LLC, Spanish Fort, Ala., is being awarded a not-to-exceed $35,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for submarine preservation/lead handling onboard SSBN/GN submarines located at Naval Submarine Base, Kings Bay, Ga.. This contract will provide for SSBN/GN tank preservation and lead handling. The work consists of waterborne submarine repair to remove/replace/install submarine lead ballast, preserve spaces and conduct cleaning and pumping. Work will be performed in Kings Bay and is expected to be completed by August 2021. The Southeast Regional Maintenance Center, Mayport, Fla., is the contracting activity (N40027-16-D-1006). (Source: DoD, 08/11/16)

CG ends seach off Panama City

 NEW ORLEANS – The Coast Guard, police and search and rescue unit are searching for a 30-year-old man in the waters off Panama City Beach, Fla., near Shark’s Beachfront on Aug. 10. Coast Guard Sector Mobile, Ala., received a report about 1:40 p.m. of a male in potential distress. He was reported to have entered the water and did not resurface. Assisting in the search is CG Station Panama City’s response boat crew, a Naval Support Activity Panama City H-60 helicopter crew, the Coast Guard patrol boat Kingfisher, Panama City Beach Police, and Panama City Beach and Surf Rescue. (Source: Coast Guard 08/10/16)
UPDATE: The Coast Guard has ended their search Aug. 11 for a 30-year-old man in the water off of Panama City Beach. Panama City Beach Police recovered a body matching the description of the missing person.

Murtha leaving shipyard

PASCAGOULA, Miss. – The John P. Murtha (LPD 26) will sail away from the Ingalls shipyard at 9 a.m. Thursday to head for its Oct. 8 commissioning in Philadelphia. Its homeport will be San Diego. Murtha is the 10th San Antonio–class amphibious transport dock to be built at Ingalls. It was turned over to the Navy in a ceremony in May. Ingalls has at least two more ships to complete in that class. (Source: Sun Herald, 09/09/16)

Seemann Composites expanding

GULFPORT, Miss. – Seemann Composites has announced and expansion project to support its Navy contract to build Bow Domes for the Ohio-class submarine program. The company expects to start construction this year on a 25,600-square-foot building to produce bow domes for the Navy’s Ohio-class submarine program. Initial production is expected to begin in late 2017. The company will invest $4.6 million and create 42 jobs. It currently has 105 workers at its Bayou Bernard Industrial Park. (Sources: Sun Herald, Hattiesburg American, Harrison County Development Commission, 08/09/16)

MSU part of all-electric ship research

The Center for Advanced Power Systems at Florida State University was awarded a five-year $35 million grant by the Office of Naval Research to bring researchers together to spur innovation and advance the Navy’s efforts to build an all-electric ship. CAPS will lead a multi-university team of scientists and engineers – including Mississippi State University - to work on various energy and machinery requirements of the ship. In April, CAPS became the first university test site accredited by the Navy to perform high-powered simulations for development of the next-generation of shipboard power technology. (Source: Florida State University 08/08/16)

Munro finishes builder's trials

PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- Huntington Ingalls Industries announced today the successful completion of builder’s sea trials for the company’s sixth U.S. Coast Guard National Security Cutter, Munro (WMSL 755). The ship, built at HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division, spent three days in the Gulf of Mexico testing all of the ship’s systems. Ingalls has delivered the first five NSCs and has three more under construction, including Munro, set to deliver in the fourth quarter of this year. Kimball (WMSL 756) is scheduled for delivery in 2018, and Midgett (WMSL 757) in 2019. (Source: HII, 08/09/16)

HII celebrates apprentice school grads

PASCAGOULA, Miss. - Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding division hosted a ceremony Aug. 6 for 51 graduates of its decades-old apprentice program. The class of 2016 represents several classes of shipyard trades. Since 1952, Ingalls’ apprentice school has produced nearly 5,000 graduates. The program offers a comprehensive two- to four-year curriculum for students interested in shipbuilding careers. Ingalls partners with the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in the program. (Source: HII 08/06/16)

Contract: HII, $30.4M

Huntington Ingalls Inc., Pascagoula, Miss., is being awarded a cost-plus-award-fee $30,390,839 modification to previously awarded contract N00024-12-C-2312 for DDG 51 Class Flight III upgrade design efforts. The main goal of the Flight III upgrade is to replace the SPY-1D(V) radar with the air and missile defense radar designated as SPY-6. This modification to the existing DDG 51 Class Follow Yard services contract will allow for DDG 51 Class Flight III upgrade design efforts. Work will be performed in Pascagoula (96.5 percent); and Washington, D.C. (3.5 percent), and is expected to be completed by May 2017. Fiscal 2015 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $28,585,510 will be obligated at time of award and contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 08/02/16)

HII mod shipbuilding contract

Huntington Ingalls Inc. of Pascagoula, Miss., was awarded a $102,123,183 modification to a previously awarded Navy contract for option exercise for CG 47-class cruisers and DD 963-class destroyers integrated planning yard services. Ingalls will provide the necessary engineering, technical, planning, ship configuration, data, and logistics efforts for CG 47 and DD 963 lifetime support for both maintenance and modernization. Work will be performed in Pascagoula, and is expected to be completed by September 2017. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. (Source: DOD 08/01/16)