Navy Currents

February 2010 Issue

Engine Project Aims to Meet Military’s Need for Speed
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) said it is attempting to build an engine that will propel an aircraft from zero to more than Mach 4 in minutes.

The engine is a combination of a turbojet engine and a constant volume combustion (CVC) engine, DARPA representatives explained. The turbine will generate the initial low-speed propulsion, with the CVC engine kicking in at supersonic speeds, the representatives continued. They said that the engine configuration will have a common inlet and nozzle; there could be two flow paths or a single flow path, with the turbojet embedded inside the CVC.

DARPA said it plans to take an unmodified Mach 2-plus military turbojet and combine it with a CVC to produce a high-Mach engine. A Mach 4 turbojet with a CVC essentially works like a ramjet at high speeds, representatives said. DARPA said the configuration could be 20 to 30 percent more fuel efficient than a ramjet. The agency estimates that it will take another four to five years to complete the development program; the first phase, a review of the four competing contractors’ conceptual designs, was completed in 2009. For more information, visit www.navy.mil.


Global Cooperation Among Navies, Commercial Shipping Stressed at Symposium
Representatives from the navies of more than 100 nations attended the 19th Biennial International Sea Power Symposium at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, in October.

“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,” said RAdm. M. Stewart O’Bryan, director of Navy maritime domain awareness.

The complexity of maritime issues and budget limitations is a motivation to work together, according to O’Bryan. No organization has enough resources to do it all by themselves, he said, and when nations share maritime data, they gain situational awareness and best practices. Piracy has decreased in the Straits of Malacca off Indonesia because of information sharing, according to the Navy, and there have also been recent improvements in the Gulf of Aden.

U.S. efforts to boost maritime domain awareness include work to consolidate maritime operations centers, the Navy said. Another project will integrate naval regional operations centers with maritime operations centers, the service said. For more information, visit www.navy.mil.


Navy Bids Farewell To USNS San Jose
Military Sealift Command (MSC) combat stores ship USNS San Jose (T-AFS-7) ended 39 years of naval service on December 18 in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Tribute was paid to the ship and the hundreds of sailors and civil service mariners who have helped San Jose play its part in keeping the U.S. Navy fleet at sea, on station and combat-ready by delivering vital supplies to deployed warships worldwide, according to the Navy. San Jose and five other combat stores ships were originally crewed by sailors until they were transferred to the MSC in the 1990s and shifted to civil service mariner crewing. San Jose transferred to the MSC in October 1993.

San Jose most recently conducted underway replenishments of ships in the Arabian Gulf, supporting both Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Navy officials said. San Jose also provided logistics support to hospital ship USNS Mercy in 2005 as it played a key role in assisting victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia, they continued.

The nearly 600-foot-long San Jose completed its final mission on December 3, when it returned to Pearl Harbor with a crew of 120 civil service mariners and a 40-member military detachment, and the ship was deactivated in January, the Navy said. For more information, visit www.navy.mil.


USS Anzio Seizes Four Tons of Narcotics
The U.S. Navy recently announced that the USS Anzio (CG-68), operating as part of the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), a U.S.-led coalition supporting maritime security operations in the region, recently seized about four tons of hashish—with an estimated street value of $28 million—from a skiff in the Gulf of Aden. The skiff was about 170 miles southwest of Salalah, Oman, when Anzio spotted it traveling at a high speed, the Navy said. After a brief chase, Anzio’s visit, board, search and seizure team boarded the skiff and threw the drugs overboard, the service continued.

Naval forces assigned to the CMF seized more than 22 tons of narcotics during 2009, the service said. In 2008, they seized more than 53 tons of narcotics, it continued. For more information, visit www.navy.mil.


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