The idea behind the littoral combat ship program is that it would take the place of the aging de-fanged Oliver Hazard Perry-class FFs– which had their original missile batteries neutered– as well as the Navy’s mine countermeasure vessels.
While the first could be done through with the light armament (57mm Mk110, Sea-RAM, small arms) and embarked helicopters/UAVs coupled (hopefully) with some sort of modular towed array, the latter required a legit standoff minesweeping vehicle as an LCS, with their steel hulls, is less than ideal for that.
That’s where Textron comes in, producing a 40-foot semi-autonomous, diesel-powered, all-aluminum surface craft, rigged to tow the same sweep gear used by the MH-53 Sea Dragon helicopters and/or ROVs.
The company on Thursday announced the U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS) program, which is based on its Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle (CUSV), has achieved a Milestone C decision. The decision allows the program to enter low-rate initial production (LRIP), with the Navy planning to award three UISS systems to Textron Systems under their existing contract.
The Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS), based on Textron’s CUSV. It tows the modified Mk-104 system acoustic generator and a magnetic minesweeping cable.
The Program Executive Officer for Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC) has granted Milestone C approval to the Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS) program. The decision clears the way for low-rate initial production (LRIP) of the system, PEO USC announced Feb. 26, 2020.
The Navy plans to exercise options for the procurement of three LRIP systems on the current Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract with UISS prime contractor Textron Systems.
Designed for the littoral combat ship (LCS) as part of the mine countermeasures mission package, the UISS consists of a mine countermeasures unmanned surface vehicle (USV) and a towed minesweeping payload for influence sweeping of magnetic, acoustic and magnetic/acoustic combination mine types. UISS can also be launched from vessels of opportunity or from shore.
Formal Developmental Testing and Operational Assessment of UISS took place off the coast of South Florida and successfully concluded in late November 2019. Testing included a series of end-to-end minesweeping missions against simulated mine targets using the Navy Instrumented Threat Targets training system.
LCS Detachment Sailors performed operations during Developmental Testing and Operational Assessment that included shore-based launch and retrieval of the system, command, and control, mission planning and post-mission analysis. The UISS USV also has completed initial integration tests with the LCS and vessels of opportunity.
Textron Systems was awarded an EMD contract in October 2014 for the UISS, based on its Common USV. The Navy exercised options for two additional vehicles in 2017, which were delivered in 2018 in support of the comprehensive Mine Countermeasures Unmanned Surface Vehicle program that will leverage the UISS USV for missions that include minehunting and mine neutralization.
Textron is expected to begin the delivery of LRIP systems in fiscal 2021.
The Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS) heads offshore at sunrise for an Operational Assessment mission off the coast of South Florida in November 2019.
The Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS), November 2019. 200226-N-IJ355-001
The nuts and bolts of the contract announcement:
AAI Corp. (doing business as Textron Systems), Hunt Valley, Maryland, is awarded a $21,795,236 fixed-price incentive modification to previously awarded contract N00024-14-C-6322 for low rate initial production for the Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS) Unmanned Surface Vehicle Program. Work will be performed in Hunt Valley, Maryland (70%), and Slidell, Louisiana (30%), and is expected to be completed by August 2021. The UISS will allow the littoral combat ship to perform its mine countermeasure sweep mission and will target acoustic, magnetic, and magnetic/acoustic combination mine types. The UISS program will satisfy the Navy’s need for a rapid, wide-area coverage mine clearance capability, required to neutralize magnetic/acoustic influence mines. UISS seeks to provide a high area coverage rate in a small, lightweight package with minimal impact on the host platform. Fiscal 2018 other procurement (Navy) and fiscal 2019 other procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $21,795,236 will be obligated at the time of the award. Funds in the amount of $7,950,616 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.
In directly related news, Northrop Grumman’s AQS-24 mine hunting sonar completing initial in-water testing of a next-generation Deploy and Retrieval (D&R) payload. “Operated from the Mine Countermeasures Unmanned Surface Vessel (MCM USV), the AQS-24 D&R demonstrates the unmanned operations needed to perform a mine-hunting mission off the MCM Mission Package aboard the littoral combat ship (LCS).”
The U.S. Marine Corps just selected Wixom, Michigan’s Trijicon to supply the service’s new Squad Common Optic.
The Marines describe the SCO as a “magnified day optic that improves target acquisition and probability-of-hit with infantry assault rifles.” Using a variable power non-caliber-specific reticle with an illuminated or nonilluminated aim-point, users can identify their targets from farther distances than the current Rifle Common Optic (RCO)– the Trijicon ACOG 4×32.
“The SCO supplements the attrition and replacement of the RCO Family of Optics and the Squad Day Optic for the M27, M4 and M4A1 weapon platforms for close-combat Marines,” said Tom Dever, interim team lead for Combat Optics at Marine Corps Systems Command.
The glass selected for the SCO program is Trijicon’s VCOG 1-8×28. The waterproof (to 66 feet) optic has a 7075-T6 aluminum housing and a first focal plane reticle that allows subtensions and drops to remain true at any magnification.
Between 1973 and 2018, the swaggering Dirk Pitt, a decorated Air Force pilot on loan to a fictional maritime agency who often found himself a human monkey wrench thrust into the center of international intrigue and buried treasure, appeared in at least 25 high-octane adventure novels– two of which were made into movies— all featuring a lot of serious hardware in addition to a range of classic cars, exotic damsels in distress, and international thugs of all sorts with which to engage.
As such, he predated today’s “American James Bond” figures such as Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. In fact, you could go so far to say that those fellas couldn’t even hold Pitt’s orange-faced Doxa dive watch.
As a child of the 1970s and teen of the 1980s, I was on the hook from Raise the Titanic to Deep Six, Iceberg to Cyclops, and beyond. You could say that, in many ways, I was raised by Mr. Pitt, or at least his creator, Clive Eric Cussler, which would probably explain some things about how I tick.
Farewell, Mr. Cussler, finder of the Hunley and Manassas, manufacturer of heroes, and cultivator of sparks. We will try to pick up the torch from here.
Ready on the Firing Line, Watercolor on Paper; by Chip Beck; 1991.
“A Marine of the 1st Division readies himself behind his pack during the assault on the Kuwait International Airport, 27 February 1991.”
NHHC Accession #: 91-159-K
Some 29 years ago today, the Battle of Kuwait International Airport, which saw a force consisting of the 1st & 2nd MARDIV along with the U.S. Army’s 2nd Armored Division’s Tiger Brigade, squared off against elements of no less than 14 Iraqi divisions in what went on to become a decisive allied victory.
Warship Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020: The Albrecht Marsch
Here we see the unique early casemate battleship SMS Erzherzog Albrecht of the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Navy, the K.u.K Kriegsmarine, in Pola (Pula), sometime between 1874 and 1892. Designed as a “kasemattschiff” with a ram bow, she was built to fight at the Battle of Lissa, which predated her by a decade. Nonetheless, the obsolete Austrian would endure for 83 years in one form or another and live through both World Wars.
Lissa– as those who are fans of ram bows on steam warships are aware– was the iconic naval action in 1866 between Austria and Italy in which the tactic of busting below-waterline holes in one’s enemy’s ships proved decisive. Sadly, for a generation of battleships that immediately followed, ramming never really proved effective in combat again, save for its use in the 20th Century by fast warships against very close submarines caught operating on the surface.
Illustration of the Austro-Hungarian ironclad SMS Erzherzog Albrecht under sail published in “Europe in Arms: The Austro-Hungarian Navy”. The Illustrated Naval and Military Magazine. London: W. H. Allen & Co. IV: 384. 1886, via Wiki Commons
Beyond her reinforced ram bow, Erzherzog Albrecht was a decent brawler for her era. Based on the design of her preceding half-sister, SMS Custoza, Kaiser Franz Josef’s newest battleship went 5,980-tons, was 295-feet overall in length and carried a battery of eight 9.25″/20 cal cast iron Krupp guns in a two-tiered casemate protected by up to eight inches of wrought iron armor backed by another 10 of teak wood.
Cast iron 21cm cannon at Krupps Steel Foundry Works Essen, 1868. It was cast from single casing
The twin-funneled SMS Custoza. She differed from Erzherzog Albrecht in the respect that she was slightly larger and carried a battery of eight 10-inch guns. Erzherzog Albrecht was a “budget” follow-on.
Designed by Obersten-Schiffbau-Ingeniuer Josef Ritter von Romako, who also crafted Custoza, the two half-sisters were the country’s first iron ships. Capable of making 12.8-knots on her steam plant, Erzherzog Albrecht had a hybrid sail rig, common for her era, on three masts. Built at Trieste, she was commissioned in the summer of 1874, birthed out into the Adriatic.
She was named for Hapsburg general and war hero, Archduke Albrecht, Duke of Teschen, the bespectacled victor in the battle of Custoza in 1866 over the Italians.
This guy.
Unlike most European powers, Austria fought no outright wars from 1866 until 1914, except for a low-key counter-insurgency campaign in the Balkans, a fact that translated to a relatively peaceful half-century for the K.u.K Kriegsmarine. With that, Erzherzog Albrecht spent her front-line career in a series of short cruises around the Mediterranean and its associated seas, with long periods in ordinary, swaying at her moorings.
Pola (Pula), the Navy Yard, Istria, Austro-Hungary, Detroit Publishing Co postcard, the 1890s, via LOC
The only time she fired her guns in anger was to bombard Bokelj rebel bands near Cattaro (Kotor), Dalmatia, in March 1882, a factor of using a hammer to crush a grape. The year before she was used in gunboat diplomacy to protest French expansion in Tunisia, calling at La Goulette (Halq al-Wadi) on the North African coast for several weeks.
Austrian steam ironclad SMS Erzherzog Albrecht with her naval ram before 1892
Modernized on numerous occasions between 1880 and 1893, she received additional small-caliber anti-torpedo boat guns as well as a quartet of 14-inch torpedo tubes while engineering updates swapped out her plant. She picked up watertight bulkheads for safety and an electrical system for lighting and communication, two things that didn’t exist when she was designed in 1868.
SMS Erzherzog Albrecht by Leopold_Wölfling via Austrian Archives
By 1908, the ram-bowed ship, with her then-quaint wood-backed wrought iron armor and stubby 24 cm/20 black powder breechloaders, was as obsolete as can be in the era of Dreadnoughts and she was semi-retired.
Renamed from the regal Erzherzog Albrecht to the more pedestrian Feuerspeier (fire gargoyle), she was tasked with operating as a naval artillery school ship in Pola. For this work, she was demasted and largely disarmed other than for training pieces.
FEUERSPEIER (Austrian schoolship, 1872-1946) former battleship ERZHERZOG ALBRECHT photographed while serving either as a naval artillery school ship from 1908-1915 or as an accommodation ship for crews of German submarines operating from Adriatic ports during 1915-1918. An Erzherzog Karl-class battleship appears in the left background. The stern of the artillery school ship ADRIA (ex-frigate RADETZKY, 1872-1920) appears to the right. The photograph was taken at Pola. Courtesy of Mr. Arrigo Barilli, Bologna, Italy. NH 75917
Erzherzog Albrecht/Feuerspeier was such a non-threat in Western circles that she was not listed in the 1914 edition of Janes, which ranked Austria-Hungary as a 7th rate naval power.
When the lights went out all over Europe in 1914, Erzherzog Albrecht/Feuerspeier continued her use as a school ship until the next summer, when she came to the next chapter of her career.
In June 1915, the Germans established U-Flottille Pola to help their submarine-poor Austrian brothers-in-arms and use the base in the Adriatic to raid the Allies in the Med. Using a mix of U-boats sailing directly from German ports and breaking through the Allied blockade, and small coastal type UB- and UC-boats, which were dissected and moved by rail to Pola for reassembly, the Germans at one time or another ran 45 boats through the port.
It was during this time that Erzherzog Albrecht/Feuerspeier became one of the accommodation ship/submarine tenders (mutterschiff) for this force of visiting sailors.
Among the “aces” sailing from Pola was the famed Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, considered the king of Great War U-boat skippers, who bagged 77 ships totaling 160,000 GRT in four months in 1916 alone.
Of interest, the Austrian martial musical Erzherzog Albrecht Marsch, by Viennese composer Karl Komzak, was used by German submariners in both World Wars as a sailing song to celebrate departures and arrivals of U-boats, a holdover of the Happy Pola times when Feuerspeier’s band would play the tune on such occasions. So much so that the music was used in Das Boot when the fictional U-96 leaves her pens for the Atlantic, then when she returns.
Nonetheless, once the war was over and both the Imperial German and Austrian navies– along with their empires– were consigned to the dustbin of history, and Erzherzog Albrecht/Feuerspeier was captured by the victorious Allies along with several floating relics and more modern U-boats in Pola, then part of the newly-established Yugoslavia.
Ex-Austrian ships at Pola, circa 1919. Surrendered ships photographed by Zimmer. The surface ships are probably the ex-torpedo gun-vessel SEBENICO (1882-1920) and the ex-submarine tender PELIKAN (1891-1920) behind her. The two submarines in the foreground are probably of the U-27 class (German UB-II type) and most of the others are probably of the U-10 (UB-I) class. The conning tower on the right probably belongs to U-5. Catalog #: NH 42825
Pola Harbor, Yugoslavia in the foreground are three ex-Austrian hulks: front to back, LACROMA (ex-TIGER, 1887-1920), CUSTOZZA (1872-1920), and BELLONA (ex-KAISER, 1872-1920). To their right are two US SC boats. In the upper left are four French ALGERIEN class destroyers: bow letters I, H, Q, and R. In the center are three Italian destroyers including one of the ALESSANDRO POERIO class. The photo was taken late 1919-early 1920. Description: Courtesy of Paul H. Silverstone, 1983 NH 95006
In 1920, the old Austrian battleship was awarded to Italy as a war trophy under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, aged 44, and was towed to Taranto where she was to be used as a tender under the name of Buttafuoco for the submarines of IV Gruppo.
She would continue in this task for another two decades, losing her name for the more generic designation of GM 64. (Her near-sister, SMS Custoza, was likewise awarded to the Italians but was quickly scrapped and never used.)
As in 1914, the 1945 edition of Janes neglected to list GM64/Buttafuoco under Italy’s entry, although such minor craft as 600-ton water tenders did make the cut.
In a hat tip to her Italian legacy, in 1996, a group of 11 winemakers joined to form the Buttafuoco Storico, with an ode to the former RN Buttafuoco of old.
Meanwhile, Chilean and Argentine U-boaters, err, submarinos, still reportedly sortie and arrive to the sound of the Erzherzog Albrecht Marsch.
Specs:
1874, left, 1892-1908, right
Displacement: 5,980 long tons
Length:
288 ft 3 in waterline
294 ft 3 in o/a
Beam: 56 ft 3 in
Draft: 22 ft
Propulsion:
8 boilers, one 2-cylinder Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino steam engine, one screw, 3,969 IHP
Ship rig as designed, schooner rig in practice
Speed: 12.84 knots
Endurance: 2300 @10kts on 500 tons of coal
Crew: 540
Armor:
Belt- Composite 8 inches iron/10-inches teak
Casemate- Composite 7 inches iron/8-inches teak
Armament: (1874)
8 x 9.4″/20cal C.24 Krupp breechloaders
6 x 3.5″/22 Krupp breechloaders
2 x 2.8-inch Krupp breechloaders (1892)
8 x 9.4″/20cal C.24 Krupp breechloaders
6 x 3.5″/22 Krupp breechloaders
2 x 2.8-inch Krupp breechloaders
2 x 2.59″/16 L18
9 x 47mm Hotchkiss RF
10 x 25mm Nordenfeldt RF
4 x 350mm torpedo tubes with Whitehead torpedoes
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For over 50 years, California’s Frank Pachmayr turned out high-quality custom rifles with Old World craftsmanship. This is one of his beauties.
Frank learned his trade at the hands of his gunsmith father, German immigrant Gus Pachmayr, and young Frank reportedly learned to turn barrels by the ripe old age of eight. By age 22, in December 1929, the junior Pachmayr struck out and founded his own shop, one that he would helm with such accolades that he would go on to be described later in life as, “America’s Master Gunsmith.”
This custom Remington Model 30-S Express, in .458 Win Mag, is one breathtaking gun.
Sadly, Frank passed in 1997, aged 90, and is buried in Inglewood. Today, the address of his shop is a condo complex. Nonetheless, relics of the good old days of Pachmayr Gun Works, such as this Model 30, still endure for the next generation.
PCU USS Delbert D. Black (DDG-119), a Flt IIA DDG-51-class destroyer in the last stages of her construction at Ingalls, recently got a chance to live fire of her Mk. 45 Mod 4 5-inch/62cal gun for the first time while out on a three day long builder’s sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico.
“The Navy and our dedicated shipbuilders have continued to make strides towards delivering this exceptional capability to the fleet, and performed well during builder’s trials,” said Capt. Seth Miller, DDG 51 class program manager, Program Executive Office (PEO) Ships. “This ship continues the proud Aegis shipbuilding legacy and will provide the Navy with a 21st-century fighting edge.”
As the vessel is named for the first MCPON, formerly Master Chief Gunner’s Mate (GMCM) Delbert D. Black, the fact that her gunnery department is on point is no doubt welcome news. Of note, Black was aboard the battleship USS Maryland (BB-46) at Pearl Harbor and spent the next 26 years before making MCPON on every type of surface warfare ship imaginable including USS Doyle C. Barnes (DE-353), USS Gardiners Bay (AVP-39), USS Boxer (CVA-21), USS Antietam (CVA-36), USS Brush (DD-745), USS Carpenter (DDE-825), USS Norfolk (DL-1) and USS Springfield (CL-66).
As an interesting contrast shot of DDG-119‘s Mk 45 in relation in size to the Coast Guard’s largest cutter class, I caught this image of Black bow-to-bow with the building Legend-class National Security Cutter USCG Stone (WMSL-758) in the brackish water of the Pascagoula River a few weeks ago. Stone packs a Mk 110 57mm hood ornament, for reference.
One of the most popular weapons used to root out the Japanese on Iwo Jima, 75 years ago this week, was the M2 flamethrower, and with good reason.
Defending the fortress was Lt. Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi’s 21,000 Japanese troops, which had largely evacuated the civilian population on Iwo and has spent months preparing the island’s difficult terrain to best resist the amphibious assault. They dug 16 miles of tunnels, broken up into 1,500 different bunkers, underneath the island. Most would never leave on their own two feet.
Flamethrowers were useful in routing the defenders from the honeycomb of underground tunnels and bunkers on the island, a tactic that evolved into what was known as the “blowtorch and corkscrew,” method.
Marine CPL Hershel “Woody” Williams, the last living Medal of Honor recipient from the Pacific War, carried a 70-pound M2 on Iwo Jima and used it like a surgeon to successfully take on a network of reinforced concrete pillboxes, with four riflemen in support.
He is currently 96 years old.
In all, the Medal of Honor was presented to 22 Marines and five Sailors for their actions on Iwo Jima, many of those given posthumously. Adm. Chester Nimitz observed after the hellish battle that, “uncommon valor was a common virtue.”
Yesterday was “Defender of the Fatherland Day” (Den Zaschitnika Otechestva) in Russia. The date celebrates the founding of the Red Army in 1918 and used to be known as Red Army Day. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation posted several interesting images of the salute division of the Western Military District firing volleys on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow.
The guns are towed 76 mm divisional gun M1942 (ZiS-3) on 2A85 salute mounts, notable for their lack of muzzle brakes.
Sometimes described as the most effective Allied anti-armor gun of the war, at least against Panzer IVs and below, especially when used in massed batteries, a staggering 100,000 ZiS-3s were produced, most likely making it the most prolific field artillery piece in modern history.
Very light for a 3-inch high-velocity gun, at just over 2,500-pounds (the comparable U.S. M5 weighed twice as much), a ZiS-3 could be pulled by a Lend-Lease Ford truck, a scrawny Russian horse or two, or even man-hauled by a squad if needed.
Red Army soldiers with a ZiS-3 cannon near a wrecked Panther, East Prussia, late 1944
Battery commander of the 163rd separate guards anti-tank artillery regiment of the Kalinin front, guard senior lieutenant Viktor Tikhonovich Baranok (1922 – 03/01/1944) next to the 76-mm divisional gun mod. 1939 (F-22-USV). October 1943
When Marshall Zhukov’s legions closed in on Berlin in April 1945, he had some 41,000 pieces of artillery, including an estimated 25,000 ZIS-3s or similar 76mm pieces.
Soviet artillery bombarding German positions during the battle of the Seelow Heights.
They proved useful in house-by-house streetfighting.
It is still in use in Africa and Asia and saw combat in Europe as late as the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia.
ZiS stands for the factory the guns were produced at, Zavod imeni Stalina, named for Stalin.
Even though the hunter died in 1998, police are now contacting his children, who have an opportunity to claim their lost father’s rifle.
The problem
According to a recent U.S. Department of Justice study, there is an average of at least 135,000 unrecovered guns stolen in residential burglaries nationwide each year. The main reason for guns not being recovered is that the owners did not record and keep up with their serial numbers.
In Nevada recently, law enforcement has been inundated with calls for stolen guns. Guns that when they are recovered, no one can come reclaim.
“When they are taken, more often than not the owner can’t ID them — they can’t name the make or caliber or serial number,” said Washoe County Sheriff Michael Haley told the Reno Gazette-Journal
“So, in reality, when a weapon is stolen, it can’t be traced or returned because we don’t know who it belongs to,” he said.
To help fix this, Haley said he would ask two things: “Take personal responsibility if you own a gun, secure it in your home. And two, keep the serial number in a secure place separate from the gun.”
Monthly ritual
Me and the crew on Gun Day…almost
One thing I like to do in my home is the simple ceremony I refer to as “Gun Day.”
On the third Saturday of the month (you have to set a specific day to do this or you will forget, I promise), I like to spend a couple hours in my mancave going through my personal collection. Now of course, like most gun guys, it varies from year to year, sometimes from month to month as I buy, sell, trade, swap and rearrange my collection.
However, no matter whether you have one old rusty shotgun or a half dozen bulging gun safes, Gun Day needs to happen.
If I’m out of town or something comes up, it GD can be rescheduled but it still happens.
At least once a month.
For me it’s simple. I sit, put on my gloves (I hate to leave excess fingerprints on my guns as the oils and salts left behind can lead to surface rust), and go through my collection. I have a simple Field Note Book that I write down my collection in with the date I acquired the gun, the make, model, caliber, my estimated value at the time, and serial number. The six things fit on one line.
Each month I go back over the book, remove any old guns that have been traded away (or note guns loaned out to friends, trust me, this can help figure out missing guns months later!) and add any new pieces.
While going through my guns I have a chance to notice any issues that may have come up in storage such as rust, dust, and the like, keeping the band going strong.
New guns even get a photoshoot for reference just in case something ever happens to them. Lightboxes are cheaper than you think, and if you don’t have a lightbox, just take a photo on your back porch in natural light.
Speaking of photos, I take a picture every month of that notebook entry and email it to myself, just in case something ever happens to it.
Then it’s back into the safe and cabinet, closet, holster, and nightstand for the collection.
