US Military – US Naval Ship/ships – USS Wasp (LHD 1), USS Porter (DDG 78)and USNS John Lenthall (T-AO 189)

USS Wasp (LHD 1) and USS Porter (DDG 78) conduct replenishment-at-sea with the fleet replenishment oiler USNS John Lenthall (T-AO 189), April 28, 2024.

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New Zealand Army – NZ Army soldiers at forefront of future military tech

Just over 200 kilometres outside Los Angeles in the Mojave Desert, the US Army’s Fort Irwin National Training Centre has once again played host to the largest military experimentation exercise of its kind, Project Convergence Capstone 5 (PCC5).

31 March, 2025

Led by the US Army it included all branches of the US military (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Special Forces and Space Force) as well as personnel representing our Five Eyes partners and France.  

The New Zealand Army had a contingent of around 30 personnel participating in the first scenario of PCC5, predominantly across information, communication and fires roles.

The first scenario of the activity focused on the next generation of Command and Control, and Fire Control Systems in a simulated environment and included a particular focus on human-machine integration.

New Zealand’s Senior National Officer at the exercise, Lieutenant Colonel Richie Appleton says our participation at these sorts of activities is vital.

“Threats to our region are now present from greater ranges than ever before due to the proliferation of new technologies, the extended reach of lethal fires and ubiquitous surveillance. It means the need to be armed with the latest military knowledge and capabilities is more important than it has been for decades,” said Lieutenant Colonel Appleton.  

PCC5 is a critical proving ground for emerging technologies and concepts that are crucial to enabling a data-centric and networked fighting force, and offers the NZDF the chance to observe and learn from our partners and take those lessons learned back home.

“It puts us at the cutting edge of military experimentation and gives us the opportunity to participate and observe exercises at a scale we can’t replicate at home.”

“Whether it’s on the tools, or as observers, our presence at PCC5 is well-received by all our partners, and we are respected by militaries the world over as having highly-trained personnel who can add value to these multi-national efforts.”

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The New Zealand Defence Force’s (NZDF) Land Component Commander, Brigadier Jason Dyhrberg, says Project Convergence also provides an invaluable opportunity to keep testing our interoperability and partnerships with other nations.

“PCC5 is an opportunity for us to further enhance our interoperability with our ally Australia, particularly as it relates to communications and electronic warfare.” 

“Continually testing and enhancing our interoperability with Australia across all areas of our forces in turn supports our commitment to each other’s security in the South Pacific, and our shared focus on the security and stability of our wider region,” Brigadier Dyhrberg said. 

“To that end, PCC5 is also a great build-up and test of that level of partnership ahead of Exercise Talisman Sabre later this year, which will see a significant contingent of NZDF personnel and platforms deployed.”

The New Zealand Defence Force’s (NZDF) Land Component Commander, Brigadier Jason Dyhrberg, says Project Convergence also provides an invaluable opportunity to keep testing our interoperability and partnerships with other nations.

“PCC5 is an opportunity for us to further enhance our interoperability with our ally Australia, particularly as it relates to communications and electronic warfare,” Brigadier Dyhrberg said. 

“Continually testing and enhancing our interoperability with Australia across all areas of our forces in turn supports our commitment to each other’s security in the South Pacific, and our shared focus on the security and stability of our wider region. To that end, PCC5 is also a great build-up and test of that level of partnership ahead of Exercise Talisman Sabre later this year, which will see a significant contingent of NZDF personnel and platforms deployed

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US Military –US Battleships – USS Indiana – Launched 28 Feb 1893

Indiana early in her career

USS Indiana was the lead ship of her class and the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships of the time.^[5] Authorized in 1890 and commissioned five years later, she was a small battleship, though with heavy armor and ordnance. The ship also pioneered the use of an intermediate battery. She was designed for coastal defense^[6] and as a result, her decks were not safe from high waves on the open ocean.

Indiana served in the Spanish–American War (1898) as part of the North Atlantic Squadron. She took part in both the blockade of Santiago de Cuba and the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, which occurred when the Spanish fleet attempted to break through the blockade. Although unable to join the chase of the escaping Spanish cruisers, she was partly responsible for the destruction of the Spanish destroyers Plutón and Furor. After the war, she quickly became obsolete—despite several modernizations—and spent most of her time in commission as a training ship or in the reserve fleet, with her last commission during World War I as a training ship for gun crews. She was decommissioned for the third and final time in January 1919 and was shortly after reclassified Coast Battleship Number 1 so that the name Indiana could be reused. She was sunk in shallow water as a

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US Military –US Battleships – USS Texas (1892)

Main article: USS Texas (1892)

USS Texas

The acquisition of modern, European-built warships by Argentina, Brazil, and Chile had alarmed the United States. The straw that broke the camel’s back was Brazil’s commissioning of the battleship Riachuelo, which suddenly made the Brazilian Navy the strongest in the Americas. Congressman Hilary A. Herbert, chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee, said of the situation, “if all this old navy of ours were drawn up in battle array in mid-ocean and confronted by the Riachuelo it is doubtful whether a single vessel bearing the American flag would get into port.” Facing the possibility of enemy ironclads operating in American coastal waters, the Naval Consulting Board began planning a pair of ironclads of their own, which would be able to use all major American naval bases and have a minimum speed of 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph). The first of these two was USS Texas, 308 feet 10 inches (94.13 m) long, sporting an armor belt 12 inches (305 mm) thick, displacing 6,316 long tons (6,417 t), sailing at a top speed of 17.8 knots (33.0 km/h; 20.5 mph), and armed with two 35-caliber 12 in (305 mm) primary and six 30-caliber 6 in (152 mm) secondary guns.^[10]

Texas was authorized by Congress on 3 August 1886, but construction lagged until she was laid down on 1 June 1889. She was launched in the presence of the granddaughter of Sam Houston on 28 June 1892, and commissioned on 15 August 1895.^[11] Texas‘s early service revealed a number of structural issues, which was addressed via some reinforcement of various parts of the ship,^[12] and she ran aground near Newport, Rhode Island, in September 1896.^[13] This in turn revealed even more faults with Texas, as massive flooding easily disabled her in the shallow waters where she ran aground.^[14] After repairs, she joined the North Atlantic Squadron, briefly leaving for a Gulf Coast visit to Galveston and New Orleans that saw her beached on a mud bank off Galveston, an event whose aftermath gave Texas her nickname, “Old Hoodoo.”^[15][16] After repairs, she returned to the North Atlantic Squadron and her patrols of the Eastern Seaboard. In the Spring of 1898, Texas‘s near-sister ship USS Maine (ACR-1) (the other of the two original coastal defense ships) was destroyed by an explosion in Havana‘s harbor, and the United States went to war with the Spanish Empire. An American fleet including Texas was at Key West, and was part of the Flying Squadron in its engagements with Spanish fortifications on the Cuban coast. She saw real surface fleet combat on 3 July at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba alongside USS Iowa, USS Gloucester, and USS Indiana against the fleet of Pascual Cervera y Topete as it tried to escape the American fleet and emerged with only light damage.^[11][17] After the war, Texas was decommissioned and refitted on two occasions before finally be declared obsolete in 1911 and permanently decommissioned and converted into a target ship in the same year.^[18][19] On 15 February 1911, Texas was christened as San Marcos to free the name up for the dreadnought USS Texas (BB-35),^[11] and was then sunk in the waters of Tangier Sound by USS New Hampshire‘s guns. The remains of the San Marcos continued to be used for gunnery practice after her sinking until January 1959,^[20] when vast quantities of explosives were used to bury her remains

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USS Ronald Reagan goes into dry dock, expected to emerge in late 2026

By GARY WARNER STARS AND STRIPES • April 2, 2025

The USS Ronald Reagan arrives at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash., in August 2024. The aircraft carrier went into a 17-month maintenance at the shipyard in March 2025. (Gary Warner/Stars and Stripes) BREMERTON, Wash. — The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan has begun a maintenance stint that will keep it from deployment for 17 months, Navy officials said. The Reagan, commissioned in July 2003 was homeported at Yokosuka, Japan, from 2015 to 2024 to bolster U.S. forces in the eastern Pacific region and counter Chinese naval expansion. The carrier moved to Naval Base Kitsap, Wash., in 2024, with the USS George Washington replacing it in Japan. For the overhaul, the Reagan is moved to dry dock at Bremerton, where all the water is drained out, allowing workers access to the hull, propellers and other machinery that is normally submerged. Upgrades and repairs are completed incrementally. Of the 11 aircraft carriers in the Navy, the Reagan and the USS John C. Stennis are unavailable now for sea duty. The Stennis has been at HII-Newport News Shipbuilding, Va., since 2021 undergoing maintenance that includes modernization and the time-consuming refueling of the nuclear reactors to allow for an additional 25 years of operations on the ship’s 50-year projected service lifespan. The Stennis overhaul has been plagued by workforce and material delays in what is usually a four-year process. But the Stennis is not expected to emerge from the shipyard until as late as 2027. Under Navy plans, the USS Harry S. Truman would be the next carrier to have that kind of multiyear overhaul, which is only done at the Newport News facility. It would be followed by the Reagan and the last Nimitz carrier to be built, the USS George W. Bush. The Reagan shares Kitsap as a homeport with the USS Nimitz, which is operating in the eastern Pacific for what is expected to be its final deployment before returning briefly to the West Coast and then traveling to Norfolk Naval Station, Va., by April 2026 to begin its retirement. The Nimitz is the oldest carrier in the fleet. It was commissioned in May 1975. Capt. John Hale, commander of Naval Base Kitsap, said the base could accommodate the ship’s approximately 2,800 crew members in local housing. An auxiliary personnel lighter, which is a floating apartment and work complex on a barge that the Navy has used in the past for temporary housing of sailors when their ships are under maintenance, will be available for day use, offices and storage, he said. But it will not be used for overnight stays. During the 17 months at the shipyard, the crew of the Reagan will perform some duties on the ship but are also routinely assigned additional work around the base. Sailors recently took part in a cleanup effort around the Bremerton complex at the sprawling 12,000-acre base, which also includes ballistic-missile and attack submarine squadrons based at Bangor. Under a Navy plan proposed last week, the USS John F. Kennedy, the second of the new Ford-class aircraft carriers, would homeport at Kitsap beginning in 2029. The Kennedy is scheduled to be commissioned into the fleet in the summer. Because of the significantly higher electrical needs of the Ford-class carriers, Kitsap must undergo a $300 million overhaul of its substations and wiring to the dock areas to accommodate the ships. The Kennedy would remain on the East Coast at Naval Base Norfolk undergoing post-commissioning sea trials until the work at Bremerton is completed. Two additional Ford-class carriers, the future USS Enterprise and USS Dorris Miller are under construction at Newport News. Earlier this year, the Navy announced two more Ford carriers would be built and named after presidents — the USS William J. Clinton and USS George W. Bush.

Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/branches/navy/2025-04-02/reagan-aircraft-carrier-kitsap-dry-dock-17345149.html?utm_source=Stars+and+Stripes+Emails&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines&utm_medium=email
Source – Stars and Stripes

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NZ Naval Bases/Dockyards – HMNZS Matataua is a land-based unit

Matataua show their skills in Middle East

Royal New Zealand Navy divers and hydrographers have been working with the best in the Maritime Counter Measures (MCM) profession during a recent exercise in Bahrain.

01 April, 2025

In February, 20 MCM specialists from HMNZS Matataua joined a MCM task group within International Maritime Exercise (IMX) 2025, working alongside colleagues from the Royal Navy, French Navy, Royal Bahraini Naval Force, United Arab Emirates Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

The exercise included locations in the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden and Red Sea.

As part of Combined Task Group 3, Matataua personnel focused on ‘Break Out’ mine countermeasures in Bahrain territorial waters, where they had to locate and ‘dispose’ of sea mines.

Able Diver Karaitiana-Hay said they conducted emergency drill operations, including lift bag diving where a bag is inflated to make a ground mine buoyant and pouncer operations, where divers jump into the sea from a helicopter to neutralise a floating mine.

“The water had a decent visibility of five metres. On one of the dives we encountered a friendly but venomous sea snake!”

There were differences in procedure – the height of the jump from the US Navy helicopter was happily less than other pouncer operations the New Zealand divers have experienced, he said. But Matataua’s approach to MCM was found to be very similar to the Royal Navy, with a focus on technology and modular autonomous systems to achieve the mission.

HMNZS Matataua divers pose for a photo prior to insertion. Photo: US Navy

HMNZS Matataua divers prepare to jump from an MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter during cast and recovery drills. Photo: US Navy

An important aspect of the MCM cycle is the search and locate function, undertaken by hydrographers who deploy Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) with sonar to locate mine-like objects.

Leading Hydrographic Survey Technician Teao said their team was given a zone to search and clear.

“We were fortunate to experience how the Royal Navy, French Navy and United States Navy operated their AUVs,” he said.

“On one occasion the USN used four REMUS 100 AUVs concurrently, which is a very cool situation for any AUV team.”

“My favourite interactions were between the French and myself, trying to ask each other questions and trying to understand each other’s answers.”

He says he benefitted from seeing the different software being utilised across different nations.

“It’s all stimulating my passion for AUV knowledge.”

Lieutenant Commander Miles Amery, Matataua’s Operations Officer, said the exercise showcased the highly deployable, modular and adaptable nature of Matataua’s mine countermeasure abilities.

“Tactically, it was an opportunity to exercise our MCM capability and train our personnel in a realistic mine threat environment,” he said.

This exercise mainly involved mines on the seabed, but Matataua could be asked to deal with moored, drifting or attached mines, detonated by contact, acoustic, magnetic, pressure or by remote.

“These exercises not only build our experience and interoperability with international coalition partners, but fosters our close defence relations with them. After all, you can’t surge trust in a time of crisis.”

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