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www.sea-technology.com March 2015 / st 53 US Navy Tops IEEE Patent Portfolio Rankings for Government The U.S. Navy patented 396 technologies in 2013, lead- ing the government category in an annual ranking of patent portfolios published by the Institute of Electrical and Elec- tronics Engineers (IEEE). For the sixth consecutive year, the U.S. Navy eclipsed government agencies around the world for the size and quality of its collection of patents in IEEE Spectrum Maga- zine's 2014 Patent Power Scorecard. The scorecard rates the strength of the patent portfolios in organizations across a range of industrial sectors. The Navy has held the top spot since the government category was added in 2008. IEEE evaluated 5,000 organizations across 17 industries for the number of patents issued as well as the growth, im- pact, originality and general applicability across each port- folio. The IEEE "Pipeline Growth Index" indicates the Navy's number of patents has been growing by 11 percent annually over the previous fve years. The Offce of Naval Research manages the Navy's patent portfolio, setting policy and conducting oversight of patents, as well as trademarks, copyrights, inventions and royalty payments for intellectual property. Keel Laid for US Navy's 13th LCS, Wichita The Lockheed Martin-led industry team offcially laid the keel for the U.S. Navy's 13th littoral combat ship (LCS), the future USS Wichita, in a ceremony held at Marinette Marine Corp. in Marinette, Wisconsin. Wichita is a fexible Freedom-variant LCS to be designed and outftted with mission systems to conduct a variety of missions, including anti-surface warfare, mine countermea- sures and submarine warfare. The team building Wichita has delivered two ships, with six others in various stages of con- struction and testing. The nation's frst LCS, USS Freedom, completed a U.S. Navy deployment in 2013, and USS Fort Worth (LCS-3) is currently deployed for 16 months to South- east Asia. "Laying the keel" marks the beginning of the module erection process, which signifes the ship coming to life. Modern warships are now largely built in prefabricated, complete hull sections rather than a single keel, so the start of the shipbuilding process is now considered to be when the frst sheet of steel is cut and is often marked with a cer- emonial event. ISE Refts Canadian Navy MCM ROV The Canadian Navy's Mine-Countermeasures (MCM) ROV is ready to be returned to the customer after its re- cent reft by International Submarine Engineering Ltd. (ISE), based in Port Coquitlam, Canada. TrailBlazer, a 25-horsepower vehicle, has been in opera- tion with the Canadian Navy since 1995. It can detect long- or short-tethered mines as well as bottom mines. TrailBlazer is the only MCM ROV capable of breakouts, utilizing the streamlined ROV at high speed, according to ISE. TrailBlaz- er is equipped with a mini fve-function manipulator and a cable cutting tool. Two Successful Flight Tests For Tomahawk Cruise Missile The U.S. Navy and Raytheon Co. (Waltham, Massachu- setts) conducted two successful fight tests in January. The frst fight test demonstrated a Tomahawk cruise missile, which was synthetically guided to hit a mobile ship target (MST). The second fight test demonstrated a reduced mis- sion planning time in a realistic "call for fre" scenario. In the frst test, a Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile fred from the destroyer USS Kidd (DDG-100) few a preplanned mission until a surveillance aircraft sent real-time target in- formation to the Joint Network Enabled Weapons Mission Management Capability (JNEW-MMC) located at Naval Air Warfare Center – Weapons Division (NAWC-WD), China Lake. The JNEW-MMC provided updated data to the missile in fight before it successfully struck the MST. This demon- stration is the frst step toward evolving Tomahawk with im- proved network capability and extends its reach from fxed and mobile to moving targets. In the second test, the USS Kidd launched another Toma- hawk Block IV missile on a "call for fre" mission in support of shore-based Marines staged on San Nicolas Island. Using GPS navigational updates, the missile performed a vertical dive to impact on San Nicolas Island, scoring a direct hit on the target designated by the Marines. The test provided valu- able data for the Marine Expeditionary Force to evaluate and evolve their call for fre capability. n navy currents