Synchronizing Concept Development
The Sea Trial Process
Early Experimentation Results
Upcoming Experimentation
The Bottom Line
Lieutenant Paul Jones has just launched two unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) from the littoral combat ship Arrowhead. Working with the USS Virginia (SSN-774) below the surface and an overhead swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) launched by the Arrowhead's sister ships, the lieutenant is part of a sustained, littoral reconnaissance effort. In minutes, he receives confirmation that the UUVs are up and sweet in the net. His commanding officer is using all of his ship's nearly 50-knot speed to reposition outside the range of an enemy coastal defense cruise missile battery spotted by one of the UAVs. Jones thinks to himself that the battery will be a hellish place to be once hypersonic projectiles begin raining down from the destroyer 100 miles to seaward. As he checks the hyperspectral imagery coming from the UAVs, Jones receives a video conference call on his personal communicator from his commanding officer. The captain of the Virginia and a SEAL platoon commander are in the conference as well. They already are recommending to the joint force commander the immediate insertion of special forces ashore. This is going to be a busy day for Lieutenant Jones and the rest of the Arrowhead's crew.
The technology at Lieutenant Jones's fingertips is in development now. How effective it will be in combat depends on the processes—known broadly as concepts of operations (ConOps) and doctrine—we develop to harness its potential. Simply grafting new technology to old processes will not work. To fully leverage the advantages technology brings, we must speed our process of innovation and coevolve concepts, technologies, and doctrine.
Sea Trial will drive that coevolution.
In the Navy's strategic concept for the 21st century, "Sea Power 21," Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Vern Clark designated Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command (CFFC), as the executive agent for Sea Trial. The reason is simple. Because the Navy starts with the fleet, the fleet must drive innovation and experimentation. Sea Trial cannot be dictated from programming offices in Washington, D.C., nor can systems commands alone foster it. It will require the active involvement of our operators in the testing and evaluation of the technology provided by systems commands and the tactics and doctrine developed by warfare centers of excellence. That depth of integration is possible only at the fleet level—and it is only through that kind of integration that we can generate the intellectual synergy necessary for experimentation and discovery. In the end, this process is about unleashing the creative genius of our people.
As executive agent for Sea Trial, CFFC integrates the efforts of the Second and Third Fleet commanders, along with the commander of Network Warfare Command, as they sponsor concept development and experimentation to develop Sea Strike, Sea Shield, Sea Basing, and ForceNet capabilities. These commanders will reach throughout the fleet, the military, and beyond to coordinate concept and technology development in support of future warfighting effectiveness. The systems commands and program executive offices are central partners in this effort, bringing concepts to reality through innovation and the application of sound business principles. Meanwhile, our ships and aircraft will serve as sea-based laboratories, with our operators helping to answer the most pressing questions posed by this period of rapid technological change:
- What new ConOps will make the most effective use of existing and emerging technologies?
- What organizational changes will be necessary to achieve the most efficient execution of the new ConOps?
- What new technologies must be developed to fully implement new doctrine?
Sea Trial is up and running, facilitating the transition of promising capabilities from validated concept, to experimentation and demonstration, to implementation in the fleet. This process serves both as the voice of today's war fighters and a means to look beyond current programs of record to provide the right capabilities for future generations. We will prioritize the fleet's required capabilities, share information on potential solutions, conduct sound and analytical war gaming and experimentation, agree on a way ahead, and implement it without delay. Sea Trial also will stimulate the Navy's science and technology efforts by identifying the technologies needed to fully implement new doctrine.
Synchronizing Concept Development
Managing the development of each contributing element, from concept to capability to operational deployment, presents a unique challenge. Innovators are driven by discovery or opportunity independent of fixed timelines, a freedom that is inherent to a creative process and must be fostered inside the Navy environment. Experimenters and operators are driven by more disciplined rhythms, influenced by factors such as deployment schedules, joint war gaming, real-world contingencies, and demanding readiness requirements. Finally, Navy and DoD programs of record are driven by an even less flexible rhythm where planning is long-term and budgeting deadlines are nonnegotiable.
Early Experimentation Results
Sea Trial is fully operational, with ongoing projects spanning the range of experimentation, and is yielding results that will make a difference in the Navy's ability to fight today and in the future. Examples of productive Sea Trial experiments include:
- Giant Shadow. Four Trident ballistic missile submarines will be converted into guided-missile submarines (SSGNs), conventional strike platforms capable of launching 154 Tomahawk missiles, conducting special operations missions, and supporting other strike operations by both sea- and land-based forces. We already are experimenting with the ConOps and capabilities that will be needed to make these platforms truly transformational. In January, we completed Exercise Giant Shadow, in which the USS Florida (SSBN-728) conducted complex operations designed to test SSGN technology and operational concepts in conjunction with a variety of air, land, and sea-based assets.
One significant result of Giant Shadow was the ability to use high-frequency ground wave to deliver sensor-to-shooter data from land-based forces to an SSGN at sea. Using man-portable high-frequency systems, gigabyte-sized video images were transferred from a special warfare unit ashore to the submarine in support of a strike mission. This link also supported real-time chat between submerged, surface, and land-based units. In addition, surrogate aircraft were used to model the UAV technologies that will be a critical enabler for these conventional strike assets. In all, a variety of lessons were learned that will be critical to formulation of our SSGN operating concepts.
- Command and Control. One of the most significant areas for concept development, experimentation, and doctrine development is command and control of naval forces operating in the joint environment. During Fleet Battle Experiment Kilo conducted in April and May 2003, spiral events with Second Fleet tackled the thorny problem of collaboration between geographically separated elements of an integrated staff. The equally challenging tasks of commanding theater antisubmarine warfare, area air defense, joint fires, and the new expeditionary strike group were examined in an operational environment with Seventh Fleet during Tandem Thrust '03.
- High-Speed Vessel. The high-speed vessel (HSV) is an example of leap-ahead technology critical to Sea Basing. Through Sea Trial, we will continue to examine not only the technologies associated with these platforms, but also the associated concept of operations, manning profiles, and potential mission uses. The Joint Venture (HSV-X1) recently completed her experimental service with the Navy. This included a highly successful deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, during which the Joint Venture conducted maritime interdiction and mine countermeasures operations and performed duties as an afloat forward staging base for special forces. The Joint Venture was replaced by the Swift (HSV-2), which builds on the concept by providing a larger ship with more defensive and offensive capability, including the ability to support helicopters. (For more details about the Swift, see "High Speed Is Here," pages 72–73, in this issue.)
The Swift already has operated in the Arabian Gulf and is scheduled to participate in this year's West Africa training cruise, where her payload and speed advantages and ability to quickly move Marine Corps forces will provide valuable lessons learned. Experimentation with the Swift also will help develop mine warfare command ship operating concepts and will fuel the Littoral Combat Ship's attendant concept of operations.
- Precision Fires. Advances in electric-drive warships and power generation open tremendous possibilities in long-range precision fires. Electromagnetic rail gun technology provides for hypersonic delivery of kinetic-energy projectiles, potentially generating tremendous lethality over current naval fire support systems. A proper-sized round could provide missile-like capability with the destructive power of two Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles, or tremendous volume fires could be delivered at a fraction of the cost per round. A rail gun also could provide more rounds per similarly sized magazine than current weapons and offer enhanced safety because chemical-based munitions on board the host ship could be eliminated. In addition to taking advantage of the Army's Direct Fire Electromagnetic Rail Gun program, CFFC and the Office of Naval Research teamed with British research organizations to successfully test a 1/8th-scale model rail gun in April 2003. The next steps will include a gradual buildup of scale model testing before moving on to full-scale development and possible installation on board our all-electric warships. Our experimentation with the rail gun is a great example of leveraging off other organizations' progress in difficult technical areas.
Upcoming Experimentation
The maturing Sea Trial process will continue to focus on identification of Sea Trial events and exercise opportunities within the fleet. The fiscal year 2004 experimentation plan includes specific activities, including close cooperation with the Marine Corps, in support of the following objectives:
For Sea Strike
- Improve integration of command and control with maritime operations enabled by the ForceNet collaborative information environment.
- Improve combat identification of combat ground forces by maritime forces enabled by ForceNet common tactical picture processing. Provide a common tactical picture tailored to an individual user enabled by ForceNet software agent capability.
For Sea Basing
- Develop a maritime operations planning process for the joint forces maritime component commander (JFMCC) and develop a tactical memorandum that identifies the relationships and processes for vertical and horizontal integration of the JFMCC into the joint command-and-control structure.
- Assess the scalability, ability to support joint forces, and ForceNet enabling technology requirements of a sea base.
- Assess the effectiveness of new capabilities such as high-speed vessels, MV-22 Osprey, T-AKE, selective offload, and integrated naval logistics in support of a sea base.
- Develop the organization, procedures, and ForceNet enabling technology required to support an expeditionary strike group.
For Sea Shield
- Develop an undersea network and nonacoustic detection methods to enable a sensor-rich antisubmarine warfare environment and advanced weapon technology to counter littoral threats.
- Evaluate the contribution of multiple autonomous UUVs to improving mine warfare rate of detection.
- Assess the implications of installing next-generation weapons on board Navy platforms for combating the high-density small boat threat.
For ForceNet
- Develop the architecture and standards necessary to support "Sea Power 21" pillars, providing cross-pillar support for the collaborative information environment multilevel security; computer network defense tactics, techniques, and procedures; and agent-based computing to support data fusion and common tactical and operational pictures tailored to an individual user.
The Bottom Line
As never before, speed is the major characteristic of military forces that win in combat—including speed of strategic mobility and operational and tactical maneuver, speed of attack, and speed of defense. How rapidly we can incorporate new processes and the technologies that go with them into our organization will determine if we are swift indeed, or left behind. Sea Trial will inject new speed into getting the right new capabilities to the fleet. Rapid progress is on the record, and the future of Sea Trial is bright as it becomes the streamlined, integrated process that will drive transformational capabilities from concept to implementation.
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Admiral Natter served as Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, and Commander, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, from June 2000 until October 2003.
Part I—Projecting Decisive Joint Capabilities
Part II—Sea Shield: Projecting Global Defensive Assurance
Part III—Sea Strike: Projecting Persistent, Responsive, and Precise Power
Part IV—Sea Basing: Operational Independence for a New Century
Part V—ForceNet: Turning Information into Power
Part VI—Global Concept of Operations
Part VII—Sea Warrior: Maximizing Human Capital
Part IX—Sea Enterprise: Resourcing Tomorrow's Fleet