The HSM and HSC helicopters should be part of the EMW plan. Here, a MH-60S Seahawk helicopter assigned to HSC-4 approaches the USS Wayne E. Meyer.
Operational maritime effectiveness demands officers and sailors who not only possess refined skill sets in specific warfare areas, but also share a common expertise focused on mutually supportive exploitation of the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS). This demand requires discipline and thoughtful force structure. It also starts with personnel management, new concepts of accession training, and continuous education.
From the earliest stages of their careers, surface warfare officers (SWOs) maintain an advanced understanding of shipboard communications and network architecture, which are essential to battlespace and EMS management. Naval aviators are highly proficient tactical operators who expertly operate aircraft communications equipment and weapon systems. However, aviators’ focus on tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), aircraft systems, and aviation skill sets may limit their understanding of how to exploit the EMS and necessitate training to deepen operational relationships with the surface community. Surface warfare, helicopter maritime strike (HSM), and helicopter sea combat (HSC) communities need to increase emphasis on robust integration between surface warfare and naval aviation in the training and operational environs.
Strengthen Naval Power at and from the Sea
The Navy lacks significant understanding among operators of how command, control, computers, and intelligence technologies interconnect in cyberspace to conduct integrated electromagnetic warfare (EMW). To seize and maintain EM initiative across the maritime domain, the Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAE) must add to the traditional warfighting skill sets—antiair warfare, strike warfare, antisurface warfare, antisubmarine warfare (ASW), and surface surveillance coordination—by developing EMW and EMS expertise through targeted education and training.
More than three years ago, the NAE leaders published the Naval Aviation Vision 2014-2025 that “envisions a family of revolutionary core capabilities centered around the aircraft carrier . . . [and] . . . capable of countering or defeating any antiaccess/area denial (A2/AD) challenges . . . through networked maritime domain awareness.”1 Technological advancements as well as material and aircraft acquisitions have moved naval aviation closer to this goal, yet while tactical systems such as cooperative engagement capability (CEC), tactical targeting network technology (TTNT), and naval integrated fire control—counter-air (NIFC-CA) could provide naval aviation with the opportunity to “take full advantage of the electromagnetic spectrum for both attack and defense,” there is still considerable room for improvement.2
One measure of EMS management is emission control (EmCon) training to evaluate a strike group’s ability to silence signals of emission to conduct maneuver warfare and confuse the enemy: sailors are monitored for their ability to conduct EM hygiene, and the sea combat commander (SCC) plays a key role in managing shipboard emissions across the carrier strike group as directed by the information warfare commander. My participation in EmCon training as astaff tactical action officer gave me a better understanding of EM-integrated operations, but left me with two overarching questions concerning the state of our ability to conduct EMW and effectively operate in an A2/AD environment.
First, why has the Navy not put greater emphasis on EmCon training? Given fleet-wide technological advancements and knowledge of potential adversary efforts to control the EMS, I was surprised our training had not become more complex. This question was reinforced later in my tour with Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 22, when the commodore developed a series of innovative tactics working groups (TWGs) to improve the level of knowledge on important warfighting topics across the strike group. One TWG explored several maritime information operations (IO) and shipboard signal exploitation equipment (SSEE) capabilities. If NAE envisions networked maritime domain awareness, we must ensure that the education and training include robust EMS and A2/AD curriculum.
Second, how effective is the Navy’s EmCon training? Is it simply ensuring awareness of enemy signals exploitation? Or is the Navy attempting to exercise all four EMW objectives?3 HSM- 71 flew the MH-60R from the USS Antietam (CG-54) during EmCon training in 2009 and demonstrated the ability to launch a single helicopter in an A2/AD environment. This type of training is standard during fleet readiness training plan deployment certification; however, launching a single helicopter from a cruiser or destroyer is much different than doing so from a carrier while the air wing conducts cyclic flight operations in a denied, disrupted, interrupted, and limited environment. Can carriers conduct cyclic flight operations during wartime conditions within such an environment? Naval aviation should develop realistic and reliable ways to conduct carrier EmCon flight operations in the face of pacing threat counter-detection technologies.
Recommendations
It is no secret that cultural differences exist between the naval aviation and surface warfare communities. Their core mission capabilities and skill sets are different, and their respective training requirements are designed to support divergent operating environments during mission execution. However, the NAE vision of increasingly integrated maritime operations requires every naval aviator to support closer integration with the surface warfare community to achieve effective EMW. Naval aviation remains highly successful through a steadfast training program that incorporates innovative approaches to ensure mission success and safety. NAE leadership and Navy Personnel Command (NPC) should employ this same approach to achieve a newfound level of integration across the maritime domain to effectively employ existing technologies and achieve EMS agility through the following recommendations.
First, NAE and NPC should actively manage talent to increase the opportunity for greater cross-community placement. This could include the creation of a SWO billet for every naval aviation squadron since all squadrons will at some point conduct maritime operations with surface maritime units. The information sharing borne from a knowledgeable SWO interacting with aviators during mission planning and execution—and vice versa—will improve targeting and EMW proficiency with our most cutting-edge targeting and IO technologies and tactics.
An increasingly integrated fleet demands rethinking traditional concepts of naval aviation career progression. Along with HSM and HSC officers, NAE and NPC should assign maritime patrol and reconnaissance (MPR) pilots and naval flight officers to DesRon staffs. SCC responsibilities routinely demand MPR support. Creating MPR staff billets will enhance DesRon staff functionality while increasing NAE at-sea performance opportunities.
Likewise, aviator billets on DesRon staffs should be changed to duty involving flying operations. It is critically important that these staff officers maintain flight proficiency and current knowledge of integrated systems and TTPs across the maritime domain.
Absent real change in the Navy’s approach to EMS exploitation and integrated maritime operations, the Navy risks becoming operationally stagnant as the technological and education gap rapidly widens. A concerted effort is required to counter new advisory capabilities that, while recognized, have thus far only resulted in technological and material acquisition improvements. The areas where change is increasingly needed are education, training, force structure, and personnel management.
1. VADM David H Buss et al., “Naval Aviation Vision 2014–2025,” Naval Aviation Enterprise, 2014.
2. Sydney Freedberg Jr., “Navy Battles Cyber Threats: Thumb Drives, Wireless Hacking, & China,” Breaking Defense, 4 April 2013.
3. Commander, United States Fleet Forces Command, “Navy Concept for Electromagnetic Maneuver Warfare (EMW)” (U.S. Fleet Forces Command, 5 January 2016).
Lieutenant Commander Lushenko is an MH-60R pilot who is currently assigned to HSM-51 in Atsugi, Japan, as a department head/Detachment Three officer-in-charge.