War has suddenly broken out between the U.S. and a powerful adversary. At a major Navy base, much-needed warships that were undergoing maintenance and resupply are now hurriedly preparing to sail into the fight.
But the ships are in grave danger. Swarms of the adversary’s aerial drones are racing toward the base from multiple directions. At the same time, a host of enemy unmanned surface vehicles (USVs)—some with anti-ship missiles, others packed with munitions for kamikaze-style attacks—are also coming for the docked warships. Many of these aerial and surface drones are autonomous, fully under the control of a merciless artificial intelligence.
Yet even before the drones reach their targets, the base is under assault. The adversary has launched a fearsome cyberattack to blind the defenders—and in a matter of seconds, it has knocked out the base’s 5G communications, disabled weapons systems, and disrupted critical areas of command-and-control.
Such a multi-pronged attack requires a defense that is not just layered but also fully integrated, so that all of the base’s defensive capabilities are working together as a whole to protect the ships. Many of these capabilities can now be enhanced with emerging approaches—including those using AI—to fight fire with fire. All this helps achieve two key goals: a lethal response that matches the speed of the assault, and a resilience that keeps even a beleaguered ship and base defense intact.
Building the Integrated, Layered Defense
One of the first steps in this integration is tying in the base’s cyber defenses with its other defensive capabilities. Kinetic assaults on Navy ships at bases during a war will likely be preceded by massive cyberattacks on both the ships and the bases themselves.
Integrated defenses can take advantage of a new approach that uses AI to provide early warnings of cyberattacks. AI continuously monitors ship systems, as well as base networks and industrial control systems, looking for previously established patterns of attack. If the AI sees the first steps of a pattern—possibly even before any damage is done—it alerts supervisors, who can quickly try to isolate and defeat any intrusion.
If a cyberattack does get through, an integrated system makes it faster and easier to compensate for disruptions to communications, weapons, or other systems. Backups and revised courses of action can automatically go into place, or be ordered by supervisors, to plug holes in punctured defenses.
Speed and Resiliency
Another key to an integrated defense is the ability to decentralize elements of command-and-control for speed and resiliency. A cyberattack—along with munitions-loaded aerial drones—could disrupt communications, handcuffing the base’s defense operations center. With another new approach, however, individual defenders on both ships and land could use their on-body radios and other devices to create an “edge” network. In essence, everyone would become a sensor that feeds into the network.
This edge network could then be used to bring together sensor, datalink and other information from every “node” at the base and on the ships, creating a common operating picture of the attack. Defenders could also see which of their weapons system were down and which were still available. And they could then collaborate, including with joint fires, as they fight back against the drones.
Just as important, the edge network would be integrated into the operations center, maintaining commanders’ ability to see and direct defenses. This would allow command-and-control to be both centralized and distributed, as needed, to mount the most effective, integrated defense.
New approaches to multi-sensor integration can also enhance the common operating picture. Often that picture is muddied by an assort- ment of sensors that, because they’re outdated or proprietary, or for other reasons, don’t work well with one another. However, with open systems and architectures, any type of sensor can “plug in” and contribute to the unified view of the enemy attack.
The common operating picture—including the early warnings of cyber and kinetic attacks—can also be conveyed in real time to other Navy ships and bases, giving them time to prepare their own defenses.
Bringing in AI
Defending against an aerial and surface drone attack on Navy warships inport will require a speed that might only be achieved with AI—particularly because the enemy itself will likely be using AI.
In addition to cybersecurity, an integrated AI can play a number of roles in defending ships at bases from aerial and surface drone attacks. One is faster target recognition and response. For example, AI might find patterns in sensor data that would suggest an attack is imminent, even when the drones are still far out to sea. AI could also predict the nature of the attack—for example, the types of drones coming in, and their likely armaments and tactics.
AI could also meet the need for speed by almost instantly recommending courses of action, and by coordinating joint fires—always with humans in the loop. This would include prioritizing targets and identifying who is in the best position to shoot them, and with what weapons.
Integrating AI into base and ship defenses can also aid resiliency. For example, if a weapons or industrial control system goes down, AI might quickly identify alternate systems, and in some cases automatically switch to them.
Lvc Training and Testing
Such a fully integrated defense has another advantage—it helps promote live, virtual and constructive (LVC) training and testing. In exercises, sailors across the base and on ships could, for example, practice using edge networks for distributed command-and-control and joint fires. In addition, the Navy can test its critical systems by creating “digital twins,” or virtual representations, of them. These digital twins would be run through modeling and simulation to see what works and what doesn’t, particularly under stress, as well as to improve TTPs.
Defending ships against an onslaught of aerial and surface drones would require a coordinated and resilient response at lightning speed. An integrated, layered base defense that fights fire with fire can play a key role.
Vice Admiral Roy Kitchener, [email protected], a senior executive advisor at Booz Allen, served as Commander, Naval Surface Forces/Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. During his 39 years of service, his commands included destroyers, a cruiser and an expeditionary strike group.
Michael Nelson, [email protected], a vice president in Booz Allen’s Global Defense Sector, previously served as president of PAR Government. He has supported the development and delivery of technical solutions for the DoD and intelligence communities for more than 28 years.