Huge Undersea Test in Pacific May Follow Giant Shadow

Experiment Would Include Robots, Marine Operations Up to 100 Miles Inland

By HUNTER KEETER
Associate Editor

A large-scale experiment proposed for July 2004 and ongoing technological exploration with robotics could yield new undersea capabilities for the Navy, Rear Adm. Stephen E. Johnson, the Naval Sea Systems Command's director for undersea technology, told Sea Power.

Now on the drawing board is Silent Hammer, a major experiment that would employ special operations forces, Marines, and submarines in late summer off the West Coast of the United States and in the test ranges of the Western Pacific Ocean. Silent Hammer is proposed as a much more sophisticated program than its predecessor, Giant Shadow, which took place during the winter of 2003 in the Gulf of Mexico and in the deep water range off the Navy's Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center at Andros Island, the Bahamas.

Silent Hammer is to incorporate representative capabilities from two of the U.S. Navy's newest submarines, the SSGN nuclear-powered fleet guided-missile submarine, and the Virginia-class nuclear-powered fast attack submarine.The first of a planned 30-boat class, USS Virginia (SSN 774), will arrive in June 2004. The Fleet Forces Command, based at Norfolk, Va., has authority to approve experimental proposals, such as Silent Hammer, and other submissions.

"We have offered a variety of payloads through experiments, including as many as three new antisubmarine warfare approaches; as many as four different techniques for transmitting [communications signals] from the water to the air; and five different unmanned [robotic] vehicles," Johnson said during an interview at the Washington, D.C., Navy Yard. Johnson and other submarine strategists are working with the Navy Warfare Development Command, based at Newport, R.I., to assess new technologies that could shape future Navy doctrine.

The Navy is in the process of converting four of its Ohio-class nuclear-powered fleet ballistic-missile submarines to SSGNs, each capable of hosting 154 Tomahawk Land-Attack Missiles or more than 60 special operations forces troops. The Ohio-class hulls are the largest submarines in U.S. service. Using the large payload capacity of these boats, the Navy is equipping them with a planning center for special operations forces, essentially a submerged office with powerful computers, communications equipment, and tools designed to help special warfare groups develop, plan, and execute covert operations.

In the 2003 Giant Shadow experiment, the Navy explored the basic functionality of the SSGN, including the sub's ability to launch cruise missiles from modified ballistic-missile tubes.

In 2004's prospective Silent Hammer, the Navy would build upon lessons learned from Giant Shadow. For example, the SSGN's role in the new experiment will be to serve as a submerged sea base for a large-scale special operations operation ashore. Also, the SSGN will contribute to the missions of Marine Corps forces participating in an event called Sea Viking, which is slated to occur around the time of the proposed Silent Hammer experiment. During Giant Shadow 2003, the Navy employed six-man special operations forces teams in realistic scenarios, performing covert actions. In the Silent Hammer proposal, the Navy would apply similar operational challenges to a much larger experiment, involving actions as deep as 100 miles inland.

The objective of these submarine warfare experiments is to examine new concepts and technologies, and to demonstrate the ways in which undersea technologies can contribute to the efforts of a joint-service and coalition military force. The use of UAVs and UUVs, which have become increasingly capable over the past two decades, seems certain to influence future naval operational doctrine. The Navy and Marine Corps have developed UUVs and UAVs suited to maritime missions, though much of the technology advanced by the Air Force and the Army also is being applied to sea-going forces. For example, the Navy will buy and experiment with two Global Hawk high-endurance UAVs originally developed for the Air Force. Over the last three years, in places such as Afghanistan and in Iraq, the success of UAVs as reconnaissance platforms and as combatants carrying deadly weapons, has been highly publicized.

Less well known are advances made in the use of UUVs and other types of water-borne robots. UUVs are now available with the ability to precisely map the seabed, and to locate and discriminate mine-like objects on the bottom or suspended in the water. Missions such as mine countermeasures are only the beginning for underwater robots. According to Johnson, the Navy is interested in developing more aggressive capabilities for its UUVs and unmanned surface craft.