The Road to 2040: Enabling the Undersea Battlespace

By JOHN SIRMALIS

Dr. John Sirmalis is technical director of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center.

2001--At the end of the 20th century, the nature of undersea warfare (USW) was changing. Despite the fact that littoral nations were buying increasing numbers of submarines, the number of attack submarines in the U.S. Navy dropped to pre-WWI levels. The primary submarine missions of the Cold War became less significant, but others became more important.

Emphasis shifted to battlespace preparation, networked communications, littoral operations, and precision strike missions. National security obligations in the 21st century, while continuing to rely on the submarine service's traditional ability to operate covertly, added a requirement for robust command, control, and communications. The USW platform's surveillance and intelligence-gathering responsibilities increased.

The new demands coincided with a reduction in funding to peacetime levels. Research into new technologies, the development of devices exploiting current technology, and immediate fleet-support requirements all competed for the limited funds available. A major review of the Undersea Battlespace (USB)--the vast three-dimensional world within which submarines, mines, and antisubmarine platforms and weapons operate--was needed to balance the competing needs.

2040--Missions for the undersea battleforce have expanded greatly. New technologies have been applied to ensure successful mission execution. The submarines, sensors, weapons, and ASW platforms in the USB are more critical to strategic and tactical defense than ever before. More specifically:

(a) The traditional advantages provided by stealth and covert presence have been directed toward new levels of battlespace preparation and intelligence collection;

(b) The capabilities of underwater weapons have been vastly increased in both scope and effectiveness;

(c) Modular packaging has increased the versatility of attack submarines, giving them significant additional capability in the littoral areas; and

(d) A single SSGN (nuclear-powered guided-missile submarine) carries as many Tomahawk land-attack missiles as an entire battle group--and has the flexibility to launch a broad spectrum of missiles with different payloads. During this period of change and growth, the submarine service has maintained its tradition of stealth and endurance, increased its short-range and long-range strike potential, and developed advanced communication capabilities, making undersea platforms the vehicle of choice on the maritime front line.

The Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) is currently working to ensure that this vision of the USB of the future becomes a reality.

The Business Process and Technological Revolutions

Two parallel but interdependent series of events are affecting the development of undersea systems. First, the application of computerized information tools to business development and execution is changing the USW business process. Second, technological advances applicable to the USB are occurring at an unprecedented rate.

NUWC recognizes the importance of both revolutions and is creating an integrated USB system that takes advantage of both. Within the USB structure, the Navy and its industry partners can develop and evaluate requirements for operational capabilities that are still one or two acquisition life cycles in the future. The same support system can simultaneously be used to meet near-term needs more quickly and affordably.

The integrated USB incorporates two major advances in the traditional USB support provided by NUWC. The first is a change in process that will bring the research and development world closer to the fleet and make it more responsive to its needs. The second is the application of the new business process to exploit the developing undersea tech- nologies.

The business process changes began in the industrial sector. As computerized information tools were introduced to facilitate the product life cycle, the processes at each phase of design, production, and maintenance became more visible. This visibility stimulated a reengineering of existing processes to take advantage of a constantly expanding set of collaborative tools.

The business-process reengineering quickly moved from commercial to government applications as the shrinking defense budget, combined with the continuing demand for high-quality products at affordable prices, dictated a common infrastructure.

Process In Action--2040

At NUWC, the business process in 2040 revolves around an integrated USB that is used to create a "distributed" engineering enterprise that includes NUWC, program offices, the fleet, the private sector, and academia. Within this integrated USB RDT&E (research, development, test & evaluation), virtual and synthetic training and mission- planning tools, and contingency planners are networked in support of system development and risk management.

As a critical part of the integrated USB approach, a Fleet Development and Response Team from NUWC works with a Navy Fleet Action Group to address the complete spectrum of USW issues.

The Fleet Development and Response Team, composed of representatives from each technical department at NUWC, manages the technical aspects of undersea system and submarine changes.

The Fleet Action Group provides financial and contracts liaison with industry.

Industrial partners who will implement the potential designs also participate to address specific modifications and developments.

Various "action teams" from the public sector and industry explore all aspects of each issue. Parallel investigative efforts are synchronized using tools that automatically track and forward information and decisions that will affect other teams. The teams regroup periodically, either in person or "virtually"--i.e., across an enterprise-wide high-speed network--to discuss their findings, list courses of action, and finalize decisions. The probability of successful implementation of the decisions is increased because all stakeholders are included in the planning and decision process.

A Quality Approach

This innovative, process-oriented approach to problem-solving is being implemented now. In immediate response to the changes in industry, NUWC developed networks linking both its internal laboratories and the internal network to key partners in industry, science and technology, R&D, and academia. Standards are now being defined that will protect proprietary material as well as national security while also facilitating the exchange of data and information.

The ongoing integrated USB implementation at NUWC will, over the coming decades, significantly improve efficiency and further reduce the response time required for resolving fleet issues.

The Technology Revolution

When changes in the geopolitical environment demand new military doctrine, government interest and investment create an explosion in relevant technologies. The evolving vision for the nation's warfighting forces of the 21st century is driving major changes in USW. New requirements, especially in network- centric warfare and land attack, are emerging. The technologies to support these requirements also are emerging--at a quickening pace.

NUWC's integrated USB is quickly moving these technologies from the research laboratory to the fleet.

Technological advances, applied using the accelerated processes developed by the NUWC team, have put the submarine force at the forefront of the nation's strategic doctrine. Using the virtual USB, NUWC has partnered with the fleet and industry to conceptualize, develop, and field state-of-the-art undersea systems with unprecedented speed.

The Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) led the way. Computer-based design techniques were applied to the Virginia-class development. This electronic design and modeling led to advances in linking computer-aided-design modules to computer-driven manufacturing equipment that precisely and expeditiously produces a desired part or subsystem. Early in this process, the NUWC's Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence Team for the Virginia-class submarine program--working with the Virginia-Class Program Office--achieved 50-percent schedule and 30-percent cost reductions in the development of new systems.

New sonar systems provide submarines with three-dimensional perspectives that greatly improve target detection, precision underwater mapping, navigation, and mine/obstacle identification. Projector and receiver arrays on the submarine's chin and sail areas aid in detecting ASW (antisubmarine warfare) and mine targets, in profiling the sea floor and canopy, and in under-ice navigation. These systems also increase the accuracy and confidence level of personnel operating in the littoral environment.

Off-Platform Detection

The capabilities of undersea platforms were greatly expanded by such emerging technologies as microelectro- mechanical systems (MEMS) and long-endurance power sources. The new power sources reduce the dependence of unmanned platforms on their mother ship. MEMS, created on the same surface and using the same fabrication process as integrated circuits, enable designers to create micron-scale motors and actuators.

The MEMS family of sensors and communications devices can be easily and rapidly distributed in extremely large numbers at low cost. As the sensors and communicators record and transmit the details of the battlespace in digitized 1s and 0s, the signal processors execute pattern-recognition calculations, classify the objects detected, and provide appropriate alertment.

Communications Systems

The need to maintain and upgrade USB communications was probably the most difficult challenge for submarines in the growing network-centric information environment. Networked communications with the fleet, with regional commanders in chief, and with even higher authorities in the chain of command improved dramatically with the introduction of high-data-rate antennas and advanced buoyant cables. But the real key to assuring unrestricted communications with the submarine, while maintaining its stealth status and operational envelope, was the greater use of through-water communications.

A combination of techniques, including the use of acoustic communications for low-data-rate, long-range links--and the use of lasers for short-range, high-data-rate bursts--enabled submerged submarines to become full working members of the battle group network.

Weapons Systems

NUWC focused early on the stealth and disruptive capabilities of high-speed supercavitating projectiles. These weapons, operating at speeds faster than the speed of sound in water, diminished the defensive effectiveness of sonar systems. Development progressed toward external-hull-deployable hyper-velocity weapons that could be used both by submarines and by UUVs (unmanned underwater vehicles).

High-speed torpedoes initially were housed in and fired either from external hull tubes on the submarine or by UUVs. Electromagnetic pulse projectors became effective nonlethal weapons for paralyzing electronic systems and weapons.

When the USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23) was built, a new ocean interface for launching/recovering UUVs and other specialized equipment led to development of a large chamber fitted with bomb-bay-type doors from which an assortment of weapons could be deployed.

Elimination of the torpedo room provided extra space to support modular packages designed for specific missions and/or a wider variety of payloads--e.g., UUVs, UAVS, advanced weapons, etc.

Institutionalizing the Process

Some of the needed technological advances, such as the multimission reconfigurable UUVs, are already well into the development stage. Others, such as nanosensors and laser communications, are still only concepts and will require future R&D investment.

The Manta, the proof-of-concept for the ability to design and evaluate in a simulation environment, functions as an integral part of the submarine combat system whether on board as a conformal bow array or deployed as a UUV.

A prototype of the nanosensor classification field has demonstrated the possibilities of autonomous classification in a miniature deployable package and bidirectional communication with the remote detection and classification system.

Ongoing developments are being conducted using a subset of the distributed collaboration tools envisioned for the integrated USB. As the process revolution is institutionalized, the speed at which the new technologies mature also will increase.

The Continuing Goal: Dominance of the USB

The collaborative tools of the process revolution--modeling, simulation, networking--are essential for system development and life-cycle support in an era of limited resources and demanding new missions. The same tools are ideally suited for the exploration of options in an emerging crisis or a postulated "what if " situation. Using these tools to examine known requirements and to explore unknown possibilities has made NUWC a leader in fleet support and in undersea R&D.

In the R&D area, NUWC is investing in and directing industry development of the technologies needed to increase the submarine's capabilities to perform the missions expected in the 21st century. Sensor miniaturization, laser communications, precision-mapping sonars, and torpedoes that move faster than the sounds they create are only a few of the most promising breakthroughs in technology.

The Common Undersea Picture (CUP) for all platforms conducting USW is an example of the near-term operational capabilities fostered by both technological revolutions. Computerized information tools and technological advances facilitate the pursuit of cross- platform commonality.

The CUP directly supports the Navy's goal of maintaining dominance of the USB. It enhances the decision-making capability of the USW commander and improves the situational awareness of all platforms operating in a multiplatform USW engagement.

As the Navy moves forward to redefine USW in the ever-changing 21st- century world, the four major capabilities--stealth, sensors, communications, and weapons--that make undersea platforms essential now and into the future remain the same. Within the integrated USB, NUWC and its partners are refining enterprise processes and making sustained long-term investments in underwater technology to support the developing missions.

The close linkage between NUWC and the fleet puts the USB team in good position to provide knowledgeable, responsive support and, by anticipating future requirements, to advance timely solutions.