The NAVSEA/NWC Connection

Innovation Consultants for the Fleet of the Future

By MARIA ZACHARIAS

Maria Zacharias is a public affairs officer for the Naval Sea Systems Command.

When futuristic U.S. and enemy forces did virtual battle in July at the annual Global War Game of the Naval War College (NWC) in Newport, R.I., naval architects were on hand to ensure that the ships and their combat systems that in the war games existed only as concepts were realistically depicted. This was the third year that Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) personnel provided such support for the war game. Among the other participants, as always, were naval and military officers, present and former government civilian officials, and others with broad technical and operational expertise.

The game is designed to simulate real-world political, military, economic, logistic, and industrial dynamics 10 to 15 years into the future. Sophisticated computer warfare allows participants to test strategies and tactics as well as measure the performance, appropriate to their design characteristics, of actual and conceptualized Navy vessels.

The use of futuristic concepts rather than existing vessels is a relatively new aspect of the Global War Game. Among the concepts tested in recent games was a small, fast warship nicknamed the Streetfighter. NWC President Vice Adm. Arthur K. Cebrowski has promoted Streetfighter as a transformational concept for the Navy because of its effectiveness for modern warfare. Ideally, the craft's speed and flexibility, designed for close-in fighting in support of larger vessels, would be combined with powerful radar, unmanned vehicles, and robotic sensors to give the enemy a formidable adversary.

NAVSEA's naval architects translated Streetfighter and other futuristic concepts into what they would look like as ships, configuring them in different sizes, and with variable hull forms, power sources, guns, and missile payloads.

During the year, the architects are tasked by the Navy Warfare Development Command to develop certain concepts for the Global War Game. Technical characteristics for those concepts are fed into War Game computers before the game begins. Then, when the concepts are tested in simulated battles, specifics can be learned about their effectiveness in combat, including their offensive and defensive capabilities. Smaller vessels are particularly suited to an innovation emphasized in this year's game--"network-centric warfare"--which calls for fleet assets to be interconnected to facilitate communications and coordination. In a network-centric-warfare environment, smaller ships would have more communication nodes in place, providing better flexibility and survivability when the vessels' missions are synergistically coordinated.

What Color Is Victory?

Participants in the Global War Game watch the battle unfold on computer screens, with different colors and symbols representing friendly and hostile forces and different kinds of platforms and weapons. Personnel in the active fleet are able to actively participate as well, through use of today's sophisticated communications links. NAVSEA's naval architects interact with the various players during the game, so that as new concepts are put into battle they can be appropriately deployed. The naval architects also serve as consultants to the "Innovation Cell" where numerous "what ifs" are asked--with the answers leading to development and modification of current operational concepts. The architects work to ensure that any proposed design and/or capabilities changes are solidly grounded in existing or coming technologies. They are able to pose and answer questions, such as how far a vessel would be able to go on the fuel available, whether it could take a particular hit and survive, and how stealthy it would be in a particular warfighting environment.

The give-and-take between operational personnel and ship designers is valuable for both groups. "Working with people in a given warfare area shows us how they are using the assets we develop, and we can answer their questions and give them ideas about the capability of the platform," said Jeffrey A. Koleser, senior naval architect in NAVSEA's Total Ship System Concepts Division. "Each year we have more refined ideas," added Mark Bebar, director of the division. "How can we make a ship concept perform better? How can we best support the transformation efforts underway in the Navy?"

Members of the NAVSEA group have found that they have been able to use the War Game to guide their ship designs--at the front end as a source of requirements for future ship concepts, and after the fact as an assessment of how their concepts performed.

"It was rewarding to participate in the War Game for the third year," Koleser said. "In bringing our experience to bear on the game, we saw the impact it had on the discussion."