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U.S. Marines with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron (HMLA) 267, Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (MAW) fly from Marine Corps Air Station Pendleton to Helicopter Outlying Landing Field (HOLF) to prepare for flight operations at Camp Pendleton, California, July 19, 2021.
HMLA 267 flew to the HOLF in support of 3rd MAW’s Summer Fury where they set up a command and control node on a notional island to showcase their operational readiness in places alike to the Indo-Pacific region.
Summer Fury is an exercise conducted by 3rd MAW in order to maintain and build capability, strength and trust within its units to generate the readiness and lethality needed to deter and defeat adversaries during combat operations as the U.S. Marine Corps refines tactics and equipment in accordance with Force Design 2030.
MCAS PENDLETON, CA, UNITED STATES 07.20.2021 Video by Lance Cpl. Rachaelanne Woodward 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing
U.S. Marines with Alpha Company, 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, participate in egress training in the CH-53K “King Stallion” at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, April 28, 2021.
Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron 1 (VMX) is training Marines on the CH-53K to improve proficiency and familiarize all elements of the Marine Expeditionary Force with the aircraft.
The CH-53K will be considered the most powerful helicopter in the Department of Defense and is scheduled to completely replace the CH-53E Super Stallion by 2030.
MCAS NEW RIVER, NC.
04.28.2021
Video by Sgt. Mikayla Perez 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing
I first met Brigadier General, retired, Robert Novotny at RAF Lakenheath in 2016.
There we focused on the coming of the F-35 to the base after the Brits would deploy the aircraft onboard their new class of carriers. We discussed the broader implications of being able to integrated F-35s throughout the region as well.
After that assignment he went to Air Combat Command at Langley AFB and then on to his last assignment which was the command the 57th Wing, Nellis AFB.
As the Wing’s website described their focus: “The 57th Wing, as the most diverse wing in the Air Force, provides advanced, realistic, and multi-domain training focused on ensuring dominance through air, space, and cyberspace. The 57th Wing builds innovative leaders in tactics, training and high-end warfighting to ensure world-wide combat air forces are prepared for tomorrow’s victories, while overseeing dynamic and challenging flight operations at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.
“The 57th Wing is comprised of the United States Air Force Weapons School, 57th Maintenance Group, 57th Operations Group, USAF Aerial Demonstration Squadron (The Thunderbirds), and the USAF Advanced Maintenance and Munitions Operations School (AMMOS).”
In building out a series on multi-mission training, it obviously made good sense to get the perspectives of the recently retired commander of the key training wing in the USAF, notably after having visited PACAF and discussing their focus on reshaping USAF and joint force capabilities in the Pacific.
It is clear that in dealing with the post-land wars focus of the USAF, that advanced training is a key weapon system.
Here is how BG (retired) Novotny put it:
“I think the good news is that the Air Force does find significant value in training. We find it not only significant in the virtual world, the war gaming world, but in particular, in the live fly scenario. There we put all of the relevant assets together in a formation, and we stress the human being component within the combat force. How does the air combat force integrate and operate and communicate in that kind of environment where there’s so many platforms and so many weapons systems?
C2 is clearly a key weapon system when working complex multi-mission combat integration.
Novotny put it this way: “How do we ensure that the communication architecture can do what we need it to do? How survivable is it when we stress it? Nellis and the 57th Wing are the crown jewel of the USAF for all testing and training. And I think you’ve seen in the last year, even the last two years, the explosion of the colored flags scenarios to broaden how we train as well.”
He then discussed the expansion of the training envelope as seen from the evolution of the training flag exercises. “Red Flag is a large force training exercises built upon some of our failures in Vietnam and is designed to get that young airman into those stressful situations, communicating mission planning, exercising, communicating debriefing in package formations that we think we might use against a conventional threat.
“Then we’ve created Green Flag, which is more focused on air-to-ground integration with our partners at the National Training Center and the Joint Readiness Training Center, both at Fort Irwin and in Fort Polk.
“But now you see the Orange Flag series of exercises, which is really an operational test integration scenario. We’ve been doing those for a long time. We’ve just finally put a name to them and where we bring yet to be released capabilities and systems and software and data links.
“And we put those systems into what we like to call deep end testing. It is a philosophy of throwing the child into the deep end of the pool and seeing if they swim. Instead of doing an iterative software release where we fly it for 12 months and we get it to near perfection, but never really stress it. And then we wind up fielding it to the combat air forces and find out it’s really insufficient for what we needed it to be.
“With the Orange Flag approach, we do deep end Orange Flag scenarios. And then I think most recently you’ve seen the announcement of Black Flag and Emerald Flag, which again are integrated test and training events really focused on getting after the highly contested environment with new and emerging technologies. Do these technologies work the way we want them to?
“From a training perspective, it helps us look over the glare shield into the future. How are we training today? And with these new tools that are coming to a new toolkit, are retraining properly for future warfare for future weapon systems, or do we need to change that?
“Nellis has the right mindset and the right vision. The USAF has the right vision. What we lack is consistent funding and an ability rapidly to upgrade those infrastructures. It is also the case that our weapons systems have out outpaced our current infrastructure.
“For example, I grew up on the Nellis Test and Training Range in the mid-nineties.
“And the threat we trained to was a North Korean MiG-29, who could only shoot me at about 12 nautical miles.
“Now we’re trying to train against what could be a J-20 Bravo low to almost zero RCS threat with an advanced electronic attack with surface air missiles that can shoot you at 400 miles. And we don’t have enough space. We don’t have enough geography to set up those kinds of scenarios.
“As a result, we’ve moved a lot of stuff to Alaska and even Alaska has significant restrictions while it has more room to try to exercise the systems. And you can only really fly up there predictably for about four to six months. Otherwise, the weather becomes problematic, both on the ground and in the air.
“This means that we are migrating a lot more work into the virtual world, which it is really good for exercising systems and the data links and the communication portfolio, but unfortunately alleviates all of the stress and pressure and that combat tempo of live training that we tried to create when we started Red Flag. The challenge is to find the best ways to combine the two as we train for the evolving challenges of the high-end fight.”
The virtual side of training is becoming important as well to train to the evolving threat envelope as well, as both the Blue and Red side add new capabilities.
By modeling a new capability and inserting into the virtual side of live virtual constructive training, the approach is to anticipate how a new red side technological capability changes the combat equation.
We closed by discussing a crucial near to midterm opportunity to ramp up U.S. combat capability.
Whether in the North Atlantic fight involving the Russians or the Pacific fight involving the Chinse, Russians or North Koreans, finding ways to ramp up air-maritime integration is crucial. The U.S. Navy is focusing on ways to fight more effectively as a fleet; the USAF is working on ways to shape a more effective integrated distributed combat force built around fight generation capability.
But why do the US Navy and USAF not train as an integrated force? As Novotny put it, each force faces significant challenges to adapting to the new realities.
“We’re consumed by the tyranny of the present. I have to create this many pilots, I have to create this many wingman and flight leads etc. One problem is the constant threat of pilot retention. The never-ending demand signal from Central Command of deploying forces. Reconstituting forces needing our own internal training requirements and more. This is why training jointly, which is the way we’re going to fight today and in the future, seems to be the first thing that falls off the plate, which is maddening.
“I can’t tell you how many times that when we do those training exercises, for example, a Valiant Shield or a Northern Edge exercise, we find out how great those training experiences are because of what we learn.
“But then we immediately fall back into our comfort level, which is to train internally because my fleet is so inexperienced. My airplane fleet health is challenged right now. And I have many internal pressures from our own service to meet certain training requirements and checkpoints and due dates, coupled with deployments that I just can’t get to a point where I can go do those large joint or coalition training exercise. And that’s troubling.”
I suggested that one way around the chokepoint of the present is to leverage the coming of the B-21 to the Pacific. Clearly, the B-21 as a weapon system will have its major impact as an air-maritime combat capability. Why not build a training system into the B—21 program now that would shape joint maritime-air operations in the Pacific?
This would not solve all the challenges facing force integration, but would be a powerful building block which would drive change immediately when out of the box. And if the new bomber were to operate from Alaska and or Australia then working the Navy’s distributed maritime approach with the USAF’s approach to agile combat employment would drive significant change from its first appearance in the Pacific.
Brig Gen (ret) Robert Novotny founded Skyracer Consulting LLC in 2021 with the goal of helping small and emerging technology companies find success in the Federal market. Focused on aviation, space, 5G, IoT, advanced EW and networks, or other technologies designed to enhance our US military mission,
Skyracer Consulting’s vast network of DoD and IC partners are ready to help companies succeed in developing their products and gain traction with the war fighting agencies. Visit them at www.skyracerconsulting.com or on LinkedIn.
Vice President Mike Pence is greeted by Brig. Gen. Robert Novotny, 57th Wing commander, upon arriving at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, Sept. 7, 2018. Upon landing, Novotny and other base leaders escorted Pence to the flightline to converse with the Airmen. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Andrew D. Sarver)
By 1st Lt. Savanah Bray, 53rd Wing / Published December 28, 2020
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFNS)
Gen. Mark D. Kelly signed COMACC Plan 21 Dec. 15, effectively formalizing the 53rd Wing’s Large Force Test Events into “Black Flag” – an event solely focused on test and tactics development in a realistic, massed force, fully integrated, high threat density environment.
Established as the test counterpart to Red Flag, an event designed to train like we fight, Black Flag allows the Air Force to test like we fight. While Red Flag builds readiness, Black Flag builds capability.
“As a venue for innovation through integration, Black Flag is ultimately a deep-end testing arena to create and discover capabilities utilizing existing and emerging materiel,” said Lt. Col. Mike Benitez, 53rd Wing director of staff and Black Flag lead project officer. “Black Flag’s largest benefit is that it’s a tactical initiative with strategic impact. Warfighters know that innovation happens at the intersection of weapons and tactics – where integration occurs.”
Black Flag allows for multiple areas of test and tactics development to be executed in a singular event, while also creating an environment to adequately test and validate Tactics Improvement Proposals put forth by senior leaders at the annual Weapons and Tactics Conference, or WEPTAC, ultimately ensuring the warfighter has the most advanced and lethal tactics when they need them.
“Black Flag is essential to national defense,” said Col. Ryan Messer, 53rd Wing commander. “Instituting a flag-level exercise is the result of both the dedication of professionals in the 53rd Wing and also the support of senior leaders who acknowledge the importance of, and are investing in, testing like we fight.”
As the only wing responsible for operational test and tactics development for the Air Force’s fighter, bomber and remotely piloted aircraft fleet, the 53rd Wing is both uniquely tasked and poised to execute Black Flag, Messer explained.
“Black Flag accelerates months of work and combines it into a high-end, large force testing event. Because combat is large force employment, test must also include large force employment,” said Gen. Mark Kelly, commander of Air Combat Command.
By definition from COMACC Plan 21: “Black Flag, the world’s premier large force tactics and integration test event, will enable the CAF to 1) innovate through deep-end test integration to discover new capabilities and synergies of fighter, bomber, ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) and classified programs that create multiple dilemmas for the adversary, 2) satisfy AFI/AFMAN testing mandates, 3) add relevancy and accountability to ACC Weapons and Tactics Conference (WEPTAC), 4) foster a culture of ‘Test Like We Fight’ that compliments ‘Train Like We Fight’ and 5) produce strategic impacts for Joint All-Domain Operations (JADO) and the NDS (National Defense Strategy).”
Though COMACC Plan 21 formalizes Black Flag, the concept itself is not new. Operational testers have long been tasked with testing in a realistic, mass-forced environment. The 53rd Wing proved the effectiveness of the Black Flag concept through recent large force test events in August and November. As the operational test and tactics development-focused flag event, Black Flag completes a test triad alongside Orange and Emerald Flag.
“Black Flag is just one of the many examples of how the 53rd Wing is fulfilling the chief of staff’s vision of ‘Accelerate Change or Lose’,” Messer said.
The 53rd Wing provides tactical advantage to the warfighter at the speed of relevance. By testing new, operational capabilities, evaluating fielded capabilities and optimizing electronic warfare capabilities, the 53rd Wing is bringing the future faster while answering the warfighter’s demands for integrated, multi-domain capabilities.
By 1st Lt. Karissa Rodriguez / Published April 12, 2021
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. —
Emerald Flag 21-1, Eglin’s second native multi-domain test exercise, began March 22-26 on the Eglin test and training range.
Emerald Flag focuses on providing a playground for testing, offering an avenue for new complex weapons systems to be advanced. This effort directed the intersection of fielded technologies with advanced long-range kill chain-enabling programs. The quarterly event involved the participation of more than 20 agencies.
Multiple players from across the DoD and industry were involved in exploring new warfighting concepts and technologies, according to Lt. Col. Michael Culhane, the Emerald Flag director.
“The last several days were a remarkable opportunity to expose many of our cutting-edge developmental and operational test programs to a complex, large force exercise environment,” said Col. Timothy Beers, 96th Test Wing vice commander.
The event serves as a focal point to bring quality and relevant experimental technology to Emerald Flag and integrate them into multi-domain operation scenarios. The collaborative effort focused on creating a real-time dynamic training scenario while increasing the test effectiveness of Joint All-Domain Command and Control.
One success story was pairing Team Eglin’s premier air platforms with a 2020 Spark Tank winner, the Low-Cost Threat Emitter. The device dynamically replicates a variety of advanced adversary surface-to-air missile systems. Aircraft detected the LCTE’s radar emissions and then located the simulated threat.
“We saw a gap in training capabilities, we wanted to increase the quality and quantity of the emitters by utilizing commercial equipment in order to increase the survivability of our pilots,” said 1st Lt. Adam Treece, 56th Operations Support Squadron.
Threat resources are limited in number and lack accuracy, that’s where the LCTE stepped in allowing pilots to execute primary training against near-peer adversaries in conventional warfare.
“What a great venue we have here at Emerald Flag that allows us to build relationships within the test community, test our prototype, and get feedback on performance,” said Capt. David Coyle, Air Combat Command. “The event allows us to work with new aircraft, modify our equipment, and iteratively improve on the design.”
One of the unique capabilities of the LCTE is it can be rapidly reprogrammed with new, advanced threats, and be relocated in a matter of minutes. This brings a new element to training. The variation provides an improvement in future test and training scenarios aiming to increase the relevance of training scenarios.
Another test included the Air Force Research Laboratory’s XCub. The lightweight aircraft can take off and land in various types of terrain, not needing a conventional runway. The aircraft was originally created in the 1930’s, but now has a modern glass cockpit, GPS system, and thermal camera. The aircraft was involved in the exercise as a test aircraft for featherweight airlift missions and evading radar detection.
“The XCub flies low and slow at varying speeds and we wanted to see what detection capabilities our airborne fighter aircraft radars have,” said Maj. Ryan Stec, Emerald Flag operations director.
Even base leadership wanted to check out the unique capabilities on display during the exercise.
“It was invaluable to have a role in Emerald Flag and gain first-hand familiarity with our objectives and the outcomes,” said Beers. “It’s always rewarding to witness Airmen succeed in the most demanding multi-domain scenarios we can present.”
Eglin’s participating agencies brought diverse skill sets integrating research, development, and operational tests. The expansion of testing continues to drive the execution of operationally relevant weapons system testing forward.
The next iteration of Emerald Flag, planned for June 2021, anticipates testing of unmanned aerial vehicles, and the demonstration of the Low Altitude Sensing Helmet system, known as LASH for the XCub.
At the highest levels of U.S. intelligence and military policy documents, there is universal agreement that the United States remains at war, even after the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have wound down.
As the cost of capital platforms—especially ships and aircraft—continues to rise, the Department of Defense is increasingly looking to procure comparatively inexpensive unmanned systems as important assets to supplement the Joint Force.
As the United States builds a force structure to contend with high-end threats, one of the key technologies embraced are unmanned systems.
Both the DoD and the DoN envision a future force with large numbers of unmanned systems complementing manned platforms.
The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have spurred the development of unmanned air vehicles and unmanned ground vehicles to meet urgent operational needs. As a result, the lion’s share of previous years DoD funding for unmanned systems has gone to air and ground systems, while funding for unmanned maritime systems (unmanned surface vehicles and unmanned underwater vehicles) has lagged.
However, this balance is shifting, as increasingly, warfighters recognize the need for unmanned maritime systems in the fight against high-end adversaries, as well as against nations to whom these adversaries export their weapons systems.
Like their air and ground counterparts, these unmanned maritime systems are valued because of their ability to reduce the risk to human life in high threat areas, to deliver persistent surveillance over areas of interest, and to provide options to warfighters that derive from the inherent advantages of unmanned technologies.
The U.S. DoD Commitment to Unmanned Systems
The U.S. Department of Defense’s vision for unmanned systems is to integrate these assets into the Joint Force. Because unmanned systems are used by all the military services, the DoD publishes a roadmap to provide an overarching vision for the military’s use of unmanned systems.
An article published in Inside the Navy soon after the new roadmap’s release noted, “The Defense Department’s new 30-year unmanned systems plan—the first update of the roadmap in four years—aims to chart a three-decade guide for the rapidly developing field of unmanned systems technology.”
The most recent roadmap, the FY 2017-2042 Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap, singled out the need for enhanced UxS autonomy, noting:
“DoD maintains a vision for the continued expansion of unmanned systems into the Joint Force structure, and identifies areas of interest and investment that will further expand the potential integration of unmanned systems. The intent of this document is to provide overarching strategic guidance that will align the Services’ unmanned systems goals and efforts with the DoD strategic vision…
“As DoD has embraced the use of unmanned systems across nearly every operating environment, this strategy will allow DoD to capitalize on the technology advancements and paradigm shift that unmanned systems provide.”
As the Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap notes, unmanned systems are especially important assets in those areas where the U.S. military faces a peer competitor with robust defenses.
The Joint Operational Access Concept identifies, “Unmanned systems, which could loiter to provide intelligence collection or fires in the objective area,” as a key capability that is especially valuable in areas where an adversary has substantial defenses that can limit access of U.S. and coalition forces.
And unmanned systems are a key component in executing the United States AirSea Battle Concept (now re-branded as the Joint Concept for Access and Maneuver in the Global Commons, or JAM-GC) in high threat areas such as the Western Pacific, where adversary defensive systems pose an unacceptably high risk to manned aircraft and surface platforms.
The U.S. Navy Vision for Unmanned Systems
The U.S. Navy has a rich history of unmanned systems development. That history needs no retelling here. What is important is the fact that a series of recent studies have helped the Navy develop a vision for unmanned systems, as well establish goals for integrating these assets into the Fleet. The U.S. Navy’s commitment to—and dependence on—unmanned systems is also seen in the Navy’s official Force Structure Assessment, as well as in a series of “Future Fleet Architecture Studies.”
In each of these studies: one by the Chief of Naval Operations Staff, one by the MITRE Corporation, and one by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, the proposed Navy future fleet architecture had large numbers of air, surface, and subsurface unmanned systems as part of the Navy force structure.
Indeed, these reports highlight the fact that the attributes that unmanned systems can bring to the U.S. Navy fleet circa 2030 have the potential to be truly transformational.
In his FRAGO 01/2019 order, Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Michael Gilday, reemphasized the Navy’s commitment to a plan for a future fleet with substantial numbers of unmanned systems. The U.S. Navy is planning for a substantial investment in unmanned systems—especially unmanned surface systems. For example, the Navy established a “Surface Development Squadron,” to experiment with unmanned ships.
Future development ideas call for a “Ghost Fleet” of autonomous unmanned surface ships that could operate against an enemy force without putting Sailors in harm’s way.
And it should come as no surprise that Congress is increasingly interested in the Navy’s progress on unmanned surface vehicles, as witnessed by an increasing number of Congressional Research Service reports on USVs.
As another indication of the U.S. Navy’s commitment to an unmanned future, a panel of naval experts from various organizations emphasized this commitment and provided part of the “why” behind the Navy’s course change. Ronald O’Rourke, naval affairs specialist at the Congressional Research Service, noted that, “The Navy’s next force structure assessment likely will add significant numbers of large and medium-sized unmanned surface vessels to meet the challenges of a new era of Great Power competition. The emphasis on unmanned for the new shift in Fleet composition would show the urgency with which the Navy is attacking the situation, even without a concept of operations as to how these vessels would be used.”
Bryan Clark, senior fellow of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, noted that, “One reason for the move was the speed to which unmanned vessels can integrate into the Fleet. You are much more likely to find a way to use unmanned single-mission vessels in the Fleet than new multi-mission manned vessels.
More recently, the America’s new maritime strategy, Advantage at Sea, reconfirms the Navy’s commitment to unmanned systems as an important part of the Sea Service’s assets, noting, in part, “Cost-effective platforms and manned-unmanned teaming will increase the capacity of the Fleet and expand our ability to distribute our forces…Naval forces will mix larger platforms with standoff capabilities and smaller, more-affordable platforms—including optionally manned or unmanned assets—that increase our offensive lethality and speed of maneuver.”
The strategy operationalizes the Navy’s Unmanned Campaign Framework. Advantage at Sea goes on to note:
“Our unmanned campaign plan will synchronize our efforts to field a multi-domain portfolio of shore-launched and sea-launched unmanned platforms with urgency.
“Unmanned ISR platforms will add capability to monitor, record, and report instances of coercive behavior, providing evidence suitable for diplomatic engagement and public audiences.
“They will also add capability for scouting, targeting, communications, and battle damage assessment. Weapons platforms will add inventory depth while supporting platforms provide additional capacity and flexibility.”
As an adjunct to the Unmanned Campaign Framework, in July of this year, the Navy published a Science & Technology Strategy for Intelligent Autonomous Systems which reinforces the Navy’s commitment to equip its unmanned systems with the artificial intelligence required to make them more and more autonomous.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of these two reports in putting the Navy on a path for fully leveraging unmanned systems as warfighting partners.
Several Streams Came Together at the 2021 Navy League SeaAirSpace Exposition
It is one thing to issue documents providing a vision for unmanned systems, and quite another to bring together disparate groups—operational military, acquisition professionals and defense-focused industry firms—in one place.
This occurred earlier this month at the annual Navy League SeaAirSpace Exposition.
Whether it was senior officials reinforcing the need for unmanned systems, key acquisition leaders articulating the plan to rapidly integrate unmanned systems into the Fleet, or industry professionals demonstrating the attributes of their unmanned platforms, it is likely that this event has helped accelerate the U.S. Navy’s unmanned journey.
In his keynote address at NLUS SAS, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, said this about the DoD’s vision for unmanned systems as well as the technologies that make UxS more capable:
“The rapid development of a vast array of new technologies is changing the fundamental character of war, and if the U.S. military fails to adapt, it could mean future generations would suffer massive casualties in the next major power conflict.
“About 40 to 50 new technologies will evolve very rapidly in the next 15 to 20 years and will fundamentally change the character of war. Unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, 5G technology and other concepts that will be available to all major powers. The nation that masters those technologies is likely to have a distinct advantage.”
In a U.S. Navy-focused briefing, the Naval Sea Systems Command program manager for unmanned maritime systems (PMS-406), Captain Peter Small, presented a program overview detailing the breadth and depth of the Navy’s plans for unmanned maritime systems describing the Navy’s commitment to unmanned surface warfare as well as unmanned undersea warfare, describing some of the platforms the that the Navy is testing and evaluating to fulfill a number of warfighting missions.
In other venues, Captain Small has explained how the U.S. Navy has been testing and evaluating a wide range of unmanned maritime systems prototypes. While some of the vehicles being tested, such as ONR’s CARACaS, are funded via various U.S. Navy means, many others are prototypes that industry brings to various events at their own expense in order for Navy officials to see their product in the operational environment.
Two of these unmanned maritime systems on display at NLUS SAS were the Devil Ray and MANTAS USVs, both manufactured by Florida-based Maritime Tactical Systems, Inc. (MARTAC).
The reason why Navy League officials invited MARTAC to bring these two platforms (the 12-foot MANTAS and 38-foot Devil Ray), to NLUS SAS was that they are leading candidates to fulfill the Navy’s desire to integrate unmanned maritime systems into the Fleet as rapidly as possible.
Both USVs are commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products that have been put in the hands of U.S. Sailors and Marines in the past several years in a series of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps exercises, experiments and demonstrations.
These events were as diverse as the Ship-to-Shore Maneuver Exploration and Experimentation and Advanced Naval Technology Exercise, the Battlespace Preparation in a Contested Environment, the Surface Warfare Distributed Lethality in the Littoral demonstration, the Bold Alligator exercise series, and Valiant Shield, Trident Warrior, Integrated Battle Problem UxS 2021, Coastal Trident, and others.
The reason that these USVs are at Technology Readiness Level Nine (TRL-9—the actual system has been proven through successful mission operations) is that, since 2016, these platforms have been placed in the hands of Sailors and Marines who have provided invaluable feedback that enabled MARTAC engineers to upgrade and make serial improvements to both the X-Class MANTAS and the Expeditionary-Class Devil Ray.
Hundreds of NLUS SAS attendees saw the MANTAS T12 and Expeditionary-Class Devil Ray T38E “up close and personal” and received an operational and technical briefing on the craft from MARTAC CEO, Bruce Hanson.
He explained the performance of these craft in the multiple missions they performed in the Navy, Marine Corps and Army events listed above.
While prose descriptions of these MANTAS and Expeditionary-Class Devil Ray attributes – as well as the still pictures accompanying this article – are useful in understanding just what these COTS USVs can bring to the fight, sometimes a video conveys so much more.
The short video clip on the authoritative Naval News website below puts you in the Devil Ray as it goes through its paces at NLUS SAS.
A Way Ahead for Unmanned Maritime Systems to Support the U.S. Navy
As the U.S. Navy is challenged by Congress regarding its ambitious plans to develop families of large, medium and smaller unmanned systems in all domains, one way to alleviate these concerns is to move forward with the fielding of proven commercial-off-the-shelf systems that have been thoroughly tested in a wide range of Navy and Marine Corps exercises, experiments and demonstrations.
While evolutionary in nature, this disruptive capability delivered using COTS technologies such as the Devil Ray and MANTAS USVs as can provide the U.S. Navy with near-term solutions to vexing operational challenges, while demonstrating to a skeptical Congress that the Navy does have a concept-of-operations to employ the unmanned systems it wishes to procure.
NLUS SAS was a big stage for all stakeholders to see these USVs “up close and personal.”
This approach can deliver needed capabilities to the Fleet and Fleet Marine Forces today, rather than on some distant, future horizon.
Attendees at NLUS SAS are likely to not only be more knowledgeable regarding the promise and prospect for unmanned maritime systems, but having seen TRL-9 COTS systems ready to deploy, they are additionally more confident that the U.S. Navy can actually execute its ambitious plans to integrate unmanned systems into the Fleet today and tomorrow.
Jack Rowley is the Chief Technology Officer and Senior Naval Architect and Ocean Engineer with Maritime Tactical Systems (MARTAC).
U.S. Marines assigned to 3d Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, 3d Marine Division, fire Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems during Exercise Talisman Sabre 21 on Shoalwater Bay Training Area, Queensland, Australia, July 19, 2021.
TS21, the ninth iteration and conducted since 2005, occurs biennially across Northern Australia. Australian, U.S. and other multinational partner forces use Talisman Sabre to enhance interoperability by training in complex, multi-domain operations scenarios that address the full range of Indo-Pacific security concerns.
CAMP GROWL, AUSTRALIA
07.19.2021
Video by Sgt. Tyvel Clement U.S. Army Pacific Public Affairs Office
Paris – The prospect of the Taliban exercising a severe grip on Afghan society fuels fears for the rights of Afghan women, lives of journalists, and freedom of the press in a stricken nation.
That grim outlook for independent reporting has led to calls for governments around the world to rally round and help Afghan media workers who seek to leave Afghanistan.
Media groups called Aug. 23 on governments to take “immediate action” to support media workers, said the International Federation of Journalists, a Brussels-based independent organization.
“A group of media support organisations, including the IFJ, has called on the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC) of governments to commit and take immediate action to support Afghan media workers,” the IFJ said.
Deadly proof of hostile intent came with Taliban insurgents killing Aug. 19 a relative of a journalist of Deutsche Welle, the German public sector broadcaster, as they went in pursuit of the DW editor.
A door-to-door search for the DW journalist led to the killing of the member of the family, severely injuring another, and forcing flight of other relatives, DW reported. Those family members were now on the run.
Toofan Omar, head of Paktia Ghag Radio, a private broadcaster, had been targeted and killed by Taliban fighters, while Nematullah Hemat of Gharghasht TV, a private television station, had been kidnapped, DW reported.
Afghan memories of an older generation are marked by public stoning and whipping under the Taliban interpretation of the Sharia law, when the radical Islamist movement ruled in the 1990s. Since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, a younger generation of Afghans grew up with women working in a large media community.
All that is about to change.
Women journalists come under great threat, as the Taliban see their gender putting them in a subordinate role. There are reports of the insurgents seizing women and girls for wives, and accounts of rape, British daily The Guardian reported Aug. 16.
“In the last 24 hours, our lives have changed and we have been confined to our homes, and death threatens us at every moment,” said Aaisha, a woman journalist, the daily reported.
“We see silence filled with fear of the Taliban around us,” she said. The name of the journalist was changed.
In the UK, the government led by Boris Johnson, a former journalist, agreed to waive lengthy visa requirements to bring Afghan media workers into Britain, in response to a call from the National Union of Journalists, broadcasters and newspapers.
More than 200 Afghan journalists and their close family will receive speeded up evacuation, but there is grave concern on getting them to the airport, The Observer reported Aug. 22. There is also need to get more than 80 Afghan nationals who had worked for the British Council out of the country.
The International Federation of Journalists, backed by the NUJ, is calling for nation states to help journalists and their families to get out of the country by granting visas, safe passage to the airport, and to keep the airport secure for evacuation flights.
The IFJ, working in the Media Freedom Coalition Consultative Network, calls for an easing of funding transfer to Afghanistan, and insisting on Afghanistan to uphold human rights principles in the Aug. 24 special session on Afghanistan of the UN human rights council.
Taliban to control news flow
“For the Afghan journalists who stay on in the country, the outlook is for the media to be dominated by the Taliban,” said Gilles Dorronsoro, professor of political science at Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne university.
“There will not be a multiparty system, Sharia religious rules will apply, and there will be public censorship,” he said.
The attempt to evacuate media workers is “chaotic,” which was initially due to lack of organization among western nations, he said.
“The CIA held up the allies’ evacuation effort by controlling those who sought to enter the Kabul airport by the northern entrance,” he said. “The CIA sought to conduct a security check to prevent terrorists taking the evacuation flights. That security check was done extremely slowly and without consultation with western partner nations.
“The evacuation is highly fluid and it is hard to tell how many journalists have been flown out,” he said.
The US supported Afghan media, particularly local radio, before the Nato withdrawal in 2014, he said. After 2014, the local media lacked protection from western nations.
There were physical threats from the bodyguards of the then president Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban, he said. “Male journalists dominated the Afghan media, with the notable exception of television, in which there were women presenters.”
For Rony Brauman, former head of Médecins Sans Frontières, a non governmental aid agency, the evacuation is the culmination of a 20-year “bubble of isolation” pursued by western nations.
That extended occupation by the west fostered a structural problem of social, political, and military isolation, and the present crisis was the “hubris of nation building,” he said.
However, there were perhaps grounds for hope, he said, as the Taliban needed to adopt a “collegial” approach to form a new administration. That would require the Taliban leaders accepting that much has changed in Afghan society over the last 20 years.
The Taliban will also need to foster relations with international organizations and their neighbours, including Iran, led by Shi’ite muslims, he said. That could lead the Taliban to a softer approach to the Shi’ite community in Afghanistan.
Back in 2001, Laura Bush, the then first lady, said in the weekly radio address to the nation there was need for support to women and children in Afghanistan.
“Fighting brutality against women and children is not the expression of a specific culture; it’s the acceptance of our common humanity, a commitment shared by people of good will on every continent,” she said Nov. 17 2001.
Featured Graphic: Map of Central Asia with Afghanistan captured by the Taliban. Instead of the flag of Afghanistan, there is a Taliban sign on the contour of the country. Northern neighbors of Afghanistan after Taliban seized the country. Credit: Bigstock
According to a July 7, 2021 story published by the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, the German-Norwegian submarine program has moved to its next phase of development.
Today, the procurement agencies, Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency (NDMA) in Norway and Bundesamt für Ausrüstnung, Informationstechnik und Nutzung der Bundeswehr (BAAINBw) in Germany, signed the contract for new submarines together with thyssekrupp Marine Systems. In addition, the contract with Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace for new naval strike missiles was signed. The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Defence signed the agreement for industrial cooperation.
– An important milestone has been met in the strategic cooperation with Germany on new submarines. I want to give credit to those who have worked hard to keep the schedule and land the contracts and the agreement on industrial cooperation, Minister of Defence Frank Bakke-Jensen states.
The new submarines will be delivered from 2029 and will be in operational service into the 2060’s. The agreement on industrial cooperation signed will contribute to open up the German market for Norwegian defence industry. An event celebrating the cooperation between Germany and Norway will take place in Kiel after summer, and will include the unveiling of a model of the new, common submarines of the 212CD class.
Featured Photo: Director General Mette Sørfonden in Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency signing the contract July 8th 2021. Credit: Endre Lunde.
We discuss the evolution of Norwegian defense and key collaborative programs in their defense modernization in our book on the way ahead for European defense:
U.S. Marines with 3d Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, 3d Marine Division, conduct a functions test for a Ground Air Task Oriented Radar in preparation for Talisman Saber 2021 at Shoalwater Bay Training Area, Queensland, Australia, July 14, 2021.
This is the ninth iteration of Talisman Sabre, a large-scale, bilateral military exercise between Australia and the U.S. involving more than 17,000 participants from seven nations.
