C17 Maintenance

02/10/2020

Joint Base Charleston C-17 Globemaster IIIs perform several missions throughout the world to include combat and presidential support, training and humanitarian missions. As time goes on, aircraft need to be inspected and repaired for structural integrity, internal cracks, painting and exterior damage. The 437th Maintenance Squadron, Fabrication Flight is responsible for fixing and identifying such issues to ensure mission readiness.

The fabrication flight has three main sections: corrosion control and structural repair, metals technology and nondestructive inspection with over 80 civilian and military personnel supporting the various disciplines. The flight completes approximately 5,900 C-17 repairs.

“The most rewarding part of this job is the people I work with,” said Lieutenant Brian Jung, 437th Fabrication Flight officer in charge. The pride and hard work people display on a daily basis to generate missions inspires me to come to work every day and serve them the best way I can. Every person has a story and I love spending time with the people in my flight to get to learn their story. Moreover, I enjoy highlighting the work of others so that they can achieve personal recognition for their hard work.”

Each member must be trained in 212 job skill tasks in order for them to be proficient at their craft, and they spend one – two months training on the particular skills in that area. It takes about four to six months before they are upgraded to five-level Journeyman.

“I enjoy spraying the aircraft during the paint process,” said Tech. Sgt. Richard Bazen, 437th MXS NCO in charge. I think it’s a good skill that can be utilized outside of the military.”

Bazen oversees the entire process which includes pre-masking, sanding, de-masking and painting. Around 12 aircraft go through the corrosion control repair section annually, it takes approximately two weeks complete each C-17.

The Nondestructive section uses noninvasive methods to inspect the insides of metal objects to identify possible defects in systems and equipment before problems before they occur using electrical, magnetic, X-ray and fluorescent technologies.

11.08.2019

Video by James Bowman

Joint Base Charleston Public Affairs

French Minister Sees German Approval Soon for Fighter Jet Project

02/09/2020

By Pierre Tran

Paris

French armed forces minister Florence Parly recently highlighted the decisive role of the German Bundestag parliament in launching a Franco-German project for a technology demonstrator for a next-generation fighter.

Their votes for the project would be, in her view, a sign of political support for European defense.

“Parliamentarians of the Bundestag, your vote in the next few days on the FCAS demonstrator will have decisive importance and send a strong political signal on the determination of our two countries to build European defense,” she told French and German members of parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France.

That fighter will be a key element in the Future Combat Air System, a project which brings Spain into the European FCAS club with France and Germany.

Meanwhile, in a Feb. 7 keynote speech on French nuclear weapons policy, president Emmanuel Macron said Brexit “hasn’t changed anything” in terms of cooperation between Paris and London.

The head of state was speaking at the War College, one week after the departure of Britain from the European Union.

Berlin requires that Bundestag approval to a long-awaited contract for a study of the next-generation fighter, with each of the two partner nations paying €77.5 million ($85 million), German daily Handelsbatt reported.

The overall budget for the demonstrator could be €8 billion, with further contracts signed late next year or in 2022, after German elections, the daily reported.

On the British side of the Channel, London is leading the Tempest project, with Sweden and Italy signed up to work on a concept and partnership model for an unmanned combat air vehicle, and other platforms. systems or capabilities which can be leveraged from the Eurofighter-F-35 foundation being built in the RAF and Royal Navy.

How the RAF sees Tempest. Slide from presentation by Air Commodore Storr at the International Fighter Conference 2019.

Parly spoke of the political commitment of France and Germany to pursue European defense alongside NATO membership, with her German counterpart, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, at her side. The two ministers were attending the third Franco-German parliamentary assembly of 100 MPs, with 50 from from each nation.

French industry had hoped for the demonstrator project to be launched last June, with the  signing of the studies contract slipping to end of 2019, and then to the end of January.

That contract hangs on the timetable of the Bundestag budget committee, which reflects the importance of German parliamentary oversight over central government and industrial policy.

“There is an awareness in Germany for the need for defense industrial policy,” said Gaëlle Winter, associate researcher at think tank Fondation de Recherche Stratégique, based in Paris.

That policy will partly be based on stricter supervision by the Bundestag, with the budgetary committee reviewing military acquisition contracts worth more than €25 million.

This close parliamentary approval dates back to September 1981, due to overspending on the “cooperative” Tornado fighter jet program that sparked grave concern in Germany, she said.

Britain, Germany, Italy pursued the costly Tornado program.

That need for parliamentary approval means arms acquisition is based on “co-decision” principles between federal government and the Bundestag, she said.

Some 44 parliamentarians sit on the budget committee, which has taken special interest in arms programs rather than simply fiscal oversight.

That close parliamentary scrutiny also reflects electoral interests of MPs, some of whom sit in constituencies with strong industry presence, she said. There is a move of the German state, including the länder regions, toward a greater “interventionist” approach, she said.

Meanwhile, future ties between Rheinmetall and KNDS continue to “poison the well” on FCAS, she said.

Rheinmetall’s efforts to ensure a share of work on the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) has stalled work on the project to build a new tank and connected manned and unmanned vehicles.

KNDS is a Franco-German joint venture between Krauss-Maffei Wegmann of Germany and Nexter of France.

In France, there is a view the German authorization process is complex, which slows down the procurement of equipment.

“Cooperation with Germany is complicated on the operational level,” Army Gen. François Lecointre, joint chief of staff, told Nov. 6 the foreign affairs committee of the lower house National Assembly.

“I have discovered that the German decision-making system is more bound by the silos approach than ours, making it difficult for heads of central administration and ministerial representatives to reach agreement,” he said.

There is the importance of the Bundestag, he said, referring to a French MP’s question, while cooperation is marked by German industry’s determination to hold on to its work.

Britain’s departure from the European Union will break up the “E3” group, namely France, Germany and the UK, in which the former had a strong operational partner with the latter, while there was a “strong industrial partner” with Germany, he said.

On industrial cooperation, “the departure of the British will not be good for them, even if the One MBDA initiative remains, which will allow the pursuit of interesting cooperative projects,” he said.

The complexity of German procedure left France in a “complicated situation” in two major arms projects, he said.

The great technological leap — and the operational superiority that delivers — of the FCAS project is based on the “connectivity” of all the platforms.

“That will lead to, even if that will take time, first operational capability by 2038, which is to say tomorrow morning,” he said.

On the second major project, MGCS land system, he said, “I am rather worried about cooperation on the future tank, a Franco-German project which is moving too slowly.”

Parly told the French and German MPs an architecture study for MGCS was expected to be launched “very soon this year.”

While there was no choice but to pursue industrial and technological cooperation with Germany, Lecointre evoked an “existentialist crisis” in the light of Brexit, as “we have no choice but to absolutely maintain our operational cooperation with the United Kingdom….”

Both the British and French armies shared “the same intervention culture,” he said.

Parly said there would be a fair share in industrial cooperation on FCAS and the future tank.

“These are industrial projects worth billions of euros, tens of thousands of jobs, with export prospects,” she said.

“But these are first and foremost political projects: and we have collectively a responsibility, which is to build this European defense, which our two countries call for.”

The meeting of French and German MPs was the third formal assembly of the 100 parliamentarians since Macron and chancellor Angela Merkel signed a  treaty of cooperation at Aachen in January 2019, seeking to bind Berlin and Paris close in economic, foreign and defense policy.

In France, that city is known as Aix-la-Chapelle.

Maiden Landing of Indian LCA Aircraft onboard Indian Aircraft Carrier

By India Strategic

New Delhi.

After completing extensive trials on the Shore Based Test Facility (SBTF), Naval version of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) did asuccessful arrested landing onboard INS Vikramaditya at 1002 hrs on January 11, 2020.

Commodore Jaideep Maolankar conducted the maiden landing. Captain Dahiya was the Landing Safety Officer (LSO) and Cdr Vivek Pandey Test Director on ship whereas Gr. Capt. Kabadwal and Cdr Ankur Jain were monitoring the aircraft through telemetry from SBTF.

LCA Navy has been developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

This article was published by India Strategic on January 13, 2020.

 

JADM Training: USMC F-35s

02/07/2020

Aircraft with Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 drop two 1000lb Joint Direct Attack Munitions at Townsend Bombing Range (TBR), Georgia, on December 30, 2019.

As part of their training in the F-35 program, pilots use TBR to drop ordinance on specific targets to train them about being combat capable and network enabled fighters.

12.30.2019

Video by Cpl. Rene Lucerobonilla and Lance Cpl. Aidan Parker

Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort

Preparing the CH-53K for USMC Operations: A New Capability for a New Strategic Environment

02/06/2020

By Robbin Laird

A recent news story highlighted progress in the preparation of the new heavy lift helicopter, the CH-53 K, for the USMC.

According to Megan Eckstein of USNI News in a story published on December 17, 2019:

“The Marine Corps and Sikorsky have resolved the engine integration issues that slowed down the CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopter program, the service announced today.

“The helicopter’s test program was overhauled in the spring after falling behind due to testing inefficiencies and challenges with the engine, including exhaust gas re-ingestion (EGR).

“In April, the Marine Corps signed a $1.13-billion contract with Sikorsky for Lots 2 and 3, though the contract was somewhat scaled back compared to previous plans due to cost growth and testing delays.

“Today’s announcement that the engine problems have been resolved makes more realistic the government/industry team’s plans to take the helicopter on sea trials in the spring and ultimately conduct a first deployment by 2023 or 2024.”

I had an opportunity in January 2020, to follow up on this story. I went to Pax River in January 2020, to discuss the progress of the program with Colonel Jack Perrin Program Manager, PMA-261 H53 Heavy Lift Helicopters, US Naval Air Systems Command at Pax River Naval Air Station.

We started our discussion with the news story.

We discussed the importance of not only solving the problem but the importance of the way the problem was solved to enhance collaboration between industry and government to achieve further progress in the program.

We then went on to discuss why the program was critical to the shifts in Marine Corps operations outlined in the Commandant’s Guidance.

From my perspective, the question of the impact of a new heavy lift helicopter capability was not adequately understood, for this new capability was coming into the force at a key turning point in terms of building the force necessary for the new strategic environment.

And then we discussed briefly, the question of the nature of strategic lift necessary to support what I have coined the integrated distributed force or what might be called the distributed integratable force.

Resolving the Engine Integration Issue

Col. Perrin underscored that after significant numbers of flight tests and working with the mature aircraft, a problem was identified which was considered a key choke point to moving forward more rapidly to achieve initial operating capacity of the aircraft.

The engine is working very well and the airframe and aircraft over all have performed well.  The problem identified after hours of flight testing was that the integration between the engine and the aircraft needed to be improved.

According to Perrin, a problem facing three engine helicopters is exhaust gas coming into the aircraft.

Exhaust gas re-ingestion (EGR). EGR occurs when the hot engine gasses are ingested back into the system and can cause increased life-cycle costs, poor engine performance and degradation, as well as time-on-wing decreases, engine overheating and even stalls.

EGR is an issue for all three-engine helicopters, to include the CH-53E Super Stallion. The program office was determined to find a production solution for the CH-53K, as was done for the CH-53E.

What needed to be fixed was to find a way to eliminate this problem on the CH-53K.

Obviously, this is a problem for flight operations, but also, exhaust gases were affecting the airframe as well.

According to Colonel Perrin, “The CH-53E is only about 13% composites; the CH-53K is about 70%, and exhaust gases affecting the air frame would create maintenance problems over time.”

He underscored that to fix the problem and to be better able to bring the aircraft to IOC, they used an unprecedented coming-together of highly skilled engineers with a variety of expertise to mitigate an ongoing engine issue for the CH-53K King Stallion, including industry, the Marines and government.

They used advanced computer modelling to come up with a range of solutions and then narrowed down to a particular solution which was then implemented.

And after testing, this solution was successful which allowed putting the aircraft back on track for the projected IOC date.

The fix is important; but also, the way in which it has been done – integrating Marines, with government and industry.

The way the solution has been reached provides a solid foundation for completing the way ahead to IOC.

The Launch of the CH-53K is Not Like the Osprey

I had the opportunity to see the USMC introduce the Osprey and to watch its evolution since that time. It has had a significant impact on Marine Corps operations and has laid the foundation for the next generation distributed integratable operations.

But when it was launched, it was a time of pioneering with digital maintenance and finding ways to maintaining the new tiltrotor technology. It is very different for the CH-53K, because much of the preparation for IOC has been a focus upon the maintainability of the aircraft.

I have visited the log demo for the CH-53K team located at New River Marine Corps Air Station and have seen the key role which VMX-1 located there is having in shaping a credible approach to maintaining the aircraft before it is coming into Marine Corps operations.

According to Col. Perrin, the VMX-1 team comes regularly to Pax River to work on preparing for the operational launch of the aircraft and the working relationship between the test, maintenance and industrial teams is providing a solid foundation for the introduction of a much more mature aircraft in the case of the CH-53K than was able to be done at the time of the launch of the Osprey.

This is certainly good news, but this also creates a problem.

The CH-53K which will enter service in the next couple of years is not at the equivalent point of maturity as when the Osprey entered the service. It is significantly advanced in terms of its maturation, but the challenge will be for this to be recognized so that numbers of the aircraft can be ramped up and introduced more rapidly into the force than the Osprey experience.

A New Capability for a New Strategic Environment

 The Commandant’s Guidance highlighted the nature of the new strategic environment and the importance of distributed operations leveraging both sea-basing and expeditionary or mobile basing.

It is clear that heavy lift is a key enabler of such a concept of operations.

As Col. Perrin noted in our conversation: “The USMC has done many studies of distributed operations and throughout the analyses it is clear that heavy lift is an essential piece of the ability to do such operations.”

And not just any heavy lift – but heavy lift built around a digital architecture.

Clearly, the CH-53E being more than 30 years old is not built in such a manner; but the CH-53K is.

What this means is that the CH-53K “can operate and fight on the digital battlefield.”

And because the flight crew are enabled by the digital systems onboard, they can focus on the mission rather than focusing primarily on the mechanics of flying the aircraft. This will be crucial as the Marines shift to using unmanned systems more broadly than they do now.

For example, it is clearly a conceivable future that CH-53Ks would be flying a heavy lift operation with unmanned “mules” accompanying them. Such manned-unmanned teaming requires a lot of digital capability and bandwidth, a capability built into the CH-53K.

If one envisages the operational environment in distributed terms, this means that various types of sea bases, ranging from large deck carriers to various types of Maritime Sealift Command ships, along with expeditionary bases, or FARPs or FOBS, will need to be connected into a combined combat force.

To establish expeditionary bases, it is crucial to be able to set them up, operate and to leave such a base rapidly or in an expeditionary manner (sorry for the pun).

This will be virtually impossible to do without heavy lift, and vertical heavy lift, specifically.

Put in other terms, the new strategic environment requires new operating concepts; and in those operating concepts, the CH-53K provides significant requisite capabilities.

And this Marine Corps-Navy capability is suggestive of a broader set of considerations for the Army and the Air Force.

If Expeditionary Basing is crucial, certainly the CH-53K could provide capabilities for the Army and the Air Force, to compliment fixed wing lift aircraft.

And in many cases, only a vertical lift support capability will be able to do the job.

Remember the USAF flies the CV-22s and if they are part of the distributed fight and requiring expeditionary basing, it may be the case that such a base can be set up and sustained only by vertical heavy lift.

Both considerations, how to cross-operate across the seabase and the expeditionary base, and the question of whether vertical heavy lift is now becoming a strategic asset, will be dealt with in later pieces. 

But for now, the core point is simple – the K needs to come into the USMC-Navy team as soon as possible to enable the shift in concepts of operations required to deal with the new strategic environment.

And if the CH-53K became part of the joint team, the question of cost is very manageable.

By producing more aircraft, the cost curve comes down. And shaping a more effective cost curve is a significant challenge which the program is addressing.

Colonel Jack D. Perrin is the United States Marine Corps, Program Manager, PMA-261, H-53 Heavy Lift Helicopters

Featured photo: USMC

For our archive of CH-53K stories, see the following:

https://defense.info/system-type/rotor-and-tiltrotor-systems/ch-53k/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1st MEF and New ACV

02/05/2020

U.S. Marines with Amphibious Vehicle Test Branch, Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity, operate new Amphibious Combat Vehicles along the beach aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, Dec. 18, 2019.

The ACV is a modernized platform providing increased lethality, survivability and protected mobility to Marines and will enhance I Marine Expeditionary Force’s ship-to-shore operations. 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 1st Marine Division, will be the first to receive the ACV.

CAMP PENDLETON, CA, UNITED STATES

12.20.2019

Video by Lance Cpl. Garrett Kiger

I Marine Expeditionary Force

C-130J Working Emergency Airdrop in Hostile Territory

02/03/2020

A C-130J crew must rely on abnormal support capabilities as they conduct an emergency airdrop in hostile territory.

They discover the new tools are just as effective and make them more lethal.

1 of the 5 vignettes shown at the 2019 Airlift/Tanker Association conference during AMC Commander Gen. Maryanne Miller’s keynote address.
10.24.2019

Video by Senior Airman DaQuan Hurt, Michael Raynor, Tech. Sgt. Natashia Stannard, Senior Airman Desiree Ware, Adam White and Trevor Wood

2D Audiovisual Squadron

Shaping an Australian Navy Approach to Maritime Remotes, Artificial Intelligence and Combat Grids

By Robbin Laird

During my visit to Australia last October, I had a chance to talk to a number of people about the evolving approach in Australia to maritime remotes and their evolving role within the “fifth generation” warfare approach or what I refer to as building a distributed integratable force or an integrated distributed force.

Towards the end of my stay, I had a chance to discuss with the key presenter on this topic at the Seapower Conference held in Sydney in early October, Commander Paul Hornsby, the Royal Australian Navy lead on maritime remotes.

We discussed a number of issues, but I am going to focus on where maritime remotes fit within the evolving strategic thinking of the Royal Australian Navy and its contribution to the ADF.

The broad point is that Australia is focusing on robotics and artificial intelligence more generally in its economy, with clear opportunities for innovation to flow between the civil and military sectors. Australia is a large island continent with a relatively small population. For both economic and defense reasons, Australia needs to extend the capabilities of its skilled manpower with robotic and AI capabilities. For the Navy, this means shaping a much large “fleet” in terms of a significant web of maritime remotes working interactively with the various manned assets operating in an area of interest.

Commander Hornsby highlighted the 2018 Australian Robotics Roadmap as an indicator of the Australian approach to cross-leveraging robotic systems and AI. As the report noted:

“Robotics can be the force multiplier needed to augment Australia’s highly valued human workforce and to enable persistent, wide-area operations in air, land, sea, subsurface, space and cyber domains.”

A second broad point is that Australia is working closely with core allies to forge a common R and D pool and to cross-learn from one another with regard to the operation of maritime remotes and their ability to deliver capabilities to the operational forces.

An example of the cross-learning and collaborative approach was Autonomous Warrior 2018. The exercise was a “milestone in allied cooperation,” according to Lt. Andrew Herring, in an article published on November 24, 2018.

When more than 50 autonomous technologies and over 500 scientists, technicians and support staff came together for AUTONOMOUS WARRIOR 2018 (AW18) in Jervis Bay, ACT, it marked the culmination of four years’ collaboration between the militaries, defence scientists and defence industries of five nations.

Today, Navy’s Deputy Director Mine Warfare Diving and Special Ops Capability, Commander Paul Hornsby, and Defence Science and Technology’s (DST) Trusted Autonomous Systems Program Leader, Professor Jason Scholz, are exploring autonomous technologies with US Air Force Research Lab’s Senior Engineering Research Manager, Dr Mark Draper and Dr Philip Smith from the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.

The four, with their respective organisations, are collaborating under the Five Eyes’ Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP), which shares information and ideas among defence scientists from Australia, UK, USA, Canada and New Zealand, pursuing strategic challenges in priority areas.

Among them is TTCP’s Autonomy Strategic Challenge, which aims to integrate autonomous technologies to operate together in different environments.

AUTONOMOUS WARRIOR 2018 includes the Strategic Challenge’s fifth and final scientific trial – ‘Wizard of Aus’ – a software co-development program aimed at managing autonomous vehicles from a shared command and control system that integrates with combat systems used by Five Eyes nations.

US Air Force Research Lab’s Dr Mark Draper summarises AW18’s ambitious objective. “What we are trying to achieve here is force multiplication and interoperability, where multiple unmanned systems from different countries—in the air, on the ground and on the surface of the water or even underwater—would all be controlled and managed by one person sitting at one control station.”

Two systems together

To achieve this, two systems have come together: ‘AIM’ and ‘MAPLE’.

‘Allied IMPACT’, known as AIM, combines best of breed technologies from Australia, United Kingdom, United States and Canada.

“We’ve brought these technologies together and integrated them into one control station and we are testing its effectiveness in reasonable and realistic military scenarios,” Dr Draper said.

Australia has led development of three of AIM’s eight modules: the Recommender, which uses artificial intelligence to analyse information and recommend actions to commanders; the Narrative, which automatically generates multimedia briefings about emerging operational situations; and DARRT, which enables real time test and evaluation of autonomous systems.

The Maritime Autonomous Platform Exploitation (MAPLE) system is a UK-led project providing the information architecture required to integrate a diverse mix of live unmanned systems into a common operating picture that is fed into the AIM Command and Control Station.

“The sort of software co-development we are doing here is not usually done,” UK Defence Scientist Dr Philip Smith said.

“The evaluation team is using real time data logging to evaluate system performance, apply lessons learned and improve the software.

“This is also giving us detailed diagnostics to determine where to focus effort for future development,” he said.

 Revolutionary potential

DST’s Professor Jason Scholz is optimistic about the potential for these technologies beyond AW18.

“This activity has demonstrated what can be achieved when a spirit of cooperation, understanding and support exists between military personnel, scientists, engineers and industry.

“Systems became more reliable as the exercise progressed with improvements made daily.

“These highly disruptive technologies can potentially revolutionise how armed forces operate. The sort of cooperation we’ve seen at AW18 is vital for bringing these technologies into service.

“It would be interesting to run a similar activity with these rapidly evolving technologies in two or three years,” Professor Scholz said.

Lasting impact

Commander Hornsby, who has been the ADF lead for AW18 and is developing Navy’s autonomous systems strategy, says the activity has raised awareness among Australia’s Defence Force and defence industry.

“The nearly 1000 visitors to AW18 gained fresh insights into the technology’s current state of development and its potential to enhance capability.

“As a huge continent occupied by a relatively small population with a mid-sized defence force by world standards, the force multiplier effect of autonomous systems is vital, which is why Australia is a leading developer.

The evaluations done at AW18 are also important internationally.

“The world is watching AW18 closely because Australia offers the most challenging operating conditions for unmanned technologies. If they can make it here, they can make it anywhere,” Commander Hornsby said.

Autonomous Warrior 2018 was a major demonstration and evaluation of the potential of robotic, autonomous and uninhabited systems, in support of Defence operations in coastal environments. It combined a dynamic exhibition, trials and exercising of in-service systems.

Australian industry contributed semi-autonomous vehicles for use in AW18 and developed data interfaces to enable control by Five Eyes systems. Contributing companies included Bluezone Group, Ocius, Defendtex, Australian Centre for Field Robotics, Silverton and Northrop Grumman. Vehicles were also contributed by Australian, NZ, US and UK government agencies.

In our discussion, Commander Hornsby noted that collaborative R and D and shared experiences was a key element of the Australian approach, but that Australia had unique operating conditions in the waters off of Australia, and systems that might work in other waters would not necessarily be successful in the much more challenging waters to be found in Northern and Western Australia, areas where the deployment of maritime remotes is a priority.

But one must remember that the maritime remote effort is a question of payloads and platforms. Not simply building platforms. Rear Admiral Mark Darrah, US Navy, made a comment about unmanned air systems which is equally applicable to maritime remotes: “Many view UAS as a capability when in fact it should be viewed as a means of employing payloads to achieve particular capabilities.”1

His approach to maritime remotes is very much in the character of looking at different platforms, in terms of speed, range, endurance, and other performance parameters, measured up against the kind of payload these various platforms might be able to carry.

Calculations, of the payload/platform pairing and their potential impacts then needed to be measured up against the kind of mission which they are capable of performing. And in this sense, the matching of the payload/platform dyad to the mission or task, suggests prioritization for the Navy and the ADF in terms of putting in to operation the particular capability.

This also means that different allied navies might well have different views of their priority requirements, which could lead to very different timelines with regard to deployment of particular maritime remotes.

And if the sharing approach prevails, this could well provide the allied nations to provide cross-cutting capabilities when deployed together or provide acquisition and export opportunities for those allies with one another.

Commander Hornsby breaks out the missions for AUV and UUV employment in the following manner:

Home & Away operations…

  • Break Out (Around own critical / sensitive infrastructure – High end UUVs) •Break In (Deployed / Amphib – Low end AUVs / single shot / disposable)
  • Block Out (Autonomous Maritime Asset Protection / Robot UUVs / CIED)
  • Block In (High end AUVs – Sub Launch / XLUUVs / Mining / Intervention)
  • Surveillance (Persistent AUVs for surveillance / attribution – wave gliders
  • Servicing (Large UUVs for industrial off-shore tasks – in water docking)

Pending combination, provides: Deterrence, Sea Control, Sea Denial, Power Projection or Force Protection

What this means is that different payload/platform combinations can work these different missions more or less effectively. And quite obviously, in working the concepts of operations for each mission or task which will include maritime remotes needs to shape an approach where their capabilities are properly included in that approach.

And in a 2016 briefing by Hornsby.”2, he highlighted this point as follows:

But importantly, maritime remotes should not be looked at in isolation of the operation of the distributed force and how integratable data can be accumulated and communicated to allow for C2 which can shape effective concepts of operations.

This means that how maritime remotes are worked as an interactive grid is a key part of shaping an effective way ahead. And this allows for creative mix and matching of remotes with manned assets and the shaping of decision making at the tactical edge.  Remotes and AI capabilities are not ends in of themselves; but are key parts of the reshaping of the C2/ISR capabilities which are reshaping the concepts of operations of the combat force.

In that 2016 briefing, Commander Hornsby provided an example of the kind of grid which maritime remotes enable:

To use an example in the European context, as the fourth battle of the Atlantic shapes up, if the allies can work cross-cutting maritime remote payload/platform capabilities and can operate those in the waters which the Russians intend to use to conduct their operations against NATO, then a new grid could be created which would have significant ISR data which could be communicated through UUV and USV grids to various parts of the 21st century integrated distributed combat force.

Such an approach is clearly crucial for Australia as it pushes out its defense perimeter but needs to enhance maritime security and defense of its ports and adjacent waters. And that defense will highlight a growing role for maritime remotes.

As Robert Slaven of L3Harris Technologies, a former member of the Royal Australian Navy, has put it:

“The remotes can be distributed throughout the area of interest and be there significantly in advance of when we have to create a kinetic effect. In fact, they could be operating months or years in advance of shaping the decision of what kind of kinetic effect we would need in a crisis situation.

“We need to learn how to work the machines to shape our understanding of the battlespace and to shape the kind of C2 which could direct the kind of kinetic or non-kinetic effect we are trying to achieve.”3

The featured photo shows Head of Royal Australian Navy Capability, Rear Admiral Peter Quinn, AM, CSC, RAN (right), Australian Defence Force personnel and industry partners watch the Defendtex Tempest Unmanned Aerial Vehicle display during AUTONOMOUS WARRIOR 2018 at HMAS Creswell.

Paul-Hornsby-AUT-Presentation

Also, see the following:

Manned-Unmanned Teaming: Shaping Future Capabilities

Robotics-Roadmap_SUMMARY