Photo By Joseph Bullinger | 240925-N-GB257-1022 Key West, FL (September 25, 2024) Naval Information Warfare Center...... read more read more
NAVAL AIR STATION KEY WEST, Florida (Sept. 30, 2024) — More than two dozen engineers and scientists from Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic assessed new command, control and communications (C3) capabilities during an experiment from Sept. 19 to Sept. 26 aimed at advancing the Navy’s future hybrid fleet.
Wrapping up just hours before Hurricane Helene made landfall, the Hybrid Fleet Campaign 2024 (HFC24) event took place in Key West Harbor both ashore and aboard the expeditionary fast transport USNS Burlington (T-EPF-10).
NIWC Atlantic leaders said the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command (NAVSOUTH)/U.S. 4th Fleet initiative was an opportunity for teams to assess how C3 capabilities and robotics might integrate into a manned-unmanned fleet.
“Our teams are helping to lead the Navy in delivering software and machine-learning capabilities and networks that enable unmanned and ‘attritable’ systems,” said Peter C. Reddy, NIWC Atlantic executive director. “I’m proud of their hard work and the complex ideas put forward, because it essentially constitutes the connective tissue of our naval force’s future hybrid fleet.”
The hybrid fleet is a Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) strategic objective designed to deter and defeat any enemy through the integration and scaling of unmanned platforms to the fleet level, including air, surface and subsurface systems.
Dr. Christopher Heagney, the NAVSOUTH/4th Fleet lead for innovation who orchestrated HFC24, said the hybrid fleet is a game-changing concept that requires Sailors and Marines to collaborate with U.S. Navy warfare centers, industry and academia to tackle the toughest challenges facing the nation.
“Active conflicts in Ukraine and Israel highlight the asymmetric advantage of unmanned systems,” Heagney said. “Augmenting traditional manned forces is imperative to maintaining our naval lethality and deterring future conflict.”
In the case of NAVSOUTH, operationalizing unmanned technologies also supports its mission to U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), which includes defending the southern approaches and working with partners to counter threats and malign activity in the region.
Heagney also called the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility an “ideal testbed” for NIWC Atlantic and its mission to accelerate technology development into the hands of the warfighter.
Greg Hays, NIWC Atlantic’s senior scientific technology manager for rapid prototyping, experimentation and fleet exercises, said from the USNS Burlington last week that the hybrid fleet is an unprecedented development in naval warfare doctrine.
“The hybrid fleet is being operationalized here before our eyes, and I believe what we are doing will be a force-multiplier, making our warfighters more effective across the continuum of day-to-day competition, crisis and conflict,” Hays said. “It’s been inspiring to watch both government and industry developers working in a relevant maritime environment to receive real-time feedback on their solutions from the warfighter.”
During the week of at-sea experimentation, more than 250 participants from the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, industry, academia and a multinational contingent of military partners employed or closely observed two dozen early-phase unmanned technologies as well as several NIWC Atlantic C3-focused prototypes supported by the command’s Naval Innovative Science and Engineering (NISE) program.
Link Management for UxVs with Repeaters (LiMUR) and Minimizing Electromagnetic Emissions via Switched-Beam Antennas (MEESA) spearheaded the assured communications track of the HFC24.
NIWC Atlantic engineer Michael Massenet said MEESA leverages switched-beam antenna technology and aims to provide naval forces omnidirectional or directionally steerable beams, all in one system, to significantly enhance critical warfighter communications.
Massenet, who served as HFC24’s team lead for assured communications, also experimented with troposcatter technology to assess high-capacity communications over long distances. His team tackled atmospheric testing as well, investigating the promising possibilities of evaporation ducts above the ocean.
“In an environment of collaboration with members of U.S. 4th Fleet and other military units and organizations, this event gave us and our industry partners a front-row seat to innovation and the possibilities for real-world warfighter applications,” Massenet said.
Meanwhile, Ryan Bell, an engineer assigned to NIWC Atlantic’s Science and Technology Department, spent the week experimenting with LiMUR, a software-based capability he helped develop.
Bell said LiMUR has the potential to enhance warfighter communications by autonomously controlling unmanned aerial/surface/underwater vehicles (UxV) equipped with repeaters that can balance link strength among the nodes of a mesh network.
“That would mean delivering critical decision-making intelligence to the warfighter,” he said. “In addition, LiMUR’s beyond-line-of-site communications and emission-awareness capabilities could help reduce the exposure of Navy ships or Marine Corps units ashore.”
Other NIWC Atlantic support during HFC24 occurred mostly behind the scenes.
For example, the command’s Unmanned Naval Innovation Team (UNIT) laid the foundation for all background networking and C2 infrastructures, ensuring unmanned technologies and communications functioned at optimal speeds during the maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance – targeting (MISR-T) mission threads.
NIWC Atlantic also managed the electromagnetic spectrum for the entire event, obtaining clearances from all levels of government.
In addition, technical assessors from NIWC Atlantic volunteered to support several Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) opportunities provided by the Department of the Navy’s SBIR Experimentation Cell (DON-SEC) while NIWC Atlantic personnel also took part in the Office of Naval Research’s Scientists to Sea Program, which offers research partners the opportunity to observe Sailors in tactical-like environments.
NIWC Atlantic also collaborated with Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA)’s Program Executive Office for Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC), whose LCS Mission Modules Program Office provided a 16-foot unmanned surface vessel called the Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC) to support HFC24 and NIWC Atlantic experimentation on the USNS Burlington and other Navy platforms.
Increasingly, NIWC Atlantic technologists have been participating in multinational maritime exercises in the Caribbean and off the coasts of South and Central America, including most recently Windward Stack and UNITAS. In addition, members of the UNIT spent three years supporting Task Force 59 in Bahrain, an initiative designed to advance the hybrid fleet campaign.
At the conclusion of HFC24, NIWC Atlantic teams briefed a small group of distinguished visitors led by Vice Adm. Alvin Holsey, USSOUTHCOM’s military deputy commander.
Holsey said the campaign to deliver a hybrid fleet pivots on how well some of the Navy’s smartest teams can successfully operationalize unmanned, C3-assured capabilities.
“We must test, fail, correct and then field the best capability to the warfighter,” Holsey said.
About NIWC Atlantic
As a part of Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, NIWC Atlantic provides systems engineering and acquisition to deliver information warfare capabilities to the naval, joint and national warfighter through the acquisition, development, integration, production, test, deployment, and sustainment of interoperable command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, cyber and information technology capabilities.
About NAVSOUTH/U.S. 4th Fleet
U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet supports U.S. Southern Command’s joint and combined military operations by employing maritime forces in cooperative maritime security operations to maintain access, enhance interoperability, and build enduring partnerships in order to enhance regional security and promote peace, stability, and prosperity in the Caribbean, Central and South American region.
| Date Taken: | 09.30.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 09.30.2024 16:57 |
| Story ID: | 482151 |
| Location: | SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 473 |
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