Navy should bolster crisis planning for theater ASW

Sea Power, Sep 2003 by Kime, Patricia

Fleet Battle Experiment Indicates Common Undersea Picture Sensors Work Well

The U.S. Navy's formal report on Fleet Battle Experiment Kilo (FBE Kilo) is set for a fall release, but preliminary reports indicate the venture-at least its antisubmarine warfare (ASW) portion-provided numerous insights into managing the underwater battlefield.

For example, the Navy needs a training program for theater antisubmarine warfare commanders, and should bolster their staffs for crisis planning at the operational level. Preliminary results of the experiment also indicate that waterspace management remains a slow, tedious process, but that the Navy's common undersea picture technology worked rather well.

Conducted in multiple locations between April 14 and May 5, 2003, FBE Kilo is the 11th in a series of experiments developed by the Naval Warfare Development Command in Newport R.I.

The experiments are designed to test and evaluate certain warfighting initiatives in an operational environment and are part of the Navy's Sea Trial process, which aims to use technology and innovative concepts in war games, experiments, and exercises in an effort to develop the Navy of tomorrow.

The exact war-game scenario of FBE Kilo was not made public, but the Navy combined real world and artificial scenarios to explore a number of its developing programs, including its Joint Fires Network family of systems, Area Air-Defense Commander System and undersea warfare planning, command and control procedures for anti-submarine warfare management.

FBE Kilo participants included the 7th Fleet command-and-control ship USS Blue Ridge, elements of the USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group, portions of the USS Essex Amphibious Ready Group, the low-frequency acoustic-test vessel Cory Chouest, several attack submarines, virtual vessels, and shore-based commands, including the commander of Task Force 74 in Yokosuka Japan; NWDC; Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, Va.; and Royal Australian Navy units.

In the area of undersea warfare and theater antisubmarine warfare, the experiment aimed to test undersea warfare planning and command and communications procedures involving local anti-submarine warfare commanders and the theater anti-submarine warfare commander.

The experiment also utilized several new technologies, including the experimental common undersea picture, low-frequency active sonar (LFAS), and data networks.

"We were really looking at a broad picture, at the coordination aspect between the theater commander and the local commander," said Capt. Kevin Morrissey, director of the Maritime Battle Center at the Naval Warfare Development Command, Newport, R.I.

Regarding theater antisubmarine warfare, the Naval Warfare Development Command wanted to accomplish several objectives with FBE Kilo:

* Examine the theater commander's ability to manage all undersea combat assets, including air, surface, subsurface, and integrated undersea surveillance systems and coordinate with local antisubmarine warfare commanders;

* Explore the way information is passed and controlled through the theater commander and local commanders;

* Investigate how to enhance undersea situational awareness by using new technologies.

With the first objective, asset management, the development command and 7th Fleet found that the participants performed well, but the Navy needs to develop a training program for theater antisubmarine warfare commanders.

According to a joint preliminary report issued by the two commands, the Navy has an established doctrine for the battle group antisubmarine warfare commander but none for the theater commander.

"While the current [commander, Task Force 74] staff provided outstanding support to the [Joint Theater Forces] commander in his effort to take the undersea fight to the enemy before the enemy subs could threaten the expeditionary strike group and commander, submarine group, the level of effort required clearly demonstrated the need for a defined [theater antisubmarine warfare command] training program and an augmentation of personnel to carry out sustained ... operations," the preliminary report stated.

The authors recommended that the Navy adapt the existing battle group commander guidance for the theater commander and add 12 personnel-three officers and nine enlisted billets-to the theater antisubmarine warfare staff for operational-level crisis planning.

Another key element in the ant-submarine warfare portion of FBE Kilo was the flow of information between the theater antisubmarine warfare commander and the local ASW commanders.

Among the tools that eased coordination between the commanders was the experimental common undersea picture, a network of systems that gave commanders a view of the developing battlefield.

"Because both the theater commander and the local commander had the same set of tools, they were able to see and execute a plan. It worked very well," Morrissey said.

Much of what the commanders needed to share included data and information about waterspace management, meaning the allocation of areas to assets in order to allow for engagement of hostile submarines and the prevention of inadvertent attacks on friendly submarines.