The U.S. Southern Command space of accountability supplies a permissive atmosphere to experiment with new applied sciences, techniques, strategies, and procedures. U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet supplies an annual experimentation venue for expertise builders to embark with the operational pressure, consider new techniques within the maritime atmosphere, validate assumptions, and obtain suggestions from Sailors and Marines.
“The U.S. Navy should transfer sooner, take good dangers, and deal with key operational issues to outpace our international threats,” mentioned Dr. Christopher Heagney, NAVAIR Fleet/Power Advisor to U.S. 4th Fleet. “Our capability to ascertain maritime superiority within the littorals is foundational to deterring future battle. Right here, we’re bringing collectively air, expeditionary, and knowledge warfare to realize that impact.”
In the course of the week-long engagement, Burlington went to sea to carry out a sequence of checks and demonstrations with the help of scientists and engineers from U.S. 4th Fleet, Workplace of Naval Analysis (ONR), Naval Data Warfare Middle Atlantic, Naval Floor Warfare Facilities, Naval Air Warfare Middle Plane Division, amongst different science and analysis establishments.
Check ideas have been chosen based mostly on operational wants and gaps. This 12 months’s iteration aimed to show Navy/Marine Corps integration to guard naval belongings throughout expeditionary superior basing operations (EABO), by evaluating expeditionary techniques for pressure safety and coordinated digital warfare.
“These fleet experiments present an vital alternative to check new concepts in a managed atmosphere. In addition they put expertise specialists in shut contact with fleet operators to extend mutual understanding of operational issues and the state-of-the-art instruments that may be leveraged to deal with them,” mentioned Rear Adm. Doug Sasse, Reserve Vice Commander of U.S. 4th Fleet. “This 12 months’s experiments have been expeditionary centered and demonstrated how spectrum dominance can present nice benefit for our forces working in littoral waters within the U.S. 4th Fleet space of accountability and across the globe.”
Experiments have been performed in a phased method, with every phase constructing upon the earlier one. A Humvee (HMMWV) was launched into Burlington as the first vessel to facilitate experiments and in the end consider capabilities in a contested atmosphere.
In Part 1, ‘ingress,’ Burlington was at sea with a HMMWV onboard to show digital warfare help and set up command and management (C2). Forces examined satellite tv for pc connections, C2 by means of tethered plane, detection of simulated enemy forces, and the ship’s capability to guard itself with jamming.
Part 2, ‘the touchdown,’ offloaded the HMMWV on Saddle Bunch Key en route to ascertain the EABO. The HMMWV adopted a path to the basing web site, combating simulated assaults from unmanned aerial techniques (UAS), simulated improvised explosive gadgets (IED), and different cyber and digital assaults.
Lastly, in Part 3, ‘inside pressure operations,’ the HMMWV arrived at its basing web site, the place forces have been capable of set up a communications community, and conduct coordinated digital assault techniques on simulated enemy forces.
“The ‘theater of experimentation’ is a well-earned identify,” mentioned Dr. Waleed Barnawi, ONR Program Officer. “Dr. Heagney and the 4th Fleet workers supplied us an ideal venue to check cyber and digital warfare capabilities, and a resilient communications structure that can join Navy and Marine Corps warfighters inside and out of doors the weapons engagement zone. I’m very grateful for Rear Adm. Sasse and his staff for coming down as properly. He and his staff supplied distinctive perception that solely comes from an occasion like this.
U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet helps U.S. Southern Command’s joint and mixed navy operations by using maritime forces in cooperative maritime safety operations to keep up entry, improve interoperability, and construct enduring partnerships with a purpose to improve regional safety and promote peace, stability and prosperity within the Caribbean, Central and South American area.
