In 2002, the Chief of Naval Operations, ADM Vern Clark, laid out a vision called Sea Power 21 for projecting decisive Joint capability from the sea.
Sea Power 21 contains three core operational concepts: Sea Strike, Sea Shield and Sea Basing. Also included are three transformed organizational processes that support the core operational concepts: Sea Warrior, Sea Trial and Sea Enterprise. Lastly, it includes a binding “infosphere” enabler, FORCEnet. Sea Power 21 provides a transformational framework for conceiving Navy approaches and policies for the coming decades.
As such, it seems critical to test existing and coming Navy programs against Sea Power 21. Today’s existing Naval Aviation force includes F/A-18C/D/E/Fs, EA-6Bs, E-2Cs, H-60B/F/R/S, land-based patrol aircraft and aircraft carriers. For Naval Aviation, critical programs in coming years include the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), Advanced Hawkeye (E-2D), Joint Unmanned Combat Aerial System (J-UCAS), Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) (P-8A), Aerial Common Sensor and the emergence of a new aircraft carrier class (CVN-21). This discussion examines some of these programs against the critical test of how they exemplify and meet the challenges of Sea Power 21.
Sea Strike — Power Projected From the Sea
Sea Strike represents the Naval services’ ability to apply force across the shore to influence events overland in a precise and persistent offensive manner — as is said, to deliver “dominant and decisive firepower from the sea.” Naval Aviation represents a key element of that equation today and in the future. For decades, carriers and their air wings have conducted combat sorties against America’s adversaries, most recently in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq. With the air wings regularly providing support to Americans and their allies engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan today, this does not seem likely to end soon. Coming programs will improve Sea Strike by enhancing the effectiveness of Naval Aviation.
JSF will introduce stealth and longer range capabilities into the Naval Aviation community and enable strikes against more sophisticated air defense environments. Shortly behind it, J-UCAS will combine the advantages of stealth with endurance. J-UCAS will create new options for commanders, such as the ability to begin sea-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike operations before manned carrier aviation and combat search-and-rescue forces are within range. With the system’s persistent ISR and targeting capability, the strike group commander will obtain continuous awareness of the surrounding sea space, and manned strike aviation’s effectiveness against mobile targets ashore will greatly increase.
Though carriers are a critical node in the sea-strike system of systems, it is a node that has not been reworked to meet the revolutionary changes in the world over the past 40 years. CVN-21 will catch up to aviation and exploit the capabilities achieved through investment in transformational aviation assets like the JSF and J-UCAS. CVN-21 will be able to put more sorties in the air, each carrying more munitions while using fewer personnel than the carriers it will replace.
Sea Shield — Protecting Valuable Assets
Sea Shield is the Navy’s dual ability to protect Navy assets at sea and ashore, and the ability to project defense to enable Joint operations. New technologies are transforming the workhorse of Naval airborne early warning and control, the Hawkeye. The E-2D will have more range and better internal computing, as well as the Radar Modernization Program (RMP) that will enable it to SC2 More (See More, Communicate More, Control More). E-2D enhancements will provide sea-based missile defenses of all types with a tremendous leap forward in the ability to detect and track stealthy cruise missiles.
J-UCAS will provide a path toward round-the-clock ISR missions from the carrier deck, potentially eliminating the battle group commander’s daily problem of reestablishing a robust operating picture that is degraded when no aircraft are flying. Obviously, CVN-21’s ability to keep more aircraft in the air will enhance the air wing’s contribution to Sea Shield.
However, CVN-21 itself might provide an important Sea Shield capacity. CVN-21 will incorporate a new reactor that will generate more than two and a half times as much electrical power as a current fleet carrier, and it will have an entirely new electrical distribution system for moving power around the ship. CVN-21 is the hub of Sea Shield, projecting defense against enemy airborne systems — whether manned or unmanned aviation or missiles of any type — covering a huge area at sea and overland from wherever they are deployed.
Sea Basing — Not Asking Permission
Sea Basing represents the nation’s ability to leverage the U.S. Navy’s command of the great commons of the seas to support protection of national interests without having to ask “permission.” It is the “foundation to assure access.” The aircraft carrier represents the core of all sea-basing concepts — providing a key node for the secure and persistent projection of tactical aviation around the world from U.S. sovereign territory.
CVN-21 improves the enhanced networked sea base in a variety of ways:
- It will have improved survivability, increasing aircraft carrier persistence even in the face of the most capable and determined adversary attacks.
- Design and construction elements will enable a changed maintenance program that will allow the Navy to keep it at sea longer, with less time in repair yards through its service life.
- Improved communications and information movement capabilities will enhance CVN-21-class carriers’ abilities to operate as a critical FORCEnet node, including the carrier-basing of Joint command and control functions.
Sea Warrior — Making the Most of Personnel Resources
Sea Warrior recognizes in part that manpower is the Navy’s most valued asset. All of the new programs are designed to reduce unnecessary and mindless tasks to ensure that the Navy is deploying the Sea Warriors truly needed to ensure national security. The Nimitz-class carriers were designed and developed when manpower was a low-cost resource and information was expensive to collect, collate and disseminate.
Today, the reverse is true. Manpower is increasingly expensive and valuable while the same budget dollar buys more capable information systems with each passing day. The CVN-21 program recognizes this change and incorporates a plethora of Sea Warrior 21 philosophies. For example, the improved weapons delivery systems will mean fewer sailors will be necessary for each pound of high-explosive loaded on board aircraft. This might include power-enhancing systems to relieve teams of sailors and Marines from manhandling 2,000-lb. bombs onto aircraft, at night, on a pitching deck in bad weather.
Nimitz-class carriers are being retrofitted with some of the information technology (IT) systems incorporated into CVN-21’s design. These advances will provide, for example, the ability to support remote training requirements and thus help Sea Warriors develop their careers. Developing a new carrier allows design teams to get into the living spaces, and CVN-21 will provide far better habitability for its sailors and Marines. All told, CVN-21 will respect Sea Warriors by enhancing their ability to get their jobs done effectively and efficiently, by reducing the most oppressive demands of the service.
Sea Trial — Examining New Concepts
Sea Trial represents the Department’s efforts to develop new approaches that incorporate learning from operational experience, exercises, experimentation, war games and analysis to develop new operational concepts, test new systems and establish priorities. One of the great advances in Naval Aviation development is how the programs work together. This might be the first time in history when carrier and aircraft designers are communicating and consulting with one another in development of their respective programs to enhance carrier-aviation interaction even before the first JSF, J-UCAS, or CVN-21 has entered the fleet.
Through interactive modeling, simulation and analysis — Sea Trial in a computer — community managers are enhancing the capabilities and minimizing the painful lessons for tomorrow’s Sea Warriors. In the near term, well before their entry into service, these programs are contributing to Sea Trial. For example, the modeling efforts of Nimitz weapons handling and flight deck management of aircraft, undertaken to provide understanding for designing CVN-21, have enabled better representation of carrier operations in exercises and war games in recent years.
Sea Enterprise — Thinking Out of the Box
Sea Enterprise represents the Navy’s efforts to seek different ways of doing business, in part to develop paths toward greater efficiency to find funds for investing in systems for tomorrow’s Navy. In all of these programs, total ownership costs (TOC) are integral to the entire development process. By investing today in concepts of TOC, the Navy has determined that it makes sense to buy high quality today to minimize future maintenance costs. As well, the designs are incorporating this concept. The reality is that tomorrow will offer new technological opportunities we can’t conceive of today. Across the board, the focus remains on total ownership cost. Thus every requirement, each technology, every step in a program are examined in terms of not just what it will cost to acquire, but what it might cost the nation through the system’s full service life.
FORCEnet — Linking Systems for Increased Effectiveness
A key enabling pillar for Sea Power 21 is FORCEnet, the ability to work together using information technology advances that enable the Navy, other services, national and even Coalition assets to provide the decision maker greater situational awareness. Naval Aviation is far from the days when we focused on an individual aircraft’s design in isolation. From the get-go, our new platforms are being conceived not in a platform-centric mentality but with a systems-of-systems mind-set. We are seeking to exploit the information revolution, and every Naval Aviation platform will have connectivity to enable exploitation of and engagement in FORCEnet.
CVN-21 might just be the most critical FORCEnet node the Navy will deploy in the decades to come. It will be a centerpiece in a persistent strike system operating from sovereign U.S. territory at a time when it might be difficult to get local access for supporting U.S. military operations.
Sea Power 21 is about figuring out the best ways for the Navy to support national security requirements. Sea Power 21 is not platform- or program-specific. On the other hand, all Navy programs should be tested against the concepts, pillars and vision outlined by the Chief of Naval Operations.
When it comes to the Sea Power 21 test, Naval Aviation programs meet the highest marks. It is key to the vision! As your director of Air Warfare, I invite your attention to more information that is now available in the new 2005 Naval Aviation Vision, just recently published in hardcover and on the Web at:
http://www.nae.cnaf.navy.mil
Ed Note: RADM Tom Kilcline, a 1973 graduate of the Naval Academy, was designated a Naval Aviator in 1975 and received orders as a pilot to the fighter community where he flew operationally with VF-51, VF-126 and VF-213. Kilcline has commanded VF-154, Carrier Air Wing 14 and Carrier Group Two.
Shore assignments include the staff of 2nd Fleet, CNO Chair to the National War College, Executive Assistant to Deputy, European Command, Chief of Staff for Commander Naval Air Forces, and most recently, Director, Naval Aviation Plans and Requirements (N780). He was named Director, Air Warfare Division in August 2004.
RADM Kilcline in 32 years has amassed more than 5,300 flight hours in the F-4, F-14, F/A-18, A-4 and F-5 aircraft, and has logged 1,150 carrier arrested landings.