U.S. Navy Sub Force Sets Future Priorities

 

U.S. Navy image

Jul 26, 2011 By Michael Fabey aerospace daily and defense report

Threatened by the specter of future submarine system cuts and burdened by increasing demands, the U.S. Navy is looking to improve maintenance, enhance sensors, bolster payloads and solidify the posture of its undersea force.

“By 2030, our forward presence will decline by more than 40% and our undersea strike capacity will drop by almost 60%,” says a report from Submarine Forces Command, released earlier this month. “Despite these trends, there is every reason to believe that the future of naval warfare will place increasing, and not decreasing, demands on undersea forces. This divergence of resources and demands places ever greater stress on the importance of an integrated approach for our future undersea capability development.”

Keeping this in mind, the report says, the Navy must re-examine its submarine “posture” to do the following: “Identify the implications to future operations given different force levels, payloads, basing and manning schemes; determine how best to operationally integrate diverse undersea systems, including UUVs [unmanned underwater vehicles] in the future; and refine the mission area of subsea warfare and the systems/operations needed to carry it out.”

Further, the report says, the Navy must “defer the ‘new SSN’ [attack sub] while continuing procurement of additional blocks of VA [Virginia]-class SSNs with associated incremental enhancements until after completion of Ohio [ballistic missile submarine] replacement class procurement.”

The service also must “determine requirements for Ohio Replacement SSBN and its impact on SSGN [guided-missile sub] replacement” as well as “determine requirements for SSGN replacement and implications on SSBNs and SSNs” and “determine an approach for dealing with the SSN shortfall after 2024 and how that impacts SSGN replacement options.”

The submarine force also needs to find “improved human-systems interfaces and reduced training burdens while improving the capabilities and reliability of key sensors such as towed arrays and photonics masts,” the report says. And the Navy needs to “better balance operational requirements, fiscal realities, and sustainability in the COTS [commercial-off-the-shelf] strategy” for its submarine force.

To address some of its supply-chain issues, the submarine force must “improve sustainment and reduce cannibalization by better supply support (particularly Virginia class) and proactive management” of parts in conjunction with other Navy organizations.

When it comes to payloads, the service must “consider the merits of the Virginia payload module to replace lost payload volume [distributed vs. concentrated firepower],” the report says, and, “plan to simplify payload interfaces” and “enhance the military utility of existing payloads through incremental evolutionary changes without needing new programs.”

The Navy, the report says, needs to “plan to resume torpedo production; determine new payloads required and their impact on payload volume needs; consider future sonar system requirements; conduct liaison with SOCOM [Special Operations Command] to determine the way ahead for SOF [special operations forces] payloads; and align payloads with evolving tactical security needs.”

The service also should “encourage the development of undersea payloads by other resource sponsors, including Conventional Prompt Global Strike (OSD), Large Displacement Unmanned Undersea Vehicles, next-generation SOF vehicles (SOCOM), and distributed netted systems,” the report says.