THE FUTURE OF SEA POWER

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The Future of Sea Power
The use of common procedures is the lynchpin of successful integration. Inherent
technological and other impediments can be greatly overcome by ensuring a detailed
understanding of common procedures is instilled across operating units. In some cases
these procedures are formalised between navies well in advance (such as Allied Tactical
Publications), in other cases they are developed for a specific exercise or operation. In
any case, they must be present, agreed upon, trained to, and if required, updated, to
ensure each unit is operating from a mutually understood set of procedures.
Installed systems for integrating units should be used to the greatest extent possible.
Link, chat rooms, and other automated systems for the near-real time exchange of
information between units allows for the best integration of information across units.
Still, while interoperable communications and automatic data transfer systems certainly
make the sharing of critical information easier and more reliable, lack of these systems
cannot be used as one of the roadblocks for integration and cooperation. Commanders
and individual units must understand the capabilities and limitations of other units and
ensure that communication and other paths for information flow are utilised to bring
each unit into the team. Resolving issues during exercises and training events will
ensure that critical elements required for integration are better understood should units
be asked to work together during real world operations.
Operating together in robust multi-warfare exercises provides the critical training
required to build common understanding of procedures and one another’s capabilities.
Integrated training of surface, air, and sub-surface units, as well as integration of shore
infrastructure and ground units, is crucial to developing the mutual understanding
required for success in real world operations. Allowing on-scene commanders the
flexibility to develop exercises to bring differing units into the program promotes
understanding and forces units out of the comfort zone of what they already understand.
Discovering issues during exercises and training events (while operating in a controlled
environment) will allow TTP to be refined to resolve these issues. When done in a crawl,
walk, and run methodology, the severity of risk to the safety of participating units can be
properly mitigated. The result will be that the overall risk to mission when conducting
real world operations together in the future is dramatically reduced.
Both planned exercises and real world operations today demand a unified message
that clearly articulates purpose. It is not enough today to simply conduct an operation
in a professional manner and hope that its intent is clearly understood by the diverse
audiences who may have interest in it or be affected by it. It is, therefore, imperative that
a unified message is agreed upon by all involved in the exercise or operation. Perhaps
more importantly, it is not enough that this message be vetted through associated
military organisations. It must be briefed and agreed upon through the highest possible
levels of civilian leadership as well. Diverging messages provide a gap, through which,
those potentially opposed to the partnering/cooperation can drive a wedge to cultivate
division among participating states. A positive example of this was seen in counterpiracy
operations where naval units from a diverse group of states came together under
a common theme to dramatically reduce piracy in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.