THE FUTURE OF SEA POWER

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The Future of Sea Power
Threats may also be asymmetric, including biological or chemical in nature. Signature
reduction and management is fundamental to reducing susceptibility, but the use of
hyperspectral sensors increases the complexity of the solutions required. Increased
shock and blast ‘hardening’ of the platform structure assists with reducing vulnerability,
but platform design is becoming more crucial as threat weapons incorporate advanced
targeting capabilities. Recoverability after a weapons strike will become more automated
with fire suppression and flooding systems remotely and automatically activated.
From another perspective, having own sensors that can see further than your opponent,
and by having superior weapons makes the platform more survivable.
The likelihood of a platform being detected can be reduced through the use of advanced
signature management treatments. Active radar absorbing materials which frequency
hop based on the threat frequency will become commonplace. The use of low emissivity
coatings will reduce the infrared and the thermal signatures of the platform. However,
the development of advanced countermeasures also needs to be part of the equation,
along with advanced tactics. The ability to design stealth into the platform is a reality
and this will continue into the future. DST Group is conducting research into many of
these technologies using new materials for signature management.
Critical to survivability is the ability to detect and to engage the threats. Detection will
require new sensor and surveillance systems that can search the environment quickly,
classify the object detected and then bring the weapon systems to bear to defeat the
threat. These sensors are likely to be passive to ensure that the platform controls its
own emissive signature. Automation of this process will be needed due to the short
times involved in the engagement. This will require improvements to and automation
of ‘non-cooperative target recognition’ processes. The ability to engage these advanced
high speed threats requires weapons or effectors that are agile and have a degree of
automation. Use of advanced weapons such as laser, rail guns or electromagnetic pulse
systems will become the norm. Currently these weapons are being deployed by the US
Navy. They have the advantage of being nearly instantaneous, low cost (per shot) and
having an ‘infinite magazine’.
The reduced response time will drive automation of the engagement chain but it needs
to go beyond the single effector to automation of multiple effector responses. Part of this
is the development of lethality assessment functions to assess the ability of each effector
to defeat a threat, and the weapon-target assignment in which effectors are allocated
to threats, sequenced in time to achieve maximum probability of survival. The use of
advanced computing hardware and algorithms will enable this development. Much more
effective and automatic coordination of soft and hard kill will be required.
Recovering a platform after damage requires new ways of thinking and understanding of
recovery systems and of human behaviour and performance. Next generation recovery
systems may include: automated damage isolation, use of autonomous vehicles and
robots for detection and response to damage events, and 3D-printing of repair parts.
However, the degree to which automation will replace the human in recovery actions