Time To Innovate
Navy ... Is Now
by Warren Duffie Jr., Office of Naval Research
December 18, 2021
Eighty years ago, the attack on Pearl
Harbor propelled America into World War II. As the nation
commemorates this somber anniversary and its lessons, Chief of Naval
Research (CNR) Rear Adm. Lorin C. Selby views it as an opportunity
to reflect on the importance of re-envisioning naval power.
November 17, 2021 - Rear Adm. Lorin Selby, chief of naval research, delivers remarks at the “HACKtheMACHINE”
unmanned competition in Alexandria, Virgina. HACKtheMACHINE Unmanned is the first in a series of public-facing technology challenges aimed at accelerating discovery and teambuilding between the DoN, industry and academia for the creation of groundbreaking unmanned and autonomous systems. (U.S. Navy photo by Michael Walls)
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Before Pearl Harbor, many in the U.S. Navy
believed battleships would be the nucleus of combat power to win any
conflict. But the day after the attack ... which destroyed or damaged
many of America’s battleships ... naval leaders realized the nation’s
“Strategic Hedge” investment in aircraft carrier and submarine force
structure would prove crucial to the war effort.
“If you
think of the Navy’s order of battle as a portfolio investment, the
order of battle in 1941 was a primary investment in battleships,”
said Selby in a recent speech. “But ... and this is critical ... there was a
substantial alternative investment in aircraft carriers and
submarines that came to dominate the conflict over the next few
years.
“The
performance of these alternatives to the main plan eventually was
regarded as the pre-eminent formation for naval warfare,” he
continued, “and our force structure is still based on carrier strike
groups and submarines 80 years later.”
The Navy faces a new
crossroads today, according to Selby, involving challenges such as
near-peer competition and non-state actor threats. To address these,
he presented a new vision for future naval power ... involving faster
development, testing and transition of unmanned, autonomous systems;
more efficient collaborations with industry and academia; and
reimagined naval formations.
Selby shared his vision in a
new video building on his recent appearance at November’s
HacktheMachine Unmanned competition, a technology challenge aimed at
accelerating discovery and team building between the Department of
the Navy, industry and academia.
“I believe we are in one of
those pivotal moments where it is vital to throw off old
conventions,” said Selby. “Our time to innovate is now. If we lose
this decade of progress, I don’t think we can make up lost ground. I
like to keep the pressure on by thinking I have 1,000 days in this
job to make a difference for our country.”
A key component of this innovation push, Selby
said, is embracing the idea of “the small, the agile and the
many” ... small unmanned, autonomous platforms that can be constructed,
tested and adapted quickly; can be built in large numbers; and are
less expensive than larger platforms. These air, surface and
subsurface vehicles can be outfitted with a variety of sensors and
payloads for diverse missions.
“The small, the agile and the
many have the strong potential to define the future in a world where
the large and the complex are either too expensive to generate in
mass, or potentially too vulnerable to put at risk,” said Selby.
By being built relatively inexpensively, and in greater numbers,
these small, agile and many platforms offer multiple advantages: (1)
They can be deployed in unique formations to confound and confuse
adversaries and (2) if they’re shot down or lost, American forces
will have dozens, even thousands, of backups in place. Against an
adversary’s expensive platforms, this could play a significant role
in deterring aggressive actions.
Harkening back to his Pearl
Harbor example of Strategic Hedge, Selby said the idea of the small,
the agile and the many represents a viable hedge for supporting the
large and complex platforms making up the bulk of today’s force
structure. Quickly developing unmanned, autonomous systems will
provide a technological edge to the 21st-century Navy and Marine
Corps, in whatever future conflict they engage.
Such
demonstrations already have begun. ONR provided dozens of unmanned
platforms and sensors used in last April’s Integrated Battle Problem
2021 (IBP-21), which focused on a PACFLEET battle problem. In 2022,
those efforts will continue, including partnering with SOUTHCOM to
deliver new tools for drug interdiction efforts.
“I invite
everyone to join me in this mission,” said Selby. “This is going to
be fun. We’re going to ignite American passion to do something
amazing ... do it at scale, do it with a purpose and do it now. We’re
going to find the right balance of collaboration and competition to
ignite our nation’s creative engine and prove the value of the
small, the agile and the many.”
---------------------------- Warren Duffie Jr. is a
contractor for ONR Corporate Strategic Communications.
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