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Supporting Maritime Interoperability for the Common Defense

“As we combine our advantages, I envision a thousand-ship navy—a fleet-in-being, if you will—made up of the best capabilities of all freedom-loving navies of the world. This thousand-ship navy would integrate the capabilities of the maritime services to create a fully interoperable force, an international city at sea.”1

—Admiral Michael Mullen, former Chief of Naval Operations

Perspective

When then-CNO Admiral Michael Mullen first presented the notion of a Thousand Ship Navy at the 2005 International Seapower Symposium in Newport, Rhode Island, it institutionalized what many navies have been doing for several millennia – operating at sea together united in common defense. This globe-circling initiative, now called “The Global Maritime Partnership,” has gained great currency in strategic, policy, and doctrinal circles and is enshrined in the Navy’s maritime strategy, A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower.2

The need for cooperation and interoperability that has been institutionalized in the Cooperative Strategy will require not only policy guidance, but a cooperative effort by the international technical community to address the details involved in providing the command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems to link the navies of various nations together. This can be a daunting task but a necessary one as this important initiative may never reach fruition without a concerted effort – at the technical level – from all nations seeking to participate in a Global Maritime Partnership (GMP). For the United States Navy, much of the technical work to achieve this integration with our coalition partners in the GMP – including participation in multiple international fora – is conducted by professionals working at the Navy’s system command for C4ISR, the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), the Program Executive Office (PEO) C4I, and SPAWAR’s research and engineering systems centers.

Background

The U.S. Navy’s maritime strategy, unveiled at the 2007 International Seapower Symposium (ISS) in Newport, Rhode Island, notes, “No one nation has the resources required to provide safety and security throughout the entire maritime domain.”3 The unveiling of the maritime strategy in front of an audience of over 100 representatives of international navies and coast guards emphasized the theme of international cooperation on the high seas. U.S. Navy officials have pointed out that the U.S. Navy does not intend to lead this global maritime partnership but will be a willing partner with other nations and navies – especially regional navies – operating on the global commons. As Admiral Roughead noted at the 2007 ISS, “The key to all of this is trust. We believe that trust is something that cannot be surged.”4

The U.S. Navy has a strong desire to effectively network at sea. Writing in the capstone publication of the OSD Office of Force Transformation, Vice Admiral Arthur Cebrowski noted, “The United States wants its partners to be as interoperable as possible. Not being interoperable means you are not on the net, so you are not in a position to derive power from the information age.”5 The U.S. Navy participates in numerous exercises with allies, friends, and potential coalition partners, and has learned firsthand how valuable this partnership at sea can be. Rear Admiral Nora Tyson, commander of Task Force 73, provides an operational view of the importance of coalition interoperability: “Engagement and interoperability are critical to our maritime security strategy, which links regional stability to the ideals of cooperation and the promotion of sovereign partnerships.”6

The Navy’s ability to communicate and exchange information with coalition partners is not only vital from a warfighting per­spective, but is also integral to a wide array of humanitarian mis­sions around the world. The tsunami relief efforts in December 2004 dramatically brought home the need for effective coalition communications. Given the precepts of A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower and the U.S. Navy’s increased emphasis on humanitarian operations and disaster relief, it is likely that such operations will become the norm in the future.

Challenges

One example of the importance of coalition communications to the U.S. Navy’s operational commanders comes from the three-star officers commanding the U.S. fleets. Each year, the five numbered fleet commanders in the U.S. Navy submit their “top ten C4ISR requirements.” Today, these fleet commanders are universal in identifying one C4ISR issue as their top priority—coalition communications.7

The technical challenges facing the U.S. Navy’s ability to effectively network with current and future coalition partners are not trivial. One challenge is quantifying the operational effectiveness of a networked coalition force, and another is finding a way for likely coalition partners to co-evolve maritime networking systems that enable maximum networking among partner ships and other platforms.

The issue of co-evolution is an important one because for a U.S. Navy determined to be a global maritime partner, and not a naval power that dominates partners with U.S.-centric solutions, a cooperative arrangement regarding technology development is crucial.8 This implies early and frequent cooperation and collaboration at the grass-roots level by scientists and engineers working in laboratories of global maritime partners to come up with technical solutions for challenging networking problems.

Rear Admiral Michael Bachmann, SPAWARSYSCOM Commander, put the importance of effective coalition communications this way:

“The importance of effective coalition communications for the U.S. Navy cannot be overstated. To make effective communications for the Global Maritime Partnership a reality, Team SPAWAR is intensely focused on leveraging lessons learned from current coalition communications challenges and opportunities to address the future C4ISR systems we deliver to U.S. Navy operators.”

Technical Initiatives to Support the Global Maritime Partnership

U.S. Navy professionals – both those in uniform and civilians – are at the forefront of working with coalition partners to develop effective C4ISR solutions to networking with coalition navies. The focus of this work for the U.S. Navy includes the over-8000 “Team SPAWAR” professionals working in close proximity to the fleet at SPAWAR and PEO C4I, both in San Diego, California, as well as their two state-of-the-art labs–SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific, also in San Diego, and SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic, headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina.

Team SPAWAR has been actively involved in working to build the capability for the fleet to expand the U.S. Navy’s networking capabilities to coalition partners. There have been promising examples of the technologies and other initiatives that support coalition interoperability and meet the need for low cost systems to make it much easier for our coalition partners to be part of the Global Maritime Partnership.

Mr. Chris Miller, Program Executive Officer C4I, put the importance of effective coalition networking this way:

“Within PEO C4I, we have organized functionally to provide effective support and technical solutions to coalition networking challenges. The focal point of such effort is our International C4I Integration Program Office (PMW-740). But outside of the traditional foreign military sales programs, PEO C4I and Team SPAWAR are also helping to solve the challenge of how to share information with non-traditional partners such as China and Russia, both of whom are engaged in the international anti-piracy effort.”

Left to right: JDS Samidare (DD 106), USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93), and USS Denver (LPD 9). All three ships participated in RIMPAC 2006. Source: www.navy.mil

The following represent some of the many initiatives currently underway within Team SPAWAR that will enable coalition interoperability:

• Team SPAWAR members have been actively involved in developing the architecture for the Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System (CENTRIXS), and developing new technologies to provide greater security while maintaining network flexibility. CENTRIXS is a global information-sharing network established in 2002, and has been used by the U.S. Navy and partner nations to network across the maritime domain in coalition efforts like Operation Enduring Freedom.
• Team SPAWAR’s involvement in the annual Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID), sponsored by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is another example of an initiative to enable the Global Maritime Partnership. CWID is the vehicle for the Combatant Commanders to test new C4ISR technologies, many of which support coalition interoperability. For example, the 2008 CWID demonstration focused on “a notional coalition task force operation applicable in any global crisis.”9 Team SPAWAR served as the host of the U.S. Navy’s element of the 2008 CWID tests.10
• Team SPAWAR also incorporates the use of two principal acquisition authorities that provides a C4ISR foundation for future Global Maritime Partnership efforts:
  • The Maritime Domain Awareness program established by National Security Presidential Security Directive-41/Homeland Security Presidential Directive-13 (NSPD-41/HSPD-13)
  • The Foreign Military Sales (FMS) process to nations that are potential U.S. Navy coalition partners
• The Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) Program is a national as well as an international effort to collect information to form a larger picture of activities occurring in the global commons. Team SPAWAR has a key role in a number of MDA initiatives that enhance the U.S. Navy’s interoperability with coalition partners:
  • Serving as the MDA acquisition lead for the U.S. Navy
  • Developing and implementing spiral developments of MDA capability with international partners
  • Supporting acquisition activities, including an Analysis of Alternatives, for establishment of ongoing MDA programs
• Providing stewardship of important C4ISR aspects of the Foreign Military Sales Process (an initiative funded by the foreign country or Foreign Military Financing of U.S. Foreign Aid via the Department of State):
  • Supporting Combatant Commander (COCOM) requirements through traditional Foreign Military Sales cases of C4I commercial off-the-shelf (COTS), government off-the-shelf (GOTS), Software and Technical Assistance
  • Supporting immediate connectivity and information sharing and laying the foundation for eventual hook-up and information sharing for contingency readiness
  • Employing Defense Security Cooperation Agency three-phase approach to analyze requirements, propose solutions and tailor C4I capabilities to individual country needs as derived from their geopolitical environment, funding availability, and force capabilities
• Providing ongoing stewardship of the Foreign Military Sales Process used to execute projects under Section 1206 Modification and Extension of Authorities Relating to Program to Build the Capacity of Foreign Military Forces of the Fiscal Year 2009 National Defense Authorization Act (also known as “1206” Projects):
  • Providing special authority to use U.S. funds to train and equip foreign military forces
  • Using appropriate funding to bolster capabilities of countries that have limited resources and are in high-interest geographic areas (e.g. Strait of Malacca, African coasts, Caribbean)
  • Tailoring the solutions provided to particular country needs and support capacity
  • Producing products – including maritime surveillance systems – shore and ship based, communication/network systems, and command centers/fusion nodes, that support the Global Maritime Partnership
  • Providing tailored solutions to coalition partners (GOTS solutions are often “too heavy”). Recipients need basic capabilities in easy-to-maintain/administer, durable form
  • Providing coalition partners with avenues for cooperation with the U.S. defense establishment
  • Providing the basis for potential future sharing of information either with U.S. or other countries in various regions
• Support for a wide range of partnership-building activities with likely coalition partners – particularly with “five eyes” nations (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and United States) – under the auspices of the AUSCANNZUKUS partnership and The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP). SPAWAR System Centers Atlantic and Pacific have provided invaluable government technical expertise for AUSCANNZUKUS and TTCP, especially in the areas of designing, integrating and testing systems.
• Individuals within Team SPAWAR continue to be actively engaged in the larger discussions about the importance of C4ISR to the Global Maritime Partnership through publications in key periodicals and conferences. Some of these publications include the Royal United Services Institute’s Defense Systems and the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, while conferences include those under the auspices of the Command and Control Research Program sponsored by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks Information Integration (ASD NII).11

The Way Forward

This detailed, technical work to network navies at sea typically happens “sub rosa” to the operational leadership of navies worldwide. The technical authorities in many of these navies – Team SPAWAR for the U.S. Navy – have been working these solutions for many years and will continue to work them in the future as the Global Maritime Partnership becomes increasingly important to ensuring security and stability on the global commons.

Team SPAWAR is energized to lead the U.S. Navy’s effort to support the Global Maritime Partnership. This hard technical work – down to the laboratory, engineering specialty and program office level and in conjunction with the U.S. Navy’s likely coalition partners – is important. This is because naval leaders of all potential coalition partners need and demand effective technical solutions to enable seamless networking with coalition partners at sea. And absent the requisite technology development and rapid deployment of C4ISR technologies within all of these navies, the vision of a Global Maritime Partnership may never be realized.

References

1 “A Global Network of Nations for a Free and Secure Maritime Commons,” Report of the Proceedings of the 17th International Seapower Symposium, 19-23 September 2005, <http://www.nwc.navy.mil/cnws/marstrat/docs/library/ISS17web.pdf>.
2 A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Navy, 2007). Accessed on the Department of the Navy website at www.navy.mil. See also: Admiral Thad Allen, General James Conway, and Admiral Gary Roughead, “A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower,” United States Naval Institute Proceedings, November 2007, pp. 14-20 and John Lehman, “A Bravura Performance,” in the same issue, pp. 22-24; and Norman Friedman, “The Real Purpose of Strategy,” United States Naval Institute Proceedings, December 2007, pp. 90-91.
3 A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower.
4 Jim Garamone, “Sea Services Unveil New Maritime Strategy,” American Forces Press Service,
17 October 2007. See also, Jennifer Grogan, “Seapower Symposium Focuses on Post-Cold War Challenges,” New London Day, 18 October 2007.
5 Military Transformation: A Strategic Approach (Washington, D.C.: Department of Defense, 2003), pp. 1-36, accessed at: http://www.oft.osd.mil. This publication is the capstone publication of the Office of Force Transformation, U.S. Department of Defense.
6 Navy Office of Information, “Rhumblines: International Surface Partnerships,” 10 October 2008.
7 George Galdorisi and Darren Sutton, “Achieving the Global Maritime Partnership: Operational Needs and Tactical Realities,” RUSI Defence Systems, 15 June 2007, p.69.
8 Gordon Van Hook, “How to Kill a Good Idea,” United States Naval Institute Proceedings, October 2007, p. 33. Captain Van Hook, drawing on his experience as a destroyer squadron commander where he worked with coalition partners, emphasized the importance of a cooperative approach to instantiating the global maritime partnership, noting that the U.S. should: “encourage regional maritime security arrangements to form at the grassroots level, without overt U.S. leadership.”
9 Department of Defense, CWID 2008 Final Report: Assessment Brief Contents, (Arlington, VA: Defense Information Systems Agency CWID Joint Management Office, 2008), https://www.cwid.js.mil/public/CWID08FR/pdffiles/briefs.pdf.
10 Department of Defense, CWID 2008.
11 See George Galdorisi and Darren Sutton, “Achieving the Global Maritime Partnership,” and George Galdorisi and Stephanie Hszieh, “Speaking the Same Language,” United States Naval Institute Proceedings, March 2008.

Mr. Jim Churchill is the Program Manager for International C4I Integration (PMW-740) at the U. S. Navy Program Executive Office (Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence) in San Diego, CA.

George Galdorisi is Director of the Corporate Strategy Group at SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific where he helps direct the Center’s efforts in strategic planning and corporate communications. Prior to joining SSC Pacific, he completed a 30-year career as a naval aviator, culminating in 14 years of consecutive experience as executive officer, commanding officer, commodore, and chief of staff.

Dr. Stephanie Hszieh is a strategic analyst for the Corporate Strategy Group at SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific.