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TESTIMONY
OF
REAR ADMIRAL JAY M. COHEN
UNITED STATES NAVY
CHIEF OF NAVAL RESEARCH
BEFORE THE
HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TERRORISM, UNCONVENTIONAL
THREATS AND CAPABILITIES
REGARDING
FISCAL YEAR 2005 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
POLICY AND PROGRAMS
25 MARCH 2004
Mr. Chairman, distinguished
members of the Subcommittee, thank you for
this opportunity to appear before you to
discuss the Department of the Navy's fiscal
year (FY) 2005 naval science and technology
(S&T) budget request.
The last year has demonstrated
how new technology and new operations have
transformed the nature of the battlefield and
the speed of operations. I want to highlight
some of the contributions from the naval
science and technology portfolio that have
delivered new capabilities to our Fleet and
Force. These are examples of how the
Congress' sustained and stable investment in
science and technology in the past delivers
the technological superiority for our Sailors
and Marines today.
Let me tell you about some of
the science and technology success stories
from Operation Iraqi Freedom. You will
remember that I came before this subcommittee
a few years ago and brought a prototype for
demonstration of the Dragon Eye, a small
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), for small unit
tactical reconnaissance. The Dragon Eye is
small, light, easy to transport, and easy to
fly. This UAV has transitioned into the
Marine Corps Force and will accompany the
First Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) when
it deploys to Iraq later this year.
We have long supported the
development of unmanned underwater vehicles.
The Remote Environmental Monitoring Unit or
REMUS is a low-cost autonomous underwater
vehicle. Originally designed to conduct
coastal surveys in support of science, it was
adapted for military use with support from the
Office of Naval Research and the U.S. Special
Operations Command. Capable of performing
rapid environmental surveys, REMUS also
functions as an underwater mine reconnaissance
device for the Navy's Mine Countermeasure
program. A half dozen of the REMUS autonomous
underwater vehicles went with the Navy Special
Clearance team to the Arabian Gulf to help
clear the ports of Umm Qasr and Az Zubayr.
Equipped with side scan sonar, REMUS was used
to systematically survey 2.5 million square
meters of waterways. This was the first time
that an unmanned underwater vehicle was used
in conjunction with other mine countermeasure
units in a wartime situation. The team had
the first REMUS in the water within several
hours of arriving in Umm Qasr.
Another UAV used in Operation
Iraqi Freedom is the Silver Fox. Built as a
small tactical UAV, Silver Fox uses
off-the-shelf avionics and can fly
autonomously using differential Global
Positioning System (GPS). Weighing only 22
pounds, it can be launched by hand or catapult
from various platforms. Once airborne, Silver
Fox uses an infra-red and high-resolution
color zoom camera to relay reconnaissance
information instantaneously to a remote laptop
computer. Powered by a 0.91 cubic inch
engine, this fixed-winged aircraft can reach
speeds close to 65 miles per hour and operate
at an altitude of 1,000 feet with a range of
up to 150 miles. We are working to increase
the flight endurance beyond the current 10
hours. We are using the 4 pound payload
capacity for small state-of-the-art detection
systems. Silver Fox's 5-foot fuselage,
detachable wings, and tail fins fit into a
super-sized golf bag making storage and
transportation simple and efficient. Unlike
other UAV systems, which require a skilled
radio-control operator or pilot, Silver Fox is
easy to fly and allows the operator to program
routes into a laptop computer.
Those are some of our
highlights for the near-term - "Today's Navy
and Marine Corps". Naval science and
technology is a sustained journey from
discovery to deployment in which innovation
(invention) and experimentation (validation)
transform the operating forces. This is a
continuous cycle, so I would like to discuss
the "Next Navy and Marine Corps" (roughly the
forces that will emerge over the next five to
fifteen years), and finally the "Navy and
Marine Corps After Next"-which we will see in
fifteen to thirty years.
A great deal of our
transformational effort is lodged in the
Future Naval Capabilities (FNC). Science and
technology enable Navy transformation by
achieving the FNCs' goals. The key to
successful transformation is the strong
business partnership among scientists,
industry, requirements, acquisition, and
warfighters.
We have
focused a major portion of our S&T portfolio
on FNC for the "Next Navy and Marine Corps."
Approximately two-thirds of our 6.3 (Advanced
Technology Development) funds and about 40% of
our 6.2 (Exploratory Development) funds are
invested in the FNCs. The FNC process
delivers maturing technology to acquisition
program managers for timely incorporation into
platforms, weapons, sensors, and process
improvements. Each of the current 12 FNC
focus areas is planned and reviewed by an
integrated team with representation from the
Office of Naval Research, a Program Executive
Office (PEO), the Navy and Marine Corps
requirements community, and the Fleet/Force
user community. This gives us constant
validation of the relevance of the
technologies, and strong buy-in and commitment
to transition plans. We have recently
strengthened alignment of the FNC process with
the Naval capabilities development process,
which establishes our program requirements and
priorities in Sea Strike, Sea Shield, Sea
Basing and FORCEnet.
The current FNCs, in no
priority order, are:
-
Advanced Capability
Electric Systems -
The future of naval warfare is electric.
Warships will have revolutionary power
plants that permit new hull forms and
propulsors, reduce manning, streamline
logistics, power advanced sensors, and
enable future high energy and speed-of-light
weapons. We have already successfully
transitioned the Aircraft Electrical
Servicing Station, a solid state,
re-programmable, reliable, high quality deck
edge power source for aircraft servicing,
and the Reconnaissance, Surveillance and
Targeting Vehicle, which demonstrates key
hybrid electric components such as Li Ion
Battery Pack, power electronics, and in-hub
wheel motors in an integrated system demo.
In fiscal year 2005 we will transition work
on our Ships Service Fuel Cell to the DD(X)
program. Fuel cell technology has the
potential to significantly reduce fuel
consumption, and can also provide
distributed power generation, improving the
ship's "fight through" ability. This FNC is
aligned most closely with Sea Strike,
Sea Shield, and Sea Basing.
-
Autonomous Operations
- This program is pursuing a dramatic
increase in the performance and
affordability of Naval air, surface, ground,
and underwater autonomous vehicles-unmanned
systems able to operate with a minimum of
human intervention and oversight. The
Autonomous Operations FNC gives us a great
potential to operate effectively in what
would otherwise be denied areas. It
contributes to Sea Shield and
Sea Strike. In fiscal year 2005, for
example, we will transition the Modular
Mission Payload Architecture to the Fire
Scout Vertical Tactical UAV. The prototype
system is being used to control the ISR
payload on the Spiral 1 Spartan USV, which
is currently deployed on the USS Gettysburg
in the Middle East.
-
Fleet/Force Protection
- We have very capable ships, aircraft, and
ground combat vehicles. It's our business
to ensure that they don't fall to the sorts
of asymmetric threats our enemies pose.
This FNC, aligned with Sea Shield,
is working to develop effective organic
means of protection: weapons, sensors,
countermeasures, stealth and damage
control. It has already transitioned the
initial phase of the ES Detection of LPI
Periscope Detection Radars project to Office
of Naval Intelligence as part of their
Cluster Pennant Program. In addition, this
S&T program is transitioning as an upgrade
to NAVSEA's AN/BLQ-10 Submarine ES System.
-
Knowledge Superiority and
Assurance -
Information technology is as crucial to
naval superiority as it is to any other
aspect of contemporary life. This program
is developing our ability to distribute
integrated information in a dynamic network
with high connectivity and
interoperability. It will ensure knowledge
superiority, common situational
understanding, and increased speed of
command. This FNC is a key enabler of
FORCEnet. It recently provided a
prototype Image Processing and Exploitation
Architecture tool to the I MEF for
deployment on UAVs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This tool provides a geo-referenced
composite picture of imagery that builds
over time as UAV sensors conduct searches of
areas of interest. The picture provides a
substantial enhancement to standard imaging
techniques that only provide a view of what
the sensor sees at any particular point in
time. The Knowledge Superiority Assurance
FNC has also provided tools that
significantly improve our ability to process
signals intelligence and weather information
in-theater. In fiscal year 2005, this FNC
plans several transitions to significantly
improve time-sensitive decision making,
apertures, networking, interoperability, and
the next generation common picture.
-
Littoral Antisubmarine
Warfare - This
program is part of our shift in emphasis to
littoral, expeditionary operations. The
antisubmarine warfare challenge in coastal
waters is a tough one so, we are focusing
scientific efforts on enhancing our ability
to detect, track, classify, and engage enemy
submarines by using a layered tactical ASW
approach. We do this by first countering
enemy submarines near shore, followed by
addressing threat submarines prior to their
torpedo launch, and then countering any
threat torpedoes after launch. Each layer
by itself will effectively address its
individual objective; and when the layers
are viewed in their entirety, it offers an
effective "system-of-systems" approach that
we believe will adequately address the ASW
problem.
A number of products have
transitioned to acquisition systems
including Sonar Automation Technology
processing techniques that provide automated
detection and classification operator alerts
to submarines and surveillance platforms,
reducing operator workload and increasing
performance capability. Sea Shield
is benefiting from the products of this FNC.
-
Littoral Combat and Power
Projection - This
FNC has two major thrusts: Expeditionary
Logistics (aligned with Sea-Basing)
and Littoral Combat (essential to Sea
Strike). This FNC focuses on
deploying uniquely capable combat and
logistics systems necessary to deploy and
sustain the Fleet and the Force without
building up a large logistical
infrastructure ashore. This year, the
Expeditionary Logistics Program successfully
tested a set of automated Logistics Command
& Control/Decision Support Tools essential
to the Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF).
They have set the stage for transition of a
Ground Logistics Command and Control Combat
Service Support "Toolkit". The Toolkit will
provide proactive rapid request support for
personnel, equipment, and services,
logistics mission planning and execution
support, after-action assessment tools, and
situational awareness projection onto the
Marine Corps common operating picture.
Littoral Combat FNC plans a fiscal year 2005
transition of the EX-45 Stabilized Gun Mount
which will use advanced software to sense
and compensate for motion about train and
elevation axes. The gun mount which
additionally houses an Embedded Video
Tracker is compatible with the MK-19 40mm,
M2 .50 caliber and M240G 7.62 weapon
systems. The stabilized, adaptive mount
coupled with an auto-tracking feature will
significantly enhance warfighting capability
in both surface vessel and vehicular
applications. Also planned for transition
in fiscal year 2005, the Expeditionary
Decision Support System (EDSS) software
application is designed to support
operations ranging from amphibious landings
to combat operations ashore. Resident
within the application are scheduling
engines, computational models, performance
algorithms, and the ability to
collaboratively access common databases.
EDSS's high degree of military utility has
garnered substantial warfighter interest and
as a result has deployed with Marine
Expeditionary Units (MEU) and Naval
Expeditionary Strike Groups (ESG) in support
of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi
Freedom. The Direct Reporting Program
Manager Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (DRPM
EFV) will transition the secure wireless
local area network (LAN) and related
technologies to enhance the information
exchange between individual EFVs, between
EFVs and dismounted troops, as well as
between EFVs and the ships and operations
centers with which they operate.
-
Missile Defense
- This program is focused on technology
enabling and supporting lethal engagements
of theater missiles, manned and unmanned
aircraft at extended ranges in defense of
naval forces and assets afloat and ashore.
Products being worked will offer ways to
expand the battlespace rapidly, identify
contacts accurately, and engage threats
effectively and efficiently.
This
year, as part of the Composite Combat
Identification project, the Missile Defense
FNC
will transition advanced algorithms
to correlate real-time track files with
signals intelligence data and other
information files resident in the EP-3E
ARIES II surveillance aircraft. When this
capability is operational, derived
identification information will be provided
to fleet tactical users in real-time. As
part of the Reactive Materials Warhead
project, test results and warhead design
parameters of a first generation reactive
materials warhead will be available with the
goal of high lethality against cruise and
ballistic missile targets. In September,
there will be an important demonstration at
the Combat Systems Engineering Design
facility of our Distributed Weapons
Coordination capability. These automated
battle management algorithms will provide
real time priority Threat Evaluation
considering all air threats and all defended
assets, at sea and ashore. Recommendations
of Preferred Shooter will also be developed
considering location, current weapons load
and optimal end-game geometry for both
ballistic missile defense and defense
against "air breathing" threats.
In early fiscal year 2005, we will
complete development and testing of highly
mobile X-band
radar technology in the Affordable
Ground Based Radar project
as a
risk reduction concept demonstration for the
Marine Corps Multi-Role Radar System
(MRRS). The Missile Defense FNC is a strong
contributor to the Sea Shield and FORCEnet
pillars of the Navy's Sea Power 21
operational concept.
-
Organic Mine
Countermeasures -
Because they are cheap, and able to seed the
battle space with a menace far out of
proportion to their numbers, mines have been
and will continue to be deployed against us
by terrorists and their state sponsors.
We're working to give our forces an
organic-that is to say, an inherent-and
stand-off ability to detect, characterize,
and neutralize mines wherever they may be
encountered. Closely aligned with Sea
Shield, this FNC has transitioned
several important products. One of them,
the REMUS autonomous underwater vehicle, in
now in the hands of our operating forces in
Iraq where it helped clear the rivers to
speed supplies to troops. It was also
pressed into service in the weeks
immediately following 9/11 to help secure
ports on both of our coasts. I might
mention that REMUS emerged from a basic
oceanographic research program-another piece
of evidence that overnight successes are
long in preparation.
-
Time Critical Strike
- We are substantially reducing the amount
of time it takes to hit critical mobile
targets, like theater ballistic missiles
launchers, command centers, and weapons of
mass destruction. One of this FNC's
products, the Affordable Weapon System, a
loitering cruise-missile-like system that
can carry a variety of payloads, is
currently transitioning to the acquisition
community for development this year. Time
Critical Strike is aligned with Sea
Strike.
-
Total Ownership Cost
- This FNC uses
advanced design and manufacturing processes
to significantly decrease the cost of
buying, operating, and maintaining Navy
systems while promoting increased system
readiness. We are working to reduce total
lifecycle costs during design and
manufacturing as well as increase savings
realized from reduced manning and better
environmental compliance. Aligned primarily
with Naval Enterprise, this
FNC has transitioned a number of programs to
the user community. The Total Oil
Monitoring System is designed for real-time,
online applications and will transition to
Navy surface ships to monitor critical
machinery. The Rapid Cure Ship Tank
Coatings Program has been demonstrated in 14
ship tanks and voids. Aircraft corrosion
sensors, developed under the Corrosion and
Corrosivity Monitoring System Program have
been installed on an H-60 helicopter for
flight testing. The Turbine Engine
Technology Program delivered a thermal
barrier coating with significantly reduced
thermal conductivity that was selected for
inclusion in the F135 (Joint Strike Fighter)
engine. In fiscal year 2005, we will
transition a Portable Wide Area Non
Destructive Inspection Imager that maps
surface corrosion and subsurface defects
without removal of paint. Payoffs include
faster, more reliable aircraft inspection,
improved prognostics, longer aircraft life,
lower repainting costs and improved safety.
The
relatively mature technologies managed in FNCs
do not spring up overnight. In many cases
they are the result of long term investments
in research and invention programs in 6.1 and
early 6.2 funding categories. We focus our
research and invention investments on areas
where the Navy is the only significant U.S.
sponsor (such as Ocean Acoustics and
Underwater Weaponry), and on S&T Grand
Challenges whose solution would provide
significant advances in Naval capability (such
as Naval Materials by Design). A stable, long
term discovery and invention program is
essential to keep our pipeline full of
enabling technologies and to attract the
nation's best scientific talent to focus on
Naval problems.
Finally I would like to talk
about the "Navy and Marine Corps After
Next"-the fleet and force we will see in
fifteen to thirty years. We are continuing to
support our Grand Challenges and the National
Naval Responsibilities as well as our
Innovative Naval Prototypes. The Naval
Science and Technology Grand Challenges are
large, difficult, challenges that, if met,
could give us decisive capabilities fifteen to
thirty years in the future. We encourage the
nation's scientific community to achieve
breakthroughs in difficult but achievable
scientific challenges like Naval Battlespace
Awareness, Advanced Electrical Power Sources
for the Navy and Marine Corps, Naval Materials
by Design, and Multifunctional Electronics for
Intelligent Naval Sensors. The National Naval
Responsibilities are fields in which the
Department of the Navy is the only significant
U.S. sponsor. These include fields like Naval
Engineering, Ocean Acoustics, and Underwater
Weaponry. If the Department of the Navy didn't
invest in them, it is unlikely that anyone
would. It is vital to keep such fields
healthy, not only for the sake of our own
capabilities, but to avoid technological
surprise as well.
I am
excited about what I call Innovative Naval
Prototypes. These are the capabilities that
promise to fundamentally change how we prepare
for and fight wars. Examples include: the
free electron laser, the electromagnetic
railgun, hypersonic missiles, the x-craft, and
superconducting electric drive
motors. The Secretary of the Navy and the
Chief of Naval Operations are committed
to making the electric ship our
ship of the future and we are providing the
science and technology. We are well down the
path to building the electric propulsion and
weapons. The 36 megawatt motor effort is
underway and we are using the lessons learned
from ongoing testing of the 5 megawatt
motor. The Free Electron Laser is
progressing to its next demonstration at
10 kilowatt. In addition, we
are working collaboratively with the other
services, as directed by the Congress, on
electromagnetic rail gun technology for the
future.
Construction is underway on the high speed,
experimental vessel called Littoral Surface
Craft - Experimental, or "X-Craft." This high
speed aluminum catamaran will test a variety
of technologies that will allow us to improve
our capabilities in littoral, or near-shore,
waters. The X-Craft will be used to evaluate
the hydrodynamic performance, structural
behavior, mission flexibility, and propulsion
system efficiency of high speed vessels.
X-Craft will eventually be fitted with an
advanced lifting body component. The lifting
body component is a streamlined underwater
appendage that will dampen low-speed ship
motions, increasing the operational envelope
for helicopter and small craft operations.
Liquid polymers will be used on the surface of
the lifting body to evaluate drag reduction.
The
X-Craft will be the first Navy
purpose built ship to
demonstrate mission flexibility. Mission
flexibility will be demonstrated through
interchangeable "mission modules" housed in
the X-Craft's large Mission Bay in standard
twenty-foot container boxes. The Mission Bay
will be capable of housing twelve containers,
permitting the vessel to be quickly
reconfigured to support a variety of potential
missions, including battle force protection,
mine counter-measures, amphibious assault
support and humanitarian support. A
multi-purpose Stern Ramp will allow X-Craft to
launch and recover manned and unmanned surface
and sub-surface vehicles up to the size of an
11 m Rigid-Hull Inflatable Boat (RHIB). From
its flight deck, X-Craft will be able to
support 24-hour a day operations for up to two
MH-60S helicopters.
In
conclusion, the nation's return on investment
is clear. Naval transformation depends on a
long-term, stable and sustained investment in
science and technology. We validate through a
cycle of on-going experimentation and
validation so we can transition new capability
to the warfighter. |
