Keeping the Navy and Marine Corps focused on developing the Fleet’s warfighting skills and techniques, as opposed to administrative work, is a crucial innovation goal of the Department of the Navy. A central part of this line of effort is cutting the Service’s need for logistics — the “tail” supporting the “tooth” of their operational capabilities.
If liberated from much of the supply chain, both the Navy and Marine Corps could operate more efficiently as well as more securely. The need for much of our current-day information flow, often challenged by adversaries’ cyber activities, would also drop dramatically.
This opens the way to the concept of the "self-sustaining" ship: One equipped with a safe energy source, such as a small fusion reactor, producing fungible energy for shipboard use. Fusion power would allow the vessel to operate using seawater as fuel, allowing it limitless range. Its fungible energy can be instantaneously switched, as needed, to propel the ship, power its sensors, and ultimately produce its own weapons, making missiles and gunpowder as needed. The same fusion energy source provides power to mechanical and electrical systems, as well as for new additive manufacturing processes.
These new manufacturing processes would create 3D printed unmanned ISR/EW/Strike persistent vehicles for launch from the ship, tungsten rounds for its fusion-powered rail gun, quality food, on-demand spare parts and materials for shipboard system maintenance, fuel for aircraft, and a slew of iRobots for logistics tasks (e.g., preventative maintenance, food preparation, fuel quality assurance, FOD walk-downs, cleaning/repair).
Such capabilities will enable crews to focus with laser attention on warfighting tasks instead of supply and maintenance issues.
Coupled to its inexhaustible fusion power, the ship has longer on-station time through enhanced energy storage and power management, stern flaps, smart dashboards, hybrid electric drive, and hyper-efficient energy technologies. These all provide longer endurance for one-of-a-kind parts not replaceable at sea. The ship is semi-submersible, making it stealthy, survivable, and versatile in many high-threat operating environments.
Making such a leap is not easy. This concept for a "self-sustaining ship" should be created by an advanced acquisition process, in which all platform and related package requirements are considered holistically during the Analysis of Alternatives, akin to our country's space program. There would be no further program requirements added after the Analysis of Alternatives, as such capabilities could be organically developed by the ship’s crew.
Developing such an independent acquisition process will take much focus by senior leadership of the Department of the Navy, sustained over a long period of time. Yet the payoff could be immense, for with such ships our Fleet would become largely self-sustaining, making redundant the lengthy and expensive logistics umbilical cord, as well as leading America toward ridding itself of dependence on Middle East oil. In that way, our operational advantages would grow continually while remaining affordable to the American taxpayer and generating important political and military advantages.
Department of the Navy Innovation website: http://www.secnav.navy.mil/innovation/Pages/Home.aspx