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New Fleet battle experiment set to begin soon

Seventh Fleet

7th Fleet public affairs
Posted 04/10/2003

ABOARD USS BLUE RIDGE AT SEA -- More than 8,000 U.S. Navy and civilian personnel will participate in Fleet Battle Experiment Kilo (FBE-K), a joint warfighting experiment bringing together both live field forces and computer simulation at various locations in the United States and the 7th Fleet Pacific area of operations from April 14 - May 5.

FBE-Kilo is the 11th in a series of FBE's and will be conducted concurrently with Exercise Tandem Thrust 2003 (TT03), a U.S. Pacific Command-sponsored exercise focusing on deliberate and crisis action planning and execution in a joint task force environment. Fleet battle experiments are developed and executed by the Navy Warfare Development Command (NWDC). Numbered fleets sponsor FBE's and provide the resources to conduct the experiment and evaluate the initiatives in an operational environment.

NWDC is the Navy's agent for sea trial, the Chief of Naval Operations-directed process to transform the Navy. NWDC-designed FBE's play a significant role in sea trial and Navy transformation. The FBE series has experimented with and subsequently led the Navy toward the network centric fighting force envisioned in Sea Power 21.

FBE-K is being hosted by Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet and will develop and refine processes supporting joint command and control from the sea for future joint operations. There will be a total of 11 transformational initiatives within FBE-Kilo, all designed to combine experimental tactics, techniques and procedures with new technologies or existing technologies used innovatively.

Theater underseawarfare initiatives will experiment with undersea warfare planning and C2 procedures, including interactions between the theater undersea warfare commander and local ASWC. New technologies include the experimental common undersea picture and integration of low frequency active sonar in coordinated undersea warfare operations.

Joint fires initiatives will address procedures that incorporate the joint fires network family of systems into the war fighting processes of a sea-based JTF commander, and also experiment with a sensor-to-shooter fires network using simulated and experimental platforms as the shooters. Information operations will examine an afloat staff's ability to conduct computer network defense.

Commercial off-the-shelf computer network defense equipment will be installed in support of this effort. FBE-K will also experiment with a draft concept of operations for employing the area air defense commander system for joint theater air defense planning and operations.

The 7th Fleet Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) will be observed and data will be collected to support further ESG doctrine development. The simulation lab located at NWDC in Newport will provide stimulation for these experimental initiatives. FBE Kilo is designed to enhance Commander, 7th Fleet's sea-based command and control capabilities, while remaining faithful to the FBE series by continuing to lead the Navy toward a network centric fighting force.