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The evolution of 21st century warfare: Tomorrow's Navy dawns in the Pacific

7th Fleet Release

Release Date: 10/22/2003

Journalist 2nd Class Wes Eplen, Commander, Task Force 76 public affairs

ABOARD USS ESSEX AT SEA - At no time in history have military commanders been able to know precisely what troops throughout the field of battle are facing at the exact moment they face it. At no point in history has battlefield intelligence been collected from and provided to all coalition combatants almost instantaneously. At no point in history has a Marine in the field been able to call upon the full might of naval guns located miles off the coast, fire support from bombers in the sky, or artillery fire from supporting Marines miles away, all with unparalleled precision.

But a new point in history was marked when the Expeditionary Strike Group - Forward Deployed Naval Force (ESG-FDNF), consisting of USS Essex (LHD 2), USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43), and USS Chancellorsville (CG 62) - began implementing FORCEnet, the newest concept in naval warfare, while participating in exercise Trident Warrior Sept. 25-30.

FORCEnet "is the operational construct and architectural framework for naval warfare in the information age, integrating warriors, sensors, command and control platforms, and weapons into a networked, distributed combat force," wrote Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Vern Clark, in the October 2002 issue of Naval Proceedings.

FORCEnet is the means of binding together the fundamental concepts of Sea Power 21, the CNO's vision for future Naval Operations. Sea Power 21 is built on three pillar concepts: Sea Strike, the projection of precise and persistent offensive power, Sea Shield, global defensive assurance and Sea Basing, maintaining operational independence on the sea.

FORCEnet will integrate these new operational constructs into a fully netted combat force, making them an operational reality.

But FORCEnet is not another expensive communications system; it is not a system at all. It is a concept of communications, a combination of projects and programs that gather, process, transport and present information in support of warfighters in joint and combined military operations.

Simply stated, FORCEnet will enable any member of the force to connect seamlessly to any other member of the force whenever and wherever that connection is operationally advantageous.

Capt. Richard Landolt, ESG-FDNF operations officer, explained how the system could be put to use. A Marine in the field can be in a firefight and need supporting fire . The Marine can call for support on a laptop computer. Then, the battle force commander can decide the best way to support that Marine out in the field.

In an era of transnational threats, where American and coalition forces often face smaller, widely dispersed and highly mobile enemy units, speed of deployment, mission execution and support is critical.

"It's a matter of life or death sometimes to these guys who are sitting on the ground under fire," said Cmdr. Rick Simon, head of FORCEnet innovation and experimentation.

FORCEnet is designed to exploit the military's advantages of computing power, systems integration, and technically proficient troops. As FORCEnet grows throughout the fleet, the speed of information flow will increase dramatically, and along with it, the speed of decision-making, speed of command, and speed of fires.

"Speed is incredibly important for everyone from the warfighter out in the field, all the way to the commander and his battle staff," added Cmdr. Tim Jara, team leader for the information management plan for exercise Trident Warrior 03. "We can shrink the time-scale of when we can execute an operational mission. Instead of taking hours, we're working down to minutes."

But outside of the war-fighting capabilities accentuated by FORCEnet, many additional advantages will be provided by this leap into the information age.

"It will also improve the networks we have out here to give them more bandwidth," Simon said. "What that means to the Sailor is, we give him a better quality of life, in addition to giving the commander better command and control. Your Sailors onboard here are warfighters, but they're also interested in things such as email, or VTC'ing [Video Teleconferencing] back home, and that also comes with the FORCEnet package."

However, full implementation of the FORCEnet concept will require much more than just integrating systems and improved technologies.

"Sometimes, it's more than just technology, it's also the integration of the people into that technology," Simon said. "Human and systems integration is a very important part of it."

Exercise Trident Warrior 03 was the critical first step of the integration of FORCEnet to the fleet.

"Trident Warrior is an exercise where we're bringing together all the new and existing technologies, all the platforms and all the sensors, and the people who are trained in all of these," Landolt said. "During the exercise, the staff is able to use this cutting age technology to react to realistic scenarios. It allows people to collaborate and it allows people to improvise; in this world that's key."

Perhaps most importantly, there will be no "end result" to FORCEnet. It will continue to grow and evolve with the rate of modern technology, ensuring American and coalition warships continued dominance of and from the sea in the 21st century.

"This training cannot be underestimated," added Jara. "Right now it's exciting because we're on the cutting edge of this stuff. The Sailors and Marines who are here today, in two years may be teaching a course on this stuff."