WARFIGHTER SUPPORT STRATEGY
Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory Warfighter Support Strategy
This strategy is written for the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL) team and our ERDC collaborators. It is a living document to deliver CHL’s Warfighter support mission. It was written to enable a shared understanding amongst ourselves and our collaborators on where we are now, and where we are going. CHL has a long history of successfully supporting the Warfighter. During World War II, engineers conducted experimentation to support and enable the D-Day landing on the beaches of Normandy. Operation Joint Endeavor marked the resurgence of CHL support to the Warfighter where CHL generated information that enabled the Army to successfully cross the Sava River in Bosnia. More recently, CHL has been a key enabler for the Army in the humanitarian relief mission in response to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
This forward-looking strategy is designed to build upon both our past and the present to enable CHL’s readiness to support the Army of the future in meeting its mission. Every member of the CHL team plays an important role in helping CHL accomplish its goal of being a world-class workforce that develops and delivers innovative coastal and hydraulics solutions. As the Warfighter mission evolves to meet future challenges, the work of CHL has never been more critical. We look forward to the positive impacts that will be made as we continue to improve and expand our Warfighter support mission to enable the Army’s multi-domain transformation.
Dr. Ty Wamsley Director
Dr. Gaurav Savant Senior Scientific Technical Manager
Mr. Thad Pratt Technical Director
Mr. David P. May Division Chief
Dr. Julie Rosati Lead Civil Works R&D Technical Director
Dr. Matthew Farthing Senior Research Scientist
Ms. Ashley Frey Division Chief
Mr. Eddie Wiggins Technical Director
I. Introduction
Our nation is facing growing threats to its strategic, economic and social well-being. The rise of peer and near-peer adversaries is imposing even greater pressure on the nation’s Warfighter in executing critical national security missions. From the challenge of operating in contested environments to adapting to environmental nonstationarity and unforeseen threats, there is no shortage of challenges to overcome. The nation’s Warfighter must be prepared to respond from the strategic to the tactical level through every phase of conflict. These challenges are formidable and overcoming them is crucial to our nation’s well-being. It is a primary responsibility of the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL) to conduct research, development, testing and evaluation (RDT&E) activities that help the Warfighter achieve their goals to support the national security mission.
The CHL recognizes the diverse array of internal and external factors that place increasing and competing demands on us to be more innovative, responsive and efficient in our Warfighter support mission. The CHL Warfighter Support Strategy is holistic and primarily focuses on acquisition support for the Army and water-impacted environment and terrain information for the Warfighter. The strategy’s secondary focus is to support the other services (U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Space Force and the U.S. Coast Guard) and Combatant Commands (CCMDs) in achieving success in their missions. To achieve these goals, CHL must embrace a forward-leaning and risk-informed approach guided by worldclass experts, technology and facilities. CHL’s extensive and world-renowned Civil Works capabilities can serve as the foundation for its Warfighter support activities through careful and targeted leveraging of capabilities.
Further, CHL recognizes that though the strategic challenges facing the nation in the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) and the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) from peer and near-peer adversaries are severe and require the greatest of attention, the threats from local and regional conflicts and terrorism in the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM), the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) and the U.S. Africa Command (USAFICOM) require developing unique capabilities through coordination with other ERDC laboratories and by leveraging capabilities of partners in U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Command (DEVCOM), Joint Services research labs (e.g., the Naval Research Laboratory), academia and industry. CHL also recognizes that RDT&E must be agile and nimble enough to adapt to the changing threats our nation faces.
Figure 1: Discover, Develop, Deliver, Sustain and Connect Framework
The CHL Warfighter Support Strategy relies on RDT&E that fosters innovative technology development, implementation, transition and sustainment through five key tenents – Discover, Develop, Deliver, Sustain and Connect (Figure 1). The Deliver, Sustain, and Connect tenets require specific attention as they form the basis of long-term collaborative relationships with the Warfighter and lead to increases in resources available for CHL support to the Warfighter. Therefore, the Strategy must pay particular attention to the building of consensus and collaborations with Capability Development Integration Directorates (CDIDs) and Program Executive Offices (PEOs) across the Army and the other services. The Army Futures Command (AFC) assesses and integrates the future operational environment, emerging threats and technologies to develop and deliver concepts, requirements, future force designs and modernization solutions. Therefore, the CHL Warfighter Support Strategy must coordinate with AFC for research needs and an understanding of future requirements.
The CHL Warfighter Support Strategy supports seven of the Top 10 USACE R&D priorities, as shown by yellow stars in Figure 2 and the Army’s Multi-Domain Transformation priorities. The USACE R&D Strategy identifies these Top 10 R&D Priorities as those grand challenges facing the nation that USACE will best address via multi-disciplinary solutions. The USACE R&D Strategy is intended to drive USACE R&D programs across all USACE missions: Civil Works, Military Programs, Warfighter Support, and Interagency and International Support for Others.
The Army Multi-Domain Transformation aims to create, by 2035, an Army that will have a force posture of multi-domain capabilities that provide overmatch through speed and range at the point of need. The Army Chief of Staff presents the requirements for achieving this goal, and the CHL strategy is designed to help the Army meet its 2035 goals.
1https://usace.dps.mil/:b:/r/sites/KMP-
RD/Shared%20Documents/USACE%20RD%20Strategy.pdf?csf=1&web=1&e=vmDFps
2“Army Multi-Domain Transformation – Ready to Win in Competition and Conflict.” Chief of Staff Paper #1. Unclassified Version.
Figure 2: USACE R&D Priorities
II. Vision, Mission, and Goals
The CHL vision is to be a world-class R&D partner delivering coastal and hydraulic solutions not otherwise possible.
The CHL mission is to discover, develop and deliver trusted engineering and scientific solutions for the Warfighter and the nation.
The CHL goals are to inspire a world-class workforce, develop and deliver innovative solutions, advance world-class research facilities, anticipate and discover transformational technology and connect to strengthen the enterprise.
The CHL Warfighter support mission is accomplished through the careful application of the following framework.
III. Strategic Framework
The CHL Warfighter Support Strategy will be accomplished through careful execution of the following “Discover, Develop, Deliver, Sustain and Connect” framework. For success, active involvement and contribution from all CHL components and its partners are necessary. The strategy leverages existing resources within CHL, including engineers and scientists, facilities and management chain as well as resources brought to bear through “relentless collaboration” with other ERDC laboratories, as well as Department of Defense (DOD), academic and industry partners. CHL relies on partnerships to identify needs, transition partners and technologies. These partnerships are essential to foster a culture of idea exchange and cross-pollination.
A brief overview of the framework is provided below. Note that the strategy is not a sequence of steps, but an evolving and integrated network of activities that are activated as needed to provide solutions.
A. Discover
The Discover tenet involves the discovery of the Warfighter’s critical needs and requirements, and the identification of existing or emerging technologies that can offer, at times, gamechanging solutions to meet those needs. This tenet also involves determinating whether technologies exist to meet Warfighter needs and requirements.
The Discover tenet is forward-looking and not restricted to current needs and requirements. It analyzes and anticipates the future battlefield to create the solutions for tomorrow’s Warfighter.
The Discover tenet also includes the opportunistic revelation of technology opportunities. These include ad-hoc reachback activities and unsolicited communication with Warfighters or others and can lead to significant opportunities for CHL R&D involvement.
CHL existing and future collaborations play a central role in discovering Warfighter needs and requirements as well as technology solutions to meet those needs and requirements. Therefore, the strategy must continuously scan the global Science and Technology ecosystem, including adversary capabilities, to find and leverage solutions.
B. Develop
The Develop tenet involves turning ideas and technologies into solutions to the Warfighter’s needs and requirements. Classical R&D is conducted in this tenet. This tenet and strategy also recognize that solutions can come from collaborators in the form of existing technology or expertise. To provide the most efficient path to a solution, all CHL team members should be encouraged to participate in the strategy and to set the R&D standard for government, academia and industry.
R&D efforts do not always succeed fully in meeting needs and requirements or overcoming their targeted challenges. Methodologies and solutions often fail, and risk and reward must be balanced to obtain the most efficient and appropriate outcome. In earlier (basic) stages of research, the goal is often fundamental process understanding where failure or success may not be obvious immediately and longer timelines are needed for work to mature.
Regardless of the timeline, R&D must be responsive to the “Needs and Requirements” identified during the Discover tenet. Therefore, the Warfighter through the appropriate partner
must be continually kept in the loop during the Develop tenet.
C. Deliver
The Deliver tenet involves the delivery of the solution to the Warfighter through prototype demonstration, testing and evaluation in the target or laboratory environment depending on the technology readiness level (TRL) of the solution.
This phase translates innovative ideas into solutions that provide value to the Warfighter. Therefore, this phase more than any other requires close coordination between CHL and the Warfighter. In this phase, formal testing and experimentation is used to document success, failure, improvements and refinements required to achieve the best value.
Successful delivery requires close interaction and open communication with requirements writers and the organizations that will maintain the R&D solution. This requires the development of technology transition plans and agreements, and for a sufficiently high TRL solution, these agreements should be initiated during the Develop phase and concluded during the Deliver phase. In most instances, PEOs are responsible for the maintenance of the R&D solutions. However, CDIDs, not PEOs, develop requirements. Therefore it is essential to involve the CDID(s) in transition planning for solutions that do not yet have a specific requirement but a demonstrated need exists.
D. Sustain
The Sustain tenet ensures that the solution delivered in the Deliver phase will endure as a part of the Army or other service standard practice. It involves incorporating the capability into appropriate doctrine, training, and communication by managing doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership, education, personnel, and facilities. This should be done at both the enterprise and operational levels through timely and deliberate governance.
E. Connect
The Connect tenet involves deliberate knowledge transfer and training to enable capability sustainment. This phase also includes continued interaction with the Warfighter for evolving needs and requirements, as well as the analysis of over-the-horizon requirements through a forwardleaning posture.
The basic structure of the strategic framework is presented in Figure 3 below.
Figure 3: The Warfighter Support Strategic Framework
IV. Plan for Success
The success of this strategy relies on the success of the CHL strategy with a focus on requirements to support the Warfighter.
Goal 1. Inspire, Train and Recruit a World-Class Workforce, and Train the Warfighter in CHL Technologies
People are CHL’s primary and most important resource. Our engineers, scientists and support staff are world-class and rely on an evolving paradigm of skills enhancement through experience and training to maintain CHL-relevant expertise. We will encourage the workforce to collaborate with ERDC Research Development Areas (RDAs), PEOs, CCMDs, DEVCOM, academia and others to understand and anticipate expertise requirements. We will encourage the workforce to maintain the proper work and family life balance while emphasizing the importance of meeting the mission. We will recruit team members to augment existing capabilities and create new capabilities. We recognize that dedicated resources must be acquired to exploit opportunities. We will augment existing worldclass resources in (a) river, reservoir, estuarine and coastal autonomy, (b) Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning, (c) environmental sensing, and (d) Fluid-Structure Interaction through dedicated efforts. We will provide resources to enable interactions with the Warfighter that lead to the adoption of CHL products through training and participation in exercises.
Goal 2. Develop and Deliver Innovative Solutions
We will provide state-of-the-art solutions of value to the Warfighter. Product development will emphasize innovation and rigor through the application of these technologies. We will facilitate, encourage and require collaboration within ERDC and with others in all phases of R&D.
Goal 3. Advance World-Class Research Facilities
We will provide the workforce with world-class facilities for modeling and simulation and data collection. We will build collaborations that provide access to facilities not available at CHL. We will encourage the workforce to articulate and present ideas for new facilities and to improve existing facilities.
Goal 4. Anticipate and Deliver Transformational Technology
We will explore and analyze strategic over-thehorizon challenges to anticipate Warfighter R&D needs and assist the workforce in acquiring research to create technology solutions to overcome those challenges. We will encourage the creation of collaboration across the enterprise to develop and deliver solutions.
Goal 5. Connect to Strengthen the Warfighter
Collaboration forms the foundation of sustainable and relevant R&D. We will facilitate outreach to the coalition R&D and Warfighter communities to discover and exploit new challenges and R&D opportunities. We will facilitate collaborations with one voice and resolve conflict amicably.
3https://usace.dps.mil/sites/INTRA-CHL/SitePages/CHLStrategy.aspx
V. Pillars of CHL Competencies For Warfighter Support
The Warfighters of today and tomorrow need technology solutions that allow for force projection, force protection, force sustainment, freedom of maneuver, environment-informed installation and battlefield operations, and acquisitions of relevant equipment. CHL closely collaborates with CCMD, PEOs, the USACE Reachback Operations Center and other DOD laboratories to devise technology solutions that provide value to the Warfighter. In addition, CHL is well-positioned to assist ERDC RDAs in their missions to provide these technology solutions. CHL has five competencies of relevance to this Strategy:
A. Hydrology
CHL uses hydrology expertise to conduct R&D and transition products to the Warfighter. This expertise encompasses capabilities ranging from small-scale watershed modeling to continentalscale hydrology for Outside the Continental United States modeling to provide the Warfighter the state of the battlefield or theater in terms of inundation, the widths of wet-gap crossings, and weather-based on-ground mobility. Specifically short- and long-term hydrological forecast capabilities inform water security analysis and decision making for strategic planning for OCONUS support.
B. River and Estuarine Engineering
CHL utilizes rivers and estuarine engineering expertise to conduct R&D and transition products to the Warfighter. This support and transition has, primarily occurred through ERDC reach-back efforts for dam break analysis, estuarine circulation for environmental intelligence, maneuver support for freedom of navigation, compound flooding awareness for installations and analysis of sediment properties for ship-to-shore bridging.
C. Coastal Engineering
CHL uses its coastal engineering and coastal processes expertise to conduct R&D and transition products to the Warfighter. This support and transition has occurred to services other than the Army and primarily to the USMC. R&D products such as the Littoral Zone Maneuver Support Tool, and the Littoral Information System provide actionable surf-zone information to the Warfighter, whereas other products such as the autonomous crawling platform can provide logistical and reconnaissance support.
D. Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI)
CHL uses its FSI expertise in computational fluid dynamics and scaled physical modeling to conduct R&D and transition products to the Warfighter. This support and transition has occurred to the Army, other services and CCMD. Of particular note are the RDT&E conducted to support PEO-Combat Systems and Combat Support Systems (CS&CSS) for the evaluation of the Improved Ribbon Bridging, the support to the USMC for the evaluation of the Amphibious Combat Vehicle and the support to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Strategic Command to understand the hazards from underwater nuclear explosions.
E. Maritime Operations
CHL has used its expertise in maritime operations analysis to conduct R&D and transition products to the Warfighter. This support and transition has occurred, primarily, to the USMC and the U.S. INDOPACOM. CHL’s expertise in synthetic operational environments is unparalleled across the world and forms the tip of the spear in the use of mixed reality techniques for watercraft simulation.
VI. Focus Areas
The challenges posed by near-peer and peer competitors, as well as the operational and installation environment have presented CHL with several tactical opportunities that can be leveraged into strategic R&D efforts. The Army has long recognized the need for R&D to support the Warfighter and provide transformational technology. Within the Army, the Assistant Secretary of the Army (ASA) for Installations, Energy and Environment holds the mission to facilitate resilient and sustainable installations, and the ASA for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology holds the mission to facilitate acquisitions and maneuver. Within ERDC, the Military Engineering, Installations and Operational Environments, Geospatial Research and Engineering, and Engineered Resilient Systems RDAs have missions to support the Warfighter through direct Army-funded Program Objective Memorandum (POM) cycle efforts. These RDAs have also, historically, provided support to Army reimbursable efforts for Warfighter support. Therefore, CHL recognizes the importance of cross-RDA and cross-ERDC collaboration to exploit opportunities presented by Warfighter challenges. The following focus areas present an overview of these opportunities.
Focus Area 1. Installation, Training and Operations Resilience Opportunities
Environmental nonstationarity has increased the frequency of extreme events such as inland floods, coastal surges, compound floods, wildfires, a reduction in ice cover, and the thawing of the permafrost in the Arctic. All of these events have an impact on warfighter projection, protection, maneuver, and installation resilience and present opportunities for CHL to enhance warfighter support R&D. Figure 4 illustrates R&D opportunities presented by environmental nonstationarity. All of CHL’s competencies
have a role in helping the warfighter overcome challenges posed by environmental nonstationarity. For example, CHL’s expertise in Hydrology along with the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory’s (CRREL) expertise has the potential to revolutionize how the Army responds to mobility and installation resilience in cold environments such as those that exist in the European Command (EUCOM). CHL’s expertise in wildfire hydrology can influence warfighter safety and mobility in the USINDOPACOM regions such as Australia. Wildfire hydrology is also an emerging concern of significance for the US Army North. Changing rainfall patterns present opportunities for CHL’s expertise in continental-scale hydrology and flood inundation mapping for warfighter support through collaboration with the Climate Program at the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). Changing rainfall patterns are also affecting how the Army and the warfighter traverse wet-gaps safely and reliably. River and Estuarine Engineering and FSI expertise can provide the Army with the flow as well as morphological information required to bridge or raft a wet-gap. Environmental nonstationarity and sea level rise have increased the risks to the nation’s coastal installations in the homeland as well as OCONUS. CHL’s expertise in Coastal Engineering can provide the environmental intelligence required to increase installation resilience. As the earth system changes, the circulation patterns within the ocean and estuaries change. Oceans and Estuaries are key pathways for the nation to project force and sustain the force through logistical supply.
Focus Area 2. Contested Maritime Logistics Opportunities
CHL expertise in Maritime Operations can provide the Army and other services with tools and information to predictively analyze patterns for navigation safety.
In an active conflict with peer and/or near-peer adversaries, the U.S. Army and other services lack the agility to execute contested logistical
and landing operations. The DOD lacks robust environmental and multi-modal information in the littorals and the inland to sustain distributed and expeditionary logistical operations. The Army, Marine Corps and Navy lack watercraft that can safely and expeditiously operate in the littoral and inland waters and are in the process of acquiring new watercraft. Figure 5 illustrates R&D opportunities presented by contested maritime logistics.
Figure 4: Resilience R&D Opportunities
CHL expertise can provide solutions to Warfighter needs in contested logistics. The Army’s PEOCS&CSS components Product Manager AWS and Bridging are evaluating bridging and watercraft systems for the future fight. The Army’s Maneuver CDID has the mission to maintain freedom to maneuver for the Warfighter, and the SCDID has the mission to ensure force sustainment through adequate and timely logistical delivery. Other services such as the USMC need to acquire amphibious ships and vehicles. The USMC PEO-Land Systems and PEO-Ships are the USMC’s acquisition agencies for amphibious vehicles and amphibious ships, respectively. AFC has recently established the Contested Logistics Cross-Functional Team, indicating the increased importance of contested logistics within the Army. Strategic opportunities exist for CHL R&D to inform acquisitions and
operation of bridging systems and watercraft for the Army, and amphibious vehicles and ships for the USMC and other services.
Focus
Area 3. Environmental Sensing in a Contested and Area-Access/Area-Denial (A2AD) Theater Opportunities
Challenges in the USEUCOM, USINDOPACOM, USCENTCOM and other CCMDs present strategic opportunities for the CHL to see its expertise in in-situ and standoff observation of the maritime domain for Warfighter support. Figure 6 illustrates environmental sensing R&D opportunities presented by a contested and A2AD theater.
Figure 5: Contested Logistics R&D Opportunities
In the littoral zone, CHL capabilities in the observation and modeling of the wave environment present opportunities for logistical and landing operations, as well as watercraft acquisitions. In the inland, CHL capabilities in the observation, analysis and modeling of river, estuary and reservoir operations present opportunities for wet-gap crossing, overland mobility and logistical transport operations. In the A2AD and contested theater, CHL expertise presents a long-term opportunity to establish a strategic foothold in coastal and inland autonomy for battlefield intelligence. CHL expertise in field observation, scaled and numerical modeling, and synthetic environments presents an opportunity to provide the Warfighter with a holistic and validated solution for sensing and decision making.
Focus Area 4. Warfighter-Machine Teaming Opportunities
Advances in autonomy, AI, maritime sensors and synthetic environments have brought about a revolution in the use of autonomous systems in the maritime domain. Figure 7 illustrates R&D opportunities presented by a Warfighter-machine team. CHL expertise in autonomy, AI, sensors and synthetic environments presents a strategic opportunity to assist the Army and other services in acquiring and deploying technologies that enable Warfighter and machine teaming.
Figure 6: Contested and A2AD Theater Sensing R&D Opportunities
The opportunities presented in the Strategy’s four Focus Areas can be exploited for CHL, ERDC and Army benefit through careful application of existing expertise, creating new expertise, and personnel hiring actions.
VII. Conclusion
This Strategy will be used to guide priorities, focus resources, strengthen execution, build coalitions and evolve CHL support to the Warfighter in an evolving threat environment. The Strategy’s success requires the participation of every CHL team member and participation from other stakeholders.
Figure 7: R&D Opportunities Presented by Warfighter-Machine Teaming
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
PUBLISH DATE: SEPTEMBER 2024
APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE
DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED
AUTHORED AND EDITED BY:
ERDC COASTAL & HYDRAULICS LABORATORY LEADERSHIP
ERDC CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE
DESIGNED BY:
ERDC INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY
As the Warfighter mission evolves to meet future challenges, the work of CHL has never been more critical.
