View from the Labs

Are We Ready for the Navy’s Sea Change?

By CAPT George Galdorisi, USN (Ret.)

Without putting too fine a point on it, the Rotary Wing Community has thrived because forwardthinking professionals have recognized that new initiatives were needed to enable our community to deal with emerging changes in the character of warfare and the rise of peer competitors. This was one of the key themes of our 2023 Symposium as well as one that was addressed in a number of articles in the Spring 2023 Issue of Rotor Review.

Sometimes we see these changes coming and sometimes we miss them. While the purpose of this article isn’t to tally all the changes that have occurred in the Navy in the last several decades, there are three that strike me as major muscle movements: introduction of the first nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus (SSN 571), in 1954, to the first Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carrier in 1975, and to the first Aegis-class warship, USS Ticonderoga (CG 47), in 1983. These innovative technology changes have kept the Navy at the forefront.

Today, the Navy stands at the precipice of another monumental technology advancement. The Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Michael Gilday, has proposed that tomorrow’s U.S. Navy grow to 500 ships, to include 350 crewed vessels and 150 uncrewed maritime vehicles.

While the composition of the future Navy’s crewed vessels is relatively well understood—based on ships being built and being planned—what those unmanned maritime vehicles will look like, let alone what they will do, has yet to be fully determined. It is important that the Navy do so, as an often skeptical Congress—as it does with any emerging technology—will want the Navy to articulate a concept-ofoperations (CONOPS) for how it intends to use unmanned maritime vehicles in future conflicts.

To this end, the Navy has recently taken several actions to define and accelerate its journey to have unmanned platforms populate the Fleet. These include publishing an Unmanned Campaign Framework, standing up an Unmanned Task Force, establishing Surface Development Squadron One in San Diego and Unmanned Surface Vessel Division One in Port Hueneme, CA, and conducting a large number of exercises, experiments and demonstrations, including the recently completed Integrated Battle Problem 2023.

What does this have to do with our Naval Rotary Wing Community? A great deal. With our future Navy envisioned to be comprised of forty percent unmanned hulls, the Navy has committed to obtaining a number of large uncrewed surface vehicles (LUSVs). These vessels will be between 200 and 300 feet in length and displace 1,000 and 2,000 tons, which would make them the size of a corvette. The Navy’s budget plan funds a total of seven LUSVs over the next five years. The question is: Will rotary wing assets operate from these uncrewed LUSVs and, if so, how will that work? Will MH-60R, MH-60S and/or CMV-22B Ospreys deploy aboard these platforms? Will they use them as lily pads for refueling or for emergency landings when and if needed?

It is worth noting also that the 350 number referenced above is “aspirational.” The Navy currently fields less than 290 ships. Given the high cost of ships, most government agencies (GAO, CRS et al) predict that getting to 350 ships is unlikely in the foreseeable future. What that means is that the Navy will likely have fewer manned ships that can embark rotary wing assets.

This is not something that is on a distant horizon. CNO Gilday has stated that he “wants to begin to deploy large and medium-sized uncrewed vessels as part of carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups in 2027 or 2028, and earlier if I can.” Will we be ready to adapt to this sea change in four or five years?

What I am suggesting is this. Do not wait for our seniors to ask: “How is your Rotary Wing Community going to flex as large uncrewed vessels enter the fleet?” Rather, we should be proactive and suggest how we will do this, just as we were proactive with initiatives such as the Helo Master Plan and its further iterations.

How we adapt to this sea change in the Navy is in our hands. It’s time to get ahead of the power curve. As to how we can do this, those of you wearing flight suits are likely best-qualified to come up with new concepts for how our community can leverage this change and ensure that our community is as vital to naval warfighting tomorrow as it is today.