Photo By Michael Walls | Chief of Naval Research (CNR) Rear Adm. Lorin Selby recently gave a presentation at...... read more read more
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Reflecting on the career of the late Adm. Hyman Rickover — nicknamed the “Father of the Nuclear Navy” — Chief of Naval Research (CNR) Rear Adm. Lorin Selby marveled at how quickly Rickover achieved his vision for naval nuclear power.
“In 1946, he established his vision and in 1947 was in a position to do something about it,” said Selby. “In 1952, construction began on the USS Nautilus [the first nuclear-powered submarine]; in 1954, it was christened by First Lady Mamie Eisenhower; and by 1955, the Nautilus was underway.
“It shows what the U.S can do when inspired and challenged,” he continued, “and we need that kind of energy and commitment now.”
Selby recently gave his remarks during a presentation at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition, the largest maritime expo in the United States, held at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Maryland.
Titled “The Defining Decade: The Future is Now,” the CNR’s speech focused on how, in the coming years, the U.S Navy and Marine Corps will encounter new challenges to their operational capabilities. From climate change to adversaries with enhanced technological capabilities, these challenges will require naval forces that are innovative, agile and ready to adapt to new realities.
“I’m here to tell you that the world is in a place today where U.S. technological advantage is being threatened,” said Selby. “And for the first time in my life, it is truly threatened at a scale that I think we need to take action now.”
During his speech, Selby outlined three main challenges: the impact of climate change, geo-political instability and conflict (e.g., the situation in Ukraine), and the inability to deal with the rapid pace of technological advances (much driven by the exponential increase of computing power). Combine these challenges with the malign intent of adversary nations, Selby said, and it’s evident that naval power needs a new vision — one supported by naval-sponsored science and technology (S&T).
The Naval Research Enterprise (NRE) — consisting of the Office of Naval Research (ONR), ONR Global, Naval X and the Naval Research Laboratory — is critical to developing such S&T.
The CNR laid out multiple factors vital to the Department of the Navy (DoN) strengthening its S&T capabilities, today and in the future.
1. Building a diverse civilian workforce by inspiring students of all ages. Two Department of the Navy (DoN) offices critical to this effort are located at ONR: the Naval STEM Coordination Office and the Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Institutions Program.
2. Bolstering the ties and relationships between academia, industry and government laboratories.
3. Focusing greater resources in the following technology areas:
• Computing (advanced chip designs, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning)
• Biotech (improving warfighter health and performance; reducing the threat and impact of pathogens and biowarfare; and biomanufacturing of fuel, food and materials)
• Power and energy (power generation, storage and distribution)
To be successful in this endeavor, the DoN must optimize its processes for turning ideas into prototypes, preparing them for acquisition programs, manufacturing them at scale and integrating them into the fleet. The established acquisition process may work well for producing large platforms like carriers or submarines, but it’s not designed for swift development of smaller, mostly digital and software-enabled systems and capabilities.
Selby discussed his vision for reimagining naval power — “the small, the agile and the many,” which involves small, unmanned, autonomous platforms that can be constructed, tested and adapted quickly; can be built in large numbers; and are less expensive than larger platforms. These air, surface and subsurface vehicles can be outfitted with a variety of sensors and payloads for diverse missions and, because they have a digital backbone, can be rapidly modified via software.
By being built relatively inexpensively, and in greater numbers, these platforms offer multiple advantages: (1) They can be deployed in large swarms to confound and confuse adversaries and (2) if they’re shot down or lost, American forces will have plenty of backups in place.
Selby believes the concept of “the small, the agile and the many” represents a viable Strategic Hedge for supporting the large and complex platforms making up the bulk of today’s force structure.
Reimagining naval power, he said, involves faster, more collaborative and more effective testing and experimentation. Part of this push is the ONR-sponsored SCOUT initiative, an ongoing, multiagency campaign to identify new ways to bring novel capabilities to warfighter challenges, experiment with them in realistic operating conditions, and operationalize them in partnership with the fleet and force.
“We need to solve problems rather than just fulfill requirements,” said Selby. “Whether it’s an unmanned system like a quadcopter, or a software package that can be put on an existing asset, we need to work with our warfighters, industry and academia to find creative solutions that can be scaled quickly and effectively.”
Warren Duffie Jr. is a contractor for ONR Corporate Strategic Communications.
| Date Taken: | 04.17.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 04.17.2023 17:39 |
| Story ID: | 442766 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 106 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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