C2 to the Tactical Edge

Abstract

The United States and Allied Maritime domain dominance of sea approaches, lengthy coastlines, and associated rivers and ports is essential. At risk are the security and the economies of the United States and allied countries. The classical Mahan strategies for control of the maritime domain are the role of ships of the line, submarines, and aircraft in roles for Sea and Choke Points Control and Amphibious Assault. Current threats have proven the need to extend tactical response options beyond the ship's hull to its boats and RHIBs used for security and “combatant” craft roles including antipiracy, antidrug, illegal trade, and border security. The stakes are high for these “outside the hull” craft operations because the threats beyond the ship's hull are increasingly more capable and violent and the legal stakes are frequently international in nature. Positive control of these boats is also required for safety-at-sea in darkness and rough sea states. Under these conditions command and control (C2) functions similar to the capabilities of ships of the line are now required to be extended to the ship's manned craft in a distributed defensive and offensive role outside the hull of the ship. The ASNE topics list suggested “Engineering the Fighter Integer … into a Distributed Defense Architecture.” This paper will address the potential threat scenarios, the associated C2 requirements for success, and postulate C2 solutions as available to the United States and allied navies for distributed defensive and offensive architectures for the manned boats beyond the hull of the ship: we call this, “C2 to the Tactical Edge.”