Power Projection and Integrated Defense Focus Area
Strategic Drivers: Adversaries will capitalize on conventional and asymmetric capabilities that incorporate mobility, range, speed and deception. Naval platforms must have integrated defensive capabilities to defeat these growing complex threats. At the same time, the fleet/force must be able to effectively strike targets with survivable and scalable weapons that have sufficient range, speed and accuracy to complete the mission while reducing risk to our warfighters without endangering noncombatants or creating unnecessary collateral damage.
Vision: Enhance extended-range power projection capabilities and integrated layered defense by improving manned and unmanned Naval platforms, enabling forces to complete missions in hostile environments by avoiding, defeating and surviving attacks. Demonstrate improvements in standoff indirect precision fires on time-critical targets, while limiting collateral effects through the use of electromagnetic kinetic projectiles, hypersonic missile propulsion, scalable weapons effects, directed energy and hypervelocity weapons.
Description: The development and delivery of scalable, decisive effects are critical; this effort includes targeting, decision support and precision strike by air, surface and undersea platforms. This focus area strives for significant enhancements in naval time-sensitive strike capabilities to enhance the ability of naval forces to damage, seize or destroy enemy forces at extended ranges in the littorals, deep inland and on the high seas. Power projection emphasizes the employment of these capabilities at a speed, rate and distance that defeats any adversary’s ability to conduct effective operations against us despite his use of mobility and deception to neutralize our efforts. The ability to strike is negated without the ability to defend platforms against attack. Incoming attack spans the range of small arms and handheld weapons, swimmers, small boats, to ballistic and cruise missiles and undersea threats. Integrated defense will include detection, identification and soft- and hard-kill defeat. Technologies must address an integrated layered defense approach, extending the reach beyond the threat damage range with speed-of-light response and neutralization. Future multi-mission weapons systems will provide both offensive and defensive capabilities. Asymmetry works both ways; there is elegance in killing a million-dollar cruise missile with directed energy for the price of a gallon of fuel.
Objectives:
Future Naval Fires
- High-volume, precision direct and indirect fires to extended ranges
- Deep/unlimited magazine
Integrated Layered Defense Across the Entire Detect-to-Engage Continuum
- Detection and determination of threat intent
- Hard/soft kill, lethal/non-lethal countermeasure options
- Autonomy-aided, reliable 360-degree threat targeting and tracking
- Autonomy-aided decision-making and battle management aids
Time-Critical Precision Strike
- Insensitive munitions-compliant, high-performance, scalable-effects weapons
- High-speed, extended-range effects on remote time-critical targets
- Against hardened/moving target (air, surface or underwater) strike
- Weapon GPS denial compensation, counter countermeasures and maneuverability for precision engagement
Extended Threat Neutralization Capabilities
- Speed-of-light engagement through electronic warfare, directed energy and hypervelocity weapons
- Extend standoff beyond the threat damage range
- Counter-low observable, counter small boats and unmanned threats
- Anti-swimmer and improvised unmanned technology
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