Tag Archives: distributed lethality

Distributed Lethality Week Kicks Off on CIMSEC

By Dmitry Filipoff

This week CIMSEC is hosting articles exploring the US Navy’s Distributed Lethality concept. The US Navy is investigating distributed lethality as a potentially game changing approach for the conduct of naval warfare. We at CIMSEC are grateful for the Distributed Lethality Task Force’s partnership in launching this topic week, for the thought-provoking insights of our contributors, and to the sustained interest of our audience. The Task Force’s call for articles may be read here. Below is a list of articles featuring during the topic week, which will be updated as the topic week rolls out and as prospective authors finalize additional publications.

A Tactical Doctrine for Distributed Lethality by Jeff E. Kline, CAPT, USN, (ret)
Distributed Lethality: Old Opportunities for New Operations by Matthew Hipple
Enabling Distributed Lethality: The Role of Naval Cryptology by LCDR Chuck Hall and LCDR David T. Spalding
Distributed Leathernecks by LCDR Chris O’Connor

The Legal Implications of Arming MSC Ships by Anthony Freedman and Mark Rosen
Distributed Lethality, Non-Traditional Fleets, and the Law of War by Chris Rawley
Implementing Distributed Lethality within the Joint Operational Access Concept by LCDR Collin Fox

Enabling Distributed Lethality by LCDR Josh Heivly
Reconfiguring Air Cushioned Vehicles to Enhance Distributed Lethality by John Devlin
The Elephant in the Room: E2-D and Distributed Lethality by LCDR Christopher Moran and LT Ryan Heilmann

Distributed Lethality: China is Doing it Right by Alan Cummings
Unleashing Unit Lethality: Revising Operational & Promotion Paradigms by ENS Daniel Stefanus

Dmitry Filipoff is CIMSEC’s Director of Online Content. He may be contacted at Nextwar@cimsec.org

Distributed Lethality Task Force Launches CIMSEC Topic Week

Week Dates: Feb. 22-28 2016
Articles Due: Feb. 21 2016
Article Length: 800-1800 Words (with flexibility)
Submit to: Nextwar@cimsec.org

By Ryan Kelly

Since we last discussed the Surface Navy’s operational concept of Distributed Lethality (DL) in July 2015, there has been a tremendous amount of progress on the topic.  Distributed Lethality is the condition gained by increasing the offensive power and defensive hardening of individual warships and then employing them not only in traditional roles, but also in different ways than has been the practice in the past few decades. Distributed Lethality enables Naval Surface Forces to provide forward, visible and ready combat power for the nation.  Operating forward, Naval Surface Warships execute military diplomacy across a wide geography, building greater transparency, reducing the risk of miscalculation or conflict, and promoting a shared maritime environment.  Maintaining a persistent visible presence, Naval Surface Warships assure allies and partners and promote stability by deterring actions against U.S. interests.  Providing credible combat power, Naval Surface Warships are ready to respond when called upon in times of crisis providing operational commanders’ options to control increased ocean areas and hold potential adversaries at risk, at range, whether at sea or ashore.

More recently, as highlighted at the Surface Navy Association’s annual Surface Navy Symposium, we were introduced to a deeper and more holistic update on Distributed Lethality, in terms of its value as both an organizational and operational concept.   Organizationally, we heard that Distributed Lethality involves a comprehensive effort (much of VADM Rowden’s remarks discussed), that is focused on Tactics, Training, Talent and Tools (i.e., weapons, sensors and platforms; “if it floats it fights…,” of which the Director of Surface Warfare RADM Fanta’s presentation revealed).  Operationally, we learned that Distributed Lethality involves harnessing 3 key initiatives to ensure we can fight and win in any environment: those initiatives are “to Deceive, Target and Destroy.”

There has been a significant investment in thinking about the problem throughout the past year. More recently, the approach to understanding the concept has been largely twofold: first, we’ve worked to understand what value DL could bring to the Surface Force and a step further, to the larger Fleet. We’ve approached this through three primary lines of effort: wargaming, analytics and operational experimentation.  Studying the results of more than 15 wargames in 2015 alone, substantial analytics from multiple sources and operational experimentation deepened our understanding of the value that a distributed and more lethal Naval Surface Force can provide across a number of scenarios and ranges of conflict. We are training now for our first Adaptive Force Package deployment this Spring.  

During the final week of February, CIMSEC will host a series focused on the next chapter of Distributed Lethality. The theme of the next chapter gravitates around the question of “how we fight” as a more lethal and distributed force. As such, we’ve listed some of the key issues that we seek to better understand. For example: How should the upcoming Adaptive Force Package be employed:  including Tactical Situation (TACSIT) execution, organic and inorganic targeting, fielding of modified weapons, and improved integration with Amphibious Forces and Expeditionary Marine Corps units in support of sea control operations? What role does Distributed Lethality play in other joint concepts such as the DOD Joint Operational Access Concept (JOAC)?  How will the utilization and fielding of the F-35 (Navy and Marine Corps variants) contribute to the effectiveness of Distributed Lethality? What effect will cyber warfare have on the surface forces in the context of Distributed Lethality, both offensively and defensively? How can we better utilize the signature spectrum in a complex Anti-Access/Area Denial environment? How will the addition of a long range surface-to-surface missile affect both the deterrent and warfighting ability of the Surface Navy in the various phases of conflict? What are the legal implications of arming MSC ships, both for self-defense and for a more robust offensive role? How and to what extent should the Surface Navy incorporate other nations into Distributed Lethality? What are the risks of Distributed Lethality across the various phases of conflict?

Contributions can focus on the aforementioned key issues, or can explore Distributed Lethality in a broader strategic and operational context. Submissions should be between 800 and 1800 words in length (with flexibility) and submitted no later than February 21 to the CIMSEC editorial team at Nextwar@cimsec.org.

Editors Note: This topic week has since concluded and writings submitted in response to this call for articles may be viewed here

Ryan Kelly is a Surface Warfare Officer in the United States Navy currently assigned to Commander, Naval Surface Forces Distributed Lethality Task Force.

Publication Release: Distributed Lethality 2015 Week Compendium

Released January 2016

Distributed Lethality is a concept announced by U.S. Navy leadership in January 2015 to explore the warfighting benefits of dispersing surface combatants. CIMSEC launched a topic week in July 2015 to focus analysis on this new concept. This compendium consists of the articles that featured in the topic week.

Authors:Distributed Lethality cover-page001
James Davenport  
Chris O’Connor
Eric Gomez
John Salak
Michael Glynn
Steven Wills
Ryan Kuhns
Jimmy Drennan
Majorie Greene
Thomas Rowden

Editors:
Sally DeBoer
Jimmy Drennan
Dmitry Filipoff
Matt Hipple
Matthew Merighi
John Stryker

Download Here

Articles:
Distributed Lethality: A Cultural Shift By James Davenport
Distributed Endurance: Logistics and Distributed Lethality By Chris O’Connor
Distributed Basing: The Key to Distributed Lethality’s Success in the Western Pacific By Eric Gomez
Weaponized Hovercraft for Distributed Lethality By John Salak
Airborne Over-The-Horizon-Targeting Options to Enable Distributed Lethality By Michael Glynn
LCS: The Distributed Lethality Surface Combatant By Steven Wills
Missing an Opportunity for Innovation: A Conceptual Critique of Distributed Lethality By Ryan Kuhns
Distributed Lethality’s C2 Sea Change By Jimmy Drennan
The Role of Swarm Intelligence for Distributed Lethality’s C2 By Majorie Greene
Naval Surface and Mine Warfare Development Center: The Human Element of Distributed Lethality By VADM. Thomas Rowden

Be sure to browse other compendiums in the publications tab, and feel free send compendium ideas to Publications@cimsec.org

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CIMSEC Releases First 2016 Compendium

CIMSEC Compendiums are back!
 
CIMSEC is reintroducing PDF Compendiums to bolster its digital library. These compilations bring together the best articles CIMSEC has to offer on specific issue areas, all in an easy-to-read format. Our first release this year is Distributed Lethality, our topic week from July 2015. It can be found under the “Publications” tab. 
 
In the future, CIMSEC will release compendiums for other topic weeks and issues. If you have compendium suggestions, please email Publications@cimsec.org.
 

Sincerely,

The CIMSEC Publications Team

Matthew Merighi & John Stryker

Matthew Merighi is a Master of Arts candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and CIMSEC’s Director of Publications. John Stryker is a International Relations and Hispanic Studies undergraduate student at the College of William and Mary, and is a CIMSEC Intern.

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