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Podcast

Sea Control 54 – Innovation, Littorals, and Unmanned at NPS

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seacontrol-birthdayWe cover the Warfare Innovation Workshop at the Navy Postgraduate School – hosted by Navy Warfare Development Command (NWDC) and NPS’s Consortium for Robotics and Unmanned Systems Education and Research (CRUSER).  For today’s episode, we are joined by two guests – CAPT Jeff Kline (USN Retired), Chair of Warfre Innovation for the (NWDC) and Lyla Englehorn, the Director of Concept Generation for Consortium for Robotics and Unmanned Systems Education and Research (CRUSER).

DOWNLOAD: Sea Control 54 – Innovation, Littorals, and Unmanned at NPS

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Global Analysis

The Future of Seawater: Fuel for the Fleet

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The US Navy recently announced that it successfully converted sea water into fuel and that it used it to fly a model plane. The aim of this technology is, of course, to give ships a self-sustaining power source and to make the Navy less dependent on fuel imports.

US Navy Vice Admiral Philip Cullom, declared the project to be “a huge milestone for us. What is just absolutely revolutionary about [this technology] is that, if you no longer have to worry about where that oiler is, you remove so much of the vulnerability that we have at sea.”

According to the Department of Defense, the ability to harness this new technology would allow ships to always be operational and eliminate the need to refuel at sea.

Indeed, it would prove very helpful in time of conflict: the vessel would not spend time away from the mission by returning to land to re-fuel, which is particularly helpful when surrounded by hostile forces. Furthermore, fuel supplies constitute a good target during conflicts.

Turning sea water into fuel: how does it work? 

Seawater is a very attractive energy source, since it contains much higher concentrations of CO2 than air. And, obviously, it is very abundant. The new technology developed by the Navy uses a gas-to-liquid process, which at the same time recovers carbon dioxide (CO2)  from seawater and concomitantly produces hydrogen (H2), the building blocks of hydrocarbons. Dr. Heather Willauer, a research chemist at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), explains the chemical process: “Using an innovative and proprietary NRL electrolytic cation exchange module (E-CEM), both dissolved and bound CO2 are removed from seawater at 92 percent efficiency by re-equilibrating carbonate and bicarbonate to CO2 and simultaneously producing H2. The gases are then converted to liquid hydrocarbons by a metal catalyst in a reactor system.” First, the CO2 and H2 are converted into unsaturated hydrocarbon starter molecules called olefins using an iron-based catalyst. Next, these olefins are converted into a liquid containing larger hydrocarbon molecules with a carbon range suitable for use in jet engines by polymerization.

While the Navy successfully tested this new technique on a model aircraft, it will require time and an enormous investment from the American government before the Navy is able to solely use salt water as fuel. Regardless, Dr. Willauer is very optimistic:  “This is the first time technology of this nature has been demonstrated with the potential for transition, from the laboratory, to full-scale commercial implementation.” According to her, this technology could potentially produce jet fuel which may only cost approximately three to six dollars per gallon.

Furthermore, the team claims that its technology removes CO2 at 92% efficiency, which is far superior to previously developed techniques for CO2 recovery from seawater. It also declared that it can convert about 60 percent of the extracted gases into hydrocarbons which can then be processed into jet fuel.

Fossil fuels are currently the only obvious energy source capable of powering the system. However, coupling this system with a renewable energy source that drives CO2 recovery could potentially allow this process to be very sustainable in the long-term.

More dead seas tomorrow? 

For the moment, companies are more interested in desalinating sea water for use as drinking water rather than using it as a fuel source. However, current desalination techniques use a huge amount of energy. Indeed , energy consumption can account for up to 70 per cent of the desalination costs. This is almost incredible: the global production of desalinated water uses approximately 75.2 terawatt-hours  (1012 watts) of electricity per year, which is enough to power about  7 million homes.

This is the reason why GE and Aramco Entrepreneurship have just launched an open global technology challenge aiming at finding solutions to improve the energy efficiency of seawater desalination. This $200,000 challenge will be awarded to four winners with a prize of $50,000 each, and the two companies may invest towards commercialization of the best ideas.

The Director of Aramco Entrepreneurship, Nabil Al-Khowaiter, explains that “finding a more efficient method of desalinating seawater will be a game-changer in our collective pursuit of a more sustainable energy future across the globe. Due to increased water scarcity, countries around the world are poised to rely more and more heavily on desalination as a means to provide fresh water. Aramco Entrepreneurship is partnering with GE not only to identify new solutions to lowering desalination costs, but also to invest in and attract new technologies and industries to Saudi Arabia.”

Beijing supplied by seawater in 2019 ?

 Saudi Arabia is not the only country interested in desalinated sea water. Wang Xiaoshui, desalination department director at Beijing Enterprises Water Group announced that desalinated seawater will supply domestic tap water of a third of Beijing’s inhabitants from 2019.

In 2013, the Chinese company researched and developed its own reverse osmosis membrane technique. Beijing Enterprises Water Group had already started desalinating seawater in March 2012 and it transported 50,000 tonnes of freshwater from the coastal city of Caofeidian to Beijing and Tianjin. The group has a 1-million-ton desalination project under construction in Caofeidian, in the district of Tangshan in the Hebei Province.  Liu Fushun, Deputy General Manager, declared that this project is to be completed by 2019.

Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs in Beijing, explains that the Chinese capital has suffered from droughts since 1999. Desalination can help relieve the water, but he warns that this process can also cause pollution. “In the long term, the eventual solution is to save and recycle used water at the consumer end,” he said.

Sea water for cooling buildings

Sea water is already popular in the South Pacific where it is used for cooling buildings.

In French Polynesia, the InterContinental Hotel in Bora Bora is, since 2006, the first private building to be cooled entirely with Sea Water Air Conditioning (SWAC). This system uses deep cold seawater that replaces the energy-intensive central refrigeration systems which chilled water to provide air conditioning in buildings.

This system has now become very popular in Hawaii. Jan War, Operation Manager at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority, declares that SWAC is “an underutilized technology. Because of the cost of fossil fuels, more and more people are realizing they have a resource underneath their feet.”

Several large municipalities, including Toronto and Stockholm, also switched from traditional cooling systems to seawater systems.

So, might sea water really be the energy of the future?

Alix is a writer, researcher, and correspondent on the Asia-Pacific region for Marine Renewable Energy LTD. She previously served as a maritime policy advisor to the New Zealand Consul General in New Caledonia and as the French Navy’s Deputy Bureau Chief for State Action at Sea, New Caledonia Maritime Zone

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Asia-Pacific

The Elephant at Sea: China’s Naval Outlook

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A Brief Overview of China’s Naval Outlook

Naval supremacy is one of the oldest forms of projecting national power. For millennia, the ability to operate well beyond a country’s coastal waters has provided nations with unmatched security. Aircraft carriers multiply naval supremacy exponentially, providing a navy with floating bases, thereby relinquishing any dependence on other governments or local bases. Both practically and symbolically, the aircraft carrier has been central to American power projection over the six decades during which it has dominated the Pacific – but it is those same vessels that are now under threat from China’s vast new array of missiles.

Throughout the history of carrier aviation, it has been said that the first thing a President asks during times of crisis is: “Where is the nearest aircraft carrier?” The U.S. has had a naval presence, including aircraft carriers, in the northwestern Pacific Ocean for over half a century. Beginning with the defeat of Japan in World War II, the U.S. Navy has treated these waters as their own. It has used its unmatched naval power to implement a rules-based international system oriented toward the promotion and preservation of free trade, freedom of navigation, and the democratic rule of law. This dominance was accelerated in 1972 when the U.S. endorsed China’s return to the family of nations, thereby implicitly leading to China’s acceptance of American military dominance in Asia.

While there have always been Chinese antagonists to American naval dominance in the Pacific, one would find it difficult to argue that American dominance in the region has not led to the most stable and prosperous period of China’s modern history. That said, many proponents of China’s imperial ambitions assert that America’s role in the Pacific is crumbling, as China vows to recast its historic military and political might in the region.

Today, China is especially concerned with the security of its seaborne commerce in the area it calls the Near Seas – the coastal waters that include the Yellow, East China, and South China Seas. As such, China is beginning to implement a strategy to exert increased control over the Near Seas, pushing the U.S. Navy farther and farther east. In doing so, China is launching a profound challenge to the U.S.-led order that has been the backbone of China’s own modern economic success.

American military strategists assert that for the past 20 years China has been expanding its military with a keen focus on investments in its “anti-navy” – a series of warships, silent submarines, and precision missiles specifically designed to prevent the U.S. Navy from operating in large areas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. As Dennis Blair, a retired U.S. Navy admiral who was the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific region states: “Ninety per cent of [China’s] time is spent on thinking about new and interesting ways to sink our ships and shoot down our planes.”

Some observers believe China wants its naval capabilities to perform as an anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) force—a force that can deter U.S. intervention in a conflict in China’s Near Seas region, or at a minimum reduce the effectiveness of intervening U.S. forces. That having been said, China currently does not possess a fully operational aircraft carrier – though it is expected to have one in service by 2015.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet, on the other hand, is the world’s largest fleet command, encompassing 160 million square kilometres and consisting of approximately 200 vessels. Of these, two are aircraft carriers.

The U.S. has not lost an aircraft carrier since the Japanese sank the USS Hornet during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in 1942. Today, the mere thought of an aircraft carrier being vulnerable could be enough to restrict its use, as the loss of a carrier would be an unfathomable psychological defeat to American naval prestige and credibility – akin to a Pearl Harbor or 9/11. These sentiments are beginning to be realized in the Pentagon, as a new concept of fighting wars at sea is taking shape.

AirSea Battle, inspired by the AirLand Battle concept, is an integrated battle doctrine that officially became part of U.S. grand strategy in February 2010. The purpose of this doctrine is to shape U.S. military power in such a way as to better address asymmetrical threats in the northwestern Pacific and Persian Gulf – in other words, China and Iran.

By weakening the U.S. Navy’s presence in the Pacific, China hopes to undermine America’s alliances with other Asian countries, thereby reshaping the balance of power in the region. If U.S. influence does indeed decline, China would be in a position to quietly assume a leadership position in Asia, giving it much greater sway over the rules and practices in the global economy. The future of global security hinges on the floating of two vessels in the Pacific, for if one American aircraft carrier were to be sunk, the balance of power would be dramatically altered.

Jasen Sagman is a Junior Research Fellow at the NATO Council of Canada where he writes as part of the Maritime Nation Program. Currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Global Diplomacy from the University of London, SOAS, he also holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Toronto. He has previously researched for the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs and the Chair of Canada’s House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development.

Tactical Concepts

Countdown to Launch

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Tomahawk

In the wake of TLAM strikes against targets in the Middle East by US Navy warships, we are reposting this guest article by LT Monika Chess, USN, former navigator aboard USS Barry (DDG-52) on the run-ups to a cruise-missile strike to provide a shipboard perspective of their planning and execution.

On March 19, 2011, USS Barry (DDG-52) was one of the first warships to launch Tomahawk Land-Attack Missiles (TLAMs) against targets in Libya in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn. Barry began 2011 by deploying in January with the Enterprise Strike Group in the Gulf of Aden and conducting counter-piracy operations. However, her mission unexpectedly shifted in March as she received tasking to steam independently to the Mediterranean Sea and join the international coalition of warships operating off the coast of Libya. Odyssey Dawn aimed to enforce the United Nations-sanctioned no-fly zone over Libya and stop Libyan leader Colonel Moammar Gadhafi’s forces from attacking civilians.

After arriving in the U.S. 6th Fleet Joint Operating Area, Barry’s strike team conducted numerous training scenarios that built on the skills developed during the training cycle and ensured the ship maintained the knowledge and proficiency to monitor the surface picture, make proper reports, and successfully execute any mission. As the state of affairs between the Gadhafi regime and civilian forces worsened in Libya, the training scenarios became daily.

On March 18, Barry was ordered to head to a preplanned launch position and stand by for tasking. The strike team was prepared and ready to execute a strike mission at a moment’s notice. On March 19, Barry received orders to conduct TLAM strike missions against strategic targets in Gadhafi-controlled regions in Libya. This was the first time Barry launched Tomahawk missiles for a real-world mission.

“Most strike teams never launch in their careers, but Barry was given that opportunity,” said Barry’s strike officer LTJG Jason Haney. Barry launched more than 30 Tomahawks from her forward and aft Mk 41 Vertical Launch System cells during her first of four strike taskings. With each launch, there was a deafening roar and blinding light as the missile streaked upward. Sailors watched in awe as the cells emptied one after another and the missiles flew toward Libya.

“The strike team was extremely focused. There was a sense of confidence as we accomplished our mission. I am extremely proud of my team,” said Chief Fire Controlman (FC) (SW) Ken Lilley, strike division leading chief petty officer.

“We were confident in the accuracy of our missiles and that minimal collateral damage was caused by the strikes. It helps to ease our minds to know that we conducted these missions effectively and minimized the impact on innocent people,” said Barry’s combat systems officer LT Todd Grahek, one of the tactical action officers during the strike missions.

“It required a ship-wide effort to conduct a Tomahawk strike of this magnitude,” continued LT Grahek. “Our engineers kept steady electricity and ensured that we were able to position ourselves appropriately. Our supply department ensured we had the parts we needed in a timely manner to keep the weapons systems fully functional. Combat systems, weapons, and operations departments operated as a single team focused on mission success, and every person who was a part of the mission was truly a trained professional.” FC2(SW) Royce Orr, one of the engagement planners during Barry’s strike missions, said, “I’m honored to participate in an event that will go down in U.S. history. It was a great feeling to be able to serve my country and assist the civilians in Libya.”

This article appeared in its original form in the Summer 2011 issue of Surface Warfare magazine available here. LT Monika Chess served as the navigator aboard Barry during Odyssey Dawn and works in the admissions office of the U.S. Naval Academy.