By Emelie Rutherford
The SSGN cruise-missile submarine has become the Navy’s “premiere” irregular-warfare (IW) platform, and may soon launch new unmanned water and air vehicles in the fight, a senior service official said.
Rear Adm. (sel.) Mark Kenny, director of the new Navy Irregular Warfare Office stood up in July, said last week that the deployed SSGNs–the USS Ohio (SSGN-726) and Florida (SSGN-728)–are being sent “where al Qaeda is at…it’s that simple.”
“The first two deployments, the Ohio and Florida, were groundbreaking deployments,” he said at the Naval Submarine League Symposium in McLean, Va. “The ships work as advertised, brought home the bacon. And I wish I could give you the briefs in detail, because they are eye-watering.”
He said he is looking forward to the USS Michigan (SSGN-727) and Georgia (SSGN-729) joining the operational cycle.
The Navy converted these four Ohio-class Trident submarines to carry Tomahawk cruise missiles, unmanned craft, and special-forces personnel.
“These ships are the Navy’s premiere counterterrorism tool, no doubt about it,” Kenny said. He added that’s the view of “those that lead this fight”–officers such as Special Operations Command leader Adm. Eric Olson–as well as the intelligence community.
In terms of unmanned systems, Kenny said the Pentagon has funded the Sea Stalker unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), which he said will expand signals intelligence (SIGINT) capabilities.
“We’re working this one with an incredible sense of urgency to get it out into the fight,” he said. The Sea Stalker is being outfitted first on the USS Bainbridge (DDG- 96), and then on the Georgia SSGN “later next year,” he said. It will go on a surface ship first because of issues with certifying batteries, he added.
There’s also “a lot of momentum with UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) for submarines,” he said.
Kenny expressed interest in the Boeing [BA]-built Scan Eagle UAV, a program of record for the surface community.
“We’re looking at aggressively trying to adapt it to a submarine,” he said, adding Boeing is working with General Dynamics [GD] Electric Boat on the effort, and the Navy is eyeing a demonstration off of an SSGN for next year.
“This gives us payload, sensors, SIGINT, collection, you can arm it, it’s got about six times and endurance and range of our small vehicles,” he said.
With a SSGN, he said, the Navy is able to set up a near-shore sensor network that overlays the network al Qaeda is using. This sensor network–which also includes UAVs, manned surface ships, and small teams ashore–can cover “probably 99.5 percent of all al Qaeda strongholds,” with Chechnya being an exception because it is out of range, he said.
“Key about this is you’re bringing in naval platforms, whether it be a submarine–SSGNs, SSN–a DDG (surface combatant), that brings the reach-back to the national intelligence databases, real-time draw overhead imagery, real-time exploitation of national databases, using processing and evaluation and distribution of that information, both within a ship and ashore, forces ashore or surrogates ashore,” he said.
The SSGN has an advantage over aircraft because it has both the intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance (ISR) and strike capabilities, he said, and doesn’t need permission from other nations to take off and land. He added that the SSGN can fill the gap in surface-fire support created by the planned truncation of the DDG-1000 destroyer line.
Kenny said he wants industry to get the message that “IW is an enduring mission.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the two main candidates for president all agree, he said.
“What we’re hearing back is that irregular warfare, counterterrorism will continue to be a priority in either candidate’s administration,” he said.
He added that al Qaeda is not backing down. “So that being said, I think it will drive us to be aggressive with SSGN; investment against this threat will continue and we have the ability to beat the maritime environment,” he said.