By Geoff Fein
The air and missile defense center of excellence coming to Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren will become the service’s single point for all issues pertaining to air and missile defense, according to a Navy official.
“We haven’t really had that before. We’ve had different groups of people in the Navy doing similar things for the Navy,” Capt. Steve Kelly, assistant chief of staff for requirements and experimentation at Commander 3rd Fleet, told Defense Daily last week.
“When we took the BMD capability, it went from the R&D world to the fleet rather rapidly, and the Navy structure that supported that was not yet in place. So what you are seeing is an attempt to get, organizationally and doctrinally, the footing for not only BMD but also air and cruise missile defense,” he added.
Before now, the Navy hasn’t had a good holistic focus on air and missile defense issues, Kelly noted.
“We had separate efforts for air defense, and no one has been too focused on the cruise missile defense,” he said. “This one organization will bring all that together.”
The Navy Air and Missile Defense Command (NAMDC) will report to Vice Adm. Sam Locklear, 3rd fleet commander, Kelly said. NAMDC will provide Locklear depth and attention solely focused on air and missile defense, so that there is an understanding of the welfare of that warfare area, he added.
“The vision is that we need one organization that is looking at the whole warfare area end-to-end. The ability to look at both material and non-material gaps…basically what it takes to win and what are our gaps and what are our strengthens and weaknesses,” Kelly said. “And then come up with a strategy to solve those gaps so that we can win in high- end warfare.”
While Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) will be the early focus of NAMDC, Kelly pointed out cruise missile defense will be one of the primary areas of focus once the command is up and running.
NAMDC is set to open in April.
“There is a huge expectation they are going to produce work right away. There is a three-phased approach–first phase will start around the beginning of April. That first phase will continue to do operational support for BMD,” he said. “What we will grow into for the second and third phases is really to provide some robust thinking not just in BMD but also in the air and cruise missile threat, although it will start out focused on the BMD threat.”
NAMDC is going to grow relatively rapidly, Kelly added. “I would expect one of the first orders of business for them would be to start an end-to-end assessment of the entire warfare area to include air and missile defense. But that will be a long project that will encompass all three phases.”
NAMDC will also take a really good first look at the cruise missile threat, and leverage off of all the great work that has already been done by organizations like the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC), Kelly said. “NSAWC is looking at one specific area of air defense. This organization, NAMDC, will look at all areas and all platforms for the Navy.”
And NAMDC will work with the other naval centers of excellence, he added.
“The discussion that has been going on at the senior levels of the Navy are ‘what do we want these organizations to do and how do they relate to one another,'” Kelly said. “We want to leverage off these organizations to make it more efficient.”
For example, in the area of air defense, Top Gun does work for NSAWC.
“They are experts. They are focused on air defense, from the fighter threat. But when we talk about integrated air defense, we are talking about everything from air defense, cruise missile defense, and BMD. So what you’d see instead of NAMDC doing redundant work in air-to-air defense…NSAWC would support them in air defense,” he said. “So that commander of NAMDC would not have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to air defense. He will leverage off a very successful organization. What you’ve got is an organization that is going to synchronize air defense with both cruise missile and BMD.”
Kelly said it is important that the warfare centers understand what each is doing. “We’ve got to understand how we can best support each other so we are a more effective fighting force.”
NMAWC (Naval Mine and Anti-submarine Warfare Command) has done a lot of great work, especially recently, in this area of end-to-end assessment, he added.
“We are going to model a lot of what NAMDC does off of the NMAWC model, because the vision my boss [Vice Adm. Sam Locklear) has given admiral [Rear Adm. Frank] Drennan [commander, Naval Mine and Anti-Submarine Warfare Command] has been one of, we need someone looking across all platforms across material and non-material solutions to win in battle,” Kelly said.
“We really haven’t had that in the past. What we have had instead, [is] the air community looking out for the air community, the surface community looking out for the surface community and the sub community looking out for the sub community,” he added. “What we are trying to do at these warfare centers of excellence is give the Navy a vision of how it can best support the joint effort of what it really takes to win in battle. So instead of being stovepiped by platform, you need an organization that can bridge all those requirements across all the platforms in a holistic fashion. We just haven’t had that in the past.”
NMAWC is making a lot of progress across all platforms, across all solutions, and that’s the kind of model the Navy is trying to shape NAMDC after, Kelly said.
“There is a lot of leverage going on, a lot of supporting supportive relationships going on, and really, at the end of the day, the Navy is better suited by that model because it really leverages our ability to win in combat. We really get the most bang for our buck when it comes to budgetary things.”