View from the Labs

Full Spectrum Rotary Seapower

By CAPT George Galdorisi, USN (Ret.)

This issue of Rotor Review has as its theme, “Full Spectrum Rotary Wing Seapower.” That term can mean many things to many people. At a minimum, it means that the Naval Rotary Wing Community contributes to American Seapower. Taken a bit further, it conveys the idea that Naval Rotary Wing Aviation is an indispensable element of America’s security and prosperity. And, of course, there are several definitions available between those two bookends.

From where I sit at the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific (NIWC PAC), the Navy’s C4ISR Center of Excellence, where we are working with technologies for today’s and tomorrow’s Navy, as well as emergent technologies for the Navy-After-Next, we believe, as historian Max Boot said in his best-selling book, War Made New, “My view is that technology sets the parameters of the possible; it creates the potential for a military revolution.”

For that reason, I’d like to take the approach that Rotary Wing Aviation is an indispensable element of America’s security and prosperity today, and that do be able to do so tomorrow, we need to be aware of, and embrace, technological change so that we can continuously upgrade our current platforms, systems, sensors and weapons, as well as imagine those platforms, systems, sensors and weapons we will need for future conflicts.

So how do we imagine what we’ll need in the future? A recent article in the Washington Post, “We can’t prevent tomorrow’s catastrophes unless we imagine them today” (link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/03/18/future-forecastingstrategic-planning/?tid=usw_passupdatepg) pointed out just how tough it is to get away from the day-to-day and think about a future that may be decades distant.

That is tough, but necessary, if Naval Rotary Wing Aviation wants to ensure that it doesn’t become irrelevant in the future. Just think, at one time we couldn’t live without buggy whips, eight-track tapes, VCRs, or you name it. All of us in our Community need to start from the premise that we could become quite dispensable and imagine a future where we are not.

A great place to start is America’s new Tri-Service Maritime Strategy, Advantage at Sea (https://media.defense.gov/2020/ Dec/16/2002553074/-1/-1/0/TRISERVICESTRATEGY.PDF). This document is focused on today’s and tomorrow’s Navy as well as the Navy-After-Next. Here is what it says about how we should look to the future:

The Naval Service will pursue an agile and aggressive approach to experimentation and force modernization. Our future hybrid Fleet will combine existing platforms with new, smaller ships, lighter amphibious ships, modernized aircraft, expanded logistics, resilient space capabilities, and optionally manned and unmanned platforms. We will deliver innovative training and education to ensure our Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen remain the world’s premier Naval Force.

To prevail in long-term strategic competition, the Naval Service will promote a relentless drive to anticipate, think creatively, and lead through change. We cannot assume we will fight on our timelines, on our terms, from sanctuaries our opponents cannot reach, or with maritime superiority. Our success depends on boldly executing this strategy with collective resolve to preserve our advantage at sea.

The Naval Rotary Wing Community has been the best at many things for decades. As we mine our higher level documents like Advantage at Sea to intuit what our leadership is telling us about tomorrow’s fight, we would be well-served to have a community-wide discussion to determine how we can embrace emerging technologies to remain the best.