3.12.1 Warfighter Needs
The Warfighter needs an affordable, reliable operational capability in all environments and the ability to foresee environmental changes that may affect his capabilities. The ocean environment and its variability greatly affect the operations of the Warfighter, such as movement of equipment and supplies over the beach, cruise missile targeting, or aircraft carrier operations, but also affect the performance of the sensors and systems used by the Warfighter. In particular, since all sensors are affected by the environment in which they operate, knowledge of this environment and its impact on the various sensors available to the Warfighter are critical to his/her choice of sensor(s), ability to gain knowledge of the tactical battlespace and effective delivery of weapons. Knowledge of the ocean battlespace environment thus is important to Joint Warfighter Science and Technology in the areas of dominant battlespace knowledge, combat identification, and joint countermeasure. For the Ocean Battlespace Environments area, these needs translate to the requirements for understanding processes and phenomenology; measurements and mapping; nowcasts and forecasts of ocean variability; and translation of environmental effects to their impacts on sensors, platforms, structures, and operations. The products in this subarea are designed to increase the Warfighter's knowledge of his battlespace environment so as to unclutter his tactical picture, give him tools to decide on tactics, and give him an advantage over his opponent through exploitation of environmental variability.
3.12.2 Ocean Battlespace Environment Overview
3.12.2.1 Goals and Timeframes. Anticipated conflicts encompassing the ocean battlespace environment involve increasing emphasis on Mine, Special, and Amphibious Warfare in addition to continuing concerns with Anti-Submarine Warfare. Thus, increasing emphasis is on the coastal, shallow, and semi-enclosed sea areas where the ability to predict and simulate the spatial and temporal variability of the environment is a formidable challenge. The fundamental goal is sufficient understanding of the environment's effects on weapons, tactics, and operations, coupled with affordable technologies to observe, describe, and predict those effects. A complementary underlying goal is to encourage and aid the design and use of naval systems that are able to exploit environmental variability to military advantage. Examples of results anticipated in 5 and 10 years are:
| FY01 | First range dependent, on-scene, adaptive weapon frequency
acoustic propagation model. 3-D turbulence model for localized sediment scour in
real-time. 1/8 degree North Pacific Oceanographic Prediction System. |
| FY06 | Remote in-situ autonomous coastal sensing system. Autonomous sea floor mapping system. Full spectrum noise model for ASW and MCM frequency bands. |
Advances in understanding the ocean environment are critical for the design of new acoustic sensors, acoustic signal analysis and command and control.
3.12.2.2 Major Technical Challenges. Past efforts have been predicated on the construction of data bases supplemented by limited on-site information, and have been aided by large-scale predictive models driven by large-scale observational programs. As the Warfighter's needs move from the open sea to the littoral, and the Battlespace expands in complexity and rapidity of change, the S&T of the Ocean Battlespace Environments continues to develop models for forecasts, but also toward the use of models as a tool to interpolate and extrapolate and as a means to extract maximal information from available and disparate observations. The challenges are to develop surf models for shallow water reconnaissance; models of physical and biological processes which impact acoustic propagation at weapons frequencies; specialized sensing systems for shallow water processes; capabilities for measurement/forecast of coastal optics; remote sea floor mapping capabilities; models of range dependent wave guide propagation; and signal processing to enhance clutter rejection and improve target detection.
3.12.2.3 Related Federal and Private Sector Efforts. With the exception of coastal engineering, industry investments are small. Federal S&T is this area has been supported for many years by NOAA, NSF, USGS, MMS, NASA, and DoE, but only the first four agencies may have a continuing program in the ocean.
3.12.3 S&T Investment Strategy
Unlike some subareas, not all successful Battlespace Environment products result in formal, large-scale acquisition programs. The S&T investment strategy is therefore predicated on formulation of transition concepts that are highly tuned to the specific needs of the customers of environmental information, and the customers of information that depends on the environment.
The Ocean Battlespace Environment covers the domain from the bottom of the ocean to and including its surface, and from deep water to the beach, including the waves breaking on the beach and the consequent modifications of the beach. Physics, chemistry, biology, geology, engineering, acoustics, hydrodynamics, remote sensing, and associated sensors, observational programs, numerical models, data bases, and prediction technologies are all part of the effort. Seven distinct Program Elements (two in 6.1, the rest in 6.2 and higher) supports the efforts, plus partial funding from many other PEs.
3.12.3.1 Technology Demonstrations. There are no Ocean Battlespace Environment technology demonstrations at the present time. However, S&T developed under this subarea will be utilized in the Joint Mine Countermeasures ACTD involving Navy, Marine Corps, and Army.
3.12.3.2 Technology Development. The programs in this area include oceanography, ocean geophysics and geology, hydrodynamic and sediment processes, and ocean acoustics. These programs provide the key underpinnings for the design of the systems developed in DTOs SE.14.02.N (Lightweight, Broadband Variable Depth Sonar), SE.15.01.ANE (Sensor Signal Processing Technology, and SE.16.01.ANE (Active/Passive Sensor Technology).
3.12.3.2.1 Warfare Support in Littoral Battlespace. DTO SE.32.01.NE. This effort is developing and demonstrating selected capabilities to acquire and exploit meteorological and oceanographical battlespace environmental information required in planning and executing expeditionary, mine, and anti-submarine warfare. Some specific examples include using SPY-1 for doppler radar weather monitoring and extension of acoustic-based ASW capability to Yellow Sea, Persian Gulf, and Baltic Sea.
3.12.3.2.2 Basic Research. There are numerous basic research
programs in both Navy and Army that are in direct support of these
technology efforts. Notably, the Army's efforts in surface wave
prediction have critical applications for Navy and Marine Corps
as well as Army. The Navy programs in the areas of physical oceanography,
remote sensing, coastal dynamics, geology and geophysics, oceanic
biology, underwater acoustics, and the associated observations,
data bases, and models are key to enabling the development of
the modeling and measuring techniques discussed above. Examples
of research programs today that may provide the critical underlayment
for tomorrow's applications include topics in non-linear systems
and chaos, aerosols, nested models for tactical scale predictions,
multi-sensor data assimilation, and non-random distributions of
biological sources of optical scattering.