US Navy CNO alludes to monumental change in US Naval Warfare

[davmat787]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment

Maybe?

Ahhh, the old Rod of God concept. Elegant in it's simplicity but IIRC the major hurdle is the amount of energy required to place the weapon system and ammunition or "rods" into orbit is prohibitive.

Currently used kinetic weapons are pretty much any missile defense missile, such as what was just used by the MDA to shoot down the ICBM in their test. THAAD missiles don't used explosive warheads either. But when you calculate the closing speeds of the two missiles one can easily see why a warhead is not required. I believe some systems have a shaped copper object much like conventional RPG rounds and other anti armor rounds used by conventional troops.

These rounds defeat armor by taking advantage of the Munroe Effect. Upon detonation the shaped copper is turned into a jet of molten copper to "drill through" the armor. Once inside it disperses and does some really nasty things to those humans unfortunate enough to be there along with usually causing a tank to cook off. Even conventional rounds that don't defeat a tanks armor can cause spall which is very nasty as well to it's occupants.

APFSDS rounds rely solely on kinetic energy as well.

 

[cytg111]

DARPA just announced that Boeing, who built the ultra secretive X-37B, was awarded a contract to build another class of space access craft. If the requirements are met this will revolutionize quick access to space and delivery as well.

From a defense perspective the near total reliance on satellite based technology combined with the emergence of anti satellite weaponry from Russia and China must keep a lot of people at the Pentagon up all night. Perhaps this new craft is designed with the ability to quickly, cheaply, and repeatedly deploy satellites into their appropriate orbit?

"The primary requirement for the XS-1 technology demonstrator is the ability to loft a 3,000 pound expendable payload into low earth orbit, an altitude of anywhere between 99 and 1,200 miles, at a cost of no more than $5 million per launch. According to DARPA, this is roughly 10 times less than what the U.S. military spends on similar space missions."

Weee and SpaceX just won the contract to lauch the little ah heck. Nice.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

He could have been speaking in platitudes, and it could be something as 'simple' as new weapons systems (like aforementioned rail gun or directed energy implementation) but if he's being no-kidding serious, it'd have to be something on the scale of like, LEO 'naval' military deployment, which is both awesome and terrifying.

 

[pauldun170]

US Navy CNO Richardson who's comments prompted me to create this thread released a white paper a couple weeks ago regarding the future of the US Navy. I haven't had a chance to read it yet. While surely interesting (aren't all white papers?) I doubt it will provide any insight as to what paradigm shifting technology he alluded too.

https://news.usni.org/2017/05/17/document-chief-of-naval-operations-white-paper-the-future-navy

Summary of white paper
Build more and build them faster because procurement things and stuff and also innovatively rethink how we think so that we can think about innovatingly implementing innovative solutions.


It seems more like a plea to the Republican controlled government to give the Navy all the monies before those damn dirty hippies get control and cut budgets.

This made me chuckle from the comments

Lazarus • 21 days ago


A "White paper" is not a strategy. Who knows if a 355 ship fleet is actually up to the global task of securing sea control when and where the US desires. This seems more an effort to build a strategy around an arbitrary number rather than the needed, bottom up assessment of US global requirements needed to determine an appropriate naval strategy, and the right force structure with which to carry out its tenets. Also, "White papers" have little or no connection to the Navy's Program Objective Memorandum (POM); the only document that Congress really understands or cares about much.