Littoral undersea warfare: a case study in process modelling for functionality and introperability of complex systems

The goal of this investigation is to demonstrate the application of a process modelling approach to architect a System of Systems (SoS) capable of conducting Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) operations projecting to the year 2025. Process modelling is a methodology for architectural analysis for complex systems whose operation is characterised by ‘processes’ whose sequential execution may be scaled-up to understand overall system behaviour. It is ideally suited to address complexity and interoperability issues of an ASW SoS. New contributions of this work include the successful implementation of a process modelling approach to architect an ASW SoS and a cohesive set of results analysing its operation with future projections to the year 2025. We believe this work may serve as a foundation for future systems engineering research addressing interoperability and performance of complex systems whose function is closely tied to time-dependent processes, with particular application to military and security systems

Capital Influence. The Capital Ship in U.S. Naval Strategy

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of capital ships in U.S. naval strategy from the end of the Cold War until this day. The study analyses the capital ships’ role within U.S. naval strategy and how this has developed over time. Furthermore the study discusses the future of the supercarrier as the U.S. capital ship. An unambiguous definition of what a capital ship actually is does not exist. The study has therefore used a comparative historic approach in order to define the capital ship. The definition is: They are the most important ships of their time, they ensure conditions that permit other forces or functions to perform their respective role. In wartime, capital ships secure the use of the sea. The study is explorative and answers the research question through a qualitative approach and uses theory of naval strategy and Ken Booth’s Naval Trinity as the analytical framework. The results show, that the supercarrier has been elevated to almost mythological status in the U.S. Navy and institutions, and it will probably take a major war to challenge this status. The supercarrier has become a symbol of U.S. supremacy, and the pillar on which all U.S. naval strategic thinking is done. However, with the advent of near peer completion on the world’s oceans the Navy is now struggling to define its military role. Its role as a tool of diplomacy on the other hand is very well defined and value-laden. It was once stated, “capital ships are built to prevent war”, and the U.S. is certainly placing a lot of faith on this approach.Formålet med denne masteropgave er at studere the capital ships rolle i amerikansk flådestrategi siden den Kolde Krig. Opgaven analyserer the capital ships rolle i indenfor amerikansk flådestrategi samt, hvordan denne har udviklet sig over tid. Derudover, diskuteres supercarrier’ens fremtid som amerikansk capital ship. Der findes ikke en entydig definition på hvad et capital ship egentlig er. Opgaven har derfor gennem en historisk komparativ tilgang udarbejdet en definition. Definitionen lyder: De er deres samtids vigtigste skibe, de sikrer tilstande, som tillader andre styrker at gennemføre deres roller. I krigstid, er det capital ships der sikrer evnen til at benytte havet. Studien undersøger problemformuleringen gennem en kvalitativ tilgang og benytter maritim teori og Ken Booths maritime treenighed som analytisk rammeværk. Resultaterne viser, at supercarrier’en er blevet ophøjet til nærmest mytologisk status i den amerikanske flåde og i amerikanske institutioner. Det vil givetvis kræve en større krig hvis dette paradigme skal udfordres for alvor. Supercarrier’en er blevet symbolet på amerikansk overlegenhed og grundlaget for al amerikansk maritim strategisk tænkning. Det faktum at andre magter nu er trådt ind på den globale scene har medført, at den amerikanske flåde nu har vanskeligt ved at beskrive dette skibs militære rolle. Som et diplomatisk redskab er skibets rolle med veldefineret og værdiladet. Dr. Tim Benbow har en gang udtrykt, at ”capital ships bliver bygget med det formål at undgå krig”. Denne tilgang tillægger USA utvivlsomt stor betydning

"Strategic Deterrence" in the North. Implications of Russian Maritime Defence Planning and Seapower to Norwegian Maritime Strategy

Aiming to contribute on research cumulation on Russian military affairs in general and maritime defence planning and seapower in general, the thesis objectives are twofold in exploring Russian maritime defence planning and seapower in the North since 1999 while analysing its strategic and operational implications to Norwegian maritime strategy. The thesis' necessarily interdisciplinary research design thus carries a significant maritime disposition as its analysis is primarily one of maritime thinking and its interfaces with political and military strategy. To that end, the theoretical and analytical framework combines elements of naval theory and Civil-Military Relations (CMR) in order to prescribe proper conceptual tools aiding its study while employing Comparative Historical Analysis (CHA) allowing longitudinal comparison of within-variation and its analytical tool of process-tracing aiding causal inference from probing for continuity and change in Russian maritime defence planning and seapower. What becomes evident in sum is how the North has figured prominently throughout with an increased prominence prescribed to the Russian Federation Navy (RFN) and maritime strategy in national frameworks. Whereas Russian threat perceptions have fuelled military modernisation and reforms focusing on combat capability, boesposobnost, and combat readiness, boegotovnost, in line with a shift to Network-Enabled Capability (NEC), strategic thinking and operational art demonstrates significant continuity through the inherently asymmetric, universal and continuous concept of "strategic deterrence", strategischeskoe sderzhivanie, in deterring, containing and coercing in times of peace, crisis and war-to which Norwegian territory lend itself of particular use while exposing Norway and NATO to significant power-wielding in differing ways. As the principal objective of naval rearmament, what emerges from Russian maritime defence planning and seapower is a naval force whose seapower is restrained to coastal defence and power projection in adjacent seas with an enhanced capacity for sea control and sea denial-the sum of which in the North manifests as an "arc of steel" with significant strategic and operational implications for Norwegian maritime strategy. Critically, Russian defence planner's preoccupation with the strategic deterrence concept and a regime of Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD) and precision-guided munitions (PGM) to support it has solidified the Royal Norwegian Navy's (RNoN) need for forward-based presence based on an operational approach of area-access employing the fleet's mobility and firepower, while increasing its dependence upon the exploitation of the coastline for survivability and as a force multiplier in order to fulfil the tasks set by the maritime strategy-demanding coastal defence capabilities and sufficient degrees of sea denial and sea control cross-spectrum.MasteroppgaveSAMPOL350MASV-SAP

“Strategic Deterrence” in the North. Implications of Russian Maritime Defence Planning and Seapower to Norwegian Maritime Strategy

Aiming to contribute on research cumulation on Russian military affairs in general and maritime defence planning and seapower in general, the thesis objectives are twofold in exploring Russian maritime defence planning and seapower in the North since 1999 while analysing its strategic and operational implications to Norwegian maritime strategy. The thesis’ necessarily interdisciplinary research design thus carries a significant maritime disposition as its analysis is primarily one of maritime thinking and its interfaces with political and military strategy. To that end, the theoretical and analytical framework combines elements of naval theory and Civil-Military Relations (CMR) in order to prescribe proper conceptual tools aiding its study while employing Comparative Historical Analysis (CHA) allowing longitudinal comparison of within-variation and its analytical tool of process-tracing aiding causal inference from probing for continuity and change in Russian maritime defence planning and seapower. What becomes evident in sum is how the North has figured prominently throughout with an increased prominence prescribed to the Russian Federation Navy (RFN) and maritime strategy in national frameworks. Whereas Russian threat perceptions have fuelled military modernisation and reforms focusing on combat capability, boesposobnost, and combat readiness, boegotovnost, in line with a shift to Network-Enabled Capability (NEC), strategic thinking and operational art demonstrates significant continuity through the inherently asymmetric, universal and continuous concept of “strategic deterrence”, strategischeskoe sderzhivanie, in deterring, containing and coercing in times of peace, crisis and war—to which Norwegian territory lend itself of particular use while exposing Norway and NATO to significant power-wielding in differing ways. As the principal objective of naval rearmament, what emerges from Russian maritime defence planning and seapower is a naval force whose seapower is restrained to coastal defence and power projection in adjacent seas with an enhanced capacity for sea control and sea denial—the sum of which in the North manifests as an “arc of steel” with significant strategic and operational implications for Norwegian maritime strategy. Critically, Russian defence planner’s preoccupation with the strategic deterrence concept and a regime of Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD) and precision-guided munitions (PGM) to support it has solidified the Royal Norwegian Navy’s (RNoN) need for forward-based presence based on an operational approach of area-access employing the fleet’s mobility and firepower, while increasing its dependence upon the exploitation of the coastline for survivability and as a force multiplier in order to fulfil the tasks set by the maritime strategy— demanding coastal defence capabilities and sufficient degrees of sea denial and sea control cross spectrum

Red Perimeter Defeated: U.S. Naval Supremacy, Competitive Adaptation, and the Third Battle of the Atlantic, 1946-1981

This dissertation examines the long-term military competition between the U.S. and Soviet navies during 1946-81. It investigates the dynamics of naval posture change by integrating insights from military innovation theory with in-depth process tracing, thus providing a much-improved understanding of the Cold War at sea during the most decisive phases of the 'Third Battle of the Atlantic'

Maritime airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in the High North - The role of anti-submarine warfare - 1945 to the present

There is mounting consensus among NATO allies that the resurgent Russian naval and submarine activity in the High North needs to be closely monitored and kept in check. And in spite of the rise of satellite technology and unmanned aircraft, the key instrument in that effort, at least for now, remains the Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) with its Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) capabilities. However, after three decades of focus on expeditionary and counterinsurgency (COIN) warfare, there has taken place an atrophy within the MPA community of knowledge, resources, experience and practice when it comes to the ASW aspects of maritime surveillance. This atrophy occurred just as the concept of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) came to play an increasingly important role in operational planning. The concept of ISR, however, is linked to expeditionary and COIN warfare, and it pays insufficient attention to the challenges of maritime airborne surveillance and the specific challenges of ASW. This thesis seeks to address this gap. It does so by analysing the past in order to find solutions for the future. The thesis examines the entwined evolution of airborne maritime surveillance by MPA and ASW in the High North, both during and after the Cold War, and focuses on the key NATO allies of Norway, the US, and the UK. The thesis further seeks to identify the fundamental building blocks’ and tenets of these historical surveillance operations that are then used to craft a novel theoretical framework for understanding the nature and function of maritime airborne ISR and its relationship to ASW. That framework is then applied to make recommendations for the future for maritime surveillance in the High North. The thesis’s key findings of this thesis are that: • Russian submarines as the capital ships of the Russia Navy. They have morphed from noisy, predictable vessels operating in known patrol areas, to superbly silent vessels operating in unpredictable patterns, carrying world-leading cruise missiles technology that constitute a renewed threat to both European and American targets; • the traditional airborne tool to meet the submarine threat, the MPA, is crucial but not adequate in a modern context. A multi-layered, international approach is required, which will benefit from utilizing artificial intelligence for complex acoustic sensor processing

Neglected Skies: The Far Eastern Demise of British Naval Supremacy, 1922 – 1942

This thesis concludes that Britain’s longstanding command of the sea was initially terminated in early April 1942 through the culmination of a two-decade process in which the Royal Navy did not keep pace with the rapid evolution of the air weapon at sea. Whereas it is conceded that British strategic sea power became eclipsed by the United States Navy during the second half of the Second World War, the inability of the Royal Navy to compete effectively with Japan’s massed carrier spearhead ended the RN’s capacity to dominate the battlefield itself, a reputation the service had enjoyed since the days of Trafalgar. The material examined will demonstrate how the relative neglect of offensive carrier aviation by the British Admiralty in the interwar period, in concert with unfavourable domestic and international circumstances, resulted in Britain entering the war with a fleet far short of optimum operational readiness. Although it shall be concluded that the Royal Navy successfully engaged its European Axis opponents, it remained in a parlous position if forced to confront an opponent that possessed a superior naval air force, which the Eastern Fleet encountered south of Ceylon from 4-9 April 1942 in the form of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Kido Butai (Mobile Force), the most formidable concentration of naval airpower yet seen in modern warfare

Early 21st Century Russian Naval Strategy at Europe‘s Southern Maritime Flank:Continental Power, Fleet Design and Naval Operations

This thesis “Early 21st Century Russian Naval Strategy at Europe‘s Southern Maritime Flank: Continental Power, Fleet Design and Naval Operations” examines Russian naval strategy at Europe's southern tier in the period 2000-2019, focusing on the Black Sea, Sea of Azov and Mediterranean Sea regions, and secondarily on the Caspian Sea and the Horn of Africa. Drawing on theories of seapower and geopolitics, it argues that the continental nature of the Russian state and its navy served as the driving force behind Russian naval strategy during the first two decades of the 21st century. Using, among others, archive research, data gathered through Lloyd's Intelligence and interviews, the thesis examines the nature of the early 21st century Russian state; the Russian Federation's policies related to the maritime domain; Russian naval arms procurement; and naval operations from 2000 to 2015.<br/