China Maritime Report No. 23: The Type 075 LHD: Development, Missions, and Capabilities

When the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) commissioned its first Type 075 class Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) in April 2021, it represented an important advance in power projection capability for China’s maritime forces. For the first time, the PLAN had an amphibious warship capable of hosting significant rotary wing forces while acting as the flagship for an amphibious task force. Now with three Type 075 class ships either in or soon to be in service, the PLAN has expanded its amphibious capability even further. The Type 075’s dedicated aviation support capability, ability to conduct wet well operations, and expanded command and control and medical facilities reflect capabilities that previously did not exist within the PLAN amphibious fleet. With the Type 075 LHD, the PLAN clearly intends to bolster its ability to project power from the sea in order to protect China’s overseas interests, but will require time for amphibious task forces to become fully proficient.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-maritime-reports/1022/thumbnail.jp

WATER-BASED MITIGATION TECHNIQUES AND NETWORK INTEGRATION TO COUNTER DRONE SWARMS

Potential and current U.S. adversaries are purchasing and deploying commercial small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) in networked swarms. These swarms can be used for intelligence collection and reconnaissance, and have the potential to be weaponized as well. Additionally, the unlawful, but probably not malicious, activity of civilian UAS (drone) operators is of increasing concern. More specifically, there is increased risk to naval assets while in constrained environments, such as harbor transit, where both navigation and weaponized responses are serious concerns. This thesis uses the scenario of protecting a U.S. Navy destroyer entering and exiting a harbor to develop a sUAS mitigation procedure based on existing firefighting and counter-piracy technologies. The proposed procedure includes a communications plan and can be implemented almost immediately using existing civilian and military assets. Additional recommendations to improve the performance of such procedures are provided.CRUSARRRTOLieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

IMSS-BASED INDONESIAN DEFENSE CONCEPT MAP FOR THE SUNDA STRAIT REGION

The Indonesian Archipelago Seaway (ALKI) is a strategic area with heavy ship traffic. Starting with ships entering and exiting the Straits of Melaka (ALKI I), the Straits of Makassar (ALKI II) to the Papuaan waters (ALKI III).To protect and regulate seaway in Indonesian territorial waters, a centralized system is needed that can monitor all ships passing through Indonesian waters.Integrated Maritime Surveillance System (IMSS) is one of the latest technologies used by the militaries in many countries. Indonesia is one of the countries that has beganto implement IMSS in the marine defense system.In this paper, we conduct an evaluation of the IMSS concept in Indonesian waters to improve the seaway security. The results of the study conducted show thatthe implementation of monitoring systems using IMSS systems is important and needs to be implemented, especially in the ALKI I region, especially in the Sunda Strait. This requires good performance and coordination between the people and departments responsible for their respective responsibilities and functions. In practice, however, leadership in implementing information systems development and implementing IMSS-based oversight within the Navy still faces various hurdles

No Substitute for Experience

The twenty-sixth of December 2012 marked an important date in Chinese military history—the fourth anniversary of China\u27s furthest and most extensive naval operations to date, the ongoing antipiracy deployments in the Gulf of Aden. In the first-ever simultaneous three-fleet public display, China\u27s North Sea Fleet, East Sea Fleet, and South Sea Fleet all held open day activities. The guided-missile destroyers Qingdao, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen and guided-missile frigate Zhoushan, together with their associated helicopters and personnel, were visited by more than eight thousand people from all sectors of the society at the port cities after which they are named.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-red-books/1009/thumbnail.jp

Automation and Accountability in Decision Support System Interface Design

When the human element is introduced into decision support system design, entirely new layers of social and ethical issues emerge but are not always recognized as such. This paper discusses those ethical and social impact issues specific to decision support systems and highlights areas that interface designers should consider during design with an emphasis on military applications. Because of the inherent complexity of socio-technical systems, decision support systems are particularly vulnerable to certain potential ethical pitfalls that encompass automation and accountability issues. If computer systems diminish a user’s sense of moral agency and responsibility, an erosion of accountability could result. In addition, these problems are exacerbated when an interface is perceived as a legitimate authority. I argue that when developing human computer interfaces for decision support systems that have the ability to harm people, the possibility exists that a moral buffer, a form of psychological distancing, is created which allows people to ethically distance themselves from their actions

CONTROVERSIAL INNOCENT PASSAGES IN THE BLACK SEA, 1982 - 2021

How and why has Russia disputed innocent passages by Western warships in the Black Sea since the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) in 1982, and how has the West justified conducting these passages? This thesis focuses on the historical, geopolitical, and legal context surrounding four instances of innocent passage conducted by USS Yorktown and USS Caron (1986 and 1988), HMS Dragon (2020), and HMS Defender (2021) within 12 nautical miles of Crimea, in order to explain the broader implications that these innocent passages have for operations in the disputed waters of the Black Sea and the South China Sea. Whereas the 1986 innocent passage was met with Soviet naval interference and diplomatic protests, the 1988 innocent passage escalated to an infamous shouldering or “bumping incident.” A similar pattern of escalation took place after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. In my thesis, I provide a historical context for the innocent passages, and I explore U.S. and UK reasoning for conducting the innocent passages as well as Russia’s objections to the passages. Finally, I assess what the disputes suggest for similar maritime disputes with China in the South China Sea and propose a template for Navy-Wide Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOP) guidance.Outstanding ThesisLieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Assessing the potential of autonomous multi-agent surveillance in asset protection from underwater threats

A Serious Game (SG) system for the assessment of the potential of the multi-vehicle surveillance is presented. The SG system is applied to the problem of protection of strategic assets from underwater asymmetric threats. The SG platform integrates the active sonar performance evaluator able to estimate the real performance on the basis of the environmental conditions. The final goal is to provide new technology tools to realize a Decision Support System (DDS) to support the design phase of a naval unit. The SG system is developed in the framework of the ProDifCon project supported by the (DLTM) (Italy)

IRAN'S CHALLENGE TO THE U.S. IN THE MARITIME DOMAIN

This thesis examines how Iran attempts to challenge the United States in the maritime domain. Iranian strategic thinking is discussed to better understand their views on self-reliance and national defense. The thesis then defines asymmetric naval warfare and how the strategy aims to counter perceived threats. Historical background is provided to understand how Iran's naval force developed. The shift in Iran's approach to the maritime domain, from conventional sea power to asymmetric naval warfare, is explained in reference to the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The Tanker War is used to demonstrate Iran's first application of asymmetric warfare in the maritime domain. An examination of Iran's current assets among its naval forces, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy (IRGCN) and the Islamic Republic of Iran's Navy (IRIN), seeks to understand how Iran has evolved in the maritime domain. The IRGCN is examined in relation to its primary objective of Persian Gulf defense. The IRIN is examined in relation to its "blue-water" naval capability and use in cultivating partnerships. The research indicates Iran can credibly impact U.S. naval operations in the Persian Gulf and achieve security objectives within the maritime domain through the use of its current asymmetric naval threats. Iran's naval forces reinforce the Islamic Republic's ambitions for regional hegemony and provide an opportunity for future influence beyond the Persian Gulf.Lieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Design for Support in the Initial Design of Naval Combatants

The decline of defence budgets coupled with the escalation of warship procurement costs have significantly contributed to fleet downsizing in most major western navies despite little reduction in overall commitments, resulting in extra capability and reliability required per ship. Moreover, the tendency of governments to focus on short-term strategies and expenditure has meant that those aspects of naval ship design that may be difficult to quantify, such as supportability, are often treated as secondary issues and allocated insufficient attention in Early Stage Design. To tackle this, innovation in both the design process and the development of individual ship designs is necessary, especially at the crucial early design stages. Novelty can be achieved thanks to major developments in computer technology and in adopting an architecturally-orientated approach to early stage ship design. The existing technical solutions aimed at addressing supportability largely depend on highly detailed ship design information, thus fail to enable rational supportability assessments in the Concept Phase. This research therefore aimed at addressing the lack of a quantitative supportability evaluation approach applicable to early stage naval ship design. Utilising Decision Analysis, Effectiveness Analysis, and Analytic Hierarchy Process, the proposed approach tackled the difficulty of quantifying certain aspects of supportability in initial ship design and provided a framework to address the issue of inconsistent and often conflicting preferences of decision makers. Since the ship’s supportability is considered to be significantly affected by its configuration, the proposed approach utilised the advantages of an architecturally-orientated early stage ship design approach and a new concept design tool developed at University College London. The new tool was used to develop concept level designs of a frigate-sized combatant and a number of variations of it, namely configurational rearrangement with enhancement of certain supportably features, and an alternative ship design style. The design cases were then used to demonstrate the proposed evaluation approach. The overall aim of proposing a quantitative supportability evaluation approach applicable to concept naval ship design was achieved, although several issues and limitations emerged during both the development as well as the implementation of the approach. Through identification of the research limitations, areas for future work aimed at improving the proposal have been proposed