19 May 2016 – The Navy is creating an offensive anti-surface network that will tie targeting information from satellites, aircraft, ships, submarines and the weapons themselves to form a lethal “kill web” designed to keep pace with the expanding lethal power of potential adversaries.
The scheme will use information ranging from sensors in space to the undersea to share information in a so-called tactical cloud that will allow aircraft and ships to access a range of targeting information to launch weapons against surface targets, said Rear Adm. Mark Darrah, at the service’s program executive officer for Strike Weapons and Unmanned Aviation at the Naval Air Systems Command in a presentation at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition 2016 (hat tip to Ed Hubbert for his notes).
The “All Domain Offensive Surface Warfare Capability” is an:
“integrated fire, leveraging all domains, the ability for us to utilize air-launched capabilities, surface launched capabilities and subsurface launched capabilities that are tied together with an all domain information network. We call it the tactical cloud. We’re going to put data up in the cloud and users are going to go grab it and use it as a contributor to a targeting solution. The concept is a direct response the increased sophistication of adversary networked sensor systems – specifically the enemy’s ability to take all of their sensors and nets them together to project their ability to see me faster and farther away, and now my sanctuary has been decreased. It’s about their ability to reduce the amount of space I have to operate in by tying their capability together and force me to operate from a farther distance from a threat.”
The scheme will allow the Navy to increase the effective ranges of their own weapons against surface targets.