Communications satellites, advanced weaponry, and robotic cars are but some of the new toys the Naval Forces will be using to keep up the national defense while fulfilling its duty to cut costs. Man will be replaced by machine in many instances.
At least this is how the National Research Council sees the situation in a report issued Tuesday. The report, "Technology for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, 2000 - 2035," outlines how advanced technologies will help automate � and, in some instances, reduce casualties � in many military operations, including weapons systems, support and supply systems, automated ship instrumentation, and area surveillance.
A common thread throughout these efforts will be weaning the Pentagon from its proprietary development efforts in favor of taking advantage of what private industry is building, particularly where communications are concerned. This assessment is similar to that made in an NRC July report, which outlined goals for NASA.
"Civilian and commercial systems will overwhelm anything they're building," said Seymour Deitchman, consultant and member of the Naval Studies Board. "There will be lots of capacity out there. [The Naval Forces] should take advantage of it."
The paper issued Tuesday is the first of a nine-volume report and summarizes the findings of the NRC committee. Subsequent volumes will detail how the Naval Forces can implement technology such as sensing systems, how they can gain an upper hand in information and undersea warfare, how to better train personnel to work with advanced technologies, and how to use modeling and simulation to test systems.
Few of the technologies described in the report are new, said Deitchman. It's all a matter of how they are integrated into operations. For example, to survey a populated area ravaged by war, the committee suggests a combination of global positioning satellites with small robotic vehicles to help locate opposing forces more precisely. This system would reduce casualties, as troops would no longer be sent into unknown territory, and they would have a better idea of where the enemy was located.
But these technological advances are not occurring in a vacuum, Deitchman noted. Counter measures must also be considered. For example, sensors on a surveillance vehicle can be countered by an enemy's use of camouflage. A possible response to this could be the ability of the sensor to switch to a different operating spectrum to "see" the camouflaged item or troops.
Notably absent from any volume of the report is the future of nuclear weapons. According to the paper, the evolution of nuclear arsenal came up in discussion - in the context of a need for destruction of buried targets out of the reach of conventional weapons. But the committee elected not to broach the subject because of the broader political and international ramifications, including the adherence to test-ban treaties.
"That's a huge national problem, and we didn't think we should get into it unilaterally," Deitchman said.
