"Warfare is changing right before our eyes. The battlefield is slowing becoming more about AI driven robotic planes and tanks, and less about humans being exposed to close up danger. By 2035, the battlefield might look more like Star Wars than what we are used to seeing."
As a young man, fresh out of college and the regular Navy, I cut my teeth (so to speak) on the AEGIS weapon system for the Navy. How long ago was that? Before the Vertical Launching System (VLS). The Navy had the USS Ticonderoga, which was going to be the lead ship (cruiser) in housing this new gee whiz radar guided weapon system. In fact, RCA (who was a customer at that time), built the AEGIS system in a mockup of a cruiser in Moorestown, NJ. It was in the middle of a corn field, and the local folks were fascinated by it. As a contractor, I toured it - than once.
From there I went to working on the VLS system. It was hooked right into the AEGIS system. I worked for FMC and was teamed with Lockheed Martin. It was the highest of tech back in the day. Big, deadly and expensive. The VLS was going to be on cruisers and the new Arleigh Burke destroyers. But the problems for the future were already starting to show up. The crane system for loading new canisters while the VLS ship was underway - did not work and was scrapped. In its place was - nothing. In a fight, when either a VLS cruiser or destroyer ran out of missiles, that ship had to leave the fight. That was a huge problem and plagues the Navy to this day.
This brings us up to today. In this new and crazy world of drone swarms, yesterday's VLS with all those expensive SM2 missiles are not the right cure. The call has gone out from the administration to the defense contractors - the Navy needs missiles which are better, cheaper and deadlier. And the VLS as it is configured today, might have seen its better days. We need to have a re-load ability on ALL our ships, so if a fight comes - they can stay in the fight. Right now, however, we are still fighting tomorrow's wars with yesterday's stuff. Trump wants that fixed ASAP.
Tomorrow's solution to drone swarms at sea will probably rest in the new laser systems. Those plus a newer and better version of the rail gun. The days of killing an insect with a sledgehammer are going to be over soon. Now with the Navy's HELIOS laser system being installed on our war fighting ships, the era of the drone swarm being effective against navies such as ours - might be ending soon. But we will still need missiles - anti-ship missiles and land attack cruise missiles. And that problem is being addressed by companies such as Lockeed Martin right now.
Warfare is changing right before our eyes. The battlefield is slowing becoming more about AI driven robotic planes and tanks, and less about humans being exposed to close up danger. By 2035, the battlefield might look more like Star Wars than what we are used to seeing. But for right now, the standing orders are better, cheaper and deadlier. Will our Navy be the biggest in 2035? Maybe not - but it will be the best. Count on it.
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