3/13/2013 Naval Interest

NAMAZU REPORTS ON A RELATED IDEA TO  HIS POST ON AVOIDING A SUN TSU STYLE  AMBUSH IN THE CHINA SEAS 

Editor's Note: Namazu obviously reads the Naval Institute's PROCEEDINGS if you are a naval professional and not a member of the institute ask yourself....are you really a naval professional. Just occasionally reading an article out of the Wardroom /Chief's Mess or ship's library copy doesn't count. consider a digital membership  http://www.usni.org/U9EOaE5Owfjats6?gclid=CM36itCy-LUCFc2iPAod0WMAQg 

NAMAZU, Giant Japanese Catfish and Former Demigod Turned AAB Analyst

I hope the U.S. Navy eventually takes note of my posting of March 7, 2013 "Sun Tsued".  I hope this not just for the increased circulation and advertising revenues that might eventually pay for the research staff I've asked for.  I hope it for the sake of the United States which in the 3,000 plus years that I've been around I'm convinced is the World's last and best hope.  I want the U.S. Navy to avoid the classic Sun Tsu inspired trap that the Dragon is building for the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) and the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet inside the South China, East China and Yellow Seas. In my March 7th posting I tried to outline a strategy that out Sun Tsued the Dragon's Sun Tsu inspired trap and turned their plan to the advantage of a U.S. Navy plan that amounts to shooting fish in a barrel. Well, I hope they also listen real soon to Peter von Bieichert, author of FOURTH CRISIS; THE BATTLE FOR TAIWAN (Amazon Digital Services, 2013 


Click on the book cover icon below link to Amazon's digital service for prices, download instructions, or to read sample pages

                                                                        

and author of ABANDON THE LITTORALS TO ROBOTS (Naval Institutes's PROCEEDINGS p. 10, March 2013 :
 http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2013-03/now-hear-abandon-littorals-robots  )

 I said much the same thing back on March 7th but soon to be Doctor, von Bleichert's phrasing is worthy of note:
              "Littorals are increasingly dangerous to naval forces. The proliferation of sophisticated shore and ship-launched anti ship missiles, asymmetric tactics such as the fast -boat swarm, and sophisticated anti -access area denial technologies , makes these areas more difficult to penetrate . Though few groups or nations can challenge or threaten the U.S. Navy on or below blue water , the risks presented today to our manned warships by the green and brown waters of the world are neither negligible or cheap to mitigate"

The Naval Institutes's PROCEEDINGS have been publishing articles pondering this problem for years. Perhaps the first and most immediately viable proposed tactical approach to war in the near shore regions was sometimes called "Street Fighter".  The "Street Fighter concept proposed that large capital war ships stand off such regions while the regions were "sanitized" by smaller heavily armed but lightly manned naval craft.  In the von Bleichert vision of the concept the smaller vessels would actually be unmanned. In terms of today's reality some of both the surface and aerial combatants could very well be drones. Unfortunately as Peter von Bieichert points out today's surface and aerial drones are sometimes as much force dividers as force multipliers. The present crop of unmanned vessels and aircraft are unable to fully defend themselves from the wide range of threats in the near coastal and confined seas. Sometimes keeping these mission specific assets in play involves manned combatant ships that in fact, may be needed elsewhere in other roles. Mr. von Bleichert recommends purpose built drone vessels with anti-fouling resistant jet engines, networked sensors, and sensors for detecting and avoiding obstacles. The ideal von Bleichert design would also be semi submersible to reduce its target signature. Of course as a three thousand year old catfish who just loves technology I think these are all wonderful ideas for the future. But the Chinese are already positioning their Sun Tsu inspired trap as we write. They are pushing the envelope towards armed confrontation daily and whatever happens the United States Navy will have to come as it is, if things happen as quickly as they could happen. 

 If I'm correct and the shooting starts before we make the kind of technological progress on drones that Mr. (maybe doctor by now, he was a Ph. D candidate when he wrote the article ) von Bleichert  envisions we should still seek to maximize our drone air craft, drone vessels, smart weapons, and over the horizon targeting capabilities to stand in the Pacific off the narrows the lead into and out of the China seas and whack the Dragons fleet until they either are reduced to a non serious threat or make the fatal mistake of coming out into the blue water to challenge the U.S. Navy. This "shooting fish in a barrel" strategy isn't blood less for the U.S. and Japan today. Some of the old "street fighter" concepts will have to be used as well. But the main point is to never let the main force inside the very place where the dragon has all its pups, the very place where the dragon is trying to lure the forces of Japan and the United States as we write. Their trap for us can be turned into a fish barrel for them. If we made real progress towards the robot littoral force advocated by Mr. von Bleichert and the day of reckoning could be postponed until then, the day is coming when we could do such a campaign near bloodlessly in terms of American lives, sorry about the Dragon's people.