U.S. Navy: Bring Out the Swarmbots!

Here's a report that makes you want to shout "Faster please!"

As you read it, think about arming these things with stuff like (a) mini-torpedoes (b) mini-mines (c) missiles (d) chaff launchers (e) mini-guns (f) anti-wing in ground aircraft weapons and other stuff. More on this below.



U.S. Navy report on its new "swarmbot technology" "Navy's Autonomous Swarmboats Can Overwhelm Adversaries":

A technological breakthrough will allow any unmanned surface vehicle (USV) to not only protect Navy ships, but also, for the first time, autonomously "swarm" offensively on hostile vessels, officals at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) announced Oct. 5.

The first-of-its-kind technology, successfully demonstrated over two weeks in August on the James River in Virginia, allows unmanned Navy vessels to overwhelm an adversary. Its sensors and software enable swarming capability, giving naval warfighters a decisive edge.

"This networking unmanned platforms demonstration was a cost-effective way to integrate many small, cheap and autonomous capabilities that can significantly improve our warfighting advantage," said Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations.

The technology, called CARACaS (Control Architecture for Robotic Agent Command and Sensing), is under development by ONR and can be put into a transportable kit and installed on almost any boat. It allows boats to operate autonomously, without a Sailor physically needing to be at the controls including operating in sync with other unmanned vessels, choosing their own routes, swarming to interdict enemy vessels and escorting/protecting naval assets.

"Our Sailors and Marines can't fight tomorrow's battles using yesterday's technology," said Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder. "This kind of breakthrough is the result of the Navy's long-term support for innovative research in science and technology."

In the demonstrations, as many as 13 Navy boats operated using either autonomous or remote control. First they escorted a high-value Navy ship, and when a simulated enemy vessel was detected, the boats sped into action, swarming around the threat.

In the future, the capability could scale to include even greater numbers of USVs and even to other platforms, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

"This multiplies combat power by allowing CARACaS-enabled boats to do some of the dangerous work," said Dr. Robert Brizzolara, program manager at ONR. "It will remove our Sailors and Marines from many dangerous situations -- for instance, when they need to approach hostile or suspicious vessels. If an adversary were to fire on the USVs, no humans would be at risk."

The new technology will allow the USVs to detect, deter or destroy attacking adversaries. Any weapons fire from the USVs would need to be initiated by a Sailor supervising the mission.

Naval leadership has emphasized a blended force of manned and unmanned systems in recent years. Not only can USVs take on dangerous missions, thus protecting the warfighter, but even multiple USVs are a fraction of the cost of a single large manned ship.

Want to fight anti-access swarms by bad guys? How about sending 10 of these things out with something like floating mini-mines (minelets?) capable of of being fired off in a short-lived (a couple of hours? 30 minutes?) mine field patterns that builds an explosive barrier around a high value unit that an opposing swarm would have to deal with? Advantage? No targeting required, just lay out a field and then back it up with other swarmbots armed with other weapons, along with those great big gray hulls.

Dealing with small submarines? What about mini-torpedoes with both internal sensors and links to other systems (like sonobouys) that can be launched by remote control or by air. Make them capable of "waiting" until a confirmed detection.

Speaking of sensors - another use of these things could be to send sensors capable of reporting back to the launch vessel about areas too challenging for big ships (up rivers or in the littorals guarded by anti-ship cruise missiles.

Unleash the Sun Trackers!

Nice thing is that the Navy apparently could outfit itself with capable craft by simply going to Craigslist and buying up old bass boats and other motorboats. Think of using a pontoon boat as an "aircraft carrier" for drones (armed or intelligence collecting).

Need a new class of ship, though, "Swarmbot carriers." Perhaps using barges towed by other ships that can submerge enough to float the swarm into action positions?

Game changing.

Somali Pirates: "Pirate Swarm Attacks is a Myth"

Danish company Risk Intelligence reports, via press release,  "Pirate Swarm Attacks is s Myth"

Every summer shipping companies are warned about large swarms of pirate boats off the Horn of Africa. The warnings are based on reports from ships in the area and put out by security companies and governments. The only problem is that pirate swarms do not exist, according to the Danish intelligence company Risk Intelligence.

“We have monitored these rather panicky reports since at least 2008, when a European Naval vessel reported swarms of up to 20 pirate skiffs. But it is a misunderstanding every year. The phenomenon can be understood and described as something else every time it is reported” says Nis Leerskov Mathiesen, Chief Analyst with Risk Intelligence.

The swarm attack reports always start coming out when the monsoon brings rough weather to large swaths of the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. This means that small boat traffic moves to more sheltered waters, most significantly fishermen and smugglers. Both these groups use small boats similar to those of the pirates. And both groups manoeuvre in ways that can frighten a master of a merchant vessel. Fishermen will move at high speed towards merchant vessels, either to protect their nets or to benefit from the wake and wash of a ship. Smugglers are often “jumping” from ship to ship at high speed to stay hidden from radar surveillance. Pirates are sometimes present in the area as well. They hide in larger groups of boats. They then attack and lookouts confuse background traffic with pirate accomplices.

“We have never seen any proof that an attack is carried out by more than a small handful of skiffs. So the repeating reports of 10 and 20 strong “swarms” is a question of wrong observation in the heat of the battle and short-sighted analysis by those who put out the warnings. The effect is fear mongering”, says Nis Leerskov Mathiesen.

You can get the full report as a pdf here. Interesting read and makes some telling points about why a "pirate" swarm is unlikely. The photos in the report illustrate how confusing the sea picture can be at times. RI points the difficulty, logistically and operationally, of organizing and coordinating a large swarm of boats to attack a ship by pirates.

One of my posts regarding a reported pirate "swarm" can be found here.

Military style swarm attacks are another matter, though they, too, pose coordination issues.

The U.S. Navy and the Persian Gulf: Ramping up slowly

Iran rattles sabers and the U.S. Navy does a slow ramp up. L.A. Times reports, "Navy says it will add ships to Persian Gulf amid Iran threats":

MHC Coastal Minehunter

The U.S. Navy is upgrading its defensive and offensive capabilities in the Persian Gulf to counter threats from Iran to seize the Strait of Hormuz and block the flow of oil, the chief of naval operations said Friday.

MH-53E Mine-sweeping helicopter

Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert told reporters in Washington that the Navy will add four more mine-sweeping ships and four more CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters with mine-detection capability. The Navy is also sending more underwater unmanned mine-neutralization units to the region.

Cyclone-class Coastal Patrol ship

Greenert said he plans to assign more patrol craft to the gulf, possibly armed with Mark 38 Gatling guns. The same kind of guns might be placed on ships that provide protection for U.S. aircraft carriers or perhaps on the carriers themselves.

U.S. ships have excellent long-range defenses but could use weapons for closer combat, Greenert said.

"It’s like being in an alley with a rifle and maybe what you need is a sawed-off shotgun," he said.

One of the Big Dogs at Sea

The Iranians have boasted that they could "swarm" large U.S. ships with their smaller, fast-moving craft. They have also reportedly been laying mines along their coastline.

My guess, which is exactly that, is that the mine-sweeping stuff is for cleaning up the mess after the "AirSea Battle Concept (ASBC) (modified)"  gets a test run. There is almost no better geographic area to do a little joint air-sea work out.

Or, if required to bust some sort of Iranian attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz in an effort to effect access denial to the Persian Gulf.

This is no rush to war, but a sensible response to the known capabilities of the Iranian forces.

Anti-swarm at sea? SEAD, then kill the swarms from the air. Have we got enought A-10's? See here. Our "swarm" is better than theirs. Or, in a few words:"Find 'em, Blind 'em, Kill 'em" Use all the tools in the box.

Swarming Tactics: Some views on fighting the "swarm"

Some older thoughts on resisting the sort of "swarm attack" being threatened by Iran in the Persian Gulf from the Canadian Naval Review: "Swarming Tactics". First, from Ken Hansen, referring to the incident in which several British sailors were captured by Iran -

USV Protector

Ships that are employed in these inshore waters should be small and manoeuvrable (and expendable, if need be), armed with close-range weapons capable of generating devastating stopping power in all four quadrants, and equipped with at least a couple of types of boats. One of these should be a remotely-controlled and armed robotic vehicle, akin to the Protector (built by BAE, Lockheed Martin, and Rafael), or an unmanned but unarmed vehicle of which there are now several types available. Air support should come from a 'mother ship' that will have to stand off in order to avoid unnecessary risk (and embarrassment).

The age of robotics is upon us. If Canadian naval vessels are to be deployed into coastal areas plagued by instability, the threats they will face will look a lot like those in the northern Arabian Gulf. The 'answers' about how to deal with these threats should provoke significant changes in force structure, operating concepts and equipment.

Armed H-60 (hey, look -Marine Mavericks!)

Another thought from Eric Lerhe:

Helicopters provide a way of giving transiting warships maximum warning against small boat forays.

Of course,as I have said before, I prefer standoff, massive firepower in layered defenses including something like:

And, you know, carrier air, ship weapons and the use of UAVs to track the swarm.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Real armaments are good too.

One advantage of not using one way suicide weapons is that you can reload and shoot again and again.

A Fighting Small Boat Swarms Idea

Raytheon photo

Robert Wall, an Aviation Week reporter blogs from the Dubai Air Show on an approach to fighting small boat swarms here:

Raytheon and Emirates Advanced Research and Technology Holding (Earth), its UAE partner, see potential application of the Talon laser-guided rocket to take on small boats.

Raytheon's TALON Laser Guided Rocket site:

AH-64D Apache (Boeing photo)

TALON is a low-cost, semi-active laser guidance and control kit that connects directly to the front of 2.75-inch unguided rockets currently in U.S. and international inventories. It has been designed to fill the critical operational gap between unguided rockets and guided heavy anti-tank missiles.

TALON provides an effective weapon against soft to lightly armored point targets while reducing potential collateral damage. Moreover, its precision standoff range results in improved platform survivability.

Cessna Grand Caravan

These rockets were designed for the AH-64 Apache, but it seems that Raytheon and its partner are thinking it could work on other platforms, too, as well as being capable of targeting small boats instead of just armor and land stuff.

See here where the Cessna Caravan and the AT-802U Air Tractor are mentioned. The latter is an interesting aircraft for anti-small boat ops - long linger time, reasonable pay load. As the Air Tractor site says:

Air Tractor photo of AT-802U

Particularly well suited for force application and situational awareness roles in asymmetrical warfare theatres of operation, the AT-802U is both economical and effective. Like a truck, the aircraft is utilitarian in nature: tough, powerful, and configurable to simply get the job done. It can maintain very long endurance over target and can employ a wide range of weapons simultaneously, with a high degree of accuracy to minimize collateral damage.

With its balloon tires and rugged landing gear, the AT-802U is built to land and operate off unimproved airstrips – even dirt roads – providing unprecedented direct support and coordination with ground troops. The AT-802U can fly in extreme heat and dust conditions and with its massive fuel reserves, loiter over target to find, fix and finish when other fighters have to return to the tanker.

Pilot and sensor operator on the AT-802U. Wonder how they'd do off and on a small flight deck?

Advertising from Air Tractor (and no, I don't own any shares in it or Raytheon or Cessna):
Air Tractor At-802u Brochure

Somali Pirates: Red Sea Attack Involving Pirate "Swarm"

Warning from a security company reported here.

IMB/ICC CCS report here:

06.08.2011: 1505 UTC: Posn: 13:07.2N - 043:04.9E, Around 20nm ENE of Assab, Eritrea, Red Sea.
Twelve skiffs with five to eight pirates in each skiff approached a bulk carrier underway. As the skiff closed guns and ladders were noticed. Warning flares were deployed by the onboard security team. the skiffs continued to approach the vessel at 17 knots. At a distance of around 300 meters, on the command of the Master, the onboard security team fired warning shots resulting in most of the skiffs falling back and circling the vessel. Two skiffs continued to chase the vessel and returned fire. The skiffs and the security team exchanged fire and after 30minutes and numerous approaches the skiffs aborted and moved away.

We have seen pirate "swarm" attacks before. They require some degree of coordination but are designed to overwhelm defensive capabilities through numbers. We'll see if this latest report is repeated soon. A well disciplined and adequately sized security team should be capable of dealing with 12 skiffs, though.

The continued pursuit after warning shots and an exchange of fire is worrisome.

Swarm Tactics: Training Aid for Defense

 Meggitt Canada has developed a system to assist modern naval forces to train against "swarm tactics" as set out in a press release here:

Meggitt Training Systems Canada, the world’s leading naval target company, has conducted the world’s first large-scale ‘swarmex’ demonstration.
The simulation of a real-world threat of swarming fast in-shore attack craft (FIACs) was designed to create a maritime self-protection training scenario for one or more naval ships.
Conducted at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt in British Columbia, the swarmex involved the simultaneous operation over seven hours of 16 Meggitt Hammerhead boat targets controlled on a single radio frequency using Meggitt’s universal target control station.
A FIAC threat arises when a hostile force fields a significant number of small lightly-armed vessels to overwhelm the defences of larger vessels or deny them access to coastal waters.   Since the attack on the USS Cole in 2000, many navies have invested heavily in sensors and weapon systems to defend their vessels from such attacks.  Until this swarmex demonstration, the tools did not exist to conduct live fire exercises to counter target swarms.
Live exercise planned
The swarmex demonstration, in which the Hammerhead flotilla was controlled in a safe, effective and efficient manner, is a significant technical achievement, enabling Meggitt to offer sophisticated FIAC threat replication training services worldwide.  The Canadian Navy has now asked Meggitt to support a major multi-national live-fire naval exercise using Hammerhead in 2011.
Hammerhead, an advanced unmanned surface vehicle target (USV-T) with an award-winning surface-effect hull that enables it to operate at over 35 knots in high sea states, is a derivative of Meggitt’s “Barracuda” naval target.  Barracuda, which has enjoyed extensive worldwide sales replicating the larger Fast Attack Craft (FAC) threat, is in service with the armed forces of Canada, Japan, Sweden, Korea and others.   Like Hammerhead, Barracuda can be controlled by Meggitt’s universal target control station.

Info on the "Barracuda" here.
 


Train like you'll fight. Then train some more.

"You won't rise to the occasion – you'll default to your level of training."

- Barrett Tillman

Iranians at Sea: Swarm Attacks (revisited)

In light of the Iranian Republican Guard announcement about new, high speed missile firing targets boats, here's what I wrote in September 2007 in Iran's Swarm Attack Tactics in the Strait of Hormuz:

You might have missed this article on Iran's 1000 boat "swarm force" stationed near the Strait of Hormuz...:

The U.S. Navy has determined that Iran has amassed a fleet of fast patrol boats in the 43-kilometer straits. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, responsible for strategic programs, leads the effort.

At this point, officials said, IRGC has deployed more than 1,000 FPBs in and around the straits. The vessels, armed with cruise missiles, mines, torpedoes and rocket-propelled grenades, are up to 23 meters in long and can reach a speed of 100 kilometers per hour. ***
"This marks the implementation of Iran's swarm program, where dozens of armed speed boats attack much larger naval vessels from all sides," an official said.
***
IRGC swarming tactics envision a group of more than 100 speedboats attacking a target, such as a Western naval vessel or a commercial oil tanker. They said 20 or more speedboats would strike from each direction, making defense extremely difficult.
***
"We have devised various tactics and other ways of coping," U.S. commander Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff said. "You just don't get 1,000 or 500 or even 20 of anything under way and tightly orchestrated over a large body of water to create a specific effect at a specific time and specific place. They have their own challenges.''

Wait, they won't just magically appear all around a carrier battle group all at once? Even with their incredible Iranian stealth attack ground effect boat/planes?

More on "swarm" tactics and on the Iranian stealth effort here under the title of "Iran's Doctrine of Asymmetric Naval Warfare" -

Swarming tactics are not new; they have been practiced by land armies for thousands of years. Such tactics require light, mobile forces with substantial striking power, capable of rapidly concentrating to attack an enemy from multiple directions and then rapidly dispersing.

Iranian naval swarming tactics focus on surprising and isolating the enemy’s forces and preventing their reinforcement or resupply, thereby shattering the enemy’s morale and will to fight. Iran has practiced both mass and dispersed swarming tactics. The former employs mass formations of hundreds of lightly armed and agile small boats that set off from different bases, then converge from different directions to attack a target or group of targets. The latter uses a small number of highly agile missile or torpedo attack craft that set off on their own, from geographically dispersed and concealed locations, and then converge to attack a single target or set of targets (such as a tanker convoy). The dispersed swarming tactic is much more difficult to detect and repel because the attacker never operates in mass formations.

During the Iran-Iraq War, the Pasdaran navy used mass swarming tactics; as a result, its forces proved vulnerable to attack by U.S. naval and air power. Because of this, it is unlikely that such tactics would be used for anything but diversionary attacks in the future. In today’s Iranian naval forces, mass swarming tactics have largely given way to dispersed swarming.

Dispersed swarming tactics are most successful when attackers can elude detection through concealment and mobility, employ stand-off firepower, and use superior situational awareness (intelligence), enabling them to find and engage the enemy first. This accounts for a number of trends in Iranian naval force development in the past two decades. The first is the acquisition and development of small, fast weapons platforms—particularly lightly armed small boats and missile-armed fast-attack craft; extended- and long-range shore- and sea-based antiship missiles; midget and diesel attack submarines (for intelligence gathering, covert mine laying, naval special warfare, and conventional combat operations); low-signature reconnaissance and combat unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs); and the adaptation of the Shahab-3 medium-range surface-to-surface missile armed with a cluster warhead reportedly carrying 1,400 bomblets, for use against enemy naval bases and carrier battle groups.

Iran has also sought to improve its ability to achieve surprise by employing low-observable technologies (such as radar-absorbent paints), strict communications discipline, stringent emissions control measures, passively or autonomously guided weapons systems (such as the Kowsar series of television-guided antiship missiles), and sophisticated command-and-control arrangements. To support its naval swarm tactics, Iran has encouraged decentralized decisionmaking and initiative, as well as autonomy and self-sufficiency among naval combat elements.

Dispersed swarming? Adm Cosgrove has it right - a coordinated attack is difficult to conceal and an uncoordinated attack can lead to forces being defeated seriatim.

For some thoughts on the effectiveness of other "super" weapons, Galrahn has a good post here.

Picture of captured Iranian Boghammer boat in San Diego Harbor from here as is the Iranian Boghammer action photo which bears the following caption on the Warboats site:

Iranian Boghammer from "Operation Earnst Will." Note on the bow the box is 107mm rocket launchers and also carried 51 cal on stern, plus RPGs & SAAM missles.

UPDATE: Map of Strait of Hormuz liberated from someplace else. It purports to show Silkworm missile ranges in the area.

To reiterate, it's really hard to hide 20 or 30 or 100 boats getting underway and trying to sneak around in an area like the Persian/Arabian Gulf. Faster boats don't add much to the picture - except they make faster fireballs flaming across the water.

However, there is some interesting discussion of "swarming tactics" at the Canadian Naval Review that points out a few successes in special circumstances (HMS Cornwall was in a maneuver bind when the IRGC went after her small boat crews, for example, or the famous "victory" by a swarm brought by a U.S. Marine general in a training exercise). By the way, "victories" like that are why we do training exercises in the first place.

 UPDATE: More here:

The Iranians used small speedboats extensively within the Gulf and the Strait throughout the 1980s Tanker War with Iraq, inflicting damage on vessels with rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) and machine guns. During the War, Iran often used the boats in shallower, coastal waters, where the boats could swiftly attack and then hide among the "multitude of islands, islets and coral reefs."  Iran also used small boats to lay mines with a small, crude onboard crane.

Tactically, Iran commonly tried "mass swarming tactics" to attack using large numbers of small boats simultaneously.  The largest of these attacks allegedly involved over forty individual boats. These "mass swarm" attacks proved extremely vulnerable to U.S. air power during the Tanker War.  This susceptibility may be one of the major factors causing the IRGC to retreat from a planned attack on Kuwaiti oil infrastructure in October 1987 in the face of a Saudi/U.S. show of air and sea strength. footnotes omitted)

ANOTHER UPDATE: Phil Ewing of the Navy Times "The Scoop Deck" captures the essence of the Iranian claims with his posts Iran’s massive armada ("That means that Iran has the largest navy in history by an enormous margin — so many combat vessels that you could walk their decks from Bandar Abbas to Doha without getting your feet wet.") and Swarm Warning ("Action movie directors are encouraged to make a summer blockbuster that includes Marine Corps AH-1W Super Cobras defending a Navy strike group against a small-boat swarm attack. Because that would be epic.").

Troubled am I. Not.

However, if Hollywood needs script advice and a handsome old guy to play the tough but kindly American admiral . . . my email address is over on the right.

Somali Pirates: Bigger, Bolder and Thwarted by NATO ship

Five merchant ships under attack by a dozen or so pirate small boats got help from an Italian warship and her helicopter and the intervention ended the attack. As reported here:

Alerted by a distress call, the Italian navy destroyer put itself between the ships and a group of pirate "fast boats", with all vessels using water hoses to repel the pirates.

The Italian warship, Luigi Durand de la Penne, also used its helicopter against the pirates, dispersing their attack, a NATO official said.

"This is probably the biggest multiple, coordinated attack we've seen," the official said, adding that more than 12 pirate boats were involved, perhaps as many as 20.

Swarming attacks? Where have we heard that before? Oh, yes, here, in an Iranian threat.

This could be a nasty turn in the piracy war.