US Navy concludes three-month drill Trident Warrior 2017

The US Navy has concluded a three-month drill dubbed Trident Warrior during which it explored innovative solutions and experimented with important maritime initiatives.

In its 15th year of execution, Trident Warrior (TW) took place off the coast of Southern California from June to August 2017.

Participants included the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52), guided-missile destroyer USS Halsey (DDG 97), guided-missile destroyer USS Preble (DDG 88), guided-missile destroyer USS Sampson (DDG 102), guided-missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69), the Los Angeles-Class fast attack submarine USS Pasadena (SSN 752) and the experimental medium-displacement unmanned surface vehicle (MDUSV), known as Sea Hunter.

Organizations participating in TW17 included SPAWAR Systems Center (SSC) Pacific, Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (PEO C4I), Naval Information Forces (NAVIFOR), Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) and Office of Naval Research (ONR).

TW experiments are designed to fast-track the introduction of new capabilities, innovative technologies, and tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) to aid maritime forces in all domains of warfare – air, land, sea and cyber.

“Trident Warrior is exceptionally unique,” said Dan Hallock, TW17 Deputy Director. “The event provides a venue to dynamically experiment with new ideas and innovations in a real-world environment. Each initiative is put directly into the hands of Sailors and Marines currently serving our Fleet and then the initiative is evaluated for warfighting effectiveness. This process enables warfighters to utilize Trident Warrior experimentation to examine an experiment’s potential and influence the direction of development and implementation. The resulting enhanced capabilities allow individuals to perform their job more effectively and efficiently.”

TW17 took advantage of previously scheduled ship training events to leverage maximum experimentation opportunities with minimum cost and impact on Fleet operations. Experiments were completed by temporarily deploying advanced capabilities on fleet assets to collect real-world performance data and feedback from users during the underway experimentation period. Data collected throughout the experiments will be provided to Navy decision makers as recommendations regarding future capability investments for the fleet.

New tech tested during TW17

Some of the TW17 experiment initiatives were the Automated Dynamics Quality of Service/Visualization (ADVANCE), Gun Augmented Reality (GunnAR), Command and Control Experiment (C2X), Refractivity-from-Radio, and the Long Distance High / Bandwidth (H/B) Laser Communications.

ADVANCE, sponsored by SSC Pacific, serves as an automated network bandwidth tool that gives any U.S. Navy ship the ability to dynamically adjust the priority of network flow and usage. During TW17, ADVANCE was tested on board the Theodore Roosevelt.

“This capability is exactly the direction we need to go,” said Cmdr. Nichol Schine, combat systems officer assigned to Theodore Roosevelt. “My whole department was impressed with how ADVANCE improved the flow of information and how dependable the system was out at sea.”

GunnAR, also sponsored by SSC Pacific, demonstrated its capabilities on board Bunker Hill during the first phase of TW17. The augmented reality helmet provides enhanced visual and aural communication to .50 caliber gun crews and the ship’s bridge teams.

C2X, sponsored by the Navy Command and Control Systems Program Office (PMW 150), installed a strike group level planning tool on board the Theodore Roosevelt, which provided the capability for an automated rehearsal of an entire future operation. This automation determined a detailed scheme of maneuver alerting to conflicts and time distance issues.

The “Refractivity-from Radio with web-based tools” initiative tested a device that monitored actual radio frequency signals to provide the ability to predict and display red and blue radar, as well as electronic warfare detection ranges. This initiative was also sponsored by SSC Pacific and tested on board Preble.

Sponsored by JHU/APL, the Long Distance H/B Laser Communications initiative demonstrated a ship-to-shore and ship-to-ship laser communication capability. While on board Sea Hunter for TW17, the laser provided close to 10 gigabits per second (GBPS) of error-free data, voice and video transfer.

Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, C3F, observed several events during TW17 and was impressed with the initiatives and urgency to get new ideas into the hands of the warfighter.

“In the end, that’s what this is all about,” said Tyson. “Saving time, saving money and, most importantly, giving our sailors and marines the right tools to make them more effective warfighters…which will help save lives. Next year’s Trident Warrior is currently scheduled alongside exercise Rim of the Pacific. Our international partners will appreciate the new technologies and concepts being developed to improve the maritime warfighting domain.”