U.S. Navy, Marines Keeping Up With Swiftly Changing Warfare

Conflicts between the United States and its allies against Houthis operating in the Red Sea and between Ukraine and Russia in the Black Sea demonstrate rapidly changing warfare strategies and tactics and underline the need for the U.S. Navy and Marines Corps to just as quickly adopt lessons learned, according to a panel of high-ranking officials from both services.

The panel offered insights during a presentation on the first day of the Februay 13-15 WEST 2024 conference in San Diego, which is presented by AFCEA and the U.S. Naval Institute (USNI).

Lt. Gen. Karsten S. Heckl, commanding general, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, deputy commandant for Combat Development and Integration, cited the Ukrainian sinking of a Russian ship using drones powered by commercial jet skis.

“It illuminates how quickly the character of warfare is changing right now, and keeping up with it is amazing to me. Now, imagine a narco sub with a 400-pound shape charge below the water line,” Gen. Heckle said.

He noted that he runs a series of experiments called a campaign of learning, which is a never-ending process and requires constant feedback on science and technology efforts to modernize the Marine Corps. “I guess the one thing I’m telling you is [that] we can’t go fast enough to keep up with the changing character of warfare. That’s the biggest lesson for me, staying in front of this thing because it’s changing that quickly.”

Gen. Heckl also pointed to Ukrainian forces using “super cheap” unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to destroy armored vehicles. “They typically will use a section of these things, two of them, to destroy a piece of armor. It’s $20,000 worth of UAVs, first-person view, they fly them in. It is eye-watering.”

He stressed that the innovative tactics offer lessons learned on the cost of warfare as well. “We’re working very hard to get on the right side of the cost code of this thing. For instance, the Russian guided missile ship that was sunk with, we think, about $60,000 worth of jet skis. We’ve got to figure out a better way to do this and a more cost-effective way than shooting down $40,000, $50,000 unmanned aerial vehicles with millions of dollars worth of self-defense.”

Vice Adm. Brendan R. McLane, commander, Naval Surface Forces, commander, Naval Surface Force, Pacific Fleet, noted that an October 19 Houthi attack on the Red Sea used drones and land attack cruise missiles that were shot at long distance. “Some of the more recent engagements are anti-ship cruise missiles and anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time, which have a much shorter reaction time,” he said, adding that ships in the engagement zone must react much more quickly now than they did in October.

Vice Adm. Daniel L. Cheever, commander, Naval Air Forces, commander, Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, also cited the innovation of Ukrainian forces, including their ability to work with industry and quickly field new capabilities. “That’s pretty fascinating to watch and see how we can do that from a policy perspective moving forward.”

Rear Adm. Keith B. Davids, commander, Naval Special Warfare Command, echoed that sentiment. “One of the lessons learned from Ukraine, for this crowd in particular, is the fact that you’ve got operators, technologists and engineers all on the frontline doing spiral development. It’s been amazing how quickly they can turn and rapidly modernize. That is a critical lesson. We’ve got to create the conditions where we can do that and get that constant feedback cycle going,” Adm. Davids said.

Elizabeth Nashold, deputy commander, Naval Information Forces, said lessons learned illustrate a need to increase the commander’s decision space. She reported the Navy did “bring back lessons learned” and “improved our tactics, techniques and procedures for the fleet."

“So, yes, we’re increasing our proficiency every day,” she said.

Asked about reports that the Russians have acquired access to the SpaceX Starlink network, she responded that from an information warfare perspective, it points to a need to field systems and capabilities more quickly and the need to “take those lessons learned and get them right back into the fleet so that we can actually use them right away.”

Rear Adm. Brad Andros, commander, Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, indicated that while people think of today’s conflicts as very different from the two decades of counter-terrorism operations, the United States learned lessons from those conflicts as well. Those lessons include a lot about joint fires, both kinetic and nonkinetic; the importance of information; the benefits of integrating partners and different authorities and capabilities; that U.S. forces are more effectively fighting jointly and working closely with the intelligence community; and the power fusing operations and intelligence.

“All those things have great relevance across the threat spectrum,” he said. “The other thing I would offer is that we got really good at network targeting. We’re really good at hunting people and terrorist networks. It turns out that those methodologies actually apply. But now you apply that same methodology against systems, not just people, and it turns out we can have great effect.”

Adm. McLane said that while priorities have remained largely the same, “it’s the urgency and the speed at which we are getting after them that has increased.”

He pointed to the Navy’s ability to share information more quickly than ever with ships in the Red Sea and to upgrade the software on the ships’ radar systems. Adm. McLane also stressed the need for the Navy to leverage the equipment it already has for “maximum warfighting advantage” and incorporate updated tactics, techniques and procedures. “That is happening at speeds we haven’t done before, that fast iteration for our warfighters who are living in the weapon engagement zone every day,” he reported.