Impact at RIMPAC: NPS Students Enhance Fleet Readiness with 3D Printing Technology
MC2 Andrew Langholf, NPS Public Affairs
U.S. Navy Machinery Repairman 2nd Class John Jones (left) and U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Jordan Blake, assigned to the Marine Innovation Unit, fit a 3D printed component into a reverse osmosis gear in one of the main engine spaces aboard the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Somerset (LPD 25) during Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024 while underway in the Pacific Ocean, July 16.
When the team of engineers from the Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research and Education (CAMRE) loaded their 3D hybrid-metal printer onboard Somerset as part of the experimentation sector of Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2024, they had no idea that they would soon be asked to solve a real-world engineering casualty.
Hours after being loaded on board, a critical component of the reverse osmosis pump, which generates clean water for the crew – an absolute necessity for ships spending long periods at sea – shattered.
“What we didn’t expect was that we would have the opportunity to directly help ship readiness so soon,” said Lt. Charles Wallace, a mechanical engineer from the Naval Postgraduate School, and one of the team members onboard. “Especially for something as mission-essential as a reverse osmosis pump, where if you run out of water you’re going to be coming home pretty quick.” Read more.
NPS' Warfare Innovation Continuum Drives Students' Concept Generation
Matthew Schehl, Naval Postgraduate School Public Affairs
The Naval Warfare Studies Institute (NWSI) at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) recently completed the latest cycle of its annual Warfare Innovation Continuum (WIC), a 12- to 18-month interdisciplinary exploration of a central theme of naval interest achieved through various research projects, capstone class projects, experiments, workshops and seminars.
This year’s WIC campaign of analysis, entitled “Integrated Naval Campaigning,” was a resounding success, according to retired U.S. Navy Capt. Jeff Kline, NWSI WIC Director and Operations Research Professor of Practice at NPS.
“At the CNO’s Futures Wargame, I briefed the Chief of Naval Operations and other Navy leadership on an alternative force design specifically for sea control that was based on our campaign of analysis during the WIC,” Kline said. “The alternative fleet took ideas from the workshops we held, from our joint campaign analysis class and from a wargame we just completed, all of which dealt with integrated naval campaigning. The CNO’s staff is now looking at an alternative force design to their program forces. I don’t think you can get a better mark of success than that.” Read more.
ICYMI: Naval News of Note
Marines release new AI strategy
Jon Harper, Defense Scoop
The Marine Corps issued a new artificial intelligence strategy that is expected to guide the service’s efforts to integrate the technology across its enterprise, from the back office to the battlefield.
Lt. Gen. Matthew Glavy, deputy commandant for information, described the release of the document, which was announced publicly Wednesday, as a major milestone in the Marines’ pursuit of digital modernization.
“Our fight for and with information needs AI now,” he wrote in the foreword for the strategy, noting that the war in Ukraine is demonstrating how the tech can enable faster decision-making. Read more.
Becoming ‘data fluent’: Navy rolls out updated ‘Information Superiority Vision’
Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., Breaking Defense
The Department of the Navy today issued a new top-level Information Superiority Vision to guide its IT initiatives, updating the original 2020 ISV with a distinct new emphasis on data.
“ISV 2.0 represents our continued commitment to securely move information from anywhere to anywhere to enable our warfighters to act at the speed of mission,” said Navy Department CIO Jane Rathbun, who oversees IT for both the Navy and the Marine Corps. The evolution from the 2020 original to this new version, she wrote in her LinkedIn post releasing the strategy, “reflects the learning that has occurred and the progress we have made in the last four years.” Read more.
Events
Warfare Innovation Continuum Workshop
23-26 September 2024
This year’s event will focus on Non-Permissive Global Sea Control.
With one overarching design challenge, eight teams of junior officers and early career engineers will be facilitated through a rapid concept generation process using tools of human-centered design. Each team will present their best concepts on the final morning of the workshop, and these seeds of ideas will inform class projects, thesis work, and research across the NPS campus throughout FY25.
Teams will be formed in the following areas:
MDA for Sea Control – maritime domain awareness (MDA) involves sensing and making sense of the maritime domain and includes METOC, undersea awareness, and creating a common operating picture (COP).
Integration of Maritime Stakeholders – these include the U.S. Coast Guard, maritime forces of U.S. allies and partner nations, U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM), Military Sealift Command (MSC), and industry/global/commercial/white shipping.
Logistics to and in the WEZ – including resupply, replenishment at sea, reload to rearm, providing on-board defense on logistic ships, and recovery and salvage in the weapons engagement zone (WEZ)
EAB for Sea Control – including Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO), Stand-in Forces (SIF), integration with forward Navy forces, and Forward Arming and Refueling Points (FARPS)
UW/IW for Sea Control – (possibly classified) includes leveraging Special Operations Forces (SOF), unconventional means and measures, indigenous and host nation assets for unconventional warfare (UW) and information warfare (IW).
Robots & Drones – includes artificial intelligence (AI), intelligent autonomous systems (IAS), and unmanned vehicles (UxVs) in all domains
Counter Sea Denial
Undersea and Seabed Warfare – (likely classified).
Ops in the Information Environment in Support of Sea Control – (possibly classified) includes electronic warfare (EW), information warfare (IW), CYBER, counterintelligence (CI), psychological operations (PSYOP), human intelligence (HUMINT), space operations (SPACE), and counter SPACE (XSPACE).
C2 for Decision Advantage – includes mesh networking to create an intelligence, surveillance, targeting, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) web to support a maritime operation center (MOC)
Register now.
Naval AI Summit
24-26 September 2024
United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD | in-person and remote
Who: Defense AI leadership (DoD, DoN, USN, USMC, other Services, Joint Force), Navy AI Task Force leads, other AI practitioners across the Naval Establishment, industry partners, and Allies and partners.
What: Information sharing and collaboration event
Why: Artificial Intelligence promises better ways to understand the Services' man, train and equip-associated opportunities and challenges and to accelerate, adopt, and integrate AI-related concepts and capabilities in ways that make us a more capable, efficient, and effective force in peacetime and a more lethal force in wartime. Doing so will require we collectively seize this opportunity.
In conjunction with the Summit, a day-long "AI for Knuckleddraggers" course will be held Monday, 23 September. Please sign up for that separately. It will only be conducted in-person. Attendance at the course is not required for the Summit nor is Summit attendance required if you only want to take the course.
AI for Knuckledraggers
23 September 2024
United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD | in-person only
This is a 1-day (7 hour) overview of Artificial Intelligence for non-technical people who do not have a deep understanding of AI. It addresses current concerns and issues about AI, separating myth from fact and providing a framework for how to think about AI as a technology including how it can be harnessed by people and organizations. The course does not teach coding or AI engineering skills but instead touches on a wide range of topics:
- How to think about machine intelligence
- Its history and growth over the years
- The analytical foundations that can produce intelligence
- Different types of AI and how they work (e.g. Gen AI)
- AI use cases
- Deploying AI at scale across and enterprise
- Ethical considerations and Responsible AI
- AI in the DOD
JIFX 25-1: Uncrewed Systems & Counter-Uncrewed Systems
4–8 November 2024
NPS Field Laboratory at Camp Roberts
Proposals due by 30 August
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