《Submarines In The Air Sea Battle》.pdf

MIT SSP Unclassified 1 Amherst Street (E40-493) This Page Unclassified Cambridge, MA 02139 Submarines In The Air Sea Battle (U) 1 Owen R. Cote Jr. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Security Studies Program Abstract (U) The Defense Department’s Air Sea battle initiative reflects the fact that technology and geopolitics are conspiring both to force and to enable a deeper coordination between undersea, surface, air, and space operations. This is true at both ends of the conflict spectrum, as well as at points in between. At the high end of the conflict spectrum, an example of the forcing function is the potential anti-access problem in the Pacific theater posed by modern surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), and an example of the enabling function is the potential marriage of submarines, fast weapons, and organic Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) for use in time critical strikes against such systems. This presentation will summarize the approaches currently projected by air forces for defeating modern, ground-based air defenses; discuss the significant operational challenges involved with these purely airborne approaches to the problem; and note the technological opportunities presented by a comple