Connectivity and Carrier Life
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Awfully interesting report from Geoff Ziezulewicz on how expanded wifi has changed crew life on the USS Abraham Lincoln. First, on the strictly military side an expansion of bandwidth enhances the capabilities of modern weapon systems:
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighters assigned to the carrier offer a case in point for what more shipboard bandwidth — provided by commercial providers like Starlink and OneWeb — can mean at the tactical level. Jets with the embarked Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314 took on critical mission data file updates in record time last fall due to the carrier’s internet innovations, a capability that is slated to expand across the fleet.
“This file offers intelligence updates and design enhancements that enable pilots to identify and counter threats in specific operational environments,” the Navy said in an October release announcing the feat. “The update incorporated more than 100 intelligence changes and multiple design improvements, significantly enhancing the aircraft’s survivability and lethality.”
Normally, such an update would take far longer, but it happened so fast in part due to the efforts of Capt. Kevin White, then the Lincoln’s combat systems officer, to make his carrier more connected to the internet in recent years.
“So [the Navy] reported that they delivered F-35 mission data file updates in record time,” White said this week at the annual WEST conference, which TWZ attended. “Yeah, we were doing that. And then they reported the first combat strikes in Yemen from F-35s. The enhanced nature of those strikes was because we were able to do this.”
But more interesting, the social side:
But when the system was on, it provided not only mission benefits, but benefits to the hard-working Lincoln crew as well, which was at sea for 107 days at one point with no port calls, Riebe said.
“Sailors being up on their WiFi, being connected to home, is really what made that doable in this day and age,” he said.
White said the average age of an embarked Lincoln sailor was 20.8, and Riebe noted that to attract young people into service, the Navy needs to recognize the innate connection they have to their devices.
“The next generation of sailors grew up with a cell phone in their hand, and they are uncomfortable without it,” Riebe said. “I don’t necessarily like that, but that’s reality, and if we want to compete for the best folks coming into the Navy, we need to offer them bandwidth at sea.”
Having better connectivity also helped with the ship’s administrative functions, Riebe said, making medical, dental and other work far easier than they have been in the past.
“All of that requires bandwidth, and [White] provided it to the ship, and we’re able to make the ship run more smoothly, more efficiently,” he said.
A sailor who can FaceTime with his family back home carries less non-Navy stress with them as they focus on the life-or-death duties at hand, White said.
Navies have struggled with recruiting in recent years because of the separation problem; young people simply don’t want to be away from their phones and away from connectivity to the extent traditionally demanded by shipboard life. This has been an even bigger problem for smaller navies than for the USN, as some fleets have become wary of operating too far offshore out of concern for crew unhappiness. Undoubtedly there are downsides; from a command perspective I would hate the idea of all of the churn of politics being a part of shipboard life during a long deployment. But like any big organization the Navy has to meet the recruits where they are, and where they are is connected to their phones.
And while we’re here, something on how the Navy thinks about the future of the carrier air wing.