Tactical Enhanced Navigation, Command and Control for Small and Medium Combatants.

Resumen

Today’s modern navies counter new challenges. While there continues to be a need to maintain readiness for traditional conflicts, navies must also be prepared to counter smaller and more volatile threats like illegal immigration, smuggling or such as those posed by pirates, warlords or terrorist organizations often operating from remote locations. To counter these asymmetrical threats, large ships with complex combat management systems (CMS) are often deployed but they are an inefficient and sometimes an inappropriate use of resources. For smaller vessels (e.g., patrol boats, generally less than 60 meters) that may be more suitable for countering asymmetric threats, a lack of Command and Control (C2) is present. A traditional CMS is to complex and space as well as budget demanding that they are not applicable.

Therefore, especially for small and medium combatants (like PVs, FPVs, OPVs) tailor made solutions, C2 from the bridge or integrated into the bridge navigation system, are required.

The paper will sum up the C2 requirements for small combatants and presents an integrated solution approach for command and control as part of the integrated bridge system. It’s concluded with the navigation bridge integrated C2 system example executed by Raytheon Anschütz.