(Courtesy of Surface Navy Association Surface SITREP (www.navy.org))
The OpTech – EASTMED workshop brought together defense leaders, operators, scientists, analysts, and think tank experts to explore the unique operational and technological challenges to security and defense in the complex littorals of Eastern Mediterranean region, with an eye to great power competitions.
The OpTech workshops foster close collaboration with allies and partners across governments, academia and industry, and expand operational perspectives and the awareness of advanced technology solutions. The most recent, OpTech – EASTMED benefits from the intellectual leadership of the LOC and the Center for Network Innovation and Experimentation at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School and is supported by the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research, Senior National Representative and Saab and hosted by the NATO Maritime Interdiction Operational Training Center, Souda Bay Crete.
The Littoral Operations Center at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School has provided the Intellectual leadership and has been a convening authority for related events in Monterey and for the Littoral OpTech global series of workshops of which there have been five to date – Stockholm, Tokyo, Cartagena, Halifax and Crete. Each one of the workshops has focused on the operational and technology challenges facing regional littoral states. The global series of workshops has gathered over two dozen allies and partners, over 400 leaders and experts across all military domains.
Few areas on earth host more transnational activity than the Eastern Mediterranean littorals. The dynamic flow of diplomatic, military, information and economic power expands along a congested and contested crossroads with impact across the Eurasian continent. “The complex interconnectivity that surges within this area is made secure only through cooperation,” said retired Swedish Navy Captain Bo Wallander, senior naval advisor for the Swedish defense company, Saab; a principal investigator for the LOC, and the moderator for the workshop. “Together, we gained geostrategic perspective and explore solutions to those operational and technological challenges.”
Saab USA has the supported collaborative research efforts at the LOC that include the very unique perspective of Sweden a country with a long and complex littoral – some would say an extreme littoral geography.
The workshop, as with the previous OPTECH events, examined the growing importance of viewing the littoral zone seaward and landward of the shoreline in a comprehensive manor, and as an all-domain battle space that should be recognized for the unique and inseparable combat challenges it poses. Recent high-level documents and concepts speak directly to this, including the Navy’s Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority 2.0, issued in December 2018; the Distributed Maritime Operations concept; the joint Navy-Marine Corps Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment, released in 2017; Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations concept; and the 2019 Commandant’s Planning Guidance are focusing minds and actions.
“The ensuing discussion over the following two and a half days was most enlightening and vision expanding. The panels took on such subjects as disruptive technologies, policies and operational concepts in all domains – subsurface, surface, air, land, cyber and space; as well as the growing role of both China and Russia in the area, as well as possible counters.”
“In this littoral context, and with my research at NPS and through the OpTech Workshop series, I have come to realize the growing importance of cyber and space and within these domains the function of networks,” said Steve Benson, Saab’s program manager in Monterey and cofounder of the LOC. “Networks must be adaptive, resilient, self-healing, and hidden/deceptive if needed. They must protect and enable naval platforms subject to higher risk in the littorals. They are the future armor.”
Participants looked at the geo-political region through the lens of the different warfighting domains and the technologies that enable warfighting success.
According to Al Elkins, warfighting and technology strategy lead for the F-35 office of the chief strategy officer, a key finding of the workshop was that allies and partners must begin planning now. “NATO and the EU must begin planning today for the uncertain, volatile future and for the level of effort that will be required should there be near peer competition, conflict or significant proxy war. As with most other regions, we are dealing with both super-powers and a world of “small, many, smart, lethal” adversaries. We have to think strategy first.”
The Mediterranean has become a key human smuggling conduit, which has had a destabilizing effect on the NATO and EU nations in Europe. There has been an astonishing number of illegal drugs or trade coming from China. And participants have noted that Russia has realized that creating a crisis that sparks the movement of refugees can preoccupy and distract the European nations from countering its other activities in the region.
Elkins said the event was worthwhile, characterizing his fellow participants as “motivated, smart, thoughtful, principled and experienced,” and the networking value of the workshop as “topnotch.”
“The excellent briefings on the recent activities and capabilities of Russia and China set the stage for a lively discussion” said Guy Thomas, chief executive officer of Baltimore, Maryland-based C-SIGMA LLC. “The ensuing discussion over the following two and a half days was most enlightening and vision expanding. The panels took on such subjects as disruptive technologies, policies and operational concepts in all domains – subsurface, surface, air, land, cyber and space; as well as the growing role of both China and Russia in the area, as well as possible counters.”
According to Thomas, “Each of the participants, all experts in their various fields, shared the view that enhanced maritime security and situational awareness was a highly desired goal, and all brought unique expertise, experiences and views to the discussion.”
“In thinking of the China Silk Road from Northern Europe to the Red Sea discussions, and then the known operations of the shipyards, the weak cyber protections strike me as a high-risk area should a bad actor want to shut things down and make a economic problem for many. We had some very good discussions about some of this and what is being done, and not being done.”
Strategy analyst Lt. Cmdr. Peter Thomsson of Swedish Defence University said the workshop was an opportunity to meet and work with professionals from academia, government and business to discuss regional issues with global impact and global issues with regional impact. He said the event gave him a better appreciation of the Eastern Mediterranean truly as a “global crossroads, where economic, political and security interests overlap and interact.”
Thomsson described his fellow participants as “a very knowledgeable group with high expertise on a range of subjects and great willingness to share.”
The NMIOTC hosts were welcoming, and the delegates enjoyed Chania, which Thomsson described as “a pearl on the Mediterranean dating back to antiquity.”
Ret. Rear Adm. Vic See, former U.S. Navy PEO Space Systems, found the discussions on Cyber and protection of advanced systems and networks extremely important. “In thinking of the China Silk Road from Northern Europe to the Red Sea discussions, and then the known operations of the shipyards, the weak cyber protections strike me as a high-risk area should a bad actor want to shut things down and make a economic problem for many. We had some very good discussions about some of this and what is being done, and not being done.”
Swedish Navy Cmdr. Rolf Hultman is the military advisor for the Permanent Representation of Sweden to the EU in Brussels found the workshop to be a productive and “refreshing experience.”
“There were interesting panels and stimulating conversations in what I found to be a very openminded and honest discussion climate, especially the panel and follow-up discussions regarding China and its strategic courses and strategic goals in the region.” said Hultman. “For me, both personally as well as professionally, it was very valuable to meet and interact with so many distinguished delegates.”
And, it was noted, the U.S. and western Europe no longer has that same level of industrial capacity. “In the event of a world war today, the large western countries won’t be able to rearm,” Hendrix said.
Jerry Hendrix, a retired captain and now vice president of the Telemus Group, said the world is seeing a confluence of commercial investments and broader strategic interests. “China is making massive investments in ports and infrastructure, but nations who enter these partnerships fail to see how one-sided they are and how they are being militarized.”
Russia understands they hit a population center in Syria, for example, and raise pressure on Europe and fragmenting the alliance.
The region is becoming a confluence of potential superpower competition. Russia is allied with the Syrian government of Bashar al Assad, while China has essentially taken control of Greece’s major port of Piraeus.
Russia is not a major economic power, but has super-power ambitions, and is “playing a bad hand better than anyone else.” It has replaced the United States as the power-broker in part of the region.
As Chairman of the European Working Group on Non-Lethal Weapons, an inter-governmental organization, Italian Navy Ret. Rear Adm. Massimo Annati is constantly trying to achieve more knowledge about the scenarios where non-lethal weapons, or “intermediate force capabilities,” can play a role, in order to better understand challenges and opportunities.
China has a much stronger economy and unmatched industrial capacity. In the event of a major war, China would rapidly build tanks, airplanes and ships in much the way the U.S. did in World War II against Germany and Japan.
And, it was noted, the U.S. and western Europe no longer has that same level of industrial capacity. “In the event of a world war today, the large western countries won’t be able to rearm,” Hendrix said.
As Chairman of the European Working Group on Non-Lethal Weapons, an inter-governmental organization, Italian Navy Ret. Rear Adm. Massimo Annati is constantly trying to achieve more knowledge about the scenarios where non-lethal weapons, or “intermediate force capabilities,” can play a role, in order to better understand challenges and opportunities.
“I decided to attend the Littoral OpTech East Med because I believed it would focus on the grey area characterizing current hybrid warfare scenarios, and I was right,” Annati said. “In addition to the different presentations and talks, I believe the seminar wargame was very useful: in these instances, people tend to become more involved, and that brings more ingenuity and fresh ideas to the table. The networking is priceless, you mix-up with people of different experience and nationality, confronting ideas and added-value free-flow talks.”