Wheel Book: U.S. Naval Institute on Naval Tactics

Edited by CAPT Wayne P. Hughes, USN (Ret.)

U.S. Naval Institute (USNI) Press, Annapolis Maryland, January 2015

In the U.S. Navy, “Wheel Books” were once found in the uniform pockets of every junior and many senior petty officers. Each small notebook was unique to the Sailor carrying it, but all had in common a collection of data and wisdom that the individual deemed useful in the effective execution of his or her duties. Often used as a substitute for experience among neophytes and as a portable library of reference information for more experienced personnel, those weathered pages contained everything from the time of the next tide, to leadership hints from a respected chief petty officer, to the color coding of the phone-and-distance line used in underway replenishments.

In that same tradition, the new Naval Institute Wheel Books will provide supplemental information, pragmatic advice, and cogent analysis on topics important to all naval professionals. Drawn from the U.S. Naval Institute’s vast archives, the series will combine articles from the Institute’s flagship publication Proceedings, selections from the oral history collection and from Naval Institute Press books to create uniqueguides on a wide array of fundamental professional subjects.

Naval tactics were described by Vice Adm. A.K. Cebrowski, a brilliant thinker on the subject of naval warfare, as “the sum of the art and science of the actual application of combat power.” Renowned naval tactician Capt. Wayne Hughes called the study of naval tactics as striving “to bring whatever order and understanding is possible out of the chaos of battle.” With those words of wisdom serving as the “commander’s intent,” this collection sheds a bright light on this sometimes dark and mysterious but unquestionably essential realm, illuminating the principles and concepts of tactics that serve the warrior at the most critical moments.

Chapters

1. "Anchorage" (Selection from chapter 12 of Fleet Tactics and Coastal Combat) by Captain Wayne P. Hughes Jr., USN (Ret)
2. "The Marines Will Have to Walk" (Selection from chapter 16 of One Hundred Days) by Admiral Sandy Woodward, RN
3. "Tactical Development" by Commander Frank A. Andrews, USN
4. "From 'Futuristic Whimsy' to Naval Reality" by Abraham Rabinovich
5. "William B. Cushing" by Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, USN (Ret.)
6. "Toward a New Identity, 1882-1888" (selections from chapter 2 of Home Squadron) by James C. Rentfrow
7. Selections from "American Naval Policy" by Commander Bradley A. Fiske, USN
8. "Time is Everything" (Selection from chapter 15 of Black Shoe Carrier Admiral) by John B. Lundstrom
9. "Illustrative Battttles" (Selection from chapter 12 of A History of Naval Tactical Thought) by Admiral of the Fleet Giuseppe Fioravanzo, Italian Navy
10. "Creating ASW Killing Zones" by Lieutenant Commander James Stavridis, USN
11. "A Poor Man's Naval Defense" and "Anti-Landing Defense and the Implications for Future Amphibious Operations" (selections from chapters 11 and 13 of At the Water's Edge) by Theodore L. Gatchel
12. "Effect of the Marines on the Navy" (Selection from chapter 9 of Battle Line) by Thomas C. Hone and Trent Hone
13. "Missile Chess: A Parable" by Captain Wayne P. Hughes Jr., USN

Capt. Wayne P. Hughes Jr., USN (Ret.) is Professor Emeritus at the Graduate School of Operations and Information Sciences of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Author of Fleet Tactics and Coastal Combat Second Edition, as well as numerous articles, he is renowned as one of the foremost authorities on naval tactics.

Thesis, Master of Science in Network Operations and Technology, March 2015, Steven Debich, Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy

Advisor: Don Brutzman, Department of Information Sciences.  Co-Advisor: Scot Miller, Department of Information Sciences.  Second Reader: Don McGregor, MOVES Institute.

Abstract.  Navy afloat units become disadvantaged users, once disconnected from the pier, due in part to the high latency associated with SATCOM. Unfortunately recent gains in SATCOM capacity alone do not overcome throughput limitations that result from latency’s effect on connection-oriented protocols. To mitigate the effect of latency and other performance inhibiting factors, the Navy is improving its current WAN optimization capabilities by implementing Riverbed Steelhead WOCs. At-sea testing has shown Steelhead increases effective SATCOM capacity by 50%. Laboratory testing demonstrates that by encoding structured and semi-structured data as EXI rather than XML, compression ratios can be further improved, up to 19 times greater than Steelhead’s compression capability alone. Combining EXI with Steelhead will further improve the efficient use of existing SATCOM capacity and enable greater operational capabilities, when operating in a communications constrained environment. Not only does EXI improve compactness of traffic traveling over relatively high capacity SATCOM channels, it also expands net-centric capabilities to devices operating at the edge of the network that are restricted to lower capacity transmission methods. In order to achieve these substantial improvements the Navy must incorporate the already mandated DISR standard, EXI, as the single standard for all systems transferring structured and semi-structured data.

Received Outstanding Thesis Award from NPS Information Sciences Department.

Keywords: EXI, Efficient Xml Interchange, EFX, efficient XML, Riverbed, Steelhead, WAN optimization, compression, long fat network LFN.

Links: catalog, slideset (.pdf), thesis.

Thesis, Master of Science in Network Operations and Technology, March 2015

Advisor: Don Brutzman, Department of Information Sciences.  Co-Advisor: Don McGregor, MOVES Institute.

Abstract.  Current and emerging Navy information concepts, including network-centric warfare and Navy Tactical Cloud, presume high network throughput and interoperability. The Extensible Markup Language (XML) addresses the latter requirement, but its verbosity is problematic for afloat networks. JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is an alternative to XML common in web applications and some non-relational databases. Compact, binary encodings exist for both formats. Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) is a standardized, binary encoding of XML. Binary JSON (BSON) and Compact Binary Object Representation (CBOR) are JSON-compatible encodings. This work evaluates EXI compaction against both encodings, and extends evaluations of EXI for datasets up to 4 gigabytes. Generally, a configuration of EXI exists that produces a more compact encoding than BSON or CBOR. Tests show EXI compacts structured, non-multimedia data in Microsoft Office files better than the default format. The Navy needs to immediately consider EXI for use in web, sensor, and office document applications to improve throughput over constrained networks. To maximize EXI benefits, future work needs to evaluate EXI’s parameters, as well as tune XML schema documents, on a case-by-case basis prior to EXI deployment. A suite of test examples and an evaluation framework also need to be developed to support this process.

Received Outstanding Thesis Award from NPS Information Sciences Department.

Keywords: Extensible Markup Language (XML), Efficient XML Interchange (EXI), JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), Compact Binary Object Representation (CBOR), Binary JSON (BSON), data serialization, data interoperability.

Links: catalog, slideset (.pdf), thesis.

CC4913 Command and Control (C2) Capstone Class Project: report and briefing, April 2015

Point of Contact: Professor Dan Boger, dboger@nps.edu, 831.656.3671

CC4913 Policies and Problems in C2 is a capstone course for NPS Command and Control students.  Study of the fundamental role C2 systems fulfill in operational military situations, including the full range of military operations. Topics include analysis of the changing role of organizational structures and processes, as well as technologies and impacts on C2 systems requirements and designs. Considerations include the complexities imposed on C2 systems as the force structure becomes more heterogeneous. Case study of selected incidents and systems provide a focus on current problems.

This year’s class was divided into RF and non-RF groups and asked to explore C2 issues in a scenario where we were trying to prevent conflict by “holding at risk” aggressors in a complex political and geographic situation described above. In last year’s scenario, high power jamming only originated from the mainland. Developments in the past few months caused a change in that assumption: all SATCOM uplinks are at risk within 300 miles of fixed bases and large surface ships. This was how our simple communications wargame transpired: Aggressive action by nation X; Send in UAV to support ROL (Predator-Global Hawk); Lose UAV SATCOM link; Send in missile boats; Missile Boats tracked via omni-MF and VHF; Send in UAV (Shadow-Scan Eagle); Lose UAV CDL; Patrol boats to visual range – all RF comm jammed; Patrol boats exfil to establish link; Picture gone. This led us to consider a combined RF/non-RF solution.

Network Optional Communications (NOW) is comprised of the following potential methods: lasers, flashing light in various bands, underwater/acoustic, QR codes, and data muling. What we rediscovered was this is not a question of RF vs non-RF. There is a spectrum of options, and we may decide to operate at some level of EMCON to avoid detection. Or the enemy and weather may conspire to reduce the availability of our network. We found situations where there did not appear to be a viable and elegant RF solution but a hybrid combination of techniques could meet user requirements. We refer to this as Mission Agile EMCON and is shown on slide 32 of the accompanying presentation. Slide 34 presents our recommendations.

Attached. Class Project Report and Class Project Briefing.  

This work was presented at the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Wargame Planning and Innovation Workshop hosted by the NPS Littoral Operations Center (LOC), 23-24 April 2015.

Disclaimer.  These sources represent unclassified, open-source work performed in an academic environment for the purpose of educating graduate students. The views in this document are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

Steven Debich, Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy

Thesis, Master of Science in Network Operations and Technology, March 2015

Advisor: Don Brutzman, Department of Information Sciences.  Co-Advisor: Scot Miller, Department of Information Sciences.  Second Reader: Don McGregor, MOVES Institute.

Abstract.  Navy afloat units become disadvantaged users, once disconnected from the pier, due in part to the high latency associated with SATCOM. Unfortunately recent gains in SATCOM capacity alone do not overcome throughput limitations that result from latency’s effect on connection-oriented protocols. To mitigate the effect of latency and other performance inhibiting factors, the Navy is improving its current WAN optimization capabilities by implementing Riverbed Steelhead WOCs. At-sea testing has shown Steelhead increases effective SATCOM capacity by 50%. Laboratory testing demonstrates that by encoding structured and semi-structured data as EXI rather than XML, compression ratios can be further improved, up to 19 times greater than Steelhead’s compression capability alone. Combining EXI with Steelhead will further improve the efficient use of existing SATCOM capacity and enable greater operational capabilities, when operating in a communications constrained environment. Not only does EXI improve compactness of traffic traveling over relatively high capacity SATCOM channels, it also expands net-centric capabilities to devices operating at the edge of the network that are restricted to lower capacity transmission methods. In order to achieve these substantial improvements the Navy must incorporate the already mandated DISR standard, EXI, as the single standard for all systems transferring structured and semi-structured data.

Received Outstanding Thesis Award from NPS Information Sciences Department.

Keywords: EXI, Efficient Xml Interchange, EFX, efficient XML, Riverbed, Steelhead, WAN optimization, compression, long fat network LFN.

Links: catalog, slideset (ppt), (.pdf), thesis.