AUSA 2024 — The US Navy is making adjustments to the radars and weapon systems it is using in the Red Sea to fend off Houthi attacks in part thanks to real-time feedback from weapon systems and sailors, the service’s top admiral said on Wednesday.
“We’ve been able to observe all of the different engagements, everything that the Houthis have used, all of their Iranian-supplied weapon systems, and we’ve been able to look at their tactics that they’re using,” Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the chief of naval operations, said during an event at the Atlantic Council. “We’ve been able to use data and extract that information from our weapons systems, bring that back here to the US in a matter of hours, and getting that to our engineers, to our warfighting development centers, where they develop tactics, techniques and procedures.”
In at least one case the new TTPs are born in theater. Franchetti specifically cited a sailor whom she said she personally promoted during a ship visit. That sailor, following engagements with the Houthis, thought up a more effective way of using one of the ship’s guns. After writing up the idea and sending it back to engineers stateside, the service ultimately validated the sailor’s suggestion and made the change fleetwide.
“And so, we got to put technology into the hands of a warfighter. We got them to think about how to think, act and operate differently. And he was really a pioneer in innovating there on the battlefield,” Franchetti continued, without going into details about the change.
Franchetti said the Navy had also been making adjustments to its radars without going into more detail.
The CNO was at the Atlantic Council primarily to discuss her recently published “Navigation Plan,” which heavily focuses preparing the service for 2027, the year Chinese President Xi Jinping has said he wants the military to be prepared in case he gives the order to invade Taiwan.
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That deadline and what it means for the Defense Department has dominated Pacific-oriented discussions elsewhere in Washington, DC, this week during the annual AUSA exposition.
Gen. Charles Flynn, commander of US Army Pacific Command, who is set to retire from the service next month, said the Chinese were on a “dangerous path” and their actions have become progressively more provocative and belligerent over the past decade.
“We have to win as a joint, combined, multinational force,” he said on Monday. “That’s the only way to prevent the continuation of their incremental, insidious and now irresponsible behavior.”
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