Ship-to-Shore Maneuver Exploration and Experimentation (S2ME2)
Abstract
This twelve month effort prototyped and demonstrated capabilities to enable U.S. Marine Corps 21st century maneuver in complex terrain and contested littoral environments. Prior to S2ME2, the Marine Corps did not have the equipment, training, or concept-of-operations (CONOPS) to operate in the increasingly non-permissive maritime domain. This effort matured and demonstrated a subset of technologies identified in the S2ME2 2017 Advanced Naval Technology Exercise, which were validated at the Bold Alligator and Dawn Blitz 2017 exercises. Specifically, S2ME2 focused on seven technology thrusts with disruptive potential: 1) Long Range Littoral Reconnaissance: Unmanned capabilities to safely increase the reach and situational awareness of individual Marines; 2) Unmanned Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Targeting (ISR-T): Maturation of an existing commercial vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for shipboard operations; 3) Unmanned Fire Support: Precision fire support with autonomous magazines deployed from off shore staging forces; 4) Coalition Tactical Awareness and Response (CTAR): Extension of commercial satellite services to the Regiment level; 5) Fourth Generation Long Term Evolution (4GLTE) Long Range Communications: Modified commercial technology to provide ship-to-ship high bandwidth communications; 6) Global Positioning System (GPS) Anti-jam Steerable Parasitic Array: A novel, low size, weight, power, and cost GPS antenna array with the ability to null jammers; and 7) Low Probability of Intercept/Low Probability of Detection/Anti-Jam Communications: Replacement of omni-directional communications with tracked and targeted communication links. For each thrust, S2ME2 investigated emerging and mature government and commercial technologies; developed requirements; integrated technologies on operational systems for relevant demonstrations; explored improved CONOPS; and, informed senior Navy and Marine Corps leadership on future procurement and training needs. Following a series of live tests and field demonstrations, the S2ME2 project transitioned to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2019
- Source ID
- a0626918274894da050196067e9eb558