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19
launches aircraft from Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 9. The ships
comprising the John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group are THE NAVY’S TERRIBLE ACCIDENT RECORD IS NOW HIDDEN FROM
participating in a group sail exercise designed to develop
coordinated capabilities./ U.S. Navy photo by Mass
PUBLIC VIEW | JASON PALADINO
Communication Specialist Seaman Christopher Frost.
Bradley Peniston
Deputy Editor
Defense One
Subsequently, a parallel joint effort among controllable, C2-enabled, mission adaptable, and
PACOM, the Navy, and the Air Force had its first payload—kinetic and non-kinetic—flexible?”
success in a 2,000-pound Mk64 Quickstrike-JDAM The Navy has taken up the admiral’s challenge
laid by a B-52H. Testing has continued, from the and is pursuing several mine/mining initiatives
B-52, B-1, and F/A-18, demonstrating that the that promise a renaissance in U.S.naval warfare.
Quickstrike-J can be deployed from high altitudes For example, Navy research and development labs
and at great standoff ranges by any aircraft are collaborating on a Smart Mine Initiative (SMI)
equipped to drop the GBU-31 JDAM. With GPS that is a component development and prototyping
precision, bombers can lay an entire minefield effort to accelerate the fielding of an initial kinetic
in a single pass without even coming close to the “encapsulated homing effector” capability for
minefield. There are two variants: The 2,000-pound wider area coverage in deeper water than possible
weapon is the Quickstrike-J, called “Skipjack,” in 2018.
has only the JDAM guidance kit. The 500-pound Moreover, these come in addition to the
Quickstrike-ER version, “Flounder,” has both a Navy’s improving the in-service shallow-water
JDAM-ER guidance kit and a pair of folding wings. Quickstrike converted-bomb bottom mines with
Development efforts are ongoing to demonstrate Joint Direct-Attack Munition (JDAM GPS guidance
and field a 2,000-pound version of the Quickstrike- and wing packages that enable aircraft-launched
ER. mines with ranges and precision-accuracies
....and Tomorrow’s unheard-of before now. Another near-term
In January 2015, Admiral James A. Winnefeld, option includes repurposing excess Mk67 SLMM
then-Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warheads to make Clandestine Delivered Mines
challenged the Navy’s mining experts to think delivered by unmanned undersea vehicles.
broadly: “Within five years, how can our operating Importantly, this need to address modern,
forces disrupt/deter an adversary vessel in modular “smart” mines—capabilities well beyond
international waters using mines that are smart, the improved Quickstrikes and Clandestine
was the result of an exclusively verbal discussion ... In contrast to the Navy, the Air Force could be
There was no written guidance, no emails, discussions considered a model of transparency. The Air Force
(except for verbal conversations), memos, notes, or Safety Center not only discloses accident data year
policy change documents relating to the withdrawal after year; it also breaks the data down by individual
of Naval Safety Center public information, specifically aircraft. (The Center even lets you see which bird
on the statistics page, to the DOD CAC(Common Access species have caused the most damage to Air Force
Card) site.” aircraft. The Canada Goose has caused more than $91
While I did get confirmation that the information million in damages from 1995 to 2016.)
was “withdrawn,” I’m no closer to understanding why The Air Force’s clear handling of its public data
the Navy made the decision. Phillips, the Naval Safety raises an obvious question: Are the security concerns
Center public-affairs officer, implied that publishing of the Department of the Navy really that much
the data online created a security risk. “When you greater than those of the Air Force? Even though
aggregate so much information in one place,” she said, the Navy’s accident data will hypothetically still be
“bits and pieces of that can be compiled by those who available through a request system, the act of making
wish us harm to make inferences and gain intel.” the data private effectively makes it secret. “Most
Aftergood, from the project on government people, including most reporters and official oversight
secrecy, finds this reasoning unpersuasive. “It’s personnel, are not going to take the trouble to uncover
disappointing and, I would say, inappropriate,” suppressed information of this kind,” Aftergood said.
Aftergood said. “There is no security reason for Small changes to government websites will
limiting public access to statistical summaries of safety inevitably go unnoticed by the public, and there’s no
mishaps. On the contrary, public disclosure of such telling what information is slowly and irrevocably
information can help to improve safety and security slipping out of reach.
by motivating officials to adopt remedial measures.”
PATRICK TUCKER CAPT. HANS LYNCH, SCOTT C. TRUVER MAGNUS JASON PALADINO
Patrick Tucker is
USN Dr. Scott Truver directs NORDENMAN Jason Paladino is
technology editor
Gryphon Technologies’ a reporter for UC
for Defense One. He’s Capt. Hans Lynch, USN, Magnus Nordenman is a
national security program Berkeley’s Investigative
also the author of The is the former head noted NATO and maritime
and serves as a senior Reporting Program and
Naked Future: What of the Mine Warfare affairs expert. He has
advisor at the Center for associate producer of the
Happens in a World That Branch (N952) in the served, among other
Naval Analyses. documentary "Who Killed
Anticipates Your Every Expeditionary Warfare things, as the Director of Lt. Van Dorn"?
Move? (Current, 2014). Directorate (N95), Office the Transatlantic Security
Previously, Tucker was of the Chief of Naval Initiative with the Atlantic
deputy editor for The Operations (OPNAV). Council in Washington,
Futurist for nine years. D.C. He is the author of
Tucker has written about “The New Battle for the
emerging technology Atlantic,” forthcoming
in Slate, The Sun, MIT from the U.S. Naval
Technology Review, Institute.
Wilson Quarterly,
The American Legion
Magazine, BBC News
Magazine, Utne Reader,
and elsewhere.