At the Sea Air Space expo in early April, Zona Militar had a discussion with US Navy (Ret.) Rear Admiral Anthony Lengerich, who now serves as Vice President for Naval Programs at Thales Defense and Security. The Rear Admiral spoke with ZM about various topics such as distributed undersea warfare, communications and data networks in the modern age of warfare, and Thales’ solutions to the US Navy’s missions.
The US Navy is evolving, and a priority is developing a hybrid fleet, which will combine crewed vessels (and submarines) with uncrewed platforms. “The concept of a hybrid fleet is necessary and inevitable,” Lengerich believes. “For cost reasons, you cannot build large capital ships, which also take a long time to build,” hence, uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) can help control a vast maritime space.
The Thales executive explained that he did not solely mean fast, speedboat-like USVs but slower platforms. “I want to send slow USVs in advance of a battle group so it sits quietly at sea. While operating in the area, I want the systems to provide information back to headquarters.” He mentioned SonoFlash, a Thales sonar buoy, as a system that can be deployed in advance to collect data. The SonoFlash is already built for the French Navy, “and now we are showing it to the US Navy.”
While Thales builds some uncrewed surface vessels, the company focuses on sensors, sonars, and buoys. Hence, “we are looking for partners. At Sea Air Space, we want to talk to companies that have capabilities [like USVs] to become partners and offer integrated solutions,” the Rear Admiral explained.
Zona Militar asked the Thales executive how the company’s suit of sensors, buoys, and sonars can help the US Navy in non-combat missions. For example, US Southern Command, including the Fourth Fleet, and the US Coast Guard are tasked with combating drug trafficking in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, which is transported via narco-boats or narco-submarines. The narco-subs “do have an acoustic signature, and our sensors are capable of finding those vessels,” Lengerich explained.
Thales summarized some of the company’s current projects for the US Navy. The primary project is the Combined Active Passive Towed Array Sonar (CAPTAS), specifically the CAPTAS-4 sonar, which was developed by Advanced Acoustic Concepts (AAC), a subsidiary of Thales. The company is delivering the CAPTAS-4 for the US Navy’s future Constellation-class frigates, which are under construction by Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM). The company also provides “some of the electronics” for the Mark 48 Torpedo and the AN/SQQ-89 Undersea Warfare Combat System.
Zona Militar has previously talked to Thales about the company’s other satellite communications (SATCOM) solutions for the US armed forces, like the US Army’s next-generation tactical terminal (NGTT).
Rear Admiral Lengerich and ZM also discussed how Thales’ systems fit into the US Navy’s evolving strategies, namely Distributed Maritime Operations (DMOs). To summarize, the idea is to move capital ships further apart from each other in areas like the Pacific. This strategy will impact antisubmarine warfare, with ships now “more than 100 miles apart,” which means antisubmarine warfare sensors and capabilities will be farther away from each other, so a ship “may not be able to locate all targets.”
To address this evolving strategy and vision, “Thales developed a concept called collaborative antisubmarine warfare, which involves distributing sensors apart from the main surface force.” Thales (including its companies Thales Australia, Get Sat, Thales Defense and Security, and Advanced Acoustic Concepts) is ready for the US Navy’s evolving needs. “We have all the sensors and communication systems for distributed antisubmarine warfare, passive and active, in a large maritime space.” The company’s solutions are mobile; “we are developing portable command centers to process the data collected by the buoys, sonars, and sensors which are out at sea on USVs.”
VP Lengerich believes that in the future, the US Navy “will not have a large, capital ship everywhere it needs to be.” Hence, uncrewed surface vessels, armed or with data-collection capabilities for surface or antisubmarine warfare, will be critical components of the future fleet. Thales has the suite of systems to support these missions; “we are sonar manufacturers and sensor builders,” he concluded.
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