ISLAMABAD – The Manhattan Project resulted in one of the greatestbreakthroughs that the American military achieved in the 20th century,giving the US an upper hand for several years in the form of the nuclearbomb. The new project isn’t lacking in ambition, as military chiefs counton the results giving the US a similar advantage as the nuke did in thepast.
The US Navy and Air Force have united their efforts and, potentially,budgets to develop a brand new network that will connect all the unitsavailable to the two military branches, Chief of US Naval OperationsMichael Gilday stated during a speech on 5 December.
The technology will allow these units to communicate with each other,sharing sensor data, namely on a potential adversary’s positions,movements, and actions. The reliability of the connection between everyseparate unit will be ensured by unmanned platforms, such as drones, E-2DHawkeye aircraft, and even prospective vessels, like the so-called FutureFrigate project.
“I think the biggest challenge for us is to join all the main command andcontrol. We’re building netted weapons, netted platforms, and netted[command and control] nodes, but we don’t have an adequate net, and that’sa critical piece”, Gilday stated.
The new technology is expected to allow the US to spread out its forceswhile making the work of enemy intelligence and reconnaissance harder.Connected via this new network, even dispersed US forces will be able torespond to an attack on any of them by using long-range weaponry andtargeting enabled by this network.
According to Gilday, the need for the network arose due to recentdevelopments in the Chinese and Russian militarieslinkandin the way that they operate. He noted, namely, that the currentarchitecture in the US military remains exposed to the two countries’electronic warfare capabilities.
Gilday likened the new venture to the famous Manhattan Project that gavethe US military a working atomic bomb, stressing the urgency of the newproject.
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“We would team our forces and, perhaps, our budget lines together, andstart working toward a joint solution set fast, in a ‘Manhattan Project’kind of way. Because we need it, it’s a serious gap that we need closed”,he said.
The Naval Operations chief said that the new technology is expected to beready between 2033 and 2035, but noted that it would be better if ithappens earlier.[image: US-China-Russia]
The US has named both Russia and China as possible “near-peer” adversarieslinkina future armed conflict and has been adjusting its military efforts,including in terms of developing new armaments, accordingly ever since.
Apart from developing new weapons, the US has been actively patrollingareas near China, specifically the South China Sea, under the guise offreedom of navigation missions, and staging military exercises nearRussia’s borders with its NATO allies.
