As the title suggests, the article focuses on the needs of the German Navy, which should take its place effectively in the future both in their own naval areas and in the world as an ally, by referring to the navy’s current situation.
The article is presented below, which summarizes its key points and themes.
German Navy Objectives For 2035 And Beyond
The Situation
The Bundeswehr must become the best-equipped force in Europe and the linchpin of Europe’s conventional defense. In 2022, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz made this announcement at the Bundeswehr Commanders Conference. All other duties must be subordinate to the Bundeswehr’s primary mission of national and collective defense, he said. The Chancellor added that Alliance’s missions remain deterrence and defense, crisis prevention and management, and cooperative security, with a clear emphasis on deterrence.
Simultaneously, technological advancements are fundamentally altering conditions in the maritime area of operations. New underwater sensor systems and extensive land-based, airborne, and space-based reconnaissance make the battlefield more visible.
Future complex IT systems, aided by artificial intelligence (AI), will generate comprehensive situational pictures from the resulting large amounts of data.
Potential adversaries also possess high-performance weapon systems, some of which are nearly impossible to counter. There is decreasing time for defensive action. Therefore, additional combat losses must be anticipated, highlighting the significance of quantity: size matters.
As a result of technological advancement, the level of danger in combat has increased to the point where soldiers should only be exposed to it when absolutely necessary. Consequently, there is a clear trend toward unmanned systems that can be utilized in a network.
Conclusions For The German Navy 2035 And Beyond
The particular characteristics of the maritime area of operations and the requirements resulting from the new NATO Force Structure demand comprehensive capabilities of the German Navy. These include operations in the open Atlantic Ocean as well as in the North and Baltic Seas.
For the structure and objectives envisaged for the German Navy from 2035 onward, the following aspects are thus of vital importance:
• Warships must be capable of conducting multi-dimensional maritime warfare in the North Atlantic Ocean over large distances.
• For this purpose, they also need high striking power and survivability.
• Unmanned systems complement the capability to cover wide areas.
• The particular threat situation in the Baltic Sea requires preferably unmanned, simple, and cost-effective weapon systems that are available in large numbers.
What Is Required
Presence, Maritime striking power, Above-water warfare, Underwater warfare, Littoral combat and coastal defence, Maritime situational picture and assessment expertise, and Command & control and resilience are the key points of German Navy needs:
- Sufficient number of vessels as well as fixed-wing and rotary aircraft that allow it to ensure a sustainable presence in its areas of operation,
- Sufficient number of above-water and underwater platforms that are fast, difficult to detect, and preferably unmanned, in order to reduce an adversary’s response time,
- Long- range sensor systems for tactical surface picture compilation, and defensive and offensive weapon systems as well as floating and flying platforms for above-water warfare,
- Modern sensor systems – both stationary and mobile – and AI-based evaluation of tactical subsurface pictures, as well as defensive and offensive weapon systems, submarines and unmanned vehicles for underwater warfare,
- Mobile infantry as well as shore-based forces to control littoral areas from the sea and the shore and must also to be capable of engaging targets from the shore,
- An alternative headquarters in a remote location with hardened buildings,
- Own unmanned sensor systems for continuous data collection and must cultivate cooperative relationships aimed at exchanging information with agencies within and outside the Bundeswehr, civil authorities, civil establishments, and the maritime industry. Therefore, trained personnel, a network for data exchange and also AI technology for data evaluation.
- Addition to the Naval Operations Centre in Rostock’s city centre and the ability to deploy operational sea-based naval staffs at very short notice to increase its overall command and control resilience.
What Matters Now
The Navy must prepare for high-intensity battles, acquire a large quantity of unmanned systems, and employ artificial intelligence, particularly for monitoring and evaluating the situational picture.
Now, two things are crucial for this type of Navy to become a reality:
- The way to the future of the German Navy must be financed in a sustainable manner.
- The time to start testing the employment and operation of unmanned systems in experimental projects is now, so that lessons can be learned and the procurement of the indicated numbers can be initiated with minimised risk.
Guiding Principles
Mass Matters
In a possible war of attrition in the context of national and collective defence, mass also means resilience. This leads to the following requirements:
- A factor of 3 needs to be consistently applied to the required number of naval means of warfare (1/3 of vessels in maintenance, 1/3 at full combat readiness, 1/3 at graduated levels of combat readiness).
A standardisation of naval means of warfare facilitates both the provisioning of spare parts and training. Means of warfare must be designed for ease of use.
Orientation Towards The Future
The Navy’s structure must:
- be sufficiently flexible to adapt it to the demographic development minimise risks for its personnel on deployments,
- enable the testing of new unmanned capabilities in short time frames with a small number of commercially available prototypes (experimentation)
Multi-Domain Operations
The Navy contributes to combined arms operations through:
- system approaches that are networked, swarm-capable and, wherever possible, unmanned
- the development of maritime strike capabilities.
Resilience
Resilience means the capability to remain operational after having sustained losses. This requires:
- the protection of a small number of bases for resupply and maintenance
- an alternative hardened operational command and control centre as well as mobile tactical command and control at sea.
