STS 2024 Theme: Today’s Competition…Tomorrow’s Fight…

The US undersea force is in the midst of a global competition with both China and Russia. China continues to outpace the United States as the largest navy in the world, making the Western Pacific and beyond more challenging every day. Russia continues to prioritize and invest in its undersea forces even while fighting a protracted land war, producing highly capable platforms with the reach to challenge our undersea force and that of our partners in both oceans. The United States and our partners must be ready for a fight in the near future and must be positioned to win that fight. Success in today’s competition and tomorrow’s fight will require us to provide our force with the tools and capabilities to expand its reach. The seabed and subsea domains pose new challenges and our undersea force will be required to operate in those domains more frequently. US and allied undersea forces must be equipped for the challenges and the pace of the fight. A critical enabler of our force’s success in today’s competition and tomorrow’s fight will be expanding lethality as well as establishing and enforcing access, no matter the theater, no matter the adversary. Additionally, our strategic forces will play a key role in helping to deter tomorrow’s fight through the transition to COLUMBIA. Finally, our partnerships and alliances in the regions affected by today’s competition and tomorrow’s fight will be critical to our success – the US and our allies must have the tools to enable the collaboration that these partnerships provide. The undersea force will be the key linchpin to dominating today’s competition in order to win tomorrow’s fight.

With that in mind, we invite you to the 2024 Submarine Technology Symposium with the theme of “Today’s Competition… Tomorrow’s Fight” as covered in the following sessions:

 

Technical Sessions for STS 2024:

Session I: Enabling the Undersea Force from Seabed to Space

Chair – Scott Osterman – NUWC

Assistant Chair – CAPT Jeff Hoyle (Ret.) – Elbit America

  • New technologies that enable force success
  • Cross-domain collaboration
  • Operational availability (Ao) challenges, supply chain, material readiness
  • Command and control (C2)/Communications solutions, Communication at Speed and/or Depth
  • Multi-domain kill chains
  • Leveraging the Navy Network Cloud Exchange
  • Non-kinetic weapon

 

Session II: Enhancing Undersea Access and Lethality

Chair – Michael Diggs – HII-NNS

Assistant Chair – Tom Northardt – BAE

  • Ao challenges, maintenance, and material readiness
  • Weapons & combat innovation
  • Improving situational awareness
  • Mine Countermeasures (MCM)
  • Counter-Subsea/Seabed Warfare (SSW)
  • Manned/unmanned teaming
  • SSN(X) key performance parameters…speed, stealth, payload, presence
  • Countering the high-end submarine threat
  • Weapons other than torpedoes and forward deployed weapons

 

Session III: Seabed Warfare, the Next Domain

Chair – Mark Allen – Penn State ARL

Assistant Chair – Justin Reid – GD-MS

  • Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV)/Automated Underwater Vehicles (AUV) missions and payloads
  • UUV/AUV recovery
  • Seabed/subsea sensors, logistics (power, data, etc.)
  • Mine Warfare (MIW)/MCM
  • VIRGINIA Class (VACL) and SSN(X) SSW capabilities
  • Countering adversary SSW capabilities
  • Manned/unmanned teaming for SSW
  • Enabling technologies (for seabed effectors)

Session IV: Strategic Forces…Deterring Tomorrow’s Fight

Chair – Karen Conti – Epsilon Systems

Assistant Chair – Bob Thomas – LMCO

  • Maintaining OHIO
  • Transitioning to COLUMBIA
  • Other payloads
  • Weapon system changes/improvements
  • Strategic anti-submarine warfare (ASW)
  • Expeditionary deterrence (forward deployed ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs))
  • Conducting deterrence mission as the high-end threat grows (more SEVERODVINSKs (SEV), SEVs in the Pacific)

 

Session V: Partnering to Prevail

Chair – Josh Smith – JHU/APL

Assistant Chair – Joe Petrucelli – SPA, Inc.

  • Australia/UK/US (AUKUS) Pillar 1 & 2
  • Maintenance commonality
  • Common weapon/payload improvements
  • Integrated warfighting
    • Theater Undersea Warfare (TUSW)
    • Waterspace Management (WSM)
    • Communications
  • Shared lethality
    • Common, collaborative targeting
  • Allied view of the battlespace

 

NOTE: AUS and UK personnel (includes AUS and UK Flag officers, government civilians and industry) will be in attendance during Session V. Organizations selected to present during Session V will be required to abide by International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), and a procedure to easily do that has been established. Specifically, organizations presenting during Session V will be authorized by VADM Houston, COMSUBFOR, to self-certify under ITAR Exemption 126.4—registration with Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) is also required. Organizations attending but not presenting during Session V are not considered to be exporting under ITAR and thus do not need to self-certify nor be registered with DDTC.