The U.S. Navy is training its combat commanders harder to fight and win future long-range fleet naval battles in the Pacific that will be more lethal and involve a huge number of high-tech threats from aerospace, on the sea and under the sea.
It's now training its commanders for war using a tougher training regimen called "Surface Warfare Advanced Tactical Training" or SWATT. This "high-velocity learning" package focuses on increasing the speed of combat decision making and responding in real time to long-range anti-ship missiles; lasers; sea mines and torpedoes, among other dangers.
The idea behind SWATT is to refine tactics, techniques and procedures needed for major surface warfare against high-tech enemies such as the Russian Navy and the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).
"We are focused on the high-end fight," declared Cmdr. Emily Royse, SWATT leader.
SWATT concentrates a lot on academic learning, and involves a wide range of maritime combat missions. It focuses on sea control. SWATT presents surface warfare units with a scenario and Navy training officers are there to help them through the decision-making process to help them fight that scenario.
In surface warfare, for example, commanders might plan how they want to get all their ships through narrow, high-risk straits or how to respond to small-boat threats.
"Sea control objective is to ensure that our forces are able to move freely within the sea lanes and ensure that they are free from threats or able to counter threats," said Royse.
Some of the particular kinds of enemy weapons these courses anticipate include a range of emerging new systems such as long-range missiles, lasers and railguns. SWATT training includes Carrier Strike Groups (CSGs); Amphibious Ready Groups (ARGs); mine countermeasures and other elements of surface warfare.
Last November, warships from the USS Abraham Lincoln (CNV-72) CSG took part in a SWATT exercise in an effort to standardize similar training throughout the surface warfare fleet.
The first East Coast CSG SWATT exercise included the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf (CG-55), and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Bainbridge (DDG-96), USS Gonzalez (DDG-66), USS Mason (DDG-87), USS Gravely (DDG-107) and USS Nitze (DDG-94).
Crews on the warships practiced a variety of scenarios involving integrated air and missile defense; anti-submarine/surface warfare; amphibious warfare and information warfare. Cruiser-destroyer units are traditionally tasked with defending aircraft carriers but can also provide offensive missile strike capabilities.
The East Coast SWATT exercise is a commitment to the entirety of the Surface Force, according to Rear Adm. Dave Welch, commander of Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center (SMWDC).
He noted that SWATT provides a critical path for warfare and strike group commanders to develop the combat capability needed by its numbered fleet commanders to compete effectively in an era of great power competition.
