The British see a future networked navy that does not rely on individual platforms? Have they looked at their existing navy?
I can't say I disagree with this:
The U.K. Royal Navy wants a future fleet with its sensors and weapons disaggregated and its ships flexible enough to change missions as needed, as the service acknowledges that traditional technology superiority may not be possible in the coming decades. ...
Rear Adm. James Parkin, Director Develop of the Royal Navy, said the “Navy of the Next” will derive its operational advantage from a system-of-systems approach that nets together disaggregated sensors, thinkers and shooters in a way that creates more persistent effects and less vulnerability to attack.
The end of the Cold War presents the United States with the opportunity and obligation to re-evaluate both strategy and forces. The debate over what the post-Cold War world means for American security and foreign policy has been vigorous. So too has the debate over the potential of the developing Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). Adopting and implementing the naval application of the RMA, network-centric warfare (NCW), is a "fundamental shift from what we call platform-centric warfare[.]" Both the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and National Defense Panel (NDP) final report of 1997 endorsed NCW as the proper path for the Navy. Victory in warfare dominated by networks will in large measure depend on making strategic choices that fit with the new and changing system.
The carrier, I wrote, needed to be phased out for sea control missions.
The British have actually focused even more on big carriers than America does:
If Britain is focusing their navy on supporting a single carrier strike group, and having problems even with that limited goal, is the Royal Navy vulnerable to being taken down with one good hit on the carrier at sea?
And the British carriers are just at the beginning of their service life.
This method of achieving disaggregated fighting, from that initial article, is interesting:
To do that, the Royal Navy will begin buying and testing Persistent Operational Deployment Systems (PODS), a similar idea to the U.S. Navy’s mission package concept.
“PODS are interchangeable modules that can be fitted to the surface fleet. Similar in design to a shipping container, the PODS create the idea of a ‘plug and play’ warship and will enable Royal Navy ships of all sizes to be more adaptable and versatile when deployed,” reads a Sept. 12 Royal Navy news release.
This is how I wanted to create modularized auxiliary cruisers, as I explored for the Army in "The AFRICOM Queen" in Military Review a number of years ago. As I noted, the concept can be broader for more traditional naval missions.
PODS and not large carriers are the path to disaggregated naval warfare.
