The latest Digital Talon exercise, conducted earlier this month in the Middle East region, included a variety of robotic capabilities that could play a significant role in future conflicts.

“Digital Talon 3.0 … tested the electronic and mechanical effectiveness of robotics and autonomous systems (RAS), the capabilities of over-the-horizon communications between unmanned systems, and testing aerial autonomous launch and recovery of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) off a unmanned surface vessel (USV),” NAVCENT stated in a press release Sunday.

The exercise involved Task Group 59.1, which was established earlier this year and reports to Task Force 59 — a key unit based in the Middle East under 5th Fleet that’s helping the Navy operationalize AI and uncrewed platforms for real-world missions.

“Under Digital Talon 3.0 we were able to test the remote launch of a loitering munition, and vertical take-off and landing of UAVs from a USV,” Lt. Luis Echeverria, commanding officer of the new task group, said in a statement, adding that these “evolutions resulted in the successful remote launch of a loitering munition at sea.”

This wasn’t the first time that a robo-ship operated by the Navy launched a kamikaze drone.

During a Digital Talon exercise last year, the unit successfully attacked a target boat with a “Lethal Miniature Aerial Missile System” fired from a MARTAC T-38 Devil Ray USV, according to officials.

However, the latest iteration of the exercise expanded the over-the-horizon capabilities of these types of uncrewed systems, according to Echeverria.

These efforts are unfolding as the Navy steams ahead with new initiatives to incorporate more unmanned and autonomous technologies into the force.

The sea service established a new “robotics warfare specialist” general rating earlier this year.

“RW Sailors will enable Robotic and Autonomous System (RAS) operations and maintenance at the tactical edge. RWs will be the subject matter experts for computer vision, mission autonomy, navigation autonomy, data systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning on our RAS platforms,” according to a NAVADMIN announcement from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti released in February.

In September, Franchetti unveiled “Project 33,” which is part of her “CNO Navigation Plan” and places a heavy emphasis on robotic systems and information dominance as the service prepares for a potential conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific.

“The Chairman of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has told his forces to be ready for war by 2027 — we will be more ready,” Franchetti wrote, acknowledging that the Defense Department “cannot manifest a bigger traditional Navy in a few short years.”

Incorporating more robo-ships and other uncrewed platforms into the fleet is seen as a solution to that problem.

“Project 33 is how we will get more ready players on the field by 2027,” she added, stating that the sea service will by then have integrated proven robotic and autonomous systems for routine use by the commanders who will employ them.

Senior Navy officials envision these types of systems as being useful for sea-denial missions.

Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said unmanned platforms like those that are part of the Pentagon’s Replicator initiative offer significant benefits. They fit in with the “Hellscape” warfighting concept that he’s laid out for a potential conflict with China in the Taiwan Strait.

“Certainly, these systems are ideal in enclosed spaces … if you can deploy it,” he said last week at a Brookings Institution event. “For closed spaces, for executing sea denial, this can be a very key capability.”

Technologies that the Pentagon is trying to accelerate under Replicator include loitering munitions and other types of drones, USVs and unmanned underwater vehicles, among other tools.

Last week, the Defense Innovation Unit, which is playing a key role in the initiative, unveiled the recent winners of Replicator software contracts.

Meanwhile, Task Force 59 and Task Group 59.1 aren’t the only Navy units experimenting with new unmanned systems.

Earlier this year, the service stood up Unmanned Surface Vessel Squadron Three (USVRON Three) in San Diego to oversee a “fleet” of small uncrewed surface vessels, including the Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC). The organization is expected to help build the foundational knowledge required to operate and maintain small USVs and develop tactics, techniques and procedures for operations and sustainment, according to officials.

Using uncrewed surface vessels to launch loitering munitions and other types of UAVs could be a new tactic that the Navy introduces for warfighting in the coming years.

The first two Digital Talon exercises, held about a year ago, “advanced lethality and kinetic applications for unmanned systems,” but version 3.0 “examined more advanced tactics,” according to the NAVCENT news release, which attributed the observation to Royal Navy Lt. Samuel Hendy, executive officer of Task Group 59.1.

“As with all pioneering ventures and first-of-its-kind feats, there are plenty of challenges to overcome, lessons to be analyzed, but we are a learning organization and it all combines to further benefit 5th Fleets’ understanding and employment of this state-of-the-art warfare,” Hendy said in a statement. “If there is one thing we can take away, Digital Talon 3.0 affirms that the U.S. Navy, as well as her partner nations, remains at the forefront of cutting-edge unmanned system integration and deployment.”

The loitering munition fired during the exercise was a Switchblade 600, a NAVCENT spokesperson told DefenseScoop. That platform, built by AeroVironment, is also one of the systems selected for accelerated acquisition by the U.S. military via Replicator.

The drone is designed to carry high-precision optics and an anti-armor warhead. It has upwards of 40 minutes of loitering endurance, a range of 40-plus kilometers, and a “sprint speed” of 185 kilometers per hour, according to a product description from the vendor. The all-up round weighs 65 pounds.

“Equipped with class-leading, high-resolution EO/IR gimbaled sensors and advanced precision flight control, Switchblade 600 empowers the warfighter with quick and easy deployment via tube-launch, and the capability to fly, track and engage non-line-of-sight targets and armored vehicles with precision lethal effects without the need for external ISR or fires assets,” according to a company product description, which noted that the system’s “wave-off and recommit capability allows operators to abort the mission at any time and then re-engage either the same or other targets multiple times based on operator command.”

With regard to the USV and other drones that were involved in the latest Digital Talon exercise, the NAVCENT spokesperson said: “Specific effects and capabilities relevant to Digital Talon 3.0 were provided via GSA contracts for contractor-owned, contractor-operated platforms.”

The commander of Special Operations Forces Central Command, Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship USS Devastator, U.S. Coast Guard Sentinel-class fast response cutter USCGC Emlen Tunnell and industry partners also participated in the event, according to NAVCENT.

Updated on Nov. 26, 2024, at 3:30 PM: This story has been updated to include additional information provided to DefenseScoop by a NAVCENT spokesperson regarding the loitering munition and other capabilities that were involved in Digital Talon 3.0.

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Viasat, Aalyria, Higher Ground and IoT/AI were selected among the 119 companies that submitted proposals for DIU’s Opportunistic, Resilient & Innovative Expeditionary Network Topology (ORIENT) commercial solutions opening. The firms are expected to provide technologies for “improving the resilience” of command-and-control capabilities for so-called “all-domain attritable autonomous” (ADA2) systems. A total of 130 solutions were proposed by interested vendors before the selections were made, according to a release.

Additionally, Swarm Aero, Anduril Industries and L3Harris Technologies were tapped to provide tools to facilitate “the automated coordination of swarms of hundreds or thousands of uncrewed assets across multiple domains in order to improve their lethality and efficiency.” Proposals were requested via the Autonomous Collaborative Teaming (ACT) commercial solutions opening. The winners were chosen among 132 companies that submitted a total of 165 proposed solutions, according to DIU.

DIU didn’t disclose the value of the contracts, though DefenseScoop reached out to obtain those numbers.

Last week, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks announced that the Pentagon had tapped vendors to serve as “integrated software enablers” to help fully realize the department’s ambitious Replicator plans, but she didn’t identify the companies.

For Replicator tranches 1.1 and 1.2, the department selected a variety of unmanned systems — including uncrewed aerial vehicles, loitering munitions and maritime drones — for accelerated production to support Replicator, which is intended to help the department counter China’s military buildup in the Indo-Pacific by fielding thousands of robotic platforms.

Replicator 2.0, unveiled in September, is primarily focused on counter-drone systems.

However, drones and counter-UAS capabilities are only part of the broader Replicator effort. Software is seen as a key enabler of autonomy and networking chosen systems with other platforms.

“While these systems are valuable as single agents or swarms of like systems, they are most resilient and effective when they operate in combined teams that can collaborate with other types of systems across domains. Resilient C2 and collaborative autonomy vendors will enhance the effectiveness of these systems by providing user interfaces, collaborative autonomy architectures and software, and network orchestration. The enabling software technology will also allow Replicator systems to seamlessly connect robust long-haul communications solutions to redundant local mesh networks and ensure they can continue to operate as a system-of-systems in disconnected, disrupted, low-bandwidth, and intermittent environments. Together, these critical software enablers will enable so-called ‘heterogeneous collaboration’ between different Replicator systems fielded in the next year and lay the foundation for the Department’s broader push towards collaborative autonomy,” DIU officials wrote in the release.

The innovation unit, which was established less than 10 years ago by then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter to serve as a bridge between the Pentagon and the commercial sector, is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has outposts in major tech hubs like Austin, Boston and other locations, as well as an office in the Pentagon. The organization is playing a key role in spearheading Replicator efforts by bringing additional companies into the fold and trying to get them on contract quickly.

“We believe that best in breed commercial software solutions can significantly enhance DoD modernization efforts,” DIU Director Doug Beck said in a statement Wednesday. “Many leading AI and autonomy firms are outside of our traditional defense industrial base, and DIU is working actively with partners across the Department to bring the very best capabilities from the U.S. tech sector to bear in support of our most critical warfighter needs. This latest step in the Replicator initiative is a critical example of that teamwork in action.”

At a Brookings Institution event Tuesday, Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said unmanned systems like those being accelerated for Replicator offer significant benefits. They fit in with a “Hellscape” warfighting concept that he’s laid out for a potential conflict with China in the Taiwan Strait.

However, operational challenges in the region also highlight the need for other types of capabilities, he noted.

“Certainly, these systems are ideal in enclosed spaces … if you can deploy it. Then when you’re finished with doing this, you’re going to have to sustain those forces in Okinawa over wide-ranging space. To do so, you’re going to need air and maritime superiority. How am I going to do that?” Paparo said.

“For closed spaces for executing sea denial, this can be a very key capability. But air and maritime superiority are going to be important over wide expanses, and that means energy and energy density. And here the coin of the realm is dazzle, deceive [and] destroy an enemy’s capability to see and sense the battlespace; maneuver in periods where an enemy can’t see; bring long-range fires on an enemy; gain that capability to maneuver; and sustain across seven joint functions — and one of those joint functions is sustainment,” he added.

The U.S. military can’t achieve that type of superiority just because “we got some drones,” the admiral said.

DefenseScoop asked Paparo if Indo-Pacom was planning to deploy large numbers of Replicator systems on U.S. ships and aircraft to avoid some of the complications associated with stationing them on the territory of allies in the region.

“Probably, yeah,” he replied.

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At the military base in Hawaii, Beck and Paparo engaged with key members of the command and DIU’s team of embeds currently based there “to discuss key initiatives, including Replicator,” a Defense Department spokesperson confirmed in an email on Friday.

“Beck and the DIU team also visited the Hawaii Defense Innovation OnRamp Hub, and met with a large group of commercial tech and DOD partners from Hawaii and elsewhere,” they told DefenseScoop. 

DIU was first launched in 2015 to help Pentagon components field commercial technologies to the military more quickly and less costly than traditional government buying methods allowed.

Since then, the unit has blossomed to build foundational bridges between DOD and the tech sector, and simultaneously accelerated dual-use prototypes. Now — under Beck’s leadership — it’s been elevated and received major funding and staffing boosts to further evolve into what he calls “DIU 3.0”.

Through this new strategic approach, the innovation hub is embedding members of its team “at the most critical nodes of warfighter demand in order to identify priorities, and maximize the opportunities for commercially derived technologies to close capability gaps with the focus, speed, and scale required to deter major conflict or win if forced to fight,” the DOD spokesperson told DefenseScoop.

Beck visits Indo-Pacom “frequently in support of DIU’s ongoing work” to realize his new 3.0 strategy, they said. 

“The DIU team is focused on bringing the commercial technology in artificial intelligence, autonomy, space, human systems, energy, cyber/telecom, and emerging areas like quantum to bear in support of Indo-Pacom’s most critical priorities, including the Joint Fires Network among other efforts,” the spokesperson added.

DIU is also a major contributor in the Pentagon’s plans to carry out Replicator. 

Via the first stage of that high-stakes initiative, DOD seeks to rapidly field thousands of multi-domain autonomous systems by August 2025 to offset China’s massive military buildup. Due to its geographic area of responsibility, Indo-Pacom is considered the Pentagon’s main, early deployer of Replicator systems.

In response to questions from DefenseScoop, the DOD spokesperson declined to elaborate on any details of the Replicator-centered discussions Beck, Paparo and their teams held this week.

However, regarding the broader subject of autonomy they did confirm that “during the visit, the team participated in live testing of maritime domain capabilities” as part of DIU’s Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicles program supporting the U.S. Navy. 

“LDUUV is a great example of speed to capability, as the effort started last July with our Navy partners, and just one year later is already conducting live testing with operational users,” the spokesperson said. “Developing undersea warfare capabilities of the kind highlighted by LDUUV is just one effort in DIU’s broader autonomy portfolio of projects, which provide novel commercial solutions to the warfighter.”

Separately this week — back around the unit’s headquarters in Mountain View, California — other DIU leaders also hosted what the official called “a synchronization of Office of the Secretary of Defense-level and Service test and evaluation components.”

The ultimate aim of that event was to “to organize and execute a development and operational testing and evaluation roadmap in the [unmanned systems space], taking advantage of the rapid pace of commercial hardware and software development in support of this critical priority,” the spokesperson told DefenseScoop.

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“I think that largely, information operations are foundational for every operation that the department will do going forward. We have to be thinking about the information environment component of those activities,” Gen. Timothy Haugh, who also leads the National Security Agency, said at the Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats, hosted by Vanderbilt University, on Wednesday.

In recent years, adversaries have sought to exploit the information environment through disinformation, misinformation, information ops and other activities as a means of undermining U.S. and allied interests without having to confront them in direct military conflict.

The Pentagon has sought to play catch-up of sorts, releasing updates to doctrine and strategy — and the services themselves issuing their own guidance within the information realm.

The DOD has also shifted its mindset in recent years to a stance of perpetual competition. Adversaries have viewed conflict on a continuum while the U.S. has traditionally viewed it as a binary state of either war or peace. The Joint Concept for Competing, released last year, formally recognizes that the department is engaged in a competition on a daily basis below the threshold of all-out conflict.

Additionally, given that much of this information capability will be delivered via cyber means, Cybercom will play a big role in the information environment going forward.

Haugh said the Russia-Ukraine conflict provides some real-world evidence of the importance of the information environment and how certain operations, such as strategic disclosures, can help thwart adversarial efforts.

“The fact that the United States really used sensitive intelligence to be able to demonstrate to the world what we believed Russia was going to do [and] when they were going to do it, too, really set the tone of this is what it means to be for the international dialogue. That was in and of itself a strategic use of information to be able to drive support,” he said regarding the strategic disclosures of intelligence ahead of Russia’s invasion.

Haugh noted that defense officials need to be mindful of how information capabilities will be used against U.S. forces.

“The other aspects, I think, from a military perspective that we need to be thinking about [is] how are we preparing our force for their likely involvement in a conflict and what will the information operations look like targeting our military force?” he said. “How well are we prepared for that? Is that an area that commanders talk about and they’re going to receive messages that are personalized on their own devices? Those are things we need to be thinking about how we prepare.”

During its 2014 incursion into Ukraine, Russia demonstrated the adept ability to target Ukrainian soldiers’ personal devices with tailored messages, something U.S forces took great interest in.

Information operations can also be conducted in the civilian or corporate worlds — something the U.S. government also must be mindful of.

“It’s not just within a military environment. I think we have seen some shifts in the cybercrime world that have already moved to information operations … Not just ransomware holding things at risk, but hacking and extracting information that is now held as a coercive tool for a ransom that is really about the disclosure of information,” Haugh explained. “It’s not just something that is within a military domain or between nations. This can be very personal for any business in the Western society that’s targeted by an actor and coerced based off of a hacking activity that will disclose information, [that] will either to be embarrassing or do some form of competitive advantage. It’s a part of our daily lives and it’s certainly going to be a part of military activities moving forward.”

When it comes to deterring China and being prepared for what Beijing could do, Haugh explained the U.S. must me mindful of how its potential adversary would use information capabilities.

“The area that I think that we have to really be mindful of, is thinking about what the information environment would look like in a crisis with China and how they would use the tools that are available to them in the information environment and what would be the implications of that, both within the region and with our population,” he said.

China’s use of misinformation and disinformation in the Pacific region and across the world to influence various populations, has concerned many.

“The execution of propaganda, misinformation and disinformation is a real concern for me. It should be a real concern for all of the United States. The [People’s Republic of China’s] ability to influence our information environment is concerning,” Adm. John Aquilino, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said in March before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

One recent example he provided the committee was the notion being put forth that the West — and particularly, the U.S. — is in decline, while China is rising.

“That is Chinese propaganda. Our economy continues to grow, theirs is in the cellar. So, the actions in the information space, ultimately, it was being reported all over the United States. That’s the expansive ability of mis- and disinformation to influence the United States,” he said. “We ought to understand that it’s occurring and we ought to understand that our free and open media and the truth that we project is a critical value of the United States, it’s one to be protected. But we have to call out the mis- and disinformation to stop that ability to influence.”

Aquilino noted that the best way to combat behavior like this is to “expose the bad and amplify the good.”

“We have to understand how media is used in the People’s Republic of China, oh, by the way, and in Russia, because it’s a similar problem … But it is not what we see in our media. We have to understand what’s occurring in the differences, we have to value it and then we have to expose it,” he said.

The U.S. government has taken the approach of exposing adversary activities — be it by releasing malware samples they use, declassifying videos of their actions, or other methods — as a key way to beat back their malevolent efforts by shaming these actors and revealing their tactics so organizations can develop countermeasures, in addition to declassifying intelligence.

Aquilino’s successor told Congress as part of his confirmation process, that he plans to use information tools and work with other government agencies to maximize information capabilities to beat back and expose malign Chinese behavior.

“We must also employ information-related capabilities to transparently bring attention to malign behavior, such as the United States and our partners publicly releasing video of coercive and risky [People’s Liberation Army] intercepts of our lawfully operating ships and aircraft. If confirmed, I will assess current information-related capabilities and consider all viable options to improve our information operations posture and readiness,” Adm. Samuel Paparo wrote in responses to senators‘ questions. “It is critical that we continue highlighting malign PRC activities in the information environment.”

Paparo also indicated he may be inclined to use the strategic disclosure playbook that officials believed were successful against Russia, in the region against Chinese behavior.

“[W]e learned how the timely sharing of previously classified intelligence with our partners and the public revealed Russia’s imminent plans for an attack and helped spur the international community to act in support of Ukraine. Timely transparency can be an effective tool to counter aggression,” Paparo said. A similar tactic could be used to expose China’s activity towards Taiwan, he added, suggesting he could provide more details to lawmakers in a classified setting.

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The ultimate aim of Replicator, according to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks and others leading it, is to establish a replicable process via which the department can adopt innovative technologies at a much more accelerated pace than ever before. “Replicator One” refers to the first tech portfolio the Pentagon is tackling through this endeavor and encompasses an overarching plan to deliver thousands of multi-domain autonomous systems by August 2025 to offset China’s massive military buildup.

During multiple panels at the Defense Innovation Unit’s summit in Mountain View, California, on Tuesday, senior DOD officials discussed how the unfolding pursuit is influencing the Defense Department’s science-and-technology policies and objectives.

“There’s a lot to talk about both legal and non-legal uses of force when we get to autonomy. The department has very specific policy guidelines on that. We have to, from the beginning, determine how those policies work with what we’re trying to accomplish with Replicator and provide a range of courses of action. In some cases, that may result in a policy reface of what we’re good with and what we’re not good with in terms of rules of engagement that we would expect to have to employ,” U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s S&T advisor Martin Lindsey said.

The Pentagon’s recently elevated DIU is playing a leading role in carrying out Replicator. For the first iteration of this initiative, those involved are focusing on developing capabilities for Indo-Pacom, due to its geographic area of responsibility that includes China.

“Because of the governance forums that we’re setting up that will have longevity, I think DIU has a panopticon view of how this is all coming together,” Aditi Kumar, the unit’s deputy director of strategy, policy and national security partnerships, explained. 

Her team, she noted, is as serious about moving fast as they are about moving responsibly. 

They’ve been engaging deeply with the Pentagon’s policy team regarding the application of DOD Directive 3000.09, which lays out the rules and process for approving the acquisition and deployment of lethal autonomous platforms that can engage military targets without troops intervening.

“The purpose of that very close partnership is to ensure that any capabilities that we’re considering for Replicator — which are weapons systems — can be developed, fielded and scaled with responsible speed. We want to be on the cutting-edge of what’s possible, but we want to do that in line with our values and our tenets for responsible use. And the policy, what it says is not that there needs to be a human in the loop, but that there needs to be human judgment in the deployment of these weapon systems,” Kumar said.

To date, Pentagon officials have not publicly revealed what specific weapon systems have been, are, or will be subject to the 3000.09 review process.

In Kumar’s view, part of what is helping DIU speed up defense innovation for the entire enterprise is pursuing different activities in parallel.

“We’re accelerating by looking at the systems that we have that we can rapidly scale [and] working with Indo-Pacom to refine the [concept of operations] as we are selecting those systems. Their CONOPs may presume a level of autonomy that we need to build, they may presume certain [command-and-control] capabilities that we will need to build — and we’re doing that in parallel. As we build those, if DOD Directive 3000.09 kicks in and applies, we’ll work with policy to bring them in and accelerate that review process and make sure we’re building the right checks,” she explained.

“We’re working with [the research-and-engineering directorate] to make sure that we’re leveraging the experimentation calendar that the department already has, the exercises that are already scheduled to start testing these systems individually and collectively, and we’re taking the lessons learned from those, feeding it back to Indo-Pacom, refining the CONOPs, and going back to policy if we need to. All of that is happening together,” she added.

Officials won’t get everything right from the get-go, she noted.

“What Replicator has really done — like, from the senior level — is it has alleviated a lot of our fear of getting in trouble. That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to go fast, we’re doing it responsibly, but we will be wrong. There will be assumptions that will need to be revisited, capabilities that will just not work and others that we will need to pull in. And that’s kind of the process and the culture change that we’re trying to build with this team, in particular,” she said.

Navy Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of Pacific Fleet and the nominee to be the next commander of Indo-Pacom, confirmed that one of the “whole host of attributes that” make Replicator-aligned autonomous systems compelling for his team is that, because they’re unmanned, officials can accept more risk when deploying them.

“It really ought to be a dictum to us that we should never send a human being to do something dangerous that a machine can do for us — [and] that when doing so, we should never have human beings making decisions that can’t be better aided by machines,” he said.

At the same time, though, when they opt to lean on autonomy, Paparo emphasized that military personnel must still maintain human accountability moving forward.

“When we are executing lethal operations, and generally speaking, the more offensive we are the more accountability we must have, and the more defensive we are … the more we should rely on those machines to defend the lives that were entrusted with defending. And then the attributes of our systems: they must be controllable, they must be reliable, and they must be backed up by human oversight when it involves the taking of other human lives. I think we just kind of start out with that habit of mind and habit of action, and it can help us make good decisions about the capabilities that we’re bringing to bear,” he said. 

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“We are in the middle of another epochal change. And that is the dawn — and I do mean the dawn — of the information revolution,” Adm. Samuel Paparo said Wednesay at the annual WEST conference. “Who competes best in this, who adapts better, who is better able to combine data, computing power, AI — and who could win the first battle, likely in space, cyber and the information domain — shall prevail.”

Paparo has been nominated to serve as the next commander of Indo-Pacific Command, where he would lead all joint forces in the region and play a pivotal role in any military conflict against the People’s Liberation Army or other U.S. adversaries.

The advent of modern technology — along with the increasing reliance on systems that were not build with security in mind — has allowed forces to be able to project power from far away, inject confusion into the information space, and infect systems that units rely on, to disable or confuse them.

Adversaries have sought to exploit the information environment through disinformation, misinformation, information ops and other activities as a means of undermining U.S. and allied interests without having to confront them in direct military conflict.

The United States in response, has sought to bolster its own approach in the information environment with the expectation that a future conflict will prominently feature information warfare.

“Really, the future fight is going to be an information fight. Warfighters who can sense, make sense and act on information are going to win. And that’s really what we need to focus on from an information warfare perspective,” Elizabeth Nashold, deputy commander of Naval Information Forces, said at the conference. “IW underpins every single warfare mission in the Navy today. You name that mission and there’s an IW component to it … IW is foundational to success, from peacetime to competition to crisis and conflict. It’s integral to fleet and joint operations and it plays a role in every warfare domain every day. And it’s its own warfighting domain as well.”

She noted that information warfare capabilities are in high demand now, more than ever, and will bolster other capabilities.

Paparo — who during his confirmation process for Indo-Pacom earlier this month, told senators he plans to use information tools to beat back a growing threat from China — noted that despite the emergence of the new information revolution, the fundamentals of war remain unchanged.

“These effects will not be in and of itself, replacing of the principles of war or the seven joint functions, but in fact, augment and enrich our ability to navigate and to perform each of them,” he said. “War, its nature has not changed. It is inherently human … It will and ever will be a contest of will, a human endeavor to affect human behavior.”

He explained that this information age demands important discussions on certain principles such as relying more on machines than putting people in harm’s way.

“Don’t risk a human being in a dangerous environment … when a machine can do it better, faster and cheaper … Allow machines to do tasks and calculations that machines do better and overlay human judgment when it’s required,” he said. “Never abdicate decisions on human life to machines.”

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The comments come from Adm. Samuel Paparo, who was nominated by President Joe Biden to be the next commander of Indo-Pacific Command. Indo-Pacom will be at the forefront of countering Chinese activities that Washington opposes, including efforts to weaken U.S. influence and coerce other nations.

Paparo currently serves as the commander of Pacific Fleet, giving him requisite experience and knowledge in the region.

In written answers to senators’ questions as part of his confirmation process last week, Paparo vowed to utilize the power of information and integrate it into U.S. military operations.

“Information-related capabilities are critical in combating malign behavior. USINDOPACOM has a broad mix of information-related capabilities, including military information support operations and military deception operations, which are designed to change an adversary’s attitudes and behaviors. When employed effectively and in coordination with other U.S. government stakeholders, these capabilities provide USINDOPACOM opportunities to enhance U.S. national security interests,” he wrote.

“We must also employ information-related capabilities to transparently bring attention to malign behavior, such as the United States and our partners publicly releasing video of coercive and risky [People’s Liberation Army] intercepts of our lawfully operating ships and aircraft. If confirmed, I will assess current information-related capabilities and consider all viable options to improve our information operations posture and readiness,” he added.

In recent years, adversaries have sought to exploit the information environment through disinformation, misinformation, information ops and other activities as a means of undermining U.S. and allied interests without having to confront them in direct military conflict.

The Department of Defense has sought to play catch-up of sorts, releasing updates to doctrine and strategy — and the services themselves issuing their own guidance within the information realm.

The DOD has also shifted its mindset in recent years to a stance of perpetual competition. Adversaries have viewed conflict on a continuum while the U.S. has traditionally viewed it as a binary state of either war or peace. The Joint Concept for Competing, released last year, formally recognizes that the department is engaged in a competition on a daily basis below the threshold of all-out conflict.

Information is an important tool in this realm.

Paparo told senators he plans to use information in a similar vein as other organizations have in the past, disclosing and exposing problematic behavior.

“It is critical that we continue highlighting malign [People’s Republic of China] activities in the information environment,” he said. “The PRC’s militarization in the region and aggressive activities are unlawful and destabilizing. PRC actions threaten the sovereignty of our allies and partners, limit freedom of navigation, and undermine regional stability.”

A few years ago, the U.S. came to the conclusion that exposing adversary activities — be it by releasing malware samples they use, declassifying videos of their actions, or other methods — was a key way to beat back their malevolent efforts. Through public release, the hope was to shame these actors and reveal their tactics so organizations could develop countermeasures.

Relatedly, a playbook used at the outset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 could also be applied in the Pacific region to help aid Taiwan in the event of Chinese military action against the island. Paparo said the declassification of sensitive intelligence could be an important tool to thwart Beijing.

The U.S. intelligence community declassified and released to the world troves of intelligence to undercut Russia’s narrative that it wasn’t massing troops or planning to invade Ukraine — a tactic many officials believe was successful and something that is likely here to stay.  

“[W]e learned how the timely sharing of previously classified intelligence with our partners and the public revealed Russia’s imminent plans for an attack and helped spur the international community to act in support of Ukraine. Timely transparency can be an effective tool to counter aggression,” Paparo said. A similar tactic could be used to expose China’s activity towards Taiwan, he added, suggesting he could provide more details to lawmakers in a classified setting.

The admiral also recognized that information capabilities — as well as the military — are tools within the broader scope of the government, requiring tight linkages with other departments and organizations.

“Competing with the PRC requires strengthening, aligning, and strategically employing all elements of national power. We must tirelessly and purposefully compete in economic, diplomatic, military, and information spaces to be effective against the PRC,” he wrote. “DoD efforts throughout the information environment cross traditional department and agency lines. I fully recognize the military represents only one tool of national power. We must be fully integrated within the whole of government to maximize our collective information related capabilities.”

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During his confirmation hearing Thursday and in written responses to advance policy questions, Adm. Samuel Paparo, who currently commands Pacific Fleet, noted the importance of being able to counter the People’s Liberation Army’s command, control, computing, communications, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting (C5ISRT) systems.

Behind defense of the homeland, C-C5ISRT is the top priority for U.S. Indo-Pacom, he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“It has been the number one priority that I’ve communicated to the chief of naval operations in my integrated priority lists. And if confirmed, it is the enabling capability … that will bring victory to the allies” in a potential conflict with China, he said.

In their list of advance policy questions, lawmakers asked Paparo to identify the key areas in which each U.S. military service must improve in order to provide the necessary capabilities and capacity to the joint force to prevail in a potential conflict with the People’s Liberation Army.

“Specifically, the joint force requires capabilities to blind (Counter-Command, Control, Computing, Communications, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting (C-C5ISRT), see (persistent real-time awareness of the battlespace in all domains) and kill (long-range precision fire enabled the Joint Fires Network). Additionally, we require capabilities that assure air superiority, sea control, undersea warfare dominance, space control, integrated air and missile defense, and logistics to support our distributed operations. If confirmed, I look forward to working cooperatively with each service regarding these capabilities,” he wrote.

In addition to blinding the PLA, the Department of Defense must be able to maintain a “persistent stare” at the operating environment through a variety of sensors, he noted.

“ISR is inherently, due to the ephemera of the capability, blinking. The closer we can come to a persistent stare from the seabed to the surface of the sea, distributed throughout geography, in the air and in the [space] constellation — all of it must sum to a persistent stare of [People’s Republic of China] forces in response to this shrinking strategic, operational and tactical warning,” Paparo said.

The Pentagon has identified sea, air, land, space and cyberspace as warfighting domains. The latter two are where the “fist battle” will take place in a potential conflict between the Pentagon and the PLA, Paparo said.

In 21st century warfare, the advantage goes to the side that can see, decide and act faster, according to the admiral.

The Defense Department is pursuing a next-generation warfighting construct known as Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2), which calls for more effective and holistic networking of sensors, shooters and data streams across the entire battlespace from all the services and key foreign partners to provide the right data to commanders for better decision-making.

“Increasingly, we’re dependent on our cyber networks and in our constellations to be able to see, understand, make sense of and to act. And accordingly, we must build the resiliency of our constellation of sensors on orbit, as well as our constellation of … sensors from the seabed to the Karman Line. They must be resilient, they must be redundant, they must include the elements of graceful degradation so that when one thing is out, it’s just a small loss in capability, but it’s still it still provides enough. And we’ve got to work tirelessly to close those gaps,” Paparo told lawmakers.

“If and when conflict comes, it is that C5ISR in space and cyber, that shall be the first battle and will be either the enabling capability for the joint force, or the Achilles heel for the PLA if that day comes,” he added.

U.S. advances in cutting-edge and emerging technologies such as AI, directed energy, hypersonic missiles and quantum computing will also be critical as Washington seeks to keep pace with Beijing, he noted in his written responses to policy questions.

The Pentagon and its allies in Australia and the United Kingdom are partnering to work on these types of capabilities under what’s known as pillar two of the AUKUS alliance.

However, trilateral cooperation under AUKUS has faced hurdles from U.S. export control restrictions that have limited technology sharing with allies, according to Paparo.

AUKUS provisions that were included in the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act “should alleviate these challenges significantly. As we begin working within the new authorities, and if confirmed, I will alert the committee to any impediments that may arise,” he told the panel.

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If confirmed by the Senate, Franchetti would succeed Adm. Mike Gilday as the sea service’s top officer and military adviser to the commander-in-chief — and become the first woman to serve as CNO. She is currently serving as the vice chief.

“Throughout her career, Admiral Franchetti has demonstrated extensive expertise in both the operational and policy arenas. She is the second woman ever to achieve the rank of four-star admiral in the United States Navy, and when confirmed, she will again make history as the first woman to serve as the Chief of Naval Operations and on the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Biden said in a statement.

Franchetti would take the helm at a time when the Navy is pursuing a variety of key modernization initiatives, including bringing more unmanned systems and AI capabilities into the fleet, pursuing next-generation networking capabilities through the highly secretive Project Overmatch, and developing new weapons such as hypersonic missiles.

According to her Navy bio, Franchetti’s flag assignments have included: commander, U.S. Naval Forces Korea; commander, Carrier Strike Group 9; commander, Carrier Strike Group 15; chief of staff, Strategy, Plans and Policy (J-5) Joint Staff; commander, U.S. 6th Fleet, Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO; deputy commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe; deputy commander, U.S. Naval Forces Africa; Joint Force Maritime Component Commander; deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfighting Development, N7; and director for Strategy, Plans and Policy (J-5), Joint Staff.

Biden also announced that he’s tapping Vice Adm. James Kilby, currently serving as deputy commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, to take over Franchetti’s current role as vice chief of naval operations.

The commander-in-chief also tapped flag officers to fill two other key roles, choosing Adm. Samuel Paparo to head U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and Vice Adm. Stephen “Web” Koehler to lead U.S. Pacific Fleet. Paparo is currently serving as commander of Pacific Fleet, and Koehler is director for strategy, plans and policy, J5, on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon.

The Biden administration and the Pentagon are prioritizing the Indo-Pacific region amid concerns about the threat posed by China and its modernizing military.

“These two officers both have significant experience serving in the Indo-Pacific, where our military strength is critical to ensuring the security and stability of this vital region of the world,” Biden said of Paparo and Koehler.

However, it’s unclear when Franchetti, Kilby, Paparo and Koehler might be confirmed. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., has put a blanket hold on senior military officer confirmations in protest of the Defense Department’s abortion policies.

Biden referenced the political roadblock erected by Tuberville in his statement on Friday.

“Given the national security challenges we face around the world, I urge the Senate to move quickly in confirming them, along with the other military nominations currently on hold. These leadership positions are far too important to delay filling,” Biden said.

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