Overview
The RUSI Sea Power Conference 2022 will continue the Institute’s annual tradition of providing a venue for maritime practitioners and scholars from around the world to debate the pressing issues of the day. Last year’s Sea Power Conference addressed persistent competition at sea.
This year’s conference will focus on the requirements of a different, but equally important maritime function: high-intensity warfighting. The conference will seek to assess how Western and allied navies can compete in 21st century battlefields that are chaotic and contested, and which will see the return of mass to warfighting at sea.
Speakers
Keynote: Admiral Rob Bauer, Chair, NATO Military Committee
Panel speakers include:
- Professor James Holmes, US Naval War College
- Professor Andrew Lambert, King’s College London
- Commander Daniel Caldwell, China Maritime Studies Institute, US Naval War College
- H I Sutton, Independent Naval Specialist
- Professor Anthony Cordesman, Emeritus Chair in Strategy, CSIS
- Colonel Dr T X Hammes, Distinguished Fellow, INSS
- Joann Robertson, Head, Logistics Support Ministry of Defence, UK
- Professor John Louth, Director, Subsea Systems
- Lt Gen Sir David Capewell, RUSI Distinguished Associate Fellow, Former Commander Joint Operations UK
- Professor Sam Tangredi, US Naval War College
- Dr Thomas Withington, Independent Electronic Warfare Specialist
- Elsa Kania, Adjunct Senior Fellow, CNAS
- Brigadier Mark Totten, Programme Director Future Commando Force
- Admiral Gary Roughead, Former Chief of Naval Operations, U.S Navy
- Commander Justin Codd, SUBFLOT
- Rear Admiral James Parkin, Director Develop Royal Navy
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Keynote Speech
Read the transcript of the speech by Admiral Rob Bauer, Chair, NATO Military Committee. Members can watch the speech as part of the RUSI Reflects series.
Programme Agenda
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Registration and Refreshments
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Welcome and Opening Remarks
Speaker: Dr Sidharth Kaushal, Research Fellow Sea Power and Missile Defence RUSI
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Session One: To What End? The Strategic Role of High-Intensity Warfighting
What role should warfighting at sea play within maritime strategy defined more broadly? If deterrence fails, what strategic objectives should be pursued through high-intensity warfighting, and how does this condition attendant naval priorities?
Chair: Paul O’Neill, Director Military Sciences, RUSI
Speakers:
- Professor James Holmes, US Naval War College
- Professor Andrew Lambert, King’s College London
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Session Two: The Threat Landscape: Adversary Capabilities
How are competitors adapting their force structures and concepts of operations? What assumptions underpin the development of the growing PLAN, the submarine-centric Russian fleet and the IRGCN’s mosquito force, and how are these assumptions reflected in their capabilities?Â
Chair: Dr Sidharth Kaushal, Research Fellow, Sea Power, RUSI
Speakers:
- Commander Daniel Caldwell, China Maritime Studies Institute, US Naval War College
- H I Sutton, Independent Naval Specialist
- Professor Anthony Cordesman, Emeritus Chair in Strategy, CSIS
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Session Three: The Return of Mass to the Battlefield
The ability to sustain attrition has been critical to success historically and has informed both force design and efforts to leverage national assets. This has been somewhat downplayed in recent years, during which a focus on efficiency has predominated. Yet changes to both the means of generating and employing forces and the ways in which civilian assets from across societies can support military efforts may alter this. How are both allies and competitors attempting to augment the mass of their maritime force structures, and are the force structures and logistical systems of Western navies adapted to the return of mass to the battlefield?
Chair: Dr Sarah Ashbridge, Research Fellow, RUSI
Speakers:
- Colonel Dr T X Hammes, Distinguished Fellow, INSS
- Joann Robertson, Head, Logistics Support Ministry of Defence, UK
- Professor John Louth, Director, Subsea Systems
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LUNCH
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Keynote Lecture
Speaker: Admiral Robert Bauer, Royal Netherlands Navy, Chair, NATO Military Committee
Chair: Paul O’Neill, Director of Military Sciences, RUSI Â
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Session Four: Fighting in an Information-Contested Environment
As rivals attempt to unpick each other’s network-centric concepts for operations at sea, how should navies prepare to leverage information and achieve agile command and control? To what extent should they plan around the effective management and dissemination of data, and how can they prepare to fight in circumstances where this is not possible? On a more offensive footing, how can navies leverage tools of information denial in areas such as electronic warfare to unpick adversary reconnaissance strike complexes?
Chair: Sam Cranny Evans, Research Analyst, C4ISR, RUSI
Speakers:
- Lt Gen Sir David Capewell, RUSI Distinguished Associate Fellow, Former Commander Joint Operations UK
- Professor Sam Tangredi, US Naval War College
- Dr Thomas Withington, Independent Electronic Warfare Specialist
- Elsa Kania, Adjunct Senior Fellow, CNAS
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Session Five: Patterns of Consistency and Change and Their Implications for Force Design and Employment
This panel will examine the trends that will shape how warfare is conducted at sea and in the littoral. How much of what is new is revolutionary as opposed to evolutionary, and how should force designers and operators plan for the future battlefield?
Chair: Dr Sidharth Kaushal, Research Fellow, Sea Power, RUSI
Speakers:
- Brigadier Mark Totten, Programme Director, Future Commando Force
- Admiral Gary Roughead, Former Chief of Naval Operations, U.S Navy
- Commander Justin Codd, SUBFLOT
- Rear Admiral James Parkin, Director Develop, Royal Navy
