{"id":21505,"date":"2019-12-05T22:53:25","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T22:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/12\/05\/us-navy-air-force-team-up-on-new-manhattan-project\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:51:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:51:44","slug":"us-navy-air-force-team-up-on-new-manhattan-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/naval\/2019\/12\/05\/us-navy-air-force-team-up-on-new-manhattan-project\/","title":{"rendered":"US Navy, Air Force team up on new \u2018Manhattan Project\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Navy and Air Force are teaming up to rapidly develop a network that can link together<\/a> Air Force and Navy assets during battle, an effort the Navy\u2019s top officer compared to the 1940s program to develop an atomic bomb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adm. Michael Gilday, the new Chief of Naval Operations<\/a>, told an audience Thursday that in order to take on China, the Navy will have to spread out and rely on networked weapons and sensors distributed over a wide area. But doing that would rely on a network architecture that doesn\u2019t yet exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be the most effective force, the Navy acknowledges it must be able to connect with Air Force bombers and aircraft, leading the two services to an agreement to join forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the biggest challenge for us is to join all the main command and control,\u201d Gilday said. \u201cWe\u2019re building netted weapons, netted platforms, and netted [command-and-control] nodes, but we don\u2019t have an adequate net, and that\u2019s a critical piece.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t