מאמר מעניין שמדבר על Payloads over Platforms שעלה במגזין של הצי שנקרא Proceedings Magazine ביולי 2012.
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Proceedings Magazine - July 2012 Vol. 138/7/1,313

By Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert, U.S. Navy

We need to move from ‘luxury-car’ platforms—with their built-in capabilities—toward dependable ‘trucks’ that can handle a changing payload selection.

Navy platforms, particularly ships and aircraft, are large capital investments frequently designed to last for 20 to 50 years. To ensure our Navy stays relevant, these platforms have to adapt to the changing fiscal, security, and technological conditions they will encounter over their long service lives. It is unaffordable, however, to adapt a platform by replacing either it or its integral systems each time a new mission or need arises. We will instead need to change the modular weapon, sensor, and unmanned vehicle “payloads” a platform carries or employs. In addition to being more affordable, this decoupling of payload development from platform development will take advantage of a set of emerging trends in precision weapons, stealth, ship and aircraft construction, economics, and warfare I will describe in this article.

One example of a payload-centric approach to adaptability is the USS Enterprise (CVN-65), which celebrated her 50th birthday last year. The Enterprisewas conceived in the 1950s to deal with a growing Soviet threat. At the time our national strategy was to contain the Soviet Union, which required aircraft carriers that could quickly reposition and project power on the Soviet periphery, thereby avoiding its sizable garrisons of ground forces and land-based aircraft. A large, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with specialized fighters and attack aircraft provided a solution to these operational requirements.

But times change, and so do trends in economics, technology, and warfare. The Enterprisewent from carrying a mix of A-7 Corsairs, A-6 Intruders, and F-14 Tomcats—designed predominantly to counter the Soviets—to homogeneous air wings of multimission F/A-18 Hornets to address the range of post–Cold War operations. Her command-and-control requirements and systems changed so dramatically in 50 years that the flag bridge, which once accommodated large chart tables to plan Fleet operations, is now mostly bare except for a collection of computer processors and monitors. And over time, the Enterprise’s defensive weapons evolved from first-generation AIM-7 Sea Sparrow missiles to an integrated complex of close-in weapon system guns, rolling airframe missiles (RAM), and electronic-warfare systems.

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http://www.usni.org/magazines/proce...ting-new-course