A glimpse of a future naval (and network) special operations mission: Google edition

The jesters and the futurists have long featured offshore structures as the future of human activities. Reality continues to bear out these predictions. We have previously discussed large scale offshore habitation structures and their potential impact for future intelligence and unconventional warfare problems. This time around, it is the concept of the maritime data center – previously discussed as a moored vessel – recast as an offshore terminal type platform.

We are enthused by the possibility of seeing a real life data haven come into its own – and run by a professional multinational entity (rather than the sad sort of anarchist disgrace that was Sealand). But one can easily see the fascinating potential for convergence of a whole range of threats directed against such facilities, involving both naval and network conflicts.

Once again, our froggy friends will no doubt be forced to ponder such actions. And while there are no doubt legions of would-be hackers just waiting to strap on a wetsuit to live out their own episode of the Rock against a network contagion, they are apt to be disappointed. One suspects that the signals intelligence folks will be far more likely to have to come to terms with what the widespread proliferation of such offshore datacenter platforms will mean in an environment where bandwidth and storage are nearly infinite and entirely cheap, and may be rented from the cloud through a complex and shift network of shell companies, taking advantage of low staffing levels and limited oversight incentives. The Russian Business Network’s latter day successors will no doubt be wet.

h/t Futurismic

A glimpse of a future naval special operations mission

Thanks to the jesters at the futurist court’s table over at io9, we note a most interesting concept in circulation for new urban development project – at sea. The environment will be a tailored cross between luxury resort, cruise ship, and a small city. Throw in a casino and conventional center, and you have an interesting playground for what the designers presumably hope will be the rich and famous.

Should such a vessel ever be constructed, however, one can imagine its prominence as a target for maritime terrorism and piracy. And while authoring that threat assessment would be quite interesting, we are not sure we would want to be in the company directors’ shoes when briefing those results to an insurer such as Lloyds of London.

More interestingly yet, this inevitable threat raises the distinct possibility that a future naval special operations mission would be required to respond to a potential incident aboard. With anywhere between 20,000 to 50,000 souls on board, and what will likely be an internal architecture quite different from other maritime vessels, such a mission would no doubt be taxing in the extreme for even the most capable unit. Even the barge-like hull structure and high rise type construction envisioned by the ship’s builders would impose its own complications on such an operation.

While the concept itself looks slick enough, it is far from certain whether it would ever be ready for primetime. However, the idea does provide interesting fodder for intelligence professionals seeking to explore future scenarios for unconventional warfare and counterterrorism. And one cannot beat that back to the 80’s feel of the whole endeavor, even if one should include the more modern elements of Somali pirates and radical Islamist terrorist actors in the scenario itself. After all, it has been some time since considering the response to a vessel hijacking incident has been new enough to occasion comment.

For those future operators which may one day be tasked with this kind of mission, at least there is some solace to know that it will likely occur in a pleasant climate. After all, the rich do not generally favour less hospitable weather – which makes this a far cry from the typical oil rig takedown.

Systema

On a lighter note for the weekend, for those that haven’t yet read William Gibson’s Spook Country, one of the key plot points of the novel is a fascinatingly abstracted variant of operational tradecraft the author calls systema, the bastard hybrid of Cuban, Vietnamese, and Russian intelligence training filtered through the unique lens of a transnational organized crime family.

One of the more interesting aspects of the systema protocol is the incorporation of urban free-running techniques. This is the second time in recent intelligence fiction that free-running has been featured prominently, following on the heels of the Bond film franchise’s return to the harder edged roots of the original novel’s style in Casino Royale, which included a scene involving the pursuit of a suspected IED expert making extensive use of some very cinematic free-running.

Of course, one can question the utility of the sport in practical application, given the requirement to carry certain kinds of equipment in most forward deployed operating environments that seems to be quite at odds with the typical dress of most free-runners. And unfortunately, it is the kind of training that only really mastered by those with a lot of time, and very little to lose (and therefore concurrently little fear of serious injury resulting from poorly judged movements). It would be very hard, we should think, to justify the kind of medical leave rate that such training would impose on a typical rotation.

Practical or not, one could see situational applications for the skillset. Perhaps it is one of the things that could be introduced at the university level for those wishing to enter the profession, as such students typically have the required free time and disregard for their own mortality their older counterparts may lack (though we have no idea how the liability problems would be resolved). It would certainly add a degree of unique differentiation to a resume for those seeking the operator’s path, even if it is only seen as another variant of sport by the recruiters (in much the same way that mastery of martial arts skills are viewed). We know we would have loved to have had a few practitioners along at certain points in our own operational history – even if only as a confidence technique during the instruction of indigenous forces.

Either way, it remains a thing of awe to watch. Via the author’s own blog, he points to a demonstration of “heavy systema”, featuring an excellent Russian practitioner of Parkour in the decaying concrete ruins of the post-Soviet environment.