When it comes to Internet connections,
some ships in better shape than others
By Steve Liewer, Yokosuka
bureau chief
Rick Chernitzer/ Stars and Stripes
Petty Officer 2nd Class Bobby Campbell, 26, from the USS Chancellorsville,
checks his e-mail in the ship's Internet room, inside one of the chaplain's spaces. |
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Satellite television. Sailor telephones. Instant
e-mail. Thanks to the "wired" Navy, today’s tech-savvy modern sailor can go
to sea and feel like he’s right at home.
Well, not quite.
Aboard most ships, television reception is spotty at best, phone service is sporadic
and Internet access is an elusive dream. E-mail comes through in fits and starts,
sometimes delayed for days.
"I don’t even bother to surf the ’Net when we’re under way,"
said Petty Officer 1st Class Dave Klei-man, 31, of the Yokosuka-based destroyer USS
Cushing. "It’s down a lot, or it’s real slow."
It’s true, sailors at sea can keep in touch with home in ways unthinkable even a
decade ago. The Navy purchased thousands of Dell computers for ships last year.
That has given Internet access to almost every division on every surface ship.
Satellite telephones allow sailors to talk to loved ones when they need to.
Direct-to-sailor (DTS) television means sailors on most ships can watch current programs,
news and sports in their lounge TVs instead of watching recycled videos for the umpteenth
time.
"We have been able to provide contact with the outside world," said Cmdr.
John Jorgenson, 7th Fleet deputy assistant chief of staff for command, control,
communications, computers and intelligence.
But these well-intentioned improvements have collided with the laws of physics. The
crowded decks of most Navy ships are poor platforms for satellite dishes, and signals
don’t reach vast stretches of ocean where those ships spend their time.
And when it comes to Internet connection, all Navy ships are not created equal.
Carriers such as the USS Kitty Hawk and the 7th Fleet command ship USS Blue Ridge enjoy
enough bandwidth so multiple communications systems can run at once. At the same time the
small cruisers, destroyers and frigates that escort them can barely download a Web page.
Navy techs boost shipboard systems with every overhaul, but they say it’s tough to
keep up with the warp speed of technological advances in the civilian world.
So, while the Navy gives sailors more and more of the high-tech comforts of home, many
of the gadgets don’t work as well as they do in your living room.
"I came out of the ‘Dark Ages’ of the 1980s," said Capt. Mike
Noble, the combat systems and materiel officer for Carrier Group 5 aboard the USS Kitty
Hawk. "It’s been like the speed of light."
Inherent isolation
Since the early days of sailing ships, isolation has been a fact of life at sea.
In the 20th century, radio communications allowed commanding officers to keep in touch
with their shore-based superiors, but the change made little difference to the average
sailor at sea. Even into the 1990s, the only contact with the outside world came during
port calls. Computers were scarce, and none were connected to the World Wide Web. No
dishes pulled television signals from satellites overhead.
Then in 1998, the Navy began implementing its highly touted IT-21 ("Information
Technology-21st Century") initiative, the execution of its modern
"network-centric warfare" concept. It ties carrier battle groups and amphibious
ready groups together into computer networks, boosting ships’ ability to communicate
with each other and with the shore.
"It was not until I was on my fourth ship that we even had telephones," said
Jorgenson, a 16-year Navy veteran. "There was no contact with the outside
world."
The modern carrier battle group teems with electronic communications. Jorgenson said a
seven-ship battle group contains some 2,700 "emitters" (anything sending out an
electronic signal such as radio or radar) and uses every frequency in the spectrum.
Two separate computer networks make up the core of day-to-day communications aboard
Navy ships: a secure system for classified communications and a separate network for
unclassified functions and personal use, the Nonsecure Internet Protocol Router Network.
NIPRNET has become a fundamental part of many jobs. Last year, when U.S. Pacific Fleet
security officials tried to cut off shipboard Internet access to all but certain approved
Web sites, everyone from seamen to admirals kicked up such a fuss, PacFleet quickly backed
down.
"I live and die by the NIPRNET," said Noble. His job also includes overseeing
the carrier group’s communications networks. "You become used to it very
fast."
The same is true for individual sailors — especially those stationed overseas,
whose life has been made easier by ready access to e-mail and the Internet. They order
books and compact discs, bid at online auctions, take college courses, keep up with sports
teams, play computer games and keep in touch with friends and family.
"In port, it’s perfect — I can do everything," said Petty Officer
3rd Class Jeremy Simoneaux, 22, a fire controlman aboard the Cushing. "It’s only
slow under way."
All the NIPRNET computers on a ship are on a network with a limited capacity. The more
sailors use the system, the slower it runs.
"If there’s a whole ton of people online, it can be a problem," said
Petty Officer 3rd Class Damon Thompson, 22, also of the Cushing.
Connectivity depends heavily on a ship’s location and the direction it is
traveling.
"In some places, [reception] is outstanding. In other places, it’s not,"
Noble said. "It can be frustrating, depending on what you’re doing."
Big ship, big advantage
There’s a huge difference between big ships, such as the Kitty Hawk and Blue
Ridge, and small ships, such as the Cushing and USS Chancellorsville.
Bandwidth gives a rough measure of a ship’s connectivity. In the 7th Fleet, it
generally ranges from 64K on the smallest ships to 768K on the big ones. It’s not a
precise indicator of a system’s speed, though — a network with 768K and 1,000
users might run slower than a network with 128K and 25 users.
Jorgenson said bandwidth is allocated upon military need. The Kitty Hawk and Blue
Ridge, with 768K each, carry out multiple missions when they’re in fighting form and,
not incidentally, both operate with a flag officer aboard. They must be able to run
teleconferences and multiple video feeds at once, functions that suck up bandwidth
quickly. Each operates within a bandwidth of 768K.
"The carrier is going to have four or five separate, distinct commands on
board," Jorgenson said. "When you have all those people with different mission
areas, they all have to have connectivity."
The small ships carry out fewer and more limited missions, so the Navy doesn’t
allocate them as much bandwidth. Currently they get only 64K, although Jorgenson said
every 7th Fleet ship should be boosted to 128K in the next year or so — at a cost of
$50,000 per ship.
"We don’t just provide connectivity for the sake of connectivity," he
said. "We don’t have the money to throw at something unless it’s supporting
a mission."
For example, take the case of the Yokosuka-based cruiser USS Chancellorsville. Lt.
Cmdr. Mike Ford, the ship’s executive officer, said the ship has 75 NIPRNET computers
for its crew of 358 officers and sailors, including five in the ship’s classroom for
use by any sailor at any time.
But, with only one 32K modem servicing the whole network, Internet connectivity is nil.
"What connectivity?" asked Petty Officer 3rd Class Amy Frazier, 22, a sailor
aboard the Chancellorsville. "The only time we can actually get on the Internet is in
the middle of the night."
There is good news ahead for the Chancellorsville, though. This fall, it will go into
dry dock for an overhaul. The planned upgrade includes a quadrupling of bandwidth, to
128K, and 75 more computer terminals will be installed.
"Before this ship deploys again, we’ll have a much greater [computer]
capability," Ford said.
Solving the problem
To save bandwidth, Internet access commonly is restricted to sailors ranked E-5 and
above. Sailors on some of the small ships can send and receive only small attachments to
their e-mails — no video clips, no photos. E-mail is easy to write, but sometimes it
doesn’t go out for hours or days, until the satellite link is up again.
The crowded decks of the small ships also make it tough to find room for the necessary
satellite dishes. While the Kitty Hawk, the Blue Ridge and the Sasebo-based amphibious
assault ship USS Essex boast massive decks with plenty of open space, cruisers, destroyers
and frigates must leave room for guns, missile launchers, radar domes and helicopter pads.
"You’re going to lose satellite signal, that’s inevitable," said
Jorgenson, who serves aboard the Blue Ridge. "Even we have blocking zones. And we
have very small superstructure, and a very open deck."
What they can do, though, is install more than one antenna, so one system can pick up
the slack if the other’s signal is blocked. In the 7th Fleet, the Kitty Hawk and Blue
Ridge have done that, as have the cruisers USS Cowpens and USS Vincennes. Noble estimated
the Kitty Hawk’s NIPRNET is connected to the satellite 90 percent of the time because
of its redundant systems. Thanks to a recent upgrade, the Vincennes now carries a Super
High Frequency antenna.
"Unless something’s terribly wrong, we have connectivity all the time,"
said Seaman Richard Curry, 20, an information technology specialist who doubles as
Webmaster for the Vincennes Web site.
The powerful new SHF antenna is like a radio laser beam, with a strong, clear, focused
signal. It has plenty of capacity — enough that sailors could surf the ’Net on
all 80 of the Vincennes’ computers at once, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Brian
O’Dell, 20, also a tech specialist.
But the SHF signal is quite narrow, so it is especially vulnerable to changes in the
ship’s course and frequently goes down. INMARSAT serves as a backup. It is more like
a table lamp with a soft white 60-watt light bulb. It is weak but its beam is wide, so it
is tougher to knock out.
"We use INMARSAT only for e-mail," Curry said.
No turning back
Even though the new technology isn’t perfect, no sailors want to go back to the
old days of isolation at sea. They can write e-mails on their ship-based accounts any
time, though the messages come in and go out only when the system is up.
"It really helps a lot," said Curry, of the Vincennes. "Sometimes you
have a rough day at work, you want to sit down and write to Mom."
As in ashore world, though, better connectivity at sea is just a generation away. And
in the high-tech world, a generation may be measured in months, not years.
"We’re still in the infancy of wiring up the Navy," Noble said.
"It’s really going to do nothing but improve."
RELATED STORY:
In Far East,
Direct-to-Sailor TV access can be spotty
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