Defense News: Navy Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO) Concept

Key Chapter Title List

1. Introduction
2. Terminology Definition: Operational Concept
3. Brief Description of the DMO Concept
4. Operational Concepts of Other U.S. Military Services
5. Selected Navy Acquisition Programs Related to DMO
6. Potential Congressional Oversight Issues
7. CRS Related Research Products
8. Other Reference Resources

Document Introduction

This report, updated by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) on July 3, 2024, focuses on the Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO) concept jointly proposed by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. This concept is the core operational philosophy of the Department of the Navy for addressing high-end maritime conflicts, primarily targeting adversaries (especially China) possessing powerful anti-ship missiles and ship detection and strike capabilities. The report's core issues revolve around the sufficiency of congressional information access regarding the DMO concept and the alignment of the Navy Department's related programs and budgets, providing professional reference for legislative debate.

As an overarching framework guiding specific military forces in conducting operations, an operational concept supports the implementation of strategies and war plans for specific conflicts and is also manifested through the actions of tactical units such as ships and aircraft. As a foundational operational concept for the U.S. Navy, the core objective of DMO is to penetrate China's maritime Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) system, ensuring that U.S. forces can effectively conduct operations within the area covered by that system. Its key characteristics include: dispersing naval units within the operational area to increase the difficulty for adversaries to detect and target them; distributing sensors and weapon systems to reduce combat power loss from the destruction of a single platform; enhancing the application of long-range weapons, unmanned vessels, and aircraft; and relying on resilient communication links and network technologies to build collaborative combat forces to withstand enemy cyber attacks.

The report also outlines supporting operational concepts from other U.S. military services, including the Air Force's Agile Combat Employment (ACE), the Army's Multi-Domain Operations (MDO), and the Navy Department's internal Marine Corps concept of Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO). These concepts share common features emphasizing the use of unmanned systems and networked collaboration among distributed units. Regarding DMO-supporting acquisition programs, the report lists key projects such as long-range weapons (e.g., Maritime Strike Tomahawk missile, Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile LRASM), Large Unmanned Surface Vessels (LUSV), Medium Unmanned Surface Vessels (MUSV), Light Replenishment Oilers (TAOL), and Medium Landing Ships (LSM), detailing the functional role of each program within the DMO framework.

Potential congressional oversight issues cover multiple dimensions: the sufficiency of information access regarding the DMO concept and the need for classified and unclassified reports; the analytical basis for the Navy's decision to adopt DMO and its validation through exercises; the degree of coordination between DMO and other services' operational concepts; the alignment of the Navy's budget and programs with DMO and their impact on the shipbuilding and weapon acquisition industrial base; constraints on DMO implementation posed by long-range weapon stockpiles; technical challenges and wartime survivability of communication network technologies; risks of concept misuse; and the feasibility of proposed ship and weapon upgrade proposals to advance DMO, among others.

The data and analysis in this report are entirely based on official statements from the Department of the Navy, operational concept documents, and related research findings. It provides comprehensive and authoritative information support for Congress to fulfill its oversight responsibilities and assess the strategic value of DMO, while also serving as a core reference for defense researchers to understand the transformation of U.S. military maritime operations.