Aegis radar performance must develop to sustain littoral surveillance more effectively. UAVs give us the ability to move from individual instances of surveillance to what we need over the littoral, which is sustained reconnaissance. Finally, we have given great priority to area and theater missile-defense systems because they will enable us, as a Navy, to project an envelope of protection over land areas important to our warfighting and peacekeeping. Information Age Technology Technologies of the 21st century offer rich opportunities. This era provides us with the chance to make enormous advances in naval warfare and naval life that are akin in magnitude to the shift from sail to steam-powered ships.
Ship propulsion provides a compelling example.
We are embracing electric drive and integrated power system technology for the Zumwalt class. This will allow us tremendous flexibility in naval architecture weight and space reductions, power increases, stealth that in turn will generate warfighting advantages, as well as crew-size reductions, habitability improvements, fuel and maintenance savings, and power improvements for energy weapons and information systems. At present, the computer communications revolution holds the richest set of possibilities for us. If, under the first proposition, we want to improve habitability on ships, one rich opportunity is to take advantage of broadband communications for personnel reductions. In an era when ships were isolated, whatever a vessel needed had to be provided by its crew.