USS Blue Ridge (LLC-19), now the oldest ship in the U.S. Navy's operational fleet, has just has just emerged from an extended dry-dock maintenance and upgrade period at its home port in Yokosuka, Japan. During the 19 month overhaul the ship received a slew of changes, including structural and mechanical modifications, and a major upgrade to her main battery—a massive ecosystem of state-of-the-art computer networks and interfaces, and the most advanced communications system in the fleet. Namely the ship acquired the proprietary Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) system which will greatly enhance its capabilities, security, interoperability, and future adaptability. Overall the work will ensure that the ship remains viable for another two decades, by which time she will have been in active service for nearly 70 years.

USN

The Blue Ridge class, which is made up of two ships, USS Blue Ridge and USS Mount Whitney, are in some ways the most antiquated of US Navy ships, but in other ways they are the most advanced. As a platform they are based around 1960s technology, but the computer systems and communications links they carry are leading-edge.

The ships were designed in the 1960s from the keel up to be command and control vessels with a heavily reliance on computer systems and high-end communications. Originally their mission was to command wide-scale amphibious operations, but over the years, as joint warfighting doctrine evolved, they became capable of much more than that and their importance has increased because of it.

USN

Today the ships are spread between the western and eastern hemispheres, where the Japan-based USS Blue Ridge acts as the flagship of the 7th Fleet and USS Mount Whitney, which is based in Gaeta, Italy, acts as the flagship for the 6th Fleet and as a command ship for the NATO alliance. The vessels are supposedly the most sophisticated Command, Control, Communications, Computer, and Intelligence (C4I) ships ever created, but the public really only sees their massive exteriors—measuring some 620 feet in length and displacing 18,400 tons—which are dotted with large satellite communications domes and antenna.

USN

The question of what's inside these ships has actually come up in more than a dozen separate emails I have received over the years, so I thought it would be finally worth digging into photo archives to see if I could build some sort of overall picture of what the interior of these ships is like. Although images of the ships' mission areas were very limited, what we found gave the depiction of a unique shipboard environment made up of multiple briefing and collaboration areas, as well as real-time situational awareness and command and control centers. One thing was common throughout all of these sections—there are lots and lots of computer terminals. This really isn't surprising, but offers a little different atmosphere than the purpose-built proprietary consoles we are used to seeing in modern surface combatants' glowing Combat Information Centers (CICs).

USN

Basically, these ships are something loosely akin to the Combined Air Operations Centers (CAOCs) that are used to integrate air wars, and the ground war below to some degree, over wide geographical areas. And like CAOCs, the Blue Ridge class has been adapted to fully support coalition operations, with representatives from countries involved being deployed aboard during those operations. But the big difference is that CAOCs are based on land, not on roving ships, and they aren't optimized for fighting in maritime and amphibious environments.

USN

The vessels, which are based on the Iwo Jima class hullform and can keep up with an Amphibious Strike Group, are also comparatively spacious, and there are generous accommodations for flag officers and other higher-ups. According to this image the flag officer's quarters even has a fireplace. But these are still fighting ships that would operate in the vicinity of a flotilla during combat, and are equipped with a pair of Phalanx close-in weapon systems, remote 25mm chain gun turrets, along with .50 caliber machine-gun stations for force protection. The ships also have decoy launchers and electronic warfare suites to help fend off anti-ship missile attacks. An MH-60S is usually deployed aboard as well for logistics and liaison duties, although there isn't a hangar. The ship can store a whopping 123,000 gallons of aviation fuel. Other features include fin-stabilizers for a smooth ride, kevlar armor, and the ability to carry a handful of small landing craft and boats.

USN

But once again, these ships are giant floating warfighting brains of sorts, and their mission is to provide command and control and the best information possible to commanders who will have to make the hard calls as a battle unfolds. They can also redistribute key information they receive via their satellite communications systems to the fleet. Considering that their C4I systems are so powerful, and increasingly so, you can see how these vessels could potentially play a new high-stakes combat role via cyber warfare in the future.

USN

Commanders will have new weapons in their quiver to put to use during future conflicts, and it is very possible that they will be able to command the deployment of those weapons from these vessels, striking at the heart of the enemy's own C4I capabilities using cyber warheads instead of explosive ones. With this in mind, these ships, and the networks they rely on, will also be increasingly targeted by the enemy using their own forms of electronic warfare and cyber attacks. This makes agile implementation of defensive countermeasures, or even kinetically killing the enemy's ability to deploy such attacks before they can occur, absolutely key. It is fairly logical to think that these half century old vessels, and the commanders that sail on them, are adapting to this changing combat reality.

USN