With ever-larger numbers of drones, unmanned submersibles and robot boats, said 4th Fleet Rear Adm. Jim Aiken, “what we didn’t realize was the volume of data we were going to get at headquarters.”
Smaller unmanned vessels will act as expendable scouts and decoys, larger ones -- over 50 meters -- will carry masses of missiles, while manned ships will carry both the largest systems and the human beings essential for rapid adaptation in combat.
The Sixth Domain is not defined by geography. It’s a new kind of conflict in which autonomy and networked systems allow thousand-dollar consumer electronics to destroy multi-million-dollar conventional weapons systems.