“Southern Spear will operationalize a heterogeneous mix of robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) to support the detection and monitoring of illicit trafficking while learning lessons for other theaters,” said Cmdr. Foster Edwards, 4th Fleet’s hybrid fleet director.
Long-range missiles, missile defenses, and robotic ships will be essential adjuncts to the big, expensive “Death Stars” that dominate the Navy budget, says Bryan Clark of the Hudson Institute.
Knowing when to build on commercial systems and when to develop something new can be the difference between parity and information dominance.
“What is different... is a dramatic uptick in the UAV activity in the region, both in terms of their capability, their profiles, and the density of activity,” Vice Adm. Brad Cooper said.
Sensors could provide a solution, but before that the Navy must defend its unmanned ambitions before skeptical lawmakers.
Rep. Joe Courtney's comments on on the heels of other lawmakers and military officials pushing for the Navy to get a larger slice of the 2022 defense budget
"There is an underlying commitment to move as fast as you can... because the pacing threat is constantly moving and accelerating," said Lt. Gen. Eric Smith, commander of Marine Corps Combat Development Command.
Reducing cognitive overload on warfighters while improving “time to trust” for autonomous systems is a matter of design.
The SecDef wants more money for the Navy's shipbuilding account, and one way to get it is to dip into an existing account, a powerful Congressman says.
Today's deals for designs -- Large Unmanned Surface Vessels displacing 2-3,000 tons -- reflect the 'take it slow' approach being forced on the service.
"We need to find a balance of vehicle designs that enables the cost to be cheap enough that we can afford them, but it's not so highly optimized towards the purely unmanned spectrum that it's cost prohibitive to maintain them."
Planning for a 21st century Navy of unmanned vessels, distributed operations, and great power competition has collapsed. Trapped by a 355-ship force goal, a reduced budget, and a fixed counting methodology, the Navy can’t find a feasible solution to the difficult question of how its forces should be structured. As a result, the Navy postponed […]
Why edge and endpoint security can’t be an afterthought.
The admiral in charge of building the future fleet says while he doesn't know how many ships the Navy needs, he's certain it will look vastly different from today's fleet.
The Defense Secretary was given a last-minute heads-up about the White House's demand to keep the USS Harry S. Truman afloat, and the Navy scrambled Wednesday morning to change its message to Congress.
WASHINGTON: The Navy is scrambling to write its new acquisition and operational playbook on the fly, a decision based as much on what US rivals are doing as it is on what the service hasn’t done in recent decades. The construction and innovation booms being undertaken by the Chinese — and to a lesser extent […]
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.