The Navy has a China problem.
America’s top military threat is separated by a vast ocean, and China possesses a larger Navy and a growing number of shipyards to add to it. But with the U.S. Navy concluding a large unmanned exercise this week, it is proving that the future fleet will integrate manned and unmanned platforms that will be more cost-effective to produce and maintain.
As the 2022 budget process nears, the Navy tested its unmanned capabilities during the weeklong exercise Unmanned Integrated Battle Problem 21 off the coast of California. The inaugural event featured unmanned aircraft MQ-8 Fire Scout and MQ-9 Sea Guardian, surface vessels Sea Hunter and Seahawk, and a variety of unmanned systems operating below the surface.
While the Trump administration promised anywhere between 355 and 500 ships in the U.S. Navy in the coming years, funding and the mix of manned and unmanned platforms was a moving target. The Biden administration has yet to set new goals for the Navy or name a secretary of the Navy.
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“The exercises and the development of this technology is not designed around one nation-state or one specific threat,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told the Washington Examiner when asked how the exercise relates to the pacing threat with China.
“Unmanned surface and unmanned undersea capabilities are capabilities that the Navy has been pursuing for quite some time, and they are now at this stage where they can start to integrate them into some battle problems at sea,” the retired rear admiral said. “I think you’re going to see more and more focus on unmanned capabilities in the maritime environment.”
For a week in the Pacific, the Navy flew unmanned aircraft in controlled unmanned vessels from operation centers, targeting and firing and conducting intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance.
The exercise involved surface come subsurface and aerial unmanned assets operating in conjunction with littoral combat ships, guided-missile destroyers, guided-missile cruisers, submarines, and helicopters.
Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas W. Harker said in a statement that the unmanned systems will make the future Navy stronger.
“Our unmanned systems are a great force multiplier for our Navy,” he said. “They bring a lot of capability to the Fleet.”
Kirby said the integration of the unmanned vehicles will help to protect sailors in the future.
“It allows us more flexibility, better adaptability, it will allow us to not only better protect our people but advance and spread out the kinds of offensive and defensive capabilities that we can employ at sea,” he said.
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The operation was led by the U.S. Navy 3rd Fleet, which oversees naval forces in the Indo-Pacific, America’s priority warfighting theater.
To conclude the exercise, the Navy launched an extended range missile from the destroyer USS John Finn at a target beyond the sightline that was tracked by manned and unmanned systems.
