Mine warfare, surveillance and reconnaissance, and anti-submarine surface and underwater vehicles, complete with weapons capabilities, are part of the Navy’s future fleet vision, one that will increase flexibility and extend reach at a lower cost.
“From a Navy standpoint, [underwater unmanned vehicles] are not new,” said Rear Adm. Casey Moton, head of unmanned and small combatants for the Navy on Tuesday.
The Navy is on track for a full spectrum of surface and underwater vehicles by the end of the decade, operating alongside manned ships, extending its reach, and even taking more risks than manned ships, Moton explained in a Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion.
“Clearly, the vessels are going to have to be under the protection of their carrier strike group until the commander decides that’s not what needs to happen,” Moton said.
The Navy is fully expecting that the lower-cost lead vessels would have higher attrition once they left the protection of the carrier strike group.
“That’s part of the capability we want to give them to be able to do that without having the people on board,” Moton said.
Moton said the Navy was working on four components: unmanned underwater vehicles and three sizes of unmanned surface vehicles, with a current focus on successful prototype testing of the Sea Hunter and Overlord vessels.
The Navy seeks vessels that can remain at sea without human contact for 30 days or more, capable of ocean transits with the redundancies and self-cleaning systems to sustain long spans of time away from port.
Unmanned underwater vessels are already in limited production and use for oceanography and mine warfare missions, he said.
“We’re expanding the mission of the UUVs, doing more integration with submarines,” Moton said.
The Navy currently has two Sea Hunter prototype vessels, 140-ton, 132-foot vessels produced by Leidos and able to crisscross the ocean.
In 2019, the Sea Hunter made the journey from San Diego to Pearl Harbor Naval Station in Hawaii and back as part of a large group exercise. The same exercise was scaled back this year due to the coronavirus. One Overlord vessel just made a 1,400-nautical-mile trip from the Gulf Coast to Norfolk, Virginia, almost entirely in autonomous mode, Moton said.
With four years of practice, the Navy is now preparing to integrate the vessels into its Aegis Combat System, the radar technology used to track and guide weapons.
“We are working right now on integrational work with the Aegis system to become an integrated combat system to control that warfare system on those vessels,” Moton said.
Designing and testing unmanned maritime vehicles is not cheap.
The Navy is requesting $579.9 million in fiscal year 2021 for research and development of the large unmanned vessels, according to a March Congressional research service report.
Ultimately, the vessels will be less costly and provide greater flexibility than a manned vessel, which requires more space for a crew.
The Navy’s prototypes are currently working on sensing and perception, navigation, and mission execution, Moton said.
Moton added that the Navy had not determined whether those guiding the vessels would be pier-side or on ships in a carrier strike group, nor had it eliminated the manned option for larger vessels. What is clear is that unmanned vessels will be part of the Navy’s future.
“They’re going to be fully part of our battle force,” Moton said, noting the lead vessels will conduct electronic warfare and information operations.
The Navy currently has three prototypes, with plans to buy two more Overlord vessels and another Sea Hunter in 2021. Acquisitions of battle-ready vessels will be done in fiscal year 2023.
“We are now in execution mode,” he said.
