Sea drone warfare has arrived. The U.S. is floundering
Send a link to a friend
[May 06, 2024]
By Joe Brock and Mike Stone
(Reuters) - The U.S. Navy's efforts to build a fleet of unmanned vessels
are faltering because the Pentagon remains wedded to big shipbuilding
projects, according to some officials and company executives, exposing a
weakness as sea drones reshape naval warfare.
The lethal effectiveness of sea drones has been demonstrated in the
Black Sea where Ukraine has deployed remote-controlled speed boats
packed with explosives to sink Russian frigates and minesweepers since
late 2022.
Yemeni-backed Houthi rebels have employed similar vessels against
commercial shipping in the Red Sea in recent months, albeit without
success.
These tactics have caught the attention of the Pentagon, which is
incorporating lessons from Ukraine and the Red Sea into its plans to
counter China's rising naval power in the Pacific, Pentagon Spokesman
Eric Pahon told Reuters.
In a signal of the Pentagon's intent, Deputy Secretary of Defense
Kathleen Hicks announced an initiative in August - named Replicator - to
deploy hundreds of small, relatively cheap air and sea drones within the
next 18-24 months to match China's growing military threat.
This public show of commitment masks years of hesitation by the U.S.
Navy to build a fleet of unmanned vessels despite repeated warnings this
was the future of maritime warfare, according to interviews with a dozen
people with direct knowledge of the U.S. sea drone plans, including Navy
officers, Pentagon officials, and sea drone company executives.
Two Navy sources and three executives at sea drone manufacturers said
the biggest impediment to progress has been a Department of Defense (DoD)
budget process that prioritizes big ships and submarines built by legacy
defense contractors.
"At some point, you hit the D.C. problem," said Philipp Stratmann, CEO
at Ocean Power Technologies (OPT), a New Jersey-based firm that supplies
the U.S. Navy with the WAM-V, an autonomous surface drone.
"You hit the fact that there is a military industrial complex that has
the best lobbyists and knows exactly how the money flows and contracting
works in the DOD."
A Navy spokesperson said it "acquires capabilities based on fleet demand
signals", referring to the messages headquarters receive from commanders
at sea.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/May/06/images/ads/current/atlantabank_lda_SHG_2024.png)
The Navy has a budget of $172 million this year for small and
medium-sized underwater sea drones, falling to $101.8 million in 2025,
the spokesperson said. That's a tiny fraction of the $63 billion Navy
procurement budget proposed by President Joe Biden's administration for
2025.
Military sea drones can range from missile-armed speed boats to
minehunting miniature submarines and solar-powered sailboats equipped
with high-definition spy cameras, underwater sensors and loudspeakers
used to holler warnings at enemy ships.
But when the Navy has deployed sea drones on reconnaissance missions in
recent years, it hasn't always had the fleet expertise to use them, the
two Navy sources said, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of
the matter.
There aren't enough Navy sailors trained to pilot drones or to analyze
vast swathes of data sent back from the craft's cameras and sensors, the
sources said.
The spokesperson said the Navy was in the process of improving its data
collection and analysis from sensors.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/May/06/images/ads/current/siu_sda_050324.png)
Pentagon spokesman Pahon said the DoD has been "laser-focused on
accelerating innovation over the last three years", including the use of
sea drones. Acknowledging budget challenges, Pahon said the Pentagon was
using innovative ways to cross "the valley of death", a term used to
describe the torturous approval process new inventions travel through to
be purchased in large quantities.
REPLICATOR
One example Pahon cited was the Replicator program: the short-term, $500
million-a-year project is designed to cut through bureaucracy and fast
track the deployment of thousands of cheap aerial and sea drones.
These drones will be used to match China's rapidly-growing air and naval
power in the Asia-Pacific region, the Pentagon's Hicks said at the
project's launch in August. She said Replicator is being funded mainly
by reallocating funds from the existing Pentagon budget.
As part of the initiative, the Pentagon in January issued a solicitation
for private companies to deliver small sea drones to the Navy, demanding
production capacity of 120 vessels per year, with deployment beginning
in April 2025.
Duane Fotheringham, president of unmanned systems at Huntington Ingalls
Industries (HII), the largest U.S. military shipbuilder, acknowledged
the Pentagon and Navy had shown their "intent" to accelerate the
deployment of sea drones but he said the industry wanted to see
long-term funding in the defense budget.
"We hear the demand signal … but we all have to work together very
closely to understand what that demand is and when it will be
available," Fotheringham told Reuters.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/050624PIX/news_i86.jpg)
A view of support ship Shahid Baziar from Iran's Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy and Saildrone Explorer unmanned
surface vessel in international waters of the Arabian Gulf, August
30, 2022. U.S. Navy via REUTERS/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/May/06/images/ads/current/rainbowseamless_lda_SHG_2024.png)
At a cost ranging between $1 million and $3 million apiece,
according to Navy and defense contractor sources, drones offer a
relatively cheap and fast way to expand the Navy's fleet, especially
as several large traditional shipbuilding projects - like a new
class of frigate warships - are running years behind schedule. The
U.S. is testing using robot ships in active combat scenarios. But
their more immediate use is for missions that are too costly and
numerous for manned naval fleets.
This includes maritime surveillance, minehunting, and protecting
critical undersea infrastructure, like gas pipelines and fiber-optic
cables, four drone companies told Reuters.
Swarms of small sea drones could also act as a shield for valuable
crewed assets like aircraft carriers and submarines, and tangle up
troop-carrying ships in the event China tries to invade Taiwan, said
Bryan Clark, an advisor to the Navy on autonomous craft and a senior
fellow at the Hudson Institute - a think tank headquartered in
Washington.Clark estimates the Navy has around 100 small drones for
use on the ocean surface and another 100 underwater drones, while
China has a similar-sized autonomous force that is growing fast. The
Navy spokesperson declined to comment on how many drones it has in
operation.
"Ukraine has shown how effective they can be and how they can be
employed in current operations," Clark said. "The U.S. Navy needs to
embrace that lesson and field combat (sea drones) right away."
The Navy's 5th fleet, which operates out of Bahrain, has been
testing unmanned vessels for three years, led by its Task Force 59
unit.
The project has deployed surveillance drones built by private firms,
including startups, as well as those backed by defense heavyweights
like Lockheed Martin and HII. "The situation in the Red Sea gives
the work of Task Force 59 added urgency and we look forward to
fielding solutions to help counter Houthi malign behaviour," Colin
Corridan, commander of the task force, told Reuters.
MISSILE TEST
In October, the Navy carried out its first live missile test from an
unmanned speedboat in the Arabian Peninsula.
The T38 Devil Ray, built by Florida-based sea drone firm MARTAC,
successfully launched a miniature missile system to destroy a target
boat, with a human operator ashore giving the order, according to a
Navy announcement and video.
MARTAC's Chief Marketing Officer, Stephen Ferretti, referred
questions about the operation to the Navy.
The use of unmanned vessels was expanded to the Navy's 4th Fleet in
central America last year where they have been used to crack down on
human smuggling off the northern coast of Haiti.
One of the companies operating there is Saildrone, a
California-based firm that makes wind-, solar- and diesel-powered
autonomous vessels that collect images and data with cameras and
sensors.
Saildrone has circumnavigated Washington's funding politics. Because
the company operates and maintains its own vessels, and charges a
service fee for the data they collect, the Navy can pay to use the
drones out of its operating expenses rather than procurement budget.
Saildrone launched the Surveyor, its largest vessel, which has been
tailored for the military, at an event in March attended by Chief of
Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti.
The drone firm, which also supplies coast guards and ocean survey
departments, has a fleet of 130 vessels and is building several more
every month, said Richard Jenkins, the company's founder.
"Right now, we are struggling to keep up with demand," Jenkins told
Reuters in an interview. He declined to comment on how much
Saildrone charges the Navy. Ocean Aero builds the autonomous Triton
vessel, which can move on the surface or underwater to collect data
and hunt for mines using sensors. The company, which is backed by
Lockheed Martin, opened a 63,000 feet manufacturing facility in
Gulfport, Mississippi last October that is capable of churning out
150 Tritons a year. Lockheed Martin did not respond to a request for
comment.
HII was awarded a contract last October to build nine small
underwater drones for the U.S. Navy's Lionfish program, with the
potential for this to rise to 200 vehicles over the next five years.
The contract could total $347 million, although that is far from
guaranteed.
The Lionfish program - which is focused on the Indo-Pacific where
the U.S. is vying for control with China - is based on HII's Remus
300, a minehunting drone that can be launched like a torpedo from a
crewed ship or submarine.
These programs are proof that the Pentagon is trying to move faster
to deploy sea drones, spokesman Pahon told Reuters.
"We know we need to keep pushing to stay ahead," he said.
(Reporting by Joe Brock in Singapore and Mike Stone in Washington;
Editing by Daniel Flynn)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/May/06/images/ads/current/ldn_smallsda_BUSINESSMAG_2023.png) |