{"id":59292,"date":"2022-01-28T15:16:36","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T15:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2022\/01\/28\/us-navy-adopts-new-strategy-prioritizing-the-building-blocks-of-unmanned-tech\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:22:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:22:44","slug":"us-navy-adopts-new-strategy-prioritizing-the-building-blocks-of-unmanned-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/naval\/2022\/01\/28\/us-navy-adopts-new-strategy-prioritizing-the-building-blocks-of-unmanned-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"US Navy adopts new strategy prioritizing \u2018the building blocks\u2019 of unmanned tech"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ARLINGTON, Va. \u2014 The U.S. Navy is unlikely to pursue a formal program for unmanned surface vessels in the next five years, instead focusing on the enabling technologies first, several leaders said this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Navy in fiscal 2020 laid out an aggressive plan to buy a handful of prototype medium and large USVs and then quickly transition into a program of record using shipbuilding funds. The service acknowledged it would adjust the program-of-record USV design over time to incorporate lessons learned as prototypes hit the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaders argued this strategy was necessary because the technology was key to the Navy\u2019s Distributed Maritime Operations concept, and because there was no time to waste in building and fielding the vessels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After two years of Congress pushing back against this quick move into unmanned programs, the Navy has quietly acknowledged a change in strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are focused on prototyping and maturing the fundamentals, the building blocks,\u201d Rear Adm. Casey Moton, the program executive officer for unmanned and small combatants, said earlier this month at the Surface Navy Association\u2019s annual conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Moton said there\u2019s a lot of interest in the future large and medium USV programs \u2014 previously slated to begin as early as 2023 \u2014 his team is more \u201cfocused on the system engineering pillars that we need to field any such platform.\u201d He highlighted several of those pillars during a ship construction panel at the SNA conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On autonomy, the two Overlord large USVs<\/a> \u2014 originally procured by the Pentagon\u2019s Strategic Capabilities Office and more recently handed over to the Navy \u2014 each conducted long-range transits from the Gulf Coast, though the Panama Canal and up to Southern California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moton said the community learned a lot about autonomous transit and ship system operations during those 4,400-mile and 4,700-mile transits. The Navy is also working to define how it would acquire and manage a vessel\u2019s autonomous capabilities, as a separate capability from the hull itself or from the payloads and combat systems the hull would employ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added the combat systems, command-and-control systems, and payloads are being worked separately by the Navy\u2019s Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems; Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence; and the Project Overmatch team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And whereas the Overlord USVs were focused on demonstrating autonomy and payloads, the two Navy-bought Sea Hunter medium USV prototypes were busy on the fleet-integration and concept-development side, Moton said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First things first<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Rear Adm. Paul Schlise, the director of surface warfare on the chief of naval operations\u2019 staff (OPNAV N96), told Defense News following his presentation at a separate SNA panel that he wouldn\u2019t move into a program of record until all those separate pillars were more mature. One key pillar is the development and maturation of hull, mechanical and electrical systems that can support unmanned vessel operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schlise said lawmakers were \u201ccrystal clear\u201d in the fiscal 2021 defense authorization bill that they didn\u2019t want to invest in programs of record until it\u2019s clear hull, mechanical and electrical systems would work for weeks or months at a time without sailors around to perform routine maintenance or emergency repairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of folks interested in coming to prove their chops,\u201d he said of industry representatives, \u201cand we\u2019re going to do that at a land-based engineering site in Philadelphia\u201d where companies can set up prototypes of hull, mechanical and electrical systems as well as demonstrate their long-term performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Rear Adm. Paul Schlise, right, speaks to sailors aboard the guided-missile cruiser Mobile Bay during a port call in Manama, Bahrain, on Dec. 27, 2018. (MC3 Nick Bauer\/U.S. Navy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Schlise said the electrical plant for the Flight III Arleigh Burke destroyers is already running at that test site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been a place we\u2019ve done a lot of learning so we don\u2019t have to learn those lessons on the ship. We\u2019ve frankly burned up a couple components in the electrical distribution system there; that\u2019s all things we don\u2019t have to learn on the ship now,\u201d he explained. \u201cSo that\u2019s my focus: When we get around to proving all those \u2026 reliability and autonomy things, then we\u2019ll get on to buying some platforms with [Navy shipbuilding dollars]. But that\u2019s our due-out to Congress first, so that\u2019s my focus now at N96.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked how long that would take and when the Navy will begin a program of record, Schlise said he hopes by the end of the five-year Future Years Defense Program that the service will \u201chave gotten pretty confident in what we can and can\u2019t do. And maybe we\u2019ll learn this is going to take a little bit longer. I don\u2019t have an absolute clairvoyant picture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHave any of you ever seen a propulsion plant that can operate for 45 days without a person touching it on a ship? There are some land-based systems and power plants and things that have been running [unmanned] for years, but a ship is a completely different environment. So we\u2019re going to learn a lot through that process. And when we\u2019re ready, then we\u2019ll move forward with procuring,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not moving into a program of record, or even seriously eyeing a whole-vessel prototype, changes the calculus for industry. The Navy previously awarded L3Harris Technologies a contract for one medium USV prototype<\/a>, with options for up to eight more, with the idea that \u201c[l]everaging new rapid prototyping authorities and mature commercial technology will allow us to quickly deliver a capable prototype to the Surface Development Squadron to conduct experimentation and learning in support of the Navy\u2019s plans for a future fleet incorporating unmanned vessels.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, however, the Navy wants to see investments in specific unmanned-related capabilities rather than an integrated all-up unmanned vessel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom Reynolds, the senior director of business development for unmanned systems at Huntington Ingalls Industries\u2019 Technical Solutions division, is optimistic industry can refocus its internal investments to keep moving programs forward while also meeting the Navy\u2019s new needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe heard loud and clear the need for [Unmanned Maritime Autonomy Architecture] and that open architecture, and we spent a lot of our own internal [research and development] in the redesign of our [unmanned underwater] vehicles so that they have a much more modern architecture. We took that source code, and we essentially rewrote it to still be just as reliable but now to be much more accommodating to UMAA,\u201d he said of HII\u2019s third-generation configuration of its Remus unmanned underwater vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an example, he said a third party could now take a Remus vehicle and swap out the inertial navigation system or a payload, and then unilaterally perform integration without involving HII or the Navy, thanks to the maturation of UMAA standards. Although that\u2019s just one component of the maturation efforts that must take place before launching a program of record, Reynolds said it\u2019s a good example of how industry investment in the right priorities can help the Navy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked if he thought the unmanned field had lost momentum since the Navy\u2019s big push in FY20, Reynolds told Defense News: \u201cI do not feel that there actually is a loss of momentum. I think there probably is some rethinking of requirements, and that\u2019s what you see the Navy standing up the unmanned task force in the Pentagon to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also noted the Navy\u2019s interest in applying autonomy software as an aid to manned ships, rather than controlling unmanned ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have to jump to unmanned right away. A bridge to getting to unmanned could be … the integration of autonomy onto manned platforms. Just have it run in the background, have it start to generate data and be assessed and basically \u2014 not trying to replace anyone \u2014 but basically aid an overwhelmed bridge,\u201d he explained, noting the Navy recently released a request for information to industry on this topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe saw a few years ago in the McCain, Fitzgerald [destroyer collisions] that maybe had there been some kind of artificial intelligence aiding some decision-making, that could have been some help to a bridge crew that appear to be overwhelmed or tired. I think that\u2019s closer to something we could get into the hands of the fleet before \u2026 we jump right to a large USV.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Navy is unlikely to pursue a formal program for unmanned surface vessels in the next five years, instead focusing on the enabling technologies first, several leaders 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