US to establish first-ever surface drone fleet for major power competition

Source
China Military Online
Editor
Li Jiayao
Time
2023-01-16 17:55:09
Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vessel of the US Navy (File photo)

The US plans to establish its first unmanned surface fleet equipped with unmanned surface vessels and surface drone platforms this summer, according to US media reports. Why the US has such an urgent need to form an unmanned surface fleet?

In 2022, the US Navy’s drone force has been testing and developing and testing all types of drone platforms in the Middle Eastern waters, where the US Navy's 5th Fleet is based, according to reports. Military observer Yin Zhuo believes that the US Navy is aiming at the purse strings of the US Congress, hoping that the Congress will allocate funds for its maritime drone project. However, the relevant test projects are in the early stages and the Navy is unlikely to obtain funds from the Congress.

Therefore, the US Navy hopes to form a surface drone fleet with a certain scale and combat capability this summer to obtain development funds for related projects. In addition, Yin believes that the formation of this surface drone fleet can also answer the call of US’ major power competition strategy because the use of unmanned surface combat platforms in performing distributed operations can make up for the shortcomings of manned combat platforms.

The main direction of the strategic transformation of the US Navy lies in is decentralized deployment and distributed operations, which are mainly aimed at the confrontation between major powers. The US believes that group targets such as aircraft carrier formations and amphibious assault formations may suffer heavy losses in the confrontation between major powers. Therefore, it requires unmanned combat platforms with distributed and concentrated firepower to perform combat tasks on the front line. The US considers combining the use of unmanned and manned combat platforms to make up for its shortcomings in the confrontation between major powers.

Yin believes that although the US military is very eager to form a surface drone fleet, it remains to be seen whether this unmanned fleet can be completed on schedule because many technical problems may not be resolved in a short period of time.

The US is currently testing various drone platforms for frontline reconnaissance and surface information control. At the same time, the US will also deploy a number of unmanned maritime combat platforms in the offshore of its opponents for anti-submarine and submarine reconnaissance support. This type of unmanned maritime combat platform lacks anti-ship and anti-sea missiles, and relevant tests have not yet been done. It is hard to say whether it will be completed within half a year.

In recent years, navies around the world including the US Navy have been strengthening the development and application of unmanned systems and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. This is an inevitable choice for human society to develop into the AI field. However, the US has lost its absolute advantage in this transformation and development. Although experts from the US Department of Defense believe that their huge manned combat fleets still have advantages for now, they will suffer heavy losses in future wars supported by AI as the core technology, so they urgently need transformation, said Yin.

However, the US can no longer form a monopoly on information technology. Many countries including some major countries in Asia and some developed European countries are vigorously developing AI and unmanned combat platforms. For example, it is difficult for the US to catch up with some Russian underwater nuclear-powered unmanned submersibles.

Editor's note: Originally published on military.cnr.cn, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.

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