XPost: sci.military.naval, soc.history.war.misc

from https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/sea-drone-warfare-has-arrived-us-is-floundering-2024-05-06/

Insight: Sea drone warfare has arrived. The U.S. is floundering.
By Joe Brock and Mike Stone
May 6, 20249:50 AM PDTUpdated 11 days ago

Item 1 of 3 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
[1/3]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 Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Summary
Companies
Houthi, Ukraine sea drone attacks reshape ocean warfare
U.S. Navy's sea drone program in D.C. funding quagmire
Pentagon wants sea drones to counter China's naval power
May 6 (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.
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.
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.
On Monday, the Pentagon said the Switchblade-600, an aerial loitering
munition made by AeroVironment Inc (AVAV.O), opens new tab, was the
first weapon publicly confirmed to be included in the Replicator
initiative. The program's first tranche also includes undisclosed
maritime surface products, other aerial drones and counter-drone systems (c-UAS), the Pentagon said.
Duane Fotheringham, president of unmanned systems at Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) (HII.N), opens new tab, 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.
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 (LMT.N), opens new tab 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, opens new tab.
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, opens new tab 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.
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Reporting by Joe Brock in Singapore and Mike Stone in Washington;
Editing by Daniel Flynn

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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