In response to triumphs and geopolitical considerations brought up by operations in conflict zones like the Ukraine War, the Pentagon is looking for designs for low-cost intelligent drone boats to improve maritime military capabilities.
The Pentagon is looking for proposals for the Production-Ready, Expensive, Maritime Expeditionary ( PRIME) Small Unmanned Surface Vehicle ( SUSV ) project, which aims to build fleets of low-cost, highly autonomous drone boats capable of pursuing and attacking non-cooperative ships. This was reported by The Warzone this month.
According to The Warzone, the Defence Innovation Unit ( DIU) has requested models that can travel between 500 and 1, 000 nautical yards in calm water says with a total payload of 1,000 pounds and at least 35 knots of jump rate. The designs may be able to carry out tasks perhaps in GPS-refused environments and will also have automatic navigation.
For crucial components like automated emissions control, tethered underwater drones, varied, useless and responsive communications, and automatic contact recognition, the PRIME project also demands vendors to show a varied and resilient manufacturing supply chain.
It mentions that the project’s primary characteristics include the ability to de-conflict with nearby drones, creative autonomy, and acceptance of numerous modular payloads and sensors and effectors. Additionally, the PRIME project seeks to improve the capabilities of allies and partners abroad, especially in the event of a possible Taiwan Strait conflict.
The conflict in Ukraine may include fueled the creation of such methods. Despite Ukraine’s lack of a navy, the Russian Black Sea fleet has suffered significant losses due to its unmanned surface vehicles ( USV).
A picture of a successful bomber USV affect on the Russian Tarantul-II class missile corvette Ivanovets was released this month by Ukrainian military intelligence. The film depicts several USVs coming at the ship in various directions.
The ship made deceptive tactics and tried to destroy the USVs, but as evidenced by the devastating explosion that sank it, its efforts were in vain.
The Russian Ropucha-class landing deliver Olengorsky Gornak was the target of another powerful USV strike last August, according to a video released by Russian military intelligence. The Olengorsky Gornak is shown greatly listing portside in a later video as it is being towed back to port.
The Russian Yuri Ivanov-class intelligence ship Ivan Khurs was the target of a USV attack, which was previously captured on video by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense ( MOD ) last May. It’s vague, though, whether the Ivan Khurs was sunk, damaged, or unharmed after the attack.
Yet non-state celebrities have approved of attacking warships with USVs. Houthi rebels attempted a USV harm from Yemen last month, according to Business Insider, but its intended target was unknown. According to Business Insider, the USV entered global shipping lanes for about 15 miles before exploding without causing any damage.
The development of USVs to enhance asymmetrical warfare capabilities may also be considered by overmatched navies like the Japanese Navy or cash-strapped ones such as the Asian Navy.
According to Scott Savitz of RAND, Taiwan could send hundreds or even thousands of USVs from a number of bridges and little islands under its power to fend off an invasion force from China.
According to Savitz, swarming USVs can overwhelm the defenses of People’s Liberation Army-Navy ( PLA- N ) warships, while PLA-N troop transports and cargo ships may have a limited capacity to defend themselves.
He points out that Taiwan may purchase 1, 000 USVs for only 1 % of its US$ 20 billion annual defence consumption, with low energy, preservation, and training costs, if each one costs US$ 250, 000, according to Ukrainian estimates.
Additionally, he claims that thanks to Taiwan’s advanced technology, it was design and produce hundreds of these weapons in a short period of time. Savitz points out that USVs alone may fend off an war ship and should instead be used in conjunction with other weapons like maritime mines and anti-ship missiles.
These incidents show how challenging it is to defend against swarms of USVs and how technology can support asymmetrical naval warfare.
By sheer figures, USV swarms may destroy a specific ship’s defenses, guaranteeing that at least some of the attacking uavs may hit their targets.
Some USV designs can approach their specific while remaining hidden from army ship sensors thanks to their low report close to the water’s surface.
USVs can do intricate maneuvers thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence, which makes attacks more unpredictable. Their cost-effectiveness enables resource-strapped navies to make comparatively large numbers of USVs to implement significant costs on a better-resourced adversary.
As they can undermine optimism and a false sense of security, USVs may also have considerable psychological consequences on an adversary who is more powerful, causing naval forces to retreat and tools to be misallocated in order to protect against such assaults.
However, some people think that USVs may not be the marine “wonder tool.” Jonathan Panter and Johnathan Falcone highlight the technology’s limitations in an article published in the Bulletin of Atomic Experts in February 2023.
As USVs become more complicated without any mortal aboard to perform repairs, they are more likely to neglect, according to Panter and Falcone, who also mention that breeze, waves, and seawater immediately degrade engineering systems at sea. They also make the point that the more self-sufficient USVs become, the easier it is to use them as digital target.
While USVs do n’t need GPS for short-distance travel to attack stationary targets and use pre-existing image recognition software for target identification, according to Panter and Falcone, Ukraine’s UAVs still have a visible external antenna that enables human control via high-frequency communications link or satellite.
They point out that while encryption offers significant safety, failure to fill cryptographic keys you interrupt communications and compromise encryption keys if the USV is captured, making additional communication links a cyber-attack vector.
They note that any technological advantage provided by the US Starlink satellite star to Ukraine’s USVs may be transient and point out that Russia is becoming more adept at jamming data connections and anti-satellite weaponry.
They also draw attention to the USVs ‘ supply chain flaws, claiming that Taiwan and Israel are the only countries that produce the sophisticated electronics needed for autonomous methods. The most important chips used in USVs can then have vulnerabilities etched into them, possibly shielding them from any application patches.
Given this, Panter and Falcone issue a warning that, despite the US’s haste to field USVs, policymakers and operators should n’t let the hype get in the way of important use-case and cybersecurity restrictions.