In the fight for the Pacific Ocean, the US Navy is putting on robotic systems
In recent decades, the American navy has faced two extremely serious challenges. Firstly, various kinds of unmanned and unmanned vehicles are developing more and more rapidly. Often they are even combined into integrated complexes capable of solving a very wide range of tasks – from purely auxiliary to full-fledged combat.
Secondly, the command of the US Navy was given a clear and precise task: to ensure qualitative and, if possible, numerical superiority over its main opponents, to which Washington today refers Moscow and Beijing.
At the same time, it is Beijing that has been identified as America's priority goal in the Pacific Ocean, where, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the disappearance of the threat from the significantly reduced Russian Pacific Fleet, American admirals felt extremely free and safe for several decades. In general, as it is customary to say in such cases, we relaxed.
Moreover, they relaxed so much that when in 2000, on one of the October days, a pair of Su-24MR scouts under the cover of two Su-27s got up to the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk (USS Kitty Hawk, CV-63) unnoticed, American sailors could only watch powerlessly as Russian planes pass twice at low altitude above their "floating airfield". And they capture for posterity the chaos that is happening on the flight deck of the giant, which was taking fuel from the tanker at that moment.
EXISTENTIAL THREAT
The quantitative and qualitative growth of the Navy of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) and especially the complications in bilateral relations between America and China forced the Pentagon to urgently take measures to increase the combat potential of the national Armed forces. And not only within the traditional borders of the Pacific Ocean, but also more broadly – in the Indo-Pacific region (ITR).
"The Ministry (of Defense) prioritizes China as its main strategic objective," the Pentagon budget request for fiscal year 2024 states. "A significant part of the Ministry's investments and efforts are focused on this threat and strengthening the deterrence system in the Indo–Pacific region." And taking into account the physical and geographical characteristics of the ITR, it is the American fleet that has been identified as one of the main players in the new global confrontation.
In such circumstances, the command of the US Navy decided to achieve a synergistic effect and try to resolve the two above-mentioned challenges with one blow. From now on, "inhuman warriors" have been nominated for the role of one of the pillars of the future victory over the Chinese fleet in the Pacific (and the Pentagon is confident of victory): unmanned surface boats and ships and uninhabited underwater vehicles of various classes and types. Including drums, which should be built in a very significant number already in the near term.
According to the plan of the American admirals, it is the "flocks" of these robots, which will be supported by their winged "brothers", along with nuclear multipurpose submarines, that will be able to neutralize the numerical superiority of the Chinese fleet, which is increasing day by day, eventually inflicting a crushing defeat on it. And at the same time also limit the activities of the Russian Navy here as much as possible.
The assessment of the seriousness of these intentions aroused such lively interest at recent hearings in the US Congress that it even became an occasion for a heated discussion. American lawmakers wanted to know literally in the smallest detail how things are going with the issue of equipping the American fleet with remotely controlled and autonomous combat systems, primarily operating in the depths of the ocean.
CRITICAL SYSTEMS
Speaking in March 2023 as part of the hearings on America's military budget for fiscal year 2024 (FY) to members of the Armed Forces Committee of the House of Representatives, Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin emphasized that modern and highly efficient uninhabited underwater vehicles and systems are "one of the clear advantages" that the American Armed Forces have over Chinese and Russian counterparts. In addition, the fleet of underwater robots, according to him, is a critical element of a set of measures to prevent the advancement of Chinese armed forces throughout the Indo-Pacific region.
For these purposes, the Pentagon, within the framework of the Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI), requested about $ 9.1 billion for 2024 – 40% more than a year earlier. "This is a record figure for the entire time (of the initiative's actions)," Austin stressed in his speech. Moreover, this amount is a record for the entire period of the PDI initiative, calculated until 2028 (in 2025, it is planned to allocate about $ 8.1 billion for the program, 6.3 billion for 2026, 5.5 billion for 2027, and 5.65 billion for 2028 billion dollars).
A very decent part of this budget pie will go specifically to finance research and development (R&D) and direct purchases of already created weapons systems. Including those built using artificial intelligence technologies and quantum computer technologies, as well as combat and auxiliary robotic systems of various classes and types.
"The Ministry (of Defense) is stepping up funding for developments in the field of critical defense technologies, such as uninhabited systems capable of operating on water, underwater, in the air and on land," Austin emphasizes. – At the same time, the introduction of human-machine teaming technologies (human machine teaming, or HMT; this term means the integration of human capabilities with the capabilities provided by the artificial intelligence of the machine. – V.S.), autonomous systems and stable networks will make our actions during combat operations faster, more deadly (for the enemy) and more invulnerable (to our forces)."
As the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, General Mark Milley, notes in this regard, in the very near future, a third of the US navy may consist of various kinds of uninhabited and unmanned systems. "You will see a large–scale transition to robotics," General Milli stressed, speaking in Congress at a hearing on the military budget for 2024. At the same time, in his opinion, China will not sit still and will also make active efforts to explore the possibilities of using such systems in a war at sea.
That is why, General Milli is sure, the United States "should continue to invest in the industrial base in order to support the development of remotely controlled ships, the general modernization of the fleet and the timely delivery of strategic nuclear missile submarines of the Columbia type, as well as accelerate the production and maintenance of submarines of the Virginia type to fully meet the needs for them both from the United States itself, and within the framework of the (US-British-Australian agreement) AUKUS."
COMBAT COORDINATION OF PEOPLE AND MACHINES
The Pacific Deterrence Initiative is not a separate fund or program. It is rather the concept of a comprehensive strengthening of the combat potential of the American Armed Forces in the vastness of IT. Moreover, the official documents of the Pentagon emphasize that the main attention during the implementation of this initiative, which funds individual programs and projects for all types and branches of the US Armed Forces, is planned to be paid to areas located west of the international date line. Among other things, this article will also finance various activities of combat training of the US Armed Forces, including with the broad involvement of various kinds of robotic systems - combat and auxiliary.
In particular, today, within the framework of the PDI initiative, the American Pacific Fleet conducted two specialized research exercises, during which the place and role of unmanned combat systems operating completely independently, in semi-autonomous mode or in operator remote control mode were determined. As well as the possibility of their integration into a single network-centric combat control system in operations in the vast Pacific Ocean.
According to the scenario of the first exercise conducted by the US Navy in 2021 and designated Unmanned Integrated Battle Problem 21 ("Complex combat task involving unmanned systems – 21"), the newest guided missile destroyer "Michael Monsoor" (USS Michael Monsoor, DDG-1001; type "Zumwalt") he played the role of an advanced operational base from which unmanned surface boats, uninhabited underwater and unmanned aerial vehicles carried out operations "in a remote area of the World Ocean".
In addition to testing the possibility of using such ships as a base to ensure the actions of autonomous and remotely controlled combat systems, during the exercise, issues of interaction between uninhabited and inhabited samples of naval and aviation equipment were actively worked out when solving a wide range of tasks characteristic of modern warfare at sea.
The second exercise, which took place in early May 2023 in the area of San Clemente Island and the San Diego Naval Base, located respectively off the coast of California and on it itself, already had the character of a multi-domain combat training event. It received the name Integrated Battle Problem 23.1 (IBP 23.1, "Complex Combat Task – 23.1").
The main objectives of the exercise, which took place under the overall leadership of the command of the 3rd Operational Fleet of the Navy and with the involvement of additional forces and means of naval aviation and submarine forces of the American Fleet, as well as with the participation of units of the Special Operations Command of the Navy and technical groups of about 20 development companies, were determined:
– development of actions "on the use of weapons of destruction, reconnaissance and search systems and control and control systems for a long range in surface and underwater environments, as well as means of evaluating the results of the use of weapons and additional reconnaissance of targets";
– practical assessment of the capabilities of individual unmanned systems and "identification of areas for further improvement of their effectiveness" with the subsequent transfer of analytical data on the results of the exercise to specific departments of the Ministry of Defense and companies to adjust work on the relevant samples of weapons and military equipment;
– testing and evaluation of robotic combat and auxiliary systems for the possibility of their effective use as part of a network-centric combat control system for multi-species groupings of forces and means.
A COMPLEX SCENARIO OF WAR AT SEA
The modern challenges faced by the US military in the Pacific have forced them to significantly reconsider their views on the use of existing and still only being developed weapons systems. This was also reflected in the scenario of the May exercise – it became more complex and multi-stage.
"This is a more complex scenario, in which the issues of tactics, methods and methods of using forces and means are studied, the necessary operational and operational parameters are developed, as well as how you would do all this in difficult conditions or in a combat situation," Commander Jerry Daly, commander of the 1st, stressed in an interview with reporters The division of unmanned surface ships of the US Navy is the next step towards integrating unmanned systems into fleet operations conducted throughout the combat space – under water, on its surface and in the air."
The main distinguishing feature of the May exercise was the active integration into a single "combat web" of a number of platforms and technologies that are diverse in design and nature of the tasks being solved. Among its "soulless" participants are unmanned surface vehicles of medium displacement "Sea Hunter" (Sea Hunter, "Sea hunter") and "Sea Hawk" (Sea Hawk, "Sea Hawk"), unmanned speedboat T-38 "Devil Ray" (MANTAS T-38 Devil Ray, "The Devil's Stingray"), as well as the MQ–9B "Reaper" reconnaissance and strike drone (Reaper, "Reaper") and the RQ-20 "Puma" reconnaissance drone (Puma).
Among the tactical elements included in the exercise scenario, it is worth noting the launch of a drone from an unmanned ship. An unmanned anti-submarine trimaran "Sea Hawk" from the 1st Division of unmanned surface ships of the Navy (based in San Diego) was used as a basing platform. The role of his "all-seeing eye" was played by the V-BAT vertical take-off and landing aerial drone developed by Shield AI.
This aircraft–type drone is built according to the concept of a tailsitter: it performs a vertical take-off, "sitting" on its tail, or rather, on a propeller placed in the annular channel. According to the results of comparative tests conducted by the Navy and special operations forces of the US Armed Forces, the drone was declared the winner of the competition, beating 13 other applicants for the role of an aerial reconnaissance and spotter capable of operating from limited-sized runways.
In general, the results of the IBP 23.1 exercise are assessed by experts as very positive. According to Commander Daly, it made it possible to refine existing or develop new tactical techniques and operational procedures for the use of autonomous and remotely controlled weapons and equipment. And also gave the servicemen the opportunity to get acquainted with the features of the use of a wider range of various unmanned systems in the naval theater of operations in conditions as close as possible to combat.
Vladimir Shcherbakov
Deputy Executive Editor of HBO
Vladimir Leonidovich Shcherbakov is a military expert, historian, and writer.