The Navy has changed its framework for building an unmanned portion of the fleet. Its unmanned surface vessels (USVs) are going modular.
After spending years charting a way forward to a family of unmanned surface vessels in a specific array of sizes and configurations, the Navy is eyeing a major course alteration that would see it pursuing a simpler and more interchangeable design. According to Rear Adm. William Daly, head of the Navy’s surface warfare division (N96), the wish list is now simple: he wants to amass a large number of these unmanned boats quickly and equip them with payloads that fit in common containers and are designed to confuse the enemy.
It's like tiny versions of modularized auxiliary cruisers.
And not only could this type of vessel complement conventional warships, this would allow the creation of disaggregated "virtual ships" in a flotilla of USVs providing multiple capabilities to the whole:
A Ukrainian sea drone apparently shot down a Russian helicopter. Could future warships be disaggregated in numerous manned and unmanned hulls? Damaged or destroyed components could be quickly replaced with new components. You might not reload them at sea--just replace it and send the empty one to port.
And from Sweden, a means to link those multiple USVs:
Swedish defense manufacturer Saab recently introduced Autonomous Ocean Core or AOC. This system allows naval commanders to remotely control ships.Small USVs aren't suitable for rough seas or self-deployment across oceans. But as forward deployed assets that take point entering an enemy anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) kill web, they could work, no?
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NOTE: U.S. Navy photo from The War Zone article.
