If time is short to prepare for a sea control campaign against the PLA, surface drones that can be built quickly are part of the answer. They could be key to an early war Navy sea denial strategy to keep the PLAN penned in to their coastal regions.
Deployed in large numbers, such systems would scatter sensors around the maritime realm while furnishing fleet commanders with extra firepower—and give new life to the US Navy’s governing concept of distributed maritime operations.
Carriers may excel in power projection, but they are ill-suited to DMO. Hell, I worry about the big ships surviving, too. In that light, this Task Force 66 rear admiral's view is interesting:
We think that with 20 USVs of different, heterogeneous types, we could deconstruct a mission that a DDG could do. And we think we could do it at a cost point of essentially 1/30 of what a DDG would cost.
But how many substitutions could be made without losing what the DDG provides?
In many ways, the surface drones--and what is the ideal size for numbers, payload, range, and seaworthiness?--could fill the role that I thought manned Modularized Auxiliary Cruisers could fill in network-centric warfare. But as part of the fleet and not a silver bullet that replaces the fleet.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
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NOTE: U.S. Navy photo of Ranger USV by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Tyler R. Fraser
