The Ship Model Forum

US Navy plans to build an unmanned Ghost Fleet
Posted On Friday, 15 March 2019 11:39
As the Navy faces more complex threats to its manned ships from Russia and China, the service is moving quickly to field an unmanned “Ghost Fleet” — a new breed of armed unmanned surface combatants will add more sensors and weapons to the current fleet.
The US Navy plans to continue buying two a year until FY 2024, for a total of about $2.7 billion (Picture source: US Navy)
In Fiscal Year 2020, the Navy has budgeted $400 million for two of the proposed large unmanned surface vehicles in its research and development budget line. The Navy plans to continue buying two a year until FY 2024, for a total of about $2.7 billion.
“These are 200- to 300-foot [vessels], 2,000 tons. I’m not sure what the final hull form will be, that’s what we are using today in terms of what the Ghost Fleet buy will be,” Rear Adm. Randy Crites, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for budget, said on Tuesday during a press budget briefing.
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A classified Pentagon maritime drone program is about to get its moment in the sun
By: David B. Larter   1 day ago
WASHINGTON – A project birthed in the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office is getting some serious buy-in from the U.S. Navy, and could yield the world’s first large-scale armed unmanned warship.
The Navy raised eyebrows in its budget rollout Tuesday when it requested $400 million for two large unmanned surface vessels to be purchased in 2020, with 10 total to be purchased across the five-year projection known as the future year defense program. But it was not immediately clear what exactly the Navy was buying two of, since no program of record exists for a large unmanned surface vessel (or LUSV).
Navy officials now say the request is an outgrowth of SCO’s Project Overlord, which first surfaced in 2017 with a draft solicitation outlining a program that would take existing autonomy technologies and integrate them into large and medium unmanned surface vessels with some heady ambitions: an autonomous ship capable of carrying up to 40 tons of payloads, and operate in up to sea-state five independently for 90 days without a crew for maintenance, while following all rules of navigation and obstacle avoidance.
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Navy's Plans for Unmanned 'Ghost Fleet' Remain Shrouded in Secrecy
2 Apr 2019
Military.com | By Gina Harkins

As the Navy advances plans for a 10-ship "ghost fleet," leaders are assessing how much decision-making power to give large unmanned vessels that can operate without any humans aboard.

The Navy wants $400 million in fiscal 2020 to build two "large unmanned surface vessels." Budget documents show service leaders plan to request $2.7 billion to build 10 of the ships over the next five years.

But with the programs still largely in the research and development phase, the plans raise questions about what the Navy is actually planning to buy, and how those ships would function in the real world. Not only is it unclear exactly what these future unmanned ships will look like, but also what capabilities they'll have.

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The Navy's Future Fleet May Include Submarines Without Sailors
20 Apr 2019
The Los Angeles Times | By Samantha Masunaga
The U.S. naval fleet of the future may one day include submarines without a sailor from bow to stern that prowl the depths of the ocean, navigating mine-infested waters to gather intelligence or even clandestinely drop explosives.
The military views autonomous vehicles as a way to accomplish missions deemed too risky, mundane or expensive for human crews. While aerial drones have largely been tasked with these types of duties for more than a decade, the Navy is now increasingly funding robotic ships and undersea drones to complement the work done by its crewed vessels.Last month, Boeing Co. beat out rival Lockheed Martin Corp. for a $46.7-million Navy contract modification to build an Orca undersea dron(...EDITED)

New Surface Squadron Receiving Unmanned Sea Hunter Ahead of Tests with Zumwalt Destroyers
By: Gidget Fuentes
September 2, 2019 10:39 AM
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – The Navy’s new surface development squadron will soon receive its first unmanned vehicle to begin experimenting with, as the service looks to incorporate new types of manned and unmanned platforms into how it fights at sea.
The San Diego-based Surface Development Squadron 1 is in the process of taking administrative and operational controls of the unmanned ship Sea Hunter by Oct. 1, Capt. Henry Adams, commodore of SURFDEVRON 1, told a Surface Navy Association West Symposium audience.
“We are five and a half weeks out of pulling the switch and the Navy formally assuming custody,” Adams said, during a panel at the SNA West symposium, held pierside at Naval Base San Diego on Aug. 22.
Sea Hunter was developed by the Office of Naval Research and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and will be transferred to the fleet for experimentation.
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The US Navy gets its large unmanned surface vessels in 2020 with strings attached
By: David B. Larter   1 day ago
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Navy will get its two Large Unmanned Surface Vessels in 2020 after all, but lawmakers want the service to proceed with caution.
The recently passed 2020 defense appropriations bill buys both the LUSVs the Navy requested but puts strict limits on what it can do with them. Furthermore, Congress wants the Navy to have a plan before they charge ahead. Congress also forbade the Navy from dropping a vertical launch system into its new LUSV, as the Navy has said it intends to augment the missile capacity of its larger manned combatants.
“Incremental upgrade capability for a vertical launch system may be addressed in future fiscal years,” the agreement between House and Senate appropriators reads .“It is directed that no funds may be awarded for the conceptual design of future LUSVs until the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition) briefs the congressional defense committees on the updated acquisition strategy for unmanned surface vessels.”
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Fleet commander directs US Navy’s surface force to develop concepts for unmanned ships
By: David B. Larter   1 day ago

A rendering of DARPA's Sea Hunter, which has been transferred to the U.S. Navy's Surface Development Squadron. The squadron has been tasked with formulating a comprehensive concept of operations for unmanned ships. (U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)
WASHINGTON — The head of the U.S. Navy’s Fleet Forces Command has ordered the service’s surface force to develop a concept of operations for both the large and medium unmanned surface vessels in development, according to a Dec. 19 message seen by Defense News.
The message, which was coordinated with U.S. Naval Forces Europe and U.S. Pacific Fleet, directs the surface fleet’s Surface Development Squadron to develop concepts for “the organization, manning, training, equipping, sustaining, and the introduction and operational integration of the Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle and Large Unmanned Surface Vessel with individual afloat units as well as with Carrier Strike Groups, Expeditionary Strike Groups, and Surface Action Groups.”
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Navy Takes Major Step Toward Building Its Drone Ship Fleet
19 Feb 2020
Military.com | By Gina Harkins
Dozens of companies will vie for nearly $1 billion in Navy contracts as the service works toward building a fleet of new high-tech, self-driving unmanned ships.
Naval Sea Systems Command selected 40 companies that will compete for work in developing payloads, sensors, autonomous systems and other technologies for the Navy's future fleet of unmanned surface vessels.
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US Navy embraces robot ships, but some unresolved issues are holding them back
By: David B. Larter   2 days ago

A rendering of the Sea Hunter unmanned surface ship developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Most observers believe Sea Hunter is the prototype for the Navy's medium unmanned surface vessel. (DARPA)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is banking on unmanned surface and subsurface vessels to boost its capacity in the face of a tsunami of Chinese naval spending. But before it can field the systems, it must answer some basic questions.
How will these systems deploy? How will they be supported overseas? Who will support them? Can the systems be made sufficiently reliable to operate alone and unafraid on the open ocean for weeks at a time? Will the systems be able to communicate in denied environments?
As the Navy goes all-in on its unmanned future, with billions of dollars of investments planed, how the service answers those questions will be crucial to the success or failure of its unmanned pivot.
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The Pentagon wants to forge ahead with robot warships, but Congress wants to slow the train
By: David B. Larter   June 19
WASHINGTON — Unmanned surface vessels are all the rage in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the U.S. Navy has lined up behind the effort. But Congress remains skeptical until it sees the Navy make progress on the basics.

In the latest sign of congressional ambivalence on unmanned surface warships, the House Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee called for restricting funding for procurement of any large unmanned surface vessels, or LUSV, until the Navy can certify it has worked out an appropriate hull and mechanical and electrical system, and that it can operate autonomously for 30 consecutive days.

Furthermore, the Navy must demonstrate a reliable operating system and that any systems integrated into the platform — sonars, radars, etc. — are likewise functioning and reliable, according the text of the subcommittee’s markup of the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress’s annual defense policy bill, obtained by Defense News.

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In developing robot warships, US Navy wants to avoid another littoral combat ship
By: David B. Larter   12 hours ago


An Expeditionary Warfare Unmanned Surface Vessel autonomously navigates a predetermined course through the water during Advanced Naval Technology Exercise 2019 at Camp Lejeune, N.C., on July 12, 2019. (Lance Cpl. Nicholas Guevara/U.S. Marine Corps)
WASHINGTON — As the U.S. Navy pushes forward with developing its large unmanned surface vessel, envisioned as a kind of external missile magazine that will tag along with larger manned surface combatants, a growing consensus is forming that the service needs to get its requirements and systems right before making a big investment.
Congress has, for the second year in a row, slowed the development of the large unmanned surface vessel, or LUSV, in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. The language in this year’s bill would essentially force the Navy to have a working prototype with all systems tested and fully integrated before using procurement dollars for the boats.
In an exclusive July 16 interview with Defense News, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday said that while the marks were frustrating, he agreed with Congress that requirements must be concrete right up front.
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Unclear on unmanned: The US Navy’s plans for robot ships are on the rocks
By: David B. Larter
January 10 at 2:55 PM
WASHINGTON – After a bruising, year-long fight with Congress, part of the Navy’s plan to field unmanned ships appears to be on life support, making 2021 a crucial year for plotting a path forward.
In the 2021 appropriations and policy bills, lawmakers eviscerated funding for the Navy’s Large Unmanned Surface Vessel (LUSV) development program and laid in stringent requirements for the Navy to work out nearly every component of the new vessel before moving forward with an acquisition program. In all, lawmakers slashed more than $370 million from the $464 million the Pentagon requested.
The LUSV is supposed to be the Navy’s answer to a troubling problem: How does the service quickly and cheaply field hundreds of new missile tubes to make up for dozens of large-capacity ships due to retire over the coming years? But Congress is not convinced the Navy did the proper analysis prior to launching into a technically risky, 2,000-ton robot ship.
Before going any further, the Navy must conduct a full study examining alternative approaches for fielding missiles downrange.
The LUSV has become a flashpoint for a larger problem: After two decades of high-profile problems with programs such as the littoral combat ship and the Ford-class carrier, Congress’s faith in the Navy to make significant technical leaps without close supervision has all but evaporated, according to more than two dozen interviews, roundtables and conversations with knowledgeable sources over the past several months. Furthermore, it is unclear that, even if the Navy managed to make the LUSV related technologies work, it would be the right answer for the missile tube problem.
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'Short on Details': Lawmakers Grill Navy, Marine Leaders on Big Plans for Drone Ships
19 Mar 2021
Military.com | By Gina Harkins

The Navy has had a tough time selling its plan to invest billions in a fleet of drone ships that can support the force while keeping the enemy guessing, and members of Congress don't yet appear sold on the strategy.

Top Navy and Marine leaders appeared before members of Congress two days after a new "campaign plan" was released on the sea services' ambitions for unmanned platforms. The plan was meant to make "unmanned systems trusted in integral parts of our force," Vice Adm. Jim Kilby, deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting requirements and capabilities, told reporters this week.
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US Navy, Pentagon to test large unmanned ships as program winds down
By: Megan Eckstein   5 days ago
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Navy and the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office are making the most of the remaining months of their partnership on the Ghost Fleet Overlord unmanned surface vessel program, taking lessons learned from two recent voyages across the Panama Canal and upping the ante by putting these vessels into fleet exercises and operations.
SCO purchased two large USVs in 2017 as part of a Pentagon-led effort to understand how large unmanned craft with weapons and sensors could expand the reach of the naval fleet. Since late 2019, SCO and the Navy have been working to learn from testing, with their efforts culminating in the October 2020 transit of Overlord ship Ranger across the Panama Canal – the first time any unmanned ship had crossed the locks of the canal – and a subsequent second canal crossing last month of the second Ghost Fleet ship, Nomad.
Luis Molina, the deputy director of SCO, told reporters on July 13 that the trips from the Gulf of Mexico to the California coast were planned as part of an escalating series of events to prove not only that the USVs worked but that they worked in operationally relevant ways for the fleet.

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The Navy Is Testing the Boundaries of Automated Defense and Robot Warships

The sea-based military service is considering using autonomous drone weapons for non-lethal defensive attacks.
by Kris Osborn

As the Navy fast-tracks a massive new fleet of robot warships armed with missiles, sub-hunting sonar, air defense radar and extensive command-and-control systems, the military service is refining technical requirements and concepts of operations for the new fleet.

The Navy is trying to accelerate testing, prototyping, development and deployment of a new fleet of unmanned systems. This large undertaking encompasses its small, medium and large surface and undersea drones. These new weapons will perform a wide range of missions. They will operate independently but also work in coordination with one another through advanced algorithms, automation and even artificial-intelligence-enabled functionality. This is the premise of Ghost Fleet Overlord, a multiyear Office of Naval Research-inspired program to bring autonomy to new levels of maritime warfare capability.

Concurrently, the scope, scale and range of autonomous operations are increasing. Now, it includes semi-autonomous mine-hunting drones armed with explosives, independent navigation and data analysis, self-operating sonar and acoustic communications systems, and early experiments with arming unmanned systems with weapons. Of course, per the Department of Defense’s doctrine, humans will be “in the loop” when it comes to decisions about lethal force. But it’s notable that there have been increasing discussions about the merits of automating defensive, non-lethal weapons such as interceptors.
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In a first, NAVCENT integrated unmanned surface vessels with manned assets
By Agnes Helou
Oct 29, 07:20 AM

BEIRUT — Task Force 59 integrated MANTAS T-12 unmanned surface vessels with manned U.S. patrol craft and Bahrain Defense Force maritime assets during its New Horizon exercise this week.

The two-day training exercise marked the first time Naval Forces Central Command integrated USVs with manned assets at sea in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations. New Horizon was also the first time NAVCENT integrated USVs with manned assets at sea alongside partner forces.(...SNIPPED)

US Navy adopts new strategy prioritizing ‘the building blocks’ of unmanned tech
By Megan Eckstein
Jan 28, 07:16 AM

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy is unlikely to pursue a formal program for unmanned surface vessels in the next five years, instead focusing on the enabling technologies first, several leaders said this month.
The Navy in fiscal 2020 laid out an aggressive plan to buy a handful of prototype medium and large USVs and then quickly transition into a program of record using shipbuilding funds. The service acknowledged it would adjust the program-of-record USV design over time to incorporate lessons learned as prototypes hit the water.

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