By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
Surface, air and undersea maritime warfare drones can be “cached and hidden” on large amphibious assault ships to survey enemy coastline, hunt submarines, conduct forward undersea and surface reconnaissance, deliver small attack units or even launch precision attacks when directed by a human.
“Cached and hidden” were the words used by the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Christopher Mahoney when talking on Capitol Hill about how large amphibious assault ships can host, store, launch, hide and operate large numbers of drones. These operational dynamics offer a window into part of the rationale behind a widespread Congressional, Navy/Marine Corps and industry push for more amphibious assault ship pertains to the increasing operational scope the ships are able to perform.
Drone Explosion
Explosive growth in networking technologies, acoustic and electronic sensing and AI-enabled data analysis continues to propel an ongoing Navy and Marine Corps effort to exponentially increase its number of unmanned systems. Algorithms enabling increased autonomy, coupled with increasingly secure transport layer information exchange, are generating new concepts of operation for maritime and amphibious warfare, ideas which help implement the Navy’s larger Distributed Maritime Operations strategy. The thinking with DMO, an effort underway for several years now, is to enable a strongly networked, yet disaggregated multi-domain maritime force to vastly expand its combat engagement envelope and operational sphere using new generations of long-range sensing, radar, precision weaponry, satellites and a fast-growing fleet of drones.
Kris Osborn President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
