Here’s Why an Increase in U.S. Navy Drones Means More “Big-Deck” Warships

By Kris Osborn – Warrior Maven 

(Washington, D.C.) “Persistent Surveillance” is a term used in a recently published U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard military strategy document exploring new dimensions of maritime warfare intended to inform thinking about future conflict on the seas.

Perhaps today more than ever, given the advent of more multi-domain tactics, new platforms, longer-range, high-fidelity sensors and precision-strike weapons enabled by modern Command and Control technologies, there is what’s described as an “insatiable” appetite for ISR on the part of Navy and Corps Commanders.

An “Insatiable” Appetite for ISR: Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance Platforms

The new strategy text, called “Advantage at Sea: Prevailing With Integrated All Domain Naval Power,” discusses possibilities for armed drones, undersea sensing and attack and overhead surveillance from both fixed-wing platforms as well as unmanned systems.

What might this mean? 

A number of things most likely, such as massive amounts of new undersea, surface and air drones, surveillance planes and newer tactical approaches intended to bring the Navy’s Distributed Maritime Operations strategy to life. 

There are a variety of platforms well suited to help rapidly evolve this concept of operations, some of them specifically cited in the strategy paper such as the U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon sub-hunting surveillance plane. 

The document explains that surveillance technologies will “help us collect, analyze, and produce timely intelligence. Our networks, battle management aids, and data infrastructure will connect with other joint networks. Combining many informational inputs into a common, actionable operational picture will enable our forces to act more quickly and effectively than our competitors.”