Unclear on unmanned, Part 2: On Capitol Hill, the US Navy has a credibility problem David Larter
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The littoral combat ship Independence deploys the now-canceled remote multimission vehicle off the Southern California coast in 2013. (Courtesy of Austal USA via U.S. Navy)
This is the second of a three-part series on the Navy’s struggles to develop unmanned ships and systems. WASHINGTON The attack from the late Sen. John McCain was predictable but that did little to lessen the pain. From the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman’s seat in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in December 2016, McCain unleashed a polemic against what he saw as 12 years of programmatic futility displayed in the U.S. Navy’s efforts to field the littoral combat ship. From the witness stand, the Navy’s then-top acquisitions official Sean Stackley and top surface warfare officer Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden took the brunt of incoming fire.