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General David H. Berger’s
Commandant’s Planning Guidance (CPG) says “The Marine Corps will be trained and equipped as a naval expeditionary force-in-readiness and prepared to operate inside actively contested maritime spaces in support of fleet operations.” The CPG also highlights force design and the need to divest the Corps of legacy equipment and programs that do not meet future requirements. And it repositions the Marine Corps’ Fleet Marine Forces under the operational control of the Fleet Commander.
As the naval service reflects on potential operations inside an adversary’s antiaccess/area-denial (A2/AD) weapons engagement zone, it needs to consider what systems and platforms will be required. The amphibious fleet and littoral maneuver craft must be more agile and more lethal, present reduced signatures, be more specialized and affordable/maintainable, and some may be optionally manned.
In January 2019, a video made the rounds on news and social media outlets showing a Coast Guard boarding team from the USCGC
Munro (WMSL-755) interdicting a suspected drug-smuggling vessel. The highlight of this thrilling video is when the boarding officer leaps from the
Munro’s small boat on to the hull of the self-propelled semisubmersible and slams the hatch in a flurry of blows, exhorting the smugglers in Spanish to “Stop your boat!” The vessel heaves to, the hatch opens, and a pair of penitent smugglers appears. All told, the boarding team recovered approximately 17,000 pounds of cocaine with an estimated value of $232 million.
WASHINGTON A Ghost Fleet Overlord unmanned surface vessel, part of a partnership between the Defense Department's Strategic Capabilities Office and the Navy, recently traveled a distance of more than 4,700 nautical miles, almost entirely autonomously.,
Posted: about 1 year ago
The most recent display of that maturity involved a USV traveling from the Gulf Coast to the coast of California, moving autonomously approximately 97% of the time. While the USV did have a crew on board, remote mission command and control for the trip was done from a remote location by sailors with Surface Development Squadron One.
One of the few times the USV was guided by its onboard crew was when it traversed the Panama Canal.
Optionally manned vessels provide a stepping stone to allow the navy and its sailors to more easily become familiar with the concept of autonomous operations than what would be possible with a fully autonomous ship.