The U. S. Navy stands at the precipice of a new era of technology
advancement. In an address at a military-industry conference,
then-U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Michael Gilday,
revealed the Navy’s goal to grow to 500 ships, to include 350
crewed ships and 150 uncrewed maritime vessels. This plan has
been dubbed the “hybrid fleet.” More recently,the current CNO,
Admiral Lisa Franchetti, has stressed the importance of the hybrid
fleetin her NavigationPlan forAmerica’sWarfighting Navy.

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The U.S. Navy has been forthcoming and transparent in its strategies designed to ensure peace and stability on the
global commons working with allies and partners. These strategies have contributed to the security and prosperity
of all nations touched by the oceans.

Whether manifested in documents such as the Department of
the Navy Strategic Guidance, Advantage at Sea: Prevailing with
IntegratedAll Domain NavalPower, orAmericasWarfighting
Navy, these high-level documents provide a clear vision of
how the U.S. Navy intends to accomplish these goals.

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https://oceanroboticsplanet.com/tportal_upload/md_publications/rovplanet_42.pdf

The U.S. Navy stands at the precipice of a new era of technology advancement. In an address at a military-industry conference, then chief of naval operations, Adm. Michael Gilday, revealed the Navy’s goal to grow to 500 ships, to include 350 crewed ships and 150 uncrewed maritime vessels. This plan has been dubbed the “hybrid fleet.” More recently, the current chief of naval operations, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, has stressed the importance of the hybrid fleet in her “Navigation Plan for America’s Warfighting Navy.”

The reason for this commitment to uncrewed maritime vessels is clear. During the height of the Reagan defense buildup in the mid-1980s, the Navy evolved a strategy to build a “600-ship Navy.” That effort resulted in a total number of ships that reached 594 in 1987. That number has declined steadily during the past three-and-a-half decades, and today the Navy has less than half the number of commissioned ships. However, the rapid growth of the technologies that make uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) increasingly capable and affordable has provided the Navy with a way to put more hulls in the water.

Read more about the U.S. Navy’s hybrid fleet strategy

By George Galdorisi and Sam J.

Tangredi. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval

Institute Press, 2024. 231 pages.

$29.95

ISBN: 978-1-61251-541-0

This timely book is a much-needed

clear presentation for the layman on artificial intelligence

and the need for the nation’s military establishment to

understand AI and its defense applications and to add

its technology to the nation’s sensors, weapons, C4ISR

systems and platforms. The authors, two retired Navy

captains who are prominent analysts of naval affairs,

stress the need to achieve asymmetrical advantage in

AI, particularly in the arms race with China and Russia.

They expand their discussion to include how AI interacts

with other technologies such as autonomous systems,

machine learning and with people, and with potential

effects on warfighting. This book will help readers keep

up with the rapidly accelerating technology of AI.

In September 2024, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Lisa Franchetti, issued her Chief of Naval Operations Navigation Plan for America’s Warfighting Navy. This Navigation Plan embodies “Project 33” in recognition of the fact that Admiral Franchetti is the 33rd Chief of Naval Operations. Project 33 articulates two overarching objectives: an imperative to be ready for the possibility of war with the People’s Republic of China by 2027 and enhancing the Navy’s long-term advantage. This Plan has several components:

The readiness component of the Navigation Plan has the goal of eliminating ship, submarine and aircraft maintenance delays and restoring critical infrastructure that sustains and projects the fight from shore.

The people component of the Navigation Plan describes the goal of recruiting and retaining the force needed to fill officer, chief petty officer and enlisted ranks and delivering a quality of service for Navy personnel.

The operational component of the Navigation Plan involves creating upgraded command centers for the Navy Fleet Commanders and training for combat to ensure that the Navy has a warfighting advantage over its adversaries.

Finally, the goal to scale robotic and autonomous systems to integrate more platforms at speed focuses on capitalizing on the inherent advantages of uncrewed systems. This is perhaps the most intriguing part of the CNO’s Navigation Plan.

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The U.S. Marine Corps has spent more than 75 years honing the ability to assault a heavily defended beach, beginning with the famed island-hopping campaigns in the Pacific during World War II. In that time, the service has updated its tactics, techniques, and procedures and embraced new technology to maximize the success of these assaults and minimize the loss of sailors and Marines.

Far less attention has been paid to what happens after the initial assault. Enabling Marines to move beyond the beach depends on the assaulting force being able to provide continuous contested-logistics support. Unlike armies in a land campaign, during which various vehicles can provide this support, the expeditionary strike group’s ships must deliver everything Marines need to sustain the fight. Until the Marine Corps can devise a way to do so without unsustainable losses, the assaulting force will never have the weapons, fuel, food, and gear it needs to move inland. Autonomous surface vessels could provide a solution.

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By any measure, one of the most exciting
advances in military technology is uncrewed systems.
While these technological innovations were developing
on a deliberate path over the past decade-plus, recent
conflicts have accelerated that progress.
Widely reported in the international media, Russia’s
use of armed unmanned air vehicles to attack targets
in Ukraine; Ukraine’s use of armed unmanned surface
vessels to attack Russian ships; the Houthi’s use of
both armed unmanned surface vessels and armed
unmanned air vehicles against shipping in the Red Sea;
Hamas and Hezbollah forces unleashing scores of armed
unmanned air vehicles against Israel of other clashes
in just the last few years; all have made it clear that
uncrewed platforms have gained purchase in military
organizations worldwide.

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The challenge of providing logistics sustainment to forces in the field is not a new phenomenon. Over 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu noted, “The line between disorder and order lies in logistics.” One need not be a historian to understand the importance of logistics to warfare over many millennia. From Alexander the Great (who noted: “My logisticians are a humorless lot…they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay”) to Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan (“Logistics are as vital to military success as daily food is to daily work”) to General Robert Barrow, then-Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, who coined a phrase that is still a staple of U.S. War College curricula: “Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics.”

Navy-Marine Corps amphibious operations represent perhaps the one area where logistics cannot fail. Once Marines are on the beach, they have few options to continue the fight if their logistics train breaks down—and might even have to withdraw. The prospect of assaulting a hostile shore today is more daunting than ever. The capacity of Marines to seize the beach and push inland depends on the security of their logistical support.

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