U.S. Navy Retools its Unmanned Programs for Speed

 

The U.S. Navy continues to restructure its unmanned-systems bureaucracy, pulling more responsibilities out of Program Executive Office for Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC) and putting it in new places. Structural adjustments ordered by Navy Secretary John Phelan will reform the way that the Navy develops and administers its acquisition program for autonomous vessels, which promise to radically shrink and cost-optimize the idea of a fighting vessel - if they can be built and fielded in quantity. 

PEO USC handles multiple acquisition duties, including manned smaller-size combatants like the twin Littoral Combat Ship classes and the new Constellation-class frigate. The Constellation was delayed after significant Navy-specific design changes were imposed on the off-the-shelf FREMM design that the Navy selected from Fincantieri - a proven hull selected to minimize risk of delays in production. During detail design, the frigate was stretched in length and its internal layout was altered enough that it retained only 15% design commonality with the FREMM. PEO USC now holds responsibility for bringing that program to full-rate production. In a sign of the hurdles ahead, the Pentagon departed from the schedule for Constellation hull procurement this fiscal year and left the funds for one ship out of the budget. 

While PEO USC focuses on manned hulls, almost all of the Navy's development of oceangoing unmanned craft has happened in the Pentagon, outside of Naval Sea Systems Command. DARPA designed and built the Navy's first autonomous test vessel, Sea Hunter / ACTUV. The Defense Department's Strategic Capabilities Office built the Navy's next major testbed program, the Ghost Fleet Overlord crewboat series. And DARPA stepped in once again to design and build NOMARS, the fully-unmanned prototype completed at Nichols Brothers earlier this year. All have been or will be transferred to Navy ownership, but were conceptualized and developed outside of the service. 

The Navy is now under pressure to ramp up. In July, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered all of the service branches and combatant commanders to prioritize drone system development and put procurement closer to the front lines. "Modern battlefield innovation demands a new procurement strategy that fuses manufacturers with our frontline troops," Hegseth wrote. "Senior officers must overcome the bureaucracy's instinctive risk-aversion on everything from budgeting to weaponizing and training." He called for eliminating "self-imposed restrictions" on development, and warned that "our major risk is risk-avoidance" when it comes to drone systems. 

In a memo released last week and obtained by Federal News Network, Secretary Phelan ordered a 30-day "sprint" review of unmanned system purchasing, coupled with a pause of all "related acquisition decisions and contracting actions (including awards and modifications)" during the review period. The review will cover every Navy and Marine Corps unmanned program or initiative, and will streamline administration and lines of effort - to take effect within 90 days. 

This retooled enterprise will be housed under a new Program Executive Office for Robotic and Autonomous systems (RAS), giving Navy unmanned systems their own PEO. 

Separately, Breaking Defense and USNI have learned that the Navy has rebooted its long-dormant carrier-based drone fighter program, which has disappeared from public view since the X-47B prototype was canceled in 2015. Over the 10 intervening years, the U.S. Air Force has publicized its extensive R&D with unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), and may have more undisclosed activity within its deep portfolio of classified projects; the Navy has not published much about its efforts - until now. According to Breaking Defense, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Atomics and Anduril have all been contracted to produce designs for a "loyal wingman" or "collaborative" fighter drone that is carrier-capable. Armed, attritable UCAVs could change the way that carrier aviation operates, extending its reach and improving the survivability of manned fighters.