By Dr. Ann Griffiths, 8 November 2023
Few days go by without seeing something in naval news sources about uncrewed maritime systems. It’s a rapidly growing field for navies. We’ve seen how Ukraine has utilized uncrewed maritime systems in its war with Russia. The US Navy and Royal Australian Navy (RAN), for example, have pursued air, surface and sub-surface uncrewed systems for almost two decades. Both the RAN and the USN have laid out their approaches to maritime uncrewed system adoption by publishing strategies. Australia released RAS-AI Strategy 2040 in October 2020; the USN released Unmanned Campaign Framework in March 2021. RAN also published the supporting RAS-AI Campaign Plan 2025 which provides milestones and measurable performance indicators to implement the strategy.
In addition to strategy, the USN has Task Force 59 which has been given broad leeway to explore, develop and utilize uncrewed systems. It was established in 2021 and by January 2023 had reached full operational capability as it delivers drones and artificial intelligence for maritime operations in the Middle East. Australia just finished Exercise Autonomous Warrior, a two-week exercise involving the RAN and defence industry to test surface and sub-surface autonomous and uncrewed systems that have the capacity to transform the way navies conduct warfare.[1] The annual NATO exercise known as REPMUS (Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping with Maritime Uncrewed Systems) was undertaken in September 2023 to test concepts, requirements and technologies in terms of maritime uncrewed systems. I could go on.
With all the news about maritime uncrewed systems, it’s hard not to get discouraged about Canada. Canada/the RCN is rarely mentioned on these news reports. The RCN’s flagship maritime uncrewed system project is RCN Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance Unmanned Aircraft System (RCN ISTAR UAS), a project still in the definition phase, planned to deliver up to six ISTAR UAS to be integrated into and operated from the Halifax-class frigates.[2] But what else can we expect? I’d like to know more – about projects and strategies. And, by the way, there’s an interesting Canadian Forces College paper online by Lieutenant-Commander Anonymous, called “A Maritime Uncrewed Systems Strategy,” that’s worth reading,[3] but it would be nice to start seeing news stories about RCN uncrewed system success.
1 Australia, Department of Defence, “Autonomous and uncrewed systems tested as part of Exercise Autonomous
Warrior,” 3 November 2023.
2 Canada. Department of National Defence, “Business Case Analysis v2 - Royal Canadian Navy Intelligence,
Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance Unmanned Aircraft System (RCN ISTAR UAS),” Royal Canadian
Navy, September 2021, pp. 15, 32.
3 Lieutenant-Commander Anonymous, “A Maritime Uncrewed Systems Strategy,” Canadian Forces College paper, Anon773.pdf (forces.gc.ca)
2 thoughts on “No News is Not Good News”
The answer to this dilemma is very obvious, we have a federal government who does not care about our military at all. The only agenda is their green initiatives. We have become a country not to be trusted which has become obvious with Nato which no longer cares about Canada and Norad will just become a single entity on its own. Our planes can not go to war, our ships and submarines remain in dock for corrosion issues because of their years, people don’t want to join the military because it remains outdated, there are more than 100 reasons. I for one will be very impressed if this comment even gets posted.
I agree that as far as can be discerned in the public realm, information about the RCN’s plans for uncrewed systems is very limited compared to what is available in other countries. In addition to what been noted noted here, attention has been focused initially on robotic mine hunting systems as well as shipborne UAVs.
Most of the research to date has emphasized human safety and cost-effective weapons delivery capabilities. However, we know comparatively little about personnel requirements and their costs, both respecting remotely based operators and support crews (even though truly autonomous naval systems are being actively explored, most of the so-called ‘uncrewed’ platforms would be better characterized as lightly crewed), as well as the real maintenance and life-cycle costs of such systems, especially as they near true autonomous operations. We might reasonably expect cost savings to navies, but as in the case of UAVs, the support staff demands may prove to be much more significant than currently anticipated.
We need much more research into these and related issues.
One more item of interest here: Parth Satam, “Ocean Wingman! US Navy Wants Large USVs to Fire Missiles, Carry Extra Ammo for its Warships”, (9 November 2023) https://www.eurasiantimes.com/ocean-wingman-us-navy-wants-large-usvs-to-fire-missiles/