Navy officials revealed earlier this year that the sea service would be expanding operational tests and other deployments of small unmanned vessels around Naval Base Ventura County and the Ventura and Channel Islands harbors between April and August.

“An incident occurred at approximately 3:28 p.m. [local time] on June 23 within the Channel Islands Harbor Marina involving the overturning of a support boat by an unmanned vehicle that was being towed out of the harbor,” a spokesperson from Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR) said. 

The area is considered somewhat of a hotspot for Navy-supporting autonomous technology development and demonstrations. It includes controlled and cornered off locations designed for the secure demonstration and refinement of uncrewed vessels of different types and sizes. 

Granted anonymity to speak freely, a source familiar with the June 23 incident raised concerns that the captain of the support boat appeared to be in danger after the towboat was overturned by the maritime drone.  

The NAVWAR spokesperson told DefenseScoop that the operator involved declined medical attention after they were recovered by the emergency responders.

“A preliminary investigation indicated that the unmanned vehicle received an inadvertent command that turned the engine on, causing the towed vehicle to accelerate past and capsize the support boat. As a result, the training activity immediately held a safety stand-down with all members of the activity and is implementing additional safety procedures,” the spokesperson said.

They did not respond to follow-up questions regarding whether the “inadvertent command” that resulted in the flip came from a human or technical malfunction.

NAVWAR spokespersons also declined to confirm if the drone involved was a Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft, or GARC, which sources initially suggested. The Navy recently unveiled plans to boost production of the 16-foot GARC — an unmanned surface vessel built by BlackSea Technologies, formerly known as Maritime Applied Physics Corp.

A spokesperson from BlackSea acknowledged DefenseScoop’s inquiry last week, but did not respond to questions regarding whether it was a GARC that flipped the tugboat.

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Detailed budget materials are being released on a rolling basis this week, but the officials provided insights into the nearly $1 trillion spending plan in an off-camera press briefing Thursday morning.

“This budget is the first year that we are calling out — specifically — our autonomy line in its own section. So, it will be $13.4 billion for autonomy and autonomous systems,” a senior defense official told DefenseScoop. 

“For counter [unmanned aerial systems], the total request is $3.1 billion across the services,” they also confirmed. 

The new requests for additional drone and counter-drone funding come as the U.S. military confronts serious challenges integrating and defending against the rapidly evolving weapons, which often cost much less to produce than the multimilllion-dollar missiles that have been deployed to take them down.

The senior defense official supplied a high-level breakdown on the robotics and autonomy-enabling budget lines.

“For unmanned and remotely-operated aerial vehicles, it’s $9.4 billion; autonomous ground vehicles, $210 million; on the water autonomous systems, $1.7 billion; underwater capabilities, $734 million; and enabling capabilities — that’s the autonomy software, the things that underlie all these systems, working and operating together as a central brain — it’s $1.2 billion to work across all those platforms on autonomy,” they said.

A senior Navy official at the briefing also pointed to what they consider to be a “big increase” associated with autonomy investments for the sea service.

“[It’s] $5.3 billion across all systems. And that’s $2.2 billion above FY 2025. That includes procuring three MQ-25s, which we’ll have our first flight in 2026 — and then additional unmanned air [assets], new efforts in unmanned undersea and in unmanned surface, to include procuring our medium unmanned surface vessel. So, we have a lot of efforts across all domains,” the senior Navy official told DefenseScoop.

Two aircraft carrier strike groups operating in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility are “engaged in combat every day” against enemy-launched drones, they noted.

“We have the [USS Gerald R. Ford] that is just now deploying. Ford will deploy with some additional counter-UAS capabilities, and then we’ll continue to look and learn and develop those kits that we sent before, and [applying] part of what we’re learning,” the senior Navy official said.

Representatives from the other military services did not share information about their departments’ autonomy toplines during the briefing.

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The live-fire event, which took place in Poland, Germany and Arizona on May 11-27, was led by the 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force under 56th Artillery Command and included international allies.

Maj. Gen. John Rafferty, commanding general of 56th Artillery Command, called it a “premier training event” that tested the task force’s ability to operate across all domains, find targets “at depth” and strike those targets with kinetic and non-kinetic effects.

In U.S. military parlance, the term “kinetic effects” generally refers to munitions or other projectiles, while non-kinetic effects include things like electronic warfare, directed energy and cyber capabilities.

The Multi-Domain Task Force is “improving and refining the technology and the tactics, techniques and procedures. Our soldiers, our sergeants and our lieutenants are the ones who have their hands on this equipment, who are determining the best way to employ it, to get the effects and find the targets that we’re asking them to. And we are putting that feedback right back into the system to improve the capability and optimize not just the equipment that we have, but the way that in which we’re employing it,” Rafferty told reporters Friday during a teleconference.

The results of the exercise are also setting the conditions for the evolution of Rafferty’s command into a multi-domain command in Europe that’s going to take place over the next few months, he noted.

Unmanned systems of various types were key components of the latest iteration of Arcane Thunder, part of an effort to demonstrate the ability to “fight with live data” across a large-scale combat theater.

The Army teamed up with the Navy in the employment of unmanned surface vessels to test out the multi-domain ops concept — which fits in with the Pentagon’s vision for Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) to better connect the sensors, shooters and information networks of the U.S. military services and allies and partners.

“It’s really trying to perfect the ability to transition from the littoral domain to the land domain, and … how does the MDTF, as part of the joint force, gather data from our joint partners and also share data with our joint partners,” Col. Patrick Moffett, commander of the 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force, told reporters about the use of unmanned surface vessels during Arcane Thunder. “Working with the USVs, we worked the joint kill chain where the Navy vessels would identify a target, that target would get passed to the second MDTF all-domain operations center, and then we would pass that target to really, for this exercise, to our Polish partners. So that was the tie-in.”

As a land-based force, the Army’s understanding of littorals is often limited, but those USVs gave the task force the ability to better understand what was going on in the sea domain, he noted.

The robo-boats were also used to haul Army equipment in a contested logistics scenario, where the military might need to push that type of gear forward to “isolated elements,” Moffett explained.

But USVs weren’t the only uncrewed systems involved in Arcane Thunder. Drones, high-altitude balloons (HAB) and unattended ground sensors were also part of the mix.

Lt. Col. Aaron Ritzema, commander of the 2nd Multi-Domain Effects Battalion, noted that soldiers used sensor data to inform the employment of so-called “launched effects” — such as loitering munitions — to strike targets.

“For us, as we kind of, you know, fought through the scenario-based portion of this exercise, it was using … the micro HAB to provide that geolocation. And then that would trigger battalion- and company-level decision points on if and when … we launched the launched effect to actually close the kill chain on that,” he told reporters.

Stitching together the different technologies involved in the exercise and enabling interoperability between platforms and payloads were some of the biggest challenges the Army had to tackle, he noted.

Rafferty emphasized the importance of being able to pass live data through mission command systems — which in the case of Arcane Thunder, involved forces in both Europe and the continental United States.

He noted that the 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force under Moffett’s command demonstrated the ability “to make sense of the information and generate enough fidelity to produce targets that then, in some cases, were passed back to the 56th multi-domain headquarters … to work through the process of assigning, you know, the right shooter to those particular targets. So there was a whole range of possibilities and scenarios there.”

Rafferty added: “Really the breakthrough, like I said, was getting that data in virtually real-time from a micro HAB, refined by another platform, made sense of by [Moffett’s team in Poland] and Aaron Ritzema’s soldiers at Fort Huachuca [in Arizona] … and then, in seconds, back here to Wiesbaden and Mainz-Kastel in Germany for, you know, additional analysis and assigning to the right shooter. So really taking that kill chain and taking what was once, you know, hours to really into minutes, essentially … That live data part is probably the biggest breakthrough for us, from my standpoint.”

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Smith was removed from that position “due to a loss of confidence based on a complaint substantiated by an Office of the Naval Inspector General investigation,” officials wrote in a press release, adding that the sea service “maintains the highest standards for leaders and holds them accountable when those standards are not met.”

The release did not provide details about the nature of the complaint that was made against Smith and substantiated by the IG. DefenseScoop has reached out to the Navy for more information.

According to the announcement, Smith was removed from his position as PEO by Brett Seidle, acting assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition. Melissa Kirkendall, executive director for PEO USC, has temporarily assumed the duties of program executive officer. Smith has been temporarily reassigned to the staff of Naval Sea Systems Command.

The PEO for unmanned and small combatants plays a key role in the Navy’s pursuit of robotic platforms, including uncrewed surface vessels and unmanned underwater vehicles, which are key to the service’s push to increase the capacity of the fleet for a variety of mission sets and keep sailors out of harm’s way. The official who holds that position is the acquisition authority for the “design, development, build, maintenance and modernization of unmanned maritime systems, mine warfare systems, special warfare systems, expeditionary warfare systems and small surface combatants,” according to the Navy.

Smith had served in the PEO USC role since June 2023.

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Robotic platforms not only keep sailors out of harm’s way, but they provide opportunities to expand the sea service’s warfighting capacity faster and at less cost than building traditional Navy vessels. They’re a key element of Project 33 and the CNO Navigation Plan that was released last year.

Plans for the upcoming industry engagement, slated for June 17-18 in the Washington metro area, were laid out in a special notice posted Friday on Sam.gov.

“The Future USV program will be an open ocean, 25+ knot, high endurance, non-exquisite, autonomous vessel. The vessel will be built to commercial standards and will provide the interfaces, payload deck area, and support for two forty-foot equivalent unit (FEU) containerized payloads, each weighing 80,000 [pounds],” officials wrote.

The Navy has already been experimenting with fairly large USV prototypes in recent years, such as the Sea Hunter, Sea Hawk, Mariner and Ranger.

The service has also been conducting market research. Last year, it released a request for information on medium unmanned surface vehicles, indicating that officials were interested in vessels less than 200 feet in length and under 500 tons displacement.

That RFI noted that the unmanned maritime systems program office (PMS 406) — which is also hosting next month’s industry engagement on Future USV — was “contemplating an accelerated approach with industry to leverage existing, manned or unmanned surface ship designs that can be modified to enable rapid delivery of an unmanned or optionally unmanned surface ship capability.”

The special notice about the Future USV program didn’t identify the specific types of payloads the Navy wants the platforms to carry or the missions they will perform.

The service had previously envisioned acquiring medium USVs for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions as well as larger USVs with offensive strike capabilities. However, earlier this year, Rear Adm. William Daly suggested that officials may now be focusing on a platform that can be outfitted with containers capable of carrying both types of payloads, according to news reports.

Although the upcoming industry briefing is restricted to U.S. contractors, more information about the Navy’s plans for the Future USV program could become publicly available when the Defense Department releases its fiscal 2026 budget justification documents in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, John Phelan, the new secretary of the Navy, has indicated he’s keen on adding uncrewed platforms to the fleet.

“The unique capabilities that unmanned systems bring to the naval and joint force are a tremendous force multiplier, and I believe the Department of the Navy should appropriately and adequately resource the right solutions and doctrine, organization, training, personnel and facilities that support these capabilities, particularly in the Indo-Pacific,” he wrote in response to advance policy questions from senators ahead of his confirmation hearing in February.

“By providing persistent surveillance, intelligence gathering, defensive, and strike capabilities, unmanned systems will enhance lethality and serve as a strong and efficient deterrent to quickly respond to provocation while reducing risks and maintaining flexibility in the region,” Phelan wrote, noting that such tools could help the United States prevail in a potential future conflict against a peer competitor such as China.

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Adm. James Kilby shared a status update on that work and shed light on some of the sea service’s associated near-term, technology-enabling efforts during a media roundtable at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space forum.

“One of our goals — one of our seven targets — is this hybrid fleet [with] robotic and autonomous systems,” Kilby explained. “The challenge for us is to really robustly lay out a roadmap to get there. We’ve had some fits and starts there, so we must do better. Our initial focus is 2027 though, [for a] capability that will help us in the Pacific.”

Last year, then-CNO Adm. Lisa Franchetti unveiled a list of seven “Project 33 targets” to accelerate to enhance the Navy’s long-term advantage and ensure readiness for a possible war with China by 2027. President Donald Trump fired Franchetti in February, but as Kilby suggested, the Navy continues to pursue those immediate modernization aims under his leadership and while waiting on a new nominee to be named. 

He said personnel are currently moving to deploy a unified network of unmanned and manned platforms “in a meaningful way.”

“The MQ-25 is the first unmanned aircraft to integrate with the air wing. Beyond that, once we do that, I’m looking at sensors, I’m looking at electronic attack, possibly a loyal wingman concept — but I also have to have unmanned surface [capabilities] helping me in that fight, as well,” Kilby noted. 

He acknowledged that while the Navy is pursuing a range of activities to boost global readiness and enhance platforms’ maintenance and efficiency at shore and sea, its force and arsenal are simultaneously in high demand all over the world. Kilby pointed to the Nimitz and Vinson Carrier Strike Groups, which are conducting deterrence and other operations in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as the P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft and a guided missile destroyer supporting Northern Command on the Trump administration’s new U.S.-Mexico border missions.

“Over the past 18 months, our sailors in the Red Sea have successfully countered hundreds of Houthi missiles and [unmanned aerial vehicles]. We have had over 20 ships that have operated in the Central Command area of responsibility for this, and today, the incredible sailors of the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group are there carrying on that effort,” the acting CNO said.

As that conflict continues to disrupt commercial shipping and place sailors’ lives at risk, Kilby said he’s increasingly concerned about the Navy’s lack of options to more economically counter that threat, and America’s munitions industrial base.  

“As the former [deputy chief of Naval operations for warfighting requirements and capabilities, or N9], I was focused on a high-end laser, 500 kilowatts to 1 megawatt. And I have regret for that — that I had not been thoughtful enough to think about the UAV threat, where I think a much lesser-power weapon would have done what we needed to do,” he said.

The Navy’s secretive Project Overmatch marks another key element of its future warfighting capabilities and overarching intent to prioritize lethality, per Trump’s recent orders. 

That initiative is a major piece of the Navy’s contribution to the Pentagon’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) operational concept and will be crucial to the U.S. and its allies’ joint tactical network of the future.

“The classic example of Overmatch is I want to be able to communicate across every single modality I have at sea, based on prioritization of message. Comms-as-a-service and software-defined radios are a piece of that as well. So, that effort continues,” Kilby told DefenseScoop.

“This ability to communicate in a more effective manner at sea makes me more lethal, where I’m not having to wait for a certain prioritization of messages to go out — the system just understands the quickest means to do that and sends that message,” he explained.

For most of Kilby’s career, Navy forces have been able to conduct power projection, or sail anywhere in the world to carry out orders. But contemporary network advancements are introducing nascent challenges and making it easier for adversaries to locate U.S. forces’ whereabouts. 

“Overmatch, and [the fight from the maritime operations centers], and the mission control of my strike group is what I need to do to be able to have access into that environment,” Kilby said.

Earlier this year, the Project Overmatch team unveiled its first-ever formal project arrangement with the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S.

“Certainly we need to work with our allies across the board here, and I’ll meet with several of them during this conference,” Kilby told DefenseScoop during the roundtable.

Naval Information Warfare Systems Commander Rear Adm. Seiko Okano was recently tapped as the newest lead for Project Overmatch. 

Kilby confirmed he’s impressed with her early work in this role, including recent moves to target readiness across the maritime operations centers and from the strike group commanders in new and noticeable ways — and largely by handling data differently.

“She’s been critical in helping us with the unmanned surface vessels, and communicating with C2 and command and control, and using artificial intelligence to do things like automatic target recognition, which are important for those targets, and to have that data set updated — so I see it continuing and only growing larger as we move forward,” he said.

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Unmanned Surface Vessel Squadron 7 is slated to be established in May in San Diego, California, according to service officials.

The organization will be “primarily tasked with operating and maintaining” a variety of small USVs, a Navy official told DefenseScoop.

That includes Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft and “future RAS systems,” the official said.

Maritime Applied Physics Corp. manufactures the 16-foot GARC. The Defense Department has already obligated more than $160 million for the robotic boats, according to government contracting data.

The Navy is looking to ramp up GARC production to 32 vessels per month later this year, Rear Adm. Kevin Smith, the Navy’s program executive officer for unmanned and small combatants, told DefenseScoop at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium earlier this month.

The establishment of USVRON 7 this spring will come about a year after the sea service stood up USVRON 3 — tasked with overseeing a fleet of GARCs and helping the sea service integrate, scale, experiment and employ those types of platforms — at Naval Base San Diego and three years after the creation of a unit now known as USVRON 1, which is based in Ventura County, California.

The launch of USVRON 7 is on the horizon as Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti is looking for ways to quickly augment the force with uncrewed systems, autonomous capabilities and personnel who specialize in those technologies.

Last year, she issued a NAVADMIN announcement about the creation of a new robotics warfare specialist rating.

“RW Sailors will enable Robotic and Autonomous System (RAS) operations and maintenance at the tactical edge. RWs will be the subject matter experts for computer vision, mission autonomy, navigation autonomy, data systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning on our RAS platforms,” she wrote.

She later launched an initiative known as Project 33 with an aim of scaling those types of systems across the force in the near term so that the sea service will be ready for a potential war against China in the Taiwan Strait or other locations.

“The Chairman of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has told his forces to be ready for war by 2027 — we will be more ready,” Franchetti wrote in her CNO Navigation Plan. “Project 33 is how we will get more ready players on the field by 2027. Project 33 sets my targets for pushing hard to make strategically meaningful gains in the fastest possible time with the resources we influence.”

Officials envision small USVs performing important missions for U.S. Pacific Fleet. These types of platforms fit in with the “Hellscape” warfighting concept that Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, has laid out for a potential conflict with China in the Taiwan Strait.

“Certainly, these systems are ideal in enclosed spaces … if you can deploy it,” Paparo said at a Brookings Institution event in November. “For closed spaces, for executing sea denial, this can be a very key capability.”

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The 16-foot GARC, an unmanned surface vessel, is built by Maritime Applied Physics Corp. The Defense Department has already obligated more than $160 million for the system, according to government contracting data.

Rear Adm. Kevin Smith, the Navy’s program executive officer for unmanned and small combatants, told DefenseScoop this week on the sidelines of the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium that he expects to hit the production target of 32 GARCs per month later this year.

“We’re not there yet [but] they’re ramping up” Smith said. “That’s where we’re looking at as far as gearing up.”

The GARC effort previously received funding via the Pentagon’s Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) initiative.

“The program started and … it just blossomed. It took off,” Smith said during a panel at the SNA symposium. “All of our APFIT boats have been built, 24 of them, and they’re all over the country. And we’re looking at maybe sending some overseas.”

Last year, the service stood up a new squadron, USVRON Three, at Naval Base San Diego to oversee a fleet of GARCs and help the sea service integrate, scale, experiment and employ these types of platforms. Eight of those systems have been delivered to the new unit, according to Smith.

During a panel at the SNA conference this week, Vice Adm. Jimmy Pitts, deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting requirements and capabilities, N9, suggested he’s keen on the autonomous vessels.

“We’re going to use that in a nontraditional sea-denial mission role directly for [U.S. Pacific] Fleet here in the near term,” he said.

A few months ago, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti unveiled her Project 33 initiative that has a goal of scaling robotic and autonomous systems across the force by 2027 so that the sea service will be ready for a potential war against China in the Taiwan Strait or other locations.

“The Chairman of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has told his forces to be ready for war by 2027 — we will be more ready,” Franchetti wrote in her CNO Navigation Plan. “Project 33 is how we will get more ready players on the field by 2027. Project 33 sets my targets for pushing hard to make strategically meaningful gains in the fastest possible time with the resources we influence.”

Last year, Franchetti also spearheaded the establishment of a new robotics warfare specialist rating to help facilitate robotic and autonomous system operations and maintenance at the tactical edge. Those personnel will include subject matter experts for computer vision, mission autonomy, navigation autonomy, data systems, AI and machine learning.

The Pentagon is also looking to scale the fielding of small USVs and other types of unmanned platforms via its Replicator initiative, which is the brainchild of Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks.

At the SNA symposium, Smith didn’t explicitly mention Replicator or say whether the GARC is one of the platforms selected for scaled-up manufacturing under that initiative, but he noted that the Navy is ramping up production “to try to do what the DepSecDef has been pushing for.”

Smith declined to disclose the total number of GARCs expected to be delivered under the current procurement deal.

Meanwhile, USVRON Three is doing experiments and working to flesh out concepts of operation for the robotic platforms under its purview.

Smith suggested that future decisions about fielding the systems will be made by fleet commanders.

“It’s not a program of record,” he told DefenseScoop. “It’s more learning opportunity for small USVs and getting it into the hands of the sailor to see how we’re going to move forward.”

“The CNO has talked about having, you know, innovative ideas as far as small unmanned surface vessels that you could then use, obviously, in the field. So that’s kind of the thought is that, you know, what do we have available now and what have we learned for rapid fielding,” he said. “But it’s really for the decision of the fleet commander as far as having those assets … available. So it’s just another tool, I guess, in the tool bag as far as capability.”

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The latest Digital Talon exercise, conducted earlier this month in the Middle East region, included a variety of robotic capabilities that could play a significant role in future conflicts.

“Digital Talon 3.0 … tested the electronic and mechanical effectiveness of robotics and autonomous systems (RAS), the capabilities of over-the-horizon communications between unmanned systems, and testing aerial autonomous launch and recovery of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) off a unmanned surface vessel (USV),” NAVCENT stated in a press release Sunday.

The exercise involved Task Group 59.1, which was established earlier this year and reports to Task Force 59 — a key unit based in the Middle East under 5th Fleet that’s helping the Navy operationalize AI and uncrewed platforms for real-world missions.

“Under Digital Talon 3.0 we were able to test the remote launch of a loitering munition, and vertical take-off and landing of UAVs from a USV,” Lt. Luis Echeverria, commanding officer of the new task group, said in a statement, adding that these “evolutions resulted in the successful remote launch of a loitering munition at sea.”

This wasn’t the first time that a robo-ship operated by the Navy launched a kamikaze drone.

During a Digital Talon exercise last year, the unit successfully attacked a target boat with a “Lethal Miniature Aerial Missile System” fired from a MARTAC T-38 Devil Ray USV, according to officials.

However, the latest iteration of the exercise expanded the over-the-horizon capabilities of these types of uncrewed systems, according to Echeverria.

These efforts are unfolding as the Navy steams ahead with new initiatives to incorporate more unmanned and autonomous technologies into the force.

The sea service established a new “robotics warfare specialist” general rating earlier this year.

“RW Sailors will enable Robotic and Autonomous System (RAS) operations and maintenance at the tactical edge. RWs will be the subject matter experts for computer vision, mission autonomy, navigation autonomy, data systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning on our RAS platforms,” according to a NAVADMIN announcement from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti released in February.

In September, Franchetti unveiled “Project 33,” which is part of her “CNO Navigation Plan” and places a heavy emphasis on robotic systems and information dominance as the service prepares for a potential conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific.

“The Chairman of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has told his forces to be ready for war by 2027 — we will be more ready,” Franchetti wrote, acknowledging that the Defense Department “cannot manifest a bigger traditional Navy in a few short years.”

Incorporating more robo-ships and other uncrewed platforms into the fleet is seen as a solution to that problem.

“Project 33 is how we will get more ready players on the field by 2027,” she added, stating that the sea service will by then have integrated proven robotic and autonomous systems for routine use by the commanders who will employ them.

Senior Navy officials envision these types of systems as being useful for sea-denial missions.

Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said unmanned platforms like those that are part of the Pentagon’s Replicator initiative offer significant benefits. They fit in with the “Hellscape” warfighting concept that he’s laid out for a potential conflict with China in the Taiwan Strait.

“Certainly, these systems are ideal in enclosed spaces … if you can deploy it,” he said last week at a Brookings Institution event. “For closed spaces, for executing sea denial, this can be a very key capability.”

Technologies that the Pentagon is trying to accelerate under Replicator include loitering munitions and other types of drones, USVs and unmanned underwater vehicles, among other tools.

Last week, the Defense Innovation Unit, which is playing a key role in the initiative, unveiled the recent winners of Replicator software contracts.

Meanwhile, Task Force 59 and Task Group 59.1 aren’t the only Navy units experimenting with new unmanned systems.

Earlier this year, the service stood up Unmanned Surface Vessel Squadron Three (USVRON Three) in San Diego to oversee a “fleet” of small uncrewed surface vessels, including the Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC). The organization is expected to help build the foundational knowledge required to operate and maintain small USVs and develop tactics, techniques and procedures for operations and sustainment, according to officials.

Using uncrewed surface vessels to launch loitering munitions and other types of UAVs could be a new tactic that the Navy introduces for warfighting in the coming years.

The first two Digital Talon exercises, held about a year ago, “advanced lethality and kinetic applications for unmanned systems,” but version 3.0 “examined more advanced tactics,” according to the NAVCENT news release, which attributed the observation to Royal Navy Lt. Samuel Hendy, executive officer of Task Group 59.1.

“As with all pioneering ventures and first-of-its-kind feats, there are plenty of challenges to overcome, lessons to be analyzed, but we are a learning organization and it all combines to further benefit 5th Fleets’ understanding and employment of this state-of-the-art warfare,” Hendy said in a statement. “If there is one thing we can take away, Digital Talon 3.0 affirms that the U.S. Navy, as well as her partner nations, remains at the forefront of cutting-edge unmanned system integration and deployment.”

The loitering munition fired during the exercise was a Switchblade 600, a NAVCENT spokesperson told DefenseScoop. That platform, built by AeroVironment, is also one of the systems selected for accelerated acquisition by the U.S. military via Replicator.

The drone is designed to carry high-precision optics and an anti-armor warhead. It has upwards of 40 minutes of loitering endurance, a range of 40-plus kilometers, and a “sprint speed” of 185 kilometers per hour, according to a product description from the vendor. The all-up round weighs 65 pounds.

“Equipped with class-leading, high-resolution EO/IR gimbaled sensors and advanced precision flight control, Switchblade 600 empowers the warfighter with quick and easy deployment via tube-launch, and the capability to fly, track and engage non-line-of-sight targets and armored vehicles with precision lethal effects without the need for external ISR or fires assets,” according to a company product description, which noted that the system’s “wave-off and recommit capability allows operators to abort the mission at any time and then re-engage either the same or other targets multiple times based on operator command.”

With regard to the USV and other drones that were involved in the latest Digital Talon exercise, the NAVCENT spokesperson said: “Specific effects and capabilities relevant to Digital Talon 3.0 were provided via GSA contracts for contractor-owned, contractor-operated platforms.”

The commander of Special Operations Forces Central Command, Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship USS Devastator, U.S. Coast Guard Sentinel-class fast response cutter USCGC Emlen Tunnell and industry partners also participated in the event, according to NAVCENT.

Updated on Nov. 26, 2024, at 3:30 PM: This story has been updated to include additional information provided to DefenseScoop by a NAVCENT spokesperson regarding the loitering munition and other capabilities that were involved in Digital Talon 3.0.

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“Our cooperation continues to grow. That means deepened information-sharing, combined maritime activities, joint training and capacity building. And we can do even more in the future,” Austin told American and Philippine reporters in a press briefing.

This marked Austin’s second stop in the Philippines during his fourth trip to the island nation — the most any U.S. defense secretary has made to that country to date. At the press briefing, Philippines Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro said Austin requested to pay a personal visit to WESCOM on this stopover.

On the ground at the headquarters, his team toured the C2 Fusion Center and observed in-development drone and interoperability technologies that the two militaries are jointly refining. That center is one of several built by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in the Philippines to enhance information-sharing and collaboration.

“I just watched the Philippine Navy demonstrate the capabilities of a T-12 unmanned surface vessel. The T-12 is one of several unmanned capabilities funded and delivered this year through U.S. security assistance,” Austin said.

On the sidelines of that event, U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Logan Hampton briefed DefenseScoop on some of the intricacies of that platform.

“It’s made by Martac, which is a U.S. company, and it’s called the Mantas. It’s a 12-foot unmanned surface vessel. It has redundant comm pathways for over-the-horizon and local — so, line of sight. Then it has autonomous avoidance, and then it has a clear camera for a [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance or ISR] payload,” Hampton said.

The drones are primarily deployed to help increase the military forces’ maritime domain awareness. They operate as a sort of littoral monitoring station that can be sent out and then feed back data and imagery to inform commanders about operations and incursions at sea.

When equipped with all the add-on assets and packages available, according to Hampton, the USVs can reach a range of about 30 nautical miles.

“So this unit is a developmental unit. They have four of those — two of them in ISR configuration, two in a sonar configuration. One of them is actually on the water in Oyster Bay here that’s conducting surveys now. And they have a larger vessel — that’s a T-38 — that’s a 38-footer that it’s in [Subic Bay right now], and it’s being controlled by these two operators here. So, both boats that are on the water right now are being controlled by Phil Navy personnel [who are] USV operators,” the staff sergeant told DefenseScoop.

Notably, the USVs are enabled partially via Starlink capabilities powered by Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellites, which Hampton called “a force multiplier.”

“It makes everything easier — very plug-and-play. You can see there’s a mini Starlink right there that’s powering them right now, for the internet … as they’re controlling from afar. And then there is a maritime Starlink on each of the vessels and this Fusion Center being ran by Starlink. So, it’s pretty useful,” Hampton said.

In Hampton’s view, this work is a strong example of how the U.S. and Philippine militaries are facilitating pathways to strengthen inoperability in real-world missions.

“We’re doing AAR — or after-action reviews — and we’re just, together, on the Philippines and U.S. side, just trying to develop this as quick as possible,” he said.

Hampton expected to be stationed in Palawan and working in this capacity until sometime in the first quarter of 2025. However, he emphasized that — while this is all unfolding in partnership with American forces — these are strictly the Philippines’ capabilities.

“We don’t control them. We are partners, and we help them with enhanced cooperability and integration. But this is theirs. So, I can’t tell them, like, ‘Hey, go do this. Go do that.’ It’s all about building relationships and working by, with and through the partners. And it’s their show. We’re just here to support,” Hampton said.

Later, at the press briefing, Austin confirmed that “many more platforms like this” will likely be delivered to the Philippines in the near term — particularly through the $500 million in foreign military financing he announced during his last visit to the nation.

The military allies are currently puzzling out the platforms and capabilities the U.S. will supply — but officials suggested an early focus will be on cyber and asymmetric capabilities.

“We want to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to help [Teodoro] increase his domain awareness, his ability to protect his sovereign territory and his interests — and cyber plays a critical role in that respect. You saw evidence of that earlier today when the T-12  was on display out there. And the … T-12, as you know, a fundamental part of that is the ability to command and control that using cyber capabilities. We have to protect those capabilities,” Austin told DefenseScoop.

“And we have to ensure that also that as we acquire more of these systems, that our supply chains are protected, and that we meet the demands as conditions change and things evolve,” he added.

Building on that, Teodoro told DefenseScoop that his national government is in the process of developing convergence measures to protect the country’s critical infrastructure, domestic supply chains and telecommunication systems from vulnerabilities that they could face now and in the future.

In response to questions from Philippines-based reporters, the defense secretaries said that they could not speculate on whether these and other high-stakes U.S.-Philippines joint military pursuits will carry on after Donald Trump is inaugurated as America’s next president in January.

“But I believe that this will remain an important country to us for many, many years. And the strength of our alliance, I think, will transcend changes of administration going forward,” Austin said.

Teodoro noted that the U.S. is a treaty ally, so his nation “would like certainty or guarantee with our bilateral relations.”

“But we should feel also on the other side of the coin, equally, with our anticipating of the possible and what will happen [with regard to the] United States next year, we should be calling out what [Chinese President Xi Jinping] is thinking about in so far as China is concerned — because the alternative factor, a positive factor, which has caused this alliance to be as robust as it is, is Chinese overreach and aggression in this party of the world,” Teodoro said.

Amid intensifying coercion in and around the South China Sea, he further said that Chinese military personnel have increasingly been denying his nation access to its exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea.

“They have really placed a lot of these pseudo-military vessels disguised as Coast Guard vessels, hence, maritime vessels in the areas of the West Sea. And they have been very aggressive in their information operations against the Philippines,” Teodoro said.

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