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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Unmanned Surface Vessel Squadron Three, which was stood up May 17 at Naval Base San Diego and put under the command of Capt. Derek Rader, will oversee a “fleet” of small uncrewed surface vessels, including Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC) built by Maritime Applied Physics Corp., according to a release.

The establishment of USVRON Three is the latest move in the sea service’s journey to build a so-called hybrid fleet of manned and unmanned systems. It came about three months after Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the chief of naval operations, established a new “robotics warfare specialist” general 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,” according to a NAVADMIN announcement from Franchetti.

Those experts will be part of the new squadron, according to the service.

“The Navy is placing unmanned systems in the hands of 400 of our most talented warfighters to help integrate, scale, experiment, and employ these systems,” Vice Adm. Brendan McLane, commander of Naval Surface Forces U.S. Pacific Fleet, said during a speech at the May 17 ceremony to mark the establishment of USVRON Three.

The new squadron came about as the Pentagon pushes ahead with its Replicator initiative, which aims to accelerate programs and field thousands of “attritable autonomous” systems across multiple domains by August 2025 to help the U.S. armed forces counter China’s military buildup. The Pentagon has secured $500 million in funding for the first tranche in fiscal 2024 and has requested an additional $500 million for fiscal 2025. Additional tranches are being planned.

The Navy is pursuing multiple types of unmanned surface vessels via Replicator, including through a partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit. DIU earlier this year issued a solicitation for small, autonomous maritime drones that can operate in packs to monitor and engage adversaries’ ships.

During a congressional hearing last week, Nickolas Guertin, the acquisition chief for the Department of the Navy, said the DON is supportive of Replicator, but he also noted that it’s not just a matter of scaling production.

“One other aspect to that is when we’re looking at these kinds of initiatives, we want to make sure we carry forward the sustainability and support work to make sure that our … [service members] can actually use this stuff in a reliable way when they need to in a fight,” he told lawmakers.

Other officials have also noted that the military needs to flesh out the tactics, techniques, procedures (TTPs) and training for how it will employ next-generation uncrewed systems.

Although the Navy’s release last week about USVRON Three did not explicitly mention Replicator or connect the unit to that effort, it appears that its future work could facilitate the integration of those types of systems into the fleet.

“The mission of USVRON Three is to deliver the most formidable, unmanned platforms in the maritime domain. The squadron will be a cornerstone in building the foundational knowledge required to operate and maintain sUSV and will spearhead the development of TTPs for sUSV operations and sustainment,” per the release.

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