30
submitted 6 months ago by BrikoX@lemmy.zip to c/globalnews@lemmy.zip

The U.S. Navy's efforts to build a fleet of unmanned vessels are faltering because the Pentagon remains wedded to big shipbuilding projects, according to some officials and company executives, exposing a weakness as sea drones reshape naval warfare.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Lmao. By drones they mean guided explosives with an engine. Can we not blow shit out of proportion? You're not getting the mission set of anything larger than a patrol boat out of a naval drone yet. The Navy is on top of drone research and when the time comes for drone plane carriers and drone arsenal ships I guarantee you they jump on it to reduce costs and losses.

[-] BrikoX@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 months ago

That was the through before Ukraine managed to use sea drones effectively to sink multiple non-patrol ships. That just shows that tests and theoretical analyses only goes so far. Real life situations where stakes are real are great motivators.

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

You're forgetting two key things. This is the Russian Navy. They have a ship that routinely tries to sink itself. And they can't get their heads around proper training. They lost the Moskva because they were operating under enemy missile range with their air defense turned off.

And we don't have the luxury of operating from a nearby friendly cost line. This is the entire reason the Navy wanted a modular mission system in the LCS. One of the missions was explicitly to act as a drone launch and recovery ship.

To illustrate the difference between capabilities, check out the low visibility drug runner boats the Cost Guard routinely catches in the Caribbean. We actually have years of experience catching exactly these kind of low visibility boats.

Look nobody is saying drones are a dead end. Just that this is a sensationalist article. The Navy is absolutely on board with drones.

[-] BrikoX@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 months ago

That's my point. Sea drone capabilities were never tested in an active war before, and US is not actively investing them because it's against their current modus operandi. They even booted one of the top navy admiral because he wanted to change that. Ignoring the title, the article talks about budgeting and slow paper heavy approval processes and focus on big carriers, cruisers, frigates, and destroyers. Comparing Coast Guard's experience where adversaries goal is to avoid instead of actively attack is not even close to being the same.

This might change now that Ukraine showed the effectiveness, but US is behind its adversaries in this area and falling more behind with current budget being already approved.

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 0 points 6 months ago

That's just not true. The Navy has been working with drones for years now. Reuters is usually pretty reliable but they let industry reps highly exaggerate the situation.

[-] BrikoX@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 months ago

Where does the article, or I state that US has 0 sea drones? They have around 100 as of now and a plan to double it with $500 million program, but it's small numbers in comparison to the other countries that are investing heavily into them. You keep misconstruing what was reported.

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Dude, we sent Ukraine 700 loitering munition drones. We do not have "100 drones". We have 100 USVs and UUVs which are generally larger and more logistically complex than a Switchblade or Predator. The idea that we've been sleeping on this is ridiculous, there are articles going back years about testing drones. And who has a lot of drones? Which Navy specifically is investing heavier than the US Navy in drones right now?

this post was submitted on 06 May 2024
30 points (89.5% liked)

Interesting Global News

2613 readers
262 users here now

What is global news?

Something that happened or was uncovered recently anywhere in the world. It doesn't have to have global implications. Just has to be informative in some way.


Post guidelines

Title formatPost title should mirror the news source title.
URL formatPost URL should be the original link to the article (even if paywalled) and archived copies left in the body. It allows avoiding duplicate posts when cross-posting.
[Opinion] prefixOpinion (op-ed) articles must use [Opinion] prefix before the title.


Rules

1. English onlyTitle and associated content has to be in English.
2. No social media postsAvoid all social media posts. Try searching for a source that has a written article or transcription on the subject.
3. Respectful communicationAll communication has to be respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences.
4. InclusivityEveryone is welcome here regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.
5. Ad hominem attacksAny kind of personal attacks are expressly forbidden. If you can't argue your position without attacking a person's character, you already lost the argument.
6. Off-topic tangentsStay on topic. Keep it relevant.
7. Instance rules may applyIf something is not covered by community rules, but are against lemmy.zip instance rules, they will be enforced.


Companion communities

Icon attribution | Banner attribution

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS