The Navy plans to lean heavily on science and technology development as it builds its future force, which will feature unmanned systems working in concert with manned aircraft and an underwater network comparable to the interstate highways system, Navy leaders said today.
The emphasis on effective new technologies is becoming critically important as “our adversaries are doing pretty well with adapting to the new technologies – in some cases, faster than we are,” Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, deputy chief of Naval Operations for Warfare Systems, told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
For Aucoin and Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Mathias Winter, who also spoke at CSIS, science and technology development are key to minimizing critical gaps for future naval operations, specifically in the unmanned domain.
WNU Editor: The U.S. Navy has been talking about this for a long time .... US Navy Wants To Replace F-35s With X-47B and other full size UAVs (Next Big Future). I can understand why the US Navy wants these systems .... they act as force multipliers that gives the Navy extended range and coverage. But the next two questions are .... how much will this cost to make it work, and does the technology exist to make it possible. My guess is that in both cases (money and technology) .... the US Navy is coming up short.