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.

  • BrikoXOPM
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    1 month 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
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      1 month 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.

      • BrikoXOPM
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        1 month 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
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          1 month 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?