ASHEVILLE ON THE SURFACE: The U.S. Navy fast-attack submarine USS Asheville steams off the coast of Guam during a photo exercise with the French Navy’s nuclear powered submarine FS Émeraude. As the caption says, FS Émeraude is not pictured. The two subs were practicing what the Navy calls “high end maritime skills.”

“High end” translates as a war with a peer or near-peer adversary. This recent column, The Navy’s Robot War in the South China Sea, discusses a fleet battle problem designed to test unmanned combat systems and integrate them with manned warships.

…for years, USVs (unmanned surface vessels) and UUVs (unmanned underwater vessels) have served the Navy well in jobs like sweeping mines, anti-submarine warfare and intelligence gathering.

But now the Navy is experimenting with more complex unmanned systems. A sub like the Asheville could deploy with its own squadron of autonomous and semi-autonomous USVs and UUVs. Here’s a photo of an early version of a UUV (circa 2012). This is a 2016 photo of an experimental USV, the Sea Hunter. The caption notes it was a DARPA program.

The 2021 fleet battle problem will be held somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, but “no matter where the Navy conducts the exercise, the target audience and target adversary is China.” Read the entire column.

UPDATE: An article on unmanned aerial vehicles that are disguised as birds. The air is already a domain of drone and robot warfare. Jim Dunnigan wrote it last night and I’m just now reading it. He mentions the “silence” (low noise signature) and “invisibility” (low visibility) of the UAVs. The Navy wants to deploy unmanned vessels with these characteristics. For that matter, manned vessels as well. Submariners understand — low noise signatures and hiding are the submariners’ game.