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U.S Navy emphasizing robotics, to take humans 'out of harm's way'
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Special to World Tribune.com
GEOSTRATEGY-DIRECT.COM
Friday, June 2, 2006
The U.S. Navy is developing an array of unmanned vehicle for its future warfighting capabilities.
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Adm. Michael Mullen
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The shift to unmanned robotic ships, submarines and aircraft is part of a force transformation underway, according to Adm. Mike Mullen, the chief of naval operations.
“The Navy is moving forward in unmanned vehicles, whether they're under the sea, on the sea or whether they fly in lots of ways,” Mullen told a radio interviewer March 26.
“One of the things it does is it keeps people, it keeps human beings out of harm's way when you don't need to put them in there. So we're invested heavily in that.”
Robotics is also reducing the number of people. A destroyer that previously would have 350 sailors on board now can be deployed with half that number, Mullen said.
“That requires a lot of automation. It requires a lot of technical support that doesn't exist from our current ships and it leverages the kinds of technical investments that we need to make for the Navy of the future,” he said.
The next-generation aircraft carriers also will have sharply reduced crew numbers, down from the current level of 5,000 per ship.
New weapons for the Navy will include advanced cruise missiles with increase range, better accuracy, “an the ability to respond to multiple targets… and to do it in a much more rapid fashion,” he said.
Copyright © 2006 East West
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