In the Middle East, the US Navy has launched a operational force that will have air and naval drones

À l’avenir, les opérations navales devraient reposer de plus en plus sur des navires sans équipage, qu’ils soient autonomes ou barrés à distance, ainsi que sur les drones aériens, embarqués ou non. En tout cas, plusieurs initiatives allant dans ce sens ont été lancées au cours de ces dernières années, notamment aux États-Unis, où l’US Navy y voit un moyen de gagner de la « masse » par rapport à son homologue chinoise, laquelle est désormais en mesure d’aligner plus de 300 bâtiments.

In 2019, the Pentagon Strategic Capacity Office [SCO] launched the "Ghost Fleet Overlord" program to accelerate the integration of autonomous ships within the US Navy.As part of it, two unleashed boats [Unmanned Surface Vessel, USV], the Ranger and the Nomad, were developed.

The first was committed, successfully in an exercise involving "traditional" American ships.As for the second, he covered, last June, nautical 4421 between the Gulf of Mexico and San Diego in autonomous mode.Only the transit in the Panama canal was supervised by an operator.

"Autonomy is not limited to the straight line crossing of large areas of the ocean: it also involves elements such as the avoidance of collisions and compliance with rules at sea," said the SCO,'era.

To these two ships, which will pass under the authority of the US Navy from 2022, it is also necessary to add the "Sea Hunter", a boat which, barred at a distance or which can navigate independently, was developed in theCadre of the ACTUV project [Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel], launched in 2012 by DARPA, the Pentagon research agency.

These USVs are going to go in addition to undead underwater vehicles [UUV-Unmanned Underwater Vehicles] and air drones.One of the challenges will therefore be to maneuver them together ... in the middle of ships with crew.This was the purpose of the "Unmanned Integrated Battle Problem 21" exercise, [UXS IBP 21], organized last April, off California.And this is what the "Task Force 59" will try to do [TF 59], which the US Navy has just created within the 5th fleet, whose headquarters are located in Bahrain.

This has several operational forces each having a special role.Thus, the TF 50 and 51 focus on aeronaval operations when the TF 52, 54 and 55 take care respectively of the mines war, the anti-sous-marine struggle and the surface war.

According to a US Navy spokesperson, quoted by AFP, this TF 59 will therefore be "dedicated to the rapid integration of unmanned systems and artificial intelligence in maritime operations in the region".And it will be intended to "improve our knowledge in the maritime field and on the other hand, to strengthen our capacity for deterrence", completed Admiral Brad Cooper, the chief of the Navent, that is to say naval forces relating toUS Centcom, the American command for the Middle East and Central Asia.

“I think this environment really suits us to speed up our experiments.And our conviction is that if new systems can work here, they can probably work anywhere else and adapt to other fleets, "said Admiral Cooper.

For the moment, it is not known what exactly the means of this TF 59 will be. Regarding air drones, it should however implement MQ-9 Sea Guardian as well as MQ-4C Triton and MQ-8B Fire Scout.Even devices evaluated during the "UXS IBP 21" exercise.Only, not everyone has yet been declared operational, such as the Sea Hunter and its alter ego, the Seahawk.

Photo: USV "Sea Hawk" © Us Navy