Navy League: US Navy seeks to mate USVs and containers for contested logistics

The US Navy wants to pair containers with Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicles, similar to those shown in the rendering here. (L3 Harris Technologies)

The US Navy (USN) plans to work toward pairing Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicles (MUSVs) and specially engineered shipping containers to provide more effective contested logistics, according to Admiral Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations (CNO).

“The first [deployed] containers you see will be on USVs,” Adm Caudle told reporters on 20 April during a media round table at the Navy League Sea Air Space Maritime Symposium in National Harbor, Maryland.

“Unmanned has a big future [in contested logistics],” Adm Caudle said, adding that many parts and other repair items can be transported through unmanned systems now.

“A quadcopter can carry most things I need,” he said, noting that unmanned systems can be used to sustain high-end operations and calling for “more capacity to do that autonomously”.

He said, “Bringing in MUSVs with full containers of parts is very appealing. If it's destroyed you've not lost any humans, just parts and the MUSV.”

However, the concept needs to be “matured”, he said.

With plans to deploy the first MUSVs, the USN is evolving concepts of operations (CONOPS) for the new platforms, looking to structure MUSV squadrons, and developing a warfare development centre for unmanned platforms and autonomous systems, Adm Caudle said. “We are thinking about some structure organisationally,” he said. “We have a gap there.”