Image credit: WikiMedia Commons - Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Aleksandr Freutel
A joint publication with:
by Kate Todd
September 2024
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The United States’ Country Profile
- The United Kingdom’s Country Profile
- Australia’s Country Profile
- New Zealand’s Country Profile
- Canada’s Country Profile
- Implications for Canada
- About the Author
- Canadian Global Affairs Institute
Introduction
Members of the Five Eyes (FVEY) security partnership, Canada, the United States (U.S.), the United Kingdom (U.K.), Australia, and New Zealand (N.Z.), work together to support each other’s national and international security interests. Recent changes to the maritime security environment caused by technological advances in AI, robotics, sensors, and weaponry, as well as growing great power competition, have prompted the navies of each FVEY state to invest in maritime autonomous systems (MAS).
Autonomous systems are those that operate using artificial intelligence and do not require human crews or physical intervention. Their level of autonomy ranges from fully autonomous to remote-controlled. Autonomous vessels and vehicles can also be optionally-crewed, operating with or without a complement of sailors. The adoption of MAS, including uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) and uncrewed undersea vehicles (UUVs), will improve the capabilities of FVEY navies by reducing operator errors, risk to human life, and costs associated with naval operations while speeding up reaction times, complicating enemy targeting, and allowing navies to pivot to more distributed maritime operations.
Outside of the FVEY partnership, all FVEY states are part of NATO’s 2018 Maritime Unmanned Systems Initiative where allies work together to develop and experiment with MAS. Since September 2021, the U.S., the U.K., and Australia have also cooperated on advanced technological capabilities, including autonomous systems, as part of the trilateral security partnership called AUKUS. However, Canada and N.Z. have not been invited to join this new pact for a variety of reasons. Experts speculate that one of the reasons for this is Canada’s lack of action to adapt to the new security environment.
In terms of MAS, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) has accomplished the least out of FVEY navies to integrate autonomous systems into their fleet. The RCN’s planners are currently conducting a fleet mix study, investigating which autonomous systems should be acquired to best-equip the RCN in the future battlespace. To respond to threats and opportunities posed by technological developments and great power competition, the RCN must procure and operationalize a greater number and variety of autonomous systems, including USVs and UUVs. When considering the procurement of autonomous systems, the RCN should reflect FVEY partners’ efforts and adopt proven policies, concepts, organizational structures, and technologies reviewed in the country profiles below, to quickly and effectively facilitate the acquisition of MAS.
The United States' Country Profile
Policies and Concepts
The United States Navy (USN) has long recognized the importance of MAS. Since 2000, the USN has had a Master Plan for how to operationalize UUVs. More recently, the Department of the Navy’s 2020 Advantage at Sea: Prevailing with Integrated All-Domain Naval Power strategy and 2021 Unmanned Campaign Framework have stressed the strategic need for the U.S. to invest in MAS and detailed the USN’s current MAS portfolios and plans for future developments.
The 2022 National Defense Strategy of the United States of America and 2024 Naval Science and Technology Strategy expand on the importance of MAS, arguing that the development of autonomous systems is vital for deterrence and that MAS will reduce costs while expanding the navy’s reach and warfighting capabilities. Maritime autonomous vessels are also key to executing the USN and Marine Corps’ Distributed Maritime Operations and Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment concepts. Autonomous systems allow the navy to operate smaller platforms in a more dispersed manner, reducing risk to human operators and costs of attrition.
The USN’s adoption of MAS is part of the Department of Defense’s broader Replicator Initiative that aims to deliver autonomous systems to multiple warfighting domains by 2025, Project Overmatch that focuses on equipping naval vessels with common computing and communication systems, and Third Offset Strategy whose purpose is to cultivate technological advances and ensure that the U.S. and its allies maintain a military-technological advantage over adversaries.
Surface Portfolio
The USN has an extensive portfolio of USVs, including small, medium USVs (MUSVs) and large USVs (LUSVs). Small USVs are generally the size of a speed boat, whereas MUSVs are less than 200 feet long and have displacements of under 500 tonnes, making them the size of a patrol craft. LUSVs are 200 to 300 feet long and displace 1000 to 2000 tonnes, which is similar to the size of a corvette. Along with different sized USVs, the USN has various models that can perform different missions sets.
The USN has two small USV classes: the Mine Countermeasures Unmanned Surface Vehicle and Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Crafts. The Mine Countermeasures Unmanned Surface Vehicle was first acquired in 2008 and is designed to operate alongside Littoral Combat Ships to conduct mine countermeasures (MCM) and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations. However, the vessels were only deemed operational in 2022. As of 2023, the USN had three of these vessels and four more on order. In February 2024, the USN acquired four Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Crafts. The USN is expected to procure hundreds of these vessels to deploy alongside destroyers.
The USN launched its Sea Hunter program in 2016 to research and develop MUSVs. The Sea Hunter program consists of two USVs: the original Sea Hunter prototype and the second Sea Hawk prototype delivered in 2020. Since 2018, the vessels have completed exercises with advanced autonomy and perception technology as well as reconnaissance and classified payloads.
In 2017, the USN launched the Ghost Fleet Overlord program to develop LUSV technology and operational concepts. The Ghost Fleet includes four operational vessels. The first three were converted from commercial to autonomous military vessels, while the fourth was purpose-built. The vessels completed autonomous transits in 2020, 2021, and 2024, travelling over 46,000 nautical miles during their most recent voyage. In 2020, the USN awarded contracts for LUSV conceptual design studies. It plans to expand its fleet by procuring seven more LUSVs by 2027. These vessels will have reconfigurable mission capabilities and modular payloads, allowing them to carry out intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and targeting and information operations.
The U.S. Marine Corps has also begun developing and adopting USVs. Their first class of USV is an autonomously navigated amphibious assault ship of an undisclosed size, called an Autonomous Littoral Connector. The Marine Corps has been working on this class since 2015 and is still testing the technology. They have also been developing a large-yacht-sized Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessel that will be capable of destroying sea and land based targets and extended travel. Testing of this vessel will begin between 2025 and 2027.
Subsurface Portfolio
The USN also has a large and varied portfolio of UUVs, ranging in size from a 150-pound 7.5 inch by 6.5-foot tube to a subway car. On the smaller end of the spectrum, the USN employs the Mk-18 Family of Systems, which includes the approximately 7.5 inches wide by 6.5 feet long Mk-18 Mod 1 Swordfish and approximately 2.3 feet wide by 14 feet long Mk-18 Mod 2 Kingfish classes of UUVs for MCM and maritime homeland defence. The design of these UUV are based off the small Remote Environmental Monitoring Units (REMUS) 100 and medium sized REMUS-600 vehicles. The USN has used the Mk-18 Mod 1 for underwater reconnaissance mission sets since 2008 and began producing the Mk-18 Mod 2 in 2012. The USN has over 90 Mk-18 Mod 2s, but the exact number of Mk-18s in the fleet is not publicly available. The Defense Innovation Unit also ordered one REMUS-300 in 2020 to assess if it could be used as the USN’s next-generation small UUV programme called Lionfish. The REMUS-300 is an updated version of the REMUS-100. In 2021, the USN ordered two more of these systems.
The USN has five other UUV programs that serve distinct purposes. The oldest of these UUVs are the USN’s Littoral Battlespace Sensing – Gliders that have been used to collect oceanographic data since 2012. The USN has over 210 of these vehicles. In 2019, the USN expanded their UUV fleet, ordering five Knifefish torpedo-sized UUVs and procuring five subway-car-sized Orca Extra Large UUVs (XLUUVs). The Knifefish is designed to be deployed from littoral combat ships to reduce risk to personnel when completing MCM operations. The Orca is designed for long endurance seabed warfare, to be modular and accommodate various payloads, and to be launched from ship or shore. A few years later, in 2022, the USN designed and developed one Snakehead Large Displacement UUV prototype. The vehicle is approximately four feet wide by eight feet long, modular with a reconfigurable payload section, and can be launched from ships or submarines. The USN planned to transition the vehicle to its fleet in 2025 but cancelled the Snakehead program in the spring of 2023. In March 2024, reports surfaced that the USN is planning to restart the program by 2025. Most recently, in July 2022, the USN awarded a contract to Leidos to design, manufacture, and test a medium UUV (MUUV). The vehicle will be modular, supporting both environmental sensing as well as MCM operations.
Organizational Structures
The USN has established an array of organizations to support the adoption of autonomous systems. NavalX works to foster innovation and facilitate the development and deployment of new technologies across the Department of the Navy. The Program Executive Office for Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC), Unmanned Maritime Systems Program Office (PMS 406), and Task Force 59 explore and develop autonomous systems for use. To support the testing and development of autonomy software for naval assets, the Rapid Autonomy Integration Lab has also been stood up. At the operational level, Unmanned Undersea and Surface Development Squadrons UUVRON 1, SURFDEVRON, and USVRON 3 work to incorporate autonomous systems into the fleet and provide feedback to developers. For tactical employment of UUVs, the USN has also created the Glider Operations Center and UUV Operations Center.
In addition to new internal organizations, the USN announced the creation of a Robotics Warfare Specialist occupation in February 2024 that will operate and maintain MAS. The USN Navy Education and Training Command is still developing training for the occupation which will open to applicants in 2026.
The United Kingdom's Country Profile
Policies and Concepts
The U.K.’s 2020 Science and Technology Strategy, 2021 Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, and 2024 Defending Britain policy emphasize the need for the country to see science and technology as an area of strategic competition and to invest in science and technology, including autonomous systems, to maintain a military-technological advantage over near-peer adversaries. In its 2021 Defence and Security Industrial Strategy, the U.K. government committed to partnering with industry to facilitate advances in such dual-use technologies.
In 2021, the U.K. Department of Defence also released an Integrated Operating Concept discussing the essential nature of innovative autonomous systems and data and how the British Armed Forces will employ them. The paper highlights the U.K.’s focus on creating a common technology architecture and an integrated network for autonomous systems to feed into and ensuring autonomous systems are user focused, interoperable, and resilient. In acquiring these assets, the concept proposes that the government should refit existing ships when possible and ensure systems deliver value for money.
The Royal Navy’s 2022 Maritime Operating Concept expands on the Integrated Operating Concept, calling for the Royal Navy (RN) to adopt a distributed fleet architecture and system-of-systems approach utilizing autonomous vessels as low-cost force multipliers. This vision of the RN includes the integration of semi- and fully autonomous ‘motherships’ to launch a variety of USVs and UUVs to conduct missions as well as the employment of XLUUVs and autonomous vessels for all future MCM operations as of 2040.
Surface Portfolio
The U.K. has a long history of employing USVs and a large USV portfolio. In 2003, the U.K. acquired its first small USV: the Shallow Water Influence Mine-sweeping System. The system was used for mine clearing in Iraq and was retired by 2011. The RN has also operated six ATLAS Remote Combined Influence Minesweeping Systems, classified as RN Motor Boats, since 2019. Six more of these vessels are being procured.
Along with MCM systems, the RN has procured several experimental vessels. In 2019, the RN received 13 41-foot-long Maritime Autonomy Surface Testbed (MAST) high-speed USVs that are being used to develop operational concepts and institutional knowledge. In 2020 and 2021, the RN also added one 25.5 foot autonomous Pacific 24 Rigid Inflatable Boat and one 41-foot-long Maritime Demonstrator For Operational eXperimentation (MADFOX) USV to its fleet. In 2022, the RN acquired its latest experimental vessel, called the Experimental Trials Vessel Patrick Blackett. This USV features modular Persistent Operational Deployment Systems, allowing it to have various plug-and-play capabilities and trial emerging technologies.
The RN has also invested in ‘motherships’ that will be used to house, launch, and recover USVs and analyze the data they collect. In 2020, the RN announced that its new Type 32 Class frigate will act as motherships for a variety of USVs. In 2023, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary acquired and completed sea trials with a commercial vessel that had been converted into a mothership for MCM USVs and renamed the Stirling Castle. The RN plans to acquire three more dedicated motherships for MCM USVs by the 2030s.
Subsurface Portfolio
The RN operates and has been experimenting with small, medium, and extra-large UUVs. In 2002, the RN purchased their first two REMUS-100s. Since then, they have bought five more of this model. The RN also operates five REMUS-300 and two REMUS-600 models, purchased in 2024 and 2009, respectively. These UUVs are used for maritime survey and MCM operations. In 2024, the RN trialed a new 8.2-foot IVER 4-900 UUV model’s advanced capabilities. However, the RN has yet to officially procure any IVER 4-900s.
The RN has several larger UUVs in its subsurface portfolio. In 2022, Atlas Elektronik UK was awarded a contract to build three MCM MUUV systems. The systems were expected to be delivered in 2023, help detect and neutralize mines, and be controlled remotely by operators on land or at sea. Under the ASW Spearhead Programme, the RN is also investing in XLUUVs. The RN’s first experimental XLUUV, MANTA (S201), was delivered in 2020. Since then, the MANTA has undergone extensive testing and will eventually be returned to its manufacturer for refit or sale to another navy. In 2022, manufacturing began on the RN’s second XLUUV, CETUS (S202). CETUS will conduct sea trials and experimentation from 2024 to 2027. In 2023, the RN began engaging industry to develop their third XLUUV, CHARYBDIS. This XLUUV program is the most advanced in the FVEY partnership, aside from the USN’s Orca XLUUV program.
Organizational Structures
The RN has various organizational structures that support MAS adoption. Following the example of the USN’s NavalX, the RN created NavyX in 2019 to test and trial emerging technology and facilitate the delivery of new capabilities to the fleet. In 2025, the U.K. also plans to launch a Defence Innovation Agency to coordinate and direct investments in scientific research and development. It will focus on the adoption of emerging technologies while scaling up existing investments in autonomous systems. To support UUV operations, the RN created the Fleet UUV Unit in 2003 that has since been renamed the Maritime Autonomous System Trials Team. For the XLUUV programme, the RN has stood up the Submarine Delivery Agency’s Autonomy Unit.
Australia's Country Profile
Policies and Concepts
Australia’s 2024 National Defence Strategy identifies the development and integration of autonomous systems as one of the country’s Sovereign Defence Industrial Priorities. It calls for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) to develop and introduce both UUVs and USVs into their fleet. The RAN’s 2020 RAS-AI Strategy 2040: Warfare Innovation Navy and Department of Defence’s 2021 paper Fighting Artificial Intelligence Battles Operational Concepts for Future AI-Enabled Wars also stress the consequential role autonomous systems will play in warfare going forward. The RAS-AI Strategy calls for robotic, autonomous, and artificial intelligence capabilities to be integrated into the RAN’s future fleets to maintain the navy’s competitive edge against adversaries.
As these technologies advance, Australia intends to invest in a variety of MAS. The Australian Department of Defence’s Integrated Investment Program includes investments in LUSVs and XLUUVs, UUVs, and smaller low-cost expendable autonomous systems that can be deployed in groups. These investments are to be developed and acquired through AUKUS.
Surface Portfolio
The RAN’s USV portfolio include two types of vessels: BlueBottles and a RAN ship, HMAS Maitland, that was converted into an USV and renamed Sentinel. The RAN acquired five BlueBottle USVs in 2023. These USVs are to be used for persistent maritime surveillance, fishery patrols, and anti-smuggling operations and can also carry out border protection mission sets as well as meteorological data collection. The RAN is also considering using the platform for undersea surveillance. In 2024, the RAN completed a two-year Patrol Boat Autonomy Trial that tested Sentinel’s capabilities while crewed, remotely piloted, and fully autonomous.
In February 2024, the Australian government released an independent analysis of the navy’s surface combatant fleet, called Enhanced Lethality, that outlines the RAN’s plan to acquire six large optionally crewed USVs. These vessels are to be built in Australia, in partnership with the USN, and delivered in the 2030s.
Subsurface Portfolio
Since 1999, the RAN has used small Saab Double Eagle Mk II remotely operated UUVs for MCM and disposal. In 2022, the RAN announced the creation of its Ghost Shark XLUUV program that will expand the size and capability of its subsurface portfolio. Three prototypes will be built and delivered to the navy by 2025. The vehicles are intended to provide the navy with strike and persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities.
Organizational Structures
The RAN has not announced the creation of any trades or organizational structures to facilitate the adoption of autonomous systems. Currently, the RAN’s Maritime Integrated Systems division has been leading the evaluation of BlueBottle USVs, the RAN’s Warfare Innovation Navy Branch led the Patrol Boat Autonomy Trial, and the RAN’s Double Eagle Mk II vehicles are being operated from six of the navy’s HUON class warships.
New Zealand's Country Profile
Policies and Concepts
The N.Z. Defence Force’s (NZDF) current Strategic Plan 2019 – 2025 discusses the threats and opportunities presented by autonomous systems and the need for the NZDF to leverage these new technologies and maintain interoperability with allies who are adopting them. Its Defence Capability Plan 2019 goes further and explicitly calls for the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) to invest in remotely operated UUVs to assist marine surveying operations. Absent from this plan is any discussion of USV acquisition. A new Defence Capability Plan is expected to be released in 2024, detailing investments to be made from the date of publication to 2040, including the replacement of N.Z.’s ageing naval fleet.
The country’s current defence policy, Maritime Security Strategy, Future Force Design Principles 2023, and Maritime Doctrine do not include any information on N.Z.’s plans to procure MAS. However, N.Z.’s Ministry of Defence is conducting a Defence Policy Review to ensure the country can effectively respond to strategic and security challenges.
Surface Portfolio
The RNZN has trialed two USVs. For three months in 2022, the RNZN leased a Mantas T12 USV to build organizational knowledge about autonomous vessels. Since February 2024, the RNZN has been trialing a BlueBottle USV to test its operational capabilities. The RNZN’s component Commander has expressed that the BlueBottle would be useful to help patrol N.Z.’s large Exclusive Economic Zone.
Subsurface Portfolio
N.Z. owns and operates two types of REMUS vehicles. Since 2006, N.Z. has used REMUS-100s for military and civilian tasks, including MCM, survey work, locating downed aircraft, customs and police operations, and military exercises. The RNZN’s fleet includes six of these vehicles. In 2021, the RNZN ordered four REMUS-300s that will be used primarily for MCM and survey operations.
Organizational Structures
The RNZN has not announced the creation of any trades or organizational structures to facilitate the adoption of autonomous systems. Currently, the RZNZ’s REMUS vehicles are employed by N.Z.’s MCM Team and hydrographers.
Canada's Country Profile
Policies and Concepts
Both Canada’s defence policy Our North, Strong and Free and Department of National Defence publication examining security trends, entitled The Future Security Environment 2013 – 2040, acknowledge that autonomous systems are changing the nature of warfare. However, neither indicates if or how Canada intends to respond to this change. The RCN’s 2015 strategy, Leadmark 2050, is the only document the Government of Canada has published that offers insight into Canada’s plans to adopt USVs and UUVs. To meet security challenges in the coming decades as well as Canada’s domestic and international commitments, the strategy argues Canada’s navy needs to feature crewed and autonomous vessels and vehicles. Specifically, the strategy calls for autonomous systems to be procured before 2035. What systems the navy is interested in procuring, the mission sets they would carry out, or the organizational structures that would need to be created to facilitate the operation of MAS are not discussed.
Surface Portfolio
The RCN has operated small high-speed remote-controlled USVs called Hammerheads since 2009 as well as another model called Barracudas. Naval personnel practice targeting and destroying these vessels during training exercises.
Subsurface Portfolio
The RCN utilizes two small UUVs. Since 2018, the RCN has piloted the Remote Minehunting and Disposal System to assist in MCM operations and maintaining underwater domain awareness. In 2022, the Government of Canada announced the procurement of two of these systems that are expected to be delivered in 2024 and fully operational by 2025. In 2019, the RCN also procured four REMUS-100s to assist with survey work.
Organizational Structures
The RCN has not announced the creation of any trades or organizational structures to facilitate the adoption of autonomous systems. Currently, the Maritime Forces Pacific Target Cell manages the navy’s USVs and UUVs are deployed on ships as needed.
Implications for Canada
Despite Canada having one of the world’s largest geographies and economies, its military, navy, and naval fleet are small when compared to FVEY partners; its USV and UUV programs are also the least advanced. To meet domestic and international commitments, promote and defend Canada’s interests, and maintain interoperability with FVEY partners who all own and operate USVs and UUVs, Canada needs to prioritize the procurement of various MAS and put proven policies, concepts, and organizational structures in place to support their integration.
The Government of Canada should invest in a variety of USVs and UUVs that have been tested and operationalized by FVEY partners. When purchasing new assets or replacing the future submarine class or current Halifax-class frigates, Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels, Orca-class Training Vessels, or tenders, autonomous systems must be considered to ensure that the RCN’s fleet remains operationally relevant and able to defend itself and Canada’s interests. As suggested in the U.K.’s Integrated Operations Concept, new USVs or UUVs should be cost-effective, interoperable with allies with common communication and network infrastructure, user focused, and resilient.
To support MAS adoption, the RCN needs to adopt policies, operating concepts, and organizational structures similar to those of their FVEY partners. Firstly, Canada’s naval and defence strategies need to be updated to include discussions about what MAS the RCN should have and how they will be supported and employed. Reflecting the policies and concepts published by the U.S., U.K., and Australia, the RCN should also shift their prevailing naval task group concept of operations to one of distributed maritime operations, where autonomous systems are widespread and one of the system-of-systems the Canadian Armed Forces and allies can rely on. Finally, the RCN needs to create organizational structures required to support the integration of MAS. These include a center for naval innovation, like the USN’s NavalX, RN’s NavyX, or RAN’s Warfare Innovation Navy Branch, to test and evaluate acquired MAS, accelerate the deployment of MAS in the fleet, and conduct continuous research on artificial intelligence and its application in the RCN. Additionally, the RCN needs to develop the technological infrastructure and digital backbone necessary to operate MAS as well as an occupation in the RCN that will operate MAS, akin to the USN’s Robotics Warfare Specialist occupation.
About the Author
Kate Todd is a Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Naval Reserves, a Senior Fellow at Arctic360, and a Fellow at the North American and Arctic Defence Security Network. She is also a member of the Canadian Naval Review's Editorial Board and the Canadian Maritime Security Network's Advisory Board.
In 2024, Kate graduated with a Master of Public Policy from the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, where she focused her studies on Arctic defence, infrastructure and economic development, and Indigenous rights.
During this degree, she was awarded the Women in Defence and Security – CGAI Fellowship, a SSHRC scholarship, and Department of National Defence Mobilizing Insights in National Security and Defence Studies scholarship to fund her research.
Canadian Global Affairs Institute
The Canadian Global Affairs Institute focuses on the entire range of Canada’s international relations in all its forms including trade investment and international capacity building. Successor to the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute (CDFAI, which was established in 2001), the Institute works to inform Canadians about the importance of having a respected and influential voice in those parts of the globe where Canada has significant interests due to trade and investment, origins of Canada’s population, geographic security (and especially security of North America in conjunction with the United States), social development, or the peace and freedom of allied nations. The Institute aims to demonstrate to Canadians the importance of comprehensive foreign, defence and trade policies which both express our values and represent our interests.
The Institute was created to bridge the gap between what Canadians need to know about Canadian international activities and what they do know. Historically Canadians have tended to look abroad out of a search for markets because Canada depends heavily on foreign trade. In the modern post-Cold War world, however, global security and stability have become the bedrocks of global commerce and the free movement of people, goods and ideas across international boundaries. Canada has striven to open the world since the 1930s and was a driving factor behind the adoption of the main structures which underpin globalization such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization and emerging free trade networks connecting dozens of international economies. The Canadian Global Affairs Institute recognizes Canada’s contribution to a globalized world and aims to inform Canadians about Canada’s role in that process and the connection between globalization and security.
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