

#Assigning automatrons to supply lines serial
Last year, lawmakers nixed the Navy's plan to buy more drone ships over concerns the platforms were unproven and the service had not laid out enough of a strategy.Ī committee aide told reporters last year, "If you look at acquisition strategy, there's really no gap between what they're calling these prototype ships and when they go into actual serial production. Plus, Congress hasn't signed up to pay for the new technology yet. For example, the recent attempted theft of three of the Navy's drone ships by Iran has raised questions about the efficacy and security of the platforms. Yet, even if the technology develops as leaders hope, there are other issues to iron out. The Marine Corps has continued to grow its arsenal of MQ-9 Reaper drones, but even Berger admits "it's not a new platform." He sees it as paving the way for bigger capabilities down the road. According to a Navy press release, the four drones were "carrying payloads, providing intelligence, and most significantly, gathering data in a real-world environment." "There may be medics, corpsmen in the back of that vehicle or in the back of that aircraft, but nobody's flying," he added.ĭespite the grand plans that leaders are laying out, many of the capabilities that are currently being suggested have not been developed or tested.ĭuring the recent Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise - a biennial, multi-country event held in Hawaii and San Diego that is billed as the largest in the world - there were only four prototype unmanned surface vessels among the 38 ships. AGVs differ in terms of their power supply, the tasks they carry out and the.

He put forward a scenario that involved a "helicopter that flies in to pick you up." Most of these robots consist of a robot arm, a gripper, various sensors. petroleum, oil and lubricants, freshwater, munitions," Clearfield said.īerger also talked about plans to utilize unmanned and autonomous vehicles to transport wounded troops. "Our commandant has talked about using them to move logistics. "The fuel, the munitions can be moved to them to meet them there at the right place and time, all autonomously," Berger explained.Įver since the Marine Corps began to pivot from its War on Terror orientation as an "elite counterinsurgency force" to one that places greater emphasis on its amphinbious roots and island-hopping tactics, there has also been a greater focus on how Marines on those islands would be supplied.ĭrones now appear to be taking a greater role in those plans. Berger explained that, in his view, unmanned platforms will soon allow Marines "to conduct tactical and operational logistics … because if you have the data, you know where the units are, it's tracking, it's going to know where certain things are needed at a certain point in time and geography in the future."
