The Department of the Navy’s Science and Technology Board Accelerates Naval Innovation

Much ink has been spilled regarding the U.S. Navy’s Hybrid Fleet, a concept first articulated by Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday and embraced by his successor, Admiral Lisa Franchetti. The basics of this initiative were described in the Force Design 2045 which called for 350 crewed ships and 150 large uncrewed maritime vessels for the “Navy-After-Next.”

This innovative concept was born out of necessity. The concept of Hybrid Fleet evolved due the U.S. Navy’s ongoing challenge of building enough crewed ships to adequately meet the Navy’s global commitments.

A recent report by the Department of the Navy Science and Technology Board entitled The Path Forward on Unmanned Systems promises to help accelerate the path to a Hybrid Fleet by offering a way forward to design, develop and field uncrewed systems, especially uncrewed maritime vessels.

The U.S. Navy’s Innovation Journey

The U.S. Navy has been at the forefront of innovation throughout its history. In the Cold War era, this innovative journey gathered momentum: from the introduction of the first nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus, in 1954; to the first of the Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carriers in 1975; to the first Aegis-class warship, USS Ticonderoga, in 1983. These innovative technological developments kept the Navy at the forefront of war-fighting prowess.

The quest to achieve a Hybrid Fleet will depend on the same level of innovation. That is why The Path Forward on Unmanned Systems will prove useful to help guide the Navy’s leadership to turn “aspiration” into concrete actions. Subsequent to the issuance of this report, Navy officials have provided more granularity regarding how this report is gaining purchase within leadership circles.

Importantly, this report injects a sense of urgency if the Navy is going to field a Hybrid Fleet in time to address aggressive moves by peer adversaries, noting: “We see these steps as critically important to a future hybrid fleet but believe they should be taken in parallel rather than in sequence.”

Developing a Concept of Operations for Leveraging Uncrewed Systems

Juxtaposed against the Navy’s plans to accelerate its fielding of uncrewed maritime vessels is the fact that the U.S. Congress has been reluctant to authorize the Navy’s planned investment of billions of dollars in unmanned systems until the Service can come up with a concept-of-operations (CONOPS) for using them. Congress has a point. The Navy has announced plans to procure large numbers of uncrewed vessels—especially large and medium uncrewed surface vessels—but a CONOPS has not yet emerged.

An evolving CONOPS is to marry various size uncrewed surface, subsurface and aerial uncrewed vehicles to perform missions that the U.S. Navy has—and will continue to have—as the Navy-After-Next evolves. The Navy can use a large, uncrewed surface vessel like the Maritime Tactical Systems, Inc. T82 Leviathan as a “truck” to move smaller uncrewed surface, subsurface and airborne systems into the battle space to perform important Navy missions such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and mine-countermeasures (MCM).

How would this CONOPS for a hybrid fleet evolve?

Consider the case of an Expeditionary Strike Group comprised of several amphibious ships underway in the Western Pacific. This Strike Group includes three large, uncrewed surface vessels (LUSVs). Depending on the size that is ultimately procured, the LUSV can carry several medium uncrewed surface vessels (MUSVs) and deliver them to the intended area of operations.

These vessels can then be sent independently to perform the ISR mission, or alternatively, can launch one or more smaller USVs to perform this mission. For the MCM mission, the LUSV can deliver several MUSVs equipped with mine-hunting and mine-clearing systems (all of which are commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) platforms such as the mine-countermeasures unmanned surface vessel, T38 Devil Ray, Shadow Fox and others tested extensively in Navy exercises).

To be clear, this is not a platform-specific solution, but rather a concept to team the crewed ships of a Hybrid Fleet with capable uncrewed maritime vessels. When fleet operators see a capability with different size uncrewed COTS platforms in the water working together and successfully performing the missions presented here, they will likely press industry to produce even more-capable platforms to perform these missions and thereby accelerating the fielding of a Hybrid Fleet.

This article was first published by The Coronado News on August 4, 2025 and is republished with the author’s permission.