With new technology, Navy drones can swarm an enemy ship like sharks

Fourteen years ago this week, the USS Cole, a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer refueling in Yemen, was attacked by suicide bombers who sidled up to the ship with a small, explosive-laden boat. The detonation killed 17 American sailors and wounded 39. Just a week before this year’s anniversary of the attack, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) released a video announcing technology that could have prevented it: Autonomous swarm boats.

In a test last August on the James River in Virginia, a small fleet of 13 unmanned boats, some acting autonomously and some via remote control, escorted a high-value Navy ship. When group of the unmanned boats detected a simulated enemy vessel, it broke away from the formation and swarmed around the threatening ship.

“This … demonstration was a cost-effective way to integrate many small, cheap, and autonomous capabilities that can significantly improve our warfighting advantage,” said Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations, in an ONR statement.

The technology, called CARACaS (Control Architecture for Robotic Agent Command and Sensing), is an adaptation of software originally developed by NASA for use on the Mars rover. In further development work, ONR integrated it with sensors and developed a transportable kit that can be installed in virtually any kind of boat. Boats with CARACaS can network with each other, collectively sensing their environment and operating in sync as a swarm to interdict enemy vessels.

“You want to have assets around you patrolling around almost like guard dogs,” said Rick Simon, a contractor with the program, in the ONR video.

Although the swarm boats, officially referred to as unmanned surface vehicles (USV), can act autonomously, a sailor is always in the loop. Any decision to fire on an enemy vessel would have to come from an officer in the accompanying warship.

The USV program will likely be cost effective, as well. The boats that would be outfitted with the CARACaS kit are already in the inventory, carried aboard the ships they’d be protecting.

“You don’t have to go out and purchase a new vessel,” Simon said. “You take any of these vessels out here the Navy already has—we unman them [and] put the system on it.”

The attack on the USS Cole was not the only motivation for developing autonomous swarm capability, but “it certainly is front and center in our minds, and hearts,” said Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, chief of naval research, in a statement. “If Cole had been supported by autonomous USVs, they could have stopped that attack long before it got close to our brave men and women on board.”