Year
2021–2023
Operation Area
Gulf of Aqaba, Arabian Sea
Purpose
The US Navy established Task Force 59 as part of the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) and US Fifth Fleet to advance the operational employment and integration of unmanned systems and artificial intelligence in fleet operations.
Fifth Fleet’s area of operations runs about 5,000 miles from the Suez Canal down the Red Sea, across the bottom of the Arabian Peninsula, and back up the Persian Gulf to Kuwait. Challenges in those waters include human trafficking, piracy, smuggling weapons and drugs, and terrorism.
While Fifth Fleet and its regional partners do not have enough manned ships and aircraft to cover these bodies of water and deter malign behavior, “for pennies on the dollar we can put unmanned platforms out there, we can couple it with artificial intelligence … [and then] we can use our manned ships much more efficiently, much more effectively,” then-Fifth Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Brad Cooper said.
Task Force 59 was called upon to integrate commercial unmanned systems, AI tools and networks with existing manned platforms and operations centers in the region. It was also asked to work alongside the commercial vendors to apply operational lessons learned and rapidly iterate the technology.
Results
Human operators cannot pick out behavior outside the normal pattern of life in these crowded waterways, but Task Force 59’s tools—a combination of unmanned systems, their sensors, a mesh network, and artificial intelligence and machine learning tools—proved they could identify suspicious behaviors and cue manned ships to investigate.
These capabilities “expand our maritime domain awareness, which increases deterrence and allows you to better position yourself to respond if something does happen,” Cooper said. Then-Task Force 59 Commander Capt. Michael Brasseur said, “We’ve been able to detect activity that we simply did not know was previously happening.”
Over the course of the mission, Saildrone participated in several international exercises, including two Sentinel Shield exercises, which were designed around Saildrone USVs: In August 2022, US Coast Guard USCGC Baranof and Bahrain’s RBNS Ahmed Al-Fateh exercised with a Saildrone Explorer, the first time the International Maritime Security Construct designed its monthly Sentinel Shield exercise specifically to integrate unmanned systems. In January 2023, US Navy destroyer USS Delbert D. Black and two Explorers conducted another Sentinel Shield.
Saildrone USVs operated alongside single ships and in larger ship formations, as Task Force 59 partners tightened manned/unmanned integration, learned how to optimize their use of data from unmanned vessels, and sought to maximize their ability to see across the vast operating area. The exercises demonstrated the ability of unmanned systems to work alongside manned vessels and other unmanned assets, showcasing their potential to operate as force multipliers in complex maritime environments.
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