US Navy now accepting pitches for the world’s largest drone warship

The United States military has relied on drone aircraft for years, but to date, few other automated platforms have made their way into America's warfighting apparatus -- that is, until recently anyway. After achieving a number of successes with their new 132-foot submarine-hunting robot warship the Sea Hunter, the Navy is ready to pony up some serious cash for a full-sized drone warship, and the concept could turn the idea of Naval warfare on its head.

Earlier this month, the Navy called on the shipbuilding industry to offer up its best takes on their Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle (LUSV) ship concept, and they mean business. According to Navy officials, they want to have ten of these drone warships sailing within the next five years. The premise behind the concept is a simple one: by developing drone ships that can do what the Navy refers to as "3-D" work (the stuff that's Dull, Dirty, or Dangerous) they'll be freeing up manned vessels for more complex tasks.

The Navy expects these ships to be between 200 and 300 feet long with about 2,000 tons of water displacement, making them around half to two-thirds the size of an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, potentially landing in the light frigate classification. To that end, the Navy has already requested $400 million in the 2020 budget for construction of the first two vessels for the purposes of research and development.

The Sea Hunter, a Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MDUSV)

US Navy Photo

In order to manage a variety of tasks, the Navy wants its robot warship to be modular, making it easier to add or remove mission-specific equipment for different sets of circumstances.

"The LUSV will be a high-endurance, reconfigurable ship able to accommodate various payloads for unmanned missions to augment the Navy's manned surface force," The Navy wrote in their solicitation.

"With a large payload capacity, the LUSV will be designed to conduct a variety of warfare operations independently or in conjunction with manned surface combatants."

The Navy also requires that the vessel be capable of operating with a crew on board for certain missions. That capability, in conjunction with a modular design, would allow the Navy to use LUSV's in more complex missions that require direct human supervision simply by installing the necessary components and providing the vessel with a crew.

The solicitation included no requests for weapons systems, but that doesn't mean the LUSV would be worthless in a fight. The modular design would allow the Navy to equip the vessel with different weapons systems for different operations, or leave them off entirely during missions that don't require any offensive or defensive capabilities.

Swapping drone ships in for monotonous work could free up the Navy's fleet of manned vessels for more important tasks.

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kenneth Abbate)

By equipping these ships with modular vertical launch systems, for instance, a fleet of LUSVs could enhance the Navy's existing fleet of destroyers and cruisers in a number of combat operations, and eventually, they could even be equipped with the ship-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, allowing them to bolster or even replace destroyers currently tasked with steaming around in defensive patterns amid concerns about North Korean or Chinese ballistic missile attack.

Like the Sea Hunter, the LUSV represents little more than the Navy dipping its toe in the proverbial drone waters, but if successful, it could revolutionize how the Navy approaches warfare. Manning a ship remains one of the largest expenses associated with maintaining a combatant fleet. Capable drone ships could allow the Navy to bolster its numbers with minimal cost, tasking automated vessels with the monotonous or dangerous work and leaving the manned ships to the more complex tasks.