Sailor-Less Ships Soon Could Be a Reality in U.S. Navy

摘要

It was 15 years ago when Vice Adm. Walter Cebrowski and Professor Wayne Hughes discussed the need to develop a network of small, inexpensive, minimally manned and unmanned platforms that would complement the Navy's larger force-projection ships and provide access to the contested littorals. Their anticipation of what we now call the anti-access/area denial threat was remarkably prescient. They foresaw that large combatants, although cost-effective in terms of power projection per dollar, were brittle and at risk of being negated by a sophisticated adversary's use of modern anti-ship missiles. They argued that large numbers of small platforms, although individually less survivable, would provide a more robust capability to "gain and sustain access."