Rarely a day goes without reports in the press of a new military capability developed by China's armed forces or those of Russia. Technology innovation is enabling both to develop new concepts of operation that provide advantages against formerly more powerful competitors. As the US Department of Defense's latest report on China's military power noted, China is leveraging a range of emerging technologies to challenge US interests in the Pacific, and Russia has for several years worked on technology that threatens US Navy aircraft carriers and battlegroups - not least 'Poseidon,' a nuclear-or conventionally armed unmanned underwater vehicle said to have a speed of around 70knots. It is no surprise then that the US Navy's Chief of Naval Research, Rear Admiral Lorin Selby, believes "now is the time to innovate" and recently introduced a new vision for naval power that could reshape the US Navy, the kind of vessels it operates and their size and number. And, given the vulnerability of large, conventional platforms, it is no surprise that his vision is based not on more large, manned platforms, but on faster development of unmanned, autonomous systems and "reimagined naval formations."
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