Pacific Fleet commander wants wraps kept on unmanned capability development

A MANTAS T-12 USV, front, operates alongside Royal Bahrain Naval Force fast-attack craft RBNS
Abdul Rahman Al-fadel
during operations in support of Task Force 59 in the Gulf.
(US Navy)

Anxious to avoid gifting an operational advantage to China, the US Navy’s senior officer in the Pacific said the service will maintain a veil of secrecy over the pace at which it is ‘operationalising’ new unmanned systems capabilities and concepts in the Pacific Fleet.

In his 14 February keynote to the AFCEA International and US Naval Institute WEST 2024 event in San Diego, California, Admiral Sam Paparo, commander of the US Pacific Fleet and nominated as the next commander of Indo-Pacific Command, told attendees that work was progressing to integrate unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the navy’s combat force.

However, he added that the navy did not want to give away its playbook. “There’s a good reason why you haven’t heard about what we’re doing. And it ain’t because we ain’t doing anything.”