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The Rise of the Drone Boats
Swarms of weaponized unmanned surface vessels have proven formidable weapons in the Black and Red Seas. Can the US military learn the right lessons from it?
In the Red Sea, the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have employed explosive-laden watercraft to lesser effect in response to Israel's military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, successfully sinking the Liberia-flagged bulk carrier MV Tutor in June 2024 and consistently disrupting international maritime traffic in the region. They include the Textron Systems–produced Expeditionary Warfare USV armed with a .50 caliber machine gun and AGM-114 Hellfire missile system the Navy publicly debuted in August 2019; the Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle(CUSV) armed with a .50 cal for force protection Textron demonstrated in 2020; the Marine Corps’ Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessel(LRUSV) outfitted with a launcher for multiple Uvision Hero-120 loitering munitions the service debuted in May 2023; and the MARTAC T38 Devil Ray which successfully destroyed several seaborne targets with Lethal Miniature Aerial Missile System–launched loitering munitions during the Navy’s first two Digital Talon exercises in late 2023. In addition, the Navy’s fiscal year 2024 budget request sought to fund an experiment to test a notional Multi-domain Area Denial from Small-USV(MADS), an unmanned Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft outfitted with surface-to-air FIM-92 Stinger missile launchers designed to defend larger vessels against airborne attacks.
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