Tag Archives: drones

Unmanned Surface Vessels Double in 4th Fleet

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230913-N-N3764-1004 NAVAL STATION KEY WEST, Fl. – (Sept. 13, 2023) — Commercial operators deploy Saildrone Voyager Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs) out to sea in the initial steps of U.S. 4th Fleet’s Operation Windward Stack during a launch from Naval Air Station Key West’s Mole Pier and Truman Harbor, Sept. 13, 2023. Operation Windward Stack is part of 4th Fleet’s unmanned integration campaign, which provides the Navy a region to experiment with and operate unmanned systems in a permissive environment, develop Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) against near-peer competitors, and refine manned and unmanned Command and Control (C2) infrastructure, all designed to move the Navy to the hybrid fleet. (U.S. Navy photo by Danette Baso Silvers/Released)

U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet doesn’t have a lot of afloat assets.

Typically, they just get to task Coast Guard cutters/craft via the Key West-based Joint Interagency Task Force South, Freedom-variant littoral combat ships out of Mayport’s LCSRON2, small MSC-operated auxiliaries on hearts-and-minds missions, and the occasional passing phib group being sent down for an exercise or destroyer pulling an interdiction mission with an embarked USCG LEDET.

That’s what makes USVs such a game changer for the command.

They are cheap to acquire and deploy, ideal for ISR– making other assets much more effective– and have a small footprint.

Plus, using them in our “front yard” allows the Navy to iron out tactics and techniques in permissive environments before they are needed in higher-stakes operations in, say, the South China Sea or the Persian Gulf. 

Operation Southern Spear, which is filling my local skies with F-35s and HH-60s of all sorts, will see more Robotic and Autonomous Systems (RAS) assets incorporated.

From 4th Fleet PAO:

Specifically, Operation Southern Spear will deploy long-dwell robotic surface vessels, small robotic interceptor boats, and vertical take-off and landing robotic air vessels to the USSOUTHCOM AOR. 4th Fleet will operationalize these unmanned systems through integration with U.S. Coast Guard cutters at sea and operations centers at 4th Fleet and Joint Interagency Task Force South. Southern Spear’s results will help determine combinations of unmanned vehicles and manned forces needed to provide coordinated maritime domain awareness and conduct counternarcotics operations.

Ten 33-foot Saildrone Voyager USVs are used by the 4th Fleet and the company says that figure is set to rise to 20 such drones, tasked in support of Operation Southern Spear “to detect and stem the flow of illegal drugs traveling through known maritime corridors into the United States.”

The 33-foot Saildrone Voyager is designed for near-shore bathymetry and maritime security missions.

10 Voyager uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) from Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West’s Mole Pier, Sept. 2023.

In recent 2023-24 operations (Windward Stack), Saildrone disclosed that the 10 4th Fleet Voyagers sailed more than 130,000 nautical miles over 2,700 cumulative mission days. They detected 116,000 unique contacts, an average of 43 contacts per USV per day. Of the total contacts, 98,000 were not broadcasting AIS. Saildrones covered an area of 12,500 sq nm for $4.25 per nm per day, as calculated by the Center for Naval Analysis. This included shadowing three Russian ships as they approached Cuba in 2024.

Those figures should roughly double now with 20 Voyagers on hand.

Via the company this week:

A record number of 20 high-endurance Saildrone Voyager USVs equipped with a newly upgraded sensor suite will monitor illegal activity along the United States’ southern maritime approaches, operating in support of Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-S) and US Naval Forces Southern Command/US Navy Fourth Fleet (NAVSOUTH/FOURTHFLT).

“It’s an honor to support the US Navy and Joint Interagency Task Force South in this critical border security mission,” said Richard Jenkins, Saildrone Founder and CEO. “As we increase the security on our southern land border, criminal activity will naturally get pushed to our maritime borders. Saildrone is proud to serve, providing a persistent, unblinking eye in maritime areas too vast and remote to previously monitor.”

More on Carney’s Red Sea Getaway

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The guided-missile destroyer USS Carney launches land-attack missiles while operating in the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command area of responsibility, Feb. 3, 2024. The Carney was deployed as part of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group to support maritime security and stability in the Middle East. U.S. Navy Photo 240203-N-GF955-1012

The early Flight I Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Carney (DDG 64) is not a young warship. Commissioned in 1996, the Navy has frequently deep-sixed younger greyhounds over the years.

Her epic 235-day October 2023-May 2024 deployment to the Red Sea to keep the area open in the face of Houthi attacks earned her a Navy Unit Commendation (her third) and she took part in a staggering 51 engagements against a high-low mix of everything from cruise missiles and anti-ship ballistic missiles to swarms of much simpler prop-driven one-way attack drones.

She also made the first publicly acknowledged SM-6 combat intercept, downed air-to-air targets with her 5-inch gun (!), and launched retaliatory TLAM strikes against targets ashore.

Her entire crew earned the Navy’s Combat Action Ribbon while her skipper picked up a Bronze Star and other key members of the crew received Meritorious Service Medals, Navy Commendation Medals, and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals– well deserved as the ship had the highest anti-air op-tempo that the U.S. Navy has seen since 1945.

An excellent 10-minute Navy film, USS Carney: A Destroyer at War, dives deeper with crew interviews:

US Drone Aces on Burn Out List

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With the number of UAV sorties increasing through the roof for the past several years (note, the last convoy out of Iraq was escorted out by as many as 13 armed UAVs on route recon overhead) the US Air Force is looking at overworking its small cadre of UAV pilots. While, yes, it is no doubt a bummer to drive from your house in the suburbs, fly a part of a MQ-9 Reaper sortie for 8-12 hours from your terminal at the base downtown where you drop it like its hot an Abdul and the Keydeffah gang 8000-miles away via datalink, then drive back home and be there in time to watch reruns of the Simpsons, they are still being used to death.

As witnessed from this article from NPR (don’t judge me) :

December 19, 2011

Around 1,100 Air Force pilots fly remotely piloted aircraft, or drones. These planes soar over Iraq or Afghanistan, but the pilots sit at military bases back in the United States.

A new Pentagon study shows that almost 30 percent of drone pilots surveyed suffer from what the military calls “burnout.” It’s the first time the military has tried to measure the psychological impact of waging a “remote-controlled war.”

The report, commissioned by the U.S. Air Force, shows that 29 percent of the drone pilots surveyed said they were burned out and suffered from high levels of fatigue. The Air Force doesn’t consider this a dangerous level of stress.

However, 17 percent of active duty drone pilots surveyed are thought to be “clinically distressed.” The Air Force says this means the pilots’ stress level has crossed a threshold where it’s now affecting the pilots’ work and family. A large majority of the pilots said they’re not getting any counseling for their stress.

Reasons For Pilot Stress

The Air Force cites several reasons for the elevated stress levels among drone pilots. First is the dual nature of this work: flying combat operations or running surveillance in a war zone, and then, after a shift, driving a few miles home in places like Nevada or New Mexico, where a whole different set of stressors await. The Air Force says switching back and forth between such different realities presents unique psychological challenges.

Second is the issue of demand. Drones have proven to be the key U.S. military tool in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and U.S. military officials say over the past decade, there has been constant demand for more pilots to fly these platforms. While training for drone pilots has increased, there are still not enough to meet demand, and pilots end up working longer than expected shifts, keeping these planes in the air 24 hours a day.

The particular nature of drone warfare is also a contributor to the higher stress levels. While the number is very small, officials who conducted the study said they did encounter a handful of pilots who suffered symptoms of PTSD — post-traumatic stress disorder — directly linked to their experience running combat operations. Unlike traditional pilots flying manned aircraft in a war zone, the pilots operating remote drones often stare at the same piece of ground in Afghanistan or Iraq for days, sometimes months. They watch someone’s pattern of life, see people with their families, and then they can be ordered to shoot.

Col. Kent McDonald, who co-authored the report, says the Air Force tries to recruit people who are emotionally well-adjusted, “family people” with “good values.”

An ‘Existential Crisis’

“When they have to kill someone,” he says, “or where they are involved in missions and then they either kill them or watch them killed, it does cause them to rethink aspects of their life.”

McDonald describes it as an “existential crisis.”

 

Air Force officials say they are putting plans in motion to try to address some of the causes of the elevated stress levels in drone pilots. Right now, there are 57 drones flying in 57 different positions in the world at any given moment. That number surged this summer to 60, but the Air Force is going to cap the number at 57 for the next 12 months.

The cap is meant as a kind of “time out” to rethink how the drone pilots are being used. The service will use that time to re-evaluate shifts, train more drone crews to meet demand, and figure out ways to help pilots navigate between their professional and personal lives.