what is task force 59

U.S. Navy’s New Task Force 59 Teams Manned with Unmanned Systems for CENTCOM’s Middle East

On 8 september 2021, the u.s. navy announced the commissioning of a task force 59, a new task force that combines manned with unmanned systems and artificial intelligence for maritime operations in the u.s. navy’s 5th fleet area of operations, or u.s. naval forces central command (navcent). this announcement came from vice admiral brad cooper, u.s. fifth fleet commander, u.s. naval forces u.s. central command, and captain michael brasseur via a phone conference with media reporters. task force 59 aims to use unmanned air, sea, and underwater systems in an operational maritime environment to test, integrate, learn lessons from, and practice deployment and tactics for the navcent..

Peter Ong 09 Sep 2021

“Speed Matters.” U.S. Navy’s Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Michael Gilday on evaluating unmanned systems for Real World applications.

The U.S. Navy is no stranger to the use and deployment of unmanned systems (such as a Sea Guardian aerial drone), but according to Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, Task Force 59 will be the U.S. Navy’s first employment of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), unmanned sea vessels (USV), and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) in numbers that combine their capabilities with manned platforms for multidomain operations in all areas of the maritime battlespace from air to below the sea with the goal of using unmanned systems that have not been used before.  Naval News reached out to NAVCENT’s Public Affairs Officer for clarification on the quantity and type of unmanned systems within Task Force 59 and the NAVCENT’s spokesperson replied, “We’re not discussing specific platforms or capabilities.  Similarly, we’re not discussing the size or footprint of our current unmanned assets in the region. Regarding funding, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command established the task force with existing resources. No additional funding was required. On your last question [regarding the primary controlling platform], it depends on the system. But as I’ve already mentioned, we’re not discussing specific platforms or capabilities.”

The NAVCENT spokesperson declined to answer to Naval News’ inquiry on if any of the U.S. Special Warfare Command’s (USSSOCOM) Naval Special Warfare Command (NAVSPECWARCOM) platforms, manned or unmanned , will be part of NAVCENT’s Task Force 59 or if any Classified unmanned systems will be fielded.  

Captain Michael Brasseur, a former Littoral Combat Ship and Patrol Coastal boat captain, will become the first commodore for Task Force 59 (TF 59).  Task Force 59 launched on 9 September 2021 and was designed in late July 2021 in Bahrain.  The NAVCENT area has 5,000 miles (8,046 kilometers) of coastline and three critical chokepoints that are the Suez Canal, the Straits of Hormuz, and the Bab-el-Mandeb.

The War Zone and SEAPOWER have published articles on Task Force 59’s launch debut with possible unmanned systems analysis that can be read here and here .

“We want more `eyes on’ as to what is out there. We got to process and sort in Realtime, to determine what is relevant to the mission, so this is where the AI [Artificial Intelligence] piece really comes in here.” “If the new [unmanned] systems work here, they can probably work elsewhere and we’ll scale them across other fleets.” Vice Admiral Brad Cooper on Task Force 59 at the opening remarks at the media roundtable on the 8th of September, 2021.

The Media Roundtable of reporters from various Defense publications that called into the phone conference asked these questions to NAVCENT about Task Force 59.  The reporters’ questions and answers below are generally summarized, edited, and annotated for brevity.  (Naval News has inserted clarification thought analysis with brackets [ ]).

Q: What is Task Force 59 going to do?

A: “We’re clutched in with the Navy’s [unmanned] staff command,” said Vice Admiral Cooper and the goal of Task Force 59 is to take today’s unmanned systems and combine UAS with USV and UUVs.

Q: What is the [usage] difference between USVs and UUVs?

A: This allows for multi-domain operations and to have Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) capability on and below the sea.

Q: Will there be any sort of counter-UAS platform [an Anti-Drone defense system]?

A: “There is really a division of labor,” said Vice Admiral Cooper, “Think of it as going on the offense of unmanned [systems compared to just using ISR drone defense].”  The Vice Admiral noted that Task Force 59 will allow the U.S. Navy to be more aggressive with our own systems, both manned and unmanned.

Q: How will Task Force 59 work with Project Overmatch and what is the role of the Defense industry?

A: From the design phase, Task Force 59 has utilized both government and military in uniform and civilian personnel along with the input and the research and development experience of universities. Project Overmatch was in the design sprint.

Q: How is Task Force 59 functionally working?

A: “Taking those systems and capturing lessons from them,” replied Vice Admiral Cooper with the plan of leading to a big naval exercise with Task Force 59. This will allow Task Force 59 to bring coherence across naval task forces in the vertical (air to below the sea) and horizontal (across the battlespace with the U.S. Navy’s allies) environments.

Q: Will Predator UAVs be used and where will they come from?

A: Yes, Predator UAVs will be used and they will come from other branch services.

Q: Why choose CENTCOM [the Middle East] Area of Operations for Task Force 59? Why not choose the INDO-PACOM region?

A: Vice Admiral Cooper said that the CENTCOM 5 th Fleet’s region is very maritime-centric and a rich maritime environment.  TF 59 allows CENTCOM to increase “our eyes on and in the sea.” The Vice Admiral noted that INDO-PACOM can have monsoons that might interfere with TF 59. This is a 34-member coalition, noted Cooper, and it will be heavily partnered to “Move it horizontally with our allies.”

Q: What is the goal that you want to learn with Task Force 59?  What are the experiments that Task Force 59 will operate?

A: “We’ll take systems that we didn’t have in theater and use them now. We have to get them in the water and move quickly with them,” said Vice Admiral Cooper.

Q: Will Task Force 59 require more funding to become operational?

A: “We are completely aligned with the unmanned campaign.  We’re adequately resourced right now,” replied Vice Admiral Cooper.

Q: What is Task Force 59’s “Deterrence value?” Any Over-the-Horizon capabilities?

A: “We simply can see further [by using TF 59’s UAS, UUV, and USV integration].  The presence just looks a little different [than just using a single UAS drone, for example].”  The goal is to have unmanned systems nested with five or six other unmanned systems. [Think smaller drones (swarms) launching from larger drones].

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Task Force 59 Works Concepts of Operations for Unmanned Maritime Systems

In September 2021, the U.S. Fifth Fleet established Task Force 59 to work ways to operate unmanned maritime systems and to integrate them into fleet operations,

According to Captain Michael Brasseur , the head of the task force:

“The type of technologies we’re looking at are the dual-use maritime robotics, very inexpensive, allow us to get a lot of sensors in the water. When you partner with allies and partners, that gives you a chance to scale quickly. When you scale quickly, you can start to close those maritime domain awareness gaps, and then you can … deter the illicit and malign activity that’s happening over here, whether it’s on the low end, illegal fishing [or] on the high end, weapons transfers supporting the Houthis in the southern Red Sea,”

And it is not just about ramping up U.S. capabilities for the task force is working with allies and partners in the region as well.

The task force commander added:

“We’re also in parallel working with partners in the region to help us scale. There’s a lot of interest in unmanned over here, and once you start bringing in partners you can scale and then start to close some of those gaps.”

When I presented to the BIDEC 2019 Conference, I discussed with participants the coming of autonomous systems as part of the shift towards an evolving concept of operations for the fleet as well.

In a piece I published on November 16, 2021, I highlighted those discussions and the importance of maritime unmanned systems as part of the kind of innovation crucial to strengthen security capabilities in a challenging region.

During my two visits to Bahrain in 2019, I had a chance to talk about the evolving defense and security capabilities being reshaped in the region and in October 2019 provided a presentation on the final day of the  BIDEC 2019 Conference.

One of the subjects which I raised during my presentation was the coming of maritime autonomous systems and the value to Bahrain of such systems,.

Significant investments are being made in Bahrain in science and technology, and applications to he maritime autonomous systems domain make a great deal of sense.

Also, the ISR capabilities which such systems can provide to Bahrain as a pillar for their evolving information base for security and defense also make a great deal of sense as well.

In a  September 23, 2021  press release by NAVCENT, the cooperation between the U.S. Navy and Bahrain in this domain was highlighted.

BAHRAIN – During a visit to the U.S. Navy installation in Bahrain, Sept. 23, Bahraini leaders committed to partnering with U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) to accelerate integration of new unmanned systems into regional maritime operations.

Major Gen. Ala Abdulla Seyadi, commander of the Bahrain Coast Guard; Rear Adm. Mohammed Yousif Al Asam, commander of the Royal Bahrain Naval Force; and Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of NAVCENT, U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces discussed future opportunities for cooperation.

“We have an enduring strategic relationship with the Kingdom of Bahrain and our mutual commitment to advancing new unmanned systems demonstrates us strengthening the partnership in a new way,” said Cooper. “This initiative enables us to expand maritime domain awareness on, above and below the water and enhance regional deterrence.”

NAVCENT commissioned Task Force 59, Sept. 9, to rapidly integrate unmanned systems and artificial intelligence into U.S. 5th Fleet operations and drive discovery in human-machine teaming technologies.

Cooper briefed the Bahraini leaders on NAVCENT’s latest unmanned surface, underwater and aerial vehicles on site at U.S. Naval Support Activity Bahrain.

In October, Bahrain’s maritime forces will be the first regional partners to collaborate with Task Force 59 on a manned-unmanned teaming exercise to evaluate advanced unmanned surface vessels. The at-sea event will kick off a series of maritime exercises that integrate manned and unmanned systems during operations with regional and coalition partners.

The Middle East region’s unique geography, climate, and strategic importance offer an ideal environment for unmanned innovation. The area includes the world’s largest standing maritime partnership and three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal and the Strait of Bab-al-Mandeb at the southern tip of Yemen.

And in  October 26, 2021  update from U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, the evolving work in the region with allies with regard to maritime autonomous systems was provided:

U.S. Naval Forces Central Command is leading the way as the Navy tests out new operational concepts for unmanned surface vessels in front-line operations. On Monday, NAVCENT completed exercise New Horizon, the first at-sea trial for its new unmanned task force, which is among the first Navy units to integrate USV technology into real-world service – in this case, ensuring maritime security in the Persian Gulf. 

During the two-day training exercise, the command’s newly-established Task Force 59 tested out its MANTAS T-12 USVs alongside U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard and Bahrain Defense Force manned vessels. It was the first time that NAVCENT has integrated USVs with manned assets at sea in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations. 

The first phase of New Horizon, conducted Oct. 20, saw operators controlling the USVs aboard the Cyclone-class patrol ship USS Firebolt, while the small surfboard-shaped vessels conducted high-speed maneuvers in formation. Participating units included the cutter USCGC Maui, a Seahawk helicopter, a V-BAT unmanned aerial vehicle and a Royal Bahrain Naval Force patrol craft. Both U.S. and Bahraini forces practiced operating the vessels in formation.

“This is a significant milestone for our new task force as we accelerate the integration of unmanned systems and artificial intelligence into complex, cross-domain operations at sea,” said Capt. Michael Brasseur, commander of Task Force 59. “Real-world evaluation is essential.”

NAVCENT established the task force on September 8, and it is the first unit of its kind in the Navy. Extended unmanned trials are key to the service’s push to figure out how to use (and sustain) these systems in the real world. In the years ahead, the Navy hopes to deploy full-size, oceangoing unmanned warships to augment the fleet’s lethality at low cost. In order to get there, the Navy’s leadership is well aware that it will have to work out several thorny technical problems – particularly comms, command and control, and keeping propulsion running – and operations like Task Force 59 will help with the practical shakedown process.

And in an update on the work of the task force, Mallory Shellbourne noted in an article published on January 14, 2022:

U.S. 5th Fleet is using commercial unmanned surface systems that include the wind-powered, 23-foot-long Saildrone Explorer that has operated out of Jordan and MARTAC’s Mantas T12 USV that has operated from Bahrain.

The task force is serving as another testbed for unmanned systems so the Navy can experiment with the concept of operations and determine practical ways to employ the platforms.

“We’re taking off-the-shelf emerging technology in unmanned, coupling with artificial intelligence and machine learning, in really moving at pace to bring new capabilities to the region. I think in 2022 we’re going to see continued efforts in this regard into the operational realm and impacting operations. It will be exciting,” Cooper said.

IMX 22 will be designed to verify concepts for unmanned surface vehicles.

“The pace that we’ve been able to move at is going to result in IMX validating about 14 different concepts of operation imaginable a few months ago and then shifting into the more operational mode in the future,” Cooper said.

Featured Photo: Two MANTAS T-12 unmanned surface vessels (USV), front, operate alongside U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat USCGC Maui (WPB 1304) during exercise New Horizon in the Arabian Gulf, Oct. 26. Exercise New Horizon was U.S. Naval Forces Central Command Task Force 59’s first at-sea evolution since its establishment Sept. 9. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Dawson Roth)

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Task Force 59: Creating Maritime Capabilities for the 5th Fleet Area of Operations

In early September 2021, the U.S. Navy set up a new task force to deliver usable unmanned systems for enhanced maritime capabilities in the 5th Fleet Area of Operations.

In a story written by MC1 Roland Franklin and published on September 9, 2021 by the U.S. Navy:

U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) established a new task force, Sept. 9, to rapidly integrate unmanned systems and artificial intelligence with maritime operations in the 5th Fleet area of operations.

Task Force 59 is the first U.S. Navy task force of its kind.

The U.S. 5th Fleet region’s unique geography, climate, and strategic importance offer an ideal environment for innovation.

“The bottom line on why we’re doing this is so that we can develop and integrate unmanned systems and AI as a means to do two things,” said Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of NAVCENT, U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces. “One, enhance our maritime domain awareness, and two, increase deterrence.”

Cooper also stated the task force would rely heavily on regional and coalition partnerships.

“The launch of Task Force 59 really invigorates our partnerships around this region as we expand our common operating picture.”  

Cooper appointed Capt. Michael D. Brasseur, an expert in maritime robotics, as Task Force 59’s first commodore during a commissioning ceremony onboard Naval Support Activity Bahrain, Thursday. Brasseur served as a founding member of the NATO Maritime Unmanned Systems Initiative prior to arriving in Bahrain.

“It’s an honor to be named commander of this historic and innovative task force,” said Brasseur. “As we continue to adapt and implement cutting edge technology, I fully expect our talented team will enrich and enhance the 5th Fleet mission.”

Brasseur’s staff includes experienced operators with region-specific expertise, including directors for unmanned systems; unmanned exercises; task force integration; cyber, AI and space; and partnership opportunities.

In the coming weeks, the task force aims to build trust and confidence in human-machine teaming through a series of operations at sea. International Maritime Exercise (IMX) 22, slated for next year, will provide NAVCENT a real-world opportunity to demonstrate the resiliency and scalability of human-machine teaming technologies.

IMX-22 will include more than 60 nations and international organizations and features the extensive use of unmanned systems in various operational scenarios designed to challenge the technology in a dynamic environment and ultimately enhance partner capabilities through manned and unmanned teaming.

The U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations encompasses nearly 2.5 million square miles of water area and includes the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean. The region is comprised of 21 countries and includes three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal and the Strait of Bab-al-Mandeb at the southern tip of Yemen.

And in in a story written by John. W. Miller and Ari Cicurel published on October 6, 2021 , this is how the Task Force’s role was explained:

“By increasing the Fifth Fleet’s unmanned operations in the Middle East, TF-59 will realize more persistent and capable intelligence coverage and more capacity to deter, detect, prevent, and respond to Iranian maritime aggression than conventional manned platforms currently produce.

“Incorporating surveillance and attack unmanned platforms above, on, and under the sea into a sensor network will provide earlier warning of Iranian intentions and attacks, further enabling a secure maritime environment throughout the region. The persistence of unmanned vehicles serves as a force multiplier at a time when America needs to repurpose manned ships and aircraft in support of emerging national.”

The authors noted: “TF- 59 will have unmanned platforms, such as the unmanned surface vehicles Sea Hunter and Seahawk, the MQ-9B Sea Guardian, and the MQ-8B Fire Scout autonomous helicopter.”

But notably,. the Task Force featured in a recent video the “little engine that could” as a key capability they were exercising now, the MANTAS T-12 which is part of a family of USVs avaialbe right now for the U.S. and allied Navies.

According to the Command:

“MANTAS T-12 unmanned surface vessels operating in the Arabian Gulf alongside U.S. Navy crewed assets.

“This was the first unmanned/manned teaming activity underway for U.S. 5th Fleet’s new Task Force 59. The task force was established Sept. 9 to accelerate the development and integration of new unmanned systems across the fleet.”

Video by Sgt. Thiem Huynh

U.S. Naval Forces Central Command / U.S. 5th Fleet

The featured photo: Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, left, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces, shakes hands with Capt. Michael D. Brasseur, the first commodore of Task Force (TF 59) during a commissioning ceremony for TF 59 onboard Naval Support Activity Bahrain, Sept. 9. TF 59 is the first U.S. Navy task force of its kind, designed to rapidly integrate unmanned systems and artificial intelligence with maritime operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations. (Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Dawson Roth).

Also, see the following:

https://defense.info/system-type/martac-maritime-autonomous-systems/

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Navy’s Digital Horizon exercise showcases power of ‘mesh networks,’ AI

WASHINGTON — A first-of-its-kind naval exercise in the Middle East paired unmanned systems with a so-called mesh network and data-crunching tools to demonstrate a promising use for the future unmanned fleet: cuing crewed ships and planes to problem areas.

Task Force 59, established to rapidly integrate unmanned systems with artificial intelligence for maritime applications, has been operating for more than a year now in U.S. 5th Fleet. The ongoing Digital Horizon exercise showcases such operations at an unprecedented scale, according to the exercise commander.

Manned-unmanned teaming, and specifically this cuing concept, is at the heart of what Task Force 59 has been working on, Capt. Michael Brasseur, the commodore, told Defense News in an interview.

“We see the unmanned assets as a way to get a bunch of eyes out on the water, collect the data, and then leverage machine learning and [artificial intelligence] to gather insights from that so we can be more precise in how we deploy our manned assets,” he said.

The exercise, which kicked off Nov. 23 and runs through Dec. 15, includes 17 industry partners bringing 15 different unmanned systems, 10 of which are being operated in 5th Fleet for the first time, the Navy said in a statement.

Brasseur said these unmanned surface and aerial systems are the best of what industry has to offer and performed well during the exercise. Some of the surface vessels are long-endurance craft meant to perform persistent surveillance missions, some are high-speed intercept craft, and some fall in between. On the aerial side, platforms include two vertical take-off and landing systems, Aerovel’s Flexrotor and Shield AI’s V-BAT, as well as Easy Aerial’s tethered UAV, according to the Navy statement.

The key, Brasseur said, was to put them in a realistic operational environment and push them to their limits to understand their true capability.

During the exercise, Brasseur’s team first established the mesh network and other communications systems. They then began daytime operations of the drones before moving on to round-the-clock operations.

“We ran a series of vignettes that looked like real-world situations that we would see in and around the waters surrounding the Arabian Peninsula, so we were able to test how the systems could respond and also detect these sorts of occurrences,” he said.

An Open Ocean Robotics Data Xplorer unmanned surface vessel operates in the Arabian Gulf, Nov. 29, during Digital Horizon 2022. (Sgt. Brandon Murphy/US Army)

A top takeaway for the commodore is “the importance of the mesh network, which is the main mover for the data — not only to collect the data to power the machine learning and AI tools, but also to control the unmanned systems,” he said. “So we did some really groundbreaking work in terms of testing and deploying a resilient mesh network in an operational environment, during which we were able to work through some challenges and ultimately get the data flowing in a quite compelling way.”

Mesh networks, made up of multiple points called “nodes,” are wireless radio devices that communicate with one another, creating an overlapping “mesh” that needs no central hub and allows for quick and efficient data routing.

Brasseur added that previous exercises and operations over the last year have picked at different pieces of the puzzle, but Digital Horizon seeks to tackle the entire challenge of manned-unmanned operations in a single, seamless operation.

“We have done a lot of work with AI previously, and we’ve done computer vision, we’ve done anomalous behavior detection, we’ve done AI-enabled [command and control], but we’ve done all of those separately,” the commodore explained. “At Digital Horizon, for the first time ever, we did that together on a single stack, and that’s all integrated on a single pane of glass.”

“What that does is, it allows the end user to make decisions quicker and leverages artificial intelligence to make sense of all those data streams that are flowing in to a single pane of glass,” he added.

Over the last year of Task Force 59′s operations, Brasseur said, the cycle of development might allow for software changes to be made in weeks and hardware changes to be made in months.

At Digital Horizon, “we were seeing software changes within hours and hardware changes within days,” he said.

As a result, he said Task Force 59 is now “lightyears ahead of where we were” in February, when it hosted the largest unmanned exercise to date , International Maritime Exercise 2022.

“We don’t have any intention of slowing down. We are accelerating, we’re learning at a pace that’s just really, really impressive, and we are iterating at a pace that’s even more impressive. So we will apply the lessons we’ve learned here at [IMX 2023], but also during operations the fleet does every day,” Brasseur said.

A Marine Advanced Robotics WAM-V unmanned surface vessel operates alongside the patrol coastal ship USS Monsoon (PC 4) in the Arabian Gulf, Nov. 29, during Digital Horizon 2022. (Sgt. Brandon Murphy/US Army)

These lessons won’t be confined to just 5th Fleet, the Navy has made clear.

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro told Defense News in a November interview that he wanted to export what Task Force 59 was doing — using cheap and plentiful unmanned systems to help cue the movements of more limited manned ships and planes — to Central and South America.

Earlier this month, he reiterated that the Navy “will soon expand that capability to other regions of the world — into Central and South America, and the Indo-Pacific.”

Following that Dec. 8 speech, Del Toro told Defense News that the operating environments in 5th Fleet versus 4th Fleet for Central and South America are different, but that unmanned systems would benefit them in the same way.

“The tactical environments are different,” he said. “The concerns and the threats are different. Much of what we do in 5th Fleet is about monitoring the activities of Iran. Down in Central and South America, it largely has to do with the counter-drug mission, especially in the Caribbean, and it also has to do with illegal fishing.”

“When I met with the president of Panama, for example, he made it clear that many countries in Central and South America are really challenged by these Chinese fishing fleets, and they don’t have the necessary resources in terms of ships and airplanes to counter the threat, and they need more resources to properly cue the resources they do have,” Del Toro said. “So by being able to use unmanned technologies, not only will we be able to help them, but they can be able to help themselves. So this has been an ongoing conversation I’ve had with numerous leaders, heads of navies, and they see the definite advantage.”

Without giving a specific timeline for when a new unmanned task force might be established in 4th Fleet, Del Toro said the Navy was continuing talks with its regional partners about what the organization might look like. Mexico, he added, was even beginning to develop its own unmanned systems for use in this maritime domain awareness-focused task force.

Brasseur said representatives from several numbered fleets attended Digital Horizon and saw the unmanned fleet in action. The beauty of the live event, both for Middle Eastern countries considering joining Task Force 59 and other fleet leaders considering establishing their own unmanned task force, is that “it shows them the art of the possible, and then it unlocks opportunities of how you could use these systems in new and innovative ways.”

Megan Eckstein is the naval warfare reporter at Defense News. She has covered military news since 2009, with a focus on U.S. Navy and Marine Corps operations, acquisition programs and budgets. She has reported from four geographic fleets and is happiest when she’s filing stories from a ship. Megan is a University of Maryland alumna.

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Task Force 59: The future of the Navy’s unmanned systems or a one-off win?

By Jackson Barnett

February 8, 2022

The Navy faces a predicament: As threats grow in open waters across the globe — especially in the areas like the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East — the service is trying to build a future where it can keep its eyes open to those threats while working with a possibly shrinking budget.

How does the Navy plan to keep watch for everything from hostile Iranian drones to an aggressive Chinese posture to rogue pirates?

At least, that’s the plan for the Navy’s Middle Eastern contingent, the Fifth Fleet, where an acute nexus of manning the watch over a hostile region is colliding with diminishing resources. At the heart of the effort — to deliver unmanned systems to extend the vision of Naval Forces Central Command — is a group of 21 sailors, many of whom are reservists, that are catching the eyes of senior leaders in the Pentagon.

Task Force 59 launched in September and already is testing tech in the water, collaborating with foreign militaries and earning shout-outs from the Navy’s top sailor. (Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said in January the task force is “catching fire.”) It’s now in the midst of helping lead an exercise with 80 unmanned systems from 10 different countries.

The task force’s goal is to deliver “deterrence by detection,” meaning having unmanned systems chock full of sensors to increase the eyes and ears sailors have across the oceans. It’s a technical challenge that requires everything from building robots, artificial intelligence models and complex IT systems to orient unmanned systems along with those that are manned.

But, is a group of sailors — nearly half of whom are reservists on temporary assignment — an example of success the Navy can scale to meet its needs? Or is it just another experiment that will only yield one-off results?

Building a team

The task force’s commodore, Capt. Michael Brasseur, says it is less about the size and more about the experience of his team. By bring on reservists, Task Force 59’s roster includes the CEO of a 1000-person cybersecurity company; a D.C. think-tanker working toward a Ph.D. from Harvard and an advisor who was one of Snapchat’s earliest employees.

“This is not the B team,” Brasseur said in an interview.

“I was floored by the caliber of people,” Cmdr. Tom McAndrew, the task force’s No. 2, said in a separate interview.

But the model that has brought in such a high caliber of people might mean that it is harder to replicate and eventually scale the successes it reaches. Ten of the 21 members are reservists, including McAndrew, meaning eventually they will go back to their day jobs outside the Navy.

“We certainly recognize the importance of developing a more sustainable staffing model and have already begun working toward this transition,” NAVCENT spokesperson Cmdr. Tim Hawkins said.

What’s under the hood?

The task force so far has put a saildrone and other vessels with unmanned capabilities in the water. But what Brasseur and McAndrew are most excited about — but at this point have yet to share details of — is the tech stack and IT that power the unmanned systems.

“While I think the boats and physical things get a lot of recognition, one of the most difficult things to do is the IT environment,” said McAndrew.

Brasseur said the Task Force has a company on contract to build the user interface. He wouldn’t specify what firm but promised it has shown great PowerPoint slides so far. Both Brasseur and McAndrew were shy to share what they have built as the IT is still in a test and evaluation mode, saying so far the most important thing they have is the team of sailors building and using it.

“Never before have I seen so few do so much, so fast,” Brasseur said. “Everyone is focused on the robots, but we are building a data infrastructure to support a place where we can exploit with AI and ML.”

What does this mean for the rest of the Navy? 

“I like the idea they are bringing in smart new people. I am sold that would work. But I think the problem with that is it’s not a scalable model,” Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, said in an interview.

Defense expert Melanie Sisson, a fellow at the Brookings Institute, warned against experimenting for experimentation’s sake. Beyond finding the right technology, she stressed the importance of finding the right use cases for the right technology for the task force’s success.

“The military is struggling to understand functionally what it will need to do,” Sisson said.

And where Task Force 59 sees senior leader buy-in, Clark warns of a “shell game” for what success means. How much the success of Task Force 59 will mean in success for the Navy can’t be known — but both Clark and Sisson warn that the key will be translating tech to the needs of operators.

“The Navy has a history littered with these programs that have come and gone,” Clark said.

It’s a point Task Force 59 says it can’t agree with more. The goal of the experiments, Brasseur said, is to get as much feedback as possible from operators — getting “kit in hands,” as he said.

“We have real problems and we are focused on solving real problems,” Brasseur said. “We are not tinkering.”

The feedback the task force is hoping to generate is also being shared with a broader set of technologists across the Navy. The Navy’s Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) contribution, the Project Overmatch office, is clued into the work being done in the Middle East along with other unmanned task forces. JADC2 is the military’s new strategy to combined data from sensors across the battlefield, be they unmanned systems or manned sensors, into a military Internet of Things.

So far, much of the feedback Brasseur said he has gotten has been positive.

“We are trying to build real capability — we don’t have time or resources to do anything but that,” he said.

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How US Central Command’s task forces are shaping the future of operational AI

By Jon Harper

May 10, 2023

During the first two decades of the 21st century, U.S. Central Command was at the epicenter of America’s grueling counterinsurgency wars. Today, Centcom is spearheading operational experiments with artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies that could give the U.S. military an edge in future fights — in any region of the world.

At the heart of this effort are three units — the Navy’s Task Force 59, the Air Force’s Task Force 99 and the Army’s Task Force 39 — which are combining AI, unmanned systems and commercial tech in innovative ways.

Each of the task forces is putting robotic platforms through their paces to see how well they can perform in real-world settings. For example, Task Force 59 is deploying a fleet of unmanned surface vessels (USV) to monitor the waters around the Middle East. Task Force 99 is testing out drones as Air Force Central Command looks to put more eyes in the sky for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. And Task Force 39 is gearing up to receive semi-autonomous ground vehicles, while also exercising new counter-UAS capabilities.

Although robotic platforms might be the most eye-catching aspect of the task forces’ activities, artificial intelligence is seen as a key enabler of what these units — and Central Command writ large — are trying to achieve.

“I think that maybe people traditionally think about hardware and unmanned systems, and it’s almost more interesting to talk about the software capabilities and algorithmic analytics that are evolving and increasingly getting integrated into our workflows,” Schuyler Moore, Centcom’s chief technology officer, said at a recent Center for Strategic and International Studies event.

The tech includes capabilities such as computer vision and data analytics to aid intelligence analysts and decision-makers.

“It’s really exciting to see these algorithmic programs in particular running in our region. And … we are increasingly learning how important it is to run these types of technology adoption efforts in theater in a live environment with live data,” Moore said. “Increasingly pushing these efforts out to the edge can be so important.”

Task Force 59

Task Force 59 was established in September 2021 under 5th Fleet and U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT).

The unit achieved full operational capability a few months ago with an armada of unmanned surface vessels — including commercially built platforms made by Saildrone and others — that are conducting ISR missions in the waters near the Middle East to help detect Iranian arms shipments and other potential problems.

“We have a bunch of different systems platforms out there with sensors, cameras that are collecting and sending [information]. Once they send that picture or video feed up to the cloud, it gets transmitted to an operation center, both ashore and at sea. So it’s connected through what we call a mesh network … and once it goes to that operation center — ashore, at sea, wherever, but typically ashore — that’s where AI really comes into play and data integration systems come into play, which is collating all of these visuals, all of this data, all this information, and then sifting through it,” Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, spokesperson for 5th Fleet, told DefenseScoop.

Task Force 59 is deploying AI with four primary functions including computer vision, anomalous behavior detection, enabling multi-system command and control, and edge intelligence.

Computer vision provides the ability for the systems and programs to interpret what they’re seeing, such as a ship or other objects in the water.

For anomalous behavior detection, “it’s not so much of just having all these pictures and video and data points — you need to be able to sift through it in real-time. And … our operators, our watch-stander humans need help in determining the needle in the haystack and what warrants operators’ attention,” Hawkins explained.

Sensors employed by the task force have already gathered around 40 million images, according to Hawkins.

“With respect to the anomalous behavior detection, we utilize AI to help establish a pattern of life — what is the norm for this particular area, at this particular time of day, year, under these circumstances, based on historical data gathered. Because we use AI to leverage both open-source information available online, and also make sense of and establish a pattern through the data it’s collecting, on any given day, from the systems we have out there,” he said.

If a USV equipped with AI sees something of concern, it can transmit those images or video to a watchstander at an operation center where humans can decide what to do next.

To facilitate command and control, artificial intelligence technology enables the drones to move around on their own without a human having to direct each of them remotely.

“We’re not trying to have multiple operators managing a system or … one to one. We’re trying to have one operator overseeing multiple unmanned systems, and the way in which you do that is the use of artificial intelligence” Hawkins said.

Edge intelligence is an area where the Navy is trying to make more progress, he noted. That was a major area of focus during the International Maritime Exercise 2023, which wrapped up in March.

“In a communications denied or degraded environment where some nodes may be taken out, or the pipeline through which you funnel and transmit data may be narrow for whatever reason, it doesn’t make sense to have these systems that are out there and their sensors just sending everything and thereby clogging a more narrow throughput,” Hawkins said.

To address that issue, “you push the AI out to the edge, you push the AI out to the platforms themselves. And based on what the platforms are seeing and what the sensors are picking up, a determination is made at that point what [data or imagery] to actually send back, what is relevant, what to actually send to that cloud and get it to the operation center or ship where the decision-makers are looking to glean what to do based on what warrants their attention,” he added.

In addition to its regular operations, Task Force 59 continues to explore the technology through major exercises such as the recently conducted IMEX and Digital Horizon, which was held late last year and brought together 17 commercial partners and 15 advanced unmanned and AI-enabled systems in Bahrain — 10 of which were introduced for the first time.

“We pushed those systems to their limits from about 30 different tactical scenarios to observe their true capabilities,” Vice Adm. Cooper, commander of 5th Fleet and NAVCENT, said at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium in January.

Meanwhile, the task force continues to expand. Later this year, 5th Fleet aims to have more than 100 USVs — including systems contributed by international partners — conducting operations.

“Today, we are operating platforms equipped with sensors, radars and cameras for many uses including navigation, data collection, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. These new data flows enhance our ability to persistently monitor the surrounding seas and enable leaders to be more predictive and precise in deploying our crewed assets,” Cooper said in January. In the not-too-distant future, the Navy envisions deploying these systems “to support warfighting missions across the entire spectrum of joint functions,” he noted.

In April. at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference in April, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro announced that the technologies and operational concepts being explored by Task Force 59 will be expanded to 4th Fleet under U.S. Southern Command this summer. He has also suggested that they will eventually be rolled out to other regions including the Indo-Pacific.

At the same event, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday also noted that the service is moving to “normalize” the introduction of unmanned forces into the fleet by integrating them into existing command structures.

Task Force 99

Task Force 99 was stood up in October under Air Forces Central (AFCENT), the air component of Centcom, to evaluate unmanned aerial systems and other enabling technologies that could aid ISR and other missions.

“Don’t think of it as an innovation lab or anything like that. It is a no-kidding operational task force … They’re just doing it with different stuff and really getting after these problems,” Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, commander of AFCENT, said in February at an Air and Space Forces Association event.

“We have three lines of effort that we are going after, and those lines of effort are increasing air domain awareness, locating hard-to-detect mobile targets, and creating dilemmas and costs for the adversary,” Col. Rob Smoker, commander of the task force, told DefenseScoop in a recent interview.

Right now, the unit is mostly experimenting with smaller systems that fall into the Group 1 and Group 2 part of the UAS spectrum. That includes what Smoker described as a small, long-endurance system that the task force tested out during the International Maritime Exercise that recently wrapped up.

Factors like endurance, range, payload capacity and noise generation are key considerations for evaluating the drones that the unit is using, he noted.

However, the organization isn’t just looking at platforms. It’s also evaluating sensors and other payloads and conducting “tech scans” for new capabilities like AI.

“We’re looking at capabilities across the board,” Smoker said, as the task force seeks to satisfy requirements and solve “operational problems” for ISR and other missions.

The unit is eyeing artificial intelligence to aid targeting.

“Some of the things that we look for in AI are … recognition — be able to, you know, point out something to an analyst,” Smoker said. “We also look at AI … being able to go out and being able to scan an area and automatically find targets and things like that, in order to be able to pass that [information] back along, too, and be able to find those and get them back into the [targeting] cycle.”

AI could be used to find adversaries’ hard-to-detect systems such as missile launchers, according to Grynkewich, who noted that finding Iraqi Scud missiles was a major challenge during the Gulf War.

“This is another place where I think we can do some experimentation in the AFCENT region that would apply to the Indo-Pacific,” he told DefenseScoop during a meeting with reporters at AFA’s Warfare Symposium in March.

“We’re trying to go, ‘What does it look like now today? How do we go and find these beforehand?’ We have in place today algorithms that we’re training to identify ballistic missile launch vehicles, and to try to do that in near real-time as possible and feeding as much imagery as we can — whether that’s on orbit, commercial imagery, or exquisite NGA imagery or imagery off these drones,” he said.

Task Force 99 began its initial operational evaluations of unmanned aerial systems earlier this year.

“I won’t say the exact number, but we have evaluated a few. And yeah, we continue to bring capability into theater,” Smoker said. He declined to identify the specific systems or the companies that built them.

DefenseScoop asked Smoker if the task force is also pondering arming these systems or giving them other missions besides ISR.

“You can imagine that there are other things that we are doing,” he replied.

Meanwhile, there will be another exercise later this year named Armada, that Task Force 99 will be supporting in conjunction with the Navy’s Task Force 59, according to Smoker.

“It’s going to be, you know, basically looking at the integration of unmanned platforms, integrating the platforms and things across the board,” he said.

Smoker declined to disclose the size of Task Force 99, except to say that it’s currently a “small unit” but “we continue to grow.”

Air Force officials have also declined to say how many unmanned systems the task force aims to bring into the fold. However, in explaining the broader vision for how these types of platforms could be employed, Grynkewich suggested the service is looking to ramp up.

“Rather than just having dozens of airplanes that I can fly to certain locations, what if I had hundreds? … That capacity is gonna matter when we’re prosecuting operations at scale,” he said.

Smoker said: “We continue to, you know, work with our partners to grow the team and then grow our capabilities in theater … And we hope to, you know, take a lot of lessons learned and be able to provide ‘Big Air Force’ a framework for the future.”

Task Force 39

Task Force 39 was established under U.S. Army Central (ARCENT) in November. Its main goals are to identify gaps, find potential solutions and then put them through their paces in theater, according to Col. Ryan Stamatis, the commander of the new unit.

The task force wants to “experiment and train so we can test those solutions out and see if they’re a good fit for us. You know, how does it work out? Do we like it, do we not like it? Can we tweak it, can we modify it? Let’s make it better,” he told DefenseScoop in a recent interview. “You gotta go play with it, you got to touch it, break it, improve it, fix it, and then modify it to your needs and to your environment and to your unit. So that’s kind of where we are right now.”

A big focus for Stamatis — as well as Centcom and the Army writ large — is being “data-centric.”

“We have more data than we can possibly consume and digest and really kind of analyze and synthesize. So you’ve got to rely on machines, you know, the AI/ML aspect of those tools we bring,” he said. “We’re trying to utilize those tools, whether it’s the intel side, the logistics side, the targeting side, the operational side … you bring that data, you know, to the right place, right time, so the commanders can make the decisions with the best information available … be predictive and have that advantage over anybody we would possibly face.”

Eyeing robotic platforms, Task Force 39 is getting ready to help ARCENT experiment with autonomous transport vehicles that the Army has been building.

“We are in the process of bringing this into theater right now. It’ll be there in June timeframe. And we’ll start experiments and testing and training on it in July. But this vehicle has the ability to really increase our logistic capacity,” he said. “You can increase the number of vehicles being used to push logistics around the theater with less soldiers behind the wheel — therefore less soldiers are at risk … It’d be the first time for us to bring it to theater, train soldiers and experiment on it within theater.”

The task force has also been heavily involved in the Red Sands counter-drone technology initiative with Saudi Arabian partners.

The most recent Red Sands experiment occurred in March. That included a new app that can be used to feed information to military air-defense systems. The concept is similar to Ukraine’s ePPO initiative.

“What the Ukrainians did, they built a cellphone application … that basically helps the Ukrainian military identify aerial threats. Where the citizens with a cell phone can take a picture of a UAS, a missile, [or] whatever is flying, and transmit data back to an operational center to help augment, you know, kind of radar data they may be collecting there at the Ukrainian level. So that’s kind of the concept,” Stamatis explained.

Centcom began developing a similar app and “we’ve taken the application to ARCENT and continue to refine it and experiment with that,” he said.

Additional testing of the technology, known as CARPE DRONVM, was slated for May.

The aim is to “help operationalize that in a broader way across the theater, within the military and beyond,” Stamatis said.

Another Red Sands exercise is scheduled for September.

“We’re also looking at increasing complexity of this, growing into more of a joint model exercise. You know, bring other components in here as well — the other task forces and, you know, AFCENT, NAVCENT, MARCENT in there to … further test and refine counter-UAS technologies and tools out there,” he said.

Task Force is “looking at the digital aspect of everything,” Stamatis added.

“We conduct, you know, almost at least biweekly exercises at the local level, connecting all those different platforms and tools together, and just run the processes through and refine our processes and … make sure the connectivity and the data is flowing properly and how we want it to,” he said.

Stamatis highlighted an upcoming Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) event called Digital Falcon, which will include artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.

“In June, we’ll run a larger kind of Centcom-level exercise on the digital side of the house, that are really connected to all the data flows and the AI/ML tools we’re using, from a large [combatant command] joint perspective,” he added. “That will be really exciting as we kind of expand, you know, the different warfighting functions we have that are plugging into the AI/ML kind of toolsets to improve our data and our understanding.”

Meanwhile, the task force is working with industry to find promising artificial intelligence solutions.

“We want something that is near ready or ready to go,” he noted. The unit will be “using the algorithms from industry that are near ready, that we continue to feed and improve — you know, you do your labeling, do your testing, you improve that algorithm and train the algorithm over time. So that’s kind of where we are.”

Seven personnel currently make up the core of Task Force 39. However, its work ultimately involves “the entire ARCENT command structure,” as well as other components of the military and partners in industry and academia, he noted.

“That’s where we kind of come in as the backbone and help others connect the ideas that they come up with, from the ground up, who are close to the problems and have the best solution,” he said.

The unit is also getting ready to hire a senior civilian with a strong tech background and expertise to assist them. That move follows Centcom’s recent hiring of former Google Cloud leader Andrew Moore as the command’s first-ever adviser for artificial intelligence, robotics, cloud computing and data analytics.

Stamatis said the work that Task Force 39 is doing under Centcom could ultimately aid U.S. forces in other regions of the world.

“We can take a lot of what we do experiment-wise in that [combatant command’s] environment, which is realistic, and under harsh conditions, and take the lessons learned that we get and pass it across to our sister components and our sister services across the board to help them do their jobs as they try and prepare” for future conflicts, he said.

This story was featured in DefenseScoop Special Report: Operational AI in the U.S. Military — A DefenseScoop Special Report

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Drones and AI are rewriting the rulebook on naval warfare — with uncertain consequences

Ukraine showed the world how drones could humble a naval power — but is the technology ready for the field.

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They have an inconspicuous designation but the Ukrainian intelligence officers who belong to Group 13 have developed a formidable, far-reaching reputation.

Named after their leader within Ukraine's defence intelligence agency — a man who goes by the nom de guerre Call Sign 13 — this unit of maritime drone operators has destroyed or damaged more than half a dozen Russian warships.

In a recent interview with CBC News at an undisclosed location along Ukraine's southern coast, Call Sign 13 wore a mask and sunglasses to conceal his appearance. He spoke about how naval warfare is being reshaped by events in the Black Sea.

"I am protecting my country and I know that if I will not kill them, they will kill me," he said.

What we're seeing in Ukraine may end up revolutionizing naval warfare, say top American and Canadian military leaders. At least one military historian, meanwhile, sees it as more of an evolution than a revolution.

At the very least, they say, it has the potential to upend geopolitical assumptions about naval power — including the belief that nations with large, well-established navies can operate with impunity near the coastlines of smaller countries.

The transformation of naval warfare by drones, driven in part by artificial intelligence, is happening at breathtaking speed. The waters off North America will likely soon be patrolled by remotely operated boats and submersibles whose surveillance of the coastline will be coordinated by AI technology. It's already happened under U.S. leadership in the Middle East.

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What impresses militaries, defence planners and leaders around the world is how Ukraine — a country with virtually no navy — has used relentless drone boat and missile attacks to drive much of the Russian Black Sea fleet away from occupied Crimea, delivering an important humiliation to Moscow.

The motivation behind Ukraine's naval drone program, said Call Sign 13, was more pragmatic than strategic: many of the Russian warships that were targeted either had the ability to conduct amphibious assaults or had launched cruise missiles that rained misery down on Ukrainian cities.

Group 13 plays a high-seas game of cat and mouse in reverse, launching small, remotely operated speed boats, known as Magura V5s, packed with over 200 kilograms of explosives.

These highly manoeuvrable craft zip over the waves at more than 80 kilometres an hour and hunt frigates and landing ships more than 10 times their size.

Once they find their prey, the operators drive the boats straight into the targets.

"I feel relieved and [I am] quite tired after [we] hit the target," Call Sign 13 told CBC News through an interpreter. 

Operators spend their missions hovering over suitcase-sized control boxes for hours. The missions are filled with tension and demand absolute concentration, because operators have to react quickly in a constantly shifting environment.

"You need to remember this, my target, it's moving and it is a ship in the open sea. So you need to react very quickly," said Call Sign 13.

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The unit's toughest mission to date, he said, was sinking the Russian patrol ship Sergey Kotov near the Kerch Strait off Crimea on March 4, 2024.

It was a modern warship, reportedly commissioned in May 2022. It had been damaged, but not destroyed, in September 2023.

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Group 13's attack on the Sergey Kotov involved a swarm of maritime drones. The attack was recorded by Russian sailors on a nearby ship; the video was obtained and shared online by Ukrainian officials.

When the Sergey Kotov sank, struck in the stern by a maritime drone, there was a collective sigh of relief among the Group 13 operators.

"We are now changing the rules of fighting in Ukraine," said Call Sign 13. "We show that having a large fleet is not equivalent to power. Ukraine, which does not actually have its own navy, has completely displaced the navy of the Russian Federation."

The withdrawal of at least 10 Russian ships from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk "paralyzed" Moscow's Black Sea operations, he said — and made prime targets of the members of Ukraine's maritime intelligence group.

"The Russian Federation has a lot of missiles, rockets and different types of weapons and they even use them to hit small groups of people" like the maritime drone unit, Call Sign 13 said.

The members of Group 13 are immensely proud of their accomplishments. Knowing there's a Russian missile with their name on it just proves to them that they're having an impact.

"We are showing that the huge fleet of Russia is not an advantage and not that great," said Call Sign 13.

Task Force 59 and the future of war at sea

The Canadian government's new defence policy, released last month, acknowledged that high-volume, low-cost drones are changing the face of warfare in Ukraine and the Red Sea, and committed to preparing the country for such a future.

To get a better sense of where this technology is going, you have to look at the experiments conducted by the U.S. Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea over the last three years.

Using commercially available dual-use technology, the Americans and their allies have managed to field a small fleet of remote, autonomous surface and subsurface drones whose constant data collection is managed and analyzed by artificial intelligence.

It's known as Task Force 59.

"In the simplest of terms, just imagine a small vessel, three meters long to 10 meters long," said U.S. Vice-Admiral Brad Cooper, who served as fleet commander until February and launched the remote technology experiments. "And on this platform, you have radar and have very sophisticated cameras controlled by satellite."

The platforms provide persistent coverage in ways humans cannot.

"You put one or two of them out there, you link them together," Cooper said. "And artificial intelligence allows you to map the pattern of life and see what's around them. And when something is different, artificial intelligence flags that platform and sends it back to a human operator in a Naval Operations Center."

For much of its existence, the drone task force in the Gulf region has been limited to surveillance. Just recently, it began experiments with sea drones carrying munitions.

Using AI to collate surveillance data and tell sailors what to look at is benign enough — but when the technology crosses the threshold into target recognition, moral and legal concerns start to come to the surface.

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Cooper, who spoke to CBC News last year about Task Force 59, was asked whether he had concerns about introducing artificial intelligence into the system.

"I've had no concerns about it whatsoever," he said. "We have a mature technology. It's reliable. And most importantly, we have a human being ultimately making decisions."

Not everyone is convinced. As AI becomes more deeply embedded in military operations — migrating from surveillance to assistance in targeting — voices calling for international regulation are getting louder.

Is drone technology being rushed into military conflicts?

Branka Marijan of Project Ploughshares said the technology behind some of these weapons systems is immature and error-prone.

"Sometimes I get this question — what keeps you up at night? And I think a lot of people think ... like the Terminator, you know, killer robots," she said. "But it's actually this deployment of technology that's not ready for these contexts.

"Conflict zones are very complex … And if we deploy technologies that are not ready, we risk sometimes escalating the conflicts in place, and other times really prolonging them."

Canada's new defence policy nods to how AI affects cyberwarfare and disinformation, but remains largely silent on how the Canadian military will use it.

The Canadian navy is only at the early stages of adopting remote technology. The Department of National Defence recently awarded a $50 million contract for the purchase of remote underwater mine-hunters but appears to be treading lightly on introducing autonomous systems. That's despite the fact that several Canadian technology companies are already on the market with cutting-edge systems.

"I think we're seeing the value of uncrewed and autonomous vessels," said Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee, commander of the Canadian navy.

Ukraine and the United States have developed and deployed naval drones at a lightning pace by adapting commercially-available technology to create relatively cheap and lethal equipment.

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Topshee said Canada is moving toward that technology as well, but will approach it with caution.

"How do you ensure that it's still a human making the decision? I think it's really important that we don't have machines that are making decisions as to whether or not to kill someone or not kill someone," said Topshee.

"So how do you create the ability to do that if I don't need to put a sailor at risk? I love the idea of being able to go out there to achieve an effect [on a mission] and not put a sailor at risk."

Historian Marc Milner said he's reluctant to describe the emergence of autonomous drones as a turning point in naval warfare — although he acknowledged the speed at which drones are entering the field is "alarming."

He compared the use of remotely operated boats to ram and sink warships to the development of the torpedo in the mid-19th century. The torpedo prompted a whole series of countermeasures to foil such attacks, as did the introduction of ship-killing ballistic missiles in the 1970s.

Milner said the Canadian navy was behind the curve when the missile threat emerged, but with the introduction of the Halifax-class frigates and modifications to its now-retired destroyers, it eventually caught up.

It will have to do so again, he said.

"It's the weaponization of modern technology which is both alarming and fascinating," said Milner. "So often I say to my students ... for every good piece of technology that we develop, there's somebody sitting somewhere saying, 'How can I make a bomb?'"

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Senior reporter, defence and security

Murray Brewster is senior defence writer for CBC News, based in Ottawa. He has covered the Canadian military and foreign policy from Parliament Hill for over a decade. Among other assignments, he spent a total of 15 months on the ground covering the Afghan war for The Canadian Press. Prior to that, he covered defence issues and politics for CP in Nova Scotia for 11 years and was bureau chief for Standard Broadcast News in Ottawa.

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4 law enforcement officials killed, 4 injured in Charlotte, North Carolina, while serving warrants

Authorities have identified three of the slain officers.

Four members of law enforcement were shot and killed and four were wounded while they attempted to serve two warrants in Charlotte, North Carolina, police said Monday.

Around 1:30 p.m. local time, the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force was serving active felony warrants for possession of a firearm by a felon and felony flee to elude on a male suspect at a residence on the 5000 block of Galway Drive in the city's North Tryon Division.

The man, later identified by authorities as Terry Clark Hughes, Jr, 39, allegedly began firing, striking multiple officers, police said.

The officers on the scene requested immediate backup. The suspect allegedly continued to fire as more officers arrived.

MORE: Suzanne Morphew, mother who went missing on bike ride, died by homicide: Autopsy

Hughes allegedly exited the residence with a firearm. Seeing Hughes as an “imminent deadly threat” officers fired on the suspect, who was later pronounced dead at the scene, according to officials.

Eight officers were hit with gunfire and transported to local hospitals.

Two females who were at the residence were taken to the Law Enforcement Center for interviews with detectives.

Three members of the task force were pronounced deceased at the hospital, officials said Monday night. Todd Ishee, North Carolina’s Secretary of Adult Corrections, confirmed in a statement that two of the task force members were 14-year Department of Adult Corrections veterans Sam Poloche and Alden Elliott. The third was not immediately identified.

“They loved their work, and were passionate about their roles in protecting our communities,” Ishee said in a statement.

Poloche is survived by a wife and two children, and Alden is survived by his wife and one child.

Charlotte-Mecklenberg Police Officer Joshua Eyer was critically injured and later succumbed to his injuries, authorities said. He was a six-year veteran of the force and is survived by a wife and 3-year-old child.

Four other law enforcement officials were injured in the shooting. Their names have not been released.

"The bravery of our officers that responded to the scene, knowing that they're going into gunfire is what I've been saying for many years, is in the face of danger. our people step up," Jennings said.

In a statement on social media, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said he was in touch with police about the shooting and has offered up state resources to help.

An emotional Mayor of Charlotte, Vi Lyles, said she heard from the White House, members of Congress and state officials offering their support.

"Your father, your husband, your friend, your neighbor ... and today they're not going home," she said. "You know three people lost their lives today."

Jennings said that in his 30-plus years in the department, he couldn't remember a day like this.

"To me, it's the most tragic one that I've been involved in," he said.

President Joe Biden said in a statement Monday night that the four officers who died "are heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice, rushing into harm’s way to protect us. We mourn for them and their loved ones. And we pray for the recoveries of the courageous officers who were wounded."

Earlier, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement, "The Justice Department is heartbroken by the deaths of three of our own law enforcement colleagues, and we extend our deepest condolences to their loved ones as they grieve this unfathomable loss."

In a statement Monday night, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said: "The tragic events in Charlotte today are a reminder of the dangers facing law enforcement across the country. Our thoughts are with the loved ones of all the federal, state and local officers who lost their lives or were injured."

An investigation is ongoing.

-- ABC News' Darren Reynolds contributed to this report.

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Johnston neighbors react to major drug bust, firearm sweep

by LEANNA FAULK, NBC 10 NEWS

Residents told NBC 10 Hamlet Lopez moved in to the Shore Drive area two or three years ago. (WJAR)

JOHNSTON, R.I. (WJAR) — Thousands of dollars’ worth of drugs and guns are now off the streets after a major bust by Rhode Island State Police.

Six people were arrested this week in connection to a high-level trafficking network throughout the Ocean State.

Johnston residents reacted to the major bust in their neighborhood.

"I'm shocked, I'm shocked,” Marcia Masse, a longtime Johnston resident said. “I didn't think that kind of thing was around here.”

NBC 10 cameras captured local and state police conducting a search warrant on Shore Drive in connection to what police are calling a high-level narcotics and firearms distribution network.

Across the state, members of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force discovered $70,000 in cash, and thousands of dollars’ worth of fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine.

Investigators also seized two pistols and two semi-automatic assault rifles.

"It makes me a little uncomfortable. I didn't think I'd ever leave her but makes me scratch my head and wonder - do I need to go somewhere else?" Masse said.

The Rhode Island State Police said all suspects were charged as co-defendants in a criminal conspiracy.

• RELATED: Rhode Island State Police bust 6 in major drug and firearm sweep

Hamlet Lopez was one of six to be arrested, who is a neighbor to those on Shore Drive.

Residents told NBC 10 he moved in two or three years ago.

He was known around town for throwing loud parties but nothing out of the ordinary.

"They had parties, birthday parties or whatever but nothing like you would expect to see,” Katherine Tata said. "It's like you don't know who your neighbors are. You never know."

The neighbors are hoping to restore peace to their typically quiet community.

“It doesn't make me feel safer that they got caught. just that it happened here is not really a comforting thing," Masse said.

All of the suspects were arraigned this week and held without bail.