Exclusive: The US Navy is building a drone fleet to take on China. It’s not going well.

14 comments

1. ***This certainly seems an area where direct collaboration with Ukraine would provide immediate battlefield testing with innovative ideas.***

   Excerpt:

   The drones being developed in Ukraine, which often look like speedboats without seats, and are capable of carrying weapons, explosives and surveillance equipment, are primarily remote-controlled and cost close to $250,000 – making them optimal for kamikaze missions that have effectively neutralized Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

   The U.S., meanwhile, is aiming to build an autonomous naval fleet that can move in swarms and without human command – a more ambitious task at a higher price point; as much as a few million dollars per speedboat.

2. Yeah america doesnt learn till soldiers die and money is already spent … see every major conflict against a peer opponent hell even war on terror lol soldiers using sandbags in strikers cus they had no bottom armor ….

3. They should just contract with Ukraine, which has functioning and successful naval drones.

4. Really need to reform the model and go back to rewarding innovation vs paying for unproven concepts over and over again.

5. Whatever you do, do not buy drone technology from Ukraine!

6. When I was a consultant many years ago I did a small amount of work with the US Navy. We’re talking the late 2000s, early 2010s. So 15-20 years ago. Their drone research was already well underway, and wasn’t limited to just surface drones. And that was just the unclassified stuff.

   So anyone who claims that the US Navy has no idea about drone warfare or is totally unprepared for it doesn’t know what they are talking about.

   Naive observers love the “clueless Americans stumbling around” trope, especially these days when that comes linked to the “unstoppable China” meme. But the reality is that the Navy, and the US military generally, have been researching drone warfare since before many of the reporters writing on the topic today were even born.

   This fallacy can have consequences that go beyond just lulz. For example, someone convinced the Houthis to press their attack on the Red Sea, in the certain conviction that American naval power was hopelessly inadequate to the challenges of modern warfare. They’d seen all the memes I guess. But too many memes and not enough reality checks is bad for your health: it turned out that the US Navy, alongside the Royal Navy, were quite prepared for the threat, and the Houthis squandered their opportunities, munitions, and ultimately their lives without achieving anything.

   It’s a story repeated in many areas. Always as appealing as it is misinformed. Russia found that out when facing Ukrainian air defenses acquired from their American and European allies. Rumors of the naive decadence of the degenerate West have been greatly exaggerated.

7. Ha ha o kkk

8. And Zelenskyy has no cards !! LOL

9. How has reddit not caught on to how the USA purposefully projects weakness to bait its enemies into believing they can win against them?

10. Meanwhile China is lighting up the sky with thousands of perfectly synchronized drones just to show everyone how much they’re ahead. At which point the western world should unite and come together in a massive effort to regain our strength. At which point the us elects Donald Trump, a Russian troll. It’s unbelievable really.

11. A drone fleet to take on a drone fleets 100x its own size.

12. Why make it simple, easy and inexpensive when you can over complicate things, make it super expensive and get some major kickbacks.

13. is there anything going well in the US right now?

14. The US is the first country to utilize drone technology and incorporate it into its military. If there is any country that can do it, it’s the US.

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