This spring, the Defiant will embark upon a multi-month demonstration that will test the craft’s autonomy, endurance, and resilience.
The commanding officer of the United States Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), U.S. Navy Admiral Samuel Paparo, envisions creating a “Hellscape” of swarms of affordable unmanned surface vessels (USVs) to overwhelm any potential Chinese invasion or blockade of Taiwan. Now, the Pentagon is stepping forward with a system, the USX-1 Defiant, which might be able to achieve Paparo’s necessary vision of what a naval war with China over control of Taiwan might look like.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is making a groundbreaking move in naval technology and autonomous systems—oceangoing drones—with the USX-1 Defiant.
The USX-1: The Cutting Edge of the Naval Drone Revolution
Developed by DARPA under the No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) program, this 180-foot, 240-metric-ton unmanned surface vessel (USV) is engineered from the keel up to operate without a single human being onboard. Thus, this new technology completely shatters existing fleet architecture and strategies of the United States Navy.
The Defiant has already passed some major milestones in its development, and it is set to go into greater levels of testing as a result of its early successes. Serco, Inc., is the primary contractor on the project. It took five years for the prototype to be completed, with major construction being completed in Washington state. Excluding onboard mission systems, the Defiant cost $25 million—a tiny fraction of the cost of the Navy’s manned systems.
Technically, the Defiant is in the medium USV category, serving as a vital bridge between smaller USVs and larger systems, like the Navy’s planned Large Unmanned Surface Vessels (LUSVs). The vehicle can operate up to a year at sea without any human intervention. Key features of this boat include distributed power generation, podded propulsors, and high-capacity batteries, ensuring hydrodynamic efficiency and sustained operations.
DARPA’s Golden Rule: No Humans, Ever
Indeed, the “no humans ever” ethos of DARPA’s autonomous warfare projects is deeply embedded into the Defiant. Because of this, the boat has less weight, more space, and greater payload carrying capacity.
It is believed that the Defiant will house 16 Mk 41 missile cells in future variants, turning this already incredible USV into a cheap strike platform. Reports suggest that the hull of this boat is covered in a menagerie of radars and antennas, meaning that, more than anything, this unmanned surface warfare ship is a floating sensor suite.
There are, of course, downside risks to a fully automated system like the USX-1 Defiant. Something as simple as a busted engine or broken control system that would require human engineers to repair would become a complex task, as human engineers would have to be transported to the USV to make repairs.
A second concern is electronic warfare (EW)—of the kind that China, with its highly advanced military, has spent decades developing and would certainly deploy against the USX-1 Defiant and similar USVs. Adversaries could jam the USV’s navigation and/or communication systems. How the unmanned vessel could adapt to this intrusion represents a critical test of whether it is ready for the battlefield or not.
This spring, the Defiant will embark upon a multi-month demonstration that will test the craft’s autonomy, endurance, and resilience. If the tests are fruitful, they could lead the Navy to abandon many of its more costly manned platforms. Defiant would be the newest, and until now, the most important addition to the Navy’s “Ghost Fleet Overlord” program.
The USX-1 Could Be the Backbone of the “Ghost Fleet”
The Ghost Fleet program was created by the Executive Office for Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC) by 2020. The program planned to integrate autonomous drone ships into the U.S. Navy fleet, thereby enhancing combat power, reducing risk to American sailors, and cutting costs. Essentially, it is the U.S. Navy’s effort to build a robotic armada of versatile, expendable unmanned warships that are ready-to-swarm enemy ship formations in contested waters.
The Ghost Fleet program was initially a classified DARPA-Navy collaboration but went public with two experimental ships, the Ranger and the Nomad. These boats were built by Gulf Craft for nearly $27 million each. In 2022, two more vessels, the Mariner and Vanguard, joined Ranger and Nomad, although these newer USVs were built by Austral USA with combat systems in mind.
The program is now well into Phase II testing, where engineers are refining autonomy and integrating these USVs with manned fleets. The program has an annual budget of $400 million, according to Fiscal Year 2023 figures.
The grand vision of the Navy is to possess a hybrid fleet by the 2030s of 150 unmanned vessels operating alongside 350 manned ships.
Understanding the Autonomous Revolution in Naval Warfare
Until recently, drones were primarily a feature of aerial combat and surveillance missions. Now, they’re migrating to the all-important maritime domain as well.
Thus, the Defiant is more than a mere prototype. It is a true proof-of-concept, seeking to validate the idea that the United States can out-innovate its rapidly advancing great power rivals to maintain sea control. Because, as it stands, manned platforms are too expensive, too onerous to maintain, and too difficult for U.S. naval shipyards to produce in a reliable manner.
Without the USV revolution, the US Navy will not be able to maintain its competitive edge—let alone its dominance—over its great-power rivals, notably China. Remember that Beijing produces 232 times more warships than does the United States—and could doubtless scale up production even further during an armed conflict.
If systems like the Defiant fail, then America’s naval supremacy will be called into question significantly.
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert, a Senior National Security Editor at The National Interest as well as a Senior Fellow at the Center for the National Interest, and a contributor at Popular Mechanics, consults regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including the Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, MSN, the Asia Times, and countless others. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.Image: DARPA / Serco North America.
