A robot that works in a demonstration still has to prove it belongs in a military operation. Sailors need to know how to use it, how to support it and how it fits into a mission.
The Navy has put a new command responsible for that transition in Hampton Roads.
Established September 24, the Robotic and Autonomous Systems Warfighting Development Center, known as RASWDC, is headquartered at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek–Fort Story and operates under U.S. Fleet Forces Command.
“Today is not a finish line. It’s a starting gun,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said at the ribbon cutting.
The center will bring together the Navy’s work on autonomous systems in the air, on the surface and underwater. Its responsibilities include operational testing, developing tactics and preparing sailors to deploy the technology.
Rear Adm. Melvin Smith, the command’s inaugural leader, described part of its mandate as equipping the fleet with “tools that actually survive the environment.”
That focus puts the practical questions surrounding naval robotics at Little Creek. What does a sailor need to learn? How should a system be employed? What do developers need to change after testing?
For Hampton Roads businesses working in autonomy, sensors, communications and maritime technology, the establishment adds an operational dimension to the region’s defense economy. The Hampton Roads Alliance has pointed to the center as an opportunity for companies in those fields and a reinforcement of the region’s role in naval innovation.
The potential value is proximity to the people shaping how these technologies will be used. Understanding the operational problem can help a company decide what to build, which performance matters and where its product needs improvement.
The Navy is also changing how it organizes the development and purchase of robotic systems.
On August 5, it established the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Robotic and Autonomous Systems, with Christopher Miller serving as acting leader. That organization was created to address fragmented requirements, funding and acquisition practices that the Navy said had complicated industry engagement and slowed delivery.
The two organizations have different responsibilities. The portfolio manager oversees acquisition and fielding. RASWDC concentrates on operational employment, returning lessons from testing and training to developers and program managers.
For a business developing technology for the Navy, that connection could make feedback from actual use more consequential to future development. A successful demonstration is one step. Delivering something sailors can use repeatedly is the larger challenge.
The command is still taking shape. Smith is leading a phased implementation plan covering its structure, relationships and resources as it moves toward full operational capability.
For Hampton Roads, the immediate development is a new Navy command with a defined responsibility in the future of autonomous warfare. Its longer term significance will depend on the work that follows the ceremony, as testing informs development and sailors learn to put the systems to use.