Public Sector

Pentagon wants to water down drone program with autonomous subs

What, you didn't expect autonomous military craft to stay in the sky forever?

Drones: they're not just for the sky anymore. DARPA is seeking compact deep-ocean autonomous craft developed faster, smaller, and cheaper than today's full-ocean-depth AUV systems.

DARPA's Deep Thoughts program, for which the agency issued a solicitation on Thursday, is looking to change the autonomous undersea vehicle (AUV, not to be confused with unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs) paradigm by developing a new generation of compact AUVs that can reach full-ocean depths "at a fraction of the size of current state-of-the-art AUV systems." 

Deep-ocean exploration has to contend with plenty of challenges, intense water pressure chief among them, which makes successful seafloor-capable craft - manned or unmanned - difficult, slow, and expensive to build. Those sticking points are what DARPA hopes to address.

"The program will leverage advancements in materials, manufacturing, and next-generation structural and mechanical design technologies to dramatically reduce the size, cost, and development time of deep-ocean systems," the agency said of the program. 

Further, DARPA explained that it wants AUVs that do not require architecturally constraining components, can deploy from a wide range of host platforms, and can be designed, produced, tested, and integrated in "months or even weeks" instead of the years such a process typically takes. 

In order to accomplish that, DARPA is seeking ideas that promote the use of novel materials, alloys, and structural geometries, which likely won't include the use of carbon fiber hulls. DARPA is also looking for firms that are willing to take a non-traditional approach to subsystem and component architecture to enable "free-form design, structural consolidation, and multi-functionality," as well as advanced manufacturing techniques to speed up the process. The Pentagon's research arm also wants a "multi-level secure" digital engineering environment that supports CI/CD/CP workflows, protects intellectual property, and works across multiple classification levels during development.

As for whether the government is seeking these drones for defense or research purposes, DARPA makes its intent fairly plain on the project page, noting that Deep Thoughts AUVs would provide "responsive and scalable access" to the deep ocean that "offers a significant strategic advantage."

In other words, this is not being pitched as ocean science alone, but as another strategic autonomous systems program.

The Pentagon has been spending millions on counter-drone systems to protect US forces - including interceptor drones - and recently said the online marketplace it launched in February for anti-drone gear had logged $13 million in purchases by federal agencies and military branches within its first few months.

The Defense Department has also confirmed that it fielded a domestically built system modeled on Iran's Shahed-136 one-way attack drone. The so-called Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS), reportedly used in operations involving Iran, is said to cost about $35,000 per unit - far below the price of conventional long-range strike weapons, and another sign of how cheap expendable autonomous systems are reshaping military procurement. 

The Defense Department further confirmed its shift to adopt an AI-first warfighting model, requesting a $54 billion budget for its Defense Autonomous Warfare Group (DAWG). That's a 24,000 percent increase compared to last year and, per The Guardian, over half of the entire UK defense budget. 

Included in the DAWG funding request is money for autonomous and remote systems that function at sea, on land, and in the air as part of its "drone dominance" program. It's the single largest investment in autonomous warfare in history, former CIA director David Petraeus said in an op-ed in The Hill this week. 

Petraeus also expressed concern that the investment could be a $55 billion mistake if done incorrectly, which he said he already sees signs of, citing a lack of military doctrine surrounding autonomous activities, outdated force structures, and the fact that "the U.S. system is structurally slower" than other nations that have been able to quickly adapt drone technology to suit the needs of the battlefield. 

"Less than two percent of the new investment in autonomous warfare is being directed toward doctrine and integration," Petraeus said. "There are few signs of the kind of organizational changes required for the new way of war seen in Ukraine, much less that which will be required for truly autonomous capabilities."

DARPA is giving Deep Thoughts participants 24 months to come up with their new designs, with work projected to start this November. ®