Will Unmanned Surface Vehicles Change the Face of Maritime Domain Awareness?
Throughout history access and control of the oceans and its sea lines of communication have been crucial for trade, exploration, military power, and empire-building. Maritime dominance allowed civilizations to expand their influence, secure resources, and protect commerce. Sea control enabled colonization, shaped global economies, and ensured supply lines during wars.
Control of strategic maritime chokepoints and freedom of navigation remain vital for national security, economic stability, international trade, and the enforcement of trade sanctions, highlighting the enduring importance of maritime power. In the interconnected modern global community that we live in almost every nation is dependent on seaborne trade for their economic survival.
Modern Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA)
Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) is the effective understanding of all activities, events, and conditions in the maritime environment that could impact security, safety, economy, or the environment and is fundamental to maritime power. It involves the collection, integration, analysis, and dissemination of information from across the full breadth of intelligence and open sources. Key components of MDA include surveillance systems, satellite tracking, intelligence sharing, and interagency cooperation. International collaboration is essential, as maritime threats often cross national boundaries.
MDA has changed significantly over time incorporating into it a complex suite of information sources. When we consider what constitutes the most effective MDA we are likely to include high end and costly capabilities such as fleets of airborne and surface assets and remote sensed capabilities primarily available to more advanced nations and militaries. However with the advance in capability of Unmanned Surface Vessels (USV’s) is the face of MDA likely to change?
Investing in Autonomous Maritime Assets
USVs are an increasingly vital tool in enhancing MDA. These autonomous or remotely operated vessels can perform a variety of surveillance and reconnaissance tasks without placing human operators at risk. Equipped with advanced sensors, USVs collect real-time data on maritime traffic, environmental conditions, and potential threats. Many USV’s operate a combination of solar power and wind to both sail the vessel and to charge battery banks that drive electric motors. These technologies and the removal of humans from the vessel allow the USV to operate 24/7, in an almost persistent manner and at vast distances from its mothership or port of departure. This ability to operate for extended periods and in hazardous or remote environments make them especially useful for monitoring large ocean areas, coastal zones, and critical maritime chokepoints. Finally, smaller USV’s, particularly those that can lower their sail, have the ability to sit over the horizon and due to their small signature are virtually undetectable, yet they are easily able to observe and report their observations.
Future of Persistent Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA)
Consider the application of a swarm of lower cost USV’s with small profiles, loitering in key choke points and strategic waterways, undetectable but always observing, carrying a suite of sensors that provide a full MDA picture to the user, but that is also carrying a weapons payload. This would not only allow the owners persistent discrete surveillance, but also the ability to prosecute a desired target on command.
Effective MDA brings together data and information from the full breadth of intelligence and open source domains. The expansion, even future proliferation of USV’s, will not change that fact; however there will likely be two key developments of note. Firstly USV’s will provide an increasing volume of high quality low cost information and as a result rise in prominence and value as an information source. Secondly, due to the cost effectiveness, relative operational simplicity and lower manpower demands of USV’s, we may see nations with lower budgets increasing their MDA capability through the use of USV’s to provide a greater contribution to both their own maritime security, and to provide a valuable contribution to regional or partner MDA efforts.