by Craig Hooper on August 31, 2021
I have a small piece in Forbes discussing what buoys–the original maritime autonomous systems–can offer our hype-driven race for autonomous maritime systems. The answer is, basically, ground truth. Buoys are so mundane, and have so much sea-time, that nobody bothers to shape their performance rates. And, after more than a couple centuries of design refinement, […]
by Craig Hooper on June 23, 2018
Even the most optimistic unmanned evangelists must acknowledge that naval doctrine will, eventually, boil itself down to a simple precept: “Kill the Robot, and Quickly”. My sense is that America, as the first-mover in the unmanned space, finds that future somewhat distasteful. It is difficult to move from uncontested exploitation of potential utility to a […]
by Craig Hooper on April 23, 2018
Future undersea attackers will become far less deterrable. That’s a big shift–the idea that attacking submarines are deterrable has been enshrined in ASW Doctrine since World War I, and, even today, the idea that undersea attackers can be forced to break off their attack (or other mission) informs the resourcing and posture of ASW assets. […]
by admin on October 3, 2016
As ubiquitous as maritime helicopters are, America often forgets that the sustained operation of rotary-wing craft off smaller surface combatants only really started in the sixties. Today, it’s easy to scoff that helicopters got their start aboard combatants decades ago, but…for the U.S. Navy, the regular use of helicopters aboard smaller combatants spans only a […]
by admin on March 1, 2016
In the coming “Age of UAVs”, the influential Cold War-era Carrier Air Wing is set to become something of an old-school anachronism. Now, such sentiment is anathema to most of the exalted flyers in the leather-recliner ready-room set, but, well, the robots just don’t care. To a robot a deck is just a deck, and, […]
by admin on January 21, 2014
When former TOPGUN trainer and emergent LCS-killer Christine Fox, the Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense, demanded a “more capable [small] surface combatant“–namely one with innate air-defense capability–she did more than merely lay out a plan to kill a wayward surface-ship program. She offered a glimpse of what the Department of Defense (DOD) envisions as the […]
by Craig Hooper on February 14, 2011
On the eve of the Centennial of Naval Aviation, the San Diego Union-Tribune’s awesome national security reporter, Jen Steele, filed a piece on how UAVs would transform the Navy. I was quoted in the story and you can read the entire piece here. Certainly, UAVs are going to have a big role–and make a big […]
by Craig Hooper on March 17, 2010
For all the whining about how America isn’t funding cutting-edge rotary wing research, a few new rotary-wing UAV offerings look, ah, well cutting edge. Take Boeing’s A160 Hummingbird (YMQ-18A). This company-funded program has moved with lightening speed, and the fact this platform initially used a cheap off-the-shelf Subaru auto engine should be enough to win […]