By Vice Admiral Robert Gaucher*
A year ago, I reported a major part of the Submarine Force’s effort to prepare for the future was bringing uncrewed, autonomous, and hybrid systems into the fleet. At that time, we outfitted the USS Delaware (SSN-791) with the Yellow Moray torpedo tube launch-and-recovery system for two REMUS 600-based Razorback uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs). (From US Naval Institute.)
Later in 2024, while preparing for deployment, the Delaware launched the first Yellow Moray (REMUS 600), marking a major milestone in our autonomous system development. Unfortunately, the vehicle was lost and never recovered—a disappointing but valuable learning point.
Early this year, the Delaware deployed with one of two originally planned unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs). While in the European Command area of responsibility, she launched the Yellow Moray during an exercise with the Norwegian Navy. After about 30 attempts, the torpedo tube retrieval failed because of damage to the UUV’s docking sonar. The UUV was recovered by the Norwegian Navy and shipped back to the United States for further analysis. Progress is not a straight line. Failures and setbacks are a natural part of improvement, and we are determined to make this technology work.
While the day-to-day priorities of the Submarine Force remain warfighting, people, and safety, it is critical we look to the future to maintain undersea dominance amid evolving threats. Our future posture depends on innovation. The force must integrate robotic and autonomous systems (RAS), advanced manufacturing (AM), artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) and quantum technologies, and improve cross-domain command and control (C2). A key part of embracing modern technology is our willingness to take deliberate risk and fail fast to learn fast, because delivering capability late is also a risk.
Robotic and Autonomous Systems and Unmanned Underwater Vehicles
Though the initial tests on the Delaware failed, they provided crucial lessons that advanced long-term goals. We aim to normalize RAS operations fleetwide and build a hybrid undersea force. Thanks to the availability of small, man-portable UUVs, and the presence of highly skilled, motivated, and technically savvy operators, every submarine is now UUV-capable.
UUV Group One (UUVGRU-1) can deploy to any submarine to train and qualify sailors as UUV operators and hand off small UUVs for operational use during deployment. While we look forward to integrating more torpedo tube launch-and-recovery vehicles, submarines will continue deploying with small UUVs that can launch from a lockout trunk or be thrown over the side when the submarine is surfaced. We cannot afford to keep waiting.
The Yellow Moray UUV uses high- resolution synthetic aperture sonar to perform detailed bottom mapping and to search for, localize, and acquire underwater objects of interest. Its 360-degree scanning capability produces 3-D visual models. UUV Squadron One recently operated a Rat Trap Iver4 UUV in a simulated minefield in the Hawaiian operating areas and relayed mine location information, in real time, directly to nearby submarines for situational awareness and operational planning. With this capability and the ability to swap payloads, the Yellow Moray and Rat Trap UUVs are among several highly capable and mission flexible UUVs in operation today.
The Submarine Force-sponsored Green Remora exercises have allowed us to integrate commercially available remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to inspect submarine hulls. Specialized operators deploy and equip submarines and train sailors to operate the ROVs, expanding capability and reducing risk to sailors by eliminating the need for security swims and diver inspections. ROVs also enhance searches by increasing stay time to conduct higher fidelity hull inspections. We plan to expand this capability with an ROV that can clean the hull—an “underwater iRobot”—simplifying another intensive evolution currently performed by the ship’s divers and force.
Looking ahead, AI/ML will augment these unmanned systems to enable autonomous target identification and mark underwater objects for UUVs and ROVs to locate.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
AI’s ability to rapidly analyze large quantities of acoustic sensor data to detect man-made objects and submarine contacts is a major capability improvement. Working with leading industry partners, we deployed machine-learning algorithms focused on acoustic data streams to improve human-machine collaboration. The AUKUS partnership and Common Development Environment (CDE) allow Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States to collaborate on model development in a shared space, increasing burden-sharing among partner nations. The combined US-UK-AUS algorithm outperforms any individual algorithm.
Sailors on board the USS Pasadena (SSN-752) recently tested a generative AI prototype that creates quality assurance packages. Embracing our “Fail Fast, Learn Fast” mentality, the first attempt failed, but we learned, improved the program, and ran a successful test just two weeks later. The prototype generated a formal work package on board.
As we scale generative AI across the force, it will reduce sailors’ administrative burdens in areas such as divisional training, survey data assessment, and qualification programs. We are already using it for midshipmen cruise survey feedback, quality of life surveys, and even a classified data-analysis project.
Finally, we are still evaluating where quantum technologies fit in the undersea enterprise but already see opportunities in precision navigation and timing.
UUV Confidence Course: Integrating AI/ML and RAS
The true potential of AI/ML emerges when combined with robotic and autonomous systems. To accelerate integration and build operational confidence in these technologies, we established dedicated testing environments that merge both capabilities. The Underwater Confidence Course in Bangor, Washington, links AI/ML and RAS integration efforts, drawing on lessons from the self-driving car industry. By planning expected routes and UUV run outcomes, then running the course and comparing results, we can assess and understand the differences. We then iterate each run with minor changes to drive continuous improvement and build confidence in UUV development while refining tactics, techniques, and procedures.
To integrate data and AI/ML into UUV operations, the Undersea Warfare Development Center (UWDC) and UUVGRU-1 developed a cloud-based data management infrastructure within the CDE to collect and manage all UUV course data. After establishing the infrastructure, we uploaded data from more than 1,700 sorties. This approach allows operators to assess a UUV’s performance during individual sorties to track performance over time and compare vehicles.
Since July 2024, numerous vehicles have run through this underwater course and had their data uploaded to classified and unclassified cloud environments. AI/ML tools analyze the data to grade performance, improve tactics, and adapt techniques. We share this data with industry developers to drive improvements in UUV performance and mission planning.
We seek allies and industry partners to collaborate and learn with us on what we believe is the best underwater confidence course in the world. To date, two partner nations, 13 government and industry partners, and more than 18 different UUVs have completed the course. This year, UUVGRU-1 expanded its testing capacity by establishing a second Underwater Confidence Course in Little Creek, Virginia.
In August, UUVGRU-1 completed a demonstration in Lima, Peru, with South American partners. A team of three flew the vehicle on a commercial aircraft, reassembled it, tested it, programmed its mission, and surveyed a wreck successfully—all in a few days. The team even had to execute a minor repair and reprogram the mission over the air during the demonstration, showing their proficiency and ability to deliver undersea capability anywhere in the world.
In September, UUVGRU-1 ran an expeditionary confidence course as part of NATO exercise Dynamic Messenger in Lisbon, Portugal. A Starshield satellite over Portugal linked directly to the U.S.-based cloud environment, enabling AI/ML tools to access NATO’s UUV data. This exercise helped build NATO partner capacity and capability to defend critical undersea infrastructure.
Advanced Manufacturing
Advanced manufacturing techniques—such as 3D printing, cold spray, and laser ablation—are transforming submarine maintenance by speeding up part production and reducing logistical delays. AM targets critical supply-chain shortages by fabricating and qualifying replacement parts for submarine systems, including SUBSAFE-certified components. In partnership with Naval Sea Systems Command’s Naval Systems Engineering & Logistics Directorate, Naval Reactors, the public shipyards, and the Maritime Industrial Base program, Submarine Squadron Two (SubRon-2) in Kittery, Maine, serves as our “AM-RON” and leads research and rapid implementation of advanced manufacturing technologies. We recently established Submarine Development Squadron Five (DevRon-5) as SubRon-2’s Pacific counterpart.
Cold-spray shaft repairs already have saved more than 60 dry dock days for the USS Hyman G. Rickover (SSN-795) and USS Virginia (SSN-774). As we achieve material property equivalency and process maturity across six critical manufacturing alloys, we will establish full interchangeability, allowing AM-produced components to directly replace conventionally manufactured parts. We are also deploying polymer AM systems on all submarine classes to expand in-situ manufacturing capabilities, boosting operational readiness and sustainment. The submarine tenders and Regional Support Group Groton have machines capable of printing metal parts.
SubRon-2 is piloting a program to integrate advanced manufacturing seamlessly into submarine availability planning as we prepare the next CNO availability for the USS New Mexico (SSN-779). The team identified more than 35 parts to produce via AM and to have ready at the start of the availability. These parts ranged from low-risk items, such as piping elbows, to high-risk components including seawater system three-way valves. Once complete, the force will have a formal process to identify AM materials for submarine availability planning. This pilot effort is in coordination with the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Logistics (N4), Naval Supply Systems Command, and Naval Sea Systems Command to test this capability for the entire Navy. As AM is integrated into more submarine availability planning, it will improve material readiness for and reduce the need to cannibalize parts from other submarines, which doubles work for crews, affects schedules, and reduces warfighting readiness.
The Submarine Force is also augmenting midshipmen’s academic experience by having them work with AM, RAS, and AI/ML. In total, 36 midshipmen participated in a hybrid cruise with half their time spent at sea and the other half working on future technology projects. Several midshipmen used large language models on a classified network at the Undersea Warfare Development Center to analyze years of submarine operational data. Midshipmen at SubRon-2 designed a torpedo storage cap using polymer printing to fill a supply gap, and 12 midshipmen qualified as UUV operators while at UUV Detachment Little Creek. The hybrid cruises were successful, and the future submariners provided very positive feedback.
Cross-Domain Command and Control
The Submarine Force increasingly depends on sophisticated cross-domain C2 systems to integrate air, land, sea, space, and cyber domains while preserving a submarine’s critical tactical and strategic advantage: stealth.
Traditional communication methods require exposing the periscope or antenna, creating vulnerability windows that adversaries can exploit. Developing nontraditional communication systems is essential for future undersea operations in a joint warfighting environment. These emerging technologies include advanced very low frequency (VLF) systems, quantum communication networks, and autonomous relay platforms that maintain connectivity without revealing the submarine’s position.
In partnership with industry, sailors at Submarine Force Atlantic and Strategic Communications Wing 1 operated a mobile VLF transmitter that supplements land-based transmitters. Linked to submarine headquarters, this system allows long-term maintenance of VLF transmitters without losing capability. Using low-cost, modern technology enables rapid maneuvering in the VLF spectrum for the submarine force.
Under a Get Real, Get Better sprint, communications and cyber teams collaborated to download data faster at sea. The operator-led team achieved this by minimizing overhead traffic, compressing data, and monitoring onboard traffic to maximize bandwidth use. These efforts reduced time at communication depth by more than 60 percent compared to prior timing tests.
Underwater communication remains challenging because of ocean physics, but today’s technology lets us apply a system-of-systems approach that employs multiple communication pathways to create robust, redundant networks that communicate effectively at operational depths. The integrated architecture combines satellite communications, autonomous vehicles as relay platforms, and advanced signal processing to dramatically increase bandwidth and ensure communication resilience in contested environments. Distributing capabilities across multiple platforms and domains helps submarines maintain critical command links even if individual systems fail.
Each of these systems has limitations, but validating these advanced capabilities through joint exercises and experiments is crucial to improving command and control at sea. Complex operational environments test new technologies under realistic combat conditions and demonstrate how submarines can plug into broader joint force operations as close to “on-demand” as possible.
Delaware’s Ultimate Success
Returning to the Delaware’s story in Norway, after the Yellow Moray vehicle was repaired in the United States, we shipped it back to rejoin the Delaware on deployment. When a crane was not available overseas to load the vehicle in the traditional manner, ingenious sailors quickly developed a method to reload the repaired UUV from the harbor through a torpedo tube using divers.
A week later, the Delaware successfully launched and recovered the UUV three times. Each sortie ranged from 6 to 10 hours and demonstrated how we can improve the reach of our submarines while offloading work to UUVs.
Through trial, error, and ingenuity, the Delaware demonstrated the Submarine Force’s ability to forward deploy, launch, and recover UUV systems. This operation exemplified a culture marked by a willingness to fail fast, find and fix problems, relentlessly innovate, and get back in the game to achieve success. We must harness this innovative, fighting spirit to maintain our undersea advantage throughout competition and, if necessary, in combat. These are hallmarks of the Submarine Force — traits that make us apex predators.
