CDR Salamander - The First Surface Drone-v-Drone Fight: A Harbinger of Things to Come

New weapons arrive on battlefields following a familiar pattern. Aircraft are a good benchmark of a pattern we are seeing today with drones.

At the start of WWI, aircraft were barely a decade past the Wright Brothers’ first flight.

Aircraft were still fragile stringbags, but advances were happening at an incredible pace. The top aircraft this month may be obsolete before the season changes.

At first, aircraft performed the most basic mission, one they were naturally suited for—reconnaissance. Now and then, aircraft from opposing sides would see each other and, being unarmed, simply wave. That didn’t last long.

There were ramming attacks. There were pistol shots. Then on October 5, 1914, the French decided to bring a machine gun on a Voisin III and found an unarmed German Aviatik B.I.

You know the rest of the story from there.

Drones are not new today, and neither was aerial reconnaissance in 1914. What had changed was technology. For well over a century before WWI, balloons were used for aerial reconnaissance in Europe and North America.

Engines, lightweight construction techniques, and just plain good thinking brought powered flight into existence and changed the way aerial reconnaissance was done. It was only a matter of time until we strapped a weapon to them. Humans will eventually find a way to arm just about anything they can.

If you consider fire ships to be drones, which I do, drones have been used in war at sea for centuries. In the air and on the ground for decades. All that was needed was advances in enabling technologies.

Communication. Code. Navigation. Seeker heads. Miniaturization of…everything.

We have already seen drone-v-drone warfare in the air and on the ground—even having surface drones shoot down aircraft—but even though attack drones had been used quite successfully especially by the Ukrainians and Americans, we haven’t seen a drone surface fight yet—until just a few weeks ago.

I can’t believe this slipped by my scan for so long.

As described by Naval News about two months ago,

For the first time in history, an uncrewed surface drone (USV – uncrewed surface vessel) has destroyed another USV in combat. The Ukrainian Navy Sargan-3000 USV, operating on intelligence from the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), interdicted a Russian attack USV in the Black Sea. The Russian naval drone was sunk.

The Russian USV can be positively identified as an improved Orcan type

Here’s the video of the fight.

You can find the Ukrainian Navy’s upload from Telegram at this link.

Of course she’s armed with Ma-Deuce…what a jewel of a multi-tool weapon.

This is how it starts. Simple boats with a simple weapon, man in the loop. From here, things should advance quickly.

The automation and software needed to run the fight on its own are already here. It just needs a few more tweaks, a nod from the JAG, and we’re off and running.

Remember all your ASW waterspace management details? SAA, JTAA, ect.? Modify it for drones, give them geofenced waterspace and a set of if-then ROE, and let them cook.

This is going to happen, with more deadly weapons. Without a man in the loop, except for a kill switch and override, it is only a matter who will be firstest with the mostest.

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