Overview

• The Navy’s July solicitation requests modular USVs capable of carrying two 40-foot containers over 2,500 nautical miles at 25 knots in moderate seas.
• Officials plan to use Other Transaction Authorities with commercial-grade designs to mass-produce USVs across multiple shipyards within 18 months.
• Admiral Paparo’s ‘hellscape’ doctrine aims to deploy thousands of unmanned systems at the outbreak of hostilities to slow a PLA invasion of Taiwan.
• A U.S.-funded facility on Palawan is being prepared to service Devil Ray T-38 USVs transferred to the Philippine Navy to bolster regional self-defense.
• Analysts warn that limited endurance, power constraints and susceptibility to electronic attack will confine USVs to complementary roles alongside manned vessels.