Roughly a year after a mechanical problem forced it to turn around, the Mayflower Autonomous Ship is poised to cross the Atlantic, traveling autonomously from Plymouth, United Kingdom, to Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The voyage will showcase IBM’s AI Captain, the artificial brain of the operation that allows Mayflower to chart its own course across the ocean and see and avoid obstacles along the way. That’s what sets Mayflower apart from other unmanned surface vessels, says Ray Spicer, vice president for defense and intelligence at IBM Federal.

“I think the key difference is the autonomous part,” he told Seapower in an interview. “In a perfect world, we’re gonna set this baby on its way from Plymouth, U.K., and not have to interfere at all. We’ll just watch it with pride as it sails along and makes its own decisions based on how well we trained it. And then it appears in Plymouth, Massachusetts, at the end of the journey.”

The project is led by marine research nonprofit ProMare, with IBM as lead technology and scientific partner.

The boat, a catamaran, originally set out on the voyage last spring but was forced to turn around when a connector for the onboard generator failed, filling the interior with exhaust fumes. No one was hurt — there’s no human aboard — but the boat was slowed significantly so the team decided to turn it around.

The brains of the boat, the AI Captain, worked fine and continues to do so, Spicer said. The system was trained using millions of images to recognize potential hazards, from seagulls to paddleboarders to buoys.

“We taught it to recognize objects, and the more experience it gets doing that, the better the training,” Spicer said. “When we put it out there, if it ran into something that it didn’t recognize, then we taught it, OK, that’s a seagull … make sure you recognize that in going forward. I would say anytime that it encounters something that we didn’t anticipate, we can see it from the camera, and we can teach the system what it is actually looking at.”

AI and COLREGS

Once underway, Mayflower will rely on its artificial intelligence and sensors to abide by COLREGS, the laws that govern ship movement on the seas.

Human operators have to be updated on COLREGS after switching from shore assignments to sea assignments to make sure they’re current, but that’s an easier process with an AI system.

Sailors and other human operators “always had to go through COLREGS, pass the test, make sure you were current, you were refreshed. With an AI/ML [artificial intelligence/machine learning] system like this, you just feed it the COLREGs one time, it chews them up and it won’t forget,” Spicer said.

The 3,200-mile trip from Plymouth to Plymouth is expected to take 10 to 12 days, depending on weather and other conditions that might pop up.

Mayflower carries visual sensors, infrared, cameras and a navigation system that allows it to use dead reckoning if it loses satellite connection.

“It’s also mapping the environment as it goes, because really the primary purpose of the vessel is to do oceanographic research,” Spicer said. “So, it’s listening to underwater sounds and it’s taking temperatures and [measuring] salinity and all kinds of things in the environment,” including measuring the amount of microplastics in the ocean.

Once it arrives on the East Coast of the United States, Mayflower is expected to take a victory lap that could take it from Norfolk, Virginia, to Washington, D.C., to Boston.

Flexible AI

The Mayflower’s brains are descended from IBM’s pioneering work in artificial intelligence and machine learning, including the Deep Blue chess computer that beat Garry Kasparov to Watson, the AI system that won on “Jeopardy!” in 2011.

“The interesting part to me is we took technologies that were already existing within IBM, and we just adapted them to this vessel,” Spicer said, including an operational decision manager used in the financial industry to verify credit card transactions.

“You swipe your credit card, and it runs hundreds of algorithms to make sure you’re you, and you’re not a bad guy, and then it lets the transaction go through. We use that same technology, we just adapted it to this use case,” Spicer said.

The ship’s systems generate a data tree, so researchers can see why it made a given decision at any point along its route.

Ultimately, the AI Captain could be used for much more than just piloting a small boat across an ocean.

In a video series about the Mayflower project, Brett Phaneuf, managing director of the program, said he envisions it one day guiding spacecraft on other worlds.

“Years from now I’d love to see our AI Captain on another vessel in an ocean on Europa or orbiting another planet. That would be ideal, and I don’t know if I’ll live to see it, but this is the start.”

Spicer agrees, saying, “I think the sky’s the limit. I mean, we’re talking about an application of a surface vessel, but think about underwater, think about in the air, think about space. We’ve gotten lots of interest from organizations like NASA and NOAA [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] … this [the Mayflower] is just the tip of the iceberg, I think.”

WASHINGTON — Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro announced March 31 that a future John Lewis-class replenishment oiler (T-AO) ship will be named USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg to honor the former Supreme Court Justice and women’s rights activist. 

The future USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg (T-AO 212) will be the first U.S. Navy ship to bear her name. 

“As we close out women’s history month, it is my absolute honor to name the next T-AO after the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She is a historic figure who vigorously advocated for women’s rights and gender equality,” said Del Toro. “As Secretary of the Navy, it is my aim to ensure equality and eliminate gender discrimination across the Department of the Navy. She is instrumental to why we now have women of all backgrounds, experiences and talents serving within our ranks, side by side with their male Sailor and Marine counterparts.” 

The name selection for the John Lewis-class replenishment oiler follows the naming convention of honoring people who have fought for civil and human rights. Born in 1933, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a pioneering advocate for women’s rights turned Supreme Court Justice. Ginsburg made history as the second woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court when she was nominated by President Bill Clinton and confirmed in 1993. Of her 27-year tenure on the Supreme Court, she is most noted for her work toward issuing the majority opinion for United States v. Virginia, a landmark 1996 case that struck down Virginia Military Institute’s male-only admissions policy. 

The future T-AO 212 is the eighth of the T-AO ships awarded to the Navy, with the first delivered in 2021. The class and lead ship T-AO 205 is named in honor of Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga).  

Del Toro also named Justice Ginsburg’s daughter, Jane Ginsburg, as the ship’s sponsor. 

T-AO ships are fleet oilers designed to transfer fuel to the Navy’s operating carrier strike groups. The oilers have the ability to carry a load of 162,000 barrels of oil, maintain significant dry cargo capacity, aviation capability and a speed of 20 knots. General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Company designed the vessels with double hulls that protect against oil spills as well as strengthened cargo and ballast tanks. The T-AO measures 742-feet in length with a full load displacement of 49,850 tons. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy’s newest laser weapon system has completed range testing at Wallops Island, Virginia, and is being installed on the U.S. Navy’s Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Preble in San Diego. 

The first High-Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance, or HELIOS, built By Lockheed Mission Systems and Sensors, has started phased delivery to the Preble at the BAE Systems yard in San Diego. It will be the first laser weapon system to be integrated with a ship’s Aegis Combat System and power and cooling systems, said Jon Rambeau, Lockheed Martin’s vice president and general manager for Integration for Systems and Sensors, during a March 30 interview with Seapower. 

The 60-kilowatt HELIOS is scalable, Rambeau said, up to 120 kilowatts with minor modifications such as the addition of more fiber-optic laser modules. It has replaced the Preble’s forward Mk15 Close-In Weapon System.  

“We believe the 60- to 120-kilowatt-range systems can be effective against an ASCM [anti-ship cruise missile],” Rambeau said. “We’ve done some modeling that demonstrates that, we believe, and also looking soon to be able to back that up with some real-world test data. Watch for some news that should be coming soon as we continue the test program.”   

The 60-kilowatt HELIOS also can be used for surveillance and as a counter-unmanned aerial system dazzler. The HELIOS also is adaptable to the Ship Self-Defense System on aircraft carriers and newer amphibious warships. 

“After better than a decade of that question being out there, ‘When are these systems going to demonstrate that they’re tactically relevant,’ we’re really right at the threshold of that to the point where the conversation is not going to be anymore, ‘Are those going to work?’ and ‘Are they going to be useful on the battlefield?’” Rambeau said. “Rather, the question is going to turn more to funding priorities, price points, the capacity of our industry primes, and the supply chain that could build these things in full quantities and at scale and then, ultimately, conversations around doctrine and how they would actually be employed in combat. 

“It’s really exciting time in lasers and it has been a long time in coming,” he said. 

The HELIOS contract was awarded to Lockheed Martin in January 2018. The company is also developing a layered laser weapon system for the U.S. Army.   

SAN DIEGO — The  Coast Guard Cutter Kimball (WMSL 756) crew offloaded more than 11,300 pounds of cocaine and more than 4,000 pounds of marijuana worth more than $223 million March 31 in San Diego, the Coast Guard 11th District said in a release. 

The drugs were interdicted in international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean off the coasts of Central and South America, including contraband seized and recovered during eight interdictions of suspected drug smuggling vessels between late February and early March. 

“At-sea interdictions of pure cocaine are the most effective way to limit cartel’s destabilizing effects throughout the Western Hemisphere,” said Vice Adm. Michael McAllister, Coast Guard Pacific Area commander. “Coast Guard national security cutters like Kimball are the service’s most capable asset to strengthen maritime governance, but when team partners from the Royal Canadian Navy and U.S. Navy Littoral combat ships they leverage our network of international and interagency partners to reduce the availability of illicit drugs in the Western Hemisphere and facilitate U.S. Attorney’s efforts to close the cycle of justice.” 

The drugs were interdicted by the following ships (the total amount listed below is 11,301 pounds of cocaine and 4,076 pounds of marijuana): 

• Kimball’s crew was responsible for one interdiction seizing approximately 2,295 pounds of cocaine. 
• Coast Guard Cutter Legare’s (WMEC 912) crew was responsible for four interdictions, seizing approximately 4,714 pounds of cocaine and 1,826 pounds of marijuana. 
• Coast Guard Cutter Spencer’s (WMEC 905) crew was responsible for one interdiction seizing approximately 635 pounds of cocaine and 2,250 pounds of marijuana. 
• Jointly, Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Yellowknife (MM 706) and Kimball’s crews were responsible for one interdiction, seizing approximately 331 pounds of cocaine. 
• Jointly, the crews of the Kimball and Legare were responsible for one interdiction, seizing approximately 3,326 pounds of cocaine. 

“This marks the first of likely many counter-drug patrols for Kimball and I am extremely proud of our crew’s preparation and hard work to make this an extremely successful deployment. Kimball’s crew demonstrated that through teamwork we were able to remove over $100 million dollars of cocaine, preventing it from ever crossing our borders or entering our neighborhoods, and further removing a source of illicit revenue from transnational criminal networks,” said Capt. Thomas D’Arcy, commanding officer of the Kimball.

The Kimball is a 420-foot Legend-Class national security cutter and is homeported in Honolulu, Hawaii.

GALVESTON, Texas — A unique student project is helping the Coast Guard find small and hard to detect unmanned autonomous surface vessels that might be used to transport drugs into the U.S. 

Several USVs have been recovered attempting to transit drugs across the maritime border with Mexico and into California. The boats can carry about 90 pounds of cargo, which could be illegal narcotics or other hazardous cargo.

To learn how these boats might be detected by sensors, the Coast Guard engaged the National Security Innovation Network, a Department of Defense office which collaborates with major universities and the venture community to develop solutions that drive national security innovation. With Coast Guard Sector San Diego as the project sponsor, NSIN capstone students at San Diego State University and Rice University in Houston, Texas, have been prototyping boats this semester.

Four USVs have been seized by federal law enforcement authorities in Southern California. The first was found in March 2018, another in December 2020, and two more in February and March of 2021, suggesting a high likelihood there are many more that have gone undetected.

The vessels are three to four feet long and have a freeboard of just seven inches. They navigate autonomously and can travel for about 66 nautical miles at a speed of about 2.5 knots.

According to information provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, their above-water profile is minimal, which makes it hard for existing maritime domain awareness tools and detection capabilities to see them. Not only are they capable of reaching uninhabited shores with illegal narcotics, they could also penetrate defense layers surrounding coastal and harbor-based high value targets — military bases, power plants, or critical infrastructure — with explosives.

The purpose of the NSIN project is to improve coastal surveillance, detection and interdiction capabilities to threats posed by this evolving threat. The students were tasked with designing and testing a USV with similar characteristics to ones previously detected, and to test and demonstrate detection using an existing surveillance tool.

Students from Rice University built a replica boat that was “reverse engineered” and demonstrated in Galveston, Texas, March 29-30 to see how a special high-resolution and wide-angle camera called the WAV Surveillance System could be used to detect the boat in realistic conditions.

“The Rice student team designed and constructed a model that can be used to test existing systems leading to enhanced capabilities and also providing a roadmap for others to replicate similar platforms to routinely test their own system,” said Fritz Kuebler, Rice University’s Office of Research NSIN program director.

“This project has been underway for about two months and has involved extensive research, design and testing by the student team with regular interaction from the project sponsor,” Kuebler said.

“Coast GuardSector Houston-Galveston has been an ardent supporter of this project and provided assets to assist with the testing including deploying and recovering the [unmanned vessel] on the testing days, and coordinated participation with local maritime security stakeholders,” said Kuebler. 

WAV is a long-range video surveillance solution for homeland security applications and other situations that require persistent visual-domain awareness of very wide areas. It was designed by and developed by Innovative Signal Analysis Inc., of Richardson, Texas, and has both commercial and military applications. WAV is uniquely able to function as both a wide-angle and zoom camera at the same time, and is currently deployed in San Diego Harbor. 

“The WAV surveillance system is capable of finding these low probability of intercept targets, because it can survey a wide area, 90-degrees, at a high resolution at a higher refresh rate than a standard point-to-zoom camera,” said Jonathan Ray of Innovative Signal Analysis of Richardson, Texas, the company that makes WAV. “We take advantage of these components in our algorithms to build a history of detects of the object to improve location accuracy and object detection confidence.”

WAV’s imagery led to the eventual discovery of the autonomous USVs. 

“This project highlights the value of bright, dedicated STEM students working with national security experts to make a real difference,” Kuebler. “It also serves as a proof of concept and example for how creative thinking and new methodologies advances broader U.S. strategic objectives regarding maritime security and the value of this critical infrastructure.”

WASHINGTON — The keel for the future USS Patrick Gallagher (DDG 127) was ceremonially laid at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works on March 30, Team Ships Public Affairs said March 31.

The ship is named for Marine Corps Cpl. Patrick Gallagher, who received the Navy Cross for heroism during the Vietnam War when he managed to jump on and throw an enemy grenade into a river. He was killed in action just one year later.  The keel laying marks the 55th anniversary of his death. 

A contemporary keel laying ceremony recognizes the moment of a ship’s construction when two significant pieces of the hull structure are welded together and joined, constituting a major portion of the ship’s shape. The authentication or etching of the ship sponsors’ initials into a ceremonial keel plate will take place during the ceremony. The sponsors of DDG 127 are Gallagher’s three sisters: Teresa Keegan, Rosemarie Gallagher and Pauline Gallagher. 

“The future USS Patrick Gallagher will strengthen our maritime dominance and bring proven capability to the fleet,” said Capt. Seth Miller, DDG 51 class program manager, Program Executive Office – Ships. “This ship and all who serve aboard it will be a reminder of the steadfast commitment to our country that Cpl. Gallagher exhibited.” 

The final Arleigh Burke-class destroyer built in the Flight IIA configuration, DDG 127 is equipped with the Aegis Baseline 9C2 Combat System, which brings crucial Ballistic Missile Defense capabilities to the Fleet in addition to the ship’s primary missions of anti-air, anti-surface, anti-submarine, and strike warfare. 

BIW is also currently in production on the future USS Carl M. Levin (DDG 120), USS John Basilone (DDG 122), USS Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (DDG 124), USS Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG 126), USS William Charette (DDG 130), and USS Quentin Walsh (DDG 132). 

NORFOLK, Va. — A Navy E-2D Advanced Hawkeye assigned to an East Coast Airborne Command and Control Squadron (VAW) crashed in the vicinity of Wallops Island and Chincoteague, Virginia, March 30, the commander of Naval Air Force Atlantic public affairs said in a release. One crew member has died and two have been injured. 

The E-2D crashed at approximately 7:30 p.m. Two crew members were rescued by Maryland State Police and transported to Wallops Island for follow-on medical treatment for non-life-threatening injuries. The names of injured crewmembers will not be released due to privacy concerns. 

Unfortunately, the third crew member was found deceased in the aircraft. The Worcester County Fire Department Dive Team supported the search and recovery of the deceased. The name of the crew member killed will not be released at this time, pending primary next of kin notification.  

ARLINGTON, Va. — The commander of the U.S. 5th Fleet/Naval Forces Central Command said he is pleased with the results of the experimentation with unmanned vessels and artificial intelligence in his area of operations and predicts a significant expansion of their use in his area of responsibility in the near future. 

Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, speaking March 28 in an online discussion sponsored by the Washington think tank the Middle East Institute, said his task force for unmanned vehicle experimentation, Task Force 59, “has exceeded our every expectation.” 

Unmanned systems are not new to the 5th Fleet; it has operated RQ-4A Global Hawk surveillance unmanned aerial vehicles and Mk18 mine countermeasures unmanned underwater vehicles for years. But Cooper said the maturation of unmanned surface vessels is relatively new and has enabled a great expansion in their use in the role of maritime domain awareness, allowing his command to “put more eyes out on the water.”  

The admiral said by linking two USVs together, they could use “artificial intelligence to map the waters around them … detecting when something is unusual — smuggling, illegal fishing, you name it, and then sending the information back to the command center.

“That process has allowed us to expand our maritime domain awareness two or three times,” he said, noting that with more nations using USVs, the maritime domain awareness in the region could expand to 30 times the coverage. 

“Our goal is to have 100 of these USVs patrolling around the waters of the Middle East by the summer of 2023,” Cooper said. “It a heavily partnered effort; it would mostly be an investment by partners. … We’re going to find ourselves in a pretty good spot because the capabilities speak for themselves.”  

In January and February, about 80 unmanned systems were deployed in International Maritime Exercise 2022 in scenarios ranging over the Persian Gulf, North Arabian Sea, Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea.  

Task Force 59 has accrued more than 7,000 hours of operating USVs. One type of USV stayed at sea for 45 days without need of additional fuel or maintenance.  

For example, TF-59 has deployed high-endurance Saildrone USVs, which were controlled from Alameda, California, to patrol the Gulf of Aqaba. In another example, MARTAC provided five of its high-speed USVs for the experiments.   

Cooper said for the price of one Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, he could buy or lease around 2,000 Saildrone USVs. 

MCLEAN, Va. — HII announced March 30 its advanced unmanned underwater vehicle, REMUS 300, was selected as U.S. Navy’s next generation small UUV program of record. REMUS 300 technology was designed to advance distributed maritime operations by conducting critical underwater missions. 

The initial phase of the program includes the production and testing of REMUS 300 UUVs over the next year. 

“HII is proud of our longstanding partnership with the U.S. Navy and now, to lead in this important direction on behalf of our customer,” said Chris Kastner, president and CEO of HII. “This program demonstrates the value of our investment in autonomous and unmanned systems, and our customer familiarity. We are confident that these technologies will both support the Navy mission and enhance effectiveness for the all-domain force.” 

The vehicle incorporates advanced modularity and open architecture into a compact, man-portable design. 

“REMUS UUVs have been extending the capabilities of the warfighter since they were first used in combat during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003,” said Duane Fotheringham, president of the unmanned systems business group in HII’s Mission Technologies division. “We’ve been enhancing, maturing and refining this technology since then, and are pleased the REMUS 300 meets needs for the Navy’s next generation UUV program.” 

The SUUV program, also called Lionfish, is the next-generation Mk18 Mod 1 Swordfish program, which also utilizes HII’s REMUS technology. The selection follows a two-year rapid prototyping effort involving multiple user evaluations and spiral developments to refine the REMUS 300 design. The acquisition was facilitated by the Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit and their commercial solutions opening process via the other transaction authority. 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Defense Department has added another tactical jet squadron to eastern Europe to shore up U.S. European Command and possible NATO forces in the region, the Defense Department said.  

Defense Department spokesman John F. Kirby told reporters March 29 that a 10-plane Marine Corps F/A-18 squadron based at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina, would be dispatched to an airfield — which he did not name — in eastern Europe.  

Kirby did not name the squadron but referred to the recent Exercise Cold Response in Norway, where Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 312 (VMFA-312) was deployed. It is likely that VMFA-312 was the squadron chosen. VMFA-312 operates F/A-18C/D Hornets. Other Hornet squadrons based at Beaufort include VMFA-115, VMFA(AW)-224 and VMFA(AW)-533. 

Kirby also announced that “a couple of Marine C-130s” were also going to be repositioned to eastern Europe. These likely are KC-130J Super Hercules tanker/transports from Marine Aerial Refueler/Transport Squadron 252, base at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina. 

Also deploying from Exercise Cold Response to Lithuania are Marines assigned to Marine Air Control Group 28, Kirby said. 

On March 29, Kirby announced that a Navy EA-18G Growler electronic attack squadron, VAQ-134, arrived at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, to strengthen U.S. forces on NATO’s Eastern Flank.