The Lightly Manned Autonomous Combat Capability (LMACC)

Abstract

As technology continues to move forward and a continued emphasis is placed on construction of large ships and submarines, there is another possibility. That is to construct a third tier of small combatants that project power from the sea in contested environments and employ a “shoot first” backed by a “second salvo.” These vessels would be constructed based on the lessons learned from automation of the medium unmanned surface vessel (MUSV) Sea Hunter, in which most ship functions and basic navigation would be automated. The new vessel, called Sea Fighter, would have a crew of 15 and have a single combat mission: to deliver long-range precision weapons and distribute secondary combat functions among the pack of Sea Fighters and Sea Hunters. An analysis of total ship costs is applied in a simulation and comparison to other vessels. The simulation is transportable and can be reused to help determine the best possible vessel for this task.