A top US Navy chief said last week that artificial intelligence is already being built into the US fleet, but said it will likely be some time before they can hand over full operational control to an AI system.
At a Navy League event last week in Maryland, Chief of Naval Operations Michael Gilday said the Navy has more than 50,000 nautical miles under its belt of “transit in an autonomous mode.”
“We have great confidence in the AI’s ability to follow rules and avoid traffic, to stay within the channel when necessary,” he said. “We’ve made repeated transfers from the Gulf Coast of the United States through the Panama Canal and beyond — to Port Hueneme, California.”
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The destroyer USS Gravely moored in Poland in 2022 while resupplying. Naval leaders have said they would be using AI more in fleet technology, saying it is already being used to move ships around the world. (Omar Marques/Getty Images)
But he said more work and trust is needed before the Navy feels comfortable handing over direct control of ships to AI systems for complex missions.
“It’s a whole other level… to give an unmanned ship a mission and then have that ship report, mission complete,” he said. “So this becomes an iterative process.”
Gilday said he envisions integrating AI into ships that are “minimally crewed” for a period of time before they are fully autonomous.
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Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday, seen here in 2021, said more AI capabilities are being incorporated into the fleet. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“We have to go slow to go fast, if you will,” he said. “It has to be very conscious, with a much respect for AI. And we still have a lot to learn.”
Naval leaders have said for years it supports a growing unmanned fleet and have put forward budget plans during the Biden administration that advocate for a slowly dwindling manned fleet. Gilday and others have said that incorporating new technologies into the fleet could create a smaller but smarter naval presence around the world.
But many Republicans and Democrats have argued that the Navy is sacrificing current naval strength to push for a new high-tech fleet that isn’t quite ready to be built. For the past two years, Congress has cut key elements of the Navy’s budget plan and provided funding to keep the manned U.S. fleet at or near par.
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The Navy is under fire from lawmakers for moving too quickly to dismantle manned ships in favor of building advanced and unmanned ships. (US Navy via Getty Images)
Gilday said part of the process of building a highly advanced fleet that includes AI and other technology is working with U.S. partner countries and companies.
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“No nation can do this alone,” he said. “We welcome the industry and we welcome all our allies and partners to join us in building a hybrid fleet. And while we still have so much to learn, we are ready to scale these operations at the fleet level.”
Pete Kasperowicz is a political editor at Fox News Digital.