The Navy is developing weapons and other military systems to be deployed inside shipping containers and used on both drone ships and traditional warships, according to Navy officials.
The program was launched by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle last month and is a strategic effort to use modular, containerized weapons and payloads to enhance combat operations.
The containerized systems will include drone swarms that can be released from shipping containers and used by the Navy’s Pacific Fleet.
Other containers will house logistics and support equipment, anti-submarine warfare sensors, and radars that will support both electronic and kinetic warfare.
Several types of missile systems will also be fitted inside containers — matching similar systems already deployed by China and Russia.
Rear Adm. Derek A. Trinque, surface warfare director in the office of the CNO, told a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing on Tuesday that modular payloads in containers will be used with the Navy’s drone ship — the Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel.
The MUSV will hold two 40-foot shipping containers on its deck.
The Navy plans to deploy over 30 MUSVs in the Indo-Pacific along with thousands of small, unmanned surface vessels and large numbers of unmanned aerial systems operating from either manned ships or drone ships, Navy Capt. Garrett Miller, commander of Surface Development Group One, said Monday during a talk at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Symposium.
Adm. Trinque said that after a specific request from the Pacific Fleet for shipping container payloads that are now being acquired, “we recognized that there were going to be a similar collection of requirements from all of the fleets.”
Some will be logistics containers, others will hold sensors for hunting enemy submarines or radars for targeting and weapon guidance. Still others will contain “effectors” — military jargon for missiles and other weapons such as electronic warfare or directed energy arms, he said.
The Navy is working with defense contractors to rapidly develop the systems, he said.
In joint prepared testimony with civilian defense official Rebecca Gassler, Adm. Trinque said the key to the medium-sized drone ship is “its ability to employ containerized naval combat capabilities that can be rapidly embarked.”
“By designing systems to fit within standard International Organization for Standardization containers, we will rapidly add new capabilities — such as sensors, communication relays, logistics packages or weapon systems — to the fleet,” they said.
“This flexibility further enables tailored force packages, augmenting our general-purpose forces to address specific mission needs.”
Containerized weapons and systems give the Navy “speed, scale and flexibility needed to maintain an advantage in all operational environments,” the statement said.
The container program is part of a larger CNO effort to produce more flexible naval power with ships and drones. “I want to containerize everything,” Adm. Caudle said during a defense conference last month.
