The U.S. Navy’s top officer previewed a new strategy – dubbed Hedge Strategy – that would pair unmanned vehicles, autonomous systems, and emerging technology with the service’s existing fleet to improve their ability to respond to increasingly complex scenarios.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said the current security environment is marked by competition with other major powers and a growing number of asymmetric threats.
“It’s an era defined by unprecedented technological advances, where our competitors and ever-evolving adversaries are innovating at the speed of emerging threats,” Caudle said in his keynote address on Tuesday at the Apex Defense conference in Washington, D.C.
He explained that the Hedge Strategy would deliver a Navy that is “lethal, agile, responsive, and flexible,” in the face of complex scenarios.
“It balances cost-effective, scalable, risk-worthy mass with the most advanced multi-mission platforms we can build and sustain, while taking stock in the likelihood of pacing scenarios and the severity of risk that’s attached,” he said.
As part of the strategy, the Navy plans to invest in “tailored forces” and “tailored offsets,” which Caudle described as groupings of manned and unmanned platforms, autonomous systems, and logistics nodes designed for specific, high-consequence situations.
These are intended for scenarios that are “too consequential to ignore but too unlikely to drive our overall fleet design.”
Examples of tailored offsets include expendable unmanned or autonomous systems and low-cost drone interceptors, Caudle said. He also cited “attritable and easily replenishable” uncrewed surface vessels for scouting, screening, and striking, as well as unmanned underwater vehicles for area denial and counter-mine missions.
“Together, these tailored capabilities will amplify and complement the main battle force through lethal outputs that are scalable, deployable, adaptable, and cost-effective by their very nature,” he said.