Are Nuclear Armed Drones Inevitable?
The Royal Navy currently maintains four Vanguard class, ballistic missile submarines, as the United Kingdom’s continuous-at-sea nuclear deterrent. Maintaining the system costs the treasury, and the taxpayer, £2.4 billion per year. There are four vessels, which is the minimum number required to ensure that the UK constantly has a set of missiles available for launch. At any time; one boat is going on patrol, one is coming off, one is undergoing maintenance and one crew is on leave.
The move towards robotising naval vessels is already under way. The US Navy plans to deploy the first Zumwalt class ship into active service this year. Automation on the USS Zumwalt, enabled by six million lines of Linux code, will half the number of crew needed to operate the ship, compared to similar vessels.
Since the launch of the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear powered submarine, in 1954; the limiting factor that restricts patrol length was no longer fuel, fresh water, or breathable air. Nuclear powered naval craft were only to be limited by food for, and the morale of, the crew.
Reducing the number of mouths to feed by half, could reduce the number of boats needed to maintain continuous-at-sea deterrence from four down to three. Quite a saving for the taxpayer.
Automation also raises the possibility of an unmanned, fully robotic, ballistic missile submarine. Or one could call it a ‘doomsday device’. Is such a device far-fetched? It might turn out to be inevitable, if needs were driven by a future arms race in this area.
It is feared that Russia intends to deploy undersea drones to track and neutralise the nuclear deterrents deployed by the navies of France, the US and the UK. A nuclear powered and armed, unmanned undersea vehicle, – UUV, would only need to return to port for maintenance. Similar to the exploration vehicles sent to the furthest reaches of the solar system, onto the surfaces of moons and distant planets, and into the depths of the oceans; it wouldn’t need to bother with a life support system.
The cheapness of such a system would excite governments, politicians and taxpayers the world over. Lowering the barrier of entry for nations who don’t yet have, but might want to have in the future, a survivable undersea nuclear deterrent.
The move towards robotising naval vessels is already under way. The US Navy plans to deploy the first Zumwalt class ship into active service this year. Automation on the USS Zumwalt, enabled by six million lines of Linux code, will half the number of crew needed to operate the ship, compared to similar vessels.
Since the launch of the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear powered submarine, in 1954; the limiting factor that restricts patrol length was no longer fuel, fresh water, or breathable air. Nuclear powered naval craft were only to be limited by food for, and the morale of, the crew.
Reducing the number of mouths to feed by half, could reduce the number of boats needed to maintain continuous-at-sea deterrence from four down to three. Quite a saving for the taxpayer.
Automation also raises the possibility of an unmanned, fully robotic, ballistic missile submarine. Or one could call it a ‘doomsday device’. Is such a device far-fetched? It might turn out to be inevitable, if needs were driven by a future arms race in this area.
It is feared that Russia intends to deploy undersea drones to track and neutralise the nuclear deterrents deployed by the navies of France, the US and the UK. A nuclear powered and armed, unmanned undersea vehicle, – UUV, would only need to return to port for maintenance. Similar to the exploration vehicles sent to the furthest reaches of the solar system, onto the surfaces of moons and distant planets, and into the depths of the oceans; it wouldn’t need to bother with a life support system.
The cheapness of such a system would excite governments, politicians and taxpayers the world over. Lowering the barrier of entry for nations who don’t yet have, but might want to have in the future, a survivable undersea nuclear deterrent.
mpfrancis 