Summary: As traditional naval assets like aircraft carriers become vulnerable to anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) systems, especially those developed by China, the importance of undersea and unmanned technologies is increasing.

-The Manta Ray is designed for long-duration, autonomous operations in hostile environments, a crucial adaptation as the U.S. shifts focus from surface warships to more versatile and less detectable underwater and aerial drones.

From Aircraft Carriers to UUVs: Adapting to Modern Naval Threats

Northrop Grumman’s Manta Ray is an experimental, extra-large unmanned underwater vehicle. Looking more like something from an X-Men film than a real piece of military equipment, this next-generation unmanned system is a testbed for multiple experimental capabilities that DARPA is testing as part of a larger effort to push the U.S. military into the next century. 

Even before the Manta Ray began its sea trials, though, UUVs were already becoming an increasingly important part of modern naval warfare.

In the fall of 2016, a tense standoff took place between the U.S. Navy and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy after the Chinese seized an experimental U.S. Navy UUV. 

China targeted the drone for two reasons: First, they were trying to test the resolve of the incoming president, Donald Trump. Second, Beijing wanted to learn the secrets of the U.S. military’s advanced UUV capability. After all, China is also investing significantly in their own UUVs.

The Age of Aircraft Carriers is Over

We are well beyond the age of aircraft carriers. The next great war, which is coming sooner than most are willing to admit, will be waged beneath the surface of the South and East China Seas, as well as possibly the Indian Ocean and the Taiwan Strait. 

Beijing has spent more than a decade developing a robust set of anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) systems. These are deployed along China’s coastline and throughout the region. China’s A2/AD capabilities can threaten U.S. military airbases in the region and hold most U.S. Navy surface warships, including aircraft carriers, at bay. 

Should the American surface warships approach the range of these systems, they would risk severe damage or destruction at the hands of China’s advanced A2/AD capabilities. Thus, America’s undersea capabilities will take precedence. 

With U.S. submarine production at historic lows, the existing force must be augmented with far cheaper unmanned systems that are just as capable. The Manta and far smaller systems will offer decisive advantages to the Americans after China nullifies the threat U.S. surface warships pose to their forces operating in the region.

Just consider the specs of the Manta Ray, which admittedly is a prototype. According to its designers, the Manta can conduct “long-duration, long-range missions in ocean environments where humans can’t go.” The writers at The Warzone explain that, “A key part of its functioning relates to the addition of energy-saving technologies—allowing it to hibernate in a low-power state on the ocean floor—and energy-generating technologies.” 

The Manta Ray is the wave of the future, especially when it comes to the inevitable conflict with Beijing for dominance in the Indo-Pacific.

Using Nuclear-Powered Subs Into Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Carriers

Even without fully automated, unmanned underwater systems, America’s nuclear-powered subs could be used to operate as underwater aircraft carriers. In fact, a submarine aircraft carrier was an innovative concept that goes back to the final days of the Japanese Empire at the end of the Second World War. 

Back then, the Japanese were desperate to maintain their naval aviation capabilities, even after their aircraft carrier fleet was sunk by the Americans. The Japanese I-400 submarine was massive.

About the size of the Soviet Union’s immense Typhoon class, these subs were designed to carry seaplanes in their forward sections. The seaplanes had folding wings to fit inside the narrow spaces of the I-400. 

The I-400 would surface near the Panama Canal and deploy the seaplane bombers. Those bombers would attack the locks of the Panama Canal to disable it, and then land on the ocean.

The I-400 was built but never deployed. The Americans captured it when the Japanese surrendered. But the concept is one that has fascinated American designers since 1945. Because U.S. aircraft carriers have been the dominant warship for decades, no real effort was made to develop underwater aircraft carriers for the Navy.

The cost would be high, and the efficacy of such submarines would very much be in doubt. Thankfully for the Americans today, unlike the Japanese of yesteryear, unmanned aerial vehicles are smaller and cheaper than manned aircraft.

The Navy has already successfully tested sea-based UAVs that can be deployed from the vertical launch tubes of U.S. nuclear submarines. 

So if China’s A2/AD systems rendered American maritime aviation capabilities ineffective, and if there were not enough UUVs available, the Navy could conceivably deploy its nuclear-powered submarines close to Chinese areas of operations and launch swarms of UAVs at Chinese military targets. These drones could take over many of the functions of aircraft carrier-based manned air systems.

The Navy Must Get This Right

The surface warship has been greatly diminished by the rise of A2/AD. Its era of dominance is coming to a close, especially that of the aircraft carrier. The age of the submarine and the drones – both undersea and aerial – is at hand. 

The U.S. Navy must embrace this. 

The Manta Ray and all other UUVs should be streamlined and mass-produced for immediate deployment, while all U.S. nuclear-powered submarines are outfitted with a fleet of UAVs and smaller UUVs.

About the Author

Brandon J. Weichert, a National Interest national security analyst, is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, the Asia Times, and The-Pipeline. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His next book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine, is due October 22 from Encounter Books. Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.

Image Credit: Creative Commons.