Consequences….. works just as well against Russia…
Pentagon Plans Sea Drone Fleet for Possible China War
The Pentagon is embarking on a $1 billion program to build an armada of remote-controlled killer sea drones.
The effort is the first phase of the U.S. Department of Defense's (DoD) Replicator Initiative to build thousands of autonomous war-ready vehicles as tools to "deter conflict and, if deterrence fails, to fight and win the war," Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said last month.
The announcement comes amid concerns in Washington, D.C., over a potential future attack against Taiwan by China, which the DoD considers a "pacing challenge."
The U.S. is the self-ruled island's main arms supplier, but it maintains a longstanding policy of "strategic ambiguity" to keep China guessing on whether Washington would commit American forces to Taiwan's defense.
Hicks said Monday that the department will ask lawmakers to allocate $500 million for Replicator this fiscal year, possibly as a reprogramming request, and another half billion dollars in the budget the DoD has submitted for fiscal year 2025, U.S. Naval Institute News reported.
In addition to the sea-skimming drones, the DoD's Defense Innovation Unit is working on software to enable swarms of surface and airborne drones to seek out targets on their own, with the decision to attack resting with human coordinators…..