By George Galdorisi
One of the most frequently-read recent articles on this site is Mike Daum’s excellent piece: Infantry Wins Battles, Logistics Wins Wars: The Role of the Army’s ‘Little Navy’ in the Pacific. As the title implies, this piece is focused on the U.S. Army; however, two key statements universalize Daum’s argument. He argues that “getting American troops into the fight is relatively easy—the hard part is keeping them there” and that “one suggestion is to integrate uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) into the logistics chain”—both of these points extend beyond the Army’s needs.
The challenge of providing logistics sustainment to forces in the field is not a new phenomenon. Over 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu noted, “The line between disorder and order lies in logistics.” One need not be a historian to understand the importance of logistics to warfare over many millennia. From Alexander the Great (who noted: “My logisticians are a humorless lot…they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay”) to Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan (“Logistics are as vital to military success as daily food is to daily work”) to General Robert Barrow, then-Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, who coined a phrase that is still a staple of U.S. War College curricula: “Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics.”
Navy-Marine Corps amphibious operations represent perhaps the one area where logistics cannot fail. Once Marines are on the beach, they have few options to continue the fight if their logistics train breaks down—and might even have to withdraw. The prospect of assaulting a hostile shore today is more daunting than ever. The capacity of Marines to seize the beach and push inland depends on the security of their logistical support.
The Navy-Marine Corps team has pushed the envelope by leveraging new technologies to make the nation’s expeditionary assault force more distributed, lethal, survivable, and sustainable. Given the importance of logistics to the success of any amphibious assault, the sustainability function is one that is ripe for new technology insertion.
Enhancing Expeditionary Logistics with Emerging Technology
For the Navy-Marine Corps team, the importance of logistics figures most prominently during an amphibious assault. The INDOPACOM Joint Exercise Valiant Shield, overseen by Commander Marine Forces Pacific (MARFORPAC) experimented with using emerging technology to provide sustainment to Marines on the beachhead during this critical juncture.
Marines in the fight use enormous quantities of fuel, food, ammunition, and other material as they attempt to move off the beachhead. While many functions are important in an amphibious operation, once the assault is underway and Marines are on the beach, sustainment is crucial in ensuring their success. The mission will ultimately fail if the Marines are not able to have reliable and continuous sustainment.
Using manned naval craft for this sustainment mission puts operators at unnecessary risk of enemy fire. Using scarce manned craft to perform this mission also takes them away from more necessary roles such as moving men and material between ships of the expeditionary strike group. That is why this major Navy-Marine Corps amphibious exercise evaluated the ability of unmanned surface vessels (USVs) to conduct this sustainment mission.
MARFORPAC used USVs during Valiant Shield 2018 to resupply the landing force. The exercise coordinator used a catamaran hull 12-foot MANTAS USV to provide rapid ship-to-shore logistics sustainment. While this small, autonomously-operated USV carried only 120 pounds of cargo, the proof-of-concept worked and demonstrated that unmanned surface vessels could effectively resupply troops ashore.
Using unmanned vehicles for the sustainment mission can be a game-changer for expeditionary assault forces. Beyond removing human operators from harm’s way, using USVs in this role frees manned craft for other missions. Additionally, having a continuous, preprogrammed, logistics resupply process to perform one of the dull, dirty and dangerous functions important in an amphibious assault means that there is one less thing for the commander to have to manage during these operations.
This proof-of-concept with a 12-foot MANTAS USV achieved positive results. That said, resupply in 120-pound increments is far less than is required to provide what is needed by the Marines on the beach. The Valiant Shield exercise provided the impetus and inspiration to continue to explore the use of USVs for amphibious force sustainment. Now, the Navy and Marine Corps are looking to “scale-up” small USVs and continue to experiment with using larger USVs to provide greater sustainment quantities.
“Scaling-Up” to Deliver Expeditionary Logistics
To undertake this scaling-up effort, the Navy and Marine Corps asked the maker of the MANTAS family of USVs (Maritime Tactical Systems, Inc.) to develop a larger proof-of-concept unmanned surface vehicle for this logistics sustainment mission using the same catamaran hull design as the smaller vessel used in Valiant Shield.
A 38-foot “Devil Ray” unmanned surface vehicle is now operable and has participated in numerous Navy and Marine Corps exercises and has demonstrated the ability to provide logistics support at scale. While this may not be the ultimate size or type of USV the expeditionary assault force needs as a long-term solution, it will go a long way to advancing the state-of-the-art in unmanned semi-autonomous or autonomous logistics support.
While there are a range of larger USVs that can be evaluated by the Navy and Marine Corps, the basic specifications of the 38-foot Devil Ray (T38) provide an indication of the ability of USVs to provide a steady, continuous stream of logistics support to Marines on the beach. The T38 can carry a payload up to 4,500 pounds. The vessel travels at a cruise speed of 25 knots and draws just 18 inches of draft. The speed and carrying capacity of the T38-sized USV allows it to fulfill this and many other important logistics functions.
Delivering Logistics Sustainment to Troops Ashore
An amphibious formation typically stands no more than 15-25 nautical miles off the beach being assaulted. Using a notional stand-off distance of 20 nautical miles, an amphibious formation equipped with four T38s traveling at their cruise speed of 25 knots could deliver 18,000 pounds of material from the amphibious ships to the beach per hour, allowing the short time needed for loading and unloading the craft. Multiply that by twenty-four hours and you get a buildup of well-over 400,000 pounds of vital material per day, enough to support a substantial force of troops ashore.
The Navy and Marine Corps are planning an ambitious array of exercises in the years ahead. Based on the promising performance of small, unmanned surface vessels in support of expeditionary assault forces, the Navy and Marine Corps would be well-served to experiment further with larger USVs to perform this vital logistics sustainment mission.
Those nations and navies with significant amphibious assault forces would be well served to leverage what the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have already demonstrated in exercises such as Valiant Shield and explore the advantages of using unmanned surface vehicles to rapidly, reliably and continuously resupply troops ashore.
George Galdorisi is a career naval aviator and national security professional. His 30-year career as a naval aviator culminated in fourteen years of consecutive service as executive officer, commanding officer, commodore, and chief of staff. Additionally, he led the U.S. delegation for military-to-military talks with the Chinese Navy. He is the author of 18 books, including four New York Times bestsellers. His most recent book, “Algorithms and Armageddon: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Future Wars, was published by the U.S. Naval Institute Press in 2024.
This article was first published on 2 January 2025 on the Center for Maritime Strategy.
Featured photo: MARTAC USVS are not built as single platforms but to operate as a mesh fleet carrying diverse payloads. Here two of the MARTAC platforms are seen with the smaller MANTAS operating with a DEVIL RAY. Credit Photo: MARTAC
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