A warship that can’t be remotely controlled and has no weapons.
What’s it good for then?
The first aerial drones were purely for observation and didn’t have guns either. Once the public got used to them, that’s when the guns turned up. They’re even starting to chat about giving the AI’s authority to fire now.
This is a prototype and example so the public gets used to the idea. The next generation will be remotely controlled with guns, they’ll probably be deployed in regions with heavy pirate activity and the public will slowly become comfortable with the idea.
Arrogance involves arrogation. Don’t see it in your story. The smaller boats right to be spoken to in terms they understand on the first pass was not disrespected. Their right to be respected was also not messed with.
Funny thing about the US Navy. They don’t actually give a fuck if they run you over. They don’t have to. That’s the sea, and they’re the bigger boat.
“I was on the bridge of a destroyer, transiting a busy shipping area, and
I remember listening to them trying to contact a Greek bulk carrier on
the radio.”
At least that ship survived. Your story is similar to how USS Vincennes tried to contact an Iranian Airbus, giving misleading information using a frequency a civilian airplane wouldn’t listen to, and when it didn’t answer they shot it down. The crew even got medals for good performance.
I think the US and its allies and enemies will do whatever they think they can get away with. That means the Russians or the PRC or the Israelis will do a risk analysis, and if they think they can get away with boarding a US spy ship, they’ll do it.
For instance, about 15 years ago a PRC jet bumped a US spy plane and forced it to make an emergency landing in China. The Chinese repatriated the US service members pretty quickly, but they held onto the plane until they were done checking it out.
The North Koreans straight up sank a South Korean vessel a few years ago. They also captured the USS Pueblo, held its crew prisoner for 11 months. They still have the ship, moored in Pyongyang. The Israelis attacked the USS Liberty. The Iraqis attacked the USS Stark.
A few months ago, the Turks shot down a Russian fighter. Said Russian fighter was reportedly bombing targets in Turkey. No war ensued.
It’s not about idiocy or anything else. It’s about a global game of chicken that we’re all playing.
Believe it or not…this is the transcript of an actual radio conversation between a US naval ship and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October 1995. The Radio conversation was released by the Chief of Naval Operations on Oct. 10, 1995.
US Ship: Please divert your course 0.5 degrees to the south to avoid a collision.
CND reply: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.
US Ship: This is the Captain of a US Navy Ship. I say again, divert your course.
CND reply: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course!
US Ship: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS CORAL SEA*, WE ARE A LARGE WARSHIP OF THE US NAVY. DIVERT YOUR COURSE NOW!!
I used the term as “an insulting way of thinking or behaving that comes from believing that you are better, smarter, or more important than other people”. One thing that stuck in my head was how one of the Naval Officers kept saying “We are a professional organization” like it was his catch phrase or something. Oh- And the Greek Ship was not really the smaller vessel.
But I had not previously known “arrogate”
I don’t doubt that they’ll fancy arming them eventually; but my understanding is that there is a specific niche for this device:
Since the cold war, nuclear armed submarines have been treated as a relatively durable ‘second strike’ mechanism because they are substantially more mobile than ICBM silos and have markedly better endurance and are harder to intercept than bomber groups flying around on standby. For this purpose, the countries that have them will send them out to just skulk around and be ready for long periods of time. Submarines without nuclear warheads don’t have quite the same dash; but also do a fair amount of skulking around since there aren’t currently any naval battles calling for them.
Because submarines are tricky to detect, especially at great distances, the preferred strategy is ‘if you find one, shadow it and stay on it until it goes home’. This is something that is obviously going to be easier and cheaper if you can have a robot do it, rather than needing to supply and potentially rotate a crew.
If you can do it cheaply enough, you can make a major nuisance of yourself because military submarines are more in the $400 million(for a comparatively low end diesel/electric or similar) to billion+(for fancy nuclear ones) range, so it becomes quite plausible to have a $20 million robot boat either waiting outside a port for a sub to emerge or tailing one until it goes home, in sufficient numbers that nobody could possibly afford to out-build you. And the submarine you don’t detect is quite dangerous; but they are pretty delicate if you know where they are.
He already used it for starships in The Naked Sun wherein Solarians build Three Laws non-compliant robot brains for the express purpose of automating warships.
I’m American, which is why my country’s reluctance to metricize irritates me so. Also, the inventor of the concept of wireless communication was a Scotsman, namely James Clerk Maxwell, though the American David Hughes (English born) was the first to acomplish it in a very limited fashion via electromagnetic induction over an extremely short distance. The German Hertz (the namesake of the SI unit of oscillating frequency) was the first to acomplish EM transmission. Science and technology are human endeavors.
And by the rules of the sea, which apply, as opposed to the rules of civil discourse, which do not, the US Navy (or any larger vessel) is correct.
Are you being a bit arrogant in considering that warships should behave people passing each other on a public sidewalk in a civilized nation? Because they are not there, and they should not.
“We are a professional organization”
well, they are. Yielding isn’t the business of warships.
Source: Navy family. I love the Navy, and they’re a bag of assholes, but they are professionals. Asshole is their job, when at sea. Being considerate of feelings costs lives in that context.
as @fuzzyfungus pointed out these are being specifically built to shadow submarines. that’s what the article says as well.
we are moving away from remote control to autonomous directives. think military versions of google self driving cars.
don’t get me wrong, i’m against war and can see the potential danger that the path we are on leads to. i agree with your concern.
my point was that the “concerned people” who were concerned specifically about this vessel, that it could be remote controlled to attack america, didn’t bother to learn about it. this one can’t be remote controlled to attack the USA because it isn’t remote controlled nor armed.
I believe that anyone engaged in ship to ship communications to facilitate safe passage should use the rules, language, and conventions that are used by everyone else when making those calls. When we call each other during a crossing situation, it is not for social discourse. It is to agree on each ship’s intentions, so nobody gets drowned and eaten by fish.
but you give a good example of the attitude I am talking about. Yielding is the business of anyone who is the burdened vessel in accordance with the International Rules of the Road. Which means that, among other things, a shallow draft vessel cannot impede the passage in a channel of a vessel with a deep draft that constrains it to the confines of that channel, and that a vessel restricted in her ability to maneuver is privileged above a vessel not so restricted. There are many such situations, and it does not matter if one of those ships is painted grey. There are some specific rules about Naval Protection Zones, but those are rare and very specific circumstances.
None of this has anything to do with consideration or feelings. Most ships will try to stay out of the way of Military Vessels, because they tend to be unpredictable. Doing that is not always an option. Sometimes, we are required to stay in defined channels, or are in other situations which give us no choice but to operate in their proximity. It can be pretty scary. One thing to keep in mind is that the Watch Office on the Navy Ship almost certainly has much less actual sea experience than the Officer on the bridge of the Civilian Ship. And experience matters in complicated traffic situations. The Navy compensates for this by keeping much higher levels of manning, and allowing each person to have a narrow range of responsibilities. I understand that this is a system developed to make the Navy effective in combat. I don’t have a problem with that. But it is something that I have to think about when I am trying to predict what the other guy is going to do as we approach each other.
