US Navy to Apply Unmanned AI Technologies in Middle East

The US Navy has announced the creation of a new task force that will find possible ways for the service to apply unmanned and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the Middle East.

According to task force commodore Capt. Michael Brasseur, the US 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain faces urgent challenges requiring technological support.

The service seeks to deploy dual-use maritime robotics to put many sensors in the water. “For us, it comes all the way down to maritime domain awareness, knowing what’s going on and then being more precise with the manned assets,” he was quoted as saying by Navy Times.

Brasseur further stated that the navy hopes to deploy and evaluate unmanned surface vessels and unmanned aerial systems for use in real missions.

Since last month, the service has been taking inventory of all unmanned systems and commercial robotics in the Middle East to identify which can be easily repurposed for complex military missions.