Sea-Air-Space 2019: US Navy official ‘optimistic’ about unmanned funding
A US Navy official who oversees the development of various unmanned maritime systems expects his initiatives to proceed despite fresh uncertainty about future defence funding.
‘I remain optimistic that we’re going to continue moving forward on all of these programmes,’ said CAPT Pete Small, program manager for unmanned maritime systems.
To free up billions of dollars for new technology, including autonomous vessels, the navy in March proposed retiring the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman (CVN-75) about 25 years early. But that savings evaporated when the Trump administration, bowing to congressional pressure, announced on 30 April that it will preserve
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