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Technology & Innovation

Are autonomous ships and vehicles ‘unmanned’ or ‘uncrewed’?

Adam James Fenton and Ioannis Chapsos
08 October 2022
Archived
9 min
PME All levels

BLUF

The term ‘unmanned’ is a hangover from the age of sail. More appropriate terms are 'uncrewed', 'crewless', or 'autonomous.'

Summary

Adam James Fenton and Ioannis Chapsos writing in DefenseNews, make the following points:
  • In the U.S. Navy, women represent 19% of officers and 20% of enlisted personnel.
  • Uncrewed and autonomous vessels will be open to cyber-attack.
  • The International Maritime Organisation has a “four degrees of autonomy” framework.
  • A Degree Three ship is remotely controlled from another location without mariners.
  • A Degree four ship is fully autonomous.
Learn more about uncrewed and autonomous vessels.

References

Recent Runway Posts related to this topic:
  • This Destroyer Is About to Control Unmanned Ships and Aircraft - The Runway (airforce.gov.au)
References from the Web:
  • JUN 2022 RAN debuts new high-speed uncrewed surface vessel-Australian Defence Magazine
  • AUG 2022 Aboard the autonomous Mariner, the Navy’s latest unmanned surface ship-Breaking Defence
  • Autonomous vessels in Australia-Australian Government-Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
Source Information: DefenseNews
  • Article Source:  Defense News, Covering the politics, business and technology of defense | Defense News
  • Media Check: Media Bias/Fact Check (mediabiasfactcheck.com)/ DefenseNews
  • RAAF RUNWAY: RATIONALE, GUIDELINES, LEARNING OUTCOMES, ETC | The Runway (airforce.gov.au)
 

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