

Navy: Self-guided unmanned patrol boats make debut - AustinLin
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/8dd7002c4342432c9fe4468fd8eae821/navy-self-guided-unmanned-patrol-boats-make-debut

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JoeAltmaier
I'm unconvinced. More patrol boats are clearly a good thing for protecting a
high-value ship. But not having a sailor on board seems pointless. It makes
the patrol boat More unreliable (if communications are lost the boat shuts
down). It doesn't save manpower because sailors monitor the boat 1-on-1 to
prevent tragedies. Why not just have that sailor on the boat? And the boat
shown doesn't seem any cheaper - its a regular patrol boat with robotic
systems installed - still has manual controls, seats, cargo space as if it
were to be manned.

And what can a patrol boat do? It can't board another boat, take over its
controls and redirect it. It can only choose to shoot it (with onboard remote-
control gun) or not. Very much limited in mission capability.

Whereas a very-much-cheaper drone boat of 1-2 meters in size would be harder
for other combatants to detect, could travel in novel ways (submersible? High-
speed hydrofoil?), and could act as a torpedo if needed to disable another
combatant. Kind of like quad-coptors vs full-sized helicopters.

