GARCs and Liberty Ships: Bellwether Defense Initiatives

Along a remote stretch of Baltimore Harbor, an innovative and urgently needed solution to America’s naval needs is diligently yet obscurely underway.  The work echoes the past as, decades ago, that same stretch of waterfront was a larger, busier, and noisier exemplar of America’s Freedom’s Forge; an extraordinary burst of American shipbuilding and manufacturing innovation.

Technology and naval warfare have changed.  The conflict in Ukraine has demonstrated the efficacy and lethality of scaled uncrewed systems (UxS) on the modern battlefield and at sea.  Ukrainian ingenuity, the urgency of war, and the need for lightning-fast reaction and adaptability are on display daily.  State and non-state actors have taken note, and are rapidly adopting, adapting, and advancing UxS capabilities. That is a challenge and opportunity for our warfighting plans and how we introduce new systems and increased lethality into our Navy.

Already in the wings, and one of the first to the table was GARC, a small 16-foot unmanned craft built, at private expense, for the U.S. Navy.  Its practical design accommodates a range of missions from area denial to sensing for expanded situational awareness.  Size, speed, seakeeping, and shallow draft add to its versatility and deployability.  The Defense Department obligated more than $160 million for the system and the Navy stood up a new organization to integrate, scale, experiment, and employ GARC and other like systems.  GARC remains one of the first and few public-private partnerships to deliver in this new space of naval warfare, built through Independent Research and Development (IRAD) and with help through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.  The Navy shared at a January conference it hopes to hit a production target of 32 per month later this year.  That ambition must be matched with reality.

GARC exists because private capital responded to the call for low-cost autonomous systems. Investments were made in a high-rate production facility and robotic welding systems months before the contract award.  Regrettably, there is no plan for sustained production.  Unlike large runs of munitions orders or automotive production, UxS systems, particularly maritime systems are currently a niche area.  Without a clear and consistent demand from defense customers, manufacturers will struggle to keep production lines open and investors will hesitate to, or not invest.  Predicable demands for innovative systems are imperative, as the Defense Innovation Board admonished recently.  Absent those unambiguous and predictable commitments, the Senate’s Freedom’s Forge won’t be realized.  The Defense Department’s ambition and new concepts must acknowledge business realities, which should be a straightforward mantra  to every acquisition discussion and decision:

These tenets were unambiguous in the Freedom’s Forge of the 1940s, hence the hundreds of ships launched on the Baltimore waterfront.  GARCs are today’s game-changer, and in their new way will make a difference.  Importantly, the men and women building these breakthrough unmanned systems would make their shipbuilder predecessors proud.  They take the same pride in their work, know the lives of those in harm’s way are at stake, and are determined to make a difference.  They deserve our respect, our thanks, and above all a predictability to forge a new future.

Retired Admiral Gary Roughead is a former chief of naval operations and a former commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.