Navy Secretary Outlines AI, Unmanned Tech to Advance Golden Fleet Initiative

Navy Secretary John Phelan outlined steps the service is taking to grow the fleet and rebuild the maritime industrial base under the Trump administration’s Golden Fleet initiative, speaking at AFCEA/USNI WEST in San Diego, California, Wednesday.

The Golden Fleet initiative seeks to do more than build more ships. It aims to produce vessels equipped with the latest technologies and capabilities to deal with current and future threats.

Unmanned systems are a core element of the maritime industrial base expansion. These systems provide economic and operational advantages. Operationally, unmanned systems offer persistence, endurance and create asymmetric advantage. They also extend sensor range and absorb risk while complicating adversary planning.

Economically, unmanned platforms allow the Navy to expand its combat power without substantially increasing manpower, cost or time.

Phelan cited the war in Ukraine as an example of how speed and flexibility can outperform cumbersome procurement cycles. He noted that Ukraine, without a traditional navy successfully fought and degraded a force that should have dominated the Black Sea.

“The modern fight favors those that can rapidly prototype, test under fire, incorporate operator feedback and scale successful innovations on the front lines in real time faster than opponents can react,” Phelan said.

To support unmanned platform research, the Navy stood up the Rapid Capabilities Office and a Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Robotic and Autonomous Systems. Because unmanned systems are not a single platform type, RAS will identify critical operational requirements, compete to find the best capabilities and then integrate them into the fleet.

AI as Fleet Connective Tissue

Unmanned systems only matter if they are integrated into systems: command and control, logistics, targeting, sustainment and execution, said Phelan.

To achieve this, the Navy is enabling AI-based capabilities such as ShipOS. Phelan described it as “the connective tissue of the Golden Fleet” because it links shipyards, suppliers, program offices and operators into a shared operating system. ShipOS gives leaders real time visibility into production bottlenecks, sustainment risks and execution timelines. It also provides the tools to address those problems, he said.

AI gives U.S. forces a decision advantage in contested environments. It is here that edge computing enables persistent command and control and provides sensor fusion and targeting capabilities. Other benefits include predictive maintenance, optimized logistics and adaptive command and control. Above all, AI speeds decision making through unified data.

“Fragmented data slows decisions. Slow decisions lose wars. AI changes that,” Phelan maintained.

A Shipbuilding Renaissance

Rebuilding the maritime industrial base is central to the Golden Fleet initiative. That effort includes integrating unmanned and AI-enabled systems and strengthening partnerships with private industry, with an emphasis on measurable results.

“The era of accepting delays, underperformance and readiness-eroding back logs without consequence is over. … The truth is the defense procurement systems that worked before simply no longer does,” Phelan said.

Reversing this decades-long decline involves changing requirements and accelerating procurement processes to produce results in months, not years. Rebuilding the fleet and the maritime industrial base requires public-private partnerships, private capital and distributed shipbuilding for speed and flexibility. This will expand capacity faster and reduce risk, he said.

Phelan said the plan calls for a high-low mix of warships. The high end includes next-generation battleships, continued production of destroyers, aircraft carriers and submarines. The low end includes a new class of frigates, unmanned systems, logistics ships and auxiliary vessels.

AI-enabled design and scheduling tools will be used to increase productivity to deliver these ships. The Navy will also work with foreign partners with proven shipbuilding capabilities to increase production, he said.