[By Wilder Alejandro Sanchez]
“The Southern Tide” by Wilder Alejandro Sanchez covers maritime security issues throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The column discusses the challenges facing the region’s navies, including limited defense budgets, interstate tensions, and transnational crime. It also examines how these challenges impact current and future defense strategies, platform acquisitions, and relationships with world powers.
Unmanned surface vessels (USVs) are full speed ahead, as evidenced by their (lethal) efficiency in Ukrainian military attacks on Russian targets across the Black Sea. While the security environment in Europe is significantly different from that of the Western Hemisphere, new technologies are always of concern to any military, and USVs are no exception. Whether USVs have a future in Latin America and the Caribbean is worth exploring in more depth.
Recent developments
While it is beyond the scope of this commentary to enumerate or analyze all USV developments, it is important to note that new platforms are being built and used around the world. In the Black Sea, Ukraine continues to use its powerful Seababy USV. Several governments and industries want to develop USVs to add to their fleets. In the United States, the Navy’s “latest Overlord unmanned surface vessel, Vanguard (OUSV3), was recently launched at Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Alabama,” the Navy reported in January. Also, Louisiana-based shipyard Metal Shark is developing the USV Prowler and the ultra-small USV Frenzy. As for future platforms, in Europe, the Netherlands has unveiled its first indigenous design of a USV for use by the Dutch Navy. And in Asia, South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and U.S. software company Palantir Technologies signed a memorandum of understanding on April 14 to jointly develop a USV. USV development is thriving around the world.
In the Western Hemisphere, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has been a testing ground for USV technology. In late 2023, ten Saildrone Voyager USVs were launched from Naval Air Station Key West’s Mall Pier and Truman Harbor to improve domain awareness during U.S. 4th Fleet’s Operation Windward Stack. According to SOUTHCOM, “Windward Stack is part of the 4th Fleet’s unmanned integration campaign and provides the Navy with an area to experiment and operate unmanned systems in a permissive environment, all designed to transition the Navy to a hybrid fleet.” The command aims to leverage its area of responsibility (AOR) as an innovation hub for U.S. military, partner and allied nations, and defense industry.
Regarding the tests later in 2023, SOUTHCOM’s 2024 Posture Statement explains that “Naval Forces Southern Command/4th Fleet hosted a Hybrid Fleet Operations event, convening 47 Department of Defense commands, 10 foreign partners, and 18 industry partners to foster innovation and experimentation to inform unmanned operations and hybrid fleets.” The experiments included advanced kill chain, contested operations, survivability, and persistence at sea.
Under the command of Gen. Laura Richardson, Southcom aims to “integrate tomorrow’s technologies into today’s operations and exercises to outmaneuver our adversaries and support our regional democracies” by investing in robotics, cyber technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Expanding Southcom’s mission to include testing new technologies, including USVs, is another tactic to expand the command’s importance within the U.S. military.
Latin American-made USVs are also on the way. In early 2024, Brazilian shipyard Emgepron announced a partnership with local startup Tidewise to build the USV Suppressor. According to a company press release, the Suppressor is the first platform developed for the Brazilian and Latin American defense market. Two variants of the Suppressor will be built: the 7-meter Suppressor 7 and the 11-meter Suppressor 11. While navies in the region have robots for underwater operations such as search and rescue, USVs are not yet operational throughout the region.
Do USVs have a future in Latin America and the Caribbean?
While the likelihood of interstate war in Latin America and the Caribbean is minimal (notwithstanding the bellicose rhetoric of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro), there are a number of non-combat maritime missions in which USVs could be useful. Both Andrea Rezende, a professor at Brazil’s Centro Universitário de Belo Horizonte (UNIBH) and Centro Universitário Una Betim (UNA), and Christian Ehrlich, director of the Institute for Strategic and Defense Studies and a recent graduate from Coventry University specializing in maritime security, make this argument.
Dr. Rezende noted that USVs can be used by the Brazilian Navy and other regional navies as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) vehicles to locate suspicious vessels. For example, USVs can locate vessels engaged in illegal drug smuggling, as well as known drug smuggling ships and drug smuggling submarines. Additionally, USVs can locate illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing vessels. There is a tendency to think that the main perpetrators of IUU fishing in the Western Hemisphere, especially China, are deep-sea fishing fleets (DFWs). However, in reality, deep-sea fishing fleets mainly operate in the South Atlantic and South Pacific, while small local fishing vessels operate illegally in Latin America and the Caribbean. USVs can help locate smaller IUU fishing vessels, which are harder to locate than giant fleets of hundreds of vessels.
In other words, USVs provide regional navies and coast guards with an over-the-horizon capability to locate a wide variety of vessels. Imagine an Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) staffed with helicopters, rigid rubber boats and USVs. You soon have a small fleet with a large-scale surveillance and interception capability.
Additionally, USVs have practical applications in other activities outside of combat and security, such as search and rescue missions and scientific research. Ehrlich noted that USVs could also help protect offshore infrastructure, particularly offshore oil platforms. The platforms could also be used for activities closer to shore, such as port security.
USVs vs. UAVs and UGVs
Will USVs eventually become part of the Latin American and Caribbean fleet? The short answer is yes, although exactly when is up for debate, as acquisition programs vary from service to service and, of course, there are budgetary considerations.
A similar story can be seen with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which have become extremely popular with the region’s militaries. Nearly every military in the region operates UAVs. In May alone, the United States donated six AeroVironmento UAV systems to the Salvadoran military for border security operations, while Brazilian UAV company Xmobots announced it would train 21 Brazilian Army personnel to operate its Nauru 100C UAV. There is a clear proliferation of UAVs in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, as the analyst wrote in Breaking Defense, unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) have garnered less interest in Latin America. While the Brazilian military is reportedly interested in European-made UGVs, UGVs are still not as prevalent in Latin American militaries as they are in the U.S., Europe, and other countries.
Will USVs be the next UAV or the next UGV? Right now there aren’t enough data points to make a good prediction. Emgepron’s Suppressor project suggests that at least one company is willing to dip its toes in the water, so to speak, to see if there’s any regional interest. If successful, Emgepron could soon corner the Brazilian defense market with its home-built USVs.
In his comments to CIMSEC, Ehrlich raised the key issue of long-term vision. For maritime security experts, the “culture of regional navies” is the main obstacle to acquiring (or attempting to develop locally) USVs. Defense ministries and navies in the region “remain focused on operating traditional systems due to doctrines that do not encourage innovation.” Ehrlich said only the Brazilian Navy is interested in acquiring or developing USVs with potential combat missions.
Meanwhile, Dr. Rezende explained that a key factor is the budget of the regional armies, which for various reasons tend to suffer from “periodic crises”, “and therefore may have limited budgets to invest in acquiring USVs and training to use them” Moreover, for Dr. Rezende, the future of USV technology is part of a broader discussion about the armies’ current and future missions, as they face “greater constraints compared to armies in the Global North”.
Ehrlich’s comments about his vision and organizational ambition to develop new capabilities are a useful lens through which to evaluate these developments. Given the Brazilian Navy’s strong interest in developing its defense industry, it is not surprising that Brazilian company Emgepron was the first in the region to undertake the development of a USV. While several other South American shipyards are working on ambitious projects, such as building frigates, offshore patrol vessels, transports, and icebreakers, the Brazilian defense industry remains at the forefront. If the Brazilian Navy evaluates the suppressed USV favorably, other regional navies may also be interested in purchasing it.
Finally, there are obvious physical and technical requirements for the vessels that transport and operate USVs, so any vessel would require some basic modifications to take advantage of this new technology. Navy navies with older ships or surface fleets made up of smaller vessels are unlikely to acquire USVs, but they could utilize USVs for port security and other near-shore operations, eliminating the need to sail far from naval bases.
As the Ukraine war continues, a revolution in military technology is underway and the term “unmanned” has become very common. Latin American and Caribbean militaries have rapidly adopted UAV technology, but UGVs have not yet been widely used. Similarly, navies in the region have not shown much interest in unmanned surface vessels outside of Brazil, and budgetary, doctrinal and technical issues remain obstacles to widespread adoption. USVs could help Latin American and Caribbean navies accomplish their missions, but not all militaries are in a position to acquire them. More research is needed to understand which navies and ministries of defense have a long-term vision and interest in this technology. In Latin American and Caribbean countries, USVs are on the horizon but not yet ready to dock.
Wilder Alejandro Sanchez is an analyst focusing on international defense, security, and geopolitical issues in the Western Hemisphere, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe. He is president of the consulting firm Second Floor Strategies in Washington, DC, and a non-resident senior associate in the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
This article appears courtesy of CIMSEC, you can find the original article here.
The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.
