Delivering Autonomy at Sea: Practical Edge AI for the Fleet

Description

In tomorrow’s contested seas, adversaries will not rely on a handful of exquisite platforms, they will be overwhelmed with cheap unmanned systems launched by the thousands. In this battlespace, ship-based AI will collapse under jamming and outages, leaving ships blind and vulnerable. The Navy’s challenge is stark: without resilient, distributed autonomy, U.S. forces risk being outpaced by the improvisation and speed of conflict already visible in Ukraine.

On Day 2 of the TechNet Indo-Pacific Conference, Latent AI will host a panel guided by our vision of edge-first autonomy, charting a pragmatic path forward built on three key imperatives:
● Modular Design – separating AI “brains” from low-cost “vehicles” to create flexible, updatable fleets, with short-range wireless links enabling rapid refresh.
● Tiered Autonomy – scaling from simple point-defense missions to advanced, coordinated long-range strikes, ensuring adaptability across threat environments.
● Avoiding the “Knight Trap” – designing autonomy that resists becoming brittle or over-specialized. Instead of a few “silver bullet” systems that fail outside their narrow mission, fleets must field resilient AI that adapts, re-learns, and redeploys at scale across varied maritime scenarios.

Led by Rear Adm. Doug Small, Ret., this panel will explore how today’s approachesare moving autonomy from fragile prototypes to a durable, scalable force multiplier, arming the fleet with distributed AI that can fight through disruption and hold the line in a battlespace defined by mass, speed, and uncertainty.

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Tracks:

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  Artificial Intelligence
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  Continuing Education
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  Kukakuka Theater

Handouts

• Delivering Autonomy at Sea