The US military seeks semi-autonomous escort solutions to protect unarmed commercial vessels from asymmetric threats, primarily from uncrewed surface vessels.
Through the Pulling Guard program, the Pentagon is looking to substitute for more costly and sparsely-available escort options such as guided missile destroyers and carrier strike groups.
This will involve autonomous systems remotely supervised by humans through a secure connection.
The program’s intended marine platform will feature sensors and effectors and have a modular design to incorporate future software and hardware upgrades.
“The focus of the Pulling Guard program is the integration and marinization of existing sensors and effectors on a vehicle with an emphasis on modularity in both software and hardware,” the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) explained.
“The program focus on modularity is based on the desire for an ongoing, rapid development cycle that evolves as new threats emerge and expands the total addressable market with tailored variants that address the statutory or regulatory compliance items necessary for export variants.”