{"id":13183,"date":"2026-06-30T12:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T12:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/army-using-ai-robot-boats-for-pacific-logistics\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T12:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T12:17:07","slug":"army-using-ai-robot-boats-for-pacific-logistics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/army-using-ai-robot-boats-for-pacific-logistics\/","title":{"rendered":"Army using AI, robot boats for Pacific logistics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Army\u2019s 8th Theater Sustainment Command is using artificial intelligence \u201cto help us make better-informed decisions\u201d for supply chain management in the Pacific, the unit\u2019s commander said Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor logistics, a lot of what we do is very similar to what the commercial world does, and so I have leveraged, and we are leveraging commercial partners with, you know, how do they do warehouse management regionally, and then how do they look at, how do you time delivery of supplies to the location it\u2019s needed, and kind of, what are those time-distance factors,\u201d Maj. Gen. Gavin Gardner told reporters. \u201c I\u2019m looking at partners, and I\u2019m talking to partners that do that on a global scale, because the distances between the continental United States to the forward positions that we train or live at, like the Republic of Korea or Japan, we\u2019re constantly looking for smarter ways to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen resources are not unlimited, how do you best look at demand analysis over time and space, and stock forward the right things versus stocking everything? Because we just can\u2019t afford to do that,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so we\u2019re using AI right now to help us see that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The command is also already using \u201cvery capable\u201d autonomous watercraft in the Pacific and is working with industry to develop and test larger and faster vessels, Gardner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have industry partners that are creating vessels right now in the water that are over 100 feet long that would move anywhere between four and eight 20-foot equivalent units\u2026 think the containers you see moving up and down most of your ports today,\u201d he said. \u201cThat capability is already in play, and it\u2019s going through experimentation now, and the 8th TSC, along with the rest of the United States Army, is looking to partner, test, and innovate those autonomous watercraft first out in our region, because if you can work in the Pacific, you can work anywhere in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the rules will need to evolve to keep up. Current U.S. maritime laws require a minimum crew size for vessels, limiting autonomous operations to testing or pilot programs for commercial use.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get the laws of the sea that our Coast Guard currently use to mandate watercraft operations that currently have to be manned when it enters into a port, that we\u2019re comfortable having unmanned systems enter into ports, so that we can rapidly receive and download autonomous watercraft like we do manned watercraft today,\u201d Gardner added.<\/p>\n

Gardner said he\u2019d also eventually like to see \u201canywhere between 30 and 100\u201d medium-sized autonomous vessels in the U.S. Indo-Pacific theater, \u201cberthed up everywhere from Korea to Japan, the Philippines, Australia, Singapore, Thailand,\u201d to help meet the \u201cconstant demand for Army watercraft time now to deliver equipment and supplies in the theater.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unit has one Maneuver Support Vessel (Light), a manned landing craft that will eventually replace the Vietnam-era Landing Craft Mechanized-8, and has been testing it for about nine months to get data to shape the future design of the vessel. The vessel is nearly four times faster than the older watercraft, and much smaller\u2014but also \u201cmuch more capable\u201d of operating in shallower water, Gardner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m actually going to different sets of beaches, and so you can put up to two HIMARS onto an MSV-Light, approach a beach very rapidly, bring it into position, download it, and then those platforms can get off and do their fire missions,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve rehearsed this quite a bit with both the 25th Infantry Division and the 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force,\u201d and have also put multiple Marine NMESIS anti-ship systems onto the vessel for \u201crapid insertions.\u201d\n\n<\/svg><\/p>\n<\/div>\n