US Navy

Robotic ships have officially joined the US Navy. The Program Executive Office, Unmanned and Small Combatants announced on July 22 that the Navy's Unmanned Influence Sweep System uncrewed minesweeper has been awarded Initial Operating Capability.

The construction of America's next-generation strategic nuclear missile submarine has formally begun as the keel was ceremonially laid for the future USS District of Columbia (SSBN 826) at Electric Boat's facility in Quonset Point, Rhode Island.

In what it describes as the most significant demonstration of its kind in half a century, the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) beamed 1.6 kW of power over a kilometer (3,280 ft) using a microwave beam at the US Army Research Field in Maryland.

The US Navy has shot down its first drone representing a subsonic cruise missile using an all-electric high-energy laser. At White Sands, the Lockheed Martin Layered Laser Defense (LLD) weapon disabled the engine on a drone, which parachuted to earth.

The US Navy has conducted a successful live-fire ground test of the first stage of the US' common hypersonic missile. It was the first test to include the thrust vector control system for maneuvering the rocket in flight.

Boeing's MQ-25 T1 Stingray drone has successfully aerially refueled a US Navy F-35C Lightning II fighter jet for the first time, demonstrating that the robotic aircraft can support the 5th-generation fighter during carrier operations.

It goes without saying that the neutralizing of underwater mines is a risky task – definitely one that you'd avoid sending a scuba diver to do, if at all possible. That's why Pittsburgh-based RE2 Robotics is designing a robotic system to do the job.

Boeing's MQ-25 T1 Stingray jet-propelled air tanker drone has refueled a US Navy E-2D Hawkeye command and control aircraft in mid-air, providing data that will be used to upgrade digital models of the MQ-25 and help improve the first production models.

In anticipation of the day when drones routinely refuel US Navy planes in the air, Boeing and Northrop Grumman have carried out carrier air wing team refueling in a simulation. The exercise included an autonomous MQ-25, an F/A-18, and an E-2D.

A Northrop Grumann MQ-4C Triton drone equipped with a highly upgraded multi-intelligence package, called Integrated Functional Capability Four (IFC-4), has taken to the air for the first time as part of expanding the deployment of the new version.

For the first time ever, an un-crewed aircraft has successfully refuelled another aircraft while both planes were in flight. In the test, Boeing's MQ-25 T1 aerial tanker drone transferred jet fuel to a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet.

With the aid of a Dutch De Zeven Provincien-class frigate, the US Navy destroyer USS Paul Ignatius used two Standard Missile-3 interceptors to destroy ballistic missiles while they were still in space during the Formidable Shield NATO sea exercises.