A watercraft operator with the 8th Theater Sustainment Command guides an up-armored vehicle from the 25th Division Sustainment Brigade onboard a Logistic Support Vessel in Waipio, Hawaii, Feb. 22, 2021. (Michael Bradle/U.S. Army)
Autonomous resupply vessels are the most promising approach to overcoming the Army’s dearth of watercraft needed for sustainment operations in the Indo-Pacific, the commander of the Hawaii-based 8th Theater Sustainment Command said Friday.
Employing drone vessels, the smallest of which are already being used by the U.S. military, is one of five tacks the command is using to overcome watercraft shortfalls, Maj. Gen. Gavin Gardner told reporters during a conference call while at the Pentagon.
The command is tasked with sustaining the Army and joint operational forces throughout the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s area of responsibility.
“We have a constant demand for Army watercraft time now to deliver equipment and supplies forward in the theater,” Gardner said.
The command’s “five-prong strategy” for meeting that demand also includes pulling prepositioned watercraft out of storage; using contractor-owned, contractor-operated watercraft to leverage capacity; training Army mariners on contracted vessels; and leveraging vessel capacity in host-nation countries such as Japan and Philippines, he said.
The Army drastically divested its watercraft stock over the past decade, a move that the service is now attempting to reverse.
Its watercraft fleet was trimmed by half over six years ending in May 2024, according to a report issued by the U.S. Government Accountability Office in October 2024.
The Army’s fleet by that point had shrunk to 70 vessels from 134 in 2018, the office found.
Top Army leaders underscored the lack of capacity during the annual Land Forces Pacific conference in Honolulu in May.
Gen. Ronald Clark, commander of U.S. Army Pacific, told the conference audience that “we can always use more watercraft” and that “any commander that tells you he doesn’t need more is probably shooting beneath the target.”
Aside from beefing up capacity, autonomous resupply vessels would save money and manpower by reducing travel time and expense for mariners, he said.
“We’d be able to optimally control them from the 8th Theater Sustainment Command headquarters in Hawaii,” he said. “But clearly [drones] would be forward in the theater moving supplies.”
Gardner said he envisioned a future in which 30 to 100 medium-size autonomous vessels would move supplies throughout the Pacific area of operations.
Vessels of that size could transport eight to 10 20-foot containers, he said.
They could be berthed at South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, Singapore and Thailand, among other partner nations, he said.
Manned watercraft systems would be reserved to provide commanders with the highest level of operational maneuverability that would not be possible with unmanned craft, he said.
The defense industry is developing medium-size maritime drones, and the Army might have the opportunity to test and evaluate such a system as early as next summer, he said.
The 8th Theater Sustainment Command has asked to be first in line for testing the system around the Hawaiian islands, he said.
