Michael Horowitz, director of the emerging capabilities policy office at the Department of Defense, said DOD could issue later this year its updated directive on autonomous weapons systems that takes into consideration advancements in artificial intelligence, Breaking Defense reported Thursday.

In 2012, the Pentagon issued the DOD Directive 3000.09 that outlined responsibilities, policy and review processes for designing, building and testing autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon platforms.

“Our instinct entering this process is that the fundamental approach in the directive remains sound, that the directive laid out a very responsible approach to the incorporation of autonomy and weapons systems,” Horowitz told the publication in an interview.

“But we want to make sure, of course, that the directive still reflects the views of the department and the way the department should be thinking about [autonomous] weapon systems,” he noted. “You know, it has been a decade. And it’s entirely plausible that there are some updates and clarifications that would be helpful.”

Vice Adm. Brad Cooper said the U.S. Navy is working to build a fleet of unmanned surface vessels and an integrated network of systems to increase maritime awareness in the Middle East.

The Fifth Fleet, one of the three Navy components being led by Cooper, collaborates with private and academic entities in an effort to deploy unmanned platforms with artificial intelligence technology in the region, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said Wednesday.

Cooper told attendees at a recent conference in the U.K. that a partner network has the potential to increase domain awareness among U.S. and allied naval forces by up to 40 times with the use of data from interconnected sensors.

“Every partner and every sensor offers new information that can be added to what we call the ‘Digital Ocean,’ an intelligent synthesis of around-the-clock inputs encompassing thousands of images,” he added.

NAVCENT formed a task force in September 2021 to support the Fifth Fleet’s unmanned-AI technology integration efforts. The numbered fleet aims to launch USVs by the summer of 2023, according to NAVCENT.

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