U.S. Transportation Command will likely leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to enable autonomous logistics within the years ahead, U.S. Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, the top of the command, said on June 6.
“I believe the long run for autonomous capabilities in logistics is wide open,” she told a Brookings Institution virtual forum. “I take into consideration, in the long run, do we want to have a crew in an air refueling airplane or an aircraft that’s just carrying cargo? The longer term is here with respect to ships, as a few of them are autonomous–barges that move Class 1 or Class 3 [cargo] around. The Navy is doing experiments with UAVs to do smaller package movements out to ships in order that they don’t have to return into port because coming into port has a series of threats by itself.”
“The manpower could be used as type of a man-in-the-loop or over-the-loop–analyzing and doing the upper level of labor, while the rote easier, laborious work is completed by autonomous systems,” Van Ovost said.
At the highest of the command’s concerns for future readiness are several dozen roll-on/roll-off ships which are “a mean of 44 years old,” she said. “In truth, 17 of those [roll-on/roll-off ships] are over 50 [years old]. That’s way beyond useful life so we’re in a recapitalization program with them. As we’re moving forward with the [U.S.] Navy on that, we’re purchasing foreign-built, used ships to replenish, only for readiness, our roll-on/roll-off ships. But our U.S. merchant mariners–we’ve a shortfall, I’m concerned in regards to the health of the mariners–so I’m working closely with the Department of Transportation Maritime Administration [MARAD] on the health of the mariners. That’s about recruiting, retaining, quality of life/quality of service in order that we will recruit into this profession field because, especially after COVID, they took an enormous hit. There’s a whole lot of highly expert areas in transportation I’m concerned about like railway engineers, truck drivers, and pilots, however the merchant mariners are those I’m essentially the most concerned about.”
The roll-on/roll-off ships are a part of MARAD’s Ready Reserve Force (RRF) to supply surge sealift for DoD.
In March, Crowley said that it’s buying the and from the American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier Group to assist RRF recapitalization (, March 22).
Within the June 6 Brookings forum, Van Ovost gave a shoutout to what she envisions AI providing within the years ahead because the U.S. looks to counter China within the Indo-Pacific.
“The perfect option to survive is to grasp the battlespace,” she said. “We’re working very hard on that to command and control and iterate. Command and control is about that data–using responsible AI and machine learning to have the opportunity to drag in data feeds to attempt to sense the environment, where are the threats, sense where the assets are, where the needs are, and marry them up in a short time because I actually have to scale up 10 times to what I’m doing immediately in a high-end conflict.”
