A US Navy destroyer has become the world’s first AI warship after being equipped with a program that will boost the Navy’s readiness for all-out war.
USS Fitzgerald, first launched January 1994, has been redeployed with an innovative artificial intelligence program used by the Pentagon.
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The software uses machine learning to predict maintenance issues before they have even happened, allowing crews to avoid major malfunctions and stay on the water.
It takes 10,000 sensor readings every second from all over the ship – including the hull and the mechanical and electrical systems.
The AI algorithm then interprets the data to make maintenance recommendations to the crew.
This preventative approach should help avoid ships getting bogged down by delays that see them sit uselessly in shipyards waiting to be fixed.
Crucially, the program could therefore ensure more of the fleet is available to respond at any time if all-out war erupts and a “surge” of forces is required.
The groundbreaking program, called Enterprise Remote Monitoring Version 4 (ERM v4), was designed by an Austin-based company called Fathom5, founded by Zac Staples, a retired Navy officer.
ERM v4 has already caught a ship part that was about to fail and would have taken a long time to replace, according to Staples.
This allowed the crew to order a new part in time to keep the vessel operational the entire time.
Staples said that, without the foresight of the software, the part failure “probably would have put a particular system out of commission for a bit”.
Staples presented the new software to the annual WEST conference in San Diego this week.
He told The War Zone: “Right now, you’ve got about a third of the Navy that is deployed, a third of the Navy that’s in some depot-level maintenance – very difficult for them to get put back together in surge – but that other third is in various stages of material and training readiness to deploy.”
He continued: “Anything, particularly AI, that tells us exactly what we need to do to keep a ship ready before its readiness dips directly contributes to having a much larger battle fleet ready to defend the interests of the nation.”
The AI innovation has arrived during a crisis of delays blighting the Navy.
Rep Ken Calvert, chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said last year: “I’m concerned that the Navy is falling behind — it is behind.”
He said a large part of the problem was yearslong delays in deploying ships driven by mounting maintenance issues.
Calvert said: “The Department of the Navy’s capability and capacity is further eroded by the maintenance delays that plague the fleet.
“The committee continues to see the Navy spend every cent appropriated for ship maintenance, but complete fewer maintenance availabilities than forecasted.”
ERM v4 will replace the current outdated program called Integrated Condition Assessment System (ICAS) which has been in place since the 1990s.
The sea service is experimenting with AI in various forms, but this is the first time a ship has been deployed with a “program-of-record” system aboard.
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