Do sailors have a future in the US Navy? No, according to former Army general

Few groups can match the depth of lore, camaraderie, and sense of shared purpose of sailors. It is a profession, calling, lifestyle, and passion all wrapped up in one role that was shaped over thousands of years of maritime tradition. It seems almost unthinkable, then, that the end of the navy sailor might be in sight.

Military aircraft pilots have also been forced to come to grips with this existential dread ever since the initial development of unmanned aerial vehicles some three decades ago. For sailors, the possibility of their redundancy really only became evident starting with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That invasion kicked off a war that has seen an exponential development and fielding of unmanned vehicles on land, air, and sea.

In particular, the Ukrainians have successfully harnessed the power and initial surprise of unmanned naval vessels to inflict devastating losses on the Russian navy in the Black Sea. This has all been watched closely by U.S. Navy personnel keen to develop their own unmanned naval assets.

Then there are the U.S. policymakers’ and warfighters’ repeated calls for effective and inexpensive unmanned surface vessels (USVs) and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs). These have resulted in a DARPA program called NOMARS (No MAnning Required Ship) to design the navy combat ship of the future. The main consideration currently driving this development appears to be a desire to counter a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan by creating a fleet of naval drone ships to deploy in the Taiwan Strait.

To that end, the USX-1 Defiant, built by Serco, is a medium unmanned surface vessel prototype that launched in March 2025 with no accommodations at all for any type of human crew. It is essentially an unmanned naval destroyer that could be the future of U.S. naval combat vessels.

And the future might not include any sailors at all on board the ships.

Related: The US Navy is forced to wait on its new flagship frigate

If former U.S. Army Major General John Ferrari has his way, that is exactly what will happen. Ferrari, a senior nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), recently said that the U.S. Navy should pivot toward a majority drone navy – empowered by AI – to guarantee continued U.S. maritime superiority. Granted, this opinion might carry more weight if it came from a senior naval service leader, but regardless of his Army pedigree, Ferrari’s suggestion deserves serious debate and consideration.

Of note, Ferrari astutely observes that unmanned naval surface and subsurface vessels are developing so quickly now thanks to the lessons learned a decade ago in the development of aerial drones. Those same lessons are driving a rapid development in naval unmanned assets. (Ferrari also calls for the end of manned naval aircraft.)

It is perhaps no surprise that some of the first operational USVs being deployed by the U.S. Navy are new mine countermeasure (MCM) platforms that detect and neutralize sea mines. That hazardous duty is a fitting place from which to begin to remove human sailors from the equation, as the USVs can detect and dispose of the mines effectively without endangering a human life.

How long, then, before sailors begin to disappear from the decks of other U.S. naval vessels, as well? One can begin to envision a U.S. Navy comprised of largely unmanned naval warships, patrolling the seas and engaging in naval battles that no longer feature that mainstay of the high seas: the sailor.

Feature Image: U.S. Marines and Sailors with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), Amphibious Squadron (PHIBRON) 8 conduct a foreign object debris walk on the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) during Amphibious Squadron (PHIBRON) Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) Integration Training (PMINT) in vicinity of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, July 11, 2019.(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Tanner Seims)

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