US Navy Opens Warfighting Center for Robotic, Autonomous Systems

Virginia Beach, Virginia — The U.S. Navy has established a dedicated warfighting development center for robotic and autonomous systems, creating a single fleet-facing command responsible for turning drone and uncrewed vessel prototypes into equipment that sailors can actually fight with.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle presided over the ribbon-cutting for the Robotic and Autonomous Systems Warfighting Development Center (RASWDC) on September 24, 2026, at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia Beach, according to the Navy.

What the New Command Does

RASWDC is an Echelon 3 warfighting development center reporting to U.S. Fleet Forces Command. The Navy describes it as the fleet’s dedicated operational integration point for robotic and autonomous capabilities.

Its first commander is Rear Adm. Melvin Smith, who is overseeing a phased plan of near-, mid- and long-term objectives covering leadership, mission relationships and resourcing as the center works toward full operational capability.

The Navy has organized the center’s work around three lines of effort:

• The foundry — feeding lessons from fielded systems back into future capability development;
• The fleet — running operational tests in realistic conditions and coordinating between the Navy’s warfare communities;
• The fight — writing doctrine and tactics, techniques and procedures so that sailors are trained to employ autonomous systems in combat.

The center is also expected to test systems in degraded communications environments and simulated combat scenarios, following what the service calls a cycle of field, employ, learn, improve and scale.

From Prototype to Combat Power

Caudle has been blunt about the gap between experimentation and usable capability. In messaging to the fleet, he wrote that “a prototype is not combat power,” arguing that real capability comes only when trained sailors can employ reliable systems backed by the right networks, logistics, maintenance, software, tactics and command relationships.

That critique reflects years of frustration in Congress and inside the Pentagon over the Navy’s unmanned programs. Large and medium uncrewed surface vessels such as Sea Hunter, Seahawk, Ranger and Nomad have sailed in exercises including RIMPAC, and Unmanned Surface Vessel Division One was set up in 2022, but the Navy has struggled to move from demonstrations to programs of record with clear operational roles.

By placing a warfighting development center under Fleet Forces Command, the Navy is giving autonomous systems the same kind of institutional home that aviation, surface warfare, undersea warfare and expeditionary warfare already have. Those centers are responsible for tactics development and advanced training, and they act as the link between operators and the acquisition community.

Lessons From Ukraine and the Red Sea

The move comes as navies worldwide study the use of low-cost uncrewed systems in recent conflicts. Ukraine’s naval drones have repeatedly struck Russian Black Sea Fleet ships and forced Moscow to pull major units away from Crimea, while U.S. and allied warships in the Red Sea spent months engaging Houthi drones and missiles.

Both experiences highlighted how quickly unmanned technology evolves under combat pressure, and how important it is to have operators, maintainers and tactics that keep pace. The U.S. Navy has recently been testing boat-launched attack drones with the Marine Corps in the Pacific and refueling uncrewed surface vessels from destroyers to extend their range, examples of the kind of employment concepts RASWDC is expected to formalize.

What Comes Next

The Navy has not published a date for full operational capability or detailed staffing figures for the center. Key indicators to watch will be the release of the first formal tactics publications for uncrewed systems, how RASWDC coordinates with existing unmanned squadrons and test units, and whether its recommendations begin to shape future budget requests for uncrewed platforms.

For Little Creek-Fort Story, already home to amphibious and expeditionary forces on the East Coast, the center adds a new role at the heart of the Navy’s effort to build a hybrid fleet of crewed and uncrewed ships.

Sources

• U.S. Navy – U.S. Navy Establishes Robotic and Autonomous Systems Warfighting Development Center
• Defense News – US Navy stands up hub to prepare unmanned systems for combat
• Breaking Defense – Navy launches Robotics and Autonomous Systems Warfighting Development Center
• DefenseScoop – Navy creates warfighting development center for unmanned systems