U.S. Naval Academy Deploys Robotics and Autonomous Systems From Yard Patrol Craft for First Time.

The U.S. Naval Academy has completed its first “YP NEXT” training block, using Yard Patrol craft to deploy and control air, surface, and underwater drones as a step toward preparing future Navy and Marine Corps officers for increasingly autonomous maritime operations. The training is particularly relevant in the Pacific, where distributed unmanned systems could extend surveillance and targeting networks deeper into contested waters while reducing the exposure of crewed warships to Chinese anti-ship weapons.

The exercise demonstrated that a small ship can serve as a control node for multiple types of unmanned platforms across the air, surface, and undersea domains. That experience reflects the U.S. Navy’s broader shift toward distributed operations, in which autonomous systems can extend fleet reach, improve situational awareness, and support combat power without placing additional crews in the highest-threat areas.

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U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen train aboard Yard Patrol craft during the inaugural YP NEXT program in Annapolis, Maryland, integrating robotic and autonomous systems with traditional seamanship and navigation. (Picture source : U.S. Navy)

YP NEXT is a new Naval Academy training concept that integrates U.S. Navy autonomous systems into traditional Yard Patrol instruction. Midshipmen continue to train in navigation, seamanship, damage control, and bridge resource management, but they now also use YP craft as launch and command nodes for unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned surface vessels, and aquatic robotic systems, creating a small-scale model of the crewed-uncrewed formations envisioned for distributed maritime operations. The inaugural training block, conducted during the third period of summer training in July and August 2026, exposed midshipmen to systems with direct operational relevance, including Havoc AI’s Rampage unmanned surface vessel; BlackSea Technologies’ Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft, or GARC; Jaia Robotics’ Jaiabot aquatic drones; Neros Archer FPV attack drones; and Skydio unmanned aerial vehicles.

Rampage gives the training an immediate Indo-Pacific connection because U.S. forces have already tested the unmanned surface vessel in the Philippines for coastal intelligence and reconnaissance missions, examining how small autonomous craft could operate from austere littoral positions and feed information back to command elements. That operational model is becoming increasingly important as the U.S. military prepares for possible conflict in the Western Pacific. In waters covered by Chinese long-range anti-ship missiles, aircraft, submarines, and extensive sensor networks, relatively inexpensive unmanned surface vessels could push surveillance and target detection forward without requiring a destroyer, amphibious ship, or other crewed vessel to enter the highest-risk areas.

The scale of that transition is also growing, with the U.S. Navy planning to field 47 Medium Unmanned Surface Vessels through 2031 as part of a longer-term objective of 72 vessels for missions including sensing, command relay, deception, anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, and strike support. That expansion makes YP NEXT strategically significant because midshipmen graduating over the next several years could enter a fleet in which unmanned surface vessels routinely operate alongside destroyers, submarines, amphibious ships, aircraft, and Marine units as part of the same reconnaissance and targeting architecture. The training therefore exposes future officers early to a command environment in which crewed and autonomous forces must exchange information, divide missions, and remain effective under contested communications.

The first robotics and autonomous systems phase began with an industry-led Field Day that introduced midshipmen to the Rampage, GARC, and Jaiabot systems. Students then moved into a simulated “Game Day” evolution developed with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, using custom-coded search patterns to conduct hydrographic mapping, target detection, identification, and the simulated neutralization of maritime threats. These tasks have direct combat relevance in contested littoral waters. Autonomous systems can survey channels, map coastal approaches, locate suspicious vessels, and maintain contact with targets while reducing the need to expose personnel or high-value warships. GARC and Rampage also demonstrate how unmanned surface vessels can extend a ship’s sensor reach by allowing several autonomous craft to search separate sectors simultaneously, increasing persistence and creating a more difficult targeting problem for an adversary.

The training also included 80 Neros Archer FPV quadcopters directed for use at the Academy under the U.S. government’s Drone Dominance effort. Midshipmen received instruction on FPV drone history, capabilities, flight operations, and attack-drone employment before conducting hands-on training with Archer and Skydio unmanned aerial vehicles, giving them exposure to low-cost systems that can provide tactical units with organic reconnaissance and strike options. The inclusion of Archer is particularly relevant because the FPV drone has already entered operationally focused Marine Corps experimentation, including training at Camp Pendleton and testing in which a UH-1Y Venom helicopter acted as an airborne control node for the drones. The connection with YP NEXT is direct: in both cases, a crewed military asset becomes a control node for expendable unmanned systems that can be sent forward to search for, identify, track, or attack targets while the crewed asset remains farther from immediate danger.

FPV drones also expose future officers to one of the central vulnerabilities of autonomous warfare: electronic attack. These aircraft depend on command links, video transmission, navigation, and operator connectivity, all of which can be disrupted by jamming, spoofing, or interference. That challenge will be especially acute in a Pacific conflict, where U.S. forces would likely operate in a heavily contested electromagnetic environment. For this reason, YP NEXT is not simply teaching midshipmen how to operate drones. It is introducing them to the broader command problem of deciding when autonomous functions can be trusted, when human intervention is required, and how to continue a mission when communications degrade.

This challenge becomes more important as the number of unmanned systems increases because a force cannot scale to dozens or hundreds of naval drones if every vehicle requires a dedicated operator to control it continuously. Future autonomous formations will instead depend on one-to-many control, automated navigation, mission planning, and software capable of executing assigned tasks with limited supervision. Human operators can then concentrate on threat assessment, target validation, weapons release, and changes in mission priorities, turning unmanned systems from individually piloted vehicles into distributed extensions of a ship’s sensor and combat reach.

The underwater element of YP NEXT supports the same concept. Jaiabot aquatic drones can collect environmental and hydrographic data in areas where sending divers or crewed vessels would impose unnecessary risk, with potential applications in mine warfare, harbor reconnaissance, seabed surveillance, and the preparation of coastal operating areas. Similar autonomous underwater technologies are also being examined by the U.S. Navy for intelligence collection, mine warfare, interdiction, and distributed undersea missions.

Following the initial exercises, midshipmen conducted a Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic transit linking tactical training with the defense industrial base and operational users. In Baltimore, they visited BlackSea Technologies to observe how unmanned surface vessels progress from manufacturing and integration to operational use, highlighting the industrial requirement to produce, replace, modify, and upgrade autonomous systems quickly enough to sustain losses during a prolonged conflict. At Lewes, Delaware, midshipmen participated in the University of Delaware’s Autonomous Systems Bootcamp, working with marine scientists, oceanographers, and defense technologists on maritime autonomy. The course then concluded at Little Creek, Virginia, with exposure to Naval Special Warfare’s use of robotics and autonomous systems, including small drones and unmanned maritime vehicles capable of inspecting coastal approaches, conducting reconnaissance, and identifying threats before personnel are committed.

YP NEXT therefore reflects a broader change in how the U.S. Navy is preparing to fight. Rather than concentrating sensing, targeting, communications, and weapons solely aboard expensive crewed warships, the service is increasingly seeking to distribute those functions across larger numbers of unmanned systems that can expand surveillance, maintain contact with targets, and operate in areas where commanders may be unwilling to risk sailors. The approach could be particularly valuable against China’s anti-access and area-denial network in the Western Pacific. A fleet that can distribute sensors and mission systems across dozens of surface, aerial, and underwater drones presents a more complex and resilient targeting problem than one built solely around a limited number of large crewed ships, while also giving commanders more options for operating inside contested areas.

Naval drones will not replace destroyers, submarines, aircraft carriers, or amphibious warships. Their value lies in extending the reach of those forces, widening surveillance areas, supporting target tracking, and pushing expendable systems forward. The remaining challenge, however, is integrating those systems into a reliable kill chain that can detect and classify contacts, pass data through contested networks, maintain target tracks, and provide usable information to crewed ships, aircraft, submarines, or weapons. YP NEXT addresses that human and command layer before future officers reach the fleet.

The individual systems used during the exercise may evolve quickly, but officers trained from the beginning to treat autonomous vehicles as normal components of maritime operations will be better prepared to employ future drone swarms, unmanned surface vessels, FPV drones, and distributed sensor networks. The inaugural training block consequently marks more than the first deployment of robotics and autonomous systems from Naval Academy Yard Patrol craft. It is an early step toward producing officers capable of commanding crewed-uncrewed formations in contested Pacific waters, where resilient drone networks and distributed maritime operations could become central components of U.S. Navy combat power.

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Written by Alain Servaes – Chief Editor, Army Recognition Group
Alain Servaes is a former infantry non-commissioned officer and the founder of Army Recognition. With over 20 years in defense journalism, he provides expert analysis on military equipment, NATO operations, and the global defense industry.