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A28 u.s. news
Diasabra 30 Juli 2022

Navy expedites waterborne drones to close gap with China

nology can help with the Critics said the Navy rushed
three keys for military suc- to cram too much new tech-
cess — weapons range, nology onto those ships,
scouting, and command and leading to failures and grow-
control — at a lower cost and ing costs.
risk to personnel, said James
Holmes, a professor at the “We can’t just throw all the
Naval War College in New- resources at (robotic ships)
port, Rhode Island. with the track record of
20 years of failed ship pro-
But all of those benefits must grams,” said Democratic
be proven, along with long- Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia,
term durability in a harsh who is a retired Navy officer.
saltwater environment, he
said. The Navy’s Unmanned
Task Force is taking a new
“We’re sort of in Jerry Ma- approach, using a military
guire ‘show me the money’ equivalent of a venture capi-
territory with the tech. It will tal model to expedite new
undoubtedly be useful, but ideas, and moving forward
whether it will be a game- only after technologies are
changer is far less clear,” said proven, said Michael Stewart,
Holmes, who doesn’t speak the director of the task force.
for the Navy.
(AP) - Facing a growing The four largest drone ships destroyers, submarine and This summer, four large
threat from China, the are being used together this aircraft carriers, to create a Before moving forward, the drone ships are working
Navy envisions drone ships summer during a multina- networked fleet that’s resil- Navy must first to win over a alongside conventional ships
keeping an electronic eye tion naval exercise in the Pa- ient because it’s spread over skeptical Congress after a se- during the war games called
on enemy forces across cific Ocean. greater distances and more ries of shipbuilding debacles. RIMPAC.
the vast Pacific Ocean, ex- difficult for enemies to de-
tending the reach of fire- Other smaller waterborne stroy, the Navy says. Its speedy littoral combat Those include the Sea Hunt-
power, and keeping sailors drones are already being de- ships have had propulsion er and Sea Hawk, diesel-
out of harm’s way. ployed by the Navy’s 5th “It’s about moving the tech- problems, leading to early powered ships equipped with
Fleet in the waters off the nology forward, and having retirements. The “Advanced outriggers for stability in
The Navy is speeding de- Middle East. confidence in the capabil- Gun System” on its stealth rough seas. The other two are
velopment of those robotic ity. Everything takes time,” destroyer was a bust because Ranger and Nomad, which
ships as an affordable way to The goal in coming years said Cmdr. Jeremiah Daley, of expensive ammo. And its are based on oil platform
keep pace with China’s grow- is to see how these research commanding officer of Un- newest aircraft carrier had replenishment ships. They
ing fleet while vowing not to vessels’ radar and sensors can manned Surface Vessel Divi- problems with elevators and have large flat decks from
repeat costly shipbuilding be combined with artificial sion One in California. a new system to launch air- which a missile was success-
blunders from recent years. intelligence, and integrated craft. fully fired last year.
with traditional cruisers, The Navy believes the tech-

Jan. 6 panel to share 20 transcripts with Justice Department

(AP) — The House Jan. 6 com- up its probes. Several senior aides to sible for interfering with the peaceful public. The Jan. 6 panel has done
mittee will share 20 of its inter- former Vice President Mike Pence transfer of power from one adminis- more than 1,000 interviews, but not
view transcripts with the Justice have appeared before a federal grand tration to another.” all of those were formally transcribed.
Department as federal prosecu- jury and prosecutors have seized re-
tors have been increasingly fo- cords from a group of Republicans The committee has not said if it plans The Justice Department declined to
cused on efforts by former Presi- who served as fake electors in battle- to eventually share all of its transcripts comment Friday on the transcripts.
dent Donald Trump and his allies ground states won by President Joe with the Justice Department or the
to overturn the results of the elec- Biden. Trump and his allies pushed
tion. officials in those states to replace
Biden’s duly selected electors with
A committee aide said that the panel ones who supported him as they ad-
will share the 20 transcripts but has vanced claims that his victory had
“no plans to share additional tran- been stolen.
scripts at this time.” The person, who
requested anonymity to discuss the It remains unclear whether pros-
confidential transaction, would not ecutors might seek to bring criminal
say which interviews the committee charges against Trump, who denies
is sharing. any wrongdoing.

The information sharing comes after Attorney General Merrick Gar-
the committee had rejected a Justice land, who is facing mounting pres-
Department request for transcripts sure from congressional Democrats
in May. At the time, the committee’s to bring charges against the former
chairman, Mississippi Rep. Bennie president, has said prosecutors will
Thompson, had said it was “prema- hold anyone accountable — no mat-
ture” for the committee to share its ter their position — if they broke the
work because the panel’s probe is on- law.
going.
In an interview with NBC News this
Since then, the panel has been nego- week, Garland said the Justice De-
tiating an agreement over the docu- partment would “bring to justice ev-
ments as the department has stepped erybody who was criminally respon-