The Navy plans to release a holistic digital strategy outlining specific artificial intelligence use cases by the end of 2026, according to the CTO of Task Force Hopper.
Speaking at WEST 2025 in San Diego on Tuesday, Lt. Artem Sherbinin said those use cases will span three areas in which the Navy wants AI to have an impact: the kill chain, maintenance, and administration and readiness.
The Pacific Fleet headquarters in Coronado, Calif., already has a Readiness Operations Center where machine learning techniques are being used, such as natural language processing to parse through data messages and analytics support tools to help commanders make decisions about deploying ships. AI is also being used by maintenance teams to reliably predict when ship parts will fail, so they only need one replacement on hand instead of 15.
“We’re not really buying AI, we’re buying operational outcomes,” Sherbinin said. “In operational outcomes, they happen to use that as an underlying technology.”
Click the banner below to start modernizing digital government with emerging technologies.
The Navy Wants To Be a Better AI Buyer
The government is most certainly more of an AI procurer than a researcher, accounting for less than 2% of overall research and development spending compared with industry, Sherbinin said.
While the National Institute of Standards and Technology will continue to issue integration guidelines around common data platforms, development environments for industry partners to work in and the authority to operate process, companies will set the tone for AI architectures, he said.
“AI research is absolutely happening in government labs. That is not to disparage [the Office of Naval Research],” Sherbinin said. “But leading AI research is happening in industry.”
The Navy must be smarter about the commercial off-the-shelf AI it buys for sailors to have quickly in their hands, and think earlier in the process about how operators will use the capabilities. This is especially true because new warships and aircraft aren’t arriving anytime soon, but software is constantly updated on ships in the Red Sea to make them more lethal, Sherbinin said.
“AI is just software,” he said. “Software closes the kill chain faster.”
Click the banner below to keep up with FedTech as an Insider.
Mastering the AI Learning Curve
Another challenge facing the Navy is the sheer volume of sensor data coming from robotic autonomous systems that AI must correlate with intelligence community data before it can develop a common operating picture and decide where to engage.
To that end, more sailors need to be trained to use AI and ML tools, and leaders need training to understand its limitations.
“This is not magic,” said Rear Adm. Mike Brookes, commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence.
The learning curve is such that some leaders still need robotic autonomous systems explained to them, said Rear Adm. Christopher Sweeney, director of integrated warfare in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.
Fortunately, the Naval Postgraduate School is offering sailors greater exposure to AI tools.
“I want to master this so that when I get out there, I’m able to talk to those Marines that I have to give them standards,” said Capt. Ace Padilla, an operations analysis master’s student at NPS. “Give them direction and purpose to use these AI tools and be faster.”
To learn more about WEST 2025, visit our conference page. You can also follow us on the social platform X at @FedTechMagazine to see behind-the-scenes moments.
