Trammell could barely keep up with what was happening but saw that the holographic board continued to grow denser with activity. Blue and gold icons on the ocean’s surface representing friendly assets were swarming into defensive alignments. The trio of Stormwatchers layered their beams and missiles like a living wall. The ACVs fired missiles in pairs, some tripled, others stacked at different altitudes to hedge against evasive programming.
“Eh, there are too many,” Meilof muttered from the BMC-R pit. “They’re coming in too fast to react to them all.”
“Hang on, intercepts are happening… nine down… fourteen… twenty-two,” Senior Chief Thompson announced excitedly. “Splash thirty-one — ah crap,” he reported grimly before adding, “We’ve got five leakers from the second volley zeroing in on Doomhammer-1, Zealot-2.”
Trammell watched three simulated impact icons blossom in red against the 524-foot-long Doomhammer-class unmanned surface vessel arsenal ship. The Huntington Ingalls Industries ship wasn’t out of action yet, but a third of her ninety-six VLS cells were down. The two other hits against Zealot-2 blotted her from the board, a simulated kill against one of Trammell’s patrol-boat-sized counterdrone vessels.
“Ballistic missiles inbound!” Thompson exclaimed as the digital representations of the YJ-21s came diving in.
“Hypersonics incoming at Mach 8! GIDEON’s engaging,” Meilof announced, the tension evident in her voice. “Hot damn! We scored six mid-course kills with the SM-6s. Whoa, a pair of missiles look like their guidance systems got fried by a microwave hit from Stormwatcher-1’s Leonidas-III. Their tracks are way off course, headed for empty water. That leaves four missiles remaining, all headed for the Intrepid.”
Trammell was amazed by the results, something he knew they wouldn’t have been able to achieve without the aid of AI. Still, as he watched the remaining missiles still bearing down on them, he held hope the ACVs would come through in the end, if not, the Intrepid would engage the leakers.
“Stormwatcher-2 and 3 are engaging,” Thompson updated as the vessels changed course and speed. “They’re attempting to herd the last four missiles into a convergence path for the cobalt beams.”
The Stormwatchers mounted a pair of 150kW cobalt beam lasers for hard kills in the terminal phase of a missile or drone attack. The laser turrets were mounted in a port and starboard fore and aft configuration to provide full 360-degree rotational fields of fire for layered engagement. With an effective range of two to five kilometers depending on the weather, it was a last-ditch weapon capable of firing eight to twelve bursts per minute, per turret, with no limits on its sustainability at that rate. Mounted port and starboard or in a staggered dorsal-fore/aft configuration
On the display, the simulated kill box lit up as the trap was sprung. The three Stormwatchers saturated the final vectors of the incoming missiles. The SeaRAMs engaged on staggered timing while the Leonidas-III pulsed microwave bursts across the last known glide paths of the incoming missiles. Three of the four YJ-21s vanished, swatted from the sky at the last second. The fourth changed its path, angling in for a different ship, causing the interceptors and microwave pulses to miss it entirely as it slammed into the Stormwatcher-3.
“Hit on Stormwatcher-3,” announced Meilof, her eyes narrowing as she rapidly read the incoming diagnostic reports. “Node severed. Autonomous control lost. Stormwatcher-3 is offline, destroyed. The Warden logistics USV is initiating recovery protocols.”
The room was silent for half a beat. Then Trammell exhaled. “OK, we just got bloodied. This fight’s not over and we’re not out of it yet!”
“Aye, sir,” Meilof said. “We’ve got this.”
The next ninety minutes of the exercise became a doctoral thesis in autonomous warfare as Trammell’s crew continued to push their unmanned vessels to their limits. The Dutch Harbor’s OPFOR threw increasingly complex scenarios at them, from coordinated submarine attacks to electronic warfare cyberattacks and even a repeat of an even larger simulated hypersonic strike. Each time, the GIDEON-AI adapted, learning not just from its successes but from the patterns in OPFOR’s tactics and how its human operators reacted to each iteration and action.
“They’re getting frustrated,” Meilof observed during a brief lull in the exercise. “HYDRA’s started using nondoctrinal approaches. That last attack pattern was pure improvisation.”
“Good,” Trammell said approvingly. “Real enemies won’t stick to the playbook either. It’s important for GIDEON to understand that.”
The contractor from Saronic, a thin man who’d introduced himself as David Liu, looked up from his workstation. “Excuse me, Captain, we’re seeing some interesting emergent behaviors in the mesh network. The platforms are starting to anticipate each other’s actions. It’s like they’re developing their own tactical language of sorts.”
“Huh, is that a problem or something we need to be worried about?” Trammell quizzed.
“No, not yet. I only bring it up because it’s something we didn’t model for. In fact, GIDEON’s efficiency has increased by twelve percent since the exercise started.”
“Wow, that’s pretty amazing. Make sure to continue to document everything. I’m sure your people will want to study this further after everything is over,” Trammell replied. This was what exercises were for. To test ideas, systems, and tactics before they were tested in war.
The exercise slowed as they finished going through the final elements that needed to be tested. Once they had completed the digital force-on-force test, they switched to live firing actual missiles and zapping target drones to test the lasers. This gave everyone a chance to do more than just test the ACVs’ computer-simulated battles — it allowed them to run through the process of firing missile salvos and then having to conduct missile reloads while underway. By the end of the day, the crew was exhausted, and so was Trammel. When the call to ENDEX was heard, it couldn’t have come at a better time.
“Good job, everyone. Secure from exercise stations,” Captain Trammell ordered. “I want GIDEON placed in standby mode and all ACVs returned to escort formation.”
The displays showed his small robotic fleet re-forming around Intrepid, as if the intensity of the day had never occurred. But the data told a different story.
“Sir, we’re receiving the preliminary battle damage assessment from Dutch Harbor OPFOR,” Meilof announced, a note of satisfaction in her voice. “OPFOR losses: two destroyers, three frigates, six missile boats, two submarines. Total kill probability: ninety-four percent. Our losses…” She paused for effect. “One, and one damaged ACV.”
The CIC remained silent for a moment. They had proven something today. They’d proven that a handful of unmanned combat vessels, properly coordinated, could defeat a force many times their size.
“Well, Mr. Schreck,” Trammell said quietly, “what are your thoughts on how GIDEON performed today?”
The contractor rubbed his chin before responding, weighing his answer carefully. “Honestly, Captain? It performed better than we modeled, better than I thought it might. The emergent behaviors, the adaptive tactics, GIDEON’s not just executing preprogrammed responses anymore. It’s actually learning, adapting. From a programmer’s perspective, that’s either very good or very scary, depending on how you want to look at it.”
“Interesting. From my perspective, this concept of autonomous naval warfare works,” Trammell offered, then turned to his senior chief. “Thompson, what’s your take?”
The veteran sailor looked thoughtful. “Sir, I’ve been running combat systems for sixteen years. What I just saw… it’s like watching the first radar-guided missile hit its target. You know everything just changed, even if you don’t know how yet.”