New Eyes in the Deep – the rise of marine autonomous systems for civil and defence purposes, and a brief look at laws and regulations that apply to their use

Abstract

Marine autonomous systems, be they underwater or surface vehicles are growing in numbers, maturing as technologies used by civil, science and military operators, and are gaining new capabilities. It is possible to insure autonomous systems at a reasonable rate. The regulatory frameworks pertaining to their use vary from country to country, but the international law for armed marine autonomous systems is out of date and would benefit from revision and update. This paper is a light-touch review of typical uses and capabilities of systems, does not contain classified or commercial in confidence material, based on the author's 25+ years of familiarity with marine autonomous systems as they have evolved from laboratory prototypes into routinely used platforms for science, survey and surveillance.