House lawmakers want the Navy to deploy drone boats faster

The Navy would have to detail its plans to buy and use seagoing drones under a suite of provisions in the House Armed Services Committee’s draft 2027 defense policy bill. The bill, which passed out of committee late Thursday, would require service leaders to devise a plan to buy, sustain, and operate small unmanned surface vessels—ones weighing less than 50 metric tons and no more than 50 feet long. The plan would have to include a detailed inventory of each acquired USV, t