The Navy’s future depends on what isn’t there. Research and development for both vessels and weapons seem predicated on the absence of matter.

Here’s what I mean.

In weapons, one of the top priorities is development of hypersonic weapons. In tests, they fling a projectile at many times the speed of sound, such that the energy from impact alone can wreck a target. They work on the absence of an explosive inside, like regular ordnance.

The idea of less goes further. Also on the list of research and development priorities: directed energy, according to Dr. John Burrow, the deputy assistant Navy secretary for research and development, science and technology. I spoke to him at the Sea Air Space conference earlier this week at National Harbor. Directed energy used to be seen mainly in bad horror movies. But it’s basically a death ray made of microwave or laser beams. They don’t shoot shells or other projectiles. They work on an absence of ordnance as we usually think of it altogether.

To do real damage, these still-experimental devices need hundreds of kilowatts of power, a capability few ships have at this point.

Lesser also extends to the size of the Navy itself. The U.S. Navy is big — the biggest in the world. But not as big as it was. It’s down to less than 300 deployable ships from a post-war peak of more than 600. Yet, as the current Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. John Richardson, points out, the high seas undergo more and more varied traffic than ever. U.S. economic interests extend everywhere. And, as he and others have pointed out, including in this interview, the U.S. faces a resurgence of “great power” rivals, if not outright adversaries, in China and Russia. Both countries have ambitious navy-building plans, including nuclear subs and carriers.

If you’ve got a king-sized bed to cover, a double-sized blanket won’t cover it. But the Navy won’t get an embroidered, quilted, king-sized blanket in the foreseeable future.

But unmanned and autonomous — vessels with the absence of sailors — can extend the reach of manned ships and even of ashore intelligence officers and planners. Unmanned refers to vessels operated by a remote person with a joystick somewhere. Autonomous means the vessel sets its own course from point A to point B, with the ability to make adjustments along the way. The Navy — all the armed forces for that matter — pursue both. Absent all of the systems required to support human life, surface and submarine vessels are cheaper to build and operate. The Navy could, under certain circumstances, deploy them in swarms.

As Richardson’s Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority points out, to meet new and still-changing conditions the Navy will “explore alternative fleet designs, including kinetic and non-kinetic payloads and both manned and unmanned systems.” All in a “highly ‘informationalized’ environment.” That is, an information-rich network enables autonomy.

Autonomy, Richard told me, “is coming on fast, right? This role of artificial intelligence, the role of unmanned vehicles — we ignore that development at our peril.” He adds, “I’m very interested in finding what is the final correct balance between those types of systems.”

Still, Richardson said, “At the end of the day, this is a human endeavor.” It’s also an endeavor that has shown remarkable restraint in repeated provocations by Russia and Iran.

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