It’s either very cool or very alarming, but the US Navy is moving into the 21st century and beyond. This has been in the works for a while, and the Navy has now unveiled their new class of inflatable, unmanned, self-guided patrol boats. In the hopes of reducing the threat of another attack such as the one on the USS Cole, these fast deployment craft – which are essentially water drones – will be able to “swarm” potential incoming threats without putting sailors directly in the line of fire.

The Arlington-based Office of Naval Research demonstrated the autonomous swarm boat technology over two weeks in August on the James River near Fort Eustis in Virginia — not far from one of the Navy’s largest fleet concentration areas. It said the Navy simulated a transit through a strait, just like the routine passage of U.S. warships through the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.

In the demonstrations, as many as 13 small unmanned patrol boats were escorting a high-value Navy ship. Then as many as eight of the self-guided vessels broke off and swarmed around a threat when a ship playing the part of an enemy vessel was detected, the office said, calling the demonstrations a success.

Robert Brizzolara, program manager at the Office of Naval Research, said that the boats can decide for themselves what movements to make once they’re alerted to a threat and work together to encircle or block the path of an opposing vessel, depending on that vessel’s movements and those of other nearby vessels.

The boats are not without teeth, either, should things get dicey.

The rigid-hull inflatable patrol boats can also fire .50 caliber machine guns if called upon to do so. However, a human will always be the one to make the decision to use lethal force, officials said. A sailor on a command ship would be in charge of each of the unmanned boats and could take control over any of the boats at any moment. And if communication between the unmanned boats and the sailor overseeing them were ever broken, the boat would automatically shut down.

It would automatically shut down when the human controller loses contact? That’s just what they said in I Robot right before mankind was nearly enslaved, too.

All SKYNET jokes aside, this looks like a very worthwhile investment for the Navy. I’ve heard arguments saying the the days of large scale naval warfare are over, and in certain applications that’s probably true. We may have seen the end of naval armadas centered around battleships, blasting away at each other with gigantic guns. But in other arenas, the Navy is more critical than ever. Our carrier task forces project air power around the world and our submarines remain our last line of defense in global, tactical scenarios. But shallow water encounters still remain a constant threat, reminiscent of the “brown water navy” era of Vietnam. This type of technology could be a big leap forward.