ICYMI: Vigilance in the Pacific: The Role of Unmanned Systems

On January 28, 2026, the Institute for Indo-Pacific Security hosted an online event: Vigilance in the Pacific: The Role of Unmanned Systems.” The discussion drew perspectives from scholars, representing the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based national security and foreign policy think tank, and Havoc AI, a defense technology company specializing in autonomous maritime systems and AI-enabled operations. This discussion examined how unmanned systems reshape surveillance, deterrence, and defense in the region, particularly for small island nations and their partners. Additionally, they discussed how the U.S.–Japan alliance can leverage these technologies to help Pacific Island states monitor their surrounding waters, deter coercive activity, and sustain vigilance across vast maritime spaces. The event featured CAPT. Benjamin Cipperley (ret., USN), Chief Strategy Officer, HavocAI, and Ms. Iku Tsujihiro, Research Associate, Japan Chair, Hudson Institute.  

Ms. Iku Tsujihiro’s presentation argued that illegal fishing and drug trafficking in the Pacific Islands are enabled by weak maritime domain awareness (MDA) and limited law enforcement capacity and have become increasingly destabilizing as China-linked IUU fishing and transnational criminal networks expand across the region. She proposed U.S.–Japan collaboration as a cost-effective and politically feasible response, emphasizing emerging technologies such as unmanned aerial and surface systems, satellite-based surveillance (including SAR), AI-enabled vessel detection, and advanced tracking systems like VDES to improve monitoring of vast EEZs and identify “dark” vessels. Rather than sharing raw intelligence, she stressed capacity-building for Pacific Island countries to strengthen sovereign enforcement capabilities while managing cybersecurity and political sensitivities. While acknowledging regional hedging behavior, she framed IUU fishing and drug trafficking as “softer” security entry points for cooperation, presenting this approach as both a strategic necessity for regional stability and an opportunity to advance Japan’s emerging defense and dual-use technology sectors in partnership with the United States. Her main point is that this approach is both a strategic necessity for regional stability and a concrete opportunity to advance Japan’s emerging defense and dual-use technology sectors in partnership with the United States. 

CAPT. Benjamin Cipperley (ret., USN) argued that the growing importance of uncrewed systems in the Indo-Pacific is driven by China’s increasingly coordinated gray-zone activities—ranging from maritime militia operations to drone incursions—and the sheer scale of maritime spaces that regional states struggle to monitor. He emphasized that multi-domain unmanned platforms across air, surface, and undersea domains provide a cost-effective way for countries with limited naval and coast guard capacity, such as Japan, the Philippines, and Indonesia, to extend sovereignty, persistence, and vigilance, particularly in EEZs and contested areas like the Senkaku Islands and the South China Sea. Central to his argument were the challenges of command and control (C2) and interoperability, which he described as more difficult and consequential than platform procurement itself, citing issues such as tracking vessels over time, managing large numbers of systems, avoiding misidentification, and coordinating responses across allies. Drawing on examples including Japan’s jet scrambles and shift toward unmanned monitoring, the Philippines’ recovery of Chinese drones and growing reliance on allied data sharing, Taiwan’s heavy investment in UAVs and USVs, and South Korea and Singapore’s diverging procurement paths, he warned that fragmentation is likely unless common standards are established through frameworks such as the Quad or AUKUS. As his main point, he framed unmanned systems not only as tools for deterrence and maritime security, but also as dual-use capabilities that can support humanitarian assistance and disaster relief while shaping regional norms and alliance cooperation in response to China’s behavior. 

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