A Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vessel operates alongside U.S. Coast Guard fast response cutter USCGC Emlen Tunnell (WPC 1145) in the Arabian Gulf, Nov. 29, during Digital Horizon 2022. (Sgt. Brandon Murphy/US Army)
Defense News reports on 5th Fleet’s “Digital Horizon” exercise.
“We have done a lot of work with AI previously, and we’ve done computer vision, we’ve done anomalous behavior detection, we’ve done AI-enabled [command and control], but we’ve done all of those separately,” the commodore explained. “At Digital Horizon, for the first time ever, we did that together on a single stack, and that’s all integrated on a single pane of glass.”
They have been trying a number of new systems, “10 of which are being operated in 5th Fleet for the first time.” We got a look at a portion of this exercise earlier, “Task Force 59 Launches Aerial Drone from Coast Guard Ship in Middle East” –NAVCENT. Also, among the systems they tested was V-Bat UAS.
There is also confirmation here that a similar effort will be going into 4th Fleet (Latin American/Caribbean Waters); that it will involve partner nations; and that it will look at IUU fishing as well as drug interdiction.
Fortunately, it looks like Coast Guard personnel and assets have been intimately involved in this effort and it looks like it will benefit our Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) efforts.
(Will the Coast Guard’s next class of ships be USV tenders?)
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
What is the consequence of a vessel being caught IUU fishing?
That would depend on the jurisdiction and local law. I have not heard much about this. Trial results don’t get much publicity. Sometimes the F/V is seized and Indonesia blows them up.
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