What have been appositely referred to as the "military's smartest toys," robot boats have just become a lot smarter, and so has the US Navy.

It has taken the US government some time, but its team of researchers and developers have begun to discover the effectiveness of swarming by means of autonomous boats - Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) or Autonomous Surface Craft (ASCs). The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is committed to the idea of robot boats and the impact they can have in both defensive and offensive contexts at home and abroad.

A swarm of robot made debuted in Virginia's James River approximately two years ago, and in the final weeks of 2016, the ONR put on another show with its small boats in the Chesapeake Bay estuary, near Washington, DC.

The second demonstration showcased better thinking by the ONR and its autonomous systems, which not only performed well individually, they also demonstrated their capacity to swarm as a coherent unit against a potential enemy while maintaining an intricate information relay system.

Using sophisticated software called, Control Architecture for Robotic Agent Command and Sensing (CARACaS), the USN's Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBs) processed data about the potential threat in US waters and responded as if they had a life of their own. The USN's advanced robot boats deftly demonstrated the essence of swarming, much like a flock of hyenas in the presence of a gazelle or lion.

Information relay among the RHIBs involved an elaborate system of detection, identification, and an autonomous process of determining which unit would engage the enemy vessel. Part of the assessment process involved a threat level appraisal associated with the approaching vessel.

During the entire course of action, information was relayed to the boats' living counterparts. Human actors have the potential to alter action undertaken by the robot boats, manipulating both tactic and strategy in the face of a potential threat in friendly waters.

The use of these systems resurfaces numerous questions about autonomous weapons just like those raised after the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) first Predator took to the skies in a targeted killing mission over Afghanistan.

Concerns over the use of (fully) autonomous weapons systems and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have spurred heated debates about the decision over life and death being left to a machine, whether autonomous weapons can be expected to operate in an ethically "correct" way, and if they can be trusted to differentiate between friend and foe.

Another particularly interesting point of contemplation is whether the question of ethics can be applied to all autonomous systems or if the expansion of robots in one realm can further the boundaries of robot application and operations in another.

As the margins of autonomous weapons and weapons systems continues to expand, concerns over the transference of human ability to machines burn brighter and hotter. Proportionality assessments and quick decision-making involving difficult moral judgements as well as risk-assessment are often considered profoundly human qualities that Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) are incapable of without non-autonomous governance.

The axiom, smaller, faster, cheaper, however is attracting just as much attention from those in decision-making positions. The USN is moving forward with more development and production of its littoral bots in an effort to augment its existing force capabilities. They signal an entire spectrum of major opportunity as force amplifiers.

Although systems like these have been around since the 1990s, the US is now demonstrating how they can be adopted and developed to fit a highly practical area and there is a lot of room to expand.

The vastness of the world's oceans and seas leaves many vital national interests vulnerable to potential threats. At present, the USN is taking further steps to show that the country's coastal regions can be suitably defended using cooperative autonomous robots on the water's surface, but can also be expected to expand its scope to see roving bands of USVs protecting those interests when other states might not have the capacity to do so.

So far, the USN's senior brass has lauded these "killer" boats and see their potential not only in such areas as surveillance, reconnaissance, and escort missions, but also in offensive roles, where swarms of these little units can exact a heavy toll on an enemy flotilla of comparably Goliath-sized warships.

Scott N. Romaniuk is a Doctoral Researcher in International Studies (University of Trento). His research focuses on asymmetric warfare, counterterrorism, international security, and the use of force.