U.S. Special Operations Command is interested in adding loitering munitions to some of the U.S. Navy’s stealthy special operations boats. The new weapons could give American special operators a new tool to strike at specific individuals and other relatively small, but important targets, in both low- and high-end conflicts, without necessarily having to actually go ashore.
The Pentagon’s top special operations headquarters validated the requirement for what is formally called the Maritime Precision Engagement (MPE) program in March 2018, according to a briefing from the Special Operations Command’s Program Executive Office-Maritime given at the National Defense Industry Association’s annual Special Operations Forces Industry Conference (SOFIC) in May 2018. The Navy is now conducting feasibility studies to see what it might take to add a loitering munitions capability to the Combatant Craft Medium (CCM) and Combatant Craft Heavy (CCH) boats specifically.