Why automated ships still need people

Can highly automated ships and submarines operate with half their normal crew?

Some systems can technically run with fewer people, but official operating requirements and safety practices often keep the necessary crew larger.

What machinery can do and what a navy officially requires people to do are different measures. Zumwalt's automated boat-launching system can be watched and operated by one person, yet the prescribed boat-handling team is four. Safety rules, supervision, and established practice therefore consume more personnel than the mechanism alone suggests. Submarines magnify the same problem because many functions need redundancy and round-the-clock coverage. Automation can lower workload without reducing the deployable crew as dramatically as a headline system description implies. Soviet submarine automation still encountered human-capital limits, while American shortages of nuclear technicians could make British crew-reduction methods increasingly attractive.