Complex fleets need broadly educated sailors

Can the education system for future officers and sailors be reduced as ships become larger, more automated, and more complicated?

No; navies need personnel educated in both STEM and the humanities so they can operate technology and judge when and why to use it.

STEM and the humanities serve complementary roles in naval education. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics teach personnel how systems work and how to make them act. The humanities develop judgment about when an action is appropriate and what consequences it may produce. A thinking service remains the strongest defence against situations that automation, checklists, and peacetime assumptions did not anticipate.