TechNet Indo-Pacific 2025

ENS Patrick Wilson, USN
Experimentation Division Officer
Unmanned Surface Vessel Squadron THREE


ENS Patrick Wilson was raised in Niles, Ohio. He attended The United States Naval Academy (USNA) and received a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Area Studies (Asia) in May of 2025. He was service-assigned Surface Warfare in late 2024. In the following months, ENS Wilson selected USS James E. Williams (DDG-95) as his first surface vessel assignment while also applying for and being accepted into the Unmanned Surface Warfare special commissioning pipeline. At the Academy, ENS Wilson’s major coursework included studies in Asian politics, economics, and culture. When able, he focused his course effort on concepts in Cyber Ethnography - the study of online field-spaces in order to observe and analyze typical and online-unique cultural phenomena. ENS Wilson’s Capstone Research centered on cultural reactions to developments in Japanese politics via -analytics in online social media spaces. An interesting facet of ENS Wilson’s research method was the use of Claude Sonnet 3.5 and Twitter/X’s API to create a custom post-scraper as a means of generating a baseline data set. ENS Wilson was able to amplify his professional development via the highly immersive leadership elective, Human Factors in Combat as well as routine participation with the Academy’s exclusively midshipmen-led Adaptive Rapid Engagement Squadron (ARES). Thanks to ARES, ENS Wilson studied and applied concepts in robotics, robotic warfare, artificial intelligence, electrical engineering, electronic warfare, radio theory, and small unit leadership. In conjunction with its sister-unit, the Future Applied Systems Team (FAST), at The United States Military Academy (USMA), ARES also brought ENS Wilson and his former teammates into dynamic Force-on-Force infantry exercises involving experimental technology (particularly UxS) and tactics researched and developed by both fellow students and industry contractors. Ultimately, ENS Wilson held a variety of roles during his time with ARES to include Unmanned Systems Operator, Fireteam Leader, Squad Leader, “Wraith” (Surveillance, Target Acquisition, Hunter-Killer Team), S2 Intel Shop Officer, S6 Systems Shop Officer, and S7 R&D Shop Officer. In his short time aboard USVRON Three, ENS Wilson has led the Experimentation Division, and on occasion the Experimentation Department, while pursuing a comprehensive USV JQR. In these roles ENS Wilson has taken part in and helped plan several small and large-scale USV exercises. He also often interfaces directly with his CO in planning and exploring the development of new platform capabilities as well as new techniques, tactics, and procedures.

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