How has aerial surveillance in the Navy changed with the introduction of unmanned vehicles?

Presently, human oversight is necessary for performing an offensive attack. UVs in this role can act as a hosting platform for sensors and weapons, thereby increasing the capacity, flexibility and awareness of the manned combatants they support.
In peacetime, UVs which account for lower procurement and sustainment costs can protect assets from maritime threats. This includes deterring adversaries and disorienting enemy forces because there are more units to detect and track.
Distributed Maritime Operation (DMO)
Although the Navy also has an Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (UUVs) program, we’ll focus on Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) in our discussion. To define their effectiveness and how they are deployed, these vehicles have been classified as large, medium, and small.
Generally, the smaller classes of USVs can be deployed from manned submarines or ships to further their operational reach. They are also “a much better option than sending a manned platform into a minefield,” Adm. John M. Richardson addressed the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee.
Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicles (MUSVs)
MUSVs are required to be 45 ft – 190 ft long and have full-load displacements of about 500 tons. Suggested payloads are reconnaissance and electronic warfare systems. Sea Hunter is the first of its kind and recorded a successful unmanned sailing mission from San Diego to Hawaii and then back.
According to a Defense News report, personnel from an escort vessel boarded the 132 ft long Sea Hunter at short intervals to check electrical and propulsion systems. No human boarded the vessel during its 2 000 mile return journey which took nine days. Some $200 million has gone into the Sea Hunter program over a period of 4 years.
In July 2020, after a competitive process, the Navy awarded L3 Technologies Inc a $ 35 million contract to develop one MUSV prototype. If the budget is provided, there is the option to procure 8 more, pushing the entire contract up to just over $281 million.
Large Unmanned Surface Vehicles (LUSVs)
The requirements for LUSVs are lengths between 200 ft and 300 ft and full-load displacements of 1000 tons to 2000 tons. Senior Navy officials have described the LUSV as an adjunct weapons magazine that will integrate with manned platforms.

COLUMN | US Navy plots a partially unmanned future course [Naval Gazing]
The deployment of unmanned surface vehicles (USV) by the world’s navies continues to gain momentum. Thus far, though, the naval usage of USVs has been focused on the conduct of prolonged, repetitive coastal and littoral operations, such as long term patrolling and surveillance missions, and mine detection and clearance, using small USV platforms, such as the Israeli Protector, and UK’s Autonomous Minesweeping System.
A recent announcement by US Navy Surface Warfare Director Rear Admiral Ronald Boxall signalled a likely future radical change to US Navy doctrine, namely the much greater use by the service of USVs in combat roles.
The US Navy’s current top operational priority is to respond to the headlong advance of China’s PLA Navy, which is probably adding some 20 to 30 warships to its fleet every year, although it has become difficult to make reliable estimates since 2018, when China clamped down on media reporting of the commissioning of new vessels.
The American deep-sea surface fleet is currently dominated by nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, and their main escorts, Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. These destroyers are highly effective units, bristling with powerful weaponry and sensors, but they are expensive, and absorb a great deal of scarce manpower.
The current thinking in the Pentagon is that USV technology is now sufficiently mature for it to be feasible to augment the manned fleet with a significant number of high endurance, relatively economical, USVs. A mix of small sensor-equipped craft, and much larger, weaponised, vessels is envisaged. Accordingly, a request for information on how best to achieve this goal has been put out to the defence industry.
It is very likely that a future USV programme will feature a development of the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Sea Hunter, a 40-metre, 145-tonne trimaran, built by Vigor Shipyards in Oregon, and dubbed an “anti-submarine warfare continuous trail unmanned surface vessel” (ACTUV).
The craft is powered by twin diesels, enabling a speed of 27 knots. Range is 10,000 nautical miles. Search and detection sonar is fitted, together with a full suite of radar, electro-optical detection, and electronic warfare equipment. Data link enables the ACTUV, which incorporates advanced autonomous navigation and anti-collision features, to be controlled from a remote operations centre.

UAS are replacing manned platforms on maritime missions
By Arie Egozi on 5 February, 2013 in Uncategorised
The use of ‘exclusive economic zones’ (EEZ) has become fashionable in recent years. Countries have started to understand the many threats on their maritime natural treasures, and wanted to draw a line that will make it easier to protect them.
In order to protect something that belongs to a country, but is located a good distance from the shore, you need surveillance – persistent surveillance.
Maritime surveillance requirements are demanding specific capabilities and performance, such as mission endurance and flight profiles.
Until recently such missions were performed exclusively by aircraft – some dedicated to the maritime surveillance mission, while others used off-the-shelf transport planes modified for the job.
These missions typically demand coverage of very wide areas, monitoring extensive maritime traffic, as well as deployment in unexpected conditions in response to emergencies or on search and rescue tasks.
Therefore, the need for efficient development of a maritime situational picture is critical, enabling the deployment of the few available aerial assets to cover only those areas or targets of significance.
The introduction of unmanned air systems (UAS) is changing this paradigm, removing the limitations that have restricted manned missions while introducing new capabilities which significantly enhance operational flexibility and efficiency of maritime control.
This capability has become specifically important in recent years, as countries are required to cover growing maritime areas claimed by EEZ.
These can be located up to 200 nautical miles from a country’s coastline or furthest-away island. In the case of India, for example, such an area covers a huge expanse of the Indian Ocean, bordering Indonesia in the east to Somalia in the west.
A country cannot cover such vast space from its coastal radar stations, nor can it commit manned patrol flights to cover the entire area.
At Aero-India 2013, Israel’s Elbit Systems is introducing its newest and largest UAS, the Hermes-900, in a configuration adapted for maritime missions. This UAS can carry payloads of up to 350kg.
In the maritime configuration the payload suite includes maritime surveillance radar, an electro-optical multi-sensor payload and electronic surveillance systems. It has the endurance to cover vast ocean areas, redundant line-of-sight and satellite communications links and radio relays – enabling the operator to ‘talk through’ to vessels at sea.

The Navy seems to have shifted its concept for the Unmanned Carrier Launched Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) for a third time in as many years part of the most confusing and misunderstood aviation acquisition programs in the last decade.
At its 2006 conception, the new generation of carrier based unmanned aerial vehicles would be built to extend the inland reach of carrier strike groups a well beyond the reach of the current crop of manned fighters.
In 2011, the Navy and the Pentagon moved to make a lower cost UAV to be quickly pushed into service to hunt terrorists, anticipating a world where U.S. forces could be restricted in flying land-based UAVs as well as act as an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) asset when the rest of the carrier air wing was off-duty.
Now, the Navy seems to have again changed the character of the planned UCLASS into an aircraft that will almost exclusively spend its time over the ocean.
“It’s very much part of our maritime package, as part of the carrier strike group,” said Vice Adm. Paul Grosklags, principle military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Navy for research development and acquisition, who spoke to USNI News on Thursday.
The new concept is completely different from what the original progenitors of the program — including current deputy defense secretary Bob Work — had intended, but seems to fit inline with the Navy’s current thinking about maritime threats in the Western Pacific.
The missions now in mind for UCLASS now include permissive airspace ISR and strike initially to start with, Grosklags said. As the program evolves, those missions would expand to more challenging contested littoral and coastal ISR and strike, to attacking an enemy surface action groups (SAG).
The requirements for the UCLASS have been set and that the Pentagon had expected to hold a Defense Acquisitions Board (DAB) meeting next Monday, Grosklags testified before the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces on Wednesday.
However, Work has requested a “precursor” meeting ahead of the DAB, which forced the Pentagon to postpone.
Both the meeting with Work and the DAB are now expected next week before the final request for proposals (RFP) is released to the four companies competing: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Atomics and Northrop Grumman. The RFP is restricted even though the most of the document is unclassified.

Navy to Send More Unmanned Systems to Sea
Photo: General Dynamics
The Navy is moving ahead with unmanned surface and undersea vehicle development, and pursuing enabling technologies that will make the platforms operationally effective.
A wide range of USVs and UUVs are in the works, littoral combat ship program executive officer Rear Adm. John Neagley said during a presentation at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference in National Harbor, Maryland.
“Those capabilities will be delivered over the next couple years and start to get into our procurements in ‘18 and ‘19 and really start hitting the fleet,” he said.
Neagley’s portfolio includes the unmanned maritime systems program office, PMS 406.
“LCS was built from the ground up to really leverage and take advantage of unmanned systems,” he said. “It’s a modular ship … [with] a lot of reconfigurable space.” It has a built-in capability for launching and recovering UUVs and USVs, he noted.
Unmanned vessels can range in size from small man-portable devices to extra-large platforms that are more than 50 meters in length. They allow the U.S. military to take warfighters out of harm’s way and perform certain missions more effectively and efficiently, he said.
Surface vehicles that are in the works include the unmanned influence sweep system minesweeper (UISS); the mine countermeasures USV (MCM USV); and the Sea Hunter medium displacement UUV, an anti-submarine warfare continuous train unmanned vessel.
Operational evaluation of the UISS is slated for spring 2018, and Milestone C is expected in the fourth quarter of this fiscal year, according to Neagley.
Construction and payload integration for the MCM USV is underway with initial operator testing in fiscal year 2019.
The Sea Hunter recently transitioned from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to the Office of Naval Research, where development and testing will continue. The system could potentially transition to Navy operations this year, according to DARPA.
Undersea vehicles that are moving through the development pipeline include: the Knifefish for hunting bottom and buried mines; the Snakehead large displacement UUV for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; and the Orca extra-large UUV for mine warfare.
The Knifefish has undergone sea acceptance trials, and Milestone C is slated for the third quarter of this fiscal year, according to Neagley.

U.S. Navy ship commanders now have a new way to improve intelligence-gathering capabilities—by using Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter.
The first operational MQ-8C unmanned helicopter was delivered to the U.S. Navy earlier this week, according to a news release. The MQ-8C is an upgraded version of the company’s MQ-88 Fire Scout, and features a larger airframe and can fly twice as long and carry three times more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance payloads.
The MQ-8C’s first ship board test flights will be conducted this winter aboard the USS Jason Dunham (DDG 109). The Navy will then assess the system for operational use. Northrop Grumman is under contract to build 19 MQ-8C Fire Scouts, including two test aircraft, according to the release. The Navy plans to purchase 70 aircraft total.
“The test program will run through the summer as we expect these aircraft to be ready for operations by year’s end,” said George Vardoulakis, vice president for medium range tactical systems with Northrop Grumman, according to the release.
For more information, visit northropgrumman.com.

The Defense Department reported that one in three aircraft in its arsenal is now unmanned.
Miniature UAVs, such as “throwbots,” can literally be tossed into a room, right themselves, and even climb stairs while performing video surveillance or bomb detection. Some of these may be considered expendable for use in a single mission. Others, such as the Predator, are expected to perform for many years. Components used in these devices must meet the highest level of durability possible.
A large arsenal of new unmanned, remotely controlled devices has been developed for specific tasks in recent years, including bomb detection and removal, surveillance, material transportation, and even rescue of injured soldiers.
In addition to the vehicle, a typical military UAV system consists of a ground control unit and satellite communications terminal. The UAV incorporates an extensive array of electronic systems that manage flight control, navigation, video reconnaissance, weapons management, target acquisition, and communications. All of these systems require absolute reliability in potentially harsh environments.
At the opposite end of the scale are “microbots” that measure a few inches in diameter and are designed to fly, crawl on the ground, or move on or under the sea to provide close-range and undectable video and audio. Recent demonstrations have proven the ability of position-aware microbot swarms to avoid collision and perform group tasks.
Autonomous vehicles are another class of devices that have begun to enter the market. The US Army recently approved the Lockheed Martin Squad Mission Support System (SMSS), which is an autonomous truck with a range of 125 miles that is capable of transporting 1,000 pounds of equipment over rugged terrain. These driverless vehicles navigate to programmed destinations and have the ability to recognize established roads as well as navigate around obstacles.
Work also continues on autonomous killer drones that carry lethal weapons, although there are serious ethical and legal issues that must be resolved before they can be deployed.
Remotely piloted aerial and land vehicles have also caught the attention of civilian authorities. Small UAVs are cost-effective alternatives to deploying a full-size helicopter for surveillance by police. Not only is the platform much less expensive to purchase, but it can cost as little as $30 per hour to operate. Firemen are able to survey the condition of a building or forest fire to determine the most effective attack. Drones have been used to dust crops, create maps, and cover news events, as well as monitor transmission lines, flood conditions, livestock, and wildlife.

On the other hand their ability to support sensors and weapons is severely limited, and the crews’ limited ability to deal with adverse weather has always been problematic. Making them unmanned will at least help with that.
Thanks to Jim for suggesting the topic.
It now seems obvious that Unmanned Systems (air and possibly surface and subsurface) will play a part in the Coast Guard’s future, but the service has been, perhaps understandably hesitant to commit to any particular system.
Because of the variety of proprietary systems, integrating the control systems into the organization of the controlling unit, particularly ships and aircraft, and then integrating the resulting information into a common operating picture has been problematic.
Eaglespeak reports, it looks like DOD, through the Office of Naval Research, is moving in the direction of a platform agnostic software application that will permit common hardware to control different unmanned system.
This might permit Coast Guard units which commonly control small unmanned aicraft (sUAS) to be quickly adapted to
- Control a much more capable UAS.
- Hunt for mines using unmanned surface (USV) or subsurface (UUV) systems.
- Control optionally manned surface craft to search for smugglers or enhance asset protection.
- Control UUVs towing acoustic arrays, searching for submarines.
- Direct a USV equipped with AIS, lights, and signals into position to serve as a temporary aid-to-navigation.

The first U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft system (UAS) recently flew 11 hours from the Northrop Grumman facility in Palmdale, CA, to the Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland to start its next phase of testing, moving the program closer toward operational assessment. The MQ-4C Triton UAS provides real-time intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance over ocean and coastal regions. (For a short video of the flight, click here.)
During the flight, the joint Navy/Northrop team controlled the aircraft from a ground station in Palmdale, which served as the forward operating base, and a Navy System Integration Lab at Patuxent River, which served as the main operating base. The aircraft traveled along the same flight path that was used to transfer the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Demonstrator from Palmdale to Patuxent River several years ago.
At Patuxent River, the aircraft will be outfitted with a sensor suite, before going through a series of sensor integration flights. One of Triton's primary sensors, the AN/ZPY-3 multifunction active sensor radar, will provide what Northrop describes as "an unprecedented 360° field of regard" for detecting and identifying ships.
Over the next few weeks, two other Tritons, one of which is a demonstration aircraft owned by Northrop, will also fly to Patuxent River. Both will be used during system development and demonstration tests.
Based on the Global Hawk UAS, Triton features a reinforced airframe and wing, along with de-icing and lightning protection systems. These features allow the aircraft to descend through cloud layers to gain a closer view of ships and other targets at sea when needed.
Triton is specifically designed for maritime missions of up to 24 hours. It can fly at altitudes higher than 10 mi, allowing for coverage of 1 million nmi² of ocean, in a single mission.
The Navy’s program of record calls for 68 aircraft to be fielded.

Unmanned aerial vehicles aren’t brand-spanking new to naval aviation; UAVs the Navy uses include the rotary-wing Fire Scout and the RQ-2A Pioneer. But the next big thing in unmanned flight at sea will be an aircraft that can take off from and land on a carrier. Several companies are in the process of making that happen.
The big names in flight are displaying wares that they hope become the backbone of the Navy’s collection of UAVs at the Sea Air Space Expo at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md.
Look at the pictures above. At left is Northrop Grumman’s X-47B, a UAV that made its first flight in February. The one on the right is Boeing’s X-45C. The one in the center, while not labeled, is almost certainly the X-47B — it’s at the Huntington Ingalls Industries display; HII is a Northrop Grumman spin-off, and the airframe has the same shape as the X-47B UCAS. It’s tough to tell in this picture, but it’s shown positioned on the flight deck of the carrier Gerald R. Ford, a ship being built in Newport News, Va.
The HII picture merits another look because, well, the whole thing is a mock up of what may someday be the face of unmanned naval aviation on the flight deck a non-existent ship. Sitting nearby the now hypothetical UAV is an F-35C Lightning II joint strike fighter. In case you’re keeping track, that’s an aircraft that had not joined the fleet sitting on the flight deck of a carrier that’s under construction near an another plane that’s currently being tested. Like flying cars and undersea bubble cities, it’s all fantasy, for now at least.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus emphasized during his luncheon speech Monday that unmanned craft will play a prominent role in the Navy’s future.
“Over the next decade, we will move aggressively to develop a family of unmanned systems including underwater systems that will be able to operate for a extended periods of time in support of our ships, our expeditionary units and our special warfare teams, and a low-observable, carrier-based intelligence surveillance reconnaissance strike unmanned air system,” he said.

“It’s a big aircraft, it’s robust, it’s built as a tanker, but it’s probably a stepping-stone to other capabilities,” Merz said.
“[Future aircraft] are conceptual right now until we get this thing into the fleet and see how it survives in a sea environment and how it integrates with the airwing.”
However, at least one analyst sees the Navy’s progress in unmanned vehicles as a missed opportunity for the service.
“Yes, the MQ-25 is a stepping-stone. However, the Navy had an opportunity to develop and field a more robust unmanned capability for surveillance and strike and chose not to do so, at least not in the mid-term,” said Mark Gunzinger with Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “A carrier-based low observable [Naval Unmanned Combat Air System] for surveillance, strike and possibly other missions was identified as a need at least as far back as the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review. Over time, this has been scaled back to the MQ-25. I’m not saying the MQ-25 is not needed, but I do believe the Navy has missed an opportunity.”
Based on the 2006 QDR, the Navy developed a low observable, potentially armed $1.4-billion demonstrator program. The service tested a UCAS-D aircraft, two X-47Bs – Salty Dog 501 and 502 – built by Northrop Grumman to prove unmanned aircraft could safely launch and be recovered from an aircraft carrier. The tail-less aircraft were built with the ability to be refueled mid-flight and had an internal payload capability equivalent to an F-35C Lightning II Joint Fighter.
In 2013, Salty Dog 502 successfully landed on USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77), after aerial refueling tests in 2015, Naval Air Systems Command shut down the testing program for UCAS-D with thousands of hours of flight time left on the airframes – to some congressional protest.
“Our nation has made a sizable investment in this demonstration program to date, and both air vehicles have consumed only a small fraction of their approved flying hours,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) wrote in 2015.
“There will be no unmanned air vehicles operating from carrier decks for several years.

Navy UAS kicks off flight testing as Northrop finally offers to trim ops costs for USAF Global Hawk
As battles to save its high-flying unmanned aircraft franchise from Air Force termination, the aircraft's newer and more robust cousin, the Navy-sponsored Triton maritime surveillance aircraft, has begun flight testing.
The Triton's May 22 first flight not only breathes some life into Northrop's turbulent Global Hawk efforts—and possible hope for foreign sales—it marks progress in the Navy's quest to open up new sea-going roles for unmanned aircraft. The MQ-4C Triton, which is slated to enter service in 2015, took to the skies only days after the historic catapult launch of the tailless, stealthy X-47B from a Navy aircraft carrier deck. Once fielded in fiscal 2016, Triton will be the first Navy UAS to replace a mission currently handled by a manned system, says Capt. Jim Hoke, the Navy's Triton program manager.
After launching from Northrop Grumman's Palmdale, Calif., facility the 80-min. flight took place in restricted airspace near Edwards AFB, Calif. It was the first of up to nine envelope-expansion missions that will pave the way for more extensive systems flight trials at NAS Patuxent River, Md. The flight, though five months later than planned at the MQ-4C's unveiling last June, marks progress toward the Navy's maritime patrol modernization goal.
The two-pronged initiative, geared toward longer-range overwater surveillance as part of the renewed strategic focus on the Asia-Pacific region, will see the service's aging P-3 fleet replaced by a combination of 117, based on the company's 737, and 68 land-based MQ-4Cs.
The most advanced variant of Northrop's Global Hawk, the MQ-4C, has been in development since 2008 under the $1.16 billion(BAMS) program. The Navy plans to buy 70 aircraft, including two test vehicles, for $13 billion.
The first flight is a timely boost for Northrop Grumman, which is fighting the premature termination of the U.S. Air Force's RQ-4B variant owing to cost and sensor performance issues.

In the face of a growing threat from China, the Navy envisions drone ships monitoring enemy forces across the vast Pacific Ocean, expanding the range of firepower, and keeping sailors out of harm’s way.
The Navy is accelerating the development of these robotic ships as an affordable way to keep pace with China’s growing fleet while pledging not to repeat the costly blunders of shipbuilding from recent years.
The four largest unmanned ships are being used together this summer during a multiple naval maneuver in the Pacific Ocean.
Other smaller waterborne drones are already being deployed by the Fifth Fleet in the waters off the Middle East.
The goal in the coming years is to see how research ships’ radar and sensors can be combined with artificial intelligence, and combined with conventional cruisers, destroyers, submarines and aircraft carriers, to create a networked fleet that is resilient as it spreads over greater distances and the Navy says is more difficult for enemies to destroy.
“It’s about moving technology forward, and confidence in capability,” said Commander. Jeremiah Daly, Commander of the Unmanned Surface Vehicle First Division in California.
James Holmes, a professor at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, believes that the Navy believes technology can help with the three keys to military success — weapon range, exploration, command and control — at lower cost and fewer risks to personnel. .
All of these benefits, along with long-term durability in the harsh saltwater environment, he said, must be proven.
“We’re kind of in Jerry Maguire’s ‘show me the money zone’ with technology. It’s going to be undoubtedly helpful, but whether or not it’s a game changer,” said Holmes, who doesn’t speak for the Navy.
Before moving forward, the Navy must first win over a skeptical Congress after a series of shipbuilding disasters.
Her fast coastal combat ships had problems with propulsion, which led to early retirement. The ‘Advance Cannon System’ on his stealth destroyer was in a state of collapse due to Expensive ammo. Its latest aircraft carrier had elevator problems A new aircraft launch system.
Critics said the Navy was quick to cram too much new technology on those ships, leading to failures and mounting costs.
“We can’t throw all the resources on[automated ships]with a track record of 20 years of failed ship programs,” said Representative Eileen Luria of Virginia, a retired Navy officer.

Navy leadership also ordered naval aviation commanders to examine the possibility of reducing orders for the new F-35B and F-35C manned aircraft and use that money to buy the new X-47B and similar robotic combat aircraft. The navy currently plans to buy 680 F-35B and F-35C aircraft for (on average) $100 million each. A UCAV costs less than half that and provides most of the same capabilities, plus much longer range and no risk of losing pilots.
For most of the last decade, the navy has been hustling to ready a UCAV for carrier operations and combat use. Within four years the navy expects to have the X-47B demonstrating the ability to regularly operate from a carrier and perform combat (including reconnaissance and surveillance) operations. The new efforts aim to have UCAVS aircraft perform ground attack missions as well, something the Predators have been doing for over a decade. The larger Reaper UAV was designed to expand this combat capability and is being built as quickly as possible, to replace F-16s and other bombers in the combat zone.
The 20 ton X-47B weighs a little less than the 24 ton F-18A and has two internal bays holding two tons of smart bombs. Once it can operate off a carrier, the X-47B will be used for a lot of bombing, sort of a super-Reaper. The navy has been impressed with the success of the Predator and Reaper. But the Reaper weighs only 4.7 tons. The much larger X-47B uses a F100-PW-220 engine, which is currently used in the F-16 and F-15.
The air force and navy have always differed about the widespread use of UAVs in combat. When the air force agreed to work with the navy on UCAVs a decade ago the idea was that the air force ones would largely remain in storage, to provide a rapid "surge" capability in wartime. The navy, however, wanted to use theirs to replace manned aircraft on carriers. The reason was simple, carrier ops are dangerous, and carrier qualified pilots are more difficult and expensive to train and retain in the service. The navy still has these problems and senior admirals are pretty much in agreement that UCAVs are the future of carrier aviation. The sooner these UCAVs prove they can safely and effectively operate from carriers, the better.

The Navy has ramped up its acquisition of unmanned helicopters for counter piracy missions and maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, Defense News reports.
The Navy has ordered eight units of an updated variant of the Northrop Grumman-built MQ-8B Fire Scouts that have been used since 2009 for ISR missions.
The new model uses the frame of the Bell 407 helicopter which is 35 feet long, 11 feet longer than the MQ-8B.
The $262.3 million contract will provide the Navy with unmanned helicopters that have more range and payload.
Senior Chief Petty Officer Stephen Diets, a Navy ground government flight representative said the MQ-8C will provide the Navy with more maritime ISR capabilities than the MQ-8B model.
Defense News also reports that Navy officials have requested the doubling of the original MQ-8B Fire Scout flight hours for Afghan special operations forces.
The Navy currently flies 300 hours in Afghanistan and has 30 MQ-8B in its arsenal.

The Navy plans to deploy its new MQ-4C Triton long-range surveillance unmanned aircraft to the Middle East in 2016, Rear Adm. Sean Buck, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Patrol and Reconnaissance Group, said Thursday in a call with reporters following Wednesday’s first successful Triton flight.
By then, the Navy hopes to have up to three of the Northrop Grumman aircraft to patrol the service’s 5th Fleet area of responsibility to replace the single forward deployed Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Demonstrator (BAMS-D) currently in the region, Buck said.
“The intent is to introduce an operational orbit of Tritons in the fleet area sometime after,” he said.
The so-called initial operational capability will be later than Naval Air Systems Command initial 2015 IOC date and will include three of the four aircraft needed to have a consistent orbit over the region. For the Navy to have uninterrupted service, an orbit requires four aircraft. The current lone BAMS-D flies every third day.
The planned 68 Tritons, similar to the Air Force’s RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft, are specially designed to patrol maritime regions. Conceptually, the aircraft is designed to work with the P-8A Poseidon manned aircraft.
“Triton was envisioned to be a complimentary teammate to the manned Poseidon aircraft and to take about 30 percent of the traditional historic surveillance mission for the maritime aviation community,” Buck said.
“It will provide the long dwell persistent stare in the maritime to support our fleet as the fleet is positioned and moves and projects any type of power in a particular area around the world.”
Tritons are anticipated to operate forward from Naval Air Station Sigonnella, Italy, Andersen Air Force Base, Guam and an undisclosed location in the Middle East, NAVAIR told USNI News on Wednesday.
Once Triton enters 5th Fleet, additional orbits will begin in 7th Fleet from Guam, then in 6th Fleet in Sigonnella and finally on the continental U.S.
The Navy plans for a single Triton orbit to monitor up to 2,000 nautical miles at a time allowing U.S. forces access to real time radar, video and signals intelligence.

Information Dissemination - Chris Rawley
Unmanned surface vehicles are rapidly approaching practicality for naval uses. Although I’ve sung the praises of UAS for some time now, I’ve been a bit skeptical on the utility of their robotic surface cousins. I recently had an opportunity to check out the high and low ends of the USV spectrum in person. The Piranha is an “optionally manned” 16M carbon fiber diesel-powered beast that tops out at 45 knots and is purported to have a remarkable endurance of 40 days. The Piranha can be air dropped, operate up to sea state 6, employ a 2.5 ton payload of weapons, people, or sensors, and as a hybrid, it sips gas and can be operated very quietly on battery-power.
At the opposite end of the scale is the boogie board-like Wave Glider. Originally developed for oceanography purposes, the wave and solar-powered platform moves at a leisurely knot and a half and has already made an 82 day transit from the US West Coast to Hawaii.
Needless to say, both of these craft have utility for special operations and coastal counter-terrorism missions. They seem tailor made for long duration ISR patrols and the deployment of other unattended sensors where the presence of SOF (or larger manned vessels) is operationally too risky or politically untenable.
I am less a fan of USVs for force protection missions. Although there is certainly appeal in an unmanned craft taking the place of a patrol boat crew in rough seas and harsh weather, I just don’t think the soda straw situational awareness USV’s provide is a good choice for operations which require split second decisions on assessing hostile intent and applying ROE in the close quarters of a harbor. Though in the long term, I foresee autonomous USV swarms attacking enemy ships with missile barrages or “suicide” bombing missions against high value platforms. Of course, as with UAVs, technology spreads rapidly, and it’s only a matter of time until we see USVs deployed by state and non-state enemies for smuggling, reconnaissance, and other nefarious operations.

The Royal Navy just spent $45 million on the ScanEagle UAV, which is part of a market set to be worth $8.35 billion by 2018, according to a recent market intelligence report. One thing is clear: the role of UAVs in maritime reconnaissance and surveillance is becoming a key area for development and investment right now.
Captain Ian Annett, RN, confirmed that "ScanEagle represents an important addition to the Royal Navy's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability."
Philip Dunne, UK Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, also backed the development, saying that "continued investment in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems is essential to keeping our Armed Forces up-to-date with the latest capabilities and this will be a central part of MOD's investment in new equipment over the next 10 years."
Download Defence IQ's article: Demand for Maritime UAV's to remain sky high into 2018, to find out more about worldwide investments into maritime UAVs.
The 11th annual Maritime Reconnaissance and Surveillance conference coincides with these emerging market opportunities - it will be the only place you can hear from and talk to the key decision makers in this growing market.
The event will hear from key industry experts including:
- Rear Admiral Giorgio Gomma, Director of Naval Aviation and Commander of the Fleet Air Arm, Italian Navy
- Rear Admiral Matthew J. Carter, Commander, Patrol and Reconnaissance Group, US Navy
- Rear Admiral Georg Kristinn Làrusson, Director General, Icelandic Coast Guard
- Rear Admiral Jesus C Millan, Chief of Staff, Philippines Navy
Speakers will discuss the challenges they face and future requirements as they seek to improve their maritime domain awareness and maritime security capabilities.
In addition, a dedicated Space-Based Maritime Surveillance Focus Day chaired by Derek Hatton, an analyst at the EU Satellite Centre, will be held on September 24th. This day will offer an exclusive forum to discuss how the use of the satellite eyes in the sky can improve maritime domain awareness.
For more information and to download the conference programme please visit: http://www.maritimerecon.com

Navy successfully flew two autonomously controlled EA-18G Growlers at Naval Air Station Patuxent River as unmanned air systems using a third Growler as a mission controller for the other two. The flights, conducted during the Navy Warfare Development Command’s annual fleet experiment (FLEX) exercises, proved the effectiveness of technology allowing F/A-18 Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers to perform combat missions with unmanned systems.
“This demonstration allows Boeing and the Navy the opportunity to analyze the data collected and decide where to make investments in future technologies,” said Tom Brandt, Boeing Manned-UnManned Teaming demonstration lead. “It could provide synergy with other U.S. Navy unmanned systems in development across the spectrum and in other services.”
Over the course of four flights, 21 demonstration missions were completed.
“This technology allows the Navy to extend the reach of sensors while keeping manned aircraft out of harm’s way,” Brandt said. “It’s a force multiplier that enables a single aircrew to control multiple aircraft without greatly increasing workload. It has the potential to increase survivability as well as situational awareness.”
03 Feb 20. The Pentagon Is Spending Millions on Hunter Drones With Nets. After an F-22 Raptor nearly collided with a cheap drone in 2017, the U.S. Air Force’s Air Combat Command received permission to shoot down unmanned flying objects that get too near its airbases. But shooting down drones over cities is a less-than-ideal solution to a growing problem. The Defense Innovation Unit, or DIU, is contracting with Utah-based Fortem Technologies for its SkyDome anti-drone system, which marries net-armed drones called DroneHunters with a radar system dubbed TrueView. While other anti-drone systems look for the radio signals that connect drones to their operators – and then try to jam or home in on them — SkyDome can discard the assumption that an incoming drone is emitting anything at all.
“It’s very easy to program a drone to fly completely autonomously. It can be done with a commercial, off-the-shelf drone,” Fortem’s CTO and co-founder Adam Robertson.
The SkyDome combines radar, sensors aboard the DroneHunters, and even other sensors. It’s an ensemble approach that mimics, somewhat, the way an animal or human might hunt in the wild, using a variety of data sources to make targeting determinations.

Naval Air Systems Command’s (NAVAIR) Navy & Marine Corps Unmanned Air Systems (PMA-263) originally acquired the Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration (GHMD) program for the development of Navy doctrine and concepts of operations for large persistent unmanned air vehicles. Currently, the system is sustained by the Persistent Maritime Unmanned Aircraft Systems (PMA-262) program office and has been renamed the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance—Demonstrator (BAMS-D). To date, the BAMS-D team has utilized the RQ-4A long endurance air vehicle to refine tactics, techniques and procedures for use in a maritime environment.
The Navy’s RQ-4A Global Hawk air vehicle can soar nearly 11 miles above the ground or up to 60,000 feet. The high-flying aerial vehicle can fly persistently for more than 30 hours above most weather. Imagery and other data obtained by the aircraft feeds by satellite into the Navy ground segment consisting of a mission control element, a launch and recovery element, and a Navy-designed Tactical Auxiliary Ground Station (TAGS). Flown by Navy and Navy contractor pilots, the asset is controlled from Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, Md.
BAMS-D successfully completed its first Navy split-site deployment in support of Trident Warrior ‘08 and RIMPAC exercises. An aircraft, shelter and personnel were located in Pt. Mugu, Calif., while mission command, control and execution remained at Patuxent River, Md.
BAMS-D supported real-world operations under U.S. Northern Command, providing reconnaissance of wildfires in the rugged coastal mountains of California. Later tasking placed BAMS-D along the U.S. Gulf Coast to assess the damage left by Hurricane Ike. Despite challenging weather conditions remaining after the storm, BAMS-D sensor imagery aided first responders in Louisiana and Texas to most efficiently deploy their resources in the massive relief effort.
BAMS-D was used to develop methods for integrating the Automatic Identification System (AIS) into Fleet operations. Experimentation using BAMS-D also benefitted the Naval Sea Systems Command Ocean Surveillance Initiative and Oceanographer of the Navy office activities assessing usefulness of long-endurance, high-altitude unmanned systems in collecting Fleet-relevant meteorological data.

The Navy has entered a new age in carrier aviation with the successful landing of the unmanned Northrop Grumman X-47B on the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77), the service announced at 1:45 p.m. EST on Wednesday.
Call sign Salty Dog 502 left Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. shortly after 12:00 p.m. EST and flew to the Bush controlled through a complex series of algorithms and navigational sensors and landed on the deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier guided not with a joystick and throttle controls but by an operator with a mouse and a keyboard.
On its final approach to Bush a hypersensitive version of the same GPS technology used to direct families on vacation guided the hook of the tailless aircraft safely to the deck of the carrier and into history.
“The dynamics and complexity of the demonstration is not just flying an airplane. It is operating a system autonomously in and out of the most demanding launch and recovery environment around the world,” Rear Adm. Mat Winter program executive officer for unmanned aviation and strike weapons said in a Tuesday conference call with reporters.
“This is not trivial.”
The landing of the X-47B successfully proved the Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration (UCAS-D) project and will pave the way to include unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on carriers in the future.
The Navy’s focus now will be to move beyond the experimental UCAS-D and into a capability that will move from novelty to an organic component of the carrier air wing.
The next step will be development of the Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) a capability the Navy wants to field by 2020.
The UCLASS program has run in parallel with the UCAS-D program. According to documents obtained by USNI News, the Navy is looking for a system (consisting of one or more aircraft) that can conduct two 650 nautical mile orbits around a carrier for $150 million.
In June, the Navy issued a preliminary request for proposal (RfP) to Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Atomics and Northrop Grumman to begin design work on their bids ahead of a full RfP in 2014.
“All of the knowledge out of the program is being transferred to UCLASS,” Winter said.
“UCLASS will benefit from all of what we have done here in X-47B.”

The Air Force has faced significant operational challenges over the last decade to keep pace with the increased demands for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. The wars in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq have brought dramatic changes to the way these missions are conducted, including the retirement of some ISR assets, the rise and fall of others, and the emergence of the unmanned ISR mission as the wave of the future.
Through it all, the Air Force continues to return to the phrase “insatiable demand” to describe combatant commanders’ calls for keeping a better watch on the world. While USAF leaders still say they struggle to fulfill these requests, the shape of the Air Force has shifted decidedly toward ISR. For example, ISR assets as a portion of the total aircraft inventory have more than tripled over the past decade. In 2007, ISR aircraft made up 3.2 percent of the USAF total inventory. Today, ISR assets represent 9.9 percent of all Air Force aircraft.
A large part of this shift has come with the rapid increase in remotely piloted aircraft. As of Sept. 30, 2016, the Air Force had 533 ISR aircraft in its total active inventory. Of that ISR fleet, 357 were RPAs: MQ-1B Predators (129), MQ-9A Reapers (195), and RQ-4B Global Hawks (33). The Air Force has more of each of these three platforms than any of its other ISR aircraft. If you combine all three versions of the E-3 Sentry, the Air Force has 31 of them. Next comes the U-2S Dragon Lady at 27.
These numbers are striking given that 10 years before, in September 2006, the Air Force’s 11 RQ-4s were its most prevalent unmanned asset, and the service had more numbers of four different manned aircraft: the U-2 (34), E-3 (32), RC-135 (22), and EC-130 (16).
Today, 67 percent of the Air Force ISR inventory is made up of unmanned aircraft. A decade ago, there were only 24 unmanned aircraft in the entire ISR inventory, and they constituted less than 18 percent of the ISR active fleet. In the intervening years, ISR underwent a revolution of sorts.

Michael Stewart, director of the task force, said the Navy’s unmanned task force is taking a new approach, using the military equivalent of a venture capital model to accelerate new ideas, moving forward only after technologies have been demonstrated.
This summer, four large unmanned ships are operating alongside conventional ships during war games called RIMPAC.
These include the Sea Hunter and Sea Hawk, which are diesel powered vessels equipped with booms for stability in rough seas. The other two are Ranger and Nomad, which are based on oil rig refurbishment ships. They have large flat surfaces from which a missile was successfully launched last year.
While those larger ships are being tested in the Pacific, the Navy is already seeing promising results with smaller commercially available ships being evaluated by Task Force 59, which is part of Bahrain’s Fifth Fleet, Cmdr said. Timothy Hawkins, spokesman for the Fifth Fleet.
One vessel that has received attention is the Saildrone, which is a sail-powered vessel and solar-powered systems. Equipped with radar and cameras, the Saildrones are touted as being able to operate autonomously for months at a time without maintenance or resupply.
Building on the success of multinational exercises last winter, the Fifth Fleet said the US Navy and international partners intend to deploy 100 uncrewed ships by next summer.
Finally, Admiral Mike Gilday, Chief of Naval Operations, envisions a mix of 150 large uncrewed surface ships and undersea vessels by 2045. That’s on top of more than 350 conventional combat ships.
The Navy’s spending proposal for the new fiscal year includes $433 million for surface ships without a crew and $284 million for underwater ships.
Gilday, the Navy’s chief officer, said those ships along with artificial intelligence have the potential to make the Navy’s fleet more efficient. But he said the Navy is doing research and development “in an evolutionary, thoughtful and informed manner.”
The biggest advantage of robotic ships is that they can be built at a fraction of the cost of conventional warships, said Lauren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, as the Navy struggles to keep up with China and Russia. The United States is already lagging behind China in ship numbers, and the gap is growing every year.
Congress is in no rush to fund new programs, said Brian Clark, a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute. “Congress wants the Navy to have a good plan — and then aggressively pursue it,” Clark said.

New And Evolving Platforms Enhance Sea Patrol
By Francis Tusa , Christina Mackenzie , David Eshel
Source: Aviation Week & Space Technology
November 25, 2013
Credit: Piaggio Aero Concept
Maritime surveillance is evolving despite the need for militaries to balance high-tech requirements with budget austerity. Developments underway in the U.K., France and Israel highlight efforts to realize the most return on investment, by adding versatile surveillance capabilities to airborne and sea-based platforms without the expense and potential delays of full-fledged program development.
Concerns about maritime surveillance were expressed in the U.K. as far back as 2010. The Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR) issued that year had one expected but serious program cancellation: the Nimrod MRA4 (maritime reconnaissance and attack) aircraft. Eliminating the 12 planned aircraft, which were to replace the Nimrod fleet of two-dozen aircraft, left the U.K. with a large gap in maritime surveillance capabilities.
The official line was that maritime surveillance and associated duties such as search and rescue would be conducted by a mix of escorts, embarked helicopters (Westland Sea King airborne surveillance and control, Merlin HM2 and Lynx HAS8), Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS and Lockheed Martin C-130K/J Hercules aircraft—which have had a search-and-rescue mission in the Falkland Islands for some time. Few are convinced that this is a credible mix in the absence of a fixed-wing maritime patrol aircraft capability.

US Navy hands out $1bn robo-plane contract
Opts out of 'optionally manned' option
The US Navy has made a long-awaited decision and awarded a billion-dollar development contract for the autonomous spyplane which it will use for ocean surveillance in future. The so-called BAMS (Broad Area Maritime Surveillance) craft will be developed by Northrop Grumman using its existing, small-airliner-sized Global Hawk roboplane.
"This announcement represents the Navy’s largest investment in unmanned aircraft systems to date,” said Captain Bob Dishman, BAMS programme chief.
"This is a significant milestone for the BAMS unmanned aerial system."
Walk faster, human minions. Global Hawk wants fuel
The BAMS aircraft are intended to deliver surveillance across wide areas of ocean in a similar manner to the US Navy's current fleet of landbased P-3 Orion patrol planes, or the UK's MR2 Nimrods. Such maritime patrol craft are primarily intended to fight enemy submarines, but in late years have often been employed in overland tasks.
The American Orions are now very old, and the USN is keen to replace them. There is a manned aircraft, the P-8 Poseidon, under development for this. The Poseidon will be based on 737 airliner airframes from Boeing. However, even the USN doesn't have enough money to fully replace its Orion fleet with Poseidons. Hence it hopes to supplement its future P-8 fleet with BAMS drones that should cost less to buy and operate.
Northrop's Global Hawk offering has beaten two other contenders. Boeing had presented a plan which would have used "optionally manned" Gulfstream business jets, that could be crewed if desired but would also be capable of flying themselves. There was also a Lockheed-led team proposing to use a version of the well-known Predator-B/Reaper drone.
Now, however, the Northrop Global Hawk has been selected as the winner. The jet-powered Global Hawk is one of the biggest and most capable robot aircraft around, able to make intercontinental flights and lurk above a warzone more than a thousand miles from its base for 24 hours at a time. Unlike the more famous Predator, it requires no pilot at the ground controls all the time - the Global Hawk is much more like a true robot aircraft. It has been in operation since the 1990s, and has been credited with many milestones and successes in US Air Force service.

The MH-53E has increased fuel capacity, a hover/tow coupler, and improved mission capabilities.
A little known but very important mission involving naval aviation is Fleet Ballistic Missile Communications. TACAMO (Take Charge and Move Out) aircraft fill the role of relaying very low frequency signals to strategic missile submarines. Initially the force consisted of EC-130Q's. These aging aircraft were replaced by a modified 707/E-3 design designated E-6A, which maintained the same basic equipment currently installed in the EC-130Q.
Intermediate and advanced training needs are accomplished by T-45 aircraft, simulators, academics and training management systems. The T-45 aircraft is one of naval aviation's top priorities. The T-45 will replaced the T-2C and TA-4J as they reached the end of their service life.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and their associated sensors, launch, recovery, mission planning and control, data relay, sensor data processing, and exploitation subsystems are managed under the UAV Joint Project Office with Navy as executive service. The role of UAVs in all of the services is expected to grow due to technology and sensor miniaturization resulting in increased UAV utility and cost effectiveness.
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By Sgt. Richard Andrade
Special to the Hood Herald
FORT IRWIN, Calif. - Unmanned aerial vehicle pilots maintain an "eye-in-the-sky" view providing real-time surveillance high above the battlefield in order to keep soldiers safe from unexpected enemy attacks at the U.S. Army National Training Center.
Before putting soldiers in harm's way, unmanned aerial vehicles perform reconnaissance, be it night or day. At night the unmanned aerial vehicle uses night-vision to find the point of origin of any attack, some even carry out attack missions. Unmanned aerial vehicles have many uses including safely scanning a large area and providing accurate information on potential enemies.
The ground data terminal antenna receives intelligence between the ground control station and the unmanned aerial vehicle up to 125 kilometers away. The station is where the pilots drive the unmanned aerial vehicles and is located near the tactical operations center, providing real-time video.
"My soldiers and I provide a 'bird's eye' view situational awareness for the soldiers on the ground," said Staff Sgt. Thomas Tichy, 66th Military Intelligence Company, 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.
"We provide valuable intelligence to our regimental (operations center)," he said. "They decide what to do with our intelligence and put it into action."
Pvt. Aaron Grumm, also of the 66th Military Intelligence Company, said his mission is to provide reconnaissance using a wide array of tactical unmanned aerial vehicles. The vehicles cover a larger area than regular ground units would cover in the same amount of time.
"If for example, a soldier would be lost, we would help find them," Grumm said. "We can search from above covering a larger area faster than a ground team."
"From high above the ground, they can spot someone about to bury an improvised explosive device, or people who are engaging our ground forces," Tichy said.
Tichy said some of the unmanned aerial vehicle operators in his company have combat experience using their real-time vehicle feed to coordinate with Apache and Kiowa helicopter fire teams to engage anti-coalition forces.
Sgt. Joshua Peterson, also of the 66th Military Intelligence Company, said his team has direct communication with the operations center and consequently his team is called upon the second there is mortar, artillery fire or indirect fire directed toward coalition forces.

Unmanned systems―surface and subsurface―become an important part of the fleet in this outline because of their ability to do dull and dangerous work within an adversary’s defensive bubble. Unmanned systems may also reduce the number of personnel required, or at least move personnel to less vulnerable and stressful locations. But unmanned systems do have limitations. They cannot perform some missions, such as engagement with allies and partners, humanitarian assistance, and certain kinds of crisis response. As unmanned vessels get larger, they may also lose their advantage over manned systems because of the complexity of operations. The major challenge, however, is that the Navy only has a single experimental unmanned surface vessel operating today. How unmanned systems will operate in the fleet, whether the network can handle the bandwidth, and where unmanned surface vessels will be based are all unanswered questions. These unmanned surface and subsurface vessels may not count as “ships.” The Navy has official ship-counting rules, set by an agreement between the Navy and the Office of the Secretary of Defense back in the 1980s with occasional updates, most recently in 2016. Some unmanned vessels might not be counted under these rules because of their small size. In the past, Congress has been reluctant to change the counting rules, seeing this as a way of cutting the Navy while keeping the appearance of size.Large/Small Surface Combatants Under this plan, the number of small combatants (currently littoral combat ships but in the future frigates) increase because of their lower cost and ability to provide distributed capabilities. They provide a secondary benefit of increasing total fleet numbers, therefore allowing the Navy to be present in more places globally. Large combatants (cruisers and destroyers) were not discussed, but other sources put the number at 80-90.Combat Logistics Ships The fleet will include more logistics ships, between 70 and 90, to deal with an environment in which they are threatened by adversaries for the first time in 70 years. Other sources indicate that the Navy will procure smaller logistics ships because they are harder to locate, and a single loss is less catastrophic.Aircraft Aircraft were not the focus of the presentation, but Esper did make an interesting side point, saying that the plan included unmanned ship-based aircraft of all types, fighters, refuelers, early warning, and electronic attack aircraft.

WASHINGTON: This Saturday the Navy will christen its newest nuclear-powered submarine, the $2.6 billion USS Minnesota at the Newport News shipyard in Virginia. Countless movies have cemented the popular image of subs as stealthy underwater killers, stalking hapless surface vessels with periscope and torpedo. But today’s Navy is experimenting with launching robotic mini-subs and even unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Virginia-class attack subs like the Minnesota.
In Navy tests of a mini-UAV called Switchblade, “you can launch it, you can control it, you can get video feed back to the submarine,” said Rear Adm. Barry Bruner, chief of the undersea warfare section (N97) on the Navy staff, at the recent Naval Submarine League symposium in suburban Washington. Future subs could also launch unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) to scout ahead stealthily beneath the surface. “It sure beats the heck out of looking out of a periscope at a range of maybe 10,000 to 15,000 yards on a good day,” Bruner said. “Now you’re talking 20 to 40 miles.”
Pair that sensor range with new long-range torpedoes — yet to be developed — or submarine-launched missiles, and you dramatically increase the kill range of the current submarine fleet, Bruner enthused. “It’s phenomenal, it’s asymmetric, and it’s cheap, [and] we’re not that far away.”
Some informed observers are more skeptical. The sub-launched UAVs and UUVs are still experimental. A “universal launch and recovery system” to get the small robots off the sub and then, critically, back on again is still in development — and current attack submarines like the Minnesota lack the large-diameter launch tubes to accommodate the system anyway, although the next-generation “Block III” Virginia-class subs entering service in 2014 will be able to. The Navy is also designing a “Virginia Payload Module” that would increase future submarines’ launch capacity, but it’s uncertain whether actual development will get funded.
“They seem to be in a period of experimentation that doesn’t have any obvious or clear end point,” one congressional staffer told Breaking Defense. “I can’t tell you exactly where they’re headed.”
What’s more, while sub-launched drones are a new idea to American admirals, “the Israelis experimented with it more than than 20 years ago,” said naval historian Norman Polmar.

The military sometimes calls them Unmanned Aerial Systems or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles -- or simply UAVs. But to the general public they're commonly known as drones.
"It is the future," said Scott O'Neil, executive director of research and engineering at Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, which includes dozens of research and testing facilities at China Lake near Ridgecrest and the naval air station at Point Mugu in Ventura County.
"It's very powerful and very useful because we can take a human being out of harm's way," O'Neil said. "And of course that's the whole idea."
And they're not just developing air-based systems. The Weapons Division is testing submarine and surface-based vehicles designed for water environments -- and remote-operated land-based vehicles, including remotely operated tank-like vehicles.
'CLEARED FOR WEIRD'
Last week, Elijah Soto, director of unmanned systems, showed off a Ford F-350 pickup near an airstrip inside the restricted zone. On the outside, it looks like your neighbor's truck. But the front seat and other parts of this experimental vehicle are packed with electronics that give it the capacity to move through hazardous areas without a driver at the wheel.
It's remote-controlled, but it also has the ability to remember and drive a set path autonomously, Soto said. The proven dangers of improvised explosive devices, or roadside bombs, means troops on the ground could send supplies or transportation, or survey a perimeter in a high-risk area, without needlessly risking the lives of combat troops.
Unmanned technology is ideal for the so-called triple-D missions, he said, the dull, the dirty and the dangerous.
Soto wouldn't say exactly how many different unmanned systems are in the Navy's research, development, test and evaluation processes.
"There's a lot," he said. "Hundreds."
Pilotless drones range from planes with eight-centimeter wingspans -- the size of a small bird -- to aircraft weighing 13 tons with wingspans exceeding 100 feet.
With 26,000 square miles of restricted air space to play in, researchers and evaluators can do things within the Weapons Division's test range they can't do anywhere else.
Soto calls it being "cleared for weird."
They have pneumatic catapult launch systems designed to get smaller and mid-size UAVs into the air without the need for a runway or an "improved surface."
But how do they land?

Part of the test will come in the next 18 months as about 150,000 U.S. and allied troops will try to break the offensive capabilities of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and new technologies will be brought into play. The rest will involve the Air Force’s investment in advanced technologies.
‘We cannot move into a future without a platform that allows [us] to project power long distances and to meet advanced threats in a fashion that gives us an advantage that no other nation has,’ says Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. ‘We can’t walk away from that capability.’
For example, surveillance aircraft can see a lot more, farther and better with technologies like long wave infrared if the platform can operate at 50,000 ft. or higher. In comparison, the RC-135S Cobra Ball, RC-135W Rivet Joint and E-8C Joint Stars manned surveillance aircraft are all limited to an altitude of less than 30,000 ft. – sometimes well under. Additionally, the multi-spectral technology to examine the chemical content of rocket plumes has been miniaturized to fit easily on a much smaller, unmanned aircraft. Other sensors of interest are electronically scanned array radars, low-probability of intercept synthetic aperture radars and signals intelligence.
Follow the landing of a damaged Navy EP-3E in China, in early 2001 Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called a classified, all-day session of those with responsibilities for ‘Sensitive Reconnaissance Operations.’ (AW&ST, June 4, 2001, p. 30) They discussed how to avoid future embarrassing and damaging losses of classified equipment, documents or aircrews without losing the ability to monitor the military forces and capabilities of important countries like China. Their leading option was to start a new, stealthy, unmanned reconnaissance program that would field 12-24 aircraft. Air Combat Command, then led by Gen. John Jumper, wanted a very low-observable, high-altitude UAV that could penetrate air defense, fly 1,000 nau. mi. to a target, loiter for 8 hr. and return to base.
During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a UAV described as a derivative of DarkStar was being prepared and was said by several officials to have been used operationally in prototype form.

“We want to make sure we have a way to reach into those small businesses to bring that technology into our systems.”
Officials expect unmanned maritime systems to conduct a wide range of missions in the future, including mine warfare, ISR, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, electronic warfare, armed escort and communications relay.
“UUVs, USVs for us is a growth industry [with a] tremendous amount of potential,” Neagley said.
They could transform the U.S. military’s minewarfare inventory, he noted. “As we transition our legacy mine fleet, that transition is largely a transition to unmanned systems.”
In the next five years, the Navy plans to issue conceptual design and detailed design and construction contracts for a new FFG(X) multi-mission frigate. Neagley expects it to have enough size, weight, power and modularity to support the deployment of unmanned vessels.
Looking further down the road, the Navy intends to acquire a future surface combatant USV, which could include a family of systems. Lessons learned from ongoing science and technology efforts will inform that project, Neagley said.
“As we finish up the analytical underpinning for that, we’re trying to make sure that … we look at what capability gaps the UUVs and the USVs can kind of go fill,” Neagley said. “Then we can … rapidly acquire those systems really to complement the larger fleet architecture.”
Dr. Hans C. Mumm

Furthermore, they can even be used to map and survey underwater environments, including the seafloor and underwater infrastructure. They can be equipped with cameras and other sensors that can provide high-resolution images and data that can be used to create detailed maps and models.
UUVs can contribute greatly during warfare. UUVs can be used for offensive and defensive purposes in underwater warfare. They can be used to deliver weapons, conduct reconnaissance as well as disrupt enemy communications. If put together as a swarm, UUVs communicate and coordinate with each other to perform tasks in a coordinated manner.
The Indian Navy has been looking to develop such platforms given the strategic edge they promise. The Navy had stressed Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA) several times in the past. In 2021, then Vice Chief of the Naval Staff Vice Admiral Ashok Kumar said that to exploit the potential of unmanned technologies and platforms, the Navy had approved an ‘Unmanned Road Map.” UUVs or submersible unmanned vehicles are divided into two categories—remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). While an ROV can be operated by a human being remotely, the same is not true for AUVs, which can operate entirely in an autonomous manner.
The former Navy vice chief had highlighted four main types of UUVs—the man-portable Autonomous Unmanned Vehicles (AUVs) with swarm functionality with an endurance of 10-20 hours, lightweight AUVs compatible with lightweight torpedo tubes onboard ships with an endurance of nearly two days, heavyweight AUVs compatible with in-service heavyweight tubes with an endurance of up to 3-4 days and high endurance AUVs with the capability to submerge for at least 15 days.
The commitment to development and induction of unmanned technologies was visible even during the annual press conference ahead of the Navy Day in December 2022, when the Chief of the Navy Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar said that the Indian Navy had already shared its unmanned requirements with the industry, which include aircraft as well as underwater vessels.
India’s gearing up of unmanned water tech came the same year as Indonesia reported that a local fisherman had discovered an unidentified ‘missile-like’ object in the waters off Selayar Island in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province around December 2020 and handed it over to the Indonesian Navy, which in turn identified it as a glider-type autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV).

VGI doesn’t have a problem with the how, it’s the who that will be the greatest challenge when the lessons of VGI are integrated into a UCAV. In a video-game, the VGI is blessed with instant recognition; its enemy is automatically identified when units are revealed, their typology is provided instantly to both human and VGI. A UCAV unable to differentiate between different radar contacts or identify units via its sensors is at a disadvantage to its human comrades or enemies. Humans still dominate the field of integrating immediate quality analysis with ISR within the skull’s OODA loop. Even during the landing sequence, the UCAV cheated in a way by being fed certain amounts of positional data from the carrier.
We’ve passed the tutorial level of unmanned warfare; we’ve created the unmanned platforms capable of navigating the skies and a vast array of programs designed to drive tactical problems against human opponents. Before we pat ourselves on the back, we need to effectively integrate those capabilities into an independent platform.
Matt Hipple is a surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy. The opinions and views expressed in this post are his alone and are presented in his personal capacity. They do not necessarily represent the views of U.S. Department of Defense or the U.S. Navy.

unmanned aerial vehicles
One year after President Obama vowed to create greater transparency and guidelines for drone strikes, a new bipartisan report from senior military and intelligence officials warns the “secret war” of lethal drone strikes risks putting the U.S. on a “slippery slope” toward perpetual war.
Navy looking to build smaller drones that can be launched from ships at sea.
General Atomics Avenger has a longer range and bigger payload to operate in remote regions.
A United Nations report says unmanned aerial vehicles are the weapons of choice in modern warfare.

In particular, Britain and France employ SADMIS in their joint mine countermeasures program. The system is software upgradable, which means that experience with the now deployed and operational systems can easily provide data for software upgrades of contemporary as well as future versions.
Also, because SAMDIS is platform agnostic and scalable, it can be deployed on a variety of current and future platforms. Although especially configured for deployment from unmanned underwater vehicles, it can be deployed from unmanned surface vehicles.
These could be hosted by the U.S. Navy’s littoral combat ships (LCS) or other naval or commercial ships of opportunity.
In October 2016, GPS World reported on the results the multinational Unmanned Warrior exercise.
“These systems can help protect our Sailors and Marines from some of the Navy’s dull, dirty and dangerous missions, like mine countermeasures,” according to the U.S. Chief of Naval Research Rear Admiral Mat Winter. “
“Additionally, these systems can increase our capabilities at a more affordable cost of the conventional systems we currently employ.”
The “Ghost Fleet”
In February 2017, Defense News reported that the Navy was working to develop quickly a “ghost fleet” of numerous surface, air and undersea drones that would synchronize a wide-range of combat missions without placing sailors and Marines at risk. Captain Jon Rucker, program manager for unmanned maritime systems in the LCS program outlined top-level requirements: “We want to have multiple systems teaming and working together, surface, air and undersea.”
Rucker explained that the Pentagon and the Navy are advancing this drone-fleet concept to search and destroy mines, swarm and attack enemies, deliver supplies and conduct, reconnaissance and surveillance missions, among other tasks. These capabilities could operate in a combat environment with little or no human intervention after being programmed for the specific role.
Defense News noted that the Navy’s Office of Naval Research has been working closely with the Defense Department’s Strategic Capabilities Office to fast track this technology into an operational service.
Dr. William Roper, the DOD capabilities director, explained that much of this effort involves merging new platforms, weapons, and technologies with existing systems in a way improves capability while circumventing a lengthy and often bureaucratic formal acquisition process.
For example, USVs and UUVs configured for MCM search, detect, localize, classify, identify, and neutralize/exploit tasks could take advantage of the “off-the-shelf” SAMDIS system, which already has been demonstrated in Navy tests.

Return of the Navy Blimps?
In the aftermath of World War 2, blimps and airships found themselves gradually phased out of the US military. That didn’t really begin to change until the 21st century (see April 2005, “USN, DARPA See Blimps & HULAs Rising“). The heavy-lift WALRUS project may have been canceled without explanation; but aerostat programs like JLENS cruise missile defense and its smaller RAID local surveillance derivative, and airships like the HAA/ISIS program, remain. The US Navy is also experimenting with aerostats for communications relay, surveillance, and radar overwatch functions – and this has become a formal program.
What’s driving this interest? Four things. One is persistence, in an era where constant surveillance + rapid precision strike creates a formidable military asset. A second is cost, especially in an era of rising fuel prices. A recent US NAVSEA release offers figures that starkly illustrate the gap in surveillance cost per hour between an aerostat and planes or UAVs:
- Land-based 71-meter aerostat: about $610/ hour
- MQ-1 Predator MALE (Medium Altitude, Long Endurance) UAV: about $5,000/ hour
- E-2C Hawkeye AWACS (Airborne Warning And Control System) aircraft: about $18,000/ hour
- RQ-4 Global Hawk HALE (High Altitude, Long Endurance) UAV: about $26,500/ hour
The third driver is ballooning bandwidth demands due to increased employment of UAVs and other systems with streaming video. This is a long-term trend that will demand very expensive satellites with long design/launch times – or cheaper patchwork solutions that can remain at altitude for long periods.
The fourth driver is the proliferation and increased lethality of cruise missiles. On land, the concern is the combination of cruise missiles and weapons of mass destruction. At sea, the concern is the increasing lethality of anti-ship cruise missiles, including supersonic varieties that place a premium on early detection in order to give defensive systems enough time.
Aerostats are not blimps, and need no pilot. These helium filled, multi-chambered balloons are winched up or down via a combined tether/power line; and can be deployed from trucks, land platforms, or a ship at sea.

Detailed design work on the Snakehead is in progress, and initial hull long-lead raw material is on order.
Design contracts for the Orca have been awarded, and follow-production is scheduled for fiscal year 2019.
Capt. Jon Rucker, Navy program manager for unmanned maritime systems, said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson has inquired about the possibility of accelerating the acquisition of “the entire family” of UUVs.
However, the service isn’t just looking for new unmanned platforms. They have limited value if they aren’t equipped with support systems, such as energy sources, autonomy and precision navigation, command, control and communications, payloads and sensors, and platform integration, officials noted.
“You have to consider all those key enablers to really kind of get the most out of that technology,” Neagley said.
Energy is critical for endurance, Rucker noted during a media briefing at the Surface Navy Association symposium in Arlington, Virginia.
In the near term, Rucker hopes to have lithium-ion batteries certified for platform integration. Officials are also in talks with the auto industry about fuel cells, he noted.
There are “more energy-dense technologies that aren’t ready today but we’re looking down the road so all the vehicles we design … you can take out the energy section and put in the new energy technology when it’s ready,” he said.
Autonomy and precision navigation technology are also essential.
UUVs are expected to deploy for an extended period of time in conditions where command, control and communications are more difficult than they are for surface vessels, said Lee Mastroianni, special projects officer at the Office of Naval Research.
They need to have environmental sensing capabilities and be able to adapt accordingly, he said.
“Whether it be in the Arctic or very shallow water or everything in between, we need to improve that autonomy so we have systems that can think, understand and adapt more to achieve their missions, recognizing that there’s a whole subset of sensors and payloads and stuff that feed into making those decisions,” he said.
USVs also have some unique challenges. There are complex rules when it comes to navigation, and the platforms must be able to operate in crowded waterways without human intervention. Combat situations would only add to the complexity of operations, he noted.
“That gets into the ability to understand a dynamic situation … and trying not to run into the other boats,” he said.

U.K. Royal Navy Type 23 frigate. The UAV was put
through trials last month on a Singaporean Navy frigate
and a tank landing ship.
In the Navy and Marine Corps’ planning, the ScanEagle
is a gap-filler for the future Small Tactical Unmanned
Aerial System (STUAS, known as Group 3, formerly Tier
II, UAS, for the Marine Corps).
The STUAS will be a procurement program for a
UAV small enough to not require a runway. The Navy
released a performance document in November and
has been releasing more information on the program
parameters as they have developed.
“We are taking a somewhat less predictable approach
to this program,” said Rear Adm. William Shannon, the
Navy’s program executive officer for strike weapons and
unmanned aviation. “We are trying to be more agile, trying to get this out to the warfighter faster. Instead of one
full RFP [request for proposals], we’ve been releasing a
series of bits of information on the program. As we’re
absolutely sure about one piece, we’ll release it.”
Shannon said the requirements are being shaped by the
input from various future operators of STUAS, including
the surface warfare, amphibious warfare, Riverine and special operations communities, as well as the Marine Corps.
The goal is to reach initial operating capability in 2011,
following a competition and a demonstration phase.
The STUAS air vehicle is required to operate from
ship or shore with 10-hour endurance, a service ceiling
of 15,000 feet and a maximum weight of 150 pounds.
The UAV would carry EO and IR sensors and, for maritime operations, an AIS repeater.
For the Marine Corps, “the primary mission for Tier
II/STUAS (Group 3) will be ISR, target acquisition and
communications relay,” said Maj. Thomas Heffern, UAS
capabilities officer for the service’s Combat Development
Directorate. “However, future upgrades may include ISR
payloads other than the standard EO/IR full-motion
video sensor: synthetic aperture radar, [signals intelli-gence], multispectral, etc. Future growth might also
include a weapons delivery capability.” ■

Unmanned underwater vehicles can gather intelligence, enhance combat prowess of navies
Along with the armies and air forces the world over, navies too have started adopting unmanned technologies for operations. With several countries having dedicated resources for the development of these machines in order to dominate surfaces as well as sub-surfaces of oceans, the technology of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV) has gained pace. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used to enhance the autonomy of UUVs and enable them to make decisions based on the data they collect.
According to the latest data from The Insight Partners, with a 7.8 per cent CAGR, the UUV market share is worth USD 4.44 billion. The value, estimated in 2022, stood at USD 2.83 billion. The countries tied to this study include the US, Canada, Mexico, UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Brazil and Argentina.
The report suggests that geographically, the UUV market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East & Africa, and South America. North America is the most prominent region in the market owing to a large number of manufacturers and suppliers in the region. Moreover, software companies are enhancing the capabilities of these vehicles by introducing advanced software. The report further suggested that countries in the Asia Pacific region such as China, Japan, South Korea and India are constantly spending substantial amounts in the development and procurement of advanced unmanned underwater robots.
UUVs have gathered steam because they can perform several tasks underwater with precision and speed. During mine countermeasures, UUVs can be used to detect and neutralise underwater mines. They can be equipped with specialised sensors that can detect mines and explosives and can be programmed to neutralise them. At the time of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, these UUVs can be used to gather intelligence and conduct surveillance in underwater environments. They can be equipped with cameras, sensors and other instruments that can gather information about underwater infrastructure, enemy submarines among other targets.
Similarly, in cases of search and rescue, UUVs can be used to search for and locate missing persons or submerged vehicles. They can be equipped with sonar and other sensors that can detect objects underwater and can be remotely operated to search for targets in difficult or dangerous environments.

It will navigate autonomously (although designed to be optionally manned), shoot missiles and return for its reload, drawing fire away from the manned combatants and keeping them fielded longer.
The Navy made a budget request of $239 million (FY2021) to purchase two LUSV prototypes for testing. They will be based on the Ghost Fleet Overlord Program, an initial iteration of two modified commercial fast supply ships in response to pushback from Congress.
The Chicken and Egg
With the various hefty budget requests, Congress has concerns about the Navy’s unmanned plans, including the analysis that informs the Navy’s shift to DMO and what it reveals about the relative costs, capabilities and risks. Also Congress is raising issues about whether the operational concepts of unmanned platforms have been sufficiently proven.
The director of unmanned vessels under the Navy’s deputy for ships, Dorothy Engelhardt, in a Forbes article responds, “our goal here isn’t to run a science fair,” stressing that answers about operational capability require more testing and hence more prototypes. And that successful missions will be the result of knowing which technologies and platforms work best in different environments.
Speaking at an American Society of Naval Engineers conference, Pete Small who is program Manager for Unmanned Maritime Systems adds that “having one prototype or two prototypes is not going to get us to tens of thousands of hours of operations in the time frame we think we are going to need to employ the capabilities. So we need more prototypes to get there and burn down the technical risk of the payload integration.”
The Navy’s Distributed maritime operation (DMO) concept will be enabled by the following key technologies.
Endurance – The stipulation from the Navy is that unmanned vessels should operate continuously at sea for 30 days without maintenance or repairs. Going by lessons learned from Sea Hunter’s expedition, components like switches, sensors, and filters which were not originally designed for autonomy still have a way to go.
Autonomy & Precision Navigation – That a vessel navigates with minimum human intervention, even while demonstrating object avoidance. A combination of path planning, obstacle detection (including the speed and course of moving objects), mapping, and guidance are required for successful missions.
Command, Control & Navigation – It should be possible to control USVs from nearby vessels or from offsite locations. Intelligent navigational processing will allow pilots to adjust speed and direction so that vessels can hold up to the difficult and unpredictable open sea environment. The greater the complexity of required missions the greater the need for autonomy.

CH-53K, K3, piloted by Mr. Rob Pupalaikis and Maj. Joshua Foxton, flies an aerial refueling test with an external load on Sept. 28, 2020, from NAS Patuxent River, MD. Sikorsky Photo.
The Marine Corps’ top aviation officer assured a key House panel this week that the unit costs of the CH-53K King Sea Stallion helicopter are dropping significantly. Read More
An MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned aircraft system from Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 35 performs ground turns aboard the littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth (LCS-3) in May 2015. US Navy photo
The Navy is pursuing both manned and unmanned platforms for the aircraft that will replace its rotary-wing fleet, according to a service official. Read More
U.S. Marines with Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron (VMU) 2 launch a RQ-21A Blackjack for Assault Support Tactics 2 at Canon Air Defense Complex (P111), Yuma, Ariz., Oct. 12, 2016. US Marine Corps photo.
While the Marine Corps is still charting its path forward for large drones, the service is moving smaller unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) into its ground combat units. Read More

The X-47B (or planned, slightly larger, X-47C) is not the definitive carrier UCAS but the navy hopes it is good enough to show that unmanned aircraft can do the job. Normally, "X" class aircraft are just used as technology demonstrators. But the X-47 program has been going on for so long, and has incorporated so much from UAVs already serving in combat, that the X-47B may end up eventually running recon and bombing missions as the MQ-47B.
The Department of Defense leadership is backing the navy efforts and spurring the air force to catch up. At the moment, the air force has a hard time building enough MQ-9s, which are used as a ground support aircraft, in addition to reconnaissance and surveillance. But, as the navy is demonstrating, you can build UCAS that can carry more weapons, stay in the air longer, and hustle to where they are needed faster.

The next phase of introducing an unmanned aircraft system capability to the Royal Australian Navy has progressed.
Contracts have been signed with Austrian company, Schiebel Aircraft GmbH, to deliver Navy Minor Project 1942.
The maritime rotary wing unmanned aircraft system is being acquired to support trials and evaluation activities for at least the next three years.
The contract comprises two S100 Camcopter air-vehicles with mission control systems, as well as engineering, logistics and operational support.
The Navy is rapidly developing an enduring unmanned aircraft system capability that will improve the situational awareness for ships, providing a significant warfighting advantage.
Unmanned systems will be critical in future warfighting and will allow ships to more readily see beyond the horizon, providing greater intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.
The project is another step towards ensuring that the Australian Navy remains at the forefront of maritime aviation technology.
The $16 million project will build on the knowledge and experience already gained through operating the fixed wing ScanEagle unmanned system, and enables the Navy to further define Australian requirements for operating tactical unmanned systems in the maritime environment.
The project will give Navy an understanding of the workforce requirements, organisational structures, performance specifications, tactics and procedures required to maintain a permanent unmanned capability.
As tactical unmanned aerial systems are emerging technologies, particularly vertical take-off and landing systems from ships at sea, Navy has adopted an innovative phased ‘learn by doing’ approach.
Navy is comprehensively testing a variety of new systems to reduce risks ahead of acquiring a permanent unmanned capability in the early 2020s, that will see the capability embarked in the future fleet.
The in-country support for the system is being provided by BAE Systems in Nowra and Unmanned Systems Australia in Brisbane.

The unmanned aerial drone X-47B makes its first landing ever on the deck… (Rob Ostermaier, Daily Press )
A government watchdog report issued Thursday calls for greater congressional oversight of the Navy's carrier-based unmanned aircraft program, and cites other "programmatic risks" related to the budget and schedule.
The Navy is pursuing the program in a way that will limit the ability of Congress to hold it accountable for meeting goals on cost, schedule and performance, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said.
Unmanned, carrier-based aircraft are considered the next phase of naval aviation, a crucial component as the service seeks to stretch limited dollars and still maintain a worldwide presence.
In July, the Navy made history off the Virginia coast when it successfully landed an unmanned, computer-controlled drone aboard the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush. The bat-winged X-47B, built by Northrop Grumman, was a prototype, and the carrier landing was a first.
The Navy's next step is the Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike System, or UCLASS. The Navy released a request for proposals to four companies for work leading to that program, which is the focus of the GAO report.
In fiscal year 2014, the Navy plans to commit $3.7 billion to develop, build and field anywhere from six to 24 aircraft as an initial complement in UCLASS. However, it does not plan to initiate a key review of the program until 2020, when UCLASS has been fielded.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel should direct the Navy to hold the review in fiscal year 2015, GAO says, because that will trigger key oversight measures.
The Navy is sticking by its approach. It sees UCLASS as a technology development program. Instead of starting a formal review early on, it plans to take advantage of Defense Department flexibility to gather data so the program is ultimately successful. The Navy says its approach conforms to requirements set forth in the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act.
However, GAO says the Navy's early work goes "well beyond technology development . . . and thus warrants oversight commensurate with a major weapon system development program."
Apart from the oversight issue, the GAO report raises the following "programmatic risks":
The $3.7 billion cost estimate exceeds the funding the Navy expects to budget for the program through 2020.

(Source: IHS Jane’s)
14 Apr 19. USN expands MQ-8C Fire Scout capability. The US Navy (USN) is continuing to evolve the MQ-8C variant of the Fire Scout vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicle (VTOL UAV), service officials told Jane’s. Capability is currently spread across the two variants of the Fire Scout – the Schweizer 333-derived MQ-8B and the Bell 407-based MQ-8C – but eventually modifications will be made to ensure that the C-model can solely support the navy’s mission.
Modifications include the introduction of a Link 16 datalink to enhance the UAV’s ability to network the Lockheed Martin MH-60 naval helicopter. This will enable the helicopter crew to receive data being collected by the Fire Scout directly instead of relaying it via the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).
“The direct link between the two is the LCS at the moment,” Captain Eric Soderberg, programme manager at the USN’s Multi-Mission Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems office (PMA-266), told Jane’s .
“Future variants are going to have a Link 16, so that any Link 16-enabled platform will be able to share the sensor data from the Fire Scout, as well as the Link 16-enabled H-60s,” he added.
This will provide more scope for the UAV to further engage with other USN assets that are Link 16-enabled – which constitutes the majority of the service’s platforms – so the entire air wing’s worth of data would then potentially be available for the Fire Scout to receive, or for it to feed back into.
The MQ-8C’s 12 hour endurance enables it to carry out more on-station surveillance than the 3.5 hour endurance of the MH-60S, while the forthcoming introduction of the new Leonardo distributed aperture active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar on this variant will also provide a capability not found on the helicopter. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
15 Apr 19. Terra Drone Acquires Stake in Slovenia’s C-Astral. Terra Drone Corporation has acquired a stake in Slovenia-based C-Astral Aerospace, which specializes in the manufacturing and services of fixed-wing small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), with a specific focus on high-productivity and high-endurance surveying, security, and remote sensing.

“The algorithm aspect — that’s kind of what we’re really going after.”
Today, most autonomous systems operate on a rules-based or deterministic paradigm where machines are programmed to take certain actions in specific situations, Rucker explained.
By leveraging advances in artificial intelligence, the Navy hopes to reach the point where autonomous devices can shift to more open knowledge-based and probabilistic decision-making, and perform their own reasoning, he said.
Snakehead UUV (Navy)
At the end of the day, unmanned platforms are simply hosts for other capabilities, officials emphasized. Mastroianni said he views them as trucks that haul gear around.
“A UUV [by itself] does nothing for me,” he said. “It needs to have a mission, which means it needs to have some sort of payload, some sort of capability. It could be as simple as a camera [or] it could be some massively expensive, super-secret payload that solves world hunger.”
He continued: “It’s what goes inside of them that really makes the difference on whether it can support our needs or not. What kind of processing, what kind of sensors does it have on it? Are they lightweight enough in order to work in the environment that we need? And can I afford it?”
To prevent schedule delays and encourage technological maturity, the service is pursuing an incremental approach to capability development rather than try to “deliver a Cadillac right off the bat,” Rucker said.
Modularity is required to make that a viable strategy, he noted.
“Whether it’s an unmanned surface vessel or unmanned undersea vessel, we are ensuring that we develop that modularity and have the interfaces, so as [enabling] technology is ready we can insert it into the production line — not break the production line — and ensure we stay on track to deliver that capability,” he said.
Modularity will also allow the Navy to make unmanned platforms multi-mission capable by adding or swapping in new payloads. That is especially true for larger vessels, which have greater size, weight and power parameters than smaller ones, and are therefore able to carry more devices. For example, the Orca XLUUV will initially be a single-mission platform but it is expected to take on additional missions going forward, Rucker explained.
The service is looking to give industry opportunities to showcase their technologies. ONR has developed multiple “innovative Naval prototype” UUVs that recently transitioned to Rucker’s office.

During 2012, the MPRF began its transition from legacy platforms to a new family of systems, including the P-8A Poseidon multi-mission aircraft, the MQ-4C Triton Unmanned Aerial System, and a Tactical Mobile ground support system.
Wheeler says it is technology, communication and teaming that makes this an exciting time for operators and stakeholders in the Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance community. Today, the P-8A Poseidon brings speed to the fleet, the power of secure networks, and twice as much acoustic capability.
A&M: Tell us about the P-8.
Rear Adm. Wheeler: The P-8A was designed and built to replace the P-3C Orion, which I believe has been in the fleet since 1962, and has been doing great work for us for a long time. The Navy really invested in the P-8A to do that traditional role of anti-submarine warfare. So, it’s built to accomplish that mission and it’s doing a tremendous job.
A&M: How is it different than the P-3? What new capabilities does it bring to the fight?
Rear Adm. Wheeler: Obviously, the most striking difference is its two engines, jet propulsion, as compared to the four-engine propeller-driven P-3 Orion. As I mentioned, the P-3 has been flying since the early 60’s. You can imagine the technology that has changed since then. Really, what the P-8 brings is that new technology. It takes an airframe that is very dependable in the Boeing 737 and combines it with some of the great sensors our industry partners have developed over the years combined with great computing power.
A&M: How is this helping the Navy in its modernization efforts, and meeting the operational goals of the Navy right now?
Rear Adm. Wheeler: What the P-8A really brings is that culmination of technology. If you imagine in the early 60’s black and white television compared to what we have today. Well, that’s the technology jump that we’re seeing, between a P-3C and a P-8A.

The F/A-18 Hornet will be around for many years to come, with the newer E and F model Super Hornets serving with front line squadrons and the E/A-18G Growler electronic warfare platform steadily replacing the venerable Prowlers. The next generation Navy fighter the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is known to many because of its well-publicized issues and delays, and its absence from such a historic event can only be pondered. It is still undergoing stringent flight tests at NAS Patuxent River but many were surprised that not even a mock-up was on display.
What was shown as the future of Naval Aviation were three unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The Global Hawk surveillance aircraft has been in the US Navy's inventory since 2006 and in 2008 the Navy awarded a billion plus contract to Northrop Grumman for more Global Hawks. The Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout is an unmanned reconnaissance helicopter. In 2010 an MQ-8B was involved in a drug interdiction in the Eastern Pacific Ocean when it was on a test flight from the USS McInerney. The final UAV on display was a mock-up of the X-47B Unmanned Combat Aerial System (UCAS). With its first flight happening a week before the kick-off event, on February 4th 2011, this really is the fore-front of Naval aviation. The mock-up showed features that are not present on any other UAV, an in-flight refueling probe and a tail hook for carrier landings. Originally planned for 2011, carrier test landings will now take place during 2013 during stage two of development.
As mentioned earlier, the field of aviation has changed so drastically over the past 100 years that it is hard to imagine where we will be 100 years from now. What we do know is that the US Navy and its service men and women will be spearheading developments and helping to lead it in to the next century.
Appendix 1. Static Displays
|1. C-130 Hercules||27. EA-6 Prowler (no show)||53. F4U Corsair|
|2. V-22 Osprey||28. AV-8 Harrier||54. N3N Canary|
|3. C-40 Clipper||29. F/A-18 Hornet||55.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Navy won’t pursue the development of a lethal carrier-based unmanned aircraft before it fields its unmanned MQ-25A Stingray tanker sometime in the 2020s, the service’s requirements chief said last week.
The service is taking a deliberate approach to adding unmanned aviation assets to carrier decks, ensuring it successfully integrates the MQ-25A into the airwing before it studies adding new, armed UAVs into the mix, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfare Systems (OPNAV N9) Vice Adm. Bill Merz said at an event co-hosted by the U.S. Naval Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The MQ-25, we think, is just a fantastic program. Integrating an unmanned aircraft into the carrier airwing will be a significant step forward for the Navy, no question about it,” he said.
“We are just compelled to be somewhat pragmatic in how well they work before we over-commit. We have a limited budget; we also have real lives at stake. Unmanned isn’t really unmanned, you just don’t have a body sitting in the platform. There’s a lot of support. You have deck handling, a lot of things you have to come through to bring these things aboard a maritime environment.”
In August, Boeing was awarded an $805-million contract to develop four MQ-25As. The company based the design on a prototype the company quietly built for the canceled Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) competition.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson has made fielding the MQ-25A a priority for the service, but it’s still unclear how quickly the service can get the capability to the fleet, Program Executive Officer for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons Rear Adm. Brian Corey said earlier this month.
“When we awarded our contract [in August], we believed we could go to 2024, [but] CNO said ASAP,” Corey said. “I’m not going to give you a date. It’s as soon as we can.”
The Navy wants to introduce the aircraft quickly to reduce the refueling burden on the service’s F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter that are now responsible for the tanking mission. Based on the success of the first set of missions – tanking and limited intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions – the Navy could look to other capabilities.

They have been delivered to unmanned undersea vehicle squadron 1 in Keyport, Washington, to give warfighters more experience operating large UUVs and elicit their feedback.
“We will then in ’19 open it up to industry if they want to come out and bring their sensors or payloads … so we can then now test sensors and payloads on a vehicle that the fleet operates,” Rucker said.
Those efforts would inform programs of record. Later on, the technologies could be inserted into other vessels when they are proven and ready, he added.
However, acquisition officials won’t be lining up to buy new equipment if it isn’t cost effective, noted Frank Kelley, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for unmanned systems.
The aim is to “drive affordability into everything we do,” he said.
The service wants to buy large numbers of platforms and enabling technologies to conduct dangerous missions and swarming operations, he said.
“What we could do is have devices that do one or two or even three things really well … and then deploy that not in the hundreds but in the thousands,” he said.
With that in mind, high-priced equipment might be cost prohibitive in some cases, Mastroianni said.
“For a one-way mission [with a] high probability of loss, that isn’t a cost-benefit analysis that works too well in our favor,” he said.
As it pursues UUVs, USVs and enabling technologies, the Navy is working with a wide variety of industry partners including small businesses, startups and the commercial sector, Neagley noted.
Officials in the unmanned systems world are gung-ho about the arrival of James “Hondo” Geurts as the new assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition. Geurts previously served as the acquisition chief at Special Operations Command, where he gained a reputation for rapidly procuring new technology.
He is bringing the same mindset to his new role, Rucker said. “One of the things he really challenged us on is … how do we go faster.”
Neagley said his office has special acquisition authorities that provide speed and flexibility in contracting and allow the Navy to reach a broad supplier base.
“We recognize that a lot of the innovation … exists in small businesses,” he said.

Unmanned systems are changing the way para-military forces operate today. The success of any UAS is the manner in which they integrate with manned activity and the ability to do so as a capability multiplier and at reasonable cost.
Tellumat’s offering encompasses the complete medium-sized UAS solution for a variety of airborne surveillance and monitoring applications at a fraction of the cost of comparable market offerings.
Our UAS solutions include unmanned aerial vehicles, portable ground control stations and all the support elements required to operate the system. The networked architecture of the system allows the geographic distribution of these elements to be flexible and diverse enough to meet most mission objectives.
The integrated system offering includes flight mission computers, INS navigation sensor packs, operator control units, antenna positioners and data links.
The system has been developed for ease of mobility to allow for road, sea or air transportation. In addition the simplicity of deployment ensures that the system is operational within the shortest period of time after arrival at the deployment site.

In 2022, the US Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) unveiled its first-ever Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (XLUUV). The ORCA project was awarded to Boeing in a USD 274 million contract in February 2019 for five drones. The Orca is designed to conduct mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and electronic warfare missions.
It has a top speed of eight knots (14.8 kms/9.2 miles per hour) and a maximum range of 12,038 kms. The design of this drone is based on Boeing’s 51-foot Echo Voyager and has an open architecture to enable future integration of advanced technologies.
France’s Naval Group is one another major player in this area of defence systems. During the fifth edition of the Naval Innovation Days, the group unveiled the Extra Large Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV) demonstrator. In October 2021, answering a question by Naval News, the Naval Group’s CEO Pierre Eric Pomellet said: “The demonstrator really came out of Naval Group’s research laboratories to put together technologies and demonstrate the interest of a system such as this one to complement a naval force. So, we are unveiling it today, but obviously a lot of government and research players know what we have done, and we are going to discuss with them how we can follow up on this type of technology and demonstration. This project is part of the self-investment that the Naval Group is making to go beyond the simple technology.”
The demonstrator is designed primarily as a platform to conduct Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) mission. Future missions may include mine counter measure (MCM) or anti-submarine warfare (ASW) as the company’s F21 heavy weight torpedo (HWT) can fit in this weapons bay.
Further, China is revealed to have ‘at least five designs in the water, many more than any other navy.’
Janes reported last year that Atlas Elektronik UK will supply the Royal Navy with autonomous underwater vehicles, the UK Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) Mine Hunting Capability (MHC) team has awarded a GBP 32 million (USD 41.6 million) contract to Atlas Elektronik UK (AEUK) for autonomous mine-hunting systems. The company will supply the Royal Navy with three MHC autonomous underwater vessel (AUV) systems.

The Navy in May performed the first carrier launch of the system, followed by a series of touch-and-go landings. Additional testing will be performed through December, he said.
The prototype is about the size of a fighter jet and one of two developed by Northrop Grumman for the Navy's Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator, or UCAS-D, program, which has cost about $1.4 billion over eight years.
The effort is designed to demonstrate the technology and pave the way for a larger program to build the Navy’s armed, carrier-based drone fleet called Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike, or UCLASS.
The Navy plans to issue a draft request for proposals to develop the technology for the UCLASS program in August, followed by a formal request in the second quarter of 2014, Winter said. The service would pick a single winner by the end of next year, he said.
Northrop Grumman is expected to square off against other defense giants for the work, including Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co. and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. Lockheed Martin is pitching the Sea Ghost, Boeing the Phantom Ray, and General Atomics the Sea Avenger.
"Although it looks like it could be an easy maneuver, today's successful arrested landings points back to a rigorous test plan focused on software development and system maturity to prove today that an autonomous unmanned system such as the X-47B can safely, seamlessly and predictably integrate into Navy carrier operations," said Carl Johnson, vice president and Navy UCAS program manager for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.
The Navy wants to add drones to air wings to extend the range of its carrier groups. The X-47B can fly about twice as far as a manned F-35C fighter jet.
Mabus said the technology will allow the service to maintain more of a global presence -- "being not just in the right place at the right time, but in the right place all the time." The service aims to equip the first carrier air wing with operational unmanned systems in 2019, he said.
|Drones Navy Brendan McGarry|

The French Navy has placed an additional order for a fleet of Survey Copter Aliaca light tactical uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) for maritime surveillance, according to Airbus Defense and Space.
Survey Copter—an Airbus subsidiary— signed a firm order with the French Defense Procurement Agency (DGA) for 15 onboard systems (30 aircraft) of Aliaca fixed-wing electric UAS, plus associated training and integrated logistics support for the French Navy, the company announced Monday. The company said deliveries of the systems will begin this year and “will be used to equip new ships and ship types, and to enhance their onboard capabilities.”
The request builds upon a 2020 order of 11 systems and 22 aircraft that have been called the French Navy’s “remote field glasses” due to their ability to provide airborne surveillance, detection, and identification capabilities for high seas patrol boats and surveillance frigates, according to the company.
“We are very honored to participate in the French government’s action at sea and to continue supporting the French Navy in its many missions,” said Christophe Canguilhem, CEO of Survey Copter, in a statement. “This additional order confirms the relationship of trust we have with the DGA and the French Navy, and the quality, efficiency, and reliability of our drones systems at sea.”
The order is the latest for Airbus, which late last year announced it was launching a business line dedicated to military drones. In January, Airbus also announced its intent to acquire Aerovel, the manufacturer of the Flexrotor tactical drone.
The post French Navy Orders Fleet of Small Airbus Maritime Drones appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The second chapter describes ...
Keller, Joe; Ivey, James; Dalakos, Antonios; Okan, Orhan; Kuchler, Ryan; Cooke, Rabon; Stallings, Brad; Searles, Scot; Gokee, Mersin; Lashomb, Pete; Byers, David; Papoulias, Fotis; Ciezki, John; Ng, Ivan (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2001-12);Currently, no system exists that provides a sea-based distributed aviation platform capability. The emergence of Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) / Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs), the continued U.S. Navy focus on the ...

“Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap: FY2013-2038,” U.S. Department of Defense, 2013.
Inventory of DoD UAS (page 5)
(3PA: Like other Pentagon reports, the data contained in this chart should be treated with some skepticism. In May, the Pentagon provided its Annual Aviation Inventory and Funding Plan to Congress. That report listed the total Department of Defense aircraft fleet as being composed of 14,776 aircraft, but did appear to include some of the tactical surveillance drones listed above. This chart also presumably does not include the Central Intelligence Agency’s drone fleet, which according to Greg Miller consists of some 30-35 weapons systems.)
2.4.1 Autonomy (page 15-16)
The potential for improving capability and reducing cost through the use of technology to decrease or eliminate specific human activities, otherwise known as automation, presents great promise for a variety of DoD improvements. However, it also raises challenging questions when applying automation to specific actions or functions. The question, “When will systems be fielded with capabilities that will enable them to operate without the man in the loop?” is often followed by questions that extend quickly beyond mere engineering challenges into legal, policy, or ethical issues. How will systems that autonomously perform tasks without direct human involvement be designed to ensure that they function within their intended parameters? More broadly, autonomous capabilities give rise to questions about what overarching guiding principles should be used to help discern where more oversight and direct human control should be retained.
The relevant question is, “Which activities or functions are appropriate for what level of automation?” DoD carefully considers how systems that automatically perform tasks with limited direct human involvement are designed to ensure they function within their intended parameters. Most of the current inventory of DoD unmanned aircraft land themselves with very limited human interaction while still operating under the control of a human and perform this function with greater accuracy, fewer accidents, and less training than a human-intensive process; as a result, both a capability improvement and reduced costs are realized. This specific automatic process still retains human oversight to cancel the action or initial a go-around, but substantially reduces the direct human input to one of supervision. Human-systems engineering is being rigorously applied to decompose, identify, and implement effective interfaces to support responsive command and control (C2) for safe and effective operations.

Since then, there have been a number of high profile aquatic acquisitions, including: Riptide Autonomous Solutions by BAE Systems; Liquid Robotics by Boeing; and multiple investments in Ocean Aero by Lockheed Martin. The biggest driver of this consolidation is the demand from the military, particularly the Navy, for autonomous searching out and destroy missions.
In September 2017 the US Navy established the Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Squadron 1 (UUVRON-1). When explaining this move, Captain Robert Gaucher stated “Standing up UUVRON 1 shows our Navy’s commitment to the future of unmanned systems and undersea combat.” This sentiment was shared by Commander Corey Barker, spokesman of the famed Submarine Force Pacific, “In addition to providing a rapid, potentially lower cost solution to a variety of mission sets, UUVs can mitigate operations that pose increased risk to manned platforms.” Last summer the Navy appointed a dedicated Commander of UUVRON-1, Scott Smith. In a recent interview, Smith opined his vision for sea drones, “Those missions that are too dangerous to put men on, or those missions that are too mundane and routine, but important ― like monitoring ― we’ll use them for those missions, as well. I don’t think we’ll ever replace the manned platform, but we’ll certainly augment them to a large degree.” It is this augmentation that is generating millions of dollars of defense contracts which are starting to spill over to private industry.
Boston-based Dive Technologies, founded by a team of former BlueFin engineers, is building an innovative technology to broaden the use of unmanned marine systems. In speaking with its CEO this week, Jerry Sgobbo, he described nascent opportunities for his suite of innovations: “We see demand for offshore survey work in the U.S. increasing significantly as grid scale offshore wind farms are developed over the next decade. In particular, much of this work will take place in New England and mid-Atlantic waters.” Sgobbo is referring to the recent move by Rhode Island in constructing the first ever wind farm in the United States, capitalizing on the regions famous gale-force gusts. Based upon the success of the Block Island project, other states are quickly putting forth legislation to follow suit. Just this week, Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts declared in Congress that “Offshore wind has the potential to change the game on climate change, and those winds of change are blowing off the shores of Massachusetts.

MarineLink has a short post about a European effort to use networked Unmanned Air and Surface Vehicles (UAVs and USVs) to do SAR. I don’t find their particular scenario persuasive, but there probably are roles for these systems.
Unmanned systems have some potential advantages over Manned assets although they are unlikely to ever replace them.
- It may be possible to have UAVs more widely distributed than manned CG Air assets.
- UAVs operating from SAR stations might also be able to get into the air more quickly than manned aircraft because they do not have to contend with other air traffic that may be operating on the field.
- At least for some applications they may be cheaper to operate.
Frankly, I had thought of unmanned systems as primarily Law Enforcement assets, but the Coast Guard is looking as the possibility of locating personnel in the water using small UAVs.
I have a hard time visualizing a use for Unmanned Surface Vessels (USV), but perhaps there might be a benefit in dropping a USV to a distressed vessel or person(s) in the water either from a fixed wing or a UAV.
UAVs might be used:
- For communications relay.
- To deliver medication or medical equipment.
- Small UAVs might be used to confirm the location of vessels in distress before other units arrive.
- To deliver pumps, communications equipment, or other even inflatable liferafts.
Any Other Ideas?
Any other potential uses?

UAVs are widely used, low cost, high efficiency; no risk of casualties; strong survivability, good maneuverability, and easy use. They play an extremely important role in modern warfare and have broader prospects in the civilian field.
The reconnaissance aircraft is used to complete battlefield reconnaissance and surveillance, positioning and calibration, damage assessment, electronic warfare, etc.; it can also be used for civilian purposes, such as border patrol, nuclear radiation detection, aerial photography, aerial prospecting, disaster monitoring, traffic patrol, public security monitoring, etc. Target drones can be used as targets for artillery and missiles.

The U.S. Navy X-47B UCAV (unmanned combat air vehicle) made its first catapult launch on November 29th, 22 months after its first flight. This launch was not from a carrier but an airfield built to the same size as a carrier deck and equipped with a catapult. This first launch was to confirm that the X-47B could handle the stress of a catapult launch. Another X-47B has been loaded onto the deck of a carrier, to check out the ability of the UCAV to move around the deck. If all goes well, the first carrier launch of an X-47B will take place next year, along with carrier landings. Last year the navy tested its UCAV landing software, using a manned F-18 for the test, landing it on a carrier completely under software control.
It was four years ago that the navy rolled out the first X-47B, its first combat UAV. This compact aircraft has a wingspan of 20 meters (62 feet and the outer 25 percent folds up to save space on the carrier). It carries a two ton payload and will be able to stay in the air for twelve hours. The U.S. is far ahead of other nations in UCAV development, and this is energizing activity in Russia, Europe, and China to develop similar aircraft. It’s generally recognized that robotic combat aircraft are the future, even though many of the aviation commanders (all of them pilots) wish it were otherwise. Whoever gets there first (a UCAV that really works) will force everyone else to catch up or end up the loser in their next war with someone equipped with UCAVs.
The U.S. Navy has done the math and realized that they need UCAS on their carriers as soon as possible. The current plan is to get these aircraft into service six years from now. But there is an effort to get the unmanned carrier aircraft into service sooner than that. The math problem that triggered all this is the realization that American carriers had to get within 800 kilometers of their target before launching bomber aircraft. Potential enemies increasingly have aircraft and missiles with range greater than 800 kilometers. The navy already has a solution in development since the X-47B UCAS has a range of 2,500 kilometers
Last year the U.S.

They can stay at-altitude and on station for weeks at a time, which makes them well-suited for providing over-the-horizon airborne radar, surveillance coverage, and/or communication relays for areas like ports, key sea lanes & straits, coastal areas, main transportation highways, national borders, or demilitarized zones.
Their multiple helium pockets and low differential pressure between the helium and the atmosphere also make them hard to kill, even if shot full of holes. The helium just escapes slowly, and the aerostat will still remain aloft for hours or even days. During one incident in Iraq, a small RAID aerostat came loose from its tether and the US Air Force barely managed to shoot it down before it drifted over the Iranian border.
Aerostats will not replace naval surveillance aircraft. Their tethered nature creates substantial drag when moving at speed, and keeping them aloft at altitude becomes difficult in those circumstances. High winds and thunderstorms can ground them, in situations where aircraft could still fly. They also have rather large radar reflections, which can compromise task force stealth. Their offsetting advantages, however, may make them a critical naval supplement to be deployed over ports or staging areas; or from ships in or near “hot” zones like beachheads, or on picket in and near dangerous areas like the Persian Gulf, Straits of Malacca, Somali coast, et. al.
Accordingly, the USA’s NAVSEA(NAVal SEA Systems Command) and NAVAIR (NAVal AIR Systems Command) signed a memorandum of understanding on Oct. 28, 2006 to develop a sea-based 38-meter aerostat prototype with a weather hardened design that can carry up to 500 pounds of surveillance equipment. That’s NAVAIR’s area of expertise, and they will use a 32 meter aerostat they’ve been experimenting with as a base platform. The Navy also wants to develop this aerostat to accommodate a modular, interchangeable payload system that can offer radar, optronics, communications, or set combinations for maximum flexibility. That’s NAVSEA’s area of expertise.
The ultimate goal of the program is to develop a sea-based 71-meter, weather-hardened aerostat sensor platform, with larger interchangeable payload modules, capable of operating at an altitude of up to 15,000 feet.

Under the auspices of the Unmanned Combat Air Systems Demonstration between 2007 and 2015, Northrop’s larger X-47B undertook the first carrier operations for a drone, including the first unmanned trap aboard a carrier in May 2013.
At top — the Boeing MQ-25. Boeing photo. Above — an X-47B takes off from the USS George W. Bush in 2013. U.S. Navy photo
In 2013 the Navy announced the follow-on Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike program to develop a stealthy surveillance and attack drone. But camps within the Navy quarreled over UCLASS’s mission set.
Should UCLASS primarily fly surveillance mission in lightly-defended air space, like the Air Force’s Reaper drone does? Or should it be capable of penetrating enemy defenses in order to attack heavily-defended targets? “You can’t afford both, you have to make your bet,” Bob Work, a former Navy undersecretary who would serve as deputy defense secretary, said in 2013.
The Navy placed its bet in early 2016. Rather than optimizing UCLASS for surveillance or strike, it chose an entirely separate mission. Rebranded as the Carrier-Based Aerial Refueling System, the former UCLASS, ex-J-UCAS program would develop a tanker.
Critics were displeased. “The Navy suppressed the best promise for innovation in this generation,” Dr. Monte Turner and Air Force lieutenant colonel Douglas Wickert wrote in a 2016 paper for National Defense University.
Northrop competed with Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Atomics for the CBARS contract. As the requirements drifted away from stealth and instead emphasized endurance and fuel capacity, Northrop decided to drop out. Boeing’s new design has almost nothing in common with the company’s J-UCAS-era X-45.
In contrast to the X-45’s and X-47’s flying-wing configuration, Boeing’s MQ-25 is a straight-wing, twin-tail design. But its conventional planform belies its evolution across multiple programs that shifted in emphasis from attack to surveillance to tanking. The roughly 60-foot-long drone boasts a top-mounted air-intake that’s flush with the fuselage, a low-observable design feature that Northrop experimented with in the 1980s its Tacit Blue demonstrator.

As they explained, “A carrier at Pearl Harbor ordered to respond to a developing crisis in the Taiwan Strait could immediately set sail and launch a flight of UCASs.” The drones could reach Chinese airspace in 10 hours and remain there for another five hours, surviving and fighting “even in the face of advanced Chinese air defense systems” – thanks to their stealth qualities.“The strategic value of that sort of responsiveness and reach would be incalculable,” Work and Ehrhard concluded. Not only did the Navy ultimately agree and boost support for the X-47B, in 2009 Work joined the sailing branch as its new undersecretary. He was able to continue arguing for the new drone’s importance from inside the Pentagon.
Northrop steadily added more autonomy to the X-47B until it was nearly entirely robotic. “There is man in the loop,” explained Carl Johnson, a Northrop vice president, in a telephone interview. He was referring to operators on land or aboard a launching carrier who he said can “monitor and override autonomous systems” within the drone. Takeoff, landing and most of the X-47B’s flight are handled by software.Work left the Navy in April to head the Center for a New American Security, a policy organization in Washington. He told Reuters he will be eagerly monitoring the X-47B’s takeoff on Tuesday. In particular, he will be looking to see whether the drone can maneuver alongside the other aircraft that routinely surround a carrier.
Work says he expects a smooth takeoff – and also continued strong Navy support for the drone program, particularly in light of improving air defenses in China and other rival nations. Since Work co-wrote his X-47B report, both Russia and China have unveiled new high-tech warplanes and missiles. “Everybody is surprised at the pace and broad range of capabilities adversaries all over the world are pursuing,” Work said. “The case for unmanned systems coming off the carrier has accelerated.” Assuming today’s launch is a success, it could be only a few years before UAVs like the X-47B routinely fly from the Navy’s carriers, giving the United States aerial advantage over the Pacific.

Navy officer with Door County roots is leading unmanned surveillance aircraft mission
ELLISON BAY - A U.S. Navy officer with Door County roots has become the next commander of the Navy's new program to deploy unmanned surveillance aircraft.
Commander John LeVoy, the son of Lee and Hugh LeVoy, of Ellison Bay, became the commanding officer of Unmanned Patrol Squadron 19 in a change of command ceremony June 5 aboard Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida.
Unmanned Patrol Squadron 19 includes 300 sailors and 200 civilian contractors with the mission to fly two types of unmanned aerial vehicles, the MQ-4C Triton and RQ-4A Broad Area Maritime Surveillance-Demonstrator, according to a U.S. Navy news release.
"The change of command ceremony was wonderful," said Lee LeVoy. The couple was grateful to attend the event, she said.
John LeVoy will lead the "historic, first-ever flight of the MQ-4C Triton," the release said.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or UAVs ‘have an advantage of providing persistence,’ US Air Force Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula explains. This persistence means a drone is better able to spot targets and guide in attackers, shrinking what Deptula calls the ‘intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance-strike equation’ to ‘a matter of single-digit minutes.’
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[Video] U.S. Navy launches its killer drone off the deck of an aircraft carrier. A new era has begun.
A new era for naval aviation has just begun.
On May 14, the US Navy successfully launched the Northrop Grumman X-47B unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) off the deck of an aircraft carrier for the first time. A breakthrough for robotic aviation and military Implementation of unmanned systems.
The video, just released by the U.S. Navy shows the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air Systems (UCAS) demonstrator – please note that both UCAV and UCAS acronyms are used for this drone, being taxied and then catapult-launched from the flight deck of USS G. W. Bush.
Ship-board testing had started on Dec. 9, 2012.
On the flight deck the X-47B (that on Nov.29, successfully completed its first land-based catapult launch from Naval Air Station Patuxent River) is controlled using an arm-mounted control display unit (CDU).
The new gadget is a special remote control for moving the X-47B on flight decks which attaches to the wrist, waist and one hand. Through the device, deck operators ahve access to a display and can control the aircraft’s throttle, tailhook, steering, brakes and perform several other functions associated with maneuvring an aircraft on deck.

Unmanned maritime systems will change how we operate, but they’re just the start. Our pursuit of new technologies and ideas will ensure we remain one of the most capable and successful navies in the world.”
Frank Cotton, BAE Systems’ Head of Technology, Combat Systems, said: “Unmanned Warrior gives us the perfect opportunity to demonstrate how the command and control of unmanned vehicles can be integrated seamlessly into the existing shipborne and land-based infrastructures. The real challenge around the introduction of autonomy is how a mix of manned and unmanned systems is managed and I’m genuinely excited about demonstrating how the technology that we’ve been developing enables this to happen.”

— The Navy hopes to eventually make unmanned systems just one tool among many for commanders to pick from. However, to get to that point the service will have to get unmanned systems into the hands of warfighters to work out the kinks, leaders said. Read More

The Vanilla Aircraft is uniquely position to fill a void as a a Group 3 UAS capable for flying continuously for up to 10 days, providing persistent surveillance and reconnaissance. The Surveillance industry has dramatically embraced drones to provide multi-use monitoring, AI and other emerging technologies to compliment the mobile capabilities of UAV’s. UAS technology is filling a huge gap Border Security and Shipping Lanes, where long dwell time over large distances is critical.
An estimated $7 billion is currently being spent each year in the surveillance industry current estimates see this industry growing to over $13 Billion by 2024. With object recognition, facial ID, AI and automated tracking being just a few of the advanced technologies being applied to UAV’s this industry is growing at a rapid rate with no end in site.
UAV technology provides highly effective and cost effective solutions to local law enforcement in protecting its citizens.
With new Federal and State mandates in place, protecting our border is a massive undertaking that is being greatly aided by UAV technology
Surveillance Unmanned Vehicle Market
Now that high end cameras are having smaller footprints and drones having the ability to carry heavier payloads and be flow with much more precision, many companies have embraced them over more traditional solutions. Plus UAV’s are often much safer and cost effective and with the vanilla unmanned solution it means longer dwell time which guards again ISR failure during take off and landing.

In fact, there are big advantages to replacing the crew with an at least partly autonomous control system. And that technology is almost inevitable—we think that too many people thinking about future capability don’t give enough credit to the implications of Moore’s Law. The surface combatant of the future will likely have a mix of small and large embarked aircraft—but it’s a fair bet that they’ll all be unmanned.
Andrew Davies is senior analyst for defence capability and director of research at ASPI. James Mugg is a researcher at ASPI. Disclaimer: James Mugg recently travelled to the United States on a study tour sponsored by Northrop Grumman, the manufacturers of Fire Scout.

Thanks to high-resolution cameras and relatively modest cost, drones are considered a game changer for things like airborne surveillance and photography.

The US Navy vigorously opposed Mitchell's proposal. It foresaw that airplanes would play an increasingly important role in naval warfare, and insisted that it be free to develop naval air power, and to operate aircraft according to its needs to the same extent as in the case of its other weapons.
Naval aircraft require different capabilities to perform various types of missions. Naval aircraft missions can be categorized under eight job types: fleet air defense, strike warfare, antisubmarine warfare (ASW), electronic warfare, early warning, amphibious assault, training, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Each mission requires different capabilities in the craft that perform them. Most aircraft are able to perform more than one type of mission and may perform support functions as well. To accomplish these missions, the Navy and Marine Corps have over six thousand active and reserve aircraft
Strike aircraft attack enemy surface targets such as ships and ground forces. Strike aircraft are classified into two types, medium and light, depending on the weight of the payload they carry. There are several major design factors involved in attack aircraft design. Range, payload, and weapon delivery precision determine how far away a target can be attacked and the amount of damage that can be inflicted. Maneuverability and stealth will allow the aircraft to evade surface to air missiles and enemy fighters as well as making them less visible to enemy sensors. Marine Corps aircraft emphasize vertical or short takeoff capability to provide air power in the absence of airfields. The A-6 Intruder, once the backbone of the Navy's attack force, was withdrawn from service in the 1990s. The F/A-18 is proving everyday to be a reliable, flexible platform and is expected to remain so well into the 2lst century. Upgrades to the F/A-18 radar, engines, weapons, and enhanced all weather attack capability are currently being planned. The AV-8B Harrier is demonstrating to be a safe, effective aircraft. Upgraded engines and night attack capability will provide the Navy and Marine Corps more control over a broader spectrum of operational and threat scenarios.
The fleet air defense mission performed by Navy and Marine Corps fighters is to defend the fleet from shore and sea based air attacks. Fighters attack incoming bombers seeking to destroy aircraft carriers and their accompanying ships.

Video shot from UAVs is shaped by the angle of the aircraft to the ground and software is available to allow viewers to manipulate video to see objects from different vantage points.
According to The Washington Post, there are also systems that allow UAVs to track moving targets under a forest canopy or other cover and determine their exact location. Systems are under development that would allow the identification of specific individuals from facial recognition and gait.
Analysts today have a wealth of video data to watch for suspicious behavior. Future video systems will provide even more information analysts need to view. DARPA describes one use of the video indexing system as allowing an analyst looking for U-turning cars to check archived video of cars making U-turns before a previous attack. The full capabilities of the UAV surveillance system are likely much more than what the contract describes.
quote: It's much better than they seem to show in movies or in games.

Given that the target was the Long Island Sound, this may seem like a small success, but it has been noted by some that the Aerial Torpedo was the first unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) to be recovered and flown again.
Problems with the catapult and other systems crashed the Speed Scouts, but a converted N-9 trainer was successfully launched on October 17, 1918, and flew as planned for eight miles. At that point, drone aviation experienced its first uncommanded “fly away,” when the trainer’s flight continued until it disappeared over the horizon. The Navy’s attention turned to an occasional interest in target drones and the Sperry-Hewitt program ended.
To read the article from the Febbruary 2018 issue of Flight Journal, click here.

A Northrop Grumman X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System-Demonstrator (UCAS-D) is hoisted aboard USS Harry S Truman (CVN 75), marking a milestone in the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program. Equipment needed to operate the unmanned aircraft was added during the carrier’s recent overhaul. The X-47B “will demonstrate seamless integration into carrier flight deck operations through various tests. During each demonstration, the X-47B will be controlled remotely via a hand-held control display unit (CDU),” according to a Navy release. Truman will undertake three weeks of deck handling trials of the aircraft as well as other tests in preparation for actual flight operations scheduled for December of 2013.

The U.S. Navy will attempt the first launch of an unmanned aircraft from an aircraft carrier on Tuesday, using Northrop Grumman
's X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System demonstrator (UCAS).
(X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) loaded onto flight deck of USS George H.W. Bush. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Tony D.)
The X-47B is about the size of a fighter jet and has a range of more than 2,100 nautical miles, with the ability to fly fully autonomous. Tuesday's launch will occur aboard the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) aircraft carrier in Norfolk, Va.
The Navy is looking to use the UCAS to demonstrate the integration of unmanned aircraft into carrier-based operations.
"Over the coming years, we will heavily leverage the technology maturation, networking advances and precision navigation algorithms developed from the X-47B demonstration program to pursue the introduction of the first operational carrier-based unmanned aircraft," Rear Adm. Mat Winter, the Navy's program executive officer for unmanned aviation, wrote in a Monday blog post. "This future system will provide a 24/7, carrier-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and targeting capability, which will operate together with manned aviation assets allowing the opportunity to shape a more efficient carrier air wing,"
The Navy is planning to demonstrate the aerial refueling capability of the X-47B during the 2014 fiscal year.
Related: Unmanned Systems News

The system features a waterproof and floating air vehicle that provides even small vessels a unique organic offboard surveillance capability that can be deployed and retrieved in less than 15 minutes
Elbit Systems has developed the SkylarkTM C, a new highly autonomous Mini Unmanned Aircraft System (Mini-UAS) specifically designed and built for martime applications. Based on the Skylark I Mini UAS – which are fully operational and in use by dozens of customers around the world, the new Skylark C transforms and extends the operational capabilities of its land-based counterpart into an organic maritime Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) asset.
As a maritime vessel organic asset, Skylark C provides the capabilities to inspect maritime activities from a safe distance, observe targets from a bird’s eye view, perform reconnaissance over coastal areas and perform continuous covert surveillance, thus extending the vessel’s ISR capabilities with respect to range, rate and quality of information obtained.
Mission effective, with highly autonomous flight capability, Skylark C incorporates an electrically-propelled air vehicle with a very low visual and acoustic signature, making it an ideal solution for covert operations such as special naval operations, border security, anti-terrorism and anti-piracy operations. The aerial vehicle utilizes Elbit Systems’ industry-leading UAS technology and know-how, featuring an advanced inertial navigation system (INS) and a stabilized electro-optical (EO) payload with a high resolution thermal imager and color daylight camera that enables continuous day/night monitoring in diverse weather conditions.
During the mission, high quality day or night video is available in real time in the MCS. The operator focuses on the mission rather than on flying the vehicle, applying convenient and effective control features such as fly-by-camera. Retrieval of the UAS after the mission is enabled through the use of a unique fully autonomous parachute-based recovery, allowing the lightweight waterproof air vehicle to safely glide, land and float on water surfaces guided by GPS. A net recovery on deck is an optional capability. The entire process – from recovery to next launch– takes no longer than 15 minutes. Only two operators are required to operate the system.
“Until recently, the ability to achieve real-time maritime situational awareness and ISTAR capabilities in a short period of time and with minimal resources remained a significant gap,” commented Elad Aharonson, General Manager of Elbit Systems ISTAR Division .

The U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched its Aerial Dragnet program, which seeks new technologies to provide persistent, wide-area surveillance of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operating below 1,000 feet in large cities.
DARPA says although Aerial Dragnet’s focus is on protecting military troops operating in urban settings overseas, the system could ultimately find civilian application to help protect U.S. metropolitan areas from UAS-enabled terrorist threats.
As off-the-shelf UAS become less expensive, easier to fly and more adaptable for terrorist or military purposes, says DARPA, U.S. forces will increasingly be challenged by the need to quickly detect and identify them – especially in urban areas, where sight lines are limited and many objects may be moving at similar speeds, according to the agency.
“Commercial websites currently exist that display in real time the tracks of relatively high and fast aircraft – from small general aviation planes to large airliners – all overlaid on geographical maps as they fly around the country and the world,” says Jeff Krolik, DARPA program manager. “We want a similar capability for identifying and tracking slower, low-flying unmanned aerial systems, particularly in urban environments.”
The output of the Aerial Dragnet system would be a continually updated common operational picture of the airspace at altitudes below where current aircraft surveillance systems can monitor. The system would be disseminated electronically to authorized users via secure data links, says DARPA.
Because of the large market for inexpensive small UAS, the program will focus on combining low-cost sensor hardware with software-defined signal processing hosted on existing UAS platforms. The agency says resulting surveillance systems would thus be cost-effectively scalable for larger coverage areas and rapidly upgradable as new, more capable and economical versions of component technologies become available.
The Aerial Dragnet program seeks teams with expertise in sensors, signal processing and networked autonomy. A Broad Agency Announcement solicitation detailing the goals and technical details of the program was posted on FedBizOps and is available here.
A “Proposers Day” is scheduled for Sept. 26, 2016, in Arlington, Va.

Darpa looks to use small ships as drone bases
The US military is planning to use fleets of small ships as platforms for unmanned aircraft to land and take off.
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) said it needed to increase its airborne "surveillance and reconnaissance".
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), known as drones, are commonly launched on land - but deploying them at sea is harder because they need to refuel.
They currently require large aircraft carriers with long runways.
The new project has been dubbed Tern (Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node) after a sea-bird known for its endurance.
Darpa programme manager Daniel Patt, said: "Enabling small ships to launch and retrieve long-endurance UAVs on demand would greatly expand our situational awareness and our ability to quickly and flexibly engage in hotspots over land or water."
He added: "It is like having a falcon return to the arm of any person equipped to receive it, instead of to the same static perch every time."
About 98% of the world's land area lies within 900 nautical miles of ocean coastlines, and Darpa increasingly sees conflicts being fought out at sea.

Since Marine tactical UASs are extremely constrained by weight, programmatic trade-off between technology and brilliance in the basics has become increasingly lucrative.
Tactical payloads should be light enough to enable air vehicles to loiter for extended periods of time while maintaining sufficient stand-off through stealth. Stand-off distance at sea may need to be well over the horizon from shore to support amphibious operations. 2 Freeing processing power and weight are practical solutions, and allow crews to provide additional Marine aviation functions beyond air reconnaissance. It may also enable Marine UASs to perform offensive air support, electronic warfare, and armed reconnaissance. This is in concert with then-Admiral John C. Harvey Jr.’s July 2012 article in Proceedings , “Keeping Our Amphibious Edge.” 3 Marines with experience in combined-arms integration can save money, weight, and memory space consumed by hardware and software in tactical Marine UAS payloads.
Mission commanders should participate in combined-arms rehearsals with their ground brethren to enhance situational awareness. Some of the premier training venues for Marines to become experts in the fundamentals of manned and unmanned aviation integration include Mojave Viper in Twenty-Nine Palms, California, and the Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course in Yuma, Arizona. There, military commanders can “unplug” from computer-generated overlays and Internet Relay Chat while plugging into tactical radio communications and the tactical situation on the ground.
Rather than wait for payloads or command-and-control systems to display latent ground schemes of maneuver, DOD-approved datalinks like Tactical Digital Information Link 16 can provide real-time situational awareness. Real-time control of tactical UAS doesn’t require excessive command-and-control layers—only initiative and existing programs of record. Failure to grasp these fundamentals poses challenges for tomorrow’s increasingly automated battlefield.
Technology and ROE
Payload technology has become a driving force behind crafting rules of engagement (ROE). While one could argue that politics over technology has resulted in more restrictive rules of engagement, experience has proven otherwise.
Interdictions should be determined by a commander’s prerogative, hostile intent and acts, mission commander experience, and sound military judgment. Technology impedes this cycle over and over by saturating decision makers with distracting information. Discriminating between such minutiae as to what kind of weapon a threat is carrying results in lost opportunities—or worse.

Exploring new on-board operational capabilities : this is the challenge addressed by the Naval Group teams in close collaboration with the French Defence Procurement Agency and the French Navy. Different design, development and deployment activities are centred around the integration of drones on board vessels. The challenge is a stimulating one: the projects are advancing quickly and new opportunities are opening up on the international markets.
The latest summary with Audrey Hirschfeld, Work Package Manager, who is working on the program for new operational capacities on amphibious helicopter carriers.
The adventure started in 2016. As a result of successful experiments on board the offshore patrol vessel L’Adroit, Naval Group installed a drone system on the amphibious helicopter carrier Dixmude. This was first deployed in stand-alone mode, i.e. without being linked to the combat system but controlled by a console developed by Naval Group and housed in a shelter on the flight deck. A second shelter, in the aviation hangar, was used for vehicle maintenance. “Our goal was to study the impact of its presence on board and evaluate the safety measures before expanding the range of its functions”, explains Audrey Hirschfeld.
The trials took place in May 2017, off the coast of Montpellier. “Gathered on the visual defence bridge, at dusk, all eyes fixed on the drone, we all held our breath until it took off”, recounts the engineer, recalling the emotion of the teams in front of the screens of the Operations Control Room, which showed the images from the drone’s camera. “It was our best reward”, she continues. With some great successes in the FREMM frigates and Gowind® corvette programs under her arm, Audrey was one of the first to join the project, attracted by the collective challenge.
This first trial campaign has proven convincing: Naval Group has been entrusted with the study and sustainable integration of the drone system into the helicopter carrier’s combat system. Further campaigns confirmed the expectations. Embarked on the Corymbe mission in September 2017, in the Gulf of Guinea, followed by the Jeanne d’Arc campaign, the drone system gradually revealed its full potential for surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
“For spring 2019, we are preparing the deployment on the Dixmude. The drone system will comprise a new Naval Group console, a more extensive communication system and an additional airborne vehicle”, details Audrey Hirschfeld.

The US Navy is deploying a new weapon in drone warfare: Submarine-launched drones. Dubbed "Blackwings," these small reconnaissance drones can be tube-launched from submarines and unmanned underwater vehicles.
Developed by California-based AeroVironment Inc., the drones are about 20 inches long and weigh about four pounds. They fold up into a three-inch wide canister that can be tube-launched from the submarine. Once the canister clears the surface, the Blackwing pops out and its wings unfold.
Each unit has a motor that can last up to 60 minutes, and is fitted with miniaturized electro-optical and infrared sensors, as well as its anti-spoofing GPS and a secure digital data link.
The Blackwing was developed to counter Chinese advancements in anti-ship ballistic missile and similar "anti-access, area denial (A2AD)" technologies. The Navy has given no deployment date, but given China's aggressive posturing, it may come just in the nick of time.

(Published 10 Sep 2016, CLAWS)
“…[t]he main advantage of using drones is precisely that they are unmanned. With the operators safely tucked in air-conditioned rooms far away, there’s no pilot at risk of being killed or maimed in a crash. No pilot to be taken captive by enemy forces. No pilot to cause a diplomatic crisis if shot down in a “friendly country” while bombing or spying without official permission”
Medea Benjamin, 2013
The aim of this article is to look at some of the developments and the technological spinoffs that are likely to have a profound impact upon uninterrupted 24/7 gathering of real time strategic intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance data.
X-37 B. The X-37 B or the Orbital Test Vehicle mystery aircraft of the US Air Force has nearly completed one year in orbit and it is not known when it will land. The X-37 B program has been shrouded in mystery since its inception some time in 1999 as a NASA program. The X-37 B has a wingspan of 24 m, a length of 2.9 m, a height of 4.6 m, and a launch weight of 4990 kg. It is powered by GaAs solar cells and lithium-ion batteries after it is boosted into space. It can remain in orbit for periods of over one year. As per US Air Force fact sheet the mission of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, or OTV, is “an experimental test program to demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the U.S. Air Force. The primary objectives of the X-37B are twofold: reusable spacecraft technologies for America’s future in space and operating experiments which can be returned to, and examined, on Earth”. It states further that OTV missions till now have spent a total of 1,367 days in orbit, “successfully checking out the X-37B’s reusable flight, re-entry and landing technologies.” As per US Air Force fact sheet some of the technologies being tested include advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics, high temperature structures and seals, conformal reusable insulation, lightweight electromechanical flight systems, advanced propulsion systems & autonomous orbital flight, reentry and landing.

“It allows us to take from any source all of the intelligence that’s available. We have ground-based radar systems that are excellent at detection,” Robertson said. “I have camera systems where I can use the radar to point a camera and look at things.”
Once the system detects something, SkyDome uses image recognition and AI to classify the object and its intent. “Is it a bird? Is it a drone? Is it a friendly drone or an unfriendly drone?” Robertson said. “It uses the intelligence gained from each of its sensors combined, much as your brain would, and makes a call and says, ‘that’s a threat.’”
Launched automatically upon detection or at a human’s command, the DroneHunter climbs to altitude and then uses onboard radar to track the enemy drone. Up in the air, there is very little to interfere with the DroneHunter’s ability to lock on target. “It can see these drones from hundreds of meters away,” said Robertson.
After snaring a drone in its net, the DroneHunter brings it back. Nabbing a drone out of the sky offers a few advantages over attempting to jam it or blowing it up. You avoid bringing laser-riddled drones crashing down on urban crowds. You don’t foul up cellular communications networks. And you get more out of forensic analysis, which can show who launched the drone and from where.
Robertson said the DIU contract was worth multiple millions of dollars, though he declined to specify further. DIU did not immediately respond to request for comment. Several combatant commands are interested, Robertson said. (Source: Defense One)
04 Feb 20. DOTE cites need for further Knifefish development. Based on recent tests, the US Navy’s (USN’s) Surface Mine Countermeasure (SMCM) Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV), or Knifefish, needs more development work, the Pentagon Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOTE) said in its annual report, released on 30 January.
The USN recently conducted an operational assessment to evaluate the system’s capability to detect, classify, and identify naval mines that are moored in the ocean volume and that lay on, or are buried in, the ocean bottom, the DOTE noted.

Currently, Will Rogers ANGB, Okla., home of the recently transitioned 137th Special Operations Wing, has received 11 of the 13.
The unmanned revolution has definitively reshaped the way the Air Force carries out the ISR mission, and the future of that mission is poised to bring more of the same. In 2019, the service plans to retire the venerable U-2 Dragon Lady high-altitude ISR aircraft. As a replacement, Northrop Grumman is outfitting the RQ-4 Global Hawk with new capabilities to take over the U-2’s mission set. In February 2016, Northrop Grumman successfully demonstrated the RQ-4’s Universal Payload Adaptor. It enables the RQ-4 to fly with an advanced Senior Year Electro-Optical Reconnaissance System-2 sensor. In October that year, the company announced that Global Hawk had flown with the U-2’s Optical Bar Camera, and in February 2017 Northrop Grumman said it had demonstrated the RQ-4’s use of the MS-177 high-altitude multispectral sensor.
Even within the manned ISR enterprise, the Air Force has spoken of the need to make use of machines to process collected data more quickly and accurately. ISR chief James, who in 2013 acknowledged the Afghanistan-based airborne-ISR revolution, also said then that new ISR assets were enabling data collection at such high volumes that “machines and artificial intelligence tools have to help the Air Force get control of all this information.”
But the Air Force’s manned ISR fleet remains crucial to its mission, and recapitalizing those systems is a service priority. The RC-135 Rivet Joint surpassed 25 years of continuous service for US Central Command in September 2016 and is the most pressing need, Gen. Herbert J. “Hawk” Carlisle, then head of Air Combat Command, said that year.
The Air Force is already working to replace its fleet of 16 E-8C JSTARS—which reached one million flying hours in September 2016—with 17 new aircraft. With Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin competing, a contract is expected sometime in 2018.
Meanwhile, the E-3 AWACS aircraft have been undergoing upgrades that are likely to keep them operational into the 2030s.

The newest Navy Marine Corps UAV can take off and land from a small area on the battlefield, where its customizable payload of sensors will give Marines the best real-time tactical picture they've ever had.
The RQ-21A Blackjack has a 16-foot wingspan and can take off and land in a 40- by 40-foot area. Built by Insitu, the Blackjack can carry larger, more diverse intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) payloads than its predecessors. The aircraft deployed to Afghanistan earlier this month. There, dedicated UAV squadron detachments will fly it from forward operating bases close to the battlefield.
"The majority of the sites we operate in do not have runways. That's why the RQ-21 is so well suited to these environments," says Col. Jim Rector, Navy and Marine Corps Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems program manager.
Using a line-of-sight, the RQ-21A has a range of about 50 nautical miles from the launch point. However, operators can extend that range by using remote ground control stations (GCS) and, eventually, satellite technology. The UAV can stay aloft for up to 16 hours using a 100-cc two-stroke heavy-fuel reciprocating engine. Regimental commanders receive data from the drone's sensors in real time.
To launch and recover the drone, Marines would use the MKIV catapult launcher and MK2 Skyhook retriever. "Those two components allow us to have true expeditionary capability and to operate in littoral areas from amphibious Navy ships," Rector says.
The launcher uses a pneumatic system to fling the Blackjack airborne the way an aircraft carrier flings jets. Prior to launch, the squadron crew brings the 135-pound RQ-21A up to full power and sets the launcher at the desired angle of attack. The UAV gets airborne within a 40-foot area and quickly clears obstacles in its launch flight path.
Recovering the Blackjack is a bit more dramatic. In anticipation of the UAV's return, Marines extend the Skyhook's articulated telescoping mast. The Blackjack flies back to the launch/recovery area via commands through the GCS. Then the Marines snag it.
"Basically, what the Blackjack does is fly its wing right into a bungee-style line hanging from the Skyhook," Rector says. "When it hits the line, the wing hooks onto it and locks.

The Royal Navy’s own innovation team, ‘MarWorks’, joined with Dstl and Antillion to help accelerate this technology through the development phase.
We put it to use in ‘Information Warrior’ and, liking what we saw, we’ve decided to introduce it in place of 3 Commando Brigade’s current IT straight away.
But this isn’t simply about swapping old kit for new and carrying on as normal. The full potential of the technological opportunity before us is far greater.
From autonomous systems operating in squads to artificial intelligence assisted decision making, what we’ve glimpsed over the past 2 years has the potential to entirely change our approach to operations.
This requires big decisions, with far reaching consequences.
Are we, for instance, prepared to remove existing platforms from service in order to create the financial and manpower headroom to introduce new systems which, in time, could deliver truly transformative advances in capability?
Of course, change on this scale can be disconcerting, but if we hesitate, then we risk falling further behind.
So, for example, based on our experience from Unmanned Warrior and Information Warrior, we know that remotely operated and autonomous systems can make a far greater contribution to operations than is currently the case.
As a first step, we are ready to shift the process of trial and experimentation from the exercise arena to the operational theatre.
That’s why we have deployed 3 unmanned underwater vessels on board the survey ship HMS Enterprise during her current NATO deployment.
But I think we can go further still.
So today I can announce the Royal Navy’s aim to accelerate the incremental delivery of our future mine countermeasures and hydrographic capability (MHC) programme.
Our intention is to deliver an unmanned capability for routine mine countermeasure tasks in UK waters in 2 years’ time.
Similarly, from what we’ve seen over the past 2 years, we know it should be perfectly possible for the Type 31e frigate to operate a vertical lift unmanned air system alongside or perhaps even in place of a manned helicopter from the moment the first ship enters service from 2023.
And as a precursor to this, we plan to work with our partners in the aerospace industry to demonstrate such a capability on a Type 23 frigate next year.
So, just as I challenge the Royal Navy to take the next step forward, there’s also a challenge for you, our partners in industry, to meet us half way with credible solutions that can fulfil our requirements.

Aerial surveillance has long been a major shortfall of peacekeeping missions, and current technology should be exploited to fill the requirement.
- Kalashnikov, Russia’s world famous maker of combat automatic weapons, has acquired ZALA Aero, a Russian UAV manufacturer. Plans have also been announced to develop and manufacture drones capable of air surveillance for crisis spots.
- Weaponised drones are beginning to dominate the military UAV market, with a 34% share of UAV purchase deals predicted within ten years, according to market research firm Strategic Defense Intelligence. Medium Altitude/Long Endurance UAVs are currently the fastest growing sector of the overall UAV market. Europe is the fastest growing market but North America remains the largest by value.
- Australia has started sending its pilots to the United States for training on the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned combat air vehicle. Australia will be only the second country, after the United Kingdom, to fly US-manufactured combat drones.
Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
UK surveillance laws need overhaul according to parliamentary committee
In a landmark report, the UK parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC) concludes that the various pieces of legislation governing Britain’s intelligence agencies and their mass surveillance operations requires a total overhaul to make them more transparent, comprehensible and appropriate to modern methods and requirements.
While the 18-month enquiry concluded that existing laws were not being broken by the intelligence agencies and that their bulk collection of data did not amount to unnecessary surveillance or a threat to individual privacy, it did say that the legal framework is unnecessarily complicated, to the point that it provided the agencies with a ‘blank cheque to carry out whatever activities they deem necessary’. The combination of the over-complexity of the legislation, combined with the lack of transparency over how the legislation and surveillance powers are implemented, has led to public belief that there is widespread and indiscriminate surveillance.
The report go on to call for all current legislation governing the surveillance capabilities of the security and intelligence agencies to be replaced by a new, single act of parliament. This act should clearly set out surveillance capabilities, detailing the authorisation procedures, privacy constraints, transparency requirements, targeting criteria, sharing arrangements, oversight and other safeguards.
The report also reveals some detail of how intelligence and security agencies have the capability to trawl through personal data, developing detailed ‘bulk personal datasets’ with minimal statutory or judicial oversight. The datasets of major targets could run to many millions of records, and there is currently no legal constraint on their storage, retention, sharing and destruction.