NAVAL DRONES

Part 2: UUVs, Fire Scouts and buoys and why the Navy needs lot’s of them. Guest post  by Jan Musil. Sketch by Jan Musil. Hand drawn on  quarter-inch graph paper. Each  square equals twenty by twenty feet. This article, the second of the series, lays out a suggested doctrine of use for the UUVs and Fire Scouts that have already been developed. It is an incremental strategy, primarily calling for using what the Navy already has in hand, adding use of buoys in quantity combined with appropriate doctrinal changes and vigorously applying the result to the ASW mission. In getting this program underway the U.S. Navy can utilize existing sensors, whether for prosecuting ASW, developing sonar projections of the water below, including occasional deep diving missions and whatever else we find a need for the UUV to do. In practice though, generating useful results is far easier to accomplish if the UUV is routinely, though not exclusively, used with a tether so the data...

Part 1: More Drones Please. Lot’s and Lot’s of Them! Guest Post by Jan Musil Sketch by Jan Musil. Hand drawn on quarter-inch  graph paper. Each square equals twenty by twenty feet. Recent technological developments have provided the U.S. Navy with major breakthroughs in unmanned carrier landings with the X-47B . A public debate has emerged over which types of drones to acquire and how to employ them. This article suggests a solution to the issue of how to best make use of the new capabilities that unmanned aircraft and closely related developments in UUVs bring to the fleet. The suggested solution argues for taking a broader look at what all of the new aerial and underwater unmanned vehicles can contribute, particularly en masse. And how this grouping of new equipment can augment carrier strike groups. In addition, there are significant opportunities to revive ASW hunter killer task forces, expand operational capabilities in the Arctic, supplement our South China Sea an...