NAVAL DRONES

By Heiko Borchert On 15 December 2016, China seized an  Ocean Glider , an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), used by the U.S. Navy to conduct oceanographic tasks in international waters about 50-100 nautical miles  northwest of the Subic Bay port  on the Philippines. Available information suggests that the glider had been deployed from USNS  Bowditch  and was captured by Chinese sailors that came alongside the glider and grabbed it “despite the radioed protest from the  Bowditch  that it was U.S. property in international waters,” as the  Guardian  reported. The U.S. has “ called upon China  to return the UUV immediately.” On 17 December 2016 a  spokesman of the Chinese Defense Ministry  said China would return the UUV to the “United States in an appropriate manner.” Initial legal assessments by U.S. scholars like  James Kraska and Paul Pedrozo  suggest the capture is violating the law of the sea, as the unmanne...

Looking Back at 2015  Our highly unscientific Twitter poll below shows what some readers thought were the most significant events in unmanned naval systems for 2015. Most significant naval drone story of 2015? — Naval Drones (@NavalDrones) December 28, 2015 For details on these stories, see:  X-47B Refueling ,  Russian Kanyon Nuclear UUV ,  UCLASS RFP X-47B takes on fuel And Forward to 2016 What follows are our expectations, hunches, and just wild guesses of the major developments to watch for in naval unmanned systems industry during the coming year. Sanity Prevails  - After spending nearly a billion dollars and more than two decades developing the troubled  Remote Minehunting System , the U.S. Navy will cancel the program.  Lockheed's RMS, which was intended to be one of the Littoral Combat Ship's key mission packages, will be replaced by one or more of the growing number of versatile, less expensive mine-countermeasure UUVs. Also,...

Editor's Note: This article is reprinted with permission from the Naval Postgraduate School's " CRUSER News. "  By Professor Curtis Blais, faculty at the Naval Postgraduate School's  Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation (MOVES) Institute .  Contact: clblais(at) nps.edu  Combat models are used in major assessments such as Quadrennial Defense Reviews for Naval system acquisition and future force structure decisions. For several years, the Navy has been adding capabilities to the Synthetic Theater Operations Research Model (STORM) originally developed by the U.S. Air Force. Similarly, the Army and Marine Corps employ a specific analytical model called the Combined Arms Analysis Tool for the 21st Century (COMBATXXI) to evaluate major proposed changes in materiel and associated warfighting operations and tactics. The CRUSER Charter identifies numerous Naval initiatives for study and development of unmanned systems, such as the Unmanned Carrier Launched Ai...

2 May 2014 - Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Jonathan Greenert tours Pennsylvania State University's Applied Research Laboratory facilities to see firsthand their innovative anti-torpedo torpedoes and unmanned undersea vehicles. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Peter D. Lawlor/Released) Since he assumed office in 2011, the development of unmanned systems payloads has been a priority during the tenure of U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathon Greenert.  His recent  Position Report  provides updates to several programs discussed in his original  Navigation Plan. Highlights related to unmanned systems include: Undersea Warfare "In the fall of 2014, our large displacement unmanned undersea vehicle ( LDUUV ) program reached its first acquisition gate, Milestone A, which initiated technology development." Unmanned Air Systems "We continued testing the  X-47B  Unmanned Carrier Aircraft System Demonstrator, and for t...

PALMDALE, Calif. (Aug. 8, 2012) Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Jonathan Greenert observes a fly-by demonstration of a Predator C Avenger unmanned aerial vehicle. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Peter D. Lawlor/Released) In a nod to maritime tradition, the new Chief of Naval Operations set forth a " Navigation Plan " with budgetary priorities and a route to achieve the vision he set in the " Sailing Directions " for 2013-2017.  Admiral Greenert's prioritization of unmanned systems for the U.S. fleet in these documents is anything but archaic.  Seven of the CNO's 34 budget focus areas directly address unmanned systems, including: "Increase near-term mine warfare capability with Quickstrike mines; the Seafox Mine Neutralization System ; upgraded MCM-1 class ship sonar, hull, and engineering upgrades; and Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV) for shallow and bottom mine detection. Improve near-term cap...

As long as physical limitations constrain the range and endurance of unmanned air, surface, and sub-surface vehicles, they will need to operate in conjunction with larger platforms.  These motherships serve a wide variety of functions besides simply transporting, launching, and recovering unmanned vehicles.  They maintain and repair the drones, recharge or refuel their propulsion sytems, and they enable data collected from unmanned sensors to be downloaded, analyzed, and disseminated beyond the line-of-sight.  Characterizing the evolution of these unmanned vehicle motherships can help extrapolate how they might be used in the future. Generation I - Ad hoc platforms: This category includes legacy naval vessels ranging in size from patrol craft (US SOCOM's MK V at right, with ScanEagle) to large amphibious ships, and likely some day, aircraft carriers.  Minesweeping and hunting vessels have carried remotely opera...