Use of Large Unmanned Vehicles in Joint Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance
Abstract
The Navy's Unmanned Campaign Framework and Strategy for Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS) share the Navy's vision for how it will develop unmanned platforms through iterative experimentation, focusing on developing new operating concepts and the key technologies which enable those ideas. The Navy needs to develop a concept of operations (CONOPS) for incorporating unmanned surface and underwater vessels (USV/UUV) into existing Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) processes at the operational levels of war and command. Unmanned vehicles (UV) face operating and sustainment challenges which will make them uniquely cumbersome in the Processing and Exploitation functions of the intelligence cycle. Discussion is limited to two unmanned platforms with significant endurance and collection capabilities, leading them to have substantial operational impact. This work reviews unclassified literature on Extra Large UUV (XLUUV) and Medium USV (MUSV) capabilities and intended missions, in comparison to the development of the MQ-4C Triton. It identifies several factors and solutions which the Navy should consider in developing CONOPs for integrating XLUUV and MUSV in ISR at the operational level.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 13, 2022
- Accession Number
- AD1174711
Entities
People
- Josh Flakus
Organizations
- Naval War College