Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Steven Khor | 221017-N0-DB801-0257 ATLANTIC OCEAN – (Oct. 17, 2022) – Crewmembers from the...... read more read more
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By Warren Duffie Jr., Office of Naval Research
ARLINGTON, Va.—The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) lifted off the deck of the USNS Burlington, an expeditionary fast-transport ship, and flew in a graceful arc away from the vessel and over the Atlantic Ocean. Working in tandem with a piloted Cessna airplane a short distance away, both drone and aircraft detected, identified and monitored their target — a small boat formerly used by drug traffickers and seized by the Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-South).
This engagement occurred during the recent 2022 Fleet Experiment-Contested Logistics — also called FLEX — an experimentation event organized by the Office of Naval Research (ONR)-sponsored SCOUT initiative and U.S. Fourth Fleet, held in Key West, Florida.
ONR SCOUT is an ongoing, multiagency experimentation campaign to identify new ways to bring unmanned technologies to warfighter problems, test them in realistic operating conditions and get them to the fleet and force. SCOUT is committed to partnering with industry to get nontraditional, commercial-off-the-shelf, government-developed and/or government-sponsored technologies to the fleet rapidly.
The Key West FLEX employed commercially developed UAVs and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) to carry out diverse tasks related to drug interdiction (tracking and identifying specific targets), logistics and re-supply, and forward-deployed combat repair. The ultimate goal is lessening the danger to warfighters — while enhancing their capabilities — through the use of unmanned platforms.
“Experimentation events like this demonstrate how ONR SCOUT brings in private-sector partners from across the spectrum and accelerates the delivery of innovative technologies to warfighters to solve tough problems,” said Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Lorin Selby. “In partnering with JIATF-South in its mission to interdict illicit drug trafficking, ONR SCOUT is playing a vital role in strengthening naval capabilities and safeguarding our nation’s security.”
Besides ONR SCOUT, Fourth Fleet and JIATF-South, other commands involved with the Key West FLEX included the Naval Research Laboratory, Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, Defense Innovation Unit and Naval Air Systems Command.
During the experimentation event, technologists used UAVs and USVs in realistic operating conditions, including at sea and at inland and littoral (coastal) locations. The unmanned vehicles performed re-supply maneuvers that could one day be vital to the mission safety and success of warfighters operating in austere conditions — including delivery of equipment and parts, fuel, provisions and medical supplies.
This aligns with the emerging naval concept known as Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO), which involves deploying small but highly mobile units to isolated locations. EABO has the potential of quickly getting forces into a strategically vital area, and potentially in an adversary’s weapons engagement zone, in response to an evolving threat when no other U.S. military assets are available.
“Contested logistics is a problem for all of the Navy, not just JIATF-South or Fourth Fleet,” said John Phillips, who is from Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock and was the ONR SCOUT lead for the Key West event. “We are taking a hard look at the range, payload capacity, speed, C2 and autonomous capability of a wide variety of air and surface unmanned systems to highlight the best platforms to perform specific missions.”
The FLEX also supported JIATF-South’s current mission with U.S. Southern Command and partner naval forces to leverage all-domain technologies and unmanned capabilities to target, detect and monitor illicit drug trafficking in the air and maritime environments. This facilitates interdiction and apprehension to reduce the flow of drugs, as well as degrade and dismantle transnational criminal organizations. In addition to targeting-and-detection exercises in Key West, the UAVs and USVs simulated supply runs for delivering equipment to counter-narcotics vessels on the water, away from port.
“Naval resupply at sea and in contested littorals ensures our assets remain in the fight,” said Chris Heagney, a Naval Air Systems Command fleet/force advisor supporting Fourth Fleet and ONR Global. “If those assets break, they lose a week going back to port, getting repair parts and returning. Unmanned platforms could present a solution by transporting those parts and maximizing naval presence.”
The Key West event was the culmination of multiple sprint events (scenario-based demonstrations of technology capabilities and characteristics) held this year that will lead to a large-scale main experimentation event in March 2023.
“FLEX and the ONR SCOUT collaboration event was a great opportunity to see the mission readiness of industrial capabilities to mitigate logistical support challenges to deep-sea operations, which drive Navy and Coast Guard ship day availability to JIATF-South,” said Jeffrey Havlicek, J7 director for Innovation and Technology, JIATF-South. “This event showcased a menu of options and generated comparative insights vital to our mission-area analysis of low-cost resupply at sea.”
Warren Duffie Jr. is a contractor for ONR Corporate Strategic Communications.
| Date Taken: | 10.28.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 10.28.2022 16:04 |
| Story ID: | 432239 |
| Location: | ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 124 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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