CNO Speaks about Unmanned Vehicles at AUVSI

By Amy Butler abutler(at)aviationweek.com,  Aug 25, 2010

Fiscal constraints will be a major driving factor in the capabilities that the U.S. Navy will seek in unmanned vehicles in the coming years, says the chief of naval operations, Adm. Gary Roughead.

However, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) will be called upon to fill what he calls a “capability gap” in the Navy’s ability to collect intelligence in the maritime domain.

Despite the potential for unmanned systems to be “potential game-changers” in how the Navy conducts its operations, they will not be independent from the fleet and will require links to nearby Navy assets. “We do not have the luxury, even if we have the desire,” for unmanned systems to operate independently, Roughead said in a speech at the Association of Unmanned Vehicles International Unmanned Systems North America 2010 conference here.

In the Navy’s Fiscal 2012 budget proposal sent to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Roughead says he wants to spend about 50% of available UUV research and development money on improving their endurance. Ultimately, he would like to see 3-4 weeks of endurance and reserve power for some higher-speed maneuvers and to handle strong underwater currents.

Once the power problem is solved, Roughead says he wants to tackle how to bring UUV into a larger Navy information network despite their ability to travel vast distances on missions.

Also in the 2012 budget proposal, Roughead says he is planning to “enhance and restore electronic warfare dominance,” for the military. This mission area has suffered from wavering support from the Air Force and Navy. He also says he plans to push for restoring the information dominance expertise required to be successful in today’s fights.

For UAS, Roughead emphasizes he is not interested in duplicating capabilities already handled by the Air Force; the services signed an agreement this summer to explore “synergies” in the Global Hawk and Broad Area Maritime Surveillance programs. No specific breakthroughs on this agreement have yet been announced.

Roughead emphasized his goal of getting UAS to the field as soon as possible, highlighting work with the Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout, which is being deployed early on frigates in advance of the Littoral Combat Ship The LCS is first full ship class on which the Fire Scout is supposed to deploy organically. Additionally, the chief of naval operations stands firm behind a 2018 goal of deploying the Unmanned Carrier-Launched Surveillance and Strike system to aircraft carriers.

Unmanned systems must be designed with manpower requirements upfront, Roughead says. The Air Force is now struggling with massive, unanticipated manpower needs for its Predator, Reaper and Global Hawk fleets. Roughead says the manpower cost of a particular system must be understood at the beginning of a program so “we don’t count the noses at the back of the room” and get hit with a surprise bill.

Aside from fiscal constraints, another limiting factor for UAS types and designs will to operate from the decks of today’s ships. In 10 years, 220 of the current 289 ships at sea will still be operating.