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Peter Pipkin , Cdr Peter Pipkin BEng(hons) MSc CEng MIET Royal Navy nr. 2 juni 2016

Exercise ­Unmanned Warrior: The industry demonstrates new tech

The defence forces does not always have the best ‘crystal ball’ and that we are not always best placed to understand the full breadth of possible ­technology ­exploitation paths. Therefore, the Royal Navy ­challenged the industry to demonstrate new tech and new concepts.

Tema: UAVer i fremtidens forsvar
Lesetid: 6 min

As the Fleet Robotics Officer, I have not only one of the best job titles in the Royal Navy, but also the privileged opportunity to lead some of the RN’s most innova-
tive and exciting work in delivering our future capabilities. My role is focused on the future of unmanned and autonomous systems and that future may not be as far away as you might think.

The Royal Navy considers Maritime Autonomous Systems (MAS) to be off-board vehicles or equipment that operate in the maritime and littoral environment without the physical presence of human operators. Importantly this does not preclude operators being engaged with the remote operation of the system. They can fly, swim, dive, walk or crawl (or indeed a ­combination thereof). They will typically have some means of independent propulsion.

As a matter of policy for the UK, the operation of weapon systems will be under human control. No planned offensive systems are to have the capability to prosecute targets without involving human operation and the UK is committed to using remotely piloted rather than highly automated weapon systems as an absolute guarantee of oversight and authority for weapons release.

 

Effective use of manpower

By removing the human from the off-board vehicle, the constraints in vehicle design required by the accommodation, safety and life support of the operator are removed. The design of the UXV can thus be optimised solely for the execution of the intended task1. MAS lend themselves to extended duration and persistence as a result of both being unconstrained by the limits of human endurance and without the burden of carrying the weight of the operator. Removing the human from the immediate location of the operational activity also reduces the risk that dangerous activities will result in casualties.

This increases the utility of Naval forces as they are able to offer a range of political choices which are less in­hibited by the risk of own force casualties, thus ­offering the potential for the vehicles to operate in more hostile environments and/or at higher levels of threat than a manned system. It also allows us to make more effective use of our manpower and focus their efforts on the tasks that only people can do or are best at doing – interacting with other people being the most obvious and important example.

Keep up the pace

It is almost certain that future capability will be delivered through a collaboration of both manned and unmanned platforms and systems. They will be distributed and coordinated; sensors and vehicles will be networked and integrated with combat and weapon systems. The miniaturisation of technology for incorporation into unmanned systems continues apace and technological advances to deliver Big Data processing also look set to unlock another step change in capability. There is no doubt that the utility and full gamut of capabilities that MAS have to offer still has some way to go, but as with each generation of truly new technology, that maturity process moves faster and faster and the RN must keep pace if it is to maintain an operational advantage.

At a MAS conference held in October 2014, the First Sea Lord announced the RN vision for MAS, that: “The Royal Navy will lead and win through the innovative and robust exploitation of Maritime Autonomous Systems.” As the Fleet Robotics Officer I am charged with setting the conditions necessary to realise this vision and the current main effort is delivering the Unmanned Warrior demonstration. It is important to make the potential and the vision real, not just a ­utopian articulation of the future where we’ll all be commuting to work in flying cars and our groceries will be delivered by teleportation. History shows us that demonstration is vital, and there are plenty of examples.

 

As with each generation of truly new technology, that ­maturity ­process moves faster and ­faster and the Royal Navy must keep pace if it is to maintain an ­operational ­advantage

Large scale demo of unmanned systems

Exercise Unmanned Warrior is a large scale, integrated demonstration of MAS that will inform our understanding of the concepts, technological maturity and credibility of these systems to deliver maritime capability. You should be in no doubt, that MAS will be part of the future Royal Navy’s, indeed ­Defence’s ORBAT; the only question is, when and to what degree. I would wager that even the most ambitious vision will ­ultimately be exceeded by reality.

Unmanned Warrior is not a bidding process, there is no specific contract to be won; it is not a “who’s got the prettiest unmanned boat competition”. What we are seeking to achieve is an event that re-shapes the market to provide new opportunities for everybody and capability transformation for the Navy. The product beauty contests will come later, but only if we are successful. Everybody will get their moment in the spotlight but none should be elbowing their way to the front. It’s all a bit New Age but think of this as creating MAS-fest. Build it and they will come!

… And come they have
(Excuse the Yoda-like pun)

Unmanned Warrior has attracted over 40 participants from industry, academia and defence, including the US Navy and NATO CMRE2. They will be operating vehicles, sensors and software in the maritime air, surface and sub-surface environments as well as the littoral. Participation is predominantly participant self-funded with Unmanned Warrior providing an opportunity to test and demonstrate their products’ capabilities in a tactically relevant setting. Unmanned Warrior will take place prior to and alongside the Joint Warrior exercise programme in October 2016. The aim is to offer a representative environ­ment for demonstration whilst adding value to the Joint Warrior exercise through the use of autonomous systems. It will also integrate with NATO’s Noble ­Mariner and Noble Arrow exercises, which are concurrent with Joint Warrior this year.

The demonstrations are being co­ordinated in five themes; ASW, C2, Hydrographic and Geo-intelligence, ISTAR and MCM. This recognises that we (i.e. Defence) do not always have the best ‘crystal ball’ and that we are not always best placed to understand the full breadth of possible technology exploitation paths.

#unmannedwarrior2016

The first iteration of an events plan has been completed and lots of hard work is now going into delivering the detail within that plan. Demonstrations at sea do not lend themselves to large numbers of spectators, particularly the North Sea in October, so, unfortunately, I am unable to offer everyone a front row seat. However, I know that many of you will be interested to know the outcomes and we are developing the communi­cation and engagement plan to ensure that we are able to share as much of our successes (and failures) as effectively as possible. Keep watching the Royal Navy website and ensure that your social media applications of choice are following the Royal Navy and Unmanned Warrior hash-tags – #royalnavy, #unmannedwarrior2016, #uw2016.

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