Unmanned Systems Sentinel All opinions expressed within this newsletter are those of the respective author or authors and do not represent the official policy or positions of the Naval Postgraduate School, the United States Navy, or any other government entity. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. Thanks to Robin Alexander, Mark Rindler and Marcy Huber for providing several of the below articles. 22 MAY 2016 Please keep in mind that in most instances the below summaries are excerpts from the original article. The full articles can be viewed at the accompanying hyper-links. The inclusion of these links does not represent an endorsement of the organization, service, or product. Immediately below are this edition’s highlights with links to the respective articles: NAVY/USMC: AeroVironment details Blackwing UAS (Navy to Deploy Submarine-Launched Drones) Navy Researchers to Test UAV Swarming Technology this Summer USN Expects More Development of Stingray Timeline This Year ARMY: US Army Special Operations Has Big Appetite for ISR – UAS Army tests prepare for all-domain warfare US Army tests GBSAA system Army Mulls Hybrid Electric for Next Gen Drones USAF: USAF’s Small UAS roadmap calls for swarming ‘kamikaze’ drones USAF to go small on UAS NATIONAL AIR SPACE: California has the Most Drones in US (Excellent tables and illustrations) FAA Expands Drone Detection Pathfinder Initiative FAA Key Initiatives – UAS FAA Releases Drone Registration Location Data FAA and FBI Test Drone Detection A Look Back at April Drone Law Developments: the Micro UAS Report PUBLIC SAFETY: Unmanned Aircraft Systems Applications in the Solid Waste Industry NSF grant to help NAU grow and share drone technology Robotic Lifeguard Named 'Emily' Saab delivers Sea Wasp prototypes SENSORS/APPLICATIONS: Flight Technique of Long-Eared Bats May Offer Insights That Could Improve Drones Zero Zero Hover Camera drone uses face tracking tech to follow you Stanford Researchers made a drone that can land on walls like an insect Bee model could be breakthrough for autonomous drone development Crowdsourcing App Detects Drones COUNTER UAS: Unmanned Experts Support FAA Program to Counter Rogue Drones (A different source from a similar article in the NAS section above) Counter-UAS System in Development INTERNATIONAL: COMMENTARY: Civil Liberties Debate Coming On Drone, Sat Photos Drones and the Future of Aerial Combined Arms (Interesting illustration at associated link) For The Navy, Less Must Be More A Categorical Error: Rethinking 'Drones' as an Analytical Category for Security Policy UPCOMING EVENTS: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NAVY/USMC: AeroVironment details Blackwing UAS The US Navy plans to deploy a new small tube-launched UAS called Blackwing from its submarines and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), AeroVironment announced on 16 May. AeroVironment developed Blackwing as part of a 2013 Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstration (JCTD) project called Advanced Weapons Enhanced by Submarine UAS against Mobile Targets sponsored by the navy and United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). According to the company, the JCTD was completed in September 2015 ‘with a strong recommendation to transition the capability into the fleet’. Blackwing has been designed to deploy from sub-surface platforms. It consists of a miniature electro- optical and infrared payload packaged with a selective availability anti-spoofing module GPS and AeroVironment’s secure Digital Data Link. It has been optimised for operation in anti-access/aerial denial environments. Kirk Flittie, vice president and general manager of UAS, AeroVironment, said: ‘AeroVironment’s new Blackwing UAS is a valuable new capability that resulted from our team’s close collaboration with, and responsiveness to, the US Navy’s undersea warfare community and the special operations community. ‘In addition to operating from undersea vehicles, Blackwing can also be integrated with and deployed from a wide variety of surface vessels and mobile ground vehicles to provide rapid response reconnaissance capabilities that help our customers operate more safely and effectively.’ https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/uv-online/aerovironment-details-blackwing-uas/ http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=2182 Return to Top Navy Researchers to Test UAV Swarming Technology this Summer In June, Navy researchers plan to shoot as many as 30 small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the air to see how well they can conduct wartime operations in a swarm and with little or no human direction. The flying robots are called LOCUSTs – for Low Cost Unmanned Swarming Technology. They are designed to fly together in relatively tight formations and overwhelm and “saturate a potential adversary,” said Rear Adm. Mathias Winter, chief of the Office of Naval Research (ONR). Winter discussed the LOCUST program and other ONR endeavors May 17 at the 2016 Sea-Air-Space Exposition. The LOCUST drones are designed to be smart enough to operate autonomously – with little human control. They can stay in formation, avoid running into each other and reconfigure their formations automatically to continue on with their mission even if one or more drones in the swarm are lost, said Lee Mastroianni, an ONR scientist. The Navy envisions swarms of flying drones that can be armed with sensors for gathering intelligence, jammers for disrupting enemy communication or munitions for attacking enemy targets. For now, though, the ONR’s focus on refining the software that enables the drones to fly and maneuver together autonomously. The swarm flights planned for June are to take place over land. In July, the drones will head to sea to swarm over the Gulf of Mexico before returning to shore to land, Mastroianni said. Swarms of five, 10 and up to 30 LOCUST UAVs can be operated by a single human controller, he said. For the most part, each drone is able to fly itself, controlled by an algorithm – a complex set of computer instructions – that has been modeled after the performance of birds and insects when they swarm, Winter said. Like the swarming animals they mimic, each individual drone knows where it is in relation to the others in the swarm. Each communicates location information to the other drones around it, and also keeps in contact with its human controller. LOCUST drones are launched from a compact six-tube launcher. After they are shot into the air, wings and tails pop out and a rear-mounted propeller fires up to drive the drone aloft. The launchers can be mounted on ships, aircraft, vehicles or even on other unmanned platforms. Although they can fly and maneuver in unison while in close proximity to one another, the drones would probably typically operate in formations in which they are spaced about 50 feet apart, Mastroianni said. For the Navy, though, the big issue is that a swarm of UAVs that can be controlled by a single operator, he said. Achieving workable, swarming autonomous unmanned vehicles moves the Navy a step further along the road to building unmanned vehicles that can virtually think for themselves and react to changing circumstances in combat and other operations, Winter said. Robots that smart might be operating in the air, on the sea and under the sea in about 15 years, he said. http://www.seapowermagazine.org/stories/20160517-onr.html Return to Top USN Expects More Development of Stingray Timeline This Year Excerpt: The navy is prioritizing deploying the unmanned capability on the carriers as opposed to the stealth element, so redefined the requirements to acquire a refueling ISR asset instead of a stealthy strike one. This is ultimately in line with what the navy's Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets currently do, and will alleviate the burden on the fighters so that they can carry out the strike role. Full story: NEW ORLEANS - A risk-reduction request for proposals (RFP) for the U.S. Navy's MQ-25 Stingray unmanned air vehicle acquisition is expected to be released "this summer," which will help set out the timeline in which the service can realistically expect the tanker system to be deployed on-board its carrier fleet. Speaking to Flightglobal at the AUVSI Xponential show in New Orleans, Louisiana on 3 May, Rear Adm. Mark Darrah, PEO Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons for the navy, said that the move from a stealth intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) strike aircraft to the tanker variant now being proposed has left questions over the availability of the technology and timeframe for its development. The goal is to release a risk-reduction RFP this summer, which will be followed by an engineering, manufacturing and design RFP in early FY2017, he says. The intent it still to speak to the same four bidders that were selected for the previous iteration of the program - the unmanned carrier-launched airborne surveillance and strike, or UCLASS - and the risk- reduction RFP will seek information on the technology that the companies currently have, and how much it will cost. Boeing, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman all have designs they were going to pitch for UCLASS, and are expected to modify them for the Stingray's new role. "It's giving us the opportunity to incorporate new ideas," Darrah says, and the acquisition timeline will then be set out once this information is garnered from industry. "We are definitely trying to find that sweet spot in cost and schedule," he says. "Our intent is to get this capability to the carriers as soon as possible." The navy is prioritizing deploying the unmanned capability on the carriers as opposed to the stealth element, so redefined the requirements to acquire a refueling ISR asset instead of a stealthy strike one. This is ultimately in line with what the navy's Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets currently do, and will alleviate the burden on the fighters so that they can carry out the strike role.