World Surveillance Group Inc (fka WSGI)

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DOD Seeks Autonomy, Standards in New Unmanned Systems Roadmap
By AUVSI Staff

Unmanned systems of all types need to become more autonomous, standardized and interoperable, but this should not be done in a way that stifles innovation, according to the U.S. Department of Defense's new Unmanned Systems Roadmap 2007-2032.

The 2007-2032 roadmap is the first to address aerial, ground and maritime systems together instead of having separate documents for each.

The roadmap's "overarching goal, in accordance with the Strategic Planning Guidance (SPG), is to guide military departments and defense agencies toward logically and systematically migrating applicable mission capabilities to this new class of military tools," says its introduction.

The roadmap lays out six goals:

• Improve the effectiveness of combat commanders and coalition unmanned systems through improved integration and Joint Services collaboration

• Emphasize commonality to achieve greater interoperability among system controls, communications, data products and data links on unmanned systems

• Foster the development of policies, standards, and procedures that enable safe and timely operations and the effective integration of manned and unmanned systems

• Implement standardized and protected positive control measures for unmanned systems and their associated armament

• Support rapid demonstration and integration of validated combat capabilities in fielded/deployed systems through a more flexible prototyping, test and logistical support process

• Aggressively control cost by utilizing competition, refining and prioritizing requirements, and increasing interdependencies (networking) among DOD systems.

Earlier this year, a defense official said this version would be a "baby step" toward true integration of the roadmaps, and a more comprehensive version will be released in 2009. The new roadmap says the same thing: "The long-term plan is to publish a truly integrated Unmanned Systems Roadmap in January 2009 that builds on this effort and increases focus on manned and unmanned systems interoperability to achieve our future vision."

Future roadmaps will include specific methodology, metrics and assignments to meet the goals outlined in this one.

Ultimately, the DOD says its growing force of unmanned vehicles "must evolve to become seamlessly integrated with manned systems as well as with other unmanned systems. The department will pursue greater autonomy to improve the ability of unmanned systems to operate independently, either individually or collaboratively, to execute complex missions in a dynamic environment ... the ultimate vision is for a UAS to be teamed with a UGV over land and with a UMS over water in combined arms roles and to be integrated with manned systems to extend and augment warfighter manned capabilities."

All science and technology efforts and future acquisition programs will have to keep the roadmap's goals in mind, the document says. It notes this brings a risk of stifling innovation, but "there is a balance between innovation and standardization that each individual effort must consider."

http://www.auvsi.org/news/index.cfm#News1700

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