David Isby explores the evolving world of unmanned aerial vehicles serving the US Navy and Marines Corps
The US Navy and US Marine Corps are increasingly reliant on UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), especially those capable of multimission and autonomous operations. As RADM (Rear Admiral) Brian Carey, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) program executive officer for UAVs and strike weapons, said: “ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] has been the bread and butter of UAVs, and now there is expectations that designs will be multimission.”
He was echoing similar sentiments expressed last year by RADM Lorin Selby, chief of naval research, who said the “growing focus on autonomous capabilities is showing impressive results”.
Meanwhile, Admiral Mike Gilday, chief of naval operations, has set up the Unmanned Task Force, to provide a service-wide emphasis. As projected in the Navy Aviation Vision 2030-35 document, released in November 2021, UAVs will form part of future carrier air wings, which will be “increasingly lethal, survivable, networked, sustainable, and unmanned with autonomous capabilities. ”In fact, the navy’s Next Generation Air Dominance program, replacing the Boeing F/A-18E/…
