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.”
Two Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton UAVs are seen on the tarmac at a Northrop Grumman test facility in Palmdale, California
US Navy
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”.
