The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is gearing up to conduct a swarming technology demonstration in which 30 small Coyote unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) will be tube-launched within two minutes from a ship in the Gulf of Mexico.
The event by the Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology (LOCUST) program is scheduled to occur the week of July 25, said Rear Adm. Mathias Winter, chief of naval research. Earlier LOCUST demonstrations have involved five to 10 UAVs.
LOCUST is designed to help the Navy better understand how large numbers of UAVs perform individually and interact with each other. Navy officials believe UAV swarms have many potential uses, including gathering intelligence and overwhelming adversaries.
“LOCUST will provide our warfighters the opportunity see how that fits into their game plans, and then we’ll continue to support as this transitions to a warfare center and potential programs of record,” said Winter, who spoke July 22 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C.
Another ONR swarming demonstration, involving unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), is slated for late September, Winter said. It will build on a 2014 demonstration in which a swarm of small unmanned boats on the James River in Virginia escorted a “high-value” ship and then encircled a threat-representative vessel to keep it away from the high-value asset.
ONR also is looking at expanding its swarming efforts to include unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV), Winter said. Early next year off the coast of California, ONR’s Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (LDUUV) program will try out its sense-and-avoid technology, which is needed to enable swarming.
Eventually, Winter wants to have all three kinds of vehicles — UAV, USV and UUV – swarm together. But before that can happen, “we need to ensure we continue to mature those domains,” including by practicing with them in military exercises, he said.
Turning to the electromagnetic railgun that ONR is developing with BAE Systems [BA], Winter told reporters that ONR plans to test-fire it later this year at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Integrating the railgun on a ship could follow in a year or so. Unlike traditional guns, which use chemical propellants to fire projectiles, the railgun will use electricity.