The Army is looking to enhance the commonality, interoperability, and modularity of its unmanned weapon systems as it tries to keep their costs in check, a senior official said Tuesday.
Army Deputy Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. James Barclay said Pentagon officials “have to be honest with ourselves and know that as we develop (new weapons programs) they have to be affordable and they’ve got to bring more than just additional burdens and cost to us.” Still, even in the current “challenging” fiscal environment, unmanned systems–in the air and on the ground–are a “big part” of the Army’s future, he said.
Barclay told the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) conference in Washington that as the Army moves forward with unmanned systems it has to identify their “cost and capability thresholds.”
“Cost defines where we’re going, and it also helps us to find just what capability level we need or can afford to get after in the next few years,” he said. “And all along while doing this we’ll improve effectiveness and efficiency.”
Some of the things that the Army is looking at when working to improve effectiveness and efficiency are “commonality, interoperability, and modularity,” he said.
“Those are the three key things that we think that we need to really focus on as we’re looking to become more effective and efficient when it comes to unmanned systems,” he said during a keynote address to the industry crowd at the Walter E. Washington Conference Center.
Barclay noted the importance of working closely with industry partners developing unmanned ground systems, most of which are based on commercial off-the-shelf technology.
“We know it’s very important that we leverage the commercial technology, the funds that you put into research and development, and how that assists us as we try to make decisions and move forward,” he said.
In general, the Army is looking for some “basic key things” as it develops unmanned systems, Barclay said. Those include being intuitive to use, energy efficient, flexible, easy to train on, and able to reduce training and sustainment costs, he said.
He told the AUVSI crowd that the Army has “got to incorporate” unmanned systems, saying they are “going to be a big part of (the service), even in a fiscal environment that we know is challenging.”