
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is sponsoring the SCOUT initiative and recently conducted an experiment to figure out how to better detect illicit maritime cargo and drug-running using unmanned technologies. This test event at Joint Expeditionary Base (JEB) Little Creek-Fort Story, Va., located by the entrance of Chesapeake Bay, was one of several smaller scenario-based “sprint event” demonstrations of technology capabilities leading up to a main large-scale experimentation in March 2023. During the event, participants undertook simulated drug-running and…