Unmanned Systems

Five Air Force procurement programs saw cost swings of more than $1 billion over the last year, and 24 of the service's systems shrank by $2.5 billion in aggregate, the Defense Department said this week.

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- The Army is establishing three programs of record to sort its inventory of more than 4,000 non-standard robots and seeks to develop a common controller across the entire fleet. The service aims to remove 2,000 of those robots from the inventory before the programs of record are fully online.

The Air Force's formal report to congressional defense committees on its new plan for replacing the E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System offers more insight on how it views the roles of the MQ-9 Reaper, RQ-4 Block 40 and other assets in a future battle management network.

The Maneuver Center of Excellence, the Army's proponent for ground robotics systems, is teaming with academia and industry to make Ft. Benning, GA, and the greater Columbus area the "center of gravity" for maneuver robotics, according to service officials. The site will eventually house a full capability management office under Training and Doctrine Command.

The Army is close to finishing the first phase of its plan for a new unmanned aircraft system, called Next-Generation Tactical UAS Technology Demonstrator (NGTUAS-TD), which is expected to be runway-independent and perform better than currently fielded UASs.

The Army plans to develop prototypes for one robotic combat vehicle and one optionally manned fighting vehicle, according to the Next Generation Combat Vehicle cross-functional team's director.

Commercially available, high-performance unmanned aerial systems -- when used for nefarious means  -- pose “a significant and growing threat” to U.S. forces, particularly dismounted infantry and lightly armored vehicles in the Army, Marine Corps and Special Operations Forces.

The Air Force plans to buy 29 new MQ-9 Reapers from General Atomics in fiscal year 2019, largely to replace aircraft lost in combat or those the service expects will be unusable.

The Navy should shift its focus on ship count to the capability various platforms bring to operators, according to a top unmanned systems official.