Autonomous vehicle systems: implications for maritime operations, warfare capabilities, and Command and Control

Military operations within the last decade have seen enormous growth in the fielding and utilization of unmanned tele-operated vehicles in the air, ground, and maritime domains. With advances in computing and processing technology, these vehicles and systems are becoming increasingly autonomous in nature and will continue to evolve in the future, significantly impacting the warfighter and the battlespace. A great deal of research and development (R&D) is currently underway by the Department of Defense (DoD), as well as in industry and academia, in the field of autonomous systems. As the technology in this area rapidly advances, comparatively little is known about how these systems will affect our future organizational and Command and Control (C2) architectures, or their implications for the future of warfare in general. This thesis catalogues the current and emerging technologies associated with these systems, within the context of the capabilities they bring to the warfighter. From this baseline, an analysis of future capabilities is conducted against selected maritime operations as identified in the Navy Tactical Task List (NTTL). Impact to organizational performance is analyzed using the Congruence Model, and possible implications are drawn about the near-term future of naval operations and organizational change.

Department dc:contributor.department

Information Sciences (IS)

Grantor dc:publisher

Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Ireland, Robert D.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Gallup, Shelley P.

Statement dc:rights

• This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10945/5284

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:calhoun.nps.edu:10945/5284